Samarra isn't content just watching the fight through Olivia anymore, now she's directly taken over the other girl's body! This isn't good, will Alcea be able to stop her? And how will she and the others react to the revelation that Olivia isn't just on some power trip, but is actually being brainwashed by an escaped mental patient?

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: Yeah it's definitely creepy.

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Yep. That's one of the insidious things about her power. It's not quite mind control. She just amplifies all of your natural traits, good and bad, while filling you with a deep connection of friendship for her.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1007

Alcea couldn't believe her ears. "Samarra? Olivia, what… what are you talking about?"

Samarra sighed. "Alcea… you're not as bright as everyone thinks you are, you realize that? But then… nobody is, I suppose, not compared to me… so small and tiny, all humans are… letting their emotions control them… oh, sorry. I went on a bit of a tangent there. As I was saying, it's a pleasure to finally meet all of you."

Nobody could quite be sure what to make of all this. It was still Olivia was talking, it wasn't as if some disembodied voice from the netherworld was echoing out of her. No it was her voice they were hearing now, but it was different. There was something off about it. Not just the things she was saying but the way she was saying them, her inflections and intonations, her body language, none of them were Olivia's.

"Who are you?"

Ayame would have been the first one to ask that question, under normal circumstances she would have figured out immediately that it wasn't the Olivia she knew and loved who was speaking to them. But because of her current condition, she remained silent, and it was Alcea who asked the foe in front of her instead.

"I told you who I am. I'm Samarra," Samarra shrugged. "Right now, Olivia's being a good friend and letting me borrow her body."

"Borrow her body?" Hiromi exclaimed. "Is that even possible?"

"We're friends," Samarra replied. "We get along like any good friends do, we share everything. If a friend asked to borrow your body, well, you'd just be being a good friend to tell her yes, don't you think so?"

"This power… that's harmonia," Yellow glared, helping her daughter to her feet. "Is that how you're doing it? How you're controlling her?"

Samarra sighed. "I'm not controlling her. You don't understand. Olivia and I are friends. I'm helping her right now. And that's why I wanted to come and see what she's doing."

She turned to Alcea. "To talk to you, of course. I want to be your friend, too, Alcea. I want to be friends with everybody! So would you please allow your pokemon to faint? It would be for the best of everybody if we just got along."

"Absolutely not!" Alcea spat. "So you're the one responsible for this! You're the one who had Olivia challenge me to a fight!"

"Olivia wanted that herself," Samarra scoffed. "She wanted to be friends with you. As her friend, I gave her the encouragement she needed to do so."

She smiled.

"Once we become friends, then you'll understand."

"So wait… does that mean… if Alcea loses this fight, then she's going to become your… 'friend' then?" Marion asked, her eyes widening. She could see the harmonia billowing off of Olivia, it was more overpowering than any she'd ever been in contact with. "Then that means you'll…"

"Alcea, you have to call this off, now," Hiromi ordered. "Don't fight with that girl. Olivia… whoever that is… there's nothing to be gained from this fight."

She stormed up to Samarra with a scowl on her face. "I don't know who you think you are, a ghost or demon or pokemon or whatnot, but that's a student under my care! And a close personal friend of my daughter! So you better get your ominous butt out of here, you got that?"

Samarra scowled. "How rude! Olivia is my friend! I would never abandon a friend like that, not when she's so close to fulfilling her heart's desire! Friendship is forever, Hiromi. Isn't that what you're always telling your daughter?"

Hiromi gasped. "H-How do you know that?"

She smiled sweetly to the other woman, but it was a false smile devoid of genuine care. "Right now, Olivia is in my head telling me how great of a person you are and how much you care about others. Do you really want to let her down? Wouldn't you rather become my friend instead?"

"…Never," Hiromi spat.

"Nor will I," Alcea agreed. "So this battle… Olivia's 'promise' to me… it was a pretext to become your 'friend' is it? If so, then there's no reason to continue this farce any longer. I will not allow myself to be defeated and let you… use me like this. So even if the odds of my loss were one in a million, I would still not take that chance. This is over."

"You can give up if you like," she assured Alcea. "In fact, that would be just fine! Now that the fight has begun, if your heart weakens by surrendering to me now, then we'll become friends! And I would like that very much."

"You're kidding…" Hiromi gasped.

No one else knew what to say either. Giselle was shaking in fear.

"Then… then you've just gotta win, Alcea!" Raizer shouted, his fighting spirit surging up. "Beat her down and show her that you're not going to take this shit, you got that?"

Alcea narrowed her eyes into a glare at Olivia… no, at the thing that was possessing her body.

"That was already the plan," she growled.

Samarra smiled. "Excellent! Then I shall turn things back over to her! After all, I wouldn't want her to miss such a precious moment!"

With that, Olivia's body seized again, and the dark mass receded from Yellow's sight, replaced by the malevolent swirl of thoughts and words. Now, though, she realized that these must be the dispirit voices of all of this Samarra's "friends".

Olivia panted and wiped her forehead, back in control of her body again. She smirked at Alcea. "Now then, are you ready to continue?"

"Oui," Alcea nodded. "I won't pretend to know who that was… but I understand at least that you're not in your right state of mind. Which makes my decision all the easier. I'll continue this battle… and I'll defeat you."

And hopefully we can find some way to help you, she added quietly.

Olivia scowled. "Now why would you say something like that? I'm absolutely in my 'right state of mind'. This is what I've always wanted, Alcea, the chance to fight you for real. I've been dreaming all this time about having the opportunity to make you acknowledge me, and with Samarra's help that time has finally come. Now… Twilight, use psycho cut!"

"Rapidash!" Twilight's horn began to shine like a rainbow and she swung a blade of light at Rosetta, who was caught off-guard. But Alcea was quick on her feet.

"Rosetta!" She ordered. "Use growth!"

Olivia smirked. "Growth? Growth? Your plan is to boost the strength of a pokemon that's almost dead? Pointless!"

"Not quite," Ian smiled. "Using growth in harsh sunlight like this will cause her Roserade's stats to take a massive jump. That kind of power will definitely help her win, if she can manage to withstand the psycho cut."

"After taking that psychic? I'm not so sure," Donoma said, shaking her head.

They were about to find out. Rosetta made no move to dodge the attack, instead focusing her power on absorbing light from the sun. So there was nothing to stop the psycho cut from hitting her directly in the chest, scoring a devastating critical hit.

"That one must sting! How's it feel? Ready to give up yet?" Olivia cackled. "Well, I won't let you! I have so much more I want to show you, my dear Alcea, and I'll make you and your pokemon the audience for my grandest performance yet!"

"Who's giving up?" Alcea growled. "Rosetta!"

"Roserade!" Twilight's psycho cut had clearly injured the Roserade, but it was far from a lethal blow. She stood her ground, her eyes glowing with defiance as her body glowed with energy.

Olivia scowled. "So you withstood that, huh?"

"Oui," Alcea nodded. "Or have you forgotten already…? It is not just for the benefit of the field advantage that we made use of grassy terrain."

Olivia gasped. "That's right!"

A thin smirk crossed Alcea's lips. "Oui, a grassy seed, is it? Upon the creation of grassy terrain, these special seeds of mine are consumed, heightening the defensive stat of my pokemon, giving Rosetta more than enough resilience to withstand your psycho cut."

"Clever girl," Olivia growled.

"If you were your regular self, you would have remembered that," Alcea said. "I used this trick against you the last time we fought. But it seems you're too occupied with your own delusions and the voices in your head to pay attention to the person standing in front of you."

That caused something inside Olivia to snap.

"YOU'RE THE LAST PERSON I WANT TO HEAR THAT FROM!" She roared, startling Alcea. "You, who can't remember anything… who can't see, not even what's right in front of your eyes… you, more than anyone, have no right to say that to me! Twilight, use psychic!"

"Rapidash!" Twilight began to glow bright pink, her horn shining with a rainbow of colors. But this time Alcea and Rosetta were prepared.

"You won't get us with that again," Alcea promised. "Rosetta, petal blizzard!"

"Roserade!" Rosetta began to spin, releasing a tornado of petals that obscured her from view, preventing Twilight from locking onto her with her psychic powers. The petals swarmed around her, cutting into her flesh, and again Olivia screamed.

It was like thousands of knives her being ripped across her all at once. Was this what pokemon battles felt like? But she couldn't give in. A little pain like this was nothing compared to the agony she'd been living in all these years with Alcea looking down on her.

"Don't underestimate me!" Olivia roared. "We won't give in to something like this! We won't! Twilight, break through that storm with your mystical fire!"

"Rapidash!" Rainbow-colored flames burst out of Twilight's mane, igniting the flower petals. She charged through the burning storm in a swirl of sparkles and emerged clear, standing above the mist and searching for her foe, to direct the flames at her.

But she didn't have the chance, because Rosetta was already prepared for her.

"Leech seed," Alcea ordered.

Rosetta had crouched low to the ground, concealing herself in the pink mist. She erupted from the fog with her bouquets held out, firing a burst of seeds at Twilight and embedding them into her. Immediately the seeds took root and their sprouts extended, covering Twlight's luxurious mane with a tangle of knots.

"Twilight!"

"With this, we can begin to recover our health," Alcea said. "Rosetta, retreat."

Rosetta leapt back, putting some distance between herself and Twilight as she began to absorb energy from the other pokemon. With a defiant neigh Twilight thrashed desperately, sending blasts of fire at Rosetta to deter her. But now Alcea had the advantage; she and her pokemon just had to play defensively, and that would be enough to keep control of the flow of the fight.

It also meant that now was the perfect time for a little change of scenery.

As Rosetta tumbled through the mist to avoid another burst of flame she began to glow green, releasing natural energy down into the ground.

"Grassy terrain," Alcea ordered. Immediately sharp grass shot up out of the mist, cutting through the fog like a forest of swords and turning the battlefield into a sea of greenery.

"Rrrgh, you…" Olivia glared contemptuously at Alcea, who held her head high in defiance.

"If you like, feel free to use misty terrain once more," she suggested. "However, I would advise against it, given the state of your pokemon. Rosetta and I can draw this out for quite some time with the restorative powers of the grassy terrain, and of course, your leech seed. Can you say that it's possible for you to do the same?"

Obviously, she couldn't. Olivia didn't need all of the battle tactics from Samarra's friends to know that keeping her pokemon out while leech seed was active was a horrible decision. At the same time, though, she was seething in rage at the thought of running from Alcea again; she was still looking down on her, the bitch! And Olivia wouldn't stand for it!

But she managed to calm herself. She recognized that if she wanted to win against Alcea, she needed to keep a cool head about this. So even if she was about to lose herself to her emotions, her desire to become Alcea's friend dominated everything else. So without another word, Olivia recalled Twilight to her pokeball for some rest.

"Not bad," Ian whistled. "Olivia was really giving it good for a while, but it seems like she's been pushed into a worse position now. Alcea managed to seize a major jump ahead with that."

"But it's not like her Roserade is doing much better," Donoma reminded him. "Even with the effects of grassy terrain, her health is really low. It's not like Alcea managed to faint Olivia's Rapidash, either, so it still remains a problem she'll have to deal with."

Then she smiled.

But on the other hand… without Rapidash or misty terrain, the toxic spikes that Alcea laid out before are back in play. If Olivia doesn't think about this carefully, then she'll be sending one of her pokemon out to get a nasty surprise… It was a tantalizing prospect to someone as wicked as Donoma to be sure. At least she was on the right side this time. She may have been a pretty terrible person, but seeing the state that Olivia was in, controlled by that woman, even Donoma wasn't heartless enough to feel nothing. And she definitely didn't want anyone else to have to go through that.

So yes, she was rooting for Alcea, even if she didn't like her very much. And if she got to see the Empress get taken down a peg or two, well, that was just fine.

Best of all, there was a very good chance that Olivia HAD forgotten about the toxic spikes. Not long after they'd first been laid down, Rosetta's grassy terrain had covered them from view. And immediately after THAT, Twilight had laid down misty terrain of her own, obscuring them even more.

So now with the grassy terrain once again hiding the spikes within their depths, it was entirely possible that their presence was completely forgotten.

"Go, Ren," Olivia shouted, throwing out her next pokemonn. And this was why Donoma hadn't bought a lottery ticket today. Because while the normal Olivia absolutely would have forgotten about something as crucial as the toxic spikes and blundered right into a critical mistake, Olivia was linked with Samarra, whose photographic memory would have never allowed her to do something so careless.

"Slowbro," Ren said, landing in the grass. The minute he did, he gathered up the poison from the toxic spikes, nullifying them permanently.

"I'm sorry, Alcea, were you expecting to get me with that?" Olivia smirked. "I'm not so careless. Now, Ren, shell side arm!"

"Slowbro!" Ren nodded, raising his shell-covered left hand. He released a devastating blast of poison at Rosetta.

"Not a bad move," Donoma judged. "Two Psychic types back to back, and not only that, the special nature of Galarian Slowbro's signature attack will turn into whichever type of move will be more effective against its opponent, a special attack or a physical attack. And with that grassy seed it's definitely special."

"Rosetta, counter it with your solarbeam!" Alcea ordered.

"Roserade!" Rosetta raised one of her bouquets, gathering in light from the blazing sun and releasing it in a powerful beam that blasted through the poison, traveling through the attack to slam right into the Slowbro who fired it.

"Slowbro," Ren said simply, shrugging off the solarbeam like it was nothing.

"Not a bad strike, Alcea, I'll give you that," Olivia smirked. "I'd expect nothing less given how much you've buffed that Roserade. Growth? Grassy terrain? Quite a monster you've made there. Unfortunately, those buffs only mean so much. This isn't some Water type Slowbro from the Kanto Region you can blast away with Grass type moves, my cute little Renny is Poison/Psychic type! Against your team of Grass type pokemon, he's the perfect counter! Poison moves for the pure Grass types, Psychic moves for the ones that are part Poison! What do you think?"

Alcea frowned. "Quite a frustrating opponent, is it? Not a bad plan."

Olivia snorted. "Oh, that's it, huh? 'Frustrating'? You know as well as I do that your Roserade doesn't have very good coverage."

"Oui," Alcea nodded. "But that is not the same as no coverage. Weather ball!"

"Roserade!" Rosetta fired an orb of light from her bouquet, which began to gather energy from the intense sun. Soon the light orb was a veritable fireball, burning orange as it flew across the field towards Ren.

Olivia snapped her fingers. In a second Ren disappeared, replaced by a stuffed Slowbro pokedoll. The weather ball collided with the pokedoll and it burst into flames immediately, only for Ren to reappear completely unharmed.

"Substitute," Olivia smirked. "You really think I didn't see that coming? That's Ren's specialty. Now Ren, be a dear and get rid of this pesky sun, would you sweetheart? I'd hate to get a sunburn."

"Slowbro," Ren nodded, raising his shelled arm into the air. He fired a column of smoke up into the sky, which coalesced into a cluster of dark rainclouds that blocked the intense sun. The clouds opened up and released a downpour upon the battlefield, soaking Alcea and Olivia and their audience as well.

"Shall we get started for real then?" Olivia called, not even caring that the rain had soaked through her outfit and ruined it.

To Alcea and the others, there could be no greater sign that something was seriously wrong with the girl in front of them.

Olivia's really giving it to Alcea! Not even getting her dress wet is enough to motivate her to stop! Will her tactics and advantages from Samarra overpower Alcea and bring her over to their side, or will Alcea manage to win?