"Emery and Ambrose."
Vance recognised the two bound up in silk. Of the pair, it was Emery he had actually crossed paths with.
Over there Ambrose was still howling for help, while Emery was silent, staring up at the sky with unwilling eyes, with nothing left to do but wait to die.
The last few days had been genuinely unkind to the two of them.
First they had run into a strange Vigoroth, which had beaten them up without a word of explanation and made off with a great deal of their supplies. Then, passing through a valley, they had run into a Pokémon stampede and had to run for their lives, and then they had walked straight into the Ariados hunting grounds, which was how they had ended up in this wretched state.
*Zone 3, Forest 01 — I'm sure there was no Ariados colony here. How did this happen?*
Emery could not make sense of it however he turned it over. He had studied Trial Island beforehand and memorised every part of it, and this area, designated Zone 3, Forest 01, was not in the inner ring and had no Ariados colony in it.
Had there been one, he would never have come this way. Among the Ariados in front of him there were two at Intermediate strength, along with a number of Novices and rookies. The two of them could not have escaped if they had sprouted wings.
All his resourcefulness was no use here.
Call it bad luck on their part. Because of the "airdrop", several powerful Pokémon had landed and gone blundering about Trial Island, forcing some colonies to move.
And the pair of them had walked headlong into an Ariados group that had only just moved in.
At that moment the two of them jerked to a halt as the silk hauling them along snapped.
The Ariados pulling them from the front was struck by some force, flung into the air, and slammed into a tree trunk off to one side.
The commotion snapped both of them alert.
"Hahaha! We're saved, we're saved! I don't have to die! Emery, we're saved!"
Ambrose laughed out loud, full of the relief of a man handed his life back.
Emery's heart lifted too. Someone must have stepped in to save them, and if he could live he had no wish to die.
He had made his peace with dying on Trial Island, but with a chance to live in front of him he would naturally take it.
"Roarr—"
The Gyarados's vicious bulk appeared on the scene, then charged the Ariados and finished them off in short order.
"Bloody hell, that Gyarados is fierce. Whose Pokémon is that?"
Ambrose said it in astonishment, admiration all over his face as he looked at the magnificent creature.
He ran through their intake in his head, trying to think who had raised a Gyarados, and came up with nobody.
*A Gyarados! Could it be him? Has his Magikarp evolved?*
Emery was looking at the Gyarados too, and said it to himself.
"Emery. Long time."
A familiar voice came from beside him. Emery turned his head and saw a handsome young man — exactly the person he had guessed at.
"Congratulations. All that hard work paid off and your Magikarp evolved. And thank you for lending a hand — you saved my life."
Emery said it sincerely.
"Don't mention it. It was nothing."
Vance said it cheerfully, throwing two Poké Balls to take in the two Intermediate-strength Ariados and leaving the rest alone. He was low on Poké Balls, and if he was going to spend them it would be on the valuable ones.
"Boss — my knees are yours."
Ambrose flung himself over and skidded to his knees in front of him.
Before Vance could say anything, Ambrose was off again.
"I always knew you were the strongest, Boss Vance. Everything before this was just you biding your time. A golden-scaled fish was never going to stay in the pond — one storm and it turns into a dragon. And here we are today. Exactly as I said."
"A dragon among men, a face out of heaven. My admiration for you runs on like a great river, unbroken and endless, and floods over like the Lake of Rage, entirely beyond stopping."
The Lake of Rage is an enormous lake in the Johto region.
The fawning was more than even Emery, standing beside him, could quite stomach.
"That's enough, Ambrose. Your admiration is noted."
Vance did not know whether to laugh or not. The delivery really was seamless — you would think the man was sitting an examination for a research post.
"If you wouldn't think it beneath you, I'd like to be one of your followers."
"The way you're talking, are you going to look after me in my old age as well?"
Vance raised an eyebrow and answered.
"No problem at all. Once I inherit my old man's money, it's nothing."
"That's enough, Ambrose. Behave yourself."
Emery came over and hauled him to his feet.
Vance had seen this Ambrose a few times back at the Team Rocket base, though everyone had been busy then and they had hardly spoken.
"Heh heh. Vance, seriously though — are you short of people? Emery and I would do. Don't let the fact that he never says a word fool you, he's a quiet one with a great deal going on underneath, and he's good with computers and networks. Might come in handy."
Ambrose said it quickly.
"All right. Once the trial is over I should be given a Squad Leader post. You and Emery can come to me then."
Vance said it with a smile. He was making plans for what came afterwards now.
Once the trial ended, the Squad Leader post was as good as certain. The point cards he was carrying came to more than ten thousand between them; an outstanding result was not in any doubt.
And even leaving that aside, on strength alone Vance was more than equal to leading a squad.
A squad naturally needed members; he could hardly be a commander with nobody under him. Which was why he had put it to the two of them.
Vance's impression of Emery was decent, and this Ambrose was acceptable enough, so he had said it while the moment was there.
"Excellent, I'm in. Greetings, boss. Emery, you come too."
Ambrose said it, tugging at Emery.
"Ha. No need to call me boss. Emery and I already know each other. Emery — will you come and help me when the time comes?"
"Better to obey than to stand on ceremony. And you saved my life besides. Use me as you see fit."
"Hahaha, you put it too strongly. Oh — do you want those Ariados? Take them if you've got spare Poké Balls. Keep them yourselves or trade them for resources once we're out, either way."
Vance said it with a gesture at the Ariados and Spinarak over there.
They were beneath his notice, but for those two they were a decent haul.
"We want them, we want them. That's our boss for you, generous to a fault."
Ambrose cheered, took out Poké Balls and gathered the Pokémon up, splitting them evenly with Emery.
*Right, you. Let's see what I do with you now.*
Ambrose chuckled to himself, wearing the look of a small man who had come into a little power.
"These are the point cards the two of us collected. They're yours — we've no use for them."
Emery took a small bag of point cards out of his pack and held it out.
"Right. Thank you for the trouble."
Vance did not stand on ceremony. He took the cards and counted them, and there were not many — two hundred and some points.
A little thin, though given what the two of them could do it was about right.
His own sudden windfall of point cards had come from his strength, yes, but also from the "help" of that good man Wilder, which was how he had ended up with over ten thousand points in hand.