"What is it?"
Vance asked him.
Nolan lowered his voice. "Our people planted on this ship have got in touch with me. They say they're short-handed and want us to help."
"Short-handed? What are they doing?"
Vance asked it, with some idea already of what was coming.
"Looking for a Deino. Word is that the Deino, out of the three pseudo-legendaries, has been stolen, but it's still aboard. And I won't keep it from you — the S.S. Anne is a target of ours, of Team Rocket's. The senior men aboard her are our people. Before long the organisation will have full control of her."
"Looking for a Deino..."
Vance narrowed his eyes. *Of course,* he said to himself.
"Come on, we'll go and look together. Honestly, there isn't much hope of finding it. There are so many people on this liner and so much of her — it's a needle in a haystack, isn't it? And those people are rich or important. You can hardly search them one by one."
"We'll do what we can. They've called on us, so let's go and help." Vance had a resigned look about him as he got up and went out with Nolan.
As for the Deino — since the fates had brought them together like this, he would simply keep him. He had neither stolen nor robbed; it was nobody's fault but that of this damnable luck.
The two of them came out, and Nolan received a file on the Deino which had been sent over and passed a copy to Vance, and they began hunting about the liner with no aim at all.
"A Luxury Ball... then we'll change the Poké Ball."
During a break in the search, Vance came into a lounge and let the Deino out.
"Deino, deino—"
The Deino opened his bleary sleep-heavy eyes and took a look. Another new one? This one was not bad, though. This one felt warm to him, felt oddly close to him, and was a great deal easier on the eye.
So he, the Deino, did him the courtesy of a grunt, which counted as an answer.
Then he settled down again, motionless, and went back to doing nothing at all.
He was past it anyway.
"Combusken—"
The Combusken came out from behind him and looked him over from one side and the other. What was the matter with this Pokémon, lying there like the Slaking when the Slaking was slacking?
Given up at that age? How would that do?
"Busken! How can you have given up at your age? Can you really sleep at your age? Sleeping at a stage like this — have you no ambition in you at all?"
The Combusken went up to him and lectured him.
But the Deino did not move and would not answer.
"Combusken?"
The Combusken went round to his other side and went on, but the Deino still took no notice of him.
Seeing that he got no answer, the Combusken picked up a stick from beside him, gave him a poke and a prod, and still got no answer.
"Hopeless. This lump is hopeless."
The Combusken shook his head, spread both hands and sighed it out.
All the same, the Combusken could feel a threat off the Deino. This lump of a Deino was no weaker than he was.
Vance destroyed the Luxury Ball and took out a Great Ball.
A Great Ball is a Poké Ball of very fine performance, and the environment inside it is better than an ordinary one's.
If the inside of an ordinary Poké Ball is an ordinary room, then a Great Ball is a luxurious villa, with more to it besides, so that a Pokémon can live more comfortably.
It sells for more than an ordinary Poké Ball, too — as much as 100,000 apiece, which makes it something of a luxury among Poké Balls.
A while ago the Aerodactyl and the rest had been changed over and moved into Great Balls.
"Deino, let's find you new quarters."
Vance said it with the Great Ball in his hand.
"Deino—"
He found the man easy on the eye, and the air about him was a pleasure, so the Deino gave a call, with the look of one to whom it made no difference.
As far as he was concerned, one place to live was the same as another.
"Clunk—"
The Deino went back into a Poké Ball; with a clunk the capture succeeded, and then Vance let him out again.
"Have something to eat. Let's talk."
Vance brought out Advanced energy cubes, and put together on the spot a spread of food suited to the tastes of the Deino line, and set it down in front of him.
"That smells good. Deino—"
The Deino gave it a sniff, got up, went over to it and began to eat.
"Mm, mm, it's good. That's good."
"Here. Moomoo Milk."
"Deino, deino."
The Combusken sat down beside him and ate with him.
"Combusken—"
"Deino, deino—"
"Combusken, busken—"
The two Pokémon ate, and this time — for the food's sake, perhaps — the Deino answered him, and told him something of his own situation.
"Combusken—"
The Combusken looked over at his Trainer, a question in his eyes.
*The boss will have a way, won't he?* In the Combusken's eyes there was nothing his boss could not do.
And sure enough, meeting that look, Vance smiled and nodded.
"Combusken—"
That cheered the Combusken up. His boss really could do anything.
"Deino, deino—"
"There's something unusual about that body of yours, Deino. And I can understand what you say."
Vance had checked him over carefully, and had found what was in his body as well.
"Deino — you can understand me? No wonder. I can feel a gentle sort of power in you too." The Deino stopped eating and looked up at him, paused, and said, "So you've seen my problem as well. I'm finished. In the terms you humans use, there's no value in raising me. When I've finished this meal, take me back and get your money returned. You're a good man. I don't want you out of pocket — don't let them talk you into it."
All this being carried from place to place had taught the Deino a few things about human society.
For instance, that he, a Deino, was what they called a pseudo-legendary Pokémon, worth a great deal and much sought after.
And that these days he was trading on that name for his board and lodging.
"Heh." To his surprise Vance began to laugh, and put out a hand and stroked his forehead, and the Deino did not refuse it — on the contrary, he felt a spreading warmth, a power flowing out of that palm and running through the whole of his body, warm all through.
"Your problem can still be solved."
Vance said it gently.
"What? My problem can be solved? Are you joking with me?" The Deino did not quite believe him, but hampered by the stroking of that Viridian Power he only shook his head.
"Then how about this. If I solve this problem of yours, you throw in with me."
Vance said it with a smile.
"Deino, deino."
Looking at the sincerity in the man's eyes, something turned over in the Deino's heart, and he had an unaccountable feeling that the man was not lying — that it could be done.
Because that power entering his body had already changed it, very slightly.
"What do you say, Deino?"
Hearing him out, the Deino nodded and agreed to it, and some of the worn-out listlessness went out of him. If he could be made whole, nobody wanted it more than he did.
How could he be content to be a useless thing — Advanced strength and nothing to show for it, unable to build up power, unable to raise his level, his fighting strength dragged down by all those stray thoughts, useless from end to end?
An ordinary Pokémon could not have borne it, let alone a dragon as proud as he was.
Dragon-types hunger for strength more than any other.
"Ha, that's settled then. Once we're away from here I'll set your body right. Don't worry, it isn't difficult. Stay in the Poké Ball a while longer."
He had the shape of the Deino's condition now.
Inside his body a second Dragon-type essence was coming into being, and it needed a great deal of energy, which it took from the Deino's own body to feed its growth.
That other Dragon-type essence had grown out of the Deino's body as well, naturally a part of it, which was why nothing could be seen from the outside and the trouble was so hard to detect.
And Vance had found something more: at the source of that power there was something like a soul coming into being, and from the feel of that soul he had a sense of ancient disorder about it, nothing like a newborn thing.
Pokémon of the Deino's kind.
Are rather a special case. Ordinarily, once a Deino reaches a certain level of strength, a second consciousness coalesces within its body in preparation for evolving into a Zweilous later on; and once it has evolved into a Zweilous the two heads fight for control of the body, and will even attack each other.
But the one inside this Deino was very peculiar. It was not a newborn consciousness. It was more like something from outside.
If you had to put a word to it, the word was "a remnant will".
And since Pokémon of the Deino's kind are peculiar in that the body gathers a newborn consciousness of its own, the gathering force of the flesh and this "foreign thing" had gone through a whole series of changes together, which was what stopped the Deino concentrating in battle, and what interfered with him.
Strictly speaking, though, the Deino being in this state was part of the growth pattern of the Deino line, and nothing to be surprised at; plenty of Deino gather a consciousness and evolve by it.
What was peculiar was that in other Deino it forms of its own accord, whereas in this Deino it was a "foreign thing" that had taken the place of what should have formed of its own accord, and could not be brought into harmony with it, and that was why things were as they were.
All of which was what Vance had come to after calling up the Viridian Power and probing with his Psychic powers besides.
Knowing the cause of it, Vance naturally had a way to deal with it; only this was no place for it, and it would have to wait until they were somewhere else.