Ambyr left the Pewter City Pokemon Center the next morning feeling fully refreshed! Now, to head to Mt. Moon and catch a bunch of super beautiful and cool pokemon before heading to Cerulean City!
She merrily skipped down the street towards Route 3. She was so excited about continuing her journey!
As Ambyr entered Route 3, she did her super cool battle pose.
"Alright! Time to catch me some pokemon!" she confidently declared.
She wandered down the road, hoping to find something cute to add to her team.
"Hmm… I wonder what pokemon live here?" Ambyr asked herself. She was literally a walking encyclopedia of everything having to do with pokemon, but she wanted to check and see what the so-called professionals said, that way she could see if they made any errors and correct their work.
Ambyr reached in her bag for her pokedex, but… It wasn't there! Oh no!
What could have happened to it? It couldn't be that Professor Oak didn't even give her one! She was the coolest, best trainer ever, so obviously Professor Oak had to have handed her one when she got Mew, fully expecting it to be completely filled in, like, a day. Obviously, Team Rocket must have stolen it at the museum! Yeah, that was it! Grr… Ambyr would make them pay!
Ambyr continued down Route 3, looking for wild pokemon as she plotted her vengeance against Team Rocket for totally taking her pokedex.
After several minutes, Ambyr still hadn't seen any wild pokemon How weird, huh? They should all be running up to her by this point, begging for her to catch them so she could be their super awesome trainer.
"What's going on?" Ambyr pondered to herself.
Just then, she approached an absolutely decimated clearing. Ambyr rushed over.
"The Rockets seemed to have cleaned this area out," grimaced one pokemon ranger to another. The two were at the opposite edge of the clearing.
The two of them then continued west towards Pewter City, surveying the area along the way.
"Team Rocket took all of the wild pokemon!" exclaimed Ambyr, repeating what she had just heard. No, wait, she didn't hear that, she had determined that through her expert investigative skills! Isn't she the greatest?
That explained why no pokemon had approached her in order to go with her! It was sooo obvious!
Ambyr continued walking.
"Vuuul…" a weak cry sounded from the underbrush alongside the path.
"What could that possibly be?" Ambyr asked herself. She kneeled down and parted the shrubs, revealing an injured Vulpix!
"Oh no!" cried Ambyr. "Team Rocket must have done this!"
The Vulpix, still too weak to move, tried to inch away.
"it's ok, Vulpix!" cheerfully exclaimed Ambyr. "You're an adorable, mysterious, cute pokemon, so I'll take you with me and be your super cool trainer!"
At this, Vulpix's eyes widened in terror "Vuuuuuuuul!" it cried as it summoned the last bit of its strength in order to stand up and start limping away.
Ambyr reached out and grabbed one of its tails, preventing its escape as she fumbled in her bag.
"Let's see… I have a pokeball in here somewhere…"
"Vul! Vul! Vulpix!" desperately cried Vulpix as it fruitlessly struggled in an attempt to escape. (Translation: Oh, please, no! Other Vulpix? Team Rocket? Anybody? Don't let this psycho bitch take me!)
"Ah, here we go!" cheerfully exclaimed Ambyr as she found a pokeball, which she tossed at Vulpix.
"Vuuuul!" hopelessly cried Vulpix as Ambyr captured him. He was stuck with this freak! Nooooooooo!
"Yeah, I did it!" exclaimed Ambyr as she stood up and struck her victory pose, which was like her battle pose, but with the "peace/victory" sign, which stopped being remotely cool in the '90s, instead of pointing. "I caught a Vulpix!"
She stood there striking her pose for another two minutes, not even so much as blinking. At one point, a fly landed on her eye and crawled across it, to which Ambyr didn't react whatsoever. After she was done with her awesome pose, she continued walking east.
After about thirty minutes, Ambyr spotted the Mt. Moon Pokemon Center on the horizon, with Mt. Moon towering behind it. She happily dashed towards the Pokemon Center in order to heal Mew and Vulpix. Isn't it nice how concerned she is about her pokemon?
Ambyr entered the Pokemon Center.
"Good morning, Nurse Joy," she sweetly greeted the nurse at the desk. "I would like to heal my Mew and my newly-caught Vulpix, please."
The nurse took the two pokeballs from Ambyr and placed them in the healing machine.
"I'm very worried about Vulpix," stated Ambyr, "because she was severely injured by Team Rocket."
"It's a he," corrected the nurse.
"Wha-?" asked Ambyr with surprise before regaining her composure. "Obviously, you are mistaken, Nurse Joy," she laughed. "My Vulpix is female."
"No, it's a male. Trust me," replied the nurse in an annoyed tone.
Ambyr rolled her eyes and took the pokeballs back. Obviously, this nurse, who had some kind of degree in pokemon medicine, had to be mistaken about Vulpix's gender. Ambyr was a pokemon expert, so she was totally correct.
Ambyr exited the Pokemon Center and entered the cave at the base of Mt. Moon, which would come out on the other side outside of Cerulean City.
The interior of the cave was quite dim, although it also seemed quite spacious. Ambyr proceeded farther into the cavern, hoping to find a Clefairy. Maybe she would even find a shiny pokemon, as that would make her seem extra cool! She was so excited!
After about thirty minutes of walking, Ambyr was starting to get tired and a little creeped out, though you couldn't tell by looking at her, because Ambyr is totally an expert at hiding her emotions, thoughts, and true intentions. She had defeated numerous Zubat and a few Paras with Mew and Vulpix, but she still hadn't seen a Clefairy. Ambyr was always supposed to find the pokemon she was looking for, but she hadn't so far. Weird, huh?
"Hey you!" exclaimed a voice behind her, causing her to scream at the top of her lungs out of fear as she dove behind a stalagmite and cowered.
"OHMYGODTAKEANYTHINGYOUWANT!" loudly exclaimed Ambyr. "Just don't hurt meeeee!"
"You're a trainer, right?" asked the voice.
Ambyr peeked around the edge of the stalagmite to see a girl about her age with black hair standing there with a curious expression on her face.
Ambyr boldly leaped out from behind the stalagmite and placed her hands on her hips, pretending she hadn't freaked out like a coward.
"Yeah, I'm a trainer!" cheerfully responded Ambyr. "I'm exploring Mt. Moon while on my way to Cerulean City to win the Cascade Badge!"
"Me too!" replied the girl. "Want to have a battle?"
"Sure!" replied Ambyr with a determined look in her eyes. "Just don't expect me to go easy on you!"
"Alright, I'll pick first!" exclaimed the girl. "Go, Bulbasaur!"
A green, dinosaur-like creature with a bulb on its back emerged from her pokeball.
"This'll be a cinch," smirked Ambyr. "Vulpix! I choose you!" Ambyr threw Vulpix's pokeball, releasing the multi-tailed fox to do battle.
"Bulbasaur, use Tackle!" ordred the girl as her Bulbasaur came barreling at Vulpix.
"Vulpix, dodge it!" screeched Ambyr.
Vulpix narrowly avoided being hit.
"Now, use Will-O-Wisp!" ordered Ambyr. Vulpix reluctantly obeyed her, sending a small, bluish-white flame at Bulbasaur, burning it severely.
The girl laughed at this. "Bulbasaur, use Aromatherapy!"
Bulbasaur used this technique to heal its burn.
"Hey, no fair!" shrieked Ambyr. "Vulpix! Use Flamethrower and defeat it!"
Vulpix shot several streams of red-hot flames at Bulbasaur, but it managed to dodge them all.
By this point, Ambyr was becoming enormously frustrated, though she would likely tell you that she remained perfectly calm the whole time.
"Auuuuugh!" yelled Ambyr angrily. "Kill it! Use Flare Blitz!"
Vulpix became engulfed in flames and charged at Bulbasaur, narrowly hitting it. Bulbasaur went crashing to the ground unconscious.
"Yay! I did it!" cheerfully exclaimed Ambyr, who was pretending she had never lost her cool. "I am the best trainer ever!"
The girl returned her Bulbasaur to its pokeball. "I only have one left, and I just caught it an hour ago… Let's hope it can win this! Go, Clefairy!"
"Clefairy!" it cheerfully exclaimed as it appeared.
Ambyr's eye began to twitch. "Where did you find that?" she asked the girl.
"What do you mean?" she asked. "I found it here at Mt. Moon! They're absolutely everywhere right now! Why, have you not seen one?"
Ambyr didn't respond, and instead stood there with her eye twitching.
"Uh… ok," said the girl. "Clefairy, use… uh, just use DoubleSlap."
Clefairy obeyed its trainer and began to slap the ever-loving crap out of Vulpix. It sort of resembled an episode of Jerry Springer, although Vulpix definitely wasn't Clefairy's baby daddy.
"Dooooodddgee…" moaned Ambyr, her face still with a blank, hypnotized expression, one of her eyes still twitching.
Vulpix quickly fainted.
Ambyr snapped out of it and returned Vulpix, not that she would have beaten Clefairy even if her ego hadn't paralyzed her brain because it couldn't stand the fact that she had been trumped. She threw out Mew's pokeball, releasing it.
"Now, I'm gonna win!" exclaimed Ambyr.
Mew and Clefairy stared each other down, each ready to defeat the other.
I was just going to do "'Sue's' That Pokemon?", but I felt an urge to say this as well. Last week, I got my new issue of Nintendo Power in the mail. (I am an ENORMOUS Nintendo nerd.) Along with the new issue was a DVD with the first episode of the Pokemon Black and White anime. I hadn't watched the anime since either the end of elementary school or the beginning of middle school (I can't remember exactly, but it was between 5th and 7th grade; it was when they were finishing up Johto), so I popped it in my DVD player and watched it. I didn't expect to like it, and I didn't, but why on Earth is Ash still ten? They even say in an episode I remember seeing as a kid (I still have it on VHS and watched it to confirm; yes, I have nothing to do during the summer) that it had been a year since they had been to Viridian City. That just annoyed me. The kid has been in five different leagues (Kanto, Orange Islands, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh) before going to Unova. Unless he can bend time and space, he should be at least fifteen. Sorry about the rant; I don't care about the anime, I just thought this was a stupid thing and felt like pointing it out. I'm a stickler for logic. Also, and this is not just nostalgia speaking, some of the voice actors they have now SUCK compared to the old ones.
"Sue's" That Pokemon?
Vulpix/Ninetales
I actually really like Vulpix and Ninetales. They're speedy Pokemon with high special attack stats and a pretty good move pool. Plus, their Dream World ability is Drought, making them absolutely vital for weather teams using sunshine.
Vulpix evolves with a Fire Stone, which can be difficult to find in some versions of the games (in the present day, namely White).
An extraordinary number of Sues use Vulpix and Ninetales. In fact, I'd go as far as to say it is the second most-used Pokemon by Sues after Eevee and its evolutions. (I've even read a terrible fic with a starter that was a hybrid between an Eevee and a Vulpix.) There are several reasons why I feel this happens. First of all, it's mystical-looking and pretty, which Sues are drawn towards. Its type, fire, is also a contributing factor, as fire-types are very popular with Sues. In addition, many suethors are "wapanese" or "weeaboo" (take your pick of a term), meaning they are often exposed to anime and manga with "kitsune", or fox demons/spirits, which are quite popular and often have mystical powers.
Almost half the time, the Sue finds the Vulpix injured. I honestly have no idea why this happens so often; it just does. How it evolves varies- sometimes it will accidentally step on a Fire Stone, other times the Sue will purposefully evolve it. Often, if the Vulpix is the starter, it will refuse to evolve at all (Just like Ash's Pikachu! How friggin' original!)
So, basically, these are the contributing factors to why Vulpix and Ninetales are so poular for Sues to use.
Here's how I recommend using Ninetales in the games:
Ability: Flash Fire or Drought (It really depends on what kind of team you're playing, as well as if you have access to the Dream World. Ninetales with Drought is pretty much required for a sun team. If you have something that sun would mess up, or you don't have Dream World access, go with Flash Fire.)
Nature: Timid (+ Speed, - Attack) or Modest (+ Sp. Attack, - Attack) (You could go with either of these. Ninetales is pretty much meant to be a special attacker, so both Sp. Attack and Speed must be high. Personally, I would probably go with the former.)
Item: Pick pretty much anything. I can't think of anything specific that just works amazingly on Ninetales.
EVs: 4 HP/252 Sp. Attack/252 Speed (This is self-explanatory.)
Moves: -Flamethrower (This is a nice special attack that gets a same-type attack boost. However, this is just what I prefer the most. There are many more options, such as Heat Wave, Overheat, even Fire Blast. Just pick what works for you.)
-Nasty Plot (This helps make Ninetales' special attacks completely brutal.)
-Energy Ball (Helps to cover water-, ground-, and rock-types, which Ninetales is severely weak to)
-Extrasensory (A decent psychic attack that helps provide more type coverage)
Really, with Ninetales, the goal is to hit fast and hard with special attacks. You can try other stuff with it though. As I always recommend to people, find what works best for you.
And that's the what, why, and how of Vulpix and Ninetales.