Chapter 23 - Do You Still Want to Buy It?

Gan entered the house under the guidance of the Fatman, who didn't bother to give his name. Gan was the same, he didn't need to disclose his name, he had always kept his true name a secret. They would only know him as Agent X unless they got his League ID or he disclosed it to them.

Inside the house were two men that had stiff and cold expression; they showed no emotion. Their gazes landed on Gan, then they both came over.

"Hold it right there, we have to be sure that this guy isn't a fake." One of the men said.

"We need to inspect his ID to see if it's the real thing, we can't have any spies coming in here." They had problems back in Hoenn with a certain detective that could disguise himself really well.

The Fatman frowned, he had almost forgotten that he had to double-check these things. He had grown used to people being legit, so he sometimes never bothered to check.

"Hand over your ID, I hope it's real or we'll be forced to use deadly force." The burly man said coldly, as he suddenly gave off killing intent.

Gan could see that they were also trying to intimidate him, but he handed his ID over anyway.

"You guys better watch yourselves, you're climbing up the wrong ladder!" Gan scoffed. He couldn't show fear in front of these types of people or they'd take advantage of him. But behind his facade, he was shocked that he could feel a person's killing spirit, what was this!?

He noticed this before, but he didn't pay too much heed to it because it was a Pokemon, which was Beedrill, but Humans could do it as well?

"You've got a dirty mouth, we'll see!" The man glared at Gan, it was like he was trying to provoke a fight.

At this time, the Fatman was checking the ID and found it to be real.

"Shut the fuċk up! It's the real thing, stop bothering him, he's apart of Team Rocket!" The Fatman quickly diffused the situation.

"Tsk!" The man scoffed and walked away, he went downstairs somewhere afterward.

"Ignore that clown, he hasn't seen action in a while, so he's looking for trouble. Unfortunately, he's looking for the wrong people for that." The Fatman shook his head and signaled Gan to follow him.

Gan simply followed him silently to a stone room. The Fatman pushed a stone tile in on a wall, and just like that bookshelf from Pewter City's hideout, it opened up!

'Man, this is just cool!' Gan commended in his heart.

"Now for the worse part." The Fatman's mouth twitched. There were stairs they had to go down; there was no telling how many steps they had to descend down to reach the bottom.

"Not trying to talk about you guys or anything, but you people need an elevator or something." Gan shook his head as he couldn't help but say.

"I couldn't agree more." They both contiuned to descend down the almost never-ending stairs. Gan wasn't having any trouble but he was annoyed by the number of stairs. However, the Fatman started sweating profusely, his panting also didn't go unnoticed.

'At least this will help you lose a few pounds.' Gan looked at the Fatman and thought.

After about 8 minutes, they made it to the bottom of the spiraling staircase you'd only see in castle towers. They came to a hallway that had a rocky stone floor; there were several intersections going in many different directions.

There were surprisingly a lot of people here, he even spotted several Team Rocket Members going about their business here. Some were here to buy items that only appeared in Johto and some other regions, there were even some seeking to buy Pokemon.

"Give me a sec, I need to catch my breath." The Fatman bent over and started panting harder than before. Gan rolled his eyes, but he didn't complain and just waited instead.

"Phew, okay, so what type of Pokemon are you looking for? We have Kanto, Johto, and a few Hoenn Pokemon for sale." The Fatman stood, his face was plump, but he wasn't ugly, just fat. Gan wasn't into men or anything, but he was sure this guy would look good if he just lost weight.

"Kanto exclusive, for now. Show me all of you got on sale, I'd like some good and cheap ones with decent talent." Gan said indifferently.

"Hehe, that's easy, right this way." The Fatman's rolled jiggled with each step. "There are others here for Kanto exclusives as well since they operate here. But you'd think they would want something from another region to throw most people off, but no."

The Fatman shook his head, as he kept guiding Gan.

"Here we are, it's this room!" The room had double doors; there were trainers near this room, he had even seen a few coming out of the room. Gan didn't have to worry about some trap, but if things got ugly, he would summon all of his Pokemon to attack like a madman!

People could carry more than just 6 Pokemon, it was just a rule that the Pokemon League created. This was because they believed it to be the most 'balanced' way of training and battling. You could only challenge Gym Leaders and the League using the limited number of 6. This ruled had long spread across all regions of the world.

Entering the room, he saw many trainers going back and forth, they were skimming. There were cages with Pokemon in them, while some were in bigger cages. These Pokemon needed to have special collars and sometimes special cages to hamper the use of their Powers.

Their expressions were filled with grief, it clear as day to anyone who looked at them. The cages had labels on them to let anyone know what type of Pokemon was inside. However, you could just look at them through the cage and you would know.

Some cages were completely sealed off with you only being able to see the labels. This was probably due to the danger this type of Pokemon posed. Gan saw Machop, Mankey, Exeggcute, and even Pokemon inside fish tanks.

"So many to choose from, who will it be?" Gan said unconsciously. Of course, he checked their talent, but most of them had a talent of only 1 to 2 stars.

"You said you were looking for something cheap, we have 2 really cheap Pokemon you can check out. The first one, no one wants to buy it because of its condition, and the other one is a turn off for anyone near it."

"A sickly Pokemon?" Gan's eyebrows knitted, was it worth it?

"Yes, it's only malnourished I think, that's all." The Fatman scratched his head and said.

"Okay, show it to me." Gan agreed and decided to have a look for himself.

The Fatman quickly guided him over to have a look. This Pokemon was separate from the others that had been locked away. They were all caged next to each other but this Pokemon was by itself along with a few others as well. This must represent the sickly Pokemon that no one wanted to buy since it would cost a lot for medical treatment.

Gan took one looked instantly knew what Pokemon it was, it was a Growlithe that looked sickly. Its eyes were droopy, as it laid slump down in the cage. Its strength had been diminished, it was far skinnier compared to even the wild ones he had found in the past.

Gan scanned this Growlithe, after all, it was still a dog type Pokemon.

|Name: Growlithe (Heavily Weakened State)☠️

|Type: Fire

|Level: 24

|Ability: Flash Fire

|Potential: ★★★★

|Nature: Bashful

|Moves: FlameWheel| Bite| Ember| FireFang| TakeDown| Leer| (SP)CloseCombat|

Gan's eye went wide from surprise, it was a 4-star Growlithe! He had yet to get any Pokemon for his League Team, and Growlithe was surely a good choice. He had thought of getting either a Rapidash or Growlithe to be his fire type Pokemon. This was mainly for combat and for Seafoam island once he visited that location.

"Hmm, I guess I'll take it since it's so cheap." Gan sighed, but this was just an act. If Gan showed great interest, this guy might up the price.

With its state, it was clearly sick from other things, other than just malnourishment.

"Nice! I'll tag it as sold!" The Fatman grinned and tagged the cage to be prepped to go out.

"Good, good, so what about that other Pokemon you were talking about before?" Gan asked.

"Oh, that." The Fatman's expression turned green from disgust but he led Gan over to it anyway.

The cage was completely sealed up with no notably visible holes, but they weren't visible, so no one could see them. The breathing holes were quite small but he couldn't understand why they had sealed whatever Pokemon this was up so tightly.

"Here, take this." The Fatman handed Gan a gas-masked; this area was completely isolated and away from the other Pokemon. Gan scratched his head in confusion but he put the mask on anyway.

"I hope you're still interested in this Pokemon, it's been here for 3 months now, no one wants to buy it." The Fatman sighed. He would surely be rewarded if he could get a customer to buy their goods.

"I have to see it first, go, show me." Gan was interested, he wanted to see this Pokemon even more.

The Fatman walked over and lifted up the side of the cage; this revealed what under it, which was another cage that had big holes in it. This ultimately revealed most of the Pokemon, but he wasn't sure what it was.

However, despite wearing a mask, a foul sewage-like odor permeated the air. Gan's nose hairs felt like they were burn-off from the terrible smell. This caused Gan to take a step back, his eyes nearly rolled at the back of his head, as if he was going to pass out.

Gan still managed to analyze the Pokemon by using his perseverance.

|Name: Grimer

|Type: Poison

|Gender: Male

|Ability: Stench

|Potential: ★★★

|Nature: Careful

|Moves: PoisonGas| MudBomb| Mud-Slap| Sludge| Disable| Pound| Harden|

"This bastard is clearly doing this on purpose!" Gan knew that Grimer was shooting this terrible smell out on purpose to drive them away. It could contain this odor and even use it in combat to stave off and cause confusion to its opponents.

Its ability could cause a Pokemon to flinch if he came into contact with them.

"Grim...ssss!" Grimer called out its name halfway before switching it into a hiss.

The Fatman turned towards Gan with a strange smile, but Gan couldn't see his smile because of that mask. However, his eyes spoke for themselves, as if he was asking; do you still want to buy this Pokemon?

"............" Gan was silent.