"Whoa—"
The moment Darkrai appeared, a wave of astonishment went up below.
Nobody had dreamed that after the Legendary Raikou another Legendary Pokémon would come, and one which, by the look of it, was stronger than Raikou besides.
Darkrai stood higher in rank than Raikou as well.
"Darkrai!! How can there be another Legendary Pokémon!!"
Elspeth said it in a cry, full of disbelief.
Ordinarily, for one person to catch a single Legendary Pokémon was a great stroke of luck already. How could there be two?
She had worked so hard, had used every means she had, only to fight Raikou down. Was she to do the whole thing again?
But that was out of the question now.
The spectators in the arena were thoroughly excited by it; the faces of the several on the high platform, however, turned bad.
"I'll step away a moment."
With that Lance came down from his seat and went to where Elder Vayne sat below.
"Elder Vayne, what is the meaning of this?"
Lance came straight out with it, rebuking Elder Vayne, who had the air of a man enjoying a play.
"There's no need to be hasty, Lance. This is normal practice. There has been no breach of the rules."
Elder Vayne said it slowly and without hurry, his expression easy, not the least surprised, and he made light of Lance's angry words.
"This goes altogether too far. It is well outside anything an ordinary Trainer amounts to."
"Not at all, not at all. To my mind, so long as he commands his Pokémon in the normal way and his Pokémon obey his commands, there is no breach. Unless the League has other restrictions besides that one? If it does, then the oversight is ours and I am deeply sorry for it. For that, I can go down now and call Wren down and tell him to withdraw. My apologies."
Elder Vayne even stepped back and bowed, his old face full of contrition, as though he really would do it, and as though he knew nothing of the League's own competition rules.
Lance found this extremely hard to listen to. Whatever he might want to say, none of it seemed the right thing. It was intolerable.
Carried on like this, it made the League look as though it could not take a loss.
"Even so, two Legendary Pokémon is going too far. Do you not know what an ordinary Trainer's situation is? And the Pokémon after that — that's a Legendary too, is it?"
Pressing his own thoughts down, Lance said it.
"Ah, is that how it is. I am sorry. This really is a want of thought on our part. What I can do at present is to call him down; and as to what you say after that, there is none. That is already Wren's last Legendary Pokémon, there are absolutely no more."
Elder Vayne went on apologising.
Very much the picture of *say nothing, for if you say it I shall apologise and go and call him down*.
And by now it was too late in any case.
To call him down for no reason anyone could see — what would the spectators make of that?
And a Trainer, moreover, with a very high public profile, a Trainer with Legendary Pokémon, a firm favourite for the title.
"Let it go, Lance. He has the win this time, and the championship goes to him."
Bruno came over, gave Lance a pull, and then looked at Elder Vayne.
"If it were not for certain reasons we would still be enemies. Since we are working together now, I hope you can deal honestly. We'll let this one pass; if we lose, then we lose, and we own it. But we do not want anything of this kind again. If there is, I don't know about the others, but I at any rate will not stand on ceremony."
Bruno's honest face was all severity now, formidable without anger and with a great deal of menace in it.
"I understand. Next time, without fail."
Elder Vayne answered, his manner serious now too, with none of his earlier shamelessness about it.
"Hmph. You had better not play games. Just deal with Team Rocket properly. If there is anything of this kind again, I shall not stand on ceremony either!"
Lance said it after him.
Having said it, they had nothing more to say to the man, and the two of them went back the way they had come.
Elder Vayne watched the two of them go with a smile on his face.
Whatever else, the first step had been taken well; as for what came after, that could wait.
The League was not entirely for their Elite Four to decide either. Force mattered, that was clear enough, but besides force there was politics and there was administration in the way human society was put together.
If this side would not do, then find the other side. In the League as it was now, something suitable could always be found.
"Darkrai, Dream Eater!"
"Hoo—"
A streak of black shadow went clean through, drifting past the Pokémon on the field, and then the Shedinja was seen to drop straight down, with no movement in it at all.
The referee was conscientious enough to raise the flag in his hand, signalling that Shedinja was unable to battle and the victory went to Darkrai.
"Clap, clap, clap—"
"Nothing can touch Darkrai!!"
"Whoo— Darkrai, you beauty!!"
The spectators below celebrated this Darkrai in great excitement, without the least idea where the man or the Pokémon came from — and of course nobody was going to tell them.
Elspeth took the Shedinja back and drew a deep breath. The Shedinja had been her last Elite-Four-class Pokémon, and it had gone down in Darkrai's hands in under ten moves; there was nothing to be said about the two Gym-class Pokémon she had left.
Even so, she put both Pokémon out, to set a full stop to this tournament of hers.
Everything she had, and she had lost all the same, and had to leave the field with her regrets.
"Darkrai. What exactly is the Godbeast Gang planning, to bring out even a Darkrai."
Below, Vance watched that imposing figure of Darkrai's and turned it over.
This Godbeast Gang had gone so far as to produce a Darkrai. What was it meant to say? What were they setting out to show?
"What do you think they're after, bringing out a Darkrai as well?"
Vance asked Cerise beside him, setting her to think about it with him.
"I don't think you need to be thinking about that. You want to be thinking about how to handle that Darkrai. The next match, or the one after, you'll be up against him. I have a feeling this one is more frightening than Aurelian."
Cerise did not answer his question, but raised this instead.
"If I can beat him, I beat him; if I can't, then I can't. Getting to the last two is enough."
Vance answered straight out.
"There's that. This Darkrai is no ordinary Pokémon, after all. Strong as you are, you still can't handle it as things stand."
"Is that so."
Vance gave a small laugh and said nothing, reckoning it up in his own mind. It was time to let Gyarados and the others on to the field.
As for Darkrai, that would have to be fought before he knew.
The tournament went on, and two more of the last four were decided one after the other.
They were Vance, Wren, Aurelian and Emrys.
Vance knew what the other three were worth as well.
Aurelian: the line-up in his hands was Dragon type throughout, with three Elite-Four-class Dragon-type pseudo-legendaries, and other Dragon types besides.
Wren: at present a single Raticate, and two Legendary Pokémon.
Emrys had three Elite-Four-class Pokémon, no small fighting strength.
On the face of it, Vance's chances looked the slimmest of the four; all he had shown was that one Elite-Four-class fighter, the Slaking.
As for the Zoroark, odd it certainly was, but it was only Gym-class; in the rounds before the last four it could be shown off a little, whereas now it was quite unremarkable, and about the Onix, the Sandslash and the rest there was nothing to be said.
The one thing that would draw notice was that Vance was a power-user himself.
And even that, set beside two men who had Dragon-type pseudo-legendaries and Legendary Pokémon, looked perfectly ordinary.
Compared even with this Emrys it came off rather badly; it had a somewhat shabby look about it.
"Next, the semi-finals of this tournament: competitor Vance against competitor Emrys!"
The draw was out, and Vance had been lucky enough to draw this young man called Emrys.
As for the two "strongest", they had come up against each other.
That raised the crowd's expectations as well. Would the pseudo-legendaries take it next, or would the Legendary Pokémon win?
But that was the next match; this one was Vance against Emrys.