Gavin's response to Miles Sharp' offer is quick and succinct: 'Give me a time and place.'

He is punctual; early, in fact. The establishment tickles his nose with the scent of dust but he offers no complaint to the man who sits across from him. He doesn't offer even a verbal greeting, merely dipping his head as a waitress comes by to hand out menus.

Gavin looks up from a list of appetizers at the question.

"She'll be fine, yes." Adrian Malcolm had not lied to him, it seemed. He'd visited the child, but had no intention of shedding light for Miles on what they'd discussed. He requests a glass of water to wet his throat. "Is that why we're here?"

He is quick to get to the point.

"In a sense."

He teases lightly despite the man's cooler exterior. When the waitress returns with the water he orders a bottle of wine leaving the choice of red or white to his dinner companion.

He spends less time looking at the menu and more at Gavin in an attempt to gauge him, before speaking again. "I suppose I'll speak plain." He rests his chin on a hand. "For all the talk surrounding the great Gavin Merlino, not only in rocket but in the region as a whole alias not-withstanding. I recognized I knew not a damn thing about him." Of course there were many with cloudy biographies amongst the organization's higher-ups, in terms of redacted information there was more black than white for most of their bios, still he'd chosen to confront Gavin for a reason.

"I figured you might be willing to talk because despite being able to rearrange another's face in 12 or so different ways, you care." It's a risk confronting him, but it's one he's confident enough to take.

"It's why you're invested in Eris Halla 's condition.

Gavin chooses a sweet, red wine, fills his glass and takes a slow sip.

"I'm invested in her condition because I'm responsible for it."

He has kept no secret of it from those who've asked, so he's sure the truth of the matter has made its way to Miles Sharp. It had not been Gavin, not directly, but Lugia and the deadly spikes upon the legend's tail that had put her in the infirmary.

But Sharp is right. Gavin does care, in his own ways.

"What did you wish to know about me?"

He glances back down at the menu, adjusting his glasses to read.

"I like to believe those sentiments aren't mutually exclusive my friend. A lesser man would have dropped the poor girl in a bed and left the medics to their business, one lesser still would have left her to her fate." A move he expects from THEO BECKETT.

"As much as you're willing to share." He laughs, and it's honest. The man reminds him of an old friend, a man who was cursed to brood despite the emotions worn on his sleeve.

"Truthfully? to know if our goals are aligned." He stirs the red in his hand casually gaze focused more on the glass as he gathers his thoughts. "For one reason or another I fully believe rocket is the fastest way this region, My 'home' will find any modicum of peace." the mood shifts slightly as he continues.

"There's no reason girls like Eris should even be on the battlefield in any capacity." There's frustration there clearly, but it's not directed at Gavin. " Mr. Merlino. I have two goals in my life. The first is to minimize the effects of our conflicts with the league on the public. Their homes and livelihoods are robbed daily, and to take so much without recompense on both sides is inexcusable. It polarizes and forces people far younger than you and I to make choices they should never have to make." He understands the goals of Rocket and he's the first to admit the nature of his bleeding heart, even still he'd hold his head high on this point even if he was speaking to the host of the storm god himself.

"Do you disagree?

"Halla is Rocket." He speaks slow, as if it should have been obvious. "We look out for our own."

Miles Sharp talks at length where Gavin is quiet, and the underboss switches between water and wine to wet his throat. His gaze remains on the menu as Sharp speaks, only flicking upward when a question is, at last, asked directly.

"I don't believe our lifestyle is suited to those as young as Halla, no." Even his own protégé, peggie vela, had given him pause with her age. But youth was not uncommon in Rocket; one only had to look as far as priam conrad or Chu-e Choi for that. "It was not my choice to place her in the excursion, but that alone proves that combat training is necessary even for our youngest. Should they be caught in the crossfire, they must know how to defend themselves."

As for the rest of it?

"Rocket looks to rule. Should the League step aside, there will be peace. No sooner. What is your second goal?"

He waves away the waitress when she stops by to ask if they'd made their choice. Now, his gaze is trained firmly on Miles.

Merlino’s chosen to keep his hand to his chest, and Miles can’t find fault in the decision we’re he in the man’s shoes he would have done the same.

His second goal is simpler, the systemic issues of war as a whole were far too complex for a 26 year old to solve regardless of how intelligent he may have been, thankfully his second objective is simpler.

“I have to end a lineage.” To say ’kill’ was both too and not enough severe. To kill was to cut off a single head of a hydreigon. There was an impermanence in that death as two more heads would rise in place of the first. His target was a cancer on this planet one that warranted rocket’s existence and his inclusion in it. For all that could be implied in those five words Miles for perhaps the first time since joining the organization chooses not to elaborate.

“So tell me what’s your end in all this Merlino. you recruit the Eris’ the Rowans and the Serenas of the region; the Miles’ and the Lulus even the Mavericks and Chois. Eventually this region is yours Rockets’ goals in Hoenn have come to pass. he gestures with his hand casually listing various comrades faces he’d once memorized on paper now alive in his memories. People with hearts and idiosyncrasies of which there are many.

What happens then?

Do you take those of us who managed to survive to the next, Sinnoh, Kalos, Galar?” He isn’t critical laying the information out neutrally sipping his wine all the while.

He wonders if there’s a conclusion to this, a conclusion other than death.

“An addendum. For all the faith and moreover the ‘weight’ because it is weight. Placed upon you, what is it that you hope to see from us in the future. What world will Eris Halla see when she’s come as far you have in life.”

Sharp states his goal, simple and blunt, and Gavin almost laughs.

It's unexpected from a man Gavin sees as too altruistic for Rocket. Though twisted, it gives Gavin perspective on why Miles Sharp might have sought out the villains in pursuit of his goals. To snuff out a family line...

'What happens then?'

"Whatever Walsh wants." Obedient. Blind. There's startling severity in the amber of his eyes. Even if it kills you. "We didn't stop at Kanto. Do you think we'll stop with Hoenn?"

Gavin will not. Gavin will stop at nothing.

What world would Eris Halla see?

"Ours."

“If she lives to see it.”

He ends the thought glass empty, now. The Gavin he speaks to is a perfect simulacrum for rocket, strong, but not violent by nature. No the trait that shines brighter than all others is One that’s arguably the most human. Greed, avarice as far as Miles can peer into his soul. Still there’s a flicker of something else in the man the question was would... no could Miles believe in that glimmer?

He doesn’t have his answer yet.

“So many souls latch onto you Merlino, it’s an unfair thing, but life rarely is. I hope those souls find peace wherever you decide to lead us, Walsh or otherwise.”

But be it far from me to judge another’s character. There’s a sadness there, not for himself. He thinks he’s come to terms with his own sins; past, present, and future. This melancholy was for all those that would follow.

“I don’t think the organization will stop in Hoenn, but beyond these shores is of little consequence to me.”A tough statement but true he cannot save the world, he oft doubts that he can save this region even at the cost of himself.

I ask because you’ve yet to answer my question. I care little for what Walsh wants in this particular moment, same for the will of rocket as a whole. A second bottle comes and he pours himself a glass. Dinner has become an afterthought in favor of the conversation.

You’d have me believe the will of Rocket, of Walsh is the will of Gavin Merlino. That your joys and sorrows are intrinsically linked to these two entities.”

That’s bullshit. He’s curt, “I know there’s more than that. Because the lives that believe in you are all more than that.”

'Walsh or otherwise.'

Something stirs in the hollow of his chest. Wherever I decide to lead.

This time, Gavin does laugh. It's a deep sound that bubbles from the depths of his lungs, matched by the glimmer in a darkened gaze.

"Is it?"

Obedient. Because it suits him to follow where Walsh has led.
Even if it kills you. He won't let it.
Blind—

"She may not survive." He has never been blind, not since Rocket had opened his eyes to its bloodied truth. "But if I thought for a moment that she couldn't, I wouldn't waste my time trying."

As to the will of Gavin Merlino?

"I want whatever I can take." Sootopolis. Hoenn. The world. "Those who believe in me? Those who'd follow me? I'd see them thrive."

Finally a crack into the truth.

“And therein lies a glimpse of the man they all believe Gavin Merlino to be.” Whether the truth was satisfying was debatable, but he doesn’t consider the rocket an enemy. No he’s more a force of nature, a storm that moves in a singular pointed direction. It’s more complex than that he’s sure, but he can work with a storm so long as he understands its nature.

“Then let’s raise a glass to the young Ms. Eris, and a future where she and all the rest ’Thrive’ as you so aptly put.” because in that he’d have Miles’ prowess. What ‘thrive’ meant surely differed greatly between the two men and they both know that, but to want ‘the best’ regardless of what that meant was enough for now.

“They expect much Gavin. But know your corner is filled with fighters. Perhaps the sentimentality of that is lost on you, but if you feed those under your charge undeserved deaths I dont care how hard those fists you cherish are. I’ll make sure you pay their sacrifice in full.

Threatening the beast wasn’t something done lightly, if he wanted Merlino could bludgeon Miles to death with his bare hands right here. Perhaps it was cute to see someone he’d consider weak push against his strength. Regardless of how it looked or felt the altruist was serious and if nothing else Miles was a man who could do what needed to be done. After all no one knew what a scientist was capable of if pushed to the brink better than Gavin Merlino himself.

Not just a storm: a hurricane.

He lifts his glass, wine swirling within. "To the future I will see them through."

He drinks, long and deep, and sets down an empty vessel. When Miles Sharp threatens him, Gavin does not respond with aggression. He does not laugh, or dismiss the scientist as meek and unassuming. Others had done that to Gavin, once.

He stares back at Miles with unflinching gravity.

"I expect nothing less."

Let him be a force that they'll want to follow.