Zircon Joins The Team!

by WholesomeCryptid

Summary:

Steven Stone deserves a Latios and i'm taking it upon myself to give him one! Takes place very shortly after the events of Alpha Sapphire.

Notes:

Hiiii! If you've been following me on Tumblr at all you've seen me absolutely loosing my mind over my Latios OC that belongs to Steven, it was only a matter of time before I wrote a fic about the two of them. This fic is basically an origin story for the two knowing eachother!

Steven Stone was leaving home, probably for a very long time, he had absolutely made up his mind on that. Feeling like a disappointment was not a new emotion for the now ex-champion, but the events of the past couple of weeks had only made the feeling building up in his gut worse. The entire region of Hoenn had been counting on him, and he failed them; he had placed the responsibility of the entire world of a mere child useless to help himself.

Perhaps the things people like Zinnia had said about him were right, that he was nothing but a spoiled little rich boy naive to the reality of the world. Steven wanted to fix that, he wanted to see the world with his own two eyes, travel the land on his own two feet. For too long had Steven been going through the motions mindlessly playing the role of champion and heir to his father’s company. Sometimes Steven hardly even knew who he was outside of that.

Well, Steven wanted to fix all that, go on a pokémon journey not as Hoenn Champion and Devon Heir Steven Stone, but just as Pokemon Trainer Steven. Somewhere where he could escape all of the stress of his current life for a while. Maybe Sinnoh, he had always wanted to visit long term. He'd heard they had a nice mining community there, he knew he was genuinely passionate about that at the very least.

Gently, he placed three carefully sealed envelopes onto the small desk of his home in Mossdeep city, each containing a letter to a different person. One to his father, one to Wallace- his best friend and rival among many other things, and one to May, the child who had helped him so much during Hoenn’s recent crises. Each letter had been paired with a small gift, he felt as though he should at least leave something behind for them before disappearing without warning.

His shoulders trembled as he opened the door and walked out towards Mossdeep’s large beachside. Steven had planned to simply hop on the back of his Skarmory but he found himself hesitating, standing in the sand staring out into the vast blue sea. He thought back to his DexNav, realistically he knew it would be best to let his loved ones know his plan over the phone rather than a series of letters he had no clue when they'd even find. In practice, though he had never been able to actually do it. Always staring blankly at his DexNav, too much of a coward to actually push the call button, to hear their voices as they reacted to the news.

As Steven stared blankly into the sea, lost in his own thoughts of apprehension, he was greeted with a voice inside his head that was not his own.

[“Hello there, sir!”]

The sudden unexpected surprise of the voice quickly snapped Steven into reality, the man shaking his head as he came to notice the sight of a Latios floating in front of him. That explained the sudden telepathy at least, they were known for being rather powerful psychic type pokémon.

[“Sir? Are you alright?”] The voice asked him in a polite tone.

“Huh? O-Oh yes of course! Apologies about that.” Steven stammered out, still struggling to process the sight in front of him.

Despite what one may expect, this actually wasn't Steven's first encounter with a member of the Eon Duo of legendary pokemon. In fact he had met a pair of Lati siblings no less than a month ago when one had been in need of rescue from capture from team aqua. Actually now that Steven was starting to get his bearings this Latios seemed to look oddly similar to the one he had met before. The fluffy feathers and x pattern on his wings implied in fact that he may in fact be the very same one!

“We've… met before haven't we?”

The Latios cooed in delight, spinning in midair slightly seeming quite happy that Steven recognized him.

[“Yes! I'm so glad you remember! You and that girl helped me and my sister out from those scary humans in blue! I never got the chance to properly thank you for that!”]

Steven chuckled slightly, feeling a bit more at ease from the conversation with the Latios, as odd as the situation was all things considered.

“You don't have to thank me, It was the least I could do, I wouldn't feel right if I had just let a pokémon suffer like that. I don't want to think about what Team Aqua could have done with a legendary pokemon like that.”

Seeming to like Steven's answer, the Latios floated closer to Steven, looking at him directly in the eyes. It almost felt as though he was trying to get a look right into Steven’s very soul.

[“You have a good heart, I can tell.]

Steven was caught completely off guard by the pokémon’s words. A legendary pokémon giving such a high compliment to him??? of all people? A person who barely even knew what he stood for? He felt undeserving!

“Well I don't quite know about that-” Steven tried to argue, but the Latios just shook his head at him.

[“There’s a lot of selfishness in humanity, me and my sister have encountered that first hand. You and that May girl went out of your way to help us despite that. That's a huge sign that the two of you are people I can trust.”]

Not wanting to argue with the pokémon Steven sighed, resigning slightly. Even if he didn't see it he couldn't exactly deny that a literal legendary pokemon saying he was a good person was probably a good sign on his character.

“Why don't you go visit May then? She's the one taking care of your sister after all.” Steven asked, crossing his arms curiously.

[“I did go and visit her a couple days ago… She's taking quite good care of my sister and that makes me quite happy to see, but the life she and my sister are living isn't quite for me. They are enjoying a carefree life together, performing in… these contest things? I don't think that's the kind of life I personally could enjoy as much as she does. As much as I love her, I think I want to forge my own path.”]

Although the image of the Latios being completely and utterly bewildered at the sight of a pokémon contest did make him mentally giggle a bit. Steven could not deny how much his words resonated with him.

“Wanting to forge your own path huh? I suppose I can relate to that myself.” Steven hummed, partially talking to himself.

His new Latios friend was absolutely overjoyed to hear that, excitedly cooing and flying around Steven. It was honestly pretty endearing.

[“Really?! You can?! Oh that makes me so happy to hear! You know what we should totally work together as a team!”]

Even though Steven saw the suggestion coming to a certain extent, it still took the trainer totally off guard. Legends had said that Latios only allied themselves with trainers with compassionate hearts. Did he really match such a description? Even despite his flaws?

“I don't think I could talk you out of this could I?”

The Latios made a cooing sound that almost resembled a giggle as he pushed against Steven with his head in affection.

“Alright, alright, I see how it is. I'm going to be traveling pretty far from Hoenn pretty soon, I hope you're okay with that.” Steven warned the pokémon, but he already knew that the Latios was plenty fine with that. Besides Steven couldn't deny he found the idea of a legendary pokémon that could mega evolve joining his team pretty exciting as a trainer.

He supposed it was a new chapter for the both of them.

“Say, do you have a name? I don't suppose you have a name do you?”

[“No not really, i've always really just stuck to talking with my sister before this, and we didn't quite communicate with each other like humans do!”]

“Hmm…” Steven hummed, thinking to himself. “I suppose that makes sense, but you're smart enough that I think i'd feel weird just calling you Latios.”

He really was an absolutely gorgeous pokémon, his feathers shimmering in a way that Steven could only think to compare to that of a gemstone. Steven couldn't help it, it's just the way his brain works! The subtle blue color of the pokémon reminded him of the color of unpolished blue zircon so he supposed he could suggest that? Zircon was a pretty cool sounding word after all. Fitting for what was a very cool pokémon in Steven's opinion.

And going off the way Zircon trilled and nuzzled his hand after he suggested it, he seemed to like the name quite a bit.

Of course it wasn't too long before people noticed that the recently retired champion of Hoenn had suddenly vanished. Leaving his loved ones understandably confused and upset, especially Wallace. The Sootopolitan man had marched right over to Steven’s home in Mossdeep City and try to give that man a piece of his mind!

When he arrived though, all he found was a very personal letter left behind by Steven, and stories from the locals of him suddenly flying off on a Latios of all things.

Steven was about to receive one HELL of a phone call on his DexNav.

Notes:

Oooh what was contained in that letter for Wallace? I'll leave that up for the reader to decide~
Anyway seriously thank you so much for reading my silly little fic about my oc! Every little comment and kudos means the world to me!
If you want to see more consistent stuff from me than check out my tumblr @wholesome-cryptid