We've reached the climax! The match comes to an end with this chapter, and a winner is determined! Will the Commander overcome the Phantom with his fighting ability, his Sense, and his trick room? Or will the Phantom's plans and the devastating power of his Shadow Pokemon be able to overcome the Commander and his strategies? We'll have to find out! It all comes to an end here, the battle, the tournament, the fight for supremacy, and what will the result be?
Rowlets and Oshawotts: I hope this is a satisfying climax for you, then! I may explore different realities, but I don't really have much planned for 600 chapters.
Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Espeon can learn trick room through the use of TMs, so the Commander must have gotten a TM for trick room from somewhere. Or someone.
KedharS: That's definitely the idea. Seeing who will emerge the victor as they go rounds with each other!
Rus0804: Definitely amazing, hopefully the conclusion is worth it!
Aquahaze675: HMs? VERY rare. TMs though? They're a little scarce, but they're certainly not any difficulty to obtain. The school has a selection of them, actually. They also sell blank disks for students with coding knowledge to replicate their favorite TM moves, like what Kate does with Toxic. She knows how to code a Toxic TM, so she can buy blank disks from the store and program them. You'd think this might affect the market, but it doesn't. There are strict rules about reselling TMs, and students aren't allowed to do it. They can get in serious trouble. They can buy blank disks and codes to program TMs, or buy TMs wholesale from the store, but they can't sell them to each other. But, of course, there's an underground market to consider, because there always is. And you can still gift TMs, of course. But no exchanges for cash, goods, or services.
JoshGamerV: I'm glad.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 595
"What is this?!" Valon bellowed, looking around. For once, the confident look on his face had been shaken, much to the Commander's delight.
"It's trick room!" Lila said, squinting.
"I had no idea that the Commander's Espeon knew trick room," Darla said. "But… if she does… then why did the Commander let Gerard get so far in the match last night? I don't understand, surely, if Espeon knew trick room, he would use it, wouldn't he? Because two trick rooms would counter themselves out, after all…"
"Maybe… wait, why would he even want to teach her trick room?" Lila asked, confused herself. "I mean, his team is really fast, right? That's why it was so difficult for him to defeat Gerard in the first place. So why would he teach his Espeon trick room?"
"No idea, but it's good that he did," Darla said. "Dragapult are incredibly fast. They have a base speed of 142. And who knows how much being a Shadow Pokemon boosts its speed? Which means that under trick room, that pokemon must be incredibly slow."
"What do you think of my trump card?" Alden asked, his lips curling into a wild smile. "Normally I'm not a fan of tricks like this, I'd prefer to use my Sense for a real battle. With just our pokemon fighting to their best. But like you said, that's not what this is about, Phantom! This isn't a battle, this is a war? Well, let me show you what war looks like! Eifa, use calm mind!"
"Espeon!" Eifa's eyes flashed bright red, and a red aura began to wrap around her as she focused her energy, her special attack and special defense rose, buffing her stats again. Launcher wasn't about to let that happen, though.
"Launcher! Shadow rush!" Valon ordered. Launcher's shadow aura surged up around him, covering him a veil of darkness. The shadow sky fed into it as he flew through it. He was slow, incredibly slow, much to the Phantom's annoyance. But fortunately, he was able to hide himself in the darkness of the sky overhead, allowing him to get close enough to Eifa that he could attack her. Appearing behind her, he lowered his head and tackled the Espeon, or at least he tried to.
"Espeon!" Eifa turned her head and jumped to the side, dodging the Shadow Pokemon's tackle with skilled ease, due to her speed boost from the trick room. It was slower than she was used to moving at, but compared to the Dragapult she might as well be using quick attack.
"Dragapult!" Launcher roared angrily, turning his head towards Eifa. He fired slender, tiny dragons like darts at Eifa, which DID manage to hit her as she landed, the tiny shapes smashing into her and causing her to wince. Launcher's attack was still high, and her physical defense was still low, even if he was still a slow pokemon.
"Eifa, you good?" Alden asked.
"Espeon," Eifa nodded.
"Great!" Alden grinned. "Then use dazzling gleam next!"
"Es!" Eifa nodded, beginning to glow bright red as her ruby flashed. Beams of red light erupted from her, piercing through the shadows. Launcher had been trying to hide in the cover of the shadow sky, but he quickly found that to be impossible; the dazzling gleam cut right through the darkness, flying in all directions and striking Launcher, the Dragapult crying out in pain.
"Wooo!" Lila cheered. "Yes! Fairy beats Dragon, every time!"
Darla muttered something and rolled her eyes, happy that Valon was losing but not wanting to vocalize support to Lila's bigoted statement.
"Launcher! How could you allow this to happen?" Valon growled. The fact that his pokemon was moving so slowly, and that was causing all of his plans to fall to pieces was starting to get to him. "Do you have any idea how hard I've worked for this?! How could you-?!"
"Because he's too fast. Your Dragapult's greatest strength is its greatest weakness!" Alden replied, his eyes sparkling. "Eifa's fast too, but she's still slower than you are. Now, Eifa, use dazzling gleam again! That Dragapult's already taken some hits from Mimi, how much more until we've broken through the shadows?"
"Espeon!" Eifa's eyes flashed red again and she began to glow, her body covered in a scarlet aura as she prepared to release another powerful ray of light.
"Launcher, sucker punch," Valon growled. Launcher shot forward before Eifa could release the dazzling gleam, raising his fist and hitting her in the face. She let out a gasp of pain as she was knocked towards the Commander, but still released the dazzling gleam attack, Launcher crying out in pain and stumbling backwards through the sky.
"Eifa!" Alden shouted. "You good?"
"Espeon…" Eifa panted, climbing to her feet. She raised her paw and wiped blood away from her mouth, glaring at Launcher angrily as the Dragon type pokemon managed to right himself, turning and glaring at her in turn. Eifa quickly regained her composure, though, and closed her eyes, beginning to build up her psychic powers again, boosting her special attack and special defense with a calm mind.
"Dragapult!" Launcher wasn't going to allow the small pokemon to make a mockery of it. Enraged, shadows flared up around him, and he lunged at Eifa, his aura surging and wrapping around him in a curtain of darkness. He slammed into Eifa, knocking her backwards, doing some serious damage to her health. But she wasn't done! Not even close!
"Espeon!" Eifa shouted back to the Commander. He didn't understand her words but he could feel it himself.
"I see, he might be slowed, but that sucker punch is still trouble," Alden frowned. Talk about an understatement. With her defenses, I don't think she could last if she tried another attacking move and that Dragapult was ready for it. "I see how it is. And that attack did a lot. That's okay, Eifa, you certainly did your best. Your only task was to set up the trick room, so you're done if you want to be. You can take a nice rest. Leave the rest up to Jaune! Baton pass!"
"Espeon!" Eifa's eyes flashed red and she returned to her pokeball in a surge of crimson light, Alden switching her out for Jaune, the Vikavolt taking to the skies with a buzz.
"The Commander has traded in his Espeon for a Vikavolt!" Lila reported. She turned to Darla. "Is… is that good?"
"It's very good," Darla said, cracking a grin. "After all, Vikavolt are slow. Incredibly slow. And with that trick room in place, that means that it's going to be unbelievably fast! And with those boosts to his special attack and special defense by calm mind…"
Lila's face brightened.
"Jaune! Use air slash!" Alden ordered.
"Vikavolt!" Jaune buzzed, flapping his wings. He lifted his head, and swung it down sharply, his large mandibles carving through the sky and sending a blade of wind that sliced through the shadows and hit Launcher in the chest, the Dragapult letting out a bellow of rage.
"Jaune might not have any special attacking moves that are super-effective against your Dragapult, but with such a high special attack it won't make that much of a difference!" Alden grinned. "Jaune, now that we've cut away some of the shadows, use flash cannon!"
"Vika!" Jaune nodded, opening his mandibles wide. Light began glowing in the center of them, preparing to fire in a powerful beam.
"Not a chance! Launcher, sucker punch!" Valon shouted.
"Dragapult!" Launcher shot forward, raising his fist, and striking Jaune in the chin, knocking him upwards. Jaune swirled off-course and fired the compressed beam of light out wildly, cutting through the shadows like a laser. Which wasn't the intended purpose, but still did a lot in terms of banishing the shadows.
"Vikavolt!" Still firing the flash cannon, Jaune regained control of himself and turned his head, swinging the beam like a blade and slamming it into Launcher's side, the Dragapult letting out a cry of pain as he clutched his stomach, the light beam burning away the aura covering his body.
"Not a fan of light, now are you?" Alden asked. "Keep going, Jaune! More power into the flash cannon, as much as you can get!"
"Vikavolt!" Jaune buzzed, his mandibles opening wider and the beam increasing in size, burning away more shadows as a large part of Launcher's body was caught in it.
"Damn it all!" Valon roared. "Launcher! Do you have any idea how hard I've worked for this?! It's forbidden for you to lose, do you understand me?!"
"Drag…" Launcher growled, gasping for breath. But he couldn't move out of the way. No matter how he turned, Jaune was there, his speed allowing him to match the Dragapult's movements completely and attack him from any direction he tried to escape in. "…Drag!"
Launcher struggled, unwilling to disobey the Phantom's orders. It had to win! The shadows surged even brighter around him, and he struggled, desperately, trying to push back the light with the shadows even as they were being burned away.
A flash of something caught the corner of Lila's eye and she turned her head, intrigued. She was staring at the strangely-colored stone, the prize of this Phantom Cup. She must have been seeing things, there was no way that-
Nope, nope, it just did it again. That was definitely a flash just now, Lila told herself. Something was going on with that crystal, it was shimmering, pulsing with energy. She opened her mouth to say something to Darla, but she never got the chance.
"DRAGAPULT!" Launcher let out a deafening roar, the shadow aura that had been all but extinguished flaring back to life, with even more intensity than before. And it was no ordinary shadow, either. It was the myriad of menacing colors that came with the corruption of hyper mode!
"What?!" Alden gasped.
Valon's eyes widened and a shaky smile crossed his face. He turned his eyes from the Dragapult to the battlefield itself. It teaming with energy. This… this was it! It can't be! Resonance! The Renegade System is resonating!
"DRAGAPULT!" Launcher began glowing, his eyes turning red. The shadow aura around him flared up even more, and he charged at Vikavolt, the shadows around him transforming into claws.
"Oh?! What's this?" Alden gasped, surprised.
"Look at that power, what is it?!" Lila cried.
"I don't know, but… it feels… off…" Darla seemed rather dazed. She held her head, feeling a little faint.
"That's… what is it?!" Maddi coughed out, clutching her eye in pain. She felt like she was going to hurl! She hadn't felt like this since…
"Hyper mode?" Kitty choked out, raising her head to take a glance at the Dragapult. But she couldn't sustain it. She turned her head and threw up again, it was even more miserable than before. An absolutely revolting sight.
"Astounding!" Valon cackled. "This is it! This is the power that we were hoping for! Launcher, destroy the Commander and those worthless pokemon of his! Give it everything you've got and give into the shadows completely, even if this battlefield is torn apart!"
"DRAGAPULT!" Shadows continued to burst out of Launcher like they were being pumped by an invisible heart, filling the battlefield with choking smog. The trick room kept it hemmed in, preventing the darkness from escaping, and it only grew thicker and thicker as the Shadow Pokemon rampaged across the battlefield.
"Jaune!" Alden coughed out. "I don't know… what's happening… but you've got to keep away from him! Move as fast as you can *cough* I don't think you can withstand it! Iron defense!"
"Vikavolt!" Jaune buzzed, coughing as well, his body covering with shimmering light as he hardened his carapace to be as strong as steel. He dodged around, avoiding the blasts of shadow as they rampaged across the battlefield thanks to his increased speed from the trick room. But even he could see that he was running out of room as well. The battlefield kept filling with smoke, and he kept coughing, crackling with electricity. He opened his mandibles wide and fired a compressed beam of light at the Dragapult, trying to strike it, but the Shadow Pokemon simply charged forward, his shadows smothering the flash cannon.
"Oh no!" Darla gasped, pointing at the battlefield.
"What? What are you seeing?" Lila asked, rubbing her eyes and squinting. "I can't see anything, the trick room is full of shadows!"
"I'm not looking inside the trick room, it's the trick room itself!" Darla gasped, pointing at the large barrier, and Lila gasped at what she saw.
"It… it's cracking!" Lila turned pale as she saw the spider-web of cracks spreading across the surface of the mysterious red barrier.
"The shadows are filling it up too fast to seep out," Darla realized. "Like a balloon filling with too much air, before…"
The trick room shattered and the shadows burst out, filling the entire stadium with darkness.
"Oh no!" Lila gasped, looking around in horror. Sealed within their box Lila and Darla were safe, but that wasn't the same for the everyone else. The shadows rolled off of the battlefield and quickly filled up the metallic bowl, rising up and beginning to flood the stadium itself.
"Oh, shit!" Blake gasped, seeing the shadows rising up and surging towards them.
"Castform!" Silver fell out of the sky, landing in Sango's lap. His face was clouded over by fever and his complexion darkened, like he was mimicking the qualities of the shadows. He couldn't turn his ability off! Sango stared down at the weakened pokemon in her lap, and her face went pale.
"Silver! Silver! Are you okay?!" She cried.
"It…" Kitty coughed, staring up at the wave of shadows heading their way. "It's coming-!"
Olivia rolled her eyes. Before the shadows crashed into where they were seated, a bright sparkling barrier of light appeared around them, their selection of seats cut off by a light screen that was quickly smothered by shadow, leaving everything pitch black.
"What's going on?!" Cynthia asked, confused. "I-I thought… we aren't choking! But I can't see, what's going on in the match?"
Cynthia got out of her seat, moving around Maddi, her concern for her friend momentarily overridden by her curiosity. She walked over to the barrier and placed her hand against it, pulling back as she saw it shimmer at her touch.
"Don't… don't do that," Olivia gently insisted from her seat. "This barrier is fragile enough as it is, Cynthia."
Cynthia turned to see Olivia lounging back in her seat, her Rapidash on the walkway behind her, her mane shimmering with light.
"Twilight isn't much one for battles, but her protective abilities are fine," Olivia assured them. She looked at the others, and the state of Sango's Castform, and sighed. "Twilight, take care of them, if you don't mind?"
"Rapidash!" Twilight whinnied in her gentle voice, her mane glowing brightly. A healing light fell over them, Silver brightening back up.
"I-I feel better!" Kitty gasped, rising to her feet, though she was still feeling a little shaky.
"That's…" Maddi realized that the pain in her skull was abating. She glanced up and looked towards Olivia, stunned.
Olivia gave her an arrogant smile.
"You and your Commander can thank me as you like," she replied smugly. Maddi bit her lip and glowered at the Empress, knowing that she did owe the other girl quite a lot. She sighed, and nodded her head.
"Thank you," she replied.
"That's better," Olivia chirped. But she wasn't the one who Olivia most desired gratitude from. The girl Olivia wanted to thank her was seated right at her side, and it wasn't the obnoxious one. Olivia turned to Alcea and raised her eyebrow. "And you, 'Queen of Queens', anything you'd like to thank me for, hmm?"
"I am grateful for your protection, Empress," Alcea politely replied, turning to the Empress and giving her a smile. "Thank you, is it?"
Olivia felt all warm and tingly at Alcea's admission of vulnerability.
"You're very welcome," Olivia replied with a smile equally as fake and polite.
"I just wish I knew what was going on out there," Blake said, biting his lip as he squinted into the cloud of darkness in front of him.
"What do you think, Commander?!" The Phantom cackled over the howls of his Dragapult. "Was this what you expected when you sent out your pokemon to face against the might of the Shadow Pokemon? Look at this power! This is the true power that a pokemon can possess, a weapon in the hands of someone with vision, someone like me!"
"Assuming you can control it, of course," Alden replied, coughing. "Sure, you broke through the trick room so Jaune's not as fast anymore, but… take a look at your Dragapult."
Indeed, Launcher was not in the best of shape. He was rampaging wildly across the battlefield, sending blasts of shadow in all sorts of directions, but… he only looked weaker and weaker. It was like the shadows themselves were feeding on his lifeforce, eating away at him and causing him to weaken, like a pokemon taking recoil damage.
"True, he doesn't listen perfectly yet, but for taking care of pokemon like yours? It's no matter," the Phantom said, shaking his head. "With this much destructive power, I can defeat anything! As a trainer, even you have to admit that this pokemon is more powerful than any you've faced!"
As if he could hear, Launcher turned towards Jaune and fired a blast of shadows from his mouth that struck the Vikavolt.
"VIKAVOLT!" Jaune cried out in pain, plummeting from the sky and towards the ground. The Shadow Move had drained nearly all of his health. But as he fell, his body crackled with electricity, and he sent a burst at Launcher, who didn't even flinch. The Dragapult was doing far more damage to itself than Jaune could hope to do at the moment.
But that wasn't the point of the move. With that burst of electricity, Jaune returned to his pokeball, and Alden realized what Jaune was telling him.
"Yeah, if that's what you think is best," he agreed. "Eifa, go!"
"Espeon!" Eifa emerged from her pokeball, coughing out in pain as she landed on the ground, the air so thick with shadows and smoke that she could barely breathe.
"Use whichever pokemon you like!" The Phantom called. "It won't matter! They'll faint all the same! Launcher, that one next!"
"Dragapult!" Launcher roared, turning his attention towards Eifa, building shadows up into his body and unleashing them in a massive blast as Eifa.
"Eifa, I have no idea if this will work or not, but it's our best shot!" Alden shouted to his Espeon. It was odd. Even though he knew that this was wrong, that he shouldn't be getting excited about a fight as dreadful as this one, he couldn't help his blood racing at the prospect of a real fight. "We have to use the shadows against him! It's the only chance! I don't know what will happen when you use it, but use weather ball!"
"ESPEON!" Eifa opened her mouth, a bright ball of pure white light appearing in front of her mouth. She spat it at the Dragapult, and the orb of light, small as it was, was growing bigger and bigger. Absorbing energy from the shadow sky, it increased in power in a way that was astounding to the Commander and the Phantom.
"What the hell sort of crazy move is that?!" The Phantom demanded.
"In terms of raw power, your Shadow Pokemon are one of the strongest I've fought," Alden admitted, narrowing his eyes. "But your 'Sense' is warped. Gerard and Raizer, they were opponents who fought with conviction. But you… you have nothing but emptiness, just like those pokemon of yours. Devoid of everything that makes it worth a real, engaging battle. You're even emptier than your doll. I can fight a strong foe, but this… pokemon aren't weapons, they're living beings. If you had humanity, maybe you'd understand it. But no, all that… I can't Sense any of it. You're just a Phantom, a specter, in the shape of a human, an empty shell!"
The weather ball slammed into Launcher's shadow attack in a massive explosion, which Alden hoped would be enough to win.
"DRAGAPULT!" Launcher burst out of the cloud of darkness, surging towards Eifa. It looked like the attack had done nothing.
"No!" Alden growled. "It wasn't enough!"
"DRAGA-A-… Dragaghke!" Launcher coughed and choked, writhing around as his body crumpled, thrashing against the shadows oozing off of him. He teamed over and hit the ground, squirming around and letting out choked gasped.
"What's going on?" Alden asked, confused.
"No! Damn it, no!" Phantom exclaimed. "It's too much! The Resonance is… fuck!"
Launcher let out one final, choked gasp and the shadows burst from his body, flying across the battlefield and rising up into the air as he curled up, unconscious or worse. The energy had been drained from him completely.
With Launcher's self-destruction, he was no longer filling the air with darkness. The shadows that remained, no longer bound by the Shadow Pokemon's violent will, rose up into the air from where they were flooding the stadium and dispersed up into the atmosphere, the sky soon clearing up.
"What… what happened?" Lila asked, seeing the darkness disperse.
"I don't know," Darla said, shaking her head. "I didn't see."
"But look!" Lila said, her eyes brightening as she pointed at the pokemon on the battlefield. "Dragapult! It's unconscious!"
"And the Commander's Espeon is still standing," Darla said, smiling. "That means that the Commander wins the match! He's won the Phantom Cup!"
"REALLY?!" Lila asked, her face brightening. She nearly jumped for joy. "YAAAY!"
"Dragapult is unable to battle, Espeon is the winner!" Darla officially announced to an audience that was focused more on recovering and shaking off the shadows than they were on anything she was saying. "That means the Commander Alden Volt is the winner of the Phantom Cup Finals, and is the Phantom Cup Champion!"
And with this, the battle has come to an end. It was long and drawn out, with surprises from both sides, but it's come to an end. The Commander managed to win, even in the face of the destructive might of the Shadow Pokemon! An amazing climax to a long tournament spanning a hundred chapters, and this was the perfect conclusion, I think. But what is this weird Resonance? What's the Phantom still planning, and what happened with the Shadow Pokemon, their hyper mode, and whatever it was that just happened to his Dragapult?