Blake's battle against Sylvia continues! Sylvia pulled to an early lead with her trickery, but Blake isn't out yet! Will Blake be able to win? Or will Sylvia's tricks allow her to stay in the lead, and eventually overwhelm Blake? I really hope not.

KedharS: Well, maybe he can lose to her. We'll have to find out.

Aquahaze675: It's definitely something unusual, we'll have to find out.

Rosealine gold: It'll probably be a long wait before Marion returns to the story, she's got her own things to do, and she's somewhat too much of a trump card if she was here.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 509

"Blake's lost his Crawdaunt! What will be his second pokemon to fight against Sylvia's Jellicent?" Lila announced, asking the audience. Ayame winced at the sound of that, and Cynthia frowned as well. They both knew how important it was for Blake to have Cory at his side against a ghost master like Sylvia. Losing the Dark type advantage was a problem.

"Who's Blake going to use next, you think?" Sango asked Cynthia. She was staring worriedly at Blake, who was standing in quiet contemplation of his next move. She glanced away from him to the other battle experts here, Cynthia and Callie.

"I don't know Blake's team very well," Callie admitted. "But-"

"Probably Tara," Cynthia theorized.

"Tara? You sure?" Callie asked. "That's… his Snivy, right?"

"Exactly. She'll have a type advantage against not only the Jellicent, but also Sylvia's Golett, too," Cynthia explained. "Blake's a smart trainer, so he's definitely gonna do that."

Blake made his decision.

"Go, Ruru!" Blake said, sending out his next pokemon.

"For his second pokemon, Blake has chosen his Galvantula!" Lila declared. "He must be planning on fighting against the Water type with Galvantula's Electric type moves!"

"…'Definitely' huh?" Ayame dryly replied. Cynthia's face got hot.

"Blake you moroooooon!" She shouted, leaping out of her seat and holding her hands up to her mouth, chastising him. "What are you thinking?! Sylvia's got a Ground type!"

"Calm down," Ayame chided, reaching over and pulling Cynthia back down.

"She's not wrong, though," Julia said. Ayame turned to look at her. Julia had a scowl on her face, and not just because the cute little kitten sitting next to her had been replaced by a statuesque stunner. "I would have thought Tara, too. Sylvia will just switch her pokemon out again like she did against Cory, and then Blake's in a bind again."

"…Well, I'm gonna trust him," Ayame huffed, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "He knows what he's doing."

"Aww, how cute, faith in your boyfriend," Callie giggled.

"Well, a Galvantula, huh?" Sylvia smiled. "Most girls are afraid of spiders, but if you thought that would unnerve me, you've got another think coming! Shoulda used your Snivy, Blake!"

"Most girls are afraid of snakes, too," Blake icily stated. "Ruru is the right choice. Ruru!"

"Gal!" Ruru turned on her legs and raised her rear, spraying out spider webs. The spider webs splattered across the battlefield and covered Runja, sticking her up.

"Oh! So that's why!" Lila realized. "If that move was spider web, then that means Sylvia can't return her pokemon anymore!"

"So Blake trapped Sylvia's pokemon in a bad matchup just like she trapped his Crawdaunt!" Dakota gasped, clapping. "Nice!"

Akira was less convinced than the battling amateurs he was announcing with were.

"Ruru, agility," Blake ordered. Ruru dashed forward, zigzagging from side to side, her speed increasing as she approached the gummed up Jellicent.

Sylvia smirked, lifting her pokeball.

"You have a lot to learn about the Ghost type, Blake," she replied, a red beam of light shooting out. Runja's body turned incorporeal and she floated out of the webbing, the strands of sticky silk falling helplessly to the ground. "Maybe get a lesson or two from Maddi. But didn't you know that ghosts can never be trapped?"

"What?!" Lila gasped. "Seriously?!"

"You watched the semi-finals of the Fall Festival Tournament," Akira said, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. "She used that same tactic against Elaina Bishop."

Lila's eyes widened in realization.

"…Oh, yeah," she chuckled sheepishly, rubbing her hair and giving Akira a wink, sticking her tongue out. "Whoopsie-doopsies!"

Akira rolled her eyes.

"Letty, your turn! Come back!" Sylvia said, swapping Runja for her Golett once again, the short pokemon landing on the web.

"…I was aware of that, actually," Blake replied.

"Hmm?" Sylvia blinked, looking at him. "Aware of…"

"I knew ghost pokemon can't be trapped," Blake clarified. "That wasn't spider web I sprayed on your Jellicent. It was sticky web."

Sylvia's eyes widened and her grin did likewise.

"…There's a difference?" Lila asked, glancing to Akira for clarification.

"Spider web is a move used to trap a pokemon, preventing a pokemon from recalling them," Akira explained. "Sticky web, though, is a little trickier. It's an entry hazard move. By covering the opponent's side of the field with sticky webbing and silk, the pokemon who enter have their mobility reduced, lowering their speed."

"Oh!" Lila said.

"Not bad, Blake, not bad," Sylvia admitted, Letty trying to walk forward but their legs were getting caught in the sticky webbing. "Looks like you're using your little grey cells after all! Letty can't even turn intangible like other ghosts to offset it!"

"Hah! I knew he had a plan!" Cynthia crowed, her face beaming with smug superiority. Everyone else rolled their eyes.

"Sure, Cynthia," Ayame said.

"Now, Ruru!" Blake ordered. "Use signal beam!"

"Galvantula!" Ruru opened her mouth, and fired a greenish-red beam at Letty that throbbed with an ominous pulse, hitting the slowed golem pokemon in the face.

"Already taking advantage of your speed, huh?" Sylvia smirked. "That's fine. We won't need speed to take out your Galvantula. Letty, use earthquake!"

"Oh, with that, Sylvia can attack the whole battlefield!" Lila cried.

Letty began gathering energy into their body, preparing to send the whole stadium shaking.

"Ruru, go!" Blake shouted.

"Galvantula!" Ruru shot forward as a bright yellow blur, slipping skillfully across the sticky webbing because she knew exactly where the safe spaces to step were. She stopped right in front of Letty and raised the smaller legs at the front of her body, slamming one of them up into Letty's jaw as she sprung off the ground.

"A sucker punch?" Sylvia asked. "Well, that's quite rude. But Letty won't get thrown off so easily. Time for that earthquake!"

Letty released the energy they had stored into the ground, and the stadium began to shake. But Blake was already accounting for that.

"Ruru! Jump!"

"Galvantula!" Ruru sprung up into the air, leaping high over the battlefield, avoiding the earthquake's devastating effects.

"Ah, bounce, that's what you'd want to do," Akira agreed.

"Yeah! Now Blake's in the perfect position to launch a counterattack!" Callie cheered.

"Ruru, screech!"

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL!" Ruru let out a high-pitched screech as she fell towards the ground, reducing Letty's defenses. The spider landed on top of the golem with a strong thud, knocking the slowed pokemon backwards. Letty rolled across the sticky webs littering the ground, tying them up and making it hard for them to move. When the webs finally slowed their momentum enough to stop it, Letty looked more like a cocoon than a golem.

Sylvia didn't seem fazed, though.

"…Fair enough, Blake, I suppose you're the diligent sort who wants to wrap up to make sure everything's nice and safe," she said, smacking her lips and batting her eyelashes. "Me, though, I'm a girl who likes taking her risks. Letty, phantom force!"

"Gol," Letty nodded, and began to disappear into the shadows. But Ruru wasn't about to let that happen.

"Galvantula!" Ruru shot forward and hit Letty with a sucker punch once again, knocking the webbed up pokemon backwards.

"Gol!" Letty grunted in pain. They struggled against the webs for a second, before succumbing to the attacks. They remained trapped in the cocoon, no longer moving.

"Whoa!" Lila gasped. "G-Golett is unable to battle! Blake's Galvantula is the winner! She really did manage to take out the Golett with no electric moves, and without even taking any damage!"

"Yeah! Way to go, Blake!" Sango cheered.

"Nice one!" Cynthia whistled in agreement.

Ayame just sighed in relief, relaxing back in her chair slightly. Blake had gotten off to a shaky start, but it looked like he was really turning things around.

But Sylvia didn't seem fazed. She wore a cool smile on her face as she recalled her Golett.

"Sorry, Letty, but it looks like that was a matter of speed," Sylvia said, shrugging her shoulders. "You just weren't fast enough."

She glanced over to Ruru and smirked.

"…But you did leave a lovely parting gift, that I simply must thank you for," she purred. "Runja! Welcome back out!"

Sylvia threw her pokeball out, her Jellicent returning. Runja landed on the spider webs and got a little sticky, reducing her speed, though it didn't seem to bother her.

"And Sylvia's sent her Jellicent back out!" Lila announced. "That's an interesting choice. I thought for sure she would choose something else."

"You can never be too sure what that girl's thinking," was Akira's only response.

"Well, I wouldn't want anyone to accuse me of being boring or predictable," Sylvia said, licking her lips. "Now, Runja, use whirlpool."

"Ruru, dodge," Blake ordered. Ruru moved to comply, but she winced in pain, a sudden stab in her chest causing her to freeze up. Water rose up around her and spun in a massive whirlpool batting her on all sides, much to Blake's confusion. "Ruru?!"

"Blake, didn't you know?" Sylvia asked, her voice loud with mock-exasperation, exaggeratedly rolling her eyes. "You need to be more careful with who you roll around with. Ruru might have thought she was being safe, but unfortunately she really should have used some of that… 'protection' earlier, if you know what I mean."

Blake looked at her in confusion and Sylvia narrowed her eyes, licking her lips.

"Unfortunately, she's caught a nasty little bug from her playtime with Letty," Sylvia explained. "A bug known as curse, that is."

"Uh-oh," Dakota gasped.

"Curse? That's not good!" Lila cried. "If Galvantula has been cursed, then that means she'll be quickly drained of most of her health! Blake should really switch out his- …oh!"

"No escaping," Sylvia cooed, wagging her finger from side to side. "You're caught up in MY web little spider! Runja, use hydro pump!"

Runja held her tentacles up, her body inflating as she prepared to spit a massive blast of water at the raging whirlpool.

"Oh no! That's no fair!" Sango wailed.

"Not good," Cynthia nodded. "Blake! This is real bad! Curse is gonna take Ruru out if you can't switch, you gotta do something!"

"Blake!" Ayame shouted.

"Ruru! Sucker punch again!" Blake ordered. A blast of thread burst out of the water, hitting the webs around Runja. The strong cable held taut, and Ruru used it to pull herself free, flinging herself towards Runja at a high speed, before the pokemon could unleash her attack. Ruru raised her legs and socked Runja in the face, knocking her over into the webs. The hydro pump blasted harmlessly up into the air, raining down on the battlefield.

Sylvia took out her parasol and held it over her head to shield herself from the rain as Blake got drenched, Blake glaring angrily across the battlefield at the girl.

"Gal-!" Ruru groaned, her curse sapping away more of her strength.

"Runja, let's give her some space, shall we?" Sylvia purred. "Move back and use recover, let her stew."

Clearly, Sylvia's goal was to run out the clock and let the curse eat away at Ruru. But Blake wasn't about to let that happen.

"Ruru, thunder wave!"

"Galvantula!" Electricity began crackling through Ruru's fur, and she released the electrical build-up in a shockwave that engulfed the fleeing Jellicent, paralyzing the pink pokemon even as she tried to recover her health.

"Well, that's no fun," Sylvia whistled, peeking out from under the brim of her umbrella, before closing it and putting it away. "Gosh, you guys are already so fast. Runja, use acid armor to boost your defenses, okay?"

"Jell," Runja nodded, a slimy film leaking out of her body to heighten her defenses.

"Ruru, screech," Blake countered.

"GALVANTULA!" Ruru screeched loudly, reducing the Jellicent's defenses again.

"Oh, poo!" Sylvia huffed, puffing out her cheeks. "You're just the enemy of fun, aren't you?"

"I'm not here to have fun," Blake replied. "I save having fun for battles with people I like and respect. I'm here to defeat you, that's it."

Sylvia sighed. "You're lucky I'm a bit of a masochist Blake, otherwise you might hurt my feelings. But I suppose you're right, this isn't a battle about fun, it's a battle about winning, right, Runja? Right, Specter?"

Runja nodded in agreement. "Shuppet!" Specter chirped, bobbing up and down on her shoulder.

"Great! Then try another hydro pump, Runja!" Sylvia ordered. Runja began to build up water inside of her, but Blake wasn't about to let that happen.

"Ruru, time to use sucker punch again!"

Ruru moved to attack, but found that she couldn't.

"Gal?" Ruru gasped in surprise. Then, she winced in pain, the curse afflicting her again.

"…Oh, right, I forgot to mention," Sylvia said. "I had Runja use spite while we were talking. No more sucker punches, Blake, we gotta do this one fair and square. Didn't you notice? Guess not, 'cause you just wasted a move."

"That's not good!" Lila said, Runja releasing the powerful hydro pump. The massive blast of compressed water slammed into Ruru, knocking her backwards. But she wasn't down, quickly springing to her feet, shaking off the attack and the curse damage.

"Well, she's got guts," Sylvia admitted. "I quite like her, in fact! Runja, again!"

"We might not have sucker punches, but we're still way faster than her, Ruru!" Blake reminded his Galvantula. "Dodge the hydro pump and use electro ball!"

Ruru ducked low, shooting around Runja. The Jellicent fired the hydro pump at where Ruru had been a while previously, nowhere close to a hit.

"Galvantula!" Ruru raised her smaller front lets and opened her mouth, an orb of electricity crackling in the center of it. She spat the electro ball, the sphere flying forward at high speed, hitting Runja in the back.

"JELLICENT!" Runja cried in pain, electricity coursing through her soaked body.

"What a powerful hit!" Lila cheered, trying not to sound TOO biased against Sylvia, even though the audience was cheering Blake on, as well.

"Electro ball is a really powerful move, right Aki?" Dakota nodded. "I've been teaching it to my Electric types."

"It gets more and more powerful the faster the user is in comparison to the target," Akira agreed. "Galvantula are already a lot faster than Jellicent. But factor in the sticky webs, the Jellicent's paralysis, and to top it off, Ruru's agility, the amount of damage must have been massive."

Indeed, the attack looked like it had done quite a lot of damage. Runja's body was scorched, electricity still crackling around her as she twitched. She flopped back into the webs, panting. She wasn't at the point where she was unable to battle, but even with her high HP and her special defenses, that attack had done a lot of damage to her.

"Runja-"

"Ruru, keep going!" Blake shouted, ready to take advantage of Ruru's incredible speed, not wanting to give the Jellicent a moment to breathe. "Use electro web!"

"Galvantula!" Ruru raised her claws and dug them into the webbing, electricity crackling through her body. She released a powerful discharge of electricity out through her legs and into the webs, zapping the entire battlefield, the electrified webs releasing the current up into Runja, electrocuting her even more.

"JELLICENT!" Runja wailed, thrashing against the electrified webs. Sylvia could see that Runja was on her last legs. She smirked, and nodded to Runja.

Wincing through the pain, Runja glanced at her trainer, and understood without having to be ordered what Sylvia wanted from her. Pushing herself through the pain of the electric attacks, she rose shakily onto her tentacles, electricity still surging through her, and turned to Ruru, preparing another attack, her last one.

Blake could see that Runja was trying something, her body glowing with an ominous energy. The electro web wasn't strong enough to knock her out.

"Ruru, enough with the electro web, switch to electro ball," Blake instructed. Ruru pulled back from Runja, wary of another attack, and created another electro ball that she fired at the bulbous pokemon, the large ball flying through the sky at high speed, hitting Runja just as she released her attack.

Runja cried out in pain and flopped over onto the ground, deflating. The last electro ball was more than enough to finish her off.

"Sylvia's Jellicent is unable to battle!" Lila gleefully proclaimed. "Galvantula is the-"

"No, look," Dakota said, shaking her head. She pointed at Ruru, the pokemon crying in pain and slumping over, losing consciousness as well.

"What? Gal… Galvantula is unable to battle, too?" Lila asked, surprised.

"Destiny bond," Sylvia exclaimed, giving Blake a wink. "The perfect end to a tragic romance, don't you think? So heartbroken over defeating Runja… and now Ruru's gone to join her."

"This isn't a 'romance'," Blake growled.

Sylvia scoffed, recalling her Jellicent. "What, because they're both girls? Don't be such a bigot."

Blake didn't dignify that with a response, and Lila had to resist the urge to scream at the girl.

"Now, Dusk, it's finally your turn!" Sylvia proclaimed, throwing out her final pokeball, which her ace, Dusknoir, emerged from. His speed was reduced from the sticky webs, but Sylvia didn't mind one bit, that worked just fine with what she wanted.

Blake scowled, recalling Ruru as well. His ace was going to have to be…

"Weiss, go," Blake said, throwing out his next pokeball. Weiss emerged in a flash of web, gnashing his pincers at the Dusknoir.

"Sylvia's last pokemon is her Dusknoir, and Blake's last pokemon is his Scizor," Lila declared. "Which one is going to win?"

"One pokemon left each," Sylvia purred. "Well, what do you think? Will your Weiss be enough to take us down, I wonder? This is going to be our last affair, Blake."

"Shove it," Blake ignored her. "Weiss! Use night slash!"

"Scizor!" Weiss shot forward, darkness coursing through his claw.

Dusk didn't move. Whether it was because he was too slow, or because Sylvia ordered him not to, it was impossible to say. But he took Weiss's night slash head on, grunting in pain.

"Yeah! That was a powerful hit!" Lila cheered. "Blake's Scizor is so fast, he was able to strike before Sylvia even had a chance to respond!"

"Don't get ahead of yourself," Akira warned her. "It's not over yet."

"You get that one," Sylvia murmured. Her eyes narrowed, sparking with a wicked malevolence. "But that's all you get. Now, Dusk. Trick room."

"DUSKNOIR!" Dusk roared, holding up his hands. Weiss jumped back, surprised, a cube pulsing with dark light appearing between Dusk's hands. The cube began to expand.

"Sorry, folks," Sylvia murmured, her voice low and menacing. The tone of her voice and the look in her eye sent a shiver down Blake's spine. It seemed like he was seeing a side to Sylvia he had never seen before. Sylvia glanced into the stands, and Ayame could swear that Sylvia was looking right at her. Sylvia licked her lips.

"But from here, this battle is going to be rated 18+, not something suitable for the kiddies. So we're going to need to have some privacy." The cube continued to expand, swallowing Dusk and Weiss, as well as Blake and Sylvia, before pulling to a stop, locking down the battlefield. Dark and violet energies swirled in the walls of the cube, completely obscuring everything inside from sight.

Oh, no, Sylvia has trapped Blake in her sex dung- err, I mean, Trick Room. Where will things go from here? Will Blake be able to overcome her tricks? What could she have planned?!