A Triumphant Return

A slightly tan young man with messy brown hair and golden eyes was sprawled out on the ferry's deck. He was six feet tall and wore Grey shorts and a Green Short-sleeved jacket with a white undershirt. (Looks like a more athletic Kei Takishima from Special A wearing Nate's the Pokemon Character's style clothing) He had a slim well-built body that showed his explosive muscle.

"Mann, I can't believe this, I really got sick from riding on this ship. Couldn't the captain make the ride any smoother?"

"Zera Zera"

Lan"No it wasn't the sushi I had last night ...or the night before."

"ora Zeraora Zera-ora"

Lan"No that's impossible, I am not complaining I am just ... making a rhetorical question."

The bipedal feline rolled its eyes

"You just rolled your eyes at me, didn't you? Didn't you?!?

You, my good sir, need to respect your seniors"

"Zera Zera" while shaking his head at his master's Antics

Lan"Hey, I am older than you I am 19 next month for Arceus sake.

You are only 4 years old so don't try to pull seniority with me."

Zeraora whined in defiance

"I don't care what that means in Pokemon years.

You are still that yellow and black cat I picked up from that alleyway even if you did grow a couple of feet.

Also, I am taller and OLDER than you so... Ha" crossing his arms in smugness Lan smirked trying to get a reaction out of the Pokemon.

Which he succeeded ... as Zeraora turned around with a scowl visible on its face and suddenly rushed at his master, fired a roundhouse kick at such a tremendous speed it created a breeze on the empty deck.

Expecting Lan to dodge it Zeraora slightly opened his eyes when he saw Lan didn't intend to make a move.

**Boom**

**Crash **

The kick landed and Lan went tumbling to the other side of the open deck.

After a few seconds, Zeraora snorted as Lan started to get out of the dirt and brushed off his clothes emerging seemingly unscathed except for the large bump that started to form on his head. 'Man it's a good thing that I broke through to the first stage last year. That could have seriously hurt me. He is improving fast after I taught him my manual martial training manual.'

Lan looked back and taunted"Z - Man have you forgotten who your sparring partner is and who you have yet to defeat?"while the bruise on his head continued to grow.

He received another eye roll

An invisible arrow struck Lan's heart

"Z come on now we are best friends, partners, pals right?"

Z just turned his head away from Lan and looked at the vast Ocean.

"Come on don't be like that or... I will tell Alice to bath you"

Zeraora had a shiver go up his spine and quickly made his way over to Lan and gently dusted off his shoulders.

"Yep, that's right I can always rely on Alice to reign you in. I admit she gets pretty scary when she gets mad like that time where we got her clothes dirty while sparring. Even I the great Lan Wilder, admit I am afraid of her"

"Zeraora" nodding in agreement

"Who is so scary Brother?"

The duo stiffened up and turned around slowly to see a beautiful girl with short white silver hair and red eyes playfully smirking at them with a knowing smile that indicated that she caught them red-handed.

"Nothing s si..ster we www...were just saying we could clean up from our spar and clean my dusty clothes" Lan stuttered

"Mhmm hmmm," Alice put a finger to her cheek in contemplation causing a brief silence on the deck. Alice finally said something much to Lan's relief "Ill forgive you, ONLY if you let Noibat out of its Pokeball. I want to play with it for a while"

Lan exhaled "Okay but be careful he is sleeping also he is going to be MY Pokemon for MY Journey"

"Yeah, Yeah I know but what about Z?"

"He's more a partner on our Journey." turning his head to stare at the bipedal feline who was licking its fur purring "Zeraora!" in conformation.

Alice "Alright that's fine just bring him out."

Lan grabbed his only Pokeball on the waist and threw it up.

A pale purple bat-like pokemon formed and was happily flapping around above them and then landed on Lan's shoulder chirping happily

A childish voice rang in Lan's mind [Play, Hungry, Play]

Lan smiled and petted its head "Yes I know Alice will feed you and play with you for a while" Noibat looked at the white-headed girl and flew into her arms making Alice laugh. Noibat when he hatched had a natural gift of Telepathy which made communicating with it a lot easier.

Alice"I can't believe that random Pokemon egg that you got from that weird tourist and didn't hatch for a year hatched into this cutie!"

"Hey, he wasn't that weird, he just had his... quirks. But yeah, I know it was a total surprise for me also. I just helped him tour one of the islands and he caught one of the Exeggutor there. Though I was surprised as he started to ride it like a Ponyta..." Lan stopped there as he thought back to the eccentric fellow opting not to speak anymore as it might prove his sister's point.

"When it hatched I was going to gift it to you for your starter but then you told me that we were going back to Kanto to start your Journey AND that Professor Oak already had a Pokemon reserved for you as your starter."

Alice playfully stuck out her tongue at him "Daisy helped me using her Puppydog eyes. Grandpa Oak can not resist them. Hehe."

Lan "You are teaching Daisy bad things aren't you"

"Hey" she acted like she was offended but Lan knew better not to fall for her tricks. She shortly went back to playing with Noibat.

"Daisy is already an accomplished coordinator and groomer right? Are you thinking of doing something similar in the field? She could help you out."

"No silly, how could I let those pricks Gary and Ash enter the Kanto League and not me. I plan to make them pay for dumping that bucket of honey on me when we were younger"

Z whimpered of to the side silently imagining what these two unlucky guys had done to anger this white-haired demoness.

Lan smiled "That was years ago and you still have that grudge?"

Alice"Lan look here, when you get a girlfriend never I mean never anger her because a Woman's grudge lasts forever."

Lan snorted "Yeah right."

Alice rolled her eyes and the conversation descended into a serene silence on the deck.

After some time Alice spoke up in a somber tone "Do you think Mom is still out there?"

Lan internally sighed and put his arm around her and pulled her into a hug. She only reached chest height but reciprocated the exchange. She snuggled into Lan's embrace and Lan slowly whispered while stroking her hair "If she is out there I will find her. But until then you focus on your dreams and live how you like. That is what she would want."

Alice who was still hugging Lan smiled up at her Big Brother and felt blessed that her brother would do anything to make her happy even if it risked his own life. The two stayed like that until they could see the port in the distance until Noibat landed on top of Lan's head munching on a berry.

"Noibat where did you get that Berry?" asked Lan

"Noi Noi" [Berry good, Berry downstairs, Free]

Zeraora who was sitting down working on controlling his blue electric sparks stopped and facepalmed, walked over to Lan and took the young dragon from his friend's head, and started to talk with the young Pokemon about his manners.

Lan and Alice just laughed as they watched the two pokemon interact and the silhouette of the city grow bigger in the distance.

...

Descriptions of Pokemon (Bulbapedia)

Zeraora

Zeraora is a human-size bipedal feline Pokemon with yellow and black fur. His fur is thinner and colored black on its lower legs, upper arms, and face while being yellow and thicker everywhere else. There was a zigzagging black stripe along the thighs and forearms while having tufts of light blue fur on its chest and on its forehead. It also has a single blue lightning bolt-shaped whisker on each cheek and a ponytail like a fur that extends between its shoulders. The pokemon has large ears with black insides and blue eyes.

Noibat

Noibat is a pale purple bat-like Pokémon. It has yellow eyes, a black triangular marking on the inner corner of each eye, three tufts of spiked fur on each cheek, two dark purple teardrop-shaped spots on the front of its face, a black lower jaw, and two spiked tufts of fur on its upper lip. Its large, teardrop-shaped ears resemble loudspeakers; they are dark purple on the outside with alternating rings of pale and dark purple fading to black on the inside. Fluffy black fur covers its chest and hips. On the middle joint of its wings are small black hands with two fingers and it has two long toes on each foot.

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