Gavin lets out a sharp, unimpressed laugh.

"Ah, I suppose that's fair," he reasons, shoulders lifting in a bored shrug. "They've not heard much of Rocket since Blackwell, and it was all of that and worse, back then." There's something deliberate in the way he says it, back then, a hint of disgust edging the words. He opens his mouth as if to correct Rowan Wrynn's assumption that he'd never met a Rocket, then closes it with a smirk when the youth corrects himself. "Yes, well, they're well practiced at hiding."

That smirk curls into something sinister as Rowan continues. Yes, there's the trip. The moment Rowan had claimed a lust for freedom, well, it was like looking into his past: kindred spirits.

"I joined Rocket to escape the shackles of the League. They've given me my freedom, and so much more."

Red eyes blink in the darkness beyond.

"Hoenn can't make you strong... but Rocket can. I can."

Gavin regards Rowan Wrynn for a long moment, smile sinister in the gloom. Then, slowly, he lifts his hands to remove the diving apparatus. A soft shake of his head casts disheveled blond strands across his forehead, and Rocket's underboss locks his own amber eyes with those of the fly caught in his web.

"My name is Gavin."

As for what more Rocket had done for him...?

A Rotom phone slips free of his belt, electronic gaze blinking to life before a broad flashlight beam cuts through the gloom. Gavin gestures toward the cavern's entrance, and Rotom shifts itself to illuminate Lugia's menacing majesty. Light catches on the whites around its eyes and the ridges of its spine, a sinister intelligence returned to its ruby glare by Rocket's own hand. Beads of dark water slide down its neck and drip softly against the cavern's floor.

A risk, to show his hand to a near-stranger, but Gavin hopes to snare a kindred spirit with his display of power. Freedom. So he returns his gaze to Rowan and lifts his arm, allows sickening miasma to pour forth in earnest and swirl around his silhouette.

"I was like you, once. Running from the past. Now, I can make it run from me."

As Rowan steps closer, Lugia rears back its head. Darkness swirls in its maw, a fierce gale buffeting the pair of trainers as the shadowed legendary shifts its wings in the gloom. Though Rocket's machine had restored its intelligence, the aggression bred by its corruption remained.

Gavin inclines his head when asked of its identity, smirks when asked of its corruption. "Yes, though not by our hand. Rocket rescued Lugia from the Beasts that corrupted it, and it has helped me in turn."

He feels Lugia's anger toward the Ultra Beasts through their bond, a simmering rage that isn't his own. His lip curls; he doesn't seem to notice.

Shadowy miasma pools around Gavin's feet; his initial reaction to the question of avatarship is a mischievous glint in his gaze. "Rocket didn't make me an avatar. That was Lugia's choice." He steps back, placing a hand on Lugia's neck as if to placate its ire. It seems to work, for the avian snaps its jaws shut with the soft whoosh of dispelled energy. "But Rocket has made me strong. That is what I'm offering."

"You don't."

Gavin lifts his shoulders in a shrug, folds his arms and leans his weight against the curve of Lugia's broad neck. It's nice, he thinks, to be able to get those close without fear of rebuke or injury. He can feel its muscles contract as it shifts its weight.

"But I could just as easily have killed you the second you handed over the information I want, and yet here we are having a nice, civil discussion." His canines flash in the gloom, sharp. "I gain an agent, and I tie up a loose end without anyone getting hurt. It's how I prefer to do things, really."

He gestures dismissively with a hand. There's implication in his words should Rowan Wrynn care to look for it: how he prefers to do things, rather than how he always does them. There had been a point in their confrontation where Rowan had been in more danger than he'd realized, but it appeared that such danger had passed.

"More importantly, I offer sanctuary to yet another the League has failed to protect." He sighs dramatically, picks at a well-manicured nail. "I'll make them wish they had."

I'd suspected as much. He is as relieved as he is satisfied to find he was right to assume Rowan Wrynn's lust for freedom outweighed any moral quandaries. He had sensed a kindred spirit, but his judgement was not infallible and he'd certainly been wrong about others before.

Rowan steps forward, and this time Lugia matches Gavin's calm with its own unwavering stare.

"Excellent."

Rowan extends his hand, and Gavin lifts his own to grasp it. His grip is firm, unyielding, and with his other hand he unclips a luxury ball from his belt. A single shake, business-like, and he releases Rowan's hand to place the ball in his palm.

"They know your partners, they'll know what to look for. This ought to help you stay under the radar." Should Rowan choose to release the Pokémon, now or later, it would be revealed as a strange-colored Greninja with a peculiar moveset, clearly designed toward covert operations. It appears well-cared for. "Take good care of her."

The way he says it, it sounds more threat than suggestion.

Gavin squints when Rowan Wrynn mentions having met before; had they? Rowan certainly didn't look familiar to him. It was the family name that had clued him in.

Unless—

If it were Cillian Quinn whom Rowan had met, rather than Gavin Merlino, well that could pose a problem. With a mental note to keep a closer eye on this new recruit for any further hints of recognition, he shakes his head. "Doubt it. Haven't spent much time in Galar of late and you look a bit green."

Gavin lets out a sharp laugh at mention of a uniform, reminded of a few recruits who'd taken that whole thing quite seriously.

"No uniform, no." Rowan hadn't sounded serious, and Gavin's tone is amused to match. "We do have headquarters. You do a few things for me, cursory steps of recruitment to make sure you're cut out for this, and if you pass, you're in."

He doesn't mention what happens if he doesn't. Gavin's confident it won't come to that.