"The Celadon Forest is all one sky, and whoever meets the two of us hands over a smoke. Well, boy, today you've run into us. Isn't it about time you showed a little something?"
The two of them laughed as they blocked the road in front of Vance. In the sky behind them a Fearow had settled in a tree and was preening its feathers.
"That impressive, are you? And what sort of something did you have in mind?" Vance's face showed no alarm. He already knew what that Fearow behind them was worth: a level 27 Pokémon, nothing more.
"Simple. Leave that spatial pack of yours and that's the end of it. We're very easy to talk to."
"Oh. So the two of you are out here robbing people."
"Correct guess, no prize." The two of them were closing in on Vance as they said it, and when they judged the moment right, five more Pokémon appeared and came in together with the Fearow behind them. Everything they had said was so much noise.
"Boom—"
Vance Teleported at once, appeared somewhere else, and looked coldly at the two of them.
"Three Advanced Pokémon between you. Who gave you your confidence?"
Vance let out a cold laugh. Now that he had their strength measured, he was entirely at ease.
"This isn't good. The mark's a hard case. Brother Dragon, what do we do?"
"No turning back once the arrow's loosed. Kill him! Psychic or no Psychic — kill him!"
The one they called Brother Dragon set his face hard and immediately directed his Pokémon to keep attacking Vance.
"Kill him, then."
The man beside him gritted his teeth and went in as well.
Of the three Advanced-strength Pokémon on the field, two belonged to the one called Brother Dragon and one to the other man.
The three were a Sandslash, a Grimer and a Primeape, and together with the Fearow and the rest they closed in around Vance again.
"Out you come, Gyarados. There's work here."
Vance sent Gyarados out.
"Rooar—"
Gyarados appeared on the field, recovered well enough by now that fighting was no trouble.
"Gyarados, Aqua Tail."
Vance pointed at the Fearow in the sky, and Gyarados swept his tail down on the line of it, the Aqua Tail catching the Fearow square.
One shriek and the Fearow dropped straight to the ground.
"Hydro Pump!"
Gyarados followed it up, firing off a Hydro Pump that the Primeape blocked — only for the stream to turn, catch another Pokémon beside it and blow it away.
In the space of one exchange two Pokémon were out of it. Four were left on the field: three Advanced and one Intermediate.
"The boy has something about him."
Brother Dragon's eyes went grave as well. One move from a professional tells you whether he has it, and that attack of Gyarados's told him this man had it.
There was no knowing whether the boy had other Pokémon he had not put out yet, but if they had not come out, presumably they were not worth showing.
"Still, this is all he has. Today you couldn't get away if you had wings."
Wary as he was, he was not too frightened either. Even if the other side sent out the Vigoroth, that made it four on two — three Advanced plus one Intermediate against two Intermediate. The advantage was his.
"Whatever you say, it's four to two, and we're the stronger side. The advantage is mine!"
His partner beside him thought the same thing. How do you lose a fight that is already won?
But the way the battle went after that was not what either of them had imagined.
The other side had not even sent out the Vigoroth — he had put the Gyarados in and nothing else — and the crucial thing was that several exchanges had gone by and they still could not bring it down.
"Skree—"
One slip, and the Sandslash took an Ice Beam full in the front. Half its body froze over, and a Hydro Pump came straight after it, struck the Sandslash and blasted it away.
"Don't you know how to block? Primeape, don't you know how to work together — ah, can't you see it? Where's your Grimer? Can't you give a proper order?"
Seeing his own Sandslash badly hurt, Brother Dragon lost his temper.
"Grimer, use Mud Shot."
Beside him his partner hurried out an order, sending the Grimer in to help and drive the advancing Gyarados back.
But Gyarados giving ground was not Gyarados being driven back. It was so that he could come rolling in again.
He gathered power and came on once more, wave upon wave of water, using Surf.
There was a crash, and everything around was soaked and full of surging water.
"Brother Dragon, let's leave it, shall we? This mark's too hard to handle."
The man swallowed and said it hesitantly.
Brother Dragon's face was dark as well. He had never expected the fight to go this way, and then he said, "I doubt this ends well."
"It should."
Just then the Pokémon on both sides happened to separate, and the man saw it and shouted quickly, "Boy, you're in serious trouble. Do you know that?"
"Oh?" Vance signalled Gyarados to wait. He wanted to see what the other side was up to now.
"Do you know who we are?"
"Go on." Vance was in no hurry, and tossed Gyarados a pill while he was at it.
"We're Team Rocket! Heard of Team Rocket?"
The man said it ringingly, with a fine generous force in his voice.
"You're setting yourself against Team Rocket! If you know what's good for you, we can still talk this over properly."
"Heh—" Hearing that they were Team Rocket, Vance laughed.
"There's no harm in telling you one more thing either. This man here, known in the trade as Brother Dragon, and me — the two of us wiped out the Black Dragon Gang. Heard of the Black Dragon Gang? A very impressive outfit, and we wiped it out all the same."
That did interest Vance, and he watched the prick go on boasting.
"Heh. And how would you like to talk it over?"
"Frightened now, are we? Ha." Hearing that, the man took it for a man backing down.
"Simple. We'll leave it there for today. You share out some of what's in that pack of yours and we'll call it even. Otherwise I put the word out to the brothers all round here, and every one of them is Team Rocket — vicious, the sort that kill without blinking." The man kept up the threats.
"Showing off in front of the expert." Vance signalled Gyarados back and stepped forward himself. He understood the situation now and saw no reason to draw it out any further. Thick Psychic power welled up around him, and his figure abruptly vanished.
"Careful — Primeape, protect me."
Brother Dragon shouted it.
"Protect you how? With what, your head?"
"How is he this... fast—"
In an instant Vance had Brother Dragon by the throat, and the Primeape had no time whatever to come to the rescue.
"Crack—"
The neck twisted once, and the one called Brother Dragon made no more sound.
"Brother... Dragon."
"No rush. It'll be your turn soon enough." With that his figure flickered, avoiding the Primeape's attack, and when he appeared again he was behind the other man. He put out a ball of energy, but this time they were ready for it and the Grimer blocked it.
Gyarados moved as well. Water surged up all around him, and then he came down out of the sky as a spike of ice and struck the ground.
When the great crash had passed, the badly hurt Grimer stood in the middle of the field shielding its Trainer.
"Rooar—"
"I'll handle what's left. You rest."
Vance waved Gyarados off, then loosed his power to blast the Grimer aside and hauled up the man who had been talking so big.
"Spare me! I'm not Team Rocket, I'm Black Dragon Gang, and I didn't wipe out the Black Dragon Gang either. Who did it, I don't even know!"
The man begged at once. He could have slapped himself several times over for talking such big talk.
He also hated himself for being so hard-headed and so unlucky. Of all the people to run into, he had to meet this gentleman.
"Here's a piece of news for you. I am Team Rocket, and I'm the one who wiped out the Black Dragon Gang." Vance produced an enormous smile.
"Ah! You're the hard man himself!"
"Right. On your way."
Before he could say anything more the force closed in, the man's body gave one convulsion, and the breath went out of him.
For an Intermediate Psychic like him, killing a man was easier than killing a chicken.