Weather Institute

fter the Pokeringer concluded, the gang had a few surprises while on their way to Fortree City. First while Ash was training his Bagon and Trapinch they finally evolved into their second stages. Bagon evolved into a Shelgon and Trapinch evolved into a Vibrava. As Shelgon was shiny his shell was green and his skin was grayish green; a normal Shelgon's shell and skin was gray. As Vibrava was shiny instead of having green wings, green eyes and green scales on it's tail like normal, he had orange wings, orange eyes and orange scales on it's tail. Ash was happy they evolved into their second stages and he asked them not to cause trouble at Prof. Oak's lab again. Since Shelgon and Vibrava evolved from Bagon and Trapinch, they felt less impatient and promised to behave now. The next surprise was that one day the gang was attacked by a angry swarm of Shroomish and Breloom. But May's Torchic evolved into Combusken and Ash's Shroomish evolved into Breloom and they were able to scare the Shroomish swarm away. And now the gang was continuing onto Fortree City.

On the way there something peculiar happened, the weather would fluctuate.

"Excuse me, but what is going on here?" May asked.

"It's rather obvious." Ash answered. "A Pokemon is using Rain Dance, Sunny Day and Hail at the same time. I've witnessed this before."

"Ash is right." Brock added. "The question is what Pokemon though?"

Brock's question was soon answered. A grey cloud shaped Pokemon appeared in front of the gang.

"No way, it's a Castform!" Max shouted excitedly.

Ash looked it up on the Pokedex.

"Castform, the Weather Pokemon. Castform's appearance changes with the weather. This Pokemon gained the ability to use the vast power of nature to protect it's tiny body."

"Are you the one responsible for this crazy weather?" May asked.

"No it isn't." A voice said.

The voice belonged to a scientist who was running up to the gang.

"I do apologize the crazy weather was caused by our research." The scientist said.

His name was Bart. Beside him was a female scientist who had a Ditto on her shoulder and she said her name was Millie.

Ash stared at Millie and looked in her mind.

*'That woman isn't a woman, it's a man in disguise.'* He thought. *'And something about her feels familiar.'*

Bart and Millie brought the gang to a building called the Weather Institute. The Weather Institute was a building where the researchers predicted and researched the weather and they also had a machine that could control the weather.

"Is this Castform yours?" Max asked Bart.

"It is." Bart confirmed the Castform belonged to him.

"The truth is we raise and look after Castform here too. They like the Weather Institute so they made it their home and they also help us protect it." Max was happy to hear that and hoped that maybe he would be allowed to get one for himself.

"Would you mind giving them a tour of the place?" Bart asked Millie.

Millie agreed to do so. Ash decided to keep an eye on Millie; he wasn't going to tell everyone else that she was a man considering he had no idea why he was pretending to be a woman.

Millie started the tour by showing the gang a room with computers and computer screens that showed what was happening outside. One screen even showed dozens of Castform flying around.

"Wow, you really do keep a lot of them." May said.

Suddenly Ash spotted a helicopter on a computer screen.

"Team Aqua's helicopter." He remembered seeing it the last time they encountered Team Aqua.

"You're right Ash. That means Team Aqua is here." May said.

"Team Aqua, huh?" Millie asked, somewhat angry.

Ash stared at her.

*'Her expression of Team Aqua is the same expression that Team Magma had when they fought each other last time.'* He thought. *'This has to be a Team Magma member.'*

Outside Team Aqua stepped out of the helicopters and tied the researchers up. Team Aqua's commander Shelly was with them.

"What are you after?" Bart demanded.

"We are here for your research." Shelly answered. "We know that you have research on the legendary Pokemon Kyogre and Groudon, so we have come here for that."

Bart was horrified.

"You won't be taking anything. I won't let you." He growled.

He quickly handed his pass card, containing information on the legendary Pokemon to Castform and told it to keep it and run. Castform flew away as fast as it could.

"After it!" Shelly commanded.

Inside Millie and the gang saw what was going on.

"We need to do something fast." Tomo said.

"I can download the data on our main computer onto a disk and then delete it on the computer before Team Aqua gets here." Millie said.

"Okay, I'll assist the Castform that Team Aqua's chasing." Ash said.

Even though Ash knew Millie isn't who she says she is, his main concern was protecting the data from Team Aqua. He would deal with Millie later. Max and Tomo noticed that the other Castform were being threatened by Team Aqua on the computer screen and they went off to help them. So Ash went off to help Bart's Castform, Max and Tomo headed off with Growlithe to protect the Castform and May and Brock stayed with Millie.

"Right now, I'll protect Castform and then take care of that Team Magma member." He said to himself before keeping his ears open for Castform. Then he found it.

"There you are." Ash said.

He now knew where he was going.

Meanwhile Millie, Brock and May were in the main computer room and Millie was dealing with the data. May and Brock were keeping watch on the door in case Team Aqua members arrived. Millie processed the data onto a pass card and then she deleted it off the main computer.

"Everything is set." Millie said.

"Okay, now let's go find the others." Brock said.

May hoped that Ash, Max and Tomo were okay.

Right now Ash found Bart's Castform who was being chased by two Team Aqua members and a Crawdaunt. He quickly knocked them out with several flaming punches and then he and Castform hid in another room.

"I have a idea how to fool Team Aqua." He said. He told Castform to hand him the pass card because he was going to hide it in his hat and have Castform hold a fake pass card so that Team Aqua won't get the real one.

Castform agreed with his plan so Castform gave Ash the pass card and Ash gave Castform another pass card that was in the room. Then they came out of their hiding place and set off to get out of the Weather Institute.

Right now Max and Tomo had arrived at the area where the Castform were. Some Team Aqua members were there too and they were tormenting them with Sealeo and Corphish.

"Leave them alone!" Max shouted releasing Whismur, Shuppet and Poochyena to help out.

Tomo released his Treecko, Wingull, Electrike and Duskull to help out as well. Team Aqua's Sealeo and Corphish turned out to be very strong, but Max and Tomo weren't willing to give up.

"You can do it all of you!" They shouted together to their Pokemon.

Suddenly Max's Whismur and Tomo's Wingull began to glow and they started to evolve. Whismur evolved into Loudred and Wingull evolved into Pelipper. Max and Tomo were happy, but they knew this was no time to celebrate.

"Pelipper use Shock Wave, Growlithe Flamethrower, Treecko Bullet Seed, Electrike Thunderbolt and Duskull Shadow Ball." Tomo said.

"Shuppet use Shadow Ball, Poochyena Dark Pulse and Loudred use Hyper Voice." Max said.

Thanks to the efforts of the Pokemon, Team Aqua and their Pokemon were defeated and the Castform were safe.

"We better go check on the others." Tomo said. Max agreed.

The boys returned their Pokemon, except Growlithe and then they and the Castform ran off to find the others.

Soon everyone was outside, but Shelly and other Team Aqua members were still there with the researchers.

"I've wasted a lot of time because of you today." Shelly said. "So to not have me waste more time here, hand over the data or your researchers will get hurt."

Shelly, being a terrible woman, planned to use the weather satellite to hurt the researchers using thunder and lightning.

"Quick Ash, give Castform's pass card to me." Millie said.

"Why would I do that for a Team Magma member?" Ash asked.

Everyone was puzzled by what he just said.

"What are you talking about Ash?" May asked.

"This. Fire Dragon Claw." Millie's clothes were torn off and she was revealed to be a man with purple hair that had a orange streak and he was wearing Team Magma clothing.

"I had a feeling you were a Team Magma member after your expression changed when I mentioned Team Aqua earlier."

The Team Magma member, who's name was Brodie the man of a thousand faces, was not happy that his disguise had been found out. But he smirked and said that he wasn't beaten yet. He had his Ditto transform into Growlithe and then he ordered it to use Flamethrower on Bart's Castform. Castform got hit and the pass card it was holding was burned to ashes.

"I have the spare copy of the data that I downloaded earlier." Brodie smirked. "And Shelly I deleted the data on the main computer so you are at a loss."

He quickly revealed a hidden jet pack on his bag and he and Ditto left quickly. Brodie left in such a hurry Team Aqua didn't have the chance to do anything.

"This isn't over yet. Retreat, all of you." Shelly said to the others.

Team Aqua left in their helicopters.

The researchers couldn't believe what had happened, especially that they had been fooled by Brodie.

"What's worse is that Team Magma now has all our data on Kyogre and Groudon." Bart said.

"Yes, but you haven't lost it completely." Ash replied.

He removed the pass card hidden under his hat and explained that the one with Castform was a fake.

"You are one smart trainer Ash." Bart said, gratefully.

Just then a woman came up and she introduced herself as the real Millie. Ash could tell she wasn't a impostor by her scent. The researchers told the real Millie what had happened with Team Aqua and Team Magma.

"Goodness me." Millie said. "Well thank goodness Ash saved our data. And don't worry I will put it up on the main computer right away."

The researchers were grateful for the gang's assistance.

"We're just sorry that Brodie managed to gain your data." Ash said.

"Yes and I fear what they'll do with it." Bart said. "I will tell Officer Jenny what had happened and hopefully Team Aqua and Team Magma will be stopped."

The gang hoped that too.

Suddenly two wild Castform appeared and they flew in front of Max and Tomo.

"Hey there." Max said.

"Max and Tomo as a thank you for protecting the Castform I want you two to take those two Castform with you." Bart said.

"Do you mean it?" Max asked, surprised.

"Yes, I know that those two Castform will be happy with you." Bart answered.

Max and Tomo accepted the offer and they caught the Castform, which of course made Max very happy. After that the gang said goodbye to Millie and Bart then left the Weather Institute.

That evening the gang thought about today's events.

"After what happened today it makes me fear what Team Aqua and Magma are going to do next." May said.

"Me too." Ash added. "But if the worst comes, remember we have Rayquaza on standby to help us."

It was clear to the gang that they had to be on their guard now if they ever encountered Team Aqua and Team Magma again.