7/6/20

6:57 am

Dream World

A high pitched ringing echoed around my ears, painfully waking me up from a light slumber. A white background could be seen, making my head tilt confused. This place was familiar to me, especially since I spent my human nights here recently. "The Dream World?" I said to myself. Sitting up, I could only see a tiny speck of yellow rapidly approaching my body. "Who's that?"

"Hello!" The creature, revealed to be a Pichu, accidentally bumped into my body, making him move a few steps back.

I blinked a few times before standing up. "Um... Who are you?" My body bent down, looking at the Pichu.

His neutral expression made it hard to judge what he was thinking, but his voice was... Overly excited. "My name's Volt. It's nice to meet you mister..."

"Manny," I responded while staring at him. "It's Manny... Do you know where you are?"

The Pichu decided to take a few steps back to look around the infinitely white background. "No... Why?" Volt turned around to stare straight at me.

Me being the stupid head I am decided to blurt out the logical option at the time. Just simply talking to him. It seemed fine at the time. "Well, this is the Dream World. It interconnects with every living creature's mind... You're not fake, right?"

"I'm real!" He responded while crossing his arms. "I do a lot of things back at my home of Alola..."

...Huh, I guess Volt likes sharing things to people. So he's a naive Pokémon? He might be taken advantage of by other Pokémon, but I'm not gonna do that. At least I know he's from Universe Two now. "Huh, I guess you can consider me nearby," I lied to him. "I'm from Unova. I know, it's hard to believe." Sure it was a half-lie, but I hoped it was going to help him feel more related to me and familiarly.

Boy, would I be so wrong.

The current surroundings of white suddenly faded to black, making everything feel dark. The only things left of white were shining on Volt and myself, acting like spotlights emphasizing on a character. I wasn't sure if Volt noticed, because he was currently trembling in fear.

"H-How are you alive?"

My eyes widened to hear the Pichu's statement, making me step back a second. "W-What?" I said to him. "What are you talking about?" As soon as the tip of my tail touched the black surface of my surroundings, a burning sensation went through my entire body, making me shake in fear.

"Well...," he hesitated towards me, almost wondering how I didn't know of this already. "O-Other Pokémon told me that it was a bad place," he answered while peeking at my shocked expression. "Some of my friends went, and they didn't come back..."

"D-Didn't come back?" I stuttered before stepping backwards again. But for some reason, I couldn't stop myself from going entirely in the dark.

I only saw a flash of blue before blacking out.

***
7:00 am

Express Cruise

(En route to Nio Nacpulpa.)

"Ahh!" My head immediately shot itself out of the pillows I was resting on. Looking around, I was currently in a room filled with carpet and small furniture, just for my size. If I took a look to my right, a glass window with a balcony could be seen, showing off the ocean I was currently in.

A sigh came out of my mouth. It was the same place I slept the night before, despite it currently moving. "It's okay Manny. Just a nightmare... I think."

In case you were wondering, me, Abby, Cord, and Phoenix took a vehicle called the Express Cruise. I wouldn't exactly call it a cruise, because this thing is WAY too small to be called that. It's more like a yacht than anything. But with that comes speed. If nothing stupid happens, we're supposed to arrive at Nio Nacpulpa in about... an hour or so. Huh, I guess they were moving the entire night.

"Hi Manny!"

I jumped in the air startled, falling out of my bed. A groan came out of me as I noticed two pink ears perking out the side of my bed. "...Harmony, if you're going to do that I'd suggest you walk through the door."

A Mew giggled while getting on top of my current bed. "You should stop leaving your room door open," Harmony suggested, "anyone could come in."

"What? My door isn't—."

"Hey Manny!" A familiar Houndour walked in while looking down. "You left your door unlocked, and I just wanted to..." She lifted her head up to notice Harmony staring straight at her. The door behind her shut closed and locked, thanks to Harmony.

I glanced at the two looking at each other before facepalming. "In my defense, she opened the door in the first place."

Phoenix moved a bit closer towards us before chuckling. "Y-Your the same Mew I met..."

"All those months ago?" The Mew finished her sentence before chuckling. "That would be correct." She lowered her body to become eye to eye with the Houndour. "It's nice to meet you again!" I decided to hop on the bed while they interacted with each other, yawning a bit from my past dream. Guess I should do a mini-monologue about it.

Who was that Pichu? That thing he was talking about, did he mean by trainers? Or another problem altogether? It didn't make any sense; Universe Two didn't have any problems as far as I knew!

...Please don't tell me you heard that Harmony.

The Mew glanced straight at me before grinning. I don't know. Did I hear you?

"Of course..." I groaned while glancing at the Houndour. "Harmony can I ask? Why did you bring Phoenix here? No offence, 'Nix."

Phoenix huffed while looking away as Phoenix formed something close to a map. "I want you to take a look at this and tell me what it reminds you of." She placed the entire map down on the bed, pointing at the area.

Hey it does look familiar... Although I can't exactly reason why. I glanced at the Mew before shaking my head. "No clue."

She showed the map to Phoenix, who almost immediately, pointed at each area in the map. "Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island. Why do you ask?" She moved the map away before noticing a shocked expression coming out of me.

"Well...," Harmony admitted with a chuckle. "This is Nio Nacpulpa, which coincidentally is New York City in Universe Three."

Huh, that's pretty awesome! I could hear another knock coming again, and decided to answer the door while looking back at the Mew. "I suggest you turn invisible to not get caught."

This moment would be my second mistake of the day.

I thought the sound would be more distinguished with a thud, but I didn't mind it until I opened the door. A Inteleon wearing something similar to a butler suit fell down on the floor, his clothing stained with red. The three of us in the room just stood silent while staring blankly at him, before I decided to let out a short and loud scream.

The Mew became visible for a few moments before sighing. "Today's not really been your day, huh Manny?"

***

8:00 am

Express Cruise

(Nearby Nio Nacpulpa.)

It was pretty coincidental that one of the contestants qualified for the main tournament was an Audino, so we were able to heal him up pretty quickly after hearing my scream. "...I don't know what attacked me. It looked like a shadow..."

It was obvious who it was to me and the other members of Team Illuminate. But it didn't make sense to us right now, all the known attacks the Darkness has currently done was directly towards us. Not through another Pokémon. "At the very least, here's my theory," I told an invisible Harmony while walking away from the group. "Bisharp was in the Desert division, and a Alakazam named Malum was fighting in our division. So what if more Pokémon in the other divisions are from the Darkness?"

The Mew nodded to my idea while moving in front of me, briefly removing her invisibility. "Well if that's the case, I can't do anything about that. Whoever gets in the main tournament, they're going to have to defeat them anyway. But I'm not sure you're just saying that for the heck of it..."

My knuckles softly cracked from the pressure I gave them while sighing. "Okay fine... I had a dream last night. It felt so weird." A shiver went down my spine looking up at the pink-furred creature. "It was a Pichu... But the way he said it, it felt like Unova was in some type of trouble. Some trouble that I can't explain."

"Okay?" The Mew tilted her head before motioning her paw. "Tell me the Pichu's name. I can send someone from Universe Two to investigate."

What follows is my third mistake of the day.

"Volt," I said almost immediately. I didn't notice, but Harmony's eyes widened while floating back. "His name was Volt. Not sure how that's going to help, since there could be many Pichu's named—."

"N-No, I know who you're talking about," she immediately interrupted me. One of her paws tried to brush off some dust that fell on her, but it felt like she was losing control of her emotion. "I-I got to go." Harmony glowed a bright yellow before suddenly Teleporting away.

"Harmony!" I called her out while sticking out my paw. "What's wrong?!"

"Manny?" A voice called out, making me trip on my own feet. "Something up?" It was Abby, taking out a paw to lift me back upright.

"...This is so awkward," I mumbled to myself while looking down. "Okay, I can't explain it now. Did you call me for a reason?"

"Well, yeah... We're here."

Hearing that statement, my tail immediately started wagging while running towards the edge of the ship. Steam could be seen coming out of many buildings, but there were two things that caught my attention. "What are those?"

"I'm not sure about that building... But that one is Neo Stadium... Welcome to Nio Nacpulpa."

***

Meanwhile:

8:02 am

Forest Grotto, Kanto, Universe ???

A Meloetta walked out of a store, holding bags filled with groceries. "See you later Mina!" A bright smile was let out while floating in a random direction. "Let's get back..."

"Well..." A Mew suddenly Teleported in front of the Meloetta while crossing her arms. "This is Kanto in your world."

"Yup!" The other Mythical said nodding. "It's been a while, Harmi!" For a bright second, the Mew smiled before clearing her throat deeply.

"What did you do Melo?" Harmony said to the Meloetta. Before she decided to ask who she was talking about, Harmony crossed her arms to sigh. "It's about Volt."

"Oh. Oh!" Melo realized what was going on. "You're wondering about why I connected Manny and Volt's dreams. Well, it's simple: Volt needed training for what's going to happen to this world soon, and to train, you need a mentor."

The Mew thought to herself before her eyes widened. "Wait, you want Manny to be his mentor? Look I know the two are one of the same, but he's barely scratched the surface with it!"

"Exactly, they can grow together." Melo told her. "Don't worry about it."

"I know...," She said looking at her. "But if Darkrai notices, I'm... I'm not going to forgive myself."

"Then don't forgive me." Melo suddenly floated in front of her. "It will be my fault, got it?"

"N-No..." Harmony placed the bag down to sit on the grass floor. "I don't want you to be angry at me again. You probably hate me from last time, don't you?"

"Of course I don't hate you." The Meloetta put her bag down, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Y-You don't?" The Mew looked up with a brightened expression.

"No. I could never hate you," She smiled at her softly.

"Oh thank Arceus!" She dived in front of the Meloetta, dropping the bag she was holding. "I thought I was going to never talk to you again!"

"...Don't worry, that would never happen."

*Game File Saved*