Pokemon: The Wandering Guardian

...

Once Lan made it back to the surface he immediately made it to the Pokemon Center. He swiped his ID and checked in his Pokemon and preceded to rented out a room to sleep for a while. He slept hard but after a couple of hours he got up. Washing his clothes and taking a shower to get all of the dust from the mine out of his system he felt very refreshed.

Lan was used to being outside for extended periods of time but staying in a cave

Lan then headed downstairs and collected his Pokemon. His current party consisted of:

Growlithe

Vulpix

Mudkip

Onix

Graveller

Zubat

Lan was satisfied with his progress on the Pokedex along with the Pokemon he caught. The Onix was strong and Graveller was one of the smallest he had seen it was barely 1.5X larger than the standard Geodude which was extremely abnormal.

Also, the Zubat was very difficult to catch not because it was strong but because it was small and extremely fast. It was so fast that Lan had to corner it instead of battling it out in the open. Lan then quickly contacted the Lab and transferred the Graveler to one of Oak's assistant that was on duty.

He was going to keep the other two in his party because he thought that they might be helpful when traveling in the mountains and caves. If raised properly he believed that these two Pokemon might make good substitutes to his Main team. As he figured his main team as of now consisted of Growlithe, Vulpix and Mudkip.

It was kind of funny to Lan to see his Pokemon interact Growlithe and Mudkip frequently butted heads against each other now. The two of them were very stubborn and mischievous at times. It all started due to Mudkip trying to steal Growlithe's food. Vulpix ended up the mediator because Lan was just watching it play out. Now each time that those two are out of their Pokeballs they try to compete with each other.

" Alright now let's go to the gym"

Lan then released Mudkip and he jumped on Lan's shoulder and was happily looking around.

Lan then picked up his backpack. " What did I put in this backpack? I am going to have to go through those things that Vulpix found. They are taking up a good amount of room. It's not that heavy with my new strength but it is getting quite bulky. I can arrange things once we beat this gym."

"Mud -Kip" nodded as he agreed with Lan.

Lan and Mudkip headed to the Gym.

...

When Lan arrived he entered the Gym. It looked like a very large open space and had a rock field. He could see two people about to start battling.

" I am going to have to wait a while aren't I. Well I guess we can just watch his match."

Lan then looked around and saw the viewing area. He saw a bunch of young kids behind the safety rails watching the match and not too far away from them was a young girl with orange hair and a side ponytail.

Lan remembered her from a couple of days ago.

Lan made his way over to stand in between the two groups while Mudkip was excitedly looking at the new surroundings.

The referee started to yell " The Offical Match between Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town vs Gym Leader Brock will now begin"

Lan eventually made his way to his spot and turned to watch the match " So its Ash. Let's see how he is doing. If I remember right he started out with Pikachu unless he has caught some more Pokemon this battle will be tough"

The orange hair girl glanced to her left when she heard someone talking about Ash. She looked at the guy beside her. He was pretty tall and had pitch-black hair with sharp features and an athletic body. He looked a couple years older than her maybe? She always had a hard time estimating because she was short for her age. She had just turned 14 a couple of months ago and left her home to chase her dream of becoming a Water Pokemon Master.

Lan felt someone looking at him and turned and saw the girl was staring off into space.

Waving his hand " Hello "

Snapped back to reality she apologized " Sorry I just thought that you looked familiar you were talking about Ash?"

"Really?" Lan smirked and wanted to tease her since she didn't remember him. "Well okay, and yeah I knew Ash before he started on his journey since I spent some time in Pallet Town"

She nodded and they both turned back to the Match.

They watch Ash's Pokemon battle intensely against his opponent.

"Pidgioto use Gust attack" Ash

Brock "You know flying types are weak against rock types right?

Pidgeoto fainted shortly and Ash sent out his Pikachu. Ash's Pikachu used thunderbolt and knocked out Brock's Geodude. Brock called out Onix.

Lan smiled " This Onix is smaller than some of them that live deeper down the mines it is still young as far as Onix's go"

Misty look at the person next to her confused but he did not elaborate. She sat down on the ground to get a better look and continued to watch the match between the two trainers.

"Mudkip mud Mud mud Kip Kip Kip"

Mudkip started to sing and squirm on his shoulder. It then hopped down and squeezed between the railings to watch the match.

Swiftly Mudkip, Misty and Lan were surrounded by very young kids. One of the girls was trying to pet Mudkip but the others were intensely staring at the match.

Onix was shaking off Pikachu's attacks and eventually wrapped up Pikachu. Pikachu was continuously using thundershocks while Onix just wrapped it tighter. When Ash was about to forfeit the sprinkler system went off and Onix bellowed as it was shocked all over from the aid of the water.

Lan stayed silent at the events analyzing and thinking. The little kids made their way down to the field and surrounded Ash and were yelling something about stopping him from beating up Onix.

" Isn't this supposed to be a professional match?" Lan asked to no one.

Misty just shook her head as this is the first time that she also had seen something like this.

Lan sighed " I thought that this gym was going to be tougher than some of the wild Pokemon around here but it doesn't seem like it will be that hard"

Misty was angered a little " Arnt you being a little Arrogant. He seems pretty tough to me."

Lan just shook his head " I didn't mean anything by it it is just I was preparing to battle someone a little stronger than the current gym leader."

"Hmph" She turned her head and rushed off after Ash who was running to the Pokemon Center.

Lan " Did I say something wrong? "

"Mudkip ?" just c.o.c.ked its head to the side because it was also confused.

...

After waiting a while no one had returned to the Gym, Lan then walked out of the Gym and finally further down the road was four people. There was Ash, Misty, Brock and an Older gentleman who looked exactly like Brock.

Lan approached them and waited for a sec before Ash saw him. Ash remembered him back at Oaks Lab when he got his Pikachu He then yelled excitedly " Hey, Hey guess what I got? I got my first badge!!"

Lan smiled but it was a little forced and walked toward the group " Ash don't you remember my name? I mean I have known you for a couple of months now. You also ate some of my cooking."

Misty asked, " Ash do you know this arrogant guy?"

Brock and the Older Man turned around and watched Lan as he approached.

Ash replied "Um kind of, He was there when I got Pikachu as for the other things I don't really remember. " He mumbled the last part while patting his the back of his head trying to remember everything.

Lan made it to the group and put his hand on Ash's shoulder. Ash was not that tall and his head was only at Lan's c.h.e.s.t.

Lan then introduced himself to the group " Hello, my name is Lan Birch I am Pokemon Researcher but currently I am also a trainer who is participating in the Kanto Leauge I came here to challenge the gym today but I saw Ash battling when I arrived."

The others all nodded at this and Misty just snorted and "Humphed"

Lan then turned to Brock and asked: " I was wondering if you could have a match with me?"

Brock sighed and said " I would love to but my Pokemon are tired right now and ... " Looking at the other man " I just stepped down as gym leader so my Dad is now the new Gym Leader"

The other man sighed and stuck out his hand "My name is Flint I will happily accept your battle. Umm, my son informed me that the gym floor still needs cleaning so would you mind if we battle here?"

"No problem sir" as they shook hands and started to head to an open field.

...