Super Tag Hide-and-Seek (part 4: END)
Azelf and the others head to the Turnback Cave.
The group appeared in front of a cave entrance, having been teleported by the psychic users. Mew stared at the entrance in front of her. "Ooooh, so this is Turnbout Cave? It feels... intimidating."
"Turnback Cave," Uxie corrected. "Within this dimension, it is where Giratina lives, from what I recall."
"Giwatina?" Mew repeated.
Azelf frowned. "Dude, if she heard you saying that, you'd be dead where you stand."
"She wouldn't kill a sweet thing like me," Mew snickered.
I wonder about that... Celebi thought. She then noticed Diancie and Magearna facing away. "...what's wrong?"
Diancie pointed to the huge lake behind them. "I-it's a huge lake..."
"Pft. So what?" Mew asked.
Magearna stared at the lake. Slowly, her arms reached out. "..."
Uxie smiled. "It seems Magearna wants to try playing within a lake," she said.
The Artificial Pokémon blushed slightly, and retracted her arms.
"...ah, right, this is her chance after all," Azelf said as she remembered that as Magearna was a man-made mechanical Pokémon, she never really got to enter any lakes or rivers or whatever. The lake guardian sighed. "Well, hey. Let's take a break, then."
Before Magearna could even react, Mew was instead the first to cheer. "Yes! Free time!" she yelled and hopped into the lake, water splashing everywhere.
"Hey, careful now. Other Pokémon live in there too," Azelf warned.
"Whatever, grumpy pants," Mew said, floating above the surface.
"Grumpy pa..."
Celebi rolled her eyes. "Mew, just make sure not to bo-" she started, but was then splashed in the face with water.
Diancie resisted laughter. "M-Mew, that's not ver-" she said, but was then also splashed in the face with water.
Magearna couldn't express her joy or laugh, but she smiled. Then she was also splashed in the face with water.
"Damn it, Mew, stop splashing people in the face with-" Azelf began, but was also splashed in the face with water. She swatted the clear liquid away from her face, growling. "That's it! You're dead!" The girl ran up and jumped into the lake towards Mew. Celebi and Diancie reluctantly followed, deciding it was a break nevertheless and thus they should enjoy their given time.
Magearna quietly dipped her feet into the lake. She feared drowning as she probably would in her real form due to her weight, but once she found her human form floating easily, the girl finally smiled and spent her time enjoying herself.
Uxie observed the scene in front of her with a grin plastered on her face.
Truly it was a beautiful sight to behold, her fellow mythical friends having fun.
Perhaps she should go join them too.
"Ha! Look! I found myself a dragon!" Mew suddenly exclaimed, and everyone saw her somehow riding atop a Gyarados- it probably resided in this like. They weren't sure whether the Gyarados was enraged or reluctantly going along with Mew's wishes, but it sure looked tired as hell.
Uxie stared, then rubbed her eternally closed eyes. She stared again. "...oh well."
"Gyarados are not Dragon-type!" Celebi exclaimed, and was then blasted with the serpent's Hydro Pump.
"I know that!" Mew replied. "Death penalty to the obvious!"
Diancie then popped above the water, and noticed Mew grinning evilly at her. "...u-um, wait... I'm weak to Water-type..." she muttered.
"I know that too!" Mew exclaimed and had her Gyarados use Hydro Pump towards Diancie. "Death penalty to the obvious again!"
The Jewel Pokémon luckily evaded the shot by swimming sideways, then quickly getting off onto the land. "T-that's mean, Mew..."
Mew laughed. "Nobody survives the wrath of King Mew!"
Celebi surfaced from underwater. "Except me..."
The Gyarados shot Hydro Pump at the green-haired girl again. "Death to the survivors!" Mew exclaimed.
"I'm Grass-type, you idiot!"
"I kno... oh." Mew blinked. "...do it anyways!"
Her tamed Gyarados shot another blast of water at the Grass-type, who growled in annoyance.
Azelf snickered. "Unreasonable as always, that's Mew."
Mew directed her attention to the Sinnoh Legendary. "You're not safe too! Death to the bystanders!"
"Some king you are!" Azelf shrieked as she dodged a torrent of Hydro Pump.
"Death to kings too!" Mew exclaimed. The Gyarados then turned slightly and stared at her. "...I mean... haha?" She was promptly blasted off the back of the serpent.
As the water war escalated, Diancie blinked as she observed her own humanoid body. "That... reminds me. How can I swim...?"
Uxie stared. "Well, you are indeed part Rock-type," she said. "But unlike with your real form, human bodies can easily float within water, and do not show much signs of weaknesses. For example, if your body was still made of rock, you'd be sinking."
"Y-yeah, I considered that..." Diancie replied. She tried not to imagine a sight of herself drowning.
"But in a human body, you do not have anything weighing you down to the bottom," the blonde continued. "Sure, you still have some jewels and gems attached to your body, but they're not huge nor heavy enough to drag you down."
"I... I see."
Uxie petted the Jewel Pokémon's pink hair. "In the same way, if Heatran were here, she'd also be able to swim freely. But let's take, for example, the Charmander species' line."
"Charmander... and Charmeleon, and Charizard?"
She nodded. "One of their key traits is their tail, so I imagine if Arceus were to grant them a humanized form, they'd still retain their tail." She rubbed her chin, briefly imagining the appearance of a possible humanized Charizard. "As their tail would most likely remain, and the flame by the tip of that tail signifies their life, they would still be unable to swim unless they can keep their tails out of water whilst doing so."
"Oh..."
"That asides, though, it should be safe for you to keep swimming," Uxie said and nudged the girl towards the lake again. "It's fine to have fun in this time Azelf's letting us have."
Diancie chuckled. "Thank you, Uxie. I think... I'll stay here though." Given a confused look, she looked back to the lake's war.
A bunch of Golducks had been roped into Mew's side and were throwing water balls at the other team, the liquid compressed into its circular shape with their psychic powers.
Opposite of Mew's team, Azelf, Celebi, Magearna and several Seaking were splashing (in the latters' cases, shooting) water at the New Species Pokémon's team.
They were, of course, not as powerful as Mew's tamed Gyarados, which simply shot Hydro Pump whenever ordered to, easily destroying the other team's formation, but Azelf refused to give up.
Uxie chuckled. She's the embodiment of willpower, after all. "Too risky for you, I suppose."
Diancie nodded. The two then shared a laugh as they watched Azelf's team begin climbing up the Gyarados, to Mew's shock.
Hoopa fidgeted nervously. Arceus blinked. "So... they're currently... playing in Giratina's dimension?"
"Y-yeah. Yep. They're, uh, having fun with some weird form of... uh... this human game called 'Tag'."
The grey-haired goddess blinked again. "...well, if you say so. I suppose I'll go there and-"
"W-wait! Hoopa says wait!" Hoopa exclaimed. Arceus looked at her again.
"What's the matter? You look unwell."
The Mischief Pokémon wondered what other tactic she could use to stall her creator. After all, she didn't want to be held partially responsible for being the one to transport Mew and the others to the real world... or real dimension... or whatever, those facts didn't matter much to her anyways. What mattered was now. She gulped. "Hoopa thinks... you should have breakfast first! Yes, Hoopa believes it'd be healthier if Arceus has breakfast first."
"...I mean, I'm not exactl-"
"To understand human behavior, Hoopa thinks everyone should act more like humans!" Hoopa blurted. "A-and so, because Arceus started this human-like environment for everyone, Hoopa wants Arceus to try to understand human behavior and... follow their meal routine... too?"
Arceus stared. Then she sighed and smiled. "Alright. It's nice to see you care so much for us," the creator of Pokémon said. She petted Hoopa's head, and walked towards a different direction- towards where Hoopa recognized was the dining room.
Hoopa sighed with relief. Hopefully that helped a bit...
"...what is the meaning of this!?" Arceus' roar bellowed from the dining room, to her confusion.
She then heard some shuffling. "A-Arceus! Well, um, you see..." Dialga's voice said, fumbling with her words.
"This ass attacked me out of nowhere!" Palkia's voice said.
A gasp. "Did not! You kept making fun of me!" Giratina's voice roared.
Uh oh. Giratina was in the dining room. Hoopa quickly ran to the dining room and looked inside. To her shock, the table was a mess and broken in who knows how many pieces, scattered everywhere. Food was thrown almost everywhere, it almost looked like a bloody war zone. But never mind that- Hoopa's frown grew bigger when she heard Arceus ask Giratina:
"...by the way, Giratina. Mew and some others are playing in the Reverse World, right?"
Giratina stared. "Uh... I don-"
"T-that's right!" Hoopa interrupted and entered the room, confusing the Renegade Pokémon who stared at the Mischief Pokémon. "Hoopa wanted to go too, but had something important to do! And the others left Hoopa!" The Pokémon then hided her face from Arceus' view and winked many times to Giratina, who blinked twice.
"...uh..."
Dialga sighed and leaned to Giratina. "Well?" she whispered.
"Why's she winking at me like that?" the Renegade Pokémon replied quietly.
"It means she wants you to go along with her words, you dolt!"
"Oh..." Giratina then turned to Arceus and shrugged. "Uh, yeah. I figured it couldn't be that bad, since there's, like... nothing in there."
Arceus raised an eyebrow at their interacting but decided not to question it. "Right... so anyways, back to the issue. What were you three fighting about?"
The three exchanged glances.
Hoopa sighed with relief.
"...is this it?" Celebi asked.
Uxie nodded. "That's the portal to Giratina's Reverse World," she said.
The green-haired Legendary smiled. "Great. Now we can get back to Arceus' mansion place thanks to Giratina!"
"Wait, how do we find Giratina though?" Mew asked. "She's probably still at the mansion."
Diancie frowned. "A-ah... how do we do that...?"
"Silly," Celebi said to Mew. "Giratina can probably sense if something foreign enters her realm. If anything, she'll probably come and check who's loitering around and then we can explain everything to her."
Azelf smiled. "And that's basically our only guaranteed way home!"
"...yay..." Magearna whispered.
Mew then looked at everyone, before looking down at the portal. "...well, what're we waiting for?"
Diancie scratched her head. "I... I mean, you know... it looks a bit ominous..."
Uxie chucked. "I understand that feeling. But I'm sure there's nothing dangerous in there."
The group of six then exchanged glances.
"...I say Mew goes in first," Azelf said, to the Pokémon's dismay.
"I second that," Celebi chimed.
"You guys are terrible!" Mew exclaimed.
The other five simply glared at her for bringing them to this world in the first place.
Mew gulped. "Okay, okay. I'll do it."
She looked down at the hole again.
It swirled with a mix of darkness and purple, glowing eerily with no signs of safety guaranteed. She gulped and took deep breaths. When she exhaled, she decided she was ready. "A-alright. On the count of three... one... two..."
Then she jumped.
Across the hole.
Celebi blinked. "...Mew-"
"You go," Mew snickered and lightly pushed the green-haired humanized Pokémon down.
"Hey-" was all Celebi got past her lips before she fell into the hole and disappeared.
The five Pokémon stared at the portal, then the four others stared at Mew.
"...that was mean," Diancie commented.
"Eh, she'll be fine."
Azelf sent Mew a look of disgust. "You're terrible," she muttered.
"...she'll be fine."
"Argh, whatever, we're wasting time!" Azelf took a deep breath and jumped in as well. Uxie casually followed after, and as Diancie contemplated whether she should be the next to go, Magearna hopped in as well. She stared at the portal, gulping.
"...well?" Mew asked.
"..." Paying the other pink-haired girl no heed, Diancie hopped inside as well.
Mew then chuckled. "Oh, how I love them so much." She then followed the group into the other world.
As for Azelf, when she came in after Celebi, she stared at her surroundings in awe. Or rather, what remained of it- dark purple spread everywhere in her eyes, huge chunks of debris floating towards nowhere in particular. A platform floated above her, upside-down, but when she rotated herself to stand on it, more platforms above implicated she made herself upside-down again.
A sense of direction truly did not exist within this dimension.
"This is the... Reverse World?" Azelf whispered. "Kinda... cool."
"T-this is amazing..." Celebi said. "I can't believe Giratina has this world all to herself..."
Uxie landed besides the two. "Quite the contrary," she informed. "Giratina was punished for being violent, and banished by Arceus to this realm- all alone. So it was quite a lonely experience for her."
"...is that why she apparently complained about being lonely?" Azelf asked, recalling Arceus' words the day their mansion life began. Uxie simply nodded.
Soon, Magearna and Diancie landed near them, and Mew afterwards.
"Whoa! Cool! No fair, why does Giratina have this cool dimension!?" Mew exclaimed. "We could play an amazing version of Tag here!"
"You're really still thinking of playing...?" Celebi and Azelf muttered.
Diancie seemed a bit nervous within the dimension, however. "It really is... a bit scary..."
"Nah, it'll be fine," Mew said and dismissed the girl's worries... well, not really. Just slightly irritated her. "So, Celebi. When's Giratina getting here?"
Celebi rolled her eyes. "Assuming she does notice our presence, probably soon."
To their surprises though, another portal opened faster than they expected. The group of six hopped their way to the island with the new portal, where Giratina's humanized form popped her head through. "Hello?"
"Giwatina!" Mew exclaimed.
The Renegade Pokémon glared. "I'll kill you, brat."
"Whoops. Teehee."
Sighing, Giratina looked as the others caught up with Mew, relieved smiles on their faces. "What the heck are you all doing in here?" she asked.
"We were forced into playing Mew's ridiculous game," Uxie began, "and ended up in the real world."
"Wait, ridicu- you didn't say anything against me!" Mew exclaimed. Celebi quickly covered the girl's mouth.
"And then we had no way of returning, so we went to Sendoff Spring, through Turnback Cave, and came to your world."
Giratina blinked. "Wow, you lot are... a bit impressive, I suppose." She scratched her head, then looked back into her portal. "I suppose you six want to hurry up and get here? I'm hiding from Arceus right now, while she's chewing Palkia and Dialga about being respectful... well, lecturing me too, but I decided I had better things to do."
Azelf raised a hand. "How's Hoopa doing?" she asked.
"Hoopa? Oh, the fella seemed intent on telling Arceus that I let you all come play this 'Tag' game in the Reverse World... wait, is that your doing?"
"No, but I told her to stall Arceus," Azelf said.
"Heh. Well, I decided to help the fella out, so I guess you all are safe... I suppose. Anyways," Giratina turned to Mew, "Arceus seems to have some business with you, if I recalled. She wants to talk to you after she shouts at me and the others enough."
"...aw."
"Well, who cares?" Azelf snickered. "I suppose it was fun while it lasted. Let's go home, girls!"
Uxie smiled. "Indeed, it was a fun ride, I guess." She hopped into the portal.
"I- I don't think I'd play in the real world again..." Diancie muttered. She then disappeared.
"...it was... okay." Bowing, Magearna left as well.
Mew grumbled something under her breath. Then she sighed. "Round two will have to happen later, I guess. Haha." She skipped into the portal.
Azelf and Celebi exchanged glances.
"...you're in charge of her next time," Azelf said.
"Me!?" Celebi exclaimed. "Why m-"
"Hurry up and get in," Giratina muttered and pushed Celebi into the portal.
Azelf snickered. "Thanks for being our ticket home, Giratina."
"No problem."
Hopping near the portal, Azelf leaned towards Giratina and gave her a peck on the cheek. "I'll try to hang out with you more."
With that, when the girl disappeared, Giratina was left scratching her cheek. "...kids," she muttered and rolled her eyes, before returning back to their mansion dimension as well.
But not without a smile.
Notes: