"Fearow—"
At that same moment an Elite Fearow took its chance, beat its wings and flew off elsewhere.
It ran too. It had taken this for a hard fight and had not expected a fight to the death, so after holding on a long while it withdrew.
"Blaziken—"
One Brave Bird from the Blaziken put the Starmie down, and with that every one of the Elite Pokémon had been beaten.
On the other side, the Arbok was batted away again and again, and after the last time it could not get up.
"Arbok—"
"Worry about yourself."
Vance took Draven by the throat and lifted him, his voice cold.
"Hgh— hgh— I still have something to say. Last words. Let me say them. I'm begging you, let me say them."
Draven struggled in the grip.
"Everything I own is here. The codes for those cards are stuck on them. I ask one thing: my wife and children are innocent, they knew nothing about any of it — leave them out of it, will you? And these partners of mine, don't kill them. Give them a chance to live. Sell them off for breeding stock, anything."
At the very last Draven did not beg for himself. This was what he spent his words on.
"That depends on my mood."
Vance gave no other answer. He gathered his power, and Draven's body stopped struggling at once; the light was going out of his eyes.
There seemed still to be a plea in them, and since it got no answer from Vance, he died without closing them.
So this Team Rocket Division Commander died at Vance's hands after all.
Perhaps it had never occurred to him that one day he would die at the hands of a Gym-class Psychic.
It had begun because he had not known how deep the water was, and had helped a friend go and kill an "Advanced Trainer".
Once he became a Gym-class Trainer he had grown proud, and lost the care he used to take.
He had not expected to come to grief over it.
If he could have it over again he would handle things carefully; he would not be so rash.
There was no having it over again.
His awareness sank into the dark. He was dead.
Vance looked coldly at the body he had become, his face empty.
"So that's the end of it. And I kill people so smoothly now. It's what the world here makes of a man, in the end."
Vance murmured it, then tidied the scene. Everything Draven owned he took; the Blastoise and the other Pokémon he drew into their Poké Balls and locked shut.
He would find a chance to move them on the black market.
A living Pokémon was worth more than a dead one.
The Blastoise especially — a starter, and one that had broken through to Gym-class, with an aptitude not many had. It was worth a great deal.
Then he burned Draven's body, so that nothing of him would be left lying there forever.
"Roar, roar—"
With the fight over, the Aerodactyl took Vance on its back and flew toward the city.
The next day Bram looked over the list, which showed the people Vance had killed, and learned from it that Draven was dead as well.
"The boy has a hard heart. Hard and ruthless. Not one of the people involved got away."
Bram said it quietly, his face grave.
"Still, it could be worse. He knows where the line is. He went after the ones who wronged him and nobody else. It's a nuisance, but not one I can't handle."
Apart from killing everyone who had taken part in the attempt on him, Vance had left the other squads under Draven alone.
Even though several of them had been on decent terms with Draven.
Vance was petty; he paid back every slight, you might say. But he kept his debts straight, and he was not a madman who would kill anybody at all.
That was his line. Vance had drawn a line for himself, and he would not cross it.
And what he had done frightened the Celadon branch into silence. Every Team Rocket member in it knew the branch now had a hard man in it, ruthless, a man who paid back every slight.
Whether they knew Vance or not, they were afraid of him.
He had killed a Division Commander who was a Gym-class power as easily as saying the word, and even the Branch Chief had not dared say anything, which left them all thinking that this "man" came from somewhere, and probably had powerful backing.
The good of it was that this hard man was hard and not mad. As long as they did not provoke him, they ought to be all right.
A few more days passed, and Bram again invited the two of them, Vance and Ambrose, out to dinner.
At the table the Elite-Four-class man was modest, without the airs and the pride he had shown before.
"Celadon City really isn't a bad place, you know, and it's your home town besides. Won't you think it over?"
Bram said it with a chuckle, trying to keep Vance there.
"No need. I've already put in for it. I'll be leaving for headquarters in a few days." Vance shook his head as he answered.
"The fault was mine. I didn't run the place well."
Bram added it by way of apology.
"Mm. I settled it myself. It's over and done with."
"Ha, ha, ha. Over and done with, yes. Come — a cup to you both. May you rise step by step."
Hearing that it was over and done with pleased Bram very much. He filled all three cups and raised his own.
Over was good. The good of it was that he had not actually done anything; being able to let it be over was enough.
In truth, with an enemy like that made, a man could not sleep well.
Fortunately, it was all over.
Vance said nothing about it either. Since the man had backed down, he could not be bothered to hold it against him.
It was not softness. It simply was not worth it.
"A pity Sylas isn't here. If he were, he could have joined us."
"Mm. A pity."
Vance mentioned it in passing. He thought well of Sylas, the Division Commander who had looked after him.
..................
"Ha, ha, ha. That went well today. Even an Elite-Four-class man talking soft and friendly — and all thanks to you, boss."
The three of them came out of the hotel, and Ambrose laughed as he said it, feeling better than he ever had. An Elite-Four-class man who normally looked down his nose at everyone, and modest like that.
He knew, though, that they had been treated so because of Vance. If he had come himself it would have been unthinkable.
He would not even have got a meeting.
Enough. That was quite enough for him.
Vance smiled beside him and said nothing.
Once your strength reached a certain point, the people around you were all kind, all polite, all friendly.
You might say that everyone you met was a good person.
Below that point, they haggled over every inch, and there were rules to observe and procedures to follow.
The three of them went back laughing, and in a few days they had their affairs in order.
The work the three of them had been doing was taken over by others from the branch.
And the three of them set out for headquarters.
Team Rocket's headquarters was in Viridian City, in the Kanto region.
Giovanni, the Boss of Team Rocket, was often in Viridian City, and most of the other senior officers were there as well.
Oddly enough, Team Rocket's presence had brought Viridian City an unprecedented boom, and its public order was excellent; trouble was rare.
Viridian City was one of the safest cities in Kanto.
Viridian City lay beside Viridian Forest, and took its name from it.
It was said that anyone born near Viridian Forest had some chance of receiving the forest's blessing, and with it the Viridian Power.
As far as Vance knew, Giovanni, the Boss of Team Rocket, was himself a holder of the Viridian Power.
That had something to do with how strong his Beedrill was.