Vance set it out at leisure, and brought out a number of terms peculiar to Dialga and the other supreme Legendary Pokémon, which Cynthia found remarkable.
In this line Vance really did know something.
It roused Cynthia's interest, and she brought out other subjects of theology — ancient ritual implements, the objects of their worship — and went on to the relations between the ancient kingdoms and the Legendary Pokémon.
On every one of them Vance could say a thing or two. He was not as deeply versed in it as she was, but it was no small achievement all the same.
Nor was Vance talking nonsense. There was substance in it; he really had made a study of these things.
Besides his own research, part of the knowledge the system had poured into him bore on the matter as well.
Which left the range of what he knew wide beyond the reach of ordinary people.
Professor Oak lifted his steaming cup and watched the three of them talk. On this subject Steven too had a few things to say.
He had dipped into the matter of the ancient Legendary Pokémon himself.
They sat there a good long while before they took their leave.
"Vance — remember to have that research out early. Get in touch with me if you need anything."
Professor Oak pressed it on him as they were going.
"I will, Professor Oak."
Vance waved, and he and the other two went out.
"Until next time, Vance. I shall look for great things from you at the Conference."
"There will be."
They talked a little longer and exchanged contact details.
Cynthia invited him to come to the Sinnoh region when he had time and study theology together with her.
Then the two parties went their separate ways.
The two of them had still to press on to the Indigo Plateau. They had come by way of Celadon City this time because Professor Oak was here and it lay on their road, so they had called on him — and who would have thought that Vance would end up the principal figure of the visit, with the ability to research a new type in him?
Now the call was paid, and each of them naturally had their own business to be getting on with.
"An unlooked-for piece of luck. The discovery of a new type belongs to me and to nobody else."
Vance murmured it. This discovery of a new type he had taken for himself, and without standing on ceremony about it.
So far as Vance knew, the time when the Fairy type came out was still a long way off; he had time enough and to spare.
Publishing it after the Conference would do well enough.
When the Conference came he would take the victory, and then bring out this achievement; that should be enough to find him a good position within the League.
The thought satisfied him, and he turned and set off into the distance.
There was still some time in hand; first he would bring up the strength of the Sandslash and Gastly and the rest.
Training for Gyarados and the others went on as usual, and could be carried on along the road as they seasoned themselves; only the fighting was hard to arrange, Elite-Four-class Pokémon being genuinely difficult to find.
Fortunately Gyarados and the rest had excellent aptitude; so long as he provided food enough, their energy levels crept steadily upward.
This time Vance chose to travel on Aerodactyl's back, and this time nobody came to stop him. Had anyone tried, Vance would only have had to put in a little work: either send them inside, or send them below.
They came down within the bounds of other cities and crossed them along the way, and in the course of it the Sandslash and the others came out often, fought hard with the Pokémon along the road, gained battle experience and sharpened their own skills.
Several more days went by, and on this day Vance came to a stretch of coast. He looked at the map in his hand: this was within the bounds of Vermilion City.
"Hwooosh—"
A sea wind came at them, faintly briny. Standing on the sand of the beach, the Sandslash looked out at that vastness of sea, at the tide coming in and going out, and was rather shaken by it; this was the first time it had ever seen the sea.
The water in the air that came at its face did not sit well with a Ground type such as it was.
"Ssh-ssh—"
The Sandslash turned its head to Vance and asked him why they had come here.
"Seasoning. You'll fight Water-type Pokémon here. In the battles ahead there will be no getting away from fighting Water types."
Vance explained, and sent Onix out as well. Since they had come here, they might as well have the experience of it.
Once Onix was out, facing that boundless sea and feeling the haze of water hanging over everything, it too showed its reluctance in its face.
It did not like this place at all.
A slap of its tail, a stirring of the power in its body, and it lifted the sand off the ground and pressed it over itself. The sand, baked by the sun, held its warmth and shut the damp outside away, and Onix felt easy at once.
Both of them had the Ground type in them and were held in check by Water, so it was only natural that they should dislike it — Onix more so than the other.
"Get ready. Here at the water's edge, in the shallows only; we won't go deep."
Vance made a point of it.
Onix and Sandslash were both ill at ease with it, but they nodded all the same and steeled themselves to it.
What the Trainer said was true enough: in time they would meet Water-type Pokémon.
"Slaking. Go and find a few that are about right."
Vance sent Slaking out as well, gave it its instructions, and set it to work.
Elite-Four-class Pokémon were hard to find, but Advanced and Elite ones were not; and Vance had a good battle plan in his head besides.
A battle plan made ready for Onix and Sandslash.
Slaking nodded, vanished from where it stood, and went to look for the Pokémon that were about right.
Before long it brought back a Tentacruel. One look told Vance its strength: level 45, not far off Onix's own; and given that Onix was at a type disadvantage, an opponent like that would do well enough.
"Fight your hardest and we'll let you go afterwards. Otherwise you can forget about leaving."
Vance said it to the Tentacruel.
"Rooar—"
Slaking let a ferocious air off itself as well, which frightened the Tentacruel into nodding over and over: it would give its full strength and would not hold back.
"Onix, begin."
The friendly negotiation with the Tentacruel concluded, it was Onix's turn to take the field.
In this place, with the sea and the air full of water, Onix was genuinely wretched; but an order from the Trainer it could only obey.
Its tail sank into the seawater and a chill ran through it, up from the tail and into its head, and it started at the shock of it.
Nothing for it. Fight, then.
Onix bore the discomfort and fought the Tentacruel.
"Ssh-ssh—"
Seeing Onix start like that, the Sandslash began to laugh. This Onix was really no good at all — more frightened than the Sandslash was. What a poor showing.
"Laughing like that — proving how formidable you are, is it."
"Heh heh, a bit more formidable than Onix, at any rate. I was the one who beat it, after all."
The Sandslash propped up its chest. On that subject it had a great deal of face to show.
"Very good. Then let's have you show us."
Seeing it like that, Vance felt no compunction at all, took hold of it with his psychic power and flung it into the air once more.
The Sandslash felt itself go weightless all at once and found that it was flying through the sky, with seawater below it — which was to say that the Trainer had thrown it up into the air and it was about to drop into the sea.
"Blast it, he's thrown me again!"
This was death, this was death. The Sandslash worked hands and feet together and still could not check its fall. With a splash it went into the water.
"Glug, glug—"
A doggy-paddle brought the Sandslash up to the surface, soaked through.
The Pokémon Slaking had caught arrived: a Kingler.
"Thud—"
Before the Sandslash was ready it took a blow from the great pincer.
"Ssh-ssh."
The Sandslash held its head. That hurt.
The Kingler came at it again and the Sandslash made to strike back, but it was in the water now, where it could not move as it did on land and was very slow; it had time only to put both hands up as a guard. With a bang it was hit again and sent flying some way off.
"Pffh—"
The Sandslash put its head up above the water and spat out a mouthful of seawater. Salty indeed.
Soaked from head to foot, it was thoroughly uncomfortable.
It shook its head and threw off some of the water, and the Kingler's attack was on it again.
The Sandslash's claws struck out and met the pincer, and the force that came back drove it off a good distance, so that it travelled some way through the water; and as it went the Sandslash moved its two feet a little and found that it could swim, which was a most curious feeling.
It put its tail to work as well, and swam, and picked up something of the art of fighting in water.
Both legs paddling and the tail moving with them, the Sandslash swam through the water.
When the Kingler attacked again, the Sandslash did not find it the hard labour it had been at the beginning.
The Sandslash had found its method.
"Not bad at all. The Sandslash is very nimble; the water is no problem for it."
On the shore, Vance nodded as he said it.
He looked over at Onix. Onix was acquitting itself well enough.