XY034: The Forest Champion!

The Forest Champion! (森のチャンピオン！ルチャブル登場！！) is the 35th episode of Pokémon the Series: XY.

Synopsis
Continuing on their journey to Shalour City, Ash and his friends come across the Wrestling Pokémon Hawlucha who is protecting a group of Pokémon in the forest from stronger Pokémon like Machamp, Conkeldurr and a Ursaring.

Episode Plot
En route to Shalour City, our heroes happily watch three forest Pokémon help each other gather berries to put inside a tree. Happy to see the Pokemon helping each other out so nicely, the gang continue down the road to let the Pokemon tend to their business. Suddenly, the gang hear the Pokemon cry out in terror and they rush back to see what is wrong. When the arrive back to the site, they see an Ursaring grabbing the the three Pokemon's berries while they hide up in a tree, scared out of their wits! Enragged the Ursaring stole smaller pokemon's berries, Bonnie and Ash race down the hill and demand that Ursaring give back the berries right away. However, Ursaring simply ignores them. Then, a brave Hawlucha jumps out from the threes and attacks the Ursaring, allowing the forest Pokémon to retrieve their berries. But Hawlucha can’t resist striking an artistic pose right before its last move, and Ursaring dodges the attack, causing Hawlucha to crash into the ground.

Then Forest caretaker Keaton explains that Hawlucha always poses atfer a attack to show how strong it is. Suddenly, Urasing takes advantage of the dizzy Hawlucha and prepares to crush it with a rock. Luckily, Ash runs in between Hawlucha and Ursaring and Pikachu uses Iron Tail to split the other in half and hit Ursaring in the head in the procees. Seeing that it is outnumber, Ursaring runs back into the forest while Bonnie yells back at it. Ash helps Hawlucha back to it's feet and it thank him and Pikachu for their help before flying back into the forest. Back at his cabin, Keaton explains to the gang that Hawlucha is the Forest Champion, protecting weaker forest Pokémon from the more aggressive ones and keeping peace in the forest. Keaton offers to take the friends to the place where Hawlucha usually trains at, and they all agree. However, up in the mountains, Ursaring and its partner Conkeldurr enter into a dark cave, where a wild Machamp is training hard. The two Pokemon lie to Machamp saying that it was Hawlucha that stole the forest Pokemon's berries. Angered by the new, Machamp agrees to help the two Pokemon.

Near a waterfall, Keaton and the friends find Hawlucha training, still posing at the end of each move it makes. Ash is quite impressed with Hawlucha and offers to help it figure out how to strike more quickly without losing its “battle artistry.” While practicing with Hawlucha, Serena hear a sound coming from the forest. The trainers and Hawlucha look up and see that it's Machamp, Conkeldurr and Ursaring. Keaton explains that Machamp used to be the forest before Hawlucha defeated it and it left to train in the forest. Despite being outnumbered, Hawlucha challenges the three Pokemon to a battle. Although Ursaring and Conkeldurr are ready for revenge, Machamp holds them back, saying that it wants a one-on-one battle with Hawluacha. Then Machamp and Hawlucha start battling with neither Pokemon backing down. Some time into the battle, Ursaring and Conkeldurr take advantage of the distracted Hawlucha and both attack Hawlucha from behind. Then the gang, and Keaton realize that the two Pokemon plannd to do these from the very beginning. Before Hawlucha can recover, Ursaring and Conkeldurr continue to it beat up until they pit to the ground. Realizing it had ben tricked, Machamp attacks Ursaring and Conkeldurr and knocks them both out cold before they can finish off Hawlucha. Then Machamp pick them both up and carries them back into the forest to be dealt with, but not before argeeing with Hawlucha to battle at another time and next time to do it fairly. Then Ash decides to help Hawlucha improve it's battle skills. During a battle between Hawlucha and Froakie, Ash figures out how Hawlucha can incorporate its signature pose into its favorite finishing move. When that proves to be a huge success, Hawlucha decides to join Ash on his journey, after seeing that Machamp will look after the forest while it is gones!

Pokémon
Hawlucha (Ash's)

Move
Flying Press

Trivia

 * "Who's That Pokémon?": Hawlucha (US)
 * "Pokémon Quiz": Hawlucha (JP)