Gardevoir had followed Rob back to his house. He immediately went down the hall to one of the other rooms. Gardevoir found herself alone with his Surskit that was going around happily like the check-up had been completely pointless for the water bug. She just took a seat in one of the chairs to rest, ignoring the hyperactive Pokémon, questioning herself just how long she was going to waste Rob's time staying with him when she wasn't even going to be his Pokémon. The thought of it alone only made her feel guilty. She saw Surskit come to her. "Sur-skitsur!" it spoke wanting to play with her. She didn't mind the offer, thinking that using her psychic power to entertain him would be easy, at least.
After an hour of making water flow in strange patterns with her psychic powers, Gardevoir saw Rob re-enter the living room. "Garde?" she gave a small wave while Surskit approached its trainer. "Look, Gardevoir… I'm going to take you back to where I found you. Something came up," he claimed. Surskit became quickly saddened by this. "Voir?" she tilted her head, wanting to know what was wrong. He recalled Surskit to its Pokéball. "It's my sister. Like I said, she called earlier and… well, I have to go to Mount Pyre to meet her," he stated. Mount Pyre was a well-known burial ground for Pokémon that had passed on and wanted to be remembered by their trainer. "Garde-gardevoir!" she said, not wanting to go back to the forest yet, thinking the trainers would be hunting for her now just because of the few times she had to fight them off.
"What? …You want to come with me?" Rob raised an eyebrow. Hesitantly, she nodded like she had to rethink what she had just offered to do. "Are you sure you're up for something like that?" he questioned, looking toward her leg, knowing that she would refuse to be caught by him. Yet Gardevoir doubted he was able to get there safely with just his Surskit, especially if trainers were eager to fight. She was aware of how weak the tiny water bug could be in such tough situations. "Gardevoir…" she smiled, not wanting to believe it, but maybe getting away from here would quit reminding her of the shiny Ralts. Rob just scratched his head. "Well… we better get to packing, I guess. It'll be nice to have a travelling partner," he stated, walking to another room. She followed suit, hoping the share she would then have to carry wouldn't be that heavy. She could feel her leg throbbing sorely at the mere thought of the long travel.
A few minutes later, Gardevoir had a bag over her shoulder, dangling off her side. The bag had many pockets, and it was filled with various items. Rob was loading his own backpack with more supplies. "Alright. That should be the last of it. Are you ready?" he asked, her glad to have company for the trip ahead. She nodded willingly, as she was as good as she could get. Before they left his home, however, she pulled out her painkillers, taking two of the pills before putting the bottle away in her side bag. She went to catch up to Rob afterwards.
With that, Gardevoir and Rob had set out of Rustboro City. The way they were going began with a simple walk outside of town through tall grass. Any Pokémon they encountered were easily quashed by Gardevoir, since the general area was mostly full of weaker ones that didn't need much mental power to defeat, and whenever she felt slightly drained, Surskit would take over to deal with the encounter. Being a skinny weak water bug, it certainly held its own well.
They arrived to a cave entrance, Rob pulling out a flashlight as they entered. "Not as bright as a flash, but hey, I'll take it," Rob smirked, Gardevoir remaining silent to ignore her own leg pain that had been slowly coming back with each passing minute. "Hey, you!" a voice rang out as they saw a bright flash of light that illuminated the whole cave. A man in a white karate gi and a red bandana was standing, with a small purple skinned Pokémon alongside him that had gem like eyes and a red gem on its chest. The cave being brightened, they could see that they were in more of an open hallway at most. It was straight and simple, and they were aware that one person had been spending a lot of time digging it out. "Oh, hey. You're, uh… that one guy constantly digging here, right?" he asked, recalling hearing about this trainer, being someone who had been doing his best to dig out the cave. The cave was originally mined by the Devon Corporation, but they stopped immediately once they realized the harm it was doing to Pokémon.
"Yeah! My names Zeke, and I got so much energy I need to get it out with a Pokémon battle! Some white haired guy came and finished it!" the trainer exclaimed happily. Gardevoir tilted her head, unsure who would go out of their way to dig a tunnel out. "Alright. You take it easy. Sableye's immune to psychic," he claimed, throwing out a Pokéball. Surskit appeared backwards, and it quickly jumped to turn around and face its opponent.
"Sableye, use Scratch!" Zeke ordered, watching his Pokémon's fingers glow bright until it charged at Surskit, swinging at it. "Water Pulse!" Rob called out. Surskit quickly made a huge ball of water in its tiny limbs and fired it, striking Sableye back a good distance. It quickly recovered though. "Faint Attack!" Zeke's voice echoed, Sableye vanishing for a brief second. Surskit looked around until suddenly he got hit from behind from his opponent's attack. Gardevoir could do nothing but watch, feeling worthless for seeing her tiny friend get hurt. "Quick Attack, and Bubblebeam!" he shouted. Surskit quickly scurried at the foe Sableye and slammed into it, before firing a beam of harmful bubbles at a close range. Each small bubble that hit hurt more and more. "Water Pulse again!" Rob immediately ordered, watching the water strider fire a huge pulse of water that hit Sableye directly in the chest. The purple foe hit the cave wall hard, and it fell over, unconscious.
Gardevoir clapped for Surskit, in awe at how the fast little bug could fight. "Dang, man. Good fight," Zeke said, recalling Sableye to its Pokéball. Rob came over and picked up Surskit, petting it proudly. "Right. We can stop at Slateport's Pokémon center," he said, Gardevoir nodding in agreement and following her friend through the cave.