Mel had made good progress to Ironskirt Town.
It had been about three weeks since she had left home to travel the region. Being 14 years old, she started later than most of her peers, which could be blamed on her parents. Her father, senior manager of a large store well known in the region, only wanted her to leave after she turned 16. Her mother, owner of a local restaurant, did not want her to leave at all. After a lot of nagging however she managed to convince them, but not after pointing out she could just run away without consent or supervision. So her parents had finally allowed her to get her trainer license at the local pokécentre. No pokédex though. While her family was filthy rich and they could definitely afford it, her father did not think it was worth the few thousand pokedollars. Cheapskate.
At least she managed to get a nice starter pokémon. She glanced at the newly-evolved Pikachu at her side. She had evolved rather quickly, only needing to take down a few bird pokémon to trigger the metamorphosis. According to the daycare workers where she got the starter from, the Pichu egg was found in the woods almost two years ago. The Pichu had hatched and was raised in the daycare, but no one had adopted it. Pichu weren't very popular as starters, since a pokémon that shocked itself whenever it wanted to attack wasn't very useful in battle. Mel did not care about that. Most new trainers wanted to take on the gym challenge, a long and difficult task that saw trainers challenging all 8 gyms in the region before facing the Elite Four. Only the most skilled trainers ever got that far. The best of them could challenge the champion for their title, something that had not happened for months now. The current champion had won their spot over three years ago and successfully defended it ever since. Mel couldn't remember his name, and did not care. She wasn't interested in the gym challenge. Sure, she might try battling in some gyms, but she had no ambition to face the Elite Four. She was out to study pokémon behaviour, taking after her uncle Jeremy- the only member of her stupid family she did not loathe. Unlike her parents, Jeremy was always down to Earth, and taught her more than her pretentious parents.
Mel sighed. For the hundredth time that week she thanked the gods she was finally way from home. She was starting to feel tired. When she almost tripped over one of the many tree roots in the forest she was traversing, she paused and cursed her terrible stamina.
''I think this is a good place to take a break, wouldn't you agree Iona?'', she asked her starter. The Pikachu looked up and replied with a happy ''Cha!''.
The area was not one most trainers ever went to. Mel only did so because it was a longer route than the main route, and she needed the camping experience. The old forest wasn't particularly dangerous, but there just wasn't anything interesting to find there, apart from some unremarkable old ruins no one had visited for decades. In fact, Mel thought she saw one of the many stone structures a few dozen metres away, behind the dense vegetation. Her curiosity spiked, but a growl from her stomach overruled it. She decided to prepare lunch first. One of the few good things she was raised with was cooking. Even with the simple dried food she had bought and some berries she would find along the way, she had managed to prepare meals that, according to Iona, were very ''Chupika'' and ''Kapikachu''. Considering the facial expressions of her starter when making these bold statements, Mel assumed the Pikachu enjoyed her cooking, which certainly helped the rapid pace at which they had become friends.
Mel threw in some Oran berries in the pan she had brought along. ''I hope we reach Ironskirt soon, I don't know if I can still make good meals without getting more ingredients''.
Iona looked doubtful, pointing at the berries. ''Kachu pika chu pikachu!''. Mel wished not for the first time she could properly understand her pokémon, but managed to roughly understand what the Pikachu was saying this time.
''I know soup from just berries tastes fine, but it just lacks something extra, you know?''. She added some herbs from her bag. At least she still had an ample supply of those. No self-respecting cook would ever go camping without at the very least some salt and pepper. And oregano. And basil. And dill. And- well, she had just taken most of what she could find. They sat in silence while the simple soup was cooking. Mel occasionally glanced at the ancient ruins, opting to look around after she had eaten her meal.
Io felt tired. Very tired. Normally, communicating with his twin using telepathy took no effort at all, but being separated by a continent and talking for over an hour had left him tuckered out. The conversation had been a pleasant one, where they could finally make some plans about reuniting. Nine years apart from his twin had not been fun for either of them, but Lia had managed far better than he had. At least she had made some acquaintances, which could not be said for him. Io sighed and lowered his head. Mortal pokémon were just too tiring to deal with, in his opinion. Most wild pokémon believed him to be some all-powerful god, capable of fixing all of their problems. Human-owned pokémon were far more reasonable, owing to their constant exposure to powerful creatures, but where there was a human-owned pokémon, there was also a human. Humans. Io scoffed. Humans were more often than not the cause of anomalies and threats, and most of them would not hesitate to capture a legendary like himself for their own gain.
His train of thought led him to the other part of their conversation. Nothing new to report on her end. Same for him. The region was unusually devoid of major threats the last few years. That probably meant his peers were doing a good job, and it made his job a lot easier. Still, this quietness combined with his lack of proper social interaction for almost a decade, he was left feeling empty.
And tired.
Which is why he did not look up when he heard a noise. Ruins like these produced strange noises all the time, and he was too tired to worry about some pebbles rolling. But something did not feel right. Io frowned, his exhausted mind trying to figure out what was wrong. A pebble rolling was not a weird noise at all, but where did it come from? Pebbles don't just start rolling on their own, after all. Which meant something had propelled it forward.
Or someone.
Io jerked his head up, just in time to see an object speeding towards him and colliding with his neck. He could not react fast enough to prevent the strange energy from surrounding his body. He felt a strange pulling sensation, and the next thing he saw was total darkness. He cursed his fatigue, trying to figure out what was happening. Feeling like he was pulled into something- an object hitting him moments prior- someone else being present in the ruins?
He was being captured by a human!
By the time he realised it, the energy from the ball holding him had tightened its grip on him significantly. He tried to force himself out somehow, but the ball was too strong for his tired self. The ball shook, but held him in. He lost consciousness.
The ball clicked, signalling a successful capture. Mel blinked in astonishment.
''I can't believe that actually worked!'', she said. Iona stood next to her in amazement. They had walked to the ruins after finishing their meal, expecting to find nothing but rocks. Instead Mel had heard a noise from one of the buildings, like someone was sighing. Telling Iona to keep quiet, they had carefully snuck into the building and were very surprised, to say the least, to see what Mel recognised as a Latios just hovering there, its back turned on the entrance. Mel had grabbed an ultra ball- her only ultra ball- and snuck closer to get a good aim. She wasn't interested in commanding the battling power of a legendary pokémon, but a Latios would certainly be an interesting traveling companion, and virtually no data was available on legendaries. Data she could procure.
But she would need to capture it first. Not that she expected it to be that easy, but it couldn't hurt to try. She hoped. She accidentally kicked a pebble and cringed at the sound of it rolling into the main room of the building they were in. Somehow the Latios did not seem to notice. She took aim, moved her arm back, and prayed the Latios would not attack her if he broke free. As she threw the ball, the Latios seemed to realise something was wrong and looked up, just as the ultra ball made contact. It was sucked into the ball, which fell to the ground and weakly wiggled once, then clicked.
Somehow she had captured a legendary in one try. As her first catch. Without even battling it. Mel walked to the ball and carefully picked it up. She stared at it for a few seconds before realising something and glancing at Iona.
''Now I really hope we reach Ironskirt soon, I don't think a pokémon as big as this can live on berries alone…''. Iona could only respond with a weak ''Chi…''.