4 Battle Date!

Gan wanted to try having Koffing using some of its skills but the room could be reduced to a true hazard zone. Once Koffing was done eating its fill, he recalled it back into its Pokeball. Gan quickly made his way back to the battlegrounds.

At this time, he saw a guy being carried out, his arm was twisted out of place. Gan cringed and looked away, his arm was apparently broken!

"Damn, what happened to him?" Gan couldn't help but ask.

"Haha, this noobie got his arm broken by his Sandshrew, well, the one he was trying to tame." The Team Rocket members carrying him out lavished in his misfortune.

Gan didn't ask about it anymore and walked into the battlegrounds. There were still some people trying to tame their pokemon. There were 3 other people inside this place besides the higher-ranking officials—who just conversed with each other.

"Excuse me, I managed to tame my pokemon." Gan walked over towards the Muscular Field Operative.

"Oh? A little noobie like you managed to tame your pokemon?" The man beamed at Gan coldly. "Weren't you the one who picked Koffing, I expected you to be poisoned to death at this point."

"If you've tamed your pokemon, then show us." The man in the Black Suit and Shades came out of a door and asked with a smile.

"Right." Gan tossed his Pokeball and summoned Koffing and commanded it to use Tackle against the wall.

Koffing followed his orders and tackled the wall without hesitation.

"Interestingly, most people don't usually pick Koffing due to how dangerous it is, but you chose it and even tamed it." The man in the black suit complemented Gan somewhat.

"I just got fortunate, that's all." Gan didn't say much, but he was still scared the first time trying.

"Since you're the first person to tame your pokemon, we'll give you 5,000 Merit Points." The man in the Black Suit nodded and said.

"5,000? I thought it was 2,500 merit points for the first person to tame their pokemon?" The Muscular man said strangely.

"Don't think about it so much, he tamed a dangerous pokemon, in fact, it's the most dangerous starter we have for recruits." The man in the Black Suit really wanted to reward Gan for choosing such a risky pokemon as a starter.

"Merit Points, what are those?" Gan needed to know everything he could; the advantages and disadvantages.

"Well, we have yet to explain that, but that's not my job but I'll tell you anyway. Since your picture was taken, you will receive an Identification Card. This card will have a picture of you and it will carry your Merit points, which can be used to buy many things. They can be used to buy, Pokemon, TM's, Items, and even machinery, like your own helicopter for example."

Gan was stunned, but he was soon happy that he joined Team Rocket of all places.

"That's right, you can also earn Merit points by doing missions or selling pokemon to Team Rocket. The better its potential, the more points you'll be able to get. We have a special machine that can check its potential when we receive them."

They both explained briefly, they were in control of this batch of rookies. So if they succeeded and did well, they would naturally reap benefits.

"Since you've already tamed your pokemon, here is your Team Rocket Id that we just spoke about." The Black Suit man took 8 cards out of his pocket and handed Gan his Identification Card.

Gan looked over his Identification card, it revealed his face which was something he didn't want to be shown.

"I have a small request if you don't mind." Gan coughed slightly and asked.

"Request? What would that be?" The muscular man frowned.

"I don't want my face to be shown on my Identification card, in fact, I want to wear a different style of team rocket clothing." Gan further explained that he wanted to wear a hooded robe with a masked. Of course, it would still have the same color scheme as any Team Rocket member's outfit.

"Oh, this is the first time ever that anyone has made such a request." The Black Suit rubbed his head with a strange expression.

"It can be done, but the Team Rocket Uniforms are made from Special material that's heat and cold-proof, so it will cost you some Merit Points to have one custom made." The Black Suited man grinned and told him where he could have his picture retaken.

Gan was still given his Id, he could wait to have his picture taken. The Muscular Man loaded Gan's Card with 5,000 Merit Points before he left for the Merit hall.

There were many other ways to get pokemon, he could even try his fortune in the casino. There was a rumor going around that Team Rocket had gotten their hands on a strange Pokemon called Porygon. Gan had heard a few veteran Grunts talking about it before.

Once he arrived at the merit hall, there were tons of different things he could buy as the higher-ups from before had explained.

Gan scoped out the list filled with the items in stock, he was mainly searching for TMs.

...

TM Fire Blast: 45,000

TM Thunder: 45,000

TM Blizzard: 45,000

TM Toxic: 3,000 (MP)

TM Sludge Bomb: 20,000

TM Dazzling Gleam: 20,500

TM Sunny Day: 9,000

TM Dragon Claw: 35,000

...

The list went on and on but he obviously couldn't afford the best of the TM's. Gan handed his Identification Card to the man behind the counter. After looking at the Identification Card, he knew Gan was a rookie and that this was his first day.

Gan began to explain that he wanted a custom Team Rocket outfit, along with a mask. The color would be within Team Rocket's color scheme, obviously. The other reason Gan came here was to look at what they had at the Merit area, and it was a lot.

The last reason was to get paid, he's supposed to get 5,000 poke dollars to start. After getting paid and fitted for his custom outfit, he left. Gan would have to pay when the outfit was done, he didn't want to spend his Merit Points now.

However, he was still given the default Team Rocket Grunt outfit until then. Gan asked for a lot, he was given a free map of Kanto. He needed another pokemon other than just Koffing, he wanted to head to pallet town and rob Professor Oak's Lab, similar to what the rival did in Gold and Silver.

"Hmm, I'll need one other pokemon before heading to pallet town. I'm robbing someone, so this is already a scarce situation." Gan needed to get his hands on some special equipment of some kind. Jesse and James from the show always had a bunch of strange gadgets in order to steal from people.

Looking at the map, he contemplated where he should go next. When he was given his Team Rocket outfit, he was given a communicator. If he was in a city where an operation was going down, he would be called to duty since he was close by.

"Hey, excuse me." Just as he was looking at the map in his hands, he heard someone call out to him. Gan looked over and easily recognized the individual, it was the blue-haired boy from that time.

"Can I help you?" Gan asked bluntly.

"No, not really, but I'm a bit amazed to see that you were the first to tame your pokemon. I thought it would be me, but you beat me to that." The blue-haired boy grinned.

"I know you didn't come here to congratulate me for that, what do you really want?" Gan could see through his facade, he wanted something but he was unsure of what.

"Haha, straight to the point are you? I should first introduce myself, my name is Zorn, but you can call me Agent Z."

"Agent Z?" Wasn't he going by the name Agent X, why was there an Agent Z?

"Hehe, you noticed. I liked the name you decided to go by at that time, so I thought I'd use the same naming scheme, what do you think? Cool, huh?" The Blue-haired boy's eyebrows lifted seeing Gan's reaction.

"..." Gan didn't know what to say.

"Well, anyway, me and you are clearly the best among the batch of rookies. One guy got his arm broken by a Sandshrew, another girl got her blood nearly drained by a Zubat because of leech life, and one man was nearly poisoned to death by his Ekans."

"What does this all mean, it doesn't have anything to do with me." Gan had heard that incidents like these weren't uncommon, so he wasn't particularly bothered by it.

"It means, me and you will have to battle to see who is the number 1 rookie." Zorn held his head high and said confidently.

"Oh, so that's what this is about." Gan shook his head, "I can't battle you now, we can settle a battle at a later date, I'm busy right now." Gan had other things to worry about, so he couldn't bother with these little quarrels right now.

"What? You don't want to battle? Are you scared or something?" Zorn's expression turned dark.

"Sigh, how about this, we can battle in 2 weeks when we have a better understanding of things and more pokemon." Gan also wanted to battle to test himself, but he wanted to train first and get more pokemon before that.

"Hmm, t-that's not a bad idea, let's do it then!" Zorn suddenly calmed down and agreed to Gan's terms. Gan knew this kid was very competitive, as all kids were at their youth, he was a kid himself and was also competitive.

"Okay, it's a date then, don't runaway like a baby." Gan laughed and walked away.

"A baby? Hey, that's my line." Zorn scolded and pointed at Gan, who was walking away. Gan didn't look back and only waved his hand and kept walking.

Leaving the base, he was still dressed in his normal clothes from before.

"Let's see, let's get a few pokemon back on that route from before. Maybe I can catch some Growlithes and Vulpixs to sell. I'll catch more, then see if I can make it to lavender town to enter than tower if possible."

There were many places to choose from, he also wanted to head to Mt. Moon later.

"Okay, let's go."

"