Ash's Infernape/Anime/History/DP/With Paul

Infernape was once a owned by Paul. Prior to events of the Diamond and Pearl series, Paul saw Chimchar being chased by a group of wild. The situation looked bad for Chimchar, but in its stress it pulled off an extremely powerful Flame Wheel. This impressed Paul enough to add Chimchar to his regular team. However, this first impression did not match up to Chimchar's normal abilities, resulting in Paul criticizing it for being weak. Since then Paul has been pushing Chimchar to the limit to duplicate the amazing power he saw before. Traumatized, Chimchar gained a morbid fear of all Zangoose.

Chimchar debuted in When Pokémon Worlds Collide!, where Paul used it to battle Ash's Aipom. It fought well, but lost in the end. Chimchar reappeared in Different Strokes for Different Blokes where it won against Ash's Turtwig.

In Shapes of Things to Come!, Paul used Chimchar in his Gym Battle against Roark and his. Chimchar immediately took damage from Onix's previously placed, but remained standing. Chimchar then continued to use Dig until Onix was knocked out, having support from Paul's Elekid's Ability slowing Onix down. Chimchar then went up against Roark's Cranidos. Paul used the same strategy again, having Chimchar dodge and attack with Dig. However, Roark had figured it out and dealt major damage from continuous attacks from and, causing Chimchar to activate. Chimchar attacked with a powered-up Flame Wheel, following up with Dig, but was knocked out from Headbutt, causing Paul to get angry with Chimchar for its defeat and promising to deal with it later.

After losing to Cynthia's Garchomp in Top-Down Training, Paul realized that Chimchar was not fulfilling his expectations. This culminated in the Hearthome City Tag Battle Competition in Glory Blaze!, where he was forced to battle alongside Ash. That night, Ash discovered Paul's training regime, which involved his Pokémon attacking Chimchar in the hopes of recreating the power he had seen before. Ash intervened and took Chimchar to the Pokémon Center where Nurse Joy told Paul it would be unable to battle. Paul ignored this warning. During the next battle against a Zangoose and a, Chimchar was too scared to make any attack when caught in Zangoose's claws and had to be saved by Turtwig, who was seriously injured as a result. Chimchar made up for this by protecting Turtwig from a attack. Realizing that not even reliving the traumatic event of being attacked by Zangoose could motivate Chimchar to do Blaze, Paul gave up on Chimchar. For the remainder of the battle, Paul refused to give Chimchar any orders. Consequently, Ash gave Chimchar commands from then on, and the three soon won the battle. After the battle, Paul Chimchar in front of Ash. As the little Pokémon headed back to the wild, Ash invited it to join him, to which it accepted. Paul rudely commented that the two were perfect for each other: both were worthless scum.