Adventures Beyond!

Chapter 61: Regression

Sophie couldn't help but overhear the conversation her friends were having, and she had to admit, it interested her. Especially when Oliver brought up details about the Greninja they faced off against in Sapphire Town. The thought of figuring out more about the mysterious Pokémon interested her more than she cared to admit, prompting her to walk to Jacob and Oliver's small room to learn more.

"Something that's always confused me was why they were so strong..." Sophie commented, "...I've never heard of either of them anywhere around Sinnoh, yet they were only pacified using dirty tactics and all of us were there. There was no way any of us could've won a one on one fight."

"Speak for yourselves. I took 'em both on by myself!" Logan grinned as he spoke boisterously.

The Snivy looked over at him, her eyes narrowing, "And how'd that turn out? Last I checked you ended up unable to battle after that fight."

"That's not important!" The Scorbunny was quick to stand up, "Those damn Pokémon shot us outta the sky! I needed my get-back!"

"Bad word!"

The four, hearing the voice, turned to the doorway, where a Rockruff and a Zorua were peering in.

"Just... Come in..." Oliver, after trying desperately to concentrate on flipping through the PDB throughout the loud conversation, finally closed it and put it down, "The more the merrier I guess."

"Whatcha guys talking about?" Akari asked, hopping onto the bed beside Jacob.

The Pikachu sat up, "We were talking about what happened in Sapphire Town. Like when we fought that Greninja and Conkeldurr."

"Oh that?" The Zorua recalled, "I remember that! Especially how me and Oliver took down that frog guy! We were in a cave, up against a wall, and we managed to beat him anyway!"

"How were you not scared?" Miles hopped onto the bed beside Oliver, interested in hearing more about the feat his best friend managed to achieve.

"Scared?" Akari scoffed, "There's no way I'd be scared of—"

An idea quickly came to Sophie's mind, "The Greninja's outside."

"Eep!" In an instant, the Zorua transformed into a Joltik, hiding herself on the blanket.

The group all laughed at the Snivy's little joke, much to Akari's embarrassment, who quickly transformed herself back to normal with a faint shade of red tinting her cheeks.

"In all seriousness, though. Sophie has a point... Those two were strong..." Oliver agreed, "Either they're immensely strong, or we're all immensely weak..."

The room fell silent. Jacob's brows lowered as he allowed Oliver's statement to sink in. When he sat and thought about it, really thought about it, he couldn't say he was wrong. Not in the slightest. He might've won a good amount of his fights since leaving Kanet Village, but looking back, he had help. He would get himself into a fight, begin to struggle, and would immediately fall back on the strange power he had. He couldn't go all the way on his own, using his strange power to give him the edge. A power he couldn't even control all that well.

Sophie was faced with a similar realization. One that only brought her back to the moment she tried her hand at facing off against Mark in a one on one fight. Her power had been fluctuating during that fight, which showed how far the gap of strength was between her and Mark without the use of her Dragon-Type ability. Since the Garchomp was able to go head to head against the Conkeldurr when they first met, she quickly assumed he was around the same level of strength as who they faced in Sapphire Town. Meaning, had they not met up with Mark when they did, they could've died.