391: The Ribbon Cup Caper
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393: Kaitou Bannai to Ribon Kappu!
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May leads them via her guidebook to the ship's Pokémon Centre, where Nurse Joy has the best fucking job in the world apparently. Brock shoves past May to try and take advantage of the potential loneliness of life at sea but Max drags him away. May asks Nurse Joy to look after her Pokémon and learns that the Centre also includes a giant exercise playground for them as well. She asks Joy to give her Pokémon a rest and then let them out to play, and the twerps set off again and come across (Brock literally?) Officer Jenny. Once more Brock tries to express his heartfelt desire to bone the shit out of her and once again Max has to haul him away.
Ash and May ask if there has been some kind of crime but Jenny explains that she's on the track of "Brody the Phantom Thief", a name that sounds familiar to the twerps. Eventually they work out it is Brody from Team Magma who they met o-
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
-nce before. A Master of Disguise who was pretending to be a woman (oh Brock!) and stole information on ancient Pokémon. As Team Rocket eavesdrop in their disguise as cleaners, the twerps are trying to understand why he would be on the St. Flower, and Officer Jenny explains that he is probably looking to score art and jewellery now that Team Magma and Team Aqua have broken up.
YEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!
Jenny believes she has tracked him down to the ship, and asks that they let her know if they see anything suspicious, and Max tries to haul away Brock who resists, crying for Jenny to come back.
Meanwhile, Team Rocket are celebrating, James believing because they're going to get to meet Brody. Jesse explains the "truth", that they're celebrating that Team Magma and Team Aqua broke up (this IS a cause for celebration!) and that this is ENTIRELY due to.... them!
James is confused because this is quite clearly not the case, but Jesse tells him not to get hung up on details, because the two teams are done and they're still standing! And that means, Meowth explains, they get to take the credit! James finally gets it, and falls into a rare patent-pending Reasonable James Giovanni Fantasy, imagining the Boss sitting and saying that thanks to James (and the other two) destroying the two teams; he's going to let them run the whole Hoenn Region!
Meanwhile, May is taking the twerps to a mystery location - a museum holding the Ribbon Cup, which is the prize given to the winner of the Grand Festival.... and May is convinced that she WILL have it. But her fantasies are reduced to horrible reality when Munchlax comes barrelling into the room looking for food and chased by a frantic usher. It scoffs down a plate of crackers, dodges May and slams into the post holding the Ribbon Cup, and then turns eagerly to get a mouthful of May's pink surprise!
GETCHA MINDS OUTTA DA GUTTA!
Max has given it one of the small pink Pokeblocks that instantly fill it up, and it settles down into a grateful slumber as the twerps realise to their shock that a handle on the Ribbon Cup has broken free.
The Cup is viewed by Mr. Contesta who is apparently travelling on the St. Flower as well. While Max tries to explain why his sister's fat Pokémon caused this and May sadly apologises, Mr. Contesta laughs that he knows it was an accident, there is no reason a Coordinator who worked so hard to get to the Grand Festival would deliberately do such a thing. However, there IS something wrong, and that is the Cup itself... it's a fake! He points out that the official contest seal is not inside the cup, and then a small purple card falls out, identified by Officer Jenny as the calling card of Brody!
Watching out a wall grate from inside an air vent, Team Rocket are furious that their own plan to steal the Ribbon Cup was pre-empted. Jesse has a new plan thought.... they'll thieve it from the thief!
Meanwhile, Mr. Contesta is trying to figure out what to do, as the Grand Festival can't happen without the easily replaceable trophy. May whines and cries that her and the other coordinators have worked so hard to get there but Mr. Contesta explains that there simply isn't time to make a new one.... or do into any strip mall and pick one up for $29.95. Officer Jenny remains confident though, because as they're on a boat there is simply no way that Brody could get off of it and therefore he must still be on board, because it would be impossible for Brody to escape in any number of ways including using scuba gear/flying gear/an escape craft/jumping overboard and waiting for a rendezvous pick-up by accomplices etc. None of those things could happen, so they simply have to track down an utter master of disguise amongst the hundreds (possibly thousands) of people onboard in the relatively short amount of time before they dock at Slateport City!
Jenny and the twerps (after Brock struggles to cop a feel) go and interview the guards for the museum and learn that the guards are always there unless taking a break in shifts. Jenny asks if there was anything odd any of them noticed and one of them mentions the time his partner came back early from his break one time... only his partner says he didn't! That must have been Brody, but surely he has changed disguises by now, so they'll need to find a way to bait him out, and Officer Jenny thinks she knows how.
Spraypainting a Pokeball gold, she tells them they'll put it on display and announce it will be the second prize at the Grand Festival. The twerps job is to spread the word, and they proceed to work on some incredibly terrible acting, Brock the worst as he grabs a soda and roars out that he has to see the golden Pokeball that is golden.
After hamming it up all over the place, they return to the room and wait for Brody to strike. Hearing a voice, they hide behind the couch in front of the surprisingly large, open windows as TWO Brodys enter disguised as cruise staff, pushing a food tray with a silver platter on it. Seeing the room is empty, the two thieves prepare to grab the Pokeball, only for Jenny and the twerps to confront them and learn they're not Brody at all, they're Team Rocket! And Meowth was hiding under the platter's lid!
Pikachu blasts them off out the window (screaming,"Not yet!" as they go) and without a second thought about the fact they've just dumped two people and a Pokémon into the middle of the ocean without any ships nearby to save them, prepare to wait for Brody. Just then the Captain arrives, crying out in a panic that Brody is stealing Pokémon from the Pokémon Centre! That includes May's Pokémon, so they all rush out of the room leaving behind the smirking Captain.
He's not a Master Criminal, everyone else in the world is just REALLY FUCKING STUPID!
As they're rushing to the Centre though, they bump into the Captain! He seems quite bemused to see them rushing about and tells them that he just came from the Pokémon Centre and everything is fine. They rush back to the display room where they find Brody has been EXTREMELY SLOWLY approaching the golden Pokeball, and Jenny reveals that she (eventually!) figured out who he was! He laughs that she is quicker than he thought (she's slower than molasses!) and then presents his counter-argument to her attempt to arrest him.
Be fabulous!
Brody sends out Golbat with a Haze Attack to cover his escape, and disappears (presumably out the window which is a major security hole considering the guards stand with their backs to it.... hey where are the guards anyway!?!) but Officer Jenny isn't worried, she hid a transmitter in the Golden Pokeball, and follows it to a young woman in a huge green dress and accuses him of being Brody. Impressed, the woman leaps up and runs away, and they find her abandoned dress in the corridors (poor Brock!) and enter the kitchens where the large number of chefs render the transmitter useless. The Head Chef tastes a sauce and declares it perfect, then leaves only for an identical Head Chef to enter the kitchen moments later looking to test the sauce! Realising that the other Chef was Brody (or maybe it's the new one!) they chase after him, following the transmitter but discovering that Brock came up with a pretty clever counter for the tracking device.
He dumped it!
Ash reaches for it but it explodes open with confetti and his calling card, and they're stuck with what to do next. But then Max has an idea, remembering how Brody escaped from the Weather Institute by use of a jetpack.
Then why didn't he escape days ago!?!
They head up on deck which is suspiciously and unbelievably deserted, and while the twerps look around, Officer Jenny goes around asking if anyone has seen Brody, then returns to the twerps... with one minor hitch.
Two of them! Brock's dream come true!
But one of them is a man! Brock's nightmare come true!
But Brock is the one who can tell the difference and he has a legitimate excuse to ogle Jenny now! Brock's..... fantasy come true?
Brock points out the fake, and proves it by talking directly to the fake-Jenny with no problems, then turns to the real Jenny and goes over all goofy and cock-brained, freaking out Jenny. They approach Brody and demand the Ribbon Cup back, and he smirks that maybe it isn't as valuable as he thought and tosses it towards Jenny. She lunges for it... and it is pulled out of the sky by a flying suction cup! A suction cup attached to a Happy Buddha Face Meowth Balloon!
"Prepare for trouble we won first prize!"
"By cutting Aqua and Magma down to size!"
"To protect the world from devastation."
"To unite all peoples within our nation."
"To denounce the evils of truth and love."
"To extend our reach to the stars above."
"Jesse."
"James."
"Team Rocket swabs the deck at the speed of light."
"Surrender now or prepare to fight, fight, fight!"
"Meowth! Dat's right!"
"WOBBUFFET!""CHIME CHIME!"
Team Rocket declare that they deserve it after running Team Magma and Aqua out of town, while Brody has gotten bored and leaps up on the railing and jetpacks away (he could have done that even when the twerps were menacing him and kept the Ribbon Cup!).
With Brody "run out of town" it's down to Team Rocket vs the twerps and Officer Jenny, and it should come as no surprise that they manage to beat the crap out of Team Rocket's Pokémon. What IS a surprise, though, is that the animators are so fucking lazy or cheap or what have you that for the latter part of the fight, Seviper and Cacnea are literally hovering in midair over the ocean.
Team Rocket are sent blasting off again complaining that they wanted credit for Aqua and Magma and James noting that individual credit is a hindrance to teamwork as there is no I in team and blah blah blah till Jesse and Meowth shout at him that "I DON'T CARE!"
With the Ribbon Cup returned (apparently none the worse for wear for being involved in a blast off), Mr. Contesta thanks them and they return to the deck as the sun sets and the St. Flower docks at last at Slateport City.
Ladies, Gentlemen, Gentle Dodgers all.... it's time for the Grand Festival.
| BEST QUOTES |
 "All we did was get blown away like we always do?"
 "Don't get hung up on minor details!"
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