For days on end Vance hunted through that country, with a good deal to show for it, working steadily and keeping clear of danger.
He had just finished a battle and was clearing the ground as usual.
"Strange." Vance murmured it. Something felt off; he kept having a faint sense of being watched.
"Am I under too much strain, or is it the place?"
He put his power out to search and found no target; even the Viridian Power picked up no living presence nearby.
He looked round once more and felt carefully, and still came up with nothing, so he let it go.
Green light glimmered over him, a dense life-force surfaced, was drawn along and settled onto the Blaziken to heal him.
"Blaziken—"
The Blaziken crowed comfortably. Being healed by the Viridian Power was like sitting somewhere warm and easy, with fine threads of life-force soaking into his body together and nourishing it.
The uses of the Viridian Power were endless, among them the raising of aptitude.
Vance often used it to mend and restore his Pokémon's bodies, backing it with food and other things, and raised their aptitude that way.
So far the results had been good.
"All right. Time to eat."
Having healed the Blaziken, Vance took pile after pile of food out of his storage space, and a little simple combining made it tastier still.
"Blaziken, blaziken—"
The Blaziken ate very happily. He liked the food his Trainer made; it suited his taste.
The Slaking woke out of his sleep as well, took food in both hands and put it in his mouth, eyes narrowing with enjoyment.
The others were the same.
Vance sat among them with his back against a tree, holding his own food and eating it slowly, and then smiled at his Pokémon as they ate.
"It smells so good, Grandpa Alakazam. That stuff smells so good."
In the dark, wrapped in layer upon layer of power, the two Pokémon stood, and the Ralts was shaking the Alakazam's hand as she said it.
The smell drifting off the food Vance had produced had the Ralts thoroughly envious.
"It does."
The aged Alakazam nodded too, though it could not make Pokémon food that smelled like that.
The Ralts knew better than to push; seeing the Alakazam like that, she said nothing more.
"We'll see. Have some Berries for now. They're sweet as well."
A bright red Berry appeared in the Alakazam's hand, and it passed it to the Ralts.
"Mm-hm."
The Ralts took it and bit into it, her eyes narrowing to crescents. Very sweet.
"This child."
The Alakazam stroked her forehead, then looked back at Vance and his Pokémon, its eyes deep and unreadable.
It had been watching for days now, and still could not be sure.
Well. They would see.
Who would have thought that at this age it would still be tangled up in trouble.
The Alakazam sighed and looked with pity at the Ralts, so happily eating. By the time it had got there it was already too late; all it could do was take the little one, hidden in the dark, and leave that place.
Come to that, the little thing was pitiful, and so small still.
"Grandpa Alakazam, why are you looking at me? Is there something on my face?"
The Ralts sucked at the Berry, her eyes wide and clear as water.
"No. Our Ralts is as pretty as ever. How could there be anything on your face?"
The Alakazam said it with a chuckle, and then its expression changed as a fierce pain came from its belly, where there was a wound, and the power left behind in it kept the wound from closing.
"What is it, Grandpa Alakazam? Are you not feeling well?"
"It's... it's nothing."
Because its formidable power screened them, Vance, not far off, had no idea that in some concealed corner there were two Pokémon watching him.
The Blaziken kept guard while the rest of the Pokémon rested, and Vance leaned against the Gyarados's slightly cool hide and dropped into meditation, keeping an eye on his surroundings all the while.
He told the Blaziken to relax, since he was there, but the Blaziken insisted on standing watch, so he let him be.
After an hour or so of rest they went back to the fighting tour they had been on.
The Blaziken still took the front, with the Gyarados and the rest behind.
Even now they had not met an Elite-Four-class opponent, which showed that Elite-Four-class was not to be found everywhere.
Elite-Four-class meant high fighting strength, and they were not easy to find; those tied down in a place like this were no different.
Since setting foot in this area, the strongest thing they had met was Gym-class.
"As things stand, with the strength the Gyarados and the others have, if they all went in at once they could put up a fight even without me."
Vance turned it over. He had not been satisfied with how that hard fight against the Suicune had ended.
The whole team badly hurt and himself wounded — that was not a real victory.
...............
"Damn it. Dark City has been badly mauled as well. Is this retaliation?"
In the same wide, bleak mountains, the men of the Godbeast Gang sat in a circle, talking things over.
Since coming to Kanto they had, in the end, been unable to hold down Team Rocket, the snake that knew this ground.
Many of their earlier operations had been answered, bases had fallen, a number of their people had been lost with them, and even their leader, who had gone to Team Rocket's headquarters to test their strength a little, had been badly hurt.
Among the losses were more than a few Godbeast Envoys of their Sacred Order.
"There's no need to rush. Leave it as it is. And there is good news for the moment: our techniques have made a greater breakthrough, and we can begin research at a higher tier."
At the head of the conference table sat a figure in black robes, with a black mask over the face that left only a pair of deep-set eyes.
All ten or so who attended the meeting were dressed the same way, told apart by their masks and by a sign of some kind on their black robes.
"Deeper research? Grand Elder, you mean??"
One of them raised the question, looking at the figure at the head of the table.
"Darkrai!"
The answer came plain and short.
"Darkrai, of all things!"
"Truly? Then that is excellent."
The others below broke into talk. This was good news indeed. Now that the technique had broken through, a Darkrai was already in development; after that they could break through again and study others — Rayquaza, Lugia, Dialga, Palkia.........
They felt more confident than ever about the Sacred Order's future.
The road was the right one after all. Once they had the power of the Legendaries in hand, the world would in the end be theirs to rule!
"And the part of the data Team Rocket took — what about that?"
Another of them raised that question.
"Leave it for now. I doubt they will get anything out of it. Avoid conflict with them for the moment and work at it slowly. And the taking in of members is to go on at the same time — it bears on the whole plan for the Order's growth."
The one they called Grand Elder said it in a full, carrying voice.
"Yes, Grand Elder."
When the meeting ended the Grand Elder called out a Moltres with a terrifying presence, mounted it, and flew off into the distance.
Through those wide, bleak mountains, where people seldom went, he soon came to a base.
The moment he landed he felt a wave of discomfort, and the Moltres under him was uneasy as well; there was something ahead of it that it feared.
The place had once been a paradise of birdsong and flowers and thick green grass; now, with a certain power present in it, it looked desolate. The Pokémon that had lived here had died or fled, and the place lay under a darkness that no longer suited them.
Threads of black power drifted between earth and sky, gloomy and oppressive.
Inside the base he looked at the black mass drinking in all that energy. There was already a consciousness inside it.
Sensing that he had come, a pale blue eye opened in that orb of black light and glanced at him, and a formless power swept out; a Poké Ball on his belt stirred, and then the power was shut off.
Seeing that it had no effect, the eye sank out of sight.
"How far along are we?"
Seven or eight researchers had come in behind him.
"In answer to the Grand Elder, we have reached 51 per cent. It will take some time yet."
A researcher in a white coat beside him stepped out to say it.
"Mm. You have worked hard. When the Order's great work is accomplished, what you have given will not be forgotten."
"We understand. It is nothing, truly; we are satisfied as it is. We never thought that one day, by our own strength, we would be able to make a Legendary."
The man's eyes burned as he looked at the Darkrai being gestated there.
As though displeased, the pale blue eye appeared again, and with nothing more than a glare the man stood frozen where he was, his body rigid, and fell backwards; and in that same instant several Pokémon appeared between them and used their moves to seal the thing's power off.
The people behind hurried forward to hold him up, and after some treatment he came faintly awake.
"Forgive the display."
There was terror in the man's eyes. In that brief moment he had lived through a nightmare. Clearly the containment equipment and the guard force would have to be strengthened.
Otherwise, when this Darkrai came into the world, people like them would be in danger.
He put that to the Grand Elder as well.
"Naturally. You are the treasures of the Sacred Order, and the Order will certainly keep you safe."
"Thank you, Grand Elder."
The men were quite moved to be shown such respect.