So what will be the aftermath of Misato's incredible release of power? Will Alden and Eifa be left standing?
KedharS: Not sure what that is, but I guess so?
Rosealine gold: She's definitely got her suspicions, that's for sure.
Aquahaze675: Or a one-hit KO move.
JoshGamerV: Fuck is a very good way to describe it, yes.
Tambry96bj: It's quite a good question, that's for sure.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 496
When the light died down and everyone's vision returned, all eyes looked at the pokemon that had just received the full brunt of the monstrosity of an attack that Misato had unleashed.
"What the hell?!" Valon bellowed, enraged. He wasn't wearing that snake smile of his, no, all pretense had faded and his face was flushed with anger.
Lying unconscious in the dirt wasn't Eifa, Alden's Espeon. But it was his own Shade! This couldn't have been possible! He had planned for Misato to knock the Commander down a peg early on in the eyes of the other students to demonstrate her destructive capability, and now she had wound up taking him out of the battle instead?
"V-Valon's Gengar is unable to battle," Lila said, not able to believe it any more than her fellow announcers, who were watching, dumbfounded. "That, um, that's it for him, I guess…"
There were cries of shock and disbelief from the audience, but no one was more stunned than the Phantom himself.
"Misato!" Valon exclaimed, turning to her. "What have you done?!"
"Unknown. The target selected correctly. The attack was released without any error. There is no answer to this situation that I can arrive at with any degree of statistical certainty," Misato explained, her brain working on analyzing every detail of the battle before the attack had landed.
"That isn't good enough!" Valon exclaimed, looking around wildly for the Commander's Espeon before he finally found her… standing right beside him, looking up with deep, golden eyes that were gleaming with smug victory.
"I thought you would be too smart to fall for the same trick twice, Phantom," Alden called from a few yards away. "In a situation like this, ally switch can come in handy a different way!"
So that was it. Hearing that, Valon quickly calmed down and reassessed the situation. When Misato had unleashed her attack, Alden had his Espeon use ally switch on Shade, to swap their positions. Thus, Shade was hit directly by Misato's energy blast and knocked unconscious, while the Espeon was totally fine.
Valon hated being outsmarted, especially by someone with intelligence so obviously inferior to his own. He had dismissed ally switch as a simple useless move, and the Commander had made the most use out of it this battle that Valon had ever seen.
"Yes!" Vic cheered, leaping to her feet, pumping her fist into the air excitedly. "Did you guys see that?! Did you see it?! The Commander just used the move that I taught him!"
Vic, a long-time advocate of moves that others dismissed as "worthless" because they only served a function in double battles, felt exceptionally proud right now that the move she had taught the Commander the merits of, so effectively that he had agreed with her and taught it to the Espeon SHE had gifted him as an Eevee for his birthday, had just been used to completely wipe out the arrogant Phantom. Victory was in their grasp! Everyone would see now that the Phantom was just a worthless fool defending his cowardice as "intelligence", and if she was lucky, they would understand he was the kind of sick monster who would use something horrid such as Shadow Pokemon to make up for his own failings. So as she watched the Phantom recall his Shadow Pokemon, easing the sickening burden it had placed on her slightly, she couldn't help but feel triumph burgeoning in her chest! That would show him, for sure!
And it was a certainty, alright. Valon's face appeared on the bracket, right next to Maddi's. Maddi scowled as she watched from the sidelines. So she would be facing against the Phantom in the next round? That would be a problem. She had some things that she needed to figure out.
"I can't believe it!" K gasped. "He lost?!"
"No way!" Lana exclaimed, equally shocked.
"This is fantastic!" Sylvia cackled, doubling over in laughter at the fact that all of the Phantom's scheming for this battle royale opening had just been mangled by his lieutenant, all from a well-timed move like ally switch. "Things are really getting interesting now!"
"Eifa! Use shadow ball!" Alden ordered. He was going to use this initiative to try and take out Misato, as well.
"Espeon!" Eifa fired an orb of shadowy energy at Misato. But Misato had not been caught off-guard by the surprise like. Even though the Phantom's Gengar being knocked unconscious had not been the plan, Misato didn't do "surprise". She reassessed unforeseen circumstances and continued with her initial task, which was still to take the Commander out of the tournament. So she dodged the Espeon's shadow ball like nothing at all had happened, turning her attention back to it. She might have expended the energy she absorbed from the Zeraora, but she still had plenty of her own left in reserve.
"Target acquired." Misato flapped her plasma wings, and massive waves of ghostly wind were conjured, blowing across the battlefield towards Eifa.
"Light screen," Alden ordered. Eifa's eyes flashed red and her ruby began to glow, a barrier of red light appearing around her once more to withstand the wind, which pushed around her. Misato assessed how much damage the ominous wind was doing to the barrier. It was negligible. She would have to increase her strength.
"Nasty plot," she ordered the Rotom boosting her power, Sparky's voice cackling somewhere in her processor.
Images of Misato having sex with Will were appearing in her active data processor.
"Elaborate," she silently ordered her Rotom, unable to reach a logical explanation for why the electric pokemon had generated those images in particular. The only response she received was Sparky laughing even louder. It still had the intended effect, though, and she felt her special attack output increasing by two stages. She would test if that would be enough to break through.
"This is ridiculous!" K spat. He was having much less control over his emotions than the empty Misato was, frothing into a rage at the fact that the Commander was still fighting his heart out while the Phantom had been defeated. "Haikili! Destroy them with shadow bolt! And if that Shedinja gets in the way, decimate it too!"
"No no, that's fine!" Sylvia chirped. "Higurashi, shadow sneak."
Higurashi ducked away into the shadows, opening up the avenue of attack towards Snows and Weiss.
"Why am I not surprised that you would betray us?" Ayame spat, staring daggers at Sylvia as she stepped away, her Shedinja rising from the shadows.
"What can I say?" Sylvia asked, replying with a shrug and a wink, holding her hands out to the sides. "Shadow moves are super-effective against everything, you know. A little spark and my Higurashi is done for! But I'll be happy to cheer you on from the sidelines!"
"Magnezone!" Haikili fired bolts of shadowy lightning at Weiss and Snows, both pokemon trying to move out of the way. Snows wasn't as fast as the swifter Weiss, and got hit by a wild bolt of electricity, crying out in pain.
"Snows!" Ayame cried, grateful that her Glalie's condition was good; his moody ability had recently lowered his speed, but the tradeoff was a boost to his special defense, which had let him endure the move, even though he hadn't been able to dodge it.
"Weiss, bullet punch!" Blake ordered. Weiss ducked to the side, dodging the bolts, and shot forward, raising his claw, striking Haikili from below with a flurry of punches. But the magnet pokemon didn't even flinch.
"A move of that caliber won't even make a scratch!" K laughed. "Steel resists steel, and this is a Shadow Pokemon, you fool! Haikili, shadow bolt!"
Haikili began crackling with electricity, and they released that energy out in a discharge that engulfed Weiss, the Scizor crying out in pain.
"Flamethrower!"
From the sky, flames rained down and engulfed Haikili, the Magnezone letting out a buzz of pain. Weiss rolled to the side, avoiding the flames and leaping to his feet, surprised.
"NOooooo!" K gasped, his eyes wide with terror as he stumbled back, falling onto his butt as he saw his pokemon engulfed in flames, the heat of his burns rising back up in his memory.
"That'll teach you!" A voice called up from above. Ayame's head shot up and her eyes widened with joy, her face brightening as she saw who the voice belonged to.
"Darla!" Ayame called. "Thanks!"
"Of course," Darla smiled, flashing Ayame a thumbs' up. "Gotta stick together, after all!"
"Darla stepped in to save Blake's Scizor!" Lila gushed over her partner. "That's so cool! Way to go, Darla!"
"Don't seem too biased," Akira advised her, but he couldn't help but agree with the sentiment.
"You damn-" K cursed, scrambling to his feet. His terror had dropped and his rage had returned. "Haikili!"
"Magnezone!" Haikili buzzed, shaking of the burns, raising their magnets, electricity crackling between them.
"Now, Melody, use flamethrower again!" Darla ordered.
"Altaria!" Melody opened her mouth again and spat, but no flames emerged.
"Wh-what?!" Darla gasped. "Melody? Is something wrong?!"
"Altaria…" Melody murmured, feeling her strength leaving her. Ghostly wisps of mist began rising from Melody's body, all the pp for her flamethrower exhausted.
A sharp whistle caught Darla's ear and she glanced away from K to Sylvia, who gave her a large wave and a wink. Spite was quite an annoying move, wasn't it?
"You…!" Darla scowled, red in the face. "Melody! Aerial ace! Wipe that annoyance out for good!"
"Altaria!" Melody tucked her cloud wings in and shot towards Higurashi at high speed, disappearing into a blur. But Sylvia didn't seem worried.
"I just had a marvelous idea," Sylvia chirped. Higurashi flashed, disappearing. In their place, K's Magnezone suddenly appeared, Melody colliding with the bulky steel type, letting out a squawk of surprise at hitting a much heavier, tougher target, the force of the impact sending Darla tumbling off her and into the dirt.
"You-!" K shot a glare at Sylvia, who stuck out her tongue in response.
"Seemed fun when the Commander did it," she shrugged, as if she hadn't taught that move to her Shedinja for the express purpose of using it in this match to troll her opponents. She strolled over and offered a hand to Darla.
"An idol really shouldn't be rolling around in the dirt," she said, her voice filled with faux sincerity. Darla slapped her hand away, rising to her feet, her red eyes flashing dangerously. She wanted to strangle the girl, but that wasn't something she could do with all eyes on her.
"Haikili!" K growled, shadowy bolts of lightning electrocuting Melody as she tried to get away, the dragon pokemon crying out in pain.
"Snows!" Ayame shouted. "Ice beam!"
"Glalie!" Snows fired a compressed beam of ice that struck the Magnezone, but like Weiss's bullet punch it didn't do much against the pokemon's Shadow-enhanced resistance. And without Darla's flamethrower, the three of them were out of coverage.
"What are you playing at?" K scowled, shooting a glare at Sylvia. First she was protecting Blake, now she was actively sabotaging his allies?
"I'm just enjoying myself," Sylvia shrugged, walking past him and over to Higurashi, the ghostly shell of a pokemon sidling up to her. "I'm sure someone of your caliber can take out those three, right?"
K felt like she was playing him, and he couldn't stand it. But he had his orders.
"Haikili!" K shouted. The most important target right now was probably Darla Drake. Then Ayame Toujou, with Blake just being an annoyance. All their pokemon had taken a few blows. Just as he was about to announce his attack, though, someone else did it first.
A beam of ice shot across the battlefield, hitting Melody in the back.
"Altaria!" Melody cried.
"Melody, no!" Lila gasped, forgetting her role momentarily.
"It's a sneak attack from behind by Dokukage!" Dakota noticed.
Darla turned to glare at the ninja with murder in her eyes. She couldn't afford to split off from the other two and take care of him herself, which meant that she didn't have a choice but to just let him take potshots at her and Melody?! Absolutely unacceptable! She despised such an opportunistic move, even if it was in the way of things. The fact that Dokukage was going around attacking people when their guard was down didn't make it easier.
"Go," Ayame encouraged her, much to Darla's surprise.
"You sure?" Darla asked, turning back for a second. "Don't we need to-"
"If you don't handle that guy, he'll just wear us down," Ayame reasoned. She smiled at Blake. "Blake and I can handle those two ourselves. There's nothing we can't do together."
Blake blushed a little at that, but nodded. Darla rolled her eyes.
"Fine. Melody! Aerial ace!" Melody turned, shooting off towards the ninja as Darla ran after her.
"Hey, what do you mean by 'two' huh?" Sylvia huffed, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "I'm not a part of this, I'm just watching!"
Ayame wasn't even gonna dignify that with a response. "Snows! Use blizzard!"
"Glalie!" Snows opened his mouth, a sweeping blizzard of ice and snow rolling towards the pokemon across from him. Sylvia didn't care, Higurashi had nothing to fear from ice.
"Haikili, flash cannon!" K ordered. Haikili focused their energy into the antenna on the top of their head, and fired a pinpoint beam of light right at Snows. But it didn't reach.
"Weiss!" Blake ordered. Weiss immediately jumped in the path, hardening his scales with iron defense, raising his arms to shield Snows from the attack.
"Thanks!" Ayame smiled. "Now, use your ice beam, Snows!"
"Glalie!" Snows roared, his special defense dropping again and his special attack rising instead. He fired a beam of ice at Haikili, hitting the pokemon directly.
"Now, Weiss, go!" Blake ordered. Weiss shot forward, raising his claw, darkness dancing through it. "Night slash!"
"Scizor!" Weiss snarled, swinging his claw and hitting Haikili from the side, sending them spinning through the air and crashing to the ground.
"Magnezone!" Haikili buzzed.
K growled, his eye twitching. This was getting to be annoying. Darla Drake might have been gone, but these two were still putting up a fight.
"Haikili, metal sound!" K roared. He was going to take one of them down, right now. And the bigger target was clearly Ayame Toujou, Olivia's lietenant. But right now, K just wanted to get Blake. A first-year like that? He had no business on this battlefield. Whatever Sylvia had done to weasel him into the match, whatever her reasons were, they didn't matter to him. Blake was done, and he knew exactly what to do to wipe him out.
"MAGNEZONE!" Haikili buzzed, releasing a high-pitched hum that sounded like scraping metal, partially deafening everyone in the immediate area. Blake and Ayame both held their ears, groaning in pain, while Sylvia shrugged, not seeing the big deal.
"I hate the loud moves," Lila moaned, her microphone crackling from the sounds.
"Glalie!"
"Scizor!"
Snows and Weiss both winced from the sounds, their special attack stats dropping. Seconds later, the sound died down, and K was ready to strike. But if he aimed at Weiss, the fast pokemon would dodge. He was already getting his bearings back. Which meant that the only viable choice was…
"Haikili, use shadow bolt on that Glalie!" K ordered.
"Magnezone!" Crackling with shadowy energy, the corrupted Magnezone released a powerful bolt of dark lighting, gathering all of their electrical power into the attack.
"Snows!" Ayame cried, but her Glalie with his reduced speed wouldn't be fast enough to dodge the powerful bolt.
"Weiss!" Blake shouted, and Weiss immediately knew what to do.
"Scizor!" Weiss shot forward like a bullet, leaping in front of Snows, holding his arms out to the sides, shielding him. The lightning struck him in the back, dark lightning crackling through him, Weiss letting out a cry of pain.
"Weiss!" Ayame gasped.
"Blake had his Scizor take the attack meant for Ayame's Glalie!" Lila gasped.
"How romantic," Dakota sighed. She glanced at Akira. "Why do you never do something like that for me?"
"Satsuki would push your pokemon out of the way and let you get hit, instead," Akira answered, Dakota sticking her tongue out in response.
"Sci…zor…" Weiss groaned, the electricity dying down, until just a few sparks were crackling over his scales. He pitched forward, losing consciousness.
"Blake!" Ayame cried, turning to her boyfriend, a strange combination of touched and pissed off that he had taken the hit for her. "You, why did you…"
Blake gave her a rueful smile, and shrugged, recalling his Scizor and silently apologizing to him, as well.
"Sorry, Aya. Can you really blame me?"
"Dummy, you fucking dummy," Ayame pouted, wiping her tears away as she redirected her focus to K, reinvigorated from his sacrifice.
"Blake's Scizor was taken out!" Lila announced, Blake's face appearing in the fifth slot on the bracket. He nodded, and waved to Ayame, wishing her good luck before he stepped off the battlefield. "He sacrificed himself for his girlfriend, and now he'll be waiting for-"
"Juuuuust what I was waiting for," Sylvia chirped, her eyes flashing. "Higurashi, now!"
"Shedinja," Higurashi murmured, their body glowing with light. They charged forward and tackled Haikili, releasing the energy into their body.
"Huh?" K looked at Sylvia in confusion. If that was an attack, it didn't do anything.
"What just happened?" Lila asked, not sure what to say. All she could see was that when the light glowing around Higurashi had faded, the husk pokemon fell out of the sky.
"Aki?" Dakota glanced at him.
"…That was final gambit," Akira said. "But who would breed that onto a Nincada so a Shedinja could have it? It's completely useless!"
"What does it do?" Lila asked.
"It's like endeavor," Akira explained. "The pokemon sends all their energy into their opponent, sacrificing their HP and dealing damage to the target equal to the HP they gave up. But Shedinja only have one health point, so it's a completely useless move to go to the trouble to breed onto one. What would even be the point."
"Oh, no, poor Higurashi!" Sylvia's voice was filled with overacted melodrama, and she ran over to her fainted pokemon and cradled them. "How could you use such a move? You knew it would cause you to faint!"
"…Well, Sylvia Driscoll is out, too, I guess?" Lila said, still not sure what to make of this whole thing. Sylvia's face appeared next on the board.
Right next to Blake's.
Ayame's eyes widened for a second and then she narrowed them into a glare.
"So that was why," she snarled at Sylvia as she passed, the girl humming to herself.
"Oh?"
"You were protecting Blake at first in order to arrange for this sort of thing, weren't you?" Ayame reasoned. "That's why you used your Shedinja in this batle, so that you could have it faint whenever you wanted, waiting for an opening to fix the results so you could face Blake in the first round. And if he lost while there were an odd number of people eliminated, he would have had to face Maddi. So you stopped helping us when the Phantom was knocked out."
Sylvia paused, and turned back to Ayame, blinking.
"…You're so suspicious, Aya, do I really look like the kind of girl who would do all that?" She asked, her voice oozing with innocence. "Next you'll accuse me of being the one to invite him into the tournament in the first place!"
Sylvia reached out and patted Ayame on the shoulder, sighing.
"You really should trust others more, you won't make a lot of friends that way."
Ayame punched the girl with all her might, but Sylvia wasn't about to let that happen, already out of her reach.
"Enjoy the tournament, Aya," she called, walking towards the sidelines. "I'll be sure to take good care of your boyfriend in our match!"
Sylvia does it again, you gotta admit the girl is crafty.