In the middle of being blasted off again, James finds a bottle cap from his training days that starts everyone reminiscing about being Team Rocket trainees. Jessie was a problem trainee, unable to work with any partner for long. Meowth walked into Giovanni's office, asking to be made a Team Rocket field agent. And Butch and Cassidy were trainees, too—Cassidy was Jessie's constant rival. Drill Sergeant Viper ordered Jessie to start training with her new partner, James, and Meowth was assigned to their team after Giovanni lost patience with its incompetence.

In their first team challenge, they had 24 hours to reach a target location in the wilderness, surviving on a loaf of bread and bottle of water per person. When Meowth ate all its food right away, James shared his food with Meowth. Jessie sniffed at such sentiment, but when they made camp that night, she reluctantly shared her own food with the other two. The next day, the trio had to cross a rickety bridge.