Super Tag Hide-and-Seek (part 2)

Azelf can't find the hiding Pokémon anywhere.

"Why am I even..." Celebi muttered. She found no words able to describe how she was feeling, so she decided simply not to finish her sentence.

In front of her, a bit to her right, Mew was dragging the green-haired girl by the hand. Besides her, Diancie in her humanized form was also being pulled.

Uxie had, by now, decided to use her Levitation ability to follow them at a faster pace than walking. As Magearna didn't feel like running and was quite... uhm... heavy, Uxie used her psychic powers to carry the latter along.

"I think there's nothing wrong with this," Uxie said. "It seems like it will turn out to be fun, after all."

"Of course! Everything I do is always fun!" Mew chimed.

Celebi rolled her eyes. "Not the lava incident, Regice didn't enjoy that."

"What was that?"

"Nothing."

What was the lava incident, you may ask? ...you're not asking. Well, whatever. See, at some point (before this whole mess Arceus made), Mew visited the Hoenn region for fun. One way or another, it accidentally fumbled into Regice's sealed tavern, and, fascinated by the ice titan, it spent some time with the lone sculpture. For some reason, however, Mew thought the Ice-type deserved a hot bath, so she teleported an amount of lava on top of it... somehow.

Now, Regice's body is extremely cold. Even if it was submerged in lava, it wouldn't melt at all.

But that didn't mean it enjoyed being covered in scalding hot liquid.

Regice became extremely enraged, but it couldn't do anything as Mew had already flee the tavern while laughing. Of course, Celebi later learnt about it from none other than Mew herself, and when she asked Regice not long after this whole mansion idea of Arceus', the Ice-type definitely didn't enjoy the experience.

Nevertheless, Mew was a mischievous being. That, Celebi never forgets. "...so anyways, I should probably go another way," she said. "It's better to hide in different areas."

"Pshaaaaw, no, Celebi. We're not doing that," Mew said.

"We're not?"

The pink-haired girl shook her head, waving her tail around like a cheeky professor lecturing their students. "I have a better idea. You see, there's a loophole in the rules," she said.

"Didn't you make the game?" Diancie asked. "A-also... um... I'm tired..."

"You'll be fine," Mew commented. "Anyways, see, we just have to hide. It doesn't say where. I never said where. So..."

"I have a bad feeling about this..." Celebi muttered.

"Ninety-two... ninety-three... ninety-four..." Azelf counted. It had been almost two minutes since she started counting. "...hmm, they wouldn't know if I skipped a few now. Ninety-nine... one hundred!" She uncovered her face and turned away from the wall, seeing four faces staring at her. "...u-uh..."

Palkia's eyebrow had been raised the entire time. "I don't think I want to know," she said.

"R-right..."

Dialga smacked her counterpart on the shoulder. "Don't be rude, Palkia."

Azelf sighed. "Mew's making me play tag... or hide-and-seek... or something."

"Oh no... nothing good ever happens when that critter gets involved," Palkia said.

Dialga smacked her again. "Don't be rude, Palkia."

The Spatial Pokémon glared at the Temporal Pokémon. "Everything I say is rude to you, dimwit."

Another smack. "Don't be rude, Palkia." They became locked in a battle of glares.

Giratina leaned towards Rayquaza. "And you think your friends are annoying," she whispered.

"I mean, they are, but you have it hard too," the Sky-High Pokémon replied.

Dialga and Palkia then directed their glares to Giratina. "Shut it, Giratina."

"Hey! Now who's being rude!?" Giratina exclaimed.

"Whatever you say, Giwatina," Palkia said in a cutesy tone.

The Ghost-Dragon gritted her teeth. "That's it! You're toast!" she exclaimed, grabbing a piece of toast off some random plate and throwing it at the Spatial Pokémon.

Everyone blinked.

"...pft... toast," Dialga snickered.

"That was terrible," Palkia said. Giratina shrugged. "...Giwatina."

Giratina roared as she lunged across the table, pushing Palkia down. Dialga screamed and tried to pull the Renegade Pokémon off her rival, but to no avail. Rayquaza decided to simply ignore the scene and continue her meal- bits of Minior shells. How did the Unown gather those? Who knows. What mattered was that a war was happening in front of her and she chose to savor what she was tasting instead of help.

Azelf slowly crept towards the table. "I guess I'll just... be on my way, then." She quickly grabbed a few more berries off the table, before running out the room.

Good thing, too, as she promptly heard Palkia let out a... well, womanly warcry and some damn violent thumps. Table probably got flipped, she simply thought.

Now then... the girl looked around as she ran through the hallway. Where the heck can they hide in this mansion...?

Twist is, on the first day she explored the place with Mesprit. She knew this mansion well know... supposedly.

...the girl stopped in front of some statues. Between them, Darkrai was posing magnificently as if she was another statue. "...Darkrai, what're you doing?" she asked.

Darkrai blinked, her irises moving to stare at the bringer of willpower. "Sshh. I managed to come back here and hide. They'll find me!"

Azelf stared. "...can't you become a shadow?" she asked.

The Dark-type returned the stare. Then her eyes widened. "Oh yeah! Good thinking, Az."

Simply rolling her eyes, Azelf walked away while Darkrai sunk into her own shadow. The assumably evil Pokémon then laughed menacingly and her shadow... uh... crawled away? It slid away somewhere like a puddle of slime, that's for sure.

Azelf continued running, her mind regaining focus on the game Mew forcibly had her participate in. She hadn't seen a single trace of anyone yet- could it be that hard for her to find her friends in a mansion she knew her way around? ...that's assuming she hasn't forgotten stuff.

She stopped again, seeing Regice in its Pokémon form, standing perfectly still and facing the hallway's windows, peering into the gardens. "R-Regice? Why're you...?"

Its dots lit up in different patterns, a loud screech emitting from it. "(I feel more used to this body.)"

"Uh... okay." Not that she could blame it, it had only been a few days since Arceus gathered everyone here, not even a full week yet. Darkrai's smug confidence about her humanized body's breasts asides, the human body is a lot weaker and frail most of their real forms, so it wasn't so weird that some would want to remain in their beast forms for now. "...say, have you, uh... seen Uxie? Or like, um, Mew?"

Regice didn't reply. Azelf supposed she knew why.

"W-well, okay then. Have fun... I guess." She made to run again, but then Regice turned away and screeched.

"(...I believe they went outside the mansion.)"

The bluenette stared. "...thanks, Regice. I owe you one." Smiling gently, she unlocked one of the windows and walked out into the garden.

She then closed the huge ass windows and looked around the garden. "Gah. This is going to take a long time..."

"Mew... are you sure about this?" Celebi asked. "I think should go back..."

The pink-haired girl laughed. "Nonsense! Blasphemy! Atrocious! You're silly, Celebi."

Who even says those anymore...? the Time Travel Pokémon wondered.

"I... I don't think Arceus will be happy with what we're doing..." Diancie said.

"No, no, it'll be okay. You girls worry too much," Mew said.

Uxie raised a finger. "To be fair, Arceus didn't say we cannot leave, except for the first day. It's been two days now." Magearna nodded with understanding. "But remember that there are possible dangers from doing this, Mew."

"Yada yada, we'll be fine. We're humanized now, remember?"

"If you say so..."

"Damn it... this is... ridiculous..." Azelf panted. Running around the entire mansion's gardens was tiring, mostly because- as you know- it's ridiculously huge. Somehow, she didn't spot any traces of her friends. "Where the hell can they hide outside here?"

"Oh hey! It's Azzy!" a cheerful voice chimed. She turned to the source- it was Hoopa, another local prankster of the Legendaries.

"Hoopa!" Azelf smiled. It probably wasn't against the rules to get some help. "Say, Hoopa! Have you seen Uxie or Mew?"

"Uhuhu! Hoopa's sorry to say, Azzy, but you're too late!" the humanized Mischief Pokémon said. "Hoopa must tell you that you were late to the expedition!"

The willpower embodiment blinked. "I was... what?"

Hoopa's smile faded. "You know, the expedition! That you were supposed to go with the others! Mew already left. Hoopa is somewhat saddened that you missed the departure."

"Expedi... wait." Azelf frowned. Mew, you ass... She had an idea she did not like, of where they probably were. "Hoopa, we're playing some hide-and-seek game. There's no expedition."

The Mischief Pokémon's neutral expression then became a frown as well. "Oh." The two stared at each other. "...ooohhh." She scratched her cheeks, unsure what to say, before... "W-why didn't you invite Hoopa to play too!? This is unbelievable!"

"Gah, that's not the problem right now!" Azelf grabbed Hoopa by the shoulder, shaking her roughly. "Do you know what Arceus might do to us if they cause a ruckus in the human world or even get caught!?" She saw the girl's face paling and sighed. "Look, uh. Send me after them. I'll go get them, I'm 'it' after all..."

"O-okay..." Hoopa controlled one of its rings and enlarged it. A portal then formed. "Hoopa is sorry, Azzy..."

Azelf smiled. "Don't be. Can you do me a favor?" she asked. Hoopa nodded. "After I'm gone, uh... if Arceus is looking for any of us, could you stall for time? Distract her somehow, I don't know, do anything that prevents her from finding out about where Mew and the others are."

Hoopa nodded, determined. "H-Hoopa will do what Hoopa can."

Glad that Hoopa wasn't being mischievous for now, Azelf jumped through the ring's portal, everything around her disappearing in an instant.

She soon found herself falling through the sky. Without panicking, the girl's body shone with bright light, and soon she reverted to her Pokémon form.

Azelf stopped its fall with its Levitation ability and looked around. Currently no sight of her friends floating anywhere around. "(...I hope they didn't waltz into human territories in their humanized forms. They obviously look out of place, what with their tails or stuff...)"

Sighing, the willpower embodiment began flying towards a region it currently didn't recognize.

"Whoa, dudes. Nice cosplay!" a man said. "I've never seen a more convincing cosplay here in Sinnoh!"

Celebi nervously waved back, forcing a smile. She wasn't enjoying this. At all.

Notes: