Shamus

Pokemon Best Wishes
Shamus is a Pokemon trainer from the Unova region Ash encounters during his journey in the Pokemon Black and White series. He is the original trainer to Ash's Pignite, having abandoned it after the fire pig (as a Tepig) lost to a Deerling in the Accumula Battle Club. Shamus makes his physical appearance debut in "Evolution by Fire" at the Astilbe Battle Club.

Ash challenges Shamus to a double battle with Tepig and Snivy against his Fire Warriors, Emboar and Heatmor. In the battle, Shamus showed he was a strong trainer by combining his two Pokemon to create powerful fire combos, even being able to snap his Pokemon out of attract effect. However, because the anime has to have goody-goody feels, he had to lose. After Tepig evolved into Pignite, the newly evolved Pokemon took down both Emboar and Heatmor in a huge deux-ex-machina so ridiculous even by Pokemon standards.

After the battle, Shamus tried to re-invite Pignite to his team, but Pignite instead gave Shamus a hot makeover. Shamus angrily ran away and was unfortunately not seen again in canon. However, thanks to Pokeferlax, his character won't need to go to waste as he re-emerges in the Pokemon Summer Camp series.

Summer Camp Series
Main Page: Pokemon Summer Camp: The Series

Shamus entered the Pokemon Summer Camp in the Kalos region with the intention of showing up the Kalos Champion, Diantha. He formed a team with Dawn, Conway and Dorio. He named his team the Fire Warriors, overruling all objections and appointed himself the leader.

Shamus did not get along with his teammates as he gave minimal effort in the early events. During the fishing challenge, he refused to help his teammates to reel in a Pokemon and when Piplup tried to scold him, he used Emboar to attack it. Later in the Pokemon rental event he switched the Pokemon he was given (a Zigzagoon) with Dawn's (a Pyroar). This led to Dawn coming up with a plan to set Shamus up to get him kicked out of the Summer Camp.

With the help of Serena, Chloe, and May, Dawn came up with a plan to record Shamus's behavior to show to Professor Sycamore. After being shown the video, Professor Sycamore took the side of the snitches and kicked Shamus out of the Summer Camp. Shamus returned later that evening to confront Professor Sycamore and the rest of the campers, pointing out that he was set up and that he should've been giving multiple warnings before the decision of being kicked out be made. These objections however were ignored and Shamus was still out of the Summer Camp.

Shamus left the Summer Camp grounds, but thanks to Brendan showing him secret bases, Shamus found one just outside the Summer Camp he decided to make his temporary home until Diantha arrives.

His secret base was eventually discovered by Bonnie, who had befriended a Chingling. In exchange for agreeing to let Chingling bunker in the secret base, Bonnie promised to keep Shamus's occupancy a secret. However, Leaf eventually got Bonnie to slip the secret and Leaf went out to find it. Leaf found Shamus's secret base and the two promised to train eachother.

Shamus's hideout was discovered in Episode 36 by Ash, Serena, Clemont, Seiya, Goh, and Chloe. They demanded to know what Shamus was still doing around camp and why he was in possession of Bonnie's Chingling. Shamus explained they traded secrets, and showed concerned that Leaf and Bonnie were missing.

In episode 37, Shamus helped the others find another secret base on the face of a cliffside. He volunteered to stay outside should anything happen to the others.

In episode 39, Shamus gets tired of waiting for the others to finish their search for Leaf and Bonnie that he decides to go in himself. Before he can, however, he and his Fire Warriors get ambushed by giant roots. Shamus's fire warriors battled the roots back where it was discovered they were coming from a giant Trevenant. After defeating the ghost type, Shamus went into the secret base to help rescue Leaf and Bonnie.

In episode 40, Shamus entered the battle against Osanna, and with the help of his Fire Warriors, managed to subdue Osanna, saving the rest of the campers. Shamus then unmasked Osanna, which allowed her to escape after a blast of energy escaped from her.

In episode 41, with the campers getting ready to head back to the camp, Shamus showed reluctance in returning, but was eventually persuaded by the rest of the campers to return as his secret base was damaged. After returning, the campers all had a medical check up with Brock, which Shamus resisted in being checked out, despite his injuries. Here, he reunited with Professor Sycamore for the first time since his banishment. Leaf spoke on Shamus's behalf to not make the professor angry. Afterwards, he lamented how Leaf will still have to deal with danger. Iris and Dawn then came into the Dining Hall, disappointed about their party being missed by a big chunk of the cast where they then showed their disapproval of Shamus's presence.

In episode 42, Shamus was gathering his belongings from the secret base where he had a conversation with Leaf. Leaf tells Shamus that he reminded her of another friend of hers named Silver.

Shamus makes a brief appearance in episode 43 where he trains his Fire Warriors for their upcoming battle with the Kalos champion, Diantha.

In episode 44 Shamus interrupted the awards ceremony with an explosive entrance with the Fire Warriors. As he approached the stage and called out Diantha, he was interrupted by a returning Team Hoenn. The campers began discussing what the missing team had been up to, before Shamus turned the attention back on himself by kicking Team Hoenn off the stage. He officially declared his challenge to Diantha, who accepts, mentioning that she had discussed it with Leaf the night before. In the battle, Diantha chooses Gardevoir and asks for Shamus to use all four of his Fire Warriors consisting of Emboar, Heatmor, Darmanitan and Pyroar. During the battle, Shamus tries to have his Fire Warriors attack the champion's Gardevoir all at once, only for Gardevoir to avoid all his moves. Shamus was able to manage one hit against Gardevoir, impressing the champion, but she takes it up a notch and throughly controls the rest of the battle, knocking out all four of his Fire Warriors with one final moonblast to Emboar. Shamus compliments his Pokemon on fighting hard and notes they've come a long way since their Battle Club days in Unova.

In the final episode of the Pokemon Summer Camp, Shamus revealed that Pyroar had decided to come along with him, making Pyroar an official Fire Warrior. He had one final conversation with Brendan and Bonnie before walking away, saying goodbye to the Summer Camp.

The Masked Daughter
Shamus debuted in The Masked Daughter series in Episode 1, where he is seen battling against the Kalos Elite Four member, Malva. Bonnie calls him in the middle of the battle, which he takes, annoying his opponent, but he doesn't care. He's about to hang up on Bonnie, before Ash yells out that they're calling about Leaf, which he then listens, but mentions Leaf had blocked his number. He postpones his battle with Malva, promising to battle properly at a later date. The Kalos gang asks if Shamus knows where to start looking for Leaf, Shamus mentions they talked about secret bases and how many of them exist in the Hoenn region. Later in the episode, Shamus boards a flight to the Hoenn region, coincidentally running into Clemont and Bonnie who are on the same flight.

Shamus arrives in the Hoenn region in episode 3. He initially wants to find Leaf himself, but the others talk him into working as a team, noting they'll track Leaf down faster as a group. Their intuition leads them to the jungles of the Hoenn region and they were able to correctly guess Leaf was in the region thanks to a disguise call pretending to be Silver.

After tracking down Leaf's location, the gang finally gets to her secret base in Episode 4, where they are blasted away by Leaf's Blastoise guarding the secret base. Shamus is able to get Bonnie out of the way of the attack's trajectory. Leaf tries to beg them to all leave, but everyone insists they help Leaf with her problems with the Masked Man and children. Shamus finds out in this episode that Iris is the champion of his home region, much to his shock and dismay. Shamus then discovers that their trick to find Leaf allowed the Masked Man to be able to track Leaf as well.

In episode 5, Shamus travels with Leaf to Kurt's in Azalea Town in the Johto region to learn more about the GS Ball. They're all interrupted by an ambush by Masked Child member, Braunh, the biggest member of the Masked Children, Osanna, and Seiya who appears to have double-crossed the campers. Shamus prepares to fight against the Masked Children.

In episode 6, Shamus battles against Seiya with the help of everyone's fire type Pokemon. During the battle he is attacked by Seiya's Houndoom. Shamus is able to defeat Seiya, then discovers that it wasn't actually Seiya the whole time, but actually Masked Child member Archer disguised as Seiya.

Shamus's battle with Archer continues into episode 7 where the latter breaks free from Shamus's apprehension thanks to the stronger Braunh. The campers are able to apprehend Osanna, officially unmasking her, revealing her true identity to be Crystal.

Shamus meets Lance in episode 8, and is amazed to be in the presence of the Elite 4 champion. Shamus asserts to Lance that the campers will continue in the mission to bring down the Masked Man and the Masked Children when Lance expressed that they shouldn't get further involved. Leaf then trusts Shamus to look after Celebi and take it to Mahoganey Town.

Shamus returns in episode 12, showing concern that the Masked Man knows about their moves and power. After reuniting with Leaf, he hands her back Celebi and the GS Ball. Shamus is then split into the group led by Anabel to head to the Blackthorn City gym in the Johto region, lamenting on his reunion with Iris.

Shamus met Clair in episode 13 and voices his disapproval about her lack of ambition to be the strongest, pointing out that she had mentored Lance and Iris, both of whom would later become a champion of their respective regions. Clair explains she has gotten benefit from training others and feels more rewarded than focusing on herself which leaves the fire trainer speechless. Later, his group enters the holy land of dragons where both Iris and Dawn awaited his group.

In episode 15, Shamus once again comes face to face with Archer who enters on a Ho-Oh. Before he has the chance to fight him, Shamus leads the group of himself, Leaf and Bonnie into the cave, his Fire Warriors acting as guards.

In episode 16, the group continues to run into the cave where they're stopped by Silver, who was waiting for them. As Shamus walks toward Silver to confront him, he's ambushed by another Masked Child, Ariana, who jumps from the ceiling of the cave and flips him towards some rocks. Ariana taunts Shamus that she expects someone with his name to be more of a threat, but got so easily beaten by a woman. Shamus tries to get her to drop her guard by flipping her over when she gets close to him, but Ariana outsmarts and outmaneuvers him, and stomps him further into the ground. Ariana and Silver manage to get Celebi and GS Ball from Leaf. Shamus tries to get up to battle, but Ariana stomps him back into the ground before the two of them make their getaway. Shamus expressed outrage as he feels they were doing better before champions and gym leaders came into the picture. He has Ditto transform into a Ho-Oh for them to follow after the Masked Children with Celebi.

In episode 17 while the campers are on their way to reunite with each other, Bonnie tries to talk Shamus up by fabricating that he beat up one of the Masked Children and they ended up looking worse than him. However, the other campers and Clair were able to pinpoint that only Ariana and Silver were in the cave and that neither of them sustained injuries. Bonnie spills that it was Ariana who beat him up, much to Shamus's embarrassment.

Shamus attempts to instigate a rematch with Ariana in episode 18, but is interrupted by Archer and the two of them engage in a battle. Through a fierce battle, Shamus is able to keep his Fire Warriors to the end against Archer's Houndoom, however the Pokemon are knocked out by Dawn's Buneary's ice beam and Leaf's Thunder, denying Shamus credit for the knock-out.

In episode 19, Shamus and the campers continue to battle the Masked Man and Masked Children. The Masked Children are defeated thanks to the appearance of Mewtwo.

In the series finale, episode 20, Shamus appears after Ash, Serena and Leaf return from the time portal. It's revealed by Bonnie that Shamus took down Ariana for good, but Drew points out that Ariana had actually tripped Shamus up as she was being apprehended, prompting for the police to put the Masked Child in legcuffs. Brendan comments Ariana might have escaped had it not been for Shamus. Shamus joined everyone in Pallet Town in the Kanto region to celebrate everything going back to normal. Iris dragged Shamus by the ear to reunite with his former Pokemon, Pignite. Shamus gives Pignite an apology saying that he no longer uses Pokemon for his own gain but to grow stronger as a team. Pignite hits him in the face with a flamethrower as he did in the anime, along with the frazzled hair. Snivy followed up by slapping Shamus in the face with a vine whip, knocking him to the ground. Pignite says through Ash that he's willing to forgive but not forget what Shamus had done and Pignite shakes hands with Shamus to put the past behind them. Weeks later, Shamus was shown to be in the Kalos region with Leaf. Leaf takes him to Professor Sycamore where its revealed that they will plan the next year's Summer Camp competition. Shamus is then given his own Fennekin and first female Fire Warrior teammate. He then answers a knock on the door, who turns out to be a love confessing Seiya, who thought he was talking to Leaf. Joined with him by Clemont and Bonnie. Bonnie is excited to spend time with Shamus as he currently resides in the Kalos region.