The Godbeast Gang inside Dark City had now taken a devastating blow, and whatever strength was left to them could do nothing for the moment.
The Godbeast Gang was a power that had appeared out of nowhere, and it had no roots in Kanto; when it came to reinforcements, they were simply no match for Team Rocket.
As for the League, beyond the forces stationed in Dark City, the affair might bring a few of the League's strong ones out to investigate.
There was no need to investigate the sites themselves; even if they did, there would be nothing to find.
Once the investigation was over they would go home. As a rule they did not stay in a small place like Dark City. Elite-Four-class and above all had posts of their own, and the League was not going to leave them in a city with no strategic value.
The strong were busy people. Either they held a post somewhere or, like Lance of the Dragon Clan, they ran all over the map striking at the criminal powers in the dark.
So as long as nobody stuck his head up at this particular moment there would be no trouble, and as it happened the period ahead was to be spent quietly building the base and placing personnel, with no operations planned.
Meanwhile things were very lively at Dark City's municipal bureau, where a commendation ceremony was under way.
And the man of the hour was Delaney.
"Delaney is not only an outstanding administrator, his resolve against crime is firmer still. In this operation he took down five strongholds, arrested more than a hundred wrongdoers and seized a quantity of equipment. This is a great victory, a great, great victory, a real blow struck against the rise of evil and a contribution to the stability of the League!!"
The old Mayor delivered the speech from the front with great passion, while down below Delaney stood in a state of blank confusion, and inside the confusion a sneaking delight.
Who would have thought it — the thing he had filed had actually gone through?
More absurd still, his record had been improved upon. He did not remember doing any of that.
More than a hundred arrests? Nothing of the sort had happened.
Meeting the look the old Mayor sent him, Delaney took the point and nodded. What was not his was now his.
The old Mayor was capable enough, and he was clearly working this hard because he did not want his last years tarnished. Still, Delaney would take the credit.
Everyone present was pleased for Delaney — except Wycliffe and the men of his faction, whose faces were rather sour.
After all that effort, not only had they failed to get him, but he had picked the fruit off their tree. It was infuriating.
"Thank you, Wycliffe. I'll thank you properly in due course." Delaney said it darkly in his ear, exactly as the man had done to him before.
Delaney was already thinking that once he had power he would find an opportunity to pack this scheming old devil off somewhere remote to farm.
That would teach him to come after him.
Then, beaming, he walked forward and accepted his commendation in front of his colleagues and the several strong League figures who had come in support, taking the badge the old Mayor held out and pinning it on.
This round was in the bag.
Delaney clenched his fist. His career was looking very fine indeed.
"This round's in the bag. The Zweilous will have no trouble."
On an open stretch of wild country, the Zweilous was breaking through.
It went smoothly; he passed into Gym-class with nothing that could be called a bottleneck at all, and by the look of him more easily than the Gyarados had.
After the Gyarados, the Zweilous had broken through as well and become the team's third Gym-class Pokémon, which left the Aerodactyl so envious it very nearly drooled.
Such fast progress. In the blink of an eye they had passed it, and it the old hand of the group.
It was only level 48, and gaining a single level had felt fast to it; but next to teammates with that kind of talent, it was behind.
It occurred to the Aerodactyl that once the Zweilous evolved, he would be able to fly.
In which case, would its own job be taken over as well??
It rather seemed it would.
So the Aerodactyl grew anxious again, found itself a shady spot, covered its face with a wing and thought about the meaning of a dragon's life.
The strongest on the team, by energy level, was the Slaking at 52, then the Gyarados and the Zweilous both at 51, the Aerodactyl at 48 and the Blaziken at 43.
Vance had seen the state the Aerodactyl was in, and he had already made a plan for it.
"Still half to go. Hold on a little longer, Aerodactyl. Your turn will come soon enough."
Vance glanced at the Battle Points on the system panel. He had been saving for a while now, and he was still half short.
The Battle Points the system showed came to a little over five thousand.
The Aerodactyl's Mega Stone up there cost 10,000 Battle Points, two thousand more than the eight-thousand ones.
At around five thousand Battle Points, there was still a good deal of work to do.
Still, the Aerodactyl was a Pokémon of firm character. Without any coaxing from Vance it lay on the ground being miserable for a few minutes, then picked itself up again and pulled itself together.
A bout of the blues now and then was only natural for a Pokémon. Even humans had them.
"Come on. Let's move."
Vance called it out, walking ahead.
He had "outsourced" the branch's business, which was why he was out in the field again.
As for building the base, he handled only the broad direction and left the rest for his subordinates to sweat over.
If he did everything himself, what was the point of having subordinates?
He was a Branch Chief, a Gym-class power, a superior officer. Not a nanny.
And his performance since taking the post would satisfy Giovanni, he thought.
The Godbeast Gang had been badly mauled, just as Team Rocket had been. Much of the credit was Blaine's, but it had happened in Dark City, which made it his business as well.
Even if Blaine's later research turned something up, that would be partly down to him too; when the credit was counted, a share of it was his.
Perhaps because they were out in the wild, the Aerodactyl and the rest were in high spirits.
The Aerodactyl flew overhead, the Blaziken sprang from one tall tree to the next, and the Zweilous went pelting along below.
The Gyarados, given his size, did no running; and as for the Slaking, he stayed lying in his Poké Ball with the air of a creature at odds with nobody.
With their strength grown this far, there were fewer Pokémon left worth battling.
It was not as it had been, when you could run into one the moment you set foot outside.
Now they had to go deeper and further out into the wilds to find opponents.
They walked on like that for over an hour without meeting a single Pokémon genuinely worth raising a hand against.
A few that could not see what was in front of them did try their luck, and were dealt with by the Blaziken, the weakest of the team, for a total of a hundred-odd Battle Points.
One step closer to trading for the Aerodactyl's Mega Stone.
After thinking it over Vance mounted the Aerodactyl and pushed further into the wilds, flying in among range after range of peaks.
Off to that country, and a new adventure.
They had wandered the outer reaches long enough, and the odds of meeting anything were better further in, so Vance had decided to take the risk. With the fighting strength he and his Pokémon now had, it was enough; they had earned the right to go further out and take a look.