Brock's Forretress

**Brock's Forretress** (Japanese: **タケシのフォレトス** *Takeshi's Foretos*) was the only Pokémon that Brock caught in the Johto region, and his fifth overall.

## History

### Original series

In *Going Apricorn!*, Brock caught Forretress as a Pineco near Azalea Town. Having earlier expressed that Pineco's violently unstable temper and tendency to explode was both cool and a true challenge for a Pokémon Breeder, Brock attempted to catch one. However, he tripped on a rock and headbutted the tree, frightening the Pineco so much that they all exploded. Brock got his chance later, when Team Rocket was attempting to steal all of the Apricorns. The giant fan ended up blowing all of the Pineco out instead, and Brock managed to catch one in his arms before it hit the ground. However, the Pineco pried itself free and attacked Team Rocket, tackling the trio off their machine. It engaged in a battle against Jessie's Arbok alone, but could not match the powerful snake and began to flee. Maizie told Brock that he could capture the Pineco in the Fast Ball, which he did just as Arbok tackled, causing Arbok to crash into its Trainer. Once Pikachu drove Team Rocket away, Brock sent out Pineco and promised that they would be good friends. Pineco enthusiastically used Self-Destruct on its new friend.

In *Ariados, Amigos*, Brock volunteered Pineco and himself as a duo to train under Aya at the Pokémon Jujitsu Academy. However, Pineco was so startled by Brock's enthusiasm that it exploded in Brock's arms. Brock and Pineco later stunned everyone at the Technical class with Pineco's superb Spikes attack. Both were very happy to hear that they were in such perfect sync, and Pineco promptly exploded again.

In *Mewtwo Returns*, Pineco was sent out alongside Brock and Misty's Pokémon to stop Giovanni and the rest of Team Rocket from recapturing Mewtwo. Their distraction gave Ash the time he needed to take Mewtwo to the top of Mount Quena so it could be healed.

In *All That Glitters!*, Ash's Fog Badge was stolen by a trio of Murkrow. Ash, Misty, Pikachu, and Togepi distracted the Darkness Pokémon while Brock lowered Pineco down to get it back. Although Pineco was able to retrieve it, the Murkrow figured out their plan while it was being lifted back up to safety. They attacked it and stole the badge back, after which Pineco exploded.

In *Sick Daze*, Pineco and Golbat watched over Brock when he fell ill. It also helped rescue all of the stolen Pokémon by attacking Arbok and Weezing, again with Golbat.

In *Entei at Your Own Risk*, Pineco enjoyed a hot spring. However, it was not as quick as Misty's Staryu when Team Rocket tried to suck up all of the wild Pokémon, so it was sucked up in a typhoon of water. Brock jumped after it, and he caught his Pokémon until a wild Ursaring crashed into him and knocked them apart. Upset by this, Pineco evolved into Forretress to save Brock. Its evolution induced a large explosion which nullified Team Rocket's suction and allowed Brock and all of the Pokémon to escape. In the next episode, it prevented Team Rocket from stealing a King's Rock by using its newly-learned Rapid Spin to trip them up and delay them long enough for Pikachu to get rid of them with Thunderbolt.

In *Gotta Catch Ya Later!*, Forretress defeated the Hitmonlee belonging to Kail of the Invincible Pokémon Brothers with Rapid Spin.

### Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire

#### Hoenn

In *You Never Can Taillow*, Forretress came to the rescue of Ash and his new friends, May and Max, sent out by Brock to use its newly-learned Explosion to drive away a mass of attacking Taillow. He also revealed that Forretress was the only Pokémon he had brought with him to Hoenn, having left his other Pokémon with his brother Forrest.

Forretress was seen quite regularly during the early Hoenn episodes, along with Torchic and Pikachu. However, it was rarely used as Brock's battling Pokémon once he acquired Ludicolo and Marshtomp. He would send it out to use its Rapid Spin or Spikes to drive away hostile Pokémon or Team Rocket. It was used to battle James' Cacnea in *Cheer Pressure*, but was defeated when the cheer squad, led by Sheridan, cheated by having his Shroomish and Makuhita use Helping Hand on Cacnea.

In *Going for a Spinda*, Brock used Forretress' Explosion to damage Team Rocket's mecha and save Claire's Spinda.

In *Where's Armaldo?*, Forretress was used in an attempt to talk down a restless Armaldo, but failed.

#### Kanto Battle Frontier

Brock kept Forretress in his team during the Battle Frontier saga.

In *From Cradle to Save*, Forretress battled a wild Bonsly. Its Rapid Spin knocked Bonsly out temporarily, but this was not enough to catch Bonsly. However, once Bonsly got up, he ran into the Spikes that Forretress had fired while Bonsly was disoriented, knocking him down again and this time allowing Brock to catch him.

In *Going for Choke!*, Forretress used Rapid Spin to free the group from a Team Rocket pitfall, allowing them to stop Harley from interfering with May's Contest performance.

Forretress was left at the Pewter Gym when Brock headed to Sinnoh.

### Pokémon Journeys: The Series

In *Bearing Down Easy!*, Brock used Forretress to destroy some ice so Ash and his friends could chase after a Beartic. It was soon after recalled to avoid being frozen.

## Personality and characteristics

As a Pineco, it was very temperamental and tended to blow itself up and Brock along with it whenever it got startled, angry, or even happy. It was shown to be caring and helpful when it took care of Brock along with Brock's Crobat in *Sick Daze*. After it evolved into Forretress, it seemed to like Brock even more, and began to act more loyally. It also gained better control of itself, no longer blowing itself up in Brock's face.

## Moves used

 A **†** shows that the move was used recently, unless all moves fit this case or there are fewer than five known moves.

## Trivia

* At the time, before it was left in Pewter City when he left for Sinnoh, Forretress had been in Brock's party longer than any other main character's Pokémon, except for Pikachu, at 323 episodes. This record was matched and subsequently broken three episodes later by Jessie's Wobbuffet.
	+ It does have the record for being in a main character's party longest of all Pokémon that have been known to evolve under its Trainers ownership during the anime.
* Forretress is the first Steel-type Pokémon to be owned by a main character.
* Forretress is Brock's only Pokémon to be kept inside a Pokéball variant.
	+ Forretress is also the first Pokémon belonging to a main character to be permanently kept inside a Pokéball variant.
* Forretress is Brock's only Generation II Pokémon to have been caught in Johto.
* Forretress is the only Pokémon belonging to a main character to have used an entry hazard-creating move.
* Out of all the Pokémon that were obtained and evolved during the Johto arc of the original series, Pineco took the longest to evolve, at 116 episodes.