Chapter 6: What Dreams Are Made Of?

After finishing his meal and saying goodbye to Cilan and his brothers Aoi started heading for Route 3 but he was interrupted when he received a message from Prof. Juniper on his Xtransceiver. She asked Aoi to go and see her old colleague Fennel and help her with her research and that her lab was on the east side of town. "She couldn't have been a little more specific on where it was located" Aoi thought to himself. Rather than spend hours lost and trying to find it he went to the Pokémon center and asked nurse joy how to get there. She gladly wrote out some directions for him and wished him good luck.

"Well this is the address although it doesn't look anything like professor Junipers lab or Oaks lab in pallet town. Maybe I took a wrong turn or nurse joy gave me bad directions." Aoi said as he scratched his head worried that he'd never find the place and Professor Juniper would get mad. Suddenly the door opened and a woman wearing a lab coat with long dark blue hair and glasses rushed out of the door toward Aoi

"Ahh you must be Aoi right don't worry you're not lost!

"How could you tell that I thought I was lost?!

"It was written all over your face" Fennel chuckled

"Um are you professor fennel?

"Yes I am it's a pleasure to meet you I hope you'll be able to help me with my research." She said with her hand reached out to Aoi

"I'll do what I can but I can't promise any miracles." Aoi said modestly as he grabbed her hand.

"Please come in! I know it's not much but I have everything I need here. Now Juniper has told me a lot about you Aoi. Did you really pass the researcher's aide course in 6 months?!"

Aoi entered the building. He expected for there to be machines everywhere and all kinds of assistants, but apart from all the paper thrown about and a few white boards with equations written on them it didn't look any different from his house.

"Yes and professor if you don't mind me asking but where is all of you equipment for you research?

"Wow that's amazing! Nobody has ever completed it that quickly I'm so lucky to have you help me! As for my research equipment it's all up stairs on the second floor. Come with me and I'll show you!" exclaimed Fennel. The two of them walked up the stairs and entered through a door at the end of the hallway.

"Voilà welcome to my lab!" Fennel posed trying to show off everything in the room. Inside the room was a king sized bed with some machines connected to it and a weird-looking apparatus hanging over the head of the bed. Besides that there wasn't much else besides a few computers and a couple of filing cabinets.

"What's wrong Aoi? You look disappointed. Is it not what you were expecting?" Fennel asked quizzically

"Well yeah…Umm Professor what exactly do you research? Aoi asked hesitantly

"Ahh that explains a lot!" No wonder why you seem so confused. I am a scientist who specializes in researching dreams and other mysterious powers which many Pokémon possess."

"Oh that explains all the weird machines hooked up to the bed."

"Yes those machines allow me to read the dreams of Pokémon and humans, or at least that's what I'm trying to achieve. I've discovered that the Pokémon Munna and Mushranna both emit dream mist and if I can get my hands on some of it then I'll be able to study it complete my research."

"What's dream mist?"

"Dream mist is the physical manifestation of dreams, it's something both munna and mushranna are able to produce after they eat dreams or nightmares."

"So how do you want me to help professor?

"I want you to acquire some dream mist for me."

"Where do you suggest that I look?"

"In the dreamyard, but it's dangerous in there so when you go please be on your guard."

"Professor why exactly is that place called the dreamyard?

"Well you see Aoi that place is what is left of the Pokémon energy research facility. It was a place where we were trying to discover a way to utilize mushranna and munna's dream mist; that is to turn it into a form or energy that people could benefit from. Once our research had been finalized we would have created the ultimate clean energy. After all its source would have been nothing but the dreams of humans and Pokémon, but….then they showed up..

"Who showed up?!"

"People who wanted to try to gain control of this new energy and use it for their own purposes. Since their ambitions were in a sense dreams. Mushranna and munna absorbed their greedy dreams which became so overwhelming for them that they could no longer process them. Mushranna and Munna disappeared and the facility was destroyed in a huge explosion."

"Wow to think dreams could be used as an energy source!"

"Indeed but after the incident all of our beneficiaries stopped funding us. They saw the project being a failure."

"That's a shame I'm sorry to hear that."

"Its okay it's in the past, but onto current matters. Now Aoi I want you to collect some dream mist for me. It's not all the difficult it's just I'm currently on the verge of a big break through with my research and I can't afford to head over to the dreamyard."

"Alright I can do that. Is there anything I should need to know about or any special equipment to collect it?

"Just stay calm and don't make any sudden movements so you don't scare them. And you'll need a jar to transport the mist.

"Now that's odd?!"

"What's wrong professor?

"Well I can't seem to find any of the jars I use to carry the dream mist. I always keep them on this desk." Fennel said scratching her head in confusion. All of a sudden there was a knock at the door.

"Umm excuse me fennel can I come in?"

"Sure come on in Amanita." The door behind Aoi opened and a girl with long brown hair, and glasses came through holding a glass jar in her arms.

"I'm finished cleaning the dream mist jar for you. I'm sorry I took so long."

"Oh that's right! I asked you to clean it so it was ready for Aoi to use how silly of me to forget"

"Aoi? Who is that?!" Amanita asked with a puzzled look on her face.

"He's professor juniper's new assistant and he's going to help me get some dream mist so I can finish my research." As juniper said this she grabbed Aoi by the hand and dragged him next to Amanita.

"Hey professor what are you doing?!" Aoi exclaimed as he struggled to get out of her grip.

"Go on introduce yourself Amanita"

"….umm..m-mm-my…n-na-name..i-i-is" Amanita stammered as she was fidgeting and looking away from Aoi.

"You see Amanita is a pretty shy girl so it's pretty hard for her to talk to others, but she's the best assistant I could ask for. She even helped design the new storage system for trainers in the unova region."

"Oh I see. Well my name is Aoi Andrews it's nice to meet you Amanita. I think it's amazing that you helped design the new box system. If I ever have any problems I'll be sure to ask you about it." Amanita looked up to see Aoi smiling and reaching his hand out. Aoi sympathized with her; she reminded him of how he used to be.

"t-tt-th-tha-thank you" whispered Amanita. After that she handed the jar to fennel and left the room.

"Alright professor i won't be long. If I have trouble I'll give you a call." Aoi headed of towards the edge of town to the dreamyard. Once there he asked a few trainers if they had spotted any munnas or mushranna. Unfortunately none of them had seen any recently, but one of the members of the Pokémon rehabilitation program overheard him asking about the munnas and told him that if he wanted to find one he'd have to venture deep into the dreamyard and that he should be careful because the Pokémon further in are very hostile towards humans.

"Heeeeeeey! Aoi! Wait up!" echoed a familiar voice. He turned to see Bianca running towards him.

"I'm…here..to..help…you..with the dream..mist" Bianca was completely out of breathe and looked like she was going to keel over.

"I don't think you'll be any help in that condition. Don't worry Bianca this seems easy enough. Actually here you can have this fresh water I got from the Striaton gym." Aoi rummaged through his backpack and pulled out a cool bottle of water and handed it to Bianca. She swiped it from his hands and chugged it back in a few seconds.

"Ahhh! I feel much better now! Alright let's go find us some dream mist! Forward march Aoi!" Before he could say anything Bianca grabbed him by the arm and started dragging him further into the dreamyard. The deeper the two of the wonder the more decrypted it became. There was lots of rubble scattered everywhere, metal beams where there used to be buildings, melted computer monitors and scraps of the machines they used in the research facilities. Most of it looked like it had been rummaged through by scavengers. It reminded Aoi of the stories his aunt and uncle told him; the many battlefields they fought on and how abysmal it all looked afterwords. He hoped that he would never have to experience something that terrible.

"It sure is spooky in here. I hope we don't see any ghost I don't know what I'd do if we found one ugh."

"Well at least if there were ghost they'd be something to look at."

"Don't say that Aoi they might hear you and come here!" shrieked Bianca.

"Relax it was just a joke.

"Ok that's goo" Before she could finish what she was saying Aoi put his hand in front of her face.

"Shhh, Do you hear that? It sounds like a Pokémon is being hurt."

"Really then we should go help it right away! Lead the way Aoi" As they got closer to the mysterious noise they could hear two other voices and they were shouting in anger. "Come on Aoi it sounds like it's coming from the other side of that wall." The two of them peeked around the corner to see two members of team plasma and Pokémon cowering in between them

"Well well we've finally found you munna!" said the man on the right.

"Yeah do you realize how long we've been looking for you! Now hurry up and a cough up some of that dream mist!" Barked the woman on the left while she kicked the munna. Before he knew it Bianca had run around the corner and started confronting the two.

"What do you think you're doing?! Why are you kicking this poor munna! It won't want to give you dream mist that way! It's so cruel! Aren't you trainers?

"Tsch stupid brat! What do you know? We may be trainers but we fight for a greater cause, unlike you we're fighting for the freedom of Pokémon, and setting Pokémon free means that we win Pokémon battles and take Pokémon by force! So on that note, we are going to rescue your Pokémon from you!

"Whaaaat?! Please don't hurt my Pokémon stop it! Their my friends you can't just take them away!

"Yeah and what are you going to do about it twerp, you're shaking in your boots. Welcome to the real world now give us your Pokémon before I get pissed off. Harped the woman.

"Come on out lillipup use tackle and show her we mean business!" Bianca paralyzed by fear sat there motionless. Aoi knew he had to help but he was afraid of what would happen if he couldn't beat them. Would he lose his Pokémon too. If that happened he wouldn't be able to find Aya and going through all that work to become professor juniper's assistant would have been a waste of time. Aoi felt something tap him on his leg. He turned around to see Blue standing there with a determined look on his face.

"What are you doing just standing here! Bianca and that munna need your help!" yelled blue. Aoi was taken aback by this, he had never been able to understand a Pokémon this well.

"What if I can't beat them…"

"Don't worry about that we're a team now Aoi! There's no way we can lose to these clowns."

"Alright. Let's do this then!"

-Chapter 6 End-