ENGLISH NAME	JAPANESE NAME	POKEMOPOLIS NAME	DODGINESS RATING	ANIMATION	STORY	TEAM ROCKET	MORAL LEARNT
741: The Mystery of the Missing Cubchoo!	747: Somurie Tantei Dento! Kieta Kumashun no Nazo!	The Case of the Snotty Runaway			The twerps - lead by Detective Cilan - attempt to find a missing Cubchoo	Interested in ruins, not bruins	A luxurious prison is still a prison

Today fins the twerps getting in MORE training. Pignite is facing off against Mamoswine, the two heavyhitters of Ash and Dawn's teams. Pignite dodges Hidden Power and scores a direct shot with Flame Charge, but Mamoswine can take it and hits back with Ice Shard, which is blasted apart by Flamethrower. Dawn decides to get sneaky and sends in Mamoswine with Takedown then has it pull up at the last second and use Hidden Power... but Ash is ready and orders Pignite straight in to meet the attack with Flame Charge! Who wins? Who loses? It's a mystery!



Okay no it's not! The smoke clears to show both Pokémon have been knocked on their asses, and Cilan declares it a draw. Ash and Dawn recall their Pokémon and Ash compliments Mamoswine's power. Instantly Piplup squeaks up, wanting to get some attention too he offers to fight next. They suggest a break first though, and Jervis arrives to tell them he has prepared a meal for them. They all settle in to eat, interrupted by a whiny voice calling out for a Cubchoo. They turn and see a young boy with a TERRIBLE haircut and a bowtie, who Jervis recognises as a boy called Chris. He lives nearby, but he has come by in search of a Cubchoo - the little polar teddy-bear looking Pokémon with the disgusting snot hanging from its nostril.

The twerps offer to help him search for it and introduce themselves, including Piplup which instantly brings out Oshawott, who isn't going to put up with being left out. Meloetta floats down to say hello after initially being startled by Chris' appearance, and the two little Water Pokémon gape with lovestruck awe at her. Chris has no idea what Meloetta is, and Ash introduces her - seemingly not taking note of just how quickly Meloetta feels comfortable around strangers now since hanging around with him.

Everybody sets out looking for Cubchoo, in the nearby foliage; down by the ocean and on the beach, but there is no sign of the snotty-nosed bear. Regathering, Cilan asks Chris for some more information (it might have made more sense to ask for this earlier) and Chris explains that Cubchoo lives in the family's Pokémon House. What does that mean? He takes them to show them - he lives in a massive mansion and there is a separate "house" that Cubchoo lives in. It's a big, multi-coloured, domed building that is bigger than most people's entire houses. The door has a bar to keep it being opened from the inside, and Cubchoo spends most of its time inside. Ash is confused, Cubchoo isn't allowed outside? Chris admits that he takes it for walks every now and then but mostly it stays in the house. Nobody comments on how this is likely the reason it has gone "missing" now and they head inside. The Pokémon are delighted at the interior, probably because they're not stuck inside of it all day every day, and Piplup and Oshawott instantly rush up onto the slide to use it, while Axew starts swinging in a tire swing. Dawn and Iris tell them off for playing without asking permission first, and Chris takes them into Cubchoo's bedroom where a small empty basket is lying.

The previous night, Chris had dinner and then took Cubchoo to bed, closing and barring the door behind him. This morning he came back to the house, opened the door (the bar was still down) and came inside only to find Cubchoo was missing. He can't understand it, but the mystery appeals greatly to Cilan. It's a locked room mystery, and nothing is more exciting for a connoisseur of detectives - it's Detective Time!



Dawn hasn't seen this side of Cilan before, while of course Iris is all too familiar with it. They watch as Cilan takes down as many details as he can think to ask for, and Dawn asks Iris if Cilan is as eccentric as he seems. Indeed he is, Iris admits, which is a shame because otherwise he'd be quite a stable and reliable figure in her life. Dawn admits that Brock was much the same - an intelligent and mature person who cooked and cleaned and looked after them.... but went crazy whenever he saw a pretty girl. They both smirk over the foolishness of boys, while Cilan proves it by declaring his first theory - some sneaky ninja-like character has had his eyes on Cubchoo for quite some time obviously snuck into the grounds late in the night, grabbed the sleeping Cubchoo and escaped, locking the bar down behind him.

Chris disagrees with the theory though, pointing out that there are alarms all around the grounds that would have picked up any intruder. Cilan wants to check them out, and Chris takes them and shows the alarms are all set up on the walls. What does this mean? According to Cilan it doesn't disprove his theory, since the intruder could have dug in under the wall. Pulling out his magnifying glass (of course he had one) he bends over, shoves his ass into the camera and then starts walking observing the ground. He's followed by Ash and Chris in a hunched over line, Cilan explaining he's looking for anything left behind by the culprit. Iris and Dawn are far too sensible to get caught up in Cilan's foolishness, and just watch in amusement as the boys hunch-walk along the line of the wall.

Cilan spots what appears to be footprints, very faint ones. They look like Pokémon prints and lead into the bushes. Cilan follows them and moves aside some bushes, discovering a small hole under the wall. Cilan notes how small the passage is and asks Pikachu if he can fit through. Piplup leaps down and manages to get in a volunteer before Oshawott can notice, and slips through the hole. Cilan notes the dirt is slippery, indicating that the hole was passed through several times. But is it too small for a human? Apparently not, as Ash is able to just barely force himself through as well, followed by Pikachu.

They head around to the other side of the wall and find themselves facing a dense forest. They head into the interior, Piplup and Oshawott eagerly taking the lead. A tiny little Joltik dangling from a branch is in the way and Piplup bats it aside grumpily, only for him and Oshawott to be blasted by an electric webbing fired from the pissed off little mite. Dawn stops to examine it with her Pokédex, then tells off Piplup, telling him getting attacked was his own fault. Oshawott agrees and pokes Piplup in the chest, causing the proud little penguin to react, and they begin flailing their squat little limbs at each other in an adorable fight.

Meloetta speaks up, singing her song as Chris stares in surprise at the mythical Pokémon. Piplup and Oshawott's squeaking and a'squawking comes to an end, stopping to turn and stare up at Meloetta, their faces relaxing and their round little heads resting against each other as they sigh in pleasure. Ash explains to Chris that Meloetta's song calms people and Pokémon, and Chris whispers that she is amazing - maybe he wants to stick her in a building and never let her out too!

Cilan spots another clue and leads them on - he has discovered more Pokémon tracks, but much larger ones this time. Could this be the Pokémon that abducted Cubchoo? Iris and Dawn try to point out that a large Pokémon wouldn't have been able to get through the hole but Cilan is now focused on this new clue alone, especially when Axew picks up another one. Sniffing food, Axew points out some remaining apple cores lying on the ground, pleasing Cilan. He rushes over to examine the leftovers, complimenting Axew on finding them, and a clearly excited Axew rushes away with a huge smile on his face, probably heading over to Iris to bask in adoration. Awwwww!

Cilan notices that the apple cores are still white, rather than browning, and suggests that they were only recently eaten and the Pokémon could still be close by. He asks Chris what part of the forest this fruit grows, but the useless, usually house-bound boy has no idea. Iris finally takes a proactive part in the investigation, vaulting up onto a tree and looking around, spotting where she thinks the fruit grows.

Meanwhile in the middle of the ocean, Team Rocket have finally detected something with the underwater sensors they planted in the previous episode. They take their submarine (sadly not Magikarp themed) underwater - they're up (or rather, down) to something!

Iris leads them twerps on, Meloetta taking the lead, but they both skid to a stop when they realise the Pokémon they've been searching for is a Beartic. Meloetta darts away but Iris and Axew's reaction is more extreme, their fear of Ice-Type Pokémon causing them to freak out. The others don't have the fear of Ice-Types that Iris and Axew do, but they do have the healthy fear of big-ass bears in the woods, and scramble about in a panic before finding hiding places.



Beartic looks back at them, grunts and just keeps on eating. To their relief, the twerps realise that it isn't going to attack them, it appears to be a docile sort - it has plenty of food and they're too puny to threaten it, so what the fuck does it care? Those are definitely the footprints they've been following though, so is this Cubchoo's kidnapper? Cilan thinks this is likely, and explains a scenario in which the Beartic found out about Cubchoo being locked up in the building all day and - thinking it was part of his pack - it entered enter the grounds, unbarred the door, scooped up the sleeping Cubchoo and carryed it away into the forest, closing the door behind it with enough force that it caused the bar to come down.

The only problem with this theory, as Dawn points out, is that Beartic is far too big to have fit through the hole they found. Cilan thinks they can get around this, however, claiming that they'll just question the Beartic! Question it? Yes, Cilan attempts to interrogate the indifferent bear, joined by Chris to demand to know where Cubchoo is. Beartic grunts and tosses a half-finished apple in their direction, and Cilan declares it is giving them the silent treatment!

They set out in search of Cubchoo again, but despite all of them looking in different directions none of them have any luck. They return to the indifferent Beartic, asking it once again to tell them where Cubchoo is. It still won't answer, and Cilan is more convinced than ever that it knows something or is involved in some way. Iris and Dawn are still not letting go of the fact that Beartic is far too big to have fit through the hole, and Cilan admits that this is yet another mystery. But just then a new clue seems to (disgustingly) emerge, as a thick bubble of snot leaks out of Beartic's nose and is sucked back up.

Ugh.

Cilan is convinced he has solved the mystery and found Cubchoo - Cubchoo is.... Beartic! He explains that Cubchoo must have woken up in the middle of the night and been upset for some reason (a nightmare?) and rushed outside. How did it open the barred door? Cilan dismisses that as Chris only thinking he had barred the door. So Cubchoo rushed outside into horrible, horrible freedom, dug a hole and climbed under the wall. But alone in the forest at night, it was attacked by some big mysterious Pokémon, and the stress and danger caused it to evolve into Beartic. Having gotten past the mysterious Pokémon somehow, a now hungry Beartic set out to find something to eat - there we go, mystery solved!

Nobody else seems all that convinced though, especially Chris who is now being shoved in Beartic's direction by Cilan. He insists to Chris that this is his Pokémon and he should reunite with it, but Dawn speaks up as the voice of reason - if this IS his Cubchoo evolved, then it will still go into his Pokéball. Ash and Iris think this is a great idea, and Cilan insists that he was just about to say it too!

Just then a noise catches their attention and they turn to see a Cubchoo and a Larvitar go running by having a good time. It's Chris' Cubchoo, and it turns in surprise when it hears him call to it, apparently having thought of him exactly zero times since it escaped its eternal confinement. Dawn demands an explanation from a shocked Cilan, and the connoisseur quickly recovers, hilariously shoving Dawn out of frame as he explains his latest theory. Clearly Larvitar had dug its way into the grounds to play and had befriended Cubchoo through the window of its buildings. But they wanted to play together so Larvitar got the door open and lead Cubchoo outside. As Chris tells Cubchoo it shouldn't have run off without telling him, Cilan has an explanation for the snotty-nosed Beartic. Following as it stomps away indifferently, Cilan explains that it just happened to have a cold! So there you have it, all the mysteries have been successfully solved!

Dawn and Iris are, somehow, less than impressed.

As Cilan moans over his failure (and Iris and Dawn beam over his misery), Cubchoo continues to play with Larvitar, mostly indifferent to Chris' concern. The two Pokémon climb a tree to laugh with Meloetta, and Ash comes up with the solution that of course HE would come up with - battling!

Battling solves all problems!

Chris seems uncertain, being such a huge pussy and all, but the other twerps talk up the value of being a trainer and having Pokémon battles. Ash offers to show Chris how a battle works, and asks an eager Larvitar if it would like to have a fight. He sends out Scraggy, which goes straight for a horrified Cubchoo. Ash explains the battle is with Larvitar, and they are both eager to get going.



Cubchoo rejoins Chris at his side and they watch as Scraggy opens with a Headbutt, only to have his arm bitten by Larvitar. Cubchoo cheers for Larvitar, while Ash gets Scraggy to break free of the clinch and try a Hi Jump Kick. Larvitar dodges and Scraggy clutches his knee in pain, worrying Chris who is obviously imagining Cubchoo in the same situation. Iris thinks it is all par for the course though, and Larvitar uses Sandstorm to knock Scraggy back more. Ash orders a Focus Blast in retaliation and Larvitar uses Hidden Power, both moves connecting and knocking both Pokémon back on their asses. It seems the battle is a draw, though both Pokémon are quickly back up and seem raring to fight some more.

Cubchoo rushes in front of Chris and does some shadowboxing, and he realises that it wants to battle as well. He agrees that they will, but they should go home first since the family will be worried. Cubchoo joins Larvitar to spar happily, Meloetta flitting about enjoying their happiness, even if that snot-bubble is fucking disgusting. Ash suggests to Chris that training with Larvitar would be good for Cubchoo, and the twerps suggest that he become a Pokémon Trainer and go on a journey so he, Cubchoo and Larvitar can grow stronger together. He agrees, saying he will train with Cubchoo and see if he can capture Larvitar, and then they'll all start a Pokémon Journey together. Cilan - called back from his moping and becoming overly enthusiastic again - agrees this is the best thing for all of them, and nobody mentions that it's certainly a better alternative than keeping the poor thing locked up inside the house 95% of the time - even if it does have a disgusting snot bubble!

The episode ends with the twerps parting ways with Chris and Cubchoo, while deep underneath the sea Team Rocket have finally found what they're looking for. What is it? We'll have to wait till next episode to see, if not longer - but whatever it is, it can't be good news for Meloetta.

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