Tales from the Pokemon Universe: Aura of Empathy

Chapters

Part 1: The Lucario on the Beach
Part 2: Suspicions
Part 3: Suspicions Confirmed
Part 4: Lucario's Story
Part 5: All Part of the Family
Part 6: Help Required
Part 7: Hard Training, and Harsh Lessons
Part 8: The Cianwood City Gym
Part 9: Reunions and Rematches
Part 10: Old Faces, New Beginnings

Part 1: The Lucario on the Beach

Sinnoh Region: Floaroma Town

Sunset Shimmer smiled to herself as she watched the winds brush over the fields of multi-colored flowers in seas of blues, yellows, and pink shadings outside her place of residence, a small cottage in the town of Floaroma. The cottage was simple enough, a red roof with white stucco walls and brown wood framed windows.

To be honest, it was probably the last place you’d expect the current Champion of the Sinnoh Region to live, but that was the point of it all really. This way, nobody uninvited showed up at her doorstep whenever they felt like it. And she still had Videophones to keep in contact with the Elite Four, plus her childhood friends she’d grown up with in Sandgem Town wherever they might have been, along with her fellow Champions.

Sunset smiled as she saw two young Vulpix run through the flower fields chasing each other and occasionally getting into the small bit of roughhousing. One was pure white, the Alola region variant and another was the pure fire type most people were used to seeing on the battlefield. They were only six weeks old, just barely hatched from the eggs that her two Ninetales had laid.

Keeping a keen eye on them from a tree branch was a Fearow/Talonflame pair keeping an eye on everything, While they weren’t romantic partners in any sense, they often kept an eye on the younger Pokemon. This Talonflame, in particular, had earned the title of being Sunset’s prized Pokemon, along with one of her two signatures. Challengers had long learned to fear the Scorching Pokémon along with her other signature. Sunset smiled at the many battles she’d fought to reach the top, to be the very best.

Speaking of which, she smiled as she felt the soft paws of her other signature Pokemon walk up to her. Without even looking, she greeted him.

“Hello Lucario,” the Queen of Sinnoh said politely, a silver bracelet on her left arm holding a Key Stone for her Pokemon.

“Reminiscing?”the Aura Pokémon asked in his usual gruff tone as his gaze followed Sunset’s across the fields.

“A little, yeah… Just thinking about how I got here and all. Amazing how life can change so fast, in the blink of an eye…” Sunset whispered to herself, lost in her memories. Lucario smiled and chuckled to himself before the appendages on the back of his head flared up.

“Speaking of fast, there’s something coming up fast in the skies above us, I can sense it,” Lucario replied, feeling two presences in the sky above him using his Aura. Sunset scanned the skies and then she saw it. A very large draconic like Pokemon with covered in forest green scales with a burnt orange head and wings like thistle leaves. On its back was a dark skinned woman with her long black flowing hair resembling that of a palm tree’s fronds in some ways tied in a ponytail. The woman was wearing an elaborate pink and white dress with a bow tied around the waist. In her hair was a gold tiara with two green gems resembling “Ears” of sorts.

This was Iris, champion of Unova. Sunset smiled as her Druddigon sat down on the grass in front of her house and Iris climbed off the Pokemon’s back.

“So, how’s the husband?” Sunset asked politely, as Iris walked up to her and as if there wasn’t a giant Dragon-type in her front yard.

“How do you think?” Iris replied in a joking tone. “Still acting like a little kid at times, as always,”

“Hey, there’s my Flareon and one of my Ninetales… They’re like little kids as well half the time,”

Iris laughed. “True, true,”

Her attention then turned to Lucario.

“So, you never did tell me how you got ahold of Lucario… I’ve always been curious, honestly.”

Sunset sighed to herself and looked towards Lucario for permission, and he nodded.

“Alright, it happened about two years ago, just as you were starting off your own Pokemon journey and the road to becoming a Champion…”

Johto Region: Outside Cianwood City

Waves crashed against the beach and rocks as a young woman, age 23 with red hair, streaked with blond highlights dressed in a leather jacket once again engaged in her favorite past-time, a Pokemon Battle. It was the middle of a three on three battle, and currently, it was neck and neck. She stood firm in the grass-covered hill overlooking the beach below, a children’s park nearby, hair and jacket blowing in the summer breeze.

On the other side of the battlefield stood a teenage girl, lime green in hair color with a tanned skin tone and headphones around her neck. Nearby, a small orange mouse-like Pokemon watched from the safety of atop a boulder, cheeks sparking with electricity every so often.

Two Pokemon battled high in the sky above them, one heavily resembling a peregrinefalcon in some forms and with orange and red plumage. The other was a bird Pokemon with gray and brown features, with resemblances to various fearsome birds of prey.

“Staraptor! Use Double Team!” Lemon Zest commanded, asking her Pokemon to use one of the most frustrating moves in Pokemon Battle to deal with. The reason for this was simple, as revealed when the Pokemon created various mirror images of itself confusing the other Pokemon. Each image was an exact duplicate of the original, no easily discernible differences between them to the untrained eye.

But Sunset would not let her friend and partner go down this easily, she’d faced far more powerful Pokemon than this Staraptor, proven by all eight Sinnoh Region badges pinned to her shoulder bag.

“Talonflame, Keen Eye and then Flamethrower!” Sunset ordered, and the Fire/Flying type cawed out his name in response before his eyes narrowed, and Lemon’s widened as the Scorching Pokémon found the real Staraptor. Like I said, untrained eye.

It then unleashed a blast of pure, hot flame at Staraptor who barrel-rolled left and right to dodge the blasts of scorching devastation.

Staraptor came down at Talonflame with a powerful Aerial Ace, her whole body engulfed in a glowing white light ramming Talonflame hard in the chest knocking it back, and causing it to lose a few feathers. But otherwise, Talonflame seemed fine and shook off the attack before he flew high above Staraptor.

“What’s she doing?” Lemon Zest wondered nervously. Then, she got her answer as Talonflame came down, wings glowing, seemingly covered in metal coating. Her eyes widened. Steel Wing.

“Staraptor, dodge it!” Lemon shouted in fear for her Pokemon.

But Talonflame was much, much faster and more experienced and hit dead on. Staraptor landed on the soft ground with a thud, hitting it dead on. Lemon sighed and stroked her partner’s head feathers softly as Staraptor made soft little noises.

“You did well girl, rest now,” Lemon said to her friend as Talonflame screeched out his name in victory.

“TALLLLLOOON!”

“You did well, Lemon. Haven’t had a trainer push Talon here to his limits in a long while, so that’s fairly impressive,” Sunset complemented as Talonflame perched himself in a tree. Lemon Zest nodded as she watched the Pokemon who had defeated her Staraptor observe the battlefield in interest, head tilted and eyebrow quirked. It sorta resembled a Chatot in some way, amusingly enough. Out of curiosity, Lemon went for her Pokedex and pointed it at Talonflame.

“Talonflame, the Scorching Pokémon and the evolved form of Fletchinder. During an intense battle, Talonflame expels embers from gaps between its feathers. It reaches speeds of more than three-hundred miles per hour chasing prey. During intense battles, its wings give off showers of embers as it flies.”

“No wonder that bird was a tough fight for Staraptor…” Lemon thought to herself as she heard the entry.

“Well, next Pokemon I send out… You won’t get so lucky,” Lemon responded with a cocky smile before throwing another Pokeball and unleashing a dull gray elephant-like Pokemon, trunk and back covered in a thick armored hide.

Sunset’s Pokedex helpfully chirped out the information on this particular Pokemon.

“Donphan, the Armor Pokémon. Donphan is the evolved form of Phanpy. They attack by rolling their bodies into a circle and charging their enemies. They have razor sharp tusks, armor-like skin, and enormous power.”

Sunset swallowed nervously at Donphan, who was pawing the ground with one of its hooves. It definitely looked more powerful than Staraptor and she knew from personal experience how powerful Rollout attacks could be. This would be the decider, that was for sure.

Sunset’s eyes steeled, and then she tossed her next Pokeball. A purple form emerged, looking like it was wearing a cloak. It bore a round head with elaborate tufts resembling that of a witch’s hat atop it.

Lemon nervously swallowed, getting an eerie feeling off this Pokemon, the orange eyes seemingly boring into her soul.

“Mismagius, the Magical Pokémon. Mismagius chants incantations, and while some cause misery, some give happiness as well. It appears as if from nowhere—muttering incantations, placing curses, and giving people terrifying visions. Also, Mismagius have been known to cast spells to make people fall in love, so some people search for this Pokémon as if their life depended on it.”

“Donphan, Rollout attack, now!” Lemon ordered and the Armor Pokemon curled itself up into a ball and rolled towards Mismagius who quickly reacted and flew to the left as Donphan smashed a giant boulder into rubble. That very same boulder in which Lemon’s Dedenne, in fact, was sitting upon, and it leaped off with a surprised cry of “De-De!”

Donphan quickly then followed up with a Rapid Spin spinning like a top with its trunk towards Mismagius. Mismagius let out a cry of pain as it was sent flying back by the attack before being tackled by Donphan, who was launching attack after attack far too quickly for Sunset to order any of her own.

Finally, Sunset got an opening.

“Astonish, now!” She ordered and Mismagius let out a loud cry, although if Donphan looked nervous at all, it didn’t show.

Lemon smirked. At last, she had the upper hand against Sunset. But it wasn’t long to last as Sunset then ordered “Sunny Day!” and the battlefield soon began to brighten as the sun’s power increased before she shouted “Psywave!”

Mismagius fired energy wave after energy wave at Donphan, all charged up from the power of the sun.

“Donphan, move!” Lemon Zest shouted in shock.

But apparently, the Astonish attack had taken an effect after all, as Donphan appeared to be flinching. It was down, but not out.

“Now, wrap things up with Shadow Ball!” Sunset ordered and Mismagius created a ball of pure dark energy in her mouth and fired. Smoke soon filled the battlefield, and when it cleared, Donphan sat unmoving.

Lemon sighed and returned her Pokemon, before punching a tree in frustration. But her (And Sunset’s eyes) widened as Donphan soon regained his footing and stamped the ground in pure vigor. Now the real battle began, and it showed in Donphan’s delight at the battle he’d been given when he used Rollout again, this time landing a successful hit and sending Mismagus flying into a tree.

Mismagius’s eyes closed as it lapsed into unconsciousness and Lemon laughed and leaped for joy as she celebrated in her victory. Sunset smiled as she returned Mismagius to her Pokeball and walked up to Lemon Zest and shook her hand.

“So, lunch?” She asked, gesturing to a nearby picnic table.

After a few sprays of various potions on both sides teams’, the two competing trainers now sat down at that very same picnic table eating various snack foods like apples and cheeses. Dedenne kept on hopping up onto the table and stealing small nibbles of cheese, but neither trainer minded that much and only giggled at the Antenna Pokémon’s antics. Sunset, in particular, gave small little pets to the head at the Pokemon’s mischievousness.

Wingull flew out of the nearby trees filling the afternoon sky and out to sea letting out their calls to communicate with each other as nearby, both Sunset and Lemon’s Pokemon ate their food from their bowls.

Sunset’s Dragonair, (By far the oldest Pokemon on the team age-wise, if not the most experienced. That title belonged to Sunset’s starter, Fletching, now in his fully evolved form of Talonflame.) in particular had to play mediator between Lemon’s Girafarig and Sunset’s Alola Region Ninetales as they kept squabbling over each other’s food. The pure white Kyuubi no Kitsune like Pokemon had taken to repeatedly stealing from the Long Neck Pokémon’s food bowl out of pure spite for losing against it.

Dragonair used a whip of her tail to swipe away at the Ninetales, who was currently in the process of using one of its paws to grab Girafarig’s food bowl.

“Paws to yourself,”Dragonair barked. As the oldest and wisest among Sunset’s team, she found herself often playing the mother figure in order to keep the others in line. Ninetales, along with Sunset’s rather energetic, and that was putting it mildly, Flareon were often the source of headaches.

“What?”Ninetails yelped out, wincing in pain from the blow. “I’m a growing mon, I need my food!”

“Then get it from your own bowl, not somebody else’s,”Dragonair told him flatly before mumbling “I swear, by Arceus…” to herself.

“B-But I deserve it after getting thrashed by that sorry excuse for a Psychic-type!”Ninetales whined, looking pointedly at Girafarig who only snorted and rolled his eyes. In the background, Mismagius floated silently, she figured it best to stay out of the affairs of these idiots. Lemon’s starter, her Serperior was thinking along the same lines.

“Go whinge about it to your Meema, ice-breath,”the Girafarig grumbled. Unlike the regular Ninetales who were pure fire-types, the somewhat rare Ninetales breed found in the Alola region were of a dual typing. Part Ice, and part Fairy, Sunset had used this particular Ninetales to devastating effect when facing Dragon-types. It was her “Dragon-Buster” Pokemon, if you will.

“I have to agree with Dragonair, you’re a bit of a greedy pig,”Talonflame put in, looking up from his food bowl and smacking Ninetales atop the head with one of his wings. “Keep going like that, and I think you’re going to start looking awfully pudgy,”He deadpanned as Ninetales rubbed his head in pain. “And Arceus knows how much you just lovvvvve your appearance.”

Talonflame had drawled out the love in his sentence and used dramatic gestures like he was combing his head feathers with one of his wings to make his point.

“Ooh, burn! Dare I say it, Talonflame flambeed you!”Sunset’s Flareon laughed along with Lemon’s Staraptor.

“Why I oughta…” Ninetales grumbled but made no more swipes towards Girafarig’s food. Dragonair smirked in satisfaction to herself.

Lemon Zest, as she took a bite of her apple leaned over to Sunset.

“What are they saying?” She whispered.

“Don’t ask…” Sunset mumbled, rubbing her head in pain.

Later that evening, as the sun was just beginning to set over the horizon casting lights of red and yellow across the sky, Sunset found herself running along the beaches of Cianwood alongside Flareon and Ninetales. She’d dressed herself in a simple, conservative yellow one piece, eye-catching to be sure but not enough to raise ire among the more prudish types. She’d left all of her other Pokemon back at the Pokemon Center for the night and was only having Flareon and Ninetales run to improve their speed. Ninetales in particular, she hoped, would improve his speed just enough to make up for his low defense.

Well, when I say running alongside I should probably say chasing after Flareon and Ninetales, both of the Pokemon being able to run much faster than your average human.

“Hey… Hey, wait up Nines!”Flareon shouted, panting and using his nickname for the Ice type. Energetic as the Eevee branch and their evolution line were, they still didn’t quite match up to the speed of a Ninetales.

“Now this is the life, running free with everyone able to see moi! Wind rushing through my fur, and me looking damn good if I do say so myself while it does that,”Ninetales yelped out, ignoring Flareon completely.

“Please observe, the Alolan Ninetales in his natural habitat,” Flareon muttered to himself. “Being an arrogant as Hell and a rather narcissistic asshole as ever,”

“I really need to have a talk with Flareon on his language,” Sunset thought privately to herself.

“He doing his Professor Oak thing again?”Ninetales asked dryly. “Seriously, pretending to “Observe” me like I’m some sort of wild Pokemon,”

“Jerk,”Flareon muttered, sticking his tongue out at Ninetales childishly. Suddenly, he looked towards some bushes and saw them rustling. He froze right in place on the spot, screeching to a halt and accidentally kicking sand up in Sunset’s face.

“You hear something, Flareon?” Sunset asked as her Pokemon's ears perked up and twitched. She kneeled down beside the small fox-like Pokemon and kept her eyes on where Flareon was looking. Ninetales, as he padded up along the dunes, scoffed and rolled his eyes.

“Please… Probably just a Venomoth or a Butterfree like last time.”He remarked. Sunset gave him a quick glare and Ninetales promptly shut up.

“No, I swear I hear something in those bushes! Coming this way!”Flareon told them, and readied a Flamethrower attack just in case. But what stumbled out of the bushes was very unexpected.

Something tall, about the size of a human, maybe a little bit smaller covered in blue fur with black highlights and a tan belly limped out of the bushes. All in all, its appearance resembled that of a jackal. It was covered in bruises and bleeding heavily in several places. Briefly, the Pokemon stumbled out of the bushes before collapsing into the sand.

Sunset’s eyes widened.

“A Lucario…” she whispered before shouting for a Nurse.

Part 2: Suspicions

“Nurse!” Sunset shouted, her cries echoing across the beach the only thing louder being the waves crashing up against the rocks.

If Cianwood’s local nurse was in the area, it was entirely possible that she couldn’t hear Sunset’s cries. After all, there was a great distance between the center of town and the part of the beach Sunset was located on.

“Talonflame, go find Nurse Joy, quickly!” Sunset shouted as she threw the Scorching Pokémon’s dark red Cherish Ball and in a bright flash of blue light and a shower of embers it popped into existence.

“Taloooooonnn!” He screeched out and flapped his powerful wings and took to the sky, a few black and yellow tail-feathers falling to the sand as he took flight. As he flew, small embers of flame fell down on city streets and rooftops, thankfully no buildings or anything else catching ablaze. It was no fault of his own of course, it was just part of his natural biology. Nobody quite knew exactly how Talonflames did this, or why, but it just happened.

Talon screeched out his own name in triumph when he saw the Pokemon center, flapping his wings high above the Pokeball shaped building.

“Sunset, I found it!” He crowed out in relief. He then transmitted his thoughts his trainer, who sighed in relief as she dabbed at Lucario’s wounds and sprayed the last of her potions on it.

“Thank Arceus, and thank you Talon,” Sunset thought back, using her nickname for the Pokemon.

Sunset wasn’t like most Pokemon trainers. While most trainers could communicate with, and understand the base meaning of what their Pokemon were saying, sure, Sunset was one of a select few who could actually psychically talk to their Pokemon.

Talonflame swooped down and busted through the glass doors of the Pokemon Center, not caring about the shards cutting into his feathers. Those could be dealt with later. Right now, only Lucario mattered.

“Huh…? What the…?” Nurse Joy asked as Talonflame screeched out his name in alarm repeatedly, hoping the Nurse Joy would get the message and follow him.

“Come on… Come on… Can’t you tell I’m trying to tell you something here?” Talon asked angrily. He began tapping the floor with his claws in impatience.

“What? What is it?” Nurse Joy asked in confusion. “Is something wrong? Is your trainer hurt?”

“No, it’s not my trainer that’s hurt! It’s a Pokemon you stupid bi…” Talon grumbled before sighing and correcting himself and taking a few deep calming breaths. It wasn’t her fault she couldn’t understand him. She was only human after all.

Talon then used a wing to wipe the sweat off his face in relief when the Center’s Chansey arrived. Finally, somebody who could understand him, and what’s better, relay the message to the humans. Talon immediately explained the problem and the Chansey’s eyes widened in alarm.

The Chansey then relayed what Talon had said to Nurse Joy, and soon the Nurse shared her Pokemon’s expression before she and Talon rushed out the front doors.

A few moments later, Sunset found herself panting and sweating as she rushed the Lucario in on a stretcher alongside Cianwood’s local Nurse Joy and her Chansey. The young woman looked at the Aura Pokémon who almost seemed to be struggling for breath. Sunset’s eyes narrowed and she looked at the jackal-like Pokemon.

“Hang in there Lucario… Just hang on a little longer,” Sunset thought as she looked at it, hoping the Pokemon would pick up on her thoughts. If it did, it didn’t seem to show any clear response to them.

Sunset’s hands were an ugly shade of dark crimson red blood from cleaning up the Lucario as she had yelled for the nurse, trying to dab away at the blood before the Pokemon could lose any more of it.

“What, what, what happened?”Flareon yelped nervously as he ran alongside Sunset trying to keep pace with her. “Who… Who did this to him or her? O-Or what? Why?”

“Deep breaths,” Mismagius mentally conveyed to the Flame Pokémon from inside her Pokeball, the Magical Pokémon trying to stay calm as possible. “Stay calm, we’ll figure everything out when the Lucario wakes up for itself.”

“B-But… But what if…”Flareon whimpered and beginning to hyperventilate, trying not to think about the very real possibility here that Lucario might not survive the operation or the blood-loss it had suffered.

“It will survive, Nurse Joy will make sure of it,” Mismagius stated firmly. Flareon at last took a few deep calming breaths as instructed.

“Alright…”Flareon whispered before he let out a small growl and his nostrils snorted two small puffs of flame. “But when I find the Pokemon or Human who did this, I swear by Mew’s name I’m going to Fire Spin them all the way into the damn Reverse World!”

“Language…” Mismagius said half-heartedly, sharing her friend’s sentiments. Both he and Sunset watched with a scared look on their faces as Lucario was rushed into the emergency room with the doors slamming shut behind the stretcher.

Sunset clenched her fists and one of her arms shot out as she punched a wall, breathing hard.

“If… If I’d only been a little bit faster…” Sunset whispered to herself angrily. Flareon rubbed his head against her leg affectionately in an attempt to be comforting. There was a bright flash and a pop as a familiar blue and white serpentine form appeared and wrapped her tail around Sunset’s legs. She then reached down and nuzzled Sunset’s face.

“The outcome might not have changed, there was nothing you could have done besides what you already did,” Dragonair remarked sympathetically. “You can’t go back and change time, not even Mew herself can do that.”

“But… But...” Sunset thought, tears dripping down her face. “If I had been there sooner, I might have been able to help it!”

“Or you could have been attacked by whatever did that to Lucario, and I’d be without a very good friend and the rest of your Pokemon the same,” Dragonair replied in her usual motherly tone. “I’m sorry to be harsh Sunset, but that’s the cold hard truth.”

“Yeah…” Sunset thought even if she didn’t like it. “Yeah, you’re right… Absolutely right…”

Dragonair’s only response was to nuzzle her trainer again in an attempt to comfort her as Sunset cried and Flareon looked towards the Emergency Room doors…

Night fell, and for hours, what seemed to be like an eternity for Sunset, she waited. Long after everyone else had left the Pokemon Center for the night, Sunset and her Pokemon stayed in the waiting room of the Center.

Sunset, as she stared out at the stars above glinting and glittering in the sky above, she began to pray. Sunset’s fingers clasped themselves to a small metal pendant in her hands, themed after a Pidove. It had been a gift from her mother, and she had seen it kept it ever since.

“Please Lord Arceus, if you can hear me… Just send help. Any kind of help…” Sunset thought to herself as her voice began to quiver as she took a quick glance to the Emergency Room doors. “I… I don't know what to do right now. If I had just been a little bit faster I might have been able to prevent this. So, if it’s not too much to ask… Just send me some sort of sign, please...”

Sunset reached into her shoulder bag and pulled out an old photo. Her, as a child hugging a white-skinned woman with brilliant wavy pink, light green, and cerulean hair. Behind them, a giant yellow bird with wings and a tail seemingly made of flame flew above them. Moltres, the Legendary Flame Pokémon and her mother’s constant companion that had long ago made her famous as a Pokemon Coordinator in contests with her dazzling beauty and agility.

“What would you do now Mom?” She whispered to herself. “How would you help this Lucario? You taught me to care for all Pokemon, so how do I care for this one if he survives?”

Nearby, all of Sunset’s Pokemon were asleep, Dragonair curled up around them, her serpentine body acting like a pillow for them. All but one of them.

Talonflame walked up, his sharp claws making a distinctly audible tapping sound as they hit the floor. He gave Sunset a hard look. “You should be getting some sleep, Sunset. It’s nearly 5:00 in the morning for crying out loud!”

Sunset gave out a short yawn but quickly suppressed it. “No, I'm not going to bed, not until I know that Lucario is out of danger!”

Talonflame slapped one of his very large wings to his face and let it slide down and groaned before muttering to himself: “Oh, for the love of Arceus…” as he shook his head. “Sunset, listen to me. You'll be in no condition to help that Lucario if you don't get your sleep!”

“But-” Sunset started before Talonflame was quick to interject.

“Look, I know you care about this Lucario, and that’s very noble of you. Hell, I care too! But you and I both know that you’re in no condition to help it right now!” He shouted angrily. He knew Sunset at times was often stubborn when it came to Pokemon, similar to another Trainer he knew that had grown up in Sandgem Town along with her. So, on occasion at times it came that Talon and the rest of his team often found themselves taking care of Sunset, instead of the other way round like it was supposed to be.

Sunset yawned again and sighed. She knew Talon was right, as always. Letting out another yawn, she grabbed a cushion, fluffed it up and laid her head back down on it. Talon smiled and used his beak to grab a sheet and pull it over Sunset’s sleeping form. Next, he began to sing a lullaby Sunset’s mother had often sung to her and in turn, she’d sung to her Pokemon. Talonflame knew he wasn’t anywhere near as good as Sunset’s Chimecho when it came to soothing her, but he still remembered how to sing from back when he was a simple Fletchling.

“Hush now, quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepy head.
Hush now, quiet now, it's time to go to bed.
Hush now, quiet now, close your sleepy eyes.
Hush now, quiet now, my how time sure flies.
Drifting, drifting off to sleep the day's excitement behind you.
Drifting, drifting off to sleep, let the joy of Cresselia’s dreamland find you…” He sang softly and smiled when he saw the gentle rise and fall of Sunset’s chest. He then flew up and nestled himself in her hair and soon he as well drifted off into dreamland…

Night came and went as the hours passed, and eventually, Sunset found herself returning to the waking world.

“Ugh…” Sunset murmured as she stretched her arms. “What time is it?” She mumbled, her brain still half-asleep.

“A little past Noon,” Nurse Joy replied kindly as she walked into the room. “You’ve been asleep for around seven hours Sunset, your Talonflame was very diligent. He kept an eye on your all throughout the night. Woke up at odd hours and made sure you’d stayed asleep apparently, if the security camera footage is to be believed.”

Sunset looked towards Talonflame, who was sound asleep on a nearby table snoozing contently in the afternoon sun. The sunlight was glinting off his orange-reddish feathers that made up his head and most of his body. His wings occasionally twitched, indicating he was in the middle of a nice dream.

She stroked his head feathers softly and thought “Sleep well Talon, you deserve it,” before then thinking “Remind me to give you an extra helping of Pokeblock next time I feed you.”

Sunset’s head turned back to Nurse Joy.

“So, is Lucario…?” Sunset asked, not daring to complete the sentence. The Nurse smiled, and Sunset sighed in relief, letting out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.

“He’s absolutely fine. We had to put him under sedation for the operation, but he managed to pull through and should be waking up anytime now,” Nurse Joy reassured. “You can go ahead and see him if you’d like. I’m sure he’d love to see his hero.”

Sunset smiled and replied “Yeah, be along in a minute,” before she sniffed herself and frowned. “...But first, a change of clothes and a shower..” She muttered, her face flushing bright red in embarrassment as she heard the distinct sound of Ninetales sniggering in the background. (He was soon promptly hit atop the head by Dragonair’s Aqua Tail, judging by the yelp of pain.)

After said quick change of clothes and shower, Sunset headed into the recovery room, where the Lucario sat, his legs hanging off a hospital bed. His back was to them, instead staring out the opened window into the afternoon sun. Outside, Pidgeys and Pidoves chirped their songs in the trees as two Sawsbuck in their Summer Forms found their way into the garden outside from the nearby hills and began munching on grass. Their antlers resembled pine trees at this time of year.

Suddenly, the four small black appendages on the back of Lucario’s head that resembled some form of natural beads shot up, indicating he detected both Nurse Joy and Sunset. Or to be more precise, their Aura.

“Lucario, this is Sunset. She’s the one who-”

Lucario leaped from the bed and assumed a defensive stance, his crimson red eyes glaring hatefully at both humans.

“Get away from me, both of you!” It growled out telepathically shocking both Nurse Joy and Sunset. “You’re just going to hurt me again!”

Sunset raised her hands in a defensive posture and slowly and trepidatiously approached the Lucario. The Pokemon’s eyes narrowed.

“It’s alright, I’m not going to harm you, I promise,” Sunset stated calmly. Lucario evidently didn’t believe her, as he charged towards Sunset and thrust his palm at her and fired a green blast of energy at her. Lucario leaped backwards to the top of a table as Sunset staggered.

“What the…?” Sunset thought to herself.

“Lucario! Sunset saved your life!” Nurse Joy shouted. “Why aren’t you thankful?”

“All of you humans are all alike! Using Pokemon for their own ends, not caring one jot about who they’re hurting!” Lucario snapped. “Just leave me alone, both of you! I don’t want to harm you any further!”

Nurse Joy slowly helped Sunset off the floor and turned to look at her, and then back at Lucario. “Sunset, I think it’s best we do as he says, at least for right now.”

“Yeah… Might be best…” Sunset replied, still grimacing in pain at the power behind Lucario’s Force Palm attack. “Least for now…”

She tossed a sad glance towards Lucario and pondered “Who did this to you…? Why are you like this?” as she left the room. A suspicion was beginning to form in the back of her mind, and Sunset hoped she was wrong. She hoped she was very wrong indeed. She’d need to confirm her suspicions, and to do that, she’d need the help of a very old friend.

Sunset made her way out to the Waiting Room of the Pokemon Center, where she was immediately bombarded by her team who practically tackled her to the floor.

“What happened in there?” Flareon yipped out nervously. “Is Lucario alright, did he… (Here he took a hesitant swallow) survive?”

“Yeah… Yeah…” Sunset murmured. “He survived the operation… Alright is another story entirely I’m afraid.”

As Sunset shook her head sadly, it was then Dragonair took notice of the rapidly forming bruise on Sunset’s left shoulder. Her amethyst purple eyes widened in shock.

“S-Sunset…” She stuttered out in shock before she asked in a concerned tone: “What happened to you, are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. Lucario… He’s… Well, let’s say I’ve got a suspicion and I need to call someone to confirm it. I just hope to Arceus I’m wrong…” Sunset murmured before taking notice of the rather undignified position she was in. “Now can you all get off me… please?”

All of Sunset’s team blushed profusely in unison with her baby Rufflet, in particular, murmuring “Sorry Meema…” as they got up off their trainer and watched her walk to the Pokemon Center’s videophone.

Videophones were like computers in design, except instead of being used to gain access to the internet, their keyboards were used to type in phone numbers. Also, they often had a Bellsprout themed receiver attached.

Sunset dialed in a particular number and up on the screen came the Nurse of Ecruteak City, and one of Sunset’s oldest friends, Fluttershy.

“Sunset! Wasn’t expecting a call from you,” Fluttershy said in shock. In the background, her Sawsbuck had grabbed a female Umbreon by the tail. The Moonlight Pokémon was protesting and shouting: “No, I don’t want my shots Arceus-dammit!”

“Oh, buck up! I bet that trainer of yours from Pallet wasn’t nearly as bad about this with his vaccinations when he was a kid!” Sawsbuck snapped back, close to losing her patience. Fluttershy sighed to herself.

“Sorry about them,” She apologized and Sunset giggled. “Now, what did you need to call me for? Is one of your Pokemon hurt? Goodness… I hope it’s not Ninetales again charging into battle against another Pokemon without any sort of plan.”

Sunset laughed as behind her, Ninetales shouted out: “Hey, I can still hear you know!” although he was ignored.

“No, it’s not Ninetales...This time,” Sunset replied. Behind Fluttershy, Sawsbuck wasn’t the only Pokemon getting into some sort of shenanigan. Fluttershy’s Ariados was currently in the middle of a food fight with a visiting Spearow who was pecking at his head repeatedly.

“Excuse me a minute,” Fluttershy said and quickly went to break up the fight and grabbed the Spearow and set her aside much to Flareon’s amazement.

“Damn… girl’s got balls… Handling a Spearow like that…” Flareon whispered.

“LANGUAGE!” The rest of Sunset’s Pokemon shouted at him. Soon, Fluttershy returned and Sunset explained the situation and her suspicions, Fluttershy’s eyes widening every so often especially when Sunset mentioned Lucario’s reaction to her.

Fluttershy took a deep breath and sighed sadly. “Yes… I think you’re quite right. Lucario… He was abused by his former trainer.”

Author's Note

Okay, so due to the overwhelming response the first chapter got, I decided to post this one a day early. Now, on the Pokemon. Unlike my last story in this series, unless they're speaking in telepathy, or thinking to themselves, their Pokespeech won't be italicized. Legolassy made that suggestion, to keep things less confusing.

Now, on Fluttershy's appearance. Keep in mind, this is before Lights of the Burned Tower timeline wise, (As evidenced by her Sawsbuck being in it's Summer Forme) so she hasn't started dating Rainbow yet.

Also, keep an eye out for that Spearow again, she plays a more important role in this story than just one random member of the species being mentioned.

Part 3: Suspicions Confirmed

Cianwood City Pokemon Center:

Sunset nearly dropped the phone when she heard what Fluttershy had to say. She’d been suspecting it of course, but to have her worse fears about Lucario’s state of mind confirmed were… disturbing to say the least.

“Are… Are you sure?” Sunset stuttered out nervously, wanting to make sure she hadn’t misheard. No, that wasn’t accurate. She was hoping to have misheard her fellow Sandgem Town native. “P-Please tell me you’re joking, please,” Sunset pleaded. Flareon let out a small whimper beside her.

“No… No,” Fluttershy said sadly, a tear dripping from one of her turquoise blue eyes. “From everything you’ve told me, right down to Lucario’s behavior, I can say with the utmost certainty that he was abused by his former… Trainer.”

Fluttershy struggled to get the last word out, as if the very idea of somebody so vile being a Pokemon Trainer didn’t quite register in her mind. Sunset couldn’t blame her, she was just as disgusted with the idea of such a person herself.

The fact of the matter was, Sunset knew people like whoever formerly “Trained” Lucario existed, often times in criminal organizations like Team Rocket or her home region’s Team Galactic. They only saw Pokemon as tools, means to an end. Never did they once even think of them as friends, partners… Family. That’s what a Pokemon team was to Sunset, a family you cared for. Cried with, laughed with, and celebrated with.

But alas, there were some people out there in the Pokemon world who didn’t think like Sunset. It was a rarity, thankfully, but it happened on occasion where Sunset ran into people who should never have been handed their Trainer’s License at the age of sixteen, to begin with, in Sunset’s mind.

Sunset’s fists curled up into balls and she let out a snarl of fury.

“Please tell me there’s some way to find out who… which bastard did this!” She growled out. None of her team bothered lecturing her on language this time, as they all shared the same sentiment. Even if Rufflet was far too young to even hear these words, or even understand half of the conversation that was going on, (He was only barely hatched after all) he knew his trainer was upset.

“Please… Please tell me everything’s going to be alright with Meema,”the Eaglet Pokémon whimpered. Even if he could barely understand what was going on, or the gravity of the situation, he knew somebody had hurt his mother in some way.

“I’m sure she’ll be fine, don’t worry Rufflet,”Dragonair said reassuringly. Over in the Ecruteak City Pokemon Center, the mood had gone from a sheer ruckus to stone dead silent as the various Pokemon had heard Fluttershy’s conversation with Sunset over the videophone.

Umbreon, in particular, looked to be charging up a Shadow Ball while Fluttershy’s Ariados was clicking his facial pincers together nastily.

“Well, there might be a way. Did Lucario have a Pokeball near him when you found him collapsed on the beach?” Fluttershy asked. Sunset frowned to herself. She knew all Pokeballs bought were registered to whoever bought them, but now that Fluttershy brought it up, she never thought once about looking for it.

“Didn’t see one at the time, too busy trying to stem the blood flow and worry about getting Nurse Joy,” Sunset replied.

“I’ll go out and look, Sunset,” Talon stated, finally awake. He’d been listening in on this whole conversation, growing angrier by the minute. He unfolded his wings before he flew out the Pokemon Center doors in a flash of fire and flame.

“In the meantime, I’d say the best bet on finding out who Lucario used to belong to is asking him himself,” Sunset stated and Fluttershy’s eyes grew wide as saucers.

“No, no, no… Bad idea!” Fluttershy said quickly. “He’s more likely to lash out at you, attack you again like before if you ask him outright. Better to let Talonfl-”

“And what if Talon turns up with nothing?” Sunset shouted angrily, her eyes seemingly ablaze with fire. “That Lucario looked exhausted! He could have ran for miles for all we know! His Pokeball might never be found! I have to at least try and talk to him…” Sunset snapped, her voice turning softer at the end as she slammed her hand on the table. Sadder as well as tears dripped onto the floor. Sunset sniffled and wiped away the tears before she looked right at Fluttershy.

“You understand why I’m doing this don’t you? Somebody broke that Lucario, and I’ll be damned if I let them get away with it, and possibly do it to another Pokemon!” Sunset exclaimed and Fluttershy nodded.

“I… I understand. Just… Just be careful okay?” She asked nervously. “I just don’t want to see you do something stupid and get yourself hurt, okay?”

Suddenly, on his own violation, there was a bright blue flash as Ninetales popped out of his Pokeball on his own violation, his signature tails flowing behind him as he looked towards his trainer/big sister figure.

“Be that as it may, I still don’t feel confident letting you waltz in there by your lonesome,”the Fox Pokémon stated firmly. “I’m your trainer, and it’s my job to protect you in any way I can. That Lucario wants to pick a fight with somebody, he can pick it with me.”

“By Arceus…” Flareon whispered in shock. “So you’re not a brainless vain idiot, after all.”

“Shut it firepuff, I can still give you a good heaping of my Ice Beam attack you know. Give you a new meaning of the term freezer burn quicker than you can blink,” Ninetales snapped, glaring at his Rival/Best friend, even if he wouldn’t admit to the last part.

“Try it, and watch me use my Take Down on you,” the little Flame Pokémon retorted with the rest of Sunset’s team rolling their eyes in unison at the two’s usual antics.

“What happened to the innocent little Eevee I raised…?” Sunset thought to herself.

“He became an arrogant little waste of space with a big mouth who can’t back up his claims,” Ninetales muttered and Flareon snorted fire out of his nostrils again.

“You’re one to talk. You’ve gotten yourself a big head as well, as well as far too much love for your own appearance!” the fox-like Pokemon snapped back.

“Hello? Ninetales here? We’re naturally beautiful!” the Pokemon in question retorted.

At last, Mismagius finally spoke up, shooting them both a glare to end their squabble.

“Can you two save your little… Well, I won’t say the words I’m thinking in front of Rufflet, but you know exactly what I mean. Just put it aside for now, okay? Far more important matters to worry about I should think,” the Magical Pokémon asked in exasperation. The two Pokemon glared at each other for a brief moment before sighing and muttering (Half-hearted) apologies to Mismagius under their breaths. She gave them an evil look and they apologized much more sincerely this time.

As Sunset and Ninetales took the long walk to Lucario’s room where he was still in recovery, Sunset thought back to a few days before.

One Week Ago: Route 47

An explosion rumbled off the cliffsides as a pillar of black smoke rose high into the afternoon sky. Currently, Sunset was in the midst of a battle atop a cliff, the waves crashing against the rock walls below.

In front of her stood a good-sized mouse-like Pokemon, orange in color with a tan belly and what looked to have lightning bolts for ears and another bolt at the end of a long whip-like tail. Behind that stood a trainer, her prismatic hair in a ponytail wearing black pants, and a white tank top with a rainbow-colored lightning bolt matching her hairstyle perfectly. Off to the side, snoozing contently in the sun was a large black and light blue lynx-like Pokemon, or “Raijin” as he preferred to be known.

On the other end of the makeshift battlefield, winds off the sea gusting through the trees making them sway was Sunset, dressed in her usual attire. That is, a black leather jacket and a largely orange skirt with black and purple colored cowgirl boots. Next to her was Ninetales.

“Raichu, Mega Punch now!” Rainbow ordered, and the aptly named Mouse Pokémon charged one of its fists with a glowing blue energy. Raichu then set about delivering the devastating fighting type move to Ninetales’ side as he tried to rush out of the way. Ninetales yelped in pain as he was sent flying backwards into the grass. He let out a low growl as he picked himself up off the ground.

“Ready to give up yet?” Raichu smirked. “You’re just a pretty little fox, and that’s the end of it.”

“I’ll take any compliments thrown my way, especially ones that compliment my looks,” Ninetales said with a cocky, arrogant tone before his eyes narrowed. “But trust me, dude, there’s more to me then just looks.”

“Hah! Final match-up, and you’ve lost one Pokemon, and you’re probably about to lose another!” Rainbow laughed cockily. Sunset gritted her teeth.

“Don’t forget, this battle could go either way still, you lost one as well remember? This isn’t over yet,” Sunset reminded. “Ninetales, Ice Beam now!”

“Right, no way I’m losing to this trainer, especially after how idiotic Flareon proved to be with his tactics! Alright you little rat, one flash-freeze coming right up!” Ninetales barked before drawing his head back and firing a solid beam of ice, freezing Raichu in a crystal of ice long before he had time to react.

Ninetales allowed himself a smirk, the battle was over. However, he was soon forced to re-evaluate his opinion when Raichu glowed a bright yellow before the crystalline structure exploded as lightning bolts flew everywhere before Raichu ran forwards his body encompassed with a cloak of yellow energy.

“Rai-Rai-Rai-RAIIIIIICHHHUUU!” He shouted as he ran faster and faster using his evolution line’s signature attack: Volt Tackle. Ninetales’ eyes widened before he leaped over Raichu at the very last second and then came crashing down, all nine of his magnificent tales coated in what looked to be steel.

Raichu found himself flung into a boulder, smashing it to pieces by the sheer force of the powerful Iron Tail move. Rainbow sighed, hanging her head in defeat before she sprayed a Super Potion on her Pokemon before returning him to his Pokeball in a beam of red energy.

“Heh, told you I’m more than just a pretty face.” Ninetales laughed haughtily.

However, just as they were about to shake hands for giving each a good battle, both trainers’ attentions were then drawn to the top of a higher cliff as they saw an almost pure white Pokemon, resembling a giant cat of some sort. It had a dark midnight blue face and a horn shaped like a crescent moon protruding out of one side of its head.

“Absol, the Disaster Pokémon. Absol live in steep mountainous regions, and rarely venture down into areas inhabited by humans, but should an Absol be seen by humans, it is said that catastrophe is soon to follow. However, it only generally appears when it senses an impending natural disaster. As a result, it was mistaken as a doom-bringer.” Rainbow’s Pokedex explained.

Sunset and Rainbow both took a step back as the Absol leaped off the cliff, looked directly at Sunset for a few moments before running back into the wilderness…

“What the Hell was that all about…?” Sunset thought.

Now:

“Could this have been what Absol was warning me about? Lucario? Did it know what was about to happen between me and him? Did it know we were going to meet?”Sunset asked herself.

“Beats the Hell out of me. I’ve never really understood that particular Pokemon,”Ninetales replied. “Your guess is as good as mine…”

Soon, they entered Lucario’s room. The Pokemon once again had his back to them, staring out the window, seemingly watching the Duckletts outside swim in a small pond. Nearby, a lime green toned woman handed out ice creams from a stand along with her Vanillish. He let out a small sigh of sadness at the sight before the appendages on his head went up as he detected Sunset and Ninetales’ presence.

“Why have you come?” He asked telepathically, a slight edge in his tone. Not just anger, but Sunset heard the slightest hint of fear in it as well.

“I just want to talk, that’s all,” Sunset explained. “I’m not going to harm you, I promise.”

“Yeah… That’s what he said once…” Lucario whispered, almost too softly to be heard. Almost. Sunset’s eyes widened. So it was a guy who did this to Lucario.

“He? Who’s he?”Sunset inquired carefully. Lucario’s head whirled around in anger, turning to face Sunset with a furious expression on his face.

“He is none of your business. Leave, now. Before I’m forced to do something I regret,” Lucario stated in a warning tone. But Sunset was as stubborn as ever, unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your perspective of things.

“No, not until I-”

Lucario growled and his eyes narrowed as he snarled “I warned you…” and charged towards Sunset readying another Force Palm attack. Suddenly, a blinding white flash knocked Lucario onto the floor sending him sprawling.

Before him stood Ninetales, protectively standing in front of Sunset, pure rage looking down on him. As vain and narcissistic as Ninetales might have been, Sunset was once again given a swift reminder why the Ninetales species were looked upon as guardians and deities in the Alola region.

“Try that again, and you’ll be getting more than just a Take Down,” Ninetales warned Lucario as he picked himself up off the floor of the Center. Both human and Pokemon alike noted the distinct drop in temperature in the air, with Sunset rubbing her arms as she shivered and a small cloud forming near her mouth as she breathed. “Now please… can we just talk like civilized mons?”

Lucario looked at the Ninetales’ expression, and at Sunset’s worried, caring look. He let out a long sigh. “Alright, here’s what happened…”

Meanwhile, not that far away Talon was soaring over a small woodland when he saw it, something glinting in the sunlight in a small clearing down below. He swooped down for a closer look and then he saw the shattered remains of a Pokeball, along with a pool of dried blood in the grass.

He grabbed the two halves of the Ball, before taking to the skies once again…

Author's Note

Okay, so not just Fluttershy in this chapter, but Rainbow as well! Anyways, a few things I want to clear up. I did change the legal age of getting a Pokedex and a Trainer's License to the age of sixteen here in this story... Because realistically, what normal person would send their kid out in a world full of landscape changing creatures at the age of ten?

Also, Absol. Not sure if an abused Pokemon counts as a disaster in everybody's minds, but... Maybe they do more than just warn of natural disasters. Maybe they can, at times, foretell any sort of bad thing about to happen. Might be reaching here, I know. Or maybe this Absol was being nice, who's to say?

Part 4: Lucario's Story

“It started back when I was just a little Riolu, barely at fighting age…” Lucario began to explain, and so his story began to be told, Sunset and Ninetales listening intently to every word.

One Year Ago: Johto Region:

A kick was landed at a tree, smashing the trunk and sending the tree toppling down like a domino in the middle of a dark forest clearing. Pidgeys scattered from the trees at the sound of the tree knocking over and falling. With a crash, it landed near a small pond, sending the Zigzagoon who were feeding near it on some berries scattering into the bushes.

Well, almost all of them anyways. One Zigzagoon was rather confident for his group (Sunset’s Flareon would have been proud of his boldness) and launched himself at Riolu intent on hitting him with a powerful Headbutt attack.

Riolu jumped out of the way and knocked the raccoon-like Pokemon back with a quick attack. It flew towards a tree but rebounded off the trunk and tackled Riolu.

“That… That the best you got?” Riolu asked as he shoved the Tiny Raccoon Pokémon off of him and then used another quick attack and his paw glowed with green energy. Then, a powerful Force Palm was delivered right to the Zigzagoon’s belly. It flew off into the distance with a yelp as Riolu celebrated his victory by sitting down and taking some of the berries for himself.

He looked upwards to a tree branch as he saw a sparrow-like Pokemon, brown in head feathers with red wings land on it.

“Wow, you’re quite the little scrapper aren’t you?” the Pokemon, which Riolu recognized as a Spearow remarked to herself. “You’d do a Mankey proud with those tactics.”

“Thanks,” Riolu replied as he took a bite out of an Oran Berry. The Spearow’s piercing green eyes narrowed.

“Wasn’t meant to be a compliment, that was downright reckless. What if those Zigzagoon came back with a Linoone or something? Not the biggest thing in this forest you know… Well, maybe your head is,” She told him sternly. “Could have found food elsewhere you know, without scaring off those Zigzagoons, or ruining a perfectly good tree. What’d it ever do to you anyways?” She teased.

“But I like to fight, I’m always practicing. Always striving to be the best at what I do, just for somebody to notice me one day, get out of this forest,” the Jackal like Pokemon replied as he practiced throwing a few punches and kicks. The Spearow raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

“What, you trying to get into the Swords of Justice or something?” the Spearow asked, referring to the three Legendary Pokemon that traveled the world helping people and Pokemon alike. Sorta like the Three Musketeers story, the one humans told over in the Kalos region, now that she thought of it. “Cause… No offense, I really don’t think you’re quite ready to battle Kyurem yet.”

“No, it’s not that,” Riolu replied. “I want to be captured by a Pokemon Trainer, challenge gyms. Improve my fighting skills, see the world.”

The Spearow nodded in understanding. “Yeah, I see what you mean. I want to get out of this forest as well, maybe be captured one day. Contrary to that crap those Team Plasma blowhards sprout off, Pokemon do love to fight in battles alongside a human partner. Arceus above, if we hated being trapped in those little balls like slaves, we’d have probably overthrown the human race a long time ago.”

“Yeah, that’s true. We could easily do it. What Team Plasma doesn’t realize is that if we didn’t like to fight, the Fighting Type Pokemon probably wouldn’t exist!” Riolu yipped out, starting to like this Pokemon.

The Spearow actually laughed at that. “Yeah, and Ho-Oh would have probably burned all of humanity to ashes herself if she didn’t like Pokemon Trainers,” she put in before saying: “Dunno how much of this is true, but I heard from a flock in the Kanto region she recently appeared a couple years back to a black haired kid. ...Name’s slipped my mind for the moment really.” the Spearow admitted with more than a tinge of embarrassment in her tone. “Ah, it’ll come back to me…”

For the next few weeks, the two young Pokemon stayed in contact forming possibly one of the most unlikeliest of friendships. They battled together, played together, each honing their skills as they grew in power.

“Come on, you’re going to have to be faster than that if you’re going to catch me!” Cawed Kiara, as the Riolu had learned was the Spearow’s name. She flapped her wings racing Riolu through the twists and turns of the forest. He leaped from rock, to tree branch and then back to rock again as he struggled to keep up the pace.

“Those Oran Berries… You must be getting fat from eating all of them! Come on, I know you can be faster than this!”

“Oh shut up! I’m running as fast as I can, y’know!” Riolu shouted, his voice having grown deeper in the past week.

“Not fast enough, evidently,” Kiara teased before she sent a series of Air Cutters his way, which Riolu knocked back at her with a Force Palm. Kiara smirked before she barrel rolled out of the way.

“Oh, so that’s how it is huh?” Riolu smirked. He then created a ball of blue energy between his hands, a Focus Blast attack and threw it at Kiara which she canceled out with a Hidden Power blast.

“You’re… You’re getting better…” Riolu panted out as sweat trailed down his face.

“So are you, you’re not so bad yourself. A far cry from the arrogant little snot I met back in that clearing only a few weeks ago,” Kiara complimented. Riolu chuckled before he saw his friend’s eyes widen.

“What? What is it?” Riolu asked.

“Just… Just look at yourself!” Kiara stammered out and suddenly Riolu felt a surge of power rush through him as his entire body glowed a bright white. He grew taller, his ears grew more pointed and three pointed white spikes grew from his chest and paws.

“No… It can’t be…” Riol-No, Lucario whispered to himself as he looked over his new form.

“You did it, you finally evolved!” Kiara cheered.

Now:

“So that’s how it happened. How Lucario evolved. It is a bit surprising that he evolved at such a young age… And via his friendship with this “Kiara” at that!” Sunset thought to herself in shock, her eyes widened. “And here everyone thought it was only possible for Riolus to evolve when they had high friendships with their trainers… Then again, considering what this one’s been through, I highly doubt he had a strong friendship with his own…”

“If I may continue?” Lucario asked, annoyed.

“Right… Sorry…” Sunset replied.

6 Months Ago:

Now with Lucario evolved, Kiara was intent on doing the same herself so she could evolve into a mighty Fearow. She’d become reckless, reckless as a Rufflet as Lucario had quickly found out, constantly picking fights with Pokemon far stronger than her.

If Lucario had to give her any sort of compliment for this foolish behavior, she was pretty brave. He did at times wonder if she’d been born into the wrong species, really. She had the heart of a Pidgeot.

But, at times, Lucario found himself bailing her out with his signature Force Palm move. The most recent incident, and the one that would change Lucario’s life forever

Lucario was in the middle of a mediation session, sitting cross-legged by a small, gurgling stream in a clearing within the vast forest that the two called home when he heard it.

“HELP!” Kiara’s distinctive voice screeched out from somewhere nearby. Lucario’s eyes shot open and he took off running towards her and found her laying on the ground near a dirt path. While he knew his best friend had a flock that would come flying to her rescue as soon as they heard her calls, Lucario also knew he was much closer to Kiara then they were and had a better chance at making it to her. And then, Lucario saw Kiara. There she was, twitching in pain with a giant purple King Cobra like Pokemon looming over her, it’s tongue flicking back and forth from its mouth.

“Get away from her…” Lucario growled out. The Arbok hissed and launched itself towards Lucario firing Poison Sting after Poison Sting from its mouth like a machine gun. Lucario jumped to the left and then to the right with Agility to avoid the stings as the Arbok flew past him.

“Oh, don’t think you’re getting away that easily, not after how you hurt my friend!” he snarled out. Lucario then grabbed the Arbok by the tail, swinging it around a full 360 degrees and then tossing it into a boulder head first, knocking it unconscious.

“Lesson learned…” Lucario growled before his tone became softer as he walked over to Kiara and knelt down beside her. “You okay?”

“Yeah… I’m fine. That snake just grazed my wing a bit. I’ll be fine within a few days, no worries,” Kiara answered.

“And you once told me off for being reckless, that was downright foolish you know that, right?” Lucario lectured before his voice slipped into a lighthearted, teasing tone. “Who’s trying to better themselves now?”

“Et tu, Lucario?” Kiara laughed weakly. Both Pokemon’s eyes widened when they heard a soft clapping coming from behind them.

“Impressive, very impressive,” An Australian accented voice remarked, coming from a man with messy dark blue hair and a pair of round sunglasses wearing a brown cowboy style vest. All in all, he resembled a cowboy in some ways. “How would you like to become my Pokemon? I promise, you’ll become a very strong one, winning me badge after badge! You’ll become famous, trust me. The female Pokemon, they’ll be swarming all over you!”

Lucario’s eyes widened before he nodded as the trainer threw the Pokeball at him. The ball didn’t even shake before it dinged with a red light, indicating a successful capture.

But from even inside his Pokeball, Lucario heard Kiara whisper “Good luck Lucario…” neither of the Pokemon knowing what horrors awaited Lucario in the future…

Flash forwards a few months, and Lucario had rapidly discovered his trainer wasn’t all that he was cracked up to be. His training, if you could even call it that, was brutal no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

Lucario routinely was forced to bare witness as his trainer pushed his Pokemon to the brink of exhaustion during their training sessions. Often times, Lucario found himself trying to give them berries he’d found for himself, but the berries were always tossed away by his Trainer. It was the same with Potions. He’d sneak some from their bag and try to use them on the Pokemon, but like the berries before them, they too were taken away.

And his Trainer always had this to say: “They’re weak, they don’t deserve your help Lucario. You should be more focused on helping yourself, getting better with your moves then wasting your time with those weaklings!”

It finally came to a head one hot day in June. Lucario had been ordered by his “Trainer” (He refused to acknowledge his real name by this point, Lucario considering him not worth that honor of even thinking his Trainer’s name) to practice his species’ signature move: Aura Sphere.

“C’mon Lucario, you worthless Dingo!” his trainer barked at him as Lucario tried to focus the natural energies of his body into a powerful sphere of energy, but found that he simply just couldn’t do it. His Trainer grew angry, more furious than Lucario had ever seen him before as he slowly strode towards Lucario. “That does it, you can’t even learn Aura Sphere! You routinely disobey me, and whenever I go into a match with you, you’re always the first one knocked out! You’re through Lucario, you hear me!?!”

With that, the man took out a thick leather whip made from Tauros hide and struck it across Lucario’s back several times as he howled in pain, the whip leaving several ugly red streaks across Lucario’s backside.

“Master… Please, stop!” Lucario yelled before his Trainer struck him several more times.

“And don’t you try any of your pleadings, it’s not going to work with me!” Lucario’s Trainer yelled back at him. Lucario looked towards his fellow Pokemon, silently pleading for them to help. But sadly, they were far too afraid of their master to even attempt a rescue.

Then, Lucario found himself whirled around and punched in the gut, knocking him straight into the grass.

The blue haired man that Lucario had once been proud to call his Master turned to a Rhyhorn and pointed at Lucario as he smashed Lucario’s Pokeball on the ground into two pieces. “Get him, teach him a lesson to what happens to those who disobey me!”

The giant stone based monstrosity of a Pokemon slowly trudged towards Lucario, obeying its master either out of fear or because of some sense of loyalty that its trainer had drilled into it. Lucario suspected the former, sadly. It would fit with his trainer’s character.

Lucario snarled weakly at the Rhyhorn, warning him to back off.

“I’m sorry…” the Rhyhorn said. “But I must obey my Master.”

“The Master who uses and abuses you?” Lucario asked defiantly.

“He trained me, raised me from an egg. He’s like a father to me. So I must obey, if only for his sake.” the Rhyhorn said, repeating it to himself like a mantra. Lucario let a tear slip from his eyes… So this is what trainers were like, people who cared nothing for their Pokemon and only about themselves.

“Rhyhorn, give him your Take Down attack!” Rhyhorn’s trainer shouted, and Lucario braced himself before something truly massive, larger than Lucario had ever seen headbutted the Rhyhorn with a powerful Iron Head attack. The Pokemon resembled an antelope with two long horns jutting from his forehead, cobalt blue in coat color. He bore a white tuft of fur on his chest, resembling a cravat in some manner. Lucario’s eyes widened in an instance. He knew this Pokemon, but it surely couldn’t be... Could it?

His suspicions were then confirmed, as the Pokemon created a long blue katana like blade of energy jutting from his head and stood between Lucario and Rhyhorn. His golden eyes briefly flicked towards Lucario.

“Go, now.” Cobalion, the Iron Will Pokémon and the leader of the Swords of Justice stated firmly, his voice filled with a warmth, a protectiveness. Lucario took the chance and ran for it, but his former trainer was having none of it as he threw three Pokeballs high into the air releasing a trio of Skarmories.

Lucario ran hard and fast, across green fields and leaping over rocks as the Skarmories dive-bombed him again and again, striking him each time drawing blood. Lucario tumbled over the side of a cliff and hit a small hill below that, crashing into the ground and rolling down the hill into a small wooded area. His ears detected the sound of waves hitting the rocks behind him.

He made a small grunt of pain as he staggered to get up as the Skarmory trio swooped down towards him drills spinning like corkscrews. Lucario waited until the last moment, right till they were on top of him, before he unleashed his signature Force Palm on all three of them sending them flying off into the distance.

“I’ve… I’ve got to get moving… More of my “Master’s” Pokemon are probably on the way…” He thought to himself before he moved towards the direction of the beach ignoring the bleeding and the bruises before all went black…

Now: Cianwood City Pokemon Center:

“By Arceus…” Sunset whispered to herself softly, barely keeping her quick temper from coming to a boil. She felt like she wanted to hit something, unleash all of her pent-up rage at whoever did this to Lucario on them and reduce them to a smudge beneath her feet.

Ninetales, by this point, was sorely wishing he knew both Sheer Cold and Curse, just so he could use them on that sorry excuse for a Trainer.

“So… That’s what it is…” Sunset murmured as she watched Lucario take another glance out the window. She saw Lemon Zest watching the sun set over the horizon from the top of a building along with her Serperior wrapped around her protectively. She smiled as she saw Lemon stroke her Pokemon’s head affectionately and receive a nuzzle in return. “You just want someone who would love and care for you, see you for what you really are…”

“Yeah, worthless…” Lucario muttered to himself. Sunset’s eyes widened, and she brought Lucario into a nearly crushing hug, making his eyes widen.

“No, stop right there! Never tell yourself that, that’s just the bullshit your “Trainer” told you. You’re more powerful than you realize Lucario, he just never saw it or refused to, understand?” Sunset stated firmly.

“I… I wish I could believe you, but…” Lucario replied sadly before hanging his head in shame. “But I really am worthless, I can’t even form an Aura Sphere properly. I’m a shame to my species…” He muttered in self-disgust.

“So what?” Sunset’s Ninetales barked out. “So what if you can’t form an Aura Sphere right now? You know plenty of other powerful moves, I’m willing to bet my soul on it! Sunset, take out your Pokedex and confirm this for me, okay?”

But before Sunset could do so, she heard a distinct tapping on the window. Her Talonflame was sitting outside on the windowsill clutching the two halves of Lucario’s shattered Pokeball in one of his talons.

Sunset quickly opened the window and let the Scorching Pokémon fly in.

“Here it is, just as you requested Sunset.”Talon said and Sunset quickly nodded before rushing off to find Nurse Joy. As soon as she turned the corner, she collided head-on into the nurse, much to the Nurse’s displeasure.

“Excuse me!” Nurse Joy snapped.

“Sorry, so sorry, but I need to borrow this computer to scan this Pokeball and find out who previously owned it,” Sunset said quickly as she typed in something on the computer and a small scanner began going over the Pokeball’s registry. Talon had flown into the room and had landed near Sunset and Nurse Joy, watching the computer screen intensely. Lucario and Ninetales rounded a corner and were just in time to bare witness as Lucario’s former trainer popped up on screen.

Lucario recoiled in horror, whispering “No… No! I’m not going back to him, never!” as Sunset read the name off the screen.

“Damien…” She whispered as her fists clenched. Then, she heard the sound of pawsteps running off and looked to see the fleeing form of Lucario.

“Lucario!” she shouted, but to no avail. She turned to Talon.

“Find him, now!” She ordered and Talon nodded before flying after him.

Author's Note

Well, so the truth's out, and now ya'll know who abused Lucario. Hey... Is Ash's Charizard around to give Damien a flamethrower? Anyone know where I can find him?

Anyways, on Lucario's evolution. Way I see it, if it evolves through friendship, who says that friendship has to be with a human? It could be through a Pokemon, right?

Also, on Kiara... She was inspired by a Spearow of the same name from this fanfic, so credit where it's due to Dragonsrule18. https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10779528/1/When-One-Door-Closes-Two-More-Open

Part 5: All Part of the Family

Lucario leaped from rooftop to rooftop after shoving open Cianwood City’s Pokemon Center doors, Talonflame in hot pursuit. Shingles tumbled down to the streets below as his paws hit them. Only Talonflame’s keen eyesight allowed him to keep track of the fast-moving Aura Pokémon, his eyes darting from left to right as Lucario continued playing his game of leapfrog.

“Lucario, come back! We just want to help you!” Talon screeched out but Lucario was having none of it.

“No, I’m not going back to a human, not ever again!” Lucario hissed out at his pursuer. “I trusted a human once, and he broke my trust! Sunset… I wanted to trust her, but she’s only going to send me back to Damien! I’m never going back to him, never!”

“Sunset’s not going to send you back to that damned human, she’s not like that!” Talon argued. “She cares for all her Pokemon!”

Lucario paused his leaping for just a moment, and looked up at Talon, and his eyes locked with the Scorching Pokémon’s before they narrowed. “Are you sure? What happens when your usefulness is extended? How do you know she won’t throw you away like an unwanted toy?”

“I… I just do, that’s how,” Talon stuttered out, briefly thinking over Lucario’s words. He was taken aback by Lucario’s criticism. What if Lucario was right? What if once his usefulness as a Pokemon ended, Sunset would just release him? What if that’s all he was good for, battling? He was surprised at himself, how Lucario was getting to him, making him question his faith in his trainer. Talon’s eyes then narrowed in rage, pure and utter fury. Lucario was going to pay for that. Sunset was like family to him, and if you couldn’t trust family, who could you trust?

“That’s all you are to your trainer, a means to an end…” Lucario snarled. Finally, Talon exploded, having had enough of Lucario’s comments.

“How dare you…” Talon growled out before he opened up his mouth and unleashed a pure blast of hot flame in a Flamethrower attack. Lucario leaped out of the way, moving to the side to avoid it before his own eyes narrowed. He charged up a Focus Blast attack, and fired the glowing blue sphere at his attacker. Talon flew upwards to avoid it, and then did a barrel roll to avoid another Focus Blast.

“So, that’s how it’s going to be huh?” Talon sighed. “I hate to do this, but if you’re not going to listen to reason…”

He then released blast after blast of Air Cutter attacks and Talon smirked as Lucario grunted out in pain as the blasts of wind hit. He hated attacking Lucario, but it was obvious by this point Lucario wouldn’t go down without a fight and so had to be taken back to the Pokemon Center by force.

Lucario leaped up towards Talon and kicked him in the face before leaping backwards towards the roof. Talon charged up a Fire Blast and sent the star-shaped manifestation of flame towards Lucario, but he managed to dodge it almost in a nanosecond. As if he already knew what attack was coming ahead of time. Then Talon’s eyes widened in realization.

“That… That was Mind Reader! One of his parents must have been a Psychic type, a Medicham probably,” Talon thought to himself in shock. “No wonder he predicted my attacks ahead of time, he knows the moves I’m going to make before even I do!”

Knowing the battle was futile, he sighed to himself and could only watch in resignation as Lucario continued leaping from rooftop to rooftop towards the direction of the beach. He then contacted his trainer.

“Sunset… I lost him. He’s heading towards the beach. I’m sorry…”

Sunset sighed through their empathic link. “Alright, just come on back. I’ll try and talk some sense into him later, okay?”

“Got it.” Talon replied before flying back towards the direction of the Pokemon Center. Even as he did so, his earlier thoughts came back to haunt him and he was hit with a horrifying realization. Damien was like family to Lucario, and after all, if you couldn’t trust family, who could you trust? His eyes narrowed in rage once more, if he ever met up with this “Damien”, he was going to be very sorry indeed...

A few moments before…

While Talon had been chasing down the terrified Lucario, Sunset had called Professor Elm in New Bark Town. The rather young and somewhat scrawny professor had been looking over his papers when he suddenly received the call. Surprised, he yelped reflexively, dropping the papers in his hands and making them scatter to the floor. In her tank nearby, his Corsola let out a sigh and sweatdropped.

“Oh, oh… Just a minute!” Elm shouted as he gathered up his papers and put them back in a binder in a neat and organized fashion. Sunset smiled wistfully, she was reminded of another overly organized friend of hers, who could easily become a professor one day.

“There… There we go…” Elm murmured “Sorry, caught me in the middle of my research, startled me a bit, that’s all…” He laughed nervously before adjusting his glasses.

“Wasn’t expecting a call from you Sunset. Is there a question about Pokemon you needed answering? I thought you’d have called Rowan back in Sandgem Town. What can I do you for?” Elm asked, before hurriedly correcting himself upon realizing on how that could be taken. “N-Not that I was offering to d-do you like that, you understand? Much too young! Plus, I’m married!”

As Elm’s face grew redder, a few of Sunset’s Pokemon stifled their laughter. Rufflet, however, just looked confused. He looked towards Dragonair quizzically, who could only respond with a “I’ll tell you when you’re older.”

“Well, normally I would call Rowan if I had a Pokemon related question, but this is something I figure only you can answer, given that it relates to something that happened in your region and a trainer hailing from Johto. Damien Daisuke.”

Elm’s eyes narrowed and he sighed as he rubbed his temples. “What complaint is being registered against him now?”

It wasn’t the first time, evidently, that someone had called to complain about Lucario’s former “Trainer”, Sunset mused to herself.

“Pokemon Abuse,” Sunset stated with a distinct growl in her tone. Elm’s widened in considerable shock.

“I knew that boy shouldn’t have become a trainer the moment I met him, far too arrogant and cold towards that Cyndaquil I gave him. Arceus only knows what he’s done with it, or worse, to it by now...” He muttered to himself before looking directly at Sunset. “Do you have any proof of his abuse?”

Sunset groaned and fell back in her chair as she sighed. “No, just the word of a Lucario me and two of my Pokemon found badly wounded on the beach. Looked like it had been whipped, beaten and dive-bombed, perhaps all at once…” Sunset replied, looking visibly sick as she spoke.

“Then I’m sorry Sunset, there’s nothing I can do. All of that, it’s circumstantial at best and the word of a Pokemon won’t hold up in court, not with the current laws. You’d actually need to find proof that Damien is abusing his Pokemon. The only way you’d get the courts to listen to you via the word of a Pokemon and revoke Damien’s license is if you had a Legendary verify the abuse from his or her own word, and the chances of that…” Elm trailed off sighing sadly.

“That’s the biggest load of Tauros shit I ever heard!” Sunset snapped angrily. In actuality, if Sunset wasn’t completely furious, she would have remembered the reason behind the law. It was to keep trainers from reporting other trainers falsely and abusing the system, or to prevent misunderstandings. Elm shook his head in sympathy.

“I’m sorry Sunset, there’s nothing more I can do to help. It’s wrong, I know, but that’s the way the world works I’m afraid. Brave heart as I know Rowan likes to say, you’ll find a way. I just know it.”

With that, Elm ended the call just as Sunset got Talon’s message…

Now:

Sunset’s boots pounded against the dirt road that led up to the beach, sweat trailing down her face, breathing hard as she kicked up dust in her wake. Her shoulder bag contained all six of her Pokeballs, just in case she needed them. She didn’t want to have to fight Lucario, not after what he’d been through, but from his past actions, there was every possibility he would fight back. Also in her bag was her other Cherish Ball, given to her, like Talon’s, by her mother. She thought back to some years ago, right before she became a trainer...

“Sunset,” Celestia said as she handed her daughter two bright red Pokeballs. “These are Cherish Balls, given to me by the Pokemon League a few years back when they made their one-millionth Pokeball. A few went into stores yes, at high prices, but others the Pokeball Company gave out to famous trainers and Coordinators, like Red and Lance. Now, I want you to use these only on Pokemon you truly love and care for, understand?”

“Yes… Yes, I understand,” Sunset nodded before she looked at the Fletching that had often frequented Celestia and Sunset’s home and that they’d befriended. “And I think I know just where to start Mom…”

But Sunset’s mind was on the here and now, with Lucario.

“Sunset,” Dragonair said through their empathic link. “Have you even considered the possibility that Lucario may not want you to catch him? He does seem quite determined to get as far away from humans as possible.”

Sunset never answered.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Dragonair sighed. “You know, we can always just call the Pokemon Rangers on him, get him to a safe preserve like that Laramie Pokemon Ranch in Kanto or some other place where he can live out the rest of his life in peace. It’d be the right thing to do,” She said kindly.

“No, I’m not giving up yet. One last try…” Sunset thought, steel filling her voice. “I’m not chancing any possibility that Damien, or some other piece of shit would re-capture Lucario, hurt him even more.”

Dragonair sighed. Her trainer was stubborn, sometimes far too stubborn for her own good. “Alright, but promise me this… If Lucario declines your offer, we’re calling the Rangers on him okay?”

Sunset gave out a long sigh before finally relenting.

“Yes, I promise…” Sunset thought, even if she didn’t have to like it. Then, she saw Lucario on the beach. He was in a gentle mood, a far cry from what Sunset had seen of him so far and quietly meditating, just listening to the sound of the water and the wind blowing through the trees. The bead-like appendages on the back of his head went up as soon as he detected Sunset’s presence through their natural Aura.

He whirled around to face her as Sunset screeched to a halt. She started to approach Lucario, slowly, cautiously but he began to charge up a Force Palm.

“Stay away, just leave me be!” Lucario growled out in a warning tone. “Only warning I’m giving you!”

Sunset’s eyes widened, but not because of Lucario. In the water, she saw scales rippling and cutting through the sea.

“Lucario, look out!” Sunset shouted out in fear as a giant sea serpent with a huge maw and vicious fangs, and a three-pointed crest on its head rose up from the sea with a fearsome expression plastered on its maw. Gyarados, the Atrocious Pokémon, and the name was well deserved, with the fearsome Pokemon being feared by sailors and fisherman alike for its nasty temperament and the ability to destroy a ship with ease. It was brutally vicious and enormously destructive and had earned many a nightmare.

Lucario’s eyes widened as well as he heard the roar and just as the Gyarados was about to grab him and swallow him whole in one bite, Sunset shoved him out of the way before throwing Dragonair’s Pokeball as both she and Lucario hit the sand. All the while, Sunset reached out and touched the Gyarados' mind. She shuddered, all that was there was pure, uncontrollable anger.

The Gyarados shrieked in rage before it raised its tail and nearly crushed Sunset and Lucario with it, had Dragonair not launched herself at the Atrocious Pokémon with a well-aimed Dragon Rush.

Dragonair’s eyes steeled as she saw the monster of a Pokemon nearly kill her trainer. She rushed to the left as a giant beam of yellow, destructive energy fired from the Gyarados’ maw. She hit back with a powerful Dragon Tail, striking the Gyarados in the side and enraging it even further. It let out a shriek and lunged towards Dragonair ready to bite down on her slender form, leaping out of the water as it did so.

Just then Talon appeared from his Cherish Ball and slashed at Gyarados with a powerful Steel Wing before hitting him with an Aerial Ace like an uppercut delivered to the Pokemon’s jaw. Gyarados roared in rage as it hit the dunes, sending sand flying everywhere before taking advantage of this and firing off a Twister. Sand whipped up in a cyclone threatening to sweep away Sunset and Lucario as it approached.

Dragonair and Talon shared a nod before they fired off a combination attack. Dragonair fired off a Twister of her own and the slashing winds cut into the one created by Gyarados as the two mighty attacks fought for dominance.

“Talon, now! Can’t hold it back much longer!” Dragonair yelled out and Talon nodded before spewing out a Flamethrower and what happened next was predictable to those of you who knew your science. The giant whirling cyclone was frozen, now completely made of glass. It was a beautiful sight, but not one destined to last much longer as Gyarados roared in rage and smashed through the structure right towards Sunset.

Lucario’s eyes widened at the sight. “She and her Pokemon… They’re willing to fight for each other, fight for me even after how I’ve treated them. They’re like… family.”

Then he knew what he had to do. Lucario leaped forwards and hit Gyarados with a powerful Force Palm making it roar in pain before he then unleashed his Mind Reader move and predicted what was to happen next. As he suspected, Gyarados lunged forwards and then Lucario jumped onto the Pokemon’s back and hit it with another Force Palm and the Atrocious Pokémon finally collapsed into the sand, unconscious.

Sunset took her chance and threw a black and yellow Ultra Ball from her shoulder bag, and Gyarados was sucked in. The Pokeball rocked back and forth, but finally subsided and pinged, signifying a successful capture.

Sunset sighed and collapsed in the sand as she muttered “Thank Arceus…” to herself. Lucario strode towards her and bowed his head.

“I’m… sorry. I was wrong about you. Can you ever forgive me?”

To his surprise, he was pulled into an embrace by Sunset who only said “There’s nothing to forgive.” in response. Then, Sunset held out her other Cherish Ball.

“It’s yours if you want it,” Sunset asked, and Lucario looked at it. After a few moments of hesitation, thinking back to his previous Trainer, he finally made up his mind. He reached out, and pressed the button and allowed himself to be captured. Sunset’s eyes widened in shock, honestly not expecting that result (Dragonair and Talon sharing the same expression) before she smiled.

“I promise Lucario, I’ll never let you down. You’re one of us now, part of our family.”

And almost as if in response, the ball shook a little.

Part 6: Help Required

That night, Sunset set about dealing with her newfound -and unwanted- Gyarados. As much as she hated to admit it, if she could tame this monstrosity of a Pokemon, she’d have a powerful ally. The key phrase here being, if she could tame this thing.

Already, she watched it thrash in the waters off Cianwood City. Standing safely on a rented boat off in the cove of a little island, Sunset observed the Atrocious Pokémon let out a roar of rage. She watched it dive into the seas, the serpentine tail flashing in the moonlight as it bit down hard on a Sharpedo and blood sprayed everywhere as the feared Brutal Pokémon became lunch.

“There’s always a bigger fish…” Dragonair murmured, ready to fire off a Thunder Wave attack at Gyarados if it got too close for comfort. Nearby, the flashing blue lights of a police boat could be seen off in the distance. Onboard, was an Officer Jenny armed with a harpoon gun (Along with several grenade launchers as well.) if Dragonair’s attacks failed, Arceus forbid. You could never be too careful when dealing with a Pokemon of this size and power, and one constantly in a state of rage.

“You said it…” Sunset replied nervously, watching what was left of the Sharpedo float in the now red-tinted waters. “Remind me why I’m doing this again?”

“Good question…” Dragonair replied. “Your mom and mine for that matter, would chide us both for being suicidally foolish even getting this close to that thing. If you ask me, that Gyarados should be released into the wild… For all our sakes. Let it rage all it wants.”

“And leave the chance of it attacking someone else?” Sunset asked. “No, we either give it to a Pokemon Reserve if worst comes to worse, or we train this thing ourselves and tame it. Mind you, that’s going to be…”

“Problematic?” Dragonair offered.

“Not the word I’d choose, but yeah…” Sunset nodded in return. “I can name you… Hell, count off my fingers as to whose successfully trained one of those things. It’s a very short list. Almost all of them Altomarians, or Dragon-Type masters.”

Sunset cracked her knuckles and sighed to herself. “Well… Time to get to work…” she mentally thought to herself, wondering what the Hell she was getting herself into.

The Atrocious Pokémon re-emerged from the waters once more, fanged maw dripping blood. Sunset tried to send calming, mental waves towards the sea serpent-like Pokemon, but all she could sense in its mind was the pure unadulterated rage, plain and simple.

It let out a shrieking sound and lunged towards the boat as Sunset sent out more waves towards the Pokemon, saying:
”I’m not going to hurt you.” but the Gyarados honestly didn’t seem to care. All it saw was another meal. Snarling, Dragonair let out a Thunder Wave attack and the Atrocious Pokémon roared out in pain.

“Uh Sunset…” Dragonair warned. “You might want to rethink this idea…”

“Oh, I’ve been doing that since we came out here!” Sunset shouted as the Gyarados dived under the boat, the shadow of its serpentine-like form being just barely visible in the darkness. “Come on, where did it go…?” she thought nervously to herself, eyes darting from right to left as she searched the black waters.

Then, she got her answer as the Pokemon leaped back out of the water, maw opened and charging up an orange Hyper Beam. Dragonair’s eyes narrowed before she unleashed a blast of her Dragon Breath knocking the Gyarados back beneath the waves with a large splash of water soaking both Trainer and Pokemon to the bone.

The shadow of the Pokemon could be seen swimming back under the boats and into a nearby reef, as it planned its next attack.

“This isn’t… This isn’t training…” Sunset panted out. “More like survival. That thing isn’t going to listen to anyone’s orders, no matter what we try and do to get through to it. I hate to say it, but this is one Pokemon I just can’t train…”

Her point was only proven when a now completely furious beyond measure Gyarados rose back up from the sea, teeth bared and glowing white in a Crunch attack. Terrified, Sunset lost all of her reasoning capacity, and forgot she had Gyarados’ Pokeball on hand. A grenade fired from the police boat hit the side of the Pokemon’s head and it roared out in pain as several more hit it in quick succession. Its eyes shut as it lapsed into unconsciousness, and it slammed into the small fishing boat Sunset and Dragonair resided on smashing it completely in half. The last thing Sunset did before she slipped into unconsciousness did was manage to return Gyarados. All that she heard was Dragonair shouting her name in fear, a snapping sound, and a boat’s motor...

Day broke over the horizon once again of the shores of Cianwood City. By Sunset’s calculations, she’d been here at least four to five days, far longer than was normal for a Pokemon Trainer on the road. Waves gently lapped against the shores, and Pidgeys cooed out their early morning calls from the trees along with the occasional Pidove that had migrated all the way out from the Unova region for one reason or the other.

Speaking of Sunset, she groaned as she turned on her side in one of the guest rooms the Pokemon Center had provided. She needed to get out of this town, win her Gym Badge against Chuck and get the Hell back on the road. The Pokemon League for Johto, the Silver Conference, held in Silver Town wouldn’t wait on her forever.

A small wooden clock in her room, as soon as the clock hands struck 7:45 proper using springs, made a Pidgey pop out again and again like a cuckoo clock. The mechanical Pidgey made its distinct call, and Sunset groaned again.

“Just a few more minutes please mom…” Sunset mumbled as she instinctively pulled the covers over herself, the Pidgey Clock reminding her of home and how her Mom would use to come in with a cheery smile on her face and an exclamation of “Wakey wakey, eggs, and bakey!”

Suddenly she felt a distinct plucking at her hair. Her eyes narrowed.

“Really Talon, is that really needed?” Sunset sighed.

“Well, considering I doubt you were going to get up on your own…” Talon trailed off, the massive bird Pokemon taking up most of the bed space.

“Some of us do like to get up on our own terms, not have a defined wake-up call and I’m one of those people, even if you aren’t,” Sunset deadpanned, rather annoyed.

“Yes, but we’ve got to get to training hard for the Cianwood City Gym Battle as we can’t be getting lazy, and you need to socialize with Lucario more,” Talon lectured. “He isn’t going to become a real member of your team, or family as I heard him put it all on his own and you not building up his trust with you.”

“Wait, when was this?” Sunset asked, eyebrow raised in curiosity.

“Saw him get up about the same time I did for my morning flight, maybe even earlier. I was just doing my regular morning fly over when I saw him up atop a cliff throwing kicks and punches at an imagined opponent,” Talon explained. “Not exactly out of the ordinary behavior for a fighting type Pokemon for it to go off and train on his own, I’ll be the first to admit. But to do it so far away from their trainer?”

“Alright, you’ve made your point,” Sunset muttered before she realized something. “...Could you get off me now?” She asked and Talon sweatdropped before he flapped his wings and gently jumped off the bed to the floor below. Sunset stretched her arms as she yawned before she cracked her knuckles. She quickly changed out of her sleep shirt and pants, loose-fitting attire in purple with a setting sun emblazoned on Sunset’s shirt into her normal leather-based attire. Finally, she grabbed her boots and pulled them on, grabbing her shoulder bag as well before returning Talon to his Pokeball.

Sunset made her way up a small footpath on the edge of Cianwood City all the way up to the clifftop Talon had pointed out, where sure enough, she’d found Lucario training hard. He’d actually sliced -Or, more likely, had kicked- the top half of a pine tree off so he could have a makeshift punching bag.

The Aura Pokémon’s knuckles were bruised and bloodied from all the punching and kicking he’d been doing, and Sunset could tell each punch hurt even more than the last.

“Oh, Lucario…” Sunset said sadly before walking up to him and pulling bandages out of her bag and wrapping them around Lucario’s paws.

“You didn’t need to do that,” Lucario replied coldly.

“But I wanted to. Lucario, anyone could see you were in pain. I know you want to get better, but this isn’t the way to do it, pushing yourself to the brink… Getting yourself hurt,” Sunset replied. Her left arm was in a cast, she'd broken it when she'd hit the deck of the fishing boat. If Lucario wanted to know what exactly happened, he didn't inquire into it.

“But that’s the way Damien always trained his Pokemon…” Lucario answered, with a small tinge of anger in his tone.

“Right, and we’ve seen he’s such a great example of a Pokemon Trainer,” Sunset drawled sarcastically. “You’re not on Damien’s team anymore, you’re on mine. And I don’t like seeing my Pokemon pushing themselves to the point of exhaustion, or getting themselves hurt for no good reason.”

“But-” Lucario protested before Sunset silenced him with a finger to his muzzle.

“No buts, Lucario. You need a rest, you’ve been at this all morning. Come on, I’ll take you into town and get you some breakfast, how’s that sound?” Sunset asked kindly. Lucario didn’t look quite so ready to take her up on that offer.

“I… I don’t know… For my whole life, fighting’s the only thing I’ve ever known. Proving myself, for the field of battle. Never had time to be sociable,” Lucario replied sadly.

“Well, there was that one Spearow friend of yours you mentioned…” Sunset trailed off. Lucario let out the equivalent of a sigh.

“Yeah, but the likelihood of me seeing her again is slim to none, I think,” the Aura Pokémon replied. “But you’ve made your point Master… I’ll go with you into town.”

“Please don’t call me Master, Sunset’s just fine,” Sunset told her Pokemon.

“Alright… Sunset,” Lucario stated, mulling the word over in his mind. He did admit, calling his trainer by their actual name did feel more comfortable, more familial than just calling them “Master”. But the question was, was he actually ready to be part of a family again?

Lucario’s thoughts drifted away from that when his stomach rumbled. He flushed in embarrassment as Sunset giggled. “Yeah, it looks like your stomach’s doing the thinking for you,” She laughed.

Far away, brown feathered wings belonging to a Pokemon with one sharp, menacing beak flapped powerfully in the skies above the Johto region. After a quick stop for food in Ecruteak City, it was back on the road as it were. Two piercing green eyes searched the vast landscapes, darting from left to right as they looked for one specific target.

“I’ll find you, Lucario, no matter what it takes…” the Pokemon whispered before it let out a cry of “Spearrrrrooowww!”and flapped her wings again and rocketed off in a southwesterly direction towards the Whirl Islands...

Sunset and her newest partner made their way down to one of the beachfront cafes, with an awning facing the sea and small round metal tables for the patrons to sit down at and enjoy the beach and sunshine. Lucario had been handed a stack of pancakes by one of the waiters, and currently was rather reluctant to even try them.

“They’re pancakes, they won’t bite… Go on, try one. Who knows, you might end up liking them,” Sunset said, gently urging him on. Nervously, Lucario took a fork and carefully bit into one and quickly found out he had a liking for the fluffy, butter-topped delight. Sunset smiled. “See, told you you’d like them,”

“So, what’d you do with that Gyarados you caught, the one that tried to eat us?” Lucario inquired, eyebrow raised and curiosity overtaking him.

“Sent it off to the Pokemon Rangers, see what they can do with it,” Sunset said as she sipped her early morning coffee. She winced at the pain in her arm. Be a few days before she could use it properly again. “That thing, right now… Far too dangerous for any Pokemon Trainer to handle. Best to give it to them, see if they can rehabilitate it.”

“If not?” Lucario asked, not sure if he really wanted to know. Sunset picked up on his line of thinking and was quick to reassure him.

“Not what you’re thinking,” Sunset replied, stifling a laugh as she watched Lucario devour the pancakes like a Tepig would take to slop. She idly wondered if it would be possible to get Oran Berries in those pancakes, remembering how much Lucario had liked them back when he was a Riolu. “It’d be sent off to a place like the Safari Zone in Kanto, where it could live out the rest of its natural life in peace and not be bothered by anyone, not even trainers.”

“Perhaps that would be for the best.” Lucario mused to himself, taking another bite out of his pancakes. Then, his ears perked up and Sunset looked at him in concern.

“What is it?”

Then, she heard it. A loud screeching of “SKAAAARRRRMMMORY!” and Lucario immediately looked tense as he looked skywards and saw one of the Armor Bird Pokémons circling high above them in the sky. Almost in an instant, Lucario froze up, petrified with fear.

“A Skarmony… Damien had three of them. They’re the reason how you found me the way you did,” Lucario growled out, pure hatred filling his voice and Sunset went for Talon’s ball before her eyes narrowed as she got a good look at the Pokemon’s rider. Or make that riders.

“Wait, that’s not Damien’s… See?” Sunset asked, pointing to the two figures on the Skarmory’s back as it flew in closer. The first rider was a male, black spiky hair and wearing a blue button-up vest and matching fedora with a black trim. The second was yet another Lucario. Sunset wracked her brain, something about this man seemed… familiar. Her Lucario on the other hand, was taking deep, calming breaths and trying very hard not to hyperventilate.

As the Skarmony landed in the streets, the rider climbed off of it and said “Skarmony, return.” before returning the Armor Bird Pokémon to its Pokeball in a flash of red light. The man and his Lucario walked up to Sunset’s table. Sunset quickly looked up Skarmony’s entry in her Pokedex.

“Skarmory is entirely encased in hard, protective armor. This Pokémon flies at close to 190 mph. It slashes foes with its wings that possess swordlike cutting edges. Its steel wings become tattered and bashed in from repeated battles. Once a year, the battered wings grow back completely, restoring the cutting edges to their pristine state. In times long past, warriors used them as swords.”

Lucario winced, he could believe that. Those damned Steel Wing attacks Skarmony could perform were nothing to laugh at.

Then, it hit Sunset. Where she’d seen this man before.

“Wait… I know you…” Sunset murmured before she snapped her fingers in recognition. “You’re Riley, aren’t you? Professor Rowan mentioned you a few times over the phone! Hell, you even came to the lab once if I remember right...”

Riley nodded as he pulled up a chair. “Yeah, that I did. Professor Elm called me in as soon as he heard about Lucario. Took me a few days to get here, but… here I am. Elm figured that on the off chance you got Lucario to trust you -And I see that you have, given that you’re sharing breakfast together- you’d need my help to train him properly. Or be more accurate, my Lucario’s help,” Riley said, gesturing to his own partner. Lucario, in an instant, could sense this new Lucario was far more powerful in the ways of Aura and much stronger in strength. Bigger, bulkier and radiating sheer power. Riley had obviously taken care of him quite well. Lucario honestly wouldn’t be surprised if Riley’s Lucario could undergo Mega Evolution he’d heard about in hushed rumors back when he was a young pup in the forest.

“Well, can’t say I’d be grateful for the assist,” Sunset admitted sheepishly, with a nervous laugh as she rubbed the back of her head. “Fighting or Steel-types aren’t really the kind of Pokemon I’m used to training. Fire or Flying types, yes, but this… I’m sorta out of my depth here.”

Sunset could see why Elm called Riley in. For any other fighting type, he could just call in a fighting type specialist like Maylene from Sinnoh or Cianwood’s own Gym Leader Chuck, but Lucarios required a special type of trainer for them to reach their full potential. The only trainers that could do this were ones at least partially skilled in the ways of Aura, and Riley just happened to be one of the few specialists who knew how to use it.

“Any port in a storm, I guess…” Lucario agreed, knowing he could easily get stronger just by training with a much more powerful member of his species.

Riley nodded, hearing both of them. “So, that settles it. Let’s begin later this afternoon. Unfortunately, I can’t stay long, as Aggron mating season begins back on Iron Island soon and I’ll have to help keep things under control, so I’ll just have to give you a crash course as best I as I can in the time allowed.”

“I understand, other responsibilities and all that,” Sunset replied with a nod.

“So…” Riley’s Lucario began, cracking his knuckles as he looked directly at the younger Lucario, who couldn’t help but swallow nervously. “Are you ready?”

Author's Note

First off, hope you had a very merry Christmas all of you. Now, the Gyarados, (Huge thanks to Shadowmane PX-41 and Legolassy for suggestions on what to do with it.) wasn't planned to use it in any major way, but considering HB_DS2013 and Black_Knight suggested Sunset should at least try and tame it, the scene got in.

Also, Riley. This was one of my own ideas, as I really wanted to get him in, and considering he's an Aura Guardian in Training at the very least, I figured he and his own Lucario (I really need to name it, considering Sunset's and his will be sharing the same page for a bit. Suggestions appreciated) should probably show up to give Sunset a hand, and boost Lucario's confidence a bit more.

Part 7: Hard Training, and Harsh Lessons

Riley and Sunset, along with their respective Lucarios met up on a portion of Cianwood’s beach, far enough away from the town so that they wouldn’t be disrupted.

“Feel the energy of the Earth around you, feel the Aura. It’s with you at all times, never lose sight of that,” Riley’s Lucario -Or Luke as he preferred to be known as- instructed.

“I… I cannot,” Sunset’s Lucario admitted after a few moments.

“Just try. You have the potential. Just reach out, and sense the farthest thing you can. Doesn’t have to be miles away, can only be just a couple feet ahead hidden beyond your sight,” Luke instructed calmly. “I know you can do it, you can already sense things close by even if you can’t see them. Now we just have to expand that horizon. Block out the rest of the world, let the impossible… become possible,”

Then Sunset’s Lucario shut his eyes and felt everything around him. Nothing else mattered, nothing but the Aura. And as he followed the older Lucario’s instructions, he then sensed something. A selection of Pidgeys roosting in the trees for an afternoon nap, Ratata running through the bushes bringing meals back to their burrows.

“Good… Good!” Luke praised, pleased by his student’s progress. “Just take things slow, don’t rush them. This is not something you can become a master of in just a few short days. Now let us move on to something a little easier. The Aura Sphere. To use a variation on a training method on an Anime I watched once, imagine you holding a water balloon, making it expand with water until you have a full sphere. Replace that water with your Aura, and you are one step closer,”

Sunset’s Lucario grunted as he focused all of his Aura energy into one of his paws, and little by little, a tiny sphere formed until it blinked out of existence entirely. Lucario hung his head in shame.

“I… I have failed…” He whispered in self-disgust until Riley’s Lucario slapped him around the back of the head.

“Don’t tell yourself that! No, you haven’t failed at all!” Luke admonished. “That is astounding for someone so new at this, for most Lucario it would take several days to even form a tiny sphere like that!”

“I… I just imagined forming a Focus Blast, and applied the Aura Sphere technique to it, that’s all,” Sunset’s Lucario admitted.

“Then, you’re that much closer. Knowing Focus Blast is a good stepping stool to learning Aura Sphere. Actually, now that we’re on the subject of moves, a practice battle is in order I think. Just to see where you stand,”

And so the battle began. Nearby, Sunset and Riley stood watching the two Lucario duke it out. Luke got in close with a series of punches and kicks, Close Combat. Even with the Mind Reader move, Lucario was unable to catch all of them and almost never knew where the next blow would come from.

Sunset’s Lucario charged up a Force Palm and thrusted Luke back a few feet, stirring up some of the sand beneath their paws, but he was quick to retaliate and formed a bone club of blue energy in his paws and swung at Lucario with it like it was a baseball bat. Lucario leaped above the attack and kicked Luke in the face but was soon sent flying back by a Blaze Kick. This being a Fire Type attack, and Lucario being part Steel, you can imagine what happened.

“Your Lucario, he’s too specialized. Too focused on Fighting-type moves,” Riley noted as he observed, as Sunset ran over to her Lucario and sprayed him with a potion. “You need to branch him out, teach him moves that would be useful against various types of Pokemon.”

“Then what do I do?” Sunset asked, looking towards Riley.

“This… This is where we come in,” His Lucario answered. “I’m not leaving, nor is my trainer until Lucario is fully ready for a real battle. And that starts, with him overcoming his fear of Skarmories. If he faces one and freezes up mid-battle, the outcome would be obvious.”

Just then, Riley let out his own Skarmory. As his Lucario predicted, Sunset’s Lucario froze up in fear just as soon as he saw her.

“Get… Get away from me!” Lucario snarled out. But the Skarmory didn’t and instead stepped forwards. Sunset tried to run to Lucario, but Riley pulled her back.

“No, he needs this,” He instructed. “Just watch, I promise you Lucario won’t be harmed.”

True to Riley’s words, the Skarmory didn’t even hurt Lucario, not in the slightest. Instead, she talked to him.

“You don’t have to tell me your story, about why you’re so afraid of me,” She said in a motherly tone, not too far removed from Sunset’s Dragonair. “I can read it all over your face. Dive-bombed right?”She asked and Sunset’s Lucario nodded.

“Listen, now normally us Skarmory are very gentle. We have a rule. Don’t bother us, and we won’t bother you. I suspect, given what little I overheard from Elm, that wasn’t the case with you. Something different happened to you. I am not that kind of Skarmony. To us, the flock is everything. Loyalty is everything, you understand?”

Lucario nodded, slowly getting over his fear of this Skarmory. She reminded him of a Spearow, her demeanor, and attitudes to flocks. Lucario nervously reached out to touch one of her crimson red wing feathers but hesitated.

“Go on, you can touch them. It won’t bother me.”the Skarmory replied, and Lucario nervously stroked her wingblades.

“T-Thank you…” He whispered. “Thank you, Ms…”

“Just call me Hellina. All of my friends do.”

“Then thank you… Hellina.” Lucario whispered as the Skarmory gave him a gentle nibble on one of his ears and Sunset smiled. Just one small step at a time, that’s what it took.

Dusk fell, and as the Pokemon Center was a good distance away, Riley had decided it would be best for Sunset and all of her Pokemon to camp out on the beach with him, Luke and Hellina. Currently, he was laying up against a rock fast asleep, the brim of his fedora hiding his face. His Lucario lay nearby, snoozing in the summer night, the soft waves against the shore lulling them both to sleep. However, not all were asleep, as shown by Sunset’s Lucario, still hard at work practicing his Aura Sphere.

Continually, he tried to focus his inner energy and continually, failed to produce more than a tiny sphere which quickly blinked out of existence.

Rufflet and Ninetales stood awake and alert nearby, both keeping an eye out for any danger and watching Lucario in interest. Ninetales, although he didn’t know much about the Aura Sphere move for obvious reasons had a feeling the only way Lucario was going to produce a good sized one was during the heat of battle. He’d found, quite often during an intense battle, his Dopamine and Adrenaline levels would be skyrocketing and he’d be able to focus much more on powerful attacks than usual. Ninetales suspected the same of Lucario. He’d have to ask Riley’s own when morning came.

Nearby, Dragonair and Talonflame were nestled up to Sunset protectively near her sleeping bag. It perhaps could be compared to a giant cuddle pile of scales, skin, and feathers. It was rather adorable, watching the rise and falls of their chests and how close they were to their trainer.

Interestingly, it appeared Dragonair wasn’t fully asleep as occasionally one eye popped open and darted around in search of any potential threats, not too dissimilar to various cat-like Pokemon’s sleeping patterns. Not that anybody could probably blame her really for being paranoid. This was still the same beach where a Gyarados had snuck up on Lucario and Sunset with very little warning and almost succeeded in killing them after all. Unsurprisingly, Sunset had yet to reveal that little factoid to her mother over the phone and was probably trying to put it off for as long as possible. Arceus only knew how her mother would take her baby girl being nearly swallowed up by a Gyarados. Seeing no potential threats, from the beach or the nearby woodlands, Dragonair curled back around Sunset, resting her head near Sunset’s in the sand nearby.

Lucario threw a kick, and then another kick and added a few punches to the mix each time speeding up his attacks. This was an attempt to self-teach himself the Close Combat maneuver that Riley’s Lucario had given him so much trouble with in their practice match.

By this time, Rufflet had lost interest and had gone off to explore escaping everyone’s notice. It caught notice of something slithering in the bushes and Rufflet let out a small squawk of triumph as his eyes narrowed at the challenge and launched a series of Peck attacks at the purple form he’d found. This turned out to be a very large mistake, as he soon found himself lifted up by the leg by one very ticked off Arbok.

“Meema, help!” Rufflet shouted. Sunset didn’t hear his cries, but somebody else did. A set of ears perked up, and eyes narrowed as paws began hitting the ground as Lucario rushed to the rescue.

“Get away from him!” he barked as the Aura Pokémon roundhouse-kicked the Arbok in the face knocking Rufflet from his grip and into Lucario’s waiting arms.

He gently sat the Eaglet Pokémon down on the ground and said softly “Here, you get going. I’ll handle this,”

“But-”

“GO!” Lucario barked as he stared down his opponent. Rufflet got the message and ran for it.

Suddenly, the Arbok’s eyes narrowed in pure hatred, and Lucario’s mind flashbacked.

“Get away from her…” Lucario growled out. The Arbok hissed and launched itself towards Lucario firing Poison Sting after Poison Sting from it’s mouth like a machine gun. Lucario jumped to the left and then to the right with Agility to avoid the stings as the Arbok flew past him.

He let out a low growl, this was the exact same Arbok that had attacked Kiara when he was younger, and now the cycle was repeating itself with Rufflet. The Arbok launched itself forwards, and Lucario smirked.

“So, it’s a re-match you want huh? Well, if that’s how it’s going to be…”

Lucario leaped to the left allowing the Arbok’s body to hit the sand and it let out a hiss of anger before firing Poison Sting after Poison Sting.

“New battlefield… Same old tactics…” Lucario muttered to himself as he dodged left and right to avoid the stingers and pulled back his fist and to his surprise, he found it crackling with electricity. Lucario Thunder-Punched the giant snake and it hissed out in pain.

“Hey, what’s going on here?” Ninetales shouted before his eyes narrowed when he saw Rufflet on the ground whimpering in pain and Lucario fighting off a very angry Arbok. Even in his tired mind, he could surmise what had happened. His eyes narrowed in rage, and just as Lucario launched another Thunder Punch -Much to Ninetales’ shock, confirming his earlier theory- the Fox Pokémon fired off an Ice Beam at the Arbok. Both attacks hit dead-on, and the Pokemon slithered off hissing in both pain and anger.

As soon as the Arbok had fled, Lucario soon found himself smacked around the head by an Iron Tail attack.

Despite Lucario being a Steel-type himself, that Iron Tail attack did sting a little, perhaps due to the fact that he was hit by all nine of Ninetales’ tails.

“What was that for?” Lucario snapped, rubbing his head in pain.

“What do you think? Being a moron, that’s what!” Ninetales barked back.

“I was protecting Rufflet, I really don’t think that qualifies as being a moron!” Lucario snapped back.

“No, but you were being a reckless idiot though!” Ninetales shouted back and Lucario held back a growl. Hellina groaned, having been awakened by all the arguing and walked over, Sunset’s Pokedex in her beak.

“Here, perhaps this will help,” she said and sat down the Pokedex. “Just look up Rufflet’s entry in it, that’ll explain things.”

Of course, what she hadn’t counted on was Lucario’s inability to use such a thing. After a few minutes of fiddling, he’d still been unable to bring up the entry in question.

“How… How does Sunset do this?” Lucario thought in frustration as he tried pushing the various buttons on the Pokedex. Finally, taking pity on the Aura Pokemon, Ninetales sighed and shoved him out of the way.

“Here, let me, ya idiot.” Ninetales sighed and began carefully using taps of his paws to find Rufflet’s entry in the Pokedex. (But not before using one of his tails to slap himself in the face in embarrassment at Lucario.)

“Rufflet, the Eaglet Pokémon. They can crush berries with their talons. They bravely stand up to any opponent, no matter how strong it is without any form of fear. They do this not out of courage, but out of sheer recklessness. However, their frequent fights help them become stronger till their eventual evolution.”

Ninetales then brought up the entry for Braviary. A holographic image of a giant eagle-like Pokemon, dark red feathers on its back and dark blue feathers lining the underside. The tail feathers were a combination of dark blue and yellow. Its two feet ended in sharp talons with an equally dangerous looking beak on the tip of the Pokemon’s face. On the head, it was covered with a plume of white feathers, extending almost all of the way down to its. All in all, the entire head of Braviary looked as if it wore a Native American war bonnet.

“Braviary, the Valiant Pokémon, and the evolved form of Rufflet. Because of its devotion to its friends, Braviary will continue battling, long even after sustaining injury. This reputation has earned it the title “Soldier of the Sky”. The more scars it earns, the more respect it gains from its flock or comrades.”

“That…” Hellina commented, gesturing to the holographic image, “Is what Rufflet hopes to one day become, a fierce fighter who would take on all comers, no matter their size and would have the power to back it up.”

Lucario read and scrolled through the entry with widened eyes before he frowned.

“But still, attacking an opponent such as an Arbok without any plan is no excuse. He could have been hurt or, worse… And at such a young age! Even I can tell he’s barely at battling age!” the Aura Pokémon snarled out.

“Yes…” Hellina admitted. “I don’t like it as much as you do either, but it’s not in our nature to interfere with the ways of other Pokemon. Our world is cruel and unforgiving, but we all have our natures and they must be respected. Ask yourself, would you interfere in a dance of the Clefairies worshipping a Moon Stone, or a Bagon smashing his head against a rock or jumping off a cliff in hoping to fly like his Salamence brothers and sisters?”

“Not in YOUR nature perhaps, but it is in mine. If it led to the Pokemon in question’s safety, yes… I would,” Lucario snarled back at the Skarmory, making her eyes widen in surprise. “Yes, I would interfere. There’s a difference between not interfering and protecting those who can’t do it themselves, is there not?”

“You’re starting to sound more and more like a Sword of Justice every day, and not that there’s anything wrong with that I admit,” Hellina replied. “But interfering in a Pokemon’s natural way of growth? Maybe you and I were raised differently, but honestly…”

“Honestly?” Lucario growled out, and Ninetales wisely had taken a few steps back, not wanting to get in the middle of the two Steel-Types. “You know it’s wrong, and what if Rufflet had been killed? He’s like a son to Sunset. Ask yourself, what if you had seen your chick killed because of what Rufflet pulled? What if you had a chick and he or she did something similar and wound up dead because of it?”

Lucario knew that was a low blow, but it was an effective one, as evidenced by Hellina hanging her head.

“You’re… You’re absolutely right, I’m sorry. I… I wasn’t thinking right. I’ve been raised in the wild, taught by my parents the ways of Pokemon thinking, but not the ways of thinking like a parent or older brother figure in this case. For that, I apologize.”Hellina said, hanging her head in shame before she chuckled.

“What’s so funny?” Lucario asked curiously, an eyebrow raised.

“It seems you were the one to teach me something now. I helped you get over your fear of my kind, taught you that not all of us are monsters, and now look who’s learning something… I’m sorry Lucario, you were right and I was wrong.”

Lucario said nothing but instead went to find Rufflet who was shivering and shaking in fear.

“That… That mean old snake won’t try and eat me again, will it?” Rufflet whispered, and Lucario pulled him into a hug.

“No, not while I’m around. Not if I have anything to say about it. Besides, one day you’ll be soaring up there in the skies as a Braviary and those snakes will be the ones afraid of you, I imagine.”

“You really mean that?” Rufflet asked, eyes widened and Lucario sat down beside him.

“Sure. Now, lemme tell you about a Spearow friend of mine from when I was just a young pup, not much older than you actually…”

Author's Note

Okay, first of... Happy New Year to you all! Now, on this chapter. Not really sure if I got down how a Lucario would be trained, but to be honestly fair, I'm really not sure any type of Pokemon continuity went into training on in-depth. (Also, thank you Black_Knight for suggesting a good name for Riley's Lucario.)

Now, on Hellina. Interesting thing, the start of Lucario's training and Lucario's first conversation with her was supposed to take place last chapter, but because of the addition of the Gyarados scene, and the fact that where I ended the previous chapter made a good cliffhanger, I moved it here instead. Also, apologies if she came across as a self-righteous holier than thou bitch. Not my intent. Honestly, that entire argument between her and Lucario, along with Ninetales was to add a bit more world-building to this piece, provide more insights on wild Pokemon culture.

Part 8: The Cianwood City Gym

“Eat up!” Sunset barked, pulling on her signature leather jacket over an orange shirt with a sunset on it -With a little help from Mismagius, a broken arm wouldn’t heal fully for a good while after all- before she filled up each of her Pokemon’s food bowls. The sun rose over the horizon behind them, yet another day in Cianwood. Although if Sunset had anything to say about it, today would be the final day in the beachfront community. “Today’s the big day, we’ve got a gym to challenge today and I want you all to be at your best! So, a hearty breakfast for you all is in order!”

Lucario sat away from the group, as usual, still not feeling completely comfortable with being a part of a team after his last experience on one. He instead opted for grabbing a handful of his food from his bowl and eating it in silence as he rested himself atop a boulder.

“Lucario…” Sunset murmured to herself sadly and Riley laid a hand on her shoulder.

“Give him time, he needs to proceed at his own pace,” the Steel-Type expert and Aura Guardian in training advised. “You can’t force him to eat with the others if he doesn’t want to.”

“Yeah, I suppose…” Sunset muttered adjusting her baseball cap as she tied her long red and yellow hair into a ponytail. Sunset sighed to herself, as much as she didn’t want to admit it, Riley was right. She couldn’t just force Lucario into situations he didn’t want to be in. The sad thing was, because of the way he was raised Lucario was probably always going to be an anti-social type.

Sunset noted Riley’s personal Skarmory walk up to Lucario and began to strike up a conversation. Whatever they were talking about, it was evident Lucario wanted it to be kept private as he kept his mind closed off from her empathic abilities.

“Listen… About last night…” Lucario began only to be quickly cut off by Hellina holding a talon up to his muzzle to shush him.

“No, everything’s fine, no apologies needed. We’ve already been through this, no need to go through it again,” the older Pokémon quickly said, still sounding somewhat ashamed of herself. “I was wrong, you were right, end of story. We clear on that?”

Personally, Hellina didn’t want to dwell on their little argument any longer than necessary. Lucario nodded in understanding. “Clear. Although something’s still bothering me. Should we tell Sunset about Rufflet and the Arbok last night? It’s already happened and nothing came of it, so I don’t see the point.”

“You want to worry her about something like that, and give her nightmares about her chick almost dying when she wasn’t there to stop it?” Hellina asked, a raised eyebrow present before she began to eye Lucario critically.

“No point to it as I said before, we already dealt with the matter, and Rufflet’s safe. I don’t think we need to worry her needlessly,” Lucario replied. “Rufflets are reckless, it’s in their nature isn’t it? Sunset probably already knows this, given she’s raising one. It might happen again, but this time I’ll be around to help him if he does, and besides, I think this particular Rufflet’s learned his lesson about challenging opponents far stronger than him.”

He then turned to Sunset’s direction, watching the young woman roughhouse with Ninetales in the sand. The Ninetales pounced on her, and Sunset laughed and tried to tell him to get off as he licked his trainer’s face affectionately.

“Ooh, Ninetales uses Pounce and then a Lick attack!” Flareon shouted, in mock-commentary fashion. “They’re Super-Effective!”

Talonflame smacked his face with a wing and shook his head muttering “Idiots…” while Dragonair chuckled.

“Besides… Would you really want to ruin her morning right now?” the Aura Pokémon asked, gesturing to the scene before them.

“Alright… You’ve made your point, but you’re telling her later okay? Got that?” Hellina commanded.

Lucario nodded in understanding as he chuckled at the antics of Sunset and her team. He’d tell her, just not right now. She deserved a bit of relaxation and time to unwind after the past few days, really.

Eventually, Ninetales got up off his trainer and went for his breakfast, a nice assortment of various colored poffins. It was his preferred food, as the way these Poffins were made it kept him looking nice and beautiful. And that was just the way he liked it.

“You keep chugging those things down, and you’re going to look fat, not beautiful,” Flareon teased. “Just saying…”

“Hey, don’t think I’ve caught you sneaking a glance at Combee Honey Jars every now and then whenever we’re at the Pick a Peck of Colors Flower Shop back in Sinnoh. Mew knows you have a craving for the stuff…”

“Hey, don’t you mock the Combee Honey! That stuff’s a godsend!” Flareon snapped. “And besides, that’s not the reason I like that place and you know it as well as I do! We’re both sneaking glances at Forsythia’s Roserade every chance we get!”

“You never said anything about that, at least on your part. Everybody knew I was, but you…?” Ninetales trailed off with a wily little smirk on his face and that incited a bit of laughter from some of the other members of Sunset’s team. That included Dragonair. It seemed she wasn’t quite so above it all, evidently.

“Well, this is an interesting way to start the day isn’t it?” Dragonair commented, a small amused smile on her face.

“Yep,” Mismagius agreed. “The daily argument about something or other from the Peanut Gallery. Never fails. Next thing you know they’ll be going in the slap-slap-kiss direction and well…”

“You’ve been on the internet again reading yaoi fanfictions, haven’t you?” Dragonair asked, with a raised eyebrow.

“Maybe…” the Magical Pokémon trailed off, a little smirk on her face. Should have been called the Mischievous Pokémon really.

Flareon and Ninetales’ jaws dropped in unison and they tried to sputter out responses as to how they weren’t gay as Talonflame shot a disgusted look in Dragonair and Mismagius’ directions.

“Like I said… Idiots, the whole lot of them…” the Scorching Pokémon muttered to himself, still shaking his head in embarrassment with whom he had to put up with. Sometimes he wondered if he was the only sane or at least completely mature ‘Mon in the group at times.

Cianwood City Gym:

Later that afternoon Sunset stood in front of the Gym, confidence filling her. She’d faced off against Fighting-Type Gyms before, namely Maylene back in her home region of Sinnoh at the Veilstone City Gym. So in her mind, this would be a piece of cake.

“Just like any other Gym Battle, use the strategy I’ve come up with and bring home the win and another Badge and I’ll be one more step up the ladder towards the Silver Conference…” She thought to herself.

Speaking of Sinnoh, Riley had left a few hours before after his Lucario had given Sunset’s own some more hard training. It had paid off in dividends, with the battle ending in a draw after Lucario debuted his new Thunder Punch. You could tell Lucario himself was much more powerful, slightly bigger and bulkier in muscle structure. He carried himself with more confidence as well, a far cry from when Sunset had found him on the beach covered in blood.

The Gym itself was Japanese in styling, like an old karate dojo with blue shingles on the roof and white walls. Flanking either side of the entrance were two stone Marowak statues. Outside the Gym stood a sign, reading these words:
“Cianwood City Pokémon Gym
Leader: Chuck
His Roaring Fists Do the Talking”

“Well, that’s not going to scare people off at all…” Lucario commented in a remarkably deadpan tone of voice.

“That’s the point I believe,” Talonflame remarked from his perch on a nearby building. “He’s trying to make the trainers less confident in themselves, make things more of a challenge for them. Gym Badges have to be earned, it’s not like Leaders can just give them away… It’s a test of both Trainer and Pokémon.” he lectured with Sunset nodding at his statement. “Should be an easy win for us, not like Sunset hasn’t gone up against Fighting Types before.”

The Scorching Pokémon’s words struck a chord with Lucario, and he looked directly at Sunset as an idea came to his mind.

“Sunset? A request?” He asked somewhat nervously -afraid what he’d be asking would be rejected outright- and his trainer looked directly at him. “I want to challenge this Gym… No, I need to challenge this Gym.”

Sunset was taken aback. “Lucario… Are you sure? I know you’re stronger and all, but challenging a Fighting-Type specialist such as Chuck…” she trailed off, worried that a loss by Lucario against Chuck’s powerful Poliwrath would ruin his self-confidence and reset everything that Sunset had done to help him believe in himself again. But Lucario stood steadfast in his beliefs.

“I have to prove myself, it’s the only way I’ll know if all of that training Riley and his Lucario gave me was worth it.” Lucario stated firmly.

“He’s right Sunset,” Dragonair said from inside her Pokeball. “He needs to do this, it’s the only way.”

“Alright…” Sunset sighed before mustering up her courage and opening the Gym doors. “Let’s do this...”

And if you listened closely, one could hear a small whispered “Thank you…” from Lucario.

When they entered the interior of the gym, the two found it was vastly different from the exterior. It was styled after a cave, with a fake waterfall pooling into a small lake constructed at the other end of the gym. At the top of the waterfall was a mechanism that with a series of gears connected to a switch could raise and lower a gate onto the waterfall cutting it off. The only thing that marked it as a Fighting Style Gym was the big dojo mat in the center of the arena and the bleachers on either side of the room.

Sunset’s eyes narrowed. Underneath that torrent of a waterfall was a massive giant of a man, wearing only a set of white shorts and covered in bristling muscles. That could only be Chuck himself.

“Well, he sure takes his training seriously…” Sunset trailed off.

“...I like him already.” Talon smirked. “Willing to push his body to the bone to train, now there’s a Gym Leader for you.”

“Wonder what that means for his Pokemon?” Sunset wondered to herself before looking at Lucario in concern. “If you want me to substitute you for someone else, you don’t have to be afraid to ask…” She told him kindly.

“No, I will beat him. No backing down now. I walked into this fight, and I’m not running away.”

“Okay then…” Sunset trailed off and nervously swallowed wondering what she was about to subject Lucario to. Taking a deep breath, she walked up to the cut-off mechanism and pulled the switch, lowering the gate onto the waterfall.

“Ooomph! The waterfall pounding right onto my head…” Chuck rumbled. “Why’d you stop the waterfall from pouring on me!?! You just spoiled my training! I have to warn you that I’m a strong Trainer spending practically his every waking hour when I’m not battling under this waterfall!”

Sunset’s only thought was “What the Hell did I get myself into?” her earlier confidence fading before it sparked up again.

“Chuck, I’m here for your Storm Badge!” she shouted in declaration. No backing down now, this was it. Ah, there it was. That feeling, the one every Pokemon trainer got when they challenged an opponent. The adrenaline pumping through their veins, the anticipation of an upcoming battle! Sunset looked into Chuck’s eyes and knew he shared the same feelings.

Chuck bowed. “Well, who am I to refuse such a request from a fine trainer such as you? After all, I can see the work you’ve put into your Pokémon! And you have a Lucario with you, very impressive indeed! No small feat, befriending one,” the Gym Leader complimented. “Very well, we shall have our battle! This’ll be a 3 on 3 battle with no substitutions, understand?”

Sunset nodded in understanding and bowed back before the battle began as Chuck threw out his first Pokeball, with the local black belt martial artists under Chuck’s training regime gathering to watch…

Eventually, the battle wound down to its final stages. Like Sunset had predicted, Chuck’s Pokemon were just as intensely trained as he was. It had been a matchup with Flareon against a powerful Primeape that started off things, and after many exchanged blows and launched attacks Flareon had come out on top ending things with a powerful Flame Charge.

“Great…” Ninetales had muttered on the subject. “That’ll feed his ego even more…”

He’d smirked when Chuck had sent out his next Pokemon, a Breloom from the Hoenn region. He’d at the time thought it would be a piece of cake and laughed it off, but that laughter was soon to fade when the Mushroom Pokémon had defeated him with a Brick Break/Solar Beam combo.

From the stands, Lucario had winced at the sheer power of the Breloom that had been on display and knew that whatever he faced next, would be even more powerful. Rufflet, on the other hand, looked eager.

“Now, that’s an opponent!” the Eaglet Pokemon had squawked out. “Meema, when I get strong enough can I face him?”

“Sure… Sure you can…” Sunset had nervously replied. She was still nervous about Rufflet’s near brush with death thanks to an Arbok from what Lucario had told her. So understandably, she was nervous about letting the baby Pokemon going into battle anytime soon.

“You’ve been running me ragged, I’ll give you that young miss. Your Pokemon are very well trained. What’s your name?” Chuck asked, clutching his last Pokeball in hand.

“Sunset. Sunset Shimmer.” Sunset replied and Chuck smiled warmly at her. He recognized that name, he’d heard about her from a Videophone call from his fellow Fighting-Type specialist and Gym Leader Maylene praising a challenger who’d won her Cobble Badge in Sinnoh.

“Well, you’re a very good trainer for getting this far,” the Gym Leader said, not letting his recognition of Sunset’s name show. “But don’t get too cocky. After all, we haven't lost yet! There’s still this Pokemon you have to face…” Chuck warned.

Then, he threw out his last Pokemon. The one both Lucario and Sunset had been fearing. Poliwrath. This was a giant blue Pokemon, wearing what looked to be boxing gloves. But that wasn't the most notable feature, oh no. That would have been the massive and almost hypnotic black and white swirl that took up most of the Pokemon’s chest.

The two Pokemon stared each other down each seemingly trying to size each other up before they charged at each other.

Lucario threw a powerful Thunder Punch at Poliwrath but it was easily dodged by the powerful fighting type and he was hit in the chest and sent flying backwards by a powerful Mega Kick.

Lucario grunted in pain from the blow, but wasn’t going to give up.

“Hmm,” Talonflame observed from his place on the wooden rafters that held the roof up, his wings folded up against his sides. “Trouble is, given the fact that FIghting-Type moves are hugely effective against Steel-Types, Lucario 's not in a good spot here. The only real advantage he's got here is his Thunder Punch attack to deal with Poliwrath's Water-Typing.” the Scorching Pokémon mused to himself. “Chuck’s Poliwrath is much better trained then Lucario, even with Lucario going through Riley’s training. And then there’s that other issue... Lucario still hasn’t mastered his species signature move, the Aura Sphere, the only other move he could use to pull out a win… Oh, this is going to be close, I know that much…”

Lucario himself was thinking along the same lines as he ducked and dodged the powerful blows sent out by Chuck’s Poliwrath. Even as he fought, his mind wandered elsewhere, back to his teacher’s training earlier that day…

“Now remember,” Luke had growled out. “I’m not here to hold your hand throughout all of this. I’m only staying around for a few more hours before me and Riley have to head back to Iron Island to keep the peace. I’m only a guide, a stepping stone if you will towards reaching your true potential, understand?”

Sunset’s Lucario nodded in understanding before their battle resumed. Punches and kicks were thrown and wills clashed. “Come on Lucario, you can do it! The aura’s with you! Focus that energy!”

Lucario impacted Riley’s own with a powerful Force Palm sending him sliding back in the sand but Luke hit him with a powerful Cross Chop attack. Lucario growled and retaliated with a Thunder Punch, and lightning met fire as Luke used his powerful Blaze Kick move. It was training from Hell, sure, but Riley’s Lucario knew that this member of his species needed that kind of training. And he was fair, pointing out mistakes when Lucario made them. Nor was he needlessly cruel. He knew Sunset’s Lucario could potentially beat him, he just needed more practice. He only wished he had more time.

“Come on, I know you can do better than this!”Luke urged him on. “Get your head in the game!”

Back in the present, Lucario reminded himself that he had to stay focused, otherwise, he was going to lose this battle. He leaped onto rocks like a game of leapfrog as Poliwrath fired his Bubble Beam attack, smashing each rock to rubble upon impact. Lucario landed on the mat once again and threw a Thunder Punch, but to his surprise, it only met air.

What had happened was while he was so busy focusing on dodging the Bubble Beam attacks, he’d missed Chuck shouting out for Poliwrath to dig under the ground. Lucario’s eyes searched the surrounding area, darting from left to right as he tried to figure out which way the Tadpole Pokémon was tunneling directly underneath his paws.

Lucario was starting to panic, his breaths getting more frantic and his heartbeat speeding up in fear.

“Where… Where is he?” Lucario thought to himself. Up in the rafters, Talonflame groaned. He knew what was about to happen.

“Damnit Lucario, the last thing you should do in a match is lose your cool! Think, you can sense that damn thing with your Aura! Hell, you could read what it’s going to do next with the Mind Reader move!” Talonflame snapped, but of course, Lucario couldn’t hear him.

He was so panicked, he wasn’t thinking about any of this. And then, it happened. Poliwrath erupted from the ground right below the Aura Pokémon and hit him with a powerful uppercut of a Dynamic Punch knocking him flat.

Lucario’s last thoughts before he slipped into unconsciousness was: “How… How could I lose? Sunset… I’m sorry… I failed you…”

And then the announcer cemented it as Lucario hit the mat and Sunset rushed to his side in a frantic manner. “The Challenger, Sunset Shimmer is all out of Pokemon! The Gym Leader, Chuck, wins!”

When Lucario next awoke, he found himself in the Cianwood City Pokemon Center once again. As machines beeped and the evening sun shone through the window blinds, he took a look around before he gasped in shock. Standing over him was a Fearow, -wings tucked into her sides- with a familiar set of piercing green eyes he’d know anywhere.

“K-Kiara...?” Lucario gasped out.

Author's Note

Okay, first time around, I did have plans for Lucario to actually win this match, but then I realized it would create better drama, and a more interesting reunion for him and Kiara if he actually lost to Chuck. Now, on the Gym Arena itself, I tried to combine the anime's version of an actual dojo, with the Heartgold/Soulsilver map of a cave with a rushing waterfall. Huge thanks to Son Elec for that idea.

Also, on Kiara, and this sorta plays into the next chapter as well, I originally wasn't going to have her return at all. Just have her as a childhood friend that Lucario had memories of, but then I figured if she played such an important role in Lucario's past, it sorta figured that she'd probably go and search for him after he got captured, just out of worry. That Spearow Fluttershy had to handle way back in Ecruteak City? Originally, just a random male Spearow,
no bearing on the plot whatsoever. Then, when Kiara came along, I changed the gender and set it up as a Chekov's Gun.

Part 9: Reunions and Rematches

Cianwood City Pokemon Center:

“K-Kiara…?” Lucario whispered in shock, scarcely able to believe his pup-hood friend was sitting in front of him. But nonetheless, he wasn’t able to deny what was quite literally staring him in the face. He’d recognize those eyes of hers anywhere. “Is that you?”

“Oh, Lucario…” Kiara whispered lovingly, giving him an affectionate nuzzle before nipping at his ear. “You know perfectly well you’d never lose me, no matter where you went. I have always been by your side. I treasured your friendship after all. Probably the only friend I ever had in that forest who wasn’t a part of my flock. So, of course, I’d come to try and find you when I got old enough, powerful enough to leave the safety of the flock and look for you.”

Blushing, Lucario stuttered out “Yes… Yes, I did notice you’d finally evolved into a Fearow. Sorta hard not to, really.”

“Yes, my figure is pretty great, isn’t it?” Kiara teased, extending her wings just to show them off a bit. “...Still, shouldn’t let it go to my head though.”

“Probably not, no,” Lucario sniped back, forgetting about his utter humiliation at the Cianwood City Gym for the moment. “But you really flew out all the way from Ilex Forest just to find me? I mean, that’s miles away! And yet here you are in Cianwood, past the infamous storms that cover the Whirl Islands!”

Even Lucario had heard of the infamous weather conditions that made travel through the Whirl Islands nigh-impossible this time of year. Fearsome storms of great size and power covered the small archipelago of four islands, battering them with high winds and drenching monsoons. The weather systems had recently been theorized by scientists to have been carried by the trade winds all the way to the Alola Region to the southeast.

Of course, there were other theories if you dug deep enough into Johto’s local legends, even before modern day science got involved. If you were so inclined to turn to myth, you would find some rather… unusual theories. These were the kind most modern day Pokemon scientists scoffed at, but some older folk still held to be true. The kind of explanations they’d grown up with all of their lives. Some turned out to be true, some not.

Regional sailors and local islanders have speculated that the Legendary Pokemon Lugia, with its powerful wings that could blow a house right down to its foundations in one flap, could be the cause. Lugia, it is said, remains hidden beneath the sea or perhaps deep inside some cavern somewhere in the Whirl Island’s system of caves, fearing its own destructive powers. In fact, one old legend claimed that Lugia, if it did not keep its powers in check, could cause a mighty forty day storm of unparalleled might and power.

The Guardian of the Seas it may have been, but it’s said to be a mighty creature not to be trifled with, especially by unwary and unworthy trainers. There were tales going back centuries of its destructive power and might. However, quite oddly, there was a mirror side to these myths. Lugia, for its destructive capability the creature supposedly possessed, was believed to have the ability to actually calm the seas in times of great calamity. There were also stories of it rescuing sailors and Pokemon in distress from sinking ships, and bringing them to safety. Thus, it had earned the aforementioned nickname, and great respect and trepidation from local sailors.

A lot of this, of course, required an open mind. Sadly, so few people outside the Whirl Islands cared or honored this lore and mythology, scoffing at the idea of such a powerful pokémon’s existence. It’s been falling out of favor among the young, and those that know the tales have begun to dwindle in this modern era...

No matter what the cause, the fact remained the Whirl Islands was a dangerous route to travel by sea or by air during the summer time. Lucario was astounded Sunset and now Kiara had managed to make it through the archipelago despite the storms, not to mention the various whirlpools that gave the islands their name.

“And yet I survived…” Kiara bragged, and Lucario chuckled a bit. Seems being a Fearow hadn’t dulled down her confidence any. “Not without incident mind you. Trust me on this, finding you was quite the story…”

“One I’d love to hear, when we have the time.” Lucario replied, before giving a slight grunt of pain as he rubbed his jaw, still feeling the aftereffects of the punch delivered by Chuck’s powerful Poliwrath.

“Hey, we have all the time in the world, considering where you are and all…” Kiara replied and Lucario groaned.

“Yeah… Don’t remind me…” he muttered and Kiara blushed sheepishly as she gave out a small nervous laugh.

“Right, sorry… Forgot about that for a moment,” she apologized, rubbing the back of her head with a wing.

“So, how’d you know where to find me in here anyways?” Lucario asked, getting right to the point.

“Your new friend, the one with the bacon hair, told me,” Kiara replied, and gestured with a wing towards the doorway, where Sunset was leaning up against the frame. She gave a nervous little wave.

“Sorry, was I interrupting something?” she asked sheepishly, a red flush present on her face.

“No, no… Not at all!” Kiara said waving her over. “If you're interested, you're more than welcome to stay and listen.”

Sunset shrugged and pulled up a chair next to Lucario’s bed. “Weeeeelll,” she admitted as she scooted it closer to Kiara. “I ammmmm more than a little interested as to how you found your old friend all the way out here…”

“Same here,” Talon said, and everyone turned their heads to see him perched on the open windowsill. Dragonair was peeking her head in as well, equally interested.

“Welllll, it starts off like this, a little over a few months ago…” Kiara began…

Deep within the southern Ilex Forest:

It was only a few days after Kiara, still a tiny Spearow, had seen her best friend (And though she’d never even begun to think of it at the time, possibly maybe more…) sucked into a Pokeball by that blue haired trainer with the glasses. Currently, she was taking a flyover of the Ilex Forest, coasting over the tops of the trees with the springtime sun shining brightly high above her.

Vivillon, in their many wing patterns of varying color and beauty of all sorts, rose up from the treetops for an early morning flight. Kiara let a small smile creep onto her beak. She knew there was this thing called a Pokemon Gym nearby, and the guy who lived there -Kiara had never bothered to learn his name, honestly- specialized in Bug-Types. Any one of those Vivillon would make quite a catch, really. Or at least serve as a good conversation piece.

Kiara sighed as she reached a small clearing and set herself down on a nearby tree branch. Normally at this time of day, she and Lucario would be racing each other through the forest and launching attacks at each other to test and improve each other’s strength. That couldn't happen now. She let a small slip from her eye before wiping it away with a wing before anybody she knew could see it. She… She wasn't lonely, no! Not at all! She had plenty of friends in her own flock to play with in the forest!

“But… But none of them are Lucario, are they?” she thought to herself as she looked at a small pack of Zigzagoon, led by their evolved form, Linoone. She gave a wistful smile, that had to be the same pack Lucario stole an Oran Berry from back when he was just a Riolu. Back when they’d first met.

Kiara then took to the skies again. she’d just have to accept the fact that Lucario was probably living happily with his new trainer, and that she’d probably never see him again.

A few months passed, and summer was in full swing. Kiara had resigned herself to the fact that she’d probably never see Lucario again, and spent her time training hard with her flock mates.

“You miss him, don't you?” her father, a powerful Fearow of some years and the leader of the flock observed one day. “That Lucario friend of yours,”

“N-No, I don't!” Kiara stuttered. Her father gave her a look.

“Kiara, a father can tell when their child lies to them. I know you too well,” he said softly. “You think I don't know? I've seen you playing with him. I'd never seen you quite so happy in all of your life.”

“A-Alright already!” Kiara snapped, looking directly at her father as she fought back the tears “Fine. I admit it, I miss him! No, more than that, I love him!”

“I thought so, just watching you two… it was like me and your mom all over again. She was a real spitfire when she was your age. ...Still is actually,” the Fearow admitted before leaning in closer to his daughter. “Don't tell her I said that, okay? Promise?”

“Promise.” Kiara giggled. Her father then leaned in closer, and took her aside from the rest of the flock.

“Listen, I’m going to tell you something only your mother knew until now, as long as you promise to keep it quiet,” Kiara’s dad said and the little Spearow nodded. “I wasn’t born in the wild like the rest of the flock. I… I had a trainer once, full of a fire not unlike your own. From nearby Azalea Town. She sorta reminds me of you, really.”

Kiara’s jaw dropped as her father used his beak to pull an old Pokeball out from his chest feathers. As battered as it was, it was obvious her dad cherished it, from the way he gazed at it longingly. For the longest time, she thought her father was a wild Pokemon, but learning this, it changed Kiara’s perception of her father completely. It didn’t make sense, why hadn’t he told her this before?

But as she gave it further thought, pieces started to fall into place. Her father had always seemed stronger than your average run-of-the-mill Fearow, but she’d always chalked it up to particularly intense training and fights. And that was still true, but now she knew they always hadn’t been with Wild Pokemon in defense of his flock.

“What… What happened to her?” Kiara asked, not really sure if she wanted to know.

“...She… She died. Lung failure. There was nothing that could be done. She always had problems with illness, so she knew it’d come eventually. For seventeen long years, I enjoyed every moment I spent with her, from when I was a tiny Spearow right up till the day she died. I stayed with her until the very end” her father said sadly, his voice completely and utterly emotionless as painful memories came to the surface once more. “The adventures we had, the stories I could tell. Me and the rest, we were such a good team... She released me and the rest, when she lay on that fateful bed. She thought it was the right thing to do. She didn’t want us going to another unknown trainer. I kept my Pokeball in any case, my resting place for all those years. To honor her and our time together. I haven’t seen the rest of the team since.”

“By Arceus dad… I never knew…” Kiara whispered giving her father a comforting nuzzle with her head. He then nudged the Pokeball to her.

“Take it, find your friend. Let his trainer capture you with this Pokeball. Now that its former owner is… gone, it’s not registered with the Pokemon League. So, nobody can accuse your trainer of ever stealing you.”

“You don’t want to do that. Lucario’s trainer is accused of something I would never wish on any Pokemon. He’s a disgrace to humankind,” a voice boomed as a massive Ibex like Pokemon covered in blue fur trudged out of the forest. Both Kiara and her father bowed at the sight of him.

“L-Lord Cobalion…” both Kiara and her father whispered. Cobalion looked directly at Kiara.

“Ah, so you’re the spirited young little Fearow to be who gave Lucario such a fighting spirit?” He confirms. “For that… I thank you. Without that… I can only imagine what would’ve happened.”

“What?” Kiara squawked in fear. “What about Lucario? What’s happened to him? Tell me!” she demanded. “Please.” She adds fearfully, remembering to whom she was speaking.

“It’s his… trainer. He’s a Poke-Abuser. I had to step in to save your friend’s life.” Cobalion growled.

After a moment of agonizing silence, Kiara’s dad let out a loud screech of rage, one that made all of his flock’s feathers shiver.

“Where is he? Who hurt my daughter’s beloved?” Kiara’s father roared.

“Elsewhere in the Johto region, somewhere outside Cianwood. That’s where I last met up with him.” Cobalion huffed.

“L-Lucario...? Is… Is he okay?” Kiara whispered in fear.

“For now, yes. He escaped, but I don’t know what happened next. I had to chase his former trainer off, I couldn’t see what happened to Lucario next. With all luck, he made it to civilization,” Cobalion asserted “But...”

“I have to go find him.” Kiara snarled out, picking up the Pokeball in one of her talons. Next, she unfolded her wings and looked towards the sky.

“Kiara, wait!” Her father yelled at her as she started to fly off. She paused and looked back, using her wings to keep herself aloft. “To get to Cianwood, you’d have to pass through the Whirl Islands! You and I both know what they’re like this time of year!”

“I don’t care!” Kiara cried, giving one last look at her father, her flock, and Cobalion. “I’ve got to find him, no matter what the danger! He needs me!”

As she flew off, well aware of the possibility she’d never see her father again, she narrowed her eyes and rocketed off towards the direction of Cianwood and the Whirl Islands. Out of earshot, her father whispered tearfully “Be safe, my daughter. You’ve got your namesake’s spirit, that’s for sure.”

The Whirl Islands:

True to her father’s predictions, the weather around the Whirl Islands was especially nasty around this time of year. And this particular storm season, it was really bad. Kiara had the misfortune of arriving at the islands during a violent thunderstorm, with torrential rainfall and treacherous cliff peaks hidden by thick black clouds by nightfall. Little did she know, but this storm would go down in record as one of the most powerful ever to hit the Islands in the past 10 years.

Lightning crashed dangerously close to her as rain pounded onto her tiny wings and deafening thunder boomed in her eardrums all around the small Flying-Type. Barely able to keep her eyes open or catch her breath in the inhospitable storm. The boiling skies were almost pitch black as Zekrom himself, (Honestly, Kiara wouldn’t be surprised if the Deep Black Pokémon was in some way responsible for this.) this lightning was her only form of illumination.

“Sweet Lord Solgaleo’s mane!” Kiara thought to herself as a jagged bolt of lightning nearly struck her again. Below her, the waters churned violently in the storm, and she saw palm trees bending -And in some cases even snapping in two- below her on one of the islands. Red Rock Isle was its name if she remembered correctly. The whole island seemed to groan and creak.

Kiara barrel-rolled to the left to avoid another bolt of lightning, the poor Spearow being battered all the while by heavy rain and wind. She felt exhausted. Her wings beat out of sync with one another. She gasped for air in this electrified environment. Her vision growing blurry, she could see the vague silhouette of Cianwood’s shores in the distance. The lighthouse’s ray beaming like a glimmer of hope in the distance. She just had to make it there.

“Come on…” Kiara whispered between her gasps. She forced herself forward, screeching to the sky above “Come on! I’m almost there… Don’t worry Lucario, I’m coming!”

The shores grew closer. A few more lightning bolts threatened to fry Kiara. Barely keeping up her strength and her altitude, she clawed her way onwards. The shores were so close, she could almost taste it. Exhausted, panting, and soaked to the bone, she pushed on. Her determination pushed her beyond her normal limits. And her great devotion and determination earned her a great reward.

She found her entire psychology shifting and changing. Energy surrounded her, enveloped her mid-flight. She began to glow bright and felt her strength renewing. No, increasing. Her beak sharpened and lengthened as her neck became vulture-like, and her tiny wings grew exponentially larger. As the energy faded, Kiara’s eyes widened. She looked down at her new form, at her wingspan. She’d now gone from a tiny 0.3 meter Spearow to a fully grown 1.2 meter Fearow!

Kiara screeched in triumph as she flapped her giant wings and used her newfound speed to push through the violent hell of the storm, her talons still clutching onto her Pokeball tightly. Through the pounding rain and wind, she flew. Never giving up, not once. She tucked in her wings and flew past bolts of lightning, her fear evaporating in the face of newfound confidence thanks to her new strength and power. Kiara challenged the storm, almost daring it to try and stop her now. She grew cocky. She screeched once more, as she fixed her eyes firmly on her destination.

However, just when it seemed she would be in the clear, life threw her one more curveball. The storm seemingly answered Kiara’s challenge, and as if to punish her cockiness, a lightning bolt hit the tip of Kiara’s wing and, combined with a sudden side draft, sent Kiara careening towards a giant rock formation sticking out of the sea.

“Great, newly evolved and I’m going to die for my troubles… Lovely.” Kiara deadpanned, defiant to the end. She closed her eyes and prepared for impact.

But before she spiraled uncontrollably and smashed beak-first into those rocks, creating a bloody spatter all over the rocks, the winds suddenly subsided somewhat as a giant form emerged from the waters. Ridge-backed and almost pure white, this creature resembled a cross between a dragon and a plesiosaurus. It caught Kiara and placed her upon its back. Kiara gasped in awe as she found herself atop this truly gigantic form, with red scales on the back. She was speechless as she saw the head of her savior. Lugia, Guardian of the Seas, looked over its shoulder at the newly evolved Fearow.

“No… No, it can’t be…” Kiara whispered, barely believing her own eyes.

“Cobalion sends his regards! He knew you might need help, so he sent yours truly, to give you a wing or two!” the Diving Pokémon chortled with a wink of his eye. “Call me Silver, by the way.”

“Thank… Thank you, Silver…” Kiara whispered in exhaustion.

“No problem. Sorta my job, now you just sit back young Fearow and let Lugia Airways get you to your destination! Cianwood City, right?” Silver chuckled.

When Kiara nodded, Silver smiled and flapped his wings and pushed on through the storm.

Cianwood City Pokemon Center:

“Okay… Okay, you’ve got to be bullshitting me,” Sunset stammered out, hardly able to believe the young Fearow’s words. “Let me get things straight. You met Cobalion of the freaking Swords of Justice himself, actually talked to him along with your dear old dad, and then flew through one of the most violent storms in the history of the Whirl Islands and evolved in the process, and were rescued by a shiny Lugia who called himself Silver? Do you know how made up that sounds!?!” She shouted at Kiara, throwing up her hands in the air in disbelief.

“Well, when you put it that way, I admit, it does sound a little contrived…” Kiara admitted, trailing off as she rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly with a wing once more. “But why would I lie to you? Hell, why would I make that kind of stuff up?”

“Hey, if Kiara, my b-best friend, says it’s true, why shouldn’t I believe her?” Lucario remarked, although everybody had heard the noticeable stutter over the words best friend he’d made. Plus, there had been a large red tint on his face when he said this.

“Aww… Young love, isn’t that sweet?” Dragonair thought to herself, smiling fondly at the two young Pokemon.

“Okay… Okay,” Sunset said, getting up out of her chair and beginning to walk back and forth. She put a hand to her chin in thought. “Assuming this is all true, and maybe it is or maybe it isn’t, can you offer some sort of proof?”

Kiara, if it were possible for her, would have beamed proudly, as she produced the Pokeball her father had given her.

“I… I need to sit down a moment…” Sunset muttered as she fell into the chair before looking at Kiara. “You could have grabbed that Pokeball from anywhere, you know that right?”

Lucario let out a low snarl.

“Why would she lie? Why would she make this all up?” he growled out towards Sunset, his fangs bared. Talon gave him a look.

“Hey, hey. Calm down, okay? Like Kiara said, and I’m not going against you or anything, it is kinda hard to believe for most of us, Pokemon or human.” Talon reasoned.

“Okay… I can call up the meteorological station on Blue Point Isle, see if they saw or heard anything unusual that night,” Sunset stated. “Little known fact, they also keep an eye on Lugia’s movements, just to make sure when he emerges from the sea that the people know that there are risks involved due to his supposed storm causing abilities,” she explained. With that, she rushed towards the nearest Video Phone, and dialed a number. On screen came up a white-skinned woman, with long cerise hair that had some green highlights mixed in.

“Hello, this is Professor Blossomforth speaking, can I help you young miss?” the scientist said politely, as a Castform in it’s Sunny Form hovered behind her.

“Yeah, I just want to ask something. I’ve heard rumors that a Lugia emerged from the sea not too long ago. Just want to see if they’re true, that’s all,” Sunset explained.

“Well… I’m not entirely sure how true those rumors are, but we did get a call from Red Rock Isle from a man by the name of Thunderlane who was out storm chasing that night who swore he saw a white and red version of Lugia that night. Personally, I think he’s making it up. Lugia himself appearing is a rarity, but a shiny one? Now that’s just malarkey, plain and simple. Though we cannot say for sure either way right now. No need to worry.” Blossomforth told Sunset in an exasperated tone, who nodded.

“Okay, thanks for all your help,” Sunset said as she hung up, and sighed to herself. So, it looked like Kiara wasn’t lying at all, at least on the part of meeting a Lugia. And if she hadn’t lied on the most unbelievable part, then it’s unlikely that she lied about the rest either. Sunset’s mind was racing now. How could Kiara have met both a shiny Lugia, and Cobalion? She laughed to herself. Pokemon really were mysterious creatures.

After a few more calls all around the Johto region, it turned out the rest of Kiara’s story checked out. After a call to Bugsy, it turned out while he was on a Vivillon catching spree for his gym’s Greenhouse, he did catch a glimpse of a Pokemon resembling Cobalion dashing through the forest.

Sunset was greeted with a smug little smirk by Kiara as she re-entered Lucario’s room, her expression saying everything.

“Okay… I guess you weren’t lying after all… I’m sorry,” Sunset apologized as she stroked the Fearow’s head feathers. “After I found out that a shiny Lugia really did appear that night, I figured you wouldn’t lie about the rest either. I have no reason to suspect you. I did check out the rest of your story to be sure, but that backs up as well...”

“Now, if only Lugia, or Cobalion, could beat that Poliwrath at Chuck’s Gym instead of me… If only I weren’t such a failure to my kind, I would have beat him!” Lucario muttered, only to be soundly slapped across the face by Kiara with a wing.

“No, don’t say that!” She shouted, looking him dead in the eyes and losing her cocky demeanor. “You’re not a failure. Everybody loses now and again, you just need to believe in yourself. I know you can beat him. I know it.”

“R-Really?” Lucario looks away, a little ashamed, as he rubbed his stinging cheek with a paw, his face getting that red tint once more. Kiara taught him better than that all that time ago, and he knew it.

“I believe in you Lucario,” Kiara stated in complete seriousness, and Talon nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, you could’ve had that thing beat if you hadn’t frozen up mid-fight. Just need to keep focused, that’s all,” He stated. “Challenge him again with a calm, clear mind, and I know you can defeat that Poliwrath.”

Lucario nodded, and his paws clenched. “Then that’s exactly what I’m going to do…”

Author's Note

Okay, so... Notes. The bit about Kiara's father having a former trainer that died was once again inspired by Dragonsrule's story that actually inspired Kiara in the first place actually.Changed around a few of the details obviously, but the basics are still there.

Anyways, Silver... Wasn't planning for him to appear and just was planning for Kiara to make it to Cianwood through the Whirl Islands on her own, but as soon as I started writing the bit with the mythology of the Islands as a bit of World-Building, I knew he had to get in.
As for making him Shiny? I thought... Well, why not?

Also, by this point, I think I've either name-dropped or had a Pokemon from every generation thus far appear in this story. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. As always, comments and thoughts on the chapter are very much appreciated.

Part 10: Old Faces, New Beginnings

Cianwood City Gym:

And so, with a new amount of courage and his best friend by his side, Lucario once again found himself in the Cianwood City Gym. Sunset stood on one side of the field, the massive muscle-bound man known only as Chuck on the other.

And once again, Lucario found himself staring down, face to face, the Pokemon that was known only by its name of Poliwrath. But unlike before, Lucario felt no fear or didn’t feel intimidated when he stared it down. This time, he knew he could win. This time, the one standing tall would be him, not that oversized frog. In the rafters above, he could see both Kiara and Talonflame looking on, cheering him on silently.

“Come Lucario, don’t let that tadpole intimidate you. If three Skarmories, or that damned man Damien couldn’t bring you down, then this Pokemon sure as Mew can’t either!” Kiara thought to herself.

“So, the same Pokemon again, against my Poliwrath?” Chuck asked in surprise. “Even if your Lucario lost, badly I might add, last time?”

But Sunset stood firm, planting her boots in the gym floor. She would not be swayed.

“Who knows, this time might be different,” Sunset asked. “Lucario’s more focused, no longer afraid. He believes in himself, and just from that alone, I know he can win!”

“Well, I’ll give you that Sunset,” Chuck admitted. “Your Pokémon definitely looks much more confident in himself. But I don’t think he’s learned any new moves in the short time since our last bout. Same old tricks won’t help, especially now that I know what he can do,”

“Who knows? He just might surprise you,” Sunset remarked calmly before sending a thought towards her Pokemon. “Come on Lucario, don’t let this guy’s tough talk work on you. Just trying to scare you. Keep yourself focused, and you can take his Pokemon,”

“I know, Sunset,” Lucario said, for the first time not using his telepathy. Sunset and Kiara’s eyes widened, he really was more confident in himself this time around if he was actually speaking in Pokespeech.

Talon smirked. “That’s my boy…” he said to himself before shouting: “Now, go on and kick that Poliwrath’s sorry ass!”

While it only came out as “TAAAAALLLOOONNN!” to everybody who wasn’t a Pokemon, Lucario understood it perfectly and smiled.

“Understood,” He said simply, with a small nod as he cracked his knuckles. Poliwrath sized him up again, he didn’t quite know how, but this was a whole new Lucario he was faced with. This change, whatever had come over the Aura Pokémon, he liked it. This time, he knew things -for better or for worse- would be very different. “Now, let’s do it.” Lucario stated simply as a horn blared in the background.

Somebody shouted “Begin!” and both Lucario and Poliwrath charged towards each other in a blur of speed. Their fists glowed with lightning, both ready to sock the other squarely in the jaw with a powerful Thunder Punch attack. Eyes narrowed and Lucario used the Mind Reader ability to predict it coming, and dodged to the left just in time and got behind Poliwrath before forming a club of bone made of blue energy in his paws.

“Take this!” he shouted before hitting Poliwrath with a powerful Bone Rush maneuver sending it flying across the gym. Sunset’s eyes widened. Seems Lucario had picked up more moves from Riley’s own than she thought.

“Well, that’s… new.” Chuck said in surprise, genuinely interested in Lucario’s fight and possible potential now. He certainly hadn't been expecting that maneuver, faking Poliwrath with a mock Thunder Punch and then getting in behind him with a Bone Rush.

Poliwrath quickly recovered, and launched himself towards Lucario, his left foot glowing with a Mega Kick attack.

“Oh, is that all?” Lucario mocked before reaching out, and at almost lightning speed caught Poilwrath’s leg. He spun the dark blue Pokémon around and around before tossing him towards the other end of the Gym.

“Definite change… definite change…” Chuck murmured to himself as he stroked his beard, quite impressed by this turn of events. Lucario might actually just win this if he kept this up, didn't lose his focus like last time. But he needed to do one last thing to confirm his theory. With a shout, he called out “Poliwrath, use Bulk Up and then Dig!”

Poliwrath quickly began glowing with an ethereal green light, his strength and power increasing before he leaped downwards into the ground.

Almost in an instance, Lucario froze up like a statue.

“No… No, not that attack again…” He whispered to himself frantically, beginning to panic as his eyes darted right and left as he searched desperately for where Poliwrath had gone.

Talon groaned and muttered: “Oh, no… No, no… not again!” to himself in worry.

“Come on Lucario, snap out of it!” Kiara shouted in fear. Thankfully, Sunset knew just what to do.

“Come on Lucario, you can do it! Snap out of it!” she mentally shouted. “I… no, not just me… Kiara, we all believe in you! Remember your training!”

Sunset’s words managed, by pure chance, to get through to Lucario, and he thought back to his training with Riley and his Pokemon.

“Feel the energy of the Earth around you, feel the Aura. It’s with you at all times, never lose sight of that,” Riley’s Lucario instructed.

“I… I cannot,” Sunset’s Lucario admitted after a few moments.

“Just try. You have the potential. Just reach out, and sense the farthest thing you can. Doesn’t have to be miles away, can only be just a couple feet ahead hidden beyond your sight,” Luke instructed calmly. “I know you can do it, you can already sense things close by even if you can’t see them. Now we just have to expand that horizon. Block out the rest of the world, let the impossible… become possible.”

Lucario, thinking back, blocked out the rest of the world except for what was around him and then his eyes shut, as he listened only for the sound of Poliwrath’s burrowing. Then, he ‘saw’ him in a sense. Right below him, an orange glowing form tunneling beneath the gym floor in an attempt to take him by surprise.

His eyes shot wide open as he sidestepped to avoid a powerful uppercut like the one that had downed him before exclaiming “The Aura… is with me!” and formed a powerful glowing blue sphere in his paws. Not a Focus Blast, but a full-fledged Aura Sphere and shoved it right into Poliwrath’s chest.

“Sweet Lord Necrozma…” Kiara whispered as she saw Poliwrath, finally defeated as the Pokemon fell backwards, swirls in its eyes. It landed with a powerful thud on the gym floor, and Lucario blinked as he looked at his paws. Had… Had he really did that? Did he really just perform an Aura Sphere?

“That was awesome, Lucario!” Sunset said, as she scooped him up in a bone-crushing hug.

“Can’t… breathe…” Lucario coughed out, and Sunset quickly released him, blushing red in embarrassment.

“Er, right… Sorry.” She apologized.

“Now, that’s what I call a rematch!” Chuck said excitedly as he threw his hands up in the air and returned his Poliwrath. “Edge of my seat, the whole time!”

“But… But you weren’t in a seat…” Lucario said in confusion, scratching his head with a paw, as sweat trailed down his muzzle.

“Note to self, teach him about expressions…” Talon murmured.

“Here, think you’ve earned this Sunset,” Chuck said, as he pulled the Storm Badge, a bronze colored medal shaped like a fist out of his pants and handed it to Sunset. Sunset smiled gratefully and pinned it to her shoulder bag. Chuck then had a thought come to him. “Hold on, I’ll be right back!”

He soon returned with a medal and placed it around Lucario’s neck. “And I think you, Lucario, you’ve definitely earned this. You rose above the fire and came back even stronger. The perfect example of qualities I value in my students.”

“But… But I was never your student…” Lucario trailed off.

“Just take the damn thing and accept it already like a normal ‘Mon…” Talon muttered shaking his head while Kiara giggled at Lucario’s befuddlement. Eventually, Lucario took the hint and just let Chuck give him his reward.

Kiara flew down and pulled the already thoroughly embarrassed Aura Pokémon into a huge wing hug.

“Oh my gosh, I’m so proud of you Lucario!” she exclaimed, as Lucario’s cheeks flushed bright red. “I knew you could do it, see? I told you, I told you! And look what happened!”

“Guess I should listen to you more often, huh…?” Lucario trailed off and Kiara gave him a smug look.

“Yes, yes you should,” Kiara remarked and Sunset stood in the background of the two young Pokemon, trying very hard not to laugh her head off.

As they left, Chuck shouted: “If you ever want a rematch with yours truly, don’t hesitate to call!”

Route 40:

Somewhere a few nights later in a seaside forest that led to Olivine City, Sunset and Lucario found themselves in front of a Pokemon Center. Isolated from the main ones in the smaller towns and cities that made up the Johto Region, it was a halfway point between the Whirl Islands, and Olivine.

In the distance, beyond the treetops, Sunset could see Olivine’s famous Glitter Lighthouse shining a light through the darkness. Sunset had heard it was powered by an Ampharos, instead of the usual giant rotating lamps that were in normal Lighthouses.

“Just another day of travel, and we should be able to reach our next Gym Badge,” Kiara said as she flew inside the gym and perched herself on a nearby couch. Her Pokeball that her father had gifted to her was stored safely in Sunset’s bag. “...Arceus above, can’t wait for the chance to rest my wings though. Feels like I’ve been flying for three days straight!”

“You have.” Lucario pointed out. “You’ve been more excited than the rest of us for this.”

“Hey, what can I say? First real gym battle here!” Kiara remarked and Sunset chuckled as she sat herself down beside Kiara and stroked her head feathers reassuringly.

“You’ll get your chance, don’t you worry…” Sunset told her.

“Hey, what’s that…?” her Ninetales asked, as his ears perked up. Soon, Sunset heard it too as chatter caught her attention and she sat up straight in her seat. Lucario let out a low growl, he knew one of those voices.

“Damien…” he growled out and Kiara’s eyes widened in shock, before they narrowed. She and Sunset followed the Aura Pokémon’s angry gaze to a blue haired trainer -Exactly as Lucario had described him- talking with a bunch of other trainers. A huge collection of Pokeballs rested by his side, an amount that was definitely far from legal for any trainer to carry around if they had Pokemon inside them.

“Wow, there’s quite a collection!” one admiring trainer said and Damien chuckled.

“Yeah, caught ‘em all myself!” he laughed.

“Hey, didn’t you used to have a Lucario?” someone asked.

“Yeah, but that thing was so weak, left it out to the wild!”

“What you’re not telling them is that you sicked your Skarmories on me, you bastard…” Lucario thought, as his paws clenched tight enough to draw a bit of blood. But Lucario’s blood wasn’t to be the only drawn that day, as he soon found out. To his shock -And Damien’s to be sure- Sunset got up off of her seat and socked the devilish boy right across the jaw with a hard right hook.

“‘Ey, what the ‘ell was that for you whacker?” Damien shouted as she rubbed his jaw.

“What the Hell do you think? Abusing your Pokemon, your friend, asshole!” Sunset snarled as Damien’s ‘Friends’ slowly began to back away. It seemed when the going got tough, the so-called tough got going. As Damien’s friends quietly took their leave, Kiara smirked to herself. It seemed, when scum got put too close to a fire, they showed their true colors.

“Oh, you mean that Lucario? He was a worthless piece of sh-” Damien started, but he didn’t get a chance to even finish, as another punch from Sunset, this one to the gut, sent him sprawling to the floor.

“Hey, what’s going on in here?” An angry voice shouted, and Damien swallowed as a large burly man dressed in a chef’s attire walked in.

“This little bitch just socked me in the jaw, that’s what!” Damien shouted, trying to place the blame squarely on Sunset.

“Yeah, and with good reason, considering he outright admitted to abandoning his Pokemon!” Sunset snapped, pointing towards Damien.

“I don’t care which of you two started the fight, I’m ending it. This is my cafeteria, not yours to play around in!” the chef shouted.

Just as he was about to grab them and probably march them outside, another voice chimed in.

“Don’t you mean my cafeteria?” the local Nurse Joy asked, placing her hands on her hips and the chef looked thoroughly quailed. “Don’t forget who you work for!”

“Sweet Arceus… She could give Fluttershy a run for her money in terms of pure scariness at times…Just thankful she doesn’t have ‘The Stare’...” Sunset thought to herself.

The cook seemed to challenge the local Joy with a stare down contest for a moment, before he backed off.

“Y-Yes ma’am…” the cook stammered out before quickly taking his leave. Nurse Joy then turned her attentions to a certain rat of a Pokemon Trainer, if he could even be called that.

“And just who the Hell are you supposed to be?” she asked, glaring at him harshly. Damien let out a small whimper of fear.

“Oh! Nurse Joy used Mean Look, and it seems to be Super-Effective!” Flareon chimed in a mock announcer’s voice, and for once Ninetales wasn’t tempted to Ice Beam him into oblivion.

“Oh, I’m just a Pokemon Trainer that just got assaulted by that woman over there!” Damien said, playing the innocent card as he tried to regain his composure, much to Sunset and her Pokemon’s complete disgust.

“Why you little pile of…” Flareon growled, fire snorting from his nostrils. Ninetales snarled, baring his ice-like fangs.

“That little coward… Ooh, he makes Alolan Rattata look nice!” the Fox Pokémon hissed out.

Meanwhile, Damien continued playing the Blame Game.

“That little bitch punched me in the jaw, and then in the stomach!” he shouted, pointing to Sunset, who Nurse Joy quickly looked towards.

“Is that true?” She asked critically, an eyebrow raised dangerously.

“Considering the crap he’s pulled, I’d gladly do it again…” Sunset snarled in a low tone, crossing her arms. “That… that trainer,” she said, barely getting the words out. “Abused his Lucario and left him for dead!”

“That’s not true, I never even owned a Lucario even once in my life!” Damien retorted.

“Funny, you were just bragging about leaving one for dead just a few minutes ago!” Sunset shot back.

“Well, guess there’s only one way to prove this…” Nurse Joy started, before swiftly taking Damien’s Pokedex from him. Sunset smirked as she remembered that Pokedexes carried a record of all Pokemon a trainer owned, even released ones. The only way for that record to be cleared was a total memory wipe, and that only happened if the trainer was accused of a serious crime and found guilty, or passed away.

Damien began to look fidgety, and nervous as Joy put his Pokedex through a scanner.

“Oh, lots of Pokemon here…” Joy murmured to herself before her voice turned into a low growl. “Well, I’ll be… Looks like you did own a Lucario at one point. Seems Sunset might have been telling the truth after all…”

Damien, knowing his fate was sealed ran for the Pokemon center doors, only to be met by Kiara, her wings blocking the entrance and her beak charged up with a nasty Drill Peck.

“Going somewhere, bastard?” She asked, her voice filled with nothing but hatred for the ‘Trainer’ who’d abused her best friend. Damien tried to make a break for it in another direction, only for Flareon and Ninetales to leap into his path.

So, Damien tried for the window, only for a certain Pokemon to leap into his path.

“Remember me?” Lucario asked, a glowing Aura Sphere charged up in his paw.

Damien didn’t have time to say anything before Sunset knocked him out with another hard punch to the jaw.

“Good riddance…” she muttered.

“So… So, what’ll happen to him now?” Lucario asked.

“There’s an Officer Jenny a few miles back. My guess, Nurse Joy will call her and Damien will be taken into custody, and face trial.” Sunset reassured.

“That’s right. He’ll never hurt you again Lucario…” Nurse Joy said kindly, and was taken off guard when Lucario hugged her, sobbing.

“Thank… Thank you… Thank you both.”

Sunset pulled her friend into another hug and let him cry into her shoulder. “It’s okay, let it out… It’s all over now. Shh… Shh…” she whispered kindly.

Floaroma Town, now:

“So, that’s what happened,” Sunset explained to Iris. “Damien got arrested, and if I remember correctly, he’s still serving time…”

“Oh yeah…” Sunset’s fellow champion replied. “Ash did mention he heard about Damien’s arrest on the news, and his Charizard seemed to be particularly grumpy for some reason for the next few days. Not sure why.” Iris shrugged.

“C’est la vie, right?” Sunset remarked with a small laugh and Iris returned it before she looked at her watch and then back at her Druddigon.

“Listen, I gotta get back home. It’s getting late, and it’s a long flight back to Unova,” Iris apologized. “Plus, you know how my husband can’t cook a good meal to save his life. He thinks he can, but he can’t,” Iris sighed.

“Yeah, I know how that is. The same thing with my Auntie Luna actually. She's smart in all areas… except cooking.”

As Iris took to the skies, the moon and stars as her only guide, Sunset smiled as she looked towards a lake where a familiar serpentine form was playfully teasing her Dragonair. Life was good.

The End

Author's Note

Okay, so that's the end of this tale. Damien's been arrested, Lucario's got his confidence and his oldest friend back and all's well. Credit where it's due, the final confrontation with Damien was inspired by a chapter of this fic below, which I highly recommend. If I ever do a full-scale Pokemon journey style fic with Rainbow Dash, it's probably going to be a major guideline on how to write a proper Pokemon fic, I think.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11113835/1/Essence

Until next time when we meet along this endless highway and in this amazing world Nintendo crafted for us, I bid you adieu. Remember, battle with your favorite Pokemon, the ones you really care for, not just the ones you raised to be the strongest and keep on striving towards the top.