Forest Grotto, Sinnoh

The Buizel slid on the ground and next to a tree, letting out soft exhales as he rubbed his head softly. The headbutt he had hit Nidoking with had done more damage to himself than Nidoking.

Nidoking's eyes switched to look at the Buizel, his head stinging with a light pain.

"Max?" Logan's eyes widened as he looked at the young Buizel.

Nidoking stopped focusing on Logan and nearly lunged at Max, completely engulfed with rage.

The Buizel let out a small whimper, shielding himself from what was yet to come.

"Luckily, my cooldown should be done now..." Suddenly, Logan was flying towards them, using his Flame Shots for speed.

Despite not being able to move his arms, the way they dangled behind the Scorbunny was enough for him to use.

Max's arms lowered from his face a bit as he could see Logan flying towards him.

Logan kicked Max out of the way, managing to get him a decent distance away. The Buizel looked back to see the Scorbunny, his arms flailing, his expression pained, yet serious.

"Run..."

Before he could utter any other words, Logan was suddenly punched in his face, his head slamming against the tree. Logan's vision instantly went black.

Max, listening to what he said, ran away as quickly as he could. It wasn't as fast as Nidoking's speed however, as he began to catch up to the small Pokémon. Nidoking reached out to impale Max with one of his claws, when Jacob suddenly stepped in front of Max, planning to shield him from Nidoking.

Before Nidoking's claw got to him, a bone suddenly hit his paw, redirecting its trajectory into the ground.

"What the...?" The Pikachu looked to see where the bone was going, and a Marowak caught it midair, landing beside Jacob.

"You get the kid out of here, we'll handle Nidoking."

Jacob picked up Max, but was a bit confused, "We?"

His question was answered when a familiar Aipom and Buneary jumped out to stand beside A.J, not looking back at him.

Jacob's eyes immediately trained onto the Buneary, "Hold on, is that...?"

"Go!" The Marowak shouted loudly, making Jacob jump in surprise before he ran off, carrying Max.

"Let's handle this guy..." Leah gave a soft smirk, "We have the upper hand in this."

The three all ran at Nidoking, only to all be swatted away. Nidoking was focused on chasing after Max, who was looking back at him in fear.

"Nix now!" Leah shouted as A.J fired an Ice Beam at Nidoking's left foot.

A familiar Nidoran jumped out from a nearby tree and fired another Ice Beam to directly strike Nidoking, covering his whole body. This didn't seem to affect Nidoking's ability to use attacks, however, as a Hyper Beam shot out of Nidoking's frozen mouth and right at Jacob and Max.

Before the attack could hit, a Golduck stepped in front of the two, using a Light Screen to reduce the damage to himself.

"Sir, I understand you're grieving..." The Golduck's Light Screen quickly faded as he began walking towards the frozen Nidoking, "But I can't let this slide anymore. None of us can."

Behind the Golduck stood most of the Grotto Rangers, out of the building, and looked prepared to fight.

Jacob looked up for a moment before his eyes widened, "Push him towards Ollie's attack!" The Pikachu pointed up to the top of the center, where Sophie was still climbing up the destroyed frame with Oliver in tow.

Everybody looked over at them and seemed to understand, running to grab Nidoking.

The ice had mostly thawed by then, so Nidoking was able to break out and struggle against this.

A.J, who was on the ground, quickly aimed and threw his bone to the back of Nidoking's knee, making his leg collapse and forcing him to the ground.

The Grotto Rangers went to hold Nidoking down as Sophie reached the top of the frame. She jumped up and aimed towards Nidoking, soon throwing Oliver with her Dragon Claw, "Do it, Oliver!"

Water surrounded Oliver in a spiral motion as he rocketed towards the ground and Nidoking himself.

"I don't know how..."

"But you managed to turn a battle of the four of us versus Nidoking to the whole Grotto fighting alongside us..."

"I don't care what they say, that alone is worthy of being called a Grotto Ranger... Logan."

Meanwhile, Logan struggled to open his eyes, his face bruised and battered caused by the one punch from Nidoking.

He looked up, and he saw his father sitting next to him. His father remained silent, and only pointed forwards, at the battle. Logan followed his father's paw before seeing everyone putting their best effort in to hold Nidoking down while Oliver approached.

Logan's eyes filled with tears, and completely exhausted, all he could do was cry.

Nine Years Ago, Forest Grotto

The sun was shining bright on a clear day. There were no clouds in the sky as a young Logan walked between his mother and father.

"It took that long for you to ask Mom out, Dad?" Logan asked, chuckling a little.

"It didn't take that long!" Kenny tried to defend himself, "Your mother knew I liked her, but I was pretty much forced to make the first move."

"And you did." Emily grinned, "Instead of being a little Torchic..."

The Scorbunny began laughing as Kenny blushed embarrassedly.

Their conversation was interrupted, however, when the family heard an explosion from a nearby store.

"The hell?" Emily's attention immediately turned to the explosion, "We have to check that out, hon."

"No kidding..." Kenney's embarrassed blush faded as his expression turned serious.

"Where's the fight!?" Logan clenched his paws, looking determined.

"You already know that you're not coming..." The female Cinderace looked at him, "Remember what I said a few weeks ago?"

"Leave the adventure to the pros, I know..." The Scorbunny's ears dropped, a bit disappointed.

Emily went to kiss his forehead, "Now please don't go running off again, we don't know what's going on."

Logan nodded silently.

"Now, head to the Pokémon Center," Kenny told him, "Your Aipom friend should be there too, don't get separated once you find her."

He nodded again.

"Good boy," Emily hugged him, "Love 'ya sweetie."

"Love you too mom..." He blushed embarrassedly, looking away.

"Bye Logan!" Emily was already rushing off in a matter of seconds at high speeds.

Kenny smiled, softly patting Logan's head, "I love you son. Stay safe, and protect your friend if you absolutely have to."

Logan got a fire in his eyes, "An assignment?"

The male Cinderace chuckled, "Yes, I guess you can consider it an assignment."

"Aye-aye sir!" The Scorbunny excitedly gave a salute before rushing off to the Pokémon Center.

Kenny smiled faintly, turning around and running after Emily.

Grotto PKMN Center, Sinnoh

Logan nearly kicked the doors to the Pokémon Center down as he ran inside and to the front desk. At his age, Logan wasn't tall enough to reach the desk entirely, so he jumped up and hung off of it as he looked at a Chansey.

"I order you to tell me where Leah's room is!" The young Scorbunny shouted, "Official GR business!"

"Well good morning to you too, Logan." The Chansey smiled, petting his head.

"Ms. Lucy, you're supposed to be intimidated!" Logan exclaimed, pouting cutely.

"How am I supposed to be intimidated by someone so adorable...?" She cooed, petting his head.

Logan blushed before swatting her paw away, "I'm not a baby anymore! I'm..."

"You're five, hon..."

"And a half!"

Lucy giggled, "Leah's in room A23."

"Thank you!" Logan let go of the counter, falling to the floor before dashing to Leah's room.

"Leah, open up!" The Scorbunny excitedly banged on her door before she opened it.

"What is it, Logan?" She yawned, rubbing her right eye. "I was getting ready for an afternoon nap..."

"There was an explosion at one of the shops!" The Scorbunny quickly explained, "I wanna check it out!"

"Yeah, but knowing your parents, wouldn't they... Not want that?"

"Maybe, but what they don't know won't hurt them..." Logan fanned his paw dismissively, "I love Mom and Dad, but they're too overprotective of me sometimes..."

He looked at his paws, which were glowing a light shade of orange, "How am I going to learn how to master the family Flamethrower if I can't ever battle?"

"You mean the Flame Shot?"

"Yeah that thing!"

"So... We're going?" Leah raised an eyebrow.

"Yep, we're going."

Forest Grotto, Sinnoh

The two successfully snuck out of the Pokémon Center, and Logan led her towards the store he heard the explosion at. As they were walking, the Scorbunny kept occasionally glancing at Leah.

"Weren't you supposed to be allowed to take your bandages off by now?" Logan asked.

The Aipom looked away, "Well, Ms. Lucy said I was allowed to..." She played with her bandages, "But she also said they needed some more time to heal and to be careful, so I just kept them on."

"I guess that makes sense, better safe than sorry!" He grinned.

Meanwhile...

Kenny and Emily stopped at the store, which had been completely destroyed, and was on fire. The couple exchanged a glance before heading to see if there were any injured Pokémon.

"Hello?" Kenny looked around, "Is anyone there?"

There were muffled shouts from under some rubble.

The two heard the muffled shouts, and rushed over to lift the piece of rubble. Kenny kept a piece of roof held up as Emily crawled underneath and headed towards the muffled shouting. It was a network of open holes leading to the voice, sometimes shifting a bit as Kenny struggled to hold the only opening up.

Once she reached the voice, she saw a young Sneasel, covering her eyes as she was in a fetal position.

"Hey, are you okay...?" Emily put a paw on the Sneasel's head, lightly petting her.

"I-I can't find my daddy..."

"Don't worry, I'll help you find him," The Cinderace gave a soft smile, "First, let's get you out of here, sweetie..."

The Sneasel nodded softly, and grabbed Emily's paw.

Meanwhile, Kenny was struggling to hold the piece of ceiling up. He looked up at the ceiling, and looked around to see if he could use anything to hold the piece of ceiling.

He spotted a metal bar nearby, and began to reach his foot towards it.

Before he could, however, he was tackled away from the ceiling.

"You did awesome, Kenny!" Emily, who was sitting on top of him, grinned, "I found this little girl. She lost her Dad earlier in the chaos."

Kenny nodded, slipping from under her, "Okay, so we need to get her somewhere safe first."

"I'll do it," A Golduck walked over to them.

Emily smiled softly, "Hey Edwin."

"Morning, Emily," Edwin gave a friendly smile back, "As I was saying, I'll help her find her dad. Since you two can stand harsh temperatures, you need to stay in case the fires around here grow and civilians can't escape."

"Got it!" The female Cinderace gave a toothy grin.

Kenny and Emily turned to keep looking for anyone in danger, and they thought they found that when they heard the rubble crumbling a little for a moment. The two headed over, and a Nidoking suddenly sprouted from the rubble.

"What the...?" Kenny's eyes widened.

The Nidoking suddenly tried to swing its paw at Kenny, forcing him to quickly avoid it and jump back.

Emily suddenly jumped up from behind the Nidoking, "Paws off my Kenny!" She quickly kicked the back of his head, but seemed to do little to no damage.

Nidoking grabbed Emily's foot, and slung her into Kenny, making them crash into a nearby standing piece of debris.

Kenny was the first to stand up, as he saw Nidoking approaching, "I'm calling for backup..."

With Logan...

The Scorbunny heard some crashing from the already in ruins building, and signaled Leah to run faster towards it. As they were running, he passed by a familiar Golduck.

"Morning, Logan."

"Morning, Mr. Edwin."

As they ran in opposite directions, Edwin's expression slowly formed into a smile, "What a good kid..."

The Scorbunny was sweating profusely as he remained silent, running in the opposite direction.

Edwin suddenly skidded to a stop, "Wait a minute!"

"Dang!" Logan smiled nervously.

"You two aren't supposed to be out and about!" Edwin walked over, "You're supposed to be inside, is what I'm sure your parents would say, Sir."

"Again, I'm not a sir."

"Sorry, bad habit..."

"Hey, who's that?" Leah asked, pointing to the sleeping Sneasel in his arms.

"It's a girl who lost her Dad in the chaos," Edwin replied, "I'm taking her to the center so Lucy can look after her."

"Yeah, maybe you should hurry, she's got an injury..." Leah looked at the young Sneasel.

"Oh no!" Edwin exclaimed, running towards the Pokémon Center, "You two kids stay right there!"

"Is that girl gonna be okay?" Logan asked, watching the Golduck run off.

Leah nodded, "Yep, I lied."

The Scorbunny grinned, "Good job, Leah! Now let's go!"

The sounds of battle got closer and closer to the two, and Logan got progressively amped up for the fight he would be glad to be in. What he didn't notice, however, was a small piece of debris stuck in the ground in front of him.

Logan tripped over the piece of debris, immediately looking to his foot to see if he had any injuries.

"Logan, are you okay?" Leah stopped in her tracks to look back at him.

"Go on without me!" He shouted back, still inspecting his foot, "I'll be there in a few!"

The Aipom nodded before running towards the sounds of battle.

Leah finally arrived to see a destroyed building, and a large battle going on in front of her eyes. There were various Pokémon directing attacks at a single Pokémon that seemed to be taking all of it.

It was a Nidoking.

Leah looked closer at the Nidoking, and saw that his eyes were completely whitened out, as if he were unconscious as he stormed towards various Pokémon in a rage.

Her eyes darted over to two familiar Pokémon. Both were Cinderace, as well as unconscious. Her eyes then widened.

"Logan's parents!"

Leah ran towards them, hopping on various pieces of debris as she avoided running into any of the Grotto Rangers keeping Nidoking at bay. When she arrived to see them, she realized that Kenny in particular was in a worse shape than Emily.

The male Cinderace was actively bleeding from his head profusely, and it showed no sign of stopping. Leah, knowing this was extremely bad, looked at the clean bandages around her paws and began taking them off until she could see a bit of red on them.

She tore off the clean parts of her bandages and began wrapping them around Kenny's head, trying her best to stop the bleeding.

Once finally stopping the bleeding with her somewhat messy bandaging work, she looked around the area. She knew she had to get the two of them to somewhere safe, or they would be hurt even more by stray attacks.

She saw a hill nearby, and she grabbed Kenny by his arms. She inhaled for a moment before beginning to pull him towards that hill slowly.

She struggled for a while, but successfully managed to bring Kenny to the hill. Now for Emily. Leah walked over to the female Cinderace, grabbing her by her arms and beginning to pull.

What the Aipom didn't notice, however, was a piece of debris flying towards them. Once she looked to see it, she braced for impact.

"Not my friend!" A familiar voice shouted, approaching quickly.

It was Logan, who used both of his paws to press against the piece of debris and send it slightly in another direction with a weak Flame Shot.

"Are you okay?" The Scorbunny looked at her.

"I am, but I don't know about your Mom..." Leah looked down.

Logan gasped faintly as his eyes moved down to see his mother unconscious on the ground. His pupils began to shake as he looked back up at Leah, his eyes watery and his face red with rage.

"Who... Did... This!?"

Logan's extremely loud bellow of rage echoed through the air, grabbing the attention of every Pokémon in the area, including the GR and Nidoking.

A few of the GR's eyes widened when they noticed the two kids on the battlefield, one of them being Kenny and Emily's son.

Logan's eyes focused on a Nidoking he didn't recognize, that was still charging towards some of the GR.

"You..."

Logan put both of his paws on the ground, seemingly taking a running stance as both his paws and feet glowed a subtle hue of red.

"I'll..."

Logan's body shook furiously, his vision narrowing and his heart pounding.

"I'll send you back to the hell you came from!"

His vision turned red as a Flame Shot suddenly erupted from the bottoms of his feet, shooting him forward and at Nidoking.

None of the GR were able to stop him, as when he shot forward, he was already mere inches away from Nidoking's face.

He fired off a large Flame Shot once his paws made contact with Nidoking's face, but his body wasn't prepared for the output. The force from the attack sent Logan flying back, soon hitting the ground a distance away.

Grotto PKMN Center, Sinnoh

Logan's eyes shot open.

He sat up in his bed to meet a familiar Chansey's eyes. He was breathing heavily, and his head was decorated with various bandages.

"M-Ms. Lucy...?"

"You're awake..." Lucy uttered faintly.

"Where's Mom and Dad?"

The Chansey remained silent, only walking over to be beside Logan's bed. She then leaned down to hug him.

"I'm sorry, hon... I'm so sorry!"

Logan couldn't understand.

Soon after, later on in the night, Logan was walking around, looking for something to eat. He soon walked into a room he had never seen before.

In the dark room, the sound of two E.K.G monitors continuously beeped faintly. His paws scanned the walls of the room until he reached a light switch, soon turning it on.

He wasn't prepared for what he saw.

It was his parents, covered with bandages, on life support. Logan couldn't help but to cry a little, soon wiping his eyes.

He slowly walked over to grab his mother's bandaged paw, and put it on his head, wanting to feel the familiar comfort of his mother's simple touch. He grabbed his father's paw, and held it.

"I won't ever give up on you two..."

His eyes filled with tears once again, his throat squeezing shut as small cracks filled his voice.

"...Until I get revenge!"

"You can count on me, Mommy! Daddy!"