In this chapter, we get some more politics as the Eight Leaders come together for a summit to deal with the aftermath of the Fall Tournament!
Jay Hayden: Well, maybe we'll find out next time.
Hellraiserphoenix: Yeah, Serefina's a very good friend.
Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Yes, something big is definitely going to go down very soon, you can be sure of that.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 99
Alcea wore a frown as she walked into the center of campus encircled by a crowd of her club members. The sight of her normally regal and passive countenance baring such disdain drew stares from her fellow students, but also made them hesitate to stand in her way. So, she was given a wide birth as she walked toward the center office, where her meeting for the day was to take place.
"Milady, is there anything else you need?" Kate asked.
"Hmm…" Alcea sighed, shaking her head. "Good enough, is it? We shall see. Au revoir."
She waved the girls off and stepped through the glass doors, making her way to the top floor of the building, and the room given to the Eight Leaders to conduct their activities out of.
"You're late," Gerard snarled as she stepped into the room. The others were already taking up seven of the eight seats at the round table. "It's difficult for us to command dignity when someone of your status can't even be punctual."
Alcea said nothing and took her seat between Rafe and Raizer.
"It is also difficult to command dignity when the strongest of our ranks can't even defeat a single one of his opponent's pokemon," Gabrielle pointedly mentioned, drawing a glare from Gerard.
"And whose fault was that?" Gerard asked. Gabrielle deigned not to answer.
"It's still troubling," Mirar pointed out. "With your loss, there has been a great deal of discussion in the last few days about the status and legitimacy of our group. If we're not lucky, then the notion of the Eight Leaders might be in danger of being abolished. Or even worse, subverted."
"Blood in the water, is it?" Alcea murmured.
"There is one bit of good news to come from all this, though," Rafe mentioned. "It seems that the Harker family has contacted the school about the events in question and are willing to cover the damages, so at least that is a burdened removed from us. How fortuitous~"
"And no personal sanctions on any of the involved parties either," Alcea said, glancing to Gerard. Gerard smirked.
"Now then, with those issues out of the way, it's time for us to return to the matter at hand. Mirar?"
Mirar nodded, and reached into his bag, withdrawing four folders and pushing them into the center of the table.
"This is the pertinent data I collected on the four semi-finalists of the tournament," he explained. "With this, we need to narrow the field down to the two most qualified candidates for replacing Rafe and I as members of the Eight Leaders after our graduation."
"That is a simple matter, is it not?" Dokukage asked. "Normally, we would simply allow for the two finalists to take those spots."
"Yeah, why do we have to debate over something so trivial?" Raizer shrugged. "It's always been about the best trainer, right? That's how I got in after all."
"Ridiculous," Gabrielle sighed. "Just because you earned your position through a Challenge Right doesn't mean that we should choose the strongest trainer every time. There are other factors to consider."
"Huh? What matters more than who can give the most thrilling match?" Raizer asked, confused. Gabrielle rolled her eyes.
"What about typing?" Callie asked, glancing over Sylvia and Elaina's folders. "I mean, the semi-finalists are Elaina, Akira, Sylvia, and Cynthia, right? And one of the important factors of being one of the Eight Leaders is type specialization. Going by that, aren't there only two available candidates?"
She pushed the two folders forward for consideration.
"Elaina uses Flying types and Sylvia uses Ghost types, but Akira and Cynthia don't have any type specialties at all."
"That restriction has always had some free ground, however," Gabrielle mentioned. "Although I specialize in ice types, I have a water pokemon on my team. It's more of an identifier and a guideline, not a requirement."
She held up Akira's folder for everyone to consider.
"The strict conditions placed are that the student for consideration must use a minimum of three pokemon of that type on their party, and also recommend that most other pokemon at least bear synergy with that type. Akira's team consists of a Starmie, a Vaporeon, and now a Gyarados. With consideration for his ice type Beartic that uses many water moves, and his aquatic Cradily, I'd reckon he has all the makings of a decent Water type Leader."
She glanced at Gerard.
"And Elaina herself has a Decidueye that, while avian in nature, is a Grass/Ghost pokemon, not a Flying type."
"Flying, Water, and Ghost type," Gerard murmured. "All of them potential candidates, and no redundancies or contradictions with any of our current rank, either."
"What about Cynthia, then?" Raizer's voice came as a surprising interjection to disrupt the flow of the conversation. The blonde wave the file around haphazardly. Callie's eyes brightened and she nodded.
"Cynthia is a very good idea," she supported. "In fact, she was able to beat me earlier in the year!"
"I fought against her once myself, if my records are to be believed," Gabrielle said. "But I don't remember that battle at all. It wasn't anything special."
Callie frowned.
"Besides, she doesn't fit the typing qualifications," Dokukage reminded her.
"Eh? Forget about that," Raizer shrugged. "We've got exceptions before! There's two of us sitting right in this room!" He jammed a thumb at Mirar to punctuate his exclamation.
"Both that guy and I only use one pokemon in our battles, so ain't that way below your 'three pokemon minimum'?"
"Mirar is among us due to a faculty recommendation," Gerard reminded him. "And don't forget that you're also exempt due to… 'special consideration'. You two are the exception, not the norm."
Raizer rolled his eyes.
"Still, there is warrant for it," Rafe mentioned. "Back before any of you were here, there was something about a probationary period, if I recall correctly."
"A probationary period, is it?" Alcea asked, surprised. "I have not heard of such a thing."
"Simple," Rafe shrugged, smiling at her. "What it means is that we accept her under condition of her fulfilling the minimum requirements by her sophomore year."
"Good point," Callie nodded.
"Well, to see if an exception should be made in her case, we should go over her file in more detail, then," Gabrielle declared. She opened up the folder and passed it around to each of them.
"It says here she has seven pokemon that she alternates between," Gerard said. "From what we can see, she has two Flying types, two Normal types, two Fairy types, a Grass/Fighting type, a Water/Ice type, Steel type, a Ground type, and a Psychic type. It seems she's all over the place in terms of her available options, but nothing too close to any one type to consider a specialty."
"Normal type would clash with Mirar," Callie noted. "…Though, no, since he'd be leaving before she took his place, I guess that would be fine…"
"If we chose her to represent Flying types, then we would have to choose between her and Elaina," Alcea pointed out, a frown crossing Gerard's face at the insinuation that Cynthia should be chosen instead.
"Well, what about Fairy types, then?" Rafe asked. "She's already got two. And while her other pokemon are not what I would call 'fairy like' she does have a lot of cute and small pokemon."
"Her Gligar would make for a good check against potential Poison and Steel types," Dokukage agreed.
Callie nodded eagerly, liking where this was going.
"So, see? All we need to do is put her on this probationary thing and tell her she's gotta catch another Fairy pokemon before her next year! Easy!" Raizer laughed.
"But… is she deserving of being considered at all to begin with?" Mirar asked, drawing the attention of the room to him.
"Huh?! What're you on about?" Raizer asked. "'Course she is! Didn't you see her fight?! Those matches of hers made me get super pumped up!"
"Mirar makes a good point," Gerard interjected. "She's a fine trainer, to be sure, but she's still a freshman. She doesn't necessarily have the maturity or experience to represent our school as one of the Eight Leaders. That's why so seldom is it that freshmen ever get chosen."
"Huh?" Raizer asked, confused. "Then isn't that girl of yours also a freshman?"
"Indeed, it would be different if Cynthia had won the tournament, or even made it to the finals," Gerard admitted. "But as rare as it may be, a freshman making it to the semi-finals is nothing extraordinary. It speaks to her potential, nothing more. Certainly we can expect great things from her going forward, but the question is whether or not she is deserving of the position at this time."
"…" Raizer frowned, but didn't say anything.
"I think she can do it!" Callie said, nodding.
"I had similar reservations to you, Gerard," Mirar stated, "and that's why I fought her myself."
"Seriously?!" Raizer asked, surprised.
"How was it?" Dokukage asked.
"…Middling," Mirar answered. "She was at a level I would have expected for a first year who had advanced as far in the tournament as she had, but beyond that, there wasn't anything that particularly stood out about her. I would not personally recommend her being appointed among our ranks at this time."
"Then I suppose that will settle it," Gerard nodded. "Let's return to our consideration of the other three, then."
"I would like to start," Alcea interjected.
"I expected you would," Gerard smirked.
"I vehemently object to appointing this girl, Elaina Bishop, onto the Eight Leaders in any capacity," Alcea declared. "Her performance in the tournament demonstrated a callous disregard for the wellbeing of herself and her fellow students. One of my own club members is still in the infirmary after her match with that girl, and another has her arm in a cast! To reward this student for her actions would be against the code of conduct we're tasked to uphold!"
Gerard nodded silently, staring at her.
"I agree!" Callie said, nodding vigorously. She glanced at Alcea, who nodded at her. "It… it just seems wrong to have one of us putting all the other students at risk!"
"…Well, then, let's table the discussion on Elaina for now," Gerard said. "I can bring up arguments later. For now, let's look at the other two."
"I don't have any complaints about Akira," Rafe said. "I think he's a rather good choice. Factoring in his performance last year, without his Gyarados, he's shown consistent performance in school tournaments, and his record is spotless with no disciplinary reviews."
The other members nodded in agreement.
"Fair enough," Gerard nodded. "Then, we come to our final applicant, Sylvia Driscoll. In my opinion, appointing her to be one of the Eight Leaders on the merits of her performance wouldn't be such a problem… but there's an issue of her allegiance. Richard Valon of the Four Holy Swords has begun making inroads, threatening to topple the balance of power that has remained tenuously intact between the four Daevas. And Sylvia Driscoll is allied with him. If she were to be appointed to a member of the Eight Leaders, it would be problematic."
"But Richard Valon is graduating next year," Rafe mentioned. "Along with the other three. So is there really a problem there? I mean, it's not like she's going to have any influence."
"No, it's still a problem," Raizer said, frowning. "Even prospective members of the Eight Leaders need to remain impartial."
"Huh, a wise comment, who would have thought," Mirar noted, Raizer shooting him a dirty look.
"It's the same reason why I had to abandon my club and leave my brother's group," Raizer said.
"Exactly," Gerard agreed. "Even if she's only a future appointment, if it looks like someone in the Phantom's inner circle is rubbing elbows with the Eight Leaders, it gives him a lot of legitimacy, and it makes it look like we're in collusion with the lot of them. There could be concerns raised that we're appointing Sylvia to a higher position in exchange for cooperation with the Phantom, which may result in a war between all four of the factions that we'd end up getting dragged into. Our job on campus is to monitor those sorts of situations and keep things balanced, in order to prevent any one group from becoming too powerful. But right now, we don't have the pull to successfully quell anyone by threats of force."
"So we reject her, is it?" Alcea asked.
"Or…" Gabrielle said quietly, glancing through the folder. "We could have her work for us."
"Oh?" Gerard said, his interest piqued. "That's an idea I hadn't considered. Go on, Elle."
"The way I see things, there are two potential ways we can accept Driscoll. If perception is a problem, then we simply mandate that she cut her ties with the Phantom, thoroughly and graphically for everyone to see. If she's no longer associated with him, then there won't be an issue to face. Or… If we worry about perceptions, then we accept her in anyway… but we turn her. Plant her as a mole in his operation, and get a direct line to the workings of the Eight Leaders."
"And would she be amenable to that?" Gerard asked.
"Unknown," Gabrielle admitted, glancing to Mirar. "You are the expert on human nature, what is your opinion on her?"
"She is a difficult one to predict," Mirar admitted. "But she is no zealot. As far as my network can see, she's working with the Phantom for kicks, not because of any true loyalty or devotion to his cause. But without knowing what exactly the Phantom's plans are, or what she has to gain by working with him, I cannot be certain. Even my research has limits. But… possible, I will say. Certainly possible."
"So we're getting nowhere!" Raizer groaned.
"Back to Elaina, then?" Gerard asked, putting Sylvia and Akira's files in the maybe pile.
"Or…" Alcea began. "We could look into the quarter-final students."
"Absurd," Gerard rejected, laughing. "What would be the point? We have far more qualified applicants. Who would you even nominate from that pool?"
"Blake Harker," she declared. "I would mean to nominate Blake Harker."
The room fell silent.
"Absolutely not," Gerard said. "He doesn't meet any of the requirements. He's a freshman. He doesn't specialize in any type of pokemon. The closest he can come is two Bug types, and we already have a Bug type user."
"Then on probationary grounds," Alcea insisted.
"Considering his prior disciplinary action, that's quite a tough sell," Dokukage stated.
"Is a single mishap that much worse than Elaina's actions?" Alcea demanded.
"What type would you suggest, then?" Rafe questioned. "Because the way he looks to me, well… the type he's most suited for is a little… different."
"Oh?" Alcea asked. "What do you mean by that?"
"Nothing, nothing," Rafe said, shaking his head and smiling placidly at her. "Just a feeling."
"I also don't think he's ready," Gabrielle said. "And he lost to Cynthia, if you remember."
"Yeah, but it was a close match," Raizer reminded her. "I'd say it at least merits some discussion."
"Shall we put it to vote then?" Gerard asked.
The group silently voted through raised hands. In total it was 6 – 2 against, Alcea and Callie being the only holdouts.
"Then it's decided. Moving on to Elaina, I understand there are concerns about that power of hers," Gerard admitted. "I won't deny that she's dangerous. And possibly unstable."
"She nearly tore the stadium to the ground!" Callie exclaimed.
"To be fair, that was a combination of her doing and the outrage of that Gyarados belonging to Akira," Dokukage reminded her. "They both share some responsibility for that."
"I refuse to accept any student into our ranks who would so blatantly and flagrantly do harm to the student body!" Alcea exclaimed.
"There is also the matter of her condition," Rafe reminded them. "Akira Saroyan woke up earlier today. But Elaina Bishop's condition still shows no signs of improving. What merit is there to promoting her if she will soon be getting transferred to the hospital and forced onto medical leave?"
"That won't happen," Gerard insisted. "I've seen to it. I firmly believe that Elaina will regain consciousness soon enough."
"Beliefs are not facts," Mirar stated. "We can't make our ruling on hope."
"It's not hope," Gerard smiled. "It's what I know about her. And this power of hers. I know that it is destructive. But… it's powerful. That's what truly matters! If we are going to protect this school from the Daevas' coming struggle, and potential conflicts that follow, we will need the power that Elaina Bishop has at her disposal! She's working on controlling it, and once she does, she'll be a trainer without equal! Can't you imagine that?!"
"I can," Alcea nodded. "And it terrifies me. My answer is still no."
"I'm a no, too!" Callie insisted. "I don't think she should be rewarded for such horrible treatment!"
"Why won't you people understand?!" Gerard exclaimed, rising from her seat. "This power of hers… we need it now, more than ever!"
The other leaders all looked at each other with varying levels of unease.
"Why?" Rafe asked.
"What?" Gerard said, turning to look at him.
"I asked, why?" Rafe said, shrugging. "You say we need this power. And I want to know why?"
Gerard inhaled, calming down, and returned to his seat.
"Fine. I didn't want to bring this up… but it seems I don't have a choice." He paused for dramatic effect.
"Richard Valon… is currently working to acquire more students capable of using harmonia over to his side."
"What?!" Raizer said.
"So there are more of them?" Dokukage asked.
"How many?" Callie wondered.
"I don't know how many, and I don't know why," Gerard admitted. "Or what he intends to do with them. But if this tournament has shown us anything, it's that normal methods aren't enough. If we want to have a chance at preserving the student's safety, then we have to gather more power on our own. It's the only way to maintain balance."
An air of uneasiness waved across the room, and the discussions continued. It went on for hours over who should and should not become a member, possible risks and benefits associated with everyone. More names were brought in, some were thrown out, some passed around for consideration. Ultimately, no definitive answer was obtained.
"Fine then," Gerard said. "Out of the five candidates we've selected, we'll have to narrow it down by voting."
"Well, that made things easy enough," Rafe said when the voting was finished. "Only two students received majority approval. So that means the next members of the Eight Leaders are Akira Saroyan and…"
Who could the other party be, I wonder?