Adrian looked up at the cavern as in front of him with a pale face.

“W-We have to go in there?”

“Of course, dear. We won’t be able to check the energy levels outside of the cave.”

Adrian nodded his head at her logic.

‘I couldn’t argue against her anyway.’

“Shouldn’t we investigate it with more people?”

Magnolia nodded her head with a smile.

“That is a good observation. Luckily, I already called for a Ranger to come with us. He should be here soon.”

“Good morning, Professor Magnolia! Sorry for the wait!”

A Ranger came towards them in a sprint.

He had a orange hat and gear for investigating wildlife while also being mobile.

His black hair shined with light sweat as he tried his best to be presentable.

“I’m glad you made it. I was starting to wonder if something happened.”

“Sorry, Professor! Our morning meeting went on longer than expected. I rushed over here as soon as I could.”

Magnolia nodded her head and started to walk into the cave.

“Come now. We have to hurry and find the source of the energy.”

“Roger!”

The Ranger and Adrian walked behind her as they made their way inside the cave.

The Ranger looked over at Adrian and smiled.

“Hi! My name is John! Are you the Professor’s assistant today?”

Adrian nodded his head.

“Yep. I’m Adrian. Nice to meet you.”

The two shook hands quickly before John rushed in front of Magnolia.

“I’ll lead the way for you, Ma’am.”

“Good. Be a dear and help us traverse the cave quickly. We should get this done before noon.”

John nodded his head and reached for his belt.

He pulled out a Pokeball and opened it.

*Poof*

A beam of light opened from the ball and landed on the ceiling, revealing a blue bat with long legs and no eyes.

“Zumi! I need your help, buddy!”

{Chi Chi!}

Zumi the Zubat chirped as it took flight and began to search the cavern.

The Ranger did his best to assist Magnolia and Adrian as they surveyed the walls and floor of the cavern.

Many rock Pokemon, such as Roggenrola and Geodude, looked over at the group with curiosity.

John pulled out a few crystals from his bag to keep them occupied as Magnolia taught Adrian how to detect the energy through a device.

“You see the spike in energy here? This means the energy spike swept through here.”

Adrian nodded his head as he made mentally noted the information.

“What does this spike in energy mean?”

“It means that there is a Gigantamaxed Pokemon nest here.”

“Really?!”

John interrupted the two with a pale face.

Magnolia ignored him and explained more to Adrian.

“The energy tends to pool into a hotspot, though more of them have recently appeared around the country.”

Magnolia fixed her glasses as she continued to walk with her cane.

“We have to find out why, or at least find out if the Pokemon will stay in its nest. Come, we can’t waste any more time.”

“W-Wait!”

Magnolia paid no attention to John as she walked deeper inside the cave.

John cautiously walked behind them as he watched the surroundings with his Zubat.

The group soon came across a mound surrounded by a group of Geodudes.

They were cautiously looking over a hole in the ground as swirls of energy surged around the hole.

“It seems the nest is forming now. This will be a new hotspot.”

Magnolia nodded her head as she came closer to the hole.

“Professor! You should stay back!”

“I can’t find out what is inside without getting closer to the flow of energy.”

The Geodudes turned towards her with stern expressions, but she completely ignored them. 

Magnolia pulled out a radar and held it close to the hole.

*BEEP BEEP BEEP*

The screen of the radar flashed as a Pokemon’s picture came on the screen.

“Golem. I should’ve guessed it. We’ll have to mark this one.”

Magnolia put the radar away and walked back to the group.

John was covered in sweat. He didn’t expect the Professor of all people to be so bold as to walk into a group of Pokemon. Grumpy Pokemon like Geodudes even!

“We still have to explore the area more. Let’s hope this is the only one. Come along.”

“Yes!”

Adrian followed after her while John tried to clear his head and keep doing his job.

The two didn't notice the Geodudes shivering in fear as they watched Magnolia's back.

******

After a few hours of walking and research, Magnolia finally called the end of the expedition.

John and Zumi were leaning against a cave wall as they caught their breath.

Adrian was also a bit tired, but he didn’t know why John looked so out of it.

“Thank you for assisting us, John. You can head back now.”

“A-Are you sure, Professor?!”

Magnolia nodded her head with a smile.

“Don’t worry. I’ll put in a good word for you. You and your Zumi did well. Go on.”

“T-Then I’ll take my leave! Good luck with your research!”

John hightailed it out of the cave as Magnolia chuckled at him.

“Quite an interesting young man.”

Adrian felt bad for John as he saw him get out as fast as he could.

He turned to Magnolia and frowned.

He had a question he wanted to ask, but he couldn’t find the words to form his question without being rude.

“Speak your mind, boy. What is it?”

“Um! I-I just wanted to ask why do you have so much energy? It seemed rude to ask though…”

Adrian was only a bit tired, but he always found her research exciting, so he would push himself to learn more.

The true thing that confused him, however, was that she had just as much energy as he did, if not more.

Magnolia chuckled as she went over and rubbed his black and green hair.

“I see. You wonder why this granny can keep up with you young ones so well?”

Adrian was embarrassed, but he still nodded his head in confusion.

“It’s because I’m like your parents. I was also a Frenzy Soldier before I was a Professor.”

Adrian’s mouth opened wide as he looked at her in shock!

Magnolia lifted his chin and closed his mouth.

“That’s not a very good habit to have, Adrian. Don’t do that too often now.”

“I-I understand, but!”

Magnolia shook her head as she turned around and started to walk back home.

“You’re too young to learn about what that means now. Perhaps when you’re 10, I’ll give you that information. Until then, focus on our research.”

Adrian stared at her back for a moment and sighed. He picked up his materials and chased after her.

******

“So Grandma? What happened in the cave today?”

Sonia asked Magnolia as she twirled her bang around her finger.

“Just another Gigantamax nest. We’ve recorded it and sent it over to the Rangers to keep an eye on.”

Sonia started to ponder as she continued to swirl her hair around.

“I wonder why it seems like more of them are sprouting?”

“I wonder why as well. How about you assist Adrian and I on the matter?”

Sonia looked surprised for a moment, then embarrassed.

“Ah?! Well… I’m not too sure if I can do it properly. Best to leave it to you two instead. Goodnight!”

Sonia quickly fled to her room with her Yamper running behind her.

Magnolia sighed as she continued to document her findings.

Adrian watched her from the side as he helped her organize the documents.

 Magnolia smiled as she grabbed the paperwork.

“Thank you, dear. You can take a break today. Go play with your Pokemon.”

“Okay, Grandma.”

Adrian dashed towards his room as Magnolia laughed at his response.

He didn’t even notice he called her Grandma, but she wouldn’t correct him on it.

Adrian opened the door to his room to find Larvesta and Blipbug crowding around a book while Cutiefly flew around the ceiling in a figure 8.

[Adrian! Food!]

Cutiefly immediately swooped down and flew circled around his head.

“Okay. I’ll give you some berries. Thanks for waiting for me.”

[Hello, Adrian.]

[Hey! You left me again!]

Larvesta and Blipbug both crawled up to him as he sat down on the floor to talk to them.

His eyes began to glow as he exchanged his thoughts with them while sharing berries from his bag.

He paused for a moment as he looked at his three partners and tilted his head.

[Hey guys?]

The three of them looked up from their meals to Adrian as he held a serious face.

[Do you want names?]

The three of them looked at Adrian for a moment, looked at each other, then back at Adrian.

[[Yes!]]

The three Pokemon crowded around Adrian as he started to think about names for them.

He suddenly had an idea as he grabbed his three Pokemon and quickly went to the nearby computer and started to look up names for them.

Larvesta was always outside soaking up rays of sunshine, so he easily found Sol to be a great name.

Cutiefly would always appear whenever something sweet was being served or discovered, so Adrian gave her the name Sugar.

Blipbug, on the other hand, was a hard one for Adrian to pin down.

It wasn’t until the group accidentally found a picture of a scary movie with a woman ordering her Pokemon to shoot an alien like creature in the face did a name come to them.

“Okay. Now you are Sol, Sugar, and Ripley. This will make it easy if we run into other bug types that are the same species as you.”

[I like it!]

Sol nodded his head happily.

[Yay! Sugar! Sugar!]

Sugar flew around chanting her name.

[Can we watch the movie? I wish to know how my namesake solved her problems.]

Blipbug calmly looked up at Adrian as he froze.

“M-Maybe we shouldn’t. Sadly, the movie seems to be for mature audiences. I’m only a kid.”

Ripley tilted her head as she pondered over the information.

[You are about 9 years of age. How old must you be to watch such a movie?]

“Umm. It says it’s R-rated, so I think you need to be an adult to watch it.”

[What if we got Sonia to watch it with us?]

Adrian began to sweat as he saw the possibility of not being able to escape this.

“W-Well, maybe she doesn’t want to watch it?”

“Want to watch what?”

A shiver went down his spine as he turned around to see Sonia.

“H-Hey Sonia! Ripley and I was just talking about something.”

“Ripley? Oh! Is that your Blipbug’s name?! That’s the same as that cool heroine from that one movie I saw not too long ago.”

Ripley’s eyes shined brightly as she gestured to the computer screen.

“Hmm? Yeah! That’s the movie! Did you want to see it? I have it in my room.”

“W-Well…”

Sonia didn’t ask anymore questions as she picked Adrian up and dragged him to her room.

That night, Sonia figured out that Adrian wasn’t the biggest fan of horror movies, but Ripley was.

*******

Adrian shrunk into his jacket as he looked in front of him.

He had a cake in the shape of a 10 presented in front of him with candles lit.

“Happy Birthday to you~! Happy Birthday to you~!”

All around him were Magnolia, Sonia, Hop, and his two new friends he made recently.

One was a boy named Victor and the other was a girl named Gloria.

Both had on party hats and party blowers as they cheered far too enthusiastically over his birthday.

Hop was right next to them, singing just as hard as the other two.

His Pokemon also betrayed him as Ripley, Sol, and Sugar all sang out together with everyone else.

“Happy Birthday, Dear Adrian! Happy Birthday to you!!!”

Adrian wished he had a rock or a shell to hide under as he waited for this embarrassing song to end.

“Ha! Your face is super red, man! We gotta do this again next year.”

Adrian shook his head rapidly as he bent down to blow out his candles.

*Clap Clap Clap*

Everyone clapped their hands as they crowded around for pieces of cake.

Adrian sat with his piece as Sugar was lapping up the icing with relish.

“I’ll double the embarrassment for your birthdays! Just you wait!”

““Hahahaha!!””

Everyone laughed at Adrian’s embarrassment, but he wouldn’t forget this!

Adrian’s jacket covered his face up to his nose, though his red cheeks were still visible to everyone.

“None of that now. I’m sure your present will help bring you to forgive them.”

Magnolia smiled as she tried to coax him into relaxing a bit.

“My present?”

He suddenly felt a pair of arms swing around him from behind his chair, squeezing him tight.

His heart started to beat faster as he smelt a familiar scent waft to his nose. The straw that broke the Camerupt’s back was the mental link he  hadn't felt for so long.

[Happy Birthday, Adrian. You’ve gotten so big now.]

“Mom!”

Adrian quickly turned around and hugged Astrid as she giggled at his enthusiasm.

Astrid hugged Adrian back as Brian came behind them and rubbed his son’s head.

“Geez! You’re getting so big now. I won’t be able to baby you for much longer.”

“Dad! You’re both here!”

He grabbed both of them as quickly as he could and refused to let go.

Brian snickered as he rubbed his son’s head and dried the tears running down his wife’s cheeks.

These two were so emotional.

Astrid leered at him in defiance as she recalled how fast his he had his Hydreigon fly to get her in time.

She was sure he would have new speeding tickets waiting for him at headquarters again.

*Cough*

Sensing his wife catching his thoughts, he quickly kneeled down towards Adrian and looked him over.

“Hey. I like this new jacket look you got going on. Pretty snazzy.”

“Did you seriously say snazzy? You could just say it looks nice.”

“Pfft!”

Adrian couldn’t hold it in as he laughed at the familiar arguing of his parents.

He didn’t realize how much he missed them.

“Come on! I’ll introduce you to everyone.”

Adrian dragged his parents over to his friends and introduced them.

“This is Victor and Gloria! They’re my friends from down the way! They live on the opposite sides of Hop’s house.”

"N-Nice to meet you."

"H-How's it going?"

The two meekly bowed their heads as they looked at Adrian’s parents.

Both parents were covered in their black Frenzy Soldier cloak, instilling a bit of fear into the two despite their smiling faces.

“No need to be so nervous. We’re just parents. Not authorities. Hehehe!”

Astrid slapped his shoulder as he laughed at his own joke shamelessly.

Gloria and Victor ended up feeling a lot better, seeing Brian act like that.

Adrian dragged them over to Hop close by and introduced him as well.

“This is Hop, my other friend. I meet his Wooloo before I met him though.”

“Hey! That hill was a bit too steep, okay?! I didn’t know he’d trip and start rolling!”

“Baaah!”

Wooloo happily interrupted as he rolled into the conversation.

“Hahaha! Tell me more about it!”

Brian was interested in how Wooloo ran over Adrian and laughed when Wooloo accidentally took Sol with him.

Adrian and Astrid both rolled their eyes at the same time, earning a laugh from the room once again.

After their initial fear, the party continued on with Adrian receiving some interesting gifts, including a white Colony jacket.

Brian and Astrid looked at each other for a moment and smiled as they saw the brand logo.

After the festivities ended, Sonia and Magnolia sat at the table with Astrid and Brian.

Adrian was glued to his mother as continued to talk to him through their mental link.

“Huh? I didn’t know Adrian could do that.”

“He tries not to do it to other people, dear. It’s rather rude to intrude in someone’s mind, after all.”

Sonia nodded her head as Brian just clicked his tongue.

“They’re leaving me out again.”

Magnolia giggled at Brian’s face before her face started to become serious.

“What’s the verdict?”

Brian turned to Magnolia and bowed his head.

“Sorry! You might have to hold on to him a bit longer. We won't have much time to rest here.”

Adrian visibly slumped sadly in his Mom’s lap as she patted his head apologetically.

“Do you mind if I ask why?”

Brian shook his head as he looked at Sonia for a moment.

“She’s a big girl. You don’t have to hide it from her.”

Brian looked at her for a moment, then his gaze went towards the Yamper at her feet and sighed.

“An old teammate went rogue.”

The air around Magnolia suddenly became sinister as Sonia and Adrian had to catch their breath.

The air quickly disappeared as Magnolia sighed shortly after.

“Sorry, you two. Rogues are never a good thing to hear about.”

The two nodded their heads as they silently listened to the three soldiers talk.

“How were they dealt with?”

“They should’ve been executed. Doesn’t seem like the League did a good job at it.”

“Specialization?”

“....Electric types.”

“….”

Magnolia’s grip on her cane creaked as the wood rattled lightly.

“Calm down. We can handle him on our own. No need for you to reappear."

"Hey."

Everyone turned to Adrian as he looked at his Dad.

“What is a Frenzy Soldier, Dad?”

“…..”

Brian looked at Adrian for a moment before silently releasing a bit of his aura.

Adrian tensed up for a brief moment but continued to stare at his father for answers.

Brian kept up the pressure for a moment before sighing in resignation.

“You inherited that too, huh? Damn it.”

“Language.”

“Ah! Sorry! Ahem! Darn it.”

Brian quickly corrected himself before clearing his throat.

“Adrian. Do you know what a Battle Bond is?”

Adrian tilted his head as he wracked his brain for the answer.

“Oh! Isn’t it the power that formed from Ash Ketchum's Greninja! It was like a transformation, right?!”

Sonia jumped into the conversation, excited to talk about such an interesting topic.

Adrian finally remembered the phrase with Sonia’s help.

“Right. The Battle Bond helped Greninja evolve like a Mega evolution, but without a stone. Just pure emotion and trust was used to gain more power.”

Brian was shocked for a moment before smiling wryly.

“You two even know that? Guess they really learned how to research properly.”

“Grandma said that Gigantamaxing and Battle bonds may share a similar energy signature, so I studied it a bit. It was pretty cool.”

“Me too! Though it’s not my thing to research really....”

Brian and Astrid both looked over at Magnolia with a smile as she nodded with pride.

“I taught them all I know. I just wish Sonia would take over my position already.”

“I-I don’t know that much.”

Sonia twirled her hair slowly as Magnolia chortled.

“Of course, dear. I know you pay attention when you want to. I'll wait for you to have more confidence.”

Sonia turned her head to pout as the group laughed for a moment.

“That’s right, you two. The Battle bond is a phenomenon that happens to a Pokemon when they have complete trust in their trainer. The only ones available for such a transformation, however, were Greninja and possible case with a Croagunk. That was it, until further research proved something different.”

Adrian leaned closer to his father as he was excited to find out what made his parents so different.

"As the leading researchers looked for more clues to explain the phenomenon, they came across another one. A volunteer tried to transform their starter Pokemon, but ended up transforming instead."

Sonia and Adrian's eyes widened as Brian dropped a Electrode on their heads!

"The trainer gained immense strength and bulk. He became like his Pokemon instead of his Pokemon transforming."

Astrid joined in on the explanation. 

“The world researched this phenomenon only to find his the energies of his Pokemon mixing in with his own. This sparked a new revolution for researchers as they analyzed whatever they could. That volunteer became the first Frenzy Soldier, one of a select few now.”

Sonia rose from her seat in shock as she looked at the two soldiers.

“That’s, That’s impossible.”

Brian shook his head as he raised his hand.

“That’s what most of us thought at first too, but as it turns out…”

His hand started to gather shadows in the room, transforming into a sinister looking claw.

Sonia and Adrian both drew away from the claw as it sent shivers down their spines.

Brian flexed his hand and the claw dissipated back into his normal hand.

“It was possible for some people to be able to use it.”

Brian looked at Sonia for a moment and then back at Magnolia.

“Magnolia was one of us as well, but she retired and became a Professor after her service.”

Sonia’s head snapped to Magnolia as she looked at her grandmother.

She nodded her head as her cane suddenly grew thorns along its length.

The thorns disappeared as quickly as they came, bringing Sonia a wave of chills.

“That’s why your cane hurt so much!”

*Bonk*

“Oww!”

“Pfft!”

Sonia nursed her new bump as Brian tried his best not to burst out laughing. Astrid rolled her eyes and continued to explain.

“The difference between Battle Bond and what we do is we exchange energies with our Pokemon to transform us and our partners. We call it Battle Mantra.”

Brian nodded his head and collected himself.

“We gather the energy released from Pokemon of specific types and store them in our bodies to use for battle. We exchange our own energy with our Pokemon as well, giving them different boosts depending on the Pokemon. We fight alongside our Pokemon instead of just letting them fight it out.”

Adrian slowly nodded his head as a questions formed in his head.

“How do you know you have the ability to use Battle Mantra? How many Transformations can you do?”

“Ha! Slow down, squirt. I’m getting to that.”

Brian patted Adrian’s head as he continued to explain.

“You see, the best way to tell if someone has the ability for certain types is by the Pokemon they gravitate to. At a young age, you would start to attract Pokemon towards you. The more consistent the type of Pokemon you run into, the higher the chance you can use Battle Mantra. Your Mom and I both found our starters before we even had Pokeballs, so it made it pretty clear what types we had.”

"That was the old way, of course. Now we can scan people for the ability if they wish to check."

Adrian nodded his head and then thought of something.

“Is that why you had me go find a Pokemon with a net?!”

Brian nodded his head as he smiled.

“We figured you might have acquired our ability so we tried to see what you could attract. It ended up being both of our Types, but we thought we might’ve affected the encounter. You probably just resonated with our energy and attracted our own Types since you have our blood.”

Astrid nodded her head at Brian's explanation and continued.

“Then you ended up getting Larvesta on your own. That settled our guess on what Pokemon you could use. Now, You have three of them without any Pokeballs.”

Astrid jumped in with her input, smiling with the knowledge her son would've possibly had her type first.

Adrian’s eyes shined as he looked at his parents.

“That means I can be like you guys, right? I can be a Soldier?”

Adrian asked with excitement but grew concerned when he saw Brian and Astrid’s faces.

They didn’t look too happy about it.

“You can, but…”

“We honestly wish you wouldn’t.”

Adrian looked at their faces for a moment.

“Why?”

Brian looked at Astrid, then at Magnolia before finally looking at Adrian.

“When you cultivate this type of ability, there is always a catch.”

Adrian became serious as he listened to Brian explain the downsides.

“The catch is… if you can’t control the energy, you turn into a Pokemon.”

“What!?”

Adrian was shocked to hear that! Sonia as well!

Astrid held him close as she explained.

"The energy of Pokemon is mystical. Just because you have the ability to use it doesn't mean you should. Many of our comrades lost loved ones and partners during Frenzies and fighting evil organizations. Some couldn't take it and transformed on the spot for more power or revenge. It never ends well for them."

“Trust me. I’ve had to put down my fair share of comrades who couldn’t handle their energy. They reject Pokeballs as well, so we can't catch them safely to put them back. They'll just rage and destroy everything around them, losing their minds.”

Brian’s face turned somber as he reminisced for a moment.

He shook his head lightly and looked at his son.

“That’s why I want you to really think about if you want to do the same thing as us. I won’t stop you, but I have no intention of helping you die before me. If you do decide, I’m going to train you seriously from then on.”

“……”

“There is also the fact that you will be known as our son publicly. That will bring both good and bad things your way. We both have taken down lots of organizations and crimes. Any one of them with that knowledge will definitely try to hurt you to get to us.”

Adrian was silent as he thought about what he should do.

He suddenly felt something next to his leg and looked down to find Sol, Ripley, and Sugar looking up at him.

“Huh? What’s wrong, guys?”

Adrian squatted down and looked over his Pokemon.

[You should do it.]

“Huh?”

Sol looked at Adrian with a determined gaze.

[We can help a lot of people and Pokemon if we do this, right?]

Adrian nodded his head.

Ripley looked up at him and nodded her head.

[We can become stronger if we do this. It will be with a risk, but I believe it will be worth it.]

Sugar also nodded her head sagely on Sol’s head.

Adrian wondered if she really knew what was going on, but he figured she probably wouldn’t care either way. She just had to have sweets.

Adrian looked at the three of them and nodded his head.

He looked up at Brian and pumped his fists.

“I’ll still do it! I still want to become a soldier!”

Brian looked at his son and slowly smiled.

“Fine. But not right now. You’ll be under probation by us until we can be sure this is what you want to do. Your mother and I will train and prepare you until you’re ready.”

Brian rubbed Adrian’s head as he looked at his son with pride.

Adrian smiled as he looked at his father.

“I’ll be as strong as you!”

“Hahaha! We’ll see. It’s not easy. You’ll find out soon enough.”

Astrid smiled as she pushed Adrian on his back lightly.

“You should go and put your gifts away. We’ll go home once we have a quick chat with Magnolia.”

“Right. You should have Sonia help you get your stuff together.”

Adrian grew a bit sad as he realized he was going back home.

He liked being here.

Magnolia flicked his forehead lightly with a smirk.

“What are you getting sad for? You aren’t far from us at all. Just come back and visit.”

Adrian thought for a moment and smiled as he realized he was being silly. He could come back here whenever he wanted!

“Okay! I’ll come visit often! Sonia! Help me pack!”

“Haha! Alright! You don’t need to drag me with you!”

Adrian dragged Sonia by the arm as he hurried to his room to grab his stuff with Sonia giggling behind him.

His Pokemon and Yamper also trailed after them in hot pursuit.

Once the two left, Astrid grabbed a black Pokeball and pointed it to the ground.

*Poof*

Light shot out of the Pokeball, revealing Hatterene.

“Hatty, seal off the room.”

Hatterene nodded her head and used her psychic power to seal the room.

Once she was done, the aura of all three soldiers manifested off their bodies!

Astrid’s eyes were glowing as a light purple aura raised her green hair up in absolute rage.

“I will kill that bastard!”

Brian sighed as his black aura flowed with a stable rhythm around him.

“I know you’re mad, but we have to do this.”

Astrid huffed and crossed her arms along her chest.

“I will protect him as well. You two don’t have to worry about leaving him here if you must.”

“No! We can’t inconvenience you any further than this. I’ll take over his training and at least get him to the base level. If he wants to go higher, he’ll let us know.”

Magnolia shook her head as she looked at Brian.

“It’s too late for that. He’s pretty much my grandson now.”

Brian stared at Magnolia for a moment and sighed.

He eventually started to smile as he chuckled lightly.

“Guess we’re family now.”

Magnolia smiled for a moment before she started to frown.

“Now tell me something. Is the rouge related to that incident?”

Brian paused for a moment, then shook his head.

“I’m not too sure. I don’t think so, but I could always be wrong.”

Astrid came close to Magnolia and grabbed her hand.

“If we find out anything about that incident, we’ll let you know.”

Magnolia placed her hand over Astrid’s and nodded her head.

She could afford to wait a little longer for her revenge.

She had nothing, but time.