Ash and co are now on the beach of Pacifidlog Town. May has released all her Pokemon and is determined to prepare for the upcoming contest. She has her Pokemon practice attacks; Bulbasaur using petal dance, Beautifly using silver wind, and Combusken using flamethrower. May’s friends comment on how well her Pokemon are performing. May then tries to command Skitty to use an attack, but she realizes her Pokemon is missing.

Skitty is admiring a trainer’s Aipom nearby. The ape wiggles its tail and Skitty happily follows suit by wiggling its own tail. May picks Skitty up and tells it that it needs to start preparing for the contest. She then looks around the beach to see many trainers preparing with their Pokemon. Ash mentions that there seems to be tough competition in this contest and Brock remarks that the competition at the Grand Festival will be even tougher.

Max asks his sister if she’s nervous but she doesn’t seem to be. Her Pokemon respond happily as well signaling that they too are calm. Ash then decides that while May trains for the contest, he should help Snorunt perfect its ice beam attack. He releases the Pokemon and tells it of his plan. Snorunt leaps about and then prepares the ice beam. It doesn’t seem to launch it though and Ash wonders what is wrong. Snorunt turns to him and the attack launches, freezing the poor trainer’s head as Pikachu leaps away.

Ash’s friends ask him if he’s alright and he slowly responds through the ice. Snorunt leaps around again signaling that it doesn’t feel guilty for what it did. Max sighs remarking that Snorunt doesn’t seem to have a care in the world. Ash shakes the ice off of his head and then tells Snorunt that they are going to keep practicing until it’s perfect.

Meanwhile, Team Rocket is spying on the scene through some binoculars behind some fake foliage. Jessie thinks this could be the perfect time to snatch Pikachu and the others agree. With Wobbuffet joining them, the group uses the fake grass to move forward unseen. Ash tells Snorunt to try its ice beam again as Pikachu looks on. The fake grass sneaks closer to the rodent as it sits there happily.

Jessie tells the other to get ready and then they leap. Snorunt launches the ice beam everywhere catching Team Rocket in the chaos. The group freezes and lands back behind the foliage in ice cube form. Snorunt continues to launch the ice in random directions, causing the people on the beach to panic. Ash tells his Pokemon to cut it out, but it doesn’t listen. The Aipom from before is spooked by this show of ice and begins to book it towards the bushes. Its trainer chases after it. Skitty notices that panicking Pokemon’s wavy tail and quickly follows. May calls to her Pokemon and pursues it as well.

Aipom pops out of the bushes and runs across a bridge. It turns left at the end and its trainer frantically follows. Seconds later, Skitty makes it to the end of the bridge and smiles as it turns right. May frenetically chases it. Meanwhile, Snorunt continues to run around the beach sending ice beams everywhere. Ash finally manages to subdue the Pokemon by tackling it. Snorunt sits on in his arms on the sand giggling to itself as Ash sighs. Max and Brock are relieved that it’s over but wonder if Snorunt will ever learn to use it right. The two then notice that May and Skitty are missing from the rest of her team.

May walks nervously down the road along the shoreline looking for Skitty. She hears its happy purring and finds it on the side of a house amused by a cattail rocking back and forth. May begins to scold it and then notices the cattail is being waved by a teenage boy. Skitty finally becomes aware that May is near and rushes into her arms. The boy remarks that Skitty is a very lively Pokemon and May thanks him. She then introduces herself and the boy responds by saying his name is Toshki, a Pokemon Coordinator. May says that she is one as well.

A teenage girl walks up some steps from the beach with a Pokeball in hand. She notices May and Toshki sitting in his front yard and is instantly suspicious of what is going on. The two are talking about the upcoming contest and Toshki also remarks that he has never seen such a happy Skitty. They seem to be having a nice conversation until the girl from the beach angrily interrupts. She demands to know what is going on here. Toshki calls her Erika and says that they were just talking.

Erika glares at May and then declares that she is no threat to a beautiful girl like herself. Toshki tells her to calm down and introduces May. Erika exclaims that May has no business talking to Toshki and that he should be preparing for the contest. May says that it’s her fault as Skitty got lost and came here. Erika tells May to back off now as her and Toshki are going to win the contest. May is confused and Erika goes into a daydream of her and Toshki each on the winners circle holding halves of the contest ribbon together and both being declared as winners.

May seriously doubts that this could every happen. Erika ignores her and her and Toshki begin to talk about the upcoming contest. Toshki then explains that May is planning to enter with her Skitty as well. Erika looks at May and then down to her Pokemon. She then remarks that May won’t stand a chance with such an insignificant Pokemon. May glares at her and tells Skitty to prepare for a match. Erika says it wouldn’t be worth the effort as her Pokemon is far superior. With that, she tosses a Pokeball to release a Jynx.

May has no clue what it is and decides to look it up in the Pokedex. Erika then hugs her Pokemon and declares that her and Jynx are going to win the contest for sure. Suddenly, Ash and the others approach and ask May if she’s alright. She says she is and remarks that she came across some other coordinators. She then introduces her friends to Toshki.

Just as everyone is acquainted, a robotic hand comes out of nowhere and snatches Pikachu off of Ash’s shoulder. Another hand then grabs Snorunt and then both retreat into the bottom of Team Rocket’s balloon up above. Team Rocket mocks the group and then says their motto while taunting ash with his Pokemon in cages. Toshki and Erika wonder what is going on and May explains that Team Rocket is a group that tries to steal Pokemon.

Ash tells Pikachu to use thunderbolt but the cage renders it useless. As Team Rocket laughs, Ash tells Snorunt to use ice beam, but it can’t seem to charge up the attack. Team Rocket smirks at this, remarking that it’s pathetic that an ice type can’t pull off a basic ice type attack. The balloon begins to rise but May has Beautifly tackle it. Team Rocket drops the cages and the two Pokemon fall from their hands. Ash catches one and Brock snatches the other. Jessie throws a tantrum and the team demands that they be returned.

May has Combusken use sky uppercut to smash the balloon. It falls to the beach below as Ash and Brock try to free the Pokemon by bashing the cage locks open with some rocks. Team Rocket emerges from their wrecked balloon demanding a battle. May and her Pokemon step up as she declares that this will be good practice for the contest battles to come. Jessie calls out Seviper and James releases Cacnea, who gives him a nice hugging.

Seviper uses haze to block May’s vision and Toshki seems worried. Seviper and Cacnea then lunge at May for a bite/needle arm combo. Toshki calls out a Houndoom and has it use swift. The stars break through the haze and strike Team Rocket’s Pokemon before they reach May. The haze fades away and May wonders what happened. Toshki and his Houndoom approach and he offers to help her get rid of Team Rocket. Erika looks on this with anger.

Seviper tries a poison tail while Cacnea uses pin missile, but a flamethrower and petal dance from Houndoom and Bulbasaur blow them back. May and Toshki compliments each others Pokemon which makes Erika even angrier. Cacnea and Seviper try another needle arm/bite combo but Skitty uses assist. It launches a fire spin which Max gets excited about. Toshki then has Houndoom fire a shadow ball right into the middle of the fire spin to power it up. The attack collides with Team Rocket’s Pokemon and blows them back again.

Erika is now enraged that Toshki and May are using attack combinations together. Ash and Brock finally manage to break the locks on the cages and free the Pokemon. May prepares to finish Team Rocket off, but jealousy rears its ugly head when Erika shoves her aside and tells Jynx to use hyper beam. It launches the attack and sends the Rockets blasting off again. Jessie gets the perfect idea as they disappear into the horizon.

May begins to yell at Erika but she cuts her off. Erika exclaims that her and Toshki make a much better team and May should just back off now. Toshki tries to calm them and says to save it for the contest. Erika agrees and says the fate of this conflict will be decided in the contest. May agrees.

Fireworks shoot up over the Contest Hall as the participants begin to line up for registration. Inside, Jessie explains to Meowth about her plan to enter him as her Pokemon in the contest. Meowth doesn’t like this idea as he sees it as degrading. Suddenly, a rich woman and her Persian walk by. She comments that Persian will be the perfect competitor and continues to compliment it. The Persian smiles at Meowth as it goes. Meowth remembers Giovanni’s Persian mocking him and instantly becomes enraged. He actually flames up as he states that he won’t let a Persian upstage him. Jessie is happy that he finally agrees.

The contest begins and the regular announcer welcomes everyone to it. Ash watches on a video screen on the beach. He then remarks that they’ll practice Snorunt’s ice beam and watch May at the same time. Inside, the announcer introduces the audience to the same three judges every contest beforehand has had. She then introduces the first competitor, which turns out to be Jessie. The arena fills with smoke as she descends with Meowth from a platform above. She is disguised in a yellow parka and a long brown hat.

James powers the fog machine as they make their entrance. As Jessie introduces herself to the crowd, he activates a switch causing a large block of ice to descend to the platform. Meowth slices the ice into a sculpture of Giovanni and Persian and the announcer finds it very entertaining. Max thinks it’s amazing but Brock remarks that he seems to have seen that face in the sculpture someplace before. Meowth finishes his opening act by clawing the Persian sculpture into a Meowth one. The crowd cheers as Jessie and Meowth wave.

The other coordinators watch on a video screen in the lobby. May and Erika glare at each other and then turn heads as Toshki laughs nervously. Snorunt is still having trouble with its attack, but after some encouragement from Ash, it manages to launch another ice beam. It’s aim is still all over the place though and Ash and Pikachu are forced to duck. Ash says they have to work on it some more as Snorunt leaps about happily.

Inside, Toshki is appealing by using a combination of Houndoom’s swift and shadow ball attacks. The crowd loves it and May remarks that he did amazing. Erika and Jynx appeal next. Jynx launches a blizzard and then uses psychic to turn it into a beautiful snowy vortex. Max and Brock think May is going to have some tough competition. May then appeals with Skitty. It uses assist to get a razor leaf and Max wonders how she’ll follow this up.

Skitty then uses blizzard to freeze the leaves and finally uses its tail like a fan to chop them up. Shards of ice rain on the field as the announcer seems impressed. Toshki claps for May from the lobby but stops when Erika glares angrily at him. Later on, Ash enters the lobby and congratulates May. Erika and Toshki then approach and Erika says that May didn’t do to bad out there. She then remarks that it ends now as Skitty cannot compete with the others. May gets mad and then just says that they will see. The two glare at each other as Toshki tries to break it up.

The announcer appears on the video screen to broadcast the coordinators that made it to the next round. Toshki is announced first and both May and Erika cheer before glaring at each other again. The next competitor is Jessie, who seems pleased with herself. Erika is announced next and she happily hugs Toshki who nervously congratulates her. There is only one spot left and everyone stares in anticipation. May’s entry into the Grand Festival depends on the next announcement.

After a long wait, the announcer declares that May will be moving on to the next round! Everyone cheers but Erika seems displeased. The four winners are then shuffled and to everyone’s shock, May will be facing Toshki in the next round while Erika will face Jessie! Erika comments that their little conflict will be settled is May can beat Toshki and May agrees. The two then glare at each other. May knows she must win this to get into the Grand Festival, but can she pull it off?

Thanks To GoldenNoctowl For Writing this for us