S1EP05 Split In Two

Split in two is the 5th episode of Season 1, featuring an unoffical battle between Ashley and the Oreburgh city gym leader, Roark. WARNING: May Contain Plot Details and Spoilers

Plot Description
Ashley, her Squirtle and her Piplup have finally reached the rock-type Orebeurgh city gym! Roark says it will be a 3-on-3 battle, but Ashley said she only had two pokemon, Piplup and Squirtle. Roark agreed to have an unofficial Pokemon battle, a 2-on-2. Roark used his Rampardos and Steelix against Ashley's Piplup and Squirtle, and she was easily defeated by him. Roark began to give Ashley advice, like to play with her Pokemon, and that training isn't really everything there is to do with a Pokemon. There was so much more.

Of course, Ashley didn't know weither he was being serious or not, so she just left to go and train with her Pokemon, but Roark somehow managed to catch up to her, since he had obviously followed her out to the stream. Ashley wanted to be alone, but Roark wouldn't leave her alone. Roark began to explain how he and his Pokemon grew together, not seperately. And how he would take quality time out of their training sessions and he would also take time out of his freetime to play with his Pokemon. Squirtle released itself from it's Pokeball, but fell into a stream, and had to be rushed to the Pokemon center after hitting it's head hard on a sharp rock in the stream.

When Squirtle awoke, it seemed motionless, but would respond when Ashley touched it. Whenever Ashley or Roark motioned towards Squirtle, it would shuffle in the opposite direction away from them. Piplup managed to get Squirtle to listen and to remember it's trainer and the Gym leader Roark, but Squirtle was still baffled. When Ashley could see the right side of it's head, she saw a large scar from where it had hit it's head on the rock. Of course, Nurse Joy and her Pokemon had patched it up, but it wasn't fully covered, and she knew it would take a few days to heal. Later on that day, Ashley plays with her Squirtle and Piplup, making them much happier. Roark comes to see her once again, and she promises to go off and train, and when she comes back with more Pokemon, they'll have an offical 3-on-3 Pokemon Gym Battle.

Details
In this episode, Piplup happens to be showing that he has a great bond with Squirtle, because they're both water-types, and can understand and help each other out.

Squirtle only really hit it's head on the rock because it was waiting for Ashley to speak and slipped on a few slippery pebbles that Piplup may or may not have left on the shore of the stream. If there hadn't been any pebbles there, Squirtle would probably have not fallen in the stream and scarred itself.

Piplup and Squirtle, nevertheless, have a very good bond with both each other, and their trainer, Ashley.