A look of remembering came into Vance's eyes. He recalled having seen a scene like this in the anime as well.
It had been the work of a Zoroark, and it had been all three Legendary forms coming out together.
Only, set against the Zoroark in front of him, that Zoroark had been genuinely powerful; the destruction it caused had taken in a whole city, whereas the damage his own Zoroark had done reached one corner of a forest, and was nowhere near the other Zoroark's standard.
Still, Vance had every confidence that he could bring Zoroark up to the level that Zoroark had been at when it appeared.
Who knew — perhaps his Zoroark could earn a master's name for herself as well.
Master of Illusions, was it. There was no reason his Zoroark should not have it.
Looked at from the fighting side of things, Zoroark's way of fighting with three forms carried a great deal of meaning.
Against an enemy it could do a great deal, letting her use whichever form suited to meet different opponents and different surroundings.
Endlessly changeable, adapting freely to every kind of complicated situation.
"Electric, Water, Fire — a mixed three-type tactic. You should take some lessons from this too, Zweilous. After you evolve, you could try taking your fighting in the same direction."
Vance said it to the Zweilous beside him.
"Roar, roar. I understand, boss."
Both of the Zweilous's heads nodded together, and it wore the look of a pupil taking the lesson in.
It had noticed that side of things itself. After evolving there would be another head, and then it would be able to command one more kind of power.
But the Zweilous was different from Zoroark all the same: it was a single body, and had no other forms.
Being able to command three powers would be thanks to its having three consciousnesses, which was what made it possible.
While Vance and the Zweilous were chatting, Zoroark came back too, carrying a honeycomb in her hands — the finest thing the Beedrill colony had, the tastiest and the most nourishing.
She held it out to Vance in both hands, and when she had seen with her own eyes that Vance took it, broke off a small piece and ate it and smiled, Zoroark felt more satisfied than she ever had.
The sense of achievement filled her up. It was as though she had gained one more new experience.
The feeling was rather good.
From what the Kirlia said, this was sharing??
It seemed that it was. In any case she felt very full, her heart brimming.
While Vance was eating, Zoroark fetched fresh honey for the Gyarados and the others as well, so that they could all taste it together.
His Pokémon thanked her happily and crowded round to eat it together in good spirits.
It was not that they could not get such things for themselves; it was that this was a sharing from a companion, an acknowledgement of what she had achieved. Sweet as it was to begin with — even if it had been bitter, they would have eaten it.
"Come along, come along, let's get going again."
After a good long rest Vance took to the road again. The Gyarados and the rest went into their Poké Balls, and the Kirlia and Zoroark were left outside.
And Zoroark did just as she had before evolving, and turned into a Kirlia, and the two Kirlia larked about together.
Behind them they left the Beedrill colony's ground in ruins.
That warm little scene was paid for by them in the end — a heavy price for their high-handedness earlier.
Walking along the road, Vance looked easy and content.
In this country he felt nothing but light and cheerful, and even his few worries vanished under that unaccountable force.
"I hear Celebi has appeared in the Viridian Forest before. I wonder whether I'll be lucky enough to see that legendary Pokémon."
Vance murmured it, picked a flower as he went and gave it a slight sniff, and found a clean fragrance filling his nose.
But while he was smelling the flower, a small black ball of a thing rose out of the ground, felt the abundant life force in Vance and gave a wicked little cackle.
It cast a wary look at the two Pokémon beside Vance, and this black ball of a Pokémon fell to thinking.
Those two Pokémon seemed to be stronger than it was, especially the larger green one, which had the look of something not to be trifled with.
"Kirlia, Kirlia—"
Over on the other side the Kirlia came running to Vance, put out a hand to tug at him and spoke quietly.
"Mm, I know. Don't worry, it's nothing. It's only a Gastly. Nothing serious."
"Ooo? What's the matter?"
Zoroark, in her Kirlia shape, crowded in as well and asked curiously.
"There's a Gastly watching us, that's all."
"A Gastly? Is it strong?"
"About the same as the Kirlia. Certainly no match for you. There's no need to be in any hurry."
One look was all Vance needed to know roughly where that Gastly stood, without even consulting the system.
It was a level-23 Gastly, and like the Kirlia — she was level 23 as well.
Only, the Kirlia was in her second form, which gave her some advantage in a match-up.
Vance paid the little Gastly no attention and took his two Pokémon off to wander about, and to his surprise the Gastly kept following along behind them.
It even pulled frightening faces from its hiding place, and cackled to itself afterwards.
When it noticed that Vance had got some way off, it hurried to catch up.
"What is this Gastly about? Is it trying to frighten me??"
Its behaviour had all been noted by Vance, and looking at it and putting that together with what he knew of the Gastly family, Vance had a guess at it.
From the way it was behaving, it seemed to want to give him a fright.
Gastly were rather mischievous Pokémon, and liked frightening people.
But that also had something to do with their being able to absorb the power of the emotion of fear. It was not only Gastly; a great many Ghost-type Pokémon did the same.
"Well now. Catching a Ghost-type Gastly wouldn't be a bad idea, would it."
The thought struck Vance suddenly: the team did not yet have a single Ghost-type Pokémon, and catching a Ghost-type to raise seemed a rather good idea.
Besides, he was going to be taking the League road next and would need some Pokémon for it. He could not have the Gyarados and the rest taking the field every time; he needed to raise a second team as well.
A great many Trainers commonly raised more than one team, and those with resources enough would set about raising a second.
Ordinarily, with one team as a foundation and with the resources and the experience of raising them saved up, a Trainer could pick out better Pokémon with greater potential for growth, and put them into fighting shape more quickly.
So Vance had begun to consider the business of catching a few Pokémon.
And just then this Gastly had appeared in front of him again, which was quite a coincidence.
Gastly's final evolved form, Gengar, was a powerful Pokémon too, and could Mega Evolve besides.
It was a very good Pokémon indeed.
Thinking of it that way, Vance found that he did want to catch it.