On the other side, in Pelican Town.
Today was Spring 5th.
Yesterday, everyone had a massive feast at the Saloon. Because the farm work had mostly wrapped up, Indeedee granted everyone special permission to sleep in until noon before starting their daily chores.
Indeedee took the rare opportunity to sleep in, then climbed out of bed and began preparing lunch for everyone.
"Indeedee, Indee." Indeedee glanced at Sailor, who was lazily crawling out of bed, and greeted it.
Glancing at the heavy rain outside, Sailor waved a paw, exchanged a few brief words with Indeedee, then grabbed its fishing rod and headed out the door.
Because it bore the heavy responsibility of catching the Legend, its usual work of collecting beach forage had been temporarily suspended.
Yesterday's weather forecast had called for rain today, so Willy had made a pact with Sailor to go up to the mountain lake to try and catch that legendary fish.
Since it hadn't rained at all over the past five days, this was Sailor's first time attempting the Legendary fish on a rainy day.
Taking a deep breath, Sailor plunged headfirst into the curtain of rain.
Before it even reached the back mountain, Sailor ran into Willy, who was already waiting there with his Krabby.
Willy quickly waved at Sailor. As soon as it approached, Willy pulled a tiny raincoat out of his backpack, dried Sailor's fur with a towel, and slipped it onto the little Rattata.
"It fits perfectly!" Willy said with a hint of pride. "I even asked Emily to make it for me. What do you think?"
"Ratta!" Sailor shook its body, listening to the pitter-patter of rain hitting the raincoat, and nodded at Willy.
"See? I told you it was a perfect fit," Willy chuckled, then led Sailor over to the best fishing spot he had scouted out.
Casting his fishing line into the water, Willy suddenly remembered something. He turned to Sailor and said, "I heard that some Pokémon can learn a move called Rain Dance."
"Ratta?"
"It summons a rain cloud and turns the weather rainy right here," Willy gestured with his hands. "Gunther mentioned it to me yesterday. He said if we had a move like that, we wouldn't have to wait for rainy days to fish for the ones that only bite when it's raining."
"Ratta." Sailor nodded thoughtfully.
"But I think you need a TM for it," Willy said with a regretful sigh. "It'd be nice if we had a Pokémon that already knew the move."
If they used a TM, even a non-Water-type like a Rattata could learn the move.
Sailor pondered this for a moment. Just then, the fishing rod jerked. It quickly reached out a paw and yanked the rod up.
"It's a Basculin, what a shame," Willy said, casting his line back into the water.
Time shifted to the afternoon.
The group had just arrived at the small town's Pokémon Center to rest. Ron and the girls were eating in the cafeteria, chatting about what to do once they reached Shalour City, when Joy jogged over to tell Ron he had a phone call.
Ron paused, stood up, and walked over to the Pokémon Center's video phone.
The moment the call connected, a pair of massive fangs filled the top of the video screen.
"—Hmm, Sailor?" Ron guessed uncertainly.
"Ratta! Ratta!"
As Sailor called out from the other side, Abigail and Haley leaned in to look.
"Ah, it really is Sailor!" Abigail said, pointing at the screen.
"Sailor?"
"A Rattata from the farm," Abigail explained to Serena. "Its name is Sailor."
"Ratta!"
Ron stared silently at Sailor, who was calling out anxiously on the screen.
Even though he could use his mind-reading skill on Pokémon, he couldn't do it through a screen.
"Wait a second, meow."
The sound of rustling came from the other end of the line. The camera shifted, and Ron vaguely saw Meowth tiptoeing onto a chair and leaning into the screen.
"It says—it wants a Rain Dance TM, meow," Meowth said from the other side of the screen.
"A talking Meowth!"
Serena and Bonnie pointed at the screen and shouted in unison.
"—Wait, why are you two little girls there too, meow." Meowth scratched its head, suddenly feeling flustered.
Terrified that the girls might expose their past as villains to the locals, Meowth hastily repeated Sailor's request. Without even waiting for Ron to answer, it hurriedly hung up the phone.
"Isn't that Team Rocket's Meowth?" Serena asked. "Why is it in Pelican Town?"
"Team Rocket?"
"The bad guys who tied us up at the Pokémon Center! They're in cahoots!" Bonnie exclaimed.
Abigail paused and exchanged a glance with Haley.
"They've already quit the team," Ron said. "They aren't part of Team Rocket anymore. They're working as farmhands now."
"I don't believe they'd be that nice," Bonnie said. "They used to try and steal Pikachu all the time."
"Hmm I know about that but—people can change," Ron said, comforting the two girls for a bit before recalling what Meowth had actually called to say.
"A Rain Dance TM, huh," Ron pondered. He excused himself from the group and headed to a nearby shop.
"Are you really sure it's okay letting those bad guys stay in Pelican Town? What if they collude with someone from the outside?" Bonnie asked worriedly.
"If it's Ron, it should probably be fine," Serena said, though she didn't sound entirely certain.
After all, Ron had produced so many incredible things.
Besides, taking ten thousand steps back, even if Ron didn't have those miraculous items, given Team Rocket's track record of failing one hundred and one times out of a hundred bad deeds, it would be incredibly hard for them to actually pull anything off anyway.
Hearing this, Bonnie fell silent.
"Well, I guess you have a point."
"Do you think they're really bad guys?" Abigail asked softly.
"Probably not?" Haley replied in an equally low voice. "Bad guys aren't that stupid."
On the other side, in Pelican Town.
Meowth hung up the phone in a cold sweat. Turning to Sailor, it said, "Message delivered, meow. Meowth is heading back to the farm now, meow."
"Ratta."
"You can definitely do it, meow," Meowth offered Sailor some dry comfort. "Today was just bad luck, that's why you didn't run into... uh, the legendary fish, meow."
While verbally comforting Sailor, who had fished all day without catching the legendary fish, Meowth's eyes darted everywhere.
It kept checking to make sure no one was nearby, while simultaneously racking its brain to see if it had let any clues slip just now.
Even though Ron already knew they were from Team Rocket, the good people of Pelican Town were still completely in the dark.
For whatever reason, Meowth absolutely did not want these incredibly kind people to find out that it used to be a villain.
Just as it was thinking this, Meowth sneezed for no apparent reason.
It rubbed its nose. "It must be from standing in the rain, meow. Meowth is going to catch a cold, meow."
Before it could finish speaking, it sneezed again. "Or else someone is talking bad about me behind my back, meow."
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