Guide: 342/AG66: Critical Situation! Exploud VS Grovyle!

[Zak]

Critical Situation! Exploud VS Grovyle!


It’s a fine nice day as Ash, May, Brock, and Max have a picnic in the woods nearing Petalburg City. Ash is all pumped up and ready to battle, while May and Max are excited to see Ash battle their father Norman, since he’s never let them watch a battle before except for that short one with Ash. They also know for a fact that Norman is very popular in his battles, so now they’re looking even more forward to seeing a professional longer Gym battle, rather than that lame test one with Ash against Vigoroth.
Suddenly, Max senses something a little different about the plate Ash’s Pokemon are eating from. They sure all seem stuffed… yes; Pikachu, Corphish, Taillow, and Torkoal are clearly stuffed. But wait, where’s Treecko? Pikachu then goes to a nearby tree, and points up to Treecko sitting on a high branch, in one of his old antisocial moods. Ash climbs up there to see what’s wrong, but Treecko insists on ignoring him and staring away.
Corphish then notices its old friend up there, and rushes quickly through the sand and up the tree—maybe a little TOO quickly, since it accidentally knocks Ash down. Sitting on an adjacent branch, it tries to communicate with Treecko, who once again looks away. Corphish then tries grabbing the stem to get to where Treecko is—and loses its grip, falling on Ash’s poor head as he starts to get up. Ash thanks Corphish anyway for trying to help.
Suddenly they hear a bloodcurdling roar in the distance, and before they can do anything, they hear rumbling. A second later, the notice an angry Loudred erupting from the sand, screaming and destroying everything in sight! Quickly, they sit down and shield their ears of the awful noise, but unfortunately Loudred sends all their Pokemon and backpacks flying through the air, and runs away through the woods on a rampage! Then they see a person standing in the way of that Loudred, clearly trying to stop it, but to no avail, as Loudred pushes him out of the way. Desperately, he chases after Loudred and yells at it to stop (which it doesn’t of course), and as he manages to catch up a little; he makes a lunge for it, and successfully tackles it to the ground. Ash and the others then realize that this is the Loudred’s trainer. But what they don’t realize, is that Treecko has been carefully watching this commotion from up in the tree, uninjured, and actually a little pleased…
Once he gets Loudred to settle down, they all sit down, and he explains that his name is Gai, and the Loudred is his, and they were training for the Hoenn League. Ash then gets excited and introduces himself, and tells him that he is training for the Hoenn league and has four badges! Then he apologizes, and explains that his Loudred has been acting weird as of late, and he’s concerned about not being able to use it in the League due to his behavior, considering that it’s his best battler. As they ponder about what it could be, Ash looks up, and wonders if Treecko can be suffering something similar. Either way, Ash has an idea, and challenges Gai to a battle with his Loudred, hoping to maybe help it feel a little happier. After all, its behavior seems to say that. Gai happily accepts, and starts to get Pikachu ready. But to his surprise, Treecko jumps down from the tree, insisting to battle Loudred instead. Impressed with Treecko’s spirit following its strange behavior, he decides to give Treecko a shot at it.
Brock sure loves being the ref as usual. Treecko starts off by hitting Loudred hard with a Quick Attack, but Loudred then Stomps right on Treecko, holding it there with its foot! Treecko then desperately turns up its head, and uses Bullet Seed right in Loudred’s face, distracting it and releasing itself from its foot. However, Loudred emits a Supersonic from the speakers on its head, confusing Treecko! As Treecko slowly returns to its senses, Loudred jumps way up high in the air, and lands with an Earthquake. Luckily, Treecko has regained consciousness and jumps in the air to dodge the shockwaves caused by the Earthquake, and lands by hitting Loudred with a strong Pound! This was a pretty serious Pound, since it sent Loudred rolling all the way into a tree, nearly unconscious. But it doesn’t appear to have fainted yet. It slowly gets up, and as it and Treecko make intense eye contact before performing any moves, they both begin to glow—and evolve into Exploud and Grovyle!
As they all congratulate them, Ash and May do some research in the ‘Dexes (despite having seen a Grovyle back at the Watmel field). Then, without command, Grovyle uses a Leaf Blade at a nearby tree (which it seems to have mastered pretty quickly), and slices down a twig, catching it in his mouth. Gotta have the classic old twig! Ash is relieved, while Brock motions the match to continue.
Ash decides to try Grovyle’s new Leaf Blade, so Gai commands for Exploud to dodge it and use Stomp. Grovyle’s Leaf Blade gets ready to strike, while Exploud… just sits there. Gai gets worried and commands again, but then they notice Exploud breathing in air through the holes, and letting out a Hyper Voice attack! As Gai ponders over Exploud’s strange actions, it shamelessly goes on a thrashing rampage again, running in circles, destroying trees both physically and via Hyper Voice. Gai tries telling it to stop, but to no avail. Ash has Grovyle try to hit it with Bullet Seed, but it doesn’t have much effect as Exploud runs away. Suddenly, it jumps in the air and does an Earthquake to distract everyone, and keeps running. Ash has Grovyle desperately chase it for a Quick Attack, but Exploud counters with a Mega Kick, faints Grovyle, and runs off! Gai desperately starts chasing, while everyone yells for him to wait… but he cares too much about Exploud, so that leaves them no choice but to follow. Even the recently fainted Grovyle gets up and follows him.
Meanwhile, our old friends J&J are dying of thirst. As they discuss what to do, Jessie suddenly runs off like she knows somewhere. Unfortunately, though, she doesn’t realize where she’s running to, and James and Meowth save her as she’s about to step off a cliff. As they get up, they notice a waterfall at the bottom of the cliff. Gladly, they start to get ready to go down, but then Meowth takes a closer look, and notices Exploud standing on the rock at the bottom of the waterfall, and drinking it with its enormous mouth. Being the Pokemon expert, Meowth explains to them that Exploud is the evolved form of Loudred. J&J both scream at the mention of its relation to Loudred, let alone evolution. Of course, they’d never forget the troubles they experienced with Loudred back on Dewford Island. Regardless of their thirst, J&J walk off, since they’re not in the mood to put up with this Exploud. However, Meowth doesn’t give in, and once again lures them with his famous “present-for-the-boss” plans: They swipe that Exploud, and have Giovanni use it as a morning alarm clock, and entertain while he has his coffee… yeah, original, huh? To them it sure is, if it’s enough to lure them to face an Exploud.
Back in the woods, Ash and the others are calling out for Exploud. Ash then realizes that Grovyle is still out of its Pokeball, and apologizes for not letting it rest. However, Grovyle refuses to return to the Pokeball, and to his surprise, tests out its new body and skills by jumping up a nearby tree from branch to branch. Ash gets a bit concerned, but then they realize that it’s just exercising, most Pokemon do that. Brock then remembers how Treecko started out, and isn’t really surprised. Then Max gets a little interested, and asks if he started with Exploud as a Whismur, since Loudred is actually the second form and not the final. Gai explains that he did indeed start with it as a Whismur, which was, in fact, his first Pokemon. It had a habit of yelling a lot, but Gai easily shut it up by rubbing it gently. Then, one day, when they were training in the field, it evolved into a Loudred. They got along so well together, until Loudred turned evil on him… and now, Gai doesn’t know what to think anymore.
Back at the waterfall, J&J hide behind a bush near Exploud, and anticipate it’s behavior until they’re ready to make a move. Finally, when it falls asleep, they take out their little weapon, the Carvanha-Cork-Launcher, and fire! Four corks fly out, and land right in the airholes on Exploud’s head. Then they fire a net, capturing Exploud! However, these corks are no match for Exploud, as it easily pops them out, breaks from the net, and sends TR blasting off.
Meanwhile, Ash and co watch Grovyle do a little tree hopping, while it suddenly goes faster and faster, they have to run to keep up. Eventually, it gets to the end of the cliff, and jumps down—into the waterfall where Exploud is resting! It’s clearly eager to battle Exploud. Exploud accepts the rematch, so they start wrestling with a series of Stomps, Pounds, Mega Kicks, Bullet Seeds, Hyper Voices, and Leaf Blades, when Ash and co approach. Quickly, Ash and Gai get behind their Pokemon, and they agree to continue this manually.
Grovyle attacks with Leaf Blade, but when Gai commands to dodge and Stomp, Exploud once again just sits there. Gai desperately yells again, but Ash takes advantage of this and has Grovyle hit Exploud again with another Leaf Blade… but this time, Exploud avoids it by grabbing Grovyle by the Leaf Blade! Thinking fast, Ash has Grovyle get Exploud to lose its grip by hitting it with a Pound. Gai issues another command, but unfortunately once again Exploud refuses to obey, and walks off toward Grovyle on his own.
Meanwhile, J&J are at a new scheme. This time they’ll use the corks again, but it should work better, since they’re using a Sharpedo-Cork-Launcher. This one has homing corks, so even if Exploud pops them out, they’ll still chase it. Unfortunately, however, as they were scheming, they got a little too excited, and Gai spotted them. Thinking fast, they fire, but Gai dives in the way and stops the corks from hitting Exploud. But they’re homing, so as they get confused and fly into the air, they aim back at Exploud! Ash then thinks quickly and has Pikachu Thunderbolt the corks, and successfully terminates them! Then, a Thunder attack from Pikachu as well as a Hyper Voice attack from Exploud both send them blasting off!
They still have the Exploud problem on their hands. Or do they? Exploud walks over to Gai, holds out his hand in thanks, and happily accepts their partnership! Gai thanks and hugs Exploud, while everyone else congratulates him. Now that Exploud is better, Ash and Grovyle offer a decent flawless battle with it, to which he happily accepts. What a great way to celebrate Grovyle’s evolution and Exploud’s friendship!


~Zak

[Gaborn]

This was a good episode. I loved the part where Corpish climbed up the tree to try and talk to Treecko. Meowth's idea for how to use Exploud made me burst into laughter. I'd never be late for my early classes if a giant monster used hyper voice on me every morning.

Good times.

[Chris 2.1]

Great work! I like the sound of this. Hasn't Shiftry already been Giovanni's alarm clock? I'd hate to wake up to an Exploud in the morning o_o;;

Keep it up!