Ash is still recovering from his defeat at the Battle Pyramid, while May is also melancholy about her own defeat at the Grand Festival. Professor Oak shows up at the Pokémon Center in Fennel Valley, with a special care package meant to cheer Ash up. It contains a poster with the prints of his Pokémon, a fishing lure from Misty, and food from his mother. There's even a postcard from Gary in Sinnoh, which gets Ash thinking about their rivalry and actually pulls him out of his funk.

May is still in a mood, but Drew visits her and says they should battle. The kids begin to set up, but when they are picking judges to oversee the battle, Team Rocket shows up disguised as the three official Contest judges. The kids are only slightly fooled, but the plot is blown wide open by the appearance of Harley and his Cacturne. He threatens Team Rocket and gets them to sit in the audience instead.

The battle begins, with Professor Oak and Scott as judges, and Nurse Joy as the MC. It's a Double Battle, with May's Combusken and Beautifly versus Drew's Roselia and Butterfree. The two are somewhat evenly matched, until May starts getting hit hard by Drew's awesome combos. He finishes her off with Psybeam combined with SolarBeam. Drew goes to see her after the battle, but she's actually okay with losing, and admits that she got overconfident when it comes to Pokémon Contests. Drew tells her he's going to the Johto region for Pokémon Contests, and Harley jumps in to say he's headed there too. Team Rocket also happens to be nearby, but when Jessie admits she's not going to follow the rest of them to Johto, Harley gets mad and sends the entire team blasting off. With thoughts of Johto on her mind, May encourages Ash, while Professor Oak writes a new poem.