Alex is currently walking through the busy street of Vermillion City. His reason was arriving in the city was to take the cruise ship named, S. S. Smith and reach Slateport city of Hoenn region. Since it was a pretty hot and sunny day,Alex has his sunglasses on to protect his eyes from the sun.
With him are his Pikachu, Swablu and the most recent addition to the team Dratini. These pokemon have never visited a port city as busy as that of Vermillion city. They are both surprised and scared by the amount of hustle-bustle of the city. Of course, the outgoing Pikachu and confident swablu aren't scared.
It is the meek Dratini who is scared by the number of people. Of course, the stares that the passing people give to Dratini isn't much help in this regard. Alex can infer from some of the gazes people give his Dratini, there might be the possibility of an ambush in case he enters an empty street.
But Alex has no such plans at this moment. He wants some peace for once and not get himself into unnecessary problems. His gut has already been telling him that his adventure in the Fire Paradise island would be worrisome, so he might as well enjoy the peace for as long as it might exist.
Even though Alex is passing through the busy streets where the chances of attacks are almost negligible, Gengar is still ready. He is also with Alex hidden in his shadow, ready to protect Alex in case his help is required.
Professor Oak has informed him that the meeting date of the members of ruins exploration is a little over a month from today. Alex has calculated that the trip from Vermillion City to Slateport City would take about half a month if there is no delay.
And that would leave another half month to get accustomed to the weather and environment of the Hoenn region which is said to have a warmer temperature compared to the cooler ones of Kanto.
Also, long-distance traveling can be tiresome, especially the first long journey through the sea.
But before that, he still has two days time before S S Smith embarks for Hoenn region.
Alex is currently in the markets by the seaport which sells many merchandises. Though there are not many things which can attract his attention, there are still some good things.
The stalls sell some small water type Pokemons like Shellder, Krabby, Magikarp, remoraid, etc. There are stalls for herbal medicines as well as berry store.
There are some stores which sold Pokemon equipment such as evolutionary stones, everstone, and even the rare Pokemon Moves TM are sold.
The artificial Pokemon move learner are pretty rare nowadays, for the complexity of this and the lack of enough understanding regarding this new tech has made their number in the current market pretty rare.
Alex just browsed through the numerous stalls until he arrived at the one which attracted his attention.
This store mostly has antique item but most of them are just fake. The person who sold the things here is a shrewd old lady who seems pretty good at reading the mind of her customer, for she sold a fake luvdisc charm to a couple while she sweet-talked the girl and makes the boy buy it, when she told that this charm makes the bond and love between the couple long-lasting.
As for the thing which attracted his attention, it was not him, but actually, Gengar who felt a certain pull from a certain purple crystal with black and red markings on it.
As he was passing by the stall, Gengar informed him about the pull he felt. Although Alex has no idea what it was, since it made Gengar yearn for it, means only one thing it is a powerful ghost type or poison type object.
But Alex never showed he wished to get that crystal. He looked over everything he found on the stall. He used his aura vision to look at the thinks through the sunglasses he has over his eyes.
The orb was rich in energy and Alex noticed three similar Crystal has the same amount of energy. Alex has a gut feeling that they may be of great use to him in the future.
His gut has helped him a lot in his journey so far and he doesn't feel it is wrong to once again believe on it.
He approached the stall and then asked the female vendor," How much are those?" He pointed at some other crystals on the stall. He didn't directly point at the four crystals which attracted his attention.
when Alex said that the female vendor's eyes sparkled as of she found her next prey, considering Alex's young age," Oh.. you really have great eyes. Your mother will like them a lot. for these, it would be six thousand dollars, How about I show you some other gems too?
Alex's eyes sparkled with glee and he almost agreed immediately but refrained himself and said, "Can you do a little cheaper? I have to buy some other things for my mother's birthday. If I spend my whole balance on it, then I cannot buy my other things." He tried to plead to the older woman.
Alex didn't hide his d_e_s_i_r_e for the gems and the fact that Alex was young, his failure to possess much and even if he possess that much cash with him, his inability to spend all of them in a bulk was within reason.
He has Pokemons with him and raising them is also expensive. So the woman didn't find any problem in his words. And the bargain began. In the end, the deal was done at four thousand five hundred dollars.
Both of them were happy from the deal. The
old female vendor managed to sell her junks at a sky-high price while Alex got four crystals worth the same amount of energy as the dragon scale he possesses at a cheap rate. The woman in her greed forgot about the Dratini he has around his neck which was way too expensive.
When Alex paid and collected his goods and was leaving, a voice from behind stopped him," Wait, I want to buy the crystals. "
Alex turned around to see two people, a boy and a girl around his age, they can only be a couple of years older than him not younger.
Alex observed that the girl was leading while the man followed behind her protectively acting as her guardian. The girl was dressed in rich attire, and everything from her manner to the posture of her spoke of her wealth. Alex has noticed this thing in only two people, Mr. Montenegro, and his son and Alex's friend, Bill.
So Alex has no doubt that the girl in front of him was rich.
" yes. Those crystals in your hands are pretty. I like them. Sell them to me. I will pay you twice as much as you paid for them " the girl said arrogantly.
Alex's eyes twitched at the declaration but he calmly replies, " They aren't for sale. I bought them for a reason and I will not sell them to you." After saying that Alex turns around to leave.
The girl doesn't like Alex acting like that to her and shouted out," Do you know with whom you are talking to? Do you have any idea what the consequences of your actions can be?"
Alex ignored all these and continued to walk away. The girl was angry and turns red and the boy by her side ran to Alex and held his shoulder tightly to stop him and said politely or as politely as he can on this situation, "Her highness is still talking to you. Please don't be disrespectful to her by walking away."
Although he spoke politely, it still possesses an underlying threat, and neither Alex nor his pokemon like threats very much.
And Pikachu showed his by almost sending a power thunderbolt at the boy, but Alex runs his hands under Pikachu's cheeks to calm down the agitated electric mouse.
He looked over his shoulder at the man who held his shoulders," please remove
your hand or I will remove it for you."
Although Alex words were plain, the threat was obvious, especially from the killing intent the boy felt from Alex made him freeze on spot.