Vance was a little taken aback himself. He had not expected an offer to be made. But thinking of how well he had done in the past, and the ability he had shown simply by being here now, he understood it well enough.
"No thanks." Vance turned her down with a smile. He had a great deal of confidence in his own result out of this trial.
Going by past years, four or five recruits who performed outstandingly in the trial became Team Rocket officers each time, and had real investment put into them.
And once a man was an officer, that meant the post of Squad Leader, with several people under him.
Which was a great help to building up one's own strength afterwards.
With a few capable subordinates, missions in the future became a good deal easier, and the benefits that came with being a Squad Leader were naturally not small either.
"Hm?" Cerise thought that odd, and put another condition on the table.
"If you help me, I can settle the Wilder business for you. I'm sure he'd give me that much face."
"Heh. No need. Thank you for the thought all the same."
Vance turned the invitation down again.
Cerise's brows drew together a little, and then smoothed out.
"All right. It seems you've something of your own to fall back on."
With that she did not linger. She set off in one direction, took a few steps, turned back, tossed him a communicator and said:
"If you think better of it you can contact me. You'd be welcome any time. Oh — and if you run into Wilder, I might still be able to help."
Her impression of Vance was a good one. Good-looking, steady-tempered, capable; he would make a very good subordinate, she thought.
"Thank you, then."
Vance thanked her, and watched her go.
Between working under somebody and being the boss himself, he preferred being the boss. He had ambitions of his own.
Having come into this Pokémon world, Vance had no wish to live out a meek little life at the bottom of the heap; if that was what he wanted, he would never have joined Team Rocket in the first place.
He meant to climb. He meant to live well and stir up wind and cloud. He could not bear it — that others could do it and he could not.
All the more so with the system to help him. As long as he went a step at a time and stayed careful, getting somewhere was only a matter of time.
"Roar. Boss, why didn't you let me out? I'd have shown that woman what I'm worth. I don't like seeing you looked down on."
Gyarados said it across their telepathic link.
"No need for it. Remember this, Gyarados: there's nothing wrong with hiding what you've got. It often has an effect nobody sees coming."
"Is that so."
"Mm. That's my advice."
Man and Pokémon talked as they went, leaving the spot and striking out to explore in one direction.
"Strange. I've searched this long and still nothing — not so much as a trace."
Vance stopped at a heap of rocks, puzzled.
By rights, even a Pokémon on the move leaves traces behind it.
"I'll try somewhere else first."
Since he could not find it, Vance went to look at the others; he still remembered which way several of the other "airdrops" had fallen.
After he had gone, a figure appeared on the spot, looking off in the direction he had taken.
"Roar, roar—"
"Hisss—"
Vance travelled on his powers, passing a wild Pokémon that could not have struck at him even if it had tried.
Before long he came to the foot of a mountain, where a scene of wreckage met his eyes, with several bodies lying on the ground.
The strange part was that the bodies showed no wounds on the outside, only a thin line of blood at the neck. That, presumably, was where the killing had been done.
The Pokémon were the same. Dead from a single blow.
Vance's brows drew down. This "beast" was no weak thing.
"Boom—"
Away in the distance a great crash went up, with the violent ripples of a battle behind it.
Vance looked around once, found nothing of value, and set off to see what was happening over there.
He was late again. By the time Vance arrived he was just in time to see a Poké Ball draw in a Drowzee, after which the ball was taken up by some force and floated over in front of a beautiful girl.
The girl was Cerise, who had parted from Vance not long before, and she was looking at the ball in her hand with satisfaction all over her face, as though what was inside pleased her a great deal.
Beside her stood two men and a woman, each with a Pokémon out, set up to strike together.
Seeing it, Vance did not show himself. He kept to cover and watched quietly.
*If it pleases her like that, it can't be an ordinary Drowzee. Could this round of "airdrops" be a benefit, then? Pokémon with excellent aptitude, put out for this intake to catch?*
Vance guessed at it privately.
"Cerise, where are we going next?"
One of the two, a young man, stepped forward and asked it.
"We keep looking. While we're collecting resources and points — I've noticed the aptitude on these Pokémon is good."
"Yes."
The four of them packed up, left the spot and set off into the distance.
A little later Vance's figure appeared there. With the power of an Intermediate Psychic behind him, they could not have found him unless he exposed himself on purpose.
This round of airdrops had also flushed out a number of people who had been hiding in the shadows. To have survived this long they were clearly no fools, but people with brains and strength both.
Which was the point of the trial, and the kind of talent Team Rocket wanted.
Vance made a circuit and spotted several familiar faces, all of them people who had stood out back at the base — some with ability, some with connections.
By now, most of the survivors had done as Cerise had and formed small teams, each team with a leader, and the teams fought among themselves over the resources they turned up.
The "airdropped" Pokémon were generally of good aptitude, their fighting strength stronger in some and weaker in others.
Among these Pokémon, though, Vance found some that were "off".
Some of them had energies at odds inside them, their life force now surging, now guttering, badly unstable.
The one that stayed with Vance was a peculiar Houndoom.
The Houndoom's fighting strength was extreme, and it was savage and bloodthirsty with it; it wiped out two small teams and a number of Pokémon colonies one after another, and the state it left people and Pokémon in was cruel to look at.
What was more, an evil energy hung about it, and in battle it used Confuse Ray, Curse, Shadow Claw and other Ghost-type moves.
That shook Vance badly. A Houndoom is a Fire and Dark dual-type; it has nothing whatever to do with the Ghost type.
Vance did not go looking for trouble with the Houndoom. It was Elite-class already, and more than he could match by force at present.
Unless he had to, he had no wish to fight it.
Besides the Houndoom there was a Leafeon with Fire-type power mixed through it, and a Golduck the colour of earth all over — strange, but bursting with fighting strength, and unusually cruel in temper as well.
With dozens of "airdropped" Pokémon added to it, Trial Island had grown considerably "livelier", and for anyone not strong enough, surviving it had got harder again.