Chapter 7:

The days had passed by like a blur, at the Striaton dream lab. I had spent most of my times out in the dream yard coaxing Musharna to make Dream Mist, which was actually a lot more fun than it seems. When Musharna makes Dream Mist, it typically needs to make a dream of sorts to go with it, which meant that I got to see a lot of random illusions that Musharna, whom I named Lila after the second day, made up for me. One time, Lila made an illusion of some Pokemon doing a dance show, some knights beating up a Munna, and even my friends and family acting silly after I showed her a picture of them.

It was also fun because we got to explore the old Dreamyard and the ruins of the old lab. It was really cool and surprisingly peaceful for a place with such a violent history. On the last day, Bianca came to join me and show me her new badge that she got.

"Wow Bianca! That's great," I hadn't seen her all that much these last few days. The lab had provided a room for me and she was busy training Pokemon while I was busy gathering Dream Mist. I hadn't really seen N all that much either, but we had been texting each other while we were apart. He hadn't really told me what the meetings he went to were about, but he did seem really interested in hearing all about the Dreamyard.

"Hey Bianca, do you want to go explore the Dreamyard!"

"Yes! Is it okay though? When I was training, they told me I couldn't go there to train because the Musharna were dangerous. But you want to know the real reason they don't let you go in?"

"Sure, Fennel never really talked about that, so I don't know."

"Well, when I looked it up, apparently Musharna are surprisingly gentle and docile. They just use Dream Mist to scare away any attackers. The real reason they don't want people to go there is because there are people who will scare the Musharna for Dream Mist and then use it to make drugs and sell it on the black market. Isn't that terrible!"

"Yeah, no wonder the place is off limits."

"I know right! But it's also pretty stupid of the trainers if you ask me. Some of the reports said that the trainers died here because the Musharna would start attacking rather than just scaring them away."

We wandered around the old ruins in silence for a few moments before coming around a corner and seeing two figures hunched over a Munna and a Musharna. The pokemon were not particularly distressed. In fact, they seemed rather peaceful and at ease, but that didn't change the fact that the two shouldn't be here.

Bianca and I glanced at each other before walking over to get a better look at what they were doing. We saw a Pikachu standing around and doing a little jig while the two gathered the Dream Mist that was emanating and falling from the Musharna into several little jars.

"Hey!" I yell at them "What in the Distortion World are you doing?"

The two intruders glance up at me and Bianca and quickly put the remaining Dream Mist into their bag. They walk over to us, leaving the Musharna and Munna behind. I see now that one of them is a man and the other a woman in about their mid thirties with short ginger hair. They glare at us and the woman says, "I could ask you two the same thing."

"I'm currently working with the Striaton dream scientists on collecting Dream Mist. It looks like you two are doing the same thing… only that's completely illegal."

The man smirked and said, "go home kiddies. This is adult business that I don't expect you would understand."

"Oh, I get it. I'm just not sure whether you're drug dealers or total stoners. Now get out of here and leave the Dream Mist or I'll call the police," I growl at them.

"You insolent brat! You have no idea who you're dealing with!"

"Oh yeah, enlighten me. Are you a part of Team Rocket? I thought they were more Pokemon stealers than drug dealers."

That shut them up. Instead of arguing further, they started pulling out their pokeballs before Nightstar jumped in front of us and started growling menacingly and I said "I wouldn't do that if I were you." They looked at Nightstar and then up at me and I saw their eyes fall on my pin.

"Whisperer… hmm," the woman says as she returns her pokeballs to her belt. "Well you may have won this fight, but we're not going to give up the Dream Mist." With that she brought out what looked like a small white ball which she threw down to the ground. Immediately, smoke filled the small area we were standing.

By the time the smoke finally cleared, the two were gone. The Musharna and Munna approached the two of us to see if to see if we were okay. Nightstar jumped into my arms and looked over at the direction of the collapsed entrance to the old lab. I didn't see anyone there, but those two thugs still made me nervous.

Bianca, who had been hiding behind me this entire time, shakily asked "are they gone? It looks like they took that bag of Dream Mist with them, but at least they didn't hurt Musharna or Munna." The Munna that had been hovering around us came up and snuggled on Bianca's hat to comfort her.

"We should go back to the lab and tell Fennel what happened. We might need to file a police report as well."

"Okay. Oh, this one is so cute though," Bianca said while hugging the small Munna. "I think I might catch it. What do you say Munna?"

I could tell that the Munna didn't fully understand what she was saying. A common misconception people had was that wild Pokemon could completely understand human speech. However, my dad, who studied Pokemon for a living, told me that he thinks most wild Pokemon can understand us just as much as we can understand them. Munna could tell that Bianca was scared, but she couldn't understand the words she was saying. However, when a Pokemon was captured, the Pokemon could comprehend human speech to a much larger degree. I'm not quite sure why that is and I made a mental note to ask N about it. I addressed the Munna and said, "hey Munna, my friend here, Bianca, wants you to come with her on an adventure. You'll have to leave home and this Dreamyard." Munna floated over to me and stared at me for a moment before understanding lit up in its little eyes and it excitedly bobbed up and down in what I felt was agreement. "Munna wants to go with you as well Bianca."

"Really! Great! Oh, you'll have to stay in this pokeball though if that's okay." Munna glanced back at me and then turned to Bianca and made the same motion as before. Bianca saw this and excitedly jumped up and down, "yay!"

Munna then floated over to the Musharna and appeared to communicate something to the other. Musharna must have replied, but I have no idea what it said. The Musharna than left and Munna returned to Bianca who then placed a pokeball on its pink body followed by a red light that surrounded the Pokemon and then it disappeared. The pokeball didn't even shake before we heard the click confirming it had been caught.

"Wow Ivory, you should come with me to capture my other three Pokemon! That was so much easier than catching Fluffy! I had to battle it and use two pokeballs before I could catch her. Okay, I'm going to check her stats," Bianca said as she pulled out her pokedex. "It's a girl and she has a naïve nature. Her special ability is forewarn and she has level 10 to 11 power."

"I had no idea that the pokedex could do that! Well, anyway we really should get back to the lab. The faster we can report those thugs, the faster the police can catch them."

We return to the lab and tell Fennel all about what happened. "That's terrible and kind of weird. I'll ask you more about it after we tell the police."

The officers that come to the lab get our description of the man and woman. "They're gingers. You can't miss them," I insist.

The officers laugh at this before saying, "well we'll keep our eyes peeled for any red heads we see, but I'm more worried about the fact that they might be in an organization. Team Rocket has only been spotted around these areas after the immediate destruction of the lab. We suspect that they may have stolen some of the research as well as the Nightmare Mist that the Musharnas created. Besides, this doesn't really seem to be their MO. They might be a different crime organization. We'll have to investigate more into this."

"There's one more thing, officer," Fennel spoke up, "Ivory and Bianca told me that the Musharna and Munna appeared to be calm while these people… whoever they are… collected the Dream Mist. That's impossible. Musharna and Munna will remain hidden unless attacked in which case they will either use a psychic attack or Dream Mist to drive away intruders. The point I'm trying to make is that no trainer could have gotten those Pokemon to do what Ivory and Bianca described unless there was a Pokemon Whisperer involved."

The room went very quiet. A Whisperer going rogue was big news. It was extremely difficult to take a Whisperer down seeing as they could win any fight against normal trainers and police officers, they could use the Pokemon they were bonded to against any opposing human who didn't have a Pokemon on them. Not to mention all the destruction a Whisperer could potentially bring. The most mild and common misdemeanor of Whisperers was rigging battles so a certain trainer or even themselves could win a battle. More serious involved using wild Pokemon to attack banks and other people. I'd even heard of a case where a Whisperer had used a psychic type Pokemon to hypnotize and control another human to do their bidding. One of the reasons Whisperers were so heavily monitored were because we're so powerful and potentially dangerous.

"We'll have to inform the League immediately," the officer says quietly, "they'll need to be made aware of this… group. Whoever they may be."

"Let's call them Team Smoke!" Bianca interjects, "I mean they did use a smoke ball on us to escape. It can change if they ever feel like telling us who they actually are."

"You know, I kind of like it," Fennel says with a laugh.

With that, the officers thank us for our time and leave the lab.

"Did you get the Dream Mist?"

"Yes Sage Ryoku. However, we were only able to obtain eleven jars before being detained."

"What! What happened?"

"While collecting Dream Mist, two girls came and saw what we were doing. They thought we were taking the Dream Mist in order to make drugs. They have no idea who we are or our affiliation with Team Plasma, but I'm still worried that they actually contacted the police."

Ryoku said nothing for a moment before letting out a sigh and saying, "this could be very bad. How much did they see? Did they see you or Kyoto?" Ryoku asked a man standing next to the duo.

"No. Kyoto," he said gesturing to his Lucario standing faithfully next to him, "sensed something off and went to investigate and I had decided to go with him and leave the two to finish gathering the Dream Mist. I'm glad that I did though. I recognized one of the girls, well at least her Shinx. She was only a little girl when I saw her in Discordian Wood with N Harmonia, but she's definitely the same one. I don't doubt she would have recognized me if she had seen me."

"That's one of the reasons we didn't eliminate the two when they saw our operations. Not only would she have turned our Pokemon against us, the death or harm of a Whisperer would have brought on too much heat. The only problem is, they saw how we gathered the Dream Mist. If the police know, they've probably made the connection that a Whisperer is involved."

"Which means the League will get involved and start an investigation," Ryoku said worriedly, "it's far too soon for the League to begin having even an inkling of what's happening. We still haven't retrieved the Light Stone, our forces are ill prepared, we need to gather more support, and we don't have access to the eight new gym badges which allow access to the Pokemon League."

Ryoku paused for a second, weighing his options. "Despite this, we still have to press forward with our plans. Alex and Jenna," he said addressing the red heads, "continue on to Nacrene City and report to Sage Gorm. He's in charge of the attack on Nacrene Museum and you two are some of our best operatives and trainers. We'll need your assistance there and perhaps we can use this blunder to our advantage. As for you Peter and Kyoto, report back to Castelia City."

"Yes Sage Ryoku," the three say immediately and even Kyoto salutes to him before turning and going to their respective destinations.

A/N: In this AU Team Plasma does not dress up like knights (except on official occasions) and they certainly don't wear it when they might be caught breaking the law. I always thought it was funny that in the game, Ghetsis tries to convince Accumula Town that Team Plasma is right and by the very next town and every time after that they're found breaking the law. There will still be hints about what the game originally did (like when Ivory saw some knights beating up a Munna from the Dream Mist) throughout the fanfiction.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter!