Two figures went flitting through the jungle, one behind the other.
Carried along by the Breloom, Idris was making no bad speed either; in the tangle of the jungle he moved as though it were level ground.
But the figure behind him was faster still, closing the gap quickly, flicker by flicker.
Ahead, Idris could feel the pursuit at his back and did not dare even look round. The wind went past him with a rush and the scenery on both sides streamed away behind, and there was nothing he could do but hope the Breloom would carry him clear.
"Friend. A moment, if you please."
Vance came round in front of him, gathered a huge hand of energy and brought it down, and stopped him where he stood.
"Brelooom—"
The Breloom set Idris down and said something to him.
Vance could make out the gist of it well enough: the Breloom had worked out that he was the weaker of the two, and thought it worth a try.
"You can try. I may be the weaker one, but I have two partners." Vance sent out Gyarados and Vigoroth, and then went on, "I may not be able to take the two of you, but you won't get away either — and my teammates are on the road behind me."
Vance let out the full force of an Intermediate Psychic, with a faint suggestion of Advanced beginning to show in it.
Besides what the system had given him, he trained diligently every day, and his psychic power had been accumulating and growing stronger by the day. While he leaned on the system, Vance was also building himself up rather than relying on it for everything — though there would have been nothing wrong with that either.
It was the same with breeding. By the League's standards of assessment he was already an Intermediate Breeder, able to do on his own everything that Intermediate breeding called for, and able to make Intermediate energy cubes.
"Friend, you make a few thousand a month. What are you risking your life for?"
Idris, behind the Breloom, could not help saying it; the way Vance refused to let go had left him speechless.
He had already run for it and the man still came after him. There had to be something very good in it.
"Heh. I don't need to risk my life. I only want a little more out of the day." Vance said it with a faint smile.
"More out of the day?" At that Idris's face eased a little. Put like that, was there room to talk?
Thinking so, Idris ventured, "Er — friend, from Team Rocket. Could we talk?"
Vance's face was covered; there was no making out what he really looked like.
These days, who went out robbing with his own face showing? Nobody, barring a few of the big men and the really hard cases.
"Certainly. It depends on how sincere you are."
Vance smiled faintly and drew in the power radiating off him for the moment. In fact what he had said about teammates coming was a lie; he had no idea whether anyone had followed him, and their routes were different in any case, so they might well never find this place.
None of which stopped Vance using it to make himself sound bigger.
"Name your price, then. What do you want?" Idris ventured.
"I see a good many Poké Balls on your belt. I imagine a few starter Pokémon have been left with you." Vance pointed at the balls on his belt.
*Starter Pokémon? So the League has a problem on the inside.* Idris said it to himself, looking at Vance.
"Most of these are my own Pokémon's balls. Perhaps you're mistaken."
As he spoke he lifted his cloak aside, showing the Poké Balls on his belt.
"Heh. Very conscientious of you. I have a great deal of respect for men like you. Let's fight, then. Gyarados, Vigoroth — ready."
"Wait." At the sight of that the conflict went out of Idris's face.
"I only have two starters on me. I can't give you both. I can give you one — I genuinely need the other."
"Heh. Your Pokémon before your life, is it. And if I said I wanted both?"
"Then there's nothing to talk about! I'll fight you and be damned. Besides, handing them over is no guarantee you'd let me go!"
While the two of them were talking there was movement from a crowd of people in the distance.
Both men went tense on the instant.
Idris thought it was the other side's reinforcements; Vance thought it was the other side's reinforcements as well, and thought it very likely, because by now the Team Rocket men had been through a battle and were worn out, and could only pull back quickly.
The place they had ambushed was neither far from Celadon nor near it, and once the League's support arrived the losses would be heavy and the whole point of the ambush would be lost.
Knowing Sylas as he did, the man would certainly withdraw.
So Vance, at this moment, was taking a gamble too.
"Take it." Idris pulled a Poké Ball off at random and threw it over, then ran hard under the Breloom's cover.
Even as he went he kept his guard up against Vance. If the man made a move, he would settle which of them was better once and for all; even if he died himself, he would have the Breloom finish off one or two of the Pokémon opposite.
"Turned a profit."
Vance recalled Gyarados and the other, snatched up the Poké Ball, and used Teleport again and again to get clear of the spot, his figure vanishing into the dark of the jungle.
"Quickly."
Not long after he left, a party of men in League uniform came through at speed, in the air and on the ground both.
Vance took a winding route, using his psychic power and what transport he could get, ran for two hours straight and came to one of Team Rocket's bases. His identity checked out and he went in.
"You're back, boss."
Ambrose said it happily when he saw Vance come in.
"Mm. I'm back." Vance nodded, went over and handed Gyarados and the other to the Pokémon doctor at the base; the two of them needed treatment.
He was very tired himself. He went to where Ambrose and Emery were sitting, found a place and sat down.
"That four-star mission was no joke. If it hadn't been for you, boss, I'd have been done for." Ambrose said it with the fright still on him, and then, thankfully, "It's because our squad has you, boss. Other squads lost a lot of people. Emery and I came through fine. Thank you, boss."
"It's nothing." Vance waved it off, picked up a bottle of something to drink and took a mouthful; the cold of it freshened him a little.
"Heh heh. Those people we took are none of them nobodies. They're worth serious money — the families behind them will come and ransom them."
"Ransom them back??"
Vance asked.
"That's right. A living man's always worth more than a dead one."
"In that case, once they're back, won't they just come at us again?"
"No telling. But going by past experience, most of them won't. And who's to argue when those families have money? The world still runs on money."
"Besides, those so-called families aren't entirely in step with the League. They do a little business with us too. Some of them even have family members who've joined us. And the organisation, for purposes of its own, won't let their sons die either — unless the organisation needs it."
Ambrose explained.
Some families thought well of Team Rocket's prospects and would make an "investment".
Not putting all your eggs in one basket was a rule those families had always lived by.
Vance sighed inwardly. *Money is a wonderful thing.*