F – Fossils

A high level of nostalgia means that this year my chosen theme for the 2016 A to Z challenge is Pokemon. Whether you yourself have a similar level of sentimentality or you’ve never really gotten into it, I hope that you enjoy this month of posts as I indulge my nostalgia.

Fossils are ancient animals or plants that have been preserved in the rock record by natural processes. This is fairly similar in the Pokemon universe, and ever since the first generation, there have been Pokemon preserved in the rocks of the universe, and this often includes just enough DNA for the scientists of the world to be able to re-create the Pokemon. Yeah, those scientists are capable of a lot.

In the first generation, and the first trio of games, you go into a series of mountain caves called Mt Moon. I shan’t spoil everything that happens, but you end up rescuing this person, who has found two fossils, and as thanks, they let you pick one of them, which you then carry around for a long time until you get to the lab and they can revive the Pokemon inside. Oh, and there is a third fossil hidden around in the world, so go exploring and cut down lots of trees!

Of course, as more generation went on, there were more fossils to discover and revive:

• Dome – Kabuto
• Helix – Omanyte
• Old Amber – Aerodactyl
• Root – Lileep
• Claw – Anorith
• Skull – Cranidos
• Armour – Sheildon
• Cover – Tirtouga
• Plume – Archen
• Jaw – Tyrunt
• Sail – Amaura

It is worth noting that Fossil is not a Pokemon type of itself (technically the fossils count as items), it’s more of an indication of the process that you use to get the Pokemon. Although, interestingly, all Fossil Pokemon are Rock Type, usually as one of two types. It isn’t known whether this is because they were fossilised, or whether having the rock type allowed them to be fossilised in the first place.

Either way, gotta catch them all!

 

Pokemon of the Day

F is for Fennekin

Fennekin is a small fire type fox Pokemon and is one of the three starters from generation 6, evolving into Braixen and the Delphox. Technically, out of the evolution chain, my favourite is Delphox, but I already had a Pokemon for D, so it gets mentioned here instead.

Generation 6 gave all of the final forms of the starter Pokemon secondary types (most of the time they remain single type) so Delphox is Fire/Psychic, and it has a stick, seen stored in the tail of Braixen, that it uses as a wand to use it’s moves with. It can also gaze into the fire on the end of the stick, and achieve a focus that powers up it’s psychic abilities. When it’s not in use, it store the stick in the fur of one of it’s sleeves. And as the fire powers up it’s psychic abilities, it can also use it’s psychic abilities to power up it’s fire to exceedingly high temperatures of around 5,400 degrees. It even has a special move called Mystical Fire.

As I have said before, I normally go for the water starter, but this time I was just so drawn to a fire fox (and yes, that still makes me laugh) who’s final form looks like it’s wearing a robe and has a stick. Can anyone else say mage? Because I did, frequently, and I still do think it. Also the dual type of psychic/fire is an awesome combination. I used to have a Pokemon deck with that combination.