RS123: Deceit and Assist

is the 31st episode of Pokémon: Advanced Battle.
==Synopsis==
While Ash continues working with Snorunt to perfect its Ice Beam attack, he meets a downtrodden Pokémon coordinator who had lost all his ribbons to a suspicious band of three apparent pickpockets the day before. Ash works with Jenny to scout out the thieves, while May makes her debut Festival performance. Relying heavily on Harley’s malicious advice, she attempts to perform using only one of Skitty’s attacks, Assist. Never knowing what attack Assist will become, May gets off to a shaky start.
==Episode plot==
Nurse Joy, at the Pokémon Center, has checked up all of May's Pokémon. Brock comes in, asking if he could have a check up. Much to his disappointment, Nurse Joy turns around and states that she does not work on humans. May walks away, and meets up with Harley, who asks if he could train with her. May accepts, for training is easier with a partner. Elsewhere, Drew sprays his Masquerain with a lotion, and rubs it. He focuses his attention towards May, Harley, Caroline and Brock, who are passing by. Brock, reading from a book, states that she will face Contestants in Double Battles. May is surprised, and is told while the first round features Single Battles, the second round feature Double Battles. May is nevertheless psyched, and believes she will prepare herself properly for that.
Meanwhile, Ash continues training his Snorunt to use Ice Beam. Max has prepared bottles for target practice, and Ash has it launch an attack. However, a breeze causes Snorunt to sneeze, and targets a Pokémon by mistake. In that moment, a Contestant jumps in, trying to protect his Pokémon, and gets his butt frozen. Torkoal uses Flamethrower, melting the ice away, and cries for the Coordinator's compliments. Ash apologizes to the Coordinator, who is impressed by Snorunt and suggests him he should use it for the round. Ash denies, as he is only cheering for May; he and Max introduce themselves to the Coordinator, Anthony, who has a Swalot. He tells them he was going to participate in the Grand Festival, but yesterday, after talking with three people, he found out his ribbons were missing. Ash promises he will find them and return the ribbons.
Elsewhere, Jessie is thrilled to have all five ribbons ready for the Grand Festival. Meowth is not impressed, but Jessie starts to smooch him, claiming she will still him once she is famous. James is not sure why being a Top Coordinator is their priority now. Jessie claims that alone will make her a famous celebrity with many perks. James reminds for that to happen, she still needs to win. Meowth adds he'd rather be a normal Pokémon, to which she shakes him in anger. James reminds her that if she's going to enter, her stolen pass will identify her as Anthony, which makes Jessie feel a bit uneasy. As Beautifly lands on May's head, she plans which Pokémon to use in Double Battle. All of her Pokémon are enthusiastic about training, so she chooses Skitty to train with for the time being. Drew, however, overhears their conversation.
Skitty begins with Assist, which pushes Cacturne with Combusken's Fire Spin. Skitty uses Assist once more, turning to Sliver Wind. Harley is impressed by the move, telling her that Assist should be used, as it is unpredictable - that's the hidden ace move May ought to use. May thinks that's a good idea for the first round, though Caroline and Drew think it is quite risky to rely on that. Meanwhile, Ash and Anthony search for the thieves, and Max brought Jenny to help them. Jenny tells him he can still participate if he reports, but Anthony is not convinced. He states he lost the confidence to compete, for he worked hard to get the ribbons, which are now lost. Max realizes that Anthony's pass has also been stolen, so they need to look for a person who resembles him. Ash and Anthony see he is right, and Jenny asks of them to lookaround.
The first round of the Grand Festival has begun, and sixty-four Coordinators remain. Many people, including May's previous opponents, as well as her father and his Gym Assistant, watch the TV broadcast. The golden Ribbon Cup is shown as a prize for the victor. The number of judges have been extended to five: Raoul, Mr. Sukizo and *three* Nurse Joys, the latter exclaiming that all of the Pokémon that have been checked up are in perfect condition. Brock tries to get their attention, but Max pulls him by the ear, which surprises Caroline. May, however, is with Harley. The latter thinks she is looking out for Drew. May disagrees, for she has been asked to view for a fraud, and Harley comments it is horrible that there is dishonesty among them. Jessie, who stole Anthony's pass, has seen to be dressed like him, though not perfectly. James and Meowth are not convinced that her disguise will work, but she simply mutters it is a small detail.
The announcer tells that there are 3 minutes of time limit, the next 32 Contestants will advance to next round and there are max. of 20 points per judge. As the appeals start, among the first contestants is Harley. He sends Banette, who makes a scary smile, and scares Lillian. Banette uses Will O' Wisp, followed with Thunder. The thunder goes up and back to Banette, and despite it being hurt, Banette continues to smile. The judges give him 89 points, much to May's surprise. As the performances continue, May and Drew think about how much effort they have to put. The next one is Anthony, who goes to the stage, However, Jenny, Max, Ash and real Anthony confront the imposter, Jessie. She is taken aback by the ambush, but continues to pretend that she is the real Anthony. However, Swalot uses Swallow, then uses Spit Up to uncover Jessie's identity. As Jenny is about to arrest Jessie for theft, Jessie is about to send a Pokémon. In that moment, James and Meowth take her and make a run for it, telling that they do not want to get arrested.
A moment later, Anthony's Swalot performs by spinning around. Ash joins Brock, Max and Caroline, explaing this was Team Rocket's doing. Swalot uses Sludge Bomb and follows it with Bullet Seed, turning the sludge to dust. Swalot then swallows the dust, and the performance is rated with eighty-two points. May arrives and sends Skitty. Skitty uses Assist, which turns to Sliver Wind. It uses Assist again and again, angering Harley because of her luck. Most of the Judges are impressed by the wide attacks from many different Pokémon but Raoul states this does not show Skitty's individual appeal. One of the Assist moves turns into Solar Beam; none of May's Pokémon know this move, so Caroline suspects that Munchlax knows this move. Skitty uses Assist once more, turning to Petal Dance. However, Skitty begins to act strange: due to Petal Dance, Skitty has become confused. As May wonders what to do, Harley is happy to see his sabotage is successful.
Drew hears this and confronts Harley, seeing he is no true friend of May's. Harley defends himself that this is just competition. May decides not to follow Harley's advice - Skitty uses DoubleSlap on herself, thus curing herself from confusion. Harley is terrified and Skitty finishes with Blizzard, leaving an ice tower. Slightly disappointed, May sees that Skitty scored 79 points. May apologises to Harley for not sticking to the advice, but Drew reveals the truth: Harley lied to her, to sabotage her. Harley is a bit annoyed at "her boyfriend", and admits behaving politely was just to gain her trust, and misuse it. May is angry, but she is still uncertain why Harley did this. He tells her that she shouldn't trust other people: he merely wanted revenge for the Contest that she and him attended to, and which May won. Harley pushes her aside, and walks away. Despite this, Drew agrees with Harley that May should have not listened to him and should trust her Pokémon instead. He leaves, while May is conflicted.
Drew comes to the stage and sends Masquerain. Masquerain uses Hidden Power, levitating spheres around itself. Drew has Masquerain suppress the attack, resulting in sparkles released. May sees that Drew is always listening to his Pokémon during the Contests. After the stage is covered by bubbles, Masquerain uses Silver Wind, spraying the bubbles across the stadium. Due to this performance, Drew receives a perfect score of 100. Harley, who exits the stadium, is not impressed by the performance. Later, Robert gets the same score with Milotic as well. A moment later, the screen shows the Coordinators going to next round, and May is in. Her friends support her, and remind her to be focused. The screen displays the battles for tomorrow, and among the matchups are May against Harley. While May is astonished, Harley smiles upon this.
At night, Jessie plans to (somehow) participate in the Grand Festival, and is determined to do so. Next day, the second round begins. The first ones are May and Harley. May sends Beautifly and Bulbasaur, while Harley sends Banette and Cacturne. May demands of Harley to make this a fair match, to which he simply states that they have different definitions of *fair*. Since Harley wants to play rough, May decides to comply to this request.
==Debuts==
===Characters===
*Anthony (Hoenn)
===Pokémon===
*Anthony's Swalot
*Harley's Banette
===Move===
*Ingrain
==Quotes==
:"Who needs all o' dat pressure anyways? I'd rather be a simple Pokémon thief." - Meowth
:"Hold it right there, you crook!" - Anthony
:"(gasps)" - Jessie
:"You're wanted for questioning." - Officer Jenny
:"Who are you, anyway?!" - Ash
:"Give back my ribbons and my pass!" - Anthony
:"The real guy!" - James
:"Wouldn't ya know it? Dose twoips got involved." - Meowth
:"Where do you get off calling me a crook?" - Jessie as Anthony
:"Swalot, use Swallow!" - Anthony
:"Swaaaaaaaaaal!" - Swalot
:"Whoa!" - Jessie as Anthony as she gets swallowed
:"Hey! Who turned out the lights?! Let me out of here!" - Jessie in her real voice
:"Ugh!" - Ash
:"That's gross!" - James and Meowth
:"Swalot, Spit Up!" - Anthony
:"Aaaah! (grunts)" - Jessie
:"Team Rocket!" - Ash
:"That was really disgusting!" - Jessie
:"You're under arrest for theft!" - Officer Jenny
:"Yeah? That's what YOU think, Jen! Huh? Hey!" - Jessie
:"Don't do it!"- James
:"We ain't cut out for prison!" - Meowth
:"ESCAPE!" - James and Meowth
:"I WANT TO COMPETE! WAAAAAH!" - Jessie
:"Great job, Ash!" - Max
:"You sure helped out Anthony." - Brock
:"Yeah. I should've known it was Team Rocket." - Ash
:"Good thing they're not too bright." - Caroline
:"Ugh! Please, cry me a river!" - Harley to May after he tricked her
:"All right, so Plan "A" didn't work. Time to put Plan "C" into action." - Jessie
:"What's Plan "C?"" - James
:"And shouldn't dere have been a Plan "B" foist?" - Meowth
:"I don't care if I have to work my way through the whole alphabet! I'm gonna be in that contest!" - Jessie
:"Wobbuffet!" - Wobbuffet
==Trivia==
*Featured Pokémon: Tropius, Combusken, and Flygon.
*The dub title is a reference to the legal notice referred to as "Cease and desist".
*Harley recalls the Purika City contest from his debut episode.
==Gallery==
==References==
pl:AG122
Category:Episodes focusing on May
Category:Episodes focusing on Drew
Category:Episodes focusing on Harley