Kamon ran through the bike bridge crossing the stream. He was a lightning bolt – ready for a marathon! Axel was just as fast. People riding their bicycles watched them in awe.

"That kid's really fast."

"He's obviously in a hurry."

"Where's he running to?"

Both Kamon and Axel could feel the frequent updrafts and downdrafts as well as the crackling rise of static electricity in the air as they ran into the plains. Thunder then boomed loudly as rain fell. Using the winds and data from satellites, he predicted the storm would end at exactly 10:36 PM. He checked his PokéNav to see that it was 6:36 PM right now. Exactly four hours from then, the storm would be over.

Kamon and Axel dashed through the tall grass as the rain crashed down. Linoone, Oddish, and Tropius scattered for shelter.

An hour later, the trainer and his Persian dashed through mud and sank in, slowing them down.

"Hey, what happened? Don't stop – the Weather Institute is just a mile from here!"

Checking the map, he could see that Duncan and Crystal had arrived at the institute. There was little time left – and exactly three hours until the storm ended.

Axel grunted as he sank into the mud, slogging through it.

Kamon proceeded to pick him up. "Don't worry, Axel, we'll get there." Kamon tossed the Persian to solid ground. Axel returned the favor by biting Kamon's shirt, pulling him as well. "Thanks, man."

---

Brendan, May and Wally had arrived at the Weather Institute. "'Meet me at the Weather Institute'," recited Brendan.

"Well, we're there, but where's Steven?" asked May.

"He said he'd be inside," said Brendan. "'I'm in the second floor'." They then went inside, opening the door.

"Who are you and what is your business?" asked a security guard.

"I'm Brendan Birch and I'm here to see Steven Stone." He wasn't told the reason why.

The guard pulled out a small case, which opened up to reveal a toy Azurill. What was that gas being sprayed out of its mouth? As Brendan wondered this, he, May and Wally passed out.

---

Kamon and Axel reached a tall building. Checking his PokéNav, he found that Duncan and Crystal were at this spot. "This must be the Weather Institute." They then entered the building via the automated door.

It was eerily quiet. "Where is everybody?" asked Kamon. He knew Duncan and Crystal were around here, but where exactly in here? "I guess we'd better start searching."

When he climbed up the stairs, he slipped back down, because the stairs were wet. "Unh!" He hoped that anybody who had invaded didn't hear that.

But somebody did, and they were walking right down!

The person walking down asked, "Who's that?" A woman with hair similar to Jasmine's, only purple, had headed down. She was apparently a security guard. "You look like you've just left the rain."

"I did."

"You're Kamon, right? Jasmine told me about you. I'm her sister, Winona." Winona looked out the window. "Who knows when the rain will let up?"

"Two hours, forty-five minutes and thirty seconds from now. At precisely 10:36 PM."

"You think?" Kamon said nothing. "You know your meteorology."

"Is it possible to get any further up?"

"Not with my current credentials. Those guys from Team Aqua forced security to neutralize all of the codes," explained Winona. "Nothing will open the doors now." She then remembered something. "But I did see three other kids who came here. They've been sprayed with sleeping gas by a Team Aqua Grunt impersonating a security guard. Who knows where they are now?"

---

Brendan awoke from his sleep. "Ugh… Sleeping gas," he slurred, still feeling tired. He looked around to see that he and his friends were in some storage room. Where was this place? He got up, trying to beat his exhaustion. True, in school he always felt slightly tired, no matter how much sleep he got, but not this lethargic.

He tried to open the door, but it was locked. "Why would anybody lock a door from the outside?" This only worked in prisons, not for a storage room, since anybody would be able to unlock the door and get in.

"Help! Help!" He slammed on the door, hoping that somebody would respond. No response. He sat down in wonder. There had to be a way out. But their Pokémon had been taken away. Now what?

Five minutes later, the metal door started to open. Brendan moved out of the way. He was relieved to see Steven. "Long time no see, Brendan."

May and Wally then regained consciousness. "What's going on?" asked May.

"Steven to the rescue," remarked Brendan.

"He found us." Wally then asked Steven, "Why'd you invite us here?"

"Team Aqua's invaded this place, so I need your help in getting them out of here."

"Why us?" asked May. "We're just regular trainers."

"I can see your potential," explained Steven. "That's why my dad gave you your PokéNavs. Now let's get out of here before Team Aqua comes back to investigate."

---

Brendan, May, Wally and Steven searched around the lab for the Weather Institute directors, but they weren't anywhere to be found. Obviously, the directors were in a shelter, and Team Aqua was holding them there.

Suddenly, the thunderstorm outside grew so intense that the building suffered a power surge. "The power line's down," said Brendan in fear.

Kamon, who was two floors down, said the same thing. The wind shifted, so his earlier prediction of it ending at 10:36 PM had been disproved. "This makes no sense." His brain could easily process data from global weather satellites. It was numbers and patterns. Maybe he was wrong here. Or maybe something was causing it to change frequently.

Winona turned on a flashlight. "Now there's no power to open the doors. We're stranded out here."

Kamon's heart started to rapidly beat. What was he going to do now?

Axel searched around and found an air vent. The vent was too small for a normal human to get through, but then again, Kamon wasn't all that normal. Spike would definitely fit through.

Kamon looked and saw the Persian clawing its way into the vent. "Great idea!" He dashed over and pulled the grate. But it was screwed shut. Kamon painstakingly unscrewed the grate, enabling him to pull it away. Too bad the air conditioning didn't work right now.

Axel then pushed himself into the vent. It was very dark to see, but he had inherent night vision. With that, he was able to see what was in front of him.

Kamon got down to the floor and tried to push himself in. It was harder for him, since he was larger, but then he got help from Winona, who pushed him in.

"I'm afraid I can't fit through, so you're on your own from here on," said Winona. "Be careful!"

Kamon wasn't sure if she meant being careful in the vents or while finding his friends. He guessed it was a little of both.

After five minutes of crawling through, and three more climbing up a vertical duct, Kamon found another grating. He punched through it and pulled himself out.

"I never thought I'd be crawling in a building's air conditioning."

---

May's Torchic provided light as the trainers sneaked their way around.

"Hey, Wally, you said that your sister's in Team Aqua, right?" asked Steven.

Wally visibly tensed. "Uh… well…"

Brendan felt the stress building up. "I'd rather not say…"

"That's exactly right," said May. "Her name is Shelly. I think she's in a high rank."

Somewhere else, a female Aqua talked through her Bluetooth headset. "We got a problem," she said. "They've escaped and they're trying to bring us down."

"I hope you have a plan."

"I'll meet them upstairs."

---

Kamon called Duncan's PokéNav. "Hello?" asked Duncan.

"I'm inside now. Where are you?"

"Third floor. How about you?"

"I've just climbed out of an air vent, but the room numbers all begin with the number two."
"So, you're in the second floor. Hurry up and get up here, or something bad might happen to us."

After hanging up, Kamon searched around for the stairs. There were none to be found. There was just an elevator that required a magnetic key. Even if he had the key, there was no power to run the elevator. Now he needed to find the circuit breakers.

While there was no upstairs, there was a downstairs. Downstairs, there was a power room. "Let's see…" There were many switches. What caught his eye, however, was "Main Power". It had been turned off automatically. Kamon pushed back the switch. All of the lights turned back on. "Hallelujah!"

Now that there was light, Kamon found an adjacent room with scientists scrambling to get free. But all of the doors were locked. Kamon unlocked them all. The occupants of the shelter were free! "Freedom!"

"Thanks, kid!"

"I owe you one!"

The leader walked to Kamon and told him, "I'm Leosty, the Chief Executive of this institute."

"I'm Kamon."

"Teams Aqua and Magma both invaded this place and locked us in the shelter. Since the power went out, the codes have been reset to their original settings. We can use our old pass-codes now!"

---

Brendan, May, Wally and Steven were surprised at the lights coming back on.

"I guess it was luck," said Brendan. "It was luck," he repeated.

"Too bad your luck's changed!" said a familiar voice.

"I know that voice – Shelly!" exclaimed Wally. "We finally found you!"

Shelly walked toward her brother. "Well, now that we've got the data for changing the weather, I gotta disappear to Lilycove. Ta-ta!"

"Oh, no you don't!" shouted Steven as he pursued Shelly. "Ready to get your butt kicked?"

"You wish!"

---

Kamon searched the third floor for Duncan and Crystal. In one door, Duncan shouted, "Right here, Silver!"

Kamon unlocked the door. He'd done it! "Hey, where's Team Magma?"

"They said something about an undersea cave in Eastern Hoenn," said Duncan. "They came here for a way to change the weather, and then to Mt. Pyre to get some red orb, so that they could summon some legendary Pokémon."

Crystal looked out the window. "The rain – it stopped."

Kamon checked the clock. "10:36 PM sharp," he stated. "I was right at first."

"You're a freaky meteorologist," joked Duncan. "Your brain's a lot more powerful than the top-of-the-line computer."

"They've been in a big rush, they left us here," joked Crystal. "So I guess we're reunited."

"Hey – you risked your lives to save me, so I decided to return the favor. Tomorrow, let's blow this joint."

Kamon could feel rumbling in his bag. The egg was hatching! He pulled out the egg and showed it to Duncan and Crystal. "I got this egg from Flannery. And it's hatching now!"

The shell cracked, and the baby creature inside struggled to break free. Duncan painstakingly helped pull the eggshell apart. The shaking made this difficult, but soon after, a baby Pokémon popped out!

"What is that?" asked Crystal. "It looks like a baby Wobbuffet."

"I've never seen one of those before," said Duncan.

---

Steven had lost the battle with Shelly. "You... destroyed me..."

"We surrender!" exclaimed Wally. "Please don't hurt us anymore."

Shelly could feel the sympathy she had toward her brother. "Well, kids, I guess you don't deserve any more beatings. What you need is a visit to my boss in Lilycove."