With this Suicune in his hands he had his material, and there would be plenty to study.
Whatever else it was, it was something with a Legendary Pokémon attached to it, and that had value.
The Suicune had fallen into his hands and so had its Trainer, taken alive; once the man was hauled back, some key information could be got out of him.
"I'll take this Suicune, then. I'll do a little research on it when we're back."
Blaine put the Poké Ball away. Nobody, Vance included, was going to object. They had coasted through the whole thing; it was Blaine who had done the fighting.
"Ha. If I work it out when we get back, Team Rocket may have the technique for ourselves — and then we might even get you a Legendary of your own to play with, Branch Chief Vance."
Blaine laughed loudly. You could see he was in high spirits.
"Much obliged, then. Make sure it's a good strong one. I won't be impressed by anything second-rate."
Vance laughed along with him, and added one line silently to himself: a Mewtwo would do nicely.
For the moment it was probably only theory, but Vance knew that if the story ran the way it was supposed to, Team Rocket would still end up making a Mewtwo.
Mewtwo, that man-made Legendary, came close in real terms to the level of a super-Legendary, extraordinarily powerful. That was the true summit of Pokémon science, god-making in earnest.
Not like the Godbeast Gang, who could only turn out stripped-down Legendaries with a fraction of the real power, and never anything that went beyond it.
"A Legendary. I'd like one too. Master Blaine, why don't you ask me?"
Rufus, standing in the crowd, watched Vance enviously and said it silently to himself.
He did not have Vance's long list of requirements. Something lesser would do — that Suicune they had run into the other day, for instance, would be perfectly acceptable.
Anything else would be acceptable as well. He was not fussy.
They had been Rocket recruits in the same intake. How had the gap got so wide?
With the Suicune in hand and the man taken, the party left. It was some time before anyone came to probe the place.
"Team Leader, Team Leader — clear signs of a battle here, no personnel present."
So the man reported, and only then did Delaney and his party hurry up.
"Good grief. Thank heaven we kept out of it."
Looking at ground that had been turned upside down, Delaney drew a deep breath. Even the traces of power left behind were enough to make his heart jump.
"Secure the area. Don't disturb the scene."
Delaney shouted it. That was the idea, at any rate; the work still had to be done.
"There doesn't look like there's much left to disturb."
Wycliffe muttered it. Looking at the broken ground, ploughed over and over again by the look of it, there seemed to be no need to secure anything; it had already been wrecked past recognition.
"What was that, Wycliffe? Have you no work ethic at all?"
"No, no. Nothing."
The party made one cursory search and then withdrew. There was genuinely nothing to find.
Elsewhere, Vance was seeing Blaine and his people off. With the Suicune and a great mass of data in hand, the man could not wait to get back and start experimenting.
Dark City's laboratory facilities, as far as Blaine was concerned, were far too crude.
"If there's any movement from the Godbeast Gang, let me know. And watch yourself — don't let them draw you into a trap."
Blaine clapped Vance on the shoulder. He thought a great deal of this junior of his in Team Rocket, especially since the young man had helped him land a Suicune — a bit of a stretch, perhaps, but Vance had had something to do with it.
"I'm very fond of my own life."
Vance answered with a smile.
"Ha."
Blaine laughed out loud at that and sprang onto his Charizard's back.
Someone stepped out from behind him: Rufus.
"Thank you for the rescue this time. Thank you very much."
Rufus came up in front of him, thanked him, and bowed.
There had been no chance before. When he first reached the base Vance was nowhere to be seen, and once Vance did turn up the operation was already running, and after that he was always in the company of his own superior, and his superior's superior, so there was never an opening.
"Don't mention it."
Vance said it with a light laugh and stepped forward to raise him up. He had run into the man any number of times by now, and his impression of him was a good one; there was a toughness to him, something of the man who will not stay down.
He was curious, too, how far this pyramid-scheme virtuoso from his own intake would get.
He still remembered the performance the man had put on back at Trial Island, and wondered whether those few hangers-on of his were still around.
Having seen Blaine and the rest off, Vance went to an empty training room and let his Pokémon out.
The presence about the Gyarados had been climbing steadily and had reached a bottleneck.
By his reckoning it was about time for the Gyarados to break through to Gym-class and become the second Gym-class Pokémon on the team.
Before him, the Slaking had broken through in the middle of a fight, and had since gone as far as level 52.
Naturally the Gyarados meant to follow close behind and make Gym-class as well.
In that department the Gyarados yielded to nobody.
He had Mega Evolution to fall back on, true, but the Slaking was no weakling either; even against him in his Mega form, the gap would probably not be large.
A dim blue Water-type power was drawn in around the Gyarados, and Flying and Dark power came surging in with it.
"Roar, roar—"
The Gyarados grew livelier and livelier, thrashing about in the middle of all that energy.
At one particular second the bottleneck broke open, and he passed into Gym-class fairly easily.
He had known Gym-class power intimately while Mega Evolved, so there was none of that earlier unfamiliarity with the strength of the next tier up.
So he, the Gyarados, had come this far as well. Roar, roar.
The power of Mega Evolution was strong, but it was only temporary. This was his own.
The Gyarados came over to Vance to show off the strength he had just gained.
"Excellent."
Vance held up a thumb and praised him.
"Roar, roar—"
Only then was the Gyarados satisfied. That was the feeling he wanted.
It was not the first time either; every word of praise from Vance lifted him and gave him something to work for.
"Honestly."
Vance shook his head and laughed in spite of himself.
The Slaking opened his eyes lazily too, glanced at the Gyarados, said "Childish" under his breath, rolled over and went back to sleep.
Honestly. What was so special about it? It was one compliment. Honestly.
Although, if Vance were to pay him a compliment, he would be very pleased as well.
Although the Slaking did not consider that childish of himself, but rather a sort of... how to put it, a sort of recognition from one's Trainer.
"Blaziken—"
The Blaziken and the others offered their congratulations to their big brother the Gyarados. Then they went off to train, each on his own; they were not far from Gym-class themselves, and they had to get a move on.
The Zweilous especially: watching the Gyarados break through and feeling the rhythm of the power, he had a faint sense that he was about to break through too.
He was a prodigy among dragons, after all. He would find a chance and try breaking through on his own, and if that did not work he could always go to his Trainer.
He was bound to have a way.
That was how the Zweilous saw it, full of confidence in what Vance could do.
And so the Pokémon went on drilling along the training routes Vance had laid out for them.