After a practice battle between Ash's Chimchar and Dawn's Piplup, Chimchar begins to cry because Ash was nice to it even though it lost, and Paul wasn't. Things get worse when a trio of Zangoose attack and Chimchar has to face its fear and eventually defeats them and overcomes its fear of Zangoose. Chimchar also receives some unexpected advice from Meowth about the future

Gardenia reappears in a town, organizing a special exhibition battle for the town's children. She teams herself with James of Team Rocket in a match against Ash and Dawn. She proposes that James should leave his Cacnea with her to train when he is unable to use it to its full potential

Buizel is more interested in Ash's gym training, and Aipom is more interested in Dawn's contest training. Thus, Zoey suggests that Ash and Dawn do a trade

After Ash's Buizel destroys the Hallowed Tower, a Spiritomb is unleashed and attacks Ash, Dawn, Brock and a nearby village. Then Jessie tells it that Ash is a descendant of the Aura Guardian that coincidentally has a Pikachu, that sealed it away. So Ash sets out to stop the Spiritomb and with Pikachu's help, they seal it away in the Hallowed Tower

Ash's group encounters a Pokémon Breeder working on the construction of a stone bridge. The woman is arguing with the bridge's designer because of their Pokémon assistant Bibarel's refusal to work. After the stone cutter returns, Bibarel begins to construct the bridge, with help from the gang

Ash battles Alan, a trainer that wants his Nosepass to evolve into a Probopass, but it can only evolve if it levels up in Mt. Coronet. When it does, Team Rocket brainwashes it and now Ash & Co

Ash encounter a young Officer Jenny named Marble and her Luxray. Luxray is unable to use its electric moves, so Ash & Co. set out to help it

In Solaceon Town, Ash's group meets up with Dawn's old friend and rival Kenny and his new Pokémon, Breloom. Kenny tells them he is going to the Solaceon Ruins, a place of worship for the legendary Dialga and Palkia, so they tag along, only to get more than they bargained for when the Unown that live in the ruins become furious along with the appearance of the sinister Team Galactic. Among the chaos, Aipom evolves into Ambipom

Dawn competes against Kenny in the Solaceon Town Contest, looking for redemption after her crushing loss in Hearthome City. Jessie of course enters. Dawn loses once again and Kenny and Jessie face-off in the finals

On their way to Veilstone City, Ash and his friends stop off at the Mountain Hut Maid Café for a nice drink of Miltank's Milk. However, when they arrive, they learn of the troubles the Café is having, being under-staffed. Ash and his friends offer their services and soon become Maids in the Café

Ash and his friends stop at a Hot Spring managed by Dawn's childhood friend, Leona. Both girls are happy to meet again, but when Dawn and her friends want to go to the hot springs, they find out that there isn't any water. Because no water is coming from the spring, the group want to investigate, along with Leona and her Swinub

Ash and company visit a town where it is plagued with a group of Gligar led by a Gliscor. Ash and friends help Officer Jenny try to remove the flying Pokémon, while Ash's rival Paul sets his eyes on capturing Gliscor. In the end, Paul captures the Gliscor on his team, and Ash captures one of the Gligar that keeps showing up

When our heroes' Pokémon are having a fun time in a sandpit, a Hippowdon appears from within. However, the over-curious Pachirisu can't help peeping into the Hippowdon's mouth and accidentally falls into it. The situation gets worse when Hippowdon becomes the target of the Team Rocket duo Butch and Cassidy

In the forest just outside Veilstone City, the group witness a young female martial-artist and a Lucario in a fierce battle. The girl is revealed to be Maylene, the city's Gym Leader, at which point Ash immediately asks for a Gym Battle. However, she recently lost to Ash's rival Paul, and is depressed over her defeat

Dawn challenges the gym leader of Veilstone City, Maylene, in hopes of helping Maylene get over her defeat. Maylene defeats Dawn and she and her Lucario regain their confidence

Maylene finally accepts Ash's challenge. Ash uses Staravia, Chimchar, and Buizel against Machoke, Meditite, and Lucario. The battle between Buizel and Lucario ends up in a tie but Maylene still gives Ash the Cobble Badge

With Ash acquiring the Cobble Badge, our heroes decide to spend the night in Veilstone City before heading out. Reggie takes the group to a park with several meteoric stones lie. However, Team Galactic appears and try to steal them for their world domination plans

While training Gligar, Ash hears singing. When they look to see who is singing, they meet a magician named Francesca and her three Chingling. Francesca is trying to get her spoiled Chingling to have a better attitude

On their travels, Ash and his friends meet up with another Pokémon Ranger—Kellyn—and a Riolu. It turns out that Hunter J is after Riolu, due to its ability to use Aura Sphere before evolving. Ash and Riolu start to bond with their shared Aura, but J is insistent on getting it

Hunter J has managed to kidnap Riolu. But despite that, Riolu, reveals his whereabouts to Ash, using its Aura. With Rangers Kellyn and Solana joining them, Ash and his friends go to hunt down Hunter J and get Riolu back

Ash and Co. arrive at a lakeside Pokémon Center. Jessie's Dustox sees a shiny Dustox, and follows it to the lake

Ash and his friends meet Sho, a boy who has a Pichu and a Raichu. He mistakes Ash's Pikachu for a wild Pokémon. Just like at the Vermillion City Gym, Ash and Pikachu have the option again to evolve Pikachu to Raichu, after a loss to a stronger opponent

Ash, Brock and Dawn meet the Champion of the Hoenn Region, Wallace. He says he will be holding a Pokémon Contest and the winner receives a ribbon that can be used anywhere. The group spends the day with him, resulting in advice from Wallace for Dawn to play with her Pokémon more and for Ash to enter Buizel in the contest

Ash and Brock's old friend May, still training to become a Top Coordinator, visits Sinnoh for the Wallace Cup. Upon arrival at the Seven Stars Restaurant, they find out that only those who win a tag-battle against the restaurant's owners can eat there. Ash partners with Brock and win the double combat with a single move

Ash and his friends have arrived at the Lake Resort where the Wallace Cup will take place. Zoey also arrives, and competes, too. Right when the contest began, Dawn becomes nervous and has trouble keeping her composure

At night, Ash takes a walk near the Lake Valor with Pikachu when suddenly, something in the center of the lake begins to glow, and it turns out that Azelf appears. When Ash tries to approach it, the shadow disappears again. The next day, the second round of the Wallace Cup begins

Dawn beats Kyle and May beats Zoey in the semi finals and both have to battle in the finals. In the finals, Dawn faces-off against May in the Wallace Cup. Dawn uses Piplup and May uses her Glaceon

When on their way to Pastoria City, Ash and friends meet a trainer named Tyler that wants to catch a Yanma. But Team Rocket ends up catching it after he weakened it. After Jessie captures the Yanma and sends it to Giovanni, who rejects it, she decides to train it herself and it quickly evolves into Yanmega

Ash and co. are running after Gligar who has been blown away by a gust, and promptly run into Paul. After a huge argument about their different ways of treating Pokémon, Ash challenges Paul to a battle

After Ash & Co. arrive in Pastoria City, Crasher Wake refuses Ash's request for a battle because he has to take care of something. They tag along and find out there is a Croagunk Festival in the Pastoria Great Marsh

At the Pastoria Gym Ash challenges Crasher Wake to a 3-on-3 Gym Battle using Pikachu, Turtwig and Buizel, while Wake uses Gyarados, Quagsire, and Floatzel. However, Pikachu accidentally shocks Buizel and this causes them to argue which makes a difficulty in helping Ash defeat Wake. Suddenly, thanks to that Buizel had rescued Pikachu from the attack; their argument concludes

A Swinub shows up at Mr. Backlot's mansion and starts to eat all the Poffins. Dawn tries to stop it by making her own Poffins for Swinub

Ash continues his training with Gligar, but finds out it has become fearful of battles since the battle against Paul's Gliscor. The group meets Gary again, and Ash asks Gary to help him solve the problem with Gligar, and Gary gives Ash a Razor Fang, which makes Gligar evolve into Gliscor

Ash and friends return to Hearthome City to challenge the Gym Leader who was gone during their last visit. However, they hear that the Gym Leader is still gone, making Ash unable to have his fifth Gym Battle. The group meets Paris, a Pokémon Stylist, and her Lopunny

While traveling through a deep valley, Ash and friends encounter a swarm of Psyduck in the middle of a road. Upon trying to pass them, the Psyduck suddenly start attacking them, and to make things worse, when ash and team try to battle them there are too many to battle so ash sneaks behind them with the help of gliscor only to know that psyduck is trying to protect their families who are waiting to hatch their eggs and doesn't want people to interrupt. when team rocket tries to steal the pokemon with the help of psyduck they manage to blow them away and saves the day

When Ash & Co. are invited to attend a Pokémon Academy, they decide to enter it. For their first task, they choose a PokéBall that contains a Pokémon inside

While at a Pokémon Academy, Ash, Dawn, Brock, Angie, and Conway find that their Pokémon are becoming hypnotized when they go near a lake. So they decide to go and investigate what's going on

While Ash and friends are training at the Summer Academy, they are taught how to deal with Ghost-Type Pokémon, should they ever run into them. They are then paired up to find a hidden treasure. While searching, Conway has a run-in with a Dusknoir

After the Trainers are finished with the training, they must use a Pokémon to bring them across a rigorous track to the finish line. Finally after a tough competition Ash and Pikachu came first, and Angie and Shinx came second which led to the victory of the red team. Everyone is given a certificate

On their way to Celestic Town, Ash and his friends have to take Piplup to the Pokémon Center after it collapsed from over-excessive training. Meanwhile, Team Rocket, who were following the group on a slope, decide to have lunch in a luxury restaurant. But then Jessie notices that Meowth's golden charm is buried under rolls of flab

Zoey is facing a critical situation against a very tough coordinator. With her Glameow confused, the battle ends quickly. Ash and co

Brock is away on an errand. When they can't handle it, they send Gliscor to bring Brock back. Brock finds he can't carry Gliscor back, as it can't glide in the wind going the opposite direction, and leaves it, promising to return for it

Dawn has entered the latest contest held in Celestic Town. Dawn meets her mother's old rival Yuri, that wants to win this contest. When she and her mom's rival "Lila" (Yuri in Japanese version) come face to face in the Finals of the contest Dawn has to give it all she has to win

Commander Mars and Cyrus (not known yet by Ash and co. that he is a part of Team Galactic) debuted in the anime along with Commander Saturn and the other Galactic grunts . In this episode, they steal the Lustrous Orb and the Adamant Orb from the Celestic Town museum for the power to awake Dialga and Palkia in their future plans

In this episode Commander Jupiter is introduced. Ash and the gang are helped by Cynthia to stop Team Galactic from stealing the Lustrous Orb and the Adamant Orb, but they fail because they had no idea how large Team Galactic was

Arriving back in Solaceon Town, the gang meet up with Angie at her Parent's Daycare. She tells them her parents are gone for a while, so she leaves the daycare to her for a while. Ash and the gang tell her about the strange monster terrorizing Solaceon Town

As Ash and the gang are heading back to Hearthome City, they encounter Aaron, a member of the Elite Four. They see that he's training his bug Pokémon, but also himself. He explains to the gang that he's trying to look for a Wurmple he released as a child as he felt it could become stronger on its own, but he wants him back

Ash has a battle with Paul. Choosing a one-on-one battle, Paul chooses Honchkrow, and Ash chooses Turtwig. Honchkrow manages to drive Turtwig into a corner, but at the last moment, Turtwig evolves into Grotle

Upon arriving at the Hearthome Gym, Ash and his friends run into Barry, a trainer from Twinleaf Town. Barry turns out to be an admirer of Paul, whom he saw when watching the Double Battle Tournament. Ash challenges Barry to a Pokémon battle

The Gym battle between Ash and the Hearthome Gym Leader Fantina has begun. Ash chooses Buizel to battle Gengar, Chimchar to battle Mismagius, and Pikachu to battle Driftblim. Using his new counter-shield strategy Buizel defeats Gengar, Chimchar defeats Mismagius but Pikachu gets defeated by Driftblim when Fantina uses her own strategy against him, Buizel also gets defeated by Driftblim, but Chimchar finally defeats Driftblim, and Ash wins the Relic Badge

Ash and company, along with Barry, take a ride in a blimp to Canalave City. When they arrive, Team Rocket, disguised as photographers, trick them into taking a picture of all of their Pokémon, which actually turns out to be a net to kidnap them. The Pokémon fight back to attempt to escape, and everyone's Pokémon (including Team Rocket's) gets blown away into the sky in the process and they all get separated

The group heads to the Canalave Gym, but they are told that the Gym Leader isn't there right now. At a police station, the group is told by Officer Jenny that all the people in the town are having nightmares, and that the cause of the nightmares seems to be the Pokémon Darkrai. Also, Dawn's Swinub evolves into Piloswine in order to stop Team Rocket from stealing Cresselia