Ash and co are walking in the woods, following Max with the Pokenavi. As usual, May starts to complain that she’s tired… and whenever she complains, you can’t avoid resting, so they rest for a while. After resting for a while, they get up, check the Pokenavi, and find out that there’s a Pokemon center very close by! May starts running ahead, but Brock grabs her. She starts to yell that it hurts, but just as Brock lets go of her, she flies into a tree! She slowly gets up, but then Ash notices something. When she collided with the tree, it activated some sort of mechanism. They wonder what the big idea of the mechanism is, and after much pondering, they just decide to take it with them, and head towards the center.

As they enter, Brock starts flirting with Joy as usual. May, however, thinks this is the same Joy from Oldale Town, so she thanks her “once again”. Ash then explains to her about how they all look alike, and then Joy laughs and explains that she’s Oldale Joy’s younger sister. Brock then starts making his usual beauty comparisons . Joy then shows May and Max her family picture. Then, Brock grabs Joy’s hand again, and starts blabbering about how she’s more beautiful than the others…

Just then, Officer Jenny comes in, about to report something… Brock flirts, May and Max think it’s the same Jenny, but again, she shows them her family picture. Brock then asks her why she’s here. She says she’s after a notorious Pokemon poacher, who’s apt to beak into here. He’s known as Ryou, the Pokemon Hunter, and he’s one of the top wanted. He preactically steals, then damages the Pokemon. Then, Ash shows her the mechanism he found earlier in the woods, and she recognizes it as one of Ryou’s traps! Quickly, she has Ash direct her to where he found it…

Meanwhile, Team Rocket, who are watching this from a nearby cliff, have set up a time-tested trap to catch the twerps. As they plan it, suddenly, Meowth gets overexcited, and accidently falls off the cliff! He slowly gets up… but as he gets up, he hears a Pokemon crying for help. He follows it, and finds a cage full of injured Ekans! Meowth then gets into a conversation with them, and they explain that they were captured and abused by a Pokemon poacher. So they ask Meowth for help. Meowth slowly creeps towards the cage, about to open it… but as soon as he touches it, he gets zapped! After hearing Meowth yell, Team Rocket come down there to see what’s going on, and they notice the cage of Ekans. Since Team Rockethave had experience with Ekans, they decide to try and help them. Arbok especially wants his fellows set free. So, Jessie starts to issue her first command—but Arbok is to sad to try and attack them. Jessie then convinces him by telling him that they can join us. However, Meowth calculates that they wouldn’t have enough food for them all! Jessie just ignoares that, and has Arbok use Acid to melt the cage. It fails, so James tries to have Weezing use Sludge… but then, a Fearow swoops down, knocking them both out of the way!

A jeep skids to a stop, and the person who comes out is none other than Ryou! He asks Team Rocket what they’re up to, and they explain that their planning to get an Ekans army. Ryou explains that those are his property, and that he’s after Poison types… and then they notice that with him, he brought a cage of Koffing as well! Feeling bad for those Arbok and Weezing, Team Rocket get all mad at him… but then he demands that they hand over Arbok and Weezing, and of course, they refuse. So Ryou has Fearow attack, but Arbok and Weezing defend with Poison Sting and Sludge. Fearow easily dodges them, using a Fury Attack, which knocks them out. However, when Fearow tries to use a Drill Peck, Arbok wraps its tail around its beak. So Ryou returns Fearow, and takes out a Pupitar, has it use Sandstorm, blasting off Team Rocket. Ryou tries to think of another strategy, as the Ekans and Koffing groan.

Ash and co are searching with Jenny, and suddenly, Max finds tire tracks! They suspect Ryou, so Ash takes out Taillow to investigate. Meanwhile, Team Rocket are in the forest, trying to think of some way to get rid of that Ryou. Suddenly, they find themselves surrounded by angry Kakuna and Beedrill, who start chasing them! Then, a Cacnea comes out from behind the bush, and scares off the Beedrill with a Pin Missile! They thank him, and then set off to try to save Ekans and co once again. Jessie then has an idea, realizing that Arbok can sense vibration in the ground. Cacnea seems like it wants to be their friend, so James gives it a bag of cookies as a repayment. Suddenly, Arbok gets up, and motions the direction where he senses the car. Quickly, they wave goodbye to Cacnea, and run off in that direction.

Meanwhile, Taillow has found Ryou in his getaway jeep, and quickly goes back to report this to Ash and co. Back on the road, suddenly, in the middle of Ryou’s way, Arbok pops out of the ground! Ryou quickly swerves to the side and takes out his gun, but just then, Weezing comes from behind and uses Smokescreen! All the Ekans and Koffing are glad to see Team Rocket, but Ryou tries to get rid of them with Fearow’s Gust! Just then, Meowth gets ready to use his guts. He goes up to the cage lock, and starts to pick it. Even though he’s getting shocked, he’s used to it by now! However, Fearow is still giving Team Rocket trouble. Arbok attacks it with Headbutt… and knocks it back, right at the cage, where it gets shocked and faints. Just then, Meowth manages to open the cage, letting all the Ekans and Koffing out! Very angry, Ryou aims his gun. However, Arbok and Weezing use their usual Sludge/Poison Sting combo, knocking him down, and the gun out of his hands. Team Rocket are about to declare their victory… but just then, Ryou takes out Pupitar… who evolves immediately! Weezing quickly attacks with Smokescreen, but Tyranitar blows it away with Hyper Beam. The ground shakes, but no one gets hurt. Jessie then has an idea, so she decides to use Wobbuffet! However, Tyranitar’s Hyper Beam hits him too fast before he could start the Counter! Then, Tyranitar keeps franitically shooting Hyper Beams, making a huge explosion!

Ash and co hear the explosion from far away, and quickly head towards that area. Meanwhile, as Team Rocket get up, Ryou declares his victory… However, the Koffing and Ekans are still out of their cages, so Team Rocket tell them to escape while they can. Then, they have another idea… they feel that the time has come to let Arbok and Weezing be with their own kind. A&W refuse at first, and start to cry… but Jessie and James plead. Eventually they convince them that they belong there, when they hear Ryou coming, so they escape into the forest before he can reach them. However, Ryou thinks fast, and has Tyranitar use Hyper Beam once again… but Meowth quickly Fury Swipes it in the face before it can do anything. However, Tyranitar doesn’t give up. He opens his eyes, and shoots another Hyper Beam, which shakes the whole forest! Arbok and Weezing quickly run away, sobbing, escaping with Ekans and Koffing, while Tyranitar finishes off Team Rocket with a series of Hyper Beams. Then, Ryou laughs, takes out his gun, and starts to march off into the woods… but Team Rocket grab his legs! They wanna challenge him some more. However, he just ignores them, and sets off.

As Ryou walks through the woods, he runs into Ash and co and Jenny! However, before she could arrest him, he tries to attack with Fearow… who immediately faints at Pikachu’s Thunderbolt. So Ryou tries to take out Tyranitar… but Jenny quickly has Growlithe Tackle him, knocking the gun and the Pokeball both out of his hands. Jenny then asks him to hand over all his captured Pokemon, but then he explains that they escaped because of TR. Ash then understands what happened, and thanks Jenny as she arrests Ryou.

Later that evening, Team Rocket are walking in the woods, missing Arbok and Weezing, but glad that they at least have a lot of experience against Pikachu. Just then, the Cacnea from before that James gave a cookie to comes by. He’s still holding the bag, unopened. Then, James realizes that Cacnea had no clue how to open it, so he does it fir him, and Cacnea enjoys the cookie. Cacnea thanks him, and James offers him to join the group. Cacnea agrees, so James welcomes it to the team, and gives it a welcoming hug…just as Cacnea's needles dig into him

Thanks to Spinazak for writing This for us