Over the boundless sea, the Aerodactyl flew on above the water.
There was a certain resignation on Vance's face. He had thought he would get back to the Kanto region without trouble, and here he was having to rely on himself after all.
It was not so bad this time, though. He had a fair idea of where he was, and would not be flying about in all directions like a headless fly the way he had before.
Vance sighed to himself over the run his luck had been having lately — a man goes out on a trip and this is what he meets with. At least his own life had not been in danger.
For the many people on that plane, though, there was no telling. In conditions like those, who could say how many would come out of it alive.
Even with the official rescue force on the scene, they would not save many.
The journey itself passed without incident, mercifully, and went smoothly enough; toward evening he made out the outline of a city in the distance.
It was Porta Vista.
He had set out from this very place, and now, coming back, it was at this same city that he made landfall.
A neat beginning and end to it, you might say.
With so many days gone by, that battle which had looked like an Elite-Four-class affair had gone quiet.
The official side had investigated, turned up nothing, and taken it no further.
Luckily the fighting had been in an out-of-the-way spot and had done no serious harm, so the investigators had put the lid on it, called it Team Rocket business and closed the case.
The night was well on. Vance rested up for one night in Porta Vista, and the next day took the train for Celadon City; in the afternoon he walked out of Celadon City's railway station.
"Back at last."
Vance narrowed his eyes and looked idly around him.
Then he took a cab out to the Pokémon Cottage, and walked straight in.
"Boss, you're back."
He had barely stepped inside before one of the shop assistants came to meet him.
"Mm, I'm back. Where are Ambrose and Emery?"
"In the manager's office."
the assistant answered.
"Good. Good, good, good. I'll put your wages up next month."
With that Vance went on into the back, opened the door and stepped into the room.
"Boss, you're all right!! That's wonderful."
Inside, Ambrose was going through some papers. Sensing someone come in, he looked up to find it was Vance, and got straight out of his seat to meet him, thoroughly worked up.
"Mm. I'm fine."
Vance answered with a slight laugh, and then sat down on the sofa.
"I knew it, boss — you were born lucky, you were bound to come through."
Ambrose said it with a smile, and then went out to the doorway and looked carefully around.
He picked up his phone, got word to Emery with the good news, and then shut the door.
Seeing him go about it so gingerly made Vance laugh, and laughing he said, "Fatty, what are you playing at?"
"Boss, did you cover your tracks? Don't let them find you. Better still, stay here for the time being — they came by a while back, so they won't be round again for a bit."
Ambrose meant it as advice. He was delighted enough to see Vance safe, but then he thought of Draven and his crowd and the fierce way they had come in the other day — that could mean nothing good, and they were probably still looking.
And there was that short, heavy man with the vicious face; Ambrose had looked into him since, and he was Wilder's uncle, which surely meant he had come with no good intentions either.
"Maybe you don't know yet, boss. A while back a crowd of them came here and took Emery and me in hand. It was you they were asking about — I expect they mean to come after you. We were being held at the time, we couldn't reach you, and we were both worried sick over you. Stay here a while, and don't go wandering about."
Looking at the state of him, and hearing him out, Vance finally understood: Ambrose thought he was still being hunted, and that his position was a very dangerous one.
"Find a moment and get out of Celadon City, boss. And don't tell either of us where you're going. Oh — there's money in the shop as well, take that with you, and once you're a Gym-class fighter, then..."
"No need," Vance cut in.
"Eh? How can there be no need? It's all right, boss, just take the money. Grow strong quickly — there really are people out to do you harm."
Ambrose went on talking, supposing the interruption had been about the money and that side of it.
"What I mean is, I don't need to leave."
"What do you mean? You don't need to leave? Boss, have you got hold of the Division Commander? Is he willing to stand up for you?"
Ambrose asked it in a rush the moment he heard.
"No. I haven't been in touch with the Division Commander."
"Ah — then your Pokémon, have they broken through to Gym-class?"
"Not yet."
"Ah, then it's still very dangerous. Do you mean to go back to the base? Inside the base they might not dare move on you directly, but there'd be no end of trouble made for you, and you'd be penned in there till it finished you. The way I see it you still have to leave Celadon City and build yourself up somewhere else. Didn't the Division Commander give you leave to arrange your own posting? That's your chance to get out."
Ambrose was still anxious. He had thought some miracle might have happened, and it had not; this boss of his, he supposed, still did not grasp how serious the thing was.
The man out to get him was a Division Commander, a Gym-class fighter. And then there was the other one — no telling what he could do, but anyone walking about in a Division Commander's company was probably Gym-class as well.
Marked by two Gym-class fighters — was that not serious enough? Shut up inside the base was more dangerous still; sooner or later something would happen.
Seeing the concern in his face, Vance stopped stringing him along and said plainly, "Set your mind at rest. I may not have a Pokémon that has broken through to Gym-class, but I don't think much of Gym-class Pokémon either."
"Ah — don't tell me it was you who broke through?"
Ambrose's eyes lit up. He had remembered that Vance was a Psychic. As calm as that about it — had the man's own strength broken through?
"Mm, near enough. The point is, I could crush anything Gym-class between my fingers. It isn't me who should be in a hurry, it's them."
Vance said it with a chill in his voice, and his eyes were full of killing intent.
"God. That's beyond belief."
Hearing that Vance had broken through, a look of disbelief came over Ambrose's face. His boss was about the same age as he was, surely — and he had broken through to Gym-class?
He drew his breath in through his teeth. Terrifying.
After the shock came wild delight; Ambrose was happy for him.
With that breakthrough of his, this crisis hardly counted as a crisis at all.
"As for Grady, I've dealt with him too. There was an accident while I was doing it, which held me up."
Vance said it lightly, and told him how he had settled with Grady.
"Magnificent, boss."
Ambrose stuck up a thumb and exclaimed it.
That was a Gym-class fighter, and he had been no match for his own boss.
"Mm. So you needn't worry. I've come back to Celadon City to settle this business, and to look in on the two of you while I'm about it. You both got caught up in it through me."
"Ah, we were the useless ones — no help to you, and holding you back besides. The reason they knew where you were this time is that they got it out of me."
Saying it, Ambrose looked rather ashamed.
"Neither of you can be blamed for that."
Vance made it clear he understood. It was not their fault; they had not done it of their own will or with intent.
Of their own will it would have been betrayal, and he would not have been gentle about it. But it had not been.
That they were alive at all was doing well.