บท 75: Upcoming Auction!
Gan continued on his way, he would often be met with the gazes of a few officers at times. They questioned the many residences within the city, to the point of them being annoyed. Many of them asked questions about what was stolen, but the officers refused to answer these questions.
Gan had been questioned many times while walking down the street. By the time he reached the Pokemon Center, he had been questioned four times! There was no doubt that Gan was feeling quite annoyed by this point.
"I'll really have to lay low for a bit, at least for a week until I can exit the city," Gan concluded. Once he was in the Pokemon Center, he saw the same nurse from yesterday.
Once she spotted Gan, her expression fell a bit.
"I know why you're here, I'll go get them." Her tone was dull and blank, she stood up and slowly went to the back.
"....." Gan
Gan didn't say anything and instead, took a seat. Many younglings looked curiously at Gan, wondering what he did to offend the nurse.
After a few minutes, she came back with a basket of Pokeballs and handed it to Gan.
"What the..." Everyone who saw the large number of Pokeballs was shocked. Did all of these Pokemon need medical attention before all of this?
Gan dumped the Pokeballs into a sack before turning to leave the Pokemon Center without a word.
"Hmph!" The nurse gave a light harumphed but she didn't say anything—allowing Gan to leave peacefully.
Despite the officers questioning people and investigating many stores around town—everyone was still setting up their stalls regularly.
Before heading to the Black Market, he figured it was best to disguise himself this time around. Gan dropped by some strange shop that sold masks near the Black Market outer area. This place was located right before entering the slums of Viridian City.
Gan browsed around and decided to buy a mask that grabbed his attention the most. The mask was half black and half white, it looked just like the Phantom of the opera mask. Gan even got the hooded cape that came with it.
"Kinda edgy, but it will do." All he needed now was a suit to complete his outfit, but that was a waste of time to him, instead, he might end up sticking out too much. After leaving the shop, it was time to do what he came to this area to do.
'Time to head towards the Black Market.' As Gan ventured towards the Black Market, he spotted several people that looked thuggish. There were Rattatas rattling around in the trash and scurrying about.
A fight had broken out between two men, with one of them being severely wounded. Once the man was down, he was robbed of his belonging before the winner fled the area. Gan sighed but ultimately ignored all of this.
And there it was, it was that same house that appeared rugged and beaten down. It resembled a project of sorts, but it was more to it than that.
There were a few gang members sitting around the house playing dice. They wore black leather jackets with the Pokemon Koffing's image on the back of them. One guy was bald, some had buzz cuts, and one guy had a mohawk.
The minute Gan was close enough, their gaze wandered and landed on Gan's body. It was as if they were contemplating something, and Gan was sure it wasn't good.
Gan quickly flashed his Team Rocket Id, he didn't need them to see his face on it; they just needed to recognize the Team Rocket text. Once they saw this, they nodded and continued with their game of dice.
"Welcome, what can I do for you today?" Gan heard a familiar voice. Once Gan turned, he was greeted by that Fatman from before.
"I'm here to make a sale. I was wondering if you could help me with that?" Gan said with no emotion.
"A sale? Oh, are you perhaps apart of the Auction coming up?" The Fatman didn't question Gan about much, he had already spotted his Team Rocket Id.
Gan was stunned for a moment before he nodded his head. He didn't want to make it seem like he wasn't aware of this event. Gan was still stunned by the thought of an Auction, what would be up for bidding?
"I thought so. For precaution's sake, I'm going to need you to scan your Team Rocket Id over this machine. It will check the authenticity of your card, this is protocol, so don't take it to heart." As much as he didn't want to bother with these things, he had a job to withhold.
Gan quickly scanned his card over the machine, it didn't reveal his information but checked to see if the card was real or not. If his card was fake, he would be apprehended and questioned, perhaps even tortured!
There were three men sitting on a couch nearby, waiting for anything to go wrong. However, the machine blinked Green, signifying that his card was the real deal.
"Perfect! Follow me, I'll take you to the person in charge of the Auction. Hehe, this Auction is going to be a big one; there are even items from different regions up for bidding." The Fatman rubbed his stomach and chuckled.
The Fatman looked Gan in the eyes, he didn't know what it was but he felt like he had seen these eyes before. The Fatman told the guard to check anyone who came and let them go down if they checked out.
The bookshelf opened up and they proceeded to walk down the stairway. The Fatman grumbled, but this was his job, however, he hated this part. Gan could tell that the man had lost a great deal of weight, these stairs could be attributed to that.
"When is this Auction?" Gan wasn't planning on staying in this town for no more than two weeks, so he had to know these things.
"It was supposed to be tomorrow, but it was pushed back to four days later. This is because of the strange events that happened last night. The police suddenly got rowdy, they stormed Viridian City with some tier trainers and locked the city down."
"...." Gan
Gan didn't say anything, he just listened most of the time. He, himself, knew the reason for all of these events. Eventually, they reached the same area as before when Gan started to recall some things.
As usual, there were many people here buying and selling anything they could—from information, items, Pokemon, and so forth.
"I have an item that was not exactly obtained legally, will this be a problem?" Gan had to double down on this one, to ensure this wouldn't be a problem.
"Haha, this won't be a problem, there are many items and Pokemon that were stolen to be put on auction. Your identity will be perfectly concealed, this is...no offense; something bigger than Team Rocket. We even hand out masks for people to hide their faces, but you already came prepared for that, haha."
The Fatman made sure to say his words politely, so as to not offend Gan. However, he was right, there was a bigger force hosting this auction, so Team Rocket wouldn't act out anyway.
"That's good to hear, and I'm not so easily offended so just say what you want to. As long as you're not deliberately trying to start a conflict, there's no problem." Gan sighed in relief in his heart, though, he didn't think anyone would make a fuss over or investigate a space bag.
"Hehe, I wouldn't do such a thing, then how could I get any business done?" The Fatman laughed in relief, most Team Rocket members would have felt offended.
They arrived at an area where there were little to no trainers around. This location was where the auction was going to be held. Both Gan and the Fatman walked inside and found that it was occupied by several sturdy figures.
These men wore black and white camo outfits with military berets on their heads. On their camo shirts, one could see the words 'Guardsman' written on them.
"These guys just watch over and guard the auction, just in case someone starts getting ideas." The Fatman hurriedly explained after seeing a slight change in Gan's expression.
"Hmm..." These men's uniforms reminded Gan of Team Plasma's second-coming outfits.
"Oh, if it isn't Jayce, it looks like you've lost a few pounds as of late." Right as Gan was scanning the men in black, both the Fatman and Gan heard a calm voice.
And there, they saw a man wearing black dress pants with a dark blue sweater vest and tie. The man wore a white collared shirt underneath his sweater that was long-sleeved. He wore a benevolent smile across his face while looking at the Fatman playfully.
"If you'd let me use the elevator, things could be easier on me and the customers." Jayce, which happened to be the Fatman's name said with a twitchy lip.
"I'm doing you a favor, this is for your health, my friend." The man's smile grew even wider, but there was a bit of mockery in that smile that was hard to notice.
'Who are you fooling with a joyous smile, you bastard!' Jayce silently thought to himself.
"In any case, what brings you here?" The man turned to Gan before continuing. "It seems you've bought someone here, can I help you, sir?"
"This is the Auction area, right? If so, then that's why I'm here, and that's to put something up for Auction." Gan made his stance in a neutral tone.
He wanted to get this over with but at the same time, Gan was interested to know what was being auctioned.
"Oh, why didn't you say so sooner? Right over here, show what you'll be auctioning this week." The man signaled Gan over to inspect his goods.
"What he wants to put on auction is what he wants to remain private. So, it's best to take him to a place where there are no eyes." Jayce knew what Gan wanted and spoke for him before he could do so for himself.
"Huh? Is it really so important and amazing?" The man was intrigued now, and without waiting for Gan to reply, he told them both to follow him to the back.
"Alright, we're alone, you can show me the goods." The man smirked plainly, he had seen many things before, but he didn't think he could be so impressed anymore.
"....." Gan narrowed his eyes, were they really alone?
"You don't have to worry, everything is confidential here. We don't disclose any information about the seller, this you can count on." The man seemed to understand what Gan was thinking before giving Gan his certainty.
"Alright, this is what I'm putting on the auction." Gan quickly pulled out the orange storage bag for both of them to see.
The man was stunned for a second before regaining his smiley expression.
"This is a storage backpack, right? Do you mind?" The man wanted to inspect the bag to check its authenticity. Gan handed the man the bag, this was clearly the man hosting the auction.
"Impressive, it's the real deal." The man reached his hand into the bag, allowing him to witness the empty void of the bag within.
"Perfect! We'll make you one of our V.I.P. guests, this will give you access to a private room during the auction. These auctions can grow to be very intense, and with this auction this time around; there's no doubt this will be the case.
The auction this time had some very special things up for those trying to bid for them.
"We'll start the bid of this backpack off at 4,000,000 when it goes up for auction, it should spike in price. What do you think about the starting price?" The man rubbed his chin and asked thoughtfully.
"This price is fine with me, but how much of the profit will you guys take out of my earnings?" Gan was satisfied, he needed to stack up on money.
"We'll take about 8 to 10 percent of your earnings. By the way, my name is Luke, what would you like me to call you?" Luke needed to know Gan's name to add him to the V.I.P list.
"Call me, Hank Leverett." Gan made up some random name on the spot.
"Okay, Mister Leverett, take this card." Luke handed him a black card.
"Thanks, this will make things easier." Gan took the card and inspected it. The card was black chrome and said, Auctioning Market. It had a skull head in each corner of the card, and on, it was also labeled V.I.P in golden letters.
"Also, take this. This is a small list of items being put up for auction. This isn't all of them, but enough of them. I'm sure you'll be interested in at least one item on the list."
Luke didn't seem to want to show every item on the auction, but he was being generous enough in showing what bit would be available.
Gan didn't look at the list right away. Luke told him that if he wanted to add anything else to the auction before it started; he could come back before then.
Moments later, Gan was back in the house talking to Jayce(Fatman). Afterward, Gan left the Black Market—heading towards the main plaza of Viridian City. This was not before changing his wardrobe, of course.
Gan sat on a bench and pulled out the list to see what was being auctioned. At least the items they allowed him to see from the list.
"Let's see." Gan squinted and went down the list.
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