Colress looked over his vials in frustration. "This is all wrong! How could these results—" He turned to his intern, a mere Plasma Grunt. "Are you sure you used the correct specifications? You didn't mix up the serums again, did you?"

The Plasma grunt examined his gloves while his boss fretted over the tubes. "No way, boss. I used exactly what you gave me."

Colress hated when his underling called him boss. That wasn't to say he didn't appreciate the power, but the casual way the intern said it...

Colress shook his head. The troubled youth couldn't be expected to appreciate the power behind a word, never mind the power behind his scientific methods. It had been a mere six weeks since Colress had discovered that the dream power of Munna and Musharna could be harnessed and used; a mere four weeks since he'd synthesized a serum to induce a similar sleep trance in humans.

Yet he couldn't make the figures and numbers make sense. No matter how many trials, how many Grunts, how many potions and concoctions he made, the end result was always wrong. It was off. He knew that science sometimes gave tricky answers, but he also knew science had its logic it liked to stick to. He could feel it; there was something—some hidden component—that he had yet to harness and master.

"Grunt! Mix a fresh batch, and use 5.5 milliliters instead of 4!"

Fennel smiled and petted the Munna reassuringly. "Do you think our machine is ready for testing?"

"Muuun! Muunnnnnunnnn!"

"What about our compound? Do you think it's fresh enough?"

"Mun? Muuuunnnnaa!"

The female scientist couldn't help grinning at the Pokémon's enthusiasm. Professor Fennel double checked her figures and called her assistant over. "Amanita, could you please call Dr. Luke down on floor two to come on up? I think we're ready."

Her assistant nodded once and hurried to the elevator. As Fennel waited for their return, she sat down on the thickly padded experiment chair. It reminded her of the dentist—an experience that she didn't actually mind.

She was going to be running protocol on seeing if humans could dream with Pokémon dreams. After learning about the Entralink system, Fennel had decided to dedicate her life towards researching what she could about understanding it. So far, it appeared that Pokémon dreams differed from Human dreams, and that Pokémon dreams even had the power to manifest themselves in the physical realm. Fennel picked up the helmet that test subjects would wear and put it on her own head, pretending she was a participant. Although most of her colleagues would agree she was a quiet and studious individual, it was during moments of solitude such as these that she liked to loosen up a little.

She frowned. The helmet seemed a bit tight—that was something they'd appeared to have overlooked.

"Hello, Professor Fennel!" called Luke. "Your sister just told me you think the machine might be ready—Oh, are you the first subject?"

Luke chuckled, as Fennel began to laugh nervously. She felt her face turn red, but did her best to downplay the situation.

"It just got stuck is all. Could you please, um, give me a hand?"

Luke laughed again, clearly finding Fennel's unusual behavior amusing. He crossed over to the chair and began tugging on the helmet, entangling himself in the pipes that connected to the headgear. Fennel's faith in Luke dropped.

"Oh, this is tight! How did you get it on so easily?"

Fennel winced as the helmet pulled at her hair, and she nearly cried out in pain. Tears were welling in her eyes. "I suppose it's easier to force things on than take them off!"

Luke began pulling more, but because of the strange angle, slipped on the floor and fell backwards, knocking into a lever.

"Oh no! The ma...chine..." Fennel's eyes began fluttering, and she collapsed back onto the chair.

"Fennel? Fennel!" Luke shook her, but Amanita quickly stopped him. Munna floated, concerned, over Professor Fennel, bumping her arm gently in a poor attempt to wake her trainer.

"We don't know if waking her up would disrupt her brain patterns! It would be best to leave her be and let her wake naturally!" Amanita pulled Luke's hands from Fennel and ushered the scientist and the Pokémon to a couch to wait.

Fennel could vaguely sense the two talking about her, but soon, her sense were awash in black.

The Grunt handed a syringe to Colress.

"Hey man, are you sure you want to do this? You haven't even tested this new ratio—"

"I'm sure it will work!" Colress declared with an admittedly crazed grin on his face. Colress couldn't stand how long it was taking him to make this serum and balance the chemicals. He should have finished this by now! It had only taken him two weeks to make that batch that induced sleep. Why was it taking so long to make the dreams the way they were supposed to be? What was the missing link!? Colress rushed over to one of the cots in his laboratory, the Grunt following closely at his heels.

"Look boss, maybe you should—"

"Don't tell me what to do, you underling," Colress snapped. He plopped down onto the cot and plunged the plunger down. "This has to be the one! It must—"

Colress suddenly jolted awake. Or asleep?

"How very interesting. My optical nerves are telling my brain that I am in a forest…" There were quite a number of thin-trunk trees, and bushes distributed throughout. Much of the area around him was well-lit, with generous access to the sky, but where there were trees, sunlight filtered in through the thin canopy. He looked about, quickly noticing a path that branched and wound about. The path seemed well worn. When Colress stooped to examine it, he noticed none of the tracks were human.

"Interesting, interesting. What a shame I don't have anything to write these observations down on." He walked on and noticed a shaking bush and, off to the side, a sparkling patch of air.

A Hoppip popped out of the bush playfully, but once it saw him, it gave a tiny shriek of fright and floated off. Colress was tempted to chase after it for a moment, but reminded himself of how unseemly that might have been.

"Then again, no one is watching," he mumbled.

However, the sparkling air held his attention now, more than anything. He carefully waved his hand through the patch, and it disappeared, a Chesto berry falling from the sparkles.

"Is this really what Pokemon dream about?" He picked up the berry, examined it, and put it into his pocket.

"How inane."

Colress continued to stroll along, when he thought he heard human speech. "A Jynx, perhaps?" Colress muttered to himself. "But Jynx are Ice type..." He approached the sound of the voice, which seemed to be located behind some bushes off to the left.

"It's okay, it'll be okay," he heard.

Peering through the bush, he saw a woman, gently petting a disturbed Hoppip.

"Hippip!"

"Who are you?" Colress asked, half demanding, half unbelieving.

At the sight of Colress, the Hoppip yelped and began to float off again.

Professer Fennel was equally stunned to see another person here. "Me? My name is Professor Fennel. Who are you?"

Colress swept his hand through his eccentric hair. "My name is Colress. Now, what are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question," Fennel said. "Have I heard your name before?"

Colress smirked. "Probably. I was featured in Scientific Unovian for my work on synthesizing chemicals."

Fennel frowned. "Ah..." was all she offered towards his statement.

Colress shifted his weight a bit uncertainly. Was that disapproval in her tone? Was this someone who was not taken in by his intellectual genius?! That was unusual. Clearly anyone with the know how to get wherever they were should be smart enough to appreciate him. Clearly she was not as smart as he initially inferred.

"I read that article," Fennel began slowly. "Is it really true you tested on Slowpoke?"

Perhaps it was time to re-evaluate his opinion on her.

"Why yes! They are ever so helpful with finding the right ratios between the compounds!" Fennel's frown deepened. "And you're okay with that?"

Colress's face dropped a bit. He couldn't understand why this woman seemed unable to understand. Perhaps...yes, she was right. It would be more practical to use a faster breeding Pokémon... "Yes, I suppose it might have been smarter to go with Joltik, but as an Electric type, they might not test as well. Maybe Snubbull would work better."

Fennel looked at him incredulously. "Some of those Pokémon die, Colress! How can you sleep at night?!"

Death? That was what was concerning her?

"Well, I do prefer using my lavender eye mask, but—" A look at Fennel's face somehow made Colress stop in his tracks. Fennel took a hard look at Colress, before merely shaking her head.

"You have to look closer at what you're doing to Pokemon. Who do you serve?"

"Serve? I don't serve anyone! I live to do science! To learn at all costs!"

"You can't ignore the costs, that's not practical!" Fennel exclaimed.

"Funding isn't an issue," Colress shot back, thinking of Ghetsis. He was beginning to get frustrated with this Fennel lady, and was coincidentally also beginning to reform his opinion of her yet again.

"No, the cost of the others around you! Funding might not be an issue, but taking lives needlessly is so wrong! I can't believe you're still in practice! Where do you even conduct your experiments?"

Colress shook his head. "That's a secret."

"Look, I went into Dream World research because I wanted to know more. I get that. But I do it in a safe manner." She began walking along the path, and Colress followed her. "We don't know what we're getting into. That's why we're here. To start knowing. But because this is all unknown, we don't know if something can really hurt or really harm. If you know something can really harm, you should really think twice about doing whatever it is."

Colress continued to follow her, although admittedly in a huff.

Fennel obviously didn't know what she was talking about. She was crazy, and she wasn't passionate enough to be a real scientist like he was.

"—so I've been very careful not to take any of these things. I don't know how they might manifest in the Entralink, if at all." She sighed, and settled into silence, pondering the safety of the world with Colress in it.

Colress suddenly realized Fennel had been talking while he'd been brooding, and he thought back guiltily to the Chesto berry he'd picked up. He casually put his hands into his pockets.

"Where are we headed, by the way?"

Fennel pointed along the path. "We've noticed that in Pokémon dreams, no matter what path they take, they always end up at the wishing tree."

"Wishing tree?" This Fennel lady seemed to know a lot about this...Dream World place. She even mentioned something he'd never heard before. What was it? The Enter link?"

"—a berry and they get a new friend!"

With a slightly heavy heart, Colress realized he'd nearly completely toned out what Fennel had to say. Colress didn't quite like listening to others—they were usually too stupid to get either what he wanted to talk about, or what they thought they were talking about. Yet Fennel, if anything, knew more than he did. After some walking along in silence, Fennel soon gestured for him to stop.

"Do you see that large tree around the bend? That's the wishing tree. I've heard once you reach there, you get to wake up." Fennel gently felt at her hair. "Of course, Luke isn't perfect..." She wished Luke would have been more careful, but she supposed that had nothing to do with his research quality.

As she was reliving her pain, Colress quickly popped the berry into Fennel's lab pocket.

He'd noticed the entire time they'd been walking, there was not a single berry to be seen. If someone was going to get in trouble, it wasn't going to be him. Yet once he slipped the berry to her, he felt a pang of…guilt? It was a feeling he hadn't really experienced very often.

"—so stay here and I'll check it out. If I disappear, at least you'll know it's safe."

"What?"

Colress watched Fennel as she walked towards the tree. Then as she walked back, looking slightly less optimistic.

"I thought it would have worked," Fennel frowned as she approached. "I've been in here for a very long time."

She snapped her fingers. "The compound! We were going to use ten subjects, but we were just waiting on more chairs!" Her eyes widened in shock. "That's enough for ten people—"

She sank to her knees, face gone white. "What if I never wake up?" she whispered. "I'll die in a coma," she continued on, and Colress felt very uncomfortable about this. How was he going to confess about the berry if she was this upset?

"Maybe I'll be stuck in here too," he said, hoping to cheer her up. Fennel stared at him. She couldn't believe he honestly thought that might help.

He got up and started jogging to the tree.

"See? I'm not disappearing ei...ther..." Even as he was moving, he could feel himself begin to shimmer and fade. "Fen—nel?" Colress panicked.

"Colress!" Fennel cried out. She didn't want him to leave. It was true she didn't really like him as far as first impressions went, but he did have his own quirky way of looking at things. But even more so, she was also slightly worried about being stuck with no company for the rest of her life.

"Fennel I'm sorry!" Colress managed to get out.

Fennel smiled to herself. "It's okay! Just try not to test on Pokémon anymore!" she called back. Colress had hope in him, that was for sure. Fennel could see it.

"What Pokémon testing?"

What?

"I'm sorry about the berry—" And with that, Colress dissipated into the cold sky.

"Berry? He wasn't talking about animal testing?"

Fennel knew Colress was just a piece of scum.

She got up off the dirt, annoyed, depressed, and especially lonely. She plunged her hands into her pockets, meaning to try walking the path again, when her hand brushed against something dry.

"What's this?" Fennel held up the object. It was a blue, cone-like berry.

"This must have been the berry Colress was talking about?"

How bizarre. And the Colress in the article seemed insane enough. But, in a way, she was grateful for the gift. She hadn't noticed any sort of food around the area, so maybe this was all she had to go on. Or perhaps her dream self didn't need sustenance. She was rather hungry though, having skipped breakfast that morning, and so she nibbled off a corner of berry—

"She drools a lot in her sleep," Fennel heard someone say.

The female scientist awoke with a start, and quickly went to swipe her mouth with her sleeve.

"Fennel!" Amanita rushed up to her sister and gave her a hug, despite the aforementioned drool. "We tried cutting off the compound supply, but even so, there was enough still in the tubes for a whole day! How did you wake up so early?"

Fennel blinked several times, before breaking into a gentle smile. "Let me tell you a dream..."

"Sir, are you sure?"

Colress nodded. "I'm not interested in dream research anymore. That field is played out. Dispose of all this equipment, and bring me some disk drives."

The Grunt nodded with a jerk and went to collect the racks and tubes. Maybe this was what they meant when they said Colress was a "quick" person. That he quickly lost interested in the field. The Grunt swept the tubes into a box with a careless swipe of the arm. After all, outside of working with Colress, he hadn't heard of dream research at all. Maybe that showed how old it was. No one talked about it anymore.

The Grunt placed the box outside, then went to an adjacent storeroom, walking a bit slowly to enjoy the sound of the sea.

How embarrassing. Thinking something old was something new.

The Grunt picked up a few discs. To be honest, he wasn't quite sure of these were empty or not.

There were quite a few different colors; purple, orange, red, blue...

"Are upgrades purple? Or orange? Or are those dubious discs?" The Grunt shrugged and picked up one of each color he knew weren't either.

"Blues are safe, right?" he mumbled to himself, and headed back inside.

"Ah, perfect! Those are exactly the types I was thinking of!" Colress grinned at the Grunt, taking the discs from his hands. He opened up the red disc first.

"Might as well go alphabetically," he said cheerfully, writing "FIRE" onto the casing.

The Grunt cleared his throat. "Anything else, sir?"

"Ah yes," Colress said.

Pay day, thought the Grunt cheerfully. If the pay wasn't as good as promised, he was definitely going to request assignment back onto the Secret Frigate.

"Could you please contact Ghetsis about the synthesis status of our bug fossil weapon?" Colress smiled as he began typing into his computer. This was a fossil—a rock, so it technically wasn't Pokémon experimentation, was it?

The Grunt sighed. He liked it better on the Frigate anyway.