Pokemon: An Unexpected Journey

Chapter no.31 Scamming a Scammer

'Just five more days.' Austin thought remembering how they would challenge the Gym after their week of training.

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Early the next morning, Austin was by himself as he moved past the Nugget Bridge, heading to the Cerulean Cape where he fought some more trainers, he left a message with Nurse Joy so Brock and Yellow wouldn't worry about him.

There were no Bug Catchers so he was able to have his Pokemon battle more efficiently than before.

The Pokemon that these trainers had were Geodudes, Machops, Nidorans, Oddish, and Bellsprout.

One Hiker even had an Onix as well.

Rattata took to these challenges happily as they were a lot more fun than fighting Caterpie and Weedle.

Pidgeotto looked to be growing a bit in size to Austin's surprise but she was also showing a lot of strength in these fights.

Butterfree dominated the fights with his Confusion and Gust attacks.

Pikachu was kind of struggling as he had some disadvantages with the various Grass Types, but he was showing how strong he was and he finally managed to pull off the Counter-Shield after some trial and error.

"Alright!" Austin said as Pikachu landed on the ground after taking out someone who had a Nidorino. "Nicely done Pikachu."

"Chu." Pikachu looked pleased with himself.

That was when they heard clapping.

"Bravo, bravo." A girl's voice said causing them to turn around to see a brunette wearing a black dress clapping her hands where she wore white gloves. "Nicely done."

Pikachu looked curiously as he saw Austin tense on seeing the girl.

'I know this girl.' Austin thought trying not to look suspicious. 'Her name is either Green or Blue, the name varies from what version of the Manga she was in.'

"Thanks," Austin said keeping a wary eye on her due to how she was a thief in the Manga.

The girl however saw the wary look and gave a pout. "Oh come on, what's with the look?"

"Sorry, but who are you?" Austin asked as Pikachu jumped on his shoulder.

"Just someone who was passing by when I saw your battle, you have a strong Pikachu." The girl said causing Pikachu to look pleased. "You must be a great trainer."

"Well, he was my first Pokemon," Austin said reaching up and scratching Pikachu's head before the girl crossed her arms and looked sad.

"It's too bad that you aren't using him at his Max potential."

Austin frowned. "What do you mean?" He asked before she grinned and pulled out a box of items.

"These items are standard equipment for any great Pokemon Trainer and they can boost their abilities." The girl said holding them out as Austin recognized this from the Manga.

Now ordinarily he would've called her out on that, but a mischievous thought entered his head and Austin gave a smile. "Sure why now?"

When he wasn't looking the girl had a predatory smirk. 'Hook, line and sinker.' She thought as she adopted a grateful smile when Austin looked back.

"So what are these items anyway?" Austin asked taking a notepad to look as if he was going to write them down as she went into an explanation of the Attack Plus and the X-Defend.

"And that will be four thousand Pokedollars." The girl said at the end of the explanation.

"That many?!" Austin asked in surprise as the girl gave a nod.

"Well of course~." She said in a sing-song tone. "These are top-quality items after all."

"If you say so," Austin said giving her the Poke as she handed him the items.

"You won't be disappointed." The girl said as she ran off, leaving Austin to smirk as he pulled out what looked to be Poke.

"But I think you will be when you find out I just pickpocketed you," Austin said while Pikachu gave him a look of disbelief. Austin smirked as he looked at Pikachu who had recreated the infamous surprise Pikachu face," What? These items are fake and she was going to scam us, so I scammed her back."

Pikachu tilted his head to the side before looking in the box and frowning as he saw that the items were indeed fake.

"Besides she has the four thousand I gave her," Austin said counting the ones that he took to show five thousand. "So I didn't completely rob her."

It was a familiar scream.

' Was that Misty?!' Austin thought in surprise.