Do I own pokemon? If you're stupid enough to think I own it, then you're too dumb to know how to read, so I can't tell you I don't own it, so there!
Okay, this is like a companion piece to Magikarp and Gyarados. You don't need to go read it, but if you want to know why this is all happening, it might help just a little tiny bit.
For everyone who is already thinking about complaining: This is technically a fic. I have every right to post it. I like this and I don't care how much you complain.
Charmander, Charmeleon and Charizard.
By Farla
Once again, the pokemon tech students waited for an assembly. The younger, newer students hoped that more rare pokemon would be shown, and the older, jaded students put on a show of boredom.
The professor appeared. "Good day ladies and gentlemen, today we will have another talk about pokemon and what was their evolutionary tree.
"Today we have three fire pokemon, one of the few kinds that are not nearly extinct."
On the stage, the curtains were raised and three cages appeared.
In one, an annoyed charmander paced. In the second, and angry charmeleon raged. In the third, an infuriated charizard thrashed.
All three cages were made of reinforced metal. Between the bars was a wire mesh, and the holes of which were filled in with glass to stop them from breathing fire out at the people except at the top. It was tricky and expensive, but no one wanted the students hurt.
All three fire pokemon were at the very low level of five, each one a newly hatched pokemon. Any one of them could have slaughtered the students if it got free, and had they been higher level, the chance they might break out of the cages would be too great and they would not be displayed before the children.
"Charmander is the least aggressive and weakest of all of them. It is the one in the cage on the far left," added the professor, knowing that few if any of the students had ever heard or seen one.
"Professor, I thought you said they weren't as rare as most fire pokemon. I've heard of charmeleon and charizard, but I never heard of a charmander before!" said a student.
"True. Charmander is, in fact, one of the rarest ones. But as you mentioned, charmeleon and charizard are better known and more common. You see, unlike most pokemon, charmeleon and its higher form of charizard are not directly competing, but charmander and charmeleon are.
"As you may notice, charmander and charmeleon are almost identical, the main differences being larger bodies and claws. In fact, the only real different between them is that charmeleon is stronger and more dangerous.
"Charmander and charmeleon can both use dig to escape from damage, and charizard has lost this ability. However, only charmeleon and charizard can use earthquake. Since earthquake is stronger against pokemon using dig, charmander have a grave disadvantage. Plus, of course, ground attacks have no effect on the part-flying charizard."
"But why isn't charmeleon super rare too? Just because it can kill off its lesser form doesn't give it much of an advantage against charizard. After all, I'm pretty sure the only move it knows that can take out other fire pokemon is dig and earthquake, and that wouldn't work on a charizard," asked another student.
"While charmeleon does not usually know it, some are being born now that know thunderpunch, which can take out charizard. Soon I'm sure they will all know it, just like they evolved to know earthquake. But more importantly, charizard is weak against any pokemon who can use electric attacks. Can anyone tell me what this means?" asked the professor.
"Because of the gyarados, electric pokemon are the most common and other pokemon are evolving to gain electric attacks, putting charizard at a disadvantage!" called out one student.
"True. Also, the gyarados themselves pose a threat. Since charizard learns fire, normal, fighting, ground, bug, dark, dragon, steel and flying moves, they have no advantage over the gyarados and most of their attacks are at a disadvantage. Since gyarados' attacks are doubled, this keeps them weak. They can fly away, but it isn't as good an escape as charmander or charmeleon's dig attack."
"Then why aren't they having as much trouble as most fire pokemon? Just because they don't fight much between the middle form charmeleon and the high form charizard, they should still have trouble," said a student.
"Simple. As I mentioned earlier, charmeleon have started to learn thunderpunch. A few charizard and the surviving charmander are also starting to learn it. This enables the few who have it to survive against the gyarados.
"Also, there is terrain. The three pokemon all like to live in hot, dry areas. Charmander and charmeleon complete for desert areas, and charizard likes volcanoes. The two lesser forms are almost never attacked by gyarados and charizard's volcanoes are only slightly more likely to be attacked as long as they don't have hot springs. The gyarados can't travel that far usually, and they don't bother because it is too dry for them.
"It can be predicted that soon the charmander will die off, because they and the charmeleon are almost identical save that the charmeleon are stronger. It is possible they may survive for a time by fleeing to less desirable land since they are the one of the strongest low forms because of the struggle between them and the charmeleon. However, because they are nothing but weaker forms of charmeleon, without anything they can do alone, the charmeleon will ultimately win. They are very interesting pokemon, however, because there is a slim chance they will survive. Because only the very, very strongest charmander can live long enough to reproduce, they may mutate into a slightly different pokemon. If they do this, they may be able to become something different then a weaker version of charmeleon and survive.
The professor smiled. "So you see, charizard, charmeleon and especially charmander are very interesting from the academic point of view. Charmander may be a genetic failure, as the form it used to evolve into is almost identical to it, but in order to survive it must mutate and gain an ability that charmeleon does not have. Whether or not they will do this or if they will die off should give us a great deal of data on pokemon adaptation now that they cannot evolve and rely on their evolved forms to preserve a species."