488: Cooking Up A Sweet Story!
Dodgy Synopsis
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492: Taiketsu! Satoshi tai Pikachu!?
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The episode begins with Pikachu and Piplup battling as Dawn gets in some training ahead of the Floaroma Contest. Dawn calls back Piplup and sends in Pachirisu, but its Discharge (ewww) fails to do anything against Pikachu, which blasts back with Thunderbolt. Pachirisu dodges, but the Thunderbolt explodes a rock and suddenly out of nowhere a tall, pretty girl appears to gasp over Pikachu's potential and beg Ash to let her borrow it for three days! Oh won't he please do that for her!?!
"I WILL!" moans a lovestruck Brock, but thanks to a mixture of his stupidity and permanent pre-adolescence, Ash is utterly immune to her charms and isn't all that keen on just handing over his best friend to some stranger for 3 days.
She introduces herself as Theresa and tells them she runs a local cake shop with her Aunt Abigail, and as Ash and Dawn introduce themselves, Brock leaps forward, grabs her by the hands and tells her he wants a taste of her tasty cakes!
As he moans and moons over her, Croagunk appears and jabs him viciously in the chest, dropping him to the ground. It then sits STARING, inflating its cheek-pouches and showing Theresa that there is only one pair of funbags that Brock is going to get anywhere near anytime soon. It drags him away and Ash finally sees fit to ponder where Croagunk takes him... but that, Gentle Dodgers, is a mystery humanity is not yet ready to learn.
They head to the cake shop, which is HUGE! Theresa explains that her Aunt Abigail has had a Pikachu called Sugar for years but it recently disappeared, and she's lost her passion of cake-making... and the big Cake Bakeoff is only three days away!
Theresa asks Ash if he'll take part in a three day scam to break an old woman's heart and he readily agrees, until noting that Abigail will probably know the difference between Pikachu and Sugar. But Theresa is already ready to exploit her intimate knowledge of Abigail to fool the poor old woman, and tells Pikachu that all it has to do is scratch the back of its head with its tail every so often. And so it does, running into the cake shop and scratching the back of its head, and Abigail is delighted, her broken down old heart lifting enough to win Theresa the prestige of making a really, really good cake! Theresa tells Abigail that the twerps found sugar, and Ash and Dawn at least have the decency to look somewhat ashamed.
A short time later, a local couple enter the store and are delighted to see Sugar again and tell her she is sure to win the bake off now, while Theresa serves tea to the twerps, and Dawn says she can't believe that Pikachu is such a good actor.
Abigail heads out to pick up some provisions, which is just what Theresa was hoping for; while elsewhere in the forest an entrepreneurial Team Rocket have been collecting berries in boxes to sell to hungry Pokémon and their trainers at the big bake-off coming up. As they walk, however, they note Thunderbolts shooting into the air and recognise from their hands-on experience "Pika-Power". But when they sneak into the bushes to get a look, it's Pikachu with an old woman, and she keeps calling it Sugar!
"Call Pikachu Gertrude if ya like and we'll still get rich!" notes Meowth.
Back at the cafe, Theresa is explaining that having a Pikachu blast a berry with Thunderbolt gives it a "roasting" that makes it tastier than ever, and they all delight in the idea of trying some of the berries when the old, scammed woman returns - in fact, Ash can't wait, he wants to go find her now!
And it's just as well, since after collecting up a basket of roasted berries, Abigail finds herself confronted with Team Rocket, who want her "Sugar"! She asks who they are, and that's all the cue they need!
"Listen is that a season citizen's I hear?" "It speaks to me, loud and clear!"
"On the wind!"
"Past the stars!"
"In yer ear!"
"Bringing chaos at a breakneck pace."
"Cooooool!" notes Meowth for no real reason.
"Dashing hope, putting fear in its place."
"A rose by any other name's just as sweet."
"When everything's worse, our work is complete."
"Jesse!"
"James!"
"Meowth, dat's a name!"
"Putting the good doers in their place."
"We're Team Rocket!"
"And we're in your face!" they finish together, forming an "R" with their bodies before Wobbuffet and Mime Jr. chime in.
Theresa and the twerps arrive and spot what is going on.
"Team Rocket!" gasp the twerps.
"Team Who-it?" asks Theresa.
Dawn explains that they're the bad guys, but not very smart, and they prepare to head in to defend Abigail. Theresa stops them, though, saying Abigail can handle herself. Jesse sends in Seviper and Abigail instructs Pikachu to.... cheese it! It rushes about at her command, chased by Seviper before pulling up short and blasting a hard berry out of a tree and onto Seviper's head, stunning it before blasting Team Rocket with Thunderbolt and sending them blasting off again!
The twerps and Theresa congratulate Abigail on beating the shit out of two starving artists and a small cat and she thanks them, and it is then revealed that Abigail once took part in the Grand Festival. They continue on towards home, but as they walk Abigail asks if Ash is taking part in the Sinnoh League... and then asks for a battle!
Reluctantly he accepts, knowing it means he has to fight Pikachu, and soon they're back at the huge cake-shop, or rather, behind it. Ash doesn't want to battle Pikachu but he can't wreck their scam, so he calls out Aipom which is... pretty fucking confused!
Ash tells it that a battle is a battle, and it turns to fight Pikachu, while Theresa reluctantly calls for the battle to begin. Pikachu heads in with Dash but gets surrounded by Double Team, so it leaps high and blasts Thunderbolt straight down, kicking up dust that expose the illusions and reveal the real Aipom. Ash realises he has to get serious and sends Aipom in with rapid fire Focus Punches, but Pikachu dodges backwards from them towards a rock, finding itself trapped in place. Aipom charges forward to land the killing blow, but Abigail steps in between them and calls the battle of, telling Ash there is no point in continuing a battle they lost, and telling Ash he is a good boy, a good boy. Then she takes "Sugar" and heads away, leaving the twerps confused.
That night as Theresa prepares their beds for them while Abigail makes a cake, the twerps' conscience have finally got the better of them. Freeloading is one thing for Ash, but not lying to an old woman just so she'll make a nice cake. She'll be sad when she discovers the truth, and he has to tell her now and ruin the scam right at the point of achieving their goals, thus successfully breaking her heart AND having nothing to show for it!
He rushes downstairs with the others to tell Abigail, who is sitting on the balcony in the moonlight with Pikachu. But when he tries to explain the scam to her, she already knows! Yes, old women are wise (and possibly dangerous) and she tells them that Pikachu roasted the Aspear Berries differently to the way that Sugar always did it... but to be honest she doesn't mind that they exploited her sentimentality the way they so heartlessly did. Abigail tells Theresa that it is her fault that Sugar ran away, because its Thunderbolt wasn't powerful enough to crack the Aspear Berries and she kept pushing it until it "went away".
But as the truth is revealed, so is the metal hand of Team Rocket!
Yes, they didn't get all the screentime owing to them, so they back! Grabbing up Pikachu with their massive Aspear Berry-Bot's hands, they drop Pikachu into a cage and laugh at the twerps. Pikachu tries to blast through the open bars of the cage but apparently even the air around the cage is electric-proof, which is a pretty amazing technical achievement. The Bot-Mobile drives away but Ash leaps onto the back of it, calling out Staravia and trying to get it to Wing Attack through the shell. But the Bot seems invulnerable, so Ash calls for a full power Aerial Ace, only to be reminded that Team Rocket are actually paying attention to what is going on. They shake Ash clear of the Bot, then slap Staravia away with the Bot's free hand.
The others have caught up in Theresa's van but can't get down the ridge that the Bot leaped over, and Abigail roars that she won't let them get away, and uses her mysterious old woman powers to call down the thunder and the lightning! The Bot is frozen in place and the twerps are completely flummoxed, until they spy through the heart of the blast.... Raichu!
Team Rocket are impressed, they can catch Raichu instead! But when they try... Raichu Focus Punches through the hand and then attacks the Bot, leading to a rather interesting exchange between Team Rocket, where Jesse asks if they're hard enough and James flaps his wrist limply with a grin on his face.... well, okay then!
The confusion is put to an end when Raichu smashes through the Bot with Focus Punch, and Team Rocket realise that making their Bots "in-house" may save money, but it's not worth the pain!
Raichu grabs Pikachu's cage and leaps back out of the Bot, and Theresa is amazed. She gasps that Raichu smashed through the Bot like it was made from paper.... incredibly thick, layered and metallic paper! Abigail has Raichu use Thunderbolt to blast the now exposed innards of the Bot, and Team Rocket are sent blasting off again.... again!
The next day, Abigail and Sugar present the cake they have made, having roasted and pulverised the Aspear Berries to prepare a delicious cake to win the prestigious "Random Town People Pass Through On The Way To Floaroma Town" Bake-Off Prize!
Abigail tells them to have a piece (or maybe two, the twerps suggest!) and start chowing down, Brock giggling about tartness, while everyone compliments Sugar and Dawn declares that somehow (perhaps by Osmosis?) she will now win first place at the Floaroma Contest!
Which is all very good, but not as important as the main moral of this story.
It's okay to exploit and abuse old women if it means you get cake!
| BEST QUOTES |
 "They're the bad guys! .....not the smartest, though."
 "Uhhh... are we hard enough?" "LIKE A ROCK! *Limply waves wrist*"
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