"Don't you go getting nervous, boss. Here, rinse your mouth out."
Ambrose was holding a bowl of bird's nest soup from goodness knew where, meaning to have Vance rinse his mouth with it.
"A massage, then. Ceri... Emery, what are you standing about for?"
Ambrose said it, and looked over at the trio as well.
"Anything good to eat, out with it, let's get the boss in the best shape he can be."
"Yes, yes, yes."
James nodded over and over, and brought out a heap of good things and set them down.
The whole party of them were resting and making ready just now in a spacious room.
Once Vance had come back with his Poké Balls he had found himself waited on by Ambrose, who said it was to help him relax and not be nervous.
But by the look of him, Ambrose was a good deal more nervous and anxious about it than Vance was himself.
Having handed the bowl over, Ambrose trotted round eagerly to rub Vance's legs.
"Heh heh. Through to the final, and only one step away from the championship. How does it feel?"
Cerise, beside him, spoke up.
"Well enough. Everything that wanted preparing has been prepared."
Vance answered mildly, and made Emery and Ambrose stop. This massaging and pounding of legs still wanted practice; their technique was not up to much.
He did take a bag of crisps, though, and started on them.
"Darkrai. What way have you of dealing with it?"
Cerise wanted to hear how he would put it, to hear his thinking on it.
"The chief thing about Darkrai is its power to confuse with nightmares, and I have trained against that at a deep level."
"Then what are the odds of a win?"
"Ten out of ten!"
"My. Such confidence."
"Will the two finalists take their places. The match is about to begin. Please make ready."
Hearing that, Vance rose from his seat, signalled to the others, and went out.
Darkrai, was it. He rather looked forward to getting the measure of it.
"Clap, clap, clap—"
"Wren! Wren!"
"Darkrai's the handsomest!!"
"Raikou, Raikou, the thunder drowns everything!"
"Come on, Vance!!"
...............
The arena was one great uproar, most of it in Wren's favour; Vance had far less of it, with no Legendary Pokémon in hand and the odds against him.
"So I've come to the final."
Vance drew a deep breath and looked round the whole circle, over every person there, and some thought in his heart came clear.
He was standing here already.
"Wren."
"Vance."
The two of them exchanged a brief word of introduction and went back to their own positions.
"Who should go out first?"
Vance ran his hand across the Poké Balls — Blaziken, Aerodactyl and the rest — and Blaziken and the others all answered him, every one of them asking to be sent out, asking for the fight.
"Boss, boss, send me out."
Blaziken was calling to him.
"Let me go."
Even Zweilous, who seldom said much, joined in the asking.
Slaking and Gyarados were making signs of it too.
"Roar, roar. Boss, boss, this one you can leave to me, your Aerodactyl. It's that Raticate on the other side again, isn't it? Anybody would do, it's a certain win, there's nothing in it at all, so just let me take it. Leave it to me and I'll have it handled nice and steady, no trouble."
"As strong as that? Then out you go."
And so, hearing it talk that way, Vance decided to send it.
"Roar, roar. Leave it to me and don't you worry, I'm tremendously strong. A little Raticate — laughable, laughable."
Once Vance picked up the Aerodactyl's Poké Ball the rest of the Pokémon understood what he meant and stopped asking to go.
"Stop shaking about. It's been decided, it's you."
Vance said it in amusement. Having chosen the Aerodactyl had made it enormously pleased with itself.
"Will both competitors make ready."
The referee signalled.
"Go!"
Two Poké Balls were thrown out together, releasing their Pokémon in mid-air.
"Roar, roar—"
The Aerodactyl appeared with its wings beating.
"Roar—"
Over on the other side lightning flickered, and Raikou appeared inside it.
The first Pokémon out were Raikou and Aerodactyl.
The Aerodactyl was dumbfounded. How had this turned into a Raikou?
Where was the Raticate?
Where was the Raticate, I ask you?
The Aerodactyl was shouting it inside its head.
Was it not the custom that the Raticate came out first? How had it got a Raikou instead?
There was nothing for it, though. The Aerodactyl set its teeth and went at it anyway.
Whether it could win or not did not matter. What mattered was not to lose face for its Trainer and its companions!
"Roar—"
The two Pokémon roared at one another across the field.
"Good, good. We'll see how you roar in a moment."
Wren said it with a cold laugh.
He had sent Raikou out first this time with the object of steamrolling the other side.
The last bout, against Aurelian, had never been quite what he wanted.
This time, in the final, he would beat this opponent cleanly and be done with it.
The man had nothing worth putting on the field either. Among his main Pokémon there was not so much as a single pseudo-legendary; only the Slaking and the Zoroark were of any interest at all.
Steamrolling him would not be hard.
"Whoo, whoo, whoo—"
Black cloud gathered together again in the sky, and under Raikou's drawing, snakes of electricity filled the banks of it, ready to fall at any moment.
"Boooom—"
One peal of thunder, and the lightning came down after all.
Bolt after bolt of it slashed down wildly. The Aerodactyl beat its wings and dodged them one after another, and the moment it showed itself a wild bolt came straight down on it.
"Boom—"
Inside the rolling black smoke the Aerodactyl had been struck, though the injury was not serious.
Flying close to the ground, it brought up an Ancient Power and sent it thundering across.
"Cheap tricks. Thunderbolt, keep it up."
"Roar—"
Raikou obeyed the order, and the Thunderbolt punched clean through the Ancient Power.
The Aerodactyl flew off to one side to dodge.
"This is no good, boss. Top me up, top me up."
It had not been many moves yet and here it was in such a sorry state; that wanted strengthening.
At the words the familiar Viridian Power came down upon it, and its presence climbed by steps until it reached level 60.
Level 60 was enough to be going on with.