Chapter 2: A Comforting Hand

-If anyone is wondering, Venn can understand Poke-Speech. I forgot to tell you all this, also

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon; I do own my OC's, Plot ideas, and the Corona region though :)

Hello-Poke-Speech and Thoughts

Hello-Normal Speech

Lan, along with Venn and Caru (Eevee), walked through route 1, but had left later than they had expected from Orsus town. Lan decided to set up camp for the night, while Venn collected firewood with Charmander. When this was done Lan and Caru decided to hit the hay; leaving Venn and his Pokémon to relax.

Venn was falling asleep when he saw a shadow moving across his tent. He got up and went to investigate. Venn noticed something was coming towards him, but he wasn't fast enough to dodge it. It slammed into him and knocked him into the ground. He got up and saw to his amazement that it was a shiny Kirlia that had crashed into him. She was crying for some reason.

Not one to leave a person/pokémon sad he sat down next to her and decided to comfort her. "What's wrong? Come on, you can tell me." Venn said.

The Kirlia was quiet for a second, and then started crying again.

Venn felt the Kirlia's pain and pulled her into a warm hug.

"I'm an outcast," She said, "the other Kirlia won't come near me, I started hating being in a group and ran away. They would call me a freak and weirdo and tell other's not to go near me because I was bad."

Venn pulled the Kirlia closer and brushed her hair away from her eyes. "You're not bad, just misunderstood; I was the same way before meeting my best friend.

"Thank you" She said

"You're welcome," Venn replied, "Hey, me and my friends just started our Pokémon journey, so would you like to come with me?"

"That'd be nice, are you sure though?" Kirlia asked.

"Sure, It's always nice to have another friend," He said smiling.

He pulled out a spare Pokeball and tapped her on the forehead with it. She disappeared into the small red and white ball, and after three shakes the capture was complete. He released her and they went back to camp and fell asleep.

At the crack of dawn, Lan woke up and got started on breakfast. As he was about to wake Caru, when he heard a faint moan. He looked around until he saw a Kirlia laying next to Venn snuggling up to him. Smiling to himself, he got closer before lightly nudging Venn to wake him up. After the third try, Venn's eyes fluttered open and he groaned before getting up.

"Hey, Lan what are you thinking waking me up this early?" he said.

"Well, it's time for us to eat breakfast and pack up, we do have a journey to continue." Lan said.

"Fine, just let me wake up Kirlia," Venn replied looking over to wake her up before noticing that she wasn't there.

"Are you looking for me Master?" Venn turned around to see Kirlia standing next to Lan.

"Don't call me that," he said standing up and stretching.

"What, Master?" She asked.

"Yeah, I'm not your master or anything, just your trainer." Venn said getting ready to leave the tent and eat, "do you want anything to eat?"

"That would be great, I haven't eaten for a day." She said following him outside.

3 hours later…

After they had finished packing up, Lan and the gang set out to Medius Town. They arrived there close to noon, so Lan told Venn to take Caru and the rest of their Pokémon somewhere to have fun while he set up a room for them at the Pokémon Center.

Once he was done setting up their rooms, Lan left the Pokémon Center. Outside Venn was eating ice cream and the Pokémon were eating Poke-Food.

"Man, you know how to take your time doing things," Venn said finishing his ice cream and wiping his hands before standing up.

Lan just smiled and held up Caru's Pokéball.

"What…, Oh, you wanna battle don't you?" Venn asked.

"Yep, Lan said, "Just a friendly battle before we go sightseeing."

"Can't, Venn replied picking up Kirlia and putting her on his shoulders before putting Charmander back in his Pokéball, "I'm tired and want to sleep right now."

"Fine, maybe later, Lan said, "You don't mind taking Caru with you do you?"

"Not at all," Venn said. He turned and walked back into to the Pokémon Center with Caru walking behind him.

Lan turned and began to walk down the street, quietly humming to himself. He turned the corner and began to walk down the sidewalk, before he heard a small, barely audible, cry of pain coming from one of the dark alleyways.

He turned and looked down the alleyway, not seeing anything because of the dark. He turned to continue walking, when he saw out of the corner of his eye, a Pokémon step out of the shadows.

First a blue and black paw stepped into the light before the rest of it walked out. Lan could tell it was a male from the way it held itself, but he couldn't tell what kind of Pokémon it was.

It took a step forward before collapsing; Lan caught the Pokémon in his arms before it hit the ground. He turned and began to dash out of the alleyway with the Pokémon held tight in his arms.

It didn't take long for him to reach the Pokémon Center. He ran up to Nurse Joy and gave her the unconscious Pokémon.

"Please, help him," Lan said. Nurse Joy took the Pokémon carefully into her arms, and with the help of her Chansey took the Pokémon to the Infirmary.

Ten minutes later, Venn, his Pokémon, and Caru, arrived.

"Sorry, I would have been here quicker, but I had to gather everything first." He said taking a seat next to Lan.

"Thanks Venn," Lan said.

A While Later…

Lan waited until the IR light shut off and Nurse Joy came out, Venn and the Pokémon had decided to go back to their room to sleep, Caru had stayed with him though.

"He's fine now," She said," It was a good thing that you came when you did otherwise I don't think the Riolu would have survived."

"Riolu eh, so that's the name of the Pokémon I saved?" He thought.

He turned to Nurse Joy, "Can I see him?" he asked.

"You may, but he's still nervous," Nurse Joy replied.

Lan calmly walked into the room, he saw the Riolu sitting on the bed with his legs crossed. The Riolu saw Lan and asked, "Did you save me?" before realizing he couldn't hear him.

"Oh, yes, I forgot," Lan turned around and saw Nurse Joy was standing behind him holding a pair of headphone-like objects, "You should probably wear these."

In her hand was a pair of Pokémon Translator Buds, as their name suggested they allowed humans to understand Poke-Speech in a multitude of languages.

"Thank you," He said putting the Ear buds securely into his ears.

"Can you hear me now?" Riolu said.

"Yeah," Lan replied before sitting down next to the Riolu.

"Did you catch me?" Riolu asked.

"No, I'm letting you choose to go with my team or go back to the wild," he said. The Riolu didn't even consider his offer, the pokémon leaped into his arms.

"I'd like that," Riolu said jumping out of Lan's arms and back onto the floor.

Lan smiled, and after pulling out a Pokéball, tapped his head with it. Once the capture was complete, he released him out of the ball.

Lan then gave the Riolu a nickname, which was Kovu, before leaving the room with Kovu perched on his shoulder. It didn't take him long to find Venn, he was sitting in the café across the street from the Pokémon Center.

Lan walked up to him and took a seat next to him.

"Man, you sure take your time," Venn said, "How are you doing little guy?" He gave Kovu a piece of the muffin he was munching on.

"I'm fine, thank you." Kovu replied eating.

"Good, what do you say Lan about heading out?" Venn said finishing his cookie.

"Sure, let me return the keys to our rooms at the Pokémon Center and we can go," Lan replied. He turned and began to walk back to the Pokémon Center when Venn stopped him.

"Dude, what's wrong?" Lan asked.

"Well I met someone here that I haven't seen in awhile," Venn said.

"Oh…Who?" Lan asked.

"Sena," Venn replied with a smile on his face.

"Oh yeah, I remember him." Lan said. Sena was Professor Spruce's son; he had left on his journey two years before they had. He had an affinity for grass type Pokémon. Lan was sure that if the grass type gym leader ever retired that Sena would take up the position.

"Yeah, he came here apparently to get supplies, but I think otherwise." Venn said looking at the waitresses.

"Uh… yeah, I'm going to go return our keys now bye!" with that said Lan turned and ran back to the Pokémon Center.

"Damn, he can't get a joke can he?" Venn asked himself, he shrugged and ordered another muffin to go.

And that's it for today; chapters may be up slower too.

-WhiteDragonAegis