Episode 136 (Chikorita's Big Upset)

Ash is in a Pokémon battle with some kid. He's battling Chikorita against the kid's Raticate. Raticate seems to be winning, so Ash calls back Chikorita, but Chikorita refuses and continues to fight. Chikorita doles out a nice razor leaf attack, and continues to refuse to return as Chikorita runs off. The boy is called away by his mother and so he runs off. Ash is disappointed that if only Chikorita had listened, he'd have won. They go to a Pokémon center to discuss Chikorita's behavior and the Nurse Joy offers to assist as she's been studying Pokémon psychology and might be able to find out what's bothering Chikorita. After going over the situation, she comes to the conclusion that Chikorita is jealous of the attention Ash pays to Pikachu (as if we didn't know this already). Nurse Joy suggests for Chikorita to spend the night in a small garden-ish greenhouse part of the Pokémon center. As Ash sleeps with Pikachu by his side, Pikachu gets up to check on Chikorita. Just as he sees the Pokéball which Chikorita resides in, it starts to shake. Chikorita definitely wants to get out, and once escaping the confinement of the ball, runs off towards the grass. Pikachu chases after her trying to make her not run off. Chikorita reasonably evades Pikachu and goes to sleep in a small garage somewhere in the area. A bunch of Pokémon from the neighborhood loom over Chikorita and try to pick a fight. A Primeape attacks and Chikorita defeats the attacker easily. The rest of the Pokémon just decide to befriend Chikorita. Team Rocket are in the area and just as Ash and the gang are out looking for where Chikorita and Pikachu ran off to, they decide it's the perfect time to steal Pikachu. Jessie and James radio Meowth who is up in the balloon and to get him to track Pikachu. He quickly spots Pikachu going through the grass looking for Chikorita. Jessie and James go after Chikorita, but all her friends protect her. Team Rocket have a giant rubber tire robot, and the fighting Pokémon are no match for it. They grab Chikorita and Pikachu tries to stop it, failing, they just grab Pikachu too. With Bulbasaur on the trail, Ash and the group soon spot the area where this is all taking place, and realizing that Pikachu can't do anything against the robot, Brock suggests knocking out the antenna at the top. Ash gets gutsy and has Heracross launch him towards the robot, Meowth controls the robot to dodge the incoming Ash, who then falls to the ground missing the robot. Ash climbs up a ladder against the wall aside the robot to get to the top of it again, but Meowth handily gets it to dodge Ash again. Ash is falling far, potentially to his death as Chikorita grabs on to him with her vines. This is hard for little Chikorita, but she somehow lifts him up to the top of the rubber robot, where Ash breaks the little antenna dish off. Meowth loses control, so Chikorita and Pikachu are freed. Meowth in the balloon, who has Jessie and James hanging by ropes, devilishly decides to cut them off and try to get away alone (revenge against J&J abandoning him at the guy's greenhouse last episode? ^_^) It doesn't work though, as Meowth is dragged into the explosion of the giant robot and they all blast off again. Back at the Pokémon Center, they say goodbye to Nurse Joy, and hopefully Chikorita will be less jealous from now on, as Ash lets Chikorita ride on his other shoulder, just like Pikachu.

Episode 137 (Foul Weather Friends)

As the gang are continuing on their way, they spot numerous grass Pokémon along the way, and just then a Hoppip jumps out at them. When the wind starts blowing, the Hoppip blows off into the air, and they spot a girl rushing out with a net who catches the Hoppip in it. The Girl, named Mariah is a meteorologist and uses the Hoppip along with various instruments on her roof to predict the weather. There is an Oddish, that is friends with the Hoppip, and even wants to be a Hoppip that can fly with the wind. Unfortunately, little Oddish can't fly. Team Rocket hiding in the bushes overhear all about the Hoppip and get the idea to open a delivery service using them. They burst out with giant fans they wave at the Hoppip, which don't really do much to blow them away. They turn on a giant electric fan then to cause all the Hoppip to blow away. Pikachu and Chikorita fight against Team Rocket. Chikorita easily deals with Arbok, and Pikachu attacks the fan which explodes and they blast off again. After this is done with, the Hoppip gather together with their leaves together. This greatly concerns Mariah who knows they always do that when a severe weather storm is approaching. She checks her equipment and confirms an approaching tornado. Meanwhile, Team Rocket are walking along having barely survived the last encounter and this evil tornado comes up behind them and sucks them up to throw them around. The tornado continues to wreak havoc as it approaches Mariah's house. They stupidly just cower under the table, when she really should've had a basement ready to hide in if a tornado strikes. It comes, and tears apart her roof, it also scoops up all the Hoppip. Oddish seems to be enjoying it though, as it's his first chance to fly. After the tornado passes, they look for Hoppip, first finding Oddish near the wreckage of Mariah's roof. The gang and Oddish continue looking for Hoppip as Oddish leads them into the woods to find the 1st Hoppip. Brock handily climbs the tree and brings Hoppip down to safety. They find another Hoppip stuck to a tree branch in a raging river. Oddish gets set to jump into the river to save the Hoppip, but Ash stops him. Brock then goes in and easily brings that Hoppip to safety as well. Walking through an open area, they see another Hoppip flying high. It just so happens that Team Rocket is flying around in their balloon and the storm blew all the Hoppip their way. This Hoppip encounters Team Rocket too, and they just snatch him up. Of course also leading the group towards Team Rocket. Misty has Staryu attack the balloon crashing them in the woods. Ash and the group rush to get to the fallen balloon and they battle against Team Rocket. Oddish leads up the battle taking care of all of Team Rocket's Pokémon and sending them blasting off with Solarbeam. They get back all the Hoppip and return home. They talk with Oddish encouraging him to do his best as an Oddish, and that even if he can't fly, Oddish is good as an Oddish. So, for helping to save all the Hoppip, Mariah names Oddish an honorary Hoppip, still just an Oddish though, and Oddish seems happy with that, happy now to be an Oddish.

Episode 138 (The Superhero Secret)

Ash and the group are walking along just as they fall into a hole. It was the work of Team Rocket who've got a plan to drown them all and scoot with Pikachu. Just as they all struggle and Togepi is starting to drown, a Gligar bashes through to get Togepi out and up to a tree where a masked man in a purple cape stands. He calls himself Gligar Man and with his trusty Gligar helps out those in need. The Gligar attacks Team Rocket and before long they're running off. After all is well, Gligar Man scoots off on his motorcycle. Just as he's left, a girl rides up on a bicycle and asks them if they've seen Gligar Man. Very odd question to ask a bunch of total strangers if you ask me, but she must have expected them to have, and surely enough that's what just happened, her name is Latoya and Brock is all over her, and as usual Misty's the one to drag him away. They head into the town and find a toy store where they're selling lots of Gligar Man stuff. The people outside the door push Ash and the group into the store to see the Gligar Man stuff. Brock instantly notices the sound of Latoya's voice and so now we know she works at this store. The owner of the store guides them to a movie screen to learn all about Gligar Man. They watch a movie showing Gligar Man doing various superhero things throughout the movie. They begin to suspect the store owner of hiding something, and when Togepi is clinging to his leg, Misty pieces it together that he's Gligar Man. They go downstairs into a vault, some sort of central control station for Gligar Man. This is where he runs all his operations, but he's been getting old lately. He wants Ash to take over as Gligar Man, but imagining himself in that role, Ash abruptly refuses. He'd not want to pass it down to his daughter Latoya because she doesn't really want it to continue. Just as they're discussing all this, something goes down upstairs. It seems Team Rocket is attacking again, dressed as super villains James and Meowth are dressed as Metapods and shoving Metapod Man costumes onto innocent bystanders.. ooh the horror. In trying to stop them though, Meowth breaks out a Spinarak robot and traps Ash, Pikachu and Gligar Man in a sticky goo ball. Jessie threatens to reveal who Gligar Man is, but it seems as everyone had known all along anyway. Just then, a girl's voice is heard. She'll save the day with Gligar, for it's Gli-girl! Latoya finally decided to do the superhero act as her father had done for so long, and with her command Gligar bolts down to slash through the goo-ball and freeing Gligar Man, Ash, and Pikachu. After Team Rocket blasts off with their robot Spinarak, Latoya admits she just couldn't help, but grab a costume to help her father. So, it seems she'll be continuing family tradition as Ash and co depart from the town on towards the next Johto league gym.

Episode 139 (Mild 'n Wooly)

Ash and the group are sitting down to a picnic just as Ash starts choking on his sandwich. Ash nearly chokes to death until he manages to cough it up, and swallow back down. Just as that problem is over with, a Mareep shows up, and starts running at them. Mareep jumps on Pikachu and Pikachu's natural best defense of an electric attack only seems to make Mareep happier. Suddenly, an entire flock of Mareep run for Pikachu, they all want the electricity because it must make them feel good or something ^_^. It makes all of their fleece bigger and then a girl who's aptly named Mary runs to try and stop them, only getting knocked down. Her mother makes an appearance on the scene and rounds up all the Mareep drawing them towards her with her Raichu. By her command, they all return home, and Raichu guides them there. Back at the house, they talk about the Mareep and find out about a festival the village has where they honor the Mareep and battle with them. Mary wants to battle this year, but her mother isn't allowing it, because she seems to not yet be mature enough to handle her own Mareep. Later on in the field, Pikachu and Raichu run with the Mareep helping them to be more ready for the upcoming event. Mary and her Mareep named Fluffy are practicing separately for battle. Ash notices as she trains Fluffy and seems impressed with Mareep's electric attacks. Mary decides to challenge Ash to a little battle with her Mareep. Ash accepts, and the fight begins. Mareep and Pikachu seem quite closely matched. Both attacks meeting a dead end in the middle Ash calls Pikachu off to start dodging Mareep's continuous attack. Mareep eventually gets quite tired and passes out on the ground. Mary apparently wasn't thinking that Mareep could ever get tired (silly Mary!) and had to ask why Ash got Pikachu to stop his attack. In one of those rare instances when Ash gets to look smarter than someone else he explains about not letting your Pokémon get worn out. Back at the house, they go to bed and Mary with her Mareep looks to the stars having learned a lesson about Pokémon and being nice to them. Her mom overhears her remarking to herself about treating her Pokémon with respect, and this is pleasing to her mom. In the night, a thunder storm approaches, and so they gather up all the Mareep and head out to the top of the cliff with Raichu. All the Mareep stand at the top eagerly waiting to be struck by lightening, (Quite the suicidal bunch! ^_^) Of course, they in fact get shiner fleece when they get electricity. The lightening does in fact strike them, and they all get fluffed up and shiny fleece. Just then, Team Rocket happen upon the scene with their balloon fully draped with lights flashing around them. They steal all the Mareep in their net successfully. Even when Raichu attacks to stop them, a panel on the front absorbs the energy to power up the light show surrounding the balloon. Raichu tries hard, and surely enough blows out the lights and causing the lights to catch on fire. The balloon goes up in flames and falls to the ground. Just upon the fiery balloon landing, the Mareep manage to escape from beneath. Jessie and James decide to attack now, with Weezing and Arbok. Countering them are all of the Mareep, seriously outnumbering poor Team Rocket. Well, Meowth takes the energy panel from the balloon and uses it to block the massive electric attack from all the Mareep. Suddenly Fluffy jumps into the front. Apparently Fluffy thinks she can beat Team Rocket single handedly if all the other Mareep shock her enough to get enough power to do it. They try this, and just because Fluffy did the obvious thing of aiming *away* from Meowth's energy panel, Team Rocket get shocked real bad and Pikachu joins in by Ash's command just to make sure Team Rocket blast off extra-miserable. Back at the house in the morning, Mary's mom gives her a Pokéball and apparently has now decided to allow her to battle in their festival after all. On the day of the festival everyone is cheering for Mary as she stands by her Mareep, ready to battle.

Episode 140 (Wired for Battle)

In the woods, Team Rocket is spying on the group ready to spring another pitfall trap on them. Just then an old man offers to have a Pokémon battle with them. They get scared though when he calls his Scizor to fight. He seems to beat them easily, and then they run off like the cowards they are. Just then Scizor jumps off and scares Ash's group. Pikachu stands bravely ready to fight. Brock seems to think it's a wild Scizor, until the old man walks out and calls it his own. The old man's name is Muramasa and his Scizor is named Masamune. Misty angrily chastises him for letting his Scizor roam free, this probably rooted in Misty's fear of bugs. Back at the school, everything is very formal and everyone behaves very politely. It is a school where people come to train their Pokémon to become great. One of the students at the school doesn't entirely agree with their philosophy though. The student named Shingo, has become more dependent on his laptop computer recently and has even stopped having actual Pokémon battles believing that the computer has already determined the outcome for him. Ash challenges Shingo to a battle, but he refuses totally convinced from his computer he'll win. Ash doesn't buy it, but the others stop him saying the computer stated they'd lose too, and they did. Team Rocket is spying on the situation and agree they could steal Pokémon more effectively if they had his data. They plot to download Shingo's computer as Meowth hooks up the cable, he gives the signal. James opens his computer up, but not a second passes until Jessie starts pulling all the cable in, intent on using it to retrieve the actual computer. James is stunned as she states she's "downloading the computer" having misunderstood the highly common computer terminology she continues to pull until the computer is being dragged in, Meowth dangling with it. This continues until Muramasa's Scizor steps on the cable, and cuts it. Meowth is scared as the Scizor stands over him glaring down. Shingo comes down to see what the matter is and Team Rocket reveal themselves with the motto, as usual slightly changed to reflect the situation. When Shingo check's his database for Jessie and James, he doesn't find them. Jessie and James insult Shingo and say his database is shameful if it doesn't include them. Shingo gets mad and battles with them. He uses his Scizor named Blade. Blade is quite fast and as Team Rocket begin to battle, he records their stats on his computer. After Team Rocket is defeated, Ash challenges Shingo to the match once again. After a little pressure from Ash, he agrees to it. Ash battles Shingo with Heracross against his Scizor. As it starts, everything is going according to plan for Shingo. Ash is losing and Shingo watches an HP bar on his computer as Heracross continues to get attacked. Ash and Heracross battle hard, and begin to go contrary to what the computer says should be happening. Shingo can't watch the computer and the battle at the same time, so in his distraction Ash takes the advantage. Shingo finally decides for himself to forget the computer and he too focuses on the battle. He gives his Scizor commands on his own without the computer's help, and he comes close to beating Ash. Nearing the end of the battle, Heracross finally manages to defeat Scizor. After a tough battle, Ash and Shingo shake hands as Shingo now realizes that the computer can never give you the whole story about a Pokémon battle. (Yeah, 50% of winning a Pokémon battle is luck, critical hits, accuracy of moves, confusion, etc.)

Episode 141 (Good 'Quil Hunting)

Still in the forest, and struggling to find their way to Azalea town, a guy approaches them asking if they've seen any Cyndaquil. He says he's heard that there are many wild Cyndaquil everywhere around the area. Ash gets excited and just starts looking. The guy gets mad and orders Ash to not touch any of them, that he wants one for himself. He bolts off then to search out some Cyndaquil. Ash too is on the hunt. Team Rocket are spying out Brock and Misty, who've separated from Ash who'd gone searching out Cyndaquil. Team Rocket attack with their giant Meowth robot, Power Rangers style. Brock and Misty tell them Ash and Pikachu have gone off. So, in their huge robot, they bolt off in search of Ash and when they find him, attacking with huge wads of pre-chewed bubble-gum.. (ewww.. ^_^). Ash runs under the legs of the giant robot as it stupidly follows with it's head falling over itself. It gets back up and chases Ash towards a dead end. There is a trail of many caves seemingly within this dead end. Just then, Pikachu spots a Cyndaquil, which Ash then sees, perched high up, at one of the cave's exits. Ash starts to climb the rock to reach the Cyndaquil, just as the other Cyndaquil hunter appears. He sees Ash headed after Cyndaquil and gets his Sandslash to hit Ash in the eyes with sand.. Ash falls from the rock and the guy with his Sandslash head into the cave to get the Cyndaquil. Ash gets up with Pikachu to follow him into the cave. The Meowth robot is back, and wants to fight them, it launches a giant orange blob to follow Ash into the cave. Ash runs from the blob through the twisty passages inside the cave. The other guy has just spotted Cyndaquil from another passage and it's just where the passage meets up where Ash is running. While Ash is running, he too sees Cyndaquil and grabs him on the way. The guy runs out into the path to chase after Ash, but surely enough the approaching orange blob smashes right onto him, knocking him out cold. The orange blob isn't finished yet and continues to chase Ash, Pikachu and Cyndaquil right out the other side. They narrowly escape, and things are okay for a bit. The giant Meowth robot is back, and ready to attack with gum. It launches another blob of chewing gum which hits right on target and sticks Ash and Pikachu to the rock cliff on the side. Ash is holding Cyndaquil who Team Rocket spot, hoping to get it, considering how rare they are. Ash gets Cyndaquil to run away, but the giant Meowth robot stops him in his tracks. It seems Cyndaquil is in trouble, so Ash gets Pikachu to use a thunderbolt to hopefully free them from the gum. It works, although it also shocks Ash. Cyndaquil then gets fired up and unleashes a massive fire blast on the giant Meowth robot which although at first seems unscathed, begins to crumble and then explodes blasting Team Rocket once again out of the episode. Just as the explosion happens, Ash tosses a Pokéball at Cyndaquil to save him from the explosion. It also works to have Ash to be the one that caught Cyndaquil. The other guy eventually shows up and demands to have the Cyndaquil. Ash has already caught him though, however Cyndaquil does just sorta walk away, as if not caught. The other guy challenges Ash to a battle to get Cyndaquil that Ash had already caught. He insults Ash into accepting the match. It's his Sandslash against Ash's new Cyndaquil. The battle mostly consists of Cyndaquil dodging Sandslash's attacks, but when Sandslash gets her claws stuck in a tree, Cyndaquil blasts down with a tackle and wins. This isn't good enough for the guy though, so he just brings out a self-extending net and tries to steal Cyndaquil that way. Cyndaquil won't take this though, and blasts him full of fire. He runs off like the little turd he his and is never seen again. Ash has now finally gotten a replacement fire Pokémon on his team since Charizard had left. Hopefully Cyndaquil can perform well, whenever they reach the Azalea Gym.

Episode 142 (A Shadow of a Drought)

The group have finally just about found their way to Azalea Town, but the sun is so very hot, and everyone is feeling it. The water has dried up and the town is in desperate need of rain. Jessie, James and Meowth are continuing to follow Ash and the gang. They too are hot and dry, as Meowth chugs water on the side, Jessie and James want to get their share too, but it seems Meowth has only left one drop, which evaporates into the hot sunny air before reaching Jessie's mouth. Just as they're about to kill Meowth for this horrible deed, he spots a well that looks like a Slowpoke on the top. They go to it and start pumping, but bring up only sand. Meowth decides to track underground streams with two metal rods he calls dividing rods. When they seem to slip apart, they start digging there, although not getting too far with shovels, Meowth's wasted even more of Team Rocket's money building a giant Diglett robot. They dig underground with it, and crash into a deep underground cavern. They surely enough find water there and drink from it happily. They see creatures glaring at them and become scared, until James reveals them to be only Slowpoke with a flashlight. They spot a sign, and they read it which says that should the Slowpoke yawn, it will start a downpour of rain. This gives them a money making idea of forcing the entire town to pay for them to get the Slowpoke to yawn. Meanwhile, Ash and the gang enter Azalea town. Ash wants to go to the Gym for a battle, but Misty says a promise to Professor Oak about delivering the GS Ball to Kurt is more important. After Brock discovers a sign indicating all public buildings in the area, including the Gym are closed due to drought, the choice is clear. They continue to walk through the town and there are tons of Slowpoke everywhere through the area. Ash accidentally steps on a Slowpoke's tail and apologizes to it, they continue to walk and then the Slowpoke starts to moan from the pain. A little boy notices the hurt Slowpoke and the entire town start to get suspicious of Ash. Pretty soon, Ash, Misty and Brock are running from an angry mob consisted of nearly everyone in town. They spot a slowpoke arm motioning for them to come closer. It is actually an old man in a costume and tells them to put costumes on too. There's no time for questions, so they all shove their own Slowpoke costumes on. The mob breaks down as they cannot anymore find the kids. The old man explains that the people in town worship Slowpoke as there was a legend of one atop a cliff bringing rain by yawning during a past drought 400 years ago. Then the old man remembers something he was gonna do and runs off. It turns out he's running off towards the Slowpoke well, and when he gets down there, he spots the giant Diglett robot stealing Slowpoke. He tries to get the attention of it, but ends up getting chased after. As an old man, his back is not good, and he gets out of joint running from the robot. Meanwhile, Ash and the gang are looking for Kurt, and when a little girl walks by, they ask her where Kurt lives. She points to the house right beside them, but tells them Kurt is out right now. Kurt had gone to the Slowpoke well because he'd heard noises coming from it. So, they go to the well in search of Kurt. When they get there, they find the old man in the Slowpoke costume down on the ground and badly hurt. He tells them about the giant Diglett robot. They go down, and Ash would try to stop Team Rocket with Pikachu. The problem is, all the Slowpoke would get badly shocked too. Ash then calls Heracross out to stop them. Heracross somehow lifts the robot over himself and tosses it against the wall. But, the evil robot can't be stopped and when they've got enough Slowpoke, they dig further underground to go away to put their money making plan into action. Just then, all the Slowpoke start walking out of the cavern, and at the stop, they all line up. Each Slowpoke lets out a big yawn and surely enough it starts to rain. Everyone in town is happy, and the water also flows into the cavern, pushing out Team Rocket in their robot to surface. Ash is there with Pikachu and shocks them into blasting off again. The Slowpoke they'd stolen were freed. Down in the town, Ash asks the old man that he's looking for Kurt. The old man takes the head of his Slowpoke costume off and says that he is Kurt. Everyone is quite shocked, so now Ash must show this guy the GS Ball. Could he know it's secrets??

Episode 143 (Going Apricorn!)

Inside of Kurt's house, Ash shows Kurt the GS Ball. After investigating it for a few seconds, he reaches the conclusion that it is some kind of Pokéball. Unfortunately, he doesn't really know much about it. They call Professor Oak to let him know that Kurt now has the GS Ball, but that he hasn't seen anything like it before. Professor Oak tells them that Kurt is famous for making Pokéballs out of Apricorns. Ash is happy about possibly getting some new Pokéballs and so he rushes towards where Kurt is, so he can get some. Kurt's granddaughter Maisy (who generally seems to be mad at poor Ash all the time) tells Ash off for making such noise as Kurt is working on Apricorn Pokéballs. Meanwhile Kurt pulls one out of his oven and hammers on it for a bit, he cools it in some water, and sticks it back in. He goes to see the kids, and the first Ash does is ask him for some Apricorn Pokéballs. Misty thinks Ash should not be so rude as to just demand a Pokéball in that manner, but Kurt doesn't seem to mind at all, giving each of them a Fast Ball. Maisy offers to take them all around the area to look at other Apricorn trees so they can see them all. They arrive at the Pink Apricorn tree, where you get Apricorns to make Love Balls. Ash is excited to pick some, but Maisy once again becomes angry at Ash because none of those are ready to be picked. They then went to the Yellow Apricorn tree. Yellow Apricorns make Moon Balls, which are good at catching moon stone evolvers. They see some Pineco, and PokéDex warns them that Pineco can explode. Brock really wants a Pineco and runs out to get to them. Brock trips on a rock and falls face against the tree to the ground. All the Pineco then drop to the ground and blow up. The next tree is a Green Apricorn tree, but they don't get far before attacked by Beedrill. They next come upon a Red Apricorn tree, these are for making Level Balls. When they approach this tree, they fall into a hole. It was dug by none other than Team Rocket. They then approach and steal Pikachu. Jessie brings out a vacuum cleaner, which she gets ready to use on the tree to steal all the Apricorns. Just as they're about to get them, they fall into a big hole. It was dug by Diglett who decide they're gonna protect that tree. Team Rocket fall through the long tunnel dug by Diglett and end up falling a great distance when the tunnel ends near the top of a cliff. The group continue their quest looking at the various Apricorn trees, and they come to a Blue Apricorn tree, these Apricorns can make Lure Balls, good for water Pokémon. Of course Misty wants one. They manage to pick some, and then Maisy spots a big Apricorn on the Black Apricorn tree, used for making Heavy Balls. There are more Pineco here, and Brock is intent on catching one. Suddenly a breeze blows by, because now Team Rocket have a giant bicycle powered fan. Brock manages to catch all the falling Pineco setting them down gently and then one Pineco decides it's gonna stand up to Team Rocket, but Brock holds it back. Pikachu tries to stop them with a Thunderbolt attack, but they're ready for that and it just helps to fully charge the fan. When the Pineco breaks from Brock's grip, it attacks Team Rocket. They battle with Arbok and Victreebel. Brock uses his Fast Ball on Pineco as this is going on, and he manages to catch it. Pikachu attacks again, and hits Arbok overloading the bicycle causing it to explode, and they blast off again. They return to Kurt's house and give him the Apricorns to make into Pokéballs. They run off then, Ash is ready now to finally battle at the Gym.

Episode 144 (Gettin' the Bugs Out)

Ash and the group are walking towards the Gym and Ash is confident he can win. When they arrive, it seems to be more of a garden than a Gym, but it is in fact Azalea Gym. There is a boy high up in a tree, he is the Gym Leader, Bugsy. He got stuck up there because the ladder he used to climb up had fallen out of place. They put it back in place and he climbs down. Ash and Bugsy get ready to battle. Team Rocket once again continue their quest to stalk Ash and now devise a plan to steal Pikachu once the battle is going and Ash is distracted. They sneak into the Gym in another room, and put on plant costumes to blend in. Many bugs seem to catch them and attack collectively making them into a big ball of bug goo. Ash begins his battle against Bugsy. The first match is Spinarak against Cyndaquil. It seems Cyndaquil is tired, and can't get it's back flames going in order to use fire attacks. After a short match of dodging attacks, Spinarak covers the entire arena in goo, and Cyndaquil gets stuck. Ash hurriedly returns Cyndaquil to it's Pokéball to escape attack. Ash's next choice for battle is Chikorita. Everyone is doubtful of Chikorita's chances, considering that it has a natural weakness against bugs. The battle starts, and Chikorita tries to attack, Spinarak is able to dodge the attacks and it looks bad for Chikorita. Chikorita keeps on trying to hit with a Vine whip attack, and eventually is able to make an impact. Ash gets Chikorita to finish by tackling it, and is able to defeat Spinarak. Bugsy's next Pokemon is a Metapod. Ash gets quite confident thinking a Metapod will be easy to beat. Alas, this isn't the Gameboy game and this Metapod is able to use a 'Jump' move. Chikorita is defeated by Metapod leaving Ash to go with Pikachu. Metapod attacks Pikachu, but Pikachu is able to dodge it. Bugsy is relying on Metapod's speed to win this battle, but Pikachu is faster. Pikachu uses Agility to get his speed up, and then jumps onto Metapod to attack with a Thunderbolt. Metapod is shocked, and falls to the ground defeated. Bugsy chooses his last Pokémon, it's a Scyther. Scyther uses a Double Team so magically it looks like there's many Scyther. Pikachu tries to attack, but cannot find the actual Scyther. Scyther attacks Pikachu with Fury Cutter. Scyther continues to beat up on Pikachu and defeats him. Pikachu seems to be still alive as Ash picks him up to see if he's okay. Ash has only one choice left for battle, and it's to give Cyndaquil another try. Ash starts by having Cyndaquil dodge Scyther's attacks. This seems to be enough action for Cyndaquil to get his flame going and he tries to attack the many images of Scyther from his constant Double-Teaming until he finds the real one. Just as the flame approaches from Cyndaquil, Bugsy gets Scyther to go into a Swords Dance, thus blowing the flames away. After Bugsy explains away his strategy, Ash takes advantage of that, and tells Cyndaquil to get another Flamethrower attack ready. Ash tells Cyndaquil to jump above Scyther's head as it's doing it's Swords Dance, and when ready aims the Flamethrower straight down onto Scyther where the fast turning cannot deflect the flames. Scyther is quite defeated by the attack and Ash wins the match. Later on, as they're leaving Azalea town ready to travel to the next city. It seems as if they've forgotten something, the Apricorn Pokéballs! Just conveniently, Maisy comes running up the hill and delivers their balls to them. As they leave, Maisy waves at them and they continue their traveling, through the Johto region. Team Rocket are still back at the Gym however, and with all the happy little bugs. ^_^

Episode 145 (A Farfetch'd Tale)

Continuing their travels, the gang reach Ilex Forest. Brock is confident they won't get lost, but Ash and Misty have to wonder. Off in the distance, they hear a boy command a Farfetch'd to use it's Cutting attack. Now, this is a particularly stubborn Farfetch'd and won't do anything unless you use the *official* move name. Unlike the Pokémon in the other episode that could use attacks like *Jump* which are not official at all. The boy keeps begging with Farfetch'd to do his Cutting attack, but it will not listen. He's quite startled when he finds out Ash and the group were listening in on this. Misty suggests it'd be better to use the official attack name, and Ash is quick to correct him to call it a Cut attack. The boy feels like a loser, because he can't get his Pokémon to listen to him. Ash's inspirational advice is to keep on trying, and so he does. Ash and the group go to a Pokémon Center and Ash talks to Professor Oak to update him on what's been happening lately. Just as he gets off the phone to Prof. Oak, the boy comes into the Pokémon Center to see if Nurse Joy saw his Farfetch'd. It seems Farfetch'd ran away from him while trying to train, and it also seems that this isn't the first time it's happened. Nurse Joy suggests for him to return to his Dad's house since Farfetch'd had returned home last time. When they all go to his Dad's house, he's working on his Purifying Charcoal with a Magmar keeping the flames going. The boy timidly approaches his father to ask if Farfetch'd had come home, and Dad figures he's run off again. The boy starts to deny that, but really can't hide it. Ash challenges this tough dad, saying it's not fair. The boy's father says that his son can't be a good trainer or help make the Charcoal if he can't do more than just try giving commands. He should try to think with his Pokémon, like one mind and then he'll be a good team with Farfetch'd. They run off to go looking for Farfetch'd. Meanwhile, Team Rocket has totally been starving around the forest, and spot a shrine to the guardian of the Ilex forest. There have been what appear to be two balls of rice left at the shrine probably as an offering to the Guardian of the Ilex forest, but Team Rocket don't care. James grabs them, and Meowth and Jessie grab one from each of James' hands. It really wasn't much though, and of course James got none. Just then, they spot the runaway Farfetch'd in the woods. Meowth gets the idea to sell Farfetch'd for money to get food. Most likely though, they'd probably just cook and eat poor Farfetch'd before it got to that. That certainly seems to be James' plan as he glares at the scared little bird. Of course, Farfetch'd is able to successfully evade them for quite a while, but finally manage to take his leek. Without it, Farfetch'd has no real way to defend himself, and Team Rocket is able to bring Farfetch'd under a net. Ash and the boy catch up to Team Rocket, and the boy is willing to fight for his Farfetch'd. Team Rocket are quite equally willing to fight for their meal. Team Rocket battle it out, and with Weezing's sludge sticking on everyone, out of nowhere comes Onix to save the day. Yes, Brock and Misty are here to save the day after probably realizing they weren't gonna find Farfetch'd. They all get de-sluged with a Water Gun. The boy sees Ash fighting with his Pokémon and is quite inspired by it. Just as he gets hold of Farfetch'd's leek, he is able to return it to his Farfetch'd and gives Farfetch'd commands which he obeys this time. They defeat Team Rocket, who blast off again. Now, the boy has Farfetch'd use it's Cut to cut a big piece of tree into nicely sliced pieces. They return to the boy's house and his father is quite proud of him. The boy's father gives Ash a bunch of Purifying Charcoal, and they continue on their way towards Goldenrod City.

Episode 146 (Tricks of the Trade)

Ash and co are continuing their travels as they encounter a boy who has a Wobbuffet. He's had this one for a while now and trained him nicely, but now he wants to trade at the Pokémon Swap Meet. Team Rocket, are overhearing this *as* usual and also as usual get plans to steal Pokémon. Ash continues along the road, and a huge stampede of Tauros run by. It's an annual event, the running of the Tauros. People want to try to run with them who have the guts to try touching one of their horns. Ash really wants in on this, and jumps into the way. He gets scared though and jumps aside. Then, there's a battle in a small stadium and Ash eagerly wants to participate in that. Ash phones Prof. Oak to get one of his Tauros to battle with, in exchange he sends away his Heracross since Oak requested him for research. Just as some guy is about to be declared the winner of this Tauros tournament, Ash runs in and jumps from the audience booth into the stadium to battle. They fight, Tauros vs. Tauros pushing against each other. Ash's Tauros claims victory flipping the other Tauros over it's horns. Meanwhile, all this was shown on a TV screen outside the stadium and the boy with the Wobbuffet sees Ash battling. Later on, Ash is walking up a hill and the boy thinks he wants to trade Wobbuffet for that Tauros. Before he gets the chance to ask, Ash is swarmed by other people wanting to trade. Ash turns them all down, saying he wouldn't trade Tauros for anything (funny, since he's got like 15 of 'em!) and so that's indirectly the boy's answer. When the boy talks with Ash saying he hasn't found someone to trade with, Misty volunteers them to help the boy find someone. Team Rocket has set up in the area now, offering a machine that will allow trades as well as raise the level of a Pokémon. Of course, it's all a scam, and Meowth is inside of the fake machine, swapping the Pokéballs for empty ones. Ash and co are helping to find someone to trade with, but there are many rejections, as many trainers are not interested in having a Wobbuffet. James is on break later, and with a bag of money in hand is anxious to for once be able to buy food. James comes upon a guy in a stand wanting to sell him a Magikarp. Giving him the same story he gave him on the St. Anne, making him believe he'll be rich. James is just about to buy just as he remembers who this man is..!! The man packs his entire stand into a sack and makes a run for it, as James chases after him. Eventually, Ash and Brock are able to convince a trainer to trade his Stantler for the Wobbuffet. Just as they're about to make the trade, the guy runs off with the Stantler for someone else. The trade has already been initiated though, and with all the confusion, James chasing the Magikarp guy, he knocks Jessie down and one of her Pokéballs lands in the trading machine. It's switched there for the boy's Wobbuffet, as Jessie unknowingly grabs back the Pokéball and runs off after James. Just then, Meowth runs for them alerting them to the fact that people are starting to discover their empty Pokéballs and they should run for it. Team Rocket then reveal themselves and attempt to make a getaway with a magical auto-tieing rope around the whole crowd. Then, they pull out a vacuum to suck up everyone's other Pokémon too. Ash suggests they all fight with their Tauros. The Tauros all come out and hit Team Rocket hard into their balloon and a bag full of Pokéballs drop out as they blast off into the air. Someone's Scyther uncuts everyone and they investigate the Pokéballs to discover they're empty too. Ash, Misty and Brock run off into the woods where Team Rocket crashed and discover the real Pokéballs. In battle, Jessie chooses Lickitung, but is surprised to see a Wobbuffet pop out. As Jessie tries to figure out what Wobbuffet can do, Ash's Chikorita attacks and hits Wobbuffet a few times. Jessie finds an attack for Wobbuffet in the book, and tells Wobbuffet to do a Counter. Chikorita's Vine Whip attack is then repelled against Chikorita, as well as her Razor Leaf. Ash knows how to counter a Counter though, and gets Pikachu to do a Thunderbolt attack, which shocks Wobbuffet, and Team Rocket, and they blast off again. Ash returns the Pokéballs to the trainers. They find the boy who had a Wobbuffet, and he's got a Lickitung. He wanted to find the lady who traded with him to thank her for Lickitung, but Ash can't quite make the connection to Jessie and says he'd never seen her. Lickitung now has this boy as his new trainer, but now Wobbuffet must live a life suffering the cruel fate of a Team Rocket member.

Episode 147 (The Fire-ing Squad!)

Ash is stopped at a Pokémon Center getting all his Pokémon checked out by Nurse Joy. They're all in good shape as Nurse Joy releases them back to Ash. When Brock starts coming on to Nurse Joy she excuses herself stating that she must be checking the Pokémon now for the upcoming Fire & Rescue Grand Prix. Ash and friends go to check it out and just then, Captain Aiden and his Team Wartortle appear before them. In fact, they're returning champs from the previous year. Team Rocket, spying on them as usual, decide it'd be worth their while to crash the event. Ash enters the tournament, because Captain Aiden was easily able to convince the people running it that Ash's Pokémon had past experience fighting fires. Ash decides he'll enter Squirtle and using some of Misty's Pokémon too. Misty is a little upset at Ash's declaration to be using her Pokémon, but she lets him anyway. Just then, they spot the Squirtle Squad from which Squirtle came from. Squirtle is happy to see his old friends again. Unfortunately, without Squirtle as their leader, the Squirtle Squad has become very poor and it shows as they are practicing before the tournament and cannot knock down a single pop can. Squirtle is disappointed, steps on all of their tails and gets their attention to follow his command. They obey and knock out all the cans quickly and with perfect aim. When the tournament starts, it's Ash's team against some team of Muk. Two small houses are set ablaze in the middle of the arena and both teams go to it. The battle seems to be going okay, but Psyduck gets in the way and Staryu hits Psyduck landing him in the middle of the burning house. Ash sends Squirtle in to save Psyduck from being burned alive and manages to get him out quickly. However, this does cost Ash the match and he's first out of the tournament. The next match is a Golduck team against the Squirtle Squad. The Squirtle Squad are in a bad state and extremely nervous. When they get going they trip over each other and when they finally get to tackling the blazing building in the middle, they're all squirting in random directions. Ash gets their attention by having Pikachu shock attack them, and Squirtle leaps out to assist them in getting their act together. The Golduck team are way ahead and nearly finished, but Squirtle quickly and efficiently commands them to rotate around putting the fire out, just beating the Golduck team. All of a sudden by surprise the building sets itself ablaze once again, it's Team Rocket as they burst out of the ground. Team Rocket have a giant Flamethrower robot. They set their flamethrowers on and start trying to kill the gang with a massive spray of flames. The Wartortle come in front to stop it, but Team Rocket just power up the flames and start overpowering the water guns. Many water Pokemon come to help get rid of it, just then, they use their net to catch them and store them inside. Squirtle Squad attack robot, narrowly avoiding being torched to death, thanks to Squirtle's keen instructions. Squirtle manages to penetrate the front window, breaks in and damages controls. The Held Pokemon are able to escape and the robot is sparking.. but, they still got their flamethrowers, but not before Pikachu and Squirtle's combined water-electric beam can destroy the robot and they completely blast off again. After things calm down, they begin the FINAL competition, Squirtle Squad vs. Team Wartortle.. with Squirtle guiding them through it all. The Squirtle Squad win narrowly by only 1.02 sec. Ash decides Squirtle should stay with the Squirtle Squad since they make an excellent team. Ash tells Squirtle they'll always be friends and not to forget that. Ash has memories of past times with Squirtle and they all wave goodbye to Squirtle for the last time.

Episode 148 (No Big Woop!)

The gang are walking along, and deep off the edge of the cliff they spot a little house. Just then, a Wooper jumps on Brock and not knowing what just happened and that something wet and gooey was on his neck, Brock was panicking and stepped off the ground to fall a long way down to the bottom of the cliff where the house was. A girl from the house runs to see if he's all right, and he goes to make his moves on her.. Misty drags him away, then she and Ash ask the girl, named Alisha what the house is for. It seems she's got a lot of Wooper and got this place as a school for Wooper to go to. She trains them in her pond and plays the tambourine for them. Meanwhile in the forest, Team Rocket are scrounging for food. Jessie finds a mushroom, but it's poisonous. They can't get any money from the boss anymore, because they haven't been doing their job. Back at the Wooper school, Alisha gets a call on her cell phone. It seems her mother has had a hard fall down some stairs and is in hospital with a broken leg. She wants to go check on her mom, but can't leave the Wooper. Brock quickly volunteers to look after them, as well as Ash and Misty volunteer. She accepts and before speeding off on her motorcycle she hands Brock a guidebook to raising Wooper. Just as they're walking back in to check on the Wooper, it seems they've all disappeared from the pond. Brock is horrified they're all gone and turns into stone and falls to the ground. Pikachu spots a trail of water leading into the house, and they go to follow it. Surely enough the Wooper are running around inside. The guidebook tells them to show the Wooper food to get them under control. Brock brings out a small pellet of food. The Wooper approach him, and eventually start drowning him. They read the book again, finding that the tambourine makes them easier to control. Misty starts playing and singing annoyingly, the Wooper plug their ears with their little antler things. Misty is disappointed, but then Togepi picks the tambourine up and starts to play. It works and he gets them all back to the pond, except for one. Brock turns to stone once again when he realizes that Alisha's favorite is still missing. He picks up the Tambourine and starts playing mumbling to himself, 'woop woop' ^_^ while Misty and Ash go back inside to look for the Wooper. They hear a loud noise coming from the kitchen and when they go there they spot Wooper. Wooper jumps around on the dishes and all over the place as Ash, Misty and Pikachu struggle to keep things together. Wooper hops around and out the door, and easily hops up the cliff. Ash, Misty and Pikachu chase after it all the way up, and keep going. They soon come to a treacherous rope bridge which Wooper hops onto. Ash, Misty and Pikachu are quite nervous, Misty tries to charm Wooper into coming with her, but Wooper just jumps around nearly knocking the bridge down and hops across to the other side. Ash, Misty and Pikachu resolve to just get off the bridge to the other side, but as soon as they get confident, the bridge snaps and crashes down with Pikachu just getting across. Pikachu continues after Wooper while Ash and Misty try to get up from the dangling bridge. Meowth is cooking a stew in a pot, with nothing to go with it, until he spots Wooper, thinking it's a giant mushroom. He jumps for it, but Wooper slips away. Jessie and James appear with a tray of little Mushrooms and Meowth tells them he saw a big one. They put the mushrooms down and start looking. When they look back, their little mushrooms were taken and they spot the big Mushroom. Wooper turns around with a little mushroom dangling out of its mouth and Jessie becomes quite mad, ready to pound the little bugger real good, she looks into Wooper's cute little eyes, and can't do it. They decide they could take Wooper to the boss, and he'll forgive them out of its cuteness. Jessie tosses a Pokéball at it, but it doesn't work. Just then, Pikachu appears, and jumps in front of Wooper defending it. Team Rocket want to get Pikachu to persuade Wooper to come along with them, and they're even offering Pikachu some acorns they picked if he'll help. Pikachu refuses, and they continue to put the pressure on offering more acorns to Pikachu. Ash and Misty finally appear and tell Team Rocket that Wooper has a trainer, and so they start going after Wooper with nets, but it's so slippery and just floats above them all. Jessie wants Wobbuffet to attack, but Wobbuffet can't. They finally get Wooper and start to float away until Alisha and Brock come riding in and Alisha demands her Wooper back. Team Rocket won't give, but Alisha calls her Wooper, who easily slips out of the net and comes to its trainer. Team Rocket battle with Arbok and Weezing to get Wooper back, but the little Wooper defeats them both and tosses them off. They go back to the school, and all the Wooper are okay. Ash and the group leave the place, headed onwards continuing their very slow journey to Goldenrod City.

Episode 149 (Tunnel Vision)

Brock is looking at the map, and sees they must go through a tunnel that is full of Onix to get to their eventual destination of Goldenrod City. Ash is a little scared, since he's lost Squirtle now and has no other water Pokémon on his team. Misty reassures them she'll use her water Pokémon if it becomes necessary. Team Rocket are wanting to cross through the tunnel as well. Unfortunately for them, they have no water Pokémon. They come to a decision to steal Misty's Pokémon to use in the tunnel. Meanwhile, Snubbull has been bumping around and it seems that she's looking for something. This is the same Snubbull they'd encountered before, with the ribbons. Snubbull is sniffing around and trailing someone. They continue along, and then they see Jigglypuff. Jigglypuff sings her song and they all fall asleep. Just as Snubbull has found what she'd been searching for being of course Meowth's tail, she too falls asleep. When Snubbull wakes up, she looks into some water, to see markings on her face. She then looks over to see Jigglypuff scribbling more markings on a fallen asleep Pidgey. Snubbull runs for Jigglypuff and grabs the Microphone/Marker and darts off with it. Jigglypuff stumbles a bit, and cries out for her stolen item. Jigglypuff stumbles out towards Ash and the group as they're walking by. This time, she's missing her microphone and they go through the same routine of helping a Jigglypuff in need, as they'd done the first time they'd met Jigglypuff so long ago. Snubbull is continuing to wander around in search of Meowth's tail, and he finally finds it, to take a big nice chomp into it. Meowth jumps 10 feet when this happens, and Jessie gets thinking that Snubbull should join them. Meowth says he'll leave if they keep Snubbull, and so they kick him off the team. They get to digging their traps for Ash and the group. Just as they come to spot all the nicely laid out food, Misty suspects it to be a trap. That doesn't stop Jigglypuff though, who plows straight into the first hole, Bulbasaur rescues her, and she runs off puffed up and falls into the 2nd trap, which gets her more mad and puffed up. Bulbasaur rescues her from that, and she continues to the next trap. At the end of the trap falling, Jigglypuff is super puffed up and very upset ^^;. Ash and the group start to search around in the bushes, but cannot turn up the microphone. Meowth is walking around separated from Team Rocket. Meowth rationalizes that Team Rocket isn't complete without him to pop up at the end with a big, "Meowth! That's right!" and meanwhile, Jigglypuff is getting discouraged about her microphone. She walks off and meets Meowth. They both sit down and have a chat about Jigglypuff's problem. Meowth is quite fond of Jiggly's perfect roundness and thinks they could make their own group, calling themselves the Dream Team. Meowth doesn't get very far into discussing much more until Snubbull has arrived to chomp into his tail. Jessie and James are there, and still apparently rejecting Meowth from Team Rocket now. Jigglypuff tries to take the microphone from Snubbull, and it turns into a slap fight. Meowth tries to break it up, but ends up getting dragged into the now 3-way fight. Ash and the group arrive on the scene and Ash tries to break up the fight. Team Rocket see this as their chance to steal Misty's Pokémon, and so Misty defends. Psyduck comes out, but Misty recalls him, and chooses Poliwag. Ash helps out with Chikorita. Chikorita and Poliwag are beating them, but Chikorita's Vine Whip is repelled by Wobbuffet's Counter attack. Poliwag enters with a water gun, which cannot be countered, and the Pikachu shocks them. When Team Rocket blast off again, Snubbull chases after the direction of their balloon, and drops Jigglypuff's microphone. Jigglypuff sings, and everyone falls asleep, Jigglypuff enters the Onix tunnel and is very happy to see the big scary Onix. She starts singing and they too fall asleep. When Ash and the group begin to walk through the cave, they see all the sleeping Onix that were scribbled on. Jigglypuff had been through there, and now they can get through without worrying about Onix attacks. Team Rocket try to pass through as well a little later, and the Onix are still asleep. That is, until Jessie trips over a rock. The noise wakes them up and the poor unlucky Jessie, James and Meowth must face a group of startled Onix that aren't happy about being woken up.

Episode 150 (Hour of the Houndour)

The group are in the middle of preparing to eat in the middle of the woods. They are being watched, as seen by glaring eyes in the shadows. Ash was holding some bread in his bag, and when they went to get it, Ash's bag had disappeared from the tree by which he laid it. After a little wondering, they spot some footprints. A Nurse Joy and her Chansey had just come back from shopping for Groceries, and see an ice cream truck. Nurse Joy orders two cones and sets her bag down on the bench. As this is going on, Team Rocket watch from above, and lower Meowth down with a fishing rod. When Meowth is within arms reach of the bag, he grabs some ham and they reel him in. They all bolt off to eat the ham, but as Meowth lunges for it and bites in, Jessie tries to shake him off. They start fighting and the ham rolls aside as it's stolen from them. After the fighting stops, they wonder where it went. First they blame Wobbuffet for eating it, but he assures them of his innocence. Nurse Joy is approaching so they hide. She finds the empty ham wrapper on the ground. Ash and the group happen upon this and tell Nurse Joy that they too had something stolen from them. They spot another trail of footprints and start following them. The prints lead them deep into the woods where they stop at grass. Brock decides they'll spend some time at that spot. He cooks a sausage over a fire, and carves a fake sausage out of wood. He cooks them both in the same pot, and when done leaves the fake out on a plate with the fumes blowing in the wind. Just as they turn their heads, the fake sausage is gone and they come out wondering where it went. It isn't long before they hear noises, and see red glaring eyes in the shadows. They come out and turn out to be a pack of Houndour. With Psyduck, Cyndaquil, Chikorita and Onix called out they are matched for number against the group of five Houndour. Ash and Pikachu battle the lead Houndour and things are quite tense with that until a distant howl is heard. The Houndour smog out the group and make a run for it. This isn't good enough for Ash though, so he and the group follow the Houndour. It happens to be that a weak injured Houndour is being attacked by a Golem. Ash dives for the Houndour as Golem is about to hit him, and pulls him out of harms way. Then, Ash gets Chikorita to use its Razor Leaf to chase off the Golem. The injured Houndour is very sick, and has a bad fever. Ash explains fully to the rest of them that if he doesn't get to the Pokémon Center fast, he could die. The lead Houndour allows them to go, but then Team Rocket appear. The leader Houndour tells Ash to get going with the injured Houndour and the rest of the Houndour will take care of Team Rocket. The Houndour battle against Team Rocket, and without much effort, are able to beat them off. Ash is running with Misty and Brock, and the Houndour on his back, a very long distance to the Pokémon Center. Ash is determined to not give up, even as Misty and Brock who have no weight to carry on their backs are getting very tired from running. Ash trembles and falls to the ground, but just as things look bad the other Houndour show up, and the leader carries him the rest of the way as Ash and the group run with them. They arrive at the Pokémon Center, and things are looking up for the injured Houndour. Outside the Pokémon Center, stand the rest of the Houndour, relieved that their friend will be okay. The Team Rocket balloon shows up, and they launch a net which captures all of the Houndour standing there. As they seem to be making their getaway, the leader Houndour runs with Pikachu on his back at the balloon, Ash instructs Houndour to jump high and cut his friends free with a fire attack. It works and the Houndour fall to the ground, okay. Then, with Pikachu shocking the TR balloon, they blast off into the night sky. The next morning, the injured Houndour fully recovered, and for a treat Brock gives him a real sausage. Ash and the group continue on their way towards Goldenrod city, and say goodbye to their new Houndour friends. Team Rocket, aren't doing so well though, as Jessie is suspended off of a tree branch on the edge of a cliff by her uniform, James and Meowth hanging onto her. Wobbuffet seems to be all right though, standing on the top of the cliff.