"Since you took a hand in this, you ought to have been ready for this as well. And you did no small share of the work yourself."
"Nnngh... mercy. Please."
"Off you go. Get yourself born into a better lot next time, and stay out of things like this."
With that, Vance sent Squad Leader Gideon on his way.
If you went out into that kind of life, and a Team Rocket life on top of it, you had to be ready to die. If you dared do a thing, you had to be ready to answer for it.
It came back to the same thing: they should have thought of that earlier.
Vance was no gentler with the rest. He sent every one of them on his way as well.
They were all on the list, and they had all taken part in the operation that day, so Vance let none of them go; he sent them on their way one after another.
When it was done he left, and behind him lay the bodies and the wreckage of the place.
Late that night, in a small town outside Celadon City, there was a sudden explosion, and flames went up into the sky.
Vance came walking slowly out in front of the fire, his face empty. A few more of them had been dealt with.
"Only you left."
Vance looked at the photograph of Draven and smiled coldly.
Of all those who had taken part that day, he was the last one. As for the other squads under him, Vance could not be bothered with them; as long as they had had no hand in trying to kill him, he let them alone.
And though he had killed a good many Team Rocket members, Branch Chief Bram had turned a blind eye and said nothing at all.
He had even sent Vance a handsome gift, to show that he had no wish to make an enemy of him, and to apologise for the words he had used that day.
Once Vance had shown what he could do, the Branch Chief had lost his nerve after all. He had given up his own men and paid a handsome gift on top of it.
The Aerodactyl carried Vance to a bare hilltop, where somebody was already waiting.
He looked closer. It was Draven.
It was Draven, in fact, who had made contact with Vance, wanting it settled in one clean fight.
A few days had passed and he had grown very thin. He was decently dressed now, and stood waiting quietly for Vance to arrive.
Over those days it was not that he had not thought of other ways out — leaving Celadon City, making a life somewhere else, this measure and that — but none of them would serve.
Because his Starmie had told him there was a faint psychic mark on him. There was no running.
His Starmie was only Elite in strength and could not break the mark. Nothing Gym-class could break it either.
Only an Elite-Four-class being might manage it.
And that was out of his reach.
If he had had an Elite-Four-class Psychic-type Pokémon he would not have been afraid of Vance at all.
Which was why he stood here today. He had come here to die.
Because he could not run, and he could not win.
"You really won't go? There's still time."
Draven said it to nobody in particular, and the Pokémon on his belt stirred.
"All right. Together, then."
He had not failed altogether, then. At the end there were still partners beside him. It was not so wretched as it might have been.
"Division Commander Draven. Coming out to meet me — that is a rare thing. I thought you'd sit in that base of yours forever."
Vance landed and gave a short laugh.
"Don't. Vance, it has come this far, and I have nothing more to say. Let it be settled tonight. Whatever the outcome, it ends with me. Nothing afterwards. What do you say."
Draven said it loudly. Vance knew what he meant by afterwards — his wife and children, of course.
"Save your breath."
Vance did not wait. He called out the Gyarados and the rest, and they closed in.
Six Pokémon appeared around Draven. The strongest was the level 56 Blastoise, and after it the level 53 Steelix; the other four were all Elite.
"Vance!! I'm begging you. Whatever happens tonight, let there be nothing afterwards. Please."
Vance went on paying no attention and signalled his Pokémon forward.
"Roar, roar—"
The Gyarados threw up a wave of water and went in first, with the Steelix for its target.
The Slaking Teleported, arrived in front of the Blastoise and brought a fist round into it with a huge "Thud—". The Blastoise's whole body left the ground.
In mid-air the Blastoise's two cannons turned and fired off two Hydro Pump blasts.
A wall of light appeared in front of the Slaking and stopped the attack.
The Blastoise had not yet come down when the Zweilous was waiting for it, draped in dragon-shaped energy, sweeping up from below.
"Blastoise, Skull Bash!"
Draven reacted fast; at the critical moment the training of a Gym-class Trainer brought him back to himself and he began directing his Pokémon.
On the other side the Steelix split the wave with its huge tail and drove the Gyarados back with a Dragon Breath, only to be caught unprepared by a diving Aerodactyl.
Having landed the blow, the Aerodactyl climbed away again, watching for its next chance, ranging over the field and supporting each of the others, helping the Blaziken against the four Elite Pokémon.
The Blaziken was only Advanced. Fighting a rank above itself, one was manageable and two was still all right, if hard going, but four was beyond it. Fortunately it had the Aerodactyl in support and the Zweilous helping out, and the line held.
Watching his own Pokémon held down by a group weaker than they were, Draven felt entirely powerless. Even the man's Pokémon were monstrous.
Let alone the real monster, who had not yet raised a hand. He was already out of ideas.
The space in front of him rippled, Vance's figure Teleported in, and in the shock of energy that came with it Draven felt the threat of death.
"Arbok—"
At that moment an Arbok put itself in front of Draven.
"Arbok!"
Seeing the Arbok standing in front of him, Draven's eyes went wet.
The Arbok was his first Pokémon, the one he had been given when he joined Team Rocket.
Only, as he had grown stronger, the Arbok had not kept pace with him, and he had tilted his resources gradually toward the others and let it go somewhat neglected — the Blastoise and the Steelix, for instance.
Now that thin body was planted in front of him, facing a Gym-class power like Vance without the least trace of fear.
The Arbok had only just stepped into the Elite rank. Draven felt a pang of regret now for having neglected his first Pokémon.
"Arbok—"
The Arbok turned its head and called out, and after one long look at him it threw itself at Vance like a moth into a flame.
What the cry meant was: run.
"Out of the way."
Vance swept a hand, and the Arbok went flying and slammed down to one side.
He admired what the Arbok had done, in a way, but only in a way. It was not going to make him let anybody off.
"Rumble, rumble—"
The ground shook. The Steelix bored down into it, and then it ran.
Yes. It ran.
It could not hold up under the Gyarados's assault. It had lasted a long while, and in the end it ran.
If it fought on it would die there, and it reckoned that what it had done was enough.
"Steelix!"
The Steelix running at that moment hit Draven hard; the instant it was gone, the whole weight of the fight came down on the Blastoise.
Against the Slaking the Blastoise had been holding on grimly, carried by its superb defence.
Now, with the Steelix gone and the Gyarados and the others on it as well, it was more helpless still.