Magnemite Report

Magnemite (the Magnet Pokémon) is a relatively common Electric/Steel-type Pokémon found near power plants and major sources of electricity within most parts of Japan, North America and Europe as well as the Alola region. Though seemingly weak from afar, Magnemite are exceptionally powerful creatures that can more than give beginning trainers a jolt they weren't expecting in battle. If you decide to train one of these odd critters for real, make sure that you keep them as far away from your local power plant as possible; one of these creatures is unlikely to make much of a difference, but where one is, there are almost always more to follow!

The Magnemite family possesses a rich and interesting history that, as the first modern artificial Pokémon, is more than worth noting. Near the end of the 19th century, the advancement of induction motors and AC current had paved the way for the modern technological world, but while some groups wished for a way to perhaps use this technology to create helpful, robotic assistants for electrical experimentation, there was no manner in which to safely create a self-contained unit that could power itself. With the creation of Tesla’s electrical resonant transformer, though, this became a physical possibility beyond the wildest dreams at the time. As it turns out, an unknown research team had been watching Tesla from afar and realized that he had stumbled onto something beyond wonderful in his research. While AC current on its own is a convenient way of transferring power and the induction motor served as a hallmark for its use, safely using such current was a problem without extensive equipment that would need interaction from an outside force to work; Tesla’s coil, however, could turn a source of low-voltage, high-current electricity into a source of high-voltage, low-current electricity while still remaining in a compact enough form that it could be fitted into an independent module. This provided all of the parts needed to create a machine that could transform low voltage power that would be relatively safe and easy for the machine to utilize into blasts of high-voltage electricity that would be conducive to electrical experimentation. The research team worked fast and furious with these advancements and, after several hard years of labor, they finally created the first artificial Pokémon; Magnemite was born. While the early design of the species would seem crude by today's standards, Magnemite have changed very little over the years and are in fact the exact same as their original ancestor. An AC-centered technological system allows Magnemite and their evolutions to absorb large amounts of electricity from just about any nearby electrical source while their induction motor serves as the main unit for generating and transferring power throughout their bodies; an internal Tesla coil further allows them to convert the otherwise lethal bursts of electricity they need to survive into high-voltage but much less lethal blasts of power. Needless to say, the research group was ecstatic, but because they felt Tesla had actually been responsible for creating the device that made Magnemite possible, they declined to obtain a patent on their creation and instead gifted it to Tesla himself, thanking him for being a hero and granting him full rights to the creature's design plans. Shortly thereafter, Tesla filed a patent and was able to interest a few businesses in the idea of constructing Magnemite for the purpose of conducting electrical experiments, and the rest is effectively history. It is noted, however, that Tesla did make a slight mistake in that he merely assigned the species as a pure Electric-type; decades later, the importance the species' metallic bodies played in its typing would be taken into consideration and the species as well as its evolutions would be reassigned as Electric/Steel-types.

Magnemite generate an intense electromagnetic field around their bodies as a result of their electrical powers that effectively enables them to hover and fly because their field repulses against the Earth's. This repulsion is generally not enough to enable protection against Ground-type attacks, but by rotating the magnets on their sides rapidly, Magnemite can substantially increase the strength of their electric field to compensate for this (via their Magnet Rise technique) even when they are sleeping upside-down, in turn attracting iron objects from over 300 feet away. Because their bodies effectively run on high-current electricity (even though the Tesla coil within them transforms it into high-voltage electricity, which allows them to utilize Electric-type moves like Thunder Wave), it is very common to see Magnemite gather around major sources of electricity and drain electricity from them at a steady pace, often times clinging to any metal towers that support power lines or attacking power plants if the lines in an area are buried underground. This is usually not a problem, as Magnemite do not require a significant amount of power to sustain themselves, though they will fall to the ground if they do run out and will need something like a battery to be revived. The fact that they tend to attack such sources en masse, however, does make them more than just a simple pest, and touching one's body while they are eating electricity will result in a full-body shock. Moreover, Magnemite are not picky about where they obtain their electricity and have even been known to leech power from the breaker boxes of homes, so there really isn't a place they won't go. As a result, major power stations will occasionally resort to emitting an electromagnetic signal that disrupts their internal functions in order to repel them. Nonetheless, actively draining power in this fashion is a regular activity on their part, as without a steady stream of electricity, these creatures will cease to levitate and will shut down; for trainers, this means that Magnemite can be difficult to sustain, but their impressive Special Attack stat can more than make up for it in the long run.

While they might not be the best at taking a lot of damage, Magnemite are dangerous creatures that can easily give young trainers and their Water or Flying-type Pokémon a painful jolt they won't soon forget. It might seem a little bit annoying to have to take them around to power plants to get a free meal here and there, but as long as you don't let them gorge excessively, you shouldn't have any troubles. Just try to do it in broad daylight with someone's permission; it might seem safer at night, but if you get caught, the electrocution of a security guard will be far more visible in the dark!

Professor Wormwood