Ash's Hawlucha

This Hawlucha is a /-type Pokémon owned by Ash Ketchum and is the third Pokémon he caught in the Kalos region. Ash's Hawlucha first appeared in the trailer of the upcoming episodes and the new opening and ending of the XY series.

Personality
Hawlucha is a type of Pokémon that has a remarkable sense of honor and a strong will to protect anyone from danger. Just like Sceptile, Buizel, and Snivy, Hawlucha is very calm, cool, and greatly determined to never lose hope during a battle. He is also shown to be protective and kind to any Pokémon he defended and they would always call him the "Champion of the Forest". Even though he just had brutal fight with the other Pokémon like Ursaring and Conkeldurr, he was still able to have battle against Ash's Froakie and shown to be just as powerful as he shown to them that he will still fight in good condition. Hawlucha can sometimes get angry whenever someone interferes in his battles. For example, when he tag-teamed with Froakie during a practice battle with Clemont's Bunnelby and Chespin, Froakie got in Hawlucha's way and argued with it. Despite having a very honorable and brave personality, Hawlucha has shown to have stage fright before performing in a play in XY051: When Light and Dark Collide!. Hawlucha also dislikes losing Pokémon battles. He also seems to warm up to Ash a little more, as he hugged Ash after defeating Valerie's Spritzee. He also appears to have a parental side to younger Pokémon like Ash's newly hatched and captured Noibat.

Biography
Hawlucha made his debut appearance when he was defending a group of small Pokémon from an Ursaring who was bullying them and stealing their food. When Hawlucha attempted to use Flying Press on it to finish it off, Ursaring moved aside and prepares to throw a boulder on him to crush him. Luckily for Hawlucha, Ash and Pikachu stepped in and defended him from Ursaring. Soon after that, Ash and his friends learned that Hawlucha once battled against Machamp and became the "Champion of the Forest". Ash decided to help Hawlucha perfect his Flying Press attack, which ended up in a success despite some minor failures. Suddenly, the Ursaring that attacked Hawlucha from before appeared, only this time with Conkeldurr and Machamp, who was told that Hawlucha was attacking the forest Pokémon. Machamp and Hawlucha both battled evenly until Ursaring and Conkeldurr interrupted the battle and began to beat up Hawlucha together. Machamp was confused about what was happening at first, but he eventually realized that every word the two evil Pokémon said about Hawlucha was a lie. Angered at their treachery, Machamp knocked both Ursaring and Conkeldurr out cold and took them. Machamp then gave Hawlucha a thumbs up for respect.

Ash decided to have a battle with Hawlucha and sends out his Froakie. However, the battle ended in a tie when Froakie's Pound collided with Hawlucha's Flying Press. Soon after the battle, Ash asked Hawlucha to come travel with him and Hawlucha accepted the offer.

Ash later used Hawlucha in a sky battle against Moria's Talonflame. But because of Talonflame's mighty speed and power, along with greater sky battle experince, Hawlucha lost the battle.

Sometime later, Hawlucha and Froakie once got into a squabble and began to fight each other. Their fighting didn't last long until a Trevenant kidnapped Ash and dragged him into the forest. When Froakie and Hawlucha attempted to save their trainer, they learned that the reason why Trevenant kidnapped Ash is because it needed his help in saving its companions, a Bonsly and a Sudowoodo, who were caught in an electric net set up by Team Rocket. Hawlucha and Froakie both worked together to save the two Pokémon, send Team Rocket flying, and settle their differences, becoming best friends in the process.

Hawlucha was later used in his very first Gym Battle when Ash was battling Korrina and her Mienfoo. During the battle, Ash attempted to use Tierno's dancing strategy to dodge most of Mienfoo's attacks. However, things did not go well when Mienfoo's intense strength, speed, and power got the best of Ash and Hawlucha. Upon remembering the advice Serena told him during his training, Ash abandoned the idea and decides to go along with his own battling strategy, giving Hawlucha a chance to finish Mienfoo off with a really strong Flying Press attack. Hawlucha was later sent out to battle against Korrina's Lucario in its Mega Evolved form, but was quickly defeated.

Hawlucha was later used as a substitute performer in a play called "Super Pokémon Battles" after Pikachu unintentionally injured a Gallade by accident. But during the play's rehearsal, he started a rivalry against the play's villain, a shiny Hawlucha who is named "Dark Hawlucha". However, after hearing that Dark Hawlucha used to be a wrestling champion before retiring, he eventually continued to rehearse for the play. When Team Rocket attempted to sabotage the play, Hawlucha and Dark Hawlucha teamed up and sent them flying. After that, the play continued and during the beginning, Hawlucha began to suffer stage fright and fell over. But Dark Hawlucha improvised the play and the two Pokémon started to battle fairly, which made it remember its glory days of being the champion. After a long but exhausting battle, Hawlucha defeated Dark Hawlucha. Later after the play was over, the two shook hands and said good-bye.

Hawlucha was later used in Ash's gym battle against Ramos and his Weepinbell. During the battle, Hawlucha took too much damage when he failed to execute Flying Press and High Jump Kick on Weepinbell due to the effects of Poison Powder and was quickly defeated.

Hawlucha was used in Ash's gym battle against Clemont. After Goodra was severely paralyzed by Clemont's Heliolisk, Hawlucha was sent out to fight in Goodra's place. Despite not being able to hit Heliolisk with Flying Press and getting paralyzed by its Parabolic Charge attack, Hawlucha managed to defeat Heliolisk with a single hit from High Jump Kick, giving Ash his second win against Clemont. Hawlucha then fought against Clemont's Luxray, who used Electric Terrain on the battle field to increase its abilities. Hawlucha fought intensively, but was quickly defeated when Luxray made a direct hit with Wild Charge.

Hawlucha was used in a double battle against Ash's second new rival, Sawyer. He teamed up with Frogadier against Sawyer's Treecko and Sawyer's Bagon. During the battle, Hawlucha damaged part of Bagon's head with multiple hits with Karate Chop. But just as Frogadier and Hawlucha were about to finish the battle, it was called-off due to a fashion show being held in Laverre City, which is hosted by the gym leader, Valerie.

Hawlucha was later used as a second Pokémon in Ash's gym battle against Valerie. He was sent out to fight against Valerie's Spritzee, despite having a disadvantage against Fairy-types. In the battle, Spritzee slowed Hawlucha down with Trick Room, but Hawlucha managed to shatter the barrier with his newly-learned move, X-Scissor. With the Trick Room barrier demolished, Hawlucha was able to hit Spritzee with Flying Press and defeated it with a blow from High Jump Kick, thus earning Ash the Fairy Badge.

Hawlucha was used in a triple battle against Sawyer and his Slurpuff. But despite having a type-disadvantage, it easily won.

Later, when Hawlucha was training in a forest, he came across a Pokémon egg resting near a tree. He took it and gave it to Ash, and just when he showed him where he found it, it was about to hatch. Ash and the others covered the egg and kept it warm enough to hatch. And, to everyone's surprise, the egg hatched into a baby Noibat. After feeding it, Hawlucha, along with Fletchinder, decided to train Noibat and teach it how to fly.

Hawlucha was later used to help Ash compete in the Pokémon Sky Relay competition. During the race, he managed to passed into first place by gliding past Orson's Staraptor. But once he passed Pelipper, he was being pushed and beaten around by it. Hawlucha managed to pull himself together and dodged Pelipper's attacks, which somehow revealed that Pelipper was only a machine piloted by Team Rocket's Meowth. This exposed Team Rocket as cheaters and were disqualified from the tournament as they blasted off. Hawlucha managed to get in first place and passed the baton to Noibat. Hawlucha and the others cheered for Noibat and ended in second place at the tournament. But despite that, Hawlucha and the others were very proud of Noibat for flying successfully.

Improvised moves

 * Super Flying Cut
 * Spinning X-Scissor

Voice actors

 * Shin-ichiro Miki (Japanese)
 * H.D. Quinn (English)

Trivia

 * Hawlucha is Ash's first -type Pokémon that doesn't have either a pre-evolution or an evolution.
 * Because of this, it is currently the only Kalos Pokémon caught by Ash that is not part of an evolutionary line.
 * This is the first time Ash has gotten 2 bird-like Pokémon in a region, not counting the manga where he caught Pidgeotto and Fearow.