The battle between the Commander and Misato is just beginning. Will Alden win? Or will Misato have the strategies to overcome his skill as a trainer? Misato has changed to her next pokemon, we haven't seen any pokemon other than her Rotom, what other tricks does she have up her sleeve?

KedharS: That was with her Rotom possessing her. That might not happen this time around.

Aquahaze675: Interesting thought.

FartNinja: Geez, doesn't Gerard get shit on enough as it is?

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 529

"Go, Arms," Misato said, throwing out her second pokeball. The ball opened up and the pokemon within looked like a large bronze-gold sword with a single purple eye on the hilt, sheathed behind a large round patterned shield with three circles in the center.

"It's Misato's Aegislash!" Sylvia cheered, excited to see how this went. Misato's second pokemon was an Aegislash, which was a powerful pokemon naturally, but with Misato's ability he would be even more powerful. Misato being able to keep a cool head and respond immediately would allow her to take advantage of Aegislash's… natural abilities.

"Well, that's an interesting choice," Alden noted. He smirked. "Quite interesting that one weapon would have another weapon for her pokemon."

Sylvia scowled. "Misato isn't a weapon, Commander, get it right! She's a sex doll!"

Dakota and Akira both choked a little in shock, Alden glancing at the blue-haired Mechadoll with his mouth open in shock.

"Negative. This body lacks the necessary reproductive organs to be capable of non-oral intercourse," Misato replied. "Sylvia is being 'a total bitch'." She said the last part in Will's voice.

"Hey! I heard that!" Sylvia snapped.

"Affirmative."

Alden took a moment to regain his bearings about what he had just seen. Or more accurately, heard. If Misato was a tool of the Phantom, then it was odd for her to, as it looked, just snipe back at Sylvia. It was almost like she was an actual person… but she wasn't. He couldn't feel any sense coming off of her at all.

He shook his head. There would be time to concern himself with that later. The bigger issue now was the battle, and the fact that he couldn't use Fighting type moves against that Aegislash.

"Corin! Use bone rush," Alden ordered.

"Lucario," Corin nodded, raising her paw and creating another bone from her aura.

"Swords dance," Misato ordered. As Corin charged at the defending sword, Arms spun on the tip of his blade, increasing his attacking strength. It might not be the proper time to buff her pokemon's attack, but Misato had measured the attacking speed of the Lucario, and was assured that at this distance she would have time to respond with a second move before the Lucario could reach her pokemon, as extremespeed would not be a usable moved. "Magnet rise immediately upon the conclusion of the swords dance."

As Corin swung her bone, Arms raised himself up off the ground, the low slash of the staff traveling harmlessly under him. Corin leapt back and raised the staff defensively, narrowing her eyes at the floating sword.

"Nicely done!" Sylvia cheered.

Akira scowled. He didn't want to admit it, but that was a good move.

"With magnet rise, one of Aegislash's major weaknesses, Ground type moves, has now been rendered useless," he explained. "So now if the Commander wants to do real damage to such a defensive pokemon, he'll need to rely on using Ghost, Dark, or Fire type moves."

"Well, he did have that dark pulse from earlier!" Dakota said, wanting to keep a positive attitude. "That's certain to do something!"

Alden had a similar thought. "Dark pulse, Corin!"

"Lucario!" Corin spun her bone over her head and released a blast of dark energy that struck the slower Aegislash in the air. But Arms held his shield up, enduring most of the attack.

"Even if the move is super effective, the defensive abilities of Aegislash are incredibly high," Sylvia cheerfully reminded everyone. "Arms won't fall to some dinky little move like that."

"But if its defenses are so high, then that means it probably isn't very strong with attacks," Dakota said. "Which means that the Commander can still pull this off, he'll just have to whittle away at that shield while it's trying to defend itself, right?"

Sylvia smirked, and turned to Akira. "What do you think, Akira?"

Akira glared at Sylvia, then looked past her towards Dakota.

"Dakota, take a look at that sword. That Aegislash hasn't even begun to start its attack yet," he warned her.

Dakota frowned. That didn't sound very good at all.

The Commander and Corin were also wary about the Aegislash's blade. They knew what the pokemon was capable of, and they were keeping a watchful eye on it.

Up in the stands, things were a little more intense. Well, not all the stands. The general audience was cheering with excitement.

In the Commander's box, however, there was a little bit more passion than the average viewer.

"Yes, Commander!" Vic shouted, having recovered from the strain of watching Shadow Pokemon in the first match that afternoon. "Do it! You can take down that robot girl! It doesn't matter what strategies she's developed, she's no match for your Sense!"

Vic's cheering was loud, so loud Maddi felt like it was drowning out her thoughts, which was annoying. It was one of the reasons she didn't get along with Vic very well. Right now, though, she was less annoyed by Vic, and more bothered by something else.

Watching the battle, Maddi couldn't see anything "off" about the pokemon that Misato was using. There was no aura of malevolence, no shadows that made her feel like throwing up at the sight of them, they looked like absolutely normal pokemon.

And that was troubling. Misato was essentially the Phantom's second in command. And unlike a human, she would have absolutely zero moral compunctions with using a Shadow Pokemon, since she had no empathy or concern for anything. So it didn't make sense why she would be using normal pokemon instead of Shadow Pokemon.

And it wasn't like Maddi had just magically cured herself of whatever affliction was causing her to see Shadow Pokemon, because Vic and Keya had both recovered as well, and neither one of them seemed to show any signs of stress watching the battle. So no, she just wasn't using Shadow Pokemon. And for the life of Maddi, she couldn't understand why.

The Commander was focusing on the battle, but right now, Maddi knew that the more important thing was understanding Shadow Pokemon. And particularly, why Misato wasn't using them, but other trainers were. There had to be some reason for that.

"Sacred sword," Misato ordered. Arms finally began to move. Sliding free from its shield, the sword's golden blade began to shine in the light, the pokemon moving his arms to the side, one grasping his shield tightly as he hovered in the air over Corin's head, shooting down and swinging his sword right at the canine pokemon.

"Block it, Corin!" Alden shouted.

"Lucario!" Corin flipped her staff up, holding the bone over her head and bracing her stance in order to withstand the falling pokemon's slash. The bone held up for an instant, but the Aegislash's attack stat was too high, and the blade was so sharp it shattered the bone almost immediately, driving right through it and deep into Corin's shoulder.

"LUuuuuu!" Corin wailed in pain, stumbling backwards and clutching her shoulder. She leapt back and dodged the Aegislash's following slashes with extremespeed, panting.

"What was that attack?!" Dakota exclaimed. "How can a pokemon have such amazing defenses and attacking strength?! That's just… that's not fair!"

"Simple," Sylvia smirked. "Arms, like all Aegislash, has the ability stance change. It allows him to switch between his attacking form and his defending form!"

"So he has one form with massive defense, and one form with massive attack?" Dakota gasped, her mouth falling open in surprise. "That-that's not fair! That means his stats are like-"

"Exactly," Akira said, nodding. "It's a very powerful pokemon. Whether or not the Commander can defeat it, well…"

"Corin, how are you feeling?" Alden called.

"Lucario," Corin smiled through her pain, staunching the bleeding with her paw. She was ready to fight, same as he was. But this was far from a favorable matchup.

"Rest up for now, Corin," Alden said, recalling her to her pokeball.

"The Commander has switched out his pokemon again, huh?" Sylvia murmured. "I see, I wonder what he'll use next. He's already on the defensive against Arm's power, so much for the so-called strongest fighter on campus."

"The Commander isn't praised as the strongest for his raw power," Akira warned her. "He's seen as the strongest because of his tactical mind and prepared pokemon."

Sylvia shrugged her shoulders.

"Tracey, you're up next," Alden said, sending out his third pokemon.

From the pokeball came another humanoid pokemon, slender but with powerful legs. Her body was covered in white fur, except for her legs, which had orange fur in the shape of tight pants, and long, slender black legs. She had large white ears sticking out above her head, twitching, and her orange-red eyes were sparkling excitedly as the crest of orange fur on her forehead blew in the wind.

"Cinderace!" Tracey cheered, running forward.

"So the Commander's final pokemon is his Cinderace," Sylvia smirked. "I can't say that was a particularly good tactic, if you ask me."

"Why?" Dakota asked.

"Because that Rotom Misato has knows Water type moves, isn't that right?" Akira asked, glancing at Sylvia. "Thanks to that washing machine it's inhabiting."

"Exactly right," Sylvia said.

"Tracey, use agility," Alden began.

"Cin!" Tracey nodded, running forward on her strong legs. Her speed increased as she darted around the battlefield, circling the floating sword as she eyed it with interest.

"Now, pyro ball," Alden ordered.

As Tracey dodged around the floating sword, a fireball began to appear in front of her foot, and she began to dribble it like a soccer ball. She dug her foot into the ground and turned, pulling her other foot back and aiming squarely at the slower Aegislash, kicking with all her might.

The pyro ball flew at high speed towards Arms, but Misato did not order her Aegislash to move. Instead, she calmly ordered him with "king's shield". Arms turned and moved his shield in front of his sword, switching back to his defensive stance, a large silver-purple barrier appearing in front of him. The pyro ball struck the barrier, bouncing off of it with no effect.

"Back to defense, huh? Good reflexes," Alden had to admit. Reflexes with the precision of a computer, I suppose.

"With king's shield, Aegislash can switch between either form," Akira explained. "And when it uses an attacking move it will turn back to its attacking form."

"That seems like it's really difficult to get an edge against, then," Dakota said. "Especially with Misato's super-computer of a brain calculating the timing of when to change the forms."

"Of course, it isn't perfect," Akira admitted. "There's still the fact that it can take hits even in defensive mode. No pokemon is truly invulnerable."

"Let's test again, Tracey!" Alden called. "Start with blaze kick before we try another pyro ball!"

Where before Tracey had created an orb of fire to launch at her opponent, this time she coated her legs in fire instead, running straight for the hovering Aegislash. Her speed allowing her to quite easily get the drop on her opponent, she leapt into the air and spun, bringing her legs down on the sword pokemon's large shield.

"Iron defense," Misato quickly ordered. The success rate of using king's shield a second time in a row was too low for it to be an advisable strategy. Instead, she would focus on heightening the defenses of Arms in general. Arms' shield began shining silver as his body was covered in a metallic sheen, Tracey's legs kicking him right in the center.

"Whoa, look at that leg strength!" Sylvia gasped, actually surprised by the fact that, in spite of Arms' iron defense, the Cinderace's kick had sent the steel pokemon tumbling back.

"Aegis!" The sword let out his first words of the fight, groaning in pain from the fire attack that had hit him directly.

Misato assessed the damage but could tell that it was not something Arms would be unable to withstand.

"Aegislash!" Arms suddenly cried out in pain, flames leaping up around him.

"Well now, isn't that something?" The Commander grinned. "Way to go, Tracey! Now that Aegislash is burned!"

"Cinderace!" Tracey cheered, nodding in agreement.

Misato assessed the damage of the burn.

"Physical attack hindered significantly. Health reduced," Misato declared.

"You should have used king's shield again," Alden replied. "If you had used it, then you would have protected your Aegislash from the attack, and Tracey's attacking stat would have been lowered in turn from the shield's backlash. Instead, you used iron defense, and increased your pokemon's defenses, but she still took significant damage and was burned from the attack."

"The chances of king's shield succeeding were statistically unfeasible," Misato replied. "It has the ability to protect against physical attacks but if it were not to succeed then the damage would be more severe. It was a calculated risk to ensure the most optimal strategy for success."

"That's where you and I are different," Alden replied. "Because you're a computer, not a person. You don't have a Sense for battle. That's what you're doing, weighing the probabilities. But in your position? I would have tried it, to seize a massive advantage, even at a risk of it not working. Because that's what it means to be a fighter!"

"Illogical," Misato replied. "The most logical course of action is to use the move that has the greatest probability for a successful outcome. In this position, that was iron defense. To choose a suboptimal move the way you suggest will only compromise the opportunity for victory."

Alden glared at her. Then his face relaxed, and he sighed.

"A real battle isn't about probabilities, Mechadoll. It's about 'Sense'!" He called out to her. "A Sense for battle, for what the correct situation is as it calls for it, a feeling of instinct! And that's not what someone like you is capable of, since you don't possess anything like that. You don't have human instinct, Misato."

Misato considered this.

"I do not understand," she finally replied. "Explain the value of human instinct."

Alden smiled.

"I'm about to. Tracey!"

"Cinderace!" Tracey charged forward, flame wrapping around her body as she prepared a flame charge attack, her speed increasing.

"With Aegislash's attack stat weakened by his burns, Cinderace is moving in for the kill!" Dakota cheered. "This must be where the Commander turns the tables on Misato!"

Akira was less certain. He knew that Aegislash were still powerful, even with a burn.

And Sylvia's smirk bothered him.

"We'll see," Sylvia purred.

"Arms, shadow ball," Misato ordered. Arms shifted into attack mode, and his eye began shining violet, creating an orb of darkness in front of the hilt. He fired the shadow ball at Tracey, hitting the fire pokemon directly and knocking her backwards.

"Cinder!" Tracey cried out in pain, skidding backwards. She coughed, holding her ribs, but stayed on her feet and ran forward again, keeping an eye on the Aegislash's movements.

"You have hindered the physical attacking capabilities of Arms with your burn," Misato replied. "However, physical attack is not the only stat that Arms possesses. His special attacking ability is just as high. A burn is an inconvenience. But it will not affect our overall ability to seize victory."

Alden had seen that one coming too, of course. Normally, it would have been suspicious for his opponent to be so calm after their key attacking pokemon was burned. That wasn't a giveaway for Misato, though, since she possessed no emotions.

So how had Alden seen it coming? Sense. He felt that she was holding something back, and he had turned out to be correct. A robot like her would no-doubt have contingency plans set up. She wouldn't have let a burn affect her ability to win.

But Alden had some tricks of his own to play.

"Ready, Tracey?" He asked.

"Cinder," Tracey said, nodding, adjusting her posture and cracking her knuckles in preparation. She charged forward, dribbling a massive orb of flames between her feet. She pulled back and kicked it towards Arms.

"King's shield," Misato ordered, Arms changing form once again and protecting himself with a powerful barrier, the flames bouncing off again. Alden expected it, of course. He nodded to Tracey, who prepared to attack again.

"You should give up on this, Misato," Alden called. "Tracey and I will continue to pelt your Aegislash with attacks, and eventually we will break through that shield, if the burns don't wear him down first. You should switch."

Misato assessed things.

"Negative. There is still the opportunity for victory," she replied. "Flash cannon."

As Tracey ran towards the Aegislash, Arms' eye began shining bright white, and he changed form again, and fired a compressed beam of light that hit Tracey in the foot, throwing her off balance and causing her to trip just as she took another step, Tracey tumbling to the ground.

"Shadow ball," Misato ordered next. Arms fired a shadow ball that hit Tracey, who, in spite of her speed, was unable to right herself in time.

"Cinder!" Tracey cried out in pain, trying to stand as Arms hovered over her, preparing another shadow ball to fire at the prone pokemon.

"Now, Tracey!" Alden shouted. Arms fired the shadow ball just as Tracey leapt from the ground, fist raised, launching herself at the Aegislash. Even as Misato saw the movements and issued the order to use king's shield, it didn't matter because Arms was already using sucker punch and Tracey's sucker punch was already moving fast enough to hit the Aegislash directly, striking the pokemon, for once, without any of his defenses.

"AEGISLASH!" Arms cried in pain as he flew backwards, Tracey smashing him into the ground.

"No way!" Sylvia gasped.

"Wooo!" Dakota cheered. "Now that's what I'm talking about!"

"Aegislash have amazing attacking ability and amazing defensive ability," Akira said, smiling a little himself. "But not at the same time. So if you can hit one while it's in its attacking stance, the damage dealt to it will be incredibly powerful."

Indeed, Arms already looked to be on his last legs, his sword slightly dented from the punch and he was having difficulty floating up. From the air, Tracey prepared another pyro ball, kicking with all her might and sending the fireball down towards Arms.

"King's shield," Misato ordered again, and this time Arms was able to do it, protecting himself with the powerful barrier and deflecting the flames for a third time.

"So what now, Misato?" Alden asked. "You just saw me use sucker punch. There's no way that your Aegislash will be able to withstand another hit. Now, if you had the instincts of a trainer, you would have seen something suspicious about me letting Tracey take those easy hits while you were trying to pressure her, and wouldn't have attacked so recklessly. But you didn't see it coming, because you chose the most optimal strategy for victory and didn't think with instincts. You don't have any 'Sense', and now you're in a bind. The minute you try to attack again, your Aegislash will faint. What's that supercomputer of a brain of yours telling you about your probability for victory if he keeps fighting?"

Misato began to work on the calculations.

The Commander vs. Misato is really starting to heat up! Alden has seized the initiative, overcoming Misato's strategy, but can he keep the momentum? Misato should be able to come up with something else, right? Or is he correct that Misato lacks the ability to judge with her instincts, and that's why he'll overcome her strategizing? We'll have to see for ourselves!