Chapter 1

A New Adventure Begins

A Weavile dashed through the underbrush of Darklight Forest. He was covered in scratches and bruises, and looked like he had been in a fight. His eyes shifted around wildly as if looking for something, though all he could see was the dark purple trees that grew in the forest. The Weavile looked behind him fearfully before dashing off further into the forest.

As the Weavile stumbled through the forest he constantly looked behind him, fearful of whatever was behind him. While he was looking back he tripped over a protruding tree root and fell flat on his face. He grumbled incoherently as he got up and got ready to run again. However, he never got the chance as a barrage of seeds shot from the forest and slammed into his back.

The Weavile gave a cry of pain as he was hit by the attack and could not stop himself from falling back to the ground. He quickly rolled on his back, wincing slightly when the ground touched his injured back, and looked at his assailant. From the shadows a fairly tall, green gecko-like Pokémon walked out into the open. The Pokémon had a red underbelly, three leaves on each arm, one on its head, and two on its tail bone, acting as tails. The Pokémon regarded the prone Weavile with cold yellow eyes.

"There is nowhere left for you to go," the Pokémon said stoically. "Give up now."

"Never!" the Weavile shouted defiantly, pushing itself to its feat. He glared at the green with unbridled fury and brought his claws together. An ice blue orb began to form in the Weavile's claws and slowly grew in size. The Weavile gave the stoic Pokémon a feral grin. "Let's see how you handle an ice shard, you damn Grovyle!" Before he could throw his ice shard at the Grovyle, and orb of water flew from deeper in the forest and impacted the ball of ice, detonating it. The Weavile was sent flying back from the explosion and slammed into a tree with a grunt. "What the hell..?"

"Sorry, but I can't let you hurt my teammate," a female voice said. A blur of blue came from a tree and landed beside the Grovyle. This Pokémon was a blue frog-like Pokémon, with her head and hands being a darker blue color. Around her neck was what appeared to be a scarf made of foamy white bubbles. Like her companion, the Pokémon had yellow eyes, though hers held amusement and slight irritation.

The Grovyle turned to the newcomer and frowned slightly. "I did not require assistance."

"I know," she said. "but it would be boring if I just sat back and let you have all the fun."

"Must you be so childish?" he sighed.

"Hey! I'm not childish! Besides, you know that he would say the same thing if he caught up with us!"

"True..." he trailed of as he saw the Weavile attempting to crawl away. The Grovyle shot another bullet seed attack right in front of the Weavile, forcing the Weavile to stop in its tracks. "You are not going anywhere."

"Dammit," the Weavile growled and pushed himself to his feet and glaring at the duo. "I won't be beaten like this!"

"Dude, no offense, but you're already beaten," the blue Pokémon said, gesturing to the obvious injuries that the Weavile had all over his body. "All it would take is one more super effective attack to finish you off."

"Well I doubt a Grovyle and a Frogadier will be able to do that," he responded cockily, trying to act intimidating.

"Well it's a good thing that we're not the ones that you should be worried about," the Frogadier said, looking behind the Weavile with a smirk.

The Weavile gave her a confused look before looking behind him. He was shocked to see that a short blue bipedal dog-like Pokémon with an overly large tail, about a foot shorter than himself, had snuck up behind him. The Pokémon was covered in blue fur except for his torso, legs, and face, which were black in color. The black fur around his face was shaped like a domino mask with two teardrop appendages hanging from the sides of his face. The Weavile paled when he recognized the Pokémon as a Riolu. A fighting type.

The Pokémon smiled cheekily at the Weavile, its unusual silvery-blue eyes filled with mischief. "Hello," he said. Before the Weavile could react the Pokémon lunged forward and put his paw on the Weavile's stomach. "and goodbye!"

Before the Weavile could react, a light came from the Riolu's paw and a blast of energy was expelled from his paw, sending the Weavile flying through the air. The Weavile slammed into another tree with a dull thud and slumped to the ground, unconscious.

"Well, that was anticlimactic," the Riolu commented.

"I agree with you there, Alpha," the Grovyle commented, moving to stand next to the Riolu. "For all that running, he really was not that powerful."

The Riolu sighed wearily. "How many times have I told you not to call me that"

"Exactly two hundred and seven times," the now named Grovyle said.

"Then stop calling me that!"

"As I have said before, calling you anything other than Alpha would be inappropriate," Leaf said.

"Just stop arguing with him, DJ," the Frogadier said, placing a hand on the Riolu's shoulder. "You know how stubborn Leaf is about this kind of thing."

"Like you are one to talk about stubbornness, Katara," Leaf said. His face was stoic but his tone had a hint of playfulness in it.

"Hey!" Katara shouted indigently. She then crossed her arms and grumbled, "I think I liked you better when you were a robot."

Leaf's only response was a small, smug smile. "Come on guys," DJ said, pulling out a circular white badge with two golden wings on the sides. It had on small blue button on the front and a rather large gold gem in the center. "We need report back that we've captured the Meowth burglar, Vile the Weavile."

"Right," Leaf and Katara said in unison.

=Legends=

"Good job you three," Tobias said as he reviewed their mission report.

"Thank you sir," DJ said. "To be honest, the mission was no that difficult."

"Good, expect nothing less from a gold rank team, though do not become arrogant. You must be sure that you do not underestimate an opponent."

"Yes, sir," the three members of Team Stardust chorused.

The Gallade then smiled at the trio. "Good, now run along you three." The trio nodded and turned to leave their guild master's office. "And tell that son of mine to call his mother! She worries!" Tobias called after them.

DJ and Katara snickered silently when they heard this while Leaf grinned. They promised to relay the message, in front of the entire team, and left Tobias' office and the guild building.

As they walked through the town towards their guild home, DJ could not help but think about the events of the past month. After the Battle of the Tower and Cecil departure from this world, Team Stardust was promoted to gold rank for their commendable performance during the battle and stopping the dark well from activating. After about two weeks of recovering from the battle, all of the teams began taking missions again like normal. On one of those missions, Leaf, after facing several fire types, had evolved into a Grovyle, leaving DJ and Blade the only members of the team that have the ability to evolve, but have not.

He looked towards his two teammates and smiled fondly. Out of all of Team Stardust, Leaf had changed the most. Soon after the battle, Leaf had begun to 'lighten up' and, instead of his normal stoic attitude, he smiled more. While he was still stoic the majority of the time, he did make jokes, mainly at Katara's expense. When questioned about this he claimed, "Her reactions are amusing", and the subject was dropped.

The only other member that had made a significant change was Asura. After Jet had rejoined the team, Asura had become happier and a lot less uptight. He no longer pointed out the shortcomings of the team and actually smiled, especially when Jet was around. DJ was truly happy for his leader. He was happy for all of his team.

DJ sighed pensively. After his sister had left DJ had times where he would have no motivation to do anything. He would just sit in his room and mourn his forgotten life. The rest of the team tried helped when anyway they could, but the two in front of him helped the most by just being constants in his new life. Out of the whole team, DJ felt closer to these two specifically. Despite Leaf refusing to call him by his name. They were both like siblings to the human turned Riolu and he would not trade them for anything.

"DJ!" Katara shouted, shocking DJ out of his thoughts.

"Huh?" DJ said.

"We've been trying to get you're attention for the past five minutes," Katara said in concern. "Are you okay."

"Yeah, I'm fine," DJ said sheepishly. "I was just thinking about my time here."

"Oh," Katara said. Before she could say more, a blue and beige blue shot past her and tackled DJ to the ground.

"Oof!" DJ said as he fell to the ground. When the world stopped spinning he saw that the blur was a young Cyndaquil. "Furno?"

"DJ!" Furno shouted as he hugged DJ around his midsection. "I missed you."

"I missed you too, but could you let me up?" Furno shook his head in DJ's fur and refused to let go. DJ sighed good-naturedly and picked up the Cyndaquil, causing him to squeal in delight.

"Furno," a voice chided. Looking towards the direction of the voice, the trio saw two Typhlosion approaching with rather amused looks on their faces. "What have we told you about running off."

"Not to," the young Cyndaquil chirped, though he did not sound sorry. He then turned his attention back to his surrogate brother. "Guess what? Guess what?!"

"What?"

"I learned how to shoot fire from my back! Wanna see?!" Before DJ could answer, Furno took a deep breath and flames shot out of his back.

"Wow! That's really cool," DJ said, shifting Furno in his arms so that he would not burn his paws.

"Thanks!" Furno said, extinguishing his flames. "Mama and Daddy said that I'll be able to learn to use fire attacks in a few months!"

"That's amazing!" DJ said, smiling at the young fire type.

"Come now, Furno," Furno's mother said. "We have to get home and get a start on dinner."

"Okay, Mama!" Furno said, jumping from DJ's paws and running towards his parents. "See you later, DJ!"

Furno's mother took little Furno's hands and the two Typhlosion gave the trio warm smiles before departing down the street.

"It's good to see everyone finally falling back into their normal routine," Katara said.

"Yeah," DJ said, smiling as Furno turned and waved at the trio.

"We should head back," Leaf said.

"Yeah, can't miss out on an opportunity to embarrass Asura in front of everyone," DJ said evilly, rubbing his paws together in a sinister manner.

"Oh, DJ," Katara sighed, shaking her head at the Riolu's antics.

"What?" DJ asked innocently. "I just want to deliver Guildmaster Gallade's message."

Leaf smiled at the duo's interaction as the trio began to make their way to their guild house again.

=Legends=

Team Stardust's Guild House

"We're back!" Katara called as she, Leaf, and DJ stepped into the lounge of their guild house. Upon entering the lounge the entirety of Team Stardust was there except for Blade.

"Hey guys," Blitz called from his place on the couch. "How was the mission?"

"Anticlimactic," DJ said, plopping down on one of the couches.

"Big word for a little pup," Bertha teased, earning a half-hearted glare from the Riolu.

"Hey, don't pick on DJ. You know his height is a bad topic for him," Grace added teasingly.

"What is it? Pick on DJ day?" DJ grumbled, sinking further into the couch. "Besides, it's not my fault I'm this size. All Riolu are the same size. Also, Blitz is smaller than me!"

"Hey! I've accepted the fact that I'm small and embraced it," Blitz said, puffing out his chest imperiously. Everyone laughed at the Pikachu's antics.

"All kidding aside, you shouldn't get cocky," Asura said seriously. "Becoming overconfident in battle can be catastrophic in a fight."

"I know, I know," DJ said. "Your dad said the same thing." He then gained a look on his face that practically spelled mischief. "He also said to call your mother because she worries about you."

This caused an immediate blush to form on the Medicham's face and caused the rest of the team to chuckle. Jet placed a hand/paw on Asura's shoulder and gave him a serious look. "Shame on you Asura!" he said. "You know how your mother worries! You go call her this instant!"

At this point, everyone, sans Asura, was bursting out in laughter. Asura smacked a now smiling Jet's hand away and grumbled something about 'teammates having no respect for their leader', which only caused everyone to laugh harder. Asura smiled, albeit a bit reluctantly, and eventually joined in the laughter. DJ was glad for this as Asura would rarely smile in the past. All that changed when Jet rejoined the team. The Floatzel had been a positive influence on the their leader and DJ was grateful for this.

"What seems to be going on here?" Blade's voice rang out. The assembled Pokémon turned and were shocked to see instead of a seeing the mantis Pokémon they saw a crimson red Pokémon with a similar shape to a Scyther, orange eyes, and pincers instead of blades for hands standing next to Drake.

"Blade?!" Blitz asked, shocked. "You evolved?!"

"That's right," Blade said, striding into the room and sitting down next to his brother, smirking at everyone's reactions. "I finally decided to get the metal coat treatment and evolve."

"But doesn't the treatment cost a lot of poké?" Jackson questioned.

"I've been saving up for a while," Blade answered, looking over his new pincers. "I'm going to have to get used to moving. I'm a lot heavier now."

"Wait, if you evolved then that means..." DJ trailed off before slumping over depressedly. "Aww, that means that I'm the only one that hasn't evolved at least once!"

"That's what you're upset about?" Blitz asked incredulously.

"Yes," DJ responded in a depressed tone.

"Drama queen," Katara joked.

"If it's any consolation, I haven't evolved either," Grace said.

"That's because you can't evolve," Blitz said. Grace glared at him.

"I'm trying to make him feel better."

"Don't Riolu evolve with friendship?" Bertha asked.

"Yeah," Katara said. "I think I read that in a book somewhere..."

"But if that was the case, then shouldn't he have evolved already," Jet asked. "I mean he is friends with all of you."

"Unless he's not friends with us," Jackson said. He was clearly joking, but it was lost to DJ.

"Of course I'm your friend!" DJ said. "After all we've been through, how could you-"

"I was joking, DJ!" Jackson interrupted.

"Oh," DJ said, bushing slightly. "Sorry."

"Always jumping to conclusions," Katara said teasingly.

"But, if I'm supposed to evolve with friendship," DJ said, ignoring Katara's comment. "then why haven't I evolved already?"

"Maybe you can't due to you originally being a human," Bertha said bluntly.

"That would not make since," Leaf said. "Luke was able to evolve despite being human, so it would stand to reason that Alpha has the ability to evolve."

"Then why haven't I?" DJ asked again.

"Maybe Alistair knows something," Katara said.

"Yeah, that's right!" DJ exclaimed, jumping to his feat. "I bet he's knows something! Without another word, DJ ran from the lounge and towards Miracle Town.

"I'll follow him," Katara sighed, getting up and moving towards the exit.

"Make sure you're not out too long, we do have plans tonight," Grace said.

Katara nodded and rushed to follow her teammate out the door.

=Legends=

DJ ran through the streets of Miracle Town, rushing towards Alistair's home. He finally stopped outside a simple one floor house located near the outskirts of the town. The only notable feature that the house possessed was the door mat, which had footprints of a Lucario and a Riolu stitched into it.

DJ rang the doorbell just as Katara caught up with him. "Jeez, DJ," Katara said, gasping for air. "Did you have to run the whole was here?"

"What? I was in a hurry," DJ said. He chuckled nervously when he saw the death glare that Katara was giving him. Thankfully, he was saved from Katara's wrath when the door opened, revealing Alistair.

"Gramps!" DJ said happily.

"DJ? What are you doing here?" the Lucario asked. "Not that I'm not happy to see you, but you normally don't come by here."

"Well you weren't at the training fields, so I had to run around and ask around to find out where you lived." Katara grumbled at this, having had to chase DJ all around town before they finally learned where Alistair lived. "Anyway, I wanted to ask you something."

"Oh?" Alistair said, quirking an eyebrow. "And what do you want to know?"

"How do I evolve?"

"Ah. I was wondering when you would ask me that." Alistair pushed his door open and stepped to the side to allow the two members entry to his house. "Well come in. No point in just standing outside."

The two entered Alistair's house and took note of the layout. There was a small kitchen, a living room, three doors, one most likely leading to a bathroom, another to a bed room, and another for storage. The living room had a blue couch, two single, cushioned chairs of the same color sat on either side, and a slightly smaller couch opposite to the three seats. It too was blue. A television sat adjacent to the smaller couch with an analog clock sitting on top of it. In between the two opposing couches, there was a wooden coffee table. They also saw a few picture hanging around the room.

"Go ahead and have a seat, I was just making some tea. Would you like some?" Alistair asked.

"Yes, please," the duo responded.

The two sat on the larger couch and waited as Alistair bustled around the kitchen. As they waited, DJ looked at some of the pictures. He smiled when he saw one of him and Alistair. DJ remembered that that picture was taken shortly after Alistair started training him. DJ smiled at the memory and looked at some of the other pictures. He saw that the majority of the others were of Alistair, Guildmaster Tobias, Katara's dad, Surge, and a Gardevoir. Team SATE, if DJ remembered correctly.

He then saw something that made him freeze. It was a picture of Alistair and another Lucario. A Lucario with slightly darker fur and piercing red eyes that caused DJ to shiver. He knew those eyes anywhere. They were Luke's. It was a picture of Alistair and Luke.

"Here you go." DJ jumped slightly at Alistair's voice. Alistair walked over to the duo and handed them two cups of piping hot tea.

"Thank you," they chorused, accepting the cups.

"Now," Alistair said, sitting on the opposite couch with his own cup of tea. "You want to know how to evolve?"

"Yes," DJ said seriously. "I want to get stronger and evolution is the best way."

"While normally I would say that training will get you stronger, I have to agree with you," Alistair said, sipping his tea. "I have noticed it during our training sessions. You are beginning to reach the limit of your power as a Riolu."

"My limit?"

"You see, each pre-evolved Pokémon has a limit to how strong they can become before they have to evolve. Each Pokémon, even ones of the same species, has a different limit, but they will eventually reach it. When they reach that limit, they evolve."

"So I'll evolve when I reach my limit?"

"Not necessarily," Alistair said. "Some Pokémon have other requirements besides reaching their limit. Your friend Blitz is a perfect example of this. Pikachu like him need a thunderstone in order to evolve. Now, while he might reach his limit he cannot evolve until he comes into contact with said stone." He paused to take another sip from his tea. "He can also evolve before he reaches his limit by touching the stone. Riolu are similar."

"So DJ won't be able to evolve without reaching this requirement," Katara reasoned, drinking some of her tea. "But isn't the requirement for a Riolu to evolve into a Lucario friendship?"

Alistair chuckled lightly. "No, that's just an old wives tale."

"Then how do I evolve?" DJ asked impatiently.

Alistair gave him a reproachful look. "What have I said about patience?" DJ ducked his head and mumbled a quick 'sorry'. "That's okay, pup," Alistair said with a smile. "Anyway, Riolu do not evolve with friendship. If that was true, I would have evolved when I first joined Team SATE. The belief that Riolu evolve with friendship has been around for ages. No one knows where or when it started."

"Then what does cause a Riolu to evolve?" Katara asked.

"The answer is simple. For a Riolu to evolve, they must break off the gold ring around their necks."

"Huh?" DJ and Katara said in confusion.

Alistair got up from his seat and moved towards the hallway and opened the third door that led to storage. When he came back he held a small brown box in his paws. He set it down in front of the duo and opened it. Looking inside Katara and DJ saw two pieces of a broken gold ring.

"This was the ring that I was born with when I was a Riolu," Alistair said, taking a seat again. "The gold ring around a Riolu's neck acts as a biological everstone that is formed when a Riolu is still in the egg. Breaking the ring is the only way for a Riolu to evolve into a Lucario."

"So a Riolu can only evolve when they break of their own ring?" Katara asked.

"Not exactly. A Riolu does not have to break the ring themselves. I have met several Lucario that evolved through the help of their friends. However, most Riolu end up breaking their own ring as it is something of a tradition to Riolu."

"Then I'll break my ring myself," DJ declared grasping the ring around his neck and pulled. And pulled. And pulled some more. "Grrrr! Why. Won't. You. Come. Off?!" With each word DJ gave another tug, but the ring did not even budge.

"Having fun there, DJ?" Katara giggled. DJ gave her the stink-eye, but said nothing. Finally, he threw his hands up in defeat.

"Gah! I can't do it!"

"That's okay, pup. You'll get it eventually," Alistair said reassuringly. "In order for a Riolu to break their ring by themselves, they have to reach the limit of their power. You just need to do some more training, then you'll be able to do it."

"Yeah, okay," DJ said dejectedly.

Alistair patted DJ's head and looked towards his clock. "Well it's getting late, you two should head back."

Both DJ and Katara looked at the clock as well and jumped to their feet upon noticing the time. "Crap, I didn't realize we were out so long!" Katara said.

"Asura's going to be mad," DJ said.

"I'll take you," Alistair offered. "I can tell Asura that I held you. That way you won't get in trouble."

"Thanks, Gramps!" DJ said thankfully, downing his now cooled tea.

"No problem," Alistair said kindly.

=Legends=

The sun had already set when the trio made it to Team Stardust's guild house. Upon arriving, they saw that all the lights were off.

"Crap, Asura's going to kill us," DJ groaned as he pushed open the door, Katara and Alistair trailing behind him.

When the entered, the entire house was pitch black. DJ was tempted to use his aura sight in order to see where he was going. This proved to be unnecessary as all of the lights clicked on and a loud boom rang out through the house. DJ immediately leapt back and got into a fighting stance, ready to fight whatever caused the explosion. He was startled however when he saw multicolored streamers fell from the ceiling.

"What the-?"

"SURPRISE!" DJ was once again shocked from combined shouts of several Pokémon. When his eyes finally adjusted to the lit room, he saw the rest of Team Stardust, Team Odd Squad, Team Sunflare, and Tobias all standing there with a large banner that read 'Happy Birthday DJ!'.

"Wh-what is this?" DJ asked, still reeling from his initial shock.

"You're surprise party," Katara said, moving to stand in front of her friend. "Since you don't remember when your birthday is, we decided that we would celebrate it on the anniversary of the day you came here."

"Anniversary? That means it's been a year already," DJ said pensively, brushing a stray streamer off the top of his head.

"Yep," Katara chirped. "Now, stop thinking. It's your party, so let's CELEBRATE!"

"WOOOO!" everyone shouted.

"FREE DRINKS!" Jackson shouted.

It was one in the morning when the party finally began to wind down and it took another hour for everyone that was not part of Team Stardust to trickle out of the house. The party was the most fun that DJ had had for months. He received numerous gifts from everyone ranging from a years supply of candy from Team Odd Squad, the TM Power-up Punch from Team Sunflare, a new set of weights from Alistair (who somehow managed to bring them without DJ noticing), a book about Pokémon types and their advantages from Tobias, and various seeds and berries meant for dungeon exploration courtesy of his own team members. The best gift, however, came from Katara. It was a photo album filled pictures depicting almost all of Team Stardust's adventures since DJ joined. This caused DJ to get a little misty-eyed and hugged Katara, much to her embarrassment. The rest of the party was full of laughter, games, cake, and 'free drinks'.

By the time the party was finished up, DJ was passed out on his bed, his new photo album clutched in his arms and a serene smile on his face. He was completely at ease, so at ease that he did not notice a shadowy figure appear in his room.

"Hmph, it is unsettling to think that such a small Pokémon was able to delay my plans," the figure said, frowning down at the sleeping Riolu. The figure then smiled cruelly. "Ah well, it matters not."

The figure raised a hand and the shadows formed by the moonlight seemed to lift off the ground and swirl around the figure's hand. It then pointed its hand at DJ's sleeping form and the shadows shot from his hand and covered DJ's body, blanketing him and shadows. DJ's form seemed to writhe as the shadows covered him, but made no sound.

The figure laughed evilly before fading out of existence. "Soon, darkness will engulf this world and no one will stand in my way," the figure's voice rang out.