"What are you laughing at? Though you may as well laugh now. After this there will be no more of it."
Gerald Farrow, seeing the smile on his face, said it with a smile of his own.
With so many Pokémon on his own side, in quality as in numbers, the advantage was enormously his.
Could it be that the array they had drawn up had frightened the man out of his wits?
Ha ha. The thought of it made him laugh.
"Then let us try it."
Vance took up his Poké Balls and threw them, and the next moment Gyarados, Slaking, the Zweilous and the rest came out of them.
"Rraah, rraah—"
Gyarados and the others appeared with a roar.
There were four Near-Champion opponents facing them, and they were not afraid of it.
"Good, good, all very good. I am well satisfied. You really are my lucky star — the man himself, and his Pokémon too."
Elder Vayne looked over Gyarados and the rest and said it with great satisfaction.
Here was more than one bird with a single stone.
He would not shrink from it even at the cost of offending the League; and besides, if the loose ends were tidied away neatly enough there would be no offence at all — and if there were, then there were.
Their Sacred Order had no intention of tying itself to the League, and did not have to act by reading the League's face.
"Alakazam."
When Alakazam came out, the several of them were plainly taken aback for a moment.
But once they saw that it too was a Near-Champion Pokémon, they were easy again.
"Good, good. So this is the card in your hand? One would never have guessed. A pity — this old thing cannot save you."
Elder Vayne said it sharply, and then signalled all three Legendaries to charge.
Beside him Gerald Farrow and Wren sent out their Pokémon as well, ringing the place about to keep Vance from running again.
With Moltres and the other two there, taking Vance was as good as done.
"Viridian Power — out!"
The Viridian Power, vast and mighty, burst out all at once and rolled away like a tide.
Vance opened out the Master-class Viridian Power with everything he had and laid it at the same time over Gyarados, Alakazam and the rest, with the larger share of it going to Alakazam.
The Master-class stood level with Elite-Four-class to Near-Champion; and his Viridian Power had come from the system, filled to the brim without a day's training, with the skills and the working of it poured into his mind of themselves.
And now the level of energy Vance was letting out had reached the peak of the Master-class, which is to say the peak of Near-Champion; and when it settled on Gyarados and the others they were strengthened enormously, far beyond anything before.
Alakazam, with the larger share, and a Pokémon of Near-Champion strength to begin with, gained the most of all from the Viridian Power settling on it. 72... 73......... 78... 79 — it was only at level 79 that its presence levelled off.
Level 79 was nothing weak among Near-Champions; it stood in the later reaches of that grade.
Gyarados and Slaking shot up further still, from level 61, newly into Elite-Four-class, to level 70, at the very peak of it.
"Rraah—"
Out of Gyarados's body burst a hazy blue vapour of water, giving off a mysterious presence: that was the power it had taken from Suicune before, which chose this moment to answer, and gave it the last push it needed.
Gyarados's energy level came to 71, and carried on up to 72.
A Gyarados of Near-Champion strength had appeared!
"Rraah, rraah—"
Power on that scale left Gyarados feeling "stuffed full". Here was another new country altogether.
Slaking and the Zweilous rose to level 70, but something seemed to be wanting; they never broke through, and stuck at that stage.
"Grrr—"
Seeing Gyarados come into Near-Champion strength, Slaking was not content to be left behind. It gathered its power and, while Vance's Viridian Power was on it, made a run at the Near-Champion stage; it tried a number of times and none of them served — it always fell that little short.
The Zweilous tried a few times too, could not break into Near-Champion either, and gave it up; to have felt power on such a scale at all was enough for it.
Blaziken and Aerodactyl went straight up into the later reaches of Elite-Four-class, both of them at level 68.
"Not bad, not bad. The strengthening the Viridian Power gives is still more than I looked for."
Having strengthened six Pokémon, Vance looked at what they were now and nodded, satisfied.
The newer team he did not send out; he put the weight of the strengthening on Gyarados and the rest.
On Elder Vayne's side there was alarm. How, out of nowhere, had so many powerful Pokémon sprung up over there?
The Alakazam above all, which had been decrepit with age, was now as though it had been drugged: full of life and in splendid condition.
And its presence was frightful, past that of the three Legendaries on their own side.
"He must not be allowed to get away. We have offended him past mending today. The man is terrifying, and he has hidden himself this deep besides, which makes him a schemer. He is this strong already; give him time and the consequences do not bear thinking of. He must be taken today — dead will do."
Elder Vayne said it heavily, and then set about putting heart into the other two.
"What he has done over there is a temporary strengthening. We have four Near-Champions to his two. The advantage is greatly ours."
"Mm."
"We shall do our utmost. Having come today, there is no patching it up now."
Gerald Farrow said it with a face like thunder. Matters had come to the point where there was nothing to do but see it through to the end.
In his heart he was thankful as well: it was as well that the man had been drawn out now, and that Elder Vayne was there to catch what fell — on his own he could never in the world have dealt with him.
As it was, with Elder Vayne there, three Near-Champion Legendaries, his own Pokémon besides, and Wren's Darkrai and Raikou and the rest, their chances of winning this were very good!
"Those two are mine."
Alakazam said it, pointing at the Zapdos and the Articuno up in the sky.
Having told Vance, it vanished from where it stood and appeared the next moment out on the field; a sweep of the hand that held its spoon cut the two Pokémon off, shut them into one space along with itself, a world of its own making.
With its psychic power called up, it held the two Legendaries down.
"Ha ha ha! What a pleasure. That I should see such a day myself!"
Alakazam had supposed that nothing waited for it but a slow death; it had never thought to have a moment of glory left.
At the same time it wondered how Vance had grown so strong so suddenly. The Viridian Power was at a level of energy high enough to pass its own.
"Moltres is yours, Gyarados."
"Rraah—"
Gyarados gave a roar and raised a wave that reached the sky; the hilltop came down at once and the water poured over it, turning the place into a marsh.
Gyarados dimly felt the Water-type force around it, and reached for it and turned it to use, driving off the heat of the Moltres.
"Kreeee—"
Moltres gave its cry, and flame came down in stroke after stroke, so hot that before it came near, the water beneath Gyarados was already steaming and going up as mist.
The Fire-type force of that whole space came sweeping in again.
Its Fire-type moves gained something in force by it, and where water and fire met, the Hydro Pump was actually held down.
"Whoooosh—"
Gyarados raised the water again and swept aside the blaze that came rolling in.
In that exchange it was plainly getting the worse of it.
Its grip on Near-Champion power was not yet what it should be; but Gyarados was learning as it fought, and had some feeling for it by now.
Against Moltres it grew steadier and steadier.
"Boom—"
They traded another blow, and Gyarados and Moltres both fell back.
"Very good, Gyarados. You're coming on fast."
Vance said it to encourage it. From not being able to manage the thing at all, Gyarados had in a bare dozen exchanges got a first hold on Near-Champion power, which was very quick going.
"Rraah—"
Gyarados answered, and shot a Hydro Pump up at the Moltres that was about to come down out of the sky.
"Kreeee—"
Moltres beat its wings lightly, went round the Hydro Pump and cut down with Air Cutter; the fire force around it came with the blow and made of it a stroke of flame!
Then a Fire Spin came sweeping down after it, the two together breaking through the Hydro Pump that barred the way.
Gyarados was a Pokémon rich in fighting experience too. It changed its move at speed, and shield after shield of water gathered in front of it, set slantwise across the blow.
"Bang, bang, bang—"
Every one of Moltres's attacks came down on Gyarados's defence.
"Rooaar—"
Out of the smoke a Hyper Beam shot straight at Moltres.
"Moltres, Protect!"
"Kreeee—"
The Hyper Beam struck with all its force on the front of Moltres and drove it away, a very long way back.