Orion scanned through the rest of the papers and found they were all news clippings of Synthia’s victories in the league. There was even one that showed her in front of a gym. Orion pocketed a photo that was only slightly yellowed and had Synthia with a tall, dark-haired man and two blond-haired boys. They were all laughing and seemed incredibly happy.

When he was done, he closed everything back up and put it back in the closet.

“If I ever get a place of my own, I’ll come back for this,” he muttered.

A soft crack came from the egg, and he moved to it, kneeling in front of the bed. As he saw the tiny tears in the shell turn longer, the egg began wiggling. As sad and worried as he was, he couldn’t stop feeling excited. What kind of Pokemon was in here? He recalled from the message that it had only been mentioned that it was powerful.

Time ticked by, then, with a surprising suddenness, the egg split in two, revealing a tiny blue and black Pokemon with large black eyes.

“Lu… lu, Ri! Riolu,” the Pokemon called out, looking around curiously.

“Awesome,” Orion whispered as he gently placed his hand before the Pokemon. He knew that it was important to let the Pokemon get used to him before handling it, and he watched as the curious Pokemon rose on wobbly legs, staring at him and then his hand.

“Lu!” the Pokemon cried, pressing its head against his hand.

Feeling the warm, surprisingly sturdy fur, Orion couldn't help but laugh.

“Hey there, little fellow? How are you doing? You’ve been asleep for a very, very long time!”

The Riolu cocked its head, staring at him.

“So, it seems a lot of scary things have happened ever since you and I were born. The world outside… It's dangerous. How about you join me? I promise I’ll take great care of you and-”

The Riolu jumped up, startling Orion as it landed on his shoulder and hugged his head.

“So, is that a yes?” Orion asked as he laughed.

“Riolu!”

“Awesome,” Orion said as he reached into his pocket and removed the old ball. “So, this isn’t the newest ball, but it's really special. It is the only thing I have left of my father.”

Riolu looked at the ball curiously, then without hesitation, put its hand on it, disappearing in a flash. The ball shook and shuddered on Orion’s hand once before letting out a gentle ringing sound.

Orion looked stupidly at the ball, trying to understand what had happened. Then he grinned widely.

“I’ve got my own Pokemon,” he shouted, raising the ball in triumph. The sadness he had been feeling and the loss lessened considerably as he lowered the ball inspection.

As he looked at the ball, feeling incredibly excited, it flashed, and Riolu appeared on the ground, looking around curiously.

“So, didn't you feel like staying in your ball?” Orion asked.

“Ri!”

“Well, that's good. I’d be lonely otherwise,” Orion said with a smile.

Riolu looked at him and jumped. This time, Orion expected it, and he wasn’t surprised when the small Pokemon landed on his shoulder, hugging him.

“Yeah, I like you too, little one!” he said.

He examined the tiny Riolu and frowned. Should he name it? He knew many people named their Pokemon, especially their starters, but not everyone. The Pokemon didn’t seem to care much either way from his experience.

I’ll decide later, he thought as he looked around the room.

He hadn’t bothered taking the pants and boots as both were almost completely destroyed by time. That meant he had everything he could take. Unless he wanted to take the computer.

Staring at it for a while, he turned it off and unhooked it. Bringing it along out of the room, he went into the old egg hatchery and walked to the back. There was a tiny, well-hidden closet there that held the food for the baby Pokemon. Sadly, it was all bad, but at least it gave him a spot to put the pc. With the path down open, he didn’t want something to destroy it because there might be a use for it later. As he closed the door, he looked around at the destroyed eggs.

“Riolu?”

He looked at his new friend, noting the curious but sad gaze in his eyes.

“Yeah, they didn’t make it,” he said as he waved at the eggs.

After a few moments of looking for anything of use, he finally turned off the generator and climbed out of the cellar. Outside, the sun was high in the cloud-filled sky, giving everything a suitably gloomy feeling.

“Ri!”

Orion looked at Riolu to see it point at a large slab of concrete, then at the staircase down.

“You think I should close it off?” he asked.

“Ri, ri!”

“Alright,” Orion said as he moved to the slab. “But I’m pretty sure I can’t move this.”

“Riiiii olu!”

“Fine, fine, I’ll try,” Orion said with a grin. Staring at the slab, he decided he could try to topple it, then drag it to the stairs and shove it over.

Putting his hands on the slab, he began pushing, straining as he felt the massive weight. The slab didn’t butch and he was about to give up when Riolu jumped on his arm and put its tiny hands on the slab beside his.

“I’m not sure-” Orion began, falling quiet as Riolu’s ears rose slightly. A sense of static ran from his arm through his body, and his arm flexed. The slab was shoved and slowly toppled forward.

“Holy shit,” Orion muttered, staring at the tiny Riolu as it raised its arms in triumph. “You are really strong!”

The slab slammed into the ground, muffling any reply the tiny Pokemon might have made.

I wonder what he just did, Orion thought as he watched Riolu jump from his arm and began shoving at the massive slab. To his surprise, the slab actually moved a few inches before Riolu stopped, frowning cutely at the stone.

“Don’t worry. When you get older and practice more, you will become much stronger,” Orion said.

As he did, he realized he would need to come up with a training plan for Riolu. There had been only a handful of them at the ranch over the years that he grew up, and he knew only a little about them. If he recalled, they instinctively knew only two moves. Quick attack and Endure, the latter being a very dangerous one at this young age. If a baby Riolu used Endure too much, it could cause it to be permanently harmed.

Moving to the side of the slab, Orion began pushing it, and although it was immensely heavy, he found that with Riolu’s help, he managed to move it across the cellar entrance. When he finished, he sat down on the slab, breathing raggedly.

“Ri… Riolu!”

Orion saw Riolu rub its belly, and he nodded. Normally just hatched Pokemon needed a lot of food, but the problem was, he didn’t have any. At least not now. Besides, from what he recalled, Riolu preferred meat as they were carnivores.

“Let's see if we can find something,” he said, holding out his hand.

Walking around the ruins of the ranch, Orion wondered what he should do. He knew that Riolu in the wild ate things like Ratata, and other smaller Pokemon. Still, back in the ranch, they had mainly used poke blocks, and he’d never really had to deal with the larger carnivorous Pokemon. His Uncle Basil had been the one to handle those, though he had seen the Charmeleon eat Magikarp.

Thinking back to that, he looked at the river.

“Let's go and catch something to eat,” he said.

“Riolu!”

They made their way to the river, and as he closed in, Orion was surprised at how clear the water was. He immediately saw schools of fish Pokemon roam around, and recognized some Veluza and Barraskewda hunting schools of Remoroid and the Feebas. He knew all of them were things trained Pokemon also ate, and he knew that even many people around the coast ate some of them.

According to his mother, Feebas' meat was very yummy, and as long as you caught untrained ones, they weren’t intelligent. He remembered as a kid, he’d thought that weird, but as he grew up, he’d mostly got used to the idea.

Staring at the water, Orion frowned. There were evidently things here, but how was he supposed to catch them? He gazed at the dark forest in the distance, and frowned. He knew how to catch Ratata, as he had done so for his uncle on numerous occasions, but fishing?

“Perhaps we can make a fishing rod?” he muttered.

“Ri!”

He looked up to see Riolu point at a rusty metal rod sticking out of the ruins.

“Yeah… I guess we can try,” Orion said as he walked to it, surprised at how quick Riolu was at catching on what he wanted.

Didn’t they have some form of psychic abilities? he thought.

A short while later, he was standing at the river with a rusty metal rod a bit too long and slightly bent, with a dug-up energy cord dangling from it. Another bit of rusty metal was bent in a makeshift hook, with a large bit of mushroom attached to the side.

“I should know this, but I can’t recall if they like mushrooms,” he said, giving Riolu a shrug.

Riolu didn’t respond, sitting at the edge of the river, staring intently at the fish Pokemon swimming there.

“Well, let's try.”

Orion tossed the wire in and watched the hook’s rust creating an orange cloud in the water that drifted with the flow. To his surprise, there was an instant reaction from the dozens of fish Pokemon, as a nearby school of Remoroid rushed towards the hook. The smallest was the length of his arm, while the longer ones were easily twice that size.

“Get ready,” he shouted.

“Ri, ri!” Riolu shouted, sounding both enthusiastic and hungry.

Orion slowly pulled the bait up, and the school shot after it. Just before it reached the surface, three of the Remoroid bit into the mushroom, and hoping he was doing it right, Orion jerked the makeshift rod back.

There was a moment of angry movement and air bubbles that blocked his view, then it settled, and he saw the empty hook hover above the water while the Remoroid where swimming back down, chewing softly.

“Well…. Shit,” he muttered.

“Riiii,” Riolu said, hanging its head.

“Don’t worry, let's try again,” Orion said quickly.

A few minutes and a few steps to the side later, he tried again. This time he had made sure to attach the mushroom tighter to the hook. Almost the same thing happened, but this time he waited for the Remoroid to bite down before pulling the hook up.

There was another air-bubble bustle, but he felt a lot more pull on the steel rod, and as he pulled it up, a Remoroid came up with it. Orion quickly turned the dangling fish above land, where it landed with a slap.

“Ri, ri, luuuuuu,” Riolu howled as he ran towards the Remoroid.

Orion was about to shout in joy when a blue bubble blasted into the ground next to Riolu. The tiny Pokemon jumped sideways, and Orion looked up. A dozen Remoroid heads were poking out, blue light in their tiny maws while bubbles of water were forming.

Orion’s mind spun as he backed up.

“Quick attack on the one on the ground, then grab it and run,” he shouted.

Riolu was moving before he was halfway, and two steps in a white glow emanated from around him as he charged forward. The Remoroid was flopping on its side, a blue glow forming at its mouth. Blue balls of bubbly water slammed into the ground around Riolu as he hit the Remoroid.

Orion was backing up, half watching the fight and partially paying attention to the Remoroid.

Riolu was running before he knew it, and he turned and quickly ran after him. He was ten steps from the river when something slammed into his back and shoved him a dozen feet away, causing him to nosedive into the ground.

Groaning and bruised, Orion quickly crawled behind a bit of debris and wall. Looking back at the river, he saw the Remoroid slowly sink down, sinister gleams in their eyes.

Right… so that is going to be more difficult the next time, Orion thought.

He found Riolu dragging the no longer moving fish further away from the river.

“Let me help,” he said.

“Olu,” Riolu said.

Orion had the feeling he was tired, though he couldn’t quite explain why. It had to be because of Riolu’s psychic abilities. Picking up the fish, he was surprised at how heavy it was.

When they reached as far from the river as they could get without leaving the ruins, he gazed stupidly at the cold, wet fish.

“Right… normally, I’d grill it or something,” he muttered. “But-”

Riolu moved away and picked up a dry piece of wood.

“Well… I don’t know how to make fire,” Orion said.

They looked at each other stupidly when Orion heard a distant snort from one of the Tauros.

Perhaps some of the fire types survived?

He climbed atop a bit of rubble and scanned the surrounding Tauros. It only took him a moment to locate a large black one with red streaks in its manes.

Now, how do I get it to give us some-

A blue blur ran into his field of vision, and he blinked as he saw Riolu dart between the ruins holding a stick.

“Hey! Come back! We don’t know if they-” he quickly clamped his mouth shut when he saw the Taurus turn to stare at him angrily.

“Sorry,” he muttered. He knew the Taurus could have a short fuse and didn’t like loud noises.

Biting his lips, he watched as Riolu slowed down and moved towards the Taurus that were wearily staring at him. Orion couldn’t hear it, but he saw Riolu’s lips move. Whatever it said caused the lead Taurus, a big, entirely black version, to snort out steam from his nostrils.

“Shit,” Orion whispered.

Then he blinked as the fire Tauros slowed moved to Riolu, who held up a stick. A snort and a plume of fire later, he was running back with a burning stick. Looking up, Orion saw the fire Taurus follow the tiny blue fighting type with a glint of amusement.

When Riolu arrived back, he happily held up the stick, and Orion accepted it while scratching his head.

“Thanks, but… can you be a bit more careful next time?” he asked.

Riolu cocked his head, and Orion sighed.

“Never mind. Let's go and make a campfire!"