"Right. Happily settled, then, meowth."
Meowth banged the table on it, and that was how it was to be done.
James and Jessie had no objection either; they gathered their things and set off back to the base.
Nothing untoward met them the whole way, and they came into the base without trouble.
"Eh? The Branch Chief isn't here. Where's he gone, then?"
James asked it.
Once they were back, Ambrose told them Vance was out — and the three of them had been looking forward to presenting a Pokémon and letting him see what their trio could do.
This operation of theirs might not have fitted very well with the main line of the branch's development.
But it had been a great success all the same; their side had wrecked a whole department of the League, even if it was not a fighting department.
"That's right, the Chief isn't in just now. Gone out, probably, something to see to. He's always like that."
Ambrose explained it, and waved the two people and the one Pokémon to seats.
"Cousin, next time you go out, remember — don't make a mess like that one. It's thrown the branch's dispositions out. The Chief thinks well enough of you to let you carry out missions as you see fit, but that doesn't mean running wild."
"I know, cousin."
James said it in a low voice, a little ashamed.
"We didn't come away from the League empty-handed, though. We took a rare Pokémon. This one."
He held the Zorua's ball up in front of them and showed it to Ambrose.
"What Pokémon? Let me see."
Ambrose took it and looked: a Zorua deep asleep, with a few small wounds on its body.
"That's what the three of us want to present to the Branch Chief — to thank him for trusting us, and to let him see what we have in us at the same time."
"A Zorua. That is a rare thing."
Ambrose murmured it. His eye was not good enough to tell what the Zorua's aptitude might be, but Pokémon of this kind were famous for how few of them there were, much as the Ralts line was, and it could fairly be called a rare Pokémon.
If the aptitude was decent, then raised up properly it would do a man a good deal of credit to take about with him.
For the Zorua line were something out of the ordinary; they had certain powers that could pass off the false for the true.
It could turn into people and into Pokémon, and a strong Zorua could copy every movement of the other party without giving itself away at all, exactly like the real thing.
That included the appearance of the one it copied, its skills and moves, its speech and bearing, and the rest of it.
A truly strong one could manage even a Legendary Pokémon without difficulty — and not one Legendary alone, but a great many kinds of them.
Different types and Abilities meant more variation to draw on in a battle, and a wider margin for error.
All of which, of course, had to be built on the Pokémon being strong. That was the precondition.
If it was weak, holding its own shape was hard enough, let alone anything else.
"The Chief isn't here now, so I'll hand it to him when he gets back. This Zorua doesn't look to be in good condition, and as it happens the Chief is an accomplished Breeder and very good at healing."
Ambrose said that as well.
The "trio" naturally had no objection, and handed it over for him to take to Vance.
All three of them knew how he stood with Vance.
There was nothing to fear in the way of accidents, either.
After a little more small talk the "trio" took their leave and went.
Towards evening Ambrose went to find Vance, and saw him in his office.
"James and the others say they're presenting you with a rare Pokémon. This is it."
Ambrose said it as soon as he was through the door, and tossed the Poké Ball over.
"A rare Pokémon. What Pokémon is — ah, it's a Zorua."
Vance caught it and looked, and was rather taken aback.
He had wondered what it might be; that it should turn out to be a Zorua of all things was more than he had expected.
How had the trio come off so smoothly this time?
He shook his head, and let the Zorua out of the Poké Ball.
The Zorua was still deep asleep, with several wounds on it not yet healed, its body thin and small and its fur dull. Plainly it had been going hungry lately, not eating its fill, unable to take in enough energy to keep itself up.
"Boss, there's nothing wrong with it, is there?"
Ambrose, watching Vance examine it with that serious face, said it hesitantly.
"Nothing wrong with it. I was only wondering where this Zorua came from."
"That's all right, then. I'll leave you to it and get along. Call me if you need anything."
Healing was something Ambrose could not do at all and could be no help with, so he asked leave to go.
Vance nodded, waved him to please himself, and went on examining the Zorua's body.
The longer he examined it, the graver his face grew.
In it Vance could feel three powers far beyond the ordinary, and when he had made them out carefully he suspected that all three belonged to Legendary Pokémon.
One of the three he knew well: the Water-type power peculiar to Suicune. He had had dealings with it, and his Gyarados had absorbed that power besides. He had not mistaken it.
The other two, one electric and one fire, lay latent in the body as well, standing alongside the Suicune's power.
"That electric aura — could it be Raikou? It doesn't feel like Zapdos."
Vance was guessing at it. He had seen Zapdos too, and this did not seem to be Zapdos's, which was why Raikou came to mind.
If that was the way of it, then this Fire-type power would be Entei's.
Three Legendary Pokémon's powers in a little Zorua like this. How was it bearing them?
It was hard to imagine.
Vance narrowed his eyes. Could this Zorua have something to do with the Godbeast Gang as well??
In Kanto as it stood, there was no other organisation it could be.
The Viridian Power appeared in his hand and wrapped the Zorua up; the gentle power passed through its skin and repaired its body.
The several wounds on the surface were all taken away under that power as well.
In the lush green light the Zorua gave a comfortable little cry.
The power was so warm, so soft, so kindly — like being back in the forest, unbound, full of the feeling of freedom.
Bathed in that power, hunger and cold disappeared entirely.
The power was like the sun, and it wanted to get close to it. It had not seen the sun for a long time.
It pressed against Vance's hand and stirred.
"Wake up."
Vance called.
At the sound of a human voice the Zorua's eyes flew open, and it looked warily about it.
Its pupils came into focus; when it saw Vance it backed away and away, clinging no longer to the warmth the Viridian Power had given it, and dropped into a fighting stance, teeth bared and snarling.
"Hello, little thing."
Vance said it with a light laugh and a friendly smile on his face, greeting it, and not coming forward, so as not to provoke it into anything violent and so as to give it a sense of safety.
"Oo-oooo—"
The Zorua kept its teeth bared, but its look eased a little.
Perhaps it was that with the Viridian Power upon him the air Vance gave off was unlike other people's, which lowered its guard.
Or perhaps it had grasped that its injuries had been healed by Vance, and relaxed a good deal on that account.
"Let's go somewhere else. It'll save you wrecking my room, which would be a nuisance to tidy up afterwards."
Vance said it slowly, and at the same time the psychic power surged in him and took the wary Zorua along with him; man and Pokémon both vanished from the office.
When they appeared again they were in a spacious training room.
"Oooo—"
Before the Zorua could take it in, it had been brought to a new place — and the one who had brought it was the human in front of it, smiling at it with narrowed eyes.
This power it could not resist at all. It was too strong!
That was the only thought in the Zorua's head; the hand Vance had shown had stunned it.
This human was a powerful Psychic as well. If he meant it harm, it could not hold him off.
Once they were in the training room, Vance raised both hands and stepped back a few paces, to show what he meant by it.