章 3: Camp and Growing up

...

The next few days Lan familiarized himself with his body by doing some simple exercises and his Martial Cultivation. He spent a good bit of time examining his Cultivation method and found out that this body had just gone through the movements of the Martial Arts and was just using it as an exercise. It just meant that he was effectively starting from base zero.

Lan realized that he could only access the first set of movements which were meant for the user to refine and perfect the control of his Physical body. The movements were a series of martial art forms ( punches, kicks, blocks, and stretches) that strained his body's muscles.

Once this first step was completed he would be able to start attempting to enter the first level of actual Aura Cultivation and feel the aura within his body.

He knew that his cultivation is going to be painful and take some time so he dedicated his mornings to building his foundations.

During the day Lan followed the group of students and the planned activities put on by the various professors at the camp. The activities mostly consisted of a series of short lectures that focused on giving important Pokemon information which included various interactions with Pokemon.

Lan got bored quickly during most of the field excursions as they did not see many wild Pokemon due to their group's size and proximity to the edge of the forest. There where many common Kanto Pokemon around such as Pidgey, Spearows, Rattatas, and countless different bug pokemon. These types could be found everywhere in the Kanto and Joto regions and were familiar with interacting with Humans.

Lan eventually decided that he wouldn't participate in the outings anymore as none of this was entertaining to him. He had enjoyed the lectures and the showing of majestic Pokemon such as Arcanine, Rhydon, and various others that the professors from different regions brought for the students to interact with.

His friend Kalen was always next to his new girlfriend, the duo had become an official couple a day or so ago when he saved her from an agitated Rattata with his Pokemon. Lan could only sigh as he looked at them being lovey-dovey together. 'He was not jealous. Definitely not jealous.'

As the oldest group attending the Summer Camp, the campers were allowed to bring two pokemon for protection and training during lectures. He had interacted with many of the people at camp but he could not understand why most of them did not seem to possess any common sense about Pokemon. Since he didn't have any pokemon he got to be a professor assistant during lectures but other than that he was bored with the camp.

He once tried to find his sister in order to meet her but her camp had an opposite schedule and was located at the site the furthest from his camp. He just ended up watching the young trainers and their Pokemon around the Camp.

Many of the kids his age tended to be very proud and arrogant furthermore wanted to show off their Pokemon to their friends. Lan felt that many of the trainers were childish and immature but he still enjoyed watching the various Pokemon Battles that were the result of this immaturity. Some of the campers even caught Pokemon on some of the excursions in the forest and became quite popular among their groups.

Kalen was lucky caught a rare Sentrat and even gifted it to his girlfriend much to the jealous gazes of many girls. Lan interacted with Kalen when he could as he was a fun guy to be around but when his girlfriend was added to the group she would always give Lan the stink eye. Just like this there where many disputes between campers that resulted in battles that Lan watched to pass time at camp.

On the last day before the students and Professors return to their respected homes and regions, Lan decided to explore The nearby Ranch as he knew it contained a large number of Pokemon that he could interact with.

...

Lan broke off from his group when they all started to go out for the final expedition and started to wander around the fields on a nearby hill. He ran into a many of pretty cool pokemon that he had not seen in his memories of other regions and assumed that were many of them primarily found in Kanto.

He stumbled upon a large grass plain full of grazing Tauros and Mareep.

Lan saw most of them where busy eating and taking naps while some of the Pokemon were butting heads and battling one another. Lan smiled and made his way towards them.

Lan's sudden appearance disturbed part of the Pokemon heard making them slightly irritated and they started grunting loudly. Lan just decided to take it slow and sat down in the grass. A while later the disturbed Pokemon seemed to ignore him. He smiled as he was simply playing with a small Pidgey that had nestled in his hair. He slowly got up and approached a part of the heard of Toros.

Lan tried to convey his good intentions and surprisingly one of the Tauros stepped forward to greet him and began to lick his hand. It didn't take long till he was surrounded by the herd of Pokemon and couldn't escape. They were larger and stronger than him but he was pretty tall so he could see outside his encirclement.

"Alright Alright, guys stop it. Don't chew on my shirt! I really liked this shirt "

Lan laughed while scolding the Pokemon and their Antics.

"Young man you got yourself into a situation now."

Lan turned around to see the famous Professor Oak himself dressed in his signature Lab coat with an overly large Orange Dragon beside him. He had seen the Professor at the opening introduction to the camp so he immediately recognized him.

Lan smiled and said, " Nah it's fine I can get out, watch this!"

He then twisted his torso a bit and then preceded put his hands on the horns of the largest Tauros.

Professor Oak watched wide-eyed at the youth who then followed his actions to go into a handstand using the horns and flip out of the Pokemons' encirclement.

Losing their source entertainment the herd started to disperse.

Oak smiled at the teen who was now holding the dropped Pidgey from before.

"Quite some moves you got there it reminds me in my younger days."

Dragonite shook her head at that comment and grunted.

Lan just laughed and smiled.

Redirecting his attention "What can I help you with Professor?"

"Ohh its nothing I was just informed that a certain student had left the main group and I came to find you."

"Ahhh yeah sorry about that, I am not that great with people and just enjoy being around pokemon more. Also why I am thinking about it, having so many people on the excursion to view a small amount of common Pokemon is the worst idea of the camp. While if I go alone I can explore and meet much more entertaining Pokemon"

"Haha of course it was like that. Your criticism is refreshing coming from a peer. Usually, the camp doesn't lose people on the expeditions but I guess you the third because yesterday two kids from the younger camp got lost in the Forrest and where attacked."

"Professor I am also kid"

"But you talk and think like an adult."

Lan sweated a little at that comment but immediately brushed it off

"Well it not because of this I came to find you, Lan, I actually came here to have a serious discussion with you. As it's about your parents...

...

The two of them returned to the camp and were in Professor Oak's office

Lan's facial reactions went through a broad range of emotions until they arrived and the Professor continued the conversation.

"I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news but there was a Large accident at the Ruins where your parents where currently exploring."

Lan immediately had a bad feeling about where this conversation was going.

Oak"Part of the Ruins seemed to just up and disappear while the rest of it collapsed. No one that among the exploration team survived. Your dad's body was confirmed deceased but your stepmother's body is still missing."

Lan's body shivered and his mind went blank. Even though he had not had this body for long he still possessed all the emotions and memories of his past.

He started to breathe heavily but quickly started one of the martial arts breathing techniques to help him regain some clarity.

Lan was silent for a while and gained his composure and with a clenched fist asked "So what will happen to my sister and me now?"

Oak"Well normally the both of you would be sent to an orphanage within your home region but since your family never managed to have a permanent place of residency that part is still being determined.

I know this is a lot to take in at the moment but your Parents left you some money, items, and one property that belonged to your mother's side of the family. It is a small abandoned research lab in the now developing Alola region."

Lan quickly began to run through this new information and his numerous thoughts but was once again interrupted by Oak.

"Since we have the situation at hand I believe you and your sister should stay here at my lab for a while until you have decided what both of you want to do."

Lan smiled at the thought but quickly started pondering something. "Professor, is it too much to ask to stay here and learn under you as an assistant for a while then maybe move to Alola?"

Oak pondered for a sec and countered " It is going to be a lot of hard work. Are you sure you are up for it?"

"Yes sir I am"

"Good we can work that out besides I have some familial relations down in Aloha so we can make sure that whenever you are ready to make the trip you won't be on your own there."

"Thanks, Professor now when do I start?"

...

Needless to say, Lan's first interaction with his sister was a very emotional one. It took a lot of comforting from him, Oak's Granddaughter Daisy and surprisingly Dragonite who seemed to quite fond of interacting with Alice.

Like that Lan started to work under Professor Oak as a lab assistant. He was well-liked by the pokemon and the fellow researchers at the lab. Due to his perseverance, he quickly increased his knowledge and techniques in most Pokemon fields.

During this time he made some important personal discoveries about how old he was regarding his brief knowledge of the anime.

He was Five years older than Ash, Gary, and his sister Alice. While he was two years younger than Daisy and her generation. His sister, Alice, had a lot of fun at the Lab interacting with all the Pokemon(especially Dragonite) and developed into a nonstop chatterbox and prankster. She grew very close to Daisy and Ash's Mom Delia.

Daisy took Alice as her younger sister while Mrs. Ketchum took her as the daughter that she never had. Ash and Gary were the same as the anime and where constantly bickering and yelling out their dreams to be Pokemon Masters.

Lan always internally thought "What is a Pokemon Master anyway?"

...

Days Past by

Ash was still as hardheaded as ever and trouble always followed him around. One thing that irritated Lan the most and that was that Ash could not remember his name, otherwise, Lan very much enjoyed his time at the lab and in Pallet town. This town became a sort of home for him even though numerous exhausting situations caused by the antics of the three wrecking balls called Ash, Alice, and Gary.

On another note, Lan later found out from Ash, that the kids that got lost at the PokeCamp were himself and another girl and Lan teased him because that was something that he half expected from Ash since he always made things interesting.

During his studies and time doing investigations, Lan was the one who wouldn't be found inside the lab but was constantly on the ranch interacting with its Pokemon. After two years at the Lab, Lan and a reluctant Alice decided to move to Aloha Islands.

The first reason was he wanted a place to continue to train himself and the second was that there are some regions of Alola that have yet to be explored making the natural environment

** Cough**

**Cough**

Beach was an excellent habitat to conduct Pokemon research.

So when Lan reached 15 years old he took his intermediate researcher examination and got his Official Research License. Following that Alice and Lan moved to Alola seeking new adventures. They had decided that they might return to Kanto when Ash, Gary, and Alice start their journey but he wasn't sure if he wanted to or not.

But now that is where our story starts...

...