"Hss-kek-kek—"
Haunter looked itself over in its new body, not yet used to the state of it, turned a few circles in the air and floated over in front of Vance to show off how it looked freshly evolved.
"Mm, good. You've evolved. I'll put your difficulty up tomorrow."
"Hss-kek—"
Haunter backed away, and kept backing away. It had not expected that coming to show off how it looked after evolving would get it signed up for a hard schedule.
That would be far too tiring.
That was how Haunter saw it.
"Backing off won't help you, Haunter. You've evolved now — this is exactly the time to come on by leaps and bounds."
Vance said it clearly. This Haunter would not do at all; there was far too much idleness in it.
"Hss-kek—"
Haunter had no choice but to nod. It was tomorrow's business in any case, and it still had a whole night to put itself back together.
Tonight it could rest in perfect comfort, and tomorrow it would see whether it could go on sticking with the Onix and have an easier time of it.
"Heh."
Seeing it thinking, Vance had a fair idea what the little fellow was thinking about, and he had his answer ready.
While he was at it he opened the system and scanned Haunter's data, which came up on the system's display.
> **Name:** Haunter (male)
> **Type:** Ghost / Poison
> **Ability:** Levitate
> **Aptitude:** Elite-Four-class
> **Level:** 28
> **Moves:** Confuse Ray, Lick, Payback, Mean Look, Curse, Night Shade, Fire Punch, Shadow Ball, Rest, Substitute, Will-O-Wisp, Poison Jab, Taunt, Sleep Talk, Sludge Bomb, Imprison, Shadow Claw
Haunter's case was no more than he had expected. After this evolution, its Elite-Four-class aptitude had it holding that many moves at only level 28.
Haunter is a purple Pokémon with a round body and a pair of hands separate from that body, three fingers to each, hanging in front of it.
On either side of its face are spikes in groups of three; it has triangular white eyes with black pupils in them, and several sharp purple teeth in its mouth.
Its face looked grimmer than before, and more frightening.
Especially when it was flickering in and out of sight.
Haunter's evolution was a good thing, and the other Pokémon offered it their encouragement.
Looking at how greatly Haunter had changed, the Sandslash was rather envious. If it had had conditions like these back then, food enough and a Trainer's proper guidance, might it not have turned out better itself, and stronger?
Then the Sandslash shook its head. Things were not bad as they were. It would take them slowly; at worst it would simply have to work harder and grind it out against the rest of them.
It, the Sandslash, refused to believe otherwise: with its own brains and wits, and grinding away like mad, it would go on improving.
That night Vance and his Pokémon rested there, and went to sleep listening to the beat of the waves and smelling the faintly briny wind.
The presence of the Gyarados and the others meant that no Pokémon came to trouble them.
The time passed quickly. The sky at the horizon turned a pale fish-belly white, and it was morning.
Vance took his Pokémon with him and went on along the coast, back on the road of their training.
Naturally, Haunter's schedule was filled right up, so that there was no idling to be had.
Haunter was quite indignant about it. It felt deeply that Vance had it in for it — except that the point of having it in for it was its own good.
For days on end Haunter passed its time in that full and busy round; tiring as it was, there was something to be got from it.
The Sandslash and the rest were not left behind either, fighting and training side by side, sharpening their technique against an enemy and grinding away at their own strength.
Each of them grew in its own way.
Along the way Vance also took the Gyarados and the others out into the deep sea for a few matches with the Pokémon there, seeing to their needs as well.
Vance had always treated his Pokémon alike; pressing on with the new members did not mean forgetting old teammates like the Gyarados.
"Splooosh—"
Vance stepped up onto the shore and shook the water out of his hair. He had just been in the sea surfing, without using psychic powers or anything of the kind — purely on his own physical condition.
A wave of presence spread out, and with it came a clear, ringing dragon's cry.
Zweilous had broken through, from level 57 to level 58, catching up with the Gyarados, who was the highest-levelled of them at present.
"Rooar—"
After the breakthrough Zweilous drew its presence in and came slowly back to normal, a degree stronger again. It looked as though the moment it would soar through the sky was not far off now.
Zweilous gazed off into the distance, as though it could see its homeland, could see its own kind.
The awe-inspiring figure of a Hydreigon seemed to stand before it.
It, the Handsome, would go back.
It gathered its thoughts in again, and Vance had already come up to it and gone over its body once. It was in fine health, its foundation solid, with nothing hollow about it.
Satisfied with the result, Vance went over to a shadowy corner and pulled Haunter out of the shadow it was in.
"Hss-kek. What's all this, then?"
"Off you go, off you go. No more slacking. You haven't been in once today. Look at the Sandslash and the rest of them, how hard they're working — there's no slacking for you."
"Four days now, boss. Even a Tauros gets a rest, never mind me." Haunter argued back.
Four days of hard fighting in a row, and it was used to its evolved body now; with its power drawn together it had gone up a level as well, to 29.
Though the other Pokémon had done no worse than it had, that much was certain.
"Heh heh. Boss, it's about mealtime anyway. What if I go and fight after I've eaten?"
Haunter rubbed its hands together and laughed its heh-heh laugh.
"You slippery thing. After the meal, then."
"Heh heh. I knew you were a kind-hearted soul, boss."
Haunter laughed, pressed in close and waited for the food to be served.
And once the food came out it set to, both hands going without a pause, at tremendous speed.
"Heh heh. Boss, I'm not full yet. More, more."
Haunter set down its plate, licked clean and shining, and called over to Vance.
"You leave nothing of whatever you eat. All that energy you got out of evolving has gone into your eating, has it?"
Vance came over and put another helping in for it.
This Haunter — since evolving, ask it to go and fight and it was all sloth, but at the word "food" it was keener than anybody, shovelling it down. It had turned into a proper greedy ghost.
"Heh heh. You need a full stomach before you've the strength to fight."
"Eat, then, eat."
Vance said it with a laugh, thinking to himself that if it ate this much in Haunter's form, then once it evolved into a fat Gengar it would very likely eat more still.
That brought something to mind: a Gengar carries a space of its own, and things can be kept inside its body.
That way he could carry rather more, and keep it in there.
Given how greedy it was, he had better keep things it did not like to eat in there, in case the little fellow ate itself sick.
"Kek-kek. I always knew the boss was the best. Only the boss is good in this world — a Pokémon with a boss is a treasure—"
Haunter shrieked it out, singing some ditty it had picked up from who knew where.
Haunter being so cheerful made Vance happy enough; as for the idle streak in its character, that could be taken slowly. With him correcting it, it would come right in time.
"Kirl—"
Kirlia laughed behind her hand, watching Haunter clown about, and so did the rest of them.
Having a clown on the team was no bad thing; it kept the mood cheerful.