"Torchic—"
The Torchic threw out his chest and went straight at it.
He certainly could not beat the Aerodactyl — that much he knew — but he also knew that the Aerodactyl absolutely could not beat his Trainer.
So the Torchic was not the least bit worried. He almost wanted to laugh. *Is this Aerodactyl stupid?* he thought. *Pick either of the other two and its odds would have been better.*
Instead it had been too clever by half, picked him, and brought the boss himself into the field.
"This child. He's hopeless."
The Torchic sighed and shook his head.
"Kaw kaw kaw. Shaking your head and sighing because you see I'm a mountain you'll never climb?"
The Torchic's manner looked quite different to the Aerodactyl.
"Come on. I'll give you the first move."
The Aerodactyl said it, brimming with confidence.
"Torchic?"
"I mean it. And after that one move it's my turn. Kaw kaw."
"All right. Let's go, Torchic."
Vance spoke up, and the Torchic perked up at once; that tone from his boss meant the boss was going to fight.
That much he knew.
The Aerodactyl was still in its lofty pose, dealing with the Torchic's attack, when Vance struck.
A huge fist of dim blue light gathered itself and went howling across.
"Bang—"
It knocked the Aerodactyl clean into the air.
"Rooaar— that hurts!"
Hit by a giant fist of energy and sent flying, the Aerodactyl nearly brought up a mouthful of old blood; its belly was one mass of pain and its whole body felt ready to come apart.
That move was strong. Even paying attention it might not have coped with it, and this time it had not been paying attention: it had barely defended at all and had taken the thing full in the front.
"Thud—"
The Aerodactyl slammed into the ground, rolled several times before it stopped, and hurt all over past bearing.
"Wait!!"
The Aerodactyl got up on shaking legs and shouted, stopping Vance, who had been about to follow up.
"What is it? Some other request?"
Vance smiled faintly, fist raised as if to throw it, that great power surging about him, ready to break loose at any moment.
"What do you think you're doing? Wasn't I fighting this little chick?"
"As you can see, I'm a Trainer, and a Trainer goes into the field with his Pokémon and fights alongside it. That's only reasonable, surely. And you agreed to it yourself — the first move was your idea too."
Vance gave his explanation unhurriedly, and made to move again.
*That seems fair enough — no, wait, the sly human kept that back from me,* the Aerodactyl swore inwardly, then raised a claw to call another halt, its face turning serious.
"Look, fighting this little chick doesn't feel right to me, and it isn't fair either, so I want a different Pokémon to fight. A real Pokémon needs a real fight."
"Heh. You have a lot of ideas, don't you. Fine. I'll give you one more chance to pick your opponent."
"I'll pick — but I fight that Pokémon alone, and you don't interfere." The Aerodactyl added it; once bitten, twice shy, and it absolutely was not letting this sly human join in again.
Because if he worked together with either of those two Pokémon, it could not possibly win.
"That I can accept. At most I'll use my mouth; a few orders should be allowed, surely. Aerodactyl, I've shown you my good faith, and I hope you'll show me yours."
"Of course. When an Aerodactyl gives his word, it stands."
"Right. Torchic, come away. Let the Gyarados and the other one take it."
Vance took the Torchic and cleared the field, so the Aerodactyl could choose its opponent again.
"This Gyarados. Strong body, fierce presence. A little weaker than me, but not to be taken lightly." The Aerodactyl looked the Gyarados over and weighed it up.
This time it absolutely would not get it wrong; it had to pick the weakest opponent. Having finished with the Gyarados, it turned to the Vigoroth.
"No presence to this one, and a small build. Its fighting strength ought to be lower than the Gyarados's."
At that thought, the Aerodactyl made its decision at once. That one.
"You'll do — the one picking his nose. So very pleased with yourself. It's you. Come and fight me. Roar—"
The Vigoroth heard it, stopped what he was doing, wiped his hand on the Gyarados beside him, and stepped forward.
"A pity. It didn't pick me."
The Gyarados said it glumly.
"Doesn't it picking the Vigoroth mean it thinks you're the strong one?"
Vance put in, from the side.
"That's right. Hahaha. This Aerodactyl has a good eye."
The Gyarados cheered up at once and kept saying what a good eye the Aerodactyl had.
"A good eye, is it? I suppose so."
Vance let it pass. The Aerodactyl did have a certain eye for picking.
Out on the field the Aerodactyl and the Vigoroth stood facing each other. Seeing the Vigoroth looking exactly as before, the Aerodactyl told itself this one was safe.
No coming to grief this time. There was no presence about this Vigoroth, so presumably nothing much to it, and the human would be keeping out of it.
"Are you ready?"
Vance called out.
"Ready. This time I'm taking it seriously."
the Aerodactyl answered, settling into a fighting stance.
After coming to grief a moment ago, the Aerodactyl was being careful now.
"Roar, roar—"
The Aerodactyl opened its mouth and roared out wave after wave of sound: Supersonic.
The sound was piercing, and it did real damage as well; fine cracks opened in the ground where it passed.
But as the Supersonic came near the Vigoroth it was pushed aside by some strange force. Looked at closely, the Vigoroth had a dense psychic power coiling about him.
At the same moment the presence of Advanced-level strength was laid bare, and the Aerodactyl was appalled.
"You have got to be joking. Another hidden expert. How is anyone supposed to play this game?"
the Aerodactyl swore; another one lying low and hiding what it had, and the presence coming off it now had the pressure piling on.
"Right, then."
The Aerodactyl set its face hard and flew up, jagged stones rising all over its body and shooting down together.
The Vigoroth was not about to stand and wait for it; he gathered himself a moment and a Thunderbolt went up into the sky and met the Stone Edge.
"Boom—"
The two moves met; the lightning broke through the stones and went on toward the Aerodactyl, which dodged it and answered with a Flamethrower.
The Vigoroth broke into a run, extremely fast, sprang up beneath the Aerodactyl and, with his psychic power to help him, reached the Aerodactyl's flying height, fist crackling with lightning, and brought it down hard.
The Aerodactyl was about to dodge when it saw the deep blue in the Vigoroth's eyes; a force came down on it and pinned its movement. It strained and broke free in a second — but the Thunder Punch had arrived, a fist bigger than a sandbag, driving up from below into the Aerodactyl's jaw.
Its eyes rolled white on the instant; it felt numb all over, its whole body floating in the air, threads of electricity crawling across it.
"Bang—"
Another fist came straight down on its skull, and the Aerodactyl's body snapped rigid and dropped stiff and straight to the ground.