Here's another chapter, continuing the battle with Akira and Dakota. I wonder how will things turn out for the two of them?

Jay Hayden: Indeed, their relationship has a lot of tension in it, sexual or otherwise. They're both supposed to be a little at fault, as well.

Angelica quezada: I see.

Superblal: Sorry Akira isn't as appealing to you as Dakota. They're both supposed to be a little at fault, so I understand taking her side. Akira's battle style might be boring, but it's because he's a methodical fighter.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 52

Alcea returned to her seat, looking out over the battlefield. The fight was still going strong, and Dakota was holding her ground. Bolt had reestablished an electric terrain again, and was busy outrunning all of Lilia's attacks.

"Lilia, earthquake," Akira ordered. Lilia pressed her legs against the ground and sent a shockwave through the battlefield, throwing the electric terrain into disarray. Bolt was too quick, however, jumping into the air to avoid the shockwave, countering with an electrical shockwave of his own.

"Thanks to electric terrain, Lilia won't be able to use ingrain to restore her health," Dakota informed. "Which means that you'll only grow weaker over time. Now we just need to slow you down! Bolt, use thunder wave!"

"Manectric!" Bolt howled, landing on the ground, releasing a pulse through the battlefield. The sparking electricity curved up from the ground, wrapping around Lilia, electrocuting her.

"Cradily!" Lilia wailed as she was electrocuted, her body crackling with electricity as she was paralyzed.

"As powerful as Akira's Cradily might be, Dakota's Manectric is certainly doing a much better job of taking advantage of the terrain and his speed," Darla said, frowning.

"Indeed, if anyone thought that the match would go quickly from this point, it certainly doesn't seem like it's over yet," Lila agreed.

"Lilia, we need to hem in Bolt's movements," Akira said. "Use stealth rock to lock him down!"

"Cra!" Lilia nodded, spreading out her tentacles. Lifted by energy, large debris floated in the air, hovering around the battlefield, their sharp points aimed at Bolt.

"I see, you think you can stop our movements like this, huh?" Dakota asked, smiling. "But that won't be enough. Our speed won't be beaten that way! Bolt, use wild charge!"

Electricity gathered over Bolt's body and leapt forward, the rocks shooting towards him. As they struck his fur, however, Bolt released a shockwave of electricity through them, causing the stones to explode on contact.

So since she can't evade, she's going to resort to breaking through, huh? Akira thought. Then we'll meet her head-on, like she wants.

"Lilia, use brine," Akira ordered. Lilia raised her head and summoned a torrent of water. The water gathered into a large wave, which she launched at the charging electric pokemon.

If Akira thought the water attack would halt Bolt's assault, he was wrong. Bolt leapt head-on into the water, emerging from the other side, injured, but still coursing with electricity. He raised his claws, striking Lilia's torso, releasing a powerful blast of electricity through the fossil pokemon's body.

"Lilia!" Akira shouted out. "Quick, use constrict to trap him!"

"Cradily!" Lilia looked back at Akira and nodded, her tentacles reaching out and wrapping around Bolt, holding him tightly against her body.

"What are you doing?!" Dakota shouted. "Let him go!"

"Now that Bolt is trapped, no more of your fancy dodging," Akira said. "Thanks for coming in close, Dakota! Now if you don't mind, I'm going to take a page from your playbook again! Lilia! Use stone edge!"

"Cradily!" Lilia shouted. Large stones floated up from the battlefield, hovering around her body, pointed inward at Lilia and the electric pokemon she was clutching to.

"I might have been shocked when you took out Starla with that explosion, but I shouldn't have dismissed it so readily," Akira said, smiling. "I think you might have been onto something after all."

"Bolt! You gotta break free!" Dakota shouted helplessly. "Use discharge!"

"Manectric!" Bolt exclaimed, releasing shockwave after shockwave from his body, Lilia crying out in pain as she got repeatedly electrocuted.

"Lilia, finish it!" Akira ordered.

"Cradily!" Lilia shouted, the stones shooting towards her, crashing down on both of them.

"Whoa!" Lila exclaimed.

"No way!" Darla exclaimed.

When the dust cleared, both pokemon were lying on the ground. Bolt was badly beaten by the powerful boulders, and Lilia was no better. The two pokemon struggled to rise, leering at each other, before succumbing to their injuries and falling to the ground, unconscious.

"…Well, in an unexpected move, Akira has copied Dakota's opening play and used his Cradily to take out Dakota's Manectric in a self-sacrificing stone edge attack!" Lila announced.

"Both pokemon are no longer able to keep fighting," Darla agreed.

"But, since Akira still has two pokemon remaining…" Lila continued.

"That means he's the winner of the third match!" Darla concluded.

Dakota fell to her knees, returning Bolt to his pokeball.

"Dakota…" Akira walked up to her, looking down at his former friend.

"Come to gloat?" Dakota asked bitterly, looking up at him venomously.

"Look, I know what happened before… I didn't handle it the right way. I was hurt, and I didn't understand what you were doing. But… what you did, it wasn't right. So… I mean, what I'm saying…" More than slightly flustered, Akira fumbled for the right words to say. He wasn't even really sure what he wanted to say, having spent over a year resenting the redhead, his own feelings were muddled.

"Akira…" Dakota said, rising to her feet and wiping her face. "I… I'm gonna go post a bunch of fake stories about you in the paper, jerk!"

Dakota turned and ran wailing off the field, Akira sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Fucking bitch…" he muttered under his breath, more than a little hurt at the fact that his attempt at making amends had fallen on deaf ears.

Dakota didn't stop running until she reached the bathroom, washing her face, which was flushed a bright red.

"Stupid Akira…" She huffed to herself, splashing more water onto her face. "I'm gonna make him pay! Now I just need to think of something to write about that jerk!" She looked in the mirror and saw her mouth attempting to smile, and she clapped her cheeks to force it to stop.

"Damn it, heart! Stop it, you hear me?!"

"Alright!" Darla announced. "With Akira's victory, it's time for the next round to start!"

"Now, let's spin to figure out who's fighting!" Lila added.

Meanwhile, Alcea was stuck deep in thought, contemplating Kanone's words.

An impostor, is it? She mused. Most of the people out there… I know them. But some of them… it could be. He said "she" so it must be one of the girls. I would think it Elaina… but then, he never said that specifically… She looked out over the stadium, eyeing the other candidates.

Of the girls out there… That one… Mariah, in the cape and face-mask… It could be… And then the other… Alcea's eye turned to eye the other suspicious girl, Caelia, with the shaggy brown hair covering over her face. She's a student here, supposedly… but I've never seen her before… For all I know, she could be an impostor. No matter who it might be… I'll need to watch things closely.

"Okay! The fourth round competitors have been chosen!" Lila announced.

"Sylvia Driscoll! Caelia Auburne!" Darla declared. The two girls stood up from their chairs and glanced at each other, walking down to the stadium.

"Ooh, I'm excited!" Cynthia said, smiling. "I can't wait to see how a student supposedly 'chosen' by the Daevas fights!"

"Sure, I guess," Blake said, shrugging. "But still… I'm a little more interested in the other one…"

Cynthia glowered at him, rolling her eyes.

"Man, you really like the weird ones," She sighed. "The gothic Lolita look is way better than whatever grunge that girl is packing."

"That's not what I meant," Blake sighed. "The air around that girl… It's like she has a wall up around her. She's cold as ice." He looked out at the battlefield, where the two girls were facing each other.

"Specter, go," Sylvia said, patting the Shuppet hovering beside her on the head. The Shuppet bobbed up and down in a nod and floated out onto the battlefield.

"Mera…" Caelia, in a voice as soft as a whisper, sent out her pokemon. It was a small white and brown insect with a crown of orange stalks ringing its body like a sun. The Larvesta glanced at her and ran out onto the battlefield.

"So it seems the first matchup is between two unevolved pokemon," Lila commented. "Things look pretty even so far, what do you think, Darla?"

"I'd agree, but we can't forget that Sylvia is a member of the Phantom's organization. She's quite powerful for a sophomore." Darla said. "But Caelia is a complete unknown… from what I hear, she's taking private classes. So she's definitely a wild card."

"Specter, use shadow ball!" Sylvia ordered. A ball of ghostly shadow energy appeared in front of the Shuppet's mouth, and she flung it at the Larvesta.

"Mera…" Caelia said. "Sunny day."

Mera began glowing, releasing energy from his body into the air, intensifying the sunlight to the point of a blinding glare. As the sun's rays intensified, the shadow ball reduced in power as it struck the fire pokemon, knocking him into the air.

"Wow, rather than dodge, Larvesta increased the sunlight!" Lila said.

"Maybe Caelia is planning something. But she can't overcome Sylvia's ghosts with just a few rays of sunshine," Darla warned. "This isn't some feel-good children's show."

"I don't mind the sunlight," Sylvia said, smiling. "The stronger the light, the bigger the shadows. Specter, use shadow sneak."

Specter sunk into the shadows on the ground, which stretched toward Mera. She emerged from the darkness, lunging at Mera's back with her horn. Caelia, and therefore Mera, had no response.

"No orders to dodge?" Lila asked, surprised.

"That's twice, now…" Darla said, frowning.

"Time to return," Caelia said simply. "U-turn." As Specter struck Mera, he turned and jumped up, colliding with the ghost pokemon, knocking Specter backwards as he flew backwards in turn, Caelia returning him to her pokeball.

"She's taking the hits for her strategy," Julia said. "She must have wanted the sunlight out."

"Oh, really?" Kitty asked, surprised.

"Her highness does it too," Kate explained. "Depending on her strategy, it's important that sunlight be ongoing."

"Now… Kara, go," Caelia said, tossing out another pokeball. With a flash of flames, a large pokemon emerged from within. Its body was sleek and muscular, with leathery, orange skin and large orange and blue wings. The Charizard flexed her muscles and flicked her tail, sending sparks flying into the air. With a flap of her wings, she took to the sky, sending a powerful gust that gathered Caelia's hair up into the sky, revealing a pale white medical mask wrapped over the right side of Caelia's face. It mirrored her Charizard, whose right eye was permanently shut by long scars that ran across her face.

"We'll show you…" Caelia whispered, narrowing her eye, "…the power of our flames."

A fire type user, huh? Sylvia told herself. "Specter, use shadow ball."

"Kara!" For the first time, Caelia's voice broke above a whisper in a terse, harsh order. Kara opened her mouth, a powerful blast of flame, erupting from the dragon-like pokemon's maw, engulfing the battlefield. When the flames died down, Specter fell to the ground, unconscious.

"Return, Specter," Sylvia said, calling back her Shuppet. "Sorry, I underestimated her. But I'm not making that mistake again. Runja! Go!"

Sylvia threw out a pokeball, which a large, pink Jellicent emerged from, her fins fluttering as she hovered in the air.

"In response to Caelia's powerful flames, Sylvia has sent out a water type!" Lila said.

"But Caelia must have seen that move coming," Darla said, frowning. "It won't be that easy to beat her."

"Solarbeam," Caelia ordered. Gathering energy from the sun, Kara released a powerful beam of sunlight from her mouth.

"Hydro pump," Sylvia countered, Runja letting out a high-pressured blast of water from her mouth, the two attacks colliding in midair. However, the intensity of the sunlight was the turning point. The heat weakened the strength of the water while strengthening the solar energy, the beam overcoming the water and slamming into Runja, knocking her backwards.

"Now finish it." Kara flapped her wings and soared toward the ghost, raising her claw, ghostly energy flowing through it as she ripped into Runja's head, slamming her into the ground.

"That was a shadow claw!" Darla exclaimed.

"Nice move!" Lila commented.

"Runja, underground," Sylvia ordered. Runja sunk down into the stadium, using her abilities as a ghost pokemon to evade Kara's relentless attacks.

"Now, use rain dance." Runja emerged behind Kara, raising her large tentacles, summoning an oppressive downpour that drove down onto the battlefield, blotting out the sunlight.

"Now that the weather has changed, so has the tide of battle," Lila observed. "We might be seeing the start of a drawn out weather war."

"No," Caelia denied. "Kara, use dragon dance." Kara flew backwards, putting some distance between herself and Runja, draconic energy surging around her body as she swung her tail, summoning dark red flames with her movements.

"Dragon dance, huh?" Blake said, frowning. "That's a serious move. Caelia isn't planning to draw this out with a fight of sunlight vs. rain, it looks like she's just going to sweep through Sylvia's entire team!"

"Oh yeah! That's what I'm talking about!" Darla cheered. "Show her the power of dragons, Caelia!"

"Water spout, Runja!" Sylvia ordered. Runja gathered water from the rain into her body, bloating in size, and then released it in a massive explosion of water as Kara flew towards her. The waves struck Kara, knocking her backwards, Kara tumbling across the battlefield as she crashed to the ground. Runja pressed her attack, floating up into the air and gathering water in front of her mouth, creating a massive hydro pump."

"Kara, use thunder punch," Caelia ordered. Rather than try to dodge, Kara flew toward the blast, electricity crackling in her claw. She struck the hydro pump directly, releasing a massive shockwave of electrical power up through the torrent of water, electrocuting the ghost pokemon. Runja plummeted out of the air, shocked, Kara barreling toward her.

Kara raised her claws, ghostly energy coursing through them, and she struck Runja in the face, knocking her backwards. Runja collapsed onto the ground in front of Sylvia, who called her back, stunned.

"Wow, that makes two of Sylvia's pokemon down!" Lila exclaimed, excited.

"Yes, but Caelia's Charizard looks like she's in pretty bad condition," Darla said. "Taking those rain-powered water attacks definitely took their toll."

"Kara, rest for now," Caelia said, returning Kara to her pokeball.

She called it back? Sylvia narrowed her eyes in confusion. Why?

"I don't want Kara to risk herself too much…" Caelia muttered. "Racer, go."

Caelia sent out her next pokemon, a Rapidash. The beautiful horse raised her head, her mane of flames dancing around her.

She's beaten two of my pokemon already… I can't let this humiliation keep going. I need to preserve my pride. Sylvia bit her lip, glaring at Caelia.

"Well, I didn't know anything about you, so I was trying to gauge your abilities," Sylvia said, smiling. "But that was disrespectful. You're a powerful trainer, Caelia. So I'm going to fight you straight up, with nothing but my own skills. I'll show you my specialty. Sound good?"

Caelia said nothing.

"Well, okay then! Dusk, go!" Sylvia threw out a green and black pokeball, and emerging from the dusk ball in a swirl of shadows was a large brown and grey ghost pokemon, a Dusknoir.

"Clear the rain away," Caelia ordered. Racer began shining, energy gathering in the horn on her head, shooting up into the sky and parting the clouds to replace it with intense sunlight.

"Ah, excellent," Sylvia said, smiling. "To be honest, I prefer the sunlight more myself."

"Racer, agility," Caelia ordered. Racer shot forward, her speed increasing until she was no more than a blur. She dashed around Dusk, hemming him in, the ghost pokemon remaining focused on Caelia rather than the Rapidash.

"Then, attack."

Flames emerged from Racer's body, spinning around Dusk as she circled him, creating a tornado of flames that trapped the ghost pokemon.

"Dusk, enough playing around," Sylvia said. "It's time we slowed this little horse down, don't you think?"

"Dusknoir," Dusk echoed from within the fire spin. His body began glowing, and a blast of light released from within the center of the flames. As it expanded, it became clear what it was; a large cube of energy.

Caelia's eye widened, and Rapidash pulled to a stop, the flames dying down.

"Racer, back," Caelia ordered. Racer leapt backwards, outrunning the expanding cube, but as fast as she was, the energy field expanded until it filled the battlefield and the stadium itself, trapping them in a strange area. The walls of the cube sparkled with stars and circled with cosmic energy, causing a strange effect on the entire stadium.

"Whoa!" Darla gasped.

"Is this…?" Lila asked, looking around.

"What's going on?" Kitty asked worriedly. "I… I feel so slow…"

"You're right, Kitty… it's weird…" Sango said, frowning.

"This is…" Julia realized.

"Racer," Caelia said, a slight tinge of worry in her otherwise stoic, mechanical voice.

"Sorry, your little pony is going to be slightly put off. I don't think she's one for racing right now," Sylvia said, a wicked smile stretching across her face. "In the meantime, Caelia, I'd like to extend a hand in welcome to you."

"What?" Caelia asked, narrowing her eye in suspicion.

"Welcome to my territory, Caelia," Sylvia continued. "A world where nothing is as it should be. Welcome to the trick room."

Dusk, at the center of the room, rose up into the air, pulsing with energy.

"Racer, flamethrower," Caelia ordered. Racer's mane surged with flames and her mouth opened, creating a sphere of fire that she released in a compressed stream at Dusk. However, the effect was not was Caelia was expecting. The flames were slow, like molasses, oozing toward the ghost pokemon.

"That won't be nearly enough," Sylvia said, shaking her head. "Dusk, if you would?"

Dusk easily dodged the flames before disappearing, appearing behind Racer.

"Racer, dodge him," Caelia ordered. Racer moved to run from the ghost pokemon, but like her flames, she found it difficult to move. It took her several seconds just to take a single step, making dodging the attack next to impossible. Dusk struck her in the back with a shadowy fist, slamming the horse pokemon into the ground.

"This is a dimension outside the laws of physics," Sylvia cackled. "It's an arena of inversion, beyond your comprehension. The faster your pokemon, the slower they become. And the slower the pokemon…"

Dusk raised his fists, releasing a barrage of shadow punches that pummeled Racer's body at a blinding speed, the horse pokemon letting out a whinny of pain.

"…The far faster their moves become. I let you change the sunlight, to intensify your fire moves, but now we're in my world. So tell me, Caelia, because I'm quite excited to see it. How will you overcome this territory of mine with your flames?"

"Sylvia has turned the battle around completely by literally turning the world on its head!" Lila exclaimed.

"Indeed, Lila, it seems this battle is anyone's game," Darla said, frowning. "We'll have to see where things go from here. Will Caelia keep up with her strong start, or is this where Sylvia turns the tables?"

Stop stealing my job, Darla.