Due to Samarra's influence, Olivia has challenged Alcea to a pokemon battle! And if Alcea loses, then she'll become Samarra's friend the same way Olivia has! But if that wasn't enough, Olivia has all the fighting experience of all of Samarra's other friends as well, making her an incredibly dangerous foe! Will Alcea stand a chance against her? Or can she somehow pull out a miracle and win? This isn't just a pokemon battle anymore, it's a fight for survival! Remember to review!

The Semi-Final Round of the Pokemon Academy Best Girl Contest 3 has begun! These are our semi-finalists! Make sure to get those votes in, and choose which of these girls you think should make it to the finals! You can only vote for 3, so make sure to pick your favorites!

Semi-Finalists: Ayame, Chloe, Cynthia, Elaina, Kate, Marion, Sango, Vic

KedharS: Well, she's always been training to defeat Alcea, and Alcea alone, having studied her for months. But as I mentioned, most of this skill is due to Samarra having access to all of her friends' experiences with pokemon battles.

Rowlets and Oshawotts: Hopefully she won't join.

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: To clarify, Samarra doesn't need someone to have a "vulnerability" like Gerard or Olivia to become their friend. Those things just become amplified as a result of her connection. Even someone who was completely emotionally healthy without a care in the world would fall under her sway, it would just happen to be that those positive emotions would be enhanced through their bond.

Hyphenman: It's complicated. For now, I'll say that it's only due to Samarra's incredible intelligence that she can interface with so many people and pokemon simultaneously and not be overwhelmed. A byproduct of her ability means that her brain is wired differently when it comes to processing information.

Tambry96bj: Probably go crazy.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1006

Jessie suppressed a sigh as she stared out over the crystal blue river running through Agate Village. It really was a beautiful locale. The sort of place that one couldn't help but admire. She could definitely imagine settling down in a town like this someday.

But as nice as the sights were, it didn't help cure her boredom. Contrary to Marion's claims, fishing in a river where there were no fish was not, in fact, an exciting activity. Just the opposite, actually, it felt like a pointless waste of time. Now, Jessie did like fishing. There was a reason she spent so much time working at Marion's shop. But unlike Marion and her cousin Celia, it wasn't like she was obsessed with it or anything.

So yes, she was starting to get a little bored. And she figured that Celia must be getting bored too, regardless of how much she may have liked to fish.

As Jessie was imagining something to take her mind off the situation, she saw Marion twitch suddenly and let out a gasp.

"Hmm?" Celia glanced at Marion and smirked. "What's up? Catch a bite?"

"N-No…" Marion shook her head, her tanned face turning pale. That got both girls' attention. Marion usually had a chipper smile on her face, but right now she seemed to be panicking.

"Did you feel that, too?" Yellow asked, her jovial smile turning into a stern frown.

"Y-Yeah… what… what is it?" Marion craned her head to look behind her, all thoughts of fishing momentarily evacuating.

"I don't know. But it's definitely trouble," Yellow scowled. Both mother and daughter could feel something was off thanks to their harmonia. They didn't quite know what it was, but they had a bad feeling that they just couldn't shake.

"We have to go, mom, there's no time for fishing right now!" Marion declared, reeling in her line and hopping to her feet.

Celia and Jessie just stared at her in shock, neither girl ever expecting to hear something like that come from Marion's mouth.

Back at Wes's house, the battle that the Rivers' pair sensed was just getting started. And to everyone's shock, Olivia had pushed ahead to an early lead against the girl who was commonly accepted to be the Pokemon Academy's strongest female trainer.

Even Alcea herself was obviously perturbed, in spite of her apparent composure. One just had to look at her to see that she was a little uneasy.

I must admit… I did not expect Olivia to be capable of battling at this level, Alcea was forced to acknowledge. Had the Empress been training in secret to defeat her? That had been the case before, but something about this time felt different somehow. It didn't really feel like she was fighting Olivia, it just felt… wrong.

Alcea closed her eyes and took a deep breath. No, I can't worry about that now. Nor can I concern myself with my… "other thoughts" about her. I need to focus on the battle ahead, that's what I promised her. Whatever is happening with Olivia… I'm certain the result of this battle will uncover it!

Her eyes snapped open and she shouted a command. "Rosetta! Use leech seed!"

"Roserade!" Rosetta raised her bouquet and fired a burst of seeds at Twilight. This time the Rapidash was forced to dodge, which her increased speed facilitated. But it was clear that Alcea had found a good opportunity to regain some momentum.

Giselle perked right up. "Oh! That could work! Good idea, Alcea! Her pokemon can't be poisoned or paralyzed or put to sleep, but misty terrain can't protect against leech seed!"

Donoma raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Curious. I would have thought that you'd be rooting for the Empress."

Giselle flinched. "W-Well… it… it isn't like I'm rooting against her, I just…" She could really explain what she was feeling. All she knew was that right now, Olivia was giving off a very strange vibe, and challenging Alcea in such an aggressive way… even if the Empress did have a flair for the dramatic, some things were just excessive!

She couldn't verbalize it, but something definitely felt wrong. All she could do was wait and see what the outcome would be.

Donoma, seeing that she couldn't get any good material out of the anxious Giselle, turned to Ian instead. Seeing a chance to be a little more aggressive herself, she wrapped her arms around his and squeezed it between her boobs, looking at him with practiced nervousness.

"I-I'm a little worried, to be honest…" she mumbled. "The way the Empress is acting… Ian, what do you think?"

Ian took his eyes off the fight for the first time, he hadn't even been paying attention to Donoma, much to her irritation.

"Oh… well, I'm not sure, I'm just curious to see what will happen, that's all. But I don't think you need to worry. It's not like the Empress is going to attack us or anything!" He assured her with a smile.

"Well… if she does, can you please protect me?" Donoma asked hopefully. "It would really reassure me to know that I have such a strong trainer willing to help…"

Ian, with the awareness of a brick, just continued to smile good-naturedly and nod his assurance. "Absolutely, happy to help!"

Even Donoma had to admit his guy was an easy mark. It almost felt insulting that she was trying this hard.

Everyone else was watching the fight nervously, even the normally-composed Allen. Lukas was flat-out worried and Andrea was too, but none of them were as worried as Hiromi. The only person who seemed unbothered by this turn of events was Ayame, and maybe under different circumstances that would seem suspicious. But with everyone's attention on the Empress's sudden increase in fighting prowess, it was the last thing on anybody's mind.

"Not bad, trying to drain Twilight's strength away with leech seed," Olivia smirked. "But it won't help. With our agility, there's no way you'll be able to land those seeds! And in the meantime, we have all manner of avenues of attack! Twilight, use psychic!"

"Rapidash!" Twilight neighed, her body glowing with a pink aura. Her horn lit up like a rainbow and a pink light appeared around Rosetta, stopping her movements and lifting her up into the air like a rag doll.

"Rosetta!" Alcea gasped.

"How pitiful, Alcea!" Olivia cackled. "With the power of my pokemon, your Roserade is completely helpless! How does it feel? To see someone important to you trapped, unable to free themselves, struggling hopelessly? I imagine it must sting, hmm? Well, imagine someone living her whole life like that, and maybe you'll have a taste of what you've put me through!"

"I don't recall doing anything of the sort!" Alcea snapped. She had finally had enough. The years of Olivia's haughty attitude, backhanded remarks, and cuts against her dignity had finally gone too far. She needed to know, she was desperate to know.

Why?

"Never! Not once! Since the day we met, I have treated you with nothing but respect and courtesy, and yet you persist in antagonizing me! For what purpose?! Why would you do such a thing?!" Alcea was beginning to tear up, it hurt to ask these questions but she needed to. "Why do you hate me so?! I know… I know you are not this sort of person, so why…?"

In spite of her attitude, in spite of how she treated her, Alcea knew that deep down inside, Olivia was a good person. It was the reason she was trying so hard, even now, to see the good in her.

Olivia said nothing. She just stared at Alcea with eyes colder than any the redhead had seen before, eyes that made her heart ache.

"…'Since the day we met' is it?" Olivia sneered, shaking her head. "No. No… you know nothing. And that is precisely why I… why I…"

"Why I hated you so much!"

Those were the words Olivia was trying to say. She'd said them countless times, to herself, to her friends, and even to the very person in question. But for some reason, right now, with her emotions as twisted as they were, she just couldn't bring herself to say it.

"That's why I'll make you mine!" She exclaimed instead, startling Alcea. "You, who look down on me, think nothing of me, treat me as something to be forgotten and discarded so easily, you couldn't begin to understand! That's why… I'll make you understand! I'll defeat you, and then… then you'll understand… you'll realize… you'll see…"

You'll remember…

Samarra smiled as she felt Olivia's emotions burn.

"Yes… good…" She whispered deeper into Olivia's soul, stoking the painful emotions that she locked up tightly. "Defeat her. Make her one of us. Then your thoughts will be linked, just like yours and mine. She'll be able to see the depths of your soul, the very core of who you are, and you'll be able to see her as well. You and Alcea will finally have the understanding you've always wanted, you'll finally be together. Just a little more… you just have to defeat her."

"I just have to defeat her…" Olivia mumbled to herself, a wide smile spreading across her face. She could picture it. Finally, the future she'd always imagined, her and Alcea, together at last, her rival and former friend finally acknowledging her as an equal, and then…

She couldn't see what happened next, it made her head hurt. But she pushed it aside, and focused on the battle. Alcea's Roserade was struggling against Twilight's psychic powers, and there was no way she could hold up any-

"Solarbeam!" Alcea shouted.

Rosetta began to glow white. By lifting her up in the air as she had, Twilight had brought her even closer to the intense sunlight, strengthening her even more. Because she couldn't raise her bouquets she instead opened her mouth, firing a beam of light across the field.

The solarbeam slammed into the light screen, shattering it instantly. It hit Twilight head on and Olivia screamed, feeling the pain of harmonia for the first time. She stumbled back and nearly collapsed, much to the horror of everyone watching.

"Olivia!" Hiromi cried.

"Shit, what the hell was that?!" Allen exclaimed.

Donoma blinked. That looked like… no, no, it couldn't be… She shook the passing thought from her head and glanced at Ian to see if he was thinking the same. Judging by the look on his face, a mixture of concern and suspicion, he probably was.

"That reaction was like Madison's…" he murmured, remembering the fight from before, his first real close-up battle with someone with harmonia.

But the Empress didn't have harmonia… she couldn't. He'd never heard anything of the sort, not from Marion, not from anybody. So what was going on here?

While everyone was worried and confused, the most horrified one of all was Alcea. She'd expected the solarbeam to free Rosetta, which it had. But instead of getting angry, that response…

"Olivia!" She shouted. "What's the matter? Are you alright?!"

"I'm fine!" Olivia roared, regaining her balance. The flushed look on her face and the way she was panting for air said otherwise. "I don't… need your pity! And you haven't won yet!"

"Rapidash…" Twilight stood up as well, reinvigorated by her trainer's second wind.

Alcea frowned. Whatever that was, it had her worried. But she wasn't about to back down now. "You were telling me not to underestimate you, but as you saw, it appears you're the one who's vastly misunderstood just what my pokemon are capable of."

Olivia smirked through the pain, shaking her head. "No… I know. After all… I've been watching you… closer than anyone. Training to defeat you…"

Alcea frowned. "I know that, of course. I remember our last battle… with your Garchomp. It was exquisite. And yet… I can't feel any of that from you now. What happened to you, Olivia? Why are you like this?"

"Shut up!" Olivia shouted. "This is me! This is me, showing you JUST what I'm capable of!" Olivia's thoughts were twisted by Samarra. She knew that her sudden increase in prowess wasn't the result of her months and months of training to defeat Alcea. Even if the other girl was fighting exactly as Olivia predicted, the strategies and tactics she was coming up with to counter them weren't things she would have thought of normally. But she couldn't fully grasp that all this wisdom and battle instinct was coming from other people.

"Strange."

The word was so loud and so direct that even the people fighting were taken aback. All heads turned to see what the deal was.

It was Raizer. He wasn't smiling for once, even in the face of such a passionate battle. Rather, his expression was a concerned scowl.

"What's strange?" Ayame asked, hoping that he wasn't growing suspicious.

Unfortunately, Raizer's thoughts were along those lines. He'd watched the match between Alcea and Olivia during the Miss Pokemon Academy Contest, and it had been an exciting and passionate battle where both trainers gave it their all.

This, though… he remembered what his brother always said about battles and trainers having a certain "Sense" about them. And while he didn't know what exactly Alden meant when he said that, he definitely picked up on instincts and vibes about trainers and their pokemon himself.

And right now, he could barely see any of the Olivia he'd witnessed the other day in the girl standing in front of him now. Oh, she was saying the same things, and acting rather similarly to how he imagined she would, with what little experience he had with her, but… it just felt off. Like someone had translated what she said to another language, then translated it back.

It was at that moment that Marion finally reached the battlefield. She was out of breath from having run that hard, and her appearance was a shock to everyone.

"You now, too, huh?" Olivia growled, annoyed by the constant interruptions.

Marion opened her mouth, gasping for air, and raised her finger like she was about to say something.

Then she puked into the grass.

"Marion?!" Hiromi sputtered in disbelief. Just then, Yellow came up to join her daughter, and when she laid eyes on Olivia she visibly flinched.

"Mom…" Marion winced, wiping her mouth. "What… what even is that?!"

"I-I don't know…" Yellow murmured, shaking her head. There were no words to describe what she was feeling when she stared at Olivia. Before now, she'd felt nothing from the other girl, no harmonia or anything of the sort.

Now, though, she could feel harmonia coming off her. And not just normal harmonia, no, what this was…

It was like a mass of writhing agony. She was staring at sound in visible form, a twisted representation of a human voice. And not just one voice, but several voices twisted around her, coming out of her body and conveying a cacophony she could sense with all of her senses at once.

"Is it harmonia?" Marion whimpered. Yellow glanced to her trembling daughter. This wasn't good, Marion looked like she was almost dead.

"It's… I don't know what it is," Yellow said again.

Alcea caught that, though. "Harmonia?!" She gasped, snapping her attention back to Olivia. "What the hell is going on? How is that even possible?!"

Olivia stared evenly at her, not saying a word.

"I can feel it," Yellow said, holding her hand over her mouth. She was worried that she'd lose her lunch, too. "That's definitely harmonia coming off of her. Somehow that girl… and her pokemon, they're… they're communicating with harmonia, but…"

Alcea wasn't sure how to process this. It made sense, of course, that was the reason that Olivia had responded in such a way to her solarbeam. It also explained why her emotions were running wild like this, when one took Elaina Bishop's past actions into consideration.

But somehow it was all just wrong. After all, Olivia didn't have harmonia before, right? And it wasn't like she could just acquire it.

So what was going on here?

Ayame tensed. When the girls had come back last night, none of the harmonia users in the house had said a word. Not even Vic and Rui, whose powers came with enhanced sensitivity to things like this. But apparently now that Olivia was fighting, she was using enough "bandwidth" from Samarra's network that harmonia users could sense them.

Samarra, of course, was observing this as well. Quite a fascinating discovery. So harmonia users could tell who her friends were when she gave them enough of her power? That was something she was unaware of. But it explained how her brother and mother had figured out what she was capable of before, why they'd had her locked away. But it seemed like nobody noticed anything about Ayame.

This was good. That meant Ayame could still be valuable.

"Olivia, is this true?" Alcea demanded, turning to her opponent. "Do you really have harmonia? Is that why you're doing this?"

Olivia shook for a moment, like she was having a seizure. Then her body went limp, like someone had turned the power button off. Her head flopped forward and she nearly collapsed.

"…Olivia?" Alcea asked worriedly.

Then Olivia's head snapped up with a wild look on her face, and she began to laugh.

"Sorry, but… Olivia isn't here right now," she cackled. "I'm taking over for a little while. This battle was so exciting to watch, I just had to see it for myself."

Yellow gasped. It was like all those voices coming out of Olivia had been drowned out by something even louder. And whatever it was, she couldn't see a trace of the other girl in it.

"What's going on here?!" Alcea demanded. She forgot all about the fight, right now she was just concerned for what the hell was going on with her opponent.

"My name… is Samarra," Samarra spoke through Olivia's lips. She had seized total control of her friend's body momentarily so she could address the others. "I'm glad I could finally meet all of you."

So Olivia is being puppeted now! What's going to happen to her? What's going to happen to the fight? How will Alcea react, knowing that her opponent is being brainwashed?