During our protagonist's journey, they were camping out in a town's Pokemon Center, having some dinner in the middle of the night amongst themselves and their Pokemon. Ash's phone hummed however while he was taking a bite of his supper.
"Hmf? Who cou tha be?" The boy asked with his mouth partially filled as he got it out.
"Well whoever it is, at least make sure your mouth isn't full. Don't spittle food onto the screen." Elaine told him as she rolled her eyes, causing Sakura to giggle. Ash answered his phone, making sure to take a big gulp first, before saying with gleeful recognition,
"Oh, hey Professor Cerise!"
"Hey Ash! How are you and the others doing on your friends doing on your World Coronation Series adventure?"
"We're doing great, Professor! We've been doing great! We've moved past more than half the normal class, and we've been collecting Pokemon by the dozens! We've lost count of how many Pokemon we've caught but that should tell you how much we've seen!"
"Very impressive! In fact, there's something I wanted to tell you about that would help with your Pokedex."
"What would that be Professor?" Trace asked, though Sakura then also inquired,
"Who's this Professor?"
"Oh, who might that be?" Professor Cerise asked, unfamiliar with her voice. Ash turned his phone around to show Sakura.
"She's Sakura. She's someone who joined us recently from Ecruteak City. She's going to participate in the Pokemon Johto League."
"Oh, well isn't that great! The more the merrier."
"Thank you Professor Cerise." Sakura appreciated being accepted by the Professor in their group.
"You're welcome. Anyway, something fell from the sky North of Rustboro City. It could be a spaced based Pokemon that would be an interesting addition."
"That sounds cool!" Elaine gasped. "We're on it Professor!"
"Great. Let me know what you get." Professor Cerise nodded before signing off. "Well, looks like we know where to head to next."
"Yeah, let's catch a meteor!" Ash cheered.
"Pika Pika!" Pikachu cheered with him.
It was a hot, sunny day as they walked through Western Hoenn, as they tried to find whatever crashed here recently.
"Man, I sure could go for a drink of water."
"Unfortunately, we emptied that thing 10 minutes ago." Trace sighed as he held up an empty canteen.
"Aw man. But I'm so thirsty." Sakura panted, waving herself with her hands to cool off. But then she noticed something while looking to the side and saw a floating rock that resembled a sun. "Huh? What's that?"
"Could that be the Pokemon that crashed here?" Elaine wondered.
"Let's catch it!" Ash proclaimed. They tried to run but fell into a well hidden pit fall, crashing into the bottom filled with sticks and leaves. It was then that Team Rocket stood over them at a high ground.
"Well, you sure fell for it this time!" Jessie laughed at their misfortune.
"How'd you know we'd fall into here?!" Ash questioned them rather annoyed. James laughed.
"We secretly heard you had to look for something North of Rustboro, so we just dug a hole where you'd most likely walk, and here you are!"
"Now we'll use this shock proof net to nab Pikachu!" Meowth swiped Pikachu off of Ash's shoulder which made him demand out of anger now,
"Give back Pikachu!"
"What's taken is now ours!" They mischievously, delightfully laugh at their evil do-ery when a fiery spiral hit Meowth while catching the two adults so off guard they fell back in surprise, forcing the hurt Scratch Pokemon to yelp and drop the damaged net so that Pikachu fell back into Ash's arms.
"Haha, Pikachu!" Ash was glad to have his starter partner back.
"Pikapi!" Above them, the Pokemon they were looking for, a Solrock, hovered over them with intent to protect our heroes.
"Hey, get out of here!" James told off the Meteorite Pokemon in an irritated tone.
"Keep all those noses out of our business!" Jessie demanded just as annoyed.
"Get out of here!" Meowth yelled with scorch marks on his fur.
"Cacturn, let's go!" James sent out a scarecrow kind of Pokemon which was pale green, had dark green spikes around its body and an equally colored square shaped hat. However, it turned and hugged James, which was rather painful. "Ow! Cacturn, I'd prefer if you used your arms on Solrock please! Needle Arm!" Letting go of its master, it charged at the rock/psychic type with a glowing white arm, cloths-lining the Pokemon as it flipped multiple times backwards in pain. In retaliation once it stopped spinning, the top spike of its eight going around its body like a sun glowed white, empowered by the sun. It fired an instantaneous Solar Beam which sent Team Rocket flying.
"We're blasting off again!" They twinkled in the sky as they disappeared into the bright blue sky. Solrock seemed to have left while the smoke from its attack lingered in the air, for when it cleared, it was nowhere to be seen.
"Huh, that Solrock is gone." Ash took notice. He put his hands to his mouth. "Hey Solrock, where ya go?!"
"Pika Pika!" Pikachu called out as well.
"Aw man, I wanted to thank Solrock since it saved Pikachu and us." Ash sighed as he placed his hands behind his head.
"Let's thank it after getting some water. I'm still parched." Trace suggested as that bit of action only made him feel even thirstier. "Let's find this springs."
"Yeah!" The two girls agreed, but upon seeing empty pits where water should've been, they gave big, thirsty screeches from this terrible development.
"Oh no! What are we going to do?! There's nothing!" Elaine cried out in a panic.
"Are you sure this is the right place?" Ash asked Trace.
"You know anywhere else that looks like a springs, Ash?" He retorted back, getting annoyed that he's not getting his thirst quenched.
"Guys, there's a villaige nearby!" Sakura pointed to the group's left and there were small houses nearby.
"This time I'm sure there will be water!" Trace ran towards the village and all the other teens followed suite to get water as well. However, it appeared that this small village was empty, for even the river that flowed near it was dry as the dirt it showed. "Great... a ghost town with a ghost river. Why did we... have to run?" Said trainer panted with a dry tongue, resting his hands on his knees. His Eevee was concerned for her master, so she looked around until she saw a well, and perked up.
"Eevee vee!" She jumped off his shoulder and ran towards it.
"Aha! Good eye Eevee!" Trace expressed gratitude for his Pokemon as they followed Eevee, whom hopped onto the edge of the well. However, it appeared she misjudged how wide the edge of the well was as she slipped and fell in, falling and yelling into the deep hole. A hard impact was heard instead of a splash, thus indicating when they looked inside, it was dry as a bone as well. "Awww, what a bummer." Trace collapsed onto his knees in defeat. "Well, don't worry Eevee, we'll pull you up." Lowering a bucket in, Trace let his Pokemon jump into the bucket, then pulled her up. Eevee cheered and jumped into his arms, getting him to smile despite his dehydration problem. "Good Eevee." He patted her on the head.
"So, what are we going to do for water now?" Ash questioned.
"Huh? Who are you?" A pale green haired girl came out one of the houses, having heard the commotion.
"Oh, sorry. We had to get my Eevee out of your well since she accidentally jumped into it." Trace chuckled awkwardly. "We're travellers looking for a Solrock around here." That made the young adult gasp.
"Solrock? Do you perhaps mean to catch it?"
"What?! Catch Solrock?!" An older woman came out, likely the girl's grandmother ran out, dressed in an interesting garb pink and beige and a Lombre hat. "If you can take away that Pokemon who's bringing nothing but bad luck to our village we'd be most grateful!"
"Bad luck? What do you mean by that?" Ash wondered.
"But first, can we get some water? I've never been so thirsty in all my life."
"We can spare some drinks. Come in and I'll explain the situation." The girl offered them entry to her home which they accepted. And once they got their water, they were surprised how pristine and fresh it was.
"Wow, this water's great!" Sakura praised it.
"Thank you. Unfortunately, we're having a bit of a water problem." The girl, whom is named Mary, began to explain. "We're in the middle of a severe water shortage. It wasn't that long that our rivers and wells were full and overflowing. Further up stream is a spring that has always supplied us with pure, clean water. Our village has always believed that the great Lombre water lord lived there. But a meteorite was seen falling near the great Lombre's shrine. And since then, a Solrock has been seen in our forests, while at the same time, the rain has mysteriously stopped. Our springs have dried up. Many of the villagers, including my grandmother, think that Solrock is responsible for the drought."
"What do you think Mary?" Ash asked her.
"It doesn't make sense. How could a Solrock do this? I know it's associated with heat but it shouldn't be capable of something like this. Not on its lonesome anyway. There has to be a logical explanation, a rational reason with just a little bit more science."
"Sounds like you'd like to be a scientist of sorts." Trace chuckled with his playful remark.
"I don't know if that's what I want to do, but it certainly ties with what I believe in." Music started to be heard outside, as Mary's grandmother got the village to participate in performing a rain dance ritual, singing for the rain to come back. Mary sighed. "Unfortunately, everyone's more into the mystical history here. I try to convince them but they throw words at me like heretic and nonbeliever, and thus I'm mostly shunned for my opinions."
"Why do you not believe in this Lombre lord like the others?" Sakura inquired.
"I don't know. I just never really got into believing things blindly without asking why." It appeared that the rain dance started to attract some Pokemon, for some started to come out of the hiding spots in nature. A line of Bellosom danced out of the bushes and some Oddish, Shroomish and Seedot jumped out to dance along as well.
"Well, regardless of the impracticalness of it, it looks like it's sort of becoming a fun party." Ash chuckled at the sight.
"Well, even if it does look fun, they treat Mary bad. We shouldn't get involved." Elaine pointed out. During all this, Clefable's ears twitched as they heard something.
"Cle?" She focused in on the noise, wondering what it was beyond the village. Going to the door, the fairy type opened it and ran off.
"Clefable?! What are you doing?!" Elaine ran to catch up with her Pokemon.
"Wait up Elaine!" Mary followed her, and the two girls found themselves in front of a cave which Clefable was pointing towards.
"Cle! Clefable, fable!"
"You think something could be in there?" Elaine asked her partner.
"I know this cave like the back of my hand." Mary got out her mini-flash light and shined it into the dark cave. "Whatever your Clefable is looking for, we won't get lost in the process." Entering the cave, they ventured through its dark and cold atmosphere, careful not to trip over rocks or bump their heads against the ceiling. Soon, a sound could be heard to the girls as they followed the noise as well, and eventually found a machine with pumps going down a hole and through another tunnel.
"What's all this?" Elaine wondered.
"It looks like a pump of sorts." She then gasped. "Has someone been pumping away all our water?! Now it makes sense why all the water is gone!" Outside of the cave, all of the water was being pumped into a container with a nozzle with Jessie filling up bottle after bottle.
"Whew, a lot of work, but worth it." She tossed a full bottle to James whom passed off to Meowth as he put it into a box among more than several.
"It's perfect!" James cheered. "I love it when the cost of business is zero!"
"And seeing how humans go crazy for water this good we'll make mint!" Meowth proclaimed.
"Team Rocket!" Elaine called them out as she and Mary came out of the cave and found them.
"You've got some nerve stealing all of our water!" Mary was furious that they'd do such a heinous action.
"You think we have nerve doing that?" Jessie gave a villainous smile. "Then you haven't seen how much nerve we can really show! Arbok, Poison Sting!" Sending out her Cobra Pokemon, it shot out a barrage of purple needles which forced our heroes to retreat back into the cave, the opening riddled with needles.
"Uh oh, now those two girl twerps are going to tell the others what we're doing!" Meowth gulped.
"Oh hush up Meowth. We'll just break out our secret weapon." Jessie chuckled. It didn't take long for the two girls to return to the village, and Elaine called out to her boyfriend.
"Ash! You guys, it's all Team Rocket's fault!"
"Team Rocket?!" Ash growled from their continued interference.
"Pikachu!" The electric mouse's cheeks zapped from the mention of them. Just then the ground started to shake, and the ground split open as evil laughter came out, along with a giant robot.
"Prepare for trouble, either rain or dry!"
"And make it double, I'm a thirsty guy!"
"To protect the world from devastation!"
"To unite the people within our nation!"
"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"
"To extend our reach to the stars above!"
"Jessie!"
"James!"
"Team Rocket quenches our thirst for success at the speed of light!"
"Surrender now and raise your glass or prepare to fight, fight fight!"
"Meowth, that's right!"
"It's them!" They stole all the water from the caves!" Mary pointed to them.
"And just for good measure, we'll be taking all the Pokemon too!" Jessie told them as Meowth pressed a button, and multiple nets sprung from the humanoid robot water tank on legs, snagging all the Pokemon in one collective swoop.
"Don't let them get away with that! Psychic!" Elaine told her partner. The fairy type's eyes glowed blue as she made the nets glow blue as well, and tore the nets apart, freeing all the Pokemon.
"Hey, no fair!" Team Rocket complained.
"Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!" Ash told Pikachu.
"Pikaaaachuuuu!"
"I don't think so twerp face!" Meowth objected as he activated the middle nozzle in the middle of the robot's head, spraying a torrent of water which overwhelmed the electrical attack, and splashed Pikachu hard as she was sent flying into Ash's arms, causing him to collapse on his butt.
"Pikachu! Are you okay?!"
"Meowth, I think those villagers are a little thirsty." Jessie said to the normal type cat.
"You're right. Why don't you offer them a drink?" James added to the joke.
"Yeah, this will quench your thirst!" Meowth aimed the water at the pedestrians, intending to give them a shower with the strength of a riot hose. They were all fearful of what was coming.
"Look out!" Mary tried to warn them. Solrock got in between as it took the water, protecting the humans.
"Huh?! But Solrock should be weak against water!" Trace pointed out in disbelief.
"Typing isn't everything Trace. It's doing the right thing!" Ash responded to Trace as they watched it take the water head on before spinning around, generating fire around it which grew to be so hot the water started evaporating before touching Solrock.
"So that ain't enough?! Well try this!" Meowth pumped up the power as more water sprayed Solrock, but this still didn't hurt the Meteorite Pokemon as it spun faster and charged forward, bashing itself into Team Rocket's robot, knocking it back.
"Pikachu, Electro Ball!"
"Eevee, Shadow Ball!"
"Clefable, Moon Blast!" Ash, Trace and Elaine told their Pokemon as they formed three balls of yellow, black and pink energy. They fired all three at the same time which connected with the robot's chest, causing the whole thing to explode.
"So much for our great bottled water plan!" Jessie complained.
"And all our liquid assets!" James cried out.
"We're blasting off again!" Their yell of defeat went silent as they flew into the sky, with only a twinkle to show for their former presence. However, now wasn't the time for celebrating since Solrock was spinning too fast, becoming a fiery ball unlike Flame Wheel! Even the air was becoming affected as everything started to get all wavy.
"Solrock's getting out of control!" Ash noted.
"It's spinning too fast!" Elaine agreed, backing up from the increasing heat. Nearby grass and bushes caught ablaze as Solrock moved in one direction... the village!
"Solrock's heading straight for the village!" Mary gasped.
"You've got to help us!" Mary's grandmother approached our heroes. "Please do something!"
"Of course. Let's go Eevee!" Trace accepted their plea for help as he ran after the rock/psychic type.
"Don't forget us!" Ash went after Trace, along with the girls following.
"Come on Eevee! Let's help save these people's village!" Sakura encouraged her Pokemon.
"Vee!" Her normal type agreed as he jumped off Sakura's shoulder and sprinted after Solrock.
"Wait, Eevee!" To her shock, Eevee started to glow white. His body grew bigger, his tail became thin and split at the end, and his ears elongated. Soon, Sakura was running with an Espeon!"
"Espeon!"
"Wow, you evolved!" Sakura gasped with pleasant surprise. "Alright then! Use your psychic power!"
"Espeon!" His red gem glowed blue as he used Confusion. Even though Solrock was part psychic as well, it couldn't resist much against the Sun Pokemon's superior special power, and was halted for the most part.
"Well done you two!" Elaine complimented her friends. "Azumarill, use Aqua Tail!" Sending out her Aqua Rabbit Pokemon, she got buffed up and glowing white from her Huge Power ability, before forming a spiral of water from her tail as she slammed it down onto Solrock, sending it crashing into the ground. The super effective water along with being slammed into the ground managed to stop all its fire and momentum, as it just laid there completely harmless. But just to be safe, Sakura prepared a Pokeball.
"Go, Pokeball!" She threw the red and white sphere which bounced off the rock/psychic type, and absorbed it. It wobbled back and forth until it clicked, and Sakura picked it up.
"Yay! I caught a Solrock!"
"Nice catch Sakura!" Ash complimented her.
"Yeah, your Eevee evolved and you caught a new Pokemon in the same day!" Elaine giggled. "That's so cool!"
"Now our village can regain our water." Mary told our heroes when she caught up with them. "We'll get rid of the pump, and reclaim all the water Team Rocket stole and have stored behind the cave.
"But what about rain?" One of the older men asked. "We still need a steady supply from the spring, home of the great Lombre lord!"
"Hmmm..." Mary thought about it, before smiling and snapping her fingers. "I've got it. You guys heal up Solrock, and have your Azumarill ready Elaine. It's time to show them how to really bring in the rain." All her friends nodded, complying with her request. Once Solrock was better, Mary, Elaine and Sakura were standing in front of the shrine with the two necessary Pokemon out.
"Okay, let's go!" Mary told them.
"Solrock, use Fire Spin!" Sakura went first.
"Azumarill, Aqua Tail!" Solrock generated a fire tornado from its body while Azumarill created a vortex of water from her tail as the two attacks mixed together to make a whirlwind of red, yellow and blue, which started generating lots and lots of steam.
"So what's happening Mary?" Ash asked her, confused on what's happening.
"Here's the thing about clouds Ash." She began to explain. "Clouds are mostly made of water actually. Little water droplets too small for gravity to let fall from the winds up above. When the air is too dry then there aren't any clouds." As she was talking about it, clouds began to form overhead and block out the sun. "What we're doing is that we're introducing new water vapor into the sky so that there's more moisture up there, and when the clouds come and there's too much water..." Once enough clouds have formed to blanket the sky, droplets started to rain down until it started to definitely rain.
"Yipee! It's raining!" Mary's grandmother cheered.
"It's a miracle!" The older man praised the phenomenon. Everyone celebrated that rain had finally returned. All the Pokemon were pleased they could introduce rain to this formerly dry village.
"The spring is filling back up again!" Mary pointed to the springs which began to quickly fill back up.
"Oh thank you our dear water lord." Mary's grandmother praised, to which her granddaughter sighed from exasperation, but she'll deal with that later.
"Thank you all so much for the help. Please, stay here for the night as thanks."
"We'd appreciate that, thanks. It'd also allow our clothes to dry." Elaine chuckled as she held an arm over her chest, thankful she was wearing a black vest which covered everywhere else on her body.
"Of course. Oh, I also heard that there's a carnival coming around. It's getting close to the millennium comet."
"The millenium comet?" Ash asked, curious.
"Let me explain..."
A/N: That's right, I'm going to cover Jirachi: Wish Maker. Now, honestly I don't think that I'll cover anything that does much progression, but given that game play wise the village likely takes place near Meteor Falls due to the Solrock/Lunatone appearances there, and I've always wanted to cover the movies but never found a good opportunity before now, this is my best chance to cover a movie, if just for the sake of doing some writing that can feel more artistically worded. These Pokemon episodes can be a bit cut and dry if nothing amazing is going on, but movies can allow for scenes that really let the words feel more like art than just story convention. Let me know what you think in the reviews below about it.