XY038

Forging Forest Friendships! (Japanese: 蠢く森のオーロット！  of the Crawling Forest!) is the 38th episode of the, and the 837th episode of the Pokémon anime. It first aired in Japan on August 7, 2014 and in the United States on October 4, 2014.

Blurb
On the way to Shalour City, Clemont suggests a Double Battle to help Ash train for his upcoming Gym battle. Ash's Froakie and Hawlucha team up against Clemont's Pokémon, but their battling styles are so different that they just aren't getting along. Ash is trying to teach them how to combine their attacks into a single move he calls Super Flying Cut when he's pulled into the woods by a ghostly forest Pokémon called Trevenant!

Hawlucha and Froakie work together to rescue Ash, and after Trevenant lets him go, he finds out why the Pokémon grabbed him in the first place. Team Rocket has caught two of Trevenant's Pokémon friends in an electrified net, and it needs Ash's help to rescue them. Pikachu's Iron Tail quickly sets the Pokémon free, and a perfect Super Flying Cut sends the villains blasting off again!

Plot
is training with (as it uses  on a waterfall) for their upcoming Gym battle against Korrina as  watch and they all notice how pumped up Ash is for the Gym Battle. Just then, a piece of wood falls and is about to hit but Froakie saves him by using its newly learned. Ash remembers the first time he and Froakie met when Froakie saved Pikachu from Team Rocket when they tried to steal him. Ash congratulates Froakie on learning Cut and thanks it for saving Pikachu, and Pikachu also thanks Froakie. Clemont suggests having a Double Battle, and Ash accepts.

Clemont and Ash are ready to begin, and Clemont is about to call out his first Pokémon, but before he can comes out of its Poké Ball ready to battle. Clemont also goes with. Ash decides that Froakie's partner will be. When Hawlucha is called out it stands in a pose as Bonnie referees. Ash tells Hawlucha and Froakie to work together as a team, and before any battling begins Hawlucha holds out a fist to get a fist bump from Froakie. Froakie hesitates, but it does eventually give Hawlucha a fist bump and the battle begins. Clemont goes first telling Chespin to use on Froakie and Clemont tells Bunnelby to use  on Hawlucha. Ash tells Froakie and Hawlucha to dodge. Hawlucha, however, doesn't dodge and just takes the Double Slap hits from Bunnelby. Ash is impressed to see Hawlucha testing Bunnlby's strength, but Froakie isn't impressed. Ash tells Froakie to use and Hawlucha to intercept with. Clemont commands Chespin to use while Bunnelby keeps using Double Slap. Both Bunnelby and Hawlucha took hits as Clemont then tells Bunnelby to use on Hawlucha. As Bunnelby gets ready, Ash tells Froakie to use on Bunnelby to help Hawlucha out. This is where everything gets intense. Froakie uses Water Pulse on Bunnelby which is a successful hit, and this makes Hawlucha furious. It goes over to Froakie and begins yelling at it for getting in its way. As Chespin uses, Froakie dodges and the pins ended up hitting Bunnelby instead, getting knocked out in the process. Soon, Hawlucha gets so furious with Froakie that it uses on it. Now Froakie's the one who's furious and it attacks Hawlucha with Cut. Hawlucha attempts to use on Froakie, but gets confused because Froakie uses. Soon Ash breaks up the fight and tells Hawlucha and Froakie to stop, and the battle is called off.

Ash takes Froakie and Hawlucha away from the rest of the group and tells them they need to work together because they're on the same team. He comes up with a combo move for the two of them which he calls the "Super Flying Cut". It starts out with Froakie riding on Hawlucha's back, and then it jumps and uses Cut, and then Hawlucha finishes with Flying Press. Ash decides to start working on training, but Hawlucha stops Ash and tells him it thinks it and Froakie should make up for their argument first, and it extends its hand to Froakie attempting to apologize to it, but it turns away. Ash tells Froakie to make up with Hawlucha, but it still won't, and this causes more fighting between the two. Meanwhile, Clemont is making lunch for the group, and Serena gets out a basket of homemade Poké Puffs for the Pokémon, which makes most of them happy, but Chespin nervous. When Serena opens up the box, the Poké Puffs are gone. The gang demands the Pokémon to fess up to eating them, but they all shake their heads, expect Chespin who looks the other way. Serena remarks that even if no one will admit it, she'll know who the culprit is because she put in spicy Poké Puffs specially for. All of a sudden, Chespin turns red and fire shoots out of its mouth, revealing Chespin was the one who ate all the Poké Puffs much to Serena, Bonnie and the Pokémon's anger.

Off near the forest Ash is attempting to work on "Super Flying Cut" with Hawlucha and Froakie, but the two keep getting angry at each other and the bickering continues. Ash is fed up at this point and scolds the two for their behavior. He starts to instruct them to use the combo again, but he is dragged into the forest by a wild. His friends hear the noise and rush over to see what's wrong.

Meanwhile in the forest, Ash sees he's being carried away by Trevenant and scans it with his Pokédex. He tells Trevenant he'd never do anything to hurt the forest and yells at it to let him go. Hawlucha and Froakie see this and attempts to rescue their trainer but they get caught in vines. They look at each other and growl angrily before looking the opposite direction. Froakie begins swinging itself back and forth to try and shake loose from the vine, and Hawlucha does the same, but the two end up crashing into each other, causing them to argue once again, and this is enough to make the vines snap and free them. Froakie then sees Ash's hat on the ground and hands it to Hawlucha who puts the hat on its head. When the two find Ash they begin to battle Trevenant. Hawlucha attempts to use High Jump Kick, and Ash explains to it that Trevenant's immune to Fighting type Moves because it's a Ghost type. After Ash gets freed from Trevenant and reasons with it, it leads him, Hawlucha, and Froakie to a net where a wild and  are being held. Ash attempts to free the two Rock types but gets shocked by the net. Just then Pikachu and the others come along as Ash tells Pikachu to use to free the two from the net before he gets caught in one.

No surprise, are the ones who caught Pikachu in the net. A battle begins, and Ash has Hawlucha and Froakie battle Team Rocket. Jessie's uses, but Froakie and Hawlucha both dodge it. Froakie uses its Frubbles to blind Pumpkaboo as Hawlucha prepares to use Flying Press. But being part Ghost type, Pumpkaboo was unaffected as Jessie states that Fighting type moves won't work as Ash says he's one step ahead as Froakie uses a close range Water Pulse at Pumpkaboo, knocking it out. Clemont states that Flying Press was used to distract Pumpkaboo so Froakie will use a successful Water Pulse. After dodging James's 's and, Ash tells Hawlucha and Froakie to use "Super Flying Cut" and they get the combo perfect, knocking out Inkay. Before Team Rocket is about to leave, Trevenant then comes along and uses to smash the remote and free Pikachu from the net. Pikachu then blasts Team Rocket off with.

With Froakie and Hawlucha having put their differences aside, Ash and his friends say goodbye to Trevenant, Bonsly, and Sudowoodo as they head off towards Ash's Shalour Gym battle.

Major events

 * Ash's Froakie learns.
 * Serena's Fennekin uses for the first time.

Humans

 * Jessie
 * James
 * Jessie
 * James
 * Jessie
 * James

Pokémon
Who's That Pokémon?: (US and international) Pokémon Quiz:  (Japan)

Trivia

 * Professor Oak's Pokémon Holo Caster:
 * For the TV Tokyo airing, instead of the Professor Oak's Pokémon Holo Caster segment, the clips of, and the scene where Pikachu was turning into a stone in Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction were shown.
 * The next episode preview is narrated by, Professor Sycamore, , and.
 * V (Volt) is used as an insert song in this episode.

Errors

 * In a recurring error, when Serena orders Fennekin to use Scratch, her white collar is missing.
 * When Froakie mounts Hawlucha's back to use 'Super Flying Cut' on Inkay, Hawlucha's entire legs are yellow rather than just its feet.
 * When Pikachu has been trapped by Team Rocket's trap, while everyone being shocked, the hair on 's right side of his ear is half colored beige instead of blonde.
 * When Ash orders Froakie to use Cut on Inkay, Froakie's scleras are colored white instead of yellow. This error will be fixed in the future episodes.
 * When Serena says that whoever ate all of the Poké Puffs she made will be revealed shortly, her neck is colored brown.

Dub edits

 * The dub's title card segment in the TV version focuses on Ash instead of Clemont in the Polish dub.

In other languages
Neue Wald-Freundschaften! EP842 XY038 XY038 XY編第37話 精灵宝可梦 XY 第38集