"Torchic—"
Just as the Torchic screwed up its courage and sprinted forward, a force closed around it, lifted it and set it down to one side, and Vance's voice came to its ear.
"That was brave of you, Torchic. Leave the rest to me. I forgot to tell you — this Trainer of yours is rather strong himself."
With that, a thick psychic power spread out and took hold of the Vigoroth where it had lost control.
"Roar, roar—"
Held by the psychic power, the Vigoroth kicked out with both feet like something gone mad, trying to struggle free.
"Calm down, now!"
Vance put out all his strength so that it could not break loose, gathered himself, and opened the telepathy that ran straight to the mind, wanting to get through to the Vigoroth.
What came back along the link was a towering savagery, as though only destruction could give it release.
"Vigoroth! Vigoroth!!"
Vance shouted it across the link, and the Vigoroth, held fast, paused for the smallest moment and looked at him blankly.
"Good, there's a response. Wake up, Vigoroth."
Vance went on calling to whatever consciousness was left in the Vigoroth, while at the same time looking for the source of what was wrong with it.
What he found was that the power through the Vigoroth's whole body had surged, and its flesh looked unable to bear it — it looked as though it were breaking down!!
"Roar, roar. Boss, what's happening over there?"
In the training room next door the Gyarados had felt that something was wrong, and was calling out.
Only one wall stood between the two training rooms, and an inner door joined them, so that one led straight into the other. The Gyarados was at that inner door now, calling.
The Gyarados had heard the Torchic shriek, and a few faint snarls besides. That was very wrong. Ordinarily nothing of the kind happened.
"Torchic, take this. Go and open that door."
Vance tossed over a card for the Torchic to take in its beak, and sent it to open the door.
"Torchic—"
When it mattered, the Torchic could be relied on. It carried the card to the door in its beak and put it against the reader.
The door slid slowly aside, revealing Gyarados's face.
"Torchic—"
Just then, to the Torchic's eyes, that ferocious face of Gyarados's did not seem nearly as frightening as it had before.
"Rooaar— boss, I'm coming to the rescue! Vigoroth, how dare you attack the boss!"
The moment the Gyarados showed himself he saw Vance holding the Vigoroth down, the Vigoroth still lashing out with hands and feet, its face contorted.
"This isn't the Vigoroth's doing. Something has gone wrong with it. Gyarados, you've come at the right moment — get over here and use Ice energy. Let's see whether it slows this down."
Vance explained.
"Rooaar, rooaar. Right."
The Gyarados gathered up strand after strand of Ice-type power and laid it over the Vigoroth, and in the space of a moment the Vigoroth was sealed in ice.
Vance Teleported in front of the Vigoroth, raised a hand and pressed at points along its body, using his own power to draw and guide the power inside it.
With his own hands on it, Vance found what was wrong with the Vigoroth. There were three sources of power inside it now, giving off three kinds of force and tangling together in its body. Perhaps those three were the reason the Vigoroth was like this.
One was Normal-type, one Psychic-type, and the last was the smallest of the three but the most profound and mysterious of them. For the moment, Vance could not see into it at all.
He did notice, though, that every time the Normal and Psychic forces met and broke into violence, this mysterious power would stir and take a hand in it.
With it taking part, the struggle between the other two seemed to ease a little; but bit by bit the two of them came on more and more, and the Vigoroth's body grew unstable.
Besides the trouble with the powers, there were faint signs that the tissue and flesh inside the Vigoroth were breaking down.
"Perhaps this is the reason the Vigoroth is a mutant — and the Vigoroth is one of Team Rocket's test subjects!"
Vance saw it then. Sure enough, of the Pokémon he had run into back at that time, several besides the Vigoroth had been strange in one way or another.
*Then what is Team Rocket after? Dropping these Pokémon for us to catch.* Vance thought it with his brows drawn together. Could the state the Vigoroth was in now be part of Team Rocket's design as well?
And if it was, what would their purpose be?
Vance's mind worked while his hands never stopped, drawing and guiding the power for the Vigoroth. With him working on it, the power in the Vigoroth slowly quieted and its eyes gradually cleared.
"Boss."
The Vigoroth had come back to itself, and called out.
"You're awake. How do you feel? Can you keep hold of yourself?"
"I'll try."
The Vigoroth tried to take control, and the power inside it broke loose again, running wild through its body, veins rising to the surface of its skin.
"I... it hurts. Roar, roar."
"Stay awake." Vance moved again, and stopped the disorder.
"Bo... boss. Am I finished?"
The Vigoroth said it despondently. It had found that the moment it called up its power its body felt as though it would split open, and under the battering of the power inside it its mind fell quickly into darkness.
"You are not. You have me, and I'll make you well."
Vance comforted it, telling it not to worry. He would do everything he could to cure it, whatever the cost.
And he had a fair measure of confidence about treating the Vigoroth.
"Boss..."
"Rest easy."
Frowning, Vance worked through the Vigoroth's body, and at the same time opened the system to see whether there was anything there he could use.
When he opened it, the display showed a reward he had not yet collected.
It was the reward for the mission to become an Advanced Trainer.
Of course — the Vigoroth had broken through and become an Advanced Pokémon, so that mission of the system's counted as complete.
Vance opened it at once to see whether there was anything of use in it.
"Ding. Congratulations on obtaining the 'Advanced Breeder' ability."
"Advanced Breeder! That's come at the right time!"
Vance's heart lifted, and he claimed the ability at once. The next moment a vast mass of knowledge poured into his mind, all of it the knowledge of an Advanced Breeder.
"Hoo—"
A moment later Vance let out a breath. He had taken all of it in. Through the system's working, every piece of knowledge and skill an Advanced Breeder had was thoroughly his, as though he had learned it himself, and the problems he had run up against in the past were suddenly clear as day.
"So that's it."
Now Vance looked at the Vigoroth, and with the eye of an Advanced Breeder he saw a great deal more.
What was happening to the Vigoroth was not simply a conflict of powers inside its body. It reached down to the level of its genes.
"This is a complicated business."
Vance murmured it. Once he had the disordered power in the Vigoroth pressed down, he told the Gyarados to keep watch.
He went off to one side himself, took out his materials and began compounding, and after putting in a great many precious ingredients he produced two doses of a glossy green reagent and half a bucket of a black, sticky substance.
"Rest easy, Vigoroth. A few rounds of treatment and you'll be well. Here — drink these two down."
The Vigoroth took them and drank them straight off.
After it drank, the power in the Vigoroth's body slowly steadied and settled toward calm.
The Vigoroth tried using a little of its power, and found that the earlier feeling was gone.
"Wait a bit, Vigoroth. No hurry. We're in no hurry at all. Don't call up your power for the next few days — rest a while first." Vance called a halt to it, and smeared the black, sticky stuff over the Vigoroth's body.
"Rooaar, rooaar. That's wonderful. Not like before, shut in that machine with no daylight, soaking in all that solution."
"Before? In solution?" Hearing that, Vance looked at the Vigoroth.
"Vigoroth — has this happened to you before?"