This chapter, we get to spend some time working with Elizabeth, and see how her day starts! What will her work on translating entail? What thoughts are going through her mind now?

Pokemon Academy Best Girl Elimination Round has ended! Here are the final rankings of the votes!

Cynthia: 15

Ayame: 12

Sango: 11

Kate: 9

Marion: 9

Alcea: 9

Dakota: 7

Elaina: 6

Kitty: 5

Serefina: 4

Maddi: 4

So for the next round, the Pokemon Academy Best Girl Semi-Finals Round, we'll be cutting things off at the Top 5 in this poll. But as we can see, there's a 3-way tie between Kate, Marion, and Alcea. It wouldn't be fair to cut one of them out, so instead of cutting it to the Top 5, I'll be gracious and let all 3 of them into the semi-finals. Now, the way the semi-finals works is the same way as the elimination round. This time, each person gets 3 votes! Vote for your top 3 girls to make it to the final round! Cynthia, Ayame, Sango, Kate, Marion, and Alcea are all in the running, who will get to the finals? And let's not forget the 5 who didn't make it, Dakota, Elaina, Kitty, Serefina, and Maddi. They all did their best, but they couldn't scrounge up enough votes. You all did your best, ladies! Maybe next time! The poll is up now, so make sure to vote for you Top 3 to make it to the finals! There's a decent gap between the lead 3 and the other 3, but that can certainly change as perceptions shift! You have 3 votes, make sure to use every last one of them!

Semi-Finalists: Cynthia, Ayame, Sango, Kate, Marion, Alcea

ConfusedCradily: Stow-on-Side gave a great opportunity and then whiffed on it. We don't have a lot of information on the actual history of Galar, so I've decided to make some of it up for myself. I want to take advantage of the opportunities provided, including the character of Sonia.

Badoobadoop: Don't count on it, they can't cross the border.

Aquahaze675: I think she meant Bede. He's quite a "special" trainer alright…

Thunder Fire: Translations aren't exactly the easiest things to do. It's gonna take her some time to work it out. It's a dead language with limited reliable translations.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 266

"The angry pokemon will give music a high-five…"

...

"No, that's stupid."

Elizabeth had been working on the translation all night. She knew that Ancient Galarian was a tough language to translate, but this was proving to be exceedingly difficult. It didn't help that her reference materials had not been adequately translated, either. She had been referring to the notes that had been compiled by the excavation team previously, but unfortunately, their translations were woefully incompetent. With many languages, that would be an annoyance, but nothing critical. But for Ancient Galarian, a mistranslation of a single word could affect the entire translation in its entirety, resulting in a jumble of nonsense. So Elizabeth had to go back and sift through the originals, and translate everything out from scratch.

Elizabeth had been working all night on the translations, and had some very choice words to give to Sonia about it.

She stifled a yawn, and checked her watch. It was around 4 in the morning, and she needed a break. She stretched, rose from her seat, and headed off to the showers. Hopefully a nice, relaxing cold shower would cool her down and let her look at these texts from a fresh perspective.

As the water washed over her curvy figure, she thought back on the past few days. Sango and that girl Kate… talking with them had been nice. Especially Sango. She had been so afraid that Sango would hate her. And for a brief moment, that had seemed to be the case. But they had reached a mutual understanding, and would begin their relationship from here. Sango didn't have any qualms with Elizabeth marrying her father. And while they weren't really close, they would have time. Sango trusted her, at least a little. And that was good enough for now, at least.

A smile curled up Elizabeth's lips as she began to formulate her plan. Now that Sango trusted her, it would be much, much easier to accomplish what she set out to do. The girl had always been so vigilant of her, and watched her with a wary eye. Under such intense scrutiny, there was no way Elizabeth would have been able to make a move. But now… now her guard was down. If Elizabeth was cautious and approached things slowly, she wouldn't see it coming.

Elizabeth raised her head, tilting her short hair back and letting the water wash over her. She clenched her hand into a fist.

Today was the day! She'd been planning this whole trip, and while she'd come close a few times, it still alluded her.

Elizabeth smirked.

I'm going to give that girl the biggest, tightest Bewear hug I can! She crowed, pumping her fist into the air. Since the moment she'd set eyes on Sango, Elizabeth had wanted to hug her tightly and never, ever let her go. But Sango unfortunately had other ideas. That little side-hug she'd given the girl while in front of the hot spring hadn't been nearly enough! Elizabeth was overflowing with maternal instinct, and nothing would sooth it like a big, bury-her-face-in-your-huge-boobs embrace for minutes on end. Just thinking about doting on that little girl…

A pang of guilt pierced Elizabeth's heart. She held her hand over her breast and her smile faded for a moment as she remembered her real daughter.

"I'm sorry sweetie…" she whispered. "Momma hasn't forgotten you, you're still my precious baby girl… but… it's okay, right? For me to get close with someone else, too?"

Elizabeth sighed and turned off the water. She stepped into the changing area, running a towel over her voluptuous curves. She had to be careful. Sango… if she was too forceful, the girl might think that she was trying to replace her mother, Maya. But that's not the case, Sango! I just wanna hug and squeeze you! Because you're so fudging adorable!

It was a tightrope to walk. She had to seem the mature, compassionate step-mother around the girl, because if she let her real impulses out, then she wouldn't let the girl go back to her school. Hell, yesterday she'd had to separate from her on the walk up to the mural, because if she'd hung around the girl any longer she wouldn't have been able to resist the urge to glomp the blonde. Luckily, she'd gone off to check on that other girl, Kate, instead. And that hadn't been much better! Kate's sad face just made Elizabeth want to give her a motherly hug, as well! Why couldn't she just adopt the adorable girl and fix all her problems for her?!

Elizabeth finished drying off and hung the moist towel. The sun was starting to rise now, and for a moment she stalled at putting on a change of clothes. She reached down and placed a hand on her belly, just below her navel.

"I wonder if it isn't too late yet…?" She pondered, her cheeks flushing. She shook her head frantically. Wh-what am I saying? Uboss and I haven't even discussed something that important! W-we aren't even married yet, so something like this would be… um…

Elizabeth glanced aside, considering it for a moment longer.

Well, maybe tonight we could try…

She changed into a white turtleneck and tan vest, and tight khaki shorts. She shook the last droplets of water free from her short hair, and ran her hand over it to smooth it out. There would be time to think about it later, for now, she was going to focus on hugging Sango today, by whatever means necessary! The girl would never see it coming!

She walked out of the changing room, bathed in the first rays of sunlight, when she felt something odd on the wind. There were pokemon in the area. This wasn't odd in and of itself, many pokemon scurried around towns in the night, especially villages and towns in the outskirts like Stow-on-Side. But these pokemon, she could feel that they were fighting. This close to the campsite, that could be problematic. So she adjusted her fanny pack and corrected her course towards where she sensed the pokemon. If they were wild, she'd be able to calm them down rather easily.

But when she arrived at a chunk of flatland outside of the campsite, she saw that they were not, in fact, wild pokemon doing battle, and they were not alone. The two pokemon were a Sneasel, a pokemon Elizabeth recognized from her home region. The other was a species that she was not familiar with. It looked like a bulky insect, with a slender, tan body and flitting, diamond-shaped wings. They were fighting one another, under the careful observation of a girl, one of the students Aurore had brought with him.

"Sari! Use ice shard!" The girl ordered. "Drakon! Don't dodge it! Endure the attack!"

"Snea!" The Sneasel nodded, holding up her claws, chunks of ice coalescing around her and shooting towards the pokemon flying above the sand. The pokemon braced himself and let the ice break on his body, stifling his cries.

Elizabeth winced with sympathy towards the pokemon. It looked like that attack had hurt.

"Excuse me, young lady."

Lana jerked in surprise, whirling around to see the woman walking up. She hadn't expected that! Who the hell was awake this early in the morning?! She glared suspiciously at the doctor, Elizabeth Skye, wondering what she wanted.

"What are you doing here?" Lana demanded. She trained early in the mornings specifically so that other trainers would not be able to peek on her training and see her pokemon's strengths and weaknesses. She liked observing others, but hated being studied herself.

"I was taking an early walk, when you caught my attention," Elizabeth explained. "So you're training your pokemon?"

"What about it?" Lana sniffed, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"Don't you think you're being a little too harsh?" Elizabeth asked. "That pokemon of yours, the one in the air…"

"Drakon? He's fine," Lana shrugged. "I train my pokemon to endure painful attacks, that's how they get stronger. What?"

"Nothing, nothing," Elizabeth sighed. "I just feel a little bad for him, is all."

"Well, don't," Lana said. "Drakon, you're fine, right?"

"Vib!" The Vibrava fluttered over to his trainer's side, chirping in agreement. Elizabeth glanced at him, and sighed in relief. He was onboard with this, so it wasn't like Lana was abusing her pokemon. Still, she didn't really like training pokemon for battle this way.

"Well, I apologize for butting my head in," Elizabeth said. But she wasn't really sorry. She was more curious than sorry. "But if you don't mind… would you like to have a battle?"

Lana blinked.

"What? A battle, what do you mean?" Lana asked, confused. "With you?"

"Why, yes," Elizabeth said. "Just one pokemon each, nothing extensive. I just want to see what your training can do, you don't mind, do you?"

Lana considered it.

"Fine. But since I'm agreeing to fight, don't go spreading this all around, okay?"

"Sounds good," Elizabeth nodded.

"Drakon, you up for this?" Lana asked, recalling her Sneasel. Drakon still needed some training. She wasn't going in on this to win; that wasn't her style. She didn't fight only to win. She fought to learn, and in this case, she was going to learn more about her Vibrava.

"That's quite a tough pokemon," Elizabeth smiled. "I can feel his eagerness to fight! It's quite rare for him, I'd say."

Lana narrowed her eyes. Indeed, Drakon was not a pokemon that typically enjoyed fighting. But being in his home environment of a desert must have made him a little more active. She wondered, was he also interested in showing off to this woman how Lana's training made him stronger? She smiled, that was the spirit!

Elizabeth stepped back from Lana and walked a decent distance away from her, reaching into her fanny pack and withdrawing a pokeball. She spun on her boots and tossed it out, the ball opening up and a large winged pokemon emerging with a caw, the rising sun casting beams of light across the shimmering midnight-colored feathers of the bird.

"Corviknight!" The large bird pokemon squawked.

"Corrina!" Elizabeth smiled. "Hello there!"

"Oh? What pokemon is that?" Lana asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

"I caught her a few days ago," Elizabeth cooed, walking up to the large bird a few feet taller than her and patting her on the side. "She was so sweet I couldn't resist! This'll be our first battle!"

Lana frowned. Was she looking down on her?

"Drakon! Dragon pulse!"

"Vibrava!" Drakon opened his mouth, red draconic energy pulsing in front of it. He fired the sphere at the large bird, electricity crackling around it.

"Corrina! Let's do it!" Elizabeth said, stepping back. "Steel wing!"

"Corvi!" Corinna nodded, raising her wing, which began glowing with a silver light. The dragon pulse struck the wing, breaking up against it and sending the current of energy into the pokemon's body.

"Direct hit!" Lana cheered, pumping her fist. That pokemon looked like a steel type if she had to guess, so the attack wasn't very effective. But Drakon was strong, and-

The dust cleared, and much to her shock, the bird looked almost uninjured.

"Our turn!" Elizabeth said, her eyes flashing. "Corinna, go!"

With a flap of her mighty wings, the large Corviknight took to the sky, flying straight towards the Vibrava. Taking off from the ground was enough to send a blast of wind across the desert floor, nearly knocking Lana off of her feet.

"Drakon! She's tough, but I think we can still do some damage," Lana said. "Use faint attack!"

Before the Corviknight could strike, Drakon disappeared, the metallic bird soaring over Lana's head. She circled back around, keeping an eye out for Drakon, when the Vibrava materialized above, striking into her from behind with her tail.

"Cooor!" Corrina swiped her wing, rolling through the air, knocking Drakon back. The Vibrava spread his wings and fired of a blast of draconic flames, but a flap of Corinna's wings was enough to easily extinguish them.

Lana was clear that things were not going well. This Corviknight was an incredibly strong pokemon, and it was just freshly caught? She didn't really see a way that she could win. Without Drakon's ground moves, it was going to be nearly impossible for them to defeat such a strong steel pokemon. But that was fine. She would use this as practice for training up her Vibrava's ability to fight pokemon that it wouldn't naturally be able to defeat. She always made the best out of a bad situation. Even if she wouldn't win, she'd learn from her mistakes and do better next time.

"Drakon, use supersonic to confuse it," Lana ordered. Drakon opened his mouth and his wings began vibrating, creating an erratic current of sound intended to throw off Corrina's senses, and maybe even result in her falling out of the sky.

"Corrina, counter that with metallic sound!" Elizabeth ordered.

"COOOOOOOOOORRRRVIIIIIIIIII!" Corrina screeched, her metallic feathers vibrating in her wings, scraping against each other. The resulting sounds countered Drakon's supersonic with a deafening clarion, the Vibrava crying out in pain.

"Corrina, you're doing great!" Elizabeth called, waving up at her large bird pokemon. "Now, go for an air slash!"

Lana couldn't hear the instructions over the deafening attack, and she suspected the Corviknight couldn't either. And yet she knew exactly what Elizabeth wanted from her, the sound dying down as she flew closer to the stunned Vibrava.

"Cor!" Corinna squawked, flapping her wings. A mighty blast of air shot from her wing, slicing through the sky and striking Drakon with a blade created from the vacuum.

"Drakon!" Lana cried, as her Vibrava fell out of the sky. She could feel the air shaking from the power of that air slash, Drakon hitting the ground hard.

Elizabeth was already in motion. She ran to the pokemon's side, kneeling down next to her as Lana approached, reaching for her pokeball. But Elizabeth held up her hand.

"Let me treat him first," she said, her Corviknight landing on the ground behind her. Elizabeth reached into her fanny pack and withdrew a small object, a yellow crystalline chunk of medicine composed of a fine powder. She tilted the Vibrava's mouth open, and broke the fragile revive in her fingers, the crystalline powder dropping into the pokemon's mouth and reinvigorating him.

"Thank you," Lana said, Drakon's health getting partially restored. He looked up shakily.

"Not a problem!" Elizabeth chirped. "Drakon here was saying that he wanted to do his best, so I got a little carried away, sorry. But I would hate to hurt such a kind, loyal pokemon. You look after him, okay? I was a little worried at first, but… Drakon here's really attached, you must take good care of him. Even if your training seems a little… harsh, it seems that he still likes it."

Lana recalled her Vibrava, and glanced at Elizabeth and her Corviknight enviously. That pokemon was quite powerful, and she wanted one of her own.

"That Corviknight is very powerful," Lana said. "But I thought you said you just captured her? How did you train her to be such a strong fighter?"

Elizabeth stood up, looking up into Corrina's eyes, running her hand over the bird's metallic down. She smiled lovingly.

"It's not that I trained her," Elizabeth connected. "Like all my pokemon, she and I… we share a special connection."

Lana didn't really get what she meant by that, but she wanted a pokemon as strong as this one. They were found in the Galar region, so she made a note to try and catch one while on this trip. She could raise it up to be quite a fearsome fighter, she reasoned.

"Would you look at that?" Elizabeth glanced at the sun, which had already risen over the horizon. The battle had taken longer than she'd expected. She could feel her stomach rumbling. She recalled Corrina, and turned to Lana. "It's almost time for breakfast!"

"Uh-huh," Lana murmured, already lost in thought. She was in the process of considering how to make use of this experience to improve her training. You could learn quite a lot from a loss. For example, that Drakon was not strong enough without his ground moves. Hopefully, he would evolve into a Flygon very soon. He was already at a level where he should evolve, and yet for some reason he had not. So she couldn't count on him evolving as a strategy.

Now how can I take advantage of his current state? She needed to find a way to make a Vibrava as strong as a Flygon. That was the thought process that guided her thinking as she followed Elizabeth back to the camp.

Elizabeth was more occupied with the thought of breakfast. That battle had been a nice little diversion from her work, even if she had taken it a little more seriously than she had meant to. Corrina was a very aggressive girl, and she enjoyed battles. So when she connected with her, she found herself getting swept up sometimes. But that was okay.

She rubbed her belly. Using her harmonia really worked up an appetite, even when she kept it at the minimum like she'd just done. She felt a little exhausted, and yet at the same time, she was more energized than she'd been earlier. After she ate, she was ready to get to work on translating again… after she talked with Sonia, of course.

A nice little relaxing chapter with Elizabeth to pass the time. What will we get next? There are still many secrets to discover about the ruins. Elizabeth gets another moment looking after a girl. She really is a rather kind, mothering sort.