These past few days the Gyarados had been riding high. That stroke of fortune had lifted him in every respect, and at a single bound he had become the strongest of the team.
He was the first of them to break through to level 56, three levels clear of the Slaking, who had always been ahead of him before. Even the Zweilous, the prodigy of the team, could not match him.
Levels aside, his real fighting strength was nothing to be sneezed at either, and with Mega Evolution and the rest of it in hand the Gyarados had jumped straight to first in the team.
Fortune's wheel comes round, and this time round it had come round to him. Roar, roar. He could not have been happier.
The Slaking, who had led him all this while, was not lying about any longer either. He had gone to Vance and asked for harder training, and was at it now, puffing and blowing.
*Young, aren't you, Slaking. You're growing — but am I not growing too? You want to pass me? Not for a good while yet.*
The Gyarados's eyes hardened and he threw himself into the training as well, grinding at it with everything he had, driving himself higher.
His command of the Water-type power around him came easier by the day. Energy that had once been unruly was intimate with him now, and went wherever he sent it.
His body, scoured by all that energy, grew more formidable as well, and his tail had already reached the Elite-Four-class standard of "infusing energy into the body".
Once the whole of him had been refined that way, he would step into Elite-Four-class without trouble.
Nor was he the only one. The Slaking was doing the same, refining his own frame between bouts of training, working towards what a breakthrough to Elite-Four-class required.
The Gyarados's rise made the whole team fiercer about the grind. Even the Aerodactyl, who had only just come by Mega Evolution and could feel a great breakthrough in him, was training for all he was worth.
*And here I was thinking I might rise up and be the one out in front of the team. Set against that, there's nothing for it but work.*
"Mm-hm."
Vance watched it all with great satisfaction. For his Pokémon to drive themselves like that was a real comfort to him.
Even the Slaking, who had made a career of lying flat, was up and grinding with the rest. The Gyarados was making rather a good "pacesetter", it seemed.
What he had to do was see to their food and their instruction — keep the supply lines open behind their headlong progress.
"Ralts—"
Caught up in the grinding mood of the team, even the Ralts had joined in.
Over these days, on ample nourishment and proper guidance, her power level had come to 18. Rapid progress — and there were already signs of evolution about her.
"Bzzz—"
The phone in his bag was buzzing. He answered it and found it was Blaine.
So there was a result. Two days had gone by since the day they went to Cinnabar Island.
"Blaine, sir. Since you're calling — did you come away with anything?"
Vance said it with an easy laugh as the line connected.
"No. We were too late getting there. The Godbeast Gang had already shifted their ground, and we're clearing up what they left."
"Mm? Too late. That's a pity, then."
Vance said it with regret. He had not expected the other side to be careful enough to move the whole place.
He had been thinking that with Blaine and the others going in there might be a chance to avenge the Ralts. By the Alakazam's account, it was at their hands that the Ralts's parents had fallen.
That idea had come to nothing, it seemed.
"It is a pity. All we came away with was a few scraps of data."
They talked a little longer and then rang off.
Just then the Ralts, as though she had sensed something, came over, put her arms round Vance's hand and looked up at him.
Vance stroked her forehead. It would have to wait for another day.
"Ralts—"
The Ralts could feel Vance's disappointment, and could work out as well that the disappointment was on her account.
"We'll see about it later. There should be a chance."
Vance said it gently. Looking at how innocent she was, he thought it better left for another time.
The Alakazam had told him that when the disaster came the Ralts had been shielded by her parents and hidden away out of sight, and that it had found her there afterwards; she had not seen it with her own eyes.
She was young besides, and did not really understand death. What death meant to her was that her parents had gone away and she would never see them again.
At first the Ralts had been wretched, and slow to settle, and it was the Alakazam's company that had brought her round a little; later she had been put into Vance's keeping, and with all the other Pokémon about her she had grown cheerful again.
"The Godbeast Gang. If they go on developing the way they are, they really won't be anything to make light of."
Vance narrowed his eyes. His score with the Godbeast Gang was not a small one — two of their senior people had died at his hands — and he supposed their leadership had taken notice of him by now.
Still, the original story had never mentioned this lot. Perhaps they had fallen away, or perhaps they had kept themselves hidden.
If he stayed careful and kept the great tree of Team Rocket at his back, it should not be much of a problem.
Even if they could produce stronger Legendary Pokémon — something on the order of a Darkrai — the threat of it fell only on him and on Team Rocket's middle and lower ranks.
Anything stronger than that, and the first party unable to sit still would not be Team Rocket but the Pokémon League, the greatest power in the Pokémon world.
That step was still a long way off. For now what mattered was building his own strength.
Vance drew his thoughts back in and went on with the training of his Pokémon.
The old saying held: if the sky fell in there were taller men to hold it up, and for now he had only to live his own life well.
Fill himself out; build up the strength of his Pokémon.
Keep his head down, keep to his place, and wait for his moment.