I wonder if Blake can keep up his momentum against Dokukage! He's fighting a ninja after all, so he has to pull out all the tricks in the book! Will he be able to keep his lead? Maybe even pull out the win? And what about Dokukage, will he keep his cool, or will he let his true self slip out? We'll have to find out! Remember to review!

KedharS: Blake is pretty tough. It helps that Dokukage's team isn't that powerful when his strategy is disrupted so severely.

Aquahaze675: Unfortunately, Blake's team doesn't know roar or whirlwind.

Guest: Huh. That's tough. Interesting. I'll give out a few.

Blake: Hairdresser (obviously)

Sango: Park ranger (again, obvious)

Cynthia: Kindergarten teacher

Ayame: Olympic athlete

Kitty: Animal breeder

Julia: Nurse

Reiner: Archaeologist

Nikita: Archaeologist

Nick: Karate teacher

Callie: Mixed martial arts fighter

Dakota: Investigative journalist

Akira: Travel writer

Maddi: Musician

Elaina: Writer

Serefina: Nursery school caretaker

Darla & Lila: Idols

Alcea: Florist

Kate: Chemist

Claire: Model

Olivia: Actress/Model

Caelia: Private investigator

Will: Librarian

Marion: Fisherwoman (so no change)

Ian: Mountaineer

Lana: Filmmaker

Sylvia: Consulting detective (think Sherlock Holmes)

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Dokukage would definitely be in for quite a fight if he ended up going against the Phantom.

Hellraiserphoenix: If Dokukage was just his outer personality I think he would be really boring.

PokeJosh101: I wonder.

Hpntheman: We'll see.

Thunder Fire: Interesting theory.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 545

"Ame, signal beam," Dokukage ordered.

"Masquerain!" Ame flapped her wings and flew forward, firing a beam of pulsing light at Cory as she approached.

"Cory, use bubblebeam to counter!" Blake shouted. Cory was still doing okay health-wise, but he was poisoned. He couldn't let that attack hit!

"Craw!" Cory nodded, raising his pincer and firing a blast of bubbles from it. The bubbles shot forward and struck the laser, a chain of explosions intercepting and distorting the attack before it could hit its target, and a thin mist poured over the battlefield.

"Giving us cover? Bad move," Dokukage said. "Go, Ame!"

"Cory, return," Blake said, reaching for his pokeball to recall Cory. The bubbles were a cover, but in order to switch to his next pokemon. It would be bad to have more than one pokemon poisoned, but at the same time he needed the opportunity for Cory to be usable in the future. Cory was the last pokemon on his team who could use taunt, and that would be essential for dealing with Dokukage. He couldn't let the Crawdaunt fall now, even if, as a Dark type, he was especially vulnerable to Dokukage's Bug type pokemon.

But when the light from the pokeball tried to hit Cory, something got in the way. A small dark cloud moved in front of the light, preventing it from calling back Cory.

"What?!" Blake gasped, shocked. He was being prevented from recalling his pokemon?!

"Infestation," Dokukage explained. "Take a look at your Crawdaunt."

"What's wrong with it?" Lila asked, squinting to try and get a good look. She could make out the faintest traces of something swirling in the air around Cory, flying up from the ground. They almost looked like bugs.

"It's infestation," Akira said. "A trapping move, like whirlpool and fire spin. Bug type pokemon use signals to call to small insects to gather around their target, inflicting them with tiny attacks and preventing their trainer from recalling them."

"There's nowhere to run," Dokukage said, narrowing his eyes. "Now, Ame, use bug buzz."

"Masquerain!" Ame flapped her wings hard and began to release a sonic blast at Cory, the Crawdaunt letting out a wail of pain as he struggled against the sounds.

"This isn't good," Sango said worriedly. "Cory looks like he's taking a lot."

"He's a Dark type, which means he's especially susceptible to Bug type moves," Julia frowned. "It's going to be rough to try and pull this off."

"It'll be fine," Cynthia assured everyone, giving them a conspiratorial smile and a thumbs' up. "Blake's got a trick or two up his sleeve, just watch."

Cynthia turned back to the battle and her smile widened, and she began cackling wickedly at the thought of it.

Interesting… a trick up his sleeve? Kanou considered, glancing at Cynthia before turning back to the battle. She kept her serious expression, as Kanou would have. This face was unsuited for the twisted smile of Sylvia, no matter how interested she might have been. I'm looking forward to seeing what "trick" this is…

"Yeah! I don't know what it is, but wooooo!" Andy cheered, throwing both fists into the air. "Way to go, Blake! You can do it!"

Ayame needed to say something too! She wasn't going to let Andy overcome her. She jumped up and cupped her hands in front of her mouth, taking a deep breath and shouting at the top of her lungs, "COME ON, BLAKE! I BELIEVE IN YOU! YOU FUCKING GOT THIS, GOT IT?!"

Hearing Ayame's words cut out over the deafening sounds of the bug buzz made Blake's lips slowly tilt up into a shaky grin. He quickly got back in the swing of things, her words filling him up with excitement and getting him ready to keep going.

"Cory! Go! Use waterfall!"

"Crawdaunt!" Cory bellowed, scuttling forward, a massive torrent of water swirling around him as he pushed the insects aside, charging at the fluttering Masquerain.

"Cory is ignoring the painful sonic attack and is charging forward!" Akira noted. "Bug type moves might be strong against Dark types, but this is a Crawdaunt with a lot of heart."

"Or just a violent disposition," Dakota dryly added.

"Ice beam," Dokukage ordered. Ame fired a freezing blast of ice from her mouth, freezing over Cory's surging water to stop his movements.

"CRAW!" Cory wasn't about to let that happen, though. He smashed right through the water, claw raised, and fired a barrage of bubbles that caught Ame off-guard, the bubbles exploding as they hit the Masquerain, Ame's wings taking some serious hits and causing her to fall out of the sky.

"Whoa, Blake's Crawdaunt smashed right through the ice!" Lila cheered.

"Masquerain are very fragile, unfortunately," Akira said, remembering how Ame had nearly fallen in Dokukage's last fight. "Dokukage can help with that by giving them boosts to their speed, but when left on their own they can be taken care of rather quickly."

"Crabhammer!" Blake ordered. Cory lunged at Ame, who was still falling out of the sky, but Dokukage had already anticipated that. Knowing that Ame would be fragile, he quickly ordered her to use another bug buzz attack.

"MASQUERAIN!" Ame chattered, Cory freezing in place as the agonizing sound returned, nearly forcing him to tip over.

"That's not good!" Lila wailed, not only talking about the painful ringing in her ears.

"Between that damage and the poison, it doesn't look like that Crawdaunt has long…" Dakota said.

Blake didn't like it, but she was right. Not being able to switch Cory out meant that his Crawdaunt, as strong as he might have been, was too weak to put up any more of a fight. Cory had reached his limit, and it wouldn't be long before the combination of the dreadful sounds ringing in his ears and the painful toxins coursing through his body wore him away completely.

I was hoping Cory would at least be able to finish one more pokemon before we tried this trick, but I guess that was too much to hope for. Dokukage really got me on this one. If we're going to go down, then we might as well go down swinging.

He glanced at the stands, looking not at Aya, but at Cynthia. He didn't want to do it, but she was right, he had to.

"Cory!" Blake shouted over the deafening noise. "Use endeavor!"

"What did he say?!" Lila shouted. "I couldn't hear!"

"Oh, well that could certainly work," Akira said, raising his eyebrow.

"CRAWDAUNT!" Cory shouted, energy surging through his body as he lunged at Ame, leaping into the air and slamming into the bug pokemon.

"MASQUERAIN!" Ame cried out, hitting the ground hard. Cory had been on his last slivers of health, and thanks to that endeavor attack now Ame was, too.

"Oh, yeah!" Cynthia said, pumping her fist into the air. "Now that's what I'm talking about! Way to go, Cory!"

"Of course you would tell him to do something like that," Reiner said, rolling his eyes.

"Dude, that awesome! Nice!" Andy cheered.

Kanou smiled a little, trying not to break out into a full-on Sylvia grin. That had been a pretty nice play, she had to admit.

"That was an amazing hit on Blake's part," Akira noted. "Cory couldn't defeat that Masquerain with his health being what it is, so he used endeavor to drop it down to the same level! Now he has a chance to finish her off!"

"But it would have been better to save that trick for a pokemon that Dokukage had already stacked a lot of buffs on," Dakota reminded him.

"Either way, Dokukage doesn't seem all that worried," Lila said, pointing at the ninja, who hadn't said a word or so much as raised an eyebrow in response to his Masquerain being hit with such a devastating move. "He must have been prepared for that."

In truth, Dokukage had merely been stunned speechless, his brain needing time to process what had just happened. He had not been expecting an endeavor attack. And it was through sheer luck that he hadn't stacked a bunch of buffs on one of his pokemon, only for them to fall victim to such a devastating blow. Compared to that, Ame being crippled was almost a good thing.

"Now, Cory! Aqua jet!" Blake shouted.

"Craw!" Cory pushed through the stinging pain of the poison and scuttled towards the crumpled Masquerain as a blinding speed, water surging up around him in quick bursts as he turned into a red blur.

"That's my guy!" Cynthia cheered. "You always gotta follow up endeavor with a priority attack! That's how you get 'em!"

"That move of Cynthia's was certainly strong," Callie had to admit. "But that's the kind of trick that can only work once. Watch."

"You did your task admirably, Ame," Dokukage said, recalling Ame to her pokeball. "Don't worry, we'll avenge you."

"Dokukage has lost three of his pokemon now!" Lila gasped in amazement. "Will Blake be able to keep this momentum up? He's taking an almost-commanding lead over the match! Don't you guys think? Akira? Dakota?"

"He's definitely doing a great job," Dakota agreed. "But in terms of a lead…"

"It's a lot closer than it looks," Akira said. "Look at Blake's Crawdaunt. Cory is about to faint. And not only that, but Blake hasn't done anything to remove the sticky webs or toxic spikes littering his side of the battlefield. Which means all the pokemon he sends out from now on will be fighting at a serious disadvantage, just like Cory. So this is far from a finished match."

"Higurashi, go," Dokukage said, sending his Ninjask out. The bug pokemon flapped his wings quickly, moving so fast he seemed to appear and disappear.

"Cory!" Blake shouted. "We need to at least use taunt to hamper his Ninjask's moves before it can get going!"

"Craw…" Cory nodded weakly, trying as hard as he could to keep going even as he felt the strength starting to drain from his body. He raised his claws, ready to beckon at the swift pokemon in order to drag it into attacking.

But he never had the chance.

"Finish it," Dokukage ordered sharply, Higurashi disappearing in a flash. He reappeared in the air above Cory, claws raised, and brought them down on the water pokemon's back in a painful x-scissor attack that made Cory cry out in pain, slumping over.

"Crawdaunt is unable to battle!" Lila announced. "Ninjask is the winner!"

"You did your best, Cory," Blake said, recalling Cory to his pokeball. He would have hoped that Cory would be able to taunt Higurashi before he went, but unfortunately Cory couldn't keep his strength going, and had fallen. But he really had fought hard, as well as Blake could have ever expected him to fight.

"I wonder what Blake's next pokemon is going to be?" Dakota mused. "My money's on that Scizor of his, because he won't be affected by the poison."

"That's a safe bet," Akira agreed. "But we'll have to see if he's willing to use one of his best pokemon so early."

Blake wasn't ready for that, not yet. Weiss had his place in Blake's lineup, and it wasn't in this match.

"Ruru!" Blake shouted, sending Ruru back out. "Give it your best!"

"Gal!" Ruru emerged from her pokeball, already wincing in pain at the sensation of the toxic spikes digging themselves into her legs as she landed on the sticky web.

"Your Galvantula again. Interesting." Dokukage narrowed his eyes, wondering what gambit Blake was trying for, sending his weakened Galvantula out when he had three perfectly healthy pokemon ready to keep fighting.

"Ruru! Use screech!" Blake ordered.

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL!" Ruru shrieked, withstanding the poison and scuttling towards Higurashi as she deafened the opposing bug pokemon with her loud screeches, drastically reducing his defense with the move.

"Blake's trying to reduce Ninjask's physical defense?" Dakota asked, surprised. "But his Galvantula is a special attacker!"

"I don't get it either," Lila said, turning to Akira. "Akira, why would Blake do something like that?"

"…Because it hampers Dokukage quite a lot," Akira explained. "Remember, baton pass passes on all stat changes possessed by a pokemon… including the negative ones as well as the positives. So by drastically lowering the defense of his pokemon…"

"Oh!" Dakota gasped. "So now if Dokukage wants to pass status changes onto his pokemon, he'll have to pass the defense reduction as well!"

"Blake's probably anticipating that if this doesn't prevent Dokukage from using baton pass altogether, then it will at least give him an opening later in the fight where he can have one of his physical attackers take advantage of the stat reduction to get some serious blows in," Akira finished.

A shaky smile spread across Blake's face. Well, cat was out of the bag.

Shit. There goes that plan. This guy really is prepared on how to fight against someone who uses baton pass, Dokukage scowled from behind his mask. This is a real problem… we'll have to be a lot more cautious starting from here!

"That won't matter," Dokukage replied. "Higurashi! Use swords dance!"

"Ninjask!" Higurashi buzzed, raising his claws and spinning through the air as he flashed around, maximizing his physical attack.

"So you're sticking with that plan, then?" Blake asked, scowling. "Fine."

"Speed is speed," Dokukage replied. "You may have reduced our defenses, but that will not amount to anything if you can't land a blow."

"I see, so that's how it is," Blake murmured. "You're going all in on your evasion and speed, then, even if it means that it will make your pokemon unable to withstand my blows?"

"You understand perfectly," Dokukage nodded. "Higurashi! Use double team."

"Ninjask!" Higurashi buzzed, flapping his wings and moving so fast he created afterimages of himself, the copies spreading out in multiple directions, and soon the sky was filled with the fluttering of a swarm of Ninjask clones.

Foregoing defenses does limit my options considerably, Dokukage had to admit. He didn't like the idea of relying on his pokemon never taking a hit. But he had done it relatively well before, against Keahi in the previous round, so it wasn't like it was out of the question. All it meant was that he would have to be very careful of which pokemon he used. The only pokemon who could feasibly maintain this plan were Higurashi and Kagerou, his two fastest pokemon.

Ninjask and Accelgor were both Bug type pokemon who had foregone all their defenses to maximize their speed. Higurashi was a physical attacker and Kagerou was a special attacker, but they both filled the same role on Dokukage's team. And they were perfectly suited for dealing with this exact scenario, keeping a distance from an attacking pokemon.

He couldn't use his final pokemon, though. As long as he kept this chain going, he would have to rely on his Ninjask and Accelgor.

"Ruru, they might be filling the sky, but that just means there are more to hit!" Blake called out. "Use discharge!"

"Galvantula!" Ruru nodded, building up electricity into her furry body, wincing as the current ran through her poison-leaking wounds, but remaining strong and defiant. She built up a charge and then released it, sending a shockwave of electricity out into the air, striking the large swarm of Ninjask flying around her.

He expected things would go similarly to how it had gone the last time Ruru had tried to use thunder wave. That the Ninjask would escape behind a substitution again, hiding itself from the attack, and maybe even baton passing to another pokemon. Instead, what had ended up happening was something that Blake hadn't expected.

The electricity plowed through the Ninjask copies, the images of the pokemon disappearing as the current struck them. But when the electricity finished its course and all the clones were gone, there was nothing left in the air. Not a Ninjask, zapped with lightning and falling out of the sky, not even a log of wood where he would have hidden himself with the substitution technique again. No, the sky was just empty.

Blake took a moment to figure out what that meant, before putting the pieces together.

"Ruru! He's below you!"

Ruru glanced down, Higurashi emerging from the ground and breaking through solid concrete, driving his sharp claws up into Ruru's stomach. The Galvantula let out a cry of pain as she thrashed about, the claws doing some significant damage.

"Ninjask evolved from Nincada, a Bug/Ground type pokemon," Akira explained. "Clearly, that Ninjask still retains some of the skills it possessed from those days."

"With all the activity in the air, you didn't expect an attack from below ground," Dokukage stated. He was just lucky that Higurashi had been able to slip into the ground before getting spotted. "Your speed to react is slow as well."

Blake scowled. Dokukage wasn't wrong there. Ruru may have been a spider pokemon, but even she wasn't immune to the effects of the sticky webs. She was having trouble righting herself, the sticky threads holding her down and the toxic spikes digging into her as she thrashed around.

"Swords dance again," Dokukage said. He didn't need to worry about boosting Higurashi's speed. With the pokemon's speed boost, his speed was already at a level that no other pokemon could hope to match, and was only rising higher with every move. And now, he had the attack to do some seriously devastating blows, a second swords dance finished. "Now finish it."

"Ninjask!" Higurashi buzzed, flying so fast he disappeared. Only the faint trace of his claws glistening in the night sky, lit by the lights of the stadium, were able to be made out. They were as sharp as they looked.

"Ruru!" Blake cried, Ruru not nearly fast enough to counter the blinding speed of the Ninjask.

Blake has pulled ahead in terms of how many pokemon he has left by a considerable lead, but Dokukage has already begun to get his strategies in! Will Blake be able to overcome the baton pass chain, now that he can't stop it with taunt?