Black Market (2)

[Night Vermillion City

Underground Black Market]

The scene was chaotic thousands of people were crowded across dimly lit streets. It resembled a large farmers market for pokemon except for the smell of blood and cages spread throughout the stands. There were stalls everywhere in the plaza surrounding an auction house and large stages for betting on Pokemon fights, shacks that sold information not to mention the numerous amount of caged Pokemon.

Most of the clients and merchants wore dark clothing with hoods and masks to prevent them from being recognized. Everyone roamed the streets looking at the various Pokemon products, valuable materials along with trainer other resources. Having all of this out in the open generally resulted in a few pickpockets but nobody seemed to complain except those that lost something.

Not everyone cared about being identified as there where a few wealthy young masters who liked flaunted their money and background. Most of these types were followed by an entourage of butlers and bootlickers.

Yet the most prominent feature Lan found was dark clothing with a Red Block Letter "R", indicating that they are part of the infamous Team Rocket. These people were brazenly showing off their symbol and many stayed out of their way because they did not want to cause trouble. Numerous people here treated them with either respect or fear as it was hard to distinguish in this type of environment. There where no laws here and many disputes and quarrels livened up the atmosphere.

Making his way through the crowd in his dark clothing, cloak, and his mask Lan weaved in and out of the crowds of people. If one would look at his eyes they would only notice a blue flash of light coming from them when he was perusing many of the products.

Lan kept feeding his aura to his eyes to determine if anything was interesting for sale. His Aura allowed him to somewhat perceive different energies that an item may have.

He browsed many stands that sold some items but what he found disappointed him as most where counterfeit. He made his way to a booth that was constantly being avoided and mocked by everyone.

It was an Old Woman who would give everyone the creeps just by glancing at her. She was selling an arrangement of stones that looked like simple stones that she picked up off the street. At first glance he sighed but when he activated aura in his eyes and saw some faint wisps of energy within approximately 1/3 of the stones.

As soon as Lan activated his Aura in his eyes, the old woman's eyes shot open and stared directly at Lan, her expression was indecipherable. Lan made his way out of the crowd and walked up to the booth drawing some eyes from the passer-byes.

"How much for the stones?"

The woman replied " 10.000P Each no negotiations"

Lan thought for a minute as he was still tight on money and needed to spend it in the auction to draw some attention to himself to get information. He sighed and asked, "Can you go any lower if I buy multiple?."

"No negotiations"

"Okay, fine ill take them all."

The woman smiled a toothy smile and Lan paid the lady by the money taken from his cloak which he did to hide his use of his inventory. He then put the bag of stones under his cloak and immediately stored it and fled.

The woman smiled and her eyes flashed a purple color while she whispered to herself "Such a young aura user. I thought they were extinct. Too bad he chose the wrong path he definitely had the potential for being a powerful psychic."

If Lan could hear her words he would be startled as no one except Professor Oak could detect him using aura when he used it as he made sure to minimize its presence with his control.

...

Lan then headed towards the Auction showroom of where the Pre Auction was being held. It showcased many of the pokemon and the objects that the auction house was offering that night. These are not the main attractions but the appetizers of what is to come later in the evening.

Many of the Pokemon that were offered by the dealers outside the venue where common Pokemon that could be sold in bulk such as Pidgey, Rattata, Geodude, Spearow alongside some of their evolved forms. Seldom there where pokemon being offered originated from different regions and became the attention of the crowd. Inside the Auction Houses, was where most of the rare Pokemon were found and sold while the pokemon were on display in cages. Generally, this means the Pokemon was not that powerful or too young to put up much of a fight.

The auction was conducted by an anonymous party that had extremely powerful guards and trainers that acted without the slightest leniency towards guests causing trouble.

Lan browsed the Pokemon in the cages and trying to get close enough to analyze them. Numerous Pokemon were drugged and starving, Lan clenched his fist as Pokemon should not be treated like this but he was powerless to do anything about it. He vowed whenever he is stronger he will put an end to this kind of treatment.

There was an impressive display of Machops, Doduos, Shellders, Exeggcute, Cubones, Rhyhorns, Hoothoots, Murkrows, a Sneasel, Teddiursa along with an abundance of Houndour. All of them where native towards Kanto and Joto but not commonly caught by the everyday trainer. Many people were looking at these pokemon with unrestrained greed.

Lan didn't want to be around these irritating people so he moved out of the small crowd that had formed in front of the cages and ended up moving to the boundary where he saw a small pokemon that was heavily wounded and not moving. Many people just glanced at it since it was pretty rare but turned away since the Pokemon would not make it through the auction.

Lan went up the cage and asked his system to analyze it.

...

Lan went up the cage and asked his system to analyze it.

***

Name: Cyndaquill

Sex: Male

Age: 1 Year

Type: Fire

Status: Malnourished, Poisoned, Bleeding, Cracked Ribs

Evolution: 2%

***

Lan stopped and stared at the little thing that was suffering. He knew that he couldn't leave it in this state as it will not survive the Auction.

The sign below showed the price tag as 300.000 P and a Buyout Price of 750.000 P. Lan hesitated no further and contacted the manager to see if he could buy it before the Auction.

Manager "Yes, you can buy it now at the Buyout price but there will be a 150.000 P additional fee because there has already been a bid on it. For future reference, The pokemon that are in cages on the perimeter are available to be purchased before the Auction if you have the money. "

"I'll take it"

The Manager nodded and picked up the cage and Lan followed behind him. He was lead to a small waiting room where the cage was placed in the middle and had some seats surrounding it.

He was told to wait until he could be processed and the door closed. Lan immediately stuck his hand through the cage to touch Cyndaquill who couldn't resist the contact in the condition that he was in.

Lan then pulled out a potion from his inventory as an attempt to help heal it. After about 10 minutes Cyndiquill opened its eyes and looked at Lan. It seemed to have recovered enough and now the system indicated that it was no longer seriously bleeding and it was just partially poisoned with cracked ribs.

Lan sighed in relief but he was not through the woods yet.

KABoom

BOOM

BOOOOOOOM