"Pallet Town is no gentle place. Professor Oak, whose name is known throughout the League, lives in Pallet Town, and a great many of the League's senior people came out of it."
Vance spoke slowly, there in his quarters, laying it out for the trio to hear.
"So there are rare Pokémon there, naturally enough, but none of them is easy to take, and the danger is extreme. The three of you have some ability, but not enough. My advice is that you don't go."
"Is that how it is."
The trio thought there was something in that. They had been building castles in the air after all, and they were willing to listen; hearing Vance set it out like that put the idea out of their heads.
A little later the trio took their leave, and Vance saw them to the door. As they went he reminded the trio to make sure their airborne precautions were in order — the three of them had a knack for taking to the sky, and did it often.
Once the trio had been sent off, Talbot and several others came to call. With the Dark City branch destroyed, the members of the Dark City branch were all staying at headquarters, and they had come now to see this superior of theirs and find out what was to be arranged next.
"Chief, you're not going back to Dark City?"
Talbot and the others were startled, and asked it.
"No, there are other arrangements. Working with you has been very good indeed, and I hope we get the chance to work together again."
Vance answered. There had been some unpleasantness with them to begin with; he had used extreme measures to cow them and made an example of several men to take the wind out of them, but it had all gone normally afterwards and there had been no trouble.
"Then where are you going, sir? I would like to come with you, to go wherever you go and be used as you see fit."
Talbot declared himself. He truly was won over by Vance, and wanted to follow him.
"There's no need for that where I'm going. A pity, though."
Vance turned his offer down gently. He was going to take part in the League Conference next, and there would be no use in his coming along.
Still, having someone willing to follow him put Vance in a good mood. It meant that he had done reasonably well, that he had not failed.
In the end Talbot left with his regrets, and that was the end of the visit.
A few more days at the base, a few odds and ends dealt with, and Vance set off travelling light, out into the wider world to prepare for the League Conference.
The League Conference was not far off now, which made this an ideal time for some special training before the event.
Vance was dressed as a young Trainer, with a Kirlia at his side and a "person" who looked very much like himself.
"All right, Zorua, change back. I've told you — don't turn into me. You never listen."
Vance said it with mock severity. Ever since he had let it show off its transforming ability the Zorua had turned into him from time to time; the trouble was that its speech came out in fits and starts and was not yet fluent. All it lacked was the gift of the gab.
"Oo-oooo—"
The Zorua gave a sly little smile and changed again, into the shape of the Kirlia, and pressed forward.
Two Kirlia took each other by the hand and circled round Vance.
Then they walked out onto the road, one on either side of him.
Two Kirlia walking along with him drew envious looks from the passers-by.
It was enviable indeed. A Pokémon like a Kirlia was very rare; they could not get hold of a single one, and here was a man with two.
Even the young Trainers with starter Pokémon put on a sheepish look at the sight of Vance and dropped the air of superiority they had been wearing.
It was not that Vance was showing off. He had no need to show off.
Where rare Pokémon were concerned, they were much the same to him as ordinary ones. With standing roughly equal to Elite-Four-class, he could get hold of even a pseudo-legendary.
He had left the low-tier Trainers' cult of potential well behind.
Most of them craved rare Pokémon, craved their aptitude, craved their potential for growth, craved the standing, the strength and the money those Pokémon would bring them once they were grown.
Vance had already come to the last step of that road. He was short of neither name nor fortune, and naturally the feeling was gone.
He took the envious looks calmly, and went into a large store to buy supplies.
A round of purchases, and Vance came out of the store well satisfied, with several beaming managers behind him seeing him out respectfully.
A big customer like that had to be looked after properly. What a spender he was.
When the two Kirlia came out they each had a pretty dress on, bought inside the store, the kind made to fit a Pokémon.
They were of no earthly use for anything. They simply looked well.
Seeing that the two of them liked the things, Vance had bought them while he was about it.
His supplies bought, Vance took the two Pokémon to the Viridian Forest outside the city.
Perhaps it was because he carried the Viridian Power, but coming here Vance felt an odd, instinctive ease, as though the country round him were making way for him.
"Let's find you a suitable opponent. It's the two of you being put through it this time."
Vance said it to his two Pokémon. The Gyarados and the rest had to be brought on, and the Kirlia and the Zorua could not be neglected either.
For the moment the Gyarados and the others counted as grown. The next generation was the Kirlia and the Zorua.
After that Vance meant to go on and catch a few more suitable Pokémon to serve as a second generation, which would come in useful in the days ahead as well.
Otherwise, always using the Gyarados and the rest was not quite right, even if the odds were that nothing would go wrong.
Later on Vance meant to take the League road, and for that he would have to raise more Pokémon to save himself trouble; and having more of them was a good thing in any case.
As long as he could raise them and afford to keep them, it would do.
The Viridian Forest held a great many Pokémon and rich resources, and had nurtured a great many powerful Pokémon within it.
There was a strange force at work in the forest, and the Pokémon there were relatively gentle.
Two Pidgeotto came together, and one of them was plainly outmatched; it dropped out of the sky, and the Pidgeotto above it caught up with a Quick Attack and put it out of the fight altogether.
Having beaten that Pidgeotto, the "Pidgeotto" changed where it stood into the shape of the Zorua, and came down to stand on the ground.
Power stirred through it, and in the space of a moment it had broken through and reached level 30. One more level and it could break through to Advanced strength.
"Nicely done, Zorua. Come on, let's look for more and keep fighting. What we'll look for next is a Pokémon in the water, so you can fight in water."
Vance told it.
The Zorua nodded beside him and answered quietly.
"Kirlia—"
The Kirlia came forward to ask for a fight. She wanted to take part too.
"You will, don't worry, Kirlia. The two of you have no shortage of opponents ahead of you. It's the Gyarados and the others who ought to be worried."
Vance said it with a laugh, and took the two Pokémon into the forest, deeper and deeper, until they came to a lake with the light rippling on it.
There they saw a Kingler sunning itself, and he sent the Zorua forward to challenge it.
The Zorua changed into its opponent's shape as usual, swung both pincers and charged in.
The Kingler stopped short, and as it sensed the Zorua's hostility its guard came back up. Without a word it swung a pincer as hard as iron.
"Crack—"
The two pincers met with a heavy, jarring thud, and the Kingler went head first into the water.
On strength alone it had come off second best.
It had barely got its head out when a Bubble Beam came at it and washed over its body.
When the Bubble Beam had passed the Kingler heard the whistle of something cutting the air, and opened its eyes to find the Zorua's Metal Claw already on it.
"Clang—"
One blow, and the Kingler fell into the water and lay still, already out of the fight.
From the start of the battle to the end of it not a minute had gone by — two or three moves, and the Zorua had won comfortably.
"All right. I underestimated you."
This Kingler was the same as it was, a level-30 Pokémon. It seemed he would have to find Pokémon of Advanced strength to spar with the Zorua, or there would be no effect at all.
"You don't have to match your opponent either. Wild Pokémon are one thing, but with a Trainer's Pokémon, one with real character of its own, you won't be able to learn that on the spur of the moment, Zorua. So there's no need to be the same as them."