Time for the battle royale! A lot of folks will be fighting so it'll get a little cluttered, but bear with me! Friendships will be tested, alliances will be formed, fellowships will be broken, and a new form of pokemon combat will be developed!
KedharS: Yup. Will the feeling be mutual? I wonder…
Thunder Fire: No, that one's on me. I was tired and I got them backwards lol.
Pokemonking0924: It's too showcase a few things. Just watch.
JoshGamerV: No, I just messed up. I changed it back.
MikySP: Thanks for being understanding.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 494
"Blake, this battle style…" Ayame looked warily at Blake, not sure what a "battle royale" entailed, but the way it was described didn't make it sound pleasant. As the one with battle experience, she hoped Blake would no something.
Blake shook his head. "I've never heard of anything like it before."
"This is great! Just perfect!" Raizer laughed. He reached for the one golden pokeball on his belt. "We're ready to go! Who would like to fight us first?! Brother?"
Raizer looked to his brother, his expression eager. Alden wore a cool smile.
"Raizer, you don't understand," Alden said shaking his head. He smirked, reaching to his belt for a pokeball of his own. "Picking who we fight? This is a battle royale. You know, Phantom, I always thought you were a boring sort, not having good Sense for what makes a battle interesting! But it looks like you've got a little bit of fun in you after all!"
He stepped back, taking stock of the other 15 competitors, and held up his pokeball.
"All 15 of you, come at me!" He declared.
"That idiot!" Vic leapt from her seat in the Commander's private box, grabbing the railing in frustration. "Sir! You can't do something like that!"
"Vic, there's no point," Ross said, shaking his head. He wore a rueful smile. "That's just the kind of guy he is, you know that."
"If I was down there, I could have fought right at his side," Vic grumbled, sitting back down, cradling her head in her hands.
"Now, Alden, I admire your… candor," Valon said, stepping up to greet him. He smiled back at Alden, but his eyes were the same sickly stare they always were. "But that's not the sort of battle this is, we want to give our peers a show. Not you showing off."
"You call it showing off, I call it fun," Alden shrugged. His eyes flashed with excitement. "Either way, I'll be fighting anyone I can. Eifa! Let's go!"
Alden switch to a different pokeball, and threw it into the air. From within the pokeball, a sleek purple pokemon emerged, landing on the ground on four paws. It was an Espeon, curling up around Alden's leg, her ruby shining brightly as she narrowed her eyes, staring at her trainer's opponents.
"Exactly," Valon purred. "Now you're getting into the spirit of things. Shade."
Valon tossed out a pokeball of his own. From within it, a Gengar emerged, a wicked smile spread across its face.
"That pokemon!" Kitty gasped, holding her hands over her mouth. Even at this distance, it was unmistakable, that toxic cloud of miasma leaking out of it. "It… it's awful! Again, like that Chandelure… urgh, I can't…"
"Kitty, what's wrong?!" Julia cried, grabbing her friend before she fell over. "Are you okay?"
"That must be a Shadow Pokemon," Cynthia said, her face going white as a sheet.
It wasn't the only Shadow Pokemon, either.
"Haikili, go," K said, throwing out a pokeball. A Magnezone emerged, crackling with electricity, and oozing the same shadowy aura as the Gengar, even though it was unseen to the majority of the people in the stadium. They thought that two pokemon had just been sent out, and that was it.
But not all of the Phantom's followers were using Shadow Pokemon.
"Drakon, go," Lana said, sending out her Vibrava, the dragon pokemon buzzing eagerly. He glanced at Darla warily, feeling the affinity for dragons the trainer had. Darla narrowed her eyes, and reached for a pokeball of her own.
"Melody," she said, sending out her Altaria. The fluffy dragon emerged, flapping her cloudlike wings and taking to the sky, chirping.
"Darla's sent out her Altaria!" Lila cheered. "And the other trainers are starting to get into the swing of things, too! They're all sending their pokemon out!"
"Venus!" Alcea called. "Danser!"
Alcea's pokemon was, of course, her Venusaur.
"Zera!" Raizer shouted. "Let's do this thing!"
Raizer tossed his pokeball into the air, and with a crash of thunder and a flash of lightning, a pokemon with blonde fur emerged with a howl, electricity thrumming through him.
Lila gasped.
"There it is!" Dakota cheered. She was already taking pictures with her camera. "Just what I was waiting for! The one and only Mythical Pokemon, Zeraora!"
"That's his only pokemon," Akira confirmed. "And it's what won him his position on the Eight Leaders, too."
"Zer?" Zera looked around, their eyes shining eagerly as they surveyed the other pokemon, looking for someone strong to fight.
"Not bad, Raizer," Gerard smirked. He pulled a shiny pink pokeball from his belt. "But I have a pokemon that's a little more special than yours."
"Oooooh!" Dakota gasped, excited. She knew what was coming, and she couldn't wait!
"DIa, go," Gerard said, sending out his Diancie. The fairy pokemon was glowing brightly, her light shining out over the stadium.
"Another Mythical Pokemon!" Lila gasped. "That makes two! It looks like today, our competitors are pulling out the stops!"
Misato said nothing. She mechanically pulled a pokeball from her waist and pressed the button, a rare pokemon of her own emerging with a crackle of electricity.
"Rotom!" The orange pokemon buzzed, zig-zagging around Misato. From the pokeball as well came an orange oven, landing in the dirt. The Rotom, Sparky, flew down and disappeared into the machinery of the oven, and it sprung to life, crimson electricity crackling through it, and it floated up into the air, Sparky's eyes appearing on it.
"And a Rotom, too!" Dakota gushed. "Oh, I'd just love a Rotom! Imagine how it would amplify my camera!"
"Just what we need," Akira said, rolling his eyes
"Vee," Maddi said, sending out her Eevee. She was a lot less… dramatic than the other trainers were being.
Ayame paused, considering her situation. She glanced at Blake. "Blake, what are you thinking?"
"I'll go with Weiss," Blake said, sending out his Scizor. "Weiss! We've got a lot of opponents to deal with!"
As more trainers sent out their pokemon, they began to pull apart from one another. Gabrielle walked away from the other members of the Eight Leaders and sent out her Froslass, while Dokukage sent out a Masquerain that glared at the other pokemon with its wings. He flew behind Dokukage and grabbed onto his shoulders, flapping his wings and carrying him back from the others, gliding back.
"Aya, what about you?" Blake asked, glancing over to her. "What pokemon are you going to use?"
"…Snows," Ayame said after a pause, sending out her Glalie. "His condition is perfect for battle right now."
Ayame's Glalie floated over her, glaring. Ayame turned to Sylvia, who had yet to send out a pokemon of her own, one of the only competitors who hadn't.
"Well?" She asked, raising her eyebrow. "Are you going to send out a pokemon or not?"
"I was just waiting," Sylvia chirped. "Just trying to see what everyone was going to use. It's another method of preparation for a girl like me. Strategy, you know how it is."
She took her black pokeball out and tossed it into the air.
"Higurashi, let's go." From the pokeball, Sylvia's Shedinja emerged, much to the surprise of everyone there.
"She's using her Shedinja?" Lila gasped in surprise.
"Does she want to lose or something?" Dakota asked. Sylvia's Shedinja had won her a victory of sorts over Mirar, but when fighting against any other pokemon it was still a pokemon that would go down in a single hit. She didn't understand why someone would use a pokemon like that in a situation like this. A single fire move or ghost move would knock the pokemon out immediately! And with all the enemies Sylvia delighted in making…
"It could be a viable strategy," Akira reasoned.
"Oh? What do you mean?" Lila asked, tilting her head to the side in confusion.
"Well, in a battle like this, you aren't fighting one person in particular. No one HAS to attack and win over Sylvia if there are other viable targets. If she can make herself more trouble than it's worth with that Shedinja of hers, she can get pretty far," Akira explained. "The only issue is that it doesn't seem likely that she can win on her own."
"Never mind that," Sylvia called his way. She turned to Blake and Ayame and smirked. "This is much more enjoyable. I have far more important things to do than win."
Blake and Ayame both glared at her.
"Iron, go!" Ian shouted, sending out his Aggron. The large, armored pokemon landed on the ground and let out a roar, pounding his chest, the ground shaking with each step he took.
"And Ian's chosen to send out his Aggron!" Lila declared. "Now, everyone has chosen their pokemon, so the battle can really begin!"
"This is gonna be good," Cynthia said, licking her lips, her eyes shining eagerly as she stared down at the battlefield. Everyone was standing at a distance from each other, their pokemon ready to fight. All they were waiting for was the signal.
"And now that we're all ready, let the battle royale begin!" Lila declared.
Immediately, everyone sprang into action. But the first to make a move was Zera. Raizer's Zeraora roared, electricity charging through their body. They ran forward, straight at the pokemon they perceived to be the biggest threat, Gerard's Diance.
"Dia, stealth rock," Gerard ordered. Dia held her hands up, large stones rising up around her, creating a floating minefield between herself and the approaching pokemon.
Zera didn't give a damn about the rocks, though.
"ZERAAAAAAAA!" Zera roared. Electricity surged through their fur. "ORAAAAAA!"
A discharge of electricity dominated the rocks flying towards them into pebbles as they attacked, gathering even more electricity into their fist.
"Diancie!" Dia narrowed her eyes and held up her hands, firing a compressed blast of fairy energy at Zera, knocking them back.
"You think that's enough?" Raizer cackled. "We're not about to give in against something like that! Zera's only looking for the strongest opponents to fight, and you fit the bill perfectly!"
Gerard scowled. This wasn't the kind of opponent he wanted hounding him. Dia could take on most any pokemon here in a fair fight, but the Zeraora was perhaps the one pokemon that she might struggle against, due to the fact that both pokemon were the stuff of legends.
"Dia, diamond storm!" Gerard ordered.
"Dian!" Dia nodded, holding up her hands. Shimmering crystals appeared in the air around her, glowing with a bright pink light. She sent them flying towards the Zeraora in an unending barrage, attempting to wear down the enemy pokemon.
"…Gerard's in trouble," Gabrielle noted. She glanced at Alcea, who was also standing aside, doing nothing, not yet engaging in the battle.
"Trouble, is it?" Alcea mused. She could almost smile, if she wasn't so focused on the situation in front of them. "Not something to concern ourselves with, is it?"
"…Not a bit," Gabrielle nodded. "Other matters first."
Gabrielle and Alcea both turned to see Misato staring directly at them, her Rotom floating in front of her, preparing to attack.
"I suppose we'll have to take care of the Phantom's lackeys, then," Gabrielle mused.
"Oui," Alcea nodded.
"While Gerard and Raizer duke it out, other members of the Eight Leaders have teamed up!" Lila noted, trying hard to keep control over her monitoring of the situation. "Alcea and Gabrielle are joining forces to fight off Misato Daisan and her Rotom! And meanwhile-"
"Reflect," Alden ordered, Eifa's ruby glowing bright red as a crimson barrier appeared in front of her and her trainer, blocking Ian's Aggron from using its shadow claw attack.
"That's a pretty strong defense you've got there!" Ian noted.
"Eifa's great for situations like this," Alden laughed. "Her barriers are perfect! I was planning on fighting everyone head-on, but I decided to listen to Vic's advice, and battle smartly. And a battle isn't any fun if it's over too soon! So we'll be playing defensively as we wait to thin out the heard a little. And in the meantime, I think you have other issues to deal with."
"Drakon," Lana called to her Vibrava. "Use earthquake!"
"Melody!" Darla quickly turned and leapt onto her Altaria's back, the dragon pokemon flapping her wings and taking to the sky as the ground began to shake.
"Wow, this is fun!" Sylvia laughed, feeling the tremors rocking her body, her Shedinja perfectly unharmed thanks to its wonder guard.
"Haikili, use magnet rise," K ordered. His Magnezone began getting charged with magnetic energy, rising off the ground to avoid the tremors.
"Eevee!" Maddi's Eevee cried in pain, the shaking of the ground hurting him.
"Vee, shadow ball!" Maddi ordered, Vee firing a shadow ball at Drakon, the swift pokemon dodging the attack. He wasn't the only one attacking it, though.
"Snows, hit it with your ice shard!" Ayame ordered. Her Glalie opened his mouth, pieces of ice gathering in front of it. Snows spat the ice at Drakon, the chunks shattering against the Vibrava, stopping the earth from shaking as the dragon pokemon was stunned.
"Melody! Dragon pulse!" Darla ordered. Melody opened her mouth, and fired a blast of draconic energy at the already injured Vibrava, sending the dragon pokemon careening into the dirt, injured but still conscious.
"Drakon!" Lana cried, running over to her Vibrava's side.
"One more time, Snows!" Ayame shouted, Blake surprised by her ruthlessness, but understanding it. This was a battle, and they needed to start taking out their opponents.
"Weiss! You too, get that Vibrava with a bullet punch!"
"Scizor!" Weiss nodded, flapping his wings and shooting forward, preparing to strike Drakon with a barrage of punches as fast as bullets, while Snows began to fire another ice shard.
"That's the thing with battle royales," Akira noted. "Two trainers can team up together and take out the competition like that. Of course, Blake would choose to team up with his girlfriend!"
But before Weiss could strike, a beam of light hit him in the side, knocking him into the path of the ice shards.
"Weiss!" Blake and Ayame both shouted.
"Scizor!" Weiss groaned, picking himself up. He had been caught completely off-guard by the attack. He looked around frantically, seeing that he had been struck by K's Magnezone!
"Magnezone!" Haikili buzzed, generating another charge beam to fire.
"You two have no place here," K declared. His eyes shifted over to Blake, glaring at him from behind his bangs. "Especially you. A first year doesn't belong on this battlefield. So I'm going to take care to drag you off of it and take care of you for good. Haikili, hit that Scizor with charge beam again!"
"Magnezone!" Haikili raised the magnets hanging down on their sides, electrical current channeling through it. They fired the beam as a compressed blast of light at Weiss, who quickly dodged to the side. But Haikili was fast themselves, turning swiftly to drag the beam towards Weiss, carving through the far wall as a long, thick laser.
Just before the charge beam hit Weiss, though, it struck something else, and was dispersed in all directions, perfectly deflected.
"What?!" K sputtered, shielding his eyes from the blinding rays of light.
"Whoa, another pokemon got in the way of the charge beam, protecting Blake's Scizor!" Lila gasped, blinking rapidly to try and clear the temporary blindness from the bright lights. "Another team-up? Blake must have a lot of friends!"
"Tut tut, Keahi," a sickly sweet purr came from behind K. "You should know that an attack like that won't break through our wonder guard."
K whirled around, his eyes wild with disbelief as he stared at Sylvia and the smirk on her face.
"Sylvia?! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" He growled, turning back to verify that, yes, the pokemon who had blocked his Magnezone's charge beam had been the wonder guard-protected Shedinja. "This wasn't part of the plan!"
Sylvia's grin widened and she rolled her eyes.
"Oh, come on, you can't honestly be saying that to me," Sylvia said, giving an exaggerated sigh and a smirk, winking past K and at Blake. "You know me, I always do what I want! And right now? I think it will be very fun if I lend Blake a hand!"
"…Well, uh, battle royales make strange bedfellows," Lila said, glancing at Dakota and Akira for answers, but they shook their heads. No explanation for what Sylvia did.
"Well, Blake?" Sylvia purred, skipping over to him. "Are you going to thank me for all my help?"
"Back off," Ayame snapped, shoving her away. Sylvia rolled her eyes.
While Sylvia and Ayame bickered, two other girls were in a bit of a hot spot.
"Overheat," Misato ordered.
"Rotom!" Sparky buzzed. The door of their oven opened up, and a massive beam of concentrated radiation erupted from it, aiming straight at Froslass and Venus. Both pokemon barely dodged out of the way, the heat rolling past them.
"The firepower…" Gabrielle said, wiping her forehead. The cold was one thing, but like her pokemon she was not well-equipped to take the heat.
"She's clearly targeting the two of us," Alcea said. "A pity. I was hoping that I would have the chance to fight you once we thinned out the numbers. But it seems we'll be working together for the moment, a team-up, is it?"
"Sparky, targets," Misato said. "Alcea Vermeil. Gabrielle Breaux. Eliminate."
"Rotom!" Sparky cackled, and began using nasty plot to regain the energy it had lost from using overheat.
"It uses powerful overheats to press us back, and then builds up strength again with nasty plot," Alcea observed. "We could move in while it is charging, but if we aren't fast enough and that thing gets an attack off at close range…"
"Immediately fainting, probably," Gabrielle noted, her stoic features twisting into a scowl. "Not good. What now?"
"It's the oven," Alcea said, shaking her head "We need to eliminate that oven. If we can do that, then that's the end of its fire moves."
"And that means we can shadow ball," Gabrielle said, nodding. "Froslass, use your shadow ball on it, now."
"Froslass," Froslass nodded, holding her hands up, creating a sphere of ghostly energy. She fired the dark orb directly at the Rotom as it was building up power.
"Useless. Release," Misato commanded. Sparky began building up heat inside of the oven and prepared to release it, when suddenly large vines erupted from the ground. The vines shot up and wrapped tightly around Sparky, binding them up nice and fast.
Misato quickly assessed the situation, realizing what was going on. With the vines like that, the oven was sealed tightly and wouldn't be able to release the energy from the overheat. With nowhere to go, the energy would flow back into the oven, until it exploded, which would be very soon thanks to the approaching shadow ball. And as long as Sparky was inhabiting the toaster, they were completely trapped. The explosion would cause too much damage.
All that was processed in less than a nanosecond with the smartest brain in the world, artificial though it might have been.
"Sparky, out," Misato ordered. Sparky emerged from the oven and shot through the sky, returning to Misato's side moments before the shadow ball struck the machinery, causing a massive explosion that temporary stopped the struggles in the stadium, everyone turning their way in surprise.
"Well done, Venus," Alcea nodded to her Venusaur, who retracted the vines. Alcea turned to Gabrielle. "And you and Froslass, as well."
"Whoa, with that move and some quick thinking, Alcea and Gabrielle managed to seriously hinder Misato's plans!" Lila exclaimed.
"Without that oven, her Rotom is just an electric/ghost," Dakota noted. "They won't be able to use that overheat attack anymore."
"Which means Gabrielle and Alcea can take the offensive," Akira noted.
"It is over!" Alcea declared. "Your oven is scrap metal, there is nowhere for your Rotom to hide now, Misato Daisan! With no machines to fight with, your pokemon must fight with it's own strength, and we'll be happy to match it."
Gabrielle nodded in agreement.
Misato was as unfazed as ever from Alcea's proclamation.
"Negative. The power of your pokemon is not comparable to Sparky," Misato replied. She began stripping off the shirt over her black tank-top, much to the confusion of the girls, and the announcers as well.
"After being pushed back, Misato is… stripping?" Lila asked, confused.
"That's a good girl," Valon mused, stepping back and giving the other competitors a wide berth. "Let's show the merits of this kind of battle, where the trainers play an active role in the skirmish."
"There is an error in your assessment," Misato replied, straightening up. "There is still a machine that Sparky can fight with."
Misato leaned forward, and the skin on her spine split oven, panels on her back sliding down to the sides to reveal the machinery underneath. A long, cylindrical tube colored orange with glowing blue disks on each end raised out of the cavity between her shoulder blades, sticking out slightly like a backpack.
"Rotom!" Sparky chirped, flying up and entering the tube. An electrical field of a white-blue color immediately spread from the engine to surround Misato's entire body, a corona of power. Orange markings spread up and down her skin, and her hair stood up on end. From the cylinder engine on her back, two wings of pure plasma erupted, like the wings of an angel but twisted and mangled, shifting and crackling with energy.
"Misato: Battle Angel Mode," Misato declared, full combining with her Rotom, energy surging through her.
Well, who saw that one coming? Misato has revealed her true nature to the school, but more than that, she's unleashed a power never-before-seen, one that you guys might not have seen coming! So, what do you think? Misato's ready to fight for REAL now!