Disclaimer - I don't own Pokemon

Adrian gave a quiet sigh of relief as he stepped through the electronic doors of the Pokémon Centre into the air-conditioned interior, the doors sliding shut behind him with barely a whisper. Quickly recalling his silver-furred partner, and momentarily brushing his fingers against the Pokeballs that contained his newly caught Pidgey (which he'd just given the name Aeris) and Rattata, he walked across the lobby to the nurse's desk, smiling warmly at her in greeting. "Nurse Joy?"

The pink-haired nurse behind the counter returned his warm smile. "That's me! How can I help you today?"

Before Adrian had a chance to reply, she had glanced downwards, noticing the three Pokeballs hanging from the younger man's belt. "Ah, I see you're a Trainer. Let me guess, you need your Pokémon healed?"

"Yes, please. And is there somewhere I can make a couple of phone calls?"

"The phones are in the room down the hall on your left. I'll let you know when your Pokémon are healed, okay?"

Adrian nodded. "Thank you. My name's Adrian, by the way".

The nurse smiled. "You're welcome, Adrian".

He took the three red and white Pokeballs off of his belt, placing them in the empty slots of the tray the nurse was holding out to him, and then gave an appreciative nod before walking down the hallway to the room that the nurse had mentioned. Quickly locating the mentioned room, the Trainer found a free machine and quickly followed the instructions on the screen, typing in the phone number of Professor Oak's lab when the screen prompted him to. "Professor Oak!"

The older man smiled eagerly at the trainer. "Ah, Adrian! You and your partner made it safely to Viridian City, then?"

Adrian nodded. "We did, Professor. We caught a Pidgey and Rattata while on Route 1 as well. They're just being healed by Nurse Joy now. Then we're going to take a look at Route 22 and hopefully catch some Pokémon that are strong against Rock-types for the first Gym".

"Sounds like you know what you're doing, then. I'll leave you to it".

Adrian smiled. "Thank you, Professor. Talk to you soon".

"Talk to you soon".

As the screen clicked off, Adrian smiled to himself before following the instructions again, this time typing in his home phone number when prompted.

-Around half an hour later-

"Adrian?"

The trainer looked up from the book he was reading, meeting the eyes of the nurse who had spoken. "Yes, Nurse Joy?"

Nurse Joy gestured to the three red and white Pokeballs that sat in the tray on the desk in front of her. "Your Pokémon are fully healed. Thanks for your patience, and we hope to see you again!"

Adrian nodded in gratitude, picking up all three Pokeballs, weighing them carefully in his hands before clipping them in place on his belt. The automatic doors slid shut behind him as he stepped back through them into the cool outside air once again, taking quick mental stock of his supplies. "Right. If I'm going to be catching as many more Pokémon as I'm hoping to, I'm going to need a whole lot more Pokeballs…"

-Shortly afterward-

"Alright, that should hold us for now. Catching Pokémon is going to be an important part of our travels, so we must make sure we have a good number of Pokeballs ready for anything" Adrian commented as he and his partner stepped into the grass of Route 22.

"Vee!" his partner chimed in, nodding happily from where he stood by Adrian's feet.

Adrian chuckled lightly, crouching down to rub the silver-grey fur of his best friend. "I'm glad you agree with me. Now, the first Gym in the region is a rock-type specialist, so if we can find a Mankey or a Nidoran, then we're in business…"

His fingers tapped lightly against the Pokeballs on his belt as the pair walked through the grass of the Route, stopping only when a rustle of grass in front of them caught Adrian's attention. Adrian thought quickly, glancing down at his partner. "Alright. If that's a Nidoran, then we have to be incredibly careful about how we go about flushing it out. It's going to have either Poison Point or Rivalry as an ability. Thankfully, I have some Antidotes in case it happens to be Poison Point, but of course until it happens there's no way to tell which one it is".

Adrian reached down to his belt, pulling his Pidgey's Pokeball loose and tossing it into the air. "Go, Aeris!"

The tiny bird Pokémon appeared in a flash of light, nodding to its Trainer. "Alright, Aeris, let's flush that Pokémon out! Flap your wings and stir up as powerful a breeze as you can with Gust!"

The tiny bird Pokémon did so gladly, creating a surprisingly powerful wind for such a small Pokémon, before screeching in pain as a purple-coloured Pokémon burst from the grass, slamming straight into it. "A Nidoran ! Exactly what I was hoping to find!"

The tiny rabbit glared intensely at Aeris, frightening the small bird, and Adrian's hand went immediately to one of the empty Pokeballs on his belt as he watched the opponent thoughtfully. Hmm. It probably only knows Leer and Poison Sting, judging by this Route's general proximity to Viridian City, but there's a chance that it could know Peck as well. Best not to take any risks. "Aeris! Let's lower its chances of hitting you by creating a sandstorm! Sand Attack, now!"

The Pidgey nodded, flapping its wings, and disturbing the loose sand on the ground, which swirled around it in a sandstorm. "Alright, Aeris, nicely done! Now let's hit it with a Tackle! Watch out for those horns though, they look particularly nasty!"

Almost immediately, the bird burst from the sandstorm, slamming into the Nidoran with its wings outstretched and sending it tumbling backwards. The small rabbit Pokémon slid several feet across the ground before stopping and hopped nimbly to its feet, glaring at Aeris. "Tough little fellow, aren't you?" Adrian grinned.

It was then that a second rustling in the same patch of grass caught his eye, and a pale blue Pokémon popped its head up and looked around nervously. "A Nidoran as well? Hang on, there's something not quite right here… Aeris, return!"

Holding his Pidgey's Pokeball out, he quickly recalled the small bird, watching as the purple Nidoran quickly scampered back to the patch of grass where the two had been hiding, nuzzling its cheek against the other one. Watching the female closely, Adrian quickly registered the light blue Pokémon's unusually pale color and lethargic movements, and pulled a Potion from his bag, taking two gentle steps forward and crouching down not far from the grass where the two Nidoran were hiding. As the Nidoran stared warily at him, its eyes unblinking, the Trainer slowly stretched out one hand towards the two. "I understand now. You were just trying to protect your friend here, weren't you? I'm guessing she was badly injured by another wild Pokémon and you were worried about her?"

The small purple Pokémon nodded slowly. Adrian nodded in understanding, bringing forward the hand holding the Potion. "She's pretty close to fainting, little guy. I can use this to give her a little bit more energy, but it will sting when I spray it onto her, so you're going to have to promise not to attack me if she cries out, okay?"

"Nidoran!"

"I'll take that as a 'yes' then…"

Adrian gently shifted, bring the hand holding the Potion closer to the female Nidoran, and gave the small blue Pokémon several sprays of the liquid, focusing on the scratches and gashes that he could see along the Nidoran 's body. The small Pokémon flinched several times as he worked, though Adrian's soft reassurances and apologies calmed it, and soon it had recovered enough to drift into a calm sleep. Adrian smiled slightly, then turned to the male Nidoran. "She's feeling better, but she's still weak. The Pokémon Center in town can treat her wounds properly. This is the kind of thing they're trained for, after all. Do you trust me enough to let me carry her to the Pokémon Center? I promise I won't hurt her, and you're welcome to come with me if you want. Maybe they can give you a once over as well, you took quite a beating in her defence".

The small Pokémon nodded, watching as Adrian slowly slipped his jacket off before wrapping it around the sleeping Poison Pin Pokémon and standing up, clutching the new bundle in his arms. "Alright then, let's head back to town".

So this Chapter, or at least the second half of it, took quite a dramatic change from what I had originally intended. Originally, Adrian would have battled and captured both Nidoran with Aeris's help before entering Viridian Forest at the end of the Chapter, but 1) That seemed like a lot of action for the second Chapter of a Pokemon fic, especially since that would mean two Pokemon Center visits, four different Routes/Locations (Route 22, Viridian City, Route 2, and Viridian Forest) at least, and having to write Adrian finding two ways to flush them out of hiding individually to capture them, and 2) That only shows off the side of Adrian that's good at Pokemon battles and I wanted to show off other aspects of his too.

Instead, the first few paragraphs or so of Chapter 3 will follow up on what happens at the end of this one, with Adrian instead reaching Viridian Forest later in the chapter.

Adrian's current team:
Eevee (Vee) - Level 15. Knows Covet, Sand Attack, Tackle, and Quick Attack.
Pidgey (Aeris) - Level 6. Knows Tackle, Sand Attack, and Gust.
Rattata (nickname not revealed) - Level 3. Knows Tackle and Tail Whip.