The party stayed where they were and waited, never once daring to go forward.
One minute... two minutes... five minutes went by, and the battlefield was as quiet as before.
"Roar—"
Away on the horizon a Pokémon came flying in across the sky, a powerful presence blazing off it.
"Quick, get up there and see how things stand. Our support's arrived."
"Right, right."
When the men rushed up they found only a ruin of a place. The sightseeing buildings that had been put up there had been reduced to rubble, and the ground looked as though it had been ploughed over and over again, and was still giving off hot smoke.
"Just as well we stayed put. With power like that, one move would have finished you where you stood."
The officer said it with feeling, then looked up at the sky, at the League's Elite-Four-class man coming to their support, and thought. How was he going to put this?
Team Rocket, perhaps?
Yes. That was it. Team Rocket.
Settled in his mind, he went forward quickly, came up in front of a man, and reported what he had found.
"Chief, my guess is that this is another piece of work by members of Team Rocket..."
"Splooosh—"
Vance was down in the water with his presence sealed off. He swam a stretch submerged, then let the Gyarados out and had it carry him, moving fast beneath the surface.
The Gyarados had rested a while in its Poké Ball and come back a little. Vance was genuinely spent, close to collapse, and the after-effects of the pills had come on him: his whole head was ringing, stabbing with pain.
The Gyarados had to make a point of towing him. Vance had not the strength left to keep hold of it.
Under the black of the night, under the long reach of the sea, one Gyarados carried one human being straight on in a single direction.
The Gyarados had no idea where any of this was. It only had to go the way Vance pointed. On the way they met several groups of Pokémon and avoided them without making trouble, and the presence the Gyarados let show kept those Pokémon from giving chase.
In the sea the Gyarados line is a tyrant. In a good mood, one Hyper Beam. In a bad mood, a good many more.
He had no idea how long it was before Vance, half-conscious, heard the Gyarados calling him.
"Sand. Have we come ashore?"
Vance opened his eyes and looked at what was in front of him. In the moonlight a few coconut palms stood there, and further off were several hills, and below the hills black shapes covered the ground — stretch after stretch of jungle.
"An island, is it? Then we can rest a while, and not go drifting about at sea. You've worked hard, Gyarados. Come back in and rest."
Vance recalled the Gyarados, propped his body upright, and walked up onto the island.
"Clack, clack—"
A Krabby came scuttling out in front of him, its two big pincers clacking as they opened and shut.
"Get lost."
It was the Slaking, out of its Poké Ball, and one raised fist sent the Krabby flying.
"Clack, clack—"
With that Krabby sent flying, a great many more Krabby came up out of the sides, and several Kingler with them, pincers clacking.
They were Intermediate and Advanced Pokémon, and perhaps because the Slaking's presence was so flat, these Krabby were not afraid in the least; they even raised their pincers at it in a show of force.
Faced with the Slaking's pressure, they still would not give ground.
"The mighty brought low, and now the curs take their turn. Combusken, out you come. So we've lived to see this day as well."
Meeting this pack of bullies made Vance laugh. Neither he nor the Slaking was in any great state just now.
"Combusken—"
The Combusken and the others came out of their Poké Balls too, a savage light in their faces, looking coldly at the crabs.
The Pokémon's tempers were up as well. Damn it — they might not have been able to put a Dusknoir away, but could they not deal with a pack of small fry like this?
Only then did the Krabby take fright, and they scattered in every direction.
"All right, all right. Let's move on. No sense wasting time here."
Seeing the Combusken and the rest about to give chase, Vance called them off. Killing the whole lot of them would serve no purpose.
"The Combusken and the Zweilous stay out. The rest of you go back in your Poké Balls and rest. There's no telling what's ahead, and the night's getting deeper."
So the Zweilous and the Combusken stayed out, and walked the island with Vance.
"Rooaar, rooaar—"
"Combusken—"
The Zweilous and the Combusken called out threats to either side of the path and frightened off several Pokémon that had been lying hidden. If they had not been in the state they were, those two tempers would have gone straight to blows.
For once the Combusken felt itself needed. It was its turn to carry the load.
All this time the Gyarados and the Slaking had held the front, and even the Zweilous, which had come along later, was stronger than it once it had recovered.
As for the Trainer who would ordinarily need protecting — that went without saying. Ordinarily. Its own Trainer was stronger than any one of them, and had no need of a Combusken.
Now, after the great fight with the Dusknoir, the lads were all carrying injuries and out of condition, and its own stamina was the best preserved of any of them.
"Combusken—"
The Combusken ran on quickly, kicked a falling rock to pieces, and barked a few times at the Pokémon up in the big trees.
Aipom came into view one after another, giggling, weighing rocks in their hands.
"Whoooosh—"
Rocks in a dense swarm came at them, whistling through the air.
"Combusken—"
The Combusken came up on its feet, fists and legs together, smashed every rock that came at it, carried the motion forward into a charge, and hit the lead Aipom with a Sky Uppercut.
"Thud—"
The troop of Aipom set up an uproar, and then, out of the black of the night, bright stars burst out one after another. It was the move Swift.
With the whole troop of them at it together, Swift came down thick enough to blot out the sky, and the Combusken did not try to take it head-on; it fought and fell back, fought and fell back.
Vance used the chance to put some distance behind him.
Ah well. Careful as he was, he had not expected to see a day like this — giving way to a troop of Aipom, of all things.
"Zweilous, if you're tired, come into your Poké Ball and get your stamina back."
Vance said it to the Zweilous beside him, which had a tired look on its faces.
"Rooaar. No need, boss, this is resting for me. I've let Black Two have a rest for now and I'll rest later. Don't you forget, boss, I'm a Zweilous. I've got two heads."
The Zweilous said it with its chest out and its head high. Plain in front of Vance, though, there was a wound on its body deep enough to show bone; there was no telling at what point in the fighting it had taken it.
Running the whole way to keep from being overtaken, Vance had not gone over his Pokémon's injuries properly, and so of course had put no medicine on them.
"That's my oversight. There's been no time to get any medicine on you."
Vance took a prepared medicine out of the storage bracelet and rubbed it into the Zweilous.
"Hissss—"
Black One drew in a cold breath. The burning wound on its body was a great deal better once the medicine was on.
The commotion woke Black Two as well, and it opened a pair of bewildered eyes.
"So Black Two is awake."
"Rooaar, rooaar."
"Combusken—"
The Combusken came running up too. If it wanted to leave, that troop of Aipom could not hold it. If it had not been for not wanting to stir up extra trouble, it would never have pulled back at all.
That crowd of Aipom only amounted to a fighting force because there were so many of them. Given enough time, a weak point could always be found.
Half an hour later, Vance and the Combusken came to a damp cave.
They put the cave in some kind of order, and it became their resting place for the night.
Vance took food out of the storage space, dealt with it quickly, and drank down a bowl of hot water to get a little warmth back into his body.