Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Hands of Creation

Chapter 42 - Royalty

"Why?" Ax asked.

Ani glared, vines already tense for battle.

Rhys spoke slowly, knowing that anything sudden could provoke them. "Hm... we believe that she is a Guardian, perhaps of the Bug Orb? We are forming an alliance of Guardians to protect ourselves against the Hunters. If that's agreeable to her, then we would like her to relocate to our... base, of a sort."

"Hmm..." They both hummed. They stared suspiciously at Rhys; the look they gave him seemed to put the Lucario off his rhythm. Perhaps he wasn't used to being given such skeptical looks from Demitri and Mispy. That made sense, Mispy thought—they were usually looking up to him, not down at him.

But having exact copies like that presented a new opportunity.

Mispy shifted her weight. "Um..."

"What is it?" Ani, Mispy's double, asked.

"...Can we fight?" Mispy asked.

"Heheh..." Manny shook his head. "Never change."

There was a glimmer of temptation in Ani's eyes, but she scoffed. "I don't do things so childish for no reason. You won't get a fight from me unless Queen Trina makes a request for it."

"Well, all the more reason to meet her, right?" Demitri said. "Can we?"

"Well," Ax said, fiddling with his claws in the same way Demitri did. "...Fine. We will inform her that you are here. But it will be up to her if she can meet you at all, you know."

"Sounds fine ter me," Manny shrugged. "Lead the way."

The both glared at Manny.

"Wh-what my colleague means," Rhys said, "is that we would be honored to meet your queen, and humbly request that you lead us to her domain."

"That's better," Ani growled.

Ax hopped on top of Ani's back. The Meganium slowly spun around on her vines and crept forward into the forest depths. Demitri and Mispy watched them uneasily. Even his habit of riding atop Mispy was something they did. But—no, that was just a natural reaction. Mispy's body was great for traveling and carrying great weight on foot, or vine. If anything, Manny and Rhys should've been on top of her, too. If it wasn't for the Waypoints that Nevren had organized the scouts to set up for them to these locations, he would've been riding on Mispy's back anyway.

On the way to the Bug Guardian's domain, Manny mumbled to Rhys, "Well, ain't they proper... Ain't nothing like my spirits."

Rhys nodded and spoke leisurely, just loud enough for Demitri and Mispy to hear. "Mutant Pokémon are just like we are, when you take away their modified instincts. As such, they can be raised and influenced to behave in ways you wouldn't expect. It seems that this Bug Guardian is following a feral Vespiquen's approach to raising an army... How interesting. I'm curious what species she is."

The more they walked, the more the forest became blanketed in webs and silk. He could hardly see the trees through it all at this point. In fact, for a moment, that they weren't in a forest at all anymore. Even the sky was blotted out by the web; they were in some sort of bug nest. A cave out in open air.

"Hey, eh..." Manny eyed the cocoons. "You ain't... turnin' us inter lunch, are yeh?"

"Lucario don't provide very much meat," Ani said. "Eating your kind wouldn't be worth the trouble."

"Th-that's right, good thinking. 'Cause we'd give you way more trouble than it's worth."

"That's one way to put it," said Ax. "But should you give us trouble anyway, perhaps we will reconsider. I've never had Lucario before."