The smog from its back is quite poisonous due to their diet based on scavenging and consuming anything and everything. They possess very strong stomachs that can tolerate even rotten foods, producing more potent poisons when consuming such awful meals. Their sense of smell is by far their best feature at this stage, able to find spoiled goods from miles away, even with their limited eyesight. With the development of small claws, they are more agile and adaptable over rough terrain, and are capable of burrowing excellently. When startled this Pokémon will expel a large gas cloud from its back, and run into it, using it to either give cover to attack, or flee for safety.
Though they are classed as a fire type, it is mostly because they have a core flame, like the pilot light in a boiler within them. As a cyndaquil, they can produce not much more than small flames and hot embers, of course enough to cause a fire, but not a great deal of use in battle.
Agile and intelligent, it’s at this point that the gasses on and around quilava become more adaptable. The back vents on the rump of the quilava are poisonous, the glands on the forehead are producing a flammable gas, this seems to be the case so far on all poison variants we’ve found of this species. Attacks such as flame wheel act differently, the Pokémon will no longer engulf itself in flames and roll to attack, but instead create a jet of flammable gas from its head, and set it alight internally, using their small pilot light core. At this stage they can produce sustained flames, but not for extended periods. Short sharp bursts. To train, these Pokémon seem to flourish when given time to observe. Let them watch battles as well as partake in them, they have a lovely behaviour of mimicking other members of their “family” or your team, even wild Pokémon. The more they watch the more they learn, the better equip for anything they become. These are incredibly smart Pokémon, just...in a very dumb way. Trial by fire so to speak, they will have an idea, do it, and find out if the idea works then and there on the spot. If it does not, which is more often than not, they repeat and adjust behaviour, to try to improve, as opposed to some species who are just hell bent on using one move endlessly on repeat until it does something. Wooloo comes to mind, they are sweet and kind but very slow sometimes, there’s always ones who are more intelligent of course, but on average they require a lot of hands on training. Quilava are best left to test stuff out, try new moves, adjust their styles, and overcome bigger and badder foe. You have to be an adaptive trainer to handle their unusual methods of doing things.
Typhlosion
fire/poison type.
at its peak, a variant typhlosion of this kind can melt solid steel beams with either crushing poison claw moves, or blasting them with solid, long lasting torrents of fire. Their core finally kicks in, and in this final evolution, they can ignite the gas straight from their body, delivering heavy fire damage too.
they are more social than average, tending to keep to packs of two alphas of either genders, and their litter, along with a few subordinates who guard the group and help hunt, usually made up of offspring from previous litters, or wanderers they take in. They do work in small packs, so if you see one, expect a few more hidden around you.
Their habitat tends to be more rocky, mountainous areas, they are adept at digging and scaling cliffs, and will chew through pretty much anything that you put in their way. The drawback is, they can be a bit devious, known to raid bins, knock over cars, and generally scavenge for their meals, causing a lot of disturbance in the area. Should they choose to fight, instead of run, you best hope you’re not dealing with the adult female, as they are usually more hot headed and territorial than the males, thinking only if their saftey and their young. Fiercely loyal, and devoted to trainers who can handle their almost over the top levels of curiosity and dumb-assy-ness ...that’s a technical Professor term, I promise. They will defend with their life should it need to be done, this can be both a blessing and a curse.
All three enjoy spoiled food items, sometimes have been spotted purposefully drinking quite toxic water from landfills, and all of them have stomachs that can cope with that. The more bad stuff they consume, the more potent their toxins become, a good way to judge this, is your pokemons colour. If their fur is dull and grey in nature, it has low potency, if it is a very saturated tone, bold and bright, it’s pretty poisonous. This is key to them choosing mates of course, as worthy males will fight and prove they would make good partners to powerful alpha females who watch and decide. Colour seems to be a key factor when choosing a mate, duller colours will usually fall short when it comes to finding love.
A note, they have a sweet tooth, often ravaging Combee and beedrill hives for honey, they also absorb the poisonous stings and use that as fuel for their body, ie. they get more potent poison attacks for a while. Fun fact, during matings season the males will actively do this to have an edge in battle.
As a variant the noticeable difference is they have become more quadrupedal, burrowing well through all of their evolutions. Claws are very much one of the main defining features of the variant, and as they grow they harden to become capable of crushing their way through rock, digging out long tunnels for dens, and to forage for bug type snacks, or tuberous roots of plants and plant Pokémon. In battle this makes for an effective escape method or way to dodge.
Typhlosion of this category are often seen ramming into their targets with their bulky front end, the more low down posture is crucial to their well-being, their spines can’t comfortably carry their new weight distribution upright, so you’ll find they only really travel on all fours when cruising comfortably.
Ability: Poison Trail
Their attacks often mix in the use of their toxic gasses, so if they get in close to use quick attack for example, they will leave behind a trail of poison in the air. This has roughly a 30% chance to poison your opponent.
When hit by a fire attack their special Attack stat is raised. When hit with a poison type attacks, their attack stat is raised. There’s a 5% chance that an attack landed on your Pokémon from the fire or poison categories will be instantly used by your Pokémon, back at your opponent.
EDIT!!! Someone in comments asked if they would be able to hug this Pokémon, their gasses can be halted, and are not poisonous to you should they trust you. They can turn it on and off most of the time, but the Cyndaquil will obviously have a little less control.
They usually love a good scratch.
Man I have to note, cyndaquil is the only fire starter Pokémon I really bonded with, so this was a delight to do, and I love poison types so of course I got hype when @kitsunaluna commissioned me to do this!
