Pewter City sits at the foot of a range of rocky mountains, rich in resources and full of Rock-type Pokémon, and thanks to that the city has grown at speed.
Pewter City also has a famous Gym, the Rock Gym, whose Gym Leader at present is Flint, a Trainer of long standing.
Just then, on a stretch of open ground outside Pewter City, rolling thunder rose again and again. There were Pokémon fighting out there.
"This is bad, they've found our people. They're pinned down out there!"
Percival and his men had reached the area too, and were looking out at the group that had been surrounded.
The men who had been surrounded were the ones they had come to meet on this mission, and the ore was on them.
Because of the particular properties of the ore, it could not be put into a spatial item either. It had to be moved the original way, carried by hand.
As things stood, the Team Rocket side was hemmed in by several times their number, and thoroughly on the losing end of it.
"Commander, that Gym Leader Flint is there as well."
"It doesn't matter. I'll deal with him myself."
Percival started forward, moving fast, and at the same moment his Pokémon flashed out of its Poké Ball and charged into the crowd.
Seeing their own boss go in, the men behind him went in after him.
"Before I made my breakthrough, Flint would have been a difficult one. Now it makes no difference. You get ready to receive them. The moment I have our people out, we leave. This is no place to linger."
Percival said it to the men with him. Pewter City was not far away, and the longer this dragged on, the worse for them.
"Sir."
With the surrounded men in real danger, Percival came charging out, and with an Elite-Four-class power joining the fight the situation turned around in an instant.
"Shhk—"
A Pokémon like a shadow passed swiftly through the mass of them, and cries of pain came from everywhere it went.
A few charges and the ring around the men was broken open.
It was a human-shaped Pokémon wearing what looked like Japanese samurai armour, with blades on the top of its head, on its limbs and at its belly, the one on its head yellow.
Bisharp. A Steel- and Dark-type Pokémon, a powerful kind, and one that kills its enemies with the blades it carries on its body.
The pressure that came off it was particularly unnerving. Pokémon that faced it stopped where they stood and shook, as though something terrible had set its eyes on them.
"Percival, your Bisharp has broken through to Elite-Four-class!"
On the League side, a thickset man with narrow eyes said it heavily.
This was the Gym Leader of Pewter City, Flint, a Gym-class Trainer of long standing who held Pewter City for the League.
"Hahaha, quite so. You've got in my way a good many times, Flint, and today those accounts want settling properly."
Percival answered, and there was real satisfaction in his voice. He and this Gym Leader had had no small amount of "dealing" with each other. Now he had broken through to Elite-Four-class while the other man was still feeling his way about at Gym-class — so it looked as though, along with finishing the mission, he could be rid of an old rival today.
Once this Gym Leader was dealt with, he would go back to the organisation with the strength of an Elite-Four-class man behind him, and he could take the post of Branch Chief.
"Settling accounts? Yes, they want settling properly."
Flint showed no alarm at all when he heard it. He looked entirely at ease.
"Hm?"
Seeing him like that, Percival felt something was wrong.
"Clap, clap, clap. Come out."
Flint struck his palms together as he said it.
"Kreee—"
A magnificent Pidgeot appeared in the air, and from the terrible pressure coming off it, this was an Elite-Four-class Pokémon as well.
On the Pidgeot's back stood a man in the uniform of an investigator, watching him with cold, indifferent eyes.
"This is bad!"
The moment the man appeared, Percival felt it go wrong inside him. He realised this might well be a trap.
He knew the newcomer too: an Elite-Four-class investigator of the League, a powerful man with a long-made name, not somebody a man who had only just reached Elite-Four-class could stand against.
"Bisharp, finish him."
In that instant Percival made his decision — deal with the weaker Flint first, and face the Elite-Four-class power in the sky afterwards. There might still be a hope of escape that way.
"Shhk—"
Bisharp took the order and turned into a blurred streak, rushing toward where Flint stood, the blades on its body glinting cold.
"Rrrooar—"
A terrible pressure rose up across the field, and a vast beast came boring up out of the ground. Flint stood on the creature's head, smiling down at them.
Another Elite-Four-class Pokémon, and this one a Steelix.
"This is bad!"
"Your last day has come."
Flint said it with a smile, and then gave his order for battle, and the Pidgeot above came diving down.
"Boom—"
...............
"Why is it taking so long?"
"Don't be impatient. The Commander's probably busy slaughtering League dogs, and he'll be on his way back now."
"True enough, true enough. His lordship the Commander's probably killed his way clean past the time, hahaha."
Vance took no part in the discussion. He kept his eyes on the direction Percival and the others had gone.
"Hahaha, Commander Percival's coming, here he comes."
There in sight was a tall figure in Team Rocket uniform, standing some way off, coming slowly toward them with a number of people beside him.
Through the mist-filled wood, coming slowly closer.
Vance's brow drew in, and he quietly moved to the back of the crowd.
Something was wrong.
That was his instinct, and it pushed his psychic senses out to probe the area without his thinking about it. When those figures came inside his range, he saw it through the mist: that was Commander Percival's corpse.
At that, Vance paid no attention to anything else. While nobody was looking at him he used Teleport outright and ran for it, breaking away to the rear as fast as he could go.
If he did not run now, a moment later he would not get away at all.
Anyone could work out what it meant that someone had killed an Elite-Four-class Trainer. Whether he warned the others made no difference — perhaps not warning them gave him a better chance of getting clear of this cursed place.
And the men left behind were watching for their Division Commander to come home in triumph.
"Slap—"
In full view of all of them, Percival's corpse fell to the ground, and the shock of it stopped every man there from thinking.
What was it they were seeing? The Division Commander they had revered like a god was a corpse.
The scalps of every Team Rocket man there crawled. Cold went straight up through the tops of their heads, and their whole bodies chilled.
"The C— the Commander is dead!"
"Hahaha. Go along with him, then."
From the sky above came a cold, pitiless voice, and a Pidgeot came diving down.
"Boom—"
Vance did not dare so much as look back at the noise behind him. He burned power recklessly to move faster as he fled.
What was happening back there he could have worked out with his backside.
This time Team Rocket had been set up, and the losses would be heavy.
That Division Commander Percival, who had made such a handsome entrance, was dead, and the squads left behind — including the two Squad Leaders from his own branch who had come along for the free ride — would all be left there.
"Not even thirty minutes of looking good."
From the Commander's arrival to the Commander's death was under half an hour. Nothing to say to it, really. Heaven makes fools of men.
Vance lay flat against a tree trunk, holding his breath, keeping everything still, even his heartbeat down to the faintest movement.
Up in the sky, four or five riding Pokémon came this way, found nothing, and went on at speed toward the source of the explosions.