“Nite~nite~nite~nite~”

“Po~po~po~po~”

Nina couldn’t help the silly grin on her face as she overlooked Nitey giving vocal lessons to Poppy. 

The Primarina line, as their name suggested, were natural born performers. And while a Popplio needed to Evolve into a Brionne before their vocal chords became developed enough to sing a full song, it didn’t hurt to start early.

“Poppy has a great voice, don’t you think, Gastly?”

Nina’s Gastly was floating leisurely atop the girl’s lap, happy to expose herself and hang out under the shade, away from the sun.

“Gas…”

Nina smiled and gave the Ghost a gentle pat, feeling the familiar chill on her palm. Her Gastly felt as cold as usual, even as her skin was numb from the winter chill.

“I know it’s been difficult for you to make friends with the others. But maybe you can start with befriending Poppy?” Nina said as she gave the Gastly a little kiss, instantly turning her lips a tinge of blue. 

“Poppy might seem fine on the surface, but I’m sure he’s probably feeling a little overwhelmed by everything as well. So just reach out and give him some guidance. I’m sure he’d appreciate it.”

“Gas…” Gastly nodded and the two continued to watch over Poppy, who was now learning a few basic dance moves from Nitey.

The Dragonite might not be able to dance as elegantly as he used to anymore with his lumbering physique. But that did not deter Nitey from trying to adapt his style to match his newly acquired limbs. If there was one thing that Nina loved the most about her partner, it was his endless optimism and boundless curiosity.

“Nina, a moment of your time please.” 

Nina turned around and responded in affirmation to the familiar voice of Professor Oak. And with a little oomph, she got back up on her feet and followed her sponsor to his lab, with Gastly in tow.

“What’s up, Professor?” Nina said as she caught up to the elderly man and reached out to support his arm. “Would it be insulting if I gifted a cane to him?”

Professor Oak nodded in thanks as the pair continued to make their way underground to the laboratory. “Do you still recall what we discussed the other day?”

“Yup, you want me to escort a package over to Professor Elm in New Bark Town.” Nina and Kerry were already planning to head to Johto to sweep up some easy Star Badges so it wasn’t too much of an inconvenience. 

All badges within the Indigo League were valid for the Conference, so it did not matter if Nina’s badges were Kantonian or Johton. And besides, she had already seen most of what’s to see in Kanto. So she wanted to venture out and experience a different culture — a sentiment that Kerry largely agreed with.

“Indeed.” The Professor replied as they both took an elevator to the basement to join Samson and Kerry who were standing beside a massive slab of stone resting on some sort of contraption.

“Though I do regret that we weren’t able to fulfill your wish of a Tirtouga.” He continued as they approached the stone slab.

Nina awed as she got close to examine the artifact, her face mere inches away from the outline of fossilized bone and shell fused into the stone.

Samson laughed. “Impressive right? This is perhaps the most intact Tirtouga fossil that we’ve discovered in… well, in forever.”

Nina nodded, desperately resisting the urge to reach out and touch the fossil. To her side, Kerry had a similar expression of awe and was equally fascinated by the remains of the ancient turtle Pokemon.

The Nurse Apprentice gasped. “It’s almost like it could come to life at any moment…” 

“Indeed.” Professor Oak echoed, with a genial smile. “This is what we would like for you to escort to Johto. We could use the transfer system, but given its imperfections, we did not want to risk any distortion of such a delicate fossil.”

“Especially since it’s the only one we have in the entire world.” Samson chimed. “No pressure or anything.”

Nina pried herself away from the fossil and forced herself to settle down. “We’ll do our best, but how exactly are we supposed to carry such a heavy package all the way across Mount Silver?” She asked. “I mean Nitey can probably lift it, but if we’re airlifting it then I’d appreciate a lot of padding and maybe a supersized Fly Basket.”

Professor Oak chuckled in amusement and shook his head. “You need not worry about that little detail, Nina. Despite all of Samson’s boasting, even he is unable to carry such a heavy object all the way from Alola.”

“Then how?”

The answer was soon demonstrated to Nina as Professor Oak engaged the machine that was currently holding the Tirtouga fossil. The familiar hum and whirring of electronics coming to life permeated the space as the fossil was encased in a spherical forcefield.

“Would you like to do the honors, Samson?”

The man in question chuckled in amusement. “Nope! If something bad happens to it, I don’t wanna be known as the guy who pulled the lever.”

Professor Oak sighed with a helpless look as he reached out to pull the lever in question.

Electricity crackled and the whirring intensified. And both Nina and Kerry looked on in shock as the forcefield slowly shrunk, the delicate fossil contained within shrinking alongside it. Until it became barely larger than a tyre. 

Mechanical arms then moved in to seal the shrunken slab and the still active forcefield in a metal cube, before placing it in a padded case, with a convenient little handle on the side, looking alot like the Pelican cases of Nina’s past life.

“My apologies. It might still be a little big, but this is as compact as we could make it without the risk of damaging the fossil,” said Professor Oak.

Nina nodded with a dumbfounded look on her face. “Erm, so transferring it is no good, but shrinking it this way is fine?”

Professor Oak laughed. “I can see the absurdity of it, but rest assured that this method is safer. Samson already did it once when transporting the fossil over and I’ve already verified that its molecular structure and biological components remain intact and undamaged — relative to the years of erosion it had already been subjected to of course.”

He then explained that the technology they used was dimensional tech. So the fossil itself was not actually shrunk, just the dimensions surrounding it. So while it looked smaller to their naked eyes, the size of the fossil itself remained unchanged. “It’s all relative.” As the Professor said. He also noted that the tech was similar but entirely different from what they used in Pokeballs.

Nina just nodded with a blank expression and recorded the conversation for self-study later. She never did manage to crack the workings of a Pokeball. “Is learning Theoretical Physics just forever out of my grasp?” The girl lamented.

“So you want us to escort this case over to Professor Elm, where he would presumably have the means of undoing this ‘shrinking’, right?” The girl asked.

“Yes,” affirmed the Professor. “Utsugi has a similar machine in his lab so the ‘unshrinking’ won’t be a problem. And as an extra reward for your troubles, he has also agreed to revive your fossil egg for you.” That last part got Nina jumping and cheering in excitement.

One of Professor Elm’s primary research subjects was the Origin of Life. So naturally, he had a lot of interest in prehistoric Pokemon. In fact, one of the main reasons for him wanting to study the Tirtouga fossil was to see if he could fill in the holes of the currently incomplete Tirtouga DNA that the world had access to. All in the hopes of creating a healthy clone and potentially achieving a full revival of the fossil Nina just saw.

“And I get dibs for a Tirtouga if Professor Elm succeeds right?” Nina pleaded, with the full force of her Baby-doll Eyes.

Both Professors laughed in amusement at the girl who was begging for a rare Pokemon like children begging for ice-cream. “Of course, Nina. Though it might take some time for Elm to complete his work. Same with the revival of your egg for that matter,” said Samson.

“It also doesn’t help that Samson needs to return the fossil back to Alola once he’s done helping me with my work here.” Professor Oak chimed.

“That’s fine. I’m not in a rush.” Nina still had her current roster of Pokemon to train. Poppy aside, Brucey was still not Evolving and her pacifist Gastly remained a puzzling challenge.

***

Nina awoke in a field of flowers. The girl moaned and sat up with a stretch as she breathed in the fragrant perfume surrounding her.

“Mmm…” Nina nodded. “Gastly’s improving. The dream is feeling more and more realistic each time.”

And speaking of Gastly, Nina got up and started calling out to her little ball of gas. “Gastly! Where are you~? I told you last time, we gotta meet first before starting hide and seek. Otherwise it’s not fair!”

“Po-po!”

However, the one who responded wasn’t Gastly, but rather, Poppy, who was jumping up and down in the field of flowers, his little round nose peeking out and back down again amidst the overgrown vegetation.

Nina laughed and made her way over to pick up the bouncing Popplio. “Hey there, Poppy. Did Gastly invite you into this dream as well?” It was either that or he was accidentally dragged in since Nina slept with Poppy in her embrace that night.

“Po-po, popplio~” Poppy just tilted his head in response, unsure of what was going on either.

Nina giggled and leaned in to boop the sea lion's squishy pink nose. “Seems like Gastly wants to play hide and seek. So let’s look around shall we? See if we can’t spot her floating around.”

Gastly loved hide and seek, though Nina had to set a rule that forbade the Ghost Pokemon from hiding in the shadows. Otherwise, Nina would never be able to find her, leading to a very sulky Gastly in the morning. 

There was even one time where Gastly refused to let Nina wake up until she found her, to force the girl to continue playing. That dream nearly turned into a nightmare if not for Espy who delved into Nina’s mind once she sensed something amiss. 

Nina wasn’t sure if Gastly was just being nice to her junior, but she and Poppy found Gastly soon enough, from the subtle traces of greyish flame emanating from a nearby tree. This entire space was a recreation of Gastly’s old home — the cavern that used to house the Alpha Parasect’s brood — but in its heyday, and not the desolate piece of land that Nina went to last time.

“Hey Gastly!” Nina called as she jumped behind the tree and pulled the warm ball of gas into her embrace, alongside Poppy, who sneezed from the ticklish touch.

Nina giggled and created some separation between the two. “Very nice of you to invite Poppy to join us tonight.”

“Po-po, pop. Popplio!”

In response to Nina and Poppy’s praise, Gastly let out a little blush and averted her gaze.

Nina chuckled. “Since this is Poppy’s first time here, why don’t we give him a tour. Then we can play some simple games before we wake up. I’m sure you want to show off what you can do to your junior.”

And with that, Nina proceeded to walk around the space under Gastly’s guidance, who was even kind enough to help levitate Poppy and gave him a taste of what it was like to fly.

This had been Nina’s nightly routine ever since Gastly learned how to Dream Dive— an ability that allowed Ghost Type Pokemon to infiltrate the dreams of others. Technically, Psychic Type Pokemon could do something similar with the move Dream Eater as well, but they couldn’t mold a dream to their liking the way that Nina’s Gastly could. 

At present, this was Nina’s only way of training Gastly since she was quite averse to battling. Not that she refused to battle. Gastly would still jump into the arena when Nina asked, but she wasn’t as aggressive as her other Pokemon and didn’t possess their natural battle instincts, preferring to react and defend instead. Which was great for a bodyguard, her primary role, but not so great for a battler.

Once Gastly had her fill of showing Poppy around her little domain, she then proceeded to do all sorts of tricks to impress the Popplio; doing stuff like enlarging herself, morphing into a second Nina, completely changing the environment to Nina and Nitey’s usual diving spot and so on.

Here in this dream realm, Gastly was practically on godmode, free to do whatever she could imagine.

Poppy oohed and ahhed at her senior’s mastery, lavishing the shy little Ghost with endless compliments. A fact that Nina took full advantage of by coaxing Gastly into sparring with Poppy, with the excuse of teaching the junior Pokemon the basics of battling.

“In terms of battle strength, Poppy and Gastly are the most on par. So this is perfect.” This way, her Pokemon could train in their sleep and wouldn’t be tired during the day since the rest still counted. 

Nina would have to check in real life if the benefits of training in the dream could roll over or not though. And especially if dream battling gave certain advantages that would translate into bad habits in reality. Physical improvements might be out of the question but technique and skill could feasibly be honed in a dream.

And with that, the trio spent the night together in their special little world until the sun rose. Nina and Poppy awoke with a yawn, the latter equally, if not more energetic than he was the day prior, after a night of adventure and play.

***

Author's note:

You might notice some overlap with the Flowers and Reverie short story and that's because I wrote this chapter before I wrote the short story. Probably could have made some adjustments but never got around to it.

Also, happy weekend. This is the first weekend where I don't have to work since... since my last vacation actually. Might go watch a movie.

I heard the new Fantastic Four is good. Probably not Superman since review for that have been kinda meh. A shame really... It's perfectly possible to blend humour with emotional moments, but I feel like we now live in an era where there's probably a whole generation of screenwriters in Hollywood that grew up mainly on Marvel films and have subsequently been poisoned by them.

But eh, I'll go see for myself I guess.