Minior Report

Minior (the Meteor Pokémon) is a relatively rare Rock/Flying-type Pokémon found among rugged terrain and any place where meteors are seen to fall around the world. Though their origins might still be a relative mystery to science, Minior are fascinating creatures that can definitely prove to be an interesting beast to encounter in the wild. They might not appear as frequently as some other Pokémon vaguely connected to space, but at the very least, they can certainly dazzle you with their assortment of different colors if you can find a way to crack open their shell, provided you don’t mind getting slightly irradiated in the process!

Minior are extremely odd life forms whose exact origins are still relatively uncertain, but the best hypothesis currently in play is that they are born from mutated nanoparticles of organic material in the ozone layer that coalesced into a living creature by some strange process. Regardless of how they formed, these creatures live close to the very edge of the planet’s atmosphere in the Ozone layer and spend nearly their entire lives there, feeding on dust that they collect in the ozone layer and converting it into energy for them to then use to sustain their vital functions while trying to avoid the few species if Pokémon that can feed on them and survive at extremely high altitudes. They can live like this for many years if not decades at a time, but as these creatures develop, they acquire rocky material that their bodies are not able to easily process; these fragments of rock are excreted from their bodies to form a thin shell that covers their main core. This shell is usually thin enough that it does not deter their feeding schedules that much, but over time the shell will grow heavier and heavier until it eventually becomes too heavy for Minior to be supported by the limed movement that occurs in the ozone layer while actively trying to move to escape a predator, causing them to drop from the sky and crash-land on the surface of the planet (though the places where they commonly fall are few and far between, the Alola region being one of those places). Because these creatures start to burn up a little bit as they plummet through the atmosphere, they glow brightly with heat and are in turn often mistaken for meteors. Once the reach they surface, these creatures can continue to feed on particles of materials suspended in the air, though this is not a preferred food source and they will usually try their best to rub against objects to weaken and lighten their shell so they can use the intense electromagnetic field they emit to rocket back into the ozone layer where they can go back to their normal lifestyles.

Although the hard shell that covers these creatures is relatively strong, the force of traveling through the planet’s atmosphere and impacting usually has the effect of severely damaging the shell and rendering it brittle, if the shock of the impact doesn’t shatter it entirely. While it is still capable of resisting a decent amount of punishment, if the creature’s maximum HP drops below 50%, the shell will crumble, exposing its inner core until it can restore its energy and reform its shell using local materials. This is tied directly to their unique signature Ability, Shields Down, as while they possess relatively strong defenses in their shell and are immune to the effects of status condition, shedding the shell swaps their offensive stats with their defensive stats and their base Speed stat effectively doubles. While in this state, these creatures are able to make the most of their limited variety of offensive attacks, but they are extremely vulnerable to the different air pressure present near the surface of the planet, and they will usually expire after only a few minutes of exposure, though the process can be halted and their life saved if they can be captured and contained within a capture device before that happens (as the devices will alter their internal air pressure to make a more suitable home for them). This is also the ideal state for them to be in if they want to return to the ozone layer, as their core is exceptionally light and can be easily be propelled back into the atmosphere where they belong. It is further noted that the main core of these creatures comes in a total of seven different colors (blue, green, indigo, orange, red, violet and yellow), not including their rare black shiny coloration; this color difference occur as a result of differences in the dominant minerals and other compounds that they feed on in the ozone layer, and can thus grant them a unique, vibrant appearance and cute look that make them a common design motif for clothing and accessories in places like the Alola region. Caution is still recommended, though, as their cores are radioactive as a result of exposure to cosmic rays on a regular basis and cause severe illness if kept too close to people in an exposed state for long periods of time.

While they certainly be among the strangest of Pokémon ever observed, Minior are still fascinating beasts that can lend an explosive bit of assistance if needed. You might be tempted to try and collect all of the colors possible, but you would best be warned that doing so has its own risk. After all, even if you can track these creatures as they streak across the sky, you might want to keep your expectations in check, lest you try to get near its supposed landing side only to get crushed or blown away by the impact of an actual hunk of space rock!

Professor Wormwood