Ash and friends are crossing a frozen lake when Max calls for the others to stop, saying he’d heard a voice crying for help. Finding a Ralts frozen into the ice, they quickly free it, do their best to warm it, and then rush it to the Pokémon Center. On their way, though, Team Rocket stops them, claiming to be the Ralts’s true owner, while in fact planning to steal the Pokémon and make use of its Psychic abilities. Our heroes dispatch with these villains, but at the cost of precious time—Ralts’s body temperature is falling quickly. As they finally close in on the Pokémon Center, a Gardevoir and a Kirlia, mistaking Ash for a Pokémon poacher himself, block their path menacingly. With no time to battle, Ash must convince these Pokémon of his good intentions if Ralts is to receive the treatment it needs direly.