"Champion Vance, please make yourself at home. If there is anything you need, you can press the button over there and reach me. I won't disturb you."
"Very good. Thank you."
"Not at all."
Having said his piece, the man took his leave and went, and Vance was left alone in the vault.
Vance looked about him. It deserved the name of League Vault: the treasures kept here were many enough to dazzle the eye.
He ran his eye over them at random. Even the entry-level pieces began at Gym-class, and there were things of nature among them and products of science alike.
"An aptitude-raising serum, is it."
Vance picked up a bottle of it. This one could raise aptitude at Gym-class and below, and how far it raised it depended on the physical quality of the Pokémon.
"A Master-class Breeder's notes, with ten ingredient lists for energy cubes attached."
He could only turn over a few pages. Vance looked at them; the work was of a high standard, but it was not what he needed, and he put it down again.
Evolution stones of the first quality, without the least impurity in them, counted as ordinary stock in this vault.
Following the path round, Vance came to the section for Pokémon Eggs.
Here egg after egg was set out, every one of them full of life, and on each was written where it came from, its aptitude and its species.
All of it was written out plainly, and what the system gave him when he looked matched what was written, without a particle of difference.
"Charmander, Elite-Four-class aptitude." "Psyduck, Gym-class aptitude." "Dratini Egg, from the Valley of Dragons." "Bagon Egg, Elite-Four-class aptitude."
.........
There were a fair number of pseudo-legendary eggs kept here, and all of good aptitude; and not only pseudo-legendaries, but other Pokémon as well, a very complete range of species.
Ralts, Riolu, Zorua and the rest.
"A pity. If I'd had a chance like this when I first set out as a Trainer, how good that would have been. This must be how it is for the League's second generation — they start from an altogether different place."
Vance murmured it as he set the Dratini's egg down.
He was not short of such things now, though he could not turn them down either; it was only that set beside what he wanted in his heart they still fell short.
He rested his eyes on that Dratini egg with the Near-Champion aptitude, then took them away again and went to look at the other treasures.
If he found nothing suitable, that one would do well enough.
A blossom of golden flame burned fiercely inside a shield.
To look at it gave no sense of scorching heat, but of warmth, and of life in abundance.
"Moltres's Flame."
The label on it read "Moltres's Flame," and plainly this was fire that had come from a Moltres, with unimaginable properties in it and enormous effect on Fire-type Pokémon above all.
"A Moltres's fire, is it. By the feel of this it was no ordinary Moltres. Given to the Blaziken it would do very well."
Beside it stood a crystal of deep blue, and the note on the treasure explained that it was power condensed out of a Suicune, with much the same use as Moltres's Flame except that what it worked on were Water-type Pokémon.
Vance passed on again and went looking for other treasures.
These were all fine things. If he could have carried off several of them there would have been no need to think at all; he would simply have chosen.
But there was a limit on it. Only one piece could be chosen.
As for taking more than one, the thought never entered Vance's head.
Quite apart from the modern equipment in the place, the cameras and the rest of it, the Master-class Viridian Power picked up several exceedingly well-hidden and powerful Pokémon presences around him; from what little he could make out of them, they should be at Champion-class strength.
A turn about the vault had taught him a good deal, but he had not yet found the treasure that would make him choose.
There was no more to it than this: they were all much of a muchness, and to Vance none of them was a necessity, which left him in two minds.
*If it comes to it I'll take the Dratini egg. It can't Mega Evolve, but with aptitude like that, not Mega Evolving is no great matter.*
*Then again, that Moltres's Flame isn't bad either.*
*And that Dragon-type relic is very good as well — it could go to the Zweilous, which would answer nicely, and pound for pound it's worth more than the Dratini egg.*
...............
One idea after another went through Vance's mind, each weighed against the others.
And just then, round a corner, he found something familiar.
"Hm—"
Vance gave a small sound of surprise and came to stand in front of the treasure.
By the label on it, it was an unidentified treasure from beyond the sky.
"A treasure from beyond the sky. The longer I look at it, the more like it it seems."
Vance picked the thing up. It was like a piece of jade.
As he lifted it, a thread of light ran across its surface.
The sight of the treasure brought certain memories back to Vance, and in those memories, that Pokémon had looked exactly like this.
"Is it...... is it a Deoxys?"
Vance was rather less than calm now. Holding the jade-like treasure, his hand shook a little.
He set the Viridian Power going, and inside this thing that was so like a gem he felt a faint pulse of life.
"There's a life-pulse in it. Of course — use the system and look."
Vance consulted the system. In his excitement he had forgotten to use it at all.
One sweep of the system, and the full particulars of the thing came up at once on the system's panel.
"Deoxys, seed form. A mysterious Pokémon from outer space. Life state currently extremely low. Does not possess the life force of a Pokémon. No status at present."
"I knew it!"
Seeing what was written on the system's panel, Vance was certain. This was a Deoxys.
Only it was in this gem-like state, and could not move about of itself as an ordinary Pokémon can.
Vance, who was calm in all things, felt his heart beat several beats faster for the thing he held in his hand.
But nothing of it showed on Vance's face, and in his mind the decision was made. This was the one. This was what he would have.