Exbo

Exbo (Japanese: バクたろう Baktaro), known as Explotaro in Chuang Yi's translations, is a that  owns in Pokémon Adventures and his third overall. Gold received him from Professor Elm. As of All About Arceus V, he is level 84 and his Characteristic is "a little quick tempered."

Exbo fist appeared as a Cyndaquil in Murkrow Row in Professor Elm's lab, alongside and Chikorita. Later, when and  snuck into Elm's Lab, Gold choose Cyndaquil to fight against Silver due to how upset he was at seeing Totodile being stolen. Exbo surrounds Silver with a ring of fire while Gold demands his backpack and Totodile back. Before Silver can respond, however, a Team Rocket grunt interrupts and knocks Gold out of the way.

In Totodile Rock, Exbo fought against Totodile in the Sprout Tower. The two start out with and  and follow up with  and, giving Totodile the lead. Due to this Exbo counters with and gives Gold a chance to take Totodile back, but he refuses and  him. The smoke soon sets off an alarm in the tower and activates its traps, forcing the two Pokémon to team up and stop them. In the confusion Silver escapes and Totodile evolves into.

In You Ain't Nothin' but a Houndour, Exbo battled alongside Gold's other Pokémon against the Masked Man. Exbo fought against his and lost due to Gold not knowing how to handle battling with multiple Pokémon.

In Quilava Quandary, Exbo is trained at the Pokémon Day Care. Exbo starts by using Smokescreen and follows up with Ember, but a deflects it. Later in the day he battles against a and defeats it with Ember thanks to a  from. After the defeat he evolves into. In Tyranitar War, Exbo was Gold's first choice in his battle against Silver and fought against Croconaw again. Croconaw starts by drenching Exbo with Water Gun and biting down on him with Bite. Exbo manages to dodge the attack with, breaking Croconaw's teeth. Croconaw recovers and throws Exbo away, and Gold sends out Sunbo to support him with Sunny Day. Silver counters this by having use, freezing her. Exbo attempts to help with Ember, but Gold decides Exbo cannot handle it and switches him out.

In Delibird Delivery - 1, Exbo fought against the Masked Man again. He and attack his  and manage to put some distance between the Masked Man and their s. The Masked Man then sends out  and Houndour and Exbo and Sneasel attack with  and. The two Pokémon of the villain's suddenly disappear, and Gold, Exbo, and Sneasel are hit by a minor surprise attacks afterwards. In Lively Lugia II, Exbo fought against a wild and meets back up with Croconaw and Megaree. After a tiring battle with Lugia the three starters evolve into their final form due to the stress of the battle and the encouragement of the others. Gold then attempts to capture Lugia, but it escapes.

In The Last Battle VI, Exbo fought in Gold's last battle against the Masked Man. Exbo used his powered up fire power from Sunny Day to melt the Masked Man's ice and prevent him from regenerating his ice body. In The Last Battle XIV, he fought alongside the other starters to try and stop Pryce from capturing.

Prior to The Final Battle I, Exbo was revealed to have mastered from Ultima. Exbo is first seen alongside Aibo to fight Guile Hideout. Exbo lets up a powerful flame, which Aibo increases by spinning Gold's pool cue to fan the flames in Guile's direction. In The Final Battle VIII, Exbo teamed up with Blue's Charizard and Chic to attack with Blast Burn to help destroy Guile Hideout's fake.

In Out-Odding Oddish, Exbo participated in the Pokéathlon alongside Aibo and Polibo. They start with the Skill Course, which ends with the round Snow Throw. The team throws snowballs at their opponents, but Gold commands Aibo to create a gigantic one. Aibo throws it, giving Gold enough points to win the Skill Course. The same three are later entered into the Stamina Course and manage to win that one as well. In the next chapter the three enter the Power Course and go up against Koga, Bruno, and Will, members of the Elite Four. When the match starts Gold is shocked to see his team being defeated by his opponents. At Circle Push, Koga's easily pushes Exbo, Aibo, and Polibo away from it. In Goal Roll, Will's kicks several balls into a goal while Exbo, Aibo, and Polibo fail to block them. In Block Smash, Gold faces Bruno and his as his final opponents. Machamp does a powerful blow that destroys a whole row of blocks instantly while on Gold's side, Aibo attacks the cracked area in the center, but doesn't do much to the block. He switches to Polibo, but he only manages to destroy one. Gold switches to Exbo next, who manages to break more blocks and is the closest to matching Machamp, but not by much. Gold soon reveals that Aibo is attacking for critical hits on the blocks. By doing so, it sends Gold's team into High Tension mode, allowing him to quickly catch up with Bruno. Bruno tries to fight back, but Machamp's arms have become too injured to be used again. Gold has Aibo leap into the air and send a powerful strike in the dead center of the block, destroying them all and giving Gold the win.

In All About Arceus II, Exbo fought against. He attacks with a powerful Blast Burn, but fails to do any real damage.

Personality and characteristics
Exbo is a very kind and caring Pokémon and cares deeply for his friends, first shown when he was angry at being stolen. Exbo has a high amount of courage and even when fighting at a disadvantage he tries his absolute best in battle, refusing to give up. In battle Exbo is often paired with and her  to power up Exbo's Fire attacks.

Trivia

 * At level 84, Exbo is the highest leveled Pokémon belonging to Gold.

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