While the Vigoroth was still torn, Vance came over and sat down in front of it with a smile.
"Well, Vigoroth? Was the roast to your liking?"
Whether it was the feeding or the memory of what he had shown it earlier, the Vigoroth was no longer as tense and awkward as before.
"It was all right."
"Why not come with me? I'm a Breeder — I can make energy cubes to suit your taste. And I'll make you stronger. I'll draw up a perfect training plan for you. You've seen the Gyarados; I trained it, and you've felt for yourself what it can do........."
Vance put the offer again.
"Of course, I'm also a Trainer who wins others over by virtue. I'll respect your decision."
*Won over by virtue??*
The Vigoroth thought of that devastating fist. The virtue in question did not seem to be the moral sort so much as the martial sort.
*Doesn't seem like a bad deal, though. He's strong, so he's qualified to be my Trainer. He can cook, so I'll never go hungry again. He'll draw up a training plan and help me get stronger, and once my powers are great and my strength is complete, what's to stop me walking away whenever I please? Hahaha, I really am too clever.*
The Vigoroth's mind raced, and it hit on another brilliant idea. Its eyes on Vance grew softer, and something in its attitude shifted.
"I, Vigoroth, have drifted through half a life, and my only regret is never having met a Trainer as wise as you. If you will have me, I will be your Pokémon."
The Vigoroth's voice came through by telepathy. For some reason Vance found it a little odd, as though he had heard the line somewhere before.
It hardly mattered. As things stood, the Vigoroth had given him its provisional approval, and Vance was confident that in the time ahead he could earn the real thing and make it a true partner.
"Hahaha. Having you join us, Vigoroth, makes us a far stronger outfit than we were."
After a round of persuasion from Vance, appealing to feeling and to reason alike, the Vigoroth joined the team and became his second Pokémon.
Vance was very pleased with that.
He thought highly of its future. If it evolved into a Slaking without being shackled by the Truant Ability, it would be a Pokémon on a level with a pseudo-legendary.
Vance took out his medicines and treated the Vigoroth's injuries, bringing it back to strength.
"Rroarr—"
The Gyarados cheered from the side at having a new partner. It approved of the Vigoroth's strength, and it welcomed the addition.
The Vigoroth, however, looked at the Gyarados coolly, with a touch of contempt. It was not this big oaf who had beaten it, it was the Trainer. So what exactly was the big oaf so pleased about?
"Welcome aboard, Vigoroth. That makes you little brother. You call me big brother from now on. As for our Trainer, boss or pooper-scooper, either works."
The Gyarados leaned in and said it happily.
"Big brother, little brother, what nonsense. I accept the Trainer. I do not accept you as any big brother. You can't even beat me — and I'm supposed to call you big brother? The way I see it, I'm the big brother and you're the little one."
The Vigoroth was having none of it, and did not agree with the Gyarados's position at all.
"???"
This was bad. The little upstart meant to usurp the throne and take its place.
It was the Trainer's number one Pokémon, and that was a position it would never surrender.
The air went tense at once. The two Pokémon locked eyes, and neither would give an inch.
Some days later, the sounds of battle rose again from the lake where the Poliwrath lived.
Gyarados and Vigoroth pressed forward together and closed on the Poliwrath in the water, and between them the two of them traded blows evenly with the Advanced-strength Poliwrath and held their ground.
That was what Vance had intended, and from the look of it the results were decent.
Out across the frozen surface of the lake the Vigoroth moved fast, closing on the Poliwrath, and drove out a charged Thunder Punch that met its Ice Punch and locked against it for several seconds.
"Rraargh—"
The Gyarados burst out of the water and bit savagely.
The Poliwrath drove the Vigoroth back at once and fired an Ice Beam, only for the Gyarados, sheathed now in ice, to carry the momentum straight through and send it flying.
It landed staggering, and before it could recover the Vigoroth's attack was on it again.
Wave after wave from the pair of them, and the Poliwrath found it harder and harder to answer.
It would never have thought two Intermediate Pokémon working together could press it this far.
"Not bad, Vigoroth."
The Gyarados said it with a glance at the Vigoroth beside it.
"You're all right too. Just that little bit worse than me."
"That little bit worse? Let me show you what your big brother can do."
With that the Gyarados charged forward again at the Poliwrath.
The Vigoroth saw it and joined in.
On the bank, Vance watched the two of them fight and nodded from time to time.
A few days together and the Vigoroth had settled in a great deal. It had accepted his training plan, and the training was producing the effect he had wanted from it.
Just as the Poliwrath was being driven steadily backwards, two presences came racing in from a distance.
Vance remembered those two. They belonged to a pair of Crawdaunt. They had shown up once before, when he let the newly evolved Gyarados out, but he had not broken through to Intermediate Psychic then, and with the Gyarados fresh from evolving he had played it safe and kept clear. He had not expected to run into the pair of them here today.
On second thought, it made sense for them to be here. They had turned up alongside the Poliwrath that time as well, so there was some connection between them — perhaps the Poliwrath had called them in.
"Their friends have arrived."
Vance said it in warning, telling the two of them to press the attack faster, while he himself vanished from where he stood and reappeared the next moment on the water in the path of the two Crawdaunt, facing them head-on.
"Roarr—"
The Gyarados went straight into Outrage, with the Vigoroth holding the front for it, and once Outrage was up it broke into a strange dance of its own, and its presence swelled again.
That was the Dragon-type move Dragon Dance, which gives the Pokémon using it a measure of added strength.
The two Crawdaunt had only just arrived when the water churned and sent wave after wave sweeping across at them, blocking the way forward.
Catching Vance's trace, the two of them opened their great claws and fired off stream after stream of bubbles — Bubble Beam — which struck the water where he stood and burst.
A violent effort, and they tore free of the psychic hold around them.
As Dark types, Crawdaunt have no fear of Psychic attacks, unless the psychic force exceeds what they are able to withstand; and Vance's present strength was still within what the pair of them could take.
That was another thing that differed from the games of his previous life. In reality there were immunities and type advantages, but they had their limits.
If an Elite-Four-class Psychic-type Pokémon faced an Elite-strength Dark type, in ordinary circumstances the Elite-Four-class Pokémon would win.
At the same tier of strength, the Dark type's chances were very good.
But a type advantage did not necessarily mean a certain win or a certain loss. It meant an enormous edge, no more; the outcome was still open.
Some exceptionally gifted Trainers could fight against the type matchup and win anyway, and even beat a stronger opponent with a weaker one.