Mel sat by the campfire.
They had decided to stay at their lunch spot for the rest of the day and night. After returning from the ruins, with a newly filled ball on her belt, Mel had set up her tent and made herself comfortable. She was gently petting Iona, who was lying on her lap. The Pikachu had her eyes closed, her fur occasionally crackling with static electricity.
''Still, I don't think it will react positively to finding out it has been caught.'' Mel said, more to herself than to Iona. ''So let's not be too overwhelming. We should give it some space''. Mel had been debating with herself how to approach the situation at hand for at least half an hour now.
The Pikachu only reacted to her trainer with a muffled ''Pi-ka''.
Mel pondered for a few minutes. ''I still can't believe just throwing a ball at it worked. I honestly don't know what I would have done if it broke free and decided to attack us...''. Iona opened one eye and stared at Mel accusingly. ''Chu-pika pikapichu''.
''Yeah, I know, I should have been more careful. You're right. But you didn't think I could pass up an opportunity to study a legendary right? I mean, this could kickstart my career!''.
Iona kept staring at her. ''...Fine, next time I will think of a backup plan''. Her starter seemed content with that and closed her eye again. The Pikachu really hoped her trainer would take situations like these seriously in the future.
''I wonder if it likes Oran berries…''. Iona's eyeroll went unseen under her closed lids.
Mel stirred the stew she was currently making one more time. After thinking about it some more that afternoon she had decided to just let the Latios out and introduce themselves. Hopefully she could convince it to not immediately attack her by offering it the stew she was making. Then again, maybe human flesh was more appetising to it than berry stew. Mel shuddered. They had decided if the legendary showed signs of hostility, Iona would immediately attempt to paralyse it, while Mel would try to return it. If that failed, they would run away as fast as they could. Not the best plan, but a plan nonetheless.
Adding the finishing touches to the stew, she sighed. She could no longer procrastinate. ''Iona, are you ready?''. Her starter nodded reluctantly. Stew was her trainers best idea? Mel steeled her nerves and nodded back. ''Let's just hope for the best then''. She took out the ultra ball and pressed the button.
Io woke up to the feeling of him being released. The first thing he noticed was that at least several hours had passed. It had been noon when he had finished up talking to Lia, but now the sun was setting, barely visible through the dense canopy. It looked like he was still in the forest where he had been earlier that day.
The second thing he noticed was that his mind did not feel as sluggish any more, allowing him to think much more clearly. He probably got some rest while he was unconscious.
The third thing he noticed was a human standing near him, looking at him. He scowled. The human. The one that captured him, robbed him from his freedom. His frown only deepened when he noticed his captor was barely adolescent by human standards. Not only was he captured, he was captured by a child.
He wanted to get out of there, but hesitated. There were scant few options available to him. He had not kept up with human advancements last decade, but even ten years ago humans had been thorough in making sure their captures could not just run away. He knew the balls they used to trap pokémon- the balls used to trap him- would register the energy signature of the captive entity, allowing the 'trainer' to recall registered pokémon from anywhere in the world, even if the original ball used to capture the pokémon was broken or stolen.
Which meant he could just fly away now, but he would just be recalled within minutes and probably be confined to the ball as a precaution. He could break the ball, but this human child could just recall him using the human's global recovery system, assigning him to a new ball. And again, he would surely be locked up to prevent repetition.
The human blurted out some nonsense, which he paid no attention to.
Only one option was left for him to regain his freedom here and now.
Kill the human.
...
But he couldn't do that.
A surface scan of the human's mind told him she had no ill intent. She wasn't part of some criminal organisation. Hell, her mind wasn't even thinking about his battle potential as a legendary at all- she only seemed curious about his rare species. Which was somewhat surprising, but also slightly disappointing. If she had meant to use him with malicious intent, he could slit her throat and fly off without regret. But killing an innocent human child went against everything a sentinel of Mew stood for. Not to mention it would be a stain on his conscience. Plus, mum would hate him.
Which meant he was stuck with her for now. Great. He mentally scolded himself for managing to get captured by a random human juvenile.
He couldn't escape for now, but that did not mean he would play along with the human's game.
The Latios did not attack her immediately. That was good. It did seem angry, as she had predicted. Mel mustered her courage and extended her arm, holding a big bowl of hot stew.
''Hiiamstewandthisismelwouldyoulikesomepikachu'', she blurted out. Iona looked at her horrifiedly. Mel mentally smacked herself on the head and ignored the fact that she had just introduced herself as a wet meal and had offered the Latios her starter as dinner.
Luckily, the blue bird-dragon-thing before her completely ignored her. It frowned and looked up. Before Mel could attempt to introduce herself again, it flew up at astounding speed. At first Mel feared it would just run off, but it slowed down again and positioned itself on top of a thick branch of one of the many trees, still completely ignoring her. Mel looked up in confusion.
''Do you want some stew?'', she yelled upwards. The Latios did not react.
Mel looked at Iona. ''Well, that went well''. Iona looked nonplussed.