"Knock, knock, knock—"
"Come in."
The door opened. Inside, Giovanni was leafing through documents, and the Persian beside him opened its drowsy eyes to look at whoever had come in.
"Ah, Matori. What is it?"
Giovanni glanced up. It was his own assistant, Matori.
"Boss, this came in from Vance in Dark City. He is requesting an issue of Pokémon and supplies from headquarters: five starter Pokémon, ten Pokémon of good aptitude, and......"
Matori read it out word by word in a serious tone, setting forth everything Vance had asked for.
"Give him all of it."
Giovanni said it flatly, without the least hesitation.
"And raise the supply allocation to their base by thirty per cent as well."
Giovanni went on, increasing his backing.
"Boss, isn't that rather generous? Dark City is only a small city, and Vance isn't yet twenty."
Matori was somewhat taken aback, and said so.
"If it raises the kind of talent I want, this much is nothing."
Giovanni said it mildly. There were a great many supplies, but as he saw it they divided only into the useful and the useless.
"Understood, sir."
Matori answered, put the list in order, and would have the goods sent on afterwards.
"Is there anything else?"
"There is. Bram, the Branch Chief of Celadon City, has applied for an outside posting, to open up territory in the Hoenn region. It appears to have something to do with Vance."
Matori reported a second matter.
"Approve it, then. Let him go."
"Yes, sir."
Her report made, Matori withdrew from the office, closed the door carefully, and went to pass the orders down.
Once she was back, she meant to look over this Vance's record. Anyone the Boss valued so highly must have something about him.
...............
"Hah! Vance, you've come."
Blaine laughed out loud. He was an expansive man, careless and open in his manner.
Dr. Fuji beside him was a great deal quieter; when Vance came in, the eyes behind the glasses studied him closely.
"Dr. Blaine. And this must be Dr. Fuji — my greetings to you."
Vance walked forward and greeted them both.
"This is Vance, the one the Boss named and told me to keep an eye on. He's no worse than us old men — set him beside the League's Elite Four and he holds up there too."
Blaine kept nothing back and came straight out with it.
"This Suicune came to us because of him, too. Otherwise I'd never have got near one."
"You do me too much credit. I put in no work at all, I only made up the numbers."
Vance said it awkwardly. He really had taken no part; he had only led his team and run into the man.
"And this is?"
Vance pointed at the blue mist inside the glass chamber.
"That is the latest result of the research."
Blaine explained, and stepped forward.
"This is the result?"
Vance came forward too and took a careful look at it.
"From the material I've obtained, and from working it through with Fuji, this may well be the source of a Legendary Pokémon's energy, and the reason that Godbeast Gang of theirs has so many Legendaries."
"And this Suicune of theirs is not whole in its power because the source is insufficient, and because it does not sit well with the newly grown body. That is why it has the form of a Legendary and none of the spirit of one."
Vance nodded, half understanding it. It did seem to be so. He had seen a real Zapdos, and the pressure of that presence had been the whole of the thing.
"And for the same reasons, none of these Legendaries live long. They age very quickly."
Dr. Fuji spoke up from beside them, adding a further point.
"Just so." Blaine nodded as well, then looked at Vance and said, "Which is to say, if you run into that Godbeast Gang in future there's no need to be afraid of them. None of these count as true Legendaries; they're much of a muchness with a pseudo-legendary."
Perhaps it was a difference of standing, but Blaine's words did not sit quite right. To Vance's mind a pseudo-legendary was very strong indeed.
"Then is there a possibility that the technology improves, and the Pokémon they make afterwards come out more complete? And there's the question of the Legendaries themselves — what if they make one stronger than the Suicune? A Darkrai, say, or a Latias, that sort of Pokémon."
The words brought Blaine and Fuji both up short. They looked at each other, and both of them granted the point.
It was possible.
"You're right. It is possible."
Blaine said it heavily. There was no describing how Pokémon science developed; senior doctor of Pokémon science though he was, he could not be certain what changes it would bring.
"By the look of you, do you know something?"
Dr. Fuji pushed his glasses up, the lenses catching a shrewd glint of light. Instinct told him that this Vance in front of him did know something.
Vance was rather taken aback himself. This Dr. Fuji really was clever.
"I know a little of it, only I wouldn't want to state it for certain."
Vance said with a nod.
"Oh? Let's have the details."
Dr. Fuji and Blaine both turned to look at him, motioning him to go on.
"On this last trip out, by a chain of chances, I learned that the Godbeast Gang are operating near Silver Moon Mountain, and from what I was told they are researching the Legendary Darkrai............"
Vance set out what had come of his earlier exchanges with the Alakazam.
He had not meant to speak of it before, because his own strength had not been equal to it. Now he would say it, and let the two of them test the water.
He could not manage it; Blaine and Dr. Fuji were another matter. With the standing those two had, they had more ways open to them than he did.
As for himself, he would not take part. Selling the two of them a valuable piece of news here was enough.
When the two of them had heard him out, both their faces turned grave.
Not that they had any thoughts about Vance's own adventure. Even a Near-Champion Pokémon was nothing much to them, and as for the Ralts, that hardly needed saying; it was of no value at all.
Stand in a different place and you think different thoughts.
What those two were thinking of was how far the Godbeast Gang's progress had come, and whether they could get hold of it.
Far enough along, a great deal of it ran together; if they could get that technology, they might well achieve a breakthrough in their own work and carry the research a long stride further.
"Your news comes at a good moment. If it bears fruit, I'll remember the favour."
Blaine said it in earnest. He was already minded to go and look.
"It's been some days already, so I can't say for certain whether they're still there. And they aren't weak either; they have Near-Champions among them. Whether they have anything stronger than that, I don't know."
Vance explained it once over. That was the whole of what he knew.
"I will." Blaine nodded. He was a Trainer himself, and would of course prepare properly rather than go in blindly.