Out of all the days in the glorious Alola region, where the sun hung up high and shone the ocean to a magnificent sparkle, the sky was just a strange blanket of gray clouds, one of the uncommon days where the sunlight isn't present. Although the beach and the streets aren't as packed, as usual, Ash and his friends headed towards Akala island for something fun to do! To pass the time before school the next day. While Professor Kukui was out with Professor Burnet and the girls were back on Melemele doing their own thing, but the boys were walking on the port of Heahea City, wandering around in the warm weather.

"I don't think I can remember a cloudy day in the Alola region." Bob sighed, wishing for something interesting to pop up, as things normally would, but this day was as uneventful as a day in the real world. Bob's wish hasn't been granted, but Ash including Kiawe and Sophocles disagreed with the boy's statement.

"I dunno Bob, I might have remembered a day or two of clouds, but the Alola region perhaps uses a break, so I don't mind at all." Ash shrugged while he took out his backpack to check on two particular Pokémon, but to his surprise, there were three.

"Pwwwwwwwww..."

"Pwww..."

"Throooooo..."

Both Cosmog and his Rowlet were slumbering inside of Ash's bag, the combination of the soothing temperature and sleeping with some squishy creatures as soft as pillows were enough to snooze just about anything, Ash smiled while he puts his backpack on as he pats his partner Pikachu's on its head.

"Ash is right, it's not exactly uncommon for Alola to have its cloudy days, although Bob is right, not much to do before school tomorrow..." Sophocles whines as he looks down at his own Pokémon, Togademaru, who was wandering with the group, eyeballing the passing people, Pokémon, and buildings.

"A stroll into town isn't that bad if you ask me. Out of the house and farm, I'm down for just about anything." Kiawe stretches his arms in the air, now starting to get really used to taking things to a cooler pace just like the rest of the boys are at, even as paced as the girls are.

Bob suggests maybe they can go grab a bite for some lunch, but the time seemed a bit early for some food, so he was outvoted to wait, which didn't sit too well with him. Ash perks up, looking at Kiawe, asking if they can come over to his place for a visit to kill some time. That idea was shot down just as fast as the previous one, mostly because Kiawe thought his little sister Mimo might be a bit of a handful for his friends, visits to the Pokémon school was enough.

"How bout a movie?" Sophocles pointed towards a movie theater, but that didn't look like an option either. The movies that the boys might be interested in didn't start for at least an hour or two, and the ones that were to begin shortly weren't anything the boys actually wanted to see. One was a chick flick, and the other was a horror movie, which they already had their share frights in that sleepover with Scales and Acerola, enough said.

The boys sighed, they weren't getting anywhere with this lowly weather bringing them down until Kiawe pointed to a sign at the local community center that said "Howard Weather! LIVE! A special show at the Heahea City Community Center! 11 pm"

"A live show, huh? Not bad..."

Bob held his chin in consideration, but Ash was all down for it.

"Yeah! Live shows are the best! Whaddya say Pikachu? Let's go see that Howard Weather, guy!"

Pikachu raised its paw in the air as it was down to see the show too, Kiawe and Sophocles were also down. Bob was more used to movies in a theater rather than live shows, so he was on board too, thinking it would be an interesting experience to try out.

****

The boys paid the admission before taking a seat on the folding chairs all set up outside of the community center. Ash wasn't bothered the show was taking place outdoors, but Bob wasn't too thrilled to be sitting outside on a cloudy day, thinking for all he knows, it could be raining for all he knew, although the forecast didn't indicate any signs of rain. Murmurs were low just a minute away from the show, which began with a woman who worked at the center.

"Welcome, everyone. Welcome! Thank you so much for your patience before our live show. Our special guest will blow your minds away with the ability to control the weather itself. Please bring your attention to Martin Mayweather!"

The lady moved to the crowd taking a reserved seat, while the special performer waved his hand as he stepped in front of the audience. He was followed by three small Pokémon, they were gray and the same species, which it's appearance immediately recognized Bob.

"Oh snap! Look at the Castform, guys! That's the Pokémon I want!"

Bob was now a bit hyped to see a show starring the same weather-changing Pokémon, remembering the battle between his cousin Ernesto and his movie-star friends.

"Castform is a very unique Pokémon, so I can see why you would want to add one to your party." Kiawe smiled, glancing at Bob getting a kick of the live show, Sophocles too. He even explained to his friends about how its an artificial Pokémon, tests were run on it to change its form during unnatural conditions, but have failed, although man-made, it can be found in the wild all over the regions.

"Finding Castform freely in the wild was something that always kinda confused me, if it was created by human scientists, how are there natural Castforms in the world?"

It was a strange rhetorical question, but a show about changing the weather temporarily made the crowd cheer. Martin had his Castform shoot a Weather Ball into the sky and watch it burst to reach a certain altitude, gently sprinkling down a wave of heat, cool, and chilled air onto the crowd. Martin bowed to the audience, waving his gratefulness for the attention, as the crowd cheered before clearing out.

****

Back on the street, both the show and the battle with his cousin fueled the boy with the desire to add his own Castform to his party, the show only lasted about a half-hour, so the rest of the boys were down for a quest.

"It's settled then, we're going to help you get that Castform, Bob!"

Ash raised his hand in the air, always down for an adventure. Sophocles raised his own hands in the air.

"Yeah! I'll even help you locate a Castform!"

Kiawe nods, Bob excited to hit the road, things might have been prepared to go into the forest that leads to the center of Akala island. That was when Bob's stomach began to growl.

"... ... ... Oh yeah." Bob placed his hand on his stomach, so far caught up in the excitement, he forgot they didn't have the chance to eat lunch, so they stopped by a dine-in restaurant on Heahea Beach.

The boys spent the time formulating a plan to find a Castform in the forest, they were currently plotting ways to use the weather to lure at least one but paused when they just so happen to see the very performer from the live show earlier.

"Hey, check it out. It's Martin!"

Sophocles points to the man as he was reading a book while waiting for his food, which gives Ash an idea.

"Hey! Excuse me! Martin?" He waves his hand to the man to get his attention, who closed the book he was reading as he recognized the children from the show.

"Oh? Hello! I remember you guys from the show, thanks for supporting me! What do I have the honor of being summoned before you?"

Martin approached the kids where Ash explained their situation of trying to find a Castform.

"Our friend is looking for a Castform for his Island Trial Challenge, we were wondering if you had any tricks on finding one in the Alolan Region?"

Martin took a seat with the boys as he lightly chuckled, scratching the side of his head. The other boys looked at each other, which was when Martin had to come clean."

"I'm sorry gentlemen, I'm not from here, my apologies again for letting you down," The boys sighed, but he wasn't particularly finished. "But what I can do is hook you up with a Castform of your own!"

Bob gasped, the twist of obtaining one easier than going out caught him by high surprise.

"Wait, you're serious?"

Perking up, Martin wasn't playing around, he was set on helping the boy out. Martin informed Bob that he had an Castform in his party that doesn't like performing in front of crowds like the other ones in the live show from earlier.

"I was considering returning it to the Hoenn region where I first encountered it, but seeing the way it happily floats around the giant Exeggutor, it doesn't want to leave the region so soon. So I'm happy to offer you my Castform if you accept."

Martin raised his hand towards him in the way to make a deal or a negotiation final, so Bob took it with open arms. Ash clapped, so did Sophocles, Kiawe just chuckled at the boys silliness, including Martin. He was as zany and random just like they were. After a delicious meal of Alolan style burgers and fries before heading out. Little did they know, they were being eavesdropped by three particular figures, four if you wanted to get technical.

"So, this is where the twerps have been all along. If we've searched outside Melemele before the full blown search, we would've found them in half the time spent in the first place."

The eye rolling Jessie took her eyes off the newspaper while watching the boys heading out after they ate. Then she, James, Meowth, and Wobbuffet all sigh, wishing one of them considered to check in Akala or the islands right next to them.

"Think about all the Pokémon we could've captured then, the boss expects us to steal a lot in this amount of time. We have to make this heist a success."

James sweats as he pat down his forehead with a napkin from the table, which the two grown-ups sat and thought of a plan to swipe the boys clean, but that was then Meowth pulls out a map of Akala Island to formulate a start.

"Check that out you guys," Meowth points towards the boys who climbed into Martin's work van driving off. Pointing back to the map, the Pokémon draws a route where the van possibly could go, then lets them in on an idea he has. "Looks like the Ash and the rest are traveling by the new faces van, if we play our cards right, we can block their path and attack them without them even knowing it!"

Jessie and James look at each other, liking the idea, they had their own vehicle to do just the job, their food truck. So before any more time passed, the crooks climbed in as if they just got off of lunch as they clocked back in the weirdest way possible, burning rubber out of the parking lot with Wobbufet yelling, "WOBBUFFET!"

****

While on the road, Martin turned the radio to a station that played rock and roll hits from the 90's and the early 00's, and turned up the volume, flicking his head up and down to the guitar solos that played. Ash tried covering his backpack with his arms the most comforting and effective as he could to block off the pounding music as best he could so both Bebe and Nebby can sleep as peacefully as possible. So he eventually handed his backpack to Kiawe on the way back after convincing him with a pleading face.

"So are we heading to your hotel room to get Castform, Martin?"

Bob asked because he wasn't even quite sure where he or his friends were headed to after Martin offered them a ride.

"Oh no! I need to stop at Hano beach for something important, my Castform is with me as we speak!"

That's when Martin whistled, the very Castform woke up under a pile of clothes, startling Kiawe as it hovered towards the front.

"Cast! Cast!"

The small Pokémon squeaked, Martin pats its head as he turns the music back up after a second.

"Hey, little buddy, I want you to meet a new friend of mine, Bob!"

The boy up front waved his hand shyly while watching the small Pokémon bounce all around because it was also into the rock music as much as Martin was, so the two at least had some similar interests than hobbies.

Castform and Bob were getting along pretty well, but immediately was interrupted by the sound of a honking horn behind them.

"What the flying flim flam?!"

Sophocles looked behind the van to see a food truck violently chasing them on the road alone and gasped. All the boys looked behind and immediately recognized the two figures in front of the driver's seat.

"Stop the truck twerps! Give us your Pokémon! Or else!"

Meowth yelled as the truck sped up to the side of the van as they bashed the side as Martin swerved to the side of the street. Everyone inside flopped to the right, knowing Team Rocket weren't fooling around here.

"HOLY BLICK! They're planning to kill us!!!" Sophocles held onto dear life on the back of the seat, Kiawe held onto Ash's backpack in panic, Ash holding on to both Pikachu and Togedemaru, and Bob held onto the seat while Castform was in his free hand. Martin however wasn't in any state of panic, in fact, he was turned on.

"So that's how we're gonna play, fuckers? Let's punch Captain Crunch and get the live show on the literal ROOOOOOOOOOOOOAD!"

That's when Martin swerved a sharp left and bashed the food truck, making the crooks flopped to the left, this insanely dangerous game spiraled out of control. Both vehicles bashed each other back to back, Kiawe tried calming down the crying Cosmogs, Ash, Sophocles and the electric rodents won't stop crying or screaming, Bob at this point couldn't let go of his seat because he felt he could fly out of the car window at any time, which was then it was time for this dangerous game to increase tenfold.

"Castform, Weather Ball!"

The small Pokémon floats above the van shooting a gray ball of energy at the truck, doing a small amount of damage. Jessie shook her fist at Martin as she sent out her Mimikyu on top of the moving truck.

"You can't use Pokémon you damn cheater! Mimikyu! Shadow Ball!"

The small Pokémon fires back an attack just as powerful as Castform's as the van takes serious damage. That did not put Bob at ease, so he let Martin know what he thought of him and his idea.

"Are you kidding me?! Why would give them the idea of attacking us from a distance?! ARE YOU TRYING TO GET US ALL KILLED?!"

Martin didn't answer, instead, he stuck his torso out of the van's drivers side as he completely lost it at the point.

"Yes! I! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM!"

"SOMEBODY HELP MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

While the boys in the van were lost in insanity, James decided to take the opportunity to send out his Rockruff, attacking from the left side of the road.

"Quick, Rockruff! The twerps are distracted, use Stone Edge and put an end to this!"

Luckily, the attack missed, which was when Martin got back into the van and resumed driving. Bob knew it was a matter of time before Mimikyu or Rockruff could land a lethal blow on the van which led to their graves, so he pokes his head out of the side and pleads Castform to do something.

"Castform! Castform! You need to activate the weather to benefit us! Use, Sunny Day! Hail, Rain Dance, anything!"

Recognizing one of the moves, Castform summons rain clouds from above as it begins to rain, changing its form into a Water-type form.

"Hurry up! Let's keep up the pace! Weather Ball!"

Castform creates a ball of blue energy as it shoots the top of the truck, knocking both Rockruff and Mimikyu off of the crazy ride and leaving them behind. Martin just realized what was going on around him, and when he saw a view of the ocean and a turning time of its suggested speed, that gave him an idea.

"Castform! Ice Beam! In front of the truck!"

Freezing the ground with the combination of the wet surface caused the truck to swerve out of control as the truck began to spin. The truck drove off the rail that was at the edge of the cliff, so the crooks were falling to their doom as they screamed, but thankfully out of nowhere, Bewear hopped from the rocks on the shore and grabbed the truck as a whole, ran back up the road scooping up Mimikyu and Rockruff before it zoomed back to Melemele Island on foot.

"Team Rocket blasting off with a new baaaaaaaaaaang..."

They groaned before they were carried off of the island.

****

It was a while before the van was placed in an auto shop for repairs after the whole conflict with Team Rocket. Ash and Sophocles both remained silent as they awaited for the next ship to Melemele Island, very traumatized after a near-death experience while Kiawe headed home on foot, just done with transportation for the day. Other than that, Martin handed the Pokéball that contained Castform before he took a taxi to the place he was staying that. Now Bob had a 4th member on his team, so many ideas of using the weather on his side went through his head, he didn't know if he wanted to stick with the sun, a hailstorm, or the rain to his disposal, so he'll just have to wait and see what his cousin suggests, right after hearing Bob's story of how he met the 2nd craziest person he had ever met in his life.