A/N: Thank you all for your reviews and comments. I'm mostly just doing these when the ideas strike or when I have homework due soon and would rather procrastinate. I didn't mention this in the last note, but this is dealing strictly with the Gold/Silver Dex (Generations 1 and 2). Later Pokédex entries will be only of those species.
Also, if anyone has any suggestions that they'd like me to analyze/BS about, please feel free to post them. I had the Evolution Stones on my mind since the last one, but I'm running out of ideas.
I feel I may have stretched a bit more than I would have liked with this one, but we'll see.
Pokémon Evolution; Sub-analysis: Stones
Pokémon Evolutionary Stones are a source of confusion in the Professor community. My colleagues and I find it difficult to isolate the reason for some species susceptibility to the Evolutionary Stones. The species vary in their reactions: Eevees, for example, are highly influenced by the mere presence of most of the Evolutionary Stones—reacting in both the extreme production of the growth hormone, EXP, as well as the continual production of EXP for attacks.
Another example is of the popular "fire" type canine, Growlithe. This Pokémon is influenced by only the Fire Stone, and also loses the ability to produce even the "learning" levels of EXP (that is, they fail to learn more attacks). In its pre-evolved stage, Growlithe is quick to learn new attacks, however in its evolved stage, Arcanine, it fails to learn new moves unless taught by its trainer, (with the exception of Extreme Speed). Other Pokémon undergo this loss of EXP post Stone exposure, they include: Vulpix, Pikachu, Poliwhirl, Gloom, Staryu, and Nidoqueen/Nidoking. It is important to note that some of these may learn one or two new attacks, but they have such a marked decrease in auto-learned moves that it is worth grouping them with the ones that fail to learn anything more after Stone-induced Evolution.
Pikachu, a common and popular choice with trainers, have been reported to fail to learn their speed-based attacks if evolved too early, leaving them slower as Raichu. This suggests that this group goes through incredible development before evolution, and something in the Stones hinders further development.
To investigate this oddity, six Growlithes and six Vulpix were captured. Many were of varying "levels" and thus had significantly different amounts of EXP in their bodies. This alone was telling; they had clearly not been exposed to Fire Stones before our experiment but did have EXP in their systems. It can be concluded that in the pre-evolved stages, Vulpix and Growlithe are able to produce minor amounts of EXP and develop new attack skills.
The experiment isolated the Pokémon into three groups, with two of each species per group: Training, Training and Evolution, and Non-training. The Training group was to regularly train their Pokémon without evolving them. The Non-Training group acted as our control group. They were isolated from battle scenarios and aggressive Pokémon (in reality, they were pampered by myself and my staff in the laboratory—sub findings included that Growlithe tend to grow quite fat when my staff sneaks them extra meals, and Vulpix tend to be pickier about their food).
The Training and Evolution group was broken down farther: one Growlithe and one Vulpix were to be exposed immediately to the Stones and then train. The remaining Growlithe and Vulpix were to train for a month and then be exposed to the Stones.
After a month, each of the groups were sampled and tested. The early-evolved Ninetails and Arcanine had little to no EXP in their systems. Interestingly, however, the Arcanine did have significantly more EXP than the Ninetails; this was seen in the late-evolved Ninetails and Arcanine as well. The fox-type Pokémon had almost none; enough for muscle development, but no more (regardless of evolution time). The canine type Pokémon had a slowly building amount, possibly for the late-learned Extreme Speed. However, as much as I would like to correlate it with intelligence, I cannot for the two Ninetailes not only were able to fully understand human speech, but when seemed eager to attempt to communicate in response. (My analysis on the Fox-Types will cover their intelligence and communication skills; this report is not the place).
The trained Vulpix and Growlithes had incredible amounts of growth. EXP levels were both very high and many had learned new skills. Our pampered test subjects only gained weight.
We thoroughly observed the cells of each Pokémon and performed brain scans on the four trained fox types and the four trained canine types. We found that the EXP producers in the cells had expanded significantly in the Ninetails and Arcanine. The EXP receptors in the brain of the Ninetails were completely blocked, and all but one or two remained open in the Arcanine. It was as if the Ninetails and Arcanine had been overexposed to the EXP hormone, causing their systems to fail to produce it.
That disturbing thought caused me to turn my attention to the Stones themselves. Much to the horror of the trainers I work with, I smashed one of the Water Stones at my disposal and examined the chemical make up of the pieces. The Stone (and the others that I demolished, my poor team will not forgive me for this), is made of biological chemicals nearly identical to the hormone EXP. It appears to be condensed remains of extinct species, much like coal or oil; powering biological creatures instead of powering industry. This explains the rarity of the Stones.
The "element" they affect (water, fire, thunder, etc.) tends to be influenced by environment and temperature. Water Stones are common in colder, moist areas, where Fire Stones are common in dry, hot areas. Thunder Stones are found, mostly, in humid, moderate temperatures.
Exposure to these concentrated forms of nearly identical EXP hormone, triggers a mass production of EXP in the Pokémon's body. The mass production, in all but Eevees, overloads the body and the brain, causing slowed (or even stopped) growth. Eevees are the anomaly in that their systems are jogged by the burst of EXP and actually seem to improve in their learning.