Tag: Johto

Wooper and Quagsire

Wooper
The Water Fish Pokémon
Type: Water/Ground
Official Registration #: 194
Entry: This amphibious pokémon typically lives in the cold, freshwater ponds and rivers of Johto. However, at night and when the weather grows cooler, it leaves these sources to search for food on land. When not in water, wooper coats itself with a thin, poisonous film of slime, which functions as both a means of keeping its body moist and a self-defense mechanism. Even the slightest touch can send shooting pains throughout a human’s body, and prolonged or excessive exposure can lead to paralysis and nerve damage. Unfortunately for trainers and the variety of researcher who can gain the love and friendship of a pokémon almost instantly, wooper is also infamous for its high level of affection and its tendency to leap at a human being and lovingly rub its face into its target’s.

Quagsire
The Water Fish Pokémon
Type: Water/Ground
Official Registration #: 195
Entry: The evolved form of wooper, by battle experience. This carefree pokémon often floats along the surface of shallow, freshwater swamps, lakes, and rivers with its mouth open, and in this manner, it conserves energy and survives off of only whatever swims into its mouth. Because it expends so little energy in navigating its environment, it has a tendency to bump into obstacles and let them repel it back towards the center of its home. This includes boat hulls, which often resulted in injury for the quagsire as it came in contact with the boat’s propeller. Consequently, campaigns were launched throughout the 80s and 90s to save the quagsire, which in turn meant an extreme amount of human effort had been expended for the sake of both awareness of the quagsire’s plight, as well as the preservation of both the quagsire and its habitat. As of late, such campaigns are much quieter than they had been decades ago, partly because it was determined that the quagsire’s carefree and oblivious nature often got itself injured regardless of the presence of boat propellers in its waters and partly because it was also determined that just about the only activity quagsire spent an extraordinary amount of energy on was mating—which it did far more than any other pokémon in existence. (Putting it another way, the lakes of southern Johto aren’t murky because of mud or pollution…)

Sentret and Furret

Sentret
The Scout Pokémon
Type: Normal
Official Registration #: 161
Entry: A meerkat-like pokémon native to the grasslands of Johto. This small pokémon is famous for its highly cautious nature. It lives in groups and typically keeps itself low to the ground, within the brown, dry grasses of Johtonian fields. However, whenever it senses danger, it raises itself up on its thick tail to stand high above the grass and scans the immediate area for the source of its unease. The inches its tail adds to its height makes it easy for sentret to scan wide swaths of land … and for predators such as pidgeot, fearow, and trainers with impeccable aim to catch it right out of the grasses.

Furret
The Long Body Pokémon
Type: Normal
Official Registration #: 162
Entry: The evolved form of sentret, by battle experience. Because its body is slender as it is long, wild furret are capable of burrowing maze-like nests miles long. These nests are frequently so narrow that even rattata have difficulty squeezing through. In captivity, meanwhile, this behavior rarely changes, and trainers may need to be aware of keeping their valuables (such as, for example, your passport the night before you’re to leave for a conference in Unova) well-hidden to avoid having them buried deep in their backyards, in corners of nests that may only be excavated via Dig or a disgruntled furret.

The Magby Line

Magby
The Live Coal Pokémon
Type: Fire
Official Registration #: 240
Entry: This baby pokémon has magma-like blood that circulates throughout its body. Because of the heat generated by this blood, the average magby’s body temperature can reach temperatures in excess of 1100 degrees Fahrenheit. Additionally, the fires it spits out are directly related to its body temperature and are therefore a clear indicator of both its health and moods. A depressed and/or sick magby is only capable of exhaling small puffs of black smoke, but a healthy and/or excited magby can spit out balls of flames or even full-on Flamethrowers. Thus, perhaps one could say magby is hot-blooded.

Puns? Seriously? Why would you do that? —LH

Magmar
The Spitfire Pokémon
Type: Fire
Official Registration #: 126
Entry: The evolved form of magby, by battle experience. Native to volcanic environments, magmar’s entire body is built to withstand—and exude—great amounts of heat. Its own body temperature is over 2200 degrees Fahrenheit, and its skin contains hundreds of vents through which both heat and fire can escape. Consequently, the air around it is constantly shimmering and wavering, which distorts an onlooker’s view of this pokémon and makes it difficult for researchers to get a clear image of it. This is unfortunate, largely because researchers aren’t quite sure what, precisely, magmar is meant to resemble. Is it a bird-like pokémon? An iguana-like one? Something that strongly resembles a figure from ancient Johtonian mythology? We just don’t know, but it’s been a popular debate among the scientific community for decades. You could say It’s a hot topic.

Oh my gods. —LH

Magmortar
The Blast Pokémon
Type: Fire
Official Registration #: 467
Entry: The evolved form of magmar, via trading if the subject has had a magmarizer applied to it. As the final stage in an evolution line known for intense body temperatures, magmortar is no different. This dangerous pokémon is native to volcanic craters, where it may be surrounded by volcanic vents and a rugged terrain that can either provide or withstand the incredible heat it needs to survive. Magmortar itself has a body temperature that has not yet been measured by researchers, partly because it has a tendency to melt equipment before recordings can be taken and partly because it shoots fireballs of over 3600 degrees Fahrenheit from the cannons at the ends of both of its arms. Needless to say, this pokémon certainly has a tendency to heat things up in the average researcher’s laboratory.

Bill. —LH

The Elekid Line

Elekid
The Electric Pokémon
Type: Electric
Official Registration #: 239
Entry: This baby, plug-like pokémon generates electricity by spinning its arms around quickly. The faster it spins its arms, the more electricity it generates, and the more electricity it generates, the more likely the area between its prong-shaped horns begins to glow blue. At that point, even the air around elekid may be super-charged with electricity, and given the fact that elekid struggles to store the electricity it generates, approaching this pokémon at this point may be a bad idea. However, the air between its prongs always carries some form of charge capable of shocking any unwary human who sticks their hand between them. Or, at least, that’s according to the pokédex. According to the author, if you’re a human who approaches a pokémon incapable of storing electricity to stick its hands directly between its horns, you have wandered far out of “unwary” territory and straight into “asking for it” territory.

Electabuzz
The Electric Pokémon
Type: Electric
Official Registration #: 125
Entry: The evolved form of elekid, by battle experience. This oni-like pokémon constantly consumes and discharges vast amounts of electricity. In fact, the quantity of energy that passes into and out of electabuzz’s body causes its skin to glow in darkness and the hair of anyone within five feet of it to stand on end. While research is still ongoing into harnessing this electricity for human use, among electabuzz colonies, individual electabuzz use their abilities for communication: when two electabuzz touch, they can pass currents between them in order to convey emotion. Needless to say, electabuzz trainers should be aware that not all electabuzz understand that humans are not odd-looking electabuzz.

Electivire
The Thunderbolt Pokémon
Type: Electric
Official Registration #: 466
Entry: The evolved form of electabuzz, via trading if the subject has had an electirizer applied to it. This beast-like pokémon is capable of unleashing over 20000 volts of electricity from the tips of its tails. Thus, it often pushes these tails into an opponent to deliver a devastating blow … or into their trainers because they’ve eaten nothing but kibble for three months straight.

The Hitmons!

Ah, a challenge, but one I’m certainly willing to oblige!

Tyrogue
The Scuffle Pokémon
Type: Fighting
Official Registration #: 236
Entry: This small, childlike pokémon can be a challenge for many new trainers. It requires daily training to maintain its mental health, and if it is denied of its routine training period or if it feels that its trainer is ignoring it for any reason, it will immediately punch its human with as much force as it can muster. On the one hand, they say “no pain, no gain,” and tyrogue trainers tend to be incredibly fit by the time their partners are ready to evolve. On the other hand, they also say “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” and the author did say “tend to be” and not “most certainly are.”

Hitmonlee
The Kicking Pokémon
Type: Fighting
Official Registration #: 106
Entry: The evolved form of tyrogue, by battle experience, if the subject is stronger offensively than defensively. Hitmonlee’s legs are quite literally pure muscle; it requires no real bone structure due to the tightly coiled mass of muscle serving as support instead. Because of this, hitmonlee’s legs are notoriously elastic and long, capable of uncoiling and stretching up to double or even triple their resting length. This allows hitmonlee to land devastatingly powerful kicks on distant foes … and to land some of the most lucrative modeling careers in the modeling industry.

Hitmonchan
The Punching Pokémon
Type: Fighting
Official Registration #: 107
Entry: The evolved form of tyrogue, by battle experience, if the subject is stronger defensively than offensively. Both of hitmonchan’s fists are hard as rock and extremely dextrous, and because of this, it can punch through solid concrete with both hands, regardless of dominance. Additionally, it’s said that hitmonchan is infused with the spirit of a pro boxer who had been working towards a world championship. Whether or not this is true—and, if it is, which pro boxer—is difficult to say, but it is known that playing “Eye of the Tiger” in the presence of any member of this species will cause them to feel compelled to run up the steps of the nearest art museum.

Hitmontop
The Handstand Pokémon
Type: Fighting
Official Registration #: 237
Entry: The evolved form of tyrogue, by battle experience, if the subject is equally strong in both offense and defense. Hitmontop is known for its graceful, dance-like kicks, which it launches by flipping itself upside-down and spinning around on its horn towards its enemy. One would think striking a solid object while spinning upside-down at high speeds on a fine point would only knock the attacker over, but pokémon are wonderful, magical beings, and it’s perhaps not worth it to question the physics of hitmontop when we share this world with thirteen-pound rodents that are capable of releasing 100,000 volts of electricity from their cheeks.

The Horsea Line

Horsea
The Dragon Pokémon
Type: Water
Official Registration #: 116
Entry: A small seahorse pokémon first discovered in the seas of Kanto. This pokémon hunts by shooting jets of ink at flying insects. Its aim is actually impeccable, and it can strike even the smallest, fastest flying targets. However, its sight leaves something to be desired, as the transition between seawater and open air can blur its vision and make it difficult for horsea to distinguish between shapes. Consequently, at times, it can struggle to tell the difference between flying prey and the face of a completely innocent researcher standing on a nearby pier.

Seadra
The Dragon Pokémon
Type: Water
Official Registration #: 117
Entry: The evolved form of horsea, by battle experience. Not too long ago, the discovery of a gene within seadra’s genetic code caused a minor uproar within the scientific community. This was because that single gene made seadra’s code differ ever so slightly from horsea, which in turn led to the discovery of the link between seadra and kingdra, a pokémon that had up until that point only been found in the wild. Naturally, this all had become a hot topic, not because scientists had been searching for years to find the aforementioned link but instead because the media did a fantastic job of ignoring the latter half of this concept, which in turn made all of us, the scientists of Johto, seem like complete idiots who didn’t know what evolution was. Thank you, news outlets.

Kingdra
The Dragon Pokémon
Type: Water/Dragon
Official Registration #: 230
Entry: The evolved form of seadra, via trading if the subject has had a dragon scale applied to it. Rare and highly destructive, these seahorse pokémon can use their incredibly potent mastery over the water to generate fantastically strong whirlpools simply by yawning. They are also known to tolerate extreme levels of darkness and water pressure, as they make their homes in the depths of the ocean where no other pokémon can survive. In other words, these pokémon are terrifying, doubly so when their abilities are turned against a human on the orders of the single creature whose rage is far more frightening than even the mightiest kingdra: Clair, the absolutely flawless and majestic dragon master. (Please don’t hurt me.)

Hi Bill! Your recent entry reminded me of a conversation I’ve had with my mom. She’s from Unova, and isn’t familiar with anything outside the region. When I was a kid, I told her about Koffing and Weezing, and she said, “Well what’s the third one, then? Emphazema?” Of course, now she says the third one in the line should be Copdee. Yeah, I don’t think she’s getting Prof. Oak’s job any time soon…

Perhaps not Professor Oak’s job, but with names like sudowoodo, girafarig, and pineco, she may be stiff competition for Professor Elm’s.

Hello Bill! Since you’ve done a dex entry for the Kanto Gym Leaders, do you think you can do one for the Johto Gym Leaders too? I’m mostly curious about your thoughts on my favorite bird dweeb Falkner, hehe! :)

Hmm. Well, seeing as I’ve just reached 250 followers and I haven’t yet died after posting my analysis of the Kanto gym leaders…

That is a terrible reason to assume this is okay, but on the other hand, I’m impressed Lt. Surge only let you off with a warning. Therefore, I’m going to let you continue, just because I’d like to see whether or not Clair would do the same. —LH

And seeing as my editor is my dearest friend who is always concerned about my well being…

Falkner
The Elegant Master of Flying Pokémon
Type: Flying
Positon: First Badge—Zephyr
Entry: The newest gym leader within the Johto circuit, Falkner had recently inherited both his gym and his bird pokémon from his father. Whether or not he’s as graceful as his equally inherited gym leader title implies has yet to be determined, but from what the author has seen on the occasions when all of the previous generation of kimono girls gather with their children … the answer is no. Apologies to his fangirls.

Bugsy
The Walking Bug Pokémon Encyclopedia
Type: Bug
Positon: Second Badge—Hive
Entry: A young expert in bug-type pokémon, Bugsy knows everything there is to know about his specialty, including the inner workings of moves that he had discovered himself. He has been known to go on for some time about the mysteries and beauty of bug-types, regardless of his listener’s level of interest. One could say that Bugsy is a bug-type maniac, preferring the company of his own bugs to people while valuing the importance of even the tiniest weedle. In short, Bugsy is the author’s favorite, as he is apparently a trainer after his own heart.

Whitney
The Incredibly Pretty Girl
Type: Normal
Positon: Third Badge—Plain
Entry: A minor celebrity in her hometown of Goldenrod City, this gym leader is known for her cuteness, her fashionable tastes, her skill on the battlefield, and her generally charismatic personality. These are absolutely things she is known for, and the author is not at all downplaying any negative aspects of her personality (such as talkativeness, nosiness, or overabundance of energy … which are traits she certainly doesn’t have) because he realizes she knows where he lives, is good friends with his mother, and will never let him hear the end of it if he says anything to the contrary.

Morty
The Mystic Seer of the Future
Type: Ghost
Positon: Fourth Badge—Fog
Entry: A talented psychic, this gym leader has trained for the majority of his life to hone his abilities, all with the hopes of one day meeting Ho-oh. As a result, Morty is a formidable battler with a plethora of talents, including the abilities to see spirits and the future. Unfortunately, given his self-appointed title, writing is apparently not among the aforementioned talents.

Chuck
His Roaring Fists Do the Talking
Type: Fighting
Positon: Fifth Badge—Storm
Entry: A manly individual who trains for nearly twenty-four hours a day beneath the roaring waterfalls of his gym. Nothing can convince this man to do anything, not even challengers, the league rules (concerning the proper formatting of gym titles in the Johto region) … or his unfortunately beleaguered wife.

Jasmine
The Steel-Clad Iron Defense Girl
Type: Steel
Positon: Sixth Badge—Mineral
Entry: A shy, sweet, and soft-spoken girl with a compassionate heart, Jasmine is both a friendly individual who is eager to make friends … and a steelix-wielding warrior princess who is fully capable of breaking every bone of the author’s body without pokémon. Needless to say, the author thinks Jasmine is a wonderful girl.

Pryce
The Teacher of Winter’s Harshness
Type: Ice
Positon: Seventh Badge—Glacier
Entry: A battle-hardened veteran trainer and a master of the ice type. The author is certain that Pryce is a wise individual who has plenty to teach the younger generations, but most of his conversations with this particular gym leader were more like one-sided rants about how modern technology is a plague to human existence and how the author in particular has contributed to the laziness and/or downfall of his own generation.

Clair
The Blessed User of Dragon Pokémon
Type: Dragon
Positon: Eighth Badge—Rising
Entry: A beautiful, talented, vastly intelligent, magnificently wise, and uniquely powerful mistress of dragon pokémon with whom the author has no quarrel. (Please don’t hurt me.)

Stantler

Stantler
The Big Horn Pokémon
Type: Normal
Official Registration #: 234
Entry: A deer-like pokémon native to the forests of Johto. Although these tough and tenacious pokémon are purely normal-types, they apparently display odd telepathic and hypnotic properties. When one stares at the black, orb-like growths in the center of a stantler’s horns, an odd sensation overcomes them: some humans have even reported hallucinating as a result of staring directly at these organs. Unfortunately, stantler also tend to be rather aggressive and will charge at anyone who makes eye contact. Also unfortunately, the species has a tendency to misinterpret the act of staring at their horns as eye contact, leading to many an awkward situation for travelers attempting to cross the forests between Ecruteak and Goldenrod Cities, where they’re most prevalent.

Murkrow and Honchkrow

Murkrow
The Darkness Pokémon
Type: Dark/Flying
Official Registration #: 198
Entry: A crow-like pokémon native to the forests and mountains of Johto and Sinnoh. This wily pokémon is widely feared and loathed by many cultures, including those outside its home regions. Part of this may have to do with its tendency to collect shiny objects: it often steals from unwary travelers, which in turn provokes said travelers to chase after them. Should a human fall into this trap, the murkrow will lead them deep into the densest parts of their territories before flying off, leaving the human lost and stranded in the wilderness. Of course, a human would need to be pretty witless to follow a murkrow in the first place, given the fact that the entire species derives its name from the words “crow” and “murder.”

Bill, didn’t you once have to be rescued after following a murkrow? —LH

That was a fluke. —Bill

Of course it was. —LH

Honchkrow
The Big Boss Pokémon
Type: Dark/Flying
Official Registration #: 430
Entry: The evolved form of murkrow, by exposure to dusk stone. This giant crow-like pokémon is capable of controlling entire flocks of murkrow. When a massive scavenging job needs to be done or whenever nests need to be made, it issues a deep, booming cry to summon every murkrow within miles. Because the numbers of murkrow that respond to this call frequently block out the sun for minutes at a time, honchkrow is colloquially called the “Summoner of the Night.” Which, incidentally, is also a great and surprisingly unused name for a band.