98 Vanquished The Wicked!

The three were contemplating their situation, this paralysis effect was abnormally strong. Normally, they would be able to still move and stand, albeit, their moves slowed and clumsy.

"Why can't I move, I can't even move a single finger!" Philip was starting to panic, he wasn't used to these types of situations.

"It must be that damned silhouette we saw, it looked like a snake!" Ron's expression darkened with fear.

Who didn't know how Ekans ambushed and caught their target? Especially if the said Ekans had a higher Tier(Level) than normal.

They would poison you to weaken you, or worse, Paralyze you and swallow you alive!

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, it might not be like that. We could be in their territory, we'll leave soon after." Marko sought to calm the situation, but this also him coping as well.

He hoped that this was just the Ekans and Arbok warning him. Usually, this was what they did. In fact, Ekans wasn't as aggressive as their evolved forms, and attacks from them rarely occurred here.

Only if you stepped on them or got too close would they attack. Besides that, Arbok would attack if you came into its territory. Ekans usually wasn't strong enough to maintain their grip on a territory.

Taking this all into account, they all felt at ease.

Suddenly, they heard the bushes rustling.

"What?! Who is it?!" Ron was nearly scared to death.

However, a Rattata jumped out of the bush and ran in another direction. It completely ignored the trio that was sprung out on the ground unmoved.

They all sighed in relief at this.

"Hohoho! What do we have here?" At that moment, Gan stepped out of the bushes and slowly approached the group.

They could, for some reason still move their heads but not elsewhere. Once they saw who it was, their expression changed into a sight to behold.

They were not dressed in their Team Rocket outfit, obviously. There was no way they would nonchalantly walk around in it. This was especially so due to the recent event back in Pallet town.

Ghost Hands was still a hot topic right now.

They didn't show fear because of Gan, but because of the Pokemon that followed behind him. What followed behind Gan was Gengar, Alakazam, and Arbok.

'What? Didn't the report state that he only had a Koffing?!' Ron's expression was grave, but then he remembered something.

That's right, they were dressed casually, so there was no way he would know they were from Team Rocket. Nor should Gan know they had come here with ill intentions against him.

'This was all a coincidence.' Ron thought.

"Good sir, we're stuck in a plight and are having trouble moving. Could you possibly help us out, we're paralyzed." Marko said in a polite tone.

'You bastard, you just wait for our paralysis to wear off! You're finished after that!' Marko thought were completely the opposite.

"It does look serious, let me see if I have anything here." Gan checked himself and pulled out a Paralysis heal.

"Is this what you guys need?" Gan dangled the bottle of medicine in his hand.

"Yes, yes, yes, this is the medicine we need. Please, help heal us from our terrible states, mister trainer."

Philip sighed in relief. He felt so helpless not being able to move, it was too scary when he thought of the possibilities.

"Sure thing, but it won't be cheap." Gan nodded with a smile.

"Huh?"

"It won't be cheap?"

"You're charging us?"

The three stared at Gan for a moment. Why was he charging them for something so cheap at the Pokemart? The cost of a paralysis heal was around 100 to 150 Poke dollars.

"Of course, look at your situation. You guys are paralyzed in the wild with several dangerous Pokemon roaming around."

Gan's message was clear, the price would go up according to the demand for it.

"Oh right, you guys can't move. Let me help you." Gan summoned Machoke and Mankey.

"What? What are you going to do?" Their eyes widened, why was this guy so stacked with Pokemon?

Could a grunt afford such things?

Gan didn't reply and half smiled instead. He had both of these Pokemon check them for what they had.

"Ah, stop!" Their expression turned ugly, this was because this seemed to be some sort of shakedown more than anything else.

They all broke out into a cold sweat, the trio was worried about something!

Not to mention, this Machoke was roughing them up with a somewhat conniving grin on its face.

Machoke was patting them down which nearly broke their ribs. Mankey was also a bit rough, it was ripping their clothes just to check them for any valuables.

"Trainer, sir, this isn't very good of you. Don't you think this is a bit rude to do to us?" Marko was furious because Gan was ignoring them and having his Pokemon rough them up.

Gan only showed a half smile as he waited for the results.

'Just you wait! You're dead kid, friggin dead!!' Ron was nearly half dead from anger, he couldn't wait to vent his rage onto Gan later.

Gan could see from Ron's expression that he was angry, but he could care less.

Suddenly, Machoke and Mankey found a few cards on each of them. To be exact, they were all holding three cards each. The obvious things they grabbed were their Pokeballs, which they also handed to Gan.

Once these cards were revealed, their expression turned pale with fear.

"Oh, what do we have here?" Gan sneered as checked the contents of these cards.

One card showed their lawful identity. The second card was some card that wasn't really secure. This card carried money on it—you could also open up a small storage to hold your personal items through this card.

People did this often for obvious reasons. However, the cards they had were the least secure of them all.

A simple four-digit passcode to access everything! If you lost it, you could use face recognition to access your storage and money.

This was about it.

The third and most crucial card that Gan had seen was their Team Rocket IDs. Seeing their IDs, Gan's expression darkened.

It was clear that he had become a target for these at some point. To Gan, it must have been recently, but who sent them?

'Did that bastard at the Merit Hall send them to assassinate me?' Gan thought this was likely.

"So you've been trailing me this whole time, right?" Gan asked bluntly.

"No, no, this is all coincidence. We were just out on orders to scout the area." Philip hurriedly said.

"That's right, we don't even know you, so how could we be following you?" Marko said in agreeance.

"Who sent you to assassinate me?" Gan asked, he didn't believe these guys.

"We weren't sent by anyone to kill you. We told you, this is all just a coincidence." Marko said anxiously.

'He isn't lying, he wasn't sent by anyone to assassinate you.' Alakazam broke his silence after analyzing the situation.

'Oh, so he was telling the truth?' Gan's expression softened a bit.

'What they said was half true, this wasn't a coincidence. They were acting on their own accord, you heard them earlier.'

Gan nodded. They had planned to kill him with a sneak attack, if it was possible. They had seen too much at that, he had no choice but to get rid of these three.

Gan skipped the details, he really didn't care. All he knew was—that these fellas had followed him with intentions to kill him. On top of that, they had done this to many people in the past.

Gan tossed all of their belonging into his storage before ordering Arbok to bite them. Arbok's size was huge, this snake scared them the most.

Arbok's jaw clamped down on their shoulder one after another. It also gave them another gift, which was poisoning them!

"No! I-I'm poisoned!"

"How dare you do this to us?! Do you know who we are, we know people! People will be looking for us if we go missing, you're a dead boy!"

Ron's eyes were bloodshot from rage, but at the same time, he was scared out of his wits.

"KID! There's still a chance to come back from this. We can all walk away safely and never speak of this again. You just have to give us the Antidote and Paralysis heal." Makro tried to be calm while saying this, but his tone and expression told it all.

That's right, humans could suffer from multiple status effects. Unlike Pokemon, where the status effect would be replaced if they were inflicted with something different.

Their shoulders were bloodied from Arbok's large jaws clamping on them.

"Nah, you guys deserve to die. Just go on your way now, and pray for forgiveness." Gan had no intention of saving these guys for too many reasons to be named.

Boy, you're digging your own grave! Hand us the Antidote or you can only die later!" Marko could no longer hold it in.

Everyone's body had gone numb from the poison, and their faces started turning purplish-black.

One had to know that Arbok poison was so potent because of its ratings. It was a 5-star Arbok, so it was something that couldn't be trifled with.

"Weather I'm digging my own grave or not, you won't see it."

They tried to reply but it was useless at this point, their ability to talk had been nulled. Their bodies shivered uncontrollably as their eyes start to lose their luster.

They looked unwilling and filled with regret. Unfortunately, there was no potion for regret and they could only die with grievances.

Alakazam confirmed that they had all died. Gan sighed before walking over to them and shutting their unwilling eyes.

Gan had thought about burying them, but that would be unfair to the people back in Viridian Forest. These people were truly evil, so he summoned Koffing and had him burn their bodies into ash.

Gan didn't want to see it so he looked away. Afterward, he continued his goal of coming here and began to hunt Pokemon.

He made sure to check their Pokemon and found that they had a Sandslash, Raticate, and Zubat. All of them had 1-star ratings, which wasn't appealing to Gan at all.

He was just going to sell them later at the branch instead. Gan didn't have any Merit points, he needed these Pokemon to exchange at his deprived Celedon Branch.

Gan hunted and caught several Pokemon. This meant Mankey, Ekans, Rattata, and Sandshrew.

A few of them even had 3-star ratings, which was a bonus. Gan had to change the nature of many of his Pokemon, so he needed as many Merit points as he could get.

After catching many of the same Pokemon for about 3 hours, he called Warren. He wanted to see if he could meet him before tomorrow to discuss a plan.

Warren naturally picked up and told Gan that he could meet at the café from last met. They were due to meet in an hour and a half.

With that, Gan left the forest. He suppressed his hunger until he was to meet up with Warren. As Gan stepped out of the forest, he saw two individuals coming down from the location of the Pokemon Center.

Gan assumed they must have come from Mt. Moon.

They were two boys and one girl around Gan's age—maybe slightly older. They wore different robes, one wore a sky blue and dark blue shirt and shirt, while another wore lime green and dark green robes.

The last wore burgundy and dark red robes. They all had arrogant expressions, which made Gan cringe.

They wore badges that said [5EG].

By this point, Gan had recalled all of his Pokemon. There were other people on this route trying to capture Pokemon. Some were even battling one another.

"Oh my gosh, these three are from the [Sacred 5 Elements Guild]!" A youth wearing grey suddenly said in astonishment.