I do not own Pokemon!

Chapter 10: Meet Munna... Or Floral Dream?

Thursday, October 31st

The Dreamyard was thankfully only a short walk away, just outside the northeastern side of the city. The four of us walked there together. Bianca and Fennel had a hell of a time, while Alex and I lead the group, staying quiet. Of course his was a much calmer and more reserved silence while mine was an irritated one. Fennel complained a lot. Mostly about her feet hurting or being scared that a Pokemon was going to eat her. I secretly hoped that one would.

Turns out that the Dreamyard is practically a hangout for all things shady, except for the part that it's abandoned. It had been a pretty busy meeting place for a lot of gangs and mostly illegal meetings until a part of the ruins had collapsed and killed two people. Not only did that scare people off, but rumors started up that the place was haunted and cops smartened up and kept people out themselves. Only trainers with the Striaton Badge are allowed in, and even then people prefer to keep out.

The place looked as if it had once been some sort of lab, and once we became closer Fennel cleared that right up.

"This place used to be a research laboratory, fifty or so years ago." Fennel had been about to continue, but Bianca interrupted as usual.

"What happened to it?" Her usual bright and perky demeanor was gone though, replaced by meekness.

"Some sort of overload at the energy core caused an explosion. No one knows for sure what caused it, but of course there's lot's of rumors and theories. Some people say that a lazy worker fell asleep on the job, others that they were experimenting illegally and the government blew it up to keep it all a secret." Fennel stopped next to a destroyed section of concrete wall, running her hand up it and staring longingly. "Some even say that the people here were turned evil by some sort of greed or power, and that the Musharna who lived in the area at the time destroyed it with her awesome power in order to protect her home."

"Musharna huh..." I mumbled, looking over at the ruins. It was being taken over by nature. Vines crawled up the remaining sections of walls. The grass was up to my knees. Some old machinery lie around. Bits of metal pieces were easily visible in the ground. Chain Link fence which was obviously much newer than everything else blocked off what would have been the inside of the lab though.

"How do we get in?" Alex asked, peering around the area.

"That's one of the parts that I needed help with." Fennel informed us. I sighed and began to walk the perimeter of the lab. Bianca and Fennel followed me, while Alex went the other way.

"Over here!" The three of us jogged over to where Alex was pushing away a bush, which had been covering up a hole in the fence.

"Looks like something cut it's way through here," I noted, then got down on my hands and knees. Fennel and Bianca looked as if they wanted to say something, but didn't, and followed after me through the hole.

It was quite entertaining to say the least watching Alex, who was much larger than the rest of us, struggle and force his way through the whole. He muttered about how much help we had been to him once he crawled out and stood up, but we had already begun to walk away.

Taking a few steps inside, I brushed off my legs and ripped shorts, limping slowly. Something about the entire place unsettled me. Things were done here, happened... And they hadn't been so nice.

"Why would a nice psychic type Pokemon want to live in a place like this?" Bianca asked.

"My thoughts exactly..." I agreed, peering suspiciously around a corner.

"And how can Munna show dreams? Don't I see them myself?" Fennel shook her head.

"Only some of them. Most dreams aren't remembered when you wake up. Munna could help me tremendously in studying the reasoning behind that, and furthering my research on dreams."

"Only if she wants to though, right?" Fennel smiled at Bianca.

"Of course. Only if she wants to." We looked around for a few more minutes before Alex spoke up.

"If we're going to find Munna anytime soon, we should probably split up. Fennel you can come with me, Bianca go with White." There were murmurs of agreement around the group, then we all split. Bianca wasn't really much help, she kept her eyes low and fiddled with her hands in front of her.

A rustle of grass and a small body scurrying away caused both of us to jump.

"I guess Pokemon really do live here..."

"Ouuuoon!"

"What was that?!" I exclaimed at the loud cry.

"It came from the other side of that wall!" Bianca suddenly ran off in another direction.

"Hey, wait!" I stumbled after her, still cursing my injured ankle.

"Come on, we have to see what it is!"

"Since when are you the adventurous one..." I mumbled, leaning against a section of wall as I came around it. The only thing I saw was Bianca wildly chasing a blurry creature floating away from here.

"Oh, wait!"

"Bianca-" Just as I had called her name, Bianca did exactly as I had expected and tripped over something sticking up out of the ground, falling flat on her face. "Bianca!" The small Pokemon she had been chasing stopped, trapped against a corner of rubble, and turned to look at Bianca curiously. It was round and pink, and covered in dirt and even a few small scrapes. I helped my friend to stand when suddenly two figures stepped out of the shadows.

"We found you, Munna!" They were easily recognizable in their old fashioned knight outfits. I immediately scowled at the two of them as they surrounded the psychic type Pokemon. Bianca looked scared. "Come on! Come on! Make some Dream Mist!" One of them shoved the defenseless and weak Pokemon.

"Mun!" The Pokemon glanced helplessly at us.

"Stop it!" I was surprised to see that it was Bianca who spoke up first, crying out. "What are you doing?! You're hurting her!"

"Hurting her?" The men turned towards us.

"We're Team Plasma, we battle day and night to liberate Pokemon from foolish humans like yourselves!"

"We're going to use Dream Mist from Munna here to convince people to release their Pokemon. We'll use dreams to manipulate their hearts. It's all for the good of Pokemon!" This time it was me who stepped in, shouting at them.

"You've got to be kidding! You're trying to help Pokemon by abusing this one?!" One of them hit Munna again, and I instinctively reached for a Pokeball at my belt, instantly releasing Lillipup, who was already snarling.

"Oon... ah..." Munna was now on the ground, her pink eyes blinking up at us. I clenched my teeth, daring the one member glaring at me to take out his own Pokemon.

"Come on, spit it out!" The other one however was ignoring us, kicking the poor creature.

"Why are you doing this!? This is horrible, you're trainers too aren't you?!" Bianca was very near to tears at this point. I was just about ready to have Lillipup attack this guy. The man kicking Munna looked up at us and sneered.

"We may be, but we're fighting for a different reason entirely. The freedom of Pokemon! Now, we'll fight you and take your Pokemon by force!" I'd been about to take out Snivy as well, to fight these guys two on two, but Bianca was even faster than I was and released her own Pokemon, Tater Otter. The Team Plasmas sent out a Patrat and a Purrloin, thankfully turning their attention away from Munna.

"Tater Otter, use Focus Energy then Water Gun on Patrat!" I blinked, momentarily surprised by Bianca's gusto, but I quickly got ahold of myself. This was the time when Bianca needed me most.

"Lillipup go for a Take Down on Purrloin!" Both of our Pokemon did significant damage to the other team, but Team Plasma being the pests they are got back on their feet to try again. This is actually kind of unnerving... I knew they were against Trainers, but to go this far, it's not a good sign.

"Patrat use Tackle on Oshawott!"

"Purrloin use Scratch on Oshawott too!"

"Tackle Lillipup!" Lillipup rammed into Purrloin, so Tater Otter only sustained damage from Patrat's attack. "Now use Bite!"

"Tackle Tater Otter!" As quickly as it had started, the battle ended with Bianca and I as the victors, both of us with the same hatred burning in our eyes.

"We didn't take them seriously enough..."

"This is a nightmare! I...I can't believe we lost!" Both of them took a step back.

"But we have to get the Dream Mist!" One of them made a break for Munna, but I was one step ahead of them.

"Lillipup, Take Down!" Even though the man was at least ten times bigger than Lillipup, he still easily knocked the man to the ground before he could reach Munna. Bianca and I were both ready to command attacks on both men, but suddenly another booming voice came from the same direction the grunts had come from.

"What are you two doing goofing off!?" A stern, cruel looking man was suddenly to our left, wearing a long, heavy robe.

"Gus...?" I mumbled, unable to think of the original name of the man. It was definitely the same guy who had challenged Snivy and I's relationship back in Accumula though.

"We, Team Plasma, shall separate Pokemon from foolish people!" Another man's voice came from our right, and everyone but me jumped to see another Gus to our right, wearing a differently colored robe. There were definitely two of them though.

"Wha-what's going on?!" Bianca whispered urgently from behind me. Stealing a glance at the grunts I saw that they were trembling. As quickly as he had appeared, Gus and Gus were gone but now one was right behind the grunts.

"If you cannot fulfill your duties..." His voice was deadly quiet, and one of the grunts shrieked and jumped around.

"T-this isn't... Not the normal Ghetsis..."

"We need to hurry and apologize so he forgives us!" The grunts ran into each other, before righting themselves and printing off. When we looked back, Ghetsis was gone.

It didn't matter though, not for long at least. Bianca was almost instantly at Munna's side, issuing a couple of Potions to the weak Pokemon.

"Here you go sweetie... I-I'm so sorry that this happened to you." I too kneeled next to Munna, watching sympathetically as Bianca comforted her. I sighed sadly and muttered quietly so that neither of them could hear me.

"Freedom my ass." I looked down at Lillipup who was nuzzling my hand and scratched behind the normal type's ear, a sad smile on my face.

"Shaaar!" A much larger pink and purple Pokemon aimlessly drifted into view, stopping right in front of us and nuzzling Munna still on the ground.

"Na na!"

"Ah ha!" Bianca smiled and giggled just slightly when Munna instantly perked up, levitating back into the air and nuzzling the larger Pokemon back. "Good for you Munna, you found your friend!" We watched for a moment as Munna floated around the larger Pokemon happily. Both Bianca and I took the opportunity to find the entries on the two Pokemon.

"Munna, the dream eater Pokemon. It eats the dreams of people and Pokémon. When Munna eats a pleasant dream, it expels pink-colored mist.

Musharna, the drowsing Pokemon. With the mist from its forehead, Musharna can create shapes of things from dreams it has eaten."

"Anyways White, what was that just now?"

"Hm?"

"That Ghetsis person appeared all over the place. That wasn't real, was it?" I blinked, staring ahead.

"I don't know."

"Do you think it could have been a dream?" My gaze drifted sideways to Bianca, then back to Musharna. We continued to watch the two of the Pokemon when a high pitched voice came from behind us.

"Oh!" Fennel came galloping towards us with Alex not far behind. She didn't even seem to see us, only run around us toward Munna and Musharna. "Is that Musharna?!" Bianca and I nodded in unison. Musharna turned towards Fennel and let out a strange sound that made me think that Fennel shouldn't be so close to the Pokemon.

"Don't upset it Fennel."

"I won't, I won't!" Then, Musharna slowly began to float off, expelling a sweet smelling pink mist, with Munna not far behind. Fennel gasped and took out a strange jar, capturing the mist inside.

"Bye, Munna..." Bianca called softly.

"What happened? Why didn't you two call?" Alex inquired, carefully watching Bianca's face.

"You ever heard of Team Plasma?" I asked him, and explained my encounter in Accumula when he shook his head no. "Anyways, they were here, abusing that Munna and trying to get it's Dream Mist. Bianca and I had to fight them off."

"Then that strange man appeared, right before Musharna."

"You all know that Musharna evolves from Munna right?" We nodded, looking back to Fennel who had spoken up. "Musharna must have seen Munna in trouble, then used it's power- making dreams into reality- to distract Team Plasma and save Munna. That's why she was expelling this." Fennel held up the jar full of pink smoke. "Now I've got to get back to my lab!" With that Fennel had run off.

"Fennel!" Alex called. He sighed, and turned to me, pushing back his disheveled hair. "That girl has got to slow down. I'd better go after her, it's dangerous in here. You coming?"

"Uh," I glanced back at Bianca, who was staring in the direction Munna and Musharna had disappeared with a somber expression on her face. "We'll catch up back at Fennel's place in a few."
"Alright." With that Alex had also jogged away, and I hobbled over towards Bianca, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"You okay?"

"Yeah... I just hope that Munna is okay." I nodded, looking in the same direction as she was.

"I think you'll see her again."

"What?" Bianca turned her green gaze towards me.

"Munna, I think that she'll come back to see you." The light that appeared in Bianca's eyes was enough to put a smile on both our faces.

"Really?"

"Duh, why else would I say that?" Bianca laughed and wrapped her arms around me.

"Thanks White!" Just as the young blonde girl was pulling away from me, we heard a squeak.

"Nuuun!" The small pink Pokemon we'd just been talking about practically flew into Bianca's arms, nuzzling her affectionately.

"Munna! You cutie, what are you doing back here?" The Munna began to nudge Bianca's green purse, chewing on it lightly. Bianca began to pull random stuff out until Munna cried delightfully at an empty Pokeball. "Wait, really? Do you really want to come with me!?"

"Nu, munna!"

"Eeek! That'd be great Munna!" I grinned as Bianca now tightly embraced the smiling Munna. They didn't battle, but Munna was easily captured by Bianca, then released again as we walked back to Fennel's apartment.

Munna seemed to like to chew on things, and affectionately sucked on Bianca's hand as she followed us back to the house.

"So, what are you going to name her?"

"Mmmm..." Bianca thought for a moment, before answering confidently. "Floral Dream!" I had to bite my tongue to keep from snickering.

"Um, uh, isn't that a bit long?"

"Who cares? It fits Munna perfectly!"

"Numa!" Seeing the smiles on their faces... Even the simplicity of a name like that made me smile.

The only other thing Fennel had wanted was to thank us properly and give us each some Great Balls. After that she had quickly rushed us each out so that she could work on her research.

By then it had been getting late, and we were all exhausted.

"So, what's everyones plans now?" I asked curiously.

"Leaving." Was Alex's reply. I glanced at him with slightly wide blue eyes.

"Same." My mouth opened a little at that.

"Really? Both of you?"

"I need to keep moving White. Can't stay anywhere for too long, you know. By tomorrow morning I want to be well on my way to Nacrene City."

"I'd like to keep going as well. There's a daycare on Route 3 that I'm curious about, plus I'd like to spend time with my new friend." Bianca pat Floral Dream on the head.

"So I suppose I'll be alone for the next couple days until my ankle heals up, huh." I said slowly, chewing on my lip.

"Sorry White. You really should let that heal up though."

"I know." I replied, looking back up at my friends and smiling reassuringly. "You two should move on. But remember, I'll be right behind you. Don't think you'll get too far ahead in the game!"

That was our goodbye, because the next day when I woke up, both Bianca and Alex were gone.

Thursday, October 31st