Vance was taken aback as well. The business had been settled this quickly, and the trio happened to be right there, so there was no need to go looking for them at all.
"Your Chief is here as well. Have you anything you want to say to him?"
Giovanni put in a word to let them know that Vance was present.
"Ah, the Chief is there too?"
Meowth said it in surprise, and James and Jessie crowded in front of the camera with him.
"Mm. I'm here."
The camera turned and Vance appeared on the screen, looking back at the trio.
"Chief, you're safe and well, that's so good to see. We were all worried about you."
James said it, and Meowth and Jessie nodded together.
Vance had been the one who saved them at the time; without him it would have gone badly.
"It's all over now."
Vance inclined his head. The attitude of the three of them pleased him a little. Saving them had not been wasted, and they had the sense to be concerned about him.
After a few more words he handed the view back to Archer.
"Boss, I have a new finding to report. We have swept ten sites one after another, and we have confirmed their technology; it has genuinely come on. Pokémon on the level of Darkrai have already appeared, at the Near-Champion stage, with considerable strength."
Archer made his report.
"Darkrai? Bring their files back."
That caught Giovanni's interest, and he told Archer to bring the files back.
"Sir."
"Did you come across their High Priest?"
"No. The man has not shown himself for a long while, since you defeated him last time. The affairs of the order are handled by these so-called Grand Elders, and there was no trace of them either."
"Tiresome."
Giovanni's brows drew together slightly. That lot were nothing much in strength, but they were very good at running away — like rats.
"Then don't bother going. What are your plans after this?"
Once he had rung off Giovanni looked at Vance and asked what he had in mind.
"I intend to take part in the Indigo League Conference first, sir."
"The Indigo League Conference, is it. Very well. Arrange your own time for the present, then. And you needn't concern yourself with Dark City any longer."
Giovanni gave a nod as he said it.
"Sir."
Vance answered respectfully and took the arrangement. Not having to serve as Branch Chief of the Dark City branch meant that much less business, and that much less of his energy spent.
A few more instructions, and he was sent off.
*This attack has actually taken a few things off my hands, as far as I'm concerned. The only pity is that I can't settle the score with that man myself.*
Archer's display just now had shown the man's body. He was dead.
That score could no longer be settled.
Several days later Archer and his party came back to the base, and they had brought something with them.
Inside the base an area had been cordoned off, and any number of people in white coats went in and out of it.
"The three of you have done very well. You are worthy of members the Boss has taken notice of. Finding this thing is to your credit, the three of you."
Archer said it to the trio by way of praise.
In a device in the room lay a mass of black matter, and under the infusion of various kinds of life energy it had begun to give the faintest of responses and was slowly developing.
It had all come from the Godbeast Gang base they had destroyed, and this black material had been found first by Meowth and the other two, who had reported it to Archer.
When Archer had seen it he was overjoyed, and called the trio lucky charms for finding a thing of that importance.
With this, and with the technology they had taken earlier, they could set about some research of their own.
"Not at all, not at all. It's an honour for the three of us to be able to help the organisation. It's no more than our duty."
The trio were all modesty as they accepted Archer's praise.
Grinning all over their faces, the trio came out of the research site and set about discussing where to go next.
They had been recalled to headquarters now, and had a piece of credit to their names.
"Let's go and call on the Chief, and thank him to his face for saving our lives."
James suggested it, and Jessie and Meowth agreed with one voice.
Half an hour later the trio arrived at Vance's quarters.
"Chief, where are you off to next?"
The thanks over, they turned to what came afterwards.
"I'm not your Chief any more. There's no need to go on calling me that. What I'm going to do next is a secret for the time being."
Vance said it with a laugh.
"Meowth, and here we were thinking we could go on following you, Chief."
Meowth said it in surprise. Leaders who were generous and who would put out a hand to protect them were not easy to come by, and they had thought they might go on following him.
"The organisation has better leaders than me, well worth following. I'm going to be busy for a good long while from here on, and I hope the three of you will keep at it."
"We will, Chief."
"There's no need to stand on ceremony with me. I hear you brought something important back from the Godbeast Gang's ground. What was it? I'm rather curious."
Vance said it cheerfully, changing the subject.
"With anybody else we wouldn't say a word, but as it's you, Chief, we won't hold back. It's to do with Darkrai's remains. Going by the methods in those files, Darkrai can be brought back to life from them, and controlled as well."
James said it honestly.
"Darkrai, is it."
Vance nodded. He had not expected that. He had heard the Alakazam speak of it before — and now Team Rocket had got a line on it?
Last time Blaine and one other had gone and seemed to have come away with nothing, a wasted trip. Who could have said the road would turn like this?
And the "result" was here to be seen at Team Rocket headquarters.
"It's a possibility, not a certainty, meowth."
Meowth put in from beside him.
"Mm. That sort of thing can be left to the doctors to busy themselves with. We wouldn't understand any of it. And you? What are your own plans?"
Vance asked where the trio were going next.
"We don't know. The Boss has told the three of us to move freely. We'd meant to go with you, Chief, but since you're off on a secret mission we'll go and catch rare Pokémon instead. We hear there are a great many rare Pokémon around Pallet Town, so we're planning to go and have a look there."
James's eyes shone as he came to that.
"Good grief, Pallet Town?? The three of you would really dare?"
Vance got rather a shock. They had no idea what they were dealing with, and they had actually set their sights on Pallet Town. Did they not know that it was a place even Boss Giovanni gave a wide berth?
Three green young fools, and this was what they had set their minds on!