In the southwestern outskirts of Origin City, Cordon was seen walking along a footpath while flipping a coin. He looked pretty satisfied after spending a good hour at one of his favourite places. Before he could go back home, he needed to fulfil a personal errand first.
The district he was in was shady and derelict; all the street lamps had burnt out and the buildings were abandoned and boarded up. Anything that Cordon saw on the streets were either vandalized or neglected. It was so unsettlingly quiet that you'd probably expect an ambush from around every corner. Although Cordon looked complacent and carefree, he was actually on the alert for any threat around him. His body was sensitive to vibrations, and he used that to tell if anything or anyone suspicious was nearby.
Cordon was walking past some tall buildings that had empty space in between; in other words, there were dark alleyways. You can't describe a seedy area without some dark alleyways. So far, none of the alleyways had anything suspicious.
It was only until the last alleyway that Cordon knew that something was there. He didn't even need to sense for any vibrations, because he could see it with his very own eyes. It was a Crawdaunt; he was casually leaning on a wall, dressed up like a gangster.
"What up frog, you want some of mah warez?" the Crawdaunt spoke in a gangster accent.
"Yeah," Cordon replied in interest. "Whatcha got?"
The Crawdaunt held out an opaque white bottle in his left pincer, and shook it like a salt shaker. From the sound it made, it was certain that there was some kind of powder in it.
"You in?" the Crawdaunt asked if Cordon was interested.
"Heck yeah," Cordon nodded in agreement and proceeded to take out a large wad of bills from his white bubble scarf.
"Woah, not so fast," the Crawdaunt panicked, looking around suspiciously for anyone watching them. "We gotta keep a low profile. Come to mah hideout so we can do bidnizz."
The Crawdaunt gestured for Cordon to follow with his right pincer, and they went out of the alleyway and into the closest building. It was old, dingy and located right next to the roadside.
The room was completely dark; not even what little light that came from outside could illuminate a tiny sliver of the room. Cordon couldn't see the Crawdaunt anywhere. He stayed by the door, keeping alert on what was happening. He could feel the thud of footsteps nearby. He heard the clinking of metal, and then a click, much like the sound of a cocked gun, and then, out of nowhere...
BANG!
...
...
...
Cordon found himself clutching onto a suspended fluorescent lamp with strings attached to the ceiling, absolutely shivering and shaken from surprise. A shower of sparks was falling from another nearby fluorescent lamp, where one of the tubes had blown out. From the ground below him, he heard a fit of laughter from the Crawdaunt. He was wearing a white coat and a tie instead of his gangster getup.
"Scared, aren't you?" the Crawdaunt said in a normal tone, clutching his sides.
"I wasn't scared..." Cordon replied as he jumped off the lamp. "I was terrified!"
"Haha, I know you really hate surprises," the Crawdaunt continued to talk. "I never expected for the light to blow up when I flipped the light switch." The light switch he flipped made a sound similar to a gun cock (I hope you're putting the pieces together.)
"I think it's time to buy a new one." Cordon suggested to him.
"If only I had the money," the Crawdaunt slouched on the counter and placed an elbow on the counter, resting his face on a pincer. He suddenly stood up and said, "Oh, before I forget, let me ring you up on that thing you wanted."
Using a set of metal keys that clinked as he jangled them, the Crawdaunt unlocked a door leading to another room, and disappeared for a short while. Cordon took the time to take a good look around the now lit room.
It was a pharmacy; there were shelves upon shelves of medicines that were well past their expiry dates, and there were pamphlets educating about diseases there were already eradicated a long time ago. The glass counter had a cash register on it, which had cracked glass underneath.
The Crawdaunt came back from the room next door while holding a bottle similar to what he was offering at the alleyway and placed it on the counter.
"That'll be 2,000 Poké, Cordon," the Crawdaunt adressed him by his proper name, as if he knew him.
"Here Nate," Cordon addressed him back and gave the stack of bills he offered earlier. Nate inspected the bills and had a weird look on his face.
"Hey, this is Pokéntrepreneur money!" Nate shouted as he laid down the coloured paper bills on the counter in realisation.
"Ha, fooled ya," Cordon impishly grinned while he handed over the real money.
"Cordon, you prankster! You got me there!" Nate laughed as he placed the money into his pocket, since it was outside operating hours. Cordon placed his purchase in his bubble scarf.
"Oh, by the way," Nate said to Cordon, "how was my gangster act? I knew you'd be around at this hour, so I decided to spice it up a bit."
"Hmm, needs a bit of work," Cordon thought about it. "It was way too stereotypical and felt forced."
"Yeah, I know. I've been watching too many gangster movies."
"Well, I can help if you need it," Cordon offered some help.
"Really?" Nate exclaimed with excitement. "Well teach me, master!"
The two went over to the next room over to talk for a long time. From the way they were conversing with each other, they acted as if they were very good friends.
AN: The purpose of this chapter was to give more character depth to Cordon; so far, we more or less know of him as a sarcastic, lazy jerk. I wanted to add more, but I struck the word limit. Oh well, maybe next time.
Because I had to stop the chapter here, there were two mysteries that were yet to be solved; why was Cordon so frightened by the blown fluorescent tube? And what was in the bottle that Cordon bought from Nate?
Well, for the former, the AN for 1:00pm will give you a very vague hint. The second, you can speculate on that. I wonder if I have to bump the age rating up because I talked about the white powder.