Weather the Storm

Pairings: Mainly PokéShipping; Ash/Misty, slight ContestShipping; Drew/May, slight RocketShipping; James/Jessie, slight SoulSilverShipping, OC/OC.

Rating: T for language, suggestive themes, and violence.

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I affiliated in any way with the Pokémon franchise. This story is merely for entertainment. I, however, do own my OCs. I also don't own Back to the Future or anything else you could relate this storyline to.

A/N: A million thanks to my beta C'sMelody!


Sink or Swim

They stayed up half the night polishing and perfecting a plan that left no question as to who would win this battle. It was killing Ilse to not tell her parents everything that she knew but she knew that she had to keep her mouth shut. So she sat, interjecting when appropriate, and listened the rest of the time, eyes closed, trying to visualize the scene in her head.

Part way through, they had called Drew and May, knowing that they'd have to take time to get back to Kanto, as well as Jessie and James, and Gary Oak. It hadn't been a shock to Ilse, but she had to ask who Jessie and James were anyway, despite the fact that she had known them both since birth. She saw Jessie and James and their twin sons rather infrequently, but she was familiar with them nonetheless.

It was interesting to hear what her parents had to say about these people now as opposed to the watered down tales she had heard when she was younger. Her parents had never divulged the little detail that they were ex-Rocket members and had terrorized Ash, Misty, and Brock's childhoods.

Funny how parents leave that sort of thing out.

They explained that Jessie and James were needed because they knew were the Rocket Base was most recently located. They had left the group less than three years prior, and they imagined that it would be hard to secretly relocate the entire Rocket home base—it was likely in the same spot.

In addition to being Coordinators, May and Drew were excellent Pokémon Trainers and would be there for backup manpower. They would be able to cover more ground with the two of them.

Then there was Gary, who had more resources than even Ash as Champion did. Being grandson of Professor Oak had perks, but Gary had grown up to be quite the scientist himself. As much as Ash hated to admit it when they were children, Gary didn't just have average intelligence—he was kind of a genius. They knew that Gary would be useful, they just didn't know with what quite yet.

They told Misty's sisters. Rather, Misty told her sisters. She didn't know what she expected—for them to forbid her from going? For them to openly weep and tell her to be careful? Well, neither of those things happened. They just told her, "You live your life, baby sister," and went back to painting each other's nails.

Misty came back and told the guys right then and there that she was not leaving the Gym in their hands.

Of course, it wasn't hard to talk Misty out of that. No matter how flaky her sister's acted, they were good Pokémon Trainers and the Gym would be fine. Maybe it wouldn't flourish in the way it did when Misty was in charge, but hey, people had to get the Cascade Badge somehow! And it was only going to be for a day or two anyway. Hopefully.

Then came the tough part. The League.

Ash must have spent over an hour on the phone and when he came back to tell everyone how the call went, he looked exhausted. He had taken of his hat and his hair was incredibly disheveled, evidence of him running his fingers through it exasperatedly.

"How did it go?" Brock asked hesitantly.

Ash collapsed on a couch and pulled Pikachu into his lap, stroking the Electric mouse absentmindedly. "It would have been easier just to quit," he muttered.

"So it was successful, then?" Ilse asked hopefully.

Ash gave a weak smile. "Yeah."

Ilse had to resist the urge to hop up and punch the air in victory.

"They were really annoyed by the fact that I deviated away from my field job only to specifically request a field mission," Ash explained. "The idea of the Champion going on this mission when Team Rocket is already feeling trigger-happy was what was really holding them back. Honestly they didn't even start listening to me until I told them that I was going whether they gave me clearance or not." He smiled. "But now that we have it, we're free to make those bastards pay."

She couldn't wait.


If anyone went into the Cerulean Gym that day, they would have immediately called the police, claiming it was ransacked by thieves. And on first appearance, that's definitely what it looked like. The cabinets had been scavenged through, various Pokémon were no longer in their usual tanks, and basic supplies had vanished from the house.

And that's why the Gym was closed for the day.

Of course, if it had been thieves, they would have been especially bad ones because anything of any real value, besides the Pokémon that is, were left untouched. It was because Ash, Misty, Brock, Ilse, and Noah had spent the last few hours searching every inch of the Gym for things that could be potentially helpful on their journey. Items for themselves as well to equip to and treat their Pokémon.

As they did so, their team began to take shape. First, Gary Oak, who was only a few towns away, showed up. He had two bags, one with the basic supplies everyone else was scrounging for and one bag with gadgets that he wouldn't let anyone touch.

He was followed by Jessie and James, who to everyone's surprise, were newly married, and Meowth.

"This betta be good, twerp," Meowth said as he sharpened his nails with a nail file. "Yer takin' me away from my Trainin' ta evolve, ya know."

They informed everyone that last they knew the Rocket Base was located deep within the Viridian Forest and that it was very hard to find. It was so well hidden that even wandering Trainers never found it. And the few that did never lived to tell the tale.

Last to show up were Drew and May, who had to come from a contest on Cinnabar Island. By the time they arrived everyone was fully packed and more than eager to go. However, rather than leave right then, they made plans to leave early the next morning, so that they could get in a good night's rest. Not that any of them knew how they would manage to sleep that night, but they had to at least try. Who knew when the next time they would be able to sleep would be?


The next morning they landed in a Viridian that was completely different than the one that Ilse was used to. There were a lot more trees and the buildings looked a lot smaller. It seemed more residential than the buzzing metropolis it had become in eighteen years. Not to mention it was so early the sky was still pitch-black.

Everyone had used their Flying Types to get there as quickly as possible. Ilse could feel the chill of the brisk morning air perforating through her bones even after they landed. She rubbed her hands over her arms to warm up but even after Noah put his arm around her she couldn't stop shivering. So much so that she was starting to think that it wasn't just the early morning air that was making her shake so much.

They immediately headed into the forest. They didn't go on the beaten path, but instead went for the densest area of trees with Jessie, James, and Meowth in the lead. Following was Ash with Misty slightly behind, then Drew and May walking side by side and holding hands, and Brock, who was just in front of Noah and Ilse, who were taking up the rear. After only a few minutes of walking, the first rays of sunlight began to shine intermittently through the gaps in the trees.

"Um…" May started as she looked around anxiously. "Are you sure that there aren't any traps surrounding this place? Anything that might explode or tell anyone that we're here?"

Brock subtly turned to Ilse who just shrugged her shoulders in response.

Jessie spoke up. "No. Since Rockets have to traverse the forest randomly until an upper-level brings you to the base, they can't have any traps set up." She then scrunched her eyebrows together. "However, I would bet money that they have cameras. That must be how people find you out here."

"Wait," Gary said, "So are you saying that you've never actually been to the base on your own? You've only ever had people take you there?"

"Blindfolded," Meowth added with a nod of his head.

"Well, that's probably something that you should have told us!" May almost shouted.

"Guys, cool it," Ash said, for once being the voice of reason. "Pikachu should be able to pick up the signal from any electric devices before we come across them and then he can destroy them." Ash explained.

At that moment, Ilse wanted nothing more than to release her Pidgeot and have it survey the area. Or have her Uncle Brock send out his Crobat to use its Supersonic. The more they walked, the more the stress began taking over. She slipped her hands into her pockets so no one could see how much they trembled. She wanted everyone to think that she was the strong, intelligent Pokémon Trainer that they had all decided she was.

But the truth was that ever step they took was one step closer to the possibility of her failing. Her failing her mother, her father, her whole life. Ilse was usually pretty good at keeping focused. In Battles she would just get in the zone and any nervous energy she felt would just become more that she could fuel into the match. But this was different. There was too much at stake and she didn't know if she could get through it without the weight of this unfamiliar world crashing down on her.

She thought that seeing her parents right in front of her would be what would keep her steady, but she was wrong. If anything, that only made her more cognizant of everything that was at stake. No, she couldn't look at her parents for too long or she would probably collapse right there on the mossy ground.

The only thing that was keeping her even remotely sane was Noah's body next to her. She kept on sneaking glances at him and she didn't know how he did it, but he seemed perfectly passive. He looked as though he wasn't in an unfamiliar world and walking into a potentially deadly situation. That was just a part of who he was, though. Even when he battled he would keep totally even and unaffected by whatever went on around him. She hated to admit it, but right now she felt like he was her rock.

She knew that he noticed every time she jumped or so much as twitched at a sound. Every crunch she heard would give her a small burst of fear. Even though Noah wasn't responding, she noticed that May in particular was also a little jumpy. And James, who must have done this walk a hundred times before, seemed to be rather skittish.

Not to mention Meowth, who was clinging on to James' boot.

It was very strange to think that it was only a few weeks ago that she had landed with her face in the dirt in this very forest. Who knew? Maybe in this very spot.


"I'm getting hungry," Ash moaned as everyone heard his stomach grumble.

"You're always hungry, Ash," Misty muttered.

"Well how long have we been walking?" His moan turned into a whine.

Brock checked his watch. "Almost two hours."

"Wow, do you two have any idea where we are?" Drew asked the ex-Rockets, a twinge of annoyance in his tone.

"I thought we already went over—" Jessie started, but she was cut off by a shrill beeping sound.

Instantly James hit the ground. "What was that?" he asked into the grass, Meowth attached cowardly to his head.

"Sorry, that was me," Gary answered, fiddling with a strange device in his hands. "I'm setting up this tracking device. It's mapping the forest as we walk through it and it will map your progress in the base." Everyone looked at Gary with piqued interest. "Hopefully. It's a prototype."

Gary took small electronic bugs and placed them in everyone's ears. They were almost like stick-on earrings, and he placed them carefully on the cartilage of the shell of the ears so that they were undetectable. "I'll be able to tell you if you're going down a hallway that you've already gone down, but you won't be able to communicate back to me."

"Wow, this is amazing, Gary," Misty gushed as she felt around her ear.

Ash glared at how close his face was to hers.

"Don't touch that!" Gary exclaimed, snatching her hand away. "It's very delicate—if you touch it you might destroy it."

"Fine, fine," Misty said, putting her hands out in front of her.

Gary sighed, running his fingers through his spiky hair. "Amateurs."


"Guys, Pikachu's picking up something."

Ash had stopped abruptly. Pikachu was sitting on his shoulder, ears twitching away. Everyone else stopped behind them, cowering slightly.

"There!" Drew called out quietly, spotting a camera hidden in the brush.

Pikachu sent out a quick Thunder Wave, and cut off its electricity.

"Why didn't we just walk around it?" May asked, concerned. "Isn't ruining their feed going to alert them that we're here?"

"Maybe," Ash said nonchalantly with a shrug, "but if we hadn't cut off that electricity Pikachu wouldn't have been able to recognize any more; this one would have been too distracting."

Brock shrugged. "Fair enough."

Then they heard a soft, yet high pitched beeping coming from the direction of the camera. Before they knew what was happening, it exploded, making them all go flying back, sharp pieces of wood pelting them. They all rolled as best they could so that they could protect their faces with the ground. They stayed like that as the air cleared, listening for anything else to discharge.

"Well, I guess they know we're here now," Drew muttered finally, wiping off his clothes as he got up off the ground.

"I thought you said there were no traps!" May cried out, looking accusingly at the ex-Rockets.

Jessie grunted as she pushed herself up. "There usually aren't—this one must have been triggered by you destroying the camera," she spat at Ash. "No Rocket would do that."

"Guys, guys, calm down," Brock said as he spat out some bark. "Let's just keep moving. We're probably close."


He stared at a screen and chuckled deep in his throat, the sound coming out low and ominous.

"The Champion and his little girlfriend. What a prize they'll be to kill."

He swiveled around in his chair, glancing down at a cage beneath him.

"Won't they, Celebi?"


A/N: Okay, another filler chapter, I'm sorry. Maybe I should have put these last two together. I feel like this chapter is missing something, but I just didn't really have any time to give it anything extra. Tell me what you thought of it. And thank you so much for reading!