"Zweilous — Fire Fang, Ice Fang."
The Zweilous was training in one of the training rooms.
At Vance's word the Zweilous's two heads each brought out a move, one scorching power and one freezing appearing on the field, and bit forward.
The training dummy in front of it burst apart in the instant fire met ice.
"Good. Now keep moving. Black One, use Dragon Breath; Black Two, Dragon Pulse. Attack the moving target."
Vance called it, working the target with his psychic power, sending it dancing about the whole room and never where you expected it.
"Roar, roar—"
The Zweilous did as it was told. Dragon Pulse and Dragon Breath went out together and struck the fast-moving target squarely, without a miss.
"Very good. Next step: sense the energy around you. The target will appear when you aren't expecting it, in a random place."
Vance set out the new drill, adding Teleport to it for the Zweilous to deal with.
"Roar, roar—"
The Zweilous nodded, gave it everything it had, and got good results out of all of it.
With the Zweilous's natural gifts, training came easily, and it took Vance's meaning quickly.
"Combusken, combusken—"
The Combusken beside him was hard at his own training too, beating at the dummy in front of him, and his presence had come up to energy level 33. By Vance's estimate the Combusken's evolution was not far off.
The Gyarados and the others were each at their own training, honing their moves and building their strength. The Slaking, as ever, was lying down — but nobody underestimated him.
"Ding-dong—"
In the middle of the training Vance heard the bell in the training room ring.
"Who is it?"
Vance left his Pokémon to their training, went to the door and opened it.
"Good afternoon, Squad Leader Vance."
Outside was a man in Team Rocket uniform, the keeper of the base's training rooms.
The place Vance was in was Team Rocket's post in Porta Vista, and he was making use of the training facilities there.
With a Zweilous in his party, Vance thought it better to train inside a Team Rocket base.
Porta Vista was a seaside city, but it had not grown up on Pokémon or on Pokémon resources. It had made a character of its own out of tourism and the service trades, and that was what had made it so prosperous.
Part of it was that Porta Vista could not compete with Vermilion City in the Pokémon industry. Both being coastal cities, there was competition between them, but where Pokémon were concerned the name that carried was still Vermilion's.
Even so, Porta Vista had done well enough for itself. In tourism it was ahead of Vermilion, and it had become a holiday resort known far and wide.
Vance had had a taste of the holiday these last few days, and on that score Porta Vista did beat Vermilion.
And naturally, Porta Vista being famous for tourism, its hard strength as a city fell behind that of its neighbour Vermilion. There was not yet a single Gym in Porta Vista licensed by the Indigo League.
And because there were few Pokémon resources here, Team Rocket's branch in the place was weaker than the branches in other cities. The Branch Chief of Porta Vista was only of Gym-class strength; put him in Saffron City and he would be no more than a Division Commander.
"Good afternoon. Is there something?"
Vance said it to the man in front of him, asking what he was wanted for.
"It's this. Our Chief wants you. He'll meet you at Beach Seven. He says there's something he needs to tell you."
"Beach Seven? Has the Chief got something to hand over?"
Vance was puzzled. Beach Seven lay to the south-west of Porta Vista. It was being built up as an attraction, quietly contracted out to Team Rocket, and the work was not finished; it had not opened yet.
Why arrange to meet him there? He was not on close terms with this Branch Chief. What business could the man have with him?
"I don't know. He must have something to say to you."
With that the keeper left.
"Makes no sense."
That was how it struck Vance; but after a moment's thought he took his Pokémon along.
Say what you like, the man was the local power here. He might as well go and see what it was about.
A fine day, a gentle breeze off the sea.
The Branch Chief of Porta Vista, Merrow, was waiting for Vance to arrive.
Merrow was a portly middle-aged man in a suit, with an affable face. To look at him you would never take him for a Team Rocket Branch Chief; he looked more like a wealthy merchant.
Earlier he had had word from Grady, and though he wondered why the man should be contacting him, he had talked the matter over with him all the same.
The other had offered a handsome price for information. He had set his connections to work, and as luck would have it, the man being sought was right there in his own branch, and had been for several days.
He had called him out now because the training-room booking in his name was nearly up, and if the man were to leave, that would be a heavy loss.
And there was another reason: if he took him himself, he could sell him at a good price when the time came, and earn a favour into the bargain.
By the information, the other was only an Advanced-strength Trainer, so it would be easy enough.
Between an Advanced Trainer and a Gym-class Trainer, anybody knows which way to choose; and what settled it was the gift, which he could not refuse.
"Vance, Vance. Advanced strength at your age. What a pity. This is as far as the road goes for you."
Merrow shook his head over the pity of it — but only a little pity. The man was still going to be taken.
Before long Vance came flying in from a distance on the Aerodactyl's back.
"Oh — an Aerodactyl. That's a windfall for me. Hm? It's broken through. Elite strength, no less. Still, that's not much of a problem."
Merrow smiled, and waited for Vance to deliver himself to his door.
When Vance arrived he found no workmen at the beach development in the distance; work had stopped entirely. He was wondering what the Chief was about — what the man had to say to him that called for meeting in a place like this.
"Chief Merrow, what have you called me out here for?"
Vance came down, walked up to Merrow and greeted him.
"Heh. Nothing much, in fact. I only want to borrow something of yours."
"Borrow something? Borrow what?"
"You. Your person."
As he spoke Merrow's face changed, and he called out four Gym-class Pokémon, which closed in round Vance and attacked.
The four were a Nidoqueen, a Golem, a Crobat and a Persian, all of them Gym-class. The strongest was the Nidoqueen, at an energy level of 56.
"Boom—"
The Slaking and the rest appeared and drove the four of them back.
"An Aerodactyl... and a Zweilous! Good, good. I never thought you'd be raising a Zweilous. Ha, ha, ha. Heaven truly is with me — I cut you off here, and there's a windfall into the bargain."
At the sight of the Zweilous Merrow's eyes filled with wild delight. His fortune was made.
A pseudo-legendary! A great surprise had burst open right here, and a pseudo-legendary stood in front of him.
In that case he would take this Zweilous for himself. Today Merrow deserved to come into money.
The half-hearted mood he had begun with turned into a fever of excitement.
"Who'd have thought you'd had such luck — raising a Zweilous in secret. It'll be mine soon enough, though."
"Heh. You old dog. I think you've thought your way too far."
Struck at without warning, Vance was in no mood to be polite and swore at him straight out. The Slaking, planted in front of him, switched to the Huge Power Ability, erupted all at once and went for the Crobat.
Appearing suddenly above the Crobat, one Focus Punch drove it straight into the ground.
The fist came up and followed through with a Hammer Arm that split the ground wide open.
With the point where the Slaking landed at the centre, cracks spread out in every direction like a spider's web.
The Crobat was simply gone.