Wherever there are people there are factions, and inside Team Rocket it was no different.
The quarrel with Wilder had begun, as Vance saw it, over nothing much at all, and what came after had not been of his seeking either. Was it a crime, now, to be good at something?
Perhaps not. That was how Vance saw it, at any rate.
And perhaps it was. To certain people, it was.
And so the thing had built up, a little at a time, until it broke open.
An Elite-class Swellow came gliding in and set down on the ground.
Grady smiled when he saw Merrow and started toward him. Just then his shadow twisted and a Gengar came out of it, saying something to him.
"Gengar—"
Whatever the Gengar said stopped Grady mid-step, and his brow creased.
The Gengar said that the "man" standing there was already dead — there was no breath of life left on him. Ghost-type Pokémon are unusually sensitive to life energy.
"Whump—"
A gust of wind went through, Merrow swayed once, and his whole body went down.
It was an eerie thing to watch, and Grady quietly put himself on guard.
"Who's there! Who is that!"
Grady shouted it at the empty air around him.
"Grady, you old dog. Weren't you looking for me? Well, here I am."
Space rippled, and Vance stepped out of it.
"Vance!"
Grady had fixed that face in his memory long ago. Now, seeing the man who had killed Wilder, his eyes went red in an instant, his whole face turned savage, and the killing intent came off him cold.
"Who do you think that dog's face of yours is frightening? Since you've come today, you can go down and keep that worthless nephew of yours company. Chief Merrow here has already gone on ahead of you."
Vance said it with a cold smile, and the Slaking, the Gyarados and the rest appeared in front of him.
The Zweilous in particular gave Grady a jolt. He had not expected the man to be raising a pseudo-legendary.
"You killed Merrow? How is that possible?"
Grady did not believe it at first. The Pokémon in front of him were Elite level at best. How could they have killed Merrow, a seasoned Gym-class man?
But Merrow was dead, and that was real enough. In spite of himself, he grew careful.
Grady sent out his own Pokémon as well. With the Gengar that made ten, three of them Gym-class.
The strongest was the Gengar at level 54, then a Feraligatr at 52, then a Honchkrow at 51.
The rest were all at the Elite tier.
"All of you, go!"
To be safe, Grady staked every piece of strength he had.
Merrow's death had unsettled him, and so his first move was his full one.
With his enemy standing in front of him, he had no intention of leaving.
As it happened, Vance was afraid of exactly that — that he would leave. He stood off at a distance, calm-faced, not flustered in the slightest.
"Has the boy got something to fall back on? He's far too composed."
While Grady was still wondering at it, the Pokémon closed with one another, and the shape of the fight told him why.
"Roar—"
The Gyarados went at the Feraligatr first. Both were Water types, and from the moment they met neither gave an inch.
Two Hydro Pumps met in midair and came out, of all things, even.
The Feraligatr could make no sense of it.
The Honchkrow had the Aerodactyl on it, and the two were fighting hard in the air.
Punching above its tier? The Aerodactyl could do that too. On this team it would have looked odd if it couldn't.
The shadows on the ground crawled, and the Gengar popped up not far in front of Vance, meaning to take the Trainer out directly.
But the moment it appeared the Slaking's great frame was already in front of Vance, looking down at it without expression.
Its body moved, a fist came up, and the punch came down.
"Fwoomp—"
The Slaking's fist blew a crater in the ground. The "Gengar" it had struck was only a Double Team copy.
"Gengar—"
A dozen and more Gengar appeared across the field, every face full of sly laughter.
The Slaking drew its fist back, cast about, and picked out what was wrong. The next second it was gone, Teleporting to stand in front of the Gengar.
"Gengar?"
The Slaking's sudden appearance baffled the Gengar. A Slaking that could Teleport? But its hands lost no time: it put up Trick Room, the air around them blurred, and a square field of spatial force formed and wrapped both it and the Slaking inside.
Under the weight of that spatial force, the Slaking's attacks came a great deal more slowly.
The Gengar took the chance to sink into the ground, turn itself into a streak of shadow, and make for Vance.
"Roar—"
The Slaking opened up at full strength and broke the Trick Room apart.
Thunder flickered over its body, a Thunderbolt lashed out, and it landed dead on the patch of shadow where the Gengar was hiding.
The Gengar had to swerve to get clear of it. It surfaced again, set its two fat hands out in front of it, gathered a Shadow Ball and flung it at the Slaking.
"Bang—"
The Slaking chopped down with the motion and knocked the Shadow Punch flying, and it carried on into one of the Pokémon behind.
There was an explosion. The Shadow Ball had struck the Beedrill that was in the thick of it with the Combusken, and that one blow finished it on the spot.
"Gengar—"
Only now did the Gengar understand what it was dealing with in the Slaking, and the sly smile went off its face.
The Slaking did not stop. Psychic power surged over it, it Teleported again, and it met the Gengar's Shadow Punch head-on.
"Roar, roar—"
With the Slaking fighting that hard, the Gengar turned out to be no match for it.
"Gengar, Mean Look. Hold it down."
Grady shouted it, feeding the Gengar the move.
"Gengar—"
The Gengar got Mean Look off at once. A streak of black shot across and fastened onto the Slaking.
The Mean Look did not hurt when it landed. It was only when the Slaking went to Teleport that the black force showed itself, pinning it down, so that for a short while it could not Teleport at all.
The Gengar used the opening to put distance between itself and the Slaking, then drove a punch down into the earth. Several Shadow Punches came up out of the ground, aimed at the spot where Vance was standing.
What puzzled the Gengar was this: it was attacking the opposing Trainer, and not one of them looked worried.
The Gyarados spared it a glance, then wound its tail round the Feraligatr and held it fast, while the Zweilous, working with the Combusken, was busy knocking over the weaklings — no anxiety there either, no thought of going to its Trainer's rescue.
"Shadow Punch, is it."
Vance put out one hand, power surging along it, and pressed down toward the ground. The shape of a huge palm appeared and scattered the Shadow Punches as they broke the surface.
That left the Gengar and Grady both staring. To scatter a Shadow Punch thrown by a Gym-class Gengar, he had to be stronger than the Gengar.
The Gengar was already Gym-class. Did that not make the man Gym-class as well — or Elite-Four-class?
Not Elite-Four-class, mercifully. By the feel of him he was still Gym-class.
The guess took the colour out of Grady's face. His skin crawled and his back went cold.
How was it possible? How could a man of his age possibly have that kind of strength?
Psychics with strength like that were all middle-aged, weren't they? How old was he? Like this in his teens? What would he be later on?
It seemed it was his turn to be frightened now.
"Gengar, back here, quickly!"
Now that he knew the truth, Grady called the Gengar back in a hurry to guard him. He knew well enough what it meant to let a Psychic get close: death.
"Gengar—"
The Gengar tried to pull back and the Slaking blocked it, and Vance gave a small laugh, Teleported once, and was standing in front of Grady.