With Hydreigon's evolution, his fighting strength moved at a stroke into the front rank of the team.
Even Gyarados, at present the strongest of them, would have been no better than an even bet against him.
Even Slaking, an old hand on the team, having felt the weight of Hydreigon, could not be sure what chance he would have if it came to it — or whether he would lose to this youngster.
Yes: to Slaking, Hydreigon was a youngster. When they first met he had been a Deino, a tiny thing; he had only grown into this.
You could say they had watched him grow up.
Seeing him as he was now, besides the pressure of it, what they felt was gladness.
"Roar, roar. Brother Chick, Brother Chick."
Hydreigon stepped over and stood in front of Blaziken, as warm towards him as he had always been.
Of everyone on the team, he got on best with Blaziken.
"Blaziken—"
Blaziken looked at his imposing young comrade with envy. So this was what a pseudo-legendary carried about with it. It looked magnificent!
"Roar, roar. And thank you all for looking after me."
Hydreigon turned to Slaking and the others and thanked them for their care of him.
All along the way they had done a great deal for him.
"The one I have most to thank is you, boss. Otherwise I would still be sunk in my own gloom, with the strange trouble in my body still unsolved."
"Mm. It is all behind you. If it had not been me, somebody else would have come along to free you. What we have now is the best arrangement there could be."
Perhaps it was that Hydreigon had only just evolved, and his feelings were hard to name.
He talked on and on, with none of the ferocity his shape suggested.
There on the deck he kept Vance and the Pokémon by him and said a great deal.
Perhaps that stretch of time had left too great a shadow on his mind.
Now that he had evolved, he felt those memories more keenly than ever.
"That's no bad thing. The lad doesn't forget where he came from. He seems more level-headed than the ordinary Hydreigon, and more loving with it."
Vance nodded, satisfied, watching Hydreigon chatter away at the other Pokémon like a man who could not stop talking.
Having poured it all out, Hydreigon stopped at last.
He beat his wings, showing off what evolution had given him.
The first of it was that, unlike Zweilous, he could fly!
Flight meant the power to strike from the air; it meant another way of fighting.
"Whoo, whoo, whoo—"
Hydreigon's six wings beat slowly, raising a light wind.
He floated up and, with nobody to teach him, flew into the sky.
Flight is written into the blood of the Hydreigon; there is no school for it, only the getting used to it.
And getting used to it is a matter of flying a few more times.
"Aerodactyl, go and teach Hydreigon what you know of it. Let him get the hang of it faster."
Vance gave the order, putting the old hand of the air, Aerodactyl, into the field. He had experience in plenty, and with it Hydreigon would be spared a great many false turns and come to it sooner.
At first Hydreigon was not used to flying and his movements were clumsy.
But consider what sort of Pokémon Hydreigon was: aptitude beyond the ordinary, and Aerodactyl there to guide him. After flying a while he had the essentials of it, and flew more naturally by the minute.
Even Aerodactyl was moved to remark on Hydreigon's gifts.
"Roar, roar—"
A pseudo-legendary wheeling in the sky startled the Flying-types about him, who had no choice but to keep out of his way and leave the road clear.
Below, the deck of the S.S. Anne was crowded with people looking up at the magnificence of Hydreigon and envying it beyond words.
If you were going to catch a Pokémon, this was the kind to catch!
Elite-Four-class strength swept the field; there was nothing there to stand beside it.
On Vance's team, Elite-Four-class was ordinary first-rank strength; outside it, that was the absolute peak of a great family's power, the ticket that got you into a higher class of company. And this was a fully evolved Dragon-type pseudo-legendary besides. How were they not to envy it?
Under the envious eyes below and Vance's expectant ones, Hydreigon had flown his fill, came back and landed on the clear ground in front of Vance.
"Boom—"
And then it all changed at once.
At the very moment Hydreigon touched down the whole of the S.S. Anne shook, and off in that direction a great explosion went up and sent black smoke rolling into the air.
"Trouble again? Is this what Idris was talking about?"
Vance looked over at the rolling smoke and thought it.
From where the smoke rose a great crowd came pouring out, each pushing to get ahead of the last, all terrified of being caught up in it, and the screaming and the wailing did not stop.
The S.S. Anne, so orderly before, fell into utter confusion.
"Something's happening. Be ready."
Vance called his Pokémon back, in no hurry to act, still watching.
"Splooosh—"
Gyarados came up out of the water too, riding the waves, rising and coming to a stop in front of Vance.
He gave Hydreigon a nod of greeting and then looked over that way.
"Kreee—"
Thunderheads rolled across the sky and the lightning came and went.
A Zapdos appeared in the air, lightning surging over it, facing down at the deck.
"Ha ha ha! You are here after all. I have found you at last. Zapdos — Thunderbolt!"
Out of the confusion came laughter.
A Trainer was directing the Zapdos to strike, attacking somebody aboard the ship.
"Kreee—"
Zapdos beat its wings and flew, lightning flying off it in every direction; as far as the eye could see the lightning covered the sky, and it came down on that spot without the least restraint.
Without any thought for the many passengers still aboard the S.S. Anne, he simply let this Near-Champion-class Zapdos go at full strength.
Without considering what an attack of that force would do to the S.S. Anne, or whether she might go down under it.
"Roar, roar—"
After the Zapdos more Pokémon appeared on the field, of every type, ranging in strength from Elite to Elite-Four-class.
They spread out and ringed the S.S. Anne, with their weight set against the place where the explosion had been.
So there it was. The S.S. Anne was where things happened.
Last time it had been the International Police; this time it was some other mess. In short, you could count on there being something.
And the level of strength on show was a whole tier above last time!
A Near-Champion-class Zapdos, no less.
That was not something you saw in the ordinary way!
"A Zapdos. The Godbeast Gang again. Have they found something?"
Vance murmured it, weighing his next move and for the present holding still.
If Hydreigon's ties to the S.S. Anne ran deep, his own to the Godbeast Gang ran no shallower.
He had come aboard for a holiday this time, and had run into them even so. It was past belief.
"Shadow Ball."
A Gengar appeared on the field, and a Shadow Ball shot up at the Zapdos in the air.
By the force of the move, it too was Near-Champion-class.
"Rumble, rumble—"
In the sky the black cloud rolled over and bolt after bolt of thunder came down.
The Shadow Ball was swallowed in the lightning, and the huge blast thrown off where the moves met set off a crack of sound in the air.
Below, some unlucky souls were caught by it, swept up by the blast, carried off the ship into the sea, and left struggling in the water.
"Get them out! There are people in the water!"
"Quick, quick, quick!"
Some aboard set to the rescue at once; others looked on coldly, drew back to one side and did nothing, watching the battle over there and reckoning whether it would reach them; and some made up their minds on the spot, gave up on the S.S. Anne, mounted their Pokémon and left, not daring to stay.
The whole scene was a tangle, everyone busy about their own affairs.
At a time like that, only strength lets a man be easy in himself, keeps him from panic, lets him wait quietly to one side for the battle to take its next turn.