Squee! An update! :D Well, yep. Whoa! Lots of reviews! :D Thanks, you guys! It makes me happy! After this chapter the plot will get rolling, so...
FIC!
In the Hall of Origin, it was wet.
It was just one of those -obvious- observations that even the more intellectually equipped legendaries couldn't help but think as moans and curses erupted from the pack of gods, water splashing and roaring as it drained out of the holes that had opened up from the walls. The only beings that didn't seem too worried were the expected, Kyogre, Lugia, Suicune and Manaphy, since they spent most of their days underwater, so their bodies were used to the icy attacked that had shocked most of their kin.
Of course, the one's that were the most shocked were the fire types, whom had finally realized that they had been soaked, and then proceeded in panicking/throwing a tantrum, depending on who it was. Raikou was currently giggling hysterically at his fire typed counterpart, who's thick brown fur was spiked in so many different directions that he looked like a Jolteon stuck in a wind tunnel, while Suicune only shook herself dry, as her fur was made for that same purpose.
"Oh... my... god!"
Moltres' wail, high pitched with panic, erupted from his beak as he flapped his now flame less wings, looking more like a plucked chicken without his brilliant flaming crest. Articuno was trying her best to calm him down with her gentle, soothing voice, while Zapdos, being Zapdos, was on her back, cackling just as insanely as the thunder tiger was. Between each laugh, the thunder hawk continued to repeat the same phrase over and over again, earning a glare from her icy counterpart.
"... freaking chicken... he's a freaking chicken! Chicken!"
"Zapdos!" Articuno scolded, irritated at her counterpart's cruelty. "Can't you just pretend to care?!"
The gold and black bird managed to get to her talons, face suddenly very serious as she seemed to ponder over the icy bird's request, even going as far as to put a wing to her break in a very human-like manner. "Why, I suppose I can." She replied, voice holding a mocking sense of gentleness that couldn't possibly be true. "Moltres, are you ok? Despite the fact that you're most likely going to die soon if you don't get yourself relit, I think you look stunning."
Her male counterpart only burst into another wail, while Articuno glared icily at her needle-feathered kin.
Groudon wasn't in any better of a state, as, not only did his plated scales do little to warm him, but the icecubes that had come with the flood stuck to his armor like parasites. He attempted to scrape them off with his claws, but his large size and bulky talons prevented him from getting most of them. The legend of earth gave a low mutter, hoping his shivering wasn't too obvious.
Palkia was in pretty much the same state as the red lizard, and the lavender scaled dragon of space fluttered his numb wings, red eyes pained as his dragon typing shivered. His eyes went to Dialga, expecting to see her just as cold, but he blinked when he saw her, comfortable and drinking a cup of hot chocolate without a sign of ice on her. Well, he wasn't surprised about the hot chocolate- he was used to seeing her pull stuff out of thin air- but being comfortable and dry and ice free so soon did puzzle him.
"Time management." The blue and silver legendary replied, as if reading his thoughts- likely. She took another sip of her hot beverage, using her small amount of psychic power to hold the giant cup that Mew could probably swim in. If Mew could swim, he wasn't really good at it and he sunk like a rock. "I sped up time around me, and voila, I'm warm again."
"Oh." Palkia replied simply, turning once again to his wings as he struggled to use his small claws to scrape them of ice. While his water typing helped make this easier, it still wasn't pleasant to him. "That's cool." He cursed his choice of words, but otherwise said or thought nothing more about it. Dialga nodded her silver crusted head, falling silent once more.
Giratina, giving a relieved sigh- as her counterparts weren't fighting and she could finally do something else- turned her attention to the rest of the room, crimson eyes wandering over her fellow legends. She had easily dried, how was a mystery to everyone else, and she couldn't help but be darkly amused at their struggle against something so simple. Her snout gave a sardonic grin as she watched Entei continue to try and smooth down his fur, but turned into a frown as she realized that Arceus was huddle around an object, shaking like a scared puppy.
"Arceus?" She inquired, hovering closer to the Goddess. Despite the fact that she had become a trio with Palkia and Dialga, the Guardian of the Underworld still saw the creator legend as her counterpart, and therefor was the first to know of the fox/horse's distress, whether she liked it or not. Despite being the oldest thing in the existence of matter, Arceus could lapse into moods of childishness, which wasn't exactly good for the world, and Giratina remembered this as she realized that the object was nothing more (or less, Arceus would argue) than one of the many coffee makers the Goddess had owned over the years.
"My... Coffee House 2000!" The white furred being murmured. "My friend, my companion... the only thing that kept me going throughout the years of horrible insanity... You are deceased!" Giratina twitched one eye at the term, insulted that she would use such a word concerning the dragon's practice. "Why... why does everything I love have to die?!" Once again, it was expected if you lived forever... but no, the serpent held her tongue. Getting attached to inanimate objects was just one of those odd things that Arceus did.
"Look on the bright side, Arceus!" Mew did a spiral over the Goddess' head, giving a bright giggle. His pink fur was spiked in different directions, and his usual companion was nowhere in sight. At the moment Azelf was laughing at her golden-headed counterpart Uxie, who was mourning his very rare- and very ruined- book. Mesprit was sighing and trying to seem empathetic, but inside she was just as gleeful as the Being of Will. "At least the Hall is clean now!"
Arceus slowly raised her head, green eyes glinting insanely as they focused on the feline- who had stopped midair, looking scared. "Why..." She started, voice low just like Rayquaza's had been when threatening to maul his counterpart's. "... did I create you." It wasn't even a question, just a simple statement, like she was finally agreeing with herself on something. Giratina shot a worried look to the creator, waiting for the tantrum that was sure to come any second then.
"Why?" She rose to her hooves with grace, voice trembling and eyes closing. "All you ever do is destroy things! I created you to help the world, to help me! But no, you just make me do more work! At the end of the day, when I'm so tired I feel like keeling over or running to my corner of doom, you know what keeps me from giving up on the world (literally)?" She pointed one hoof at the ruined machine, eyes open and flaring with such rage that even Darkrai and Latios flinched. "THAT!"
Her voice lowered, as did her head, "And now it's broken. Gone forever."
"Y-you can't blame us for that!" Cresselia then spoke up, voice straining to stay steady as her lavender wings flickered in distress. Everyone else seemed to relax, if just a fraction. Cresselia could talk some sense into the crazed Goddess, if anyone. "None of us knew that a flood was going to crash into the Ha-"
"SILENCE!" The Goddess roared in reply, shutting up the swan instantly, causing her to scrunch her ruby eyes in a rare flinch. Arceus quickly strode up to the stage in which her throne sat, triangle ears flat with anger as her face darkened all the more. When she reached her panel, the Being of Creation whipped around, eyes narrowed into glowing slits. The gems of her golden wheel started to glow, and Giratina knew instantly what she was meaning to do- ruby eyes widening at the realization.
"DON'T!" The dragon of death cried in desperation, while everyone else exchanged puzzled glances. As expected, only Uxie seemed to realize the same thing that Giratina had, and he shot as much of a worried look as he could to his two counterparts, who both had the same expression of confusion on their faces. Despite the female serpent's cry, the white legendary only shook her head firmly, like she was resigning to her own fate, instead of theirs, and she closed her green eyes in conclusion.
"No. This is your punishment."
"But we didn't-"
A bright white light exploded from the Creator, and as far as the legends knew, the world went black.
"What the hell...?"
Blue eyes flickered open, hazy with sleep as the being pulled himself up to a shaky hover, claws going to the sides of his head as he let out another groaning curse. The legendary of nightmares then shifted his pained glare to the area around him, and he tilted his head to the side in puzzlement as he saw his fellow legends sprawled out around the white marble floor, not quite making the connection to why they were there in the first place.
Darkrai cringed, head pulsing like he had a horrible hangover that one would normally expect from the partygoers like Deoxys and Zapdos, as the sound of something walking back and forth seemed to feel like a hammer to his mind. Resisting the urge to blow whoever it was up, or at least curl into a fetal position and die, the phantom finally located the source, whom happened to be the same Goddess that had lost her temper who knew how long ago.
Arceus continued to pace back and forth, head held low as she continued to mumble a line of meaningless jumble, green eyes scrunched shut as she pondered deeply over whatever she was. Every now and then she would stop, look up like she was alarmed, and then start her pacing all over again, which was making Darkrai increasingly dizzy.
"Arceus." He managed to mutter loud enough for her to hear. The white furred legend jumped, hooves clicking against the floor and nearly sending the dark type into a cringe of pain, before she finally realized it was just him. "What did you do?" The Being of Creation flattened her ears to her head, before starting her pacing again, seeming to ignore his question entirely. Annoyed, Darkrai floated shakily to the Alpha legend, azure eyes narrowed as he demanded an answer. A few times he thought he was going to lose control of his floating abilities and plunge towards the ground- as for some reason he felt weaker than he ever had- but he managed.
"Look." He said, voice angry, but holding a sense of reason that rarely showed. "You freaked out at us for no reason, I think you have some explaining to do." Sure, he didn't feel too horrible, despite the fact that he felt like he had been celebrating Marti Gras all day and night, but he still wanted to know if he was going to implode or start shooting bunnies out of his eyes due to whatever 'punishment' the Goddess had assigned.
She stopped in her tracks, staring him down like an annoying gnat that wouldn't go away, before giving a testy sigh, one hoof motioning to the pack of unconscious legends. "Notice anything different?" She then mumbled, ear twitching and eyes shying away from his own. Darkrai turned his head to look at said beings, claw going to the spiked armor around his neck as he struggled to see anything without cringing from the light that the Hall held. Seeming to realize that he was having trouble, Arceus sighed again, then hinted. "The larger legends, Darkrai."
His gaze went to Groudon, who was slumped onto his stomach, and the phantom couldn't see anything amiss, until he spotted Latios a few feet away. While the red lizard was usually bigger than the eon brother by tenfold, now he was only a little bit larger than the blue and gray dragon, about the size of a Rhyperior. Darkrai shook his head hastily, hoping that he was imagining things, but no, when he looked at the legend of earth's counterpart, the same held true. Every single titan legend, whom had been feared for their size, had been downsized.
"Ah." He said, dazed.
Meanwhile, Giratina gave a groan, pulling herself to her sturdy legs as her bleary red eyes surveyed her kin, automatically searching for the Goddess out of habit. For about three minutes straight, the dragon couldn't seem to find her, as she didn't seem to identify the long, white and gold legs of the Goddess as being, well, the Goddess. Then, as she finally remembered, the legendary of death slowly lifted her head to look up at Arceus, blinking. After a second of staring, the serpent finally burst into one of her rants that could easily go on for hours.
"Arceus! Are you mad?!" She roared at the top of her lungs, quickly waking the rest of the legends from their slumber. "YOU'RE SO CHILDISH! WE DID NOTHING! FOR ONCE IN THE TIME SPAN OF THE CREATION OF MATTER IT WASN'T OUR FAULT!" She pointed one claw at the fox/horse legendary of creation, crimson eyes flaring with such rage that Arceus gave a small step back, eyes embarrassed. "But no! You turn us into our lesser forms anyway! Over a bloody COFFEE MAKER!" The dragon probably would have been more intimidating if she could look up at the Alpha legend without craning her neck at a painful angle- she was about the size of a Salamence- but no, she had also been effected by the curse. By the time she was done her outburst, the dragon of death was panting harshly, trying to gain her breath again.
"Lesser forms?" Deoxys inquired, puzzled. "What do you mean, Giratina?"
"She means," Uxie replied, while Azelf attempted to shake awake Mew and Mesprit tried to form a ball of psychic energy between her paws- failing every time. "That our abilities as legends have been abated. We've been downgraded, so to speak." He added, when the others exchanged glances at his choice of vocabulary. "It was a state that Arceus created so that her creations would not kill her... and in this state of being we legends are barely above average in power. As you can see in the titans of our kin, they have been decreased in size, as well."
While most of the legends tried to absorb this, Ho-oh raised his crested head and snarled. "Well Goddess! Change us back! I've got to make an appearance at a festival in my name!" Lugia, who seemed to be one of the few that was calm, gave a low chuckle, wing going to her mouth to conceal it.
"Yeah, if he goes like that, someone might shoot him, pluck him and roast him for dinner."
Silence was Arceus' only reply, while said phoenix glared at his silver feathered counterpart.
"She can't." Giratina growled through gritted fangs, body tense. She took a deep breath, trying to soothe her nerves as to stop herself from snapping and taking someone's head off. "It has to wear off. That could take a while." Uxie nodded, verifying that the statement was true, frown deep on his face with anxiety. This finally seemed to get to most of the legends, as they broke into chatter, panic present in their voices.
"So we've been completely stripped of our powers?" Mewtwo inquired, speaking for the first time. The man-made legendary seemed almost unsettled by this realization, though his neutral face didn't betray such emotions. Uxie only nodded again, staying silent as he didn't feel like saying any more. Suicune suddenly lifted her head, crimson eyes wide with alarm.
"Who's going to take my duties if I can't purify water?" Her voice was strained with worry, and her twin tails thrashed, "I have to clean Lake Rage by tomorrow or the local Pokemon will become sick!" Raikou came to her side, nuzzling her shoulder affectionately before turning his own purple eyes to look at Arceus, gaze filled with a rare sense of calm questioning, seeming to ask 'what now' is his own silent way.
"I suppose I will have to take over your duties..." Arceus replied, sounding tired and ashamed. "I have the power to, after all."
Latias, trying to lighten the mood, spoke up. "Well... we can stay in the Hall until we change back, then." Her golden eyes faltered in confusion as Arceus shook her head, green eyes dull with moodiness. The white furred legendary motioned to the walls of the Hall, which had been steadily glowing brighter and brighter as runes that only she and Uxie could read faded in and out from the marble. The legends watched this for a minute, unnerved.
"No..." She then mumbled, voice dark. "Mortals cannot live here. The Hall of Origin is equipped with a system that identifies those not of legendary status... if you stay here much longer, you'll, well..." Arceus trailed off, and Giratina, always ready to push in her practice, finished for her.
"We'll be killed. Painfully." The dragon of death paused, trying to figure out if it was irony, or just poetic symbolism. "Wow. I'm going to die. Never thought I'd hear myself say that." While she was strangely calm, the rest of her kin started to burst into periodic moments of panic, not sure what to do with themselves. "Unless of course-" She said, voice loud enough that everyone stopped, if just for a moment. Giratina turned her gaze to look up at Arceus, "-You relocate us."
Arceus nodded her head curtly, "I realized that. Only I can not decide where would be safe..." She quickly strode to her throne, hoof going to the ancient panel. "There is always the possibility that one of those idiotic human groups will attempt to attack you if I send you home... so that's out." Her golden paw slid over the surface, which showed a scarily accurate portrayal of Earth. Well, she created it, after all. Meanwhile, the walls were flashing faster and faster, with the legends shooting glances at it, constantly in worry for their lives.
"HURRY UP!" They all shouted, even the mostly silent Mewtwo- as none of them wanted to see exactly how the Hall's security system worked.
Arceus closed her eyes and tapped her paw into her decided location, glad that she had closed her gaze against the bright light that exploded from the stone object. The storm of energy engulfed her creations in its golden embrace, dissolving them into a shower of glittering specks that disappeared as soon as they touched the ground. When she finally opened her eyes again, she saw that the room was empty of their now weak presence.
The Goddess have a whining sigh, hoof going to her pounding head. "I need a coffee. A large."
The panel in front of her glowed, then gave a low, emotionless whir. "Legends relocated. Location: Treasure Town."
"...Make that a venti..."
Ah, yays! :D So... yep. SU out!