A lot of bad shit went down last chapter. Ayame was outed as being controlled by Samarra, and not only that, the woman also got her clutches into Vic and everyone else staying at the Battle Frontier! This is really bad. What will our group end up doing now? I wonder, how many people can fit in Wes and Rui's house? Probably not a lot.

Hyphenman: The Commander isn't about to let this stand, not a chance. Hopefully, he'll be able to help them.

KedharS: Things just keep getting worse and worse, that's for sure.

Gyvarius: I have plans for how things will go down with Samarra, don't worry. Things are going to get tense and dangerous first, though.

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: It doesn't seem like Samarra has that many friends right now. But her strength isn't to be underestimated, due to the power of her teamwork.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1088

"Hey," Ayame snapped, struggling against her bonds. "I'm hungry. Bring me something to eat already, you fuckers!"

"You'll get nothing and like it," Donoma replied. She was doing a very poor job of concealing the smirk on her face. Ian was still asleep outside, so she could be as nasty as she liked. And the revelation that Ayame was possessed by some psycho bitch gave her a great opportunity for Donoma to really mess with her.

"Um… I don't think we should be taunting her," Giselle weakly objected. She considered herself Ayame's friend, and seeing her in this state was painful.

"Hey!"

A stern voice caused Donoma to flinch. Forcing an innocent grin onto her face, she turned around to see Darla glaring at her. Lila was standing cautiously behind her, letting Darla fight her battles for her as usual.

"Enough of this. Just feed her already," Darla growled.

Donoma leaned back and crossed her arms under her chest, smiling defiantly. "You aren't the boss of me," she replied. "Our illustrious Empress is cowering in the bedroom, and Princess Tomboy is tied to the chair. So who's third in the line of succession, I wonder? Well, I nominate me."

"I can't believe you're enjoying this," Darla said, shaking her head in disgust. "You really are heartless, aren't you?"

"Hey, I feel bad for Ayame, I really do," Donoma said. She sounded so genuine Giselle honestly couldn't be sure. "But you have to admit, this is really interesting!" She turned back to Ayame and made a camera with her fingers. "Friend against friend. Brother against brother. The fracturing of the Four Daevas- what a great show this would be!"

Darla felt sick to her stomach.

"Hey!"

Everyone turned to see Celia at the door. She wasn't smiling. In her hands, she was carrying a bowl of soup.

"This is your breakfast," Celia said. "We're cooking outside today."

After tying Ayame up in the bedroom last night, everyone went to sleep with a very shaky tension in the air. And it hadn't cleared when the sun had risen, either. To everyone's relief, Dokukage had volunteered to keep watch for anyone trespassing, while Andrea and the Ranger Course students watched Ayame in shifts.

By the time morning came, people were exhausted. And some of them were fed up.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Alcea demanded. She was following after Alden as he gathered his things. The Commander had a serious expression on his face, and he wasn't listening to Alcea. She was getting concerned. She hadn't seen him smile once since he'd come back.

"What I said I was going to do," Alden replied. "I'm going to the Battle Frontier. Those are my people over there, and they're all controlled by that bitch. So I'm going to go fight them and bring them back. And I'm not going to let anyone try to stop me."

"You can't! You said you would-"

Alden cut her off with a glare. "I said I would sleep on it," he calmly replied. "I slept on it. And when I woke up, you know what I thought? 'Damn. I can't believe I wasted 8 hours sleeping, when I could have been going to rescue my friends.' So yeah, I slept on it."

"We need you here!" Alcea shouted. "You're the strongest trainer we've got! If you go, then what's going to happen, huh?! What if Samarra attacks? You don't even know that they're still there! It could be a trap, is it?"

"It could be," Alden admitted with a shrug. "But I still owe it to them to try. You don't understand, Alcea. They're my people. I made a promise, to myself and to them, that I would look after them and help them. If they've fallen under this woman's control, then I have to do everything in my power to help them, even if it IS a trap."

Alcea shook her head. She couldn't believe this.

"Then… then I'll stop you," she decided, grabbing a pokeball from her belt. "Pokemon battle, is it? If you win, then you can go. If not, then you stay!"

"You aren't going to fight me," Alden said, shaking his head. "That's ridiculous. All that would do is exhaust our pokemon. If Samarra attacks, you need to make sure your pokemon are strong enough to fight back."

"Rrrgh…" Alcea was seething at the fact that he was right. She couldn't just force him to fight. So what could she do?

Seeing that her resistance had waned, Alden turned and headed down the path leading to the rest of town.

But someone else stepped in his path.

"Get out of the way," Alden said calmly. "I'm going."

"Yeah, sorry, I don't think I can allow that," Raizer said, shaking his head. He had showed up to stop his brother's desertion. "You're needed here."

"You don't understand!" Alden snapped. "I need to go there! I have to save them!"

"She's trying to bait you, don't you see that?" Raizer demanded. "Manipulating you into leaving! Divide and conquer, it's the oldest trick in the book!"

Alden ground his teeth. He knew that Raizer was right. But at the same time, what could he do? Just leave Vic and the others under Samarra's control?

"They're my responsibility," he muttered. "I have to save them. So I need you to get out of the way, damn it!"

Raizer took a deep breath and clenched his fist. Then he punched Alden in the jaw before the other trainer could even blink, knocking him into the grass.

Alcea gasped. "What?!"

"Raizer…!" Alden picked himself up, staring at his brother in shock. "What the hell do you think you're doing!?" He demanded.

"I'm punching some sense into you," Raizer snapped. "Because you're talking crazy! So come on, you punk! If you're going to push yourself like this, then I'm going to push back!"

Alden clenched his fists and considered fighting back against his brother. But before he could throw a punch, Hiromi got in the middle of them, a frown on her face.

"What do you two think you're doing?" She demanded, looking at the two of them. "Getting into fights like this! Now is the worst time for this ridiculous behavior!"

"Tell that to him," Alden said, nodding to his brother. He rubbed his cheek gingerly. "Who the fuck does that punk think he is?"

"The only person here who has a chance of talking some sense into you," Raizer snapped. "We NEED you here, Alden!"

"You're doing just fine on your own, it seems," Alden replied. "You've got Alcea and the others. You don't need me."

"Alden, Raizer is right," Hiromi said softly. "I know you're worried about your friends, but you need to think about the good of everyone right now. You can't just go off on your own crusade, not with stakes like these."

"Aaargh, you all don't understand!" Alden shouted, looking from Hiromi to Raizer to Alcea. "I need to save them!"

"…I don't understand?" Hiromi asked quietly. "You think I don't understand? She has! My! Daughter! Do you think I don't want to go on some vengeful crusade, to find this woman and beat the ever-loving crap out of her until she lets my little girl go?!"

There was a quiver in Hiromi's voice and her eyes were wet. "But I can't! I need to think about what's good for all of us!"

For the first time, Alden felt swayed. She was right. He couldn't just think of himself. At the same time, however, he couldn't find it in him to betray his comrades like that. Vic and the others needed him, could he really look himself in the mirror if he abandoned them?

"…I'll go."

Everyone turned in shock to see Rui approaching them, a stony expression on her face.

"You?" Hiromi asked incredulously. "What do you mean?"

"If I go… I can try to bring them back to their senses," Rui said. "I… with my harmonia… I might be able to reach Victoria somehow, connect with her, or her pokemn… even if I don't battle, I can still help her, right?"

She looked pleadingly to Hiromi, who baulked under the redhead's passionate gaze.

"Th-That… no, we can't let that happen," Hiromi said, shaking her head. "You would get swallowed up in a second!"

"Not if I don't battle, right?" Rui said. "I don't have pokemon. I don't have a battle to lose. It's the most effective use of our resources. It's not like me going will reduce our fighting strength, and if there's a chance I can do it, then I have to try, right?"

Hiromi didn't have a good argument for that. She realized that what she was trying to do was keep a mother from going after her child, and that made her feel sick to her stomach. At the same time, she couldn't support Rui throwing her life away like this.

It was a twisted situation that nobody could rightly resolve.

While they were all talking about the mess that they were in, Lukas watched things from the side, feeling anxious.

He didn't know what he was supposed to do. He wasn't a pokemon trainer. His team wasn't used to fighting. What was he going to do when this Samarra attacked? He didn't like to think about that. He wondered, briefly, if he would be safe if he didn't accept any challenges to battle, but then he remembered what the other people had said, about how it might be possible to turn someone without having to battle them, and he quickly began to panic again.

"What are you so worried about?" Allen asked, walking over to the coordinator. "It's not like anyone's counting on you for anything."

"I know," Lukas groaned, hanging his head. "That's the worst part. I want to help… but there's, like, nothing I can do."

This feeling of powerlessness, that was the worst part. Maybe if he was a trainer, he would feel less useless…

"Hey, we have six of the Eight Leaders with us," Allen reminded him. "And plus, we've got Mirar here, too, and he used to be a member of the Eight Leaders himself. And the Commander, too, and Ian and Madison. We've got a lot of talented trainers here that can help us if things get tough. You don't have to worry, just relax."

When Allen talked like that, it made Lukas feel just a little bit better.

But if Allen was counting on Callie to join the fight, he was sorely mistaken. The blonde was in rough shape. Since hearing about the Samarra mess and seeing what had happened to Ayame, it felt like her wounds were starting to reopen. Anxious, she walked over to her brother to see what was going on with him. He was one of the only people who wasn't taking this seriously. He'd found a spot to relax, hilariously up the slope towards the Relic Cave. Presently he was lounging back in the pleasant morning sun.

"Rafe…" Callie said, catching his attention. Rafe sat up, sliding his smile Callie's way.

"Hey little sister. How are you feeling?" Rafe asked. He patted a spot on the grass for her to sit. She hesitated for a second, but took the spot, clutching her knees to her chest.

"I'm not good," she admitted. "I'm scared."

Rafe frowned, stroking his chin. "I can understand that," he admitted, surprising Callie. She didn't think that her brother would have the foresight to be concerned about the situation, he usually just went at his own pace for stuff like this.

"R-Really?" She asked.

"I mean, I would be lying if I said I wasn't anxious," Rafe said, flopping back on the grass. Callie rolled her eyes. She knew better. Rafe was a lot of things, but he wasn't the type of person to get anxious. He just moved at his own pace.

"Rafe, do you even know how to spell anxious?" She asked.

"Um… it starts with an 'a' right?" He mused.

She burst out laughing and he chuckled along with her. Then he turned and stared up at the sky. "It's a really tough situation we're in," he said. "It wouldn't be the first time, though. If you ask me, there's no sense in worrying about stuff like this. You've just gotta take life as it greets you, you know what I'm saying?"

Callie wasn't amused. "Thanks bro," she muttered. "It's exactly this irresponsible mindset of yours that shortens my lifespan. At least one of us needs to be the responsible sibling you know."

"I'll leave that to you then," Rafe decided, and she socked him in the shoulder.

"I'm serious," she griped. "Do you have any idea how much of a pain in the ass you are?"

"Not as much as a pain in the shoulder you are," Rafe replied, earning him another punch.

"Whatever. My point is, I'm worried about what's going to happen," Callie said, staring down the hill, towards where the others were talking on the field below. "Oh, did you know? Rio evolved a few days ago."

"Really?" Rafe sat up, his eyes wide. "Congratulations! I guess you've finally developed a strong enough bond with her! I knew it was just a matter of time!"

"…Th-Thanks," Callie said, blushing. Then her face fell. "…But still… my pokemon… they all lost. Even Rio, she got really injured in that battle. I'm worried about her… about everyone. We're going to be attacked, and my pokemon and I…"

"Hey, it's fine," Rafe said, reaching over and patting her on the head. "You'll do fine. And hey, maybe you won't even have to fight. Me, I let the battles come when they suit me, so I don't stress out too much about things."

"…That's not admirable, you know," Callie said sourly. "Seriously, you're going to drive me to an early grave, you jerk."

"Nah, you'll be fine," Rafe laughed.

"You know why I'm so short? You keep stressing me out and it stunts my growth," Callie griped. "Just you watch. When you graduate? I'll shoot up to like six feet tall! I'm just counting the days at this point!" The thought put a smile on her face.

Rafe laughed. "Now that's something I'd like to see," he agreed. "Good luck with that one!"

Callie scowled and punched him in the shoulder.

"Hey, cut it out!" Rafe pushed her hand away. Then he got out his bag and began digging through it, stirring Callie's curiosity.

"What are you looking for? Marshmallows?" She asked.

"No, no, it's not snack time," Rafe said. He withdrew something and showed it to her. "Here. It's a good luck charm."

What Rafe handed to Callie was a small pendant. Inlaid in the center of the little keychain was a stone about the size of a golf ball, colored bright yellow-orange with streaks of red and blue through it. She took it curiously.

"A good luck charm?" She asked, glancing up from the curio. She knew her brother had a habit of making stuff out of random garbage in his free time, but this looked remarkable.

"I made it myself," Rafe bragged. "I used materials from all over. I'm especially proud of that stone, isn't it pretty? Consider it a congratulations for your Riolu finally evolving into Lucario."

"…Thanks big bro," Callie said, squeezing the pendant tightly. Her brother was the most irritating person in the world, but it was times like this she appreciated him the most. He was genuinely sweet. "I'll treasure it."

"I hope you will," Rafe smiled. "And besides, we're going to need all the good luck we can get." His expression turned serious and Callie's heart sank. In spite of what she said, she didn't like when her brother got really serious like this.

"So what are we going to do?" She asked, sliding the charm into her bag. "You don't think we'll actually have to fight, do you?"

It was a dumb question. Of course they would have to fight. Even with Alcea and Alden and Ian and the rest, this Samarra had turned Olivia into a trainer who could give Alcea a run for her money. And they would be going against opponents like Gabrielle and the Phantom.

Callie would need to fight. But even as she understood that, a stab of pain shot through her chest and she winced.

She had to catch her breath. Luckily, her big brother was there, and he was soothing her. He placed a tender hand on her shoulder, and held it there until her breathing returned to normal.

For once, she wasn't feeling anxiety from her brother. He was helping her feel better. And that was something that she appreciated dearly.

In the meantime, she would have to prepare herself. She may have lost against that woman, Val, and Blake's little sister, but she wasn't going to lose again. Not this time, anyway.

We'll show them. Rio and I, and all my other pokemon, we won't be the weak links! She promised herself, clenching her fist.

She'd put the pendant away in her bag, so she didn't notice. But it flashed with color for an instant.

Things are getting really intense! Samarra isn't just an internal threat, it seems, she's a threat to the internal cohesion of the group as well! Everyone's going to have to work together well and overcome their issues if they want to have a chance. But what will we do about the people in the Battle Frontier? Is there any help for them?