The episode starts with Marian talking about a rare meteor shower that occurs only once every two hundred years. Ash, Dawn, Brock, Pikachu and Piplup all gaze at the night sky in wonderment as the meteors start falling, when suddenly a huge meteor starts heading towards them. Piplup jumps bravely in front of the frightened group and uses its Whirlpool attack to smash the meteor into countless sparkling pieces which leaves Marian and the crowd attending the Pokémon Contest in awe and excitement. As the crowd keeps on cheering for Dawn and Piplup, Marian announces that the winner of the Pokémon Contest Grand Festival is Dawn. A blushing Ash and a tearful Brock congratulate Dawn on her win. Thanking it for everything, Dawn says she owes her win to Piplup as well. Then, Gible appears out of the blue and uses Draco Meteor, which fails again and hits Piplup on the head. Waking up due to the shock, Piplup realizes that everything was just a dream and goes back to sleep.
The next day, Ash decides to train with Gible so that it will get better at using Draco Meteor. He calls it out of its Pokéball, but Gible ignores him and runs towards a rock, which it starts biting. Ash pulls it away from the rock, but Gible bites his head instead. Annoyed, Ash tells Gible that what he wants to do is practice its moves. He then commands it to use Draco Meteor. However, it fails and hits Piplup, who was standing farther away, savoring the scent of some flowers. Ash apologizes to Piplup and then orders Gible to use Draco Meteor once more. Unsurprisingly, Gible fails to use the move properly and hits Piplup again. Ash apologizes one more time to an upset Piplup. Ash keeps on telling Gible to use Draco Meteor, but the Land Shark Pokémon is unable to launch the move successfully and ends up hitting Piplup every time. Having had enough, Piplup yells at Gible who ignores it and bites its head. Even more annoyed now, Piplup starts attacking Gible with its BubbleBeam and Whirlpool moves. Dawn calls out to Piplup and the crying Penguin Pokémon runs towards her, while fantasizing about Dawn, Ash and Pikachu scolding Gible for what it did and making it apologize. When it wakes up from its fantasy, however, it finds itself hugging Pikachu instead. Pikachu pats it on the back and then rushes towards the rest of the group, who are trying to reassure Gible that it's going to get better at using Draco Meteor eventually. Seeing how the group seemingly doesn't care about it at all, Piplup walks away from them. An eavesdropping Team Rocket starts setting up a plan on getting Pikachu by using Piplup as bait.
Getting ready to set off, Ash, Dawn and Brock realize that Piplup is not near them, and call out to it. As they get no response, Dawn starts to get worried.
Sad about what has happened, Piplup is wandering off into the forest, when it suddenly hears something coming from a bush beside it. Imagining it's Dawn that has come to apologize to it for everything, it runs towards the shrub only to find an angry Rhyperior hiding in it. Rhyperior launches a Flash Cannon attack on Piplup and the terrified Penguin Pokémon starts running in order to avoid getting hit by the move. While trying to catch its breath, three unknown figures approach Piplup. They introduce themselves as members of the Pokémon Rescue Corps, whose activities involve helping abandoned, mistreated and starving Pokémon. Moved by their words, Piplup starts crying.
Ash, Dawn and Brock continue to look for Piplup, but Ash's Staraptor is unable to locate it from the sky. Ash, Dawn and Brock are all troubled as to where it might have gone. Ash then tells Gible that it should also help out with the search and after looking around for a while, Gible starts biting something, which, as it turns out, was Rhyperior's tail. Upset by Gible's action, Rhyperior launches numerous Flash Cannon attacks towards the group, who start running away in order to avoid them. While trying to catch their breath, Dawn queries her Pokédex for information on the Drill Pokémon. After hearing how strong it is, Dawn tells the rest of the group that they have to hurry and find Piplup.
Meanwhile, Team Rocket, disguised as members of the Pokémon Rescue Corps, ask Piplup where it was heading to all by itself. Piplup answers that it wanted to go back to Professor Rowan's Lab. When they ask it for the reason, Piplup answers by explaining the whole situation, how it was the only one who got hit by Gible's Draco Meteor attack and both Ash and Dawn didn't do anything about it. Moved by what the Penguin Pokémon had gone through, Team Rocket reassure it that they're going to stand by its side and help it by talking to the Trainers at fault, teaching them how they should treat Pokémon.
In the meantime, Ash, Dawn and Brock are still searching for Piplup with Staraptor's help, but to no avail. While returning Staraptor to its Pokéball, Ash tells the rest of the group that Piplup might have run away because it was angry that it got hit multiple times by Gible's Draco Meteor. Suddenly, they hear a voice beside them, and they turn to see two of the Pokémon Rescue Corps members. After introducing themselves, they inform them that Piplup has run away and decided to head back to Professor Rowan's Lab because it was constantly getting hit by Gible's unsuccessful attacks, which both Gible's Trainer and its own Trainer didn't seem to notice. They also tell Ash and Dawn that Pokémon are delicate creatures and as they don't know how to properly take care of them, they must participate in the Pokémon Rescue Corps' training by handing in all their Pokémon to them and start learning from scratch. As Ash and Dawn prepare to give them their Pokéballs, Rhyperior appears out of nowhere and starts attacking them, causing them to run.
At a safe distance from Rhyperior, the group realizes that they got seperated not only from the members of the Pokémon Rescue Corps, but also from Pikachu. Ash also says that if the story the two members just told them is true, he must apologize to Piplup about everything.
Team Rocket conforts Piplup by telling it that they talked to Ash and Dawn about its feelings. Piplup then says that it can't thank them enough for what they did, but Team Rocket say that there is a way it could help them. Since they are the Pokémon Rescue Corps, they want to help more Pοκémon and that's why they ask it to bring Pikachu to them so they can see if something troubles it. Piplup agrees to help them and runs off to find Pikachu. After it goes away, Team Rocket note that it's easier to take advantage of simple-minded Pokémon like Piplup.
Lost in the woods, Pikachu is reunited with Piplup, who makes the Mouse Pokémon follow it back to where the Pokémon Rescue Corps members are. Falling for Team Rocket's scheme, Piplup and Pikachu find themselves trapped inside a metal cage. In front of a surprised Piplup, Pikachu uses Thunderbolt on the metal cage, but, as Team Rocket later informs the Pokémon, they have used an anti-electricity mechanism, so Pikachu's attack doesn't damage it.
Meanwhile, as Ash, Dawn and Brock are searching for both Piplup and Pikachu, Ash's Gible uses its Draco Meteor attack out of the blue. The group sees it landing a bit farther away into the forest, and then Brock notices that this might be where Piplup is. Ash and Dawn agree and start heading to where they saw the Draco Meteor attack land. There, they find the Pokémon Rescue Corps members hit by the Draco Meteor and Pikachu and Piplup trapped inside a cage. While they're asking themselves what has happened, Team Rocket reveal themselves and recite their motto. However, they're interrupted by Rhyperior's Flash Cannon attack which breaks the cage that held Pikachu and Piplup captive. Ash and Dawn are reunited with Pikachu and Piplup and they both apologize to the Penguin Pokémon for everything wrong they did to it. Ash and Gible also promise to be more careful from now on. Jessie, annoyed that they got hit by Rhyperior's attack once more, wonders what's wrong with the Drill Pokémon. Meowth tells her that its Trainer abandoned it and that's why it was thrashing about. Snapping out of the attack's aftershock, Jessie and James call out their Seviper and Carnivine respectively in order to take the group's Pokémon by force. Unsurprisingly, Carnivine starts biting James's head once again.
Ash sends out his Grotle and Dawn lets an eager Piplup fight as well. Jessie commands her Seviper to use Haze, but Grotle's Energy Ball attack passes right through the smoke and hits Seviper, making the Fang Snake Pokémon faint. James orders Carnivine to use Bullet Seed, which is eavenly matched with Piplup's BubbleBeam. Carnivine then uses Vine Whip on Piplup, which makes it so angry that it starts using a new move. As it turns out, the new move is Hydro Pump. Piplup launches its Hydro Pump attack towards Team Rocket which hits them and sends them blasting off. As they're blasting off, Team Rocket ask themselves if there is some sort of organization that could help them instead.
After the battle has ended, Rhyperior heads towards the group, when its Trainer suddenly appears and tells it that he has been looking everywhere for it. He apologizes to it, and after they have reconciled, he apologizes to Ash, Dawn and Brock as well. The happy Pokémon and its Trainer then head away from the group. After Dawn and Piplup promise to each other that they'll be forever together, Ash and co. continue heading towards Sunyshore City.
