Magikarp and Gyarados

"Well, pokemon trainers, today we have a rare pokemon for you to see!" said the professor enthusiastically to the large crowd of pokemon tech students standing in the auditorium. Few of them were as interested , although they did perk up a bit when they heard the part about rare pokemon. This assembly had been called every year, to remind the students and to tell the new ones about a very important part of history. The addition of a rare pokemon made it slightly interesting, though.

"We have two pokemon, an ultra rare one, arguably the rarest pokemon and a common one which is the most common of all pokemon. According to our records, one used to evolve into the other. One is incredibly strong, the other pathetically weak. I'm sure you will recognize the common one, but I doubt you will have ever seen this ultra-rare one before."

The curtains of the stage drew apart, revealing two large glass tanks. In one, a magikarp swam around nervously. The strong, reinforced glass, despite having metal bars to make it stronger, was already badly cracked. The magikarp had been using it's splash attack.

In the other tank, a huge, furious gyarados writhed. This tank was made of far stronger stuff then the magikarp's. A special kind of plastic was also layered on both sides. Not even the gyarados' attacks could harm it.

"Both of these pokemon are at an incredibly low level, or we would not dare to keep them," said the professor, knowing that the younger students would be terrified by the sight of a raging gyarados.

"What is the pokemon's name?" asked one student.

The professor correctly guessed that she was talking about the rare one, since only a few people did not know of the common one now. "This pokemon is called magikarp. Long ago, back when pokemon evolved, it was by far the weakest. It's splash attack did no damage, and it took them until L15 to learn tackle, which was weak when used by them.

"As some of you may know the Team Rocket boss, Giovanni, developed a special breed of pokemon who would not evolve. A special chemical was given to the parents, and when they reproduced their children would be of the same evolutionary level as them, and the babies would not evolve.

"The prevention of further evolution was not anticipated by his scientists, but was passed off as a annoying but unavoidable side effect of the drug. Since this happened during the peak of his power, he had thousands of pokemon and getting evolved forms for parents was easy. The side effect was ignored, no one thinking it would ever matter."

"They did this to every pokemon in existence, to make sure that the drug would work on all of them. By the end of it, they had at least ten of every stage, ten being the number decided upon to make sure that none of the pokemon were flukes. Many of the strongest pokemon were then bred and trained.

"Because of the violent nature of Team Rocket training, the super-powerful evolved forms decided to escape. The lower stages, too weak to escape on their own, willingly followed. This has had a great effect on our world.

"Since the two pokemon we have are magikarp and gyarados, I'll start with them for explaining what these effects were in relation to them.

"Once the unevolved gyarados began to reproduce, and unevolvable magikarp began to get into the magikarp population, these magikarp, who had once relied on the gyarados to produce enough eggs to allow them to survive, began to go extinct."

"But Professor, wouldn't the unevolvable magikarp be at a disadvantage and die off?" asked a student.

"You would think so, but because the magikarp's babies did not evolve and leave the school, it was an advantage at first because the school became bigger, and the magikarp's only defense was strength in numbers. Also, the ones who could evolve ultimately did and left the school, so only the unevolvable ones stayed and kept breeding. Soon, there were no more magikarp who could evolve, because whatever genes stop the evolution, they are dominant.

"That is why, today, the magikarp are stronger. Because so few of them are left, the ones still alive are much more powerful. A single magikarp's splash attack can drown a person in waist-high water. But because other basic and partially evolved pokemon are also competing with their fully evolved forms, the magikarp, which are developing faster but were weaker to start with, are still being killed off quickly."

One bright student spoke up. "Don't magikarp lay hundreds of eggs? If they reproduce fast, why are they still so rare? Also, since they had a larger margin for mutation, why weren't they becoming stronger before this happened?"

"Yes, but originally magikarp were the most common water pokemon and perhaps the most common pokemon in all the world. They were so common and so weak that the weaker and stronger ones interbred. In fact, our data shows they were devolving and becoming weaker.

"The great reproductive capabilities of the magikarp are what it based it's survival on. They were able to lay eggs almost as fast as they were killed off. But what truly gave the magikarp their stunning advantage was the gyarados. The gyarados were not easily killed off, and they lay even more eggs then the magikarp. The magikarp's evolution into gyarados is why they became so common.

"It is rather ironic, that the magikarp's survival system is what is now wiping them out. Because it was those who reproduced most, not those who were strongest, the magikarp became steadily weaker.

"And that one feature of the drug, that Giovanni's scientists thought was an annoying but unimportant side effect. Because even though the gyarados gave birth to gyarados, who are almost unstoppable, they still laid as many gyarados eggs as they had once magikarp.

The professor looked into the many student's eyes, one by one. "And that is why there are no fishing villages anymore, and so few trainers manage to get water pokemon like tentacruel. That is why few trainers train fire or rock or ground pokemon anymore. That is why we are the elite, the pokemon trainers, the only ones who can protect the world, and the only ones who deserve it. And that is why we do, and always will, follow Ash Ketchem and his Raichu.

"Because we will not be like the magikarp. We will follow the strong, and those who can protect us."