With their stay in Lilycove over, Ash and the gang must now catch a ferry to Mossdeep City so Ash can compete in the next Gym. However, in their hurry the gang accidentally catch the wrong boat and end up on Banba Island instead. Deciding to head into the City to find another way to Mossdeep, the gang enounter Jimmy, an up-and-coming Pokemon Referee who owns an Ivysaur, Charmeleon and Wartortle. Jimmy takes them to the Referee School (they must have a school for everything in Hoenn!) where Ash and Brock have a Double Battle.

Afterwards Jimmy explains that he started with a Squirtle, and after catching Ivysaur and Charmeleon, he attempted to be a great battler and win Gym Badges in Kanto, but the only one he won was the Cascade Badge from Cerulean… and that was for just cleaning the place for Misty’s sister Daisy! While Ash and the gang try to encourage him, Team Rocket plan on steal Jimmy’s Pokemon…

The gang finally arrives at Lilycove City.When they sit down to rest May sees a poster for a Pokemon Contest.She finds out they’re having it tomorrow and the group starts moving. Pikachu runs off and when they find Pikachu they see him at a berry stand.At the berry stand they see a young girl arguing with a man.Before they get to check it out a guy comes offering free samples of berries.Then they see the young girl strugling with a bag of berries she drops the berries but before they hit the ground her Grumpig lifts up the berries with it’s Psychic before they hit the ground.Meanwhile Team Rocket plans to steal Grumpig.

The gang have arrived in Lilycove City, however while it is simply intended to be a quick rest stop quickly turns into an extended stay when May find out that a contest is due to start soon. While walking through the city, Pikachu catches the scent of Pokeblocks and leads the gang to them, where they meet Kanata, another contest entrant who owns the Psychic Pokemon Grumpig. After learning a lot about Berries and how to blend them, May decides that, since both Beautifly and Skitty have already won contests and Bulbasaur isn’t quite ready, she should enter Combusken into the Lilycove Contest. Meanwhile, while May is busy, Ash decides to take the opportunity to teach his Swellow Aerial Ace…

Nearing Lilycove City, Ash and the gang soon come across Team Rocket who, as usual, try to capture Pikachu using one of their shock-proof mechas. However, they don’t get very far when it starts to sink into the ground and, before long, it explodes, sending Team Rocket blasting off, but the explosion is so large it sends Ash and the others blasting off too (strange, they don’t get blasted off at all for years, and then they get blasted off twice within two months…). The groups are separated and when Mewoth lands with Pikachu, he is overjoyed to find Pikachu has amnesia, and starts to tell Pikachu that he is a part of Team Rocket! While the two Pokemon start to look for Jesse and James, Ash, May, Max and Brock start looking for Pikachu. However will they find him before Meowth completely turns him against his friends?