"Torchic—"
The Torchic felt it too, and was a little put out — but he let it go. Whose fault was it that he was weak?
Ever since leaving the Day Care he had found that the world had changed. He ran into this one stronger than him and that one stronger than him, and the days when he had ruled the Day Care were gone for good.
"Torchic! I'm going to climb back to the top, and make a lot of money!"
the Torchic vowed inwardly, burning with it. Besides getting strong, he meant to get rich.
"Aerodactyl, where do you live? Is there anything you need to go back for?"
Vance asked.
The Aerodactyl shook its head: nothing.
"And where you live — are there others of your kind there?"
Vance asked again.
"Rooaar—"
The Aerodactyl shook its head again, and explained that where it lived there was only itself; and then it told Vance about its past.
Only now did Vance learn that this Aerodactyl had parents, and that its home was a very long way off.
It had come here only recently, and as to why, the Aerodactyl explained that a party of strange humans had called out a great many Pokémon and attacked it together, all of them ganging up on it. It could not beat them, and seeing how things stood it had got away fast, and in its blind flight it had come to this region.
"Parents? There's more than one or two Aerodactyl alive in this world, so breeding is possible as well. Besides Grampa Canyon there'll be an Aerodactyl or two in other places too. The anime isn't the whole picture either — and no wonder, since the anime is told from Ash's point of view. How could that stand for a world this size?"
Vance thought it through. And in any case, what happened in the anime happened in the anime; this was reality.
Whether reality would go the way the anime did was another matter.
While Vance was catching the Aerodactyl, a party of men appeared on the other side of the hill — six of them, powerfully built, hard-faced.
"Awoo, awoo—"
The party had two Mightyena with them as well; noses working, they led the men to the mouth of a cave.
"This is the place. Let's go in and look."
"Sir."
Led by the man at their head, the party went into the cave, and before long came out again with nothing to show for it and a sour look on every face.
"The Aerodactyl isn't in this den."
said the man at their head.
"So what do we do next, Boss Z? Keep watch here?"
One of the party stepped out and asked.
"It's getting dark. We'll wait here for the Aerodactyl to come back. This is its new den, so it should return."
answered the man they called Boss Z.
The rest all agreed with the proposal.
"I know it's been hard on you, brothers, but you'll have to put up with it a little longer. The client is paying heavily this time, and all he wants is for us to bring this Aerodactyl back; besides, we took the risk of driving it out here, so we can't stop halfway."
"Once this job's over we can have a good rest for a while. And with this one in the bag the Blood Axe Hunters will have a bigger name, and more work coming in after it."
Hunter Z went on. There were six men in their band, and they had made something of a name in the Kanto region; he had picked up a name among the factions as well, and people called him Hunter Z.
Their band hunted Pokémon, of course — hunting down whatever Pokémon a client named, for a heavy fee in return.
But there was no limit on the Pokémon they hunted: some were taken from the wild, some snatched straight out of Trainers' hands, and some hunted inside Pokémon reserves the League had declared protected by name. Whatever satisfied the client would do.
Which was why bands like theirs were hated by Trainers and wanted by the League — not that they cared.
"Hahaha, Boss Z is right. Pity we're wanted, or we could spend a bit in town on our time off. The girls in town — tsk, tsk, tsk — tender enough to squeeze the water out of, ha ha."
said one who looked like a hanger-on, in a thoroughly lewd tone.
"Hahaha, in our line of work you'd be ashamed to show your face if you weren't wanted. Girls in town, is it. Trust you to know how to enjoy yourself."
"Hee hee, enjoying myself is exactly why I do this. How much money can a man make on an honest job?"
"All right, all right, that's enough. Do the work first."
Hunter Z called a halt, and at that the men scattered and lay in wait nearby, ringing the cave in, waiting only for the Aerodactyl they had spoken of.
What they did not know was that their quarry, the Aerodactyl, had already been caught by somebody and would not be coming back. Keeping watch here was bound to come to nothing.
...............
Elsewhere, to welcome the Aerodactyl to the team, Vance had found another spot and cooked something good — a great deal of it, enough to leave the Gyarados and the rest satisfied.
The Aerodactyl was a little stiff at first, but with the Gyarados and the others calling it over it gradually loosened up, and they were all tucking in happily together.
Halfway through the meal the Aerodactyl found itself thinking that being caught was rather a good thing after all: no more eating bloody prey, no more chewing sour, astringent berries.
Vance stood by and watched the Pokémon go through the food like a storm, and smiled.
How much they liked it was the verdict on his cooking, and to a cook that is deeply satisfying.
It took a great deal of material before all four Pokémon were full, bellies round and tight, lying comfortably on the ground.
............
The next day Vance set out with his four Pokémon, looking for suitable opponents to fight; the point of it was for the Aerodactyl and himself to wear in together and improve their understanding.
Several fights in, the results were good. The Aerodactyl answered his orders every time and was gradually growing used to them, and the understanding between them was slowly improving.
Set against Vance's good time, the Blood Axe Hunters were having a wretched one. They had kept watch there a whole night, not daring to sleep, seeing the night through in a state of high tension, and every man of them had rings under his eyes — and when the night had passed, their quarry still had not appeared.
"Damn it, what's the matter with this Aerodactyl? Why hasn't it come back? Could it have made a home somewhere else?"
one of them, lying in the grass, cursed under his breath, his face full of resentment.
"Wait a while longer. See what Boss Z says."
the companion beside him cautioned.
And so another hour went by, with no change.
"All right, nobody needs to keep watch. We're changing targets." Seeing how things stood, Boss Z put a stop to the ambush.
The men gathered round in one place and discussed what to do next, and after some discussion they set off into the distance, led by the two Mightyena.