Chapter Text
Steven Stone had two passions in his life, one was Pokémon battles, he liked to think he was pretty good at that one, the other was collecting rare rocks and stones.
His second life passion was the reason he decided to go on a… holiday and temporarily hand over the title of Hoenn champion to his best friend Wallace.
Now, he found himself exploring the caves of Sinnoh in search of rare or just pretty stones and rocks. He was accompanied by his ace pokémon Metagross. They were exploring this cave together for quite a while and something felt off the entire time, though he couldn't quite put a finger on it. He got this map from some guy some time ago and decided it is time to explore the cave.
It wasn't until about two hours into the exploration that he finally figured out why something felt wrong and that they got lost.
He and Metagross got to a three-way crossroad, and there were only two paths drawn on the map.
Steven slapped his forehead. “That's why something felt off the entire time, the map is wrong.” Metagross looked over at him unamused and continued forward, basically telling him he is not buying his excuse for getting lost.
Steven, being a good trainer and understanding his pokémon well, caught on. He hurried over to him, “You see here is supposed to be a three-way crossroad-” he started explaining, but Metagross didn't pay attention to his attempt at proving they got lost because of the map and not his bad sense of direction. Steven just sighed and continued forward in hopes of finding an exit.
This trip so far was disappointing, and it wasn't even because they got lost, that happened every now and then, and it wasn't that big of a deal if you had a moderately strong pokémon with you. He learned to always bring at least one of them the hard way.
It was a genuinely traumatic experience, but he just waved it off like it was nothing every time it came up. A few years back he went out to explore a cave by himself, shortly after he stumbled upon a wild Geodude that used magnitude. Fortunately it was only 5 or 6 by his estimate, if it was any stronger the entire tunnel would probably have collapsed and killed him. He always brought at least one of his pokémon with him since then. Most of the wild pokémon didn't even dare approach when he had Metagross out, and those that did usually got one-shotted before they could use any dangerous moves.
And since he did have his trusty Metagross with him, there was no risk of anything like that happening now.
The main factor of his disappointment was that they didn't find any rare, or at least pretty, stones whatsoever. They have been in this damned cave for about three hours now and didn't find anything worth taking with them.
Just as he was about to complain out loud, he saw something shiny embedded in one of the cave walls. It was a dusk stone. Steven was overjoyed when he realized he found something worth his time. He carefully took it out of the wall and took some time to admire it, the deep purple glow was very beautiful.
“Well now the trip isn't a total failure.” Steven said, still admiring the stone. Any type of evolution stone was hard to come by, and this one was no exception.
Unfortunately, his overjoyed state ended when he remembered he was still lost and had yet to find the way out of this Arceus forsaken place.
Steven and his Metagross then proceeded to mindlessly wander around in hope of finding the exit for the next hour. Well, it was mostly Metagross wandering around and Steven just mindlessly following him while thinking over his life choices. Those life choices being ones about buying a map from some random guy and trusting it completely even though he felt like something was off.
His thoughts were interrupted by his Metagross abruptly halting, he looked up to see what was wrong only to be treated by a sight of a very big and intimidating looking Garchomp.
“Fuck.” That was all he could say in this situation. Metagross could most likely beat a wild Garchomp, that wasn't a problem, the problem was that that guy probably knew how to use earthquake and if he has learned anything from his previous mistakes, it's that you don't wanna mess with a pokémon that knows earthquake in a cave.
They both prepared to run, but then a figure appeared from around the corner. It was a woman with long blonde hair, dressed entirely in black, the cave was pretty dark so he couldn't make out much more than that. She also seemed familiar, but he couldn't figure out where or if he saw her before.
She glanced at him before turning to the Garchomp and telling it that he can calm down. Steven then realized she was the Garchomp's trainer, and he released a sigh of relief, looks like he doesn't need to run for his life after all.
Then it dawned on him, there was another person here, a person who most likely wasn't lost, she didn't look lost at least, she had that confident look. That meant he could ask for directions and get out of the cave, it seems like Arceus was watching over him.
He approached her to ask for directions, “Hi, I’m sorry to bother, but do you happen to know a way out of this cave? We, uh…” He glanced at Metagross. “We got lost.”
“It's no problem, we were just heading out ourselves, you can tag along.” She said as she passed beside him, gesturing for him to follow after her, which he did.
The exit wasn't that far away, it took them around an hour to reach it and finally get out. That time passed quicker than he thought it would, he imagined the atmosphere would be stiff with a lot of awkward silence, but he was pleasantly surprised. The two of them made small talk very easily, and he found himself enjoying talking with her. They seemed to have quite a lot in common, well they did meet in a cave… So they were bound to have at least one topic to comment on. She seemed to be very interested in history and archaeology, he wasn't very well versed in history, but he did know quite a bit about archaeology after spending so much time in caves. He was even lucky enough to stumble upon a few relics of the past himself, which wasn’t a privilege many had.
After about an hour they finally got out, Steven loved spending time in caves, but he also loved that feeling when you get out and take a deep breath of fresh air.
He turned to look at the woman who saved him. She was truly beautiful, he could see that she looked good even back in that dim cave, but only now when they were in daylight could he see how truly astonishing she was. Her blonde hair fluttered in the wind, her gray eyes shined brightly, she was just straight up beautiful, she was also still looking very familiar, but he still didn't know where it was that he saw her.
“Thank you, for helping us get out, is there anything I can do to repay the favour?” He asked.
She turned to face him and looked deep in thought for a few seconds. “Would you like to battle? Your Metagross looks very strong.” He could see a spark of excitement when she mentioned a battle.
Steven smiled, “Of course, though I have to warn you, I am pretty good.”
She chuckled, “One on one?”
Steven called for Metagross and she called her Garchomp. When they were both in position and ready, the battle started.
…
It was a very close match, but Steven lost in the end.
He was currently in a state of disbelief, he just lost. He recalled his Metagross still having a hard time believing he was just beaten, sure it was a close match, but he still lost, did he get that rusty? No, that was impossible, he still trained regularly with his pokémon.
She congratulated her Garchomp on another victory, giving it a head pet after it bent down, then she glanced at him and noticed that Steven was deep in thought.
“Is… something wrong?” She asked hesitantly.
Steven then snapped out of his thoughts. “Hey…” he started, unsure if he should really ask what was on his mind, but after a few seconds he continued. “Do you want to be the champion of Hoenn?”
It seemed like an abrupt decision to ask something like that, but she was definitely stronger than Wallace, and most likely stronger than him, in any case a very sold pick.
She looked at him in confusion. Probably thinking he was insane or something along the lines.
“Ah, I never caught your name, or introduced myself for that matter,” He said as he extended his hand for a handshake. “Steven, the current champion of Hoenn, pleased to meet you. Well, technically, Wallace is the current champion since he is covering for me.”
She smiled, and shook his hand. “Cynthia, the current champion of Sinnoh, pleased to meet you too.”
It was now Steven’s turn to be confused, but he figured it out after a few seconds. “Well now I know why she looked familiar. Damn, what are the odds of meeting a champion like this?” He thought.
“Since when are you in Sinnoh?” She asked, curiosity was evident in her voice. Seems like she enjoyed his company too. She would just hurry to leave otherwise, right? At least that's what Steven would do. On the topic of leaving, he would have to go soon because this cave was quite far away from his house. Did he ever feel this bad about having to go home? Even if he did, he couldn't remember.
Cynthia noticed he was zoning out again, he seemed to be doing that quite a lot. “Um, you there?” She asked, trying to get his attention.
“Huh? Oh, yeah, I came here about… eight months ago? Something like that. Sinnoh is a very beautiful region, though most of the region that I’ve seen so far are caves.” He answered.
“If you like caves and ruins, you should pay a visit to Mt. Coronet and Celestic Ruins, that is assuming you’ve already been to the underground. Oh, also if you like history, you should definitely visit the Eterna Museum” There was this glint in her eyes when she talked about history and archaeology, it was clear she loved talking about it, so Steven assumed it was her hobby.
“I appreciate the advice, I’ll definitely visit when I get the opportunity. And yeah, I have explored most of the underground, so I’ve just been going through smaller systems like this one.” Steven answered.
They then found themselves having small talk again. Time flew and neither of them realized that they'd been talking for another hour, then Steven noticed it was getting quite late.
It was clear he wanted their conversation to go on for a bit longer, it was rare for him to enjoy someone’s presence this much after all, even Wallace wasn't an exception, they were best friends, and he couldn't talk to him for more than an hour… actually scratch that, 20 minutes without getting fed up with his theatrics, though maybe that one wasn't even about him being asocial.
Unfortunately, he couldn't stay for any longer. “I enjoyed our time together, but I have to go, my house is pretty far, and I want to get there before dark, and thanks again, for helping me.”
There was a hint of disappointment on Cynthia’s face after hearing that they had to part ways, but the resort area was quite far away, and she understood why he had to get going, assuming he was staying in the resort area, but where else would a champion from another region stay? She snapped out of her chain of thought after remembering that she should probably say goodbye. “It was nothing, I hope to see you soon.” She said, as both of them went their ways.
Steven was in an unusually good mood after spending time with another person, he was usually grumpy and tired after spending that much time talking to someone, he himself found it very odd. He was also preoccupied thinking about just casually meeting the Sinnoh champion in a cave. Well it was definitely a nice change of pace, and he wasn't gonna complain about actually enjoying a conversation for once.