Oh geeze, heh. Sorry for the long update. Homework kept coming up. Stupid school. Anyways, this chapter isn't very action packed, but the plot should get rolling by the next chapter. Which- incidentally- should be up by Tuesday. Hopefully. Maybe.
FIC!

"Come on, we're late!"

Rade gritted her fangs, swiveling on her legs in such a way that nearly sent her catapulting face first into the railing of the Team Raider base's staircase, barely throwing her arms over it and stopping herself from yet another painful fall. Settling her nerves, she glared down at the Gallade that was one the first floor, who was looking up at her, pointing to the door, wishing she had a heavy object to drop on his head. If the psychic had a concussion, then maybe she could get a few more hours of sleep, and thus feel less like a walking corpse.

"Hurry up!"

... but no. She had nothing. At his egging, the Roserade's glare intensified, before she swung her body over the railing and jumped down from the second floor, neatly landing next to her team leader and giving a sarcastic salute. The only reason she could do that without breaking something was due to the fact that she was trained for those kinds of things, thanks to the fact that she was the scout on the high ranking team. Despite this, she wasn't nearly as professional and serious in her personality as most other Master ranks were, and this showed as she smacked the Gallade on the arm with her red petaled paw.

"Please, Haku. The last time Wes called the alarm was for a dance-off."

He sighed, "True."

The grass type turned her gaze to look at the sky as they exited the base, shading her maroon eyes with one arm. It was a beautiful, cheery afternoon in the grand positiveness of Treasure Town, something that Rade had learned to be grateful for. Even with the... er, more unique characters that lived here(Well, what could she say? She happened to be one of them) it was a thousand times better than the strictness of her own home, and Haku could easily agree.

The loud orchestra of many voices greeted their ears as the pair entered the stands of the center market place, automatically picking up that this was no dance-off when most of the town was actually present. Usually, when it became obvious that the meeting was nothing more than the result of the Guildmaster's boredom, most fled the scene with their usual excuses. Haku's was paperwork (which was the truth most of the time, if you took a look at his desk) while Rade's was her apparent allergy to stupidity- a joke that Wes still failed to get.

"Yo! Guys, over here!" Nero waved one giant claw over his head to get his friends' attention, before continuing- grin huge on his face. It was the same smirk one could expect before the Rhyperior spat out a gem of blackmail or an insulting, teasing comment that unnerved and angered those who weren't used to it."What took you so long?"

Haku ignored him, easily, before taking on a business-like tone that they had come to expect in public. "Nero, what's going on?" The Gallade looked wary as the rock type's grin broadened all the more, and the rhino moved over and motioned to the strange group that was dwelling near the center of the ring the crowd had formed.

"Legendaries? What the hell?" Rade barked out loudly, as she had taken her usual spot on the giant rock type's shoulder, and was resting her arms on her smooth green legs. "What are they doing here?" She shifted as her bulky friend only shrugged, sounding bored, yet interested at the same time. Mew was attempting- and failing- to win against Azelf in an arm wrestling match, Cresselia was once again trying to convince Hige that her counterpart was very sane, Giratina was snapping at her legendary kin to stop their twitching and these same beings continued to twitch uncomfortably under everyone's curious gaze.

"Dunno. Wes was about to start when you guys finally showed." Nero replied, while Haku seemed to ponder over this, puzzled. "But man, these guys are apparently gods or something, so something must have really gone wrong for them to come here. The world's balance being upset or some other utter Tauros crap like that, most likely." Before Haku could chide his teammate for being crude, the Wigglytuff at the front started, causing the crowd's attention to switch to the hyper pink and white Pokemon.

"Heeeeeeey, friends!" There came a silent groan from half of the crowd, while the others watched adoringly. Wes clasped his paws together, closing his eyes and tilting to the side before continuing. "As you can see, this is quite the event!"The Wigglytuff pointed one paw to the sky, face taking on something that might have been seriousness- which was less likely than Hige using vocabulary that everyone could understand- before then continuing. "People! These are our legends, resident god-things." Giratina's eye visibly twitched, but she said nothing.

"They'll be staying with us for a bit, so treat them well." Hige continued, sounding just as moody as half of the 'god-things' looked. "And we'll also need one of the teams of Treasure Town to act as their guides..." The parrot's black eyes swept over the crowd, and his voice took on a flat drone that was already starting to put some into a drowsy trance. Hell, Wes was already asleep, though only a few people could tell. "... Normally I'd ask Team Distant but they're located on the other side of the continent..." Uxie, Azelf, Mesprit and Cresselia gave looks of disappointment.

"... Obviously this is the sort of assignment that is given only to high-ranking teams with plenty of experience..."

It was then, in that one moment, when a silent 'uh-oh' ran through Rade's head, as she suddenly realized what was bound to happen. The Roserade turned her head to look at Nero, who looked just as worried, caught his attention with a cough and then motioned frantically to make an exit. The Rhyperior caught the hint- the two were used to working in hand gestures, before motioning to the Gallade, who was oblivious to their silent conversation.

"Haku." The grass type whispered harshly, tapping his shoulder frantically with her red petaled paw. He turned his head slightly to look at her, puzzled and annoyed at the same time. Before he could go into a murmured rant about staying until the meeting was adjourned and responsibility and ethic, Rade had linked her arm around his and proceeded in attempting to drag the psychic away from the crowd. "We need to go. Now."

"Why?" Haku whispered back, standing his ground while she continued to tug desperately towards the gates. It was all in vain, despite the fact that he was no where near as heavy as Nero, the Gallade still weighed more than his petaled teammate. Their whispering had caught the attention of a few Pokemon, but Hige still hadn't taken notice. Hopefully it would stay that way. "You know the rules, we need to stay until the meeting is ove-"

"Yeah. Sure." Rade broke in, voice hurried and annoyed, a tone that was expected from her. "But if we don't go now we're going to be stuck in a very bad situation that's going to end in blood and fire and be even worst than the time your relatives visited. Hell, it'll be worst than when I accidentally blew up the brothers' shop that one ti-"

"Ah! Team Raider! Just who I was hoping to see!"

The sing-song voice interrupted the Roserade, causing everyone's eyes to instinctively go to the Master-ranked trio, specifically to the scene of ninja trying to drag leader away. As Rade looked up, feeling the same as the legendaries had under the intense stare of the crowd- while said beings of once godly power gave a large, collected sigh of relief- she waved one paw hastily in acknowledgment, still trying to inch away.

"Erm, yeah. We were just leaving..."

"We've got, erm, paperwork." Nero added, voice tense with desperation.

She nodded her head curtly in agreement. "Tons of paperwork. There's so much paper in our base that we have to camp out in the backyard. Er, yeah. It's... terrible, awful. It's a fire hazard so..." There came a scoff from her side, and Haku pulled away from her, shooting the Roserade a testy glance. As the Gallade turned back to the Chatot and sleeping Wigglytuff, he gave a charming smile that nearly caused the female population to swoon, before speaking up, voice apologetic.

"That is inaccurate."

"You're right, actually!" Rade burst in, stepping in front of the Gallade and attempting to push him back towards the gates again, while Hige tilted his head to the side and a few knowing chuckles sounded from the back of the group. "Hahaha... what were we saying? Right? We have a giant expedition that we need to leave for. Right now. We couldn't possibly take on a duty when we have something to do alread-"

"No we don't." Haku replied, sounding genuinely confused. One of his green hands went to his chin, and he shot a puzzled look to his teammate, who only continued to gaze desperately at her leader. Nero, having slipped into the background, connected his giant claw to his face, giving a heaving sigh of defeat. "I should know. I'm the one who plans these things. We just came back from a long expedition, remember? We were taking a break." Rade waved her roses to one side, then the other, grasping blindly at some sort of excuse that could get her out of the situation. Unfortunately, this lapse into silence went as a sign of approval to the Chatot at the front, who then gave his own nod of approval, rustling his wings in that way of finality.

"Very good then. I'm glad I could depend on your team to accept, Haku."

The door closed, Rade sank to the ground, followed by Nero, while Haku only glanced at them in puzzlement, wondering if their strange behavior had to do with whatever they had eaten for breakfast. The Gallade shook this thought away, before nodding curtly at the Head of Intelligence for the Guild, "It's really not that much of a problem." There came a low mutter of 'speak for yourself' from his two teammates, which he promptly ignored, before giving a formal bow to the ex-gods, who all blinked at the gesture. "It's truly an honor."

"Wonderful!" Hige jabbed Wes in the side with one wing, "Do you approve, Guildmaster?"

The Wigglytuff jumped, blinking his eyes multiple times before giving a series of mumbles that sounded like recipes for Perfect Apples, while the Pokemon of the Guild exchanged weary looks. "Ah! Yes!" He then burst out, causing the parrot to flap his colorful wings and back away in surprise. "Meeting dismissed! Yoomtah!" He added in his usual way, paws going into the air before he wandered away from the clearing and headed to the Guild. "Come on, Hige! I'm hungry!" Said Pokemon gave an annoyed sigh before flapping his wings and going airborne, following the Wigglytuff.

"Remember!" He squawked behind him, "Sleeping arrangements! Divide the group into three, introduce yourself! And for the love of Arceus keep them out of trouble!" The crowd slowly started to drift away back to their stands, and the air was quivering with multiple voices as they discussed what could possibly be going on. "I'll be back after I'm sure the Guildmaster isn't going to destroy anything!" With that, the colorful bird disappeared around the bend.

"Take your time. Really." Darkrai muttered, glad that he didn't have to deal with the evil eye- from the parrot at least. Cresselia's worried red gaze drifted to her dark typed counterpart, and she approached him, pink wings glowing weakly in the sunlight. While usually they'd be a luminous show of power, they were dimmed from the curse, just Dialga and Palkia's respective gems lost their sparkle.

"Sorry... It'll take a while to build up your image again." She murmured, crowned head bowing slightly in disappointment. "That evil you did try to destroy the world, you know..."

"Whatever." The legendary of nightmares replied, waving one claw nonchalantly. "It doesn't bother me."

"Idiots!" Giratina's harsh, annoyed voice sounded, causing her kin to look up. The dragon of death flicked her gray tail in irritation, motioning for them to gather- as they had strayed, first chance they had gotten. While she was relieved that she wasn't being stared at like some type of circus freak, the serpent knew that most of them would cause destruction first chance they got. "Get over here so we can introduce ourselves." A surprisingly timid chorus of 'yes, Giratina' sounded from the once gods, and they hurried towards her, not wanting to trigger her wrath.

"Haku, right?" She then inquired roughly, as said Gallade nodded his head- showing no annoyance at her attitude. He was used to it from Rade, after all. "Great. Wonderful. In case you didn't study us- which is unlikely- I am Giratina, legendary of death, plague, famine, etc." She motioned to her group with one tattered black wing, wine eyes flat and obviously displeased with the situation that she had been placed into. "I'm not going to bother to introduce them, as you know them from just about every history book, so, introduce your team to us, instead."

Haku turned his head to look at his teammates, whom were both still sitting on the ground, staring moodily at each other. "Rade, Nero, come on." Said Pokemon shot dark glares at their leader, who only folded his arms and shook his head, sighing wearily. "What is up with you two, today?" Rade growled, went to say something, changed her mind and then hastily stood up, striding up to her team leader with murder in her eyes. When she was about a three feet away she changed her direction and faced the legendaries, folding her own arms and giving a curt nod.

"Rade."

"Nero." Said Rhyperior called from his spot on the ground. "Pleased to meet you."

"Oh! Oh! I know you guys!" Mew suddenly gushed, exploding from his group and attaching himself to the Roserade's arm. "You guys, like, stopped Kyogre and Groudon from fighting that one time! I was gonna say something before, but Giratina kept glaring at me like she was going to strangle me with my own tail so I couldn't... but now I can!" The legendary of children's large green-blue eyes were bright and wide with excitement, and he let go of the ninja before doing slow circles around her. "Awesome!"

"I have to admit... I was a little disappointed that I wasn't going to get to see Veron and Ruin..." Azelf started, floating closer to the trio, golden-orange eyes amused. "But who cares? It's better than having to deal with that Chatot!"

The hyper pink legendary's statement seemed to break the tense silence that had been created, for the once gods burst into chatter as they talked to each other and the three Team Raider members. Rade had gotten over her mood and was now explaining to Mew and Azelf who was who in the town and where to get pranking materials, Nero was talking with Uxie and Mewtwo about coordinates and Haku was discussing exactly what Hige had told him to with Giratina- whom he had identified as the 'leader' of the strange pack.

"The first priority is sleeping arrangements..." The Gallade explained, while the dragon only nodded her gold and gray head in agreement. Despite the fact that they were legendaries, there wasn't exactly an awe-inspiring presence like he had expected- which might have been due to the curse that Arceus had cast. "There are three locations open that I know of. The Guild has plenty of rooms, but not enough for everyone. My team's base has a few open rooms and there is always the Do'jo to consider."

"Trios need to go together." Giratina replied, voice stern. "There is usually only one... problem legend per trio, and the other two usually keep him or her behaved. For the sake of the town and everyone, it should stay like this. For the single and duo legends, well, I suppose I'll have to go over this." She paused thoughtfully, before continuing. "Palkia and Dialga are my counterparts, so I must stay with them. It would probably be best if it was in the Do'jo. Rayquaza, Groudon and Kyogre should probably be kept there as well. And Latias and Latios, as they'll keep Rayquaza calm. Articuno, Moltres and Zapdos should probably be housed with Lugia, as they are her trio. I believe that is most of the titans that cause trouble.

"Celebi and Jirachi should be able to keep Mew out of trouble, so they can stay at the Guild. Shaymin and Manaphy are well behaved, so I don't have to worry about them... And Deoxys. Perhaps even Mewtwo. Raikou, Suicune and Entei should stay with Ho-oh, as once again they are his trio, and he's too busy being arrogant to do anything destructive.

"That leaves your base, and I tried to keep the less destructive legends here. Registeel, Regice and Regirock should stay here... Heatran should be able to keep them out of trouble- namely Registeel. Darkrai and Cresselia should be... reasonable enough, for now. Hopefully. Uxie and Mesprit will do their best to keep Azelf from doing anything stupid-" The dragon and Gallade turned their gaze instinctively to the blue sprite who was discussing the best pranks with explosives and toilets with Mew and Rade. "-but, well... good luck."

Haku gave a sheepish laugh, "I'll try my best." His mirthful expression suddenly turned serious as realization suddenly hit. "Wait. Giratina... who exactly is doing your job right now?" he was obviously worried about the whole 'time stopping' incident that had happened a few years before. The dragon shrugged her broad shoulders, bored.

"Luckily, the Goddess-" Her tone was leaking with sarcasm. "-is taking care of most of it. If you're wondering about the incident with Temporal Tower, Dialga set up a system that keeps time running without her presence. Everything should be fine until we turn back to normal." There was an unmistakable 'if' hanging onto her statement, one which the Gallade caught. Giratina started ordering out the arrangements for sleeping quarters. There were a series of overjoyed 'yes's and desperate 'no's depending on who it happened to be and who they happened to have to stay with.

"Ugh! I thought I would at least get a vacation away from my wimpy counterpart!" Zapdos barked up, a weak crackle of electricity traveling over her feathers. Said phoenix cowered behind Articuno, who shot the electric hawk a stern glare, obviously not pleased with her counterpart's rude and cruel attitude. "Hell! He's probably going to set the whole place ablaze!" Groudon and Kyogre were having a similar conversation, only Rayquaza was too busy trying to stare Latios down to care.

Meanwhile, Azelf was grinning broadly. "Looks like you're stuck with me, Rade." The sprite did a small loop, while Mew only drooped his ears sadly and the Roserade shrugged her shoulders. "Aw, what's the matter, dude?" The Being of Will then inquired, tugging on his tail gently in her usual playful way, while the feline only twiddled his paws in disappointment.

"I have to stick with Celebi and Jirachi. They're boring!" He complained, earning a glare from the apparent 'boring' duo. "I wanted to be in the same quarters as you, Azelf!" Said female chuckled, looking around to make sure no one was listening. When she saw that the coast was clear she pulled her partner in pranking closer so they were snout to snout.

"Dude? You're really going to follow what that old dragon says to do?" Her smirk increased in size. "As long as she doesn't find out, you can stay in the Raider base, right? Now give me a high five!" The legendary of children gave a soft giggle, doing as told, silently chiding himself for not seeing the obvious. As they grinned at each other and Rade wondered vacantly if this whole fiasco was going to end in her home being put on fire, Mesprit was once again lecturing Uxie- who was doing his best to ignore her.

Of course, a moment of silence came, broken by the loud rumbling of most of the legend's stomachs- besides those that couldn't eat and who nearly had heart attacks, instinctively glancing at Groudon, who only glared, obviously about to argue that he wasn't the only one. Giratina rolled her eyes, even though her own stomach had complained, as she waited for the expected two lettered statement that was bound to come any second.

And so it did.

"I'm hungry!"

So, yep :D Expect a chapter Tuesday or sooner! SU out!