"Ha ha ha, you're being modest. It really is true that the greater the prodigy, the more modest the man."
Steven laughed easily as he said it, and there was real appreciation in the way he looked at Vance. He was enjoying their conversation enormously; he had never expected that a Trainer he had invited aboard on a whim would turn out to be someone his own age he could talk to like this.
As the son of a great house, and the heir to it besides, Steven naturally had no lack of judgement or of feeling for people.
And of course, with Steven's position, there was nothing calculated in getting on so well with Vance. He simply liked him.
There was something of a prodigy meeting a prodigy in it, of one hero valuing another.
What Vance had shown was only a Gym-class Psychic — remarkable for how young he was and how much room he had to grow, and that was the striking part. Beyond that there was nothing about him for Steven to want.
As heir to the Stone family, what could he possibly lack? Even a pseudo-legendary, precious as they are, was nothing very much in his eyes; it held no particular appeal.
It sounds like swagger, but the man genuinely had the means for it. What other people chase after all their lives, he could pick up with one hand.
For Steven Stone, even later on, his real identity would not be Champion of the Hoenn region. To him, being Champion was a sideline; his true occupation was going home to take over the family business and inherit the enormous Stone house.
You could see it in the way he later handed the Champion's seat to his friend Wallace without a moment's hesitation. He did not set much store by that seat.
"Elite-Four-class — what I understand is the Pokémon side of it. Mainly it comes from infusing energy into the body, which gives them a grip on part of the energy of heaven and earth, so that when they use a move they can draw on the world around them. That's what makes it different from Gym-class."
One thing led to another, and the two of them had come round to the raising of Pokémon, with Steven setting out his understanding of it.
And in that field, the knowledge of Pokémon that Vance displayed left Steven feeling distinctly outmatched. Vance was an Advanced Breeder as well, so what he knew and what he touched on was naturally wide and deep. On that point Steven was no match for him: he was a pure Trainer, with every point spent on the Trainer side, and most of his energy went there. The raising side was nothing he had to worry about — there were specialist Breeders whose job it was to advise him.
"As for how hard it is, I don't find it so. My Metagross never used any treasure for it; he simply refined it himself, day by day, by his own sense of energy, and stepped into Elite-Four-class."
Once he got onto the Metagross, Steven came alive, smiling all over his face like a parent talking about a child who does well at school.
"It's hardly surprising a Metagross could manage that."
Vance said it slowly. What kind of Pokémon is a Metagross? A pseudo-legendary — and a stacked version of one at that, several pseudo-legendaries fused into one body.
Anyone else with a single pseudo-legendary would be moved to tears by it.
It could only mean a family with a mine at home, and a very large mine at that: no shortage of money, no shortage of knowledge, no shortage of people either.
The Stones had made their start on Steel-type Pokémon, and the Steel-types they raised were famous indeed.
"Ha ha ha. If I may say something a little boastful — the reason I can keep going down the Trainer road at all is the Metagross and the rest of them. They work so hard. So hard that failing them would feel like a crime. So I keep going down the Trainer road."
"Ha ha ha, now it's your turn to be modest. Let me give you your own words back: the greater the prodigy, the more modest the man — isn't that you as well?"
A Pokémon's aptitude counts for a great deal, but the Trainer's share is not small either. No raw beginner of a Trainer ends up with that many fine Pokémon following him.
"Ha ha ha."
The laughter of the two of them filled the room.
"Your Metagross has already gone past Elite-Four-class, hasn't he?"
"You've a good eye. He took that step a few days ago and moved up to Near-Champion."
"That's exactly what I found so surprising just now — that you could break free inside the area the Metagross had sealed off." And then Steven added, "Even if you weren't the main target of it."
"When I got a look at you then, you didn't seem like Team Aqua either, so I knew you were only passing through. What came afterwards bore my guess out. If someone like you had gone over to Team Aqua, it would only show how useless the League is."
"Heh. Hardly."
Vance laughed it off without committing himself either way.
He was right, and also a little wrong.
Vance was certainly not with Team Aqua. He was with Team Rocket.
The cargo ship that had been hit had its power back, and the three of them got under way again, running in towards the Hoenn region.
Vance stayed aboard and went with them to Hoenn; once there, he would turn back for Kanto.
He had business waiting over there.
"The Lileep was only recently revived, wasn't it? It isn't really a problem — it's just not used to things yet."
Out on deck, Vance was examining a Lileep. After going over it he found nothing wrong; it simply had not settled in, something like the symptoms of a body that has not adjusted to a new place.
Pokémon, too, can fail to adjust to a new place — revived Pokémon like this one especially. The world today has changed out of all recognition; a great deal is different.
Vance took out his materials, mixed something up, and handed it to Steven.
"Spray a little of this on before it eats and it will be fine. And its taste runs to salt — it isn't used to sweet things."
Vance gave his instructions. Somewhere in their idle talk, Steven had learned that Vance's attainments as a Breeder were no small matter, and as he happened to have a Lileep on hand, revived by the revival method not long before and not doing well, he had thought he would ask.
And sure enough, one examination from Vance and he had mixed a medicine; one application, and it was noticeably better.
"That's impressive, Vance."
Steven held up a thumb and praised him.
"Naturally. Though it was only a small problem."
Vance waved it off. Anyone with the standing of an Advanced Breeder could have dealt with a thing like that. It was not difficult.
For a Lileep to catch Steven's eye at all, it was plainly no ordinary specimen — its aptitude already stood as high as Near-Champion. Raised properly, it would be a leading fighter of his one day.
"Thank you for it."
"Don't mention it. Call it my fare for the passage."
"Ha ha ha, that won't do at all. Come on, come and look over a few of my treasures."
Steven waved him along and brought Vance to a collection room. Inside it were all manner of rare and curious stones, the greater part of the treasures there being of the stone kind.
"A rich man's son, and no mistake. There's only one word for a collection like this. Lavish."
Vance looked round the room and put his thumb up.
This Steven had no great hobbies. No taste for women, no hunger for power — only a passion for collecting precious stones of every kind, and for the sake of those stones he ran all over the world gathering them.
"These are all from my travels through the different regions. They cost me no small amount of time."
Steven said it with a good deal of satisfaction. Many of the pieces in the collection he had panned for over long stretches in wild mineral veins before he got them.