Chapter 29: Dreams
Felix was not afraid of death; he had always thought of it as the release of his duties in life. He was however confused about what he was now experiencing, as it was definitely not death (or at least any form of death he heard of). He was stuck in a pink and purple void, devoid of anything that looked familiar or even real. He could hear whispers that sounded like his friends Nikola and Archie, but he couldn't tell what they were saying.
"Boo!" something said as it suddenly appeared in front of Felix's face. He freaked out for a moment, trying to hit whatever had appeared. The apparition merely drifted backwards to avoid getting smashed. The creature was giggling about Felix's reaction. He looked closely at the strange Pokémon.
It was very unusual, having periwinkle skin with pink markings all over their body. It had a body and two arms, all three floating independently of each other. Their face was periwinkle with light pink cheeks, large horns on either side of its head, a pink ponytail, and a mischievous smile. It also had large golden hoops hanging from his horns and a large golden ring around its midsection. The creature opened its eyes, lime green with yellow whites and a gaze that made everything look like a joke.
"Hello Felix. Do you recognize me?" the creature asked in a playful tone. Their voice sounded like a ten-year-old that thought life itself was something to be laughed at. Felix remembered what this mischievous creature was. "Hoopa" "Yay! I knew you would recognize me!" Hoopa clapped with his glove-like hands as he expressed sarcastic joy. "Where am I?" Felix asked as Hoopa halted his clapping. "Hmm…I believe we are in my playroom, or is it my living room? I'm not sure." Hoopa shrugged, or at least the next best thing when you don't have shoulders.
"Anyway, you are in my home for now." "But how did I get here?" Hoopa seemed amused at Felix's curiosity. "Well, you nearly died and now I get to talk with you for a couple minutes. Isn't that wonderful?" Felix wasn't sure how to react to his unusual comment, so he dully replied "sure". Hoopa didn't look very excited to hear that. "C'mon Felix, don't you want to know why I brought you to this world? I've been wanting to talk with you since I ringed you from your old world to this one." "Ringed?" Hoopa bared a grin as he took the two rings off of his large black horns. The rings expanded until they were large enough to fit around Felix's arms.
"Put your hand through this ring and I'll show you." He held the rings so that Felix could put in either arm. The center of the ring was filled with the inky darkness that Dr. Goo arrived through. Felix thrust his arm into the ring on the right and suddenly slugged his left arm. Hoopa laughed after seeing Felix punch himself, but Felix was too engrossed by the strange phenomenon to care. Where his arm went through the ring on the right, it suddenly appeared through the left ring. The inky darkness was strangely neutral, neither warm nor cold.
Felix withdrew his arm, watching it disappear from the left ring. "Pretty cool, huh?" Hoopa said as the rings were shrunken down and placed back around his horns. Felix nodded; the rings did explain how he got to the Pokémon world in the first place among other things. The question of why remained however. "Why did you bring me here?" Hoopa smiled, pleased to finally hear the question he was looking for. "My boss asked me to, he said that I needed to bring you here to be part of something bigger. He also helped transform you into a Chesnaught so that you could blend in with the others. I even had to perfectly time your arrival so you could meet Sylvia, although I may have been a little late." This flood of information was starting to overwhelm poor Felix, who had little idea what Hoopa was talking about. He decided to start with a simple question.
"Who is your boss?" "I'm sorry, but I can't tell you that one. He'll speak with you at a later date." He grinned. "When you said 'something bigger', were you talking about Albert's prophecy?" Hoopa shook his head, his large rings swinging side to side. "Nah, I was talking about Sylvia's prophecy. If you want to hear it, ask her. I have noticed however that the two of you are very…how should I say it…close?" Felix was beginning to feel nervous about his chat with Hoopa, as it was taking a different direction than he expected it to. "Do you…'like' her?" Hoopa asked as he zoomed in closer to his face, his grin accenting what he was getting at. Felix refused to say anything, but he could feel the heat rushing to his cheeks. Hoopa pulled back, satisfied with what he saw.
"Alright, I won't push. Just wonderin'. Do you have anything you do want to tell me?" Hoopa questioned, accenting the word 'do'. Felix did want to tell him some of the more unusual events of his endeavors in this world. He told Hoopa about the nightmare he had Friday night and his strange power that helped him defeat Urayne. Hoopa pondered Felix's story, wondering what to tell him. "The nightmare may have something to do with your next challenge, but I don't know for sure. Your strange power however did not come from your transformation; it came from something that you carry with you wherever you go. It is part of why you're here Felix, we need you here."
Felix felt that he knew what Hoopa was talking about, but he was still not certain what he was going to do next. A strange tugging sensation began to pull at his head, trying to bring him away from his conversation. "What's tugging me?" "Looks like you're waking up from this dream Felix; it was fun talking to you." Hoopa looked disappointed that he couldn't continue his little chat with Felix. Then his green eyes lit up as the tugging increased. "Before you go Felix, there's something I need to tell you. Your father still hears you, so keep talking to him. He still loves you."
Hoopa said it so sincerely that Felix wasn't quite sure if he was being serious or was trying to pull off a mean prank. "What?" "Just trust me Felix; you know who I'm talking about." The tugging then turned into a more aggressive pull, dragging Felix away from Hoopa. "Oh, and about your scriptures. I lost them somewhere. I'll give it to you as soon as I find it!" Hoopa yelled as Felix was pulled farther and farther from him. "Will we see each other again?" Felix yelled. He could see Hoopa nodding and heard him mentally saw "I will see you later, but you won't like it. It won't be as fun as this was." Felix wasn't sure if their chat about him 'liking' Sylvia would be considered 'fun', but he would miss talking with the purple mischief Pokémon.
