As you can probably tell, I'm doing a rewrite of the whole thing. Hopefully it's not as Mary-Sueish this time. ^^

Scourge and I were training in a field just outside the road to Pewter City. I had him try to hit a boulder a few feet away, and so far, he was doing well. He'd hit the target most of the time using Flamethrower, and we were trying to hit it with Fire Spin now. And he was still doing great. What was going on? I checked my necklace while he fired again; it didn't change. Uncle Riley had said if I was using Aura at all, it would swirl with pale blue light.

"Char?" Scourge looked kind of confused. Looking up at the target, I realized he had burned away all the grass around it, and scorched the ground. Sighing, I looked from the target to my Pokémon.

"Let's take a break for now, and head to the Pokémon Center and get a drink and a snack." He nodded, and I picked up my bag and gathered up my egg.

Scourge curled up on the couch seat, while I checked my email on my laptop. No New Messages. Sighing, I rested my hand on the Egg that Uncle Riley had given me. What did he mean, all Guardians in training need a partner? What is inside this egg?

"All right, Scourge, let's try to train some more." We'd found another spot to train in, and we were working on dodging this time.

After an hour or two of dodging and spinning, Scourge was exhausted and so was I.

"Let's call it a day, buddy."

The next morning, I stretched and looked down at the tiny Charmander next to me, and the Egg on the pillow behind me. Neither moved as I slid out of bed and dressed in my usual uniform: A light blue tank top, white hoodie vest, blue jean capris, and sneakers. After pulling my hair into the requisite pigtails, I gently shook Charmander awake, grabbed my bag and Egg, and left my room to get in some more training before I took on Brock. I didn't know exactly how I was going to beat both Geodude and Onix with just Charmander, but I was going to try my dead level best.

At lunch that day, I was snacking on a candy bar while Scourge chowed down on Pokéblock. At first, I thought the cracking noises were from Scourge's food; but looking down at him, he was finished eating and now curled up, resting off his meal. Uh-oh. The cracking persisted, and I realized it was the Egg that I had been carrying for the past two days. It can't be. I've barely had it!

The pretty blue shell was splintering by the time I got it to Nurse Joy, and just as she was setting it on the counter, it completely hatched into a small, jackal-headed Pokémon. It rubbed its face with its small paws, and then looked up at us with bright red eyes.

"Are you guys just going to stand there staring at me all day?" A female voice came out of the little Pokémon, and it – she – folded her arms.

"Uh… no. But, what are you?" I was a little nervous about talking to her. She seemed to have a lot of attitude.

"What AM I? I'm a Riolu. The first evolution of Lucario. The Emanation Pokémon. Ring any bells?"

"Wait…. You said Lucario, right? My Uncle Riley has one of those." She's supposed to be my Guardian partner?

"Yup. My guess is your Uncle Riley gave me to you because he knew you had some Guardian potential. Am I right?"

"Well, yeah. My dad was a Guardian in training."

"Thought so." She hopped off the counter to stand in front of me, her paws on her hips. "So, what's your name? Mine's Erin."

"Mine's Anna. And he's Scourge."

"Char!"

"So, you're in training to beat Brock, right?"

The three of us walked down the rocky street, amid the many people going home from their jobs; scientists from the museum and campers and hikers going home from the Gym.

"That's right." I sighed, and shifted my bag. "But I've only got Charmander trained well enough. It'll take a few more days to get you ready to battle."

"Nu-uh. I'm ready now. Besides, I'll have an advantage over Rock-types because of my Fighting-type moves."

"All right… We'll go over some moves in the morning before we challenge him, all right?"

Erin agreed, and we turned around to head back to the Pokémon Center. Later that night, I lay in bed with Erin on one side and Scourge on the other. Moonlight washed in and lit up the room with silver shadows. I reached my hand up to my neck and gripped my Aura stone. Tomorrow, I would make my parents and relatives proud in the battle arena.

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