Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Hands of Creation

Chapter 31 - Ancient Tradition

"Yeah..." Mispy smiled, brushing her leaf against his head. "Thanks." There was a silence then, tranquility after a fight. The bruises still hurt, but it was a good, post-spar sort of pain that filled her with contentment and nostalgia. Forgotten nostalgia, probably, part of those memories sealed away.

...She felt it.

And then, a white light enveloped her.

"M-Mispy?" Demitri squeaked, staggering away.

Even though it was only her middle stage, Zena readied the Suppression Aura just in case, holding it between her ribbons. When the black sparks shot out, Demitri quickly dodged one of them, shivering at the residual feeling it gave off, like electricity.

"What even is that stuff?" he mumbled.

"Rhys said that it's anti-evolution energy," Zena said. "Apparently the Suppression Aura... is a key that makes your own auras synthesize that, reversing your evolutions. The act of evolving shakes off that aura."

The light faded. Mispy, a Bayleef, opened one eye, looking down. She lifted her legs tentatively, then looked at Demitri.

"How do you feel?" Demitri said.

Mispy considered her answer. "Mm... normal."

"Incorrect," ADAM said, quietly observing from his home nearby. "Grass Type detected."

Mispy giggled, as did Zena. Then, the newly evolved Bayleef wrapped her vines around Demitri. "Let's evolve you next," she said, and then hurled him into the wall.

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"Humans?" Owen repeated, still trying to grasp the concept. "What do you mean, the human world? So, you used to be human?! But—but I thought humans were just mythical creatures!"

He had so many questions to ask. Was it true? Was Brandon the Steel Guardian because humans really were made of metal? Did they eat metal, too? Or did they eat stone? There were so many rumors about humans—there was no telling which ones were true. They were even more unknown than Mew and Arceus themselves—if Owen ignored the past moon or so, at least.

Brandon laughed. "No, they're far from mythical," he said. "If anything, they're less impressive than Pokémon. They don't know moves, and they can't really stand up to a Pokémon in a fight unless they're very highly trained. They cheat and use special tools instead. Tools like these." He reached over to the platform and picked up one of the strange, red-white orbs.

Rhys quickly went on his guard.

The very fact that Rhys, of all of them, was on his guard put Owen on edge.

"Don't worry, this one doesn't work," Brandon said, casually tossing the sphere up and down. "This factory hasn't been used in ages. The stuff on this assembly line is basically useless." He dropped the orb to the ground, where it split into multiple fragments.

Owen slowly relaxed, but couldn't help but focus on his peculiar wording. The ones on the assembly line didn't work? Then which ones did?

"So," the Machoke went on. "I take it you're here to have me join in your little games? Star's little underlings against Arceus' Trinity against Eon's subjects."

"Uh—hang on, what? To all of those things," Owen said, holding a claw to his chest. "I'm not Star's underling, and what's this about a Trinity? And Eon, uh..."

Brandon eyed Owen curiously. "You mean you aren't aligned with Star or Barky?" he said. "Or Eon?"

"Aligned? What?" Owen squinted at Brandon, but then remembered the Promise that Barky had asked of him, and the one that Star nearly had asked, too. He shook his head. "I'm just... I'm just trying to make things right," he said. "I want to stop the Hunters from killing the Guardians so we can just relax. It's too hard to live alone like they've been... I don't want that. For anyone."