Riolu Line – The Aura Guardians

Name: Riolu - Lucario

Types: Fighting – Fighting/Steel

Abilities: Inner Focus/Steadfast/Justified

Egg group: Field/Human-like

Gender Ratio (M/F): 87.5/12.5

Introduction: Lucario and Riolu are extraordinarily rare, so much so that we have no idea where this species of pokemon originates from. Packs of Lucario can be found almost all over the world yet never in any extreme abundance. It is possible that they have always had this incredible range due to their mysterious and extraordinary abilities.

For most people, Lucario are only ever seen on the television screen battling amongst the strongest of the strong. Thanks to this people have a very misguided concept of Lucario, they look at this pokemon as a steadfast, intelligent warrior with mighty strength and peculiar powers. While this is true they are only looking at Lucario under a certain light. It is incredibly rare for someone to catch a Lucario or Riolu in the wild so many of the Lucario you see on the television have been raised from birth into the calm, noble warriors they are on screen. Lucario in the wild vary quite vastly, instead of noble guardians it is probably more apt in the wild to see them as wolves.

Description: While that may have been a little harsh on these astonishing creatures it makes for a good image especially since this pokemon is so canine in appearance. Although it is thought Lucario once walked on 4 legs, in modern times all Lucario appear to be mostly bipedal. This frees their forelimbs for other functions such as fighting and hunting. Both Lucario and Riolu have supremely tough skeletons with Lucario skeletons becoming almost metallic in nature. This bone protrudes at the knuckles of Riolu as round bumps these become the spikes on Lucario and can manipulated by the pokemon to produce powerful metal claws.

Lucario are famous for their ability to sense and manipulate a mysterious power called Aura. While it is unknown truly what this energy is, there are theories which I will talk about later. Both Riolu and Lucario are aura sensitive it is well known that the sac-like appendages below the ears of both Lucario and Riolu play a huge role in this. These are essentially a sixth sensory organ allowing the pokemon to read aura emitted by other living organisms. These appear to rise when they are focusing on aura.

It is thought that aura is the power that gives Riolu and Lucario their fighting typing as it can be used to enhance their strength, stamina and endurance to incredible levels while also allowing them to pre-emptively predict attacks and track prey. Lucario packs are known to communicate entirely through the reading of one another's aura and are therefore often totally silent in the wild. This has an effective range of over half a mile making them undoubtedly the best pack hunters in the pokemon world. Another incredible ability of Lucario's enhanced control of this power it can even be used offensively in spheres of explosive energy, Riolu are known not to have this amount of control.

Distribution: As I have previously mentioned it is unknown where Riolu and Lucario originally came from and packs of them are incredibly rare. Fortunately, I have been lucky enough to be allowed to peruse what little data we have on studied wild populations of Lucario. As far as we know Lucario can be found almost globally. No wild Lucario have been recorded in the far east but rumours suggest that there are a few packs in the Sinnoh region.

There are however a few Riolu and Lucario populations that are currently being tracked and studied. The places we know that have a Lucario pack are: South-West Unova, Poni Island of the Alola region and the southern Kalos mountains.

Thanks to Lucario's incredible stamina and strength a pack can move over entire mountain ranges overnight. They move incredibly quickly making it very difficult to track them without the expensive use of satellite tracking. This can give them an enormous home range that can potentially span entire regions. This is however proven unlikely since the population in the Alola region is contained to a single island containing 3 packs.

Lucario have no real preference in habitat so long as there is an abundance of food. They have been thought to prefer mountainous regions but have been seen in forests, tundra, plains and even deserts. They change their hunting strategies depending on their environment making them incredibly adaptable to both prey and environment.

Diet: Riolu and Lucario are mostly carnivorous and hunt in parties of 5-7 Lucario. They must therefore hunt prey far larger than themselves to share amongst the pack and any offspring there may be. They commonly therefore go for large animals or normal typed pokemon and have become incredibly adapted to the hardships of this form of food gathering. The Alolan packs have been recorded to hunt large bovine pokemon such as Tauros and Miltank separating them from herds and tiring them out to catch them, when pickings are slim however they will ambush Gumshoos and Raticate. In the Unova region they seem to prefer large undulate animals like deer or Sawsbuck but they are not against stealing from farms in this region and will often prey on Mareep and Watchog.

They do however supplement their diets with fruits and berries to keep them healthy. They very rarely eat the plants themselves.

Life History: Lucario and Riolu are naturally social animals. They live in packs of 6 to 12 with a mix of young Riolu and older Lucario. Lucario are predominantly male and hence there is intraspecific competition amongst males to mate with a rare female. Males will fight over a sexually active female often very violently but never fatally. This is how a hierarchy is developed there are two tiers: The alphas, who lead the pack and produce offspring and the betas who are the hunters of the pack bringing back food, the hunters also take it in turns to take care of the alphas' Riolu pups often under the watch of the male alpha who rarely hunts and prefers to train the pups. The female Alpha generally leads hunts when she is not pregnant and is quite often the strongest in the pack.

Litters of Riolu are normally 2-3 pups in size once a year, most of these survive to evolution due to parental care however from there there is a 33-45% mortality rate. Lucario are viviparous with gestation lasting 2-3 months from July to September. It is done this way to increase the female's survival rate. Reproduction is an expensive affair and so must be done in times of abundance to allow the young to develop properly and the mother to stay healthy.

Due to the alpha not hunting as often, he often becomes less fit making it easy for another Lucario to take the role the next time the female is fertile. This helps maintain genetic diversity somewhat but the main way genetic diversity is maintained is by rejecting a Riolu pup when it becomes a Lucario. If the pack has reached critical mass where there is not enough food to support the pack any new Lucario are driven out by the alphas to start a new pack on their own. This will always happen to the first few females a mother gives birth which avoids mother-daughter competition. It is common that younger Lucario in the pack will leave with this female due to the increased mating opportunity. This is often a gamble, if the mother then has no more daughters the pack must find a new one themselves by invading another pack. Also if a pack splits it means they must hunt smaller, easier and often less nutritious prey.

It is also important to note that Lucario are incredibly territorial and there are often fights over territory boundaries. Unusually though they do have overlapping home ranges and while a lot of time is spent within their own territory, packs will often venture outside for unknown reasons.

The triggers that cause a Riolu's evolution are uncertain. It is likely related to the pokémon's aura sensitivity due to the intimate link Riolu and Lucario have with this energy. Among different populations it appears evolution can occur at very different times; it is unknown what effects this and whether it influences the pokémon's total life span. Generally, Lucario can live for 10-14 years in the wild.

In Battle: As mentioned before battle trained Lucario and wild Lucario are very different. In the wild the moves and abilities a Lucario learn are primarily to make it an incredible hunter. Its aura abilities allow for silent long distance communication as well as prey tracking. Offensive abilities can create explosions to startle prey into going towards a trap or can be used to take down prey in an ambush or after a chase.

These abilities that were originally used for hunting have translated into modern pokemon battles well. Lucario's range, flexibility and strength make it a powerful adversary. One moment it could be firing aura spheres left, right and centre the next it will be right in your face unleashing its brutal bone rush attack. That doesn't even include its passive use of aura, in battle trained Lucario this sense is trained to near perfection allowing it to predict attacks, read the emotions of its opponent and even allow for near telepathy with its trainer.

The largest difference between wild and trained Lucario is this use of aura. You could almost see it as an unlocking of potential thanks to the effect a human has on a pokemon. Trained Lucario are more aware to other auras outside of its own and that of its pack making it the selfless, justified aura guardian it is famed for being instead of the wild wolf it is in the wild.

Extra notes:

Hunting Strategies: Lucario are the best pack hunters in the pokémon world, with a combination of power, speed and intelligence their success rate is far higher than many other creatures in the world. Lucario work together to subdue prey and maintain their relatively high dietary needs. Lucario are very much opportunists they will weed out the weak and vulnerable testing the organism using aura to find the more infirm pokmon around. Lucario only resort to ambush when trapping prey or in times of desperation; they are not stealth predators but endurance hunters. They will drive their prey to exhaustion by chasing it over miles before going in for the kill. This is all to reduce the overall resistance of the prey. This is important because it is common that Lucario will be injured during a hunt and in the wild this is often fatal.

Lucario are very adaptable with their hunting, in the tundra they use their padded feet as snow shoes to carry them over the snow using this they drive their prey into deep drifts of snow slowing them down and trapping them before they go in for the kill. In forests and plains, they will often drive prey into dry river beds where round stones will trip them up and potentially injure the prey.

The success rate of Lucario hunts are roughly 40% with pokemon and 70% with animals. Lucario tend to target animals less because they are always smaller and less nutritious than pokemon, a Lucario requires 3 average sized does to feed a pack a day in the wild while 2 Tauros may feed an entire pack for a week. Pokemon do however have a much higher risk due to pokemon resisting with moves and the fact that pokemon are more intelligent and social the risk is often worth it however for Lucario.

Aura: There are many theories as to what Aura truly is. All we currently know is that it runs through all living things and it is intimately linked with emotion, personality and willpower. Lucario and Riolu are the most naturally aura sensitive beings we know however there are rumours that there aura sensitive humans exist.

My personal theory is that Aura is an extension of chi. Chi is the energy controlled by fighting types that enhance their physical power and endurance. It is stimulated by physical activity, training and meditation. Very similar to Aura. It is my thought that Aura takes this to the next step combining both physical, mental and emotional energies to produce a new energy that can be manipulated to produce even greater results than Chi can. This would explain Lucario's fighting typing and explain why other fighting types can also be slightly aura sensitive.

Unfortunately, due to the spiritual nature of aura and the rarity of Lucario we are unable to truly experiment on aura to answer our questions. So, for now we are left to theorise and let our imaginations go a little bit wild. My favourite thing to do!

Mega Evolution: Mega evolution can be a very controversial topic in science. While it has apparently been around for over 100 years it has only recently become, known and studied in the past decade. Hence there is very little known about it. Mega evolution seems to be a temporary form change of pokemon taking its power above and beyond what it is originally. This can change pokemon drastically revealing hidden typing's, powers and abilities. Trainers that wield mega evolution state that 3 things are needed to allow a pokemon to mega evolve. A key stone held by the trainer, a mega stone containing the pokémon's DNA and a powerful bond between trainer and pokémon.

You may be asking why I am bringing this up, well the stories suggest that the first pokémon to mega evolve was in fact Lucario. Lucario is also the most commonly seen mega evolution on television since a few famous trainers have Lucario that can mega evolve. Namely Korrina, Gym leader of Shalour city in Kalos and protector of the Tower of Mastery and the recent Champion of the Kalos region. The observed effects of Lucario's mega evolution with these trainers was a dramatic increase in power and aura sensitivity taking it to levels I never thought possible and a style of attack that could only be described as heartless.

There is a huge amount of mystery surrounding the power of mega evolution however it is currently being studied with extreme fervour by scientists. Hopefully the mysteries behind this phenomenon will be unveiled soon. And do not worry I shall be sure to keep you updated on any findings that come up.

Folklore: As I'm sure you can imagine with such interesting pokémon there must be some interesting legends surrounding them, and you'd be right.

Within ancient tombs found near the world's largest desert are enormous untouched murals depicting incredible pictures of ancient times along with peculiar hieroglyphics. One such mural depicts a man with the head of a Lucario holding a par of scales, on one side is a feather on the other is a heart. The heart weighs more than the feather. The next panel shows a heartless man being torn up by wolves. Looking at the hieroglyphics surrounding the mural it is believed this man is the god of judgement deciding whether you were fit to go to the afterlife or not by weighing your heart against a feather. It appears even in ancient times we knew of Aura's links to personality I feel it is no coincidence that this deity is depicted to have the head of a Lucario. It is likely that Lucario were revered in the past as deliverers of this god's judgement. 'Messengers of death' is a term used often in these tombs to refer to lucario. It just goes to show how the world has changed considering the public opinion of Lucario in present day.

Another ancient legend revolving around Lucario and one I was very fond of in my foolish youth is the well-known legends of the aura guardians. Aura guardians in the stories are men and women said to be protectors of peace, life and justice. Great knights travelled the land protecting the innocent from evil alongside their powerful Lucario. There are many tales involving Aura guardian's the most famous being the Sealing of the Serpent, the Collapse of the Hallowed Tower and Battle Below the Tree of Beginning. Each story is a tale of the tragedy, sacrifice and heroism of an aura guardian and their partners that inspire people to this day.

This chapter was great fun, Lucario is such a popular pokemon being a semi-pseudo legendary with great stats. It is also one of my personal favourites. Since the Mystery of Mew movie I loved the idea of it and loved uncovering the hidden truth beneath the surface. The fact is thanks to the movie and the games we look at lucario as a pretty heroic pokemon yet it is nothing of the sort.

My thinking on this originally came from when I got Lucario in pokemon sun and its pokedex entry mentioned it being a predator which is a terrifying thought considering its powers and how it became heartless when it mega evolved. I thought what if mega evolution returned lucario to its base traits of being a ruthless apex predator and loved it.

While lucario is more based on a jackel than a wolf I thought a jackel's life style didn't really suit lucario so I went for the more savage route. I decided to start thinking of lucario as a true big bad wolf style animal instead of a pokemon for this which was great fun.

In terms of mega evolution I have been working on a theory with Johnny Sceptre around how it works biologically which like a lot of my more complex ideas and concepts will be revealed piece by piece as this story gains more chapters. So i do apologise for not revealing everything at once ;p

A big thank you to Fitzfrancis G874 for requesting this chapter it was a fun one and I hope you enjoyed it. Please fave and follow for more and please review if you have any requests, comments or theories. I'd love to hear them.

Up next: Pichu - Pikachu - Raichu: The Thunder Mice!

See you next time :)