Riding Out the Storm
A short Pokemon fanfiction by Snow Charizard

Chapter One
Scattered Feathers

Some people might say my life is in a rut
But I’m quite happy with what I got
Some people say I should strive for more
But I’m so happy I can’t see the point!

Going Underground, The Jam

Stretching her arms and yawning her head off was the way Hannah welcomed the morning sun, her face beaming with a usual optimism for the day ahead. She had never been one to lie in, it drove her crazy just lying there wasting minutes of her life that could be much better spent.

“Wake up Storm,” the youthful girl said cheerily, prodding the Meowth curled up on her bed. The cat Pokemon growled lowly and placed his paws over his head, covering his ears. She smiled; her best friend Storm didn’t exactly share her energy on the morning.

“C’mon you lazy lump!” she yelled with a short laugh and picked up the cat, safe in the knowledge that the Pokemon wouldn’t tear her arms to shreds for such an act. The Pokemon meowed in a tone that couldn’t be mistaken for anything but a whine of protest. She snorted in laughter; kicked open the door to her room with energy and stampeded down the stairs.

The cream cat leapt out of her arms, stretching his body and yawning. Storm wasn’t a battling Meowth, so he was rather chubby and had the distinct look of a spoilt housepet about him. He meowed something up at Hannah disdainfully; she only blinked blankly at him.

“Oh, oh! Wait a second Storm!” she said, her memory suddenly snapping into place. She rushed up the stairs and then rushed into her room, immediately pulling open drawers on her dressing table. She was amazed she had managed to forget it yet again, after several years of wearing the translator every day you’d think it’d be second instinct. It seemed that something settling into her brain was beyond the flaky preteen’s grasp.

“Ha, got it,” she declared triumphantly to herself and pulled out the earpiece. She clipped it around her left earlobe before practically throwing herself down the stairs once more.

”So Storm, what were you saying?” she asked.

“I was saying that I’m hungry,” the Meowth informed her curtly, “Hannah, you really should remember to put that in on a morning. It’s the same charade over and over every day.” The pair entered the kitchen as the irritable Meowth continued with his lecture.

“Yeah, yeah,” Hannah replied, pulling a box of Pokemon food out of the cupboard, looking over her shoulder at the whining cat with a sly smile, “Though keep that whining up and you’ll be out there hunting Rattata for yourself.”

That got him. Storm’s fur instantly went on end and he contorted his face in visible disgust.

“Street Rattata? Urgh, revolting!” he spat, trotting over to the now full dish of food and feasting on it without another word. She snorted and took a seat at the dinner table nearby, glancing at the calendar.

“Aw, Jasmine’s gonna be going on her journey in two days isn’t she?” she said, eyes browsing over the calendar. Jasmine was her friend’s little sister, she had turned ten just a few days ago and had just been waiting for the summer holidays to begin before she’d set off. Storm looked up from his food for a second.

“I suppose. Yes,” he said in his usual slow voice, “What of it?”

“Just that Nicky’s going to be all torn up with worry for her the moment she leaves,” Hannah replied, leaning back on her chair and putting her hands behind her head. Her green pyjamas were too big for her, but she didn’t care. Most of her clothes were a size too big; she explained this by saying she liked having room to breath and, according to her, she liked having sleeves there were a little too long anyway.

“True,” he said, licking food from around his mouth before he leapt up onto the dinner table and started shining the amber coin on his forehead with his paw, "Hannah, perhaps you should go train Pokemon soon. You’ll be thirteen soon, and before you know it it’ll be too late.”

“Storm, you know I’ve never been interested in that. I love it in Olivine and that’s that. If I’m happy I don’t see the point in dashing off and risking that,” she replied with a broad yawn.

“Alright, but don’t come crying to me if you decide to go in a few years and ten years olds keep beating you,” the Meowth replied sardonically. Hannah simply shrugged. It was true that if she decided to go later, she’d regret not going now and yet she just found absolutely no drive to get her out of Olivine City. She was perfectly content and that was that.

“Hanners!” came the familiar cry. Both Hannah and Storm turned simultaneously to see a twelve year old boy running up to meet them, waving energetically. Hannah grinned and waved back. Remi had been her friend for years, though Storm still remained her closest friend. Remi was a dark-skinned boy with black, spiked hair that look like it had twice the time spent on it than Hannah’s barely tamed brown locks.

“Hey Remi,” she greeted him with a smile before asking, “The others milling about anywhere?”

Remi shrugged and looked down at Storm with a grin, greeting the Pokemon with a “Hey Storm!”. Storm stuck his tongue out in response, something he only did for Remi’s greetings, which never failed to amuse the young boy.

“Haha! Storm you’re a classic!” he said. The Meowth sighed.

“You’re an idiot,” the cat replied in a sarcastic tone, although Remi didn’t have a translator so he didn’t have a clue. Hannah was very sure that Storm actually liked Remi, he just wasn’t about to admit it because he had declared that he hated the boy upon first meeting him.

“So, any plans for the summer holidays?” Remi asked her as they walked along the quiet city paths. They weren’t going anywhere in specific, just both of them had a habit of meeting up and then wandering about vacantly until something interesting happened. Hannah shrugged.

“None at all. I figure I just let it all hang out and maybe arrange to go somewhere good for my birthday,” she replied lazily, stretching her arms.

“Oh yeah, the big one-three, eh? You should really do something really...teenager-y…for your birthday this year,” he commented as they entered the park. He sat down on a park bench and then took a games console out of a pocket in his black combat pants. Hannah sat down beside him, staring up at the sky blankly as Storm took a seat on her lap.

“Like what? Here, I have an idea. I’ll get a boyfriend, lose him in a day, spend the next day crying and eating ice-cream, then repeat the process until I finally get pregnant,” she replied jokingly. Remi snorted with laughter, staring with extreme focus in his eyes at the screen of the games console before him.

“If he concentrated as much as he did on that on anything else I’m sure he’d be able to do anything he liked. Ow!” Storm said as Hannah bopped him across the ears for being rude. It was always quiet around the park at this time. It was that period when the kids who usually occupied the park were just at the end of their Saturday morning cartoons and when the teenagers were being roughly shaken out of their sleep by exasperated parents.

And then there was Remi and Hannah, the boy with a determination to sleep as little as possible and the girl who refused to sleep over into her fun-time. Hannah predicted that Nicky and Jasmine would wander into the park at any time to look for them. As it was the first day of the summer holidays, Hannah could see it starting lazily like a Saturday morning and then ending with a rushed Sunday afternoon finale.

“Can’t catch me!” screamed the voice of an over-excited girl, interrupting Remi and Hannah’s idle conversation. Jasmine rushed past, blonde ponytail bouncing up and down on the back of her head. The small girl pivoted around on her heel and blew a raspberry at the much taller boy chasing her before darting off again.

The tall boy stopped, panting and running a hand through his dark, messy hair. Nicky was one of those kids that looked a lot older than they were. Admittedly he was the oldest in Hannah’s group of friends, though only by a few months

“Jazz! Please…wait! Argh, how is the runt so damn fast?” he said, afterwards he suddenly noticed his two friends sitting directly to his right. He grinned at them both, “Morning! You two up early as usual?”

Remi and Hannah nodded in silent union, though Hannah wondered how on earth Nicky could possibly class ten in the morning as early. She stood up and tied her denim jacket around her waist.

“Want any help catching her?” she offered.

“Oh, I can catch a ten year old girl by myself Hanners!” he snapped irritably. Hannah simply laughed loudly and pointed behind his shoulder at the small figure of a blonde girl in the distance.

“She’s almost by the pond,” she pointed out, grinning broadly at him in her usual moronic manner. He paused and looked behind his shoulder hesitantly before staring back at her.

“With your help we’ll catch her faster,” he declared.

“Too right!” she said and started running after the ten year old girl. Remi stood up in surprise at their sudden take-off and ran after them.

“Guys! Hey!” he screamed. Storm looked at them and sighed, before noticing Remi had left his game behind. Hesitating briefly, he eventually gave in and grabbed the small console in his mouth before dashing on after the group.

“I can’t believe that,” Carrie said, dipping a chip in tomato sauce, her elbow propped up on the table. Nicky snorted and picked up a chip from the plate, eating it idly.

“You should be able to. This is our little Hanners we’re talking about,” he replied in the ‘I’m-oh-so-cool’ voice he used around Carrie. Everybody in a five mile radius knew Nicky fancied the pants off Carrie. Everybody apart from Carrie herself, Hannah thought to herself, even Jasmine knew.

“I can’t believe she managed to fall into the pond just chasing after your sister,” Carrie replied with a short laugh. Hannah grinned and pointed at her very damp hair, as if very proud of the fact she had managed to fall into a pond. Carrie laughed.

“Yeah Carrie! She was chasing after me and I ran out the way but she just kept going and went straight into the pond! It was really really funny! And y’know what else? I was the one who had to pull her out!” Jazz explained excitedly, before putting on a hilariously motherly voice, “You silly kids should be more careful!”

“Yes you should!” Carrie barked between laughs. Nicky went very red but Hannah only gave them all two triumphant thumbs up. Remi shook his head in exasperation with them all, fingers still drumming rhythmically on the buttons of the game. The boy had just about crushed Storm in a one armed hug when the Meowth had returned his almost forgotten game to him.

“So Carrie plans for the summer holidays?” Nicky asked the fair-haired girl. Carrie shrugged and took a great gulp of coke, “I dunno. I was actually thinking about spending a few days with my dad and step-mum’s in Kanto. You?”

“Oh, I’m learning to play the guitar,” the tall boy replied proudly. Remi, Hannah and Jasmine looked at each other trying not to laugh, Nicky was so absolutely hapless when it came to impressing Carrie. She remained solidly in the friend position, despite his never-ending efforts.

“Pack it in Nicky,” Remi told him, sounding very amused. Nicky went red again and Carrie turned to look at him blankly.

”Pack what in?” she asked. Hannah had to cover her mouth to stop herself bursting out laughing. It was only as funny as it was because Carrie was usually the sharp, straight-man of the group yet when it came to this she couldn’t see beyond her own nose.

“Oh nothing,” she said, desperately suppressing rebellious giggles. Carrie shrugged her shoulders dismissively and continued chatting casually to Nicky about her plans for the summer holidays.

“We’re out of chips,” Hannah pointed out as she snatched the last chip from the pile, savouring the potato goodness as she wolfed it down. Storm, who had been curled up on her lap through the entirety of the meal opened one eye.

”You don’t say,” he remarked sarcastically.

“No wonder,” Carrie commented, staring down at the empty plate with a deep expression of loss on her freckled face, “We should really stop eating one meal between all five of us.” The others nodded in agreement, though none were willing to pay more than what they had to for food they weren’t really hungry for.

“I want more chips,” Carrie said in a whiny voice.

“I’m not hungry,” Jasmine remarked. Remi, Hannah and Nicky all nodded in agreement with the young girl.

“I am, I want more chips,” Carrie complained.

“How are you so damn skinny? You eat like a pig!” Remi commented. Carrie shrugged in an ‘I don’t know and I don’t care’ way before she stood up and picked up her straw hat, adjusting the blue ribbon around it before placing it on her head.

“Do we have to go already? I was comfortable,” Storm moaned as Hannah shooed him off her lap. She was very certain that between them Storm and Carrie could whine for all of Johto. She wondered vaguely how exactly that would go down. Perhaps they could have a whining contest and somebody would write down how many times they can complain about something during a thirty minute visit to a restaurant.

“Hanners,” Remi interrupted, snapping his fingers impatiently in front of his friend’s face. Hannah snapped out of her daydream and stood up with a grin, noticing her hair had left a wet patch on her seat. She had bothered to change, but she hadn’t found the motivation to dry her hair.

“Right! Where to now?” she asked as they edged out of their seats, as if she hadn’t just entirely spaced out and held them up.

“Don’t know,” Remi replied as they exited the fish and chip shop. Storm hopped up into Hannah’s arms to resume his nap. Hannah made a small noise of protest; Storm was hardly light and skinny like a wild Meowth but the cat ignored her small whine and nestled against her chest before closing his eyes, quickly drifting back to sleep.

“I wanna go see the gym leader!” Jazz squeaked excitedly, hopping up and down and tugging on her older brother’s jacket, “He’s really nice and he said that when I set off he’d give me one of his Lairon’s babies!”

“Alright, alright!” Nicky said impatiently, torn between laughing and being irritated. He brushed his younger sibling’s hands off the hem of his black jacket; he looked at the others, before hesitantly asking, “You guys comingalong?”

“Yeah sure,” Remi and Hannah replied in harmony. Carrie nodded after a second of thought and adjusted her hat nervously.

“What’s the matter Carrie?” Nicky asked her worriedly, “You not get on with Dan?”

“Oh uh, no that’s not it. I just think that…he’s quite cute,” she replied slowly, her face growing steadily redder. Hannah and Remi began laughing loudly and raucously as Nicky’s face absolutely fell. Hannah didn’t know what he was worried about. The gym leader was about fifteen years Carrie’s senior, Hannah just found Nicky’s expression upon finding out that Carrie fancied the piercing-covered man.

“Cute? The guy’s got so many pieces of metal through him he can’t stand too close to his Magneton anymore!” Remi hollered, almost bent over laughing. Hannah had calmed down a little and realised it may be a little while before Remi could chill out. When he wasn’t playing his video game, he was always laughing hysterically at the slightest thing. Carrie’s face was flushed bright red.

”S-so!” she stuttered, staring at the ground as if hoping it would swallow him up. Nicky stepped aside and stood next to Hannah.

“You think my dad will let me get a piecing?” he mumbled quietly to her. Unable to control herself, Hannah burst out laughing yet again, looking up at the tall boy with half-apologetic blue eyes that were almost teary withlaughter.

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up,” he grumbled huffily. She patted him on the back as she calmed down.

”Aw sorry Nicky,” she said with a broad grin before abruptly shouting, “Alright! Let’s go see Dan the steel guy. Race you over there!”

“How old are you?” Carrie asked, the blush fading from her face and her voice taking a rather stern, mature tone.

“Not old enough to back down from a race!” Remi shouted, beaming at Hannah in the moronic way that mirrored her own. Storm, who had long ago waken up due to all the laughter and screaming, jumped from Hannah’s hands with a low sigh.

”I think you’re both old enough to turn down a race,” he grumbled.

“Don’t be a stick-in-the-mud,” Hannah said to both Storm and Carrie. As the group argued over a possible race, their loud conversation was interrupted by the caw of a bird. Hannah turned and saw a Skarmory flapping up dust and trying to grab at something on the ground. Without warning, Jasmine shot off and started waving her arms at the steel bird and screaming.

”Jazz, wait! That thing’s dangerous!” Nicky screeched, chasing after her. Remi, Carrie and Hannah followed immediately, all three of them wailing to try and scare the huge steel bird away. The Skarmory turned from whatever it was trying to get a hold of and dived towards Jazz.

”Nicky!” the girl screamed. Her older brother snatched her out of the way and Jasmine attached herself to his waist, sobbing into his maroon shirt. Hannah glanced back and forth, panicking and flapping her arms. A stone on the floor caught her eye. She picked it up and threw it at the Skarmory with all of her might.

The small projectile bounced off against the bird’s steel armour but it shifted the attention from the sobbing young girl. The grey bird twisted its pointed head and glared at Hannah, sharp gold eyes burning a hole through the girl’s face. Hannah stepped back fearfully, mind racing. Only now did she notice how menacing silver and red blades were that made up the Pokemon’sfeathers.

The bird sped towards Hannah and she braced herself for the impact of the heavy Pokemon until Storm leapt into the scene, yowling shrilly. The Pokemon boldly scratched the other, bigger Pokemon. While this normally would have done nothing, the Meowth hit lucky and managed to dig his claw into the Skarmory’s eye socket. The Skarmory screeched shrilly and Storm released, landing on the floor hissing. The steel bird flapped his wings and took off into the air, heading straight for the gym.

”I-I changed my mind. That was scary, I don’t want to go to the gym n-now,” Jazz spluttered in a low, subdued voice. Nicky hushed her and patted her back comfortingly.

“Thanks for that Storm, you really saved my skin,” Hannah said, smiling at the cat. Storm looked up at Hannah apathetically, cleaning his claws.

“Yes I did. Next time let’s not attack the big bird for no reason,” he replied sarcastically.

”Ew, look! A Pokemon!” Carrie cried, crouched down over nearby. They all turned and walked over and sure enough a navy blue bird was limping awkwardly away from the scene of the scuffle, seeming strangely off balance. It was nothing Hannah had ever seen before, the blue and red feathers were completely unfamiliar and it looked like it was from a completely different country toher.

“What is it?” Remi asked quietly as the Pokemon fell down with a shrill cry of alarm. Regardless, the Pokemon hopelessly got to its feet and started awkwardly walking yet again.

“A Taillow. But what’s it doing here in Johto?” Nicky asked.

“Who cares?” Jasmine cried, “Let’s just help the poor thing!”

“I agree,” Hannah said, reaching over to pick it up and receiving a peck on the finger for her troubles, “Ow! You little piece of crap!” Nicky snorted and shook his head disapprovingly.

“Come on Hanners, it’s gonna be scared,” the tall boy informed her.

“It pecked me!” Hannah whined.

“Any of you have a pokeball?” Remi asked.

“Oh yes. It’s right here next to my level one hundred Articuno,” Carrie replied sarcastically and pushed a few coins into Jasmine’s hands, “Jazz, run to the Pokemart and buy one please. Don’t see why we have to help the wretched thing anyway.”

“Can’t we just carry it?” Hannah inquired as Jazz dashed off. Carrie tutted and Remi looked blankly at them, probably wondering what Hannah had said wrong.

“A, I mean, ew, I’m not touching it and B, if we take it to the Pokemon centre in our hands it’ll probably just make whatever’s hurt worse. Look…looks like it’s the wing,” she pointed out as the Taillow fell once more. Not learning her lesson from her last efforts, Hannah stretched out her hands and this time managed to cup her fingers around the Taillow’s soft plumage, much to Carrie’s pokephobe-disgust. The small bird made a heck of a lot of noise in protest.

”Get off human! I need to go home! Master! Master’ll be waiting!” it screamed, flapping its tiny wings in protest and Hannah noticed the left one wasn’t quite working right

“Ssh! You’ll make it worse!” Hannah said fretfully, not sure she liked the way the wing was moving then.

“What’s it saying Hanners? You’re the one with the translator on you,” Remi asked, crouching down and staring at the small blue bird with a look of deep curiosity in his eyes. Remi had always liked Pokemon the most in the group. Ironically, he was the only one who wouldn’t have been allowed one.

“It’s a he,” Storm pointed out to them, even though Hannah was the only one who could understand him.

”How can you tell?” Hannah asked the Meowth blankly. Storm yawned, looking annoyed at the entire situation or possibly more annoyed at the fact it was cutting into his lunch time nap.

“Humans can tell what genders humans are right?” he asked dryly.

“Yeah, for the most part,” Hannah replied, struggling to keep the rebellious Taillow still.

“Then Pokemon can do it too,” he finished with an exasperated sigh. Hannah looked over at Remi.

”Well, for one Storm says it’s a guy Taillow and the Taillow said that he has to go home and that ‘master’ will be waiting,” Hannah said, smirking with something that could easily be triumph over her usefulness in the situation. The group used to tease her about the stupid-looking clip on her ear constantly but it was in scenarios like this that they all came crawling to her for help.

Suddenly Jazz burst back into the scene, waving a red and white sphere in the air screaming “I got it, I got it!”. Carrie, however, shook her head. Hannah lifted the Taillow closer to her, though still far enough so that the squirming bird’s beak couldn’t snap at her, and stood up straight.

”It has a trainer. And if it has a trainer, it has a pokeball. We won’t be able to use that,” Carrie said over the small bird’s incessant shrieking. Hannah could feel the small Pokemon’s heart racing and could very well feel the beating of his good right wing and the half-hearted, probably painful attempts of his left.

“C’mon then, we’ll have to get it there. Just kinda walk at a steady pace. Now Taillow, calm down! Your wing will fall off at that rate!” Hannah said, noticing that the bird’s screams about his master and home had died down to a weak, croaky moan.

“Take me home,” he commanded.

”We would if we could but we can’t so shut up and let us help you!” Hannah said.

”Do you have any idea how weird it looks to see you rambling on to Pokemon like that when we can’t understand it?” Nicky asked with a low chuckle. Jazz has seemed to shrink a little, still shaken up from the Skarmory’s attack and the fact the pokeball she had rushed to get had proved useless.

“Alright, fine. If we must. It’s not a far walk. As long as we keep up a steady pace but don’t make the Taillow even worse, I think we’ll be just fine,” Carrie said.

The five friends began to walk slowly and steadily towards the Pokemon centre, leaving behind a trail of dark blue feathers.