Sango's first battle comes to a close in this chapter! Will Maddi's experience and technique prove surprisingly unable to score her the win? Or will Sango lose her composure and fail? Or just be overwhelmed in general? She's certainly trying her best, but will her best be enough, I wonder? We'll have to find out!
The Finals have begun! The Pokemon Academy Best Girl Finals have only gotten a few votes in, I can't wait to see how it goes. All the girls there are pretty good, but as you may have guessed I'm personally polling for Ayame in light of the story direction. How will it go? We'll have to see! Be sure to get your votes in! Only one girl can win, who will that one girl be? Who will be the Pokemon Academy Best Girl?
Finalists: Sango, Ayame, Marion
Rosealine gold: Good, I'm glad you liked it!
Aquahaze675: Well, she'll certainly try her best, that's for sure.
KyubiMaster9: Yeah, but Sango grinds.
Thunder Fire: It seems unlikely, doesn't it?
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 303
"Vee, shadow ball," Maddi ordered.
"Eevee!" Vee opened his mouth as he ran forward, a massive sphere of dark energy gathering in his tiny fangs. He spit the shadow ball out, the attack shooting at Snowcone.
"Snowcone, counter with weather ball!" Sango ordered. Snowcone opened their mouths and fired a glowing orb of light directly at the shadow ball. The glowing attack began gathering energy from the falling hail, colliding with the other attack. More powerful and boosted by STAB, Snowcone's weather ball smashed through the shadow ball as they hit, pushing through and hitting Vee directly, exploding with a blast of icy energy that sent Vee skidding across the ground.
"Vee, are you okay?" Maddi asked. "Sand attack."
Vee jumped to his feet and dug his claws into the tiled floor, scraping up some dust and flinging it into Snowcone's face as a blinding.
"Snowcone! If you can't see, use icy wind to sweep through the field," Sango ordered.
"Van!" Snowcone nodded, all four of his eyes squeezed shut. He opened his mouths and a wave of cold air blew forth, ice and snow swirling within it and engulfing the battlefield.
"Vee! Push through it with quick attack," Maddi ordered. Vee tucked his head in and leapt forward, bracing himself against the ice pelting against his fur. He leapt up and landed on Snowcone, his small body finding easy footholds on the giant floating sundae.
"Snowcone!" Sango cried. "You've got to shake him off!"
"Vanilluxe!" Snowcone wailed, thrashing around and trying to shake off the smaller pokemon.
"Vee, hit him at close range with a shadow ball," Maddi shouted. Vee nodded and opened his mouth, a giant sphere of dark energy appearing in front of him. He blasted Snowcone in the back of one of his heads with the attack, sending slush flying as the ice pokemon tumbled through the air and crashed into the ground.
Vee landed on all fours, already preparing another shadow ball.
"Ice beam!" Sango shouted. Snowcone's eyes snapped open and a beam of compressed frozen energy shot out from one of his mouths, shooting across the battlefield and hitting Vee directly. The pokemon let out a wail as the cold chilled him to the bone, his body beginning to freeze over. The ice beam sealed him up in a large chunk of ice.
"Vee!" Maddi cried out, her pokemon frozen solid and unable to move.
"Yeah! Now that's what we like to see!" Sango cheered, pumping her fist in the air. "Now, Snowcone, let's finish him off! Weather ball!"
"Vanilluxe!" Snowcone nodded, floating back up into the air. He gathered together more energy in front of him, and fired it off in a compressed blast of icy light, drawing power from the weather itself to strengthen his attack. The orb of light flew across the battlefield and collided with the frozen pokemon, shattering through the ice and hitting the Eevee in the face, exploding with enough force to send the pokemon flying through the air.
"Eeeee!" Vee cried, hitting the ground hard. He struggled to rise to his feet, before finally collapsing.
"Sorry, Vee," Maddi apologized, recalling her pokemon. "But you did a good job with the Cloyster, you've earned yourself a nice break."
Maddi turned to Sango.
"Well, you managed to defeat one of my pokemon, not bad.
"Yeah, I… I did," Sango said, nodding, the weight of her accomplishment sinking in as she felt her heart lighten. "I defeated a pokemon, for real! We did it, Snowcone!"
"Vanil-"
A burst of flames engulfed the Vanilluxe from behind, cutting his cheer short.
"Snowcone!" Sango wailed, the fire dying down and revealing Snowcone's snow had completely melted away, revealing the wet ice body below, which fell to the ground. Snowcone had taken too much damage already, and had now lost consciousness.
"Focus on what your opponent is doing," Maddi chastised her. Cynder was standing in front of her, wincing in pain from the spikes digging into her paws. "You Vanilluxe was already weakened from attacks from Cynder and Vee, you were careless to let your guard down like that. Until the battle is over, stay vigilant."
"Yes, I understand," Sango said, sighing, recalling her Vanilluxe. She looked down at the pokeball apologetically. "Sorry buddy, I let you down."
"Well? One pokemon left," Maddi reminded Sango. Though she was maintaining a confident air, she could see the Cynder was definitely in rough shape. Still, she had no doubt that even if she fell, Mist would be able to defeat the Ninetales.
"I know!" Sango snapped, raising her head to shoot a glare at Maddi. She put the pokeball away and grabbed her final one. "Aurora! Go!"
She tossed the pokeball into the air, and from within the Ninetales, her final pokemon, leapt out. The ice pokemon landed on the ground, her tails dancing around her body and flowing like ribbons, her body glistening in the sunlight like a coat of countless diamonds. The hail seemed to bend towards her, wrapping around her in a veil of ice and snow that seemed to obscure her from sight, her pale blue fur nearly invisible.
"Nice name," Maddi complimented. "Better than your last two, at least."
"Thanks for the compliment," Sango grinned. "But shouldn't you be focusing on the battle? You did just warn me after all, it'd be good to take your own advice!"
"Fair enough. Cynder, use ember!" Maddi ordered, Cynder's mouth opening wide. A blast of flames shot out in a stream towards Aurora.
"Ninetales," Aurora purred, the flames passing harmlessly through her. It was a mirage! The real Aurora had been entirely concealed by the ice.
"Hiding, huh?" Maddi grinned. "Well, you're not the only one who can handle something like this. Cynder, use smokescreen."
"Cyn!" Cynder opened her mouth wide, and a cloud of black smoke billowed out across the battlefield, Sango coughing in response.
"That won't work on us a second time," Sango said. "Now we can fight back against something like that! Aurora, use dazzling gleam!"
"Ninetales!" Aurora's dark blue eyes flashed with a white-pink light, which quickly engulfed her entire body. Blinding rays of light pierced through the smoke, dispersing the black clouds and striking Cynder directly, the pokemon letting out a yelp in pain as the smoke disappeared. But in doing so, Aurora had revealed her own location.
"There she is!" Maddi wasn't about to let this opportunity slip by. "Cynder! Flame wheel!"
Cynder curled into a ball and covered her body with flames, rolling forward and pushing the spikes aside, the heat of the fire melting the hail as it came near her. Her flames flared up even more fiercely, and she charged right at Aurora.
"I was certain that would be enough," Sango scowled. "Aurora! Dodge it!"
"Ninetales," Aurora nodded, swiftly running from the approaching pokemon, moving around behind her and preparing to attack with a second dazzling gleam, her strongest move that wasn't an ice type; against the pokemon's fierce flames, ice moves wouldn't be very effective.
"Fire types resist fairy moves," Maddi reminded her. "And in the meantime, your Ninetales is weak to fire moves herself! Just like this! Cynder, move up!"
Cynder continued rolling forward until her back pressed against the ground, at which point she erupted the fire spouts on her back. The resulting force from the attack launched her into the air, causing her to fly over the magic rays Aurora unleashed.
"Aurora! Above you!" Sango cried. Aurora's head shot up, but not quite fast enough.
"Ember," Maddi ordered. The moment Aurora spotted Cynder, the pokemon unleashed a rain of fire down on the mystical pokemon. The flames landed on her cool fur, causing Aurora to let out a cry of pain as she began to burn. She leapt back, cool air wrapping around her body to smother the flames and soothe her injuries, a defensive measure implemented fast enough to avoid serious burns. Cynder landed on the ground, Aurora growling at the smaller pokemon in a rage.
"That was close," Sango sighed. "Aurora! Let's go no defensive for now while the hail wears down that Cyndaquil! Use aurora veil!"
"Ninetales!" Aurora howled. The hail intensified and wrapped around her in a curtain, the cold air suffusing with light as her defensive powers were raised. The veil shimmered around her, shining with the colors of the rainbow as the air temperature around Aurora dropped considerably. She was nearly invisible as the barriers shifted around her.
"Oh!" Maddi said, her eyes widening. "You saw that one, huh?"
"It looked like a lot of fun," Sango smiled. "Thanks to the effects of aurora veil, the hail has formed a protective shield around my Ninetales, drastically weakening the attacking power of both your special and physical moves! And not only that, Aurora! Add a safeguard to it, as well!"
"Nine!" Aurora nodded, another shimmering field of light wrapping around her. The safeguard ruined her chances of hiding within the snow, but the trade-off was worth it. Cynder couldn't burn her with her will-o-wisp attacks, meaning that her health wouldn't continuously weaken. In the meantime, the hail pelting down on the battlefield was starting to get to Cynder, who had already taken some serious hits, having fought against Sango's entire team at one point or another.
"Cynder, use ember again," Maddi ordered. It wasn't worth it to switch Cynder out; he was already weak, and the most important thing was to keep up the pressure and do as much damage as they could before she finally succumbed to the hail.
Cynder nodded and opened her mouth, firing another blast of flames at Aurora.
"Aurora, we don't need to worry too much about that," Sango said. "With your defenses-"
Aurora braced herself against the flames as she charged forward, but they burned a lot more than she'd expected. She let out a cry of pain as she leapt through them, breaking her focus.
"Aurora?!" Sango gasped. "What's wrong?"
"You forgot my Cyndaquil's ability," Maddi reminded her. "Blaze. When Cynder's health is greatly lowered, the intensity of her firepower is boosted to make up for it. That's what I used to get the drop on you before, leaping over your dazzling gleam attack, and as you can see here, it let Cynder score a powerful hit against your Ninetales a second time!"
So even though we boosted our defenses, that Cyndaquil has boosted her attacking power, too. That means we can't just hide behind our shields.
"Aurora!" Sango called out. "We'll have to focus on our attacks! We can't just play on the defensive, we still have one more pokemon to take down, after all!"
"Nine!" Aurora agreed.
So this is battling, huh? Sango couldn't help the smile curling up her lips. It was so exciting! I can't believe it's such a rush! The chance of winning or losing, relying on the strength of my pokemon… I think I get what Blake and Cynthia love about this so much!
Aurora approached Cynder, her mouth opening wide.
"Use extrasensory!"
Aurora howled, a blue aura covering her body. She let a bolt of mental energy erupt from her mind, striking Cynder with a psychic assault that sent her stumbling backwards with sheer destructive mental power. Cynder's body seized up and crashed into the ground, losing consciousness as she skidded across the spikes littering the battlefield.
"You really did your best, but you couldn't do it all," Maddi soothed her Cyndaquil, who would no doubt be frustrated when she awoke. "You've weakened her slightly, and that's the best you could do. Don't worry, Mist will be the one to clean it up!"
Maddi put her pokeball on her belt, and smiled.
"You're good, Sango. Good instincts, and you seem to be having fun. But your experience can't compare to mine. That's why I'm going to be the one to win."
"Well, bring it then!" Sango cracked a grin. She wasn't feeling arrogant. Win or lose, she was sure that she'd learn something from it. Right now, she was just focused on doing the best she could and on not making any major mistakes.
"Mist, let's finish things!" Maddi declared, sending out her final pokemon as well. The Seadra spread her fins wide and glided through the air, and with a swish she sent a wave of water surging across the battlefield.
"Whoa, what's going on?!" Sango asked, stunned.
"Well, we can't expect Mist to do her fighting in the air," Maddi explained, holding up a small remote. Her half of the battlefield slid away, causing the spikes to fall uselessly into the pool of water revealed beneath it. Mist landed in the water as well, quickly emerging from the depths. She spit a stream of water at Aurora, hitting her before the pokemon could react, though not doing much damage thanks to her aurora veil. Mist submerged again, becoming nothing more than a shadow darting around beneath the water.
"Well, that's annoying," Sango scowled. "You just invalidated my spikes by swapping the terrain, that's not fair!"
"I used the terrain to my advantage," Maddi corrected her. "It's a valid strategy, and one that I suggest you keep in mind for the future."
"Come on, you totally just cheated! With that remote just now, you changed the battlefield to suit yourself!" Sango protested.
Maddi quickly hit the remote in her jacket pocket.
"…No."
Sango muttered a string of curses, but decided it was ultimately not worth it.
This is frustrating. Without the spikes to hamper her pokemon's movements, we aren't in a very good position. Right now, the Seadra is only in his little pool, but it covers Maddi's entire side of the battlefield, which means he has a lot of maneuverability. He can escape quite a bit, I don't know if we'll be able to pin him down…
Sango's eyes widened in realization.
"Wait… maybe not."
A wicked thought crossed Sango's mind, and she smiled.
"Aurora! Use your ice beam attack to freeze the water!"
"Ninetales," Aurora nodded, smiling alongside her. The thought had crossed her mind, as well. If they froze the water solid, then they could trap the pokemon's movements!
Aurora opened her mouth, icy energy gathering into a cloud that crackled in front of her. She fired the energy in a compressed beam of crackling energy right at the water.
"I thought you'd come up with the one," Maddi grinned. "Mist! Use scald!"
"Seadra!" Mist surfaced, her snout flexing. A blast of compressed, steam water erupted from it, colliding with the ice beam. But against Sango's expectations, the water did not freeze solid on contact. Rather… the ice began to give in, instead.
"What the?!" Sango gasped, her jaw dropping. "The water isn't freezing!"
"That's right, it's not," Maddi smirked. "Normally the water would freeze, yes, but this water is rather special! It's at a heat that it would burn on contact!"
The scalding water melted right through the ice beam and caused the aurora veil to turn into puddles, drenching Aurora completely.
"NINETALES!" Aurore wailed as the boiling water rained down on her.
"And that's not all! Mist, heat up the water even more!" Maddi snapped her fingers, and Mist used another scald attack, this time on the water in the pool around her. Soon, the pool became a veritable hot spring. But Mist wasn't about to let it stop there. The water began to swirl around, faster and faster, as if spurred into action.
"And now that we've whipped it up nice and hot, use whirlpool!"
"Seadra!" Mist spat out, the water dancing up around him into a massive torrent, swirling up in a waterspout that throbbed and whirled.
"Holy-!" Sango gasped. "Aurora! Watch out!"
The air heated up around them, nullifying the hail and turning it into nothing but rain. It ripped across the battlefield, surging towards the Ninetales.
"Here's a lesson to you," Maddi said. "Fire is the strongest way to overpower ice moves, because they melt so easily. But fire pokemon are not the only way of handling such things. As you can see… water pokemon have their own strategies for handling ice pokemon!"
Aurora leapt out of the way to avoid the attack, the whirlpool spinning past her. When she landed on the ground, though, she let out a wail of pain.
"Aurora! What's wrong?!" Sango cried out.
"I thought I told you I would use the terrain to my advantage?" Maddi smirked, pointing down.
Sango glanced down and realized with a start that the ground around Aurora's feet was covered with spikes.
"What?! How?!" Sango gasped, shocked that her pokemon's mobility had been cut off.
"After the spikes fell into the water, I used whirlpool to gather them up?" Maddi explained. "Then, while the whirlpool was spinning, it flung them out across the ground as it passed over the battlefield. So, what do you think? Not a bad plan, huh?"
"Aurora, you need to get out," Sango cried. The whirlpool was already changing course and swirling towards her again.
Aurora nodded and tried to get around the spikes, wincing through the pain. But it was too much. The spikes weren't just sharp, they were hot like fire, and burned her paws as she tried to walk over them, causing her to cry out in pain.
Aurora can't move like this, which means… Sango wasn't sure what she could do. There didn't seem to be a way to get away, white-hot spikes surrounding her pokemon and scalding water surging closer towards her.
Trying to think of instructions to give Aurora… Sango's mind went completely blank. It had been a long battle, and she had reached the end of her psychological stamina. She couldn't think of what to do, and the situation looked hopeless.
"I'm sorry," Sango cried, lowering her head. She couldn't bear to see Aurora's face when the water slammed into her, lifting her into the air and burning her, while at the same time slicing into her with what spikes remained.
"…I think that's the end of that," Maddi said, Aurora being flung from the waterspout and crashing to the ground. She recalled Mist, who hadn't even been scratched.
"Sorry, sorry…" Sango repeated a few more times. She felt so unbelievably bad. She'd tried so hard in that battle, but by the end of it she didn't know what else to do. She hadn't expected a water pokemon to begin nullifying ice moves like that, and when the ice melted she'd been completely thrown off, and hadn't been able to regain her bearings.
"Ninetales…"
Aurora, badly injured and unable to continue fighting, but not fully unconscious, plodded over to her. She lowered her head and licked Sango's hand, looking up at her with big, blue eyes.
"Aurora…?" Sango blinked, meeting the pokemon's eyes. She was surprised.
"She's saying it's okay," Maddi said. "So am I. For your first showing… it wasn't that bad, you know? Yeah, maybe you lost focus at the end and couldn't keep going as strong, so it didn't have the best ending it could have… but you still definitely did your best, so there's nothing to be ashamed of. Now, you can get better, right?"
"…Yeah," Sango said, nodding. "Thanks, you two."
"Ninetales," Aurora smiled.
"Castform!" Silver huffed, floating up beside Sango and puffing her cheeks up. He had been cheering for his partner the entire time, but she was only interested in thanking the Ninetales!
"Thank you too, Silver," Sango said, patting him on the head as her returned to his normal form. "You were rooting for me too, after all."
"Castform," Silver smiled smugly, satisfied at being acknowledged.
"So how was it? Your first battle?" Maddi asked, walking around the pool and approaching Sango.
"It… it was exciting," Sango admitted. "And a lot of fun. I'd like to do it again, but… are you sure it's okay if I'm not that good at it?"
Maddi looked at Sango, the expression on her face screaming "what, are you an idiot or something?"
"I don't know what you were expecting going in," Maddi sighed, "but I think you did a damn good job considering your experience."
"R-really?" Sango asked, blushing in surprise.
"…Yeah, really," Maddi said, rolling her eyes. This girl's expectations were way too damn high. "Now, call back your pokemon, and let's get them healed up. Then we can go over your mistakes and figure out how you can do better next time."
"R-right!" Sango said, nodding, recalling her injured Ninetales and following after Maddi, the two girls leaving the training room.
So, Sango's first battle is over! As we expected, she lost, but she tried her best! She only has room to grow from here!