it shouldn't be this hard for him to catch one pokémon, right? and it was a baby at that, too. come on, steven stone. you were a champion, for arceus' sake.
wrong. steven was naive for thinking a gible would want to listen to him just because he was the former champion of a region that was, admittedly, pretty far from here. to this small dragon, he was just another human attempting to conquer her by forcing her into a small mechanic ball. she puffs through her nostrils defiantly before growling as loud as she could at him and his skarmory.
she reminds the man of the lorekeeper, and it's not just the feisty personality that strikes a chord deep within him. there's a familiar fire in her eyes. the determination to overcome whatever gets thrown at her, the guts to face her fears even if this man and his pokémon are significantly more powerful than her. steven can't help but let out a little laugh.
the act is seen as mockery, and the little dragon wags her stubby tail in offense before charging at him. alarmed, steven tries to explain with words, but she refuses to listen as she headbutts his leg with no mercy. the force makes him stumble and eventually fall not-so-gracefully, and skarmory blinks at his trainer before snickering in amusement. "not funny," steven groans, picking himself up to dust his pants off. "all right, she's not going down without a fight. let's give her one."
sinnoh is a beautiful region--granted, he's been a bit biased about staying near oreburgh and the likes due to his obsession with geology, but he's found himself going to wayward cave for a little soul healing excavation... when he bumped into this little ball of spunk, otherwise known as gible. he thinks she'll be a good present to a dear friend of his, so he approaches with a luxury ball--only for her to slap it away from his hand like nobody's business.
well then. that was more than enough for a wake-up call. he was just a trainer now; the fact that no one knew him as a former champion here still hasn't really settled in his head yet.
it takes a few struggling moments, but the fact that skarmory is way stronger still stands (for now, at least). the gible flops on her side, exhausted, and gives last struggling wiggles at the approaching steven before he crouches by her to tend to her new injuries with a sympathetic smile.
"you fought well--i promise you'll be taken good care of." after healing her up, she seems a bit more open to the idea of going inside the pokéball steven offers in the palm of his hand. with a headbutt of the button, gible goes inside herself.
flying back will take more out of him, but it's worth the surprise he'll see on the girl's face when he returns. latias is waiting outside, so he makes his way out of the cave once skarmory is rewarded for its efforts as well. after leaving zinnia a message at the pokécenter to wait for him at his house, he leaves with his bag to fly back to hoenn.
