Ash's Heracross

Ash's Heracross (Japanese: サトシのヘラクロス Satoshi's Heracros) was the first that   in the Johto region, and his fourteenth overall.

Original series
Heracross first appeared in A Sappy Ending. In the episode, several Heracross and were having a territorial dispute. One of the Heracross followed Ash and as they tried to figure out a solution to stop the dispute, which, unsurprisingly, came in the form of Team Rocket. Team Rocket was stopped thanks to the Heracross and the Pinsir were able to return to their forest, leaving the Butterfree and Heracross. However, the same Heracross was still intrigued by Ash and followed him for a little ways out of the forest. Eventually, Ash saw it following and the Heracross happily allowed itself to be caught. Heracross' battle debut came in Roll On, Pokémon! where it battled one of Rochelle's, easily outclassing it before the battle was interrupted. Although it lost a subsequent battle to her most experienced Donphan, Ash was satisfied that it had gained significant battle experience. It scored a significant victory over Blade, Shingo's, in Wired for Battle!. Although it had trouble initially with its Leer attack ineffective when Blade used and then held in the air by its horn, Heracross' reaction time of 0.18 allowed it to pry out of Scizor's claws and then land a damaging Horn Attack. When Blade used, Heracross sat and waited, forcing Shingo to choose between his laptop data and watching the battle. Eventually, Heracross managed to anticipate Blade and hit hard with Fury Attack. Shingo abandoned his laptop and began to order Blade's battle, where the two proved to be very powerful. However, Heracross managed to dodge Blade's Quick Attack, knocked it off balance when it attempted a and finished Blade off with Horn Attack. Heracross was sent to 's lab in Tricks of the Trade in exchange for one of Ash's Tauros. Ash sent back in The Fire-ing Squad, but Professor Oak informed Ash that he wanted to study Heracross's behavior further. Ash agreed to allow Heracross to remain primarily at Oak's lab. It made an appearance in Bulbasaur...the Ambassador!, where it was happy to see Bulbasaur (and more happy to see its bulb) at Oak's lab.

Since then Heracross, like, has been called on by Ash for use in difficult battles. In The Ties That Bind, Ash used it in his Silver Conference battle against. Ash sent it out to fight Gary's, but Gary quickly pulled Nidoqueen for his. Heracross fought Magmar regardless of the type disadvantage, sending Magmar flying with Fury Attack. Magmar launched a three pronged attack -, a point-blank , and its own body weight from the fall. However, Heracross overcame the flames by beating it away with its wings. It then broke through Magmar's defense with Megahorn, taking out the Spitfire Pokémon. However, proved to be a harder challenge, firing a  powerful enough to blow away Heracross' rock cover and take it out of the battle.

In Showdown at the Oak Corral, Heracross made a cameo appearance telling the other Pokémon about Cassidy and Butch.

It appeared in The Right Place and the Right Mime where it met and shook hands with.

In Ka Boom with a View!, Ash used Heracross again in the battle against Palace Maven Spenser. Upon being sent out, Heracross immediately went to eat the sap on Spenser's Venusaur. It managed to knock aside the with Horn Attack before it was knocked back by a. The two Pokémon rammed into each other with Tackle, both proving to be extremely powerful physically. Heracross struck hard with a Megahorn, then took advantage of the charge-up time to hit again. However, Solar Beam then struck Heracross, knocking it out.

Heracross reappeared in An Old Family Blend!, where it was intended to be sent to Ash. However, was sent instead. It did join Ash for the Lily of the Valley Conference, where it was used for Ash's battle with Nando in League Unleashed!. Heracross was Ash's third and final Pokémon in the match and it was put up against, and sent flying by. Kricketune then used to put Heracross to sleep. However, while asleep, it was able to dodge Kricketune's attack because of the newly learned Sleep Talk attack, and combine it with an also newly learned Focus Punch. After it woke up, it had a fierce clash with Kricketune, which Heracross ended with a powerful Megahorn/Horn Attack combo, just before Kricketune attempted another Sing. After the battle, Heracross showed its affection towards Ash by "sucking on" his head.

In The Semi-Final Frontier!, it was the first Pokémon to battle in the semi-finals of the Lily of the Valley Conference. It seemed to be an excellent choice, with a double type advantage over the Dark type and a recently learned Hyper Beam, which collided with 's. It tried to attack Darkrai with Horn Attack but was put to sleep by. Due to Sleep Talk, it was able to hit the legendary Pokémon with a Megahorn, only to be defeated when Darkrai used, which allowed Darkrai to recover some damage dealt by Heracross.

Heracross was reunited with Ash in The Dream Continues!, where it and the rest of Ash's Pokémon posed in a group photo with him.

Personality and characteristics
Heracross is an eager but easily distracted Pokémon, especially regarding sap. This was shown in Fighting Flyer with Fire, where Meowth dropped a jar of sap to allow Team Rocket to escape with. It also likes to suck sap from plants or trees, as well as 's bulb whenever the two are together, annoying Bulbasaur enough to use to push it away. Again, this is distracting for it, as in Chikorita's Big Upset when it went for Bulbasaur's bulb before helping to rescue. Heracross doesn't appear to care how much this annoys Bulbasaur.

Despite these minor flaws, it is a powerful battler, and also extremely strong physically, capable of throwing 's tank into the air in A Shadow of a Drought.

Moves used

 * Ash told Heracross to use in The Ties That Bind. This was a dubbing error. In the original, it was commanded to use.

In the Ash & Pikachu manga
Heracross only appeared on the scoreboard in One Half Of A Poké Ball.

Trivia

 * Heracross's only Bug and moves,  and, are the moves with the highest base power of their types.
 * Heracross is Ash's only Pokémon caught in Johto that is not part of an evolution line.

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