Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Hands of Creation

Chapter 25 - A New Sighting

For the next few days, the Mystics in Hot Spot cycled between training and resting to the point where they had lost track of time. In the caverns, there was no real way to tell if it was day or night, especially since Amia was usually the one to keep track of that with the glow of the mushrooms. With her preoccupied with training, they were only able to determine how many days passed based on how often Team Alloy—sans Owen, at least—came back from daily missions.

Owen asked time and time again to go on a mission with Demitri, Mispy, and Gahi, but it was always shot down with the fact that he still needed to train. Not only that, but after the strange encounter with Deca the time before, the other Guardians were hesitant to send him out again to be lost in town. After each trip into town, Demitri, Mispy, and Gahi all said they hadn't seen Deca.

One day, Owen trained with Zena; he was glad to finally get a break from Manny's method of training. This, however, was short-lived. For some reason, Zena wasn't able to fight at her best against Owen. The Grass Guardian figured it was because of his type advantage in his Mystic form that unnerved her, though Zena couldn't find the words or explanation on why this was the case herself. She did know, however, that it wasn't because of his type. Zena and Owen asked Star why they weren't able to hurt each other effectively; in reply, she rolled her eyes and floated away.

Therefore, Owen returned to reluctantly train against Manny, and Zena instead challenged Anam when he was available and not managing the Association with Nevren.

Zena was barely able to open her eyes after every strike that Anam delivered. She felt powerless against him. Her watery attacks weren't very useful against a Dragon type—let alone one that was so gooey like Anam.

Zena panted, her lungs burning. "Anam—are all of your kind like this!?"

"Like what?" Anam asked, holding his hand out to block most of her Hydro Pump attack. That simple gesture split the beam of water in two, missing the rest of him completely.

"So... immune to water!"

"No, but I'm a little different because I'm Mystic. I like being like this!"

"Extremely... slimy? You have the consistency of a Muk, Anam."

"Aww, thanks!" Anam giggled. "But I think I'm a little thicker than a Muk," he rubbed his cheeks. His fingers sank into his face, slime merging into slime.

Zena, seeing this as an opportunity, launched yet another Hydro Pump at Anam. The Goodra gasped, his head inflating several times in size when the water infiltrated his open maw. He spewed it back out and fell onto his tail. "Owowow..." he mumbled, rubbing his head. He squeezed the rest of the water out. "Good job! I didn't know you could use Flatter!"

"I—I can't," said Zena. "...Anam... are you taking this seriously?"

"Seriously?" Anam repeated. "Of course! I mean... I need to train you, right?"

"Of course," Zena said, "but I haven't seen you use your Mystic powers much at all. Your Ghostly abilities, that is. I've already exhausted my Water form against you..."

"B-but it's scary," Anam said, grabbing his horns and tugging. "It's not just spooky Ghost powers, it's—it's a lot of things, you know?"

"That's..." Zena shook her head. "Can't you just use a little bit of it, then? It can't be that bad."

Anam bit his lower lip helplessly. "Okay. I'll—"

A muffled voice echoed from Anam's thigh. "Hello?" the voice said. "Anam, are you there? I have a report!"

"Oh! Nevren!" Anam clapped his gooey fingers together, bouncing. "Um—Zena, hold on!" He plunged his hand into his thigh and pulled out one of their silver communicators. "Hi, Nevren! Do you mean there's a report about a possible Mystic sighting?"