Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon, only Pokémon owns me.

Chapter 6 — Climate Calamity:

The quintet were busy chatting to each other as they walked back to their belongings. The sun was gleaming more than ever, rays hotter than what the group was used to, but this did not dampen their mood. If anything, because it was unusual to see such hot, sunny weather in the UK, this made them happier, more prone to chatter.

Damian: "How's it been so far, guys?"

Gideon: "Good! I found a Mantine while I was swimming a good bit before I rescued Jackson here, and he seemed to want to follow me. I've never seen a Pokémon so calm and docile, and never one that just outright wanted to follow me everywhere I went. He was practically just begging to be caught, so I did just that."

Damian: "You, Tristan?"

Tristan: "I found a shiny Mareanie, which you guys saw earlier, so that was really cool. It did take a while for us to find cabins to change in, so that was annoying, but I'd say the rest certainly made up for it."

Damian: "How about you, Jackso-"

Jackson: "I mean, I was encased in ice and almost drowned to death, but other than that, yeah, I'm good."

Tristan: "So I take it that so far, you've not had a good time?"

Jackson: "Oh no, I've still had a splendidly good time."
Between Jackson's unusually sarcastic tone and his expression, something felt off to Tristan. It was like Jackson's eyes practically betrayed his words, and Tristan could sense the sheer terror they gave off, with the pupils dilated so wide that they looked like they were about to stab Tristan in the face.

Tristan: "Jackson, you sure you're good?"

Jackson: "I'm fine!"

Tristan would not stop looking worriedly at his friend, and neither did anyone else. The change of atmosphere, the sudden silence, it was soul-crushingly deafening.

Jackson: "Stop it! Stop looking at me LIKE THAT! There's absolutely NOTHING WRONG! S-st-sto-…"
Jackson looked ready to burst into tears. Tristan had never seen him cry, not even once, and yet now his best friend, whom he'd known all the way since the age of 5, looked like he was about to release a dam. He therefore deduced that there must've been something seriously wrong, which did little to reassure the small part in him that wanted to believe Jackson's words.

Gideon: "He almost died to an abnormally large Veluza. Cut him some slack. If he's not ready to share, then he's not ready to share. Don't make him relive it."

Damian: "Sorry."
Sally: "Sorry."
Tristan: "Sorry."

Unsurprisingly, that put quite the damper on the group's mood. At least they'd finally reached their stuff, and were looking to rest for a bit, having been feeling tired. Damian rested back on his laid-out towel, letting himself absorb the sunshine, while Sally rested on her own towel directly to his right. Her hand slowly moved, as did his, until the pair met, joining their hands together in a warm clasp. They were at peace, already having forgotten the previous events of the past few minutes.

Splat! Something wet fell on Damian's chest, jerking him awake.

Splat! Splat! Another drop fell, followed by a third, and soon, many more followed their place, now with a quicker pace. The clouds had suddenly turned grey, and their size and amount almost spontaneously increased, rapidly growing to cover the sun. What was happening?

Damian: "Uhh… guys, I think it might be raining."

Gideon: "That's not possible."

Drops of what seemed to indeed be rainwater fell down onto Sally, violently waking her up from her rest.

Sally: "You sure?"
Another successive stream of drips fell on Sally, as if to confirm their presence.

Gideon: "For one, it's summer, so it's unlikely to suddenly become rainy when it's this hot. Two, clouds don't just suddenly change their type or grow in size. Three, this isn't rain, it's snow, and I don't think it ever snows in summer here, or in fact almost anywhere in the world. Look at what's coming down from the sky, it's melting on you."

As if on cue, the weather's pace picked up, snow now violently falling down. Damian was sure that snow could never fall down this fast, so what gave? What was the reason or explanation for all of this?

Tristan: "So it can't be raining, even though English summer rain is actually quite common, but it's very much possible that it's snowing, even though this country barely even gets any snow in winter, and has never gotten it in summer? That's all cool then."

Gideon: "I didn't think it would be possible either, but if you look closely, you can see the snowflakes falling down onto you."

Everyone was now shivering, with their swimsuits slowly picking up snow that seemed to no longer be melting, and the sky itself was now turning grey, blocking off what little was left of the once very bright sun. Just then, Damian's phone started to ring, with the voice assistant indicating that this was from Professor Arauco.

Professor Arauco: "I'm phoning in to let you know, there's apparently heavy snow all over Southend-on-Sea. On a day as hot as this. It's very suspicious to me, and I'll be arriving there soon, but would you mind if you aided me out?"

Damian: "Of course. We'll be able to help you even better than you think, cause I'm already there with my friends. We were supposed to be having a good time, but then this happened, so we'll do whatever we can to help stop whatever's the cause of this weather."

Professor Arauco: "I'm thinking the cause of this must be a Pokémon, but it must be reall-... -trong to change the weather this drastically across such a large area. Okay, I won't waste any more of your time. I thi...-djis-..."
The weather quickened its pace even more, and was starting to interfere with the call, finally causing the phone to lose connection and ending the conversation.

The snow seemed relentless, making a point not to slow down and vowing never to stop. It looked to be somehow getting even worse, to the point where it was threating to become a snowstorm. The winds wooshed with such intensity that even without factoring in the heavy snowfall that it combined with, it was impossible to hear one's own thoughts.

Damian: "Yeah, you know what, th-th-there's n-no way th-that this could b-b-be n-n-natural!"
The cold really was starting to get to him, but he got there sooner than expected, with fistfulls of snow flying into his mouth, freezing his throat. The unnatural cold was even starting to freeze the sweat that had been on his face and chest, forming little icicles lined up perfectly on his eyebrows and chin, as well as around his exposed nipples.

Gideon: "We better g-get a move on! Now! Head to-… Ahhhh!"

The snowstorm was now so bad that it was starting to obscure their vision, and Damian would've lost everyone had he not been holding Sally's hand. He couldn't see a damn thing, and yet-

Hold on a minute, what happened to Gideon? The answer came not a moment later, with a blue flash of light akin to a beam pulsating close by to him. It seemed like the attack of a Pokémon, considering its vibrant glow and the explosion sound it created, but the snowstorm did little to explain anything more than that, covering up almost all of the finer details.

Tristan: "-Ahhh!-...-Help!"

So it wasn't just Gideon that was in danger either. He ran towards the sound, which seemed to be coming from the same direction as Gideon's, though he limited his speed to make sure he was still holding Sally's hand. After all, the less people he lost in this hellish storm, the better.

"Cast? FOOOOOOOORM!"
Damian could not believe that that thing was a Castform, considering the voice was so gruff and loud. Castform were never like this, and from what he'd read, they seemed to always be gentle souls. This one, on the other hand, shattered all knowledge he'd had into a million pieces.

Coming closer, he could now see the Pokémon as well, and it confirmed to him his suspicions. The Castform was flared up into a fury, and had frozen over Gideon entirely, with Tristan also not far off from being completely encased in ice. Man, he'd never seen such an aggressive Pokémon before, though Jackson would always think otherwise. Speaking of him, where was Jackson? His whereabouts still remained a mystery. Right now, however, there was only one thought that could easily be pursued.

Damian: "Let's take this Castform down."

Sally: "Agreed."

Damian: "Come on out, Flareon! Oh, and Sally, I almost forgot. Here's Milotic's Poké Ball. I assume you don't have your other Pokémon?"

Sally: "I do, actually. I have all of mine. I made sure to pick up my bag before the snow started becoming too much. Milotic is probably too tired, so I have a different Pokémon in mind. Now come on out, Kilowattrel!"

Flareon's fiery mane warmed them up, and melted the snow- and ice-covered sand around them. It also improved their vision, as the snow around them would melt into water, which would then evaporate into steam, all of which would happen way before it could ever fall onto them or in front of them. Good thing he had a Fire-type with him.

Damian: "Q uick Attack into Flame Charge!"
Sally: "Quick Attack into Wild Charge!"

Flareon jumped straight into action in an almost imperceptible blur, charging with a fiery attack that hit Castform in the back dead on, before jumping back to his trainer in an even faster fashion. Not a second later, Kilowattrel also struck the Weather Pokémon with her own attack, sending jolts of electricity to the Castform, before coming back to perch on Sally's shoulder.

Castform was dumbfounded, but more importantly, was also even angrier. It turned to face them, ready to wreak havoc, but there was yet another unusual difference about it. Its eyes were glowing a menacing red, not quite as bright as its attack that Damian saw from earlier, but still bright enough to be noticeable. It certainly made it stand out from other Castform, especially since these Pokémon normally always had black eyes. Oh no, it was about to start its attack. What to do what to do what to-

Sally: "Use Thunderbolt on that Ice Beam!"
Sally reacted to what he didn't, and successfully clashed with the opposing Pokémon's attack before it could hit. The two powerful attacks exploded from the impact, creating clouds of smoke that momentarily covered the vision of both sides.

Sally: "Use Dual Wingbeat to clear the smoke! Damian, would you mind lending me a hand? You seem… unresponsive."

Damian: "Uhh...-oh! Sorry! I-I mean th-thanks! Flareon, use Flamethrower!"

Castform was hit by the Flamethrower attack, and received a burn, which started to slowly chip away at its health. However, this did little to deter the Pokémon, increasing its spirit to fight to one that seemed larger than its own body. It fired back at both of them with a series of Weather Ball attacks, each one being Ice-type due to the snowstorm.

Damian: "Jump away!"
Sally: "Use Discharge around yourself!"

While Flareon dodged the first ball of light blue energy, he could not avoid the second, nor the third, nor the fourth, and subsequently, not the fifth either. Castform may have been angry, but it was far from reckless, choosing to fire those five Weather Ball attacks in concentrated arcs for greater coverage. The second and third attacks sent it back, with the fourth and fifth then hammering Flareon to the ground, crashing him into the thick sands.

For Sally, meanwhile, using Discharge proved to be an excellent option, forming a protective electrically charged barrier around Kilowattrel that fully absorbed and nulliffied the attacks.

Castform then fired Blizzard, hoping to hit Kilowattrel through the small gaps in the Discharge barrier, but Sally was smarter.

Sally: "Use Hurricane at the Blizzard!"

Damian: "Use Fire Spin on the Hurricane!"

Sally: "Nice, I didn't think of using that strategy. Seems like you've watched my battles."

Damian: "Yup! Every single one of them. You were a real star at the World Championships."

The Hurricane caught the Blizzard, just as Sally expected, and then Fire Spin combined too, melting and evaporating the icicles from Blizzard, and instead creating a firenado that was sent hurtling towards Castform, clearly damaging the rampaging Weather Pokémon. On its way, it heated up its surroundings, creating more snowless and iceless patches on the ground.

Castform nonetheless struck back, with no loss in its determination. From the smoke and fire, it used Thunderbolt, reaching Flareon before Damian could react.

Sally: "Use Dual Wingbeat to clear the smoke once more!"
Kilowattrel's powerful wings kicked off, dissipating the smoke around Castform.

In response, Castform opted for a series of Shadow Ball attacks, once again firing them at both Pokémon in concentric arcs.

Sally: "Use Air Cutter on those Shadow Balls!"

Damian: "Use Shadow Ball on those attacks!"

Both Air Cutter and Shadow Ball collided with Castform's own Shadow Ball attacks, cancelling them out and creating smoke. However, Castform had another idea whilst the trainers had performed their own counters. It fired off Fire Blast towards Kilowattrel while the smoke prevented them from seeing the Weather Pokémon.

Suddenly, a Fire Blast hit Kilowattrel out of nowhere, causing her to fall onto the ground in surprise. She then flew up once more, but seemed somewhat hurt.

What Castform failed to take into account is that the Fire Blast attack seemed to also be slowly melting the ice that had been trapping Gideon and Tristan in place. When the smoke from the attack cleared away, Sally noticed this.

Sally: "Damian, I have an idea. Does your Flareon know Fire Blast?"

Damian: "Nope. What plan did you come up with?"

Sally: "In that case, I'll use Hurricane, while you use Fire Spin. We should aim near where Tristan and Gideon are. Look, they're over there. Use Hurricane at where I'm pointing, Kilowattrel!"

Damian: "Use Fire Spin around there, Flareon!"

The two moves combined once more, and Castform realised their plan, putting itself in front of their friends and using Protect. However, what it failed to account for was that the move was still near enough, even then, to melt Tristan and Gideon from their icy prison.

Sally: "Again!"
Damian: "Again!"

The move was made once more, with an unrelenting Castform still in front. It went for Ice Beam, clearly intending to stop the firenado in its tracks, but the flames were so hot that they immediately melted and evaporated the attack, effectively nullifying it. Castform was hit hard, sending it back. Just then, the duo heard a familiar voice.

Professor Arauco: "Damian? That's you there, right? It's me, the professor, over here with your friend Jackson."

The professor and Jackson approached Damian and Sally, now clearly visible. Jackson seemed to be hyperventilating, and had bruises on him, as well as a shallow but long and clean cut under his arm that almost reached his elbow. All of this just opened up even more questions in Damian's mind.

Castform reappeared from the now fading blast, looking weaker and yet still somehow no less determined to fight. In response, Professor Arauco flung a Poké Ball with his right hand to send out one of his Pokémon, while still using his left to hold Jackson from the back to support him. Jackson seemed less bruised and more like he was suffering from the extreme cold, paired with what seemed to be a different kind of shock than what he'd been showing before the sudden snowfall.

Professor Arauco: "Come on out, Dragonite! Use Fire Blast!"

Tristan and Gideon got up, holding each other for support, and somewhat slowly ran away off from the side of the Castform and towards Damian and Sally. It was a good call, considering that in the next second or so, Fire Blast struck Castform from the side with a great force, sending it away quite far, causing it to hit a brick wall. They had only narrowly dodged the fiery attack.

Tristan seemed okay, but Gideon looked almost unconscious, which was unsurprising given that he'd been fully encased in ice, and been stuck for longer. Tristan, like the professor with Jackson, was holding onto Gideon from the back, intent on giving his friend enough support for him to stand.

Tristan: "Come on out, Gogoat! Use Sunny Day!"

Damian: "Use Sunny Day as well!"

Professor Arauco: "You, too Dragonite!"

The sun seemed to now somewhat penetrate through the thick, grey sky, but it wasn't enough to make a difference.

Professor Arauco: "Yup, this thing's somehow too strong! Use Iron Tail!"

The Dragon Pokémon swung her massive tail, now coated in a silver light, towards the Castform, who could not avoid the attack in time, sending it crashing into the brick wall once more, causing some of the tiles to be violently ripped off from its surface. Both the swing of the Pokémon's tail and the impact of the attack created sudden strong winds, causing parts of the professor's lab coat to flap about.

Professor Arauco: "Now use Dragon Pulse!"
Sally: "Use Thunder!"
Damian: "Use Flamethrower!"
Tristan: "Use Hyper Beam!"

The four attacks connected, creating a splurge of different colours that combined to make one massive beam, which actively pulsated every quarter of a second, creating a loud, almost supersonic sound before hitting its target only a second later. The resulting explosion was massive, the clouds of smoke easily towering over them all, and Castform was sent so far back into the wall that parts of it crumbled, even causing structural failure to the pavement and the road. Castform had been pushed so far deep that it had ended up under the road, which rapidly crumbled away into many different pieces of debris, creating an indent at the stopping point where Castform was.

The entire group climbed up to the road, as the stairs next to them were completely destroyed, and witnessed the damage.

Tristan: "Ummmmm, guys... I think we just caused more damage than the local council can pay to repair."

Professor Arauco: "Don't worry about it, kiddo. Something like this would definitely be on news coverage enough that all the MPs in Parliament would pledge their support. It would be repaired with national taxpayer money, not from the local council's."

The scene was certainly quite the sight, and not in a good way. The road was very cracked, splitting open entirely in some places, and entire parts of it were gone. At least no buildings had been touch-

Damian: "Run!"

A house was rapidly falling onto where they were, and so the group did the only thing they could, running towards and jumping onto where the sand was. They hit the spot just before the building struck, causing piles of dirt to mix with smoke, creating dustclouds that assaulted their noses, and their breathing.

A moment later, a vortex of high pressure water burst through the building, and everyone knew what this could only mean.

"CastFOOOOOOOORM!"

It was facing them again, its menacing infernal eyes now piercing deep into their very souls. It was preparing for a beam to fire at them, to crush them, to eradicate them. Why it seemed so angry, no one could tell, but it also seemed unnaturally strong too. As far as anyone could tell, there seemed to be no explanation for the Pokémon to be able to act like this. It seemed bigger than other Castform too, but it wasn't much larger either.

Sally: "Use Hurricane!"

Damian: "Use Flamethrower!"
Professor Arauco: "Use Thunder!"
Tristan: "Use Rock Slide!"

The moves all combined once again, this time creating a super-strong tornado made up of a maelstrom of attacks. The combination attack was hit by the Castform's Hyper Beam attack that it had just launched, but to no avail, instead causing the move to be sucked into the Hurricane and strengthening the combo attack. Half a second later, it hit Castform, sucking the Pokémon into the eye of the tornado and launching it about inside in many different directions. From this, a burst of explosion launched, violently slapping Castform downwards onto the sands.

Once the smoke cleared, the professor decided to act, throwing a Premier Ball at the creature lying on the ground. The professor noticed that Castform's eyes had seemed to change back to black, with swirls now appearing there, and the snowstorm seemed to be subsiding. The Premier Ball sucked in the Pokémon, and after a few seconds of the device twitching back and forth, Castform was caught.

Professor Arauco spotted a set of cameras in the distance, seeming to be operated by journalists and news channels, which could only confirm his suspicions from earlier. He gestured for everyone to ignore them, as he was all too aware of what the paparazzi could do, and he had plans of his own as well.

Professor Arauco: "We need to get back to my lab immediately, and I need you guys to come with me as well. Right now, trains should be cancelled, so we need something quicker. Anyone here got a Pyschic-type Pokémon?"

Tristan: "I have a Natu, but she doesn't know Teleport. I think Jackson's Kadabra does, though."

Tristan took Kadabra's Ultra Ball off of Jackson's belt, and opened the device.

Tristan: "Kadabra, we need you to teleport all of us and all of our belongings over here to Professor Arauco's lab using Teleport. Can you do that?"

His question was answered not a second later, with Tristan finding himself momentarily weightless before coming almost face-to-face with one of the paintings in the professor's house in just a small blip.

The professor led Jackson to the sofa, with Tristan leading Gideon there in similar fashion, before announcing his opinion to the group.

Professor Arauco: "Now, I don't want to be pessimistic, but the things we faced out there today was not natural. It was 100% not natural. The snowstorm that this Castform caused during a heatwave resembles events more to do with legendary Pokémon, like Kyogre and Groudon. I have no idea yet, I still need to run tests on it, but this must be from some kind of man-made invention, perhaps harnessing the power of such legends. Or, it could be even worse. I will let you know soon. In the meantime, I'll send one of my assistants down here to deal with Jackson's injuries. Feel free to all eat from the chicken schnitzel I've cooked that's waiting in the oven. Also, take these heated blankets, and I will also turn the central heating on. You guys must all be very cold."

After about two hours of waiting, the professor came back to the living room to announce his findings, and was happy to find that Jackson and Gideon were awake, and doing much better now. Everyone had gotten changed back into their clothes, and seemed to be deep in chatter. The food had been eaten as well.

Professor Arauco: "Sorry to break up the conversation, but I'm back. I hope you all feel better now. Now, about this mystery, based on my lab tests, this Castform seems to have an unknown drug that has caused abnormally high amount of growth hormone production. Any questions so far?"

Sally: "So that's why it seemed to be larger than normal. Still doesn't explain how it was growing quickly enough in such a short space of time to end up like that."

Professor Arauco: "It seems to boost growth levels way higher than naturally possible. On a surface level, it may look like it works in a similar way to steroids, but it actually seems to be much more different after having observed on a more molecular level. My daughter, Chloe, who was working with me there, thinks that the growth may be intentional, used as a way to strengthen the Pokémon, and that the abnormally rapid growth seems to also help repair bodily cells quickly, so a Pokémon can essentially almost constantly heal during a battle. That might be why the Castform seemed so resilient. There was something else we found as well. There seemed to be a tiny microchip attached inside the brain of Castform, which powered a radio that was operating on a custom frequency. I've seen several attempts in the past where people tried to weaponise EM waves for mind control, but I've never seen anything that worked. We're not dealing with a natural problem, we're dealing with a man-made one. Jackson also knows something about who we're dealing with."

Jackson: "So, how do I begin? I got separated from you guys quite soon after the storm started, and at some point, when I was walking, I saw three men and two women, all dressed in black leather jackets and black leather trousers. They appeared to be in a rush, headed towards this really old-looking car, but then they seemed to sense me. They turned back and saw that I was looking, and started arguing about what to do about me. I got spooked and decided to run away, which made them panic even more. One of the men looked to be about 6'6", and he was the one who decided to act in response to that. He ran towards me really fast, grabbed me and started beating me up. I was trying to defend myself, and countered some of his hits and even landed one on his stomach and one up his chin. He was getting desperate, so he pulled out a knife from a leg holster, and tried stabbing me. He managed to slash my arm, but not deeply, and before he could do anything else, just by luck, the professor flew down on his Dragonite to where I was. He ordered Dragonite to first use Iron Tail on that guy, sending him flying onto the car with the knife flying to his side, and then told her to use Dragon Pulse at the car, and scared them all away. He also took clear photos of all of them."

One by one, the Professor showed the photos he'd taken of the people on his phone. Sally swiped back to one of the photos, having noticed something.

Sally: "Look at that one. They all seem to have blades of some sort. Also, it's a little hard to make out, seeing that he's turned his back to the camera, but the guy on the passenger seat next to the driver looks… kind of... old. His clothes also seem to be different, like quite old-style formal clothes. No offense, but he doesn't seem like the kind of person you'd expect to do this."

Damian: "Professor, what happened to that guy that was hit by Iron Tail?"

Professor Arauco: "His friends quickly grabbed him and put him inside the car, and drove off before Dragon Pulse could hit. I don't think the guy was conscious after being hit, but he seemed to be intent on hurting and even potentially killing Jackson. In that moment, nobody could have been more suspicious than them. The storm was so bad that everyone either managed to hide in a building or was stuck outside and barely able to move. These guys, though, seemed controlled, and I noticed that they even had winter tyres. Nobody normally drives around in a retro car modified to have black-tinted windows, and certainly nobody drives around in winter tyres during a heatwave. That is, unless, they know well in advance that there is going to be an artificially created snowstorm, which they could only have known about if they caused it."

Gideon: "So, basically, what you're saying is that we have a bunch of madmen intent on creating extreme weather to cause havoc for Arceus knows what, using mind control technology that no one knows the inner workings of, and who are ready to kill all witnesses to their crimes? Got it."

Tristan: "Hey, y'know, that's actually quite a nice way of putting it."

It was definitely not a surprise then, that the group started laughing, before realising the serious weight of the situation.

Professor Arauco: "Also, the "old guy" that you're referring to seems oddly familiar to me. Even his clothes seem like the exact kind of clothes that he used to wear. If only we could get a photo of his face. It's been many years, so I might be misremembering, but I've had a couple of colleagues over the years that I fell out with, and this man seems like a familiar colleague that I knew from those years. That friend was a Senior Professor of Archaeology at Oxford. He was originally a biologist who was employed by top pharmaceutical companies around the world, but after a mid-life crisis where he lost his job and his wife, he retrained to become an archaelogist, and ended up becoming a professor at Oxford after studying there. I met him while I was studying to become a Pokémon Professor, and we were friends for many years. We fell out after he started becoming obsessed with certain undecipherable Ancient Minoan and Ancient Mesopotamian artifacts, claiming that he'd deciphered their meanings. He claimed that they pointed towards a mystical device of great power, one that was connected to the mythical Pokémon Arceus, and which was situated in a sunken underwater temple. Until then, he'd always acted rationally, dismissing almost anything even remotely sounding similar to magic, but now he was talking about a supposed magical device himself. He'd even heavily dismissed Arceaism before, and yet he was now speaking as if Arceus was the creator of the universe. I'd never and have still never seen anyone that hypocritical."

Gideon: "So, you know him that much, huh? You could, I don't know, call the police on him and his crew?"

Professor Arauco: "Except, unfortunately, I cannot remember his name. It's been more than a decade and a half since we fell out. Still, I will go to the police with these images, as well as the information, as we at least have something that we can go on. In the meantime, I guess we'll just have to wait."