| Team IGNIS:
Ivysaur ("Basil", Lv24); Golbat ("Krow", Lv26); Pikachu (Lv20?); Wishiwashi ("Wallow", Lv13);

| Team TERRA:
Wartortle ("Squirty", Lv19); Butterfree ("Petal", Lv12); NidoranF ("Ranne", Lv13); NidoranM (?, Lv?)

| Team HANA:
Charmeleon ("Emma", Lv21); Beedrill ("Mel", Lv18); Abra ("Yellow", Lv15); Bellsprout ("Bell", Lv?)

Some time earlier, Phoebe slowly opened her eyes. She gently got up and took a glance at her childhood friend - Ignis was fast asleep.

The girl smiled to herself. "Must be really tired," the girl said to herself before reaching for a Pokéball. "Nene."

Gently tapping the button in the middle, the girl watched as a puppet-like creature formed from the released light of the device. Nene, a Banette, turned around and stared at its Trainer with a creepy grin. "Nneaah!" it chirped.

Phoebe snickered. "There, there, good girl," she cooed, petting it before looking at Ignis. "Can you help me with something?"

Nene tilted her head. "Nneah?"

The Ghost-type expert chuckled. "This is Ignis, a friend from a long time ago. We've just met again, but I just know she definitely missed me a lot!" the girl said with full confidence. "I know most people probably wouldn't like this, but can you peek into her dreams? I bet I'm somewhere in there!"

Rolling her eyes, Nene nodded and floated above the resting ravenette's face. "Nnnnaaae..." she hissed, glowing bright purple.

Phoebe watched her Pokémon exert its capabilities, excited to catch her friend's hidden loneliness and joy.

Then... nothing happened.

Nene groaned and dropped atop the ravenette, no visions of any sort appearing.

She frowned. "W... what's wrong?" the girl asked.

The Banette got up on its stubby feet and shook her head. "Nnehhh..."

"You... can't?" Phoebe said. "That's... that's weird. She's not dreaming? Not even pitch black nothing dream?" Again, Nene shook her head. Phoebe scratched her head. "That's... odd. ...that can't be right, everyone has dreams, even if it's just hours of nothing but black."

"Nnneaah..." Nene whimpered.

"No, it's fine. I guess it's impossible to look into her dreams, then..." Phoebe sighed and stared at her friend, slightly worried. "I wonder... what's going on in your life, and what happened these past few years." The girl gently caressed Ignis' head. "I hope you can let me know one day."

After a while, the girl then plopped onto her back.

"Oh, well! Might as well as take a nap too!"

Nene cheered and moved onto the Ghost-type expert's stomach, laying on top of her.

Quietly, they drifted off to sleep as well, enjoying their own fun dreams.

Watching over the two, however, a certain prideful youth narrowed his eyes at the resting Ignis.

...that's right, Ghost-types can manipulate and control dreams, the man recalled. If we assume they have the ability to transcend dimensions in different sorts, looking into and entering people's dreams doesn't sound too surprising. What that implies, however...

He walked over to Ignis and put a hand to her forehead.

Can real ghosts also interact with other dimensions of sorts?

Focusing hard, his mind began conjuring up millions of different thoughts, all in an attempt to look into the mind of the resting girl.

After what felt like an eternity... he wasn't sure what brought it upon himself, what struck the right deals, but success came to him.

He soon found himself materializing within a huge, white realm with no boundaries, surrounded by several faceless beings, and most importantly, in the presence of the very girl he had suspicions on.

Ignis Coronoid... who, exactly, are you?

Now, said girl stared back at him, deep in thought at the moment. There had been so much going on these past moments, and now another torrent of surprises is trying to tip her off the scale, whatever she was balancing on.

How is Blue here? Or rather, so Blue really did exist. And actually, what the hell?

What was she supposed to do?

As the titans awaited her next actions, slightly wary of the lost grandson of Professor Oak, Blue scoffed.

"What's the matter?" he asked. "Or did I catch you in the middle of something you're planning?"

Ignis closed her eyes for a moment. I guess I am pretty weird and suspicious sometimes, she mused. Reasonable enough. Although... "What would you do if I was?" she asked out of curiosity.

Blue huffed. "If you were, and I have every reason to believe you were... death won't stop me from stopping your plan," he said. "More so than my pride, I'll stop you before you can do anything, to the world, to the people I know."

She blinked. ...huh, surprisingly less annoying than I expected, she thought. Ignis returned the man's glare for a while, before she smiled and sat down. "Ah, well."

"Ms. Ignis?" some of the titans asked.

Ignis glanced at them, relaxed. "I think he's fine," she said. "Besides, what's a dead man got to do? I think he can be helpful, kinda."

V contemplated for a while before sighing. "If you believe so, then so be it."

Sighing, Blue slowly sat himself down in front of the girl. "I'm guessing you're not planning anything horrible, then."

"Hm. How'd you guess?" Ignis asked.

"Doesn't take a genius to figure out what's going on based on how you act," the man said. "Only a moron like Red would let crap fly past his radar. Or Green."

Ignis barely stopped herself from chuckling. Ah, this must be the manga Blue, with his cool and smart mind.

"So, where do we start?" Blue asked.

She pondered for a while, before an idea came to her.

"What do you think about alternate universes?"

...

Blue closed his eyes to think about what he had been hearing - not only from Ignis herself, but from these seven... titans, as well.

Eventually, he opened his eyes, unamused. "Am I supposed to believe any of this?" he said.

"Yup," I and VII said.

"Pretty much," II, III, IV, and VI said.

V simply nodded, while Ignis shrugged.

"You do you, friend." Ignis sighed and plopped onto her back, staring upwards at the never-ending white abyss above. "Not like I wanted to end up in this situation either. ...although coming to a Pokémon world is definitely something I wished for all the time."

"...right." Blue glanced at the titans, before looking back at her. "So according to their prophecy... Team Rocket is going to attempt to destroy Kanto, or maybe even the world, and you've been brought to our world to stop them?"

"Sounds about right," Ignis said.

"..." The man sighed. "I suppose that does click with what Red's told me about them," he said.

"...speaking of which, where's Red?" Ignis asked and pushed herself upwards once more. "And Leaf... uh, Green. I'd expect them to be here too since you're here."

Blue huffed. "Those idiots wouldn't know how to get here," he said. "Even I'm not sure what I did or how I managed to be here."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ignis asked, before narrowing her eyes. "Wait, you didn't do anything to my body, did you?"

"No!" the lost grandson hissed.

She sighed with relief. "Phew, okay. So then... how'd you get here?"

"I just told you, I'm not sure myself," Blue said. "I do have a small theory I'm working on about that, but I'll put that aside for now."

Wait, I want to hear it... Ignis thought. "Okay..."

"I'm not entirely too sure about your affiliations yet," Blue said, "but at least I can tell you're probably not with Team Rocket."

"They tried to kill her a number of times already," VII said, "I think it's pretty clear."

"I wouldn't know that," Blue said. "But anyways, it's only fair I share some information with you as well."

"That's... yeah, that'd be helpful," Ignis said.

The man nodded. "First, you said that our world's timeline is a mix of various timelines from your world's Pokémon media?" he asked, to which Ignis nodded. "Right. Well, I'm afraid I'll have to dispute that. Our... my world, this world, has progressed normally for years now."

"Uh..." The ravenette wasn't exactly too sure what he was saying.

"Basically... the reason why Red somehow saved Bill, despite the 'timeline shift' you believe happened, is because it did happen." Blue narrowed his eyes. "In other words, there is no timeline shift. The stories of your world's games, really did happen in this world."

"B-bwuh? That can't be," Ignis said. "If that was the case, Team Rocket'd already be destroyed, or maybe even thriving and big, since you and the others are gone."

Blue shook his head. "Team Rocket was destroyed. That's how it had been for years," he said. "Red defeat them, then defeated the Elite Four and me. Red rightfully became the Champion."

"That's... so everything did happen?" Ignis said. "Then... then what's going on, then?"

"That's what I wanted to know," Blue replied. "I thought you might have had something to do with it, with how weird you always were, especially now that you're someone else. However..." He bit his lips. "Now I'm not even sure anymore."

"I guess it's at least safe to assume that someone caused this oddity," IV said. "Someone definitely must've gotten their hands on a higher power that allows them to do this."

"...what if it's that Houtarou guy?" II asked. "We still haven't really clarified who the hell he is, exactly."

"Houtarou...?" Blue asked. "What a weird name. Ransei?"

So he doesn't know the guy, huh? Ignis noted. "I dunno. I think he's another person from my world though, but I can never get a read on that guy."

The man huffed. "I see. Keep him aside for now, then. Maybe he can be a crucial part of our investigations later."

"I guess so..." the girl replied, slightly skeptical. Something about the blonde bothered her, however - as someone she suspected of coming from her world, having come to the Pokémon world, wouldn't it be in any fan's best interest to get to know the main characters and achieve something big? If Blue Oak didn't know Yumazaki Houtarou, then what the hell was the guy even doing in this world? Unless... maybe he isn't... from the real world?

The more she thought about it, the more her head hurts.

...actually, she just realized this, but there seemed to be so many things hurting her head.

Speaking of headaches... she could use some actual decent sleep right now...

Ignis clapped her hands together. "Forget it, I'll think about everything later," she said.

"...do you really have the time to be pushing these matters aside?" Blue asked.

"Hey, I need my beauty rest to be prepared for whatever could happen, too," the ravenette replied. "Besides... I'm thinking I might go challenge the gym tonight, at least."

Blue closed his eyes. "Vermilion City... Surge, huh." He shook his head. "I'm not even going to bother telling you to take this situation seriously, so a word of advice: unless you're lucky, your team won't even come close to beating him."

"Yeah, I realize that," Ignis said. "Krow and Wallow aren't exactly good options for his Electric-type specialty."

"So you knew," Blue mused.

Ignis huffed. "I may be stupid, but I'm not stupid."

"..."

"Anyways, once I get out of here," Ignis said, "I'll be able to enjoy a normal nap and all that stuff. Yesterday's been rather hectic, and today's been a decently tiring day. Might as well as get back to my best condition."

"...right. You do that," Blue said. "I believe I'll probably be kicked out of this realm as well once you leave."

"Oh yeah... so how does this whole thing even work?" Ignis asked.

He sighed. "I told you, I'm not sure of the specifics myself," Blue said. "I'll think more about these things when I have the time."

The ravenette chuckled. "Y'know, I thought you'd be a bigger asshole, but you're a lot better than I expected."

To that, Blue himself laughed. "I hear that a lot."

"Sounds like you'd be a fun theorizing buddy. Lookin' forward to working with you," Ignis said and held out her hand.

Huffing, he took her hand and shook it.

Within seconds, they both disappeared from the realm.

The other titans exchanged glances.

"...I'm still not sure about this alliance, but the guy seems fine," II said.

"Frankly, I'm surprised we didn't do anything much after he appeared," VII mused. "We really just sat back and listened, huh?"

VI sighed. "Blue Oak feels a bit intimidating... no lie. How did he even get here...?"

"Good question, What say you, Five?" III asked.

V shook its head. "I do not know myself. However... perhaps it has to do with spiritual beings and their ability to interact with dimensions and other strange things."

"So even you're not too sure about it? Bonkers," I said.

"Regardless of how it happened, that man seems to be quite an intellectual individual," IV said.

"Indeed," V said with a nod. "I myself think we may actually benefit from his assistance."

II scratched their head. "You think?"

"Who knows, maybe he'll even help us find out who we are!" VII said.

The other titans eventually nodded. "Hopefully..." VI said.

"Yes... hopefully." V could only agree and wish for the best.

After a decent nap and a wild trip to the land of dreams, Ignis found herself back on the Pokémon Center's bed, her left arm trapped by Phoebe's snuggling. She looked to her left, before smiling, rather amused by how peaceful the Ghost-type expert looked. "Aw." The girl carefully removed her arm from Phoebe's warmth and petted the girl afterwards. "How nice."

Then she noticed the sleeping Banette.

"...uh." Ignis looked around. The Pokémon probably belonged to Phoebe, of course, but hopefully it didn't cause any mischief in the room. Ghost-types do seem to be quite playful sometimes, if not outright pranksters, she thought.

The ravenette then slowly got off the bed, so as to not wake the girl up.

She sneaked over to the restroom door, entering to do her business and tidy herself up a bit.

Few minutes later, she exited into the main room to find Phoebe sitting up, yawning and groggily rubbing her eyes. "Oh, hey, Phoebe."

"Mnnmn... Ignis..." the girl muttered. "Morning..."

"Uh, no, it's still the same day," Ignis said and spread open the curtains, revealing a dark, quiet shade of blue. "Short naps."

Phoebe rubbed her eyes again. "Umhm... right. Going somewhere...?"

"I'm thinking of challenging the gym tonight, at least," the ravenette said. "If not the Gym Leader himself, the trainers will do as pre-battle practice."

"Ohhh, right, the gym challenge..." Yawning once more, Phoebe tapped her Banette and chuckled. "Wake up, Nene."

Nene, huh? Ignis thought. Cute naming sense. "You can come too if you want to watch. I'm going to go get Hana and Terra - Hana seems to like this stuff," she said and grabbed her bag. "And Terra... well, she'd like to stick around me, of course." For reasons...

Phoebe smiled and nodded. "Sure, I'll tag along. Might as well," she said.

"Alrighty, good to know," Ignis said. The two headed out the room after a while, and, standing in front of their friends' room, knocked on the door.

For a while, nothing happened, but then they heard someone quietly heading for the door.

Soon, Hana revealed herself from within. "O-oh, hello Ms. Ignis." She noticed Phoebe. "...a-and... um... Ms. Phoebe..."

The Ghost-type expert grinned. "D'aw. No need to be scared, I don't bite! ...probably."

Hana cringed slightly, but held up a finger. "P-please don't make too much noise..." she said. "Ms. Terra is, well..."

She opened the door further to let the two come inside, and they saw that the brunette had been asleep as well.

"Wow, everyone sure is in the mood for sleeping," Phoebe remarked.

"So were you," Ignis pointed out.

"Only because you wanted to sleep."

The two then turned to Hana. "So... did we wake you up?" Ignis asked. "Sorry if I did, I didn't mean to..."

"N-no, it's fine," the blonde said.

Phoebe tilted her body to look past the blonde, spotting a book on the room's desk. "What's that?"

Hana jumped. "Oh! Um, that's, it's... it's nothing!" the blonde said and quickly went to close the book, stuffing it in her handbag.

Oh, right. She writes a diary, Ignis thought to herself, chuckling. "Anyways, I'm thinking of going to challenge the gym tonight. Wanna come?"

The blonde beamed and nodded. "Of course, I'd love to!"

Then, remembering her roommate was sleeping, she hushed herself.

"I mean, um... yes, I'd love to," she repeated.

"Great! I'll wait outside in the lobby, then," Ignis replied. "Use the time to, uh... I dunno, get prepared, dress up, something, I guess." Waving to the blonde, she and Phoebe quietly left the room and glanced at each other, sharing a chuckle. "Cute one, isn't she?" Ignis said.

"A diary, huh? I remember doing those!" Phoebe said.

"That's... nice." Ignis thought back to her childhood - had she ever tried keeping a diary? She supposed she did, but there had never been more than three pages in any one book she decided on. There was also that Love Live notebook I bought at an anime convention, but I never even wrote in that... the girl mused. "Maybe you should let me read it one day," she joked.

"...don't be stupid," Phoebe said. "As if I'd let anyone read that."

"...uh, right, I was kidding," Ignis said, before the two headed out the hallway. "Let's see... take a seat somewhere," she said. "I'll get my Pokémon."

"Okie dokie!" With a salute, the Ghost-type expert skipped over to some couches somewhere.

Why is everyone so darn cute? the ravenette wondered and walked over to the counter. "Hello, I'd like to pick up my Pokémon."

The counter Nurse Joy smiled. "Oh! Thank you for coming to pick them up," she said. "We tried to return them to you earlier, but no one was responding, so I assumed you and your friend were sleeping."

Ignis nodded. "Yyyyyyeah, sorry. Today's been a... wild day, I guess."

The pink-haired woman shook her head. "That's alright, no worries. I returned the other two's Pokémon already, so you're the only one left. It's not really that big of a problem." She picked up a tray of three Pokéballs and set it on the counter. "Here are your Ivysaur, Golbat, and... um..." The nurse paused to read from a paper she had set aside. "A Wishi...washi, is it? How rare, a Pokémon from Alola."

"Oh, uh, yeah. I won the fella from some festival in Cerulean," Ignis said. Wishiwashi. Wishiwashi. Wishy-washy... "Looks pretty cute, huh?"

"That I do agree," Nurse Joy said. "A Cerulean City festival, was it? How nice," she mused. "Speaking of which, have you met my sisters there?"

Ignis blinked. "Ahh, uh... yeah, I did," she replied. "I don't remember their names though..."

"Oh, no worries, most people don't bother with that," the Nurse Joy said. "Nice to know someone tried though... anyways, about your Pikachu, they're also with your other friends."

Huh, didn't see it anywhere in Hana's room, Ignis thought. Maybe it's also sleeping, I guess. "Thanks for letting me know." Taking her Pokéballs, she clicked the buttons and called out Basil, Krow, and Wallow. "Hey, fellas. How're all of you doing?" she asked.

"Bwah!" the Ivysaur chirped.

"Kyahhh!" the Golbat hissed.

"Wraowrrwhh..." the Wishiwashi whimpered.

She grinned. "All good, I guess."

"Here, Ms. Coronoid," Nurse Joy called and handed her a sheet of paper. "Here are the data estimates for your Pokémon's conditions." Then, she handed another item - a fishbowl. "Also, this. It's best you carry this around for your Wishiwashi so it doesn't have to always be exerting itself in staying above water," she explained.

Ignis blinked. "Uh, sure, thanks," she said and accepted both the paper and the bowl, to which her Wishiwashi hopped into happily. "Oof, this is pretty heavy though..."

Suddenly, Basil took the bowl from her with its vines, smiling. "Dwah!" it said.

"Aw, thanks buddy. That's sweet of ya," Ignis said and petted the Grass-type.

Phoebe then popped in from behind. "Hey! I want headpats too!" she yelled.

"Why're you getting jealous of a Pokémon...?" Ignis wondered, before sighing and petting her too. "There ya go."

"Heehee. That's nice," the girl cooed.

The Nurse Joy gasped at the Ghost-type expert. "Oh, my! You're..."

"Hi, yes! I'm Phoebe from the Hoenn Elite Four!" the girl greeted.

"How amazing! What might you be doing all the way here?" the nurse asked.

Phoebe scratched her cheeks. "Ehehe, well, I, uh..."

"You have fun with that," Ignis said and walked over to Hana, who had just exited the hallway as well.

"Hey!"

Hana bowed courteously. "I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long, Ms. Ignis," she said.

Ignis waved her hand. "Nah, no biggie." She glanced at the yellow furball on top of Hana's hat - Pikachu looked down on her, bored, uninterested. "You little rascal, don't just hang around on her head like that," she muttered.

The blonde chuckled. "No, it is fine. This one is quite the adorable, harmless one, actually."

Wait until it slaps you with its tail, the ravenette thought. "Well, either ways, nice of you to tag along. I'd get Terra too, but..."

"Yes, it's probably better to let her rest," Hana said. "It's been quite chaotic these past few days."

"I mean, the whole ghosts affair thing should be keeping you stressed too," Ignis pointed out. "You sure you still want to come watch?"

The blonde paused, before sighing. "W-well... certainly, those matters bother me a lot, especially... Ms. Phoebe," she said. "However, I... I must be able to endure this much, if I want to become much stronger as a Pokémon Trainer! And watching you battle may just help me learn more about the ways of battling!"

Ignis smiled. "If you say you're fine, then that's that." The girl petted the blonde, who pouted.

"I'm starting to feel like you see me as a child every time you do that," Hana said.

"Haha, who knows?" Ignis mused.

Phoebe popped from behind again. "No fair! Me too!" she said.

"I literally just gave you a head pat few seconds ago!" Ignis yelled.

"Gimme!" the Ghost-type expert said.

"What're you, a kid!?"

Hana, as uncomfortable as the new girl made her feel, found herself laughing.

Ms. Ignis really is fun to be around, she thought.

| Team IGNIS:
Ivysaur ("Basil", Lv24); Golbat ("Krow", Lv26); Pikachu (Lv25); Wishiwashi ("Wallow", Lv13);

| Team TERRA:
Wartortle ("Squirty", Lv19); Butterfree ("Petal", Lv12); NidoranF ("Ranne", Lv13); NidoranM (?, Lv9)

| Team HANA:
Charmeleon ("Emma", Lv21); Beedrill ("Mel", Lv18); Abra ("Yellow", Lv15); Bellsprout ("Bell", Lv15)