Dreaming of You
by CrystalMask
Chapter 2
"Come oooon, Ash! We're gonna miss the boat!" Misty tapped her foot impatiently against the floor. She hadn't come all the way to Vermilion city just to see pokemon battles, now had she? "Ash!"
Ash groaned. "Fine..." he muttered, walking away from the exciting battle he had been watching.
Ash and Misty had gotten to Vermilion port early since Misty didn't want to take the risk of somehow missing their ride to Tura island.
"So what exactly are we looking for?" asked Ash, following Misty through the crowded port.
"Our boat. How else did you expect us to get to Tura island? Swimming?"
"On our pokemon? Preferably Gyarados."
"You don't have a Gyarados."
"I meant yours, dummy."
"Look who's talki- Oh, there it is!" Misty pointed at a huge blue ship, the words "Dream Sea" written on the side of it in bright red.
"Awesome!" exclaimed Ash, "I've never been on a cruise liner before! Oh wait, I have been in one before. I hope this one doesn't sink."
Misty didn't hear what Ash had said because she was already running towards the ship. She quickly went up the stairs that led to the ship's entrance. After she gave her both her and Ash's tickets to the Ticket Woman, she ran inside. She took a map of the ship and examined it.
"Look!" she said to Ash, "This baby has seven floors! Isn't that awesome?"
"It even has a battle room! Let's go check it out!"
"But we're supposed to meet Brock any minute now."
"Brock can wait!"
Misty sighed. "Okay, you go check it out and I'll meet you later, kay?"
"Yes! Thanks, Misty!" Ash said while running away.
"Be at the dining room at eight!" she called out, hoping Ash had heard her.
"Here it is, Pikachu!"
Ash opened the door and walked inside. Everyone inside the room was either watching a battle or participating in one. He walked towards a rather large crowd of people who were watching an ongoing battle between a houndoom and a squirtle. The owner of the squirtle was a boy who looked 17 years old. He had short brown hair and the cockiest expression you had ever seen.
"Squirtle, use quick attack!" he yelled.
The squirtle began running towards the houndoom. The squirtle dashed forwards, hoping to hit the houndoom who simply jumped out of the way.
The houndoom, looking thoroughly amused, smirked at the squirtle.
"Howldog!" the girl ordered, "Use Crunch!"
Everyone watched as the poor turtle pokemon was squinting in pain, both legs inside the mouth of the dog pokemon.
"Tackle, Howldog!"
The houndoom threw the squirtle to the ground and then smashed his body against the turtle. The squirtle's trainer growled as he called back his pokemon.
"Damn it! You really are strong..."
The girl smiled sheepishly. "Thanks!"
Ash tried to walk over to the girl so as to ask her for a match but someone grabbed his arm. He turned around to see who it was and was surprised to see the squirtle's trainer.
"Uhm...Can I help you?" he asked, smiling politely.
"Is your name Ash Ketchum?"
"Yeah...Why?" he asked, watching the boy suspiciously.
"You know my best friend!" he answered, grinning.
"I do?"
"Yeah! Misty Waterflower! You traveled with her once."
Ash stared at the boy before reacting. "Misty is your best friend?" he asked surprised. He didn't know Misty had another best friend...
"Yeah! I met her when she became the cerulean gym leader. Ever since we've been friends."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, we're virtually inseparable. She's my best friend in the whole wide world and vice versa."
Ash forced a smile. For some reason, he didn't like this guy one bit.
"My name is Brian. And what's your deal with Misty? You're still friends? Are you still in contact?"
"Yes, we still are best friends." Ash answered, making sure to stress 'best'.
Brian grinned. "That's awesome! It's good that she has other friends, even though I should be enough." Brian laughed, not noticing the slightly angry expression on Ash's face.
"So what are you doing here?" asked Ash, trying to change the topic.
"I was invited to the contest by the owner of Tura Island. I am the son of his best friend after all."
"I see..."
"As a matter of fact, Misty is going to be here. I had invited her to come with me but she told me she was coming with someone else."
"Yeah, she's here with me."
Brian looked surprised. "She is? I suppose you invited her?"
"No, she's the one who invited me."
"She invited you? That's odd. I'd have thought she would have invited me. Why want to spend two weeks with someone who isn't your best friend in the whole wide world?" asked Brian, with a sincerely confused voice.
Ash clenched his fists. How he wished he could punch this kid.
"I get it!" Brian suddenly exclaimed, "She probably asked you to go because she wanted to be fully concentrated."
"Huh?"
"With me there, she'd have so much fun she wouldn't be able to concentrate on the contest."
That was the last straw. Brian was going to get it good even if it's the last thing Ash ever did. Before Ash could even finish his thoughts, Brian ran away.
"See ya later, Ash! I'm gonna go find Misty!"
"Not if I find her first!"
Ash spent the following ten minutes searching for the red headed girl. The second he found her, he would ask her about Brian and why hadn't he ever heard of him before.
"Ash!"
Ash smiled victoriously as he saw Misty run towards him.
"Ash, I've been looking all over for you!" she said, catching her breath.
"Same here."
"You were looking for me? Why? Did you miss me?" she teased.
"I ran into someone. A friend of yours."
"Oh?"
"A guy called Brian. He said he was your best friend in the whole wide world."
Misty laughed nervously. "He said that, huh?"
"Yes. He also said that you we-"
"Misty!"
Both trainers looked around and saw Brian running towards them. Ash groaned inwardly while Misty waved hello. When Brian got to the spot they were, he immediately tackled Misty into a hug.
"Hey there, Mist! How's my favorite person in the world!"
Misty laughed and hugged Brian back. "I'm doing okay. How are you doing?" she asked, still hugging him.
"I'm doing fine now that I'm with you," he whispered into her ear.
Misty laughed nervously and tried to break free from the hug but Brian wasn't letting her. Ash, meanwhile, was staring at Misty and Brian, his face twisted with pure and utter jealousy.
"What's the matter, Cherry? Since when do you mind me hugging you?"
"Since the boy I like is watching..." she thought.
Ash was looking at Brian with disgust. "What kind of a nickname is Cherry? If someone has the right to nickname her, it's me...and Brock, I guess..." Not being able to watch anymore, he grabbed Misty and pulled her away from Brian.
"Hey! What's wrong with you? Can't you see I was hugging her?" Brian asked, annoyed at having his bonding moment disturbed.
"I'm sorry but Misty needs to come with me so we can look for our friend," Ash answered, trying his hardest to say it in a nice voice.
Misty decided to intervene before Brian could retort anything. "He's right, Brian. I'll see you later, kay? Bye!" Misty Followed Ash as they both walked away.
"Bye, Aquamarine Cherry!"
Ash dragged Misty as far away as he could of Brian. "Aquamarine cherry? Disgusting," he muttered.
"Oh come on, Ash. It's just a nickname."
"He doesn't have the right to nickname you. And much less give you lame nicknames."
"Wait a second. Since when do you decide what Brian can or can't do?" asked Misty, who was starting to get annoyed of Ash's rudeness.
"I don't. But at least he shouldn't give you lame nicknames."
"As if your nicknames were any better!"
Ash stopped and looked at Misty. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Oh please! At least his nicknames aren't insulting, unlike yours!"
"What? When have I called you something insulting?"
"Thousands of times. You've called me Scrawny, crazy, angry crazy girl and tons of other things. And besides, there's no right for you to be so rude towards Brian. He hasn't done anything to you!" Misty yelled. "I'd rather find Brock all by myself!"
"Fine! See if I care!"
Both trainers stomped away from each other. Ash felt his blood boil within his skin. Stupid Brian... He had only met him today and already he hated his guts...
Ash found a nice spot in the corner of a room and sat down. Pikachu decided he didn't want to watch his master sulk so he ran away to join a group of pokemon. Ash closed his eyes and began to mutter curses at Brian for ruining his day.
"Him?"
"I don't know. He seems too young."
Ash looked up and saw an umbreon and a drowzee staring at him. Had they been the ones talking? No, he probably was just so angry he was imagining things. He smiled at the two pokemon.
"Hello..." the drowzee said.
Okay, maybe he wasn't imagining things... "Uhm...H-Hi..."
"My name is Archimedes and she's called Moonlight." He pointed at the umbreon, who smiled at Ash.
"We've come to give you something." Moonlight said.
"Gi-give me something?"
"Yes. Darkrai's dream sphere..." Archimedes grabbed a black ball from behind him and handed it to Ash.
Ash took the ball and looked at the two pokemon. "And why are you giving me this?"
""We were asked to give it to you."Archimedes said, "The pokemon who gave us this said that he had a debt to repay to you and he hopes you will use his present wisely."
"Wh-what?"
Archimedes rolled his eyes. He turned around and began walking away. "You have to explain how it works, Moonlight."
Moonlight looked at Ash. "The object you are holding is Darkrai's dream sphere. The dream sphere gives you the ability to enter the dreams of other people, just like Darkrai."
"Enter the dreams of other people?"
"Yes. Your mind is transported to the mind of another person." Moonlight waited to see if Ash reacted but he only stared at her. "To enter someone's dreams, you must think of that person while holding the dream sphere. If the person is dreaming, you will be transported to his or her dreams."
"This is some kind of a joke, right?"
"No... I have to go now but I'll come back and check on you later…Please be careful."
Before Ash could say anything, the umbreon ran away. Ash looked at the small black sphere in his hand. Going inside someone's dreams? It had to be a joke. No pokemon could make such a powerful object, it just wasn't possible. Ash got up and walked to his room, signaling Pikachu to follow him.
Dinner hadn't been as fun as Ash expected it to be. Even though it was nice to see Brock, Misty was still kinda mad at him and to make matters worse, Brian sat down with them to have dinner. But now, he was in the comforts of his cozy room, away from all troubles. He walked over to the window and stared at the sea. The sea served as a wiggly mirror, reflecting the stars and moon onto itself. Tomorrow in the afternoon, the ship would come into port.
Ash looked at his watch. Two in the morning already? Realizing it was way past his bedtime, he put on his pajama and got into his bed. His stare suddenly fell over a certain black sphere. He grabbed the dream sphere from his night table and tossed it around between his hands. Should he try it out? What could happen? It probably was a joke so no harm in trying, right?
"Okay dream sphere, I wanna go into...uhm...Misty's dreams." said Ash, closing his eyes and thinking of Misty. The sphere started glowing brightly and suddenly, Ash lost all consciousness.
"Moonlight..."
"Yes?"
"I'm worried..."
"Don't be. He seems like a nice kid. He'll know what to do."
Archimedes looked at the umbreon with a worried face. "You say that but. Maybe we shouldn't have done what the Great Darkrai asked."
"Archimedes, go to sleep."
"But -"
"Goodnight Archimedes." said Moonlight, snuggling against the sleeping girl besides her.
"Goodnight Moonlight."
"Ooooh my head," Ash moaned, rubbing his head. He opened his eyes and realized with horror that he was no longer in his room. It had now been replaced with a dark forest.
"Where am I?" he thought, panic slowly making its way through his mind. "Is...Is this Misty's dream?" He slowly began walking through the forest, carefully analyzing his surroundings. He could hear no sounds, see no pokemon, everything was quiet and lifeless. He suddenly stopped. He could have sworn he heard someone. He listened for a few minutes until he was sure- someone was laughing.
He ran towards the laughter and arrived to the entrance of a small clearing. He hid behind some bushes and looked for the source of the laughter.
The person laughing was Misty, except she looked much older. She had much longer hair, looked somewhere between twenty-four to twenty-seven years old and was breathtakingly beautiful (Ash noticed with a blush). There was someone else with her, a black haired man. Ash couldn't see his face so he tried to quietly move to the other side of the clearing to see the man's face.
"Ash!"
Ash stopped in his tracks. Had Misty found him? He looked at her and saw that she was looking at the man.
"Ash," she said, still looking at the man, "What did you want to tell me?"
Ash looked at the man. Could this man be himself? He crawled behind the bushes until he reached the bushes that were directly in front of the man. He looked from behind the bushes and gasped. The man talking to Misty was an older version of himself!
"This isn't happening..." thought Ash, "I'm dreaming...I'm dreaming because things like this don't happen in real life..."
"Misty, I... I don't know how to say this," dream Ash said, his words hesitant and nervous.
"What? What is it?" she asked, grabbing his hands and looking straight into his eyes.
Ash could barely hear the conversation. He tried moving a little more towards them but as he moved around the bushes, he didn't see the Ariados that was just about to start crawling on his head. The moment the Ariados landed on his head, Ash screamed and shot up. The Ariados, half scared to death, jumped off Ash's head and crawled away as quickly as it could. Ash looked towards his dream self and Misty, only to find them both staring right back at him.
"Ash?" Misty exclaimed, looking back and forth between the older and the younger Ash.
Dream Ash walked towards Ash and examined him for a few seconds, before turning around to look at Misty. "What are you saying, Mist? This guy isn't me! There's only one me!" Dream Ash then looked at Ash. "So, what's your name?"
"Uhm...My name is...uhm..." Ash stuttered, trying to find a name for himself. "Bob! I mean Michael! No! Wait! I mean, my name is...Zack!"
Misty walked towards "Zack…" Something about him was calling her, something was telling her to come closer to this Ash lookalike. Ash stared back at Misty, terrified that she would somehow find out that he actually was the real Ash.
"How old are you?" she asked.
"I'm sixteen," he said quickly, trying to avoid looking directly into her eyes.
"What are you doing here?"
"I..uhm...got lost and...I'm trying to find my way home."
"Where do you live?" asked Dream Ash.
"In Pal-I mean, Petalburg town."
Misty smiled. "I know where that is! I can take you!" Misty began walking away, signaling Ash to follow her.
Ash looked at Dream Ash and panicked when Dream Ash started vanishing until he was completely gone. "Is that what's gonna happen to me? If Misty stops paying attention to me, will I disappear too?" Not wanting to find out the answer to that question, Ash ran towards Misty.
"So Misty, how old are you?" he asked, trying to get her to focus on him.
"I'm sixteen," she answered.
Ash was about to tell her that she didn't look sixteen but before he could even open his mouth, Misty was surrounded by a blinding white light. When the light disappeared, Misty no longer looked like a twenty-four year old. Ash found himself staring in awe at a sixteen year old Misty.
"Why are you staring at me like that?" she asked with slight irritation. She never liked it when someone stared at her. "And close your mouth."
Ash quickly closed his mouth and blushed. "So-sorry..." I'm not used to watching people transform in front of me...
Misty rolled her eyes and kept walking. Zack was acting really strangely...Kinda like Ash. But it was no surprise he was acting like Ash when he looked exactly like him. Well, I guess I better enjoy the walk.
Ash, on the other hand, was too freaked out to enjoy anything. How could he get out? How could he go back to reality? Was he forever trapped in Misty's dreams? Why hadn't those stupid pokemon told him how to get out of dreams?
Back in the real world, Pikachu was desperately trying to wake up his master. Ash's body was on the ground, his eyes half open and his whole body shaking. The dream sphere was on the floor next to him, shining brightly. Pikachu quickly ran to the door and pushed it open. He ran over to Brock's door and started slamming his body against the door.
"Pikaaaa! Pikaaaa!"
"What's wrong?" asked Brock, opening the door.
"Pika! Pika Pika Pika!" Pikachu waved his arms around desperately. He then threw himself on the floor and started shaking.
"What's the matter?" asked Brock, now alarmed. "Is something wrong with Ash?"
Pikachu got up, nodded and ran towards his room, followed by Brock.
Brock went into Ash's room and found Ash shaking violently in the floor. "Ash!" he yelled, shaking his friend. "Ash! Wake up! Dammit! Wake up, Ash!" Brock got up and looked at Pikachu. "I'm going to go get Misty. You stay here and watch over him!"
Brock ran out of the room and quickly went to Misty's room. Misty was sleeping quietly, a small smile on her lips. Brock quickly started shaking her.
"Misty! Misty, wake up!"
Ash was walking alongside Misty. He was about to ask her something when everything around him started disappearing. Misty, the trees and the pokemon all disappeared until it was only him in an infinite white room. Suddenly, a huge black hole appeared from thin air and started sucking him in. Ash tried to run away but the hole got even bigger.
"Help! Misty! Mistyyyy!" he screamed, as the hole sucked him in.
Misty opened her eyes and yawned. "What's the matter? Why are you waking me up so early?"
"Something's wrong with Ash!"
In a flash, Misty was fully awake and now Brock found himself being shaken by her. "What do you mean something wrong with Ash? What's wrong with him?"
"He's shaking like crazy and he's not responding! He als-"
Before Brock could even finish his sentence, Misty was already outside of the room, running towards Ash's room.
Ash was still shaking, his face twisted into a terrified expression. "Misty!" he screamed, "Misty! Help me, Misty!"
Misty bent down and tried to stop Ash from shaking. "I'm here! I'm here! I'm here, Ash!"
Ash slowly stopped shaking until he was completely still. He then opened his eyes and looked at Misty. "M-Misty? Where am I?"
"You're in your room, Ash. You were having a bad dream." She helped him get up and slowly lead him to his bed.
Ash sat down on his bed and groaned. Maybe it was a dream...
"Ash!" exclaimed Brock, coming inside the room. "Are you okay now?"
"Yeah... I was just having a bad dream, I think."
Misty suddenly bent down and grabbed the dream sphere from the floor. "What is this?" she asked, showing it to Ash.
Panic returned to Ash's face. Oh god, he thought desperately, It wasn't a dream!
"What is it?" Misty asked again.
What could he tell her? He couldn't tell her what it was because she wouldn't believe him. And if she did believe him, she'd kill him for having gone into her dreams. "It's something I bought as a souvenir."
Brock yawned. "I'm going back to sleep now that everyone is okay," he said, walking out of the room.
Misty got up. "I'm going to go get my covers."
"Going to go get your covers?"
"Yeah. I'm not leaving your room tonight, in case you have another bad dream."
"Uh...Thanks, that's really nice."
"That's what friends do! They take care of each other."
Ash watched as Misty left the room. He then crawled back inside his bed. Misty sure was a good friend. She came back a few minutes later, covers in hand.
"Don't you have a couch here?" she asked looking around Ash's room.
"No."
"So where am I going to sleep?"
"On the bed," Ash answered, as if it were obvious.
"On the bed? But, But..." Misty couldn't stop the blush crawling on her face.
"What's wrong?"
"You're a boy and I'm a girl..." Misty stuttered, her face red as a cherry.
"And? I'm not getting what's the problem with me being a boy and you being a girl."
Misty sighed. She had forgotten Ash was denser than a rock. She slowly walked to Ash's bed and lied down besides him.
"Are you hot?" asked Ash
"What?"
"I'm asking if you're hot. You're red all over. Do you want me to open the window?"
Misty's face became even redder. "No, that's okay."
"Are you sure? You just got even red-"
"So what's was your nightmare about?" Misty interrupted, trying to change the conversation topic.
"Uhm...I don't remember it very well...It was weird..."he said, smiling nervously.
"I also had a weird dream tonight."
"You did?"
"Yeah. We were in this forest and you were going to tell me something when suddenly a guy who looked just like you appeared out of nowhere."
"What was his name?"
"Zack."
"Zack? Are you positive it was Zack?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"N-no reason."
Misty yawned. "I'm kinda tired. Maybe we should go to sleep now." She cuddled under the covers.
Pikachu made his way into her arms and closed his eyes. Ash grabbed the dream sphere and looked at it.
"Looks like I'm gonna have more fun than initially expected."
TO BE CONTINUED