Admittedly, I've been in a little rut lately, and I wrote something crazy. I promised a story like this back in April Fool's Day... was it a joke? Not anymore.
The scientist woman Fennel was sitting in her apartment room in Castelia City, organizing the research notes she had compiled on her PC; as she was not expecting any guests, she was quite surprised when she heard a series of knocking sounds on the front door.
A simple look through the small peephole revealed that it was Nate; that promising young trainer from Aspertia Town that Professor Juniper had talked about on some occasions in the past.
"Well, hello there, Nate," said Fennel after opening the door to let the boy in. "What brings you here?"
"Hey," Nate answered without wasting any time. "The professor told me that you knew about the Pokémon Dream World."
Fennel paused with uncertainty. "…Say again?"
"The Pokémon Dream World," Nate re-iterated. "I wanted to see it."
"Uh…" The woman stalled. "Well, you see, it's a world… where, um… there's Pokémon. And they dream there. Amazing, right?"
Nate wasn't amused by Fennel's redundant description. "But where is it?"
Fennel wasn't prepared for further inquiry, and began to panic. "It's a dream world!" she retorted, raising her arms for a dramatic flourish. "It's in your dreams! So hop in bed already!"
"But I'm not tired," replied Nate. "And if Hugh heard you say that-"
Fennel sighed; she didn't want to reveal the truth about the ultimate fate of the Pokémon Dream World, but her guest was proving quite incessant, not relenting until he got the answers he sought.
"Okay, I'll level with you…"
Suddenly, Fennel procured a vial from her lab coat and tossed it upon the ground; it shattered upon impact with explosive force, releasing a thick cloud of pink gas that obscured the boy's vision. While Nate was distracted with the smokescreen, Fennel seized the opportunity to make a hasty escape, jumping out of the window to land safely in a dumpster brimming with bags of trash.
While mostly unharmed from the fall, a Trubbish roosting within the dumpster did not take kindly to the sudden intrusion, and began to chase Fennel down the streets of Castelia City, slinging globs of garbage in mid-pursuit which the woman barely managed to avoid.
Meanwhile, back in the apartment room, the air was becoming thick with the pink smoke that Fennel had released, and Nate unwittingly inhaled the mysterious gas. He was initially worried as it entered his nostrils, but relaxed as he felt no ill effects. In fact, a warm sensation began to overtake his being, as if he was immersed in a hot spring without any of the wetness involved.
He stood as still as he was able amidst the pleasant haze, passively allowing himself to intake the foreign substance, until the door opened again, letting the pink gas escape through the opening.
"Hey, sis, I have a question about Foongus… Wait, where's my sister?"
It was Amanita who had answered the door; she was Fennel's younger sister and the manager of the Unova region's Pokémon Storage System. Looking around, she witnessed the unexpected sight of Nate basking blissfully within the pink gas, and when she realized what it was, she quickly backed off, waiting for the remnants to disperse before entering the room.
"And who are you?" asked the girl.
Nate's mental alertness was somewhat sedated by the effects of intaking the pink gas, causing him to delay for a few seconds before answering. "…I'm Nate, heh." He couldn't help but giggle after saying that.
"Oh geez," Amanita cried out, shaking her head. "Don't tell me Fennel used another jar of Dream Mist to do that smokescreen again…"
"Yeah, where is- where is she?" said Nate, lazily craning his head around. "I was going to ask her about the… thing. But she's, y'know, gone and, and what's up with that?"
By the time Nate had finished talking, Amanita had taken a small bag from the closet, and emptied it out, dumping its contents on the floor. "Forget that, we gotta get you back to normal! Here, take these." She handed Nate a few meatball-sized pellets, which he placed in his mouth.
"Mmm," Nate gurgled as he started chewing, "thish shtuff ish mmph urrrgl mssh mm…"
Nate's mouth was practically glued shut by the sticky sweets that Amanita had given him, but he didn't seem to notice as he wiggled his jaws futilely, humming something unintelligible.
"Well, that should shut him up until the effects wear off." The girl stopped paying attention to Nate, starting up her laptop.
But Amanita's solution was but a minor patch to a major flaw; as she was concentrating only on what she saw on her laptop screen, she failed to notice the boy that was poking around in the cupboards, searching for more Dream Mist.
Given Fennel's fascination with the stuff, there was an overabundance of it that took so little effort to find that even Nate, in his substance-induced stupor, managed to do so.
Amanita didn't even see the boy make off with as many capsules as he could carry.
%%%
In Aspertia City, Hugh was busy writing poems about Purrloin for his sister's birthday when he heard a knocking at the door from downstairs - an unrelenting and aggressive pounding, to be precise.
When the blue-haired boy opened the door, he was barely surprised at all to see that it was Nate who had shown up. What he did find somewhat unusual was that Nate looked different; his signature grin of impishness seemed a little more sagging and lazy than Hugh remembered.
Nate wedged his upper body through the door space before Hugh could slam the door shut, giggling childishly. "Heeeeey, Hugh," he drawled, "do you wanna build a snow-"
"No." Hugh's response was flat and blunt, before he squeezed Nate out of the doorway with a swift Qwilfish-haired headbutt to the chest.
The brown-haired boy remained unfazed, even as Hugh had hit him, and called out from behind the closed door, "Did I say that? I meant 'road trip.' Don't you wanna go on a road trip?"
Hugh didn't bother to respond.
Or rather, he didn't bother to respond until a few seconds later, when the door swung open to reveal that he had changed into a tank top and swim trunks, and flip-flops with lights that blinked whenever he walked.
"Let's roll." Hugh stamped his feet, activating the lights. "Uh, where's our ride?"
Nate drank from a jar of Dream Mist like it was a can of soda, downing the whole thing in one go before tossing the empty canister away. "Duh, it's right there, you blind or something?" He pointed to the right, towards a big cardboard box with wheels glued to each side.
Hugh scowled with skepticism at the makeshift vehicle, circling it to study the so-called "ride" in its entirety. He then glared at a proudly-smiling Nate and told him, "Wait, you can't drive that!"
"Wobbufett?" Nate responded, laughing madly when he realized his mistake. "I mean, Wynaut?"
"You don't even have a driver's license!"
Nate playfully slapped Hugh on the shoulder. "You don't need a driver's license to drive a rental vehicle, silly!"
%%%
Riding their cardboard box, Nate and Hugh traveled across the Unova region, making a big ruckus everywhere they went as Hugh blasted his favorite pop music from their boombox, disturbing the passersby of the cities and routes.
"Hey, you youngins turn that racket down!" barked an old man walking a Herdier.
Nate promptly responded by blowing Dream Mist in their faces. "Five-seventeen haze it. ASPERTIA CITY FO' LIFE!" Hugh and Nate then ran off like the wind, dragging the box along with them.
Along the way to Nimbasa City, the two boys encountered Cheren, who was sitting on a bench reading a book, oblivious to the obnoxiously peppy tunes blasting from Hugh's boombox.
As the "driver" of the cardboard car, Nate pulled up next to Cheren, tossing a balled-up tissue towards the Gym Leader that landed on the pages of his open book, finally distracting him from his gripping story.
"Get in, bitch," Nate said as Cheren looked up to meet his gaze.
Cheren sighed. "What are you even doing, Nate?"
"It's all in this paper," explained the boy, handing Cheren a piece of paper, which he studied carefully. As it turned out, Nate had scribbled "DREAM MIST" over and over in different sizes and directions.
"Yeah, sure, uh-huh… are you trying to get arrested?"
Nate began to sweat; he hadn't been aware of the consequences of his actions until now. "…Nah."
Suddenly, Cheren squeezed in between of Nate and Hugh. "In that case, let's roll!"
%%%
As Nate made his way through Unova, they picked up even more of their friends to join the wild ride, including Burgh, Curtis, Clay, Drayden, Grimsley, Marshal, Marlon, Alder and even N. They were all having a good time on the road, eating snacks, drinking flat soda, and making their Pokémon dress up like they were performing for musicals. However, nobody else seemed to be intaking any of the Dream Mist besides Nate, the leader of the gang. Such a detail was easily overlooked by them however, as they were too busy having fun.
"Say, boys," said Burgh as the entire group was cruising down Opelucid City, "do any of you find that our posse appears a bit… skewed in terms of gender ratio?"
He was then promptly tossed out of the cardboard car.
"Awww yeeeeah," Nate screamed out, inhaling from a tea towel steeped in Dream Mist. "I've never felt so alive before! I got money, and bitches, and all that good stuff! Ain't that right, bitches?!" He turned his attention to the others, who all replied with a lukewarm, "Yeah, cool."
The fun did not last long though, as the boombox had finally expended the last of its battery, and Hugh's music suddenly died down, ruining the lively mood and making all of Nate's other friends leave out of boredom, leaving just himself and Hugh.
"Well, this was fun," admitted the blue-haired boy, as he tossed his boombox into the nearest trash can. "We should probably go home now… Mom's making mac and cheese… with extra mac and extra cheese!"
Nate stared intensely at Hugh, his pupils glazed and dilated from prolonged exposure to Dream Mist. "She's not my real mother…"
"I finally found you!" A voice boomed from behind, and Nate turned around; it was Fennel, her lab coat was slightly tattered from having been forced out of her apartment for all of one day.
The scientist woman cackled. "Amanita told me you got into my Dream Mist collection, and here you are, running buck-wild and making trouble for the authorities!" Fennel pointed to a nearby police officer, who gave a friendly wave to the woman and the boys.
Nate retorted, "You want some Dream Mist? It's gonna cost ya."
"You fool!" Fennel slapped Nate on the arm. "I control the entire Dream Mist industry!" She spread her lab coat open, revealing a Munna on each side of the inside. At Fennel's command, they produced a small cloud of the pink substance that Nate was hooked on.
Nate stared in awe; all this time he had received his Dream Mist in jars, and Fennel could receive hers straight from the source at her leisure. "You gotta hook me up with that Dream Mist! I'll do anything!"
"Anything?" Fennel chuckled, and Nate nodded. "Fine… I want you not to ask me about the Pokémon Dream World… ever. Is that understood?" Nate nodded again.
"Excellent." Fennel smiled, as a pink haze enveloped the area.
Hugh pulled out a camera from the pocket of his trunks.
"They're not gonna remember any of this," he said to himself, "so they'll need someone to remind them, right?"