Deadly Drowning Craze (part 3: END)

Azelf faces her doom. Probably.

"Y-yes, of course, we'd... um, be glad to," Azelf said. Then she turned to her sane group members, leaving Mew to stall Kyogre with her random chitchat. "A-alright, who's going to go first?" eh whispered.

Celebi narrowed her eyes. "Not me! I'm not ready to die!"

Next to her, Lunala made an 'X' with her arms. "Scary."

"W-well I'm scared too!" Azelf hissed. She peered back at Kyogre- Mew was doing a good job of... being herself, she supposed, distracting the Water-type. "Celebi! You should go!"

"W-why me!?" Celebi asked.

"You're Grass-type, you'll survive!" Azelf retorted.

That was indeed a good point, but the Time Travel Pokémon was still reluctant. "I don't think I'd survive a throw all the way from the top though..." Then she blinked. "B-besides! Those typings and crap are just logic made by humans! This is reality!"

"Hey, even Arceus has plates that changes her 'types'!" Azelf said. "Those humans just managed to find out how our reality works, we already knew our reality long before them!"

Lunala scratched her head, having nothing to contribute to the conversation.

"W-well either ways, I'm not going! You go, Azelf!" Celebi hissed.

Azelf sighed. "Ugh, fine! I'll do it so you can live with Mew!"

"Goo... w-wait what!?"

Ignoring the green-haired girl's burning red face, the lake guardian sadly trotted up to Kyogre. "Y-yeah, uh, I'm... I'm so interested," she said with the least amount of enthusiasm possible. The Water-type didn't notice it.

Instead, Kyogre beamed. "That's wonderful! C-come on, Azelf, I'll make sure you have a good time!"

Good time dying... she thought.

"O-oh, but first. Um, do you like surprises...?"

Azelf blinked. "...I guess?" Wait, is this about the blindfold? She gulped. She'd rather die seeing the world than in pitch black vision. "But I also like to take things head on..." she mouthed.

Kyogre smiled. "Okay. No blindfolds then! Follow me!" she said and climbed up the ladder of the diving board.

The lake guardian reluctantly followed, sending a glare down at Celebi before she went up.

It almost took a minute, as Azelf climbed most of the way up before realizing she could levitate herself up to the top.

When the two now stood on top of the diving board, the ground looked so far away that Azelf could almost feel her life's miserable end had she tripped. She nervously looked to Kyogre. "S-so, uh... what do I do here?"

Kyogre pointed down. "Well, if you wanted a surprise, I would've thrown you down. But since you like facing things... jump!" she said.

Azelf grimaced. Of course... die or suicide...

But then Kyogre continued. "It doesn't even matter what happens, the thrill of it is what excites you!"

"...?" The lake guardian looked at the Water-type, confused. "Exciting? This almost seems like we're asking for death..."

"That's the excitement!" her killer(?) replied. "Just yesterday I decided to start using that device Arceus showed us all," she began explaining. "The... uh, computer, I believed it was called."

"Oh, that." Azelf remembered- on the very second day of their mansion life, Arceus had called everyone over again to introduce some new stuff they could use. She had told them that with the help of Uxie, Magearna, and Jirachi, they replicated several of a device humans invented known as a 'computer'. They were tools that allowed communication and information gathering, apparently. But that required something called 'Wi-Fi' or 'Internet', which she also replicated with the help of Mewtwo and Deoxys. Naturally, not many of the legendaries tried it out yet as it seemed stupid and, well, it was made by humans. Who'd trust that?

Back to the Water-type's explanation. "I decided to try it out, and it was amazing! This 'Internet' thing had so much data stored on it, but at the same time allowed anyone to interact with each other and do all sorts of things! I even found this... this information source called an 'article'," she said. "Apparently, excitement is the best way to relief stress!"

The lake guardian's eyes slowly recovered life. She felt like she was getting at something here.

"And, well, I seem to always cause trouble..." Kyogre said. "S-so I thought I could help everyone here relief some stress and feel better again! Starting with Groudon, of course!" Then Kyogre pointed down at Groudon's body. "I, I think she had fun too. Look how content she seems, lying down in the sun after the thrill ride I gave her!"

"..." Azelf blinked as she realized: Kyogre wasn't crazy. She was just trying to help everyone! She was just... well, the keyword here was 'trying'. It still didn't change the fact that her four victims looked as if they had departed to the skies now. "I... I see. Wow, I think... I think I misunderstood you there."

Kyogre tilted her head. "How so?" she wondered, before shrugging. "Never mind that! Come on, Azelf. I promise you, this will make you feel like you're having so much fun!"

Azelf looked down again and gulped. Knowing Kyogre wasn't hellbent on drowning everyone was fine, but she still felt rather scared of diving into the pool from high above.

Wait, she can levitate! She's always flown high before, even in the real world and this world! She confusedly looked at the pool again. Why am I afraid of this?

The girl then breathed in. "R-right. I guess I can do it." She then recalled seeing humans in the past swim around at her lake. Figuring she could imitate their postures, she then prepared herself- and jumped off the diving board. "H-here I go!" she exclaimed.

Everything rushed up in her vision so quickly, she was amazed she hadn't reached the bottom yet.

As the water neared her, Azelf began screaming in her head.

Then she splashed into the pool.

A huge eruption of water shot the liquid almost everywhere, momentarily separating from her before surrounding her again.

Then Azelf surfaced, gasping for air. She quickly swam to a side of the pool and got out of the water, pushing her wet hair away from her eyes. The girl panted tiredly, shaking her head to get water out of her hair. As Celebi, Lunala and Mew ran up to her, curious and concerned, Azelf suddenly laughed. "That... was... awesome!" she exclaimed.

"A-Azelf?" Celebi whispered.

"T-that was awesome!" She turned her head and saw Kyogre reaching the ground. "Kyogre! You were right! That was just amazing!"

Kyogre grinned. "See? I told you it'd be exciting, didn't I? I knew this would be helpful!"

"Yeah! I can't believe I misunderstood you this entire time!" Azelf ran up to Kyogre and hugged her tightly, despite how soaked she was. "Arceus, I need to try that again!"

Mew frowned and leaned to Celebi. "I think she's gone crazy too."

"Wait, how are you fine?" Celebi asked the lake guardian. "The others are practically dead!"

Azelf blinked at the green-haired girl, then looked at her own hands. "Well, it wasn't actually as bad as it seemed..." she said. "Maybe because I'm not weak to water..."

"...Darkrai isn't..." Lunala said.

Realizing she had a point, the group turned to the three bodies lying together. They stared at Darkrai, whose body was so still.

...until Darkrai stirred. "Damn, you got me." She sighed and pushed herself up.

"D-Darkrai! You're okay?" Celebi asked.

"Never was dead in the first place," the Dark-type said with a snicker. "I just thought it'd be funny to act like I'm dying."

"...why?" Azelf asked.

Darkrai pointed to Kyogre. "She wanted to introduce me to this stress relief thing, and I noticed you and Lunala were hiding and watching," she said. "So I thought it'd be hilarious if it seemed like she killed me."

Kyogre blinked. "Wait... what?"

Azelf smiled sheepishly. "Oh... uh, yeah. We thought you were going crazy and trying to drown everyone."

The Water-type frowned. Then she scratched her head. "S-sorry. I guess I was a bit too pushy... I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

"N-no, don't be!" Azelf exclaimed. "It ended up being rather fun!"

Kyogre then looked at Groudon and Terrakion's bodies. "...t-they're not actually having fun, are they?" she asked.

"No, they're dead," Mew answered bluntly. Kyogre's frown worsened.

"W-wait, no, Kyogre! They're not dead! It's just because they're Ground-types!" Azelf quickly said. "U-Uxie told me about this before: Ground-types must enter water gently! You didn't do anything wrong!"

Celebi leaned to Mew. "Yeah, she's been brainwashed."

"I'm not!" Azelf retorted. Sighing, she flew up sightly and petted Kyogre's head. "Guys, um... sorry, I was mistaken. Kyogre just wanted to help everyone feel better by putting them into an exciting situation!"

Lunala blinked, then exchanged glances with Celebi and Mew. She's gone crazy, the two thought as if telepathic. Lunala nodded in agreement.

"And, uh, I guess she's just not that good at sharing her ideas and rather wanted us to experience it first-hand..."

Looked more like she was killing, Celebi thought.

Azelf chuckled. "But, well, it's actually pretty effective. It felt really awesome, you guys should try it out too!" she said.

No thank you, Lunala thought.

Suddenly, the floating Arceus body stirred and Arceus herself flew over to them, ignoring how wet she was. "Oh, so that's what was going on."

"Y-you were awake!?" Celebi asked.

"For a moment I thought my precious child was rebelling against me," Arceus said and laughed. "I'm so glad that's not the case."

"I- I wouldn't!" Kyogre exclaimed. "I, I know I wouldn't be any match for you anyways, Arceus!"

The Alpha Pokémon smiled and petted Kyogre's head. "I'm thankful you're trying to help everyone. Just, maybe tone it down a bit."

In awe, Kyogre quickly nodded. "I- I promise!"

Azelf and Celebi exchanged glances. "...well, turns out it wasn't that big of a deal as we thought," Azelf said.

"Yeah." A beat of silence. Then Celebi frowned at the lake guardian. "I still think you've gone crazy."

"Ass."

Darkrai snickered. "All's well that ends well, huh?"

"What does that mean?" Mew asked.

"Who knows? I don't."

Amidst all the relief and conclusion of the incident, Lunala simply remained silent as she observed everyone.

They're all crazy, she ultimately decided.

In the end, however, she would later become better friends with Azelf since she was one of the first ones to interact with her a lot.

Notes: