Adventures Beyond!

Chapter 20: Recon Mission

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Grotto PKMN Center, Sinnoh

Oliver tied his bag around his right shoulder as he was preparing to set out on a recon mission along with Jacob, Sophie, and Logan. But the Oshawott had noticed something off with the Pikachu and Scorbunny.

Ever since the previous night, they had seemed to be a bit more cheerful. He could obviously tell that with Jacob, since he wouldn't be as happy in the morning, and the previous night when the two and Leah returned to the room, they seemed closer in some way.

He wondered what they were talking about while they were out.

"Okay, everyone ready?" Jacob asked, making sure that his bag was on tight.

"I'm already ready to go." Logan told them, sitting on the edge of the balcony.

"You two need to wait." Sophie scoffed, making sure her bag was fastened properly. "It won't be any help if either of you end up dying because you want out alone."

"Speaking of going out, we need to establish a route." Oliver spoke up, "We need to know where we're going, so in case we get separated on the way, we could meet somewhere on our route."

Oliver slung a backpack full of medical equipment over his shoulders.

"I don't really think we need a route." Logan fanned his paw dismissively. "Let's just go!" Before anyone could say anything else, the Scorbunny had already used his blasts to launch himself into the air.

Sophie rolled her eyes and vaulted over the railing. Jacob jumped over it. Bothe managed to land on the ground upright, and Sophie caught Oliver in a bridal style.

"Slipped?" The Snivy questioned.

"No, I just underestimated the height when I jumped off." He let out a nervous chuckle. "Thanks for catching me, by the way."

"Don't mention it." She put him down.

"Are you guys coming or not?" Jacob asked, looking into the sky. "Logan's fading into the distance..."

"Right, right." Oliver's eyes widened as he ran off, followed by Jacob and Sophie.

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After catching up to Logan and finding a decent area, the four started to look around for some berries to bring back to the center.

Oliver had just managed to catch an Oran berry which fell from a tree, and put it in his bag. Although it was silent all around him, he still felt a bit anxious. He wondered how the Pokémon that lived in Forest Grotto could go into the large forest surrounding it and not get lost.

Luckily, he had his map.

The Oshawott pulled out a piece of paper from it's container, and scanned it. It didn't really show much of Forest Grotto, as he expected, but he just wanted an excuse to see what location Sophie, Jacob, and himself would go to next.

He put his back to a tree and slowly sat down leaning against it.

"So many possible places to go..." He thought, his eyes scanning over the map. "Hmm... Well the most logical place to go would be somewhere that's close to Forest Grotto, but I don't want to work in circles so realistically, the best place to head to next would be here."

He pointed to a place on the map, and took a mental note of the location.

Before he could put his map back, he heard a shout, followed by tumbling. The tumbling was approaching him from his left, but when he looked, all he could see was yellow.