Let's see what Caelia wants from Alcea? And what will Alcea have in store for her? Can they reach a peaceful accord?

Somehow, I doubt it.

As for the Best Girl nominations, still going strong. Anyone else left to add?

Currently Nominated: Sango, Cynthia, Elaina, Kate, Dakota, Ayame, Marion, Kitty, Serefina, Madison

Videogamer2004: Few things. First, I don't want characters that are too strongly tied to existing lore, whether anime, manga, games, whatever. Second, there isn't a lot of detail to work with. If you want me to use your character, please follow the guidelines listed on the prologue chapter.

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Yeah. Talk. That's something Caelia has really been shown to excel at. Talking.

JUSTSOMEP3RSON: Thankfully not. Hopefully Blake will be able to get out of this, and fully intact.

Hellraiserphoenix: Blake wouldn't date Holly, but then again, he probably won't date Kate, either. I'd guess their odds are pretty much the same.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 221


What does she want with Blake? Kate wondered, glancing suspiciously at the girl. That look in her eye… it made Kate shiver. Why is it always him? It isn't fair…

"Blake Harker, is it?" Alcea asked.

"I heard that you are his fiancé," Caelia stated. "Truth?"

"Oui, that statement, correct, is it?" Alcea agreed. Caelia's eye narrowed.

"Blake. Leaving school to marry you," Caelia continued. "Truth?"

Alcea nodded a second time.

"Unfortunately so."

"Understood." Caelia snapped a pokeball off of her belt and held it up. "Then I will end it."

Alcea narrowed her eyes.

"Is that so?"

"Without you… Blake stays. If you aren't here, Blake won't get married, won't get married. Won't look at you, won't care about you, won't look at anyone but me, only at me…"

For someone who until this point had been so detached and quiet, hearing Caelia ranting like this was unnerving. Even Alcea felt her composure get slightly rattled as she stared at the rambling mess of a girl.

"…Very well, a contest, is it?" Alcea asked, reaching to her belt and removing a pokeball of her own. "Oui, I will battle you if you wish. But not here."

"Running? Running, running, running, scared," Caelia's voice rumbled it what could have been a growl.

"Were I to fight you here, things that are most precious to me may be lost," Alcea replied. "I will not do such a thing."

"Liar, liar, liar!" Caelia snapped. "Fight here… my precious thing… won't let you, won't let you have him… burn it, burn it away! Burn it away!"

Alcea narrowed her eyes.

"Reasoning with this one may be a tricky case, is it."

With that, Alcea turned on her heel and fled from the gardens, her departure so sudden that even Kate was taken aback. It helped that she was in the red overalls and dark boots she used for gardening, and not her dress and heels. Otherwise she wouldn't have been able to run so fast.

"Liar, coward… unforgivable…" Caelia muttered, throwing down her pokeball. "Racer!"

Caelia mounted her Rapidash and took off in hot pursuit of the girl, as Kate watched in shock. No way.

Kate helplessly ran after the two.

Alcea glanced over her shoulder. She'd just cleared the gardens, and was approaching campus, but Caelia and her Rapidash were right on her. She leapt out of the way as the Rapidash nearly ran her down, Alcea's heart racing.

She almost killed me… clearly this girl isn't… isn't working with a full team of pokemon. Alcea paused to catch her breath as the Rapidash slowly walked in a half-circle, turning around so Caelia could confront her. Caelia herself never took her eye off of Alcea, glaring coldly at her.

Alcea looked over her shoulder. The gardens were far enough away that she could probably fight without putting them at risk. But…

A crowd of students were gathering around them.

"Is that chick riding a Rapidash through campus?"

"Isn't that Alcea Vermeil of the Eight Leaders?"

"What's going on?"

"Is it a pokemon battle?"

The students were keeping a safe enough distance, but starting a battle right in the middle of one of the main trafficways to the quad was NOT a good idea.

"Caelia, I already told you I'd battle you," Alcea said. "But not right here. We're in the middle of campus, for gods' sake, to fight you now would put the other students at risk."

"Don't care," Caelia replied.

"At least… let me take you to an arena?" Alcea asked. Only a few yards away was one of the testing fields. It was one of the more sparse arenas of the campus's many battlefields, with no bleachers or even a referee box. It was mainly used for personal matches like this, so that it wouldn't harm campus, and the occasional field assessment by teachers. Even her battlefield in the garden was better than this dime-store street arena, but she couldn't exactly afford to be picky.

"…Fine," Caelia replied, leading Racer at a trot towards the arena. She stood on one side, Racer in front of her, and turned to give Alcea a pointed look.

The crowd parted to make a path for Alcea, the redhead walking through them slowly towards the battlefield. She felt tense. Caelia and Blake… what connection did they have? She didn't remember Blake talking about her during their conversation last night…

A stalker of some sort, is it? Alcea reasoned.

"Milady!" Alcea saw Kate run up to her, panting, the girl's scowl turning to a worried look. "Be careful, Caelia is a fire type user, so-"

"I am aware," Alcea replied. "Mon amie, Kate… do you really think fire types scare me so much?"

Kate swallowed. Alcea had beaten Gabrielle Breaux, the ice master of the Eight Leaders, multiple times. But when it came to a fire expert…

This is some really rotten timing, as if things weren't already hectic right now, Kate frowned, watching warily after her idol. Her highness already has so much on her plate, dealing with her parents, her sister, the engagement… she doesn't have time for distractions like this. And if she loses, then she'll look weak, losing to a freshman, and after Gerard's loss to Kanone, then-

Kate's eyes widened with realization.

Gerard! That had to be it, Gerard knew all about the pressure that her highness was under. If he had somehow convinced this girl, who seemed to be completely obsessed with Blake, that the wedding and Blake leaving were true, then…

"Milady!" Kate cried, running after Alcea. "It's a trap! Gerard set this whole thing up, to embarrass you! You don't have to fight!"

Alcea narrowed her eyes as she stood opposite of Caelia.

"Is it?" She asked. "You heard from Gerard?"

"He told me the truth," Caelia confirmed. "Send out your pokemon."

"Oui," Alcea nodded, removing a pokeball from her belt. "Rosetta! Bloom!"

Alcea tossed her pokeball into the air, the seal over it flashing. A tornado layered in blue and red petals swirled from within it, her Roserade landing on the battlefield. She bowed to the Rapidash with a flourish, sending petals waving through the air.

Kate, followed by the crowd of students, reached the edge of the battlefield's "safe zone". She watched Alcea warily.

"Well, my, my, my, what an interesting display."

A breathy bedroom voice rang in Kate's ear, Kate whirling around to see Olivia Himeko standing behind her, as usual forgoing the school uniform for a stylish white blouse with black lining and a breezy skirt with a checkerboard pattern. On her arm was a rather cute little thing, a shy and curvy little brunette who was paying more attention to her escort than the battle.

"Sweetie?" Olivia turned to the girl, flashing her a toothy smile. She flared her eyes alluringly at the girl, sending a thrum through her heart as she gingerly separated from her. "I'm sorry but it looks like I'll be delayed. Go to the restaurant ahead of me, if you don't mind?"

"Y-yes!" The brunette nodded eagerly.

"See you soon, Jan… er, Jamie, or-"

"Janice," the brunette quietly corrected her.

"…Right," Olivia smiled. "See you there, Janice."

The cute girl pushed through the crowd and headed towards the mall, while the now-dateless Olivia refocused her sights on the far less appealing girl in front of her.

"You're Kate Nomia?" Olivia asked, touching a green-painted fingernail to her lips. "Alcea's little bed-warmer?"

"Um… her highness and I don't really have that sort of-"

Olivia tsk-tsk'd her, putting her finger to Kate's lips.

"No need. I'm not interested. I just thought it would be nice to see Alcea battle, it's such a rarity these days. And to spend it beside you, one of her pupils, will be quite insightful."

Olivia's words, if not kind, were at least polite. But Kate could see the conniving nature in that smiling face, because she knew better. Olivia and her highness were nothing close to friends. It was a common fact that Olivia could not stand the redhead, on any level. And while her highness was not hostile towards the older girl in the slightest, not like she was with Gerard, (she was far too polite for that) she was still an enemy. And that meant Kate didn't like her, either.

Olivia, meanwhile, was quite enjoying the stares the other members of the crowd were giving her. For a brief moment she considered unbuttoning the next button on her blouse, turning that little tease of cleavage into a real show, but no. Only classless people resorted to things like that to draw attention. She was perfectly content with her natural allure drawing away spectators from Alcea's match.

Olivia feigned a yawn, stretching her arms out in a way that caused her chest to bounce.

Body language, on the other hand, could hardly be considered classless.

"Racer, burn her away," Caelia ordered.

"Raaa!" Racer brayed, opening her mouth. Her fiery mane flared up even brighter, a ribbon of flame jetting out of her mouth towards the flowering pokemon.

"Rosetta, time for your petal dance," Alcea ordered.

"Rose," Rosetta nodded. She held up her right hand, the bouquet of red flowers shimmering. With a twirl, pink and red petals spiraled in front of her. The flames caught the petals ablaze in an instant, but then an interesting thing occurred. As Rosetta spun, rather than the flames following after her, they moved in unison with her pirouette, almost as if Rosetta was guiding them as well. With a flick of her arm, Rosetta effortlessly guided the flames into the ground, where they harmlessly burst into nothing but a pile of petal ash.

Rosetta did not let up, either. Turning the deflection into an attack of her own, she whipped her other hand forward, conjuring a tornado of blue petals this time, which spun towards the Rapidash.

"Pointless," Caelia growled. Racer incinerated those, as well, with another powerful flamethrower.

"…My, my," Alcea murmured, raising her eyebrow. She was a little shocked by Caelia's cool head, considering the circumstances, but not enough so to catch her off guard.

"I will burn away… everything you throw at me," Caelia growled. "Racer, agility."

"Rapidash!" Racer nodded, galloping forward. He ran in a circle around Rosetta, his speed drastically increasing.

"What's she doing?!" Kate gasped. "Petal dance is powerful, but why use it now?! Her highness's Roserade is locked into using only petal dance now, and when she's finally free she won't be able to do anything else due to the recoil confusion!"

If this fact bothered Alcea or her Roserade, it didn't show on their faces. Instead, Rosetta created another tornado around her, the waves expanding and sending petals flying towards Racer. Racer braced herself against the petals striking her hide, and adjusted course, running straight towards Rosetta.

Confusion set in, is it? Fine. Alcea called out to Rosetta, "now!"

Rosetta consumed the persim berry Alcea had given to her, snapping out of confusion. As Racer unleashed a stream of flames at Rosetta, the grass pokemon regained her focus, and held both of her flower-hands up.

A large sphere of poison began glowing between the two flowers, and she fired the orb at the flamethrower. The fire heated up the poison move, causing it to boil, and then burst, creating a massive explosion of toxic muck that sprayed over the battlefield.

"That's sludge bomb!" Kate cheered. "Way to go, milady!"

"Now!" Alcea ordered. Rosetta held her hands up and spun in a pirouette, and from the petals of her flowers hundreds of tiny needles flew across the field, covering the battlefield. Racer cried in pain as several of the purple needles struck her, injecting her with their poison as the rest settled down on the battlefield.

Alcea smiled at Kate and gave her a brief nod, Kate's heart soaring. While Alcea was certainly a master of the grass type, she was making excellent use of her Roserade's poison typing to keep the Rapidash on her toes. Or hooves, in this case.

Caelia was less than amused. She ran her eye over the battlefield, understanding implicitly what the toxic spikes meant. This would probably not be very good. Rapidash were known for their sensitive hooves. As tough and hard as they were, walking over spikes was sure to sting, and unlike Caelia, Racer quite certainly felt pain. It seemed she was hemmed in. Caelia reasoned that it was time for some more firepower. Racer's flamethrower had traded with the sludge bomb before, so now…

"Sunny day," Caelia ordered. Racer's horn began glowing with a bright light, launching a beam into the sky that intensified the sun's rays. The battlefield began to sizzle, and the puddles of poison from the sludge bomb began to bubble and boil.

Alcea smirked, amused at Caelia's attempt to use her own tactics against her. Kate was a little less confident.

Rosetta is her highness's starting pokemon because she sets up toxic spikes and prepares sunny day for the rest of her team. She also hits hard with petal dance. She runs fast and hot, rather than conservatively… but she didn't set up sunny day, since she knows what it will do for Caelia's team. This… this could go pretty bad… Kate gulped, staring worriedly at the battle.

"Venoshock," Alcea ordered. With a wave of her flowers, Rosetta summoned streams of poison from the puddles on the ground, gathering them around her body. She flung the streams at Racer, the powerful poison attack threatening to do massive damage to Racer.

"Worthless," Caelia growled. "Flare blitz!"

"Rapidash!" Racer cried, scorching flames dancing from her mane. Her mane burned a bright blue, a blue aura engulfing her body. Flames erupted around her body and she charged at Rosetta, the venoshock waves burning away as they struck her body.

"Rosetta!" Alcea cried.

Race ignored the pain of the spikes digging into her hooves, and she lowered her head. Her horn was glowing white-hot and pointing straight at Rosetta. The grass pokemon tried to dance aside, but when boosted with her agility Racer was simply too fast to dodge completely. Her horn struck a glancing blow on the fragile pokemon, and her body collided with Rosetta, lighting her ablaze and launching her backwards. Racer winced in pain from the recoil of the all-out attack, stumbling backwards on legs as shaky as a newborn Ponyta.

"Rosetta!" Kate cried, staring at the critically injured grass pokemon, Rosetta struggling to rise before losing consciousness.

"No way!" Proclamations of disbelief rang out across the crowd. Alcea of the Eight Leaders, the strongest female trainer in the school, had lost the first pokemon in this match. Although that wasn't so unreasonable, given the type disparity, and made sense when thought about rationally, the fact that it had happened was still stunning.

If Alcea was bothered by this, she didn't show it. She merely picked up her pokeball, recalled her Roserade, and raised her other hand to wipe the sweat off her brow from the intense sunlight.

Caelia and Alcea glanced calmly at each other as Racer regained her posture. The poison was still eating at her, but she didn't let it weaken her too badly. Like her trainer, Racer had an incredibly firm will, glaring at Alcea. Alcea nodded back at the horse pokemon, returning Rosetta's ball to her belt as she considered what her options for dealing with this were.

It's okay, it's okay, it's gonna be fine, Kate silently reassured herself. Her highness knows what she's doing. She's not that far behind, she'll probably send out her Ludicolo to set up some rain to turn the tide in her favor and start to sweep. Or she'll send out Venus, and use her boost from her hidden ability to really get things going. It's going to be fine, Kate. Don't panic. Whatever you do, don't panic…

"Kanna, take to the sky!" Alcea declared, her Tropius emerging from her ball in a tornado of leaves. The giant grass pokemon flapped her mighty wings, soaring up into the sky, moving with grace and speed uncharacteristic of such a large and bulky pokemon.

"Yes!" Kate cheered. "With her chlorophyll, Kanna will surely be able to take down that Rapidash!"

Close range won't work if she's airborne… Caelia noted. "Racer, burn it away with a powerful flamethrower!"

"Rapidash!" Racer nodded, opening her mouth a firing a compressed blast of fire at the flying pokemon.

Caelia watched the nimble dinosaur-like pokemon, waiting to see how it would move to dodge the attack. The flamethrower came in fast, but not fast enough to be unavoidable. Kanna could easily maneuver out of the way towards one of many directions. But much to Caelia's surprise, she did not. Instead, Kanna flapped her wings, and opened her mouth, the four leafy wings on her back starting to glow a near-blinding bright green. Light gathered in Kanna's mouth, the pokemon's jaw opening wider and wider.

Kanna fired the massive solarbeam like a ray from the heavens, piercing through the boosted flamethrower like it was tissue paper. The beam was moving at a speed so fast Caelia and Racer couldn't even see it coming, the fire pokemon being hit from above with one of the strongest grass attacks in existence.

"Raaaaaa!" Racer whinnied. Even though she naturally resisted grass moves, Kanna's solarbeam was powerful. Strong enough and focused enough to lose almost none of its energy breaking through a very strong flamethrower, causing a massive burn on the pale hair that made up the pokemon's back.

"I didn't need to dodge," Alcea calmly replied. "I wanted to show you the difference in our strength in a head to head attack. You use the sun to strengthen your flames… but I make it a part of my strategy completely. Now, finish it!"

"Tropius!" Kanna shouted, swiping her wings at the injured Rapidash. Long blades of wind cut through the air towards the pokemon, but unlike the solarbeam, these were just slow enough to account for. And indeed, Racer's agility proved her more than capable of nimbly dodging the cuts from the air slashes, keeping her in the battle.

"Just evading will not help you win," Alcea reminded her. "Poison, is it?"

Indeed, Alcea's words were correct. Kate knew poison, and one look at the sweat on the horse pokemon's brow, the pained look in her eye, the hitched breaths she was panting out, even the way her muscles clenched and refused to relax…

The Rapidash wouldn't have long.

"Bounce up," Caelia's sharp voice struck the Rapidash hard, Racer rising up on her hind legs and pushing down on the ground, launching herself into the air.

"She's flying!" One of the crowd members adept at stating the obvious gasped. Alcea had a more subdued response, her eyes slightly widening.

With her mighty leap, Racer had managed to gain the high ground over Kanna. The grass pokemon twisted her long neck to get a better look, but the powerful sunlight was blinding; she couldn't make out a thing. And without being able to see where the attack was coming from, dodging it proved to be a difficult matter as well. Alcea shielded her eyes to try and spot the Rapidash, but couldn't.

"I also… can make the sun part of my strategy," Caelia whispered, her voice almost sounding smug.

Kanna couldn't get away fast enough. Racer's front hooves came down on her forward wings, while her back hooves dug deep into Kanna's back. Kanna threw her head up and roared in pain, the added weight of the fire type sending her plummeting towards the ground, and the toxic spikes that her own trainer had laid down.

Alcea smirked.

"That's enough, is it?" She asked.

And suddenly, Kanna was gone.

Caelia's eye widened and her mouth opened slightly, a look of small surprise that was overwhelmed by the roars of shock from their audience. Kanna had completely disappeared, and now the full weight that Kanna had put behind her attack had lost its target completely. Well, that wasn't quite true. Rather than sending a massive Tropius plummeting towards the ground, Kanna was now bearing the weight of her bounce onto a much smaller, plush Tropius, which would do a far worse job of breaking her fall. Racer collided with the ground, letting out a final wail of pain before she lost consciousness. The stuffed animal disappeared, and Kanna materialized in the skies overhead, slightly weakened but nowhere near as damaged as she would have been if the attack had gone as planned.

"Well done, Kanna," Alcea smiled up at her Tropius, Kanna nodding her head towards her trainer.

Kate suddenly realized she could breathe again, and she sighed in relief. She had thought… well, Alcea had nearly lost her second pokemon, but no, everything was fine. She'd forgotten that Kanna had a few tricks up her sleeve.

"That was substitute, was it not?" Olivia giggled, Kate glancing at her for the first time since she'd arrived. She'd nearly forgotten the older girl was there.

"My, such a clever move on her part, especially against a girl like that who only charges head-on into things…"

Olivia licked her lips absentmindedly, considering the mysterious little shabby girl. Ayame had mentioned a Caelia during the freshman field trip, said she was an odd sort of girl. But to Olivia, there didn't seem to be that much that was odd about her, other than what was under all those clothes she was wearing.

This could use some further consideration, Olivia decided, making a mental note to keep a closer eye on this unstable-seeming first year.

Caelia recalled Racer without a word of congratulations. Her opponent was in the sky, but Caelia's eye remained focused on Alcea, and Alcea only. With that in mind…

Caelia reached for the next pokeball on her belt.

"Flying… then we fly…" Caelia murmured, dropping her pokeball to the ground with none of the flourish her opponent reveled in. "Kara… show that girl what happens when she plays with fire so carelessly…"


Wow, this match is really "heating up" huh?

Yeah, I said it.