On their way to the next town and Snowpoint City, Ash and his friends are confronted by Team Rocket and their latest mecha. Being in a no-nonsense mood, Ash has Pikachu use Thunderbolt to blast them away. Team Rocket land in the ocean, and coming ashore covered in seaweed. Meowth and Jessie are devastated by the latest defeat, both physically and emotionally drained. However, James refuses to give up, suggesting that they beat ash and the others to town. In town they are greeted by an aroma and come across a ramen shop. There, Jessie and James are surprised when they discover that the shop owner, Christopher, was one of their underclassmen from their days at the Team Rocket Academy. Christopher reveals in a flashback that after a tough day at the Academy, they went to a Ramen Noodle shop, and he was so impressed, he named his shop after Jessie and James. A ball of dough used for making noodles suddenly flies out towards Meowth and he uses counters the oncoming ball using Fury Swipes. In doing so he unintentionally slices the noodles perfectly, and Christopher is impressed. He asks Meowth to work for him but he declines. Later, Team Rocket attacks Ash and friends with a ramen inspired machine. As always, their stunt fails and they blast off again. The trio gets dissappointed and Meowth tells Jessie and James he is going to make something of himself and leave Team Rocket to go work at the ramen shop. James is deeply upset by this but Jessie thinks she ought to leave as well to focus purely on Pokémon Contests. James is left alone and he decides he will try his hardest to catch a rare Pokémon for the boss so they will become successful and Jessie and Meowth will return. He overhears Dawn talking about an 'oddly colored Metagross' and he is determined to catch it. However, he takes off before hearing that the Metagross is very aggressive and people who have previously tried to catch it have become seriously injured.
The next day, James goes out to the mountains where the Metagross lives. Two guys happen to notice him setting off that way but they don't bother to warn him. The two guys are seen on a bench near Jesse and they start talking about a trainer with a red R on his shirt going up to Metagross Mountain. Jesse overhears this and hurries off to go tell Meowth. When she gets there the ramen shop is packed with customers and at first Christopher doesn't recognize her and almost kicks her out. (She was dressed as Jesselina.) After apologizing, Christopher gets Meowth. Meowth doesn't listen to what Jesse is saying about James so she tells him good luck and leaves. Meowth later overhears the same guys talking about that guy with the red R on his shirt and he starts to worry. Eventually the trio meet up and Meowth ends up saving Jessie and James from the angry Metagross. Meowth quits his job at the ramen shop and Team Rocket is back together again!
