As May and Drew continue their battle. Drew quickly gains a lead with a new combo move. As the battle progresses, May manages to finally defeat Flygon with Squritle. However, her victory is soon spoiled as Absol quickly takes out Squirtle. Combusken and Absol continue to battle with neither side letting down. During the battle, Combusken learns Overheat and is able to strike back with amazing power. As the battle ends, it comes down to May winning by just a few points! After the battle, Ash finally catches the troublesome Aipom. May then finds herself up against Solidad and her amazing Pidgeot and Slowbro. Can May defeat Solidad and go on to win the Grand Festival?

The Grand Festival continues with appeals as Drew shows off his new Absol. May, Harley, and Solidad also do great appeals and the four of them all make it into the Top 16, which are the battle rounds. In the first match, May has to battle Harley. She chooses Munchlax and Eevee while he uses Cacturne and his new Wigglytuff. Eevee and Munchlax easily take out Cacturne but Wigglytuff badly beats them back. After devising a perfect strategy, May wins. Soon after, Solidad and Drew beat their opponents. Now in the Top 8 May must face Drew! She selects Combusken and Squirtle and Drew picks Absol and Flygon. Will May be able to beat her long time rival?

Ash and friends finally arrive at the Indigo Plateau for May’s Kanto Grand Festival. Before the competition, excitement already unfolds as Aipom returns and steals everybody’s hats! With that help of Drew and a new trainer named Solidad, they manage to get the hats back. After Drew leaves, Solidad tells May how she knows Drew, and how much he talks about May. While this is going on, Brock and Max run into a cloaked figure that they suspect to be Harley. As the next day begins, May, Drew, and Solidad all pull off impressive performances, but everyone begins to wonder where Harley is. All of a sudden, Harley, dressed as May and calling himself Mayley, comes out for a Harley original appeal. As the first round ends, May, Drew, Harley, and Solidad all progress, however, Harley has set out to defeat all of them!

On the way to Indigo Plateau for May’s Grand Festival, a group of Aipom come by and steal Ash’s hat and May’s ribbons! A old man comes by and tells them that local Aipom, Mankey, and Vigoroth have been stealing his berries and taking them up to the mountains. He also tells them that there is a rumor about a giant monster living in the mountains. They follow the Aipom into the mountains to a giant wooden fence. When the fence opens up, they run in and find out that it is really a Giant Slaking working with Team Rocket! They plan to use all the berries to make and sell Pokéblock at the Grand Festival, and Jessie will use May’s ribbons to compete! After being chased out of the Slaking’s territory, Ash and Brock are separated from everybody else, along with the Aipom that stole Ash’s hat. Can they reunite, get May’s Ribbons back, solve the mystery of the Giant Slaking, and get Ash’s hat back?

Ash and friends finally arrive at the Battle Pyramid. As they get close, they fall into some ancient ruins. After almost being crushed, they run into a guy named Brandon who owns a Regirock! Brandon acts as if they are in the wrong for being there and decides to take them out. Brandon tells them that these are the ruins of the Ancient Empire Pokélantis, and the legend of its King and the legendary Ho-Oh. When they find the throne room, Ash touches a sphere and he is possessed by the evil King himself. He then tries to steal everyone’s pokémon! Brandon decides to stop him in a battle and save Ash. Will Brandon be able to win and set Ash free? Or will the King win and steal all the Pokémon?

On their way to the Battle Pyramid, Ash and friends arrive in Pewter City to find the gym redecorated! Brock’s siblings explain that three people convinced their parents to get the gym redecorated to make it look nicer and then they sent Flint and Lola on a vacation! When Brock looks at the inside of the gym it looks just as bad, and he finds out that his Onix has evolved into Steelix! Then, the re-modelers, who are actually Team Rocket in disguise, return with a new Charizard and Aggron given to them from Delibird (and actually meant for Butch and Cassidy) and challenge Brock and Ash to a battle to decide the fate of Pewter Gym!

After failing to capture Pikachu, Jessie, James, and Meowth go their separate ways. Butch and Cassidy also split which leads to Jessie teaming up with Butch and James with Cassidy. Both teams then try to prove who is better by capturing Pikachu and Pokémon that trainers are using in a fake battle tournament set up by them.

As the battle rounds for the Mulberry Contest begin, James and Meowth trick Ash, Brock, and Max into a huge metal box so that they can’t cheer May on, in hopes that it will cause her to lose. Harley is more determined then ever to make sure May loses. Jessie and May easily breeze through the battle rounds. As the final round arrives, May sticks with her trusty Squirtle and Jessie stays with Harley’s Banette. Will May be able to beat Jessie and win her final ribbon so she can compete in the Grand Festival? And what about Ash and the others, can Drew rescue them in time?

Finally in Mulberry Town, May learns that this is the last contest before the Grand Festival! May becomes nervous and begins to doubt herself, but this is quickly put to rest when Harley shows up bragging about his five ribbons. Harley finds Team Rocket outside planning Jessie’s contest strategy. Harley decides to help Jessie, but only so May won’t make it to the Grand Festival. He gives her Cacturne and Banette to use. As the appeals get underway, Jessie takes an early lead, but thanks to James, Meowth, and Harley’s Ariados, May and Combusken are starting to slip up. Will May be able to pass the appeals and get to the second round.

On the way to Pewter City and then the Battle Pyramid, Ash and May encounter a Golden Sudowoodo. Ash tries to catch it but fails. In town, Brock doesn’t believe them but a bunch of people do and want info. After the people mob them for information, they retreat with a boy named Keenan where they learn that Sudowoodo is his. Keenan tells them for some reason Sudowoodo will not come back to Keenan. Meanwhile, Team Rocket hear of this and decide to capture Sudowoodo, however the townspeople also have their eyes on Sudowoodo! It turns out that Sudowoodo is Gold because of an experiment that Keenan performed on it, which is why it will not go back to Keenan. Can Ash and friends stop Team Rocket and the townspeople from taking Sudowoodo? And can Keenan get the chance to reconcile with his pokémon?