Duke (Lyuri)

Duke is Lyuri's Lucario and her strongest Pokémon. However, he is now a human going by the alias Duke Howlson.

Appearance

He doesn't look any different from a normal Lucario.

As a Human, Duke is among the tallest characters and has a strong build to complement it. His hair is short and black, also being a little messy most of the time; his eyes are red and he's typically dressed in a dark blue jacket with a light yellow shirt under it, dark blue pants and black shoes. He also wears a pair of black leather gloves often and he also has yellow headphones hanging on his neck most of the time. He can look intimidating at first glance, though he certainly doesn't act the part.

Personality

Duke is kind and compassionate and if he feels like he's capable of helping someone chances are that he'll offer himself to do so. He's often presenting himself with a warm smile and talks with a soft, friendly voice that is the first clue one who is intimidated by his appearance would get that he's not really a bad person. He's incredibly disciplined, always looking calm and having good control over his emotions, though this also results in him being a difficult person to read as he's unlikely to show many signs of being troubled, though he has become more expressive in that regard. Duke has an innocent mind and so is often unaware of the more dirty implications of some things said or done, either by himself or by others, something that he's often teased for.

Duke's personality leads to him being seen as a bit of a leader or mentor figure, though he doesn't really think of himself as being good enough to lead or teach others due to being a rather humble individual, he still ends up taking that role even without realizing at first. He's good at reading the atmosphere and his Aura powers allow him to get a better understanding of the people he's dealing with, which leads to him usually being good at dealing with people and help them with their issues, however there are some matters that Duke doesn't have a very good understanding about and he can sometimes comes off as insensitive due to that.

He's a pacifist at heart and would never harm anyone intentionally without a good reason for it; due to his discipline, it's very unlikely for him to get truly angry at someone unless someone manages to annoy him past his limits or attempts to hurt one of his friends. Even then, he displays angers in a very tranquil way, getting very serious and his tone darkens significantly; he's still unlikely to actually hurt someone, first attempting to intimidate them into stopping and if that doesn't work, he often limits himself to a single blow to make his point, though against other Pokémon he tend to be a bit rougher as they're often more resistant than humans.

Other Details

• Age: 11 (looks 20 as a human)
• Height: 1.2m (2,05m as a human)
• Birthday: December 18
• Nature: Calm
• Ability: Inner Focus
• Met at: Flocessy Ranch (As a Riolu)
• Ball: Great Ball (Master Ball post Orre)

Battle Strategy

Duke's a jack-of-all-trades, being able to work well in most situations, he knows a wide variety of special and physical moves to help him in combat, but also supporting moves like Heal Pulse, Protect and Helping Hand, as well as boosting moves and some surprise moves like Copycat and Counter, what he's going to do depends on many factors such as what kind of attack the opponent is weaker to, how strong it's defense is, if there's a need for a surprise factor and, in case of Double/Triple/Rotation battles, how his allies are doing. All in all, Duke's main problem is dealing with Pokémon who have a type advantage, but he also knows moves to deal with them.

As a human Duke has a reactive battle style, waiting for the opponent to act so that he can read their actions and counter them. He typically fights wearing a staff but he can fight just as well bare-handed. When fighting he mainly tries to disable his opponent instead of actively hurting them and thanks to his great physical strength, he can easily overpower most foes and pin them down.

Known Moves:

Duke's Moveset
Type	Move	Acquisition	Performance	???	Notes
	Aura Sphere	Natural	★★★★★	–
	Close Combat	Natural	★★★★★	–
	Force Palm	Natural	★★★★★	–
	Dark Pulse	Natural	★★★★	–
	Drain Punch	TM	★★★★	–
	Extremespeed	Natural	★★★★	–	Also used to make quick searches and to chase after someone
	Me First	Natural	★★★★	–	Used as a surprise attack
	Protect	TM	★★★★	–
	Psychic	TM	★★★★	–
	Bulk Up	Natural	★★★	–
	Calm Mind	TM	★★★	–
	Counter	Natural	★★★	–
	Nasty Plot	Natural	★★★	–
	Swords Dance	TM	★★★	–
	Thunder Punch	Tutor	★★★	–
	Work Up	TM	★★★	–
	Copycat	Natural	★★	–
	Heal Pulse	Natural	★★	–
	Helping Hand	Natural	★★	–
The list above may not be exhaustive. ID=Duke (Lyuri)

History

Kanjoh-2

Duke was a Riolu that has always worked hard to be strong, why, nobody knows, he met Lyuri when she got a part-time job at the Flocessy Ranch and got impressed with his fighting prowess when he fought a few other Pokémon in the ranch and ended up taking him with her in her adventures, intially he was relunctant, but being with her helped him get even stronger so he quickly bonded with the girl and soon they became great partners. Duke has been with Lyuri since then and was probably the most invaluable member of the team, quickly becoming her strongest Pokémon, seeing his development really impressed some of his fellow teammates, namely, Riku and Zap, who both really admired him despite him not thinking he deserved much praise.

Duke spent most of his time either training or putting Riku, Zap or Zack on the line, other than that he didn't do much with other people, he met Lake, Stratus, Quin and Ad Min at Route 39 along with Riku, where unfortunately Zack started to cause conflict by repeatedly insulting Stratus until he stepped in and made Zack leave, after that they had a small chat before parting ways. They met again on Ecruteak after Zack had ruined one of Lyuri's comic books that he lent to Riku and that he still hadn't read, he got there after Zack had left, making Riku worry about him thinking that he was the one for ruining the comic, Duke knew better though and quickly solved the problem, he also challenged Lake to a friendly battle and barely managed to win against the Feraligatr.

Duke also got involved in the incident where a human Riku ran off after talking with Lyuri and leaving her locked in his room, Duke helped Lyuri get out and, after getting some help from Lake's group, they head out to Goldenrod seeking the fugitive kid, after a long search Duke found Riku using his aura and quickly caught him before he ran away again, Lyuri and Riku then sorted his problems and the trio went back to Ecruteak. Duke was absent during the Christmas party at Snowpoint, but after the party was over and Lyuri's group went back to Ecruteak, he met with the two newcomers of the team: Jordan and Gex, both then asked him to teach them how to battle and, though a bit reluctantly, Duke accepted.

After one of the training sections, Duke, Jordan and Gex almost got ran over by a car, driven by Zap and Riku, that soon crashed into a tree, Riku got out of the ordeal unharmed, but Zap was badly injured and was hospitalized soon after, Duke was really disappointed at Riku for taking part in that, but after talking with Jordan he quickly forgave the Sandslash after seeing Zack sort of comfort him. He resumed his routine after that and upon going to Mahogany he met with Lake and Stratus yet again after seeing Gex, Jordan, Zap and Riku boasting about him, they had a small chat where him and Lake planned on having a rematch soon, he then left with Zap. He was also present at the Ice Path exploration after noticing that the others had been gone for a while and decided to search for them at the Ice Path where they found out that they, along with Lake and Stratus, were being attacked by a Mamoswine, Stratus ran away with the others, leaving Duke and Lake to fight the mammonth, Duke managed to withstand an Earthquake from it and still fight back, it wasn't until Riku appeared to distract the Pokémon that they won the fight. After all that, Duke learned about what Stratus and Lake were doing and decided to help them collect the ice rock samples from the cave along with Riku, after doing that Duke was present during the revelation of Sakura's attribute and after saying good-bye to Lake and Stratus, they went back to Mahogany.

PEFE Exp

After Lyuri and the others were called to PEFE, Duke and the kids decided to know more about the place while trying to stay close to each other, needlesly to say, they got separated, Duke, Riku and Zap were in the Tropical Module when the blackout happened and met Elise there as she was attacked by a wild Blaziken, they helped her go fight it and after everything was done, they decided to follow Elise to the Aquatic Module, eventually meeting with more people and finding Gex and Pyry, however, Riku and Zap got knocked out in a battle against a Haxorus and Duke, along with Pyry, Jordan and Gex, let the others solve the problem happening on the island while they took care of the uncounscious mons, after everything was done with, Lyuri returned from her own adventure reunited with him and the others, they then left the island shortly after being reunited and meeting with Saif, a new teammate.

Relationships

Humans

Duke is incredibly loyal to Lyuri and does everything he can for her, while also being the one to put her back on the right path if she starts doing something bad, the two are quite close to each because of that, which is also helped by Duke being the strongest out of Lyuri's Pokémon. Upon becoming human, this friendship grew to Lyuri to the point of her going against her own beliefs and falling in love with him while he was completely unaware of it, however, upon her confession, Duke accepted being her boyfriend out of the belief that this would be a way to repay Lyuri for everything she did for him and the others and because he started to develop his own feelings for her. She's also his apprentice when it comes to Aura, and while training they don't think of each other as a couple, and more like master and pupil, like they should. The relationship between the two kept going strong and eventually Duke proposed to Lyuri and the two are now engaged.

Sakura, being Lyuri's sister, is also good friends with Duke, both having a lot of respect for each other, Duke is fond of Sakura's kindness and optimistic way of being, while she's impressed by his battle prowess, both hold each other in high regards.

Duke is also Lucius's Aura mentor and friend, they're on good terms with each other and he doesn't seem to mind Herbert's snarky tendencies as much as others like Lyuri do, taking everything in a mostly light-hearted way, with time, Duke also started to guide Lucius by helping him to deal with his inner problems and telling him of his own experiences to try and make him understand what is better for him in his view-point to get him to consider or reconsider some decisions, as such, he became an even bigger mentor figure to the boy. However after his time as a Shadow Pokémon, Lucius became afraid of him though he kept that hidden for him for a long time and Duke became more cautious around him, treating him in a rather patronising way. Once he made his return to the world of the living though, the two began restoring their friendship.

Duke also gets along well with Jacob, being unaware of the earlier complications between him, Sakura and Lyuri, as such he didn't have as much of a bad impression of him as Lyuri did and was quite friendly to him and upon learning about his problems, Duke did his best to help him grow out of them the way he could, while also just having friendly interactions with him, the two of them never had any issues with each other and are stil in very good terms with each other.

Other than Lucius and Lyuri, Duke also acts as a bit of a mentor figure to both Blitz and Jason, with the former even ending up as his Pokémon under the name of Shinobi.

Other human friends of Duke's include Rawst, Elise, Sam and Hikari.

Pokémon

Duke considers Riku his little brother, as such they're very close to each other, Duke being very protective of him and hurting him being one of the few ways to truly anger him, Riku frequently makes Duke look better than what he himself thinks he is, but he still appreciates that he thinks of him that way, on the other hand, he's frequently trying to make the Sandslash become more confident and assertive, something that has been somewhat successful, though his wasn't the biggest influence on that. They have grown a bit distant of each other when he became human, but not by much as they still hang around sometimes.

He's also the teacher of Jordan and Gex, helping them to become better battlers, being two recently caught Pokémon, Duke was a bit unsure at first, but he took the challenge upon himself and accepted, similarly to Riku, the two often exaggerate on how good Duke is, much to his embarrassment. He thinks of Jordan as a bit of an odd Pokémon, but also the most reliable of Riku's friends outside of Riku himself; he considers Gex to be a rather troublesome Pokémon, but he still cares deeply about him and worries a lot about his well-being, though it's something he normally doesn't show much.

Zack considers himself to be Duke's rival, but the feeling isn't mutual as Duke thinks of rivalries as a waste of time and potential, this doesn't stop Zack of being a rather rebelious Pokémon when around him and frequently trash-talking him, while Duke dislikes his arrogant attitude, he doesn't really hold it against him and just tries to ignore him the best he can, however it's doesn't work sometimes, Zack is also pretty much the only Pokémon of Lyuri's team that was able to anger him and that only made Zack more and more eager to try and anger him so that he could force him into a battle.

Lake and Duke are also good friends and both consider each other to be strong battlers, they tend to help each other be it because there's some big trouble happening or just because they want to help each other to get something done faster, in either case they'll do what they can to help and Duke also looks forward to battling with Lake again someday.

During his time as a human, Duke also caught Blake as his first Pokémon, their relationship is a bit of an odd one as Duke himself didn't do anything to make the Murkrow like him, but that didn't stop him from keeping himself close to him and frequently staying on his shoulder as a pet bird, Blake frequently mimics Duke's gestures and other actions such as sighing, a behavior that he thinks of as strange or at the very least unique, due to the Murkrow not talking at all, it's hard for them to have a more open relationship, but they still get along fairly well.

He's also friends with pretty much everyone of his and Lyuri's team, acting as a leader for them at the same time, other than them, his Pokémon friends include Grant, Seth and Stratus.

Trivia

• He reads the same comics as Lyuri.
• He has been a tutor for both Pokémon and Humans, though in different subjects in a way.
• He's completely incapable of cooking anything
• As a human, he's frequently doing things such as jumping from trees and cliffs, mostly because he wants to make sure he's still in a good shape.
• As a human, Duke is currently the tallest J-Team member at 6'8/2.05m