Delaney showed up in "Outrageous Fortunes" riding high on an unbeaten streak. He'd racked up six straight wins and was starting to let it go to his head. He took down both Mason and Misty in back-to-back matches, bringing his record to eight consecutive victories. Ash was supposed to be next, but Brock cut the battle short to keep everyone's Pokémon from getting worn out. Delaney wasn't happy about it at first, though he eventually acknowledged that Ash and Bayleef had given him a real challenge.
That's when Jessie showed up—except she was running a fortune-telling scam. Delaney was skeptical, but James and Meowth's glowing testimonies won him over. Once Jessie had him sitting at her crystal ball, she spun a tale about his Poliwrath being cursed by dark energy and offered to "cleanse" it. He fell for it completely. By the time he figured out what was happening, Team Rocket had already snatched Poliwrath and bolted.
Delaney's panicked yelling brought Ash and the others running. They chased Team Rocket down, and Misty's Corsola managed to break the control device holding Poliwrath. Once freed, Poliwrath teamed up with Misty's freshly evolved Politoed, plus Ash's Phanpy and Pikachu to send Team Rocket flying.
Content compiled by AnimeList.moe from publicly available sources.
