This was still the first Gym-class Pokémon Vance had come up against: a level 52 Blastoise, the Water starter of the Kanto region.
At Gym-class, Sandslash, Haunter and Kirlia were already past managing.
Nor had Vance any intention of sending them in. There is a limit to how far you push them for the experience.
For a fight against this Gym-class Blastoise, the two of the new first team best suited to it were Zoroark and Onix.
Onix's raw strength was close to Gym-class, level 49 at present, but a Water-type Blastoise had the pull of type against it.
Zoroark had come up to level 39 by now, and with the Legendary power it carried that was enough to trade blows with a Blastoise.
Over this stretch of time the Pokémon's strength had naturally changed, though with the old team it was less obvious.
Gyarados was still at 60, Slaking at 58, Aerodactyl and Blaziken at 55; only Zweilous had gained a level, catching Gyarados up at 60, with signs of evolution showing besides.
The members of the new team: Onix at 49, Zoroark at 39, Sandslash at 38, and Haunter and Kirlia both at 36.
That was where the Pokémon stood at present.
All of them were coming on. It was only that Gyarados and the rest, at the stage they had reached, gathered energy slowly now, so naturally they rose slowly too.
On the matter of "infusing energy into the body", Gyarados and Zweilous had all but finished, their bodies condensed to something very near a hundred per cent.
To enter Elite-Four-class, nothing was wanting but the moment.
"Zoroark, you go out after all."
After some weighing of it, Vance settled on Zoroark.
"Ss-soh—"
Zoroark appeared, eyes narrowed while they adjusted to the light around it.
Its nose twitched, taking in the air of the arena, and the smell of competition in it set its body unusually alive.
The fox-like eyes went to the Blastoise, and after a short study of it Zoroark turned and changed, and became a Blastoise itself — a stronger, more imposing one.
The twin cannon on its back trained on its opponent, thoroughly menacing.
That stopped the Blastoise where it stood. Well, well. This counterfeit across the field looked more like the real thing than it did.
The vast Water energy circling the other was more than it could match, and it a pure Water type itself.
And there was a faint pressure about it besides, something that shook the soul, a tremor of blood cowed by higher blood.
Now that was uncanny.
It was a Blastoise. It refused to believe it.
It gathered up its presence and faced the thing down, and a few seconds later it shrank back.
All right. On that score it could not win.
"What Pokémon is that, to be able to turn into a Blastoise?"
"Brother, that's your ignorance showing. That Pokémon is called Zoroark, a Dark type, tremendously strong at bewildering people, and like a Ditto it can turn into anything at all — better at changing than a Ditto, even."
"That's an extremely rare Pokémon, you know. Rare enough to stand comparison with a pseudo-legendary. And he's caught one. No ordinary man."
"Wonderful. Another new Pokémon shown off, and a Zoroark at that. That gives us material again."
..............
Zoroark is a very rare sight, and a good many of the crowd in the arena did not know it; they only learned what it was from the explanations of the better-informed.
"Zoroark. A good enough Pokémon, but it hasn't reached Gym-class. Still not much to look at."
To one side, the straight-backed Aurelian nodded as he said it, watching Zoroark come out.
Beside him stood a beautiful girl, of the same opinion as he was: Zoroark was nothing to be afraid of.
"Miss Elspeth, the title at this Conference may well be decided between the two of us, and when it comes to it I shan't be giving way to you."
Aurelian laughed lightly and clearly, confidence written across his face.
"Hee hee. When it comes to that, we each go on what we can do. It's too early to say now. This Vance looks like no simple matter himself, and there's that Wren besides, who isn't to be taken lightly either."
Elspeth laughed behind her hand, not committing herself too far.
"That's true enough. The talent of the world is not to be underrated. But anyone else may take the title — only this Wren must be shot down before the final. He must not be allowed to win it. The face of the League is bound up in this, and later on, you or I, one of us will have to meet him."
Aurelian said it seriously. He knew where this Wren had come from.
He did not understand how the people above had agreed to it, but what he could do was beat the man.
"I know."
Elspeth nodded along with him. She knew it as well.
The two of them came of no ordinary stock, and were the finest of the younger generation; the people above had briefed them both.
..................
"Blastoise, don't be afraid. A fake is a fake in the end. Hydro Pump!"
Seeing it like that, its Trainer worked to put heart into it.
"Ka-mee—"
"We'll use Hydro Pump as well."
Vance gave the word quietly.
Zoroark leaned forward, water vapour spreading from the twin cannon at its back, and the Hydro Pump went off.
The two Hydro Pumps met halfway, blew up with a bang and finished one another, leaving nothing but water vapour hanging everywhere.
On that exchange, they had come out dead level.
"Its moves aren't weak. But what about the substance of it? Blastoise, Rain Dance, your best."
"Ka-mee—"
The Blastoise gathered a thick "mass" between its hands and threw it up into the sky; a layer of dark cloud appeared overhead, and the rain came down in a steady patter.
Harder and harder, until it covered the whole field.
"Ka-mee—"
Bathed in the rain, the Blastoise was unusually lively, and its presence rose a little.
A Blastoise with the Rain Dish Ability gains a certain benefit in rainy conditions: its defence and the power of its moves both go up somewhat.
The next moment a stronger presence could be felt from the Blastoise that Zoroark had turned into as well.
The boost it took was greater than this Blastoise's own.
"Is that for real? That's allowed?"
The Blastoise's Trainer rubbed his eyes, disbelief all over his face. This really was past believing.
Changing its appearance was one thing — it could change its substance as well?
And what it changed into was more the thing itself than the thing itself.
That was absurd.
But to Vance's eyes, this performance of Zoroark's was nothing out of the way at all.
Zoroark, with the power of three Legendary Pokémon settled on it, was naturally at ease with Water, Electricity and Fire, and its command of those three kinds of power was beyond even a Gym-class Pokémon's.
"Zoroark, Aqua Jet."
"Ka-mee—"
Water wrapped round it, and Zoroark went in close, all ferocity.
"Blastoise, we'll do the same."
Over there, he meant to meet strength with strength.
On the field the two Blastoise each used Aqua Jet and closed towards the middle.
"Boom—"
The two met inside the curtain of rain, and the sound that burst out of it was like a thunderclap.
"Ka-mee—"
Dead level still; the two Pokémon locked in a stalemate.
The Blastoise and its Trainer both looked ill at it, because dead level meant that they had lost.
This Zoroark could do all that, and as he recalled it had not yet reached Gym-class.
Which being so, he had already lost.
"This time it won't be level. And that isn't all Zoroark has."
Vance said it mildly.
The situation on the field changed all at once. Electricity flickered over the surface of the Zoroark locked with the Blastoise, and that familiar aura of ruin struck fear straight into the Blastoise facing it.
Electric beats Water; an Electric move can do enormous damage to a Water move.
The Blastoise had already tasted what an Electric move was like.
What it had not expected was that this thing in front of it should have that in hand as well, and convert the energy so fast, so naturally.