Kitty x Nikita vs. Sango x Maddi, with Marion on the outside! These five girls are sure to have an interesting match, that's for sure! The only question is, who will win?

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

Hellraiserphoenix: That's definitely true. It's important to get used to different types and kinds of pokemon. She'll probably switch back to ice types after this, but water types are definitely worth showing off, especially on Marion's special battlefield.

Rosealine gold: Not at all, it just shows that Maddi is getting closer to the other characters!

Aquahaze675: Those are the kind of things that you need to do in order to accomplish your goals. She didn't become a Daeva by accident, after all.

MikySP: Sorry, I must have missed it! Yeah, I'm not really accepting submissions at the moment, but I'm happy to keep your character in reserve if I have a place to use him.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 309

Sango's going to start with a water pokemon, Kitty reasoned, taking a deep breath. I only have three pokemon, so I can't avoid sending out Larosa. If that's the case, then I should have her help out now, to soften things up.

"Larosa!" Kitty tossed out her first pokeball. Her Growlithe emerged, snarling.

Uhum… Kitty's using a fire type… and Sango will be using water types… I don't know what pokemon that Maddi girl might have, but… it's probably not a good idea to use Magnolia this early… Nikita glanced at Kitty's Growlithe. She wasn't used to thinking this much about her pokemon's type specialties, because she didn't often use them in battle.

"Vee, go," Maddi said, sending out her Eevee.

"You have an Eevee?" Kitty asked, her expression brightening.

"Um, um, then Chomper!" Nikita said, sending out her Totodile.

Sango was the only one who hadn't sent out her first pokemon yet. She glanced at Marion, who was busy fawning over the Totodile, and then to the pokeballs Maddi had handed her. She would have sent out Shell in this situation, if she were using the Ice team, but she wasn't. These were three brand new pokemon she'd never used before.

Sango looked at Marion again.

She'd know what to do. She lives and breathes water pokemon… but I'm…

"Sango."

Sango was shaken out of her thoughts by Maddi's calming voice. She glanced to her right, where her partner was waiting patiently with her arms crossed, glancing aside at her.

"It's okay to think about an opening move, but don't overthink it," Maddi advised her. "If you spend all your time worrying about how to start, you'll waste energy you'll need for thinking later. Even if your first move isn't perfect, it's more important to put thought into the battle, don't you agree?"

Sango nodded. Maddi had given her the info on her Water team, just like her Ice team. Sango quickly scanned everything, and decided on her first move.

"Sting, go!" Sango shouted, sending out her first pokemon, the Tentacruel.

"It's Tentacruel!" Marion gushed. "Those shiny jewels, those sleek stingers, those cruel eyes, they're the best! What a good move, Sango!"

Sango ignored Marion's fawning, her mind inevitably returning to the last time she and Marion were involved with a Tentacruel, back during her probationary exam. A shiver went down her spine at that memory of almost dying.

It's fine, Marion doesn't mind, and Sting's fighting for me.

Sango's self-reassurance was unfortunately not very reassuring.

"Okay, let's get this thing started, y'all!" Marion cheered.

Because of the stadium I can't use dig against that poison type, Kitty frowned. She took a deep breath, and reached out to Larosa, feeling the warmth of her friend rolling over her. Come on, girl. Let's do this together.

"Groooooow!" Larosa began things off with a loud howl, raising her attacking strength, which was already being boosted by Kitty's harmonia. She lowered her head and snarled at the pokemon on the other side of the field, her intimidating glare weakening them. Lowering her head, she charged forward.

We'll use flame wheel, Kitty decided. That Tentacruel can easily dodge us by going into the water, so we'll focus our efforts on that Eevee!

Heeding her trainer's wishes, flames leapt up around Larosa's body and she ran quickly towards the Eevee.

"Vee, quick attack to dodge," Maddi ordered, her eyes shooting to Sango pointedly.

"Right!" Sango nodded. "Sting! Let's limit Larosa's mobility with a bubblebeam attack!"

"Tentacruel!" Sting hoisted himself out of the water with his tentacles, tilting himself back. From the center of the two curled pincers, a stream of bubbles shot out, flying towards the flaming Larosa to slow her attack as Vee dodged.

"Chomper, use your bubblebeam, too!" Nikita shouted. She smiled at Kitty and nodded. "Remember, there's two of us, too!"

"Totodile!" Chomper shouted, opening his large mouth, firing a bubblebeam attack of his own. Chomper's bubbles struck Sting's, unleashing a chain of mini-explosions in the air. Larosa emerged from the smoke, still ablaze, running straight for Vee. But Vee was much swifter than the larger dog pokemon, darting to the side and charging ahead, but not attacking the Growlithe. Her body was on fire, and a quick attack would be bad. So Vee turned her attention towards the Totodile, instead.

Kitty picked up on this and connected to Larosa, her Growlithe turning her attention another direction. Putting Vee out of her thoughts, Kitty instead sent Larosa to use her flame wheel on the Tentacruel, instead. It wouldn't be a powerful move, but she still had the momentum and she wasn't about to turn her back on a water pokemon to go after that Eevee.

"Sting, dive into the water!" Sango quickly ordered. Sting moved to sink down into one of the large holes in the stadium, but he wasn't fast enough. Larosa slammed into his body, knocking him from the water's edge. The attack didn't do much damage, but the force of the tackle was still rather powerful, Sting flopping onto his side.

"Sting, get up," Sango cried.

"Little more," Kitty murmured, narrowing her eyes as she clenched her hands into fists, focusing her energy on Larosa. She felt her pokemon's strength increase. "Crunch!"

Larosa opened her jaws wide and leapt upon Sting, biting down on the side of his head with a ferocious chomp.

"TENTACRUEL!" Sting roared in pain, his tentacles thrashing around.

"Sting!" Sango shouted.

"Oh no!" Marion gasped.

Meanwhile, Vee had closed the distance between himself and Nikita's Totodile, and had circled around him to attack. Vee bit Chomper in the back of her neck, digging her claws into the pokemon's scaly hide, Chomper yelling out in pain. He thrashed around, trying to shake the Eevee off, but Vee kept herself latched on tightly.

What do I do?! Nikita asked herself frantically. Chomper wasn't used to battling, even though he enjoyed it, and there wasn't really a way to get the Eevee off that she could see. And her opponent…

Gulp.

Looking across the battlefield, Nikita saw Maddi staring intensely at her from her visible red eye. That look… it made her shiver. What was Nikita supposed to do?! This girl was clearly a battling expert, evidenced by her red armband (though wasn't she a first year?) and her intimidating glare was clearly an attempt to psych her out. Nikita gulped again.

That wasn't why Maddi was staring though.

Ahh! She has a Totodile! It's so unfair! I want a Totodile! She's so lucky! I need to ask her where she caught it so I can get one too! RRrr!

Maddi had been completely swayed by one of her favorite pokemon, even if he was on the opponent's side of the field.

"Chomper, return," Nikita said, recalling her Totodile. He wasn't a good matchup right now. Was that the right move? Calling a pokemon back? Nikita didn't know, but she was definitely feeling the pressure of pokemon battles. "Hammy, go!"

Nikita sent out her Grumpig, the round pokemon sitting dumbly on the battlefield. Maddi scowled, causing Nikita to flinch. Oh no! She'd made her opponent even angrier!

Actually Maddi was just upset that Nikita had called back her Totodile and replaced him with a Grumpig. Maddi had enjoyed seeing the Totodile, it was adorable. The Grumpig was… less so.

"Sting!" Sango's cry drew Maddi's attention. The crunch attack was doing some serious damage, and Sango was panicking. Her Tentacruel was spewing bubbles everywhere, desperately waving his tentacles to knock Larosa off of him.

Kitty clenched her teeth, biting down harder on the pokemon's body.

"Sango, use Tentacruel's acid armor!" Marion shouted.

"Wh-what?" Sango asked, glancing at Marion.

"Just do it!"

Sango gulped and nodded, turning back to her Tentacruel. "Er… yeah! Acid armor, Sting!"

Sting's body began shining, a slippery film oozing out of him. Taking on the consistency of water, his body was so slippery that Larosa's fangs fell right off, Sting slithering away and sinking into the water of the battlefield.

"Larosa!" Kitty called out. Larosa spit the oily ooze out of her mouth, glancing at the water. There was no telling where the Tentacruel would emerge from. Larosa leapt back, keeping as far from the pools of water as possible.

"Marion!" Sango snapped, turning to her fishing friend.

"Yeah?" Marion asked.

"Don't do that again," Sango replied.

"Do what?" Marion tilted her head to the side in confusion.

"Don't give me advice like you did just now," Sango explained.

"Huh? Why not?" Marion asked. "I'm just helping you learn more about your fishies, right?"

"But that's not right," Sango said, shaking her head. "Your help is appreciated, but I can't accept it. This is a pokemon battle. I have to do this myself, you know. If you're just going to tell me what to do the whole time, then I'm not going to be learning how to get stronger! I don't want you coaching me, I want to do this on my own!"

Marion's eyes widened.

"Uhum," she nodded in agreement.

"And don't forget, you aren't alone," Maddi said, Sango turning to her in surprise. Maddi was… smiling? Well, almost. Her face looked softer, anyway.

"We're doing this together, after all."

"Yeah! You go for it, Sango! Take them down!" Marion cheered.

"Marion!" Kitty gasped, turning a disbelieving glance to her friend and teacher, her eyes glistening with betrayal.

"Er!" Marion flinched, a guilty expression crossing her face. "Sorry, sorry! Kitty, you do your best, too! I'm rooting for both of you!"

Kitty smiled, turning her focus back onto her harmonia. Let's go, Larosa! After that Eevee!

"Vee, use shadow ball," Maddi ordered.

"Eee!" Vee growled, opening his mouth, an orb of darkness growing larger from within the center of it, increasing in size until it was bigger than his head. He fired the shadow ball at the Grumpig, who was just standing there dumbly, ignorant to everything around him.

"A ghost attack?" Nikita gasped. "Hammy! Use protect!"

"Grumpig?" Hammy looked back at her in confusion, not aware at all of what was happening, even as his body began glowing, covering himself with a barrier of light that extinguished the shadow ball.

On Kitty's orders, Larosa charged forward, running towards Vee. Kitty tightened the muscles in her calves, and Larosa felt her own legs begin to tighten. Her speed increased as Kitty's harmonia surged, crossing the distance between her and the Eevee in few quick dashes. She leapt into the air, pressing her front paws down on the ground, and spun her rear end towards the normal pokemon in a fast and powerful attack.

"Vee! Watch out! Behind you!" Maddi shouted. Vee's head jerked to the side in time to see Larosa's hind legs coming towards her. He ducked, managing to dodge the first attack, but the second kick caught her in the side of the face, knocking her across the battlefield.

"Nice double kick, Larosa!" Kitty cheered, clenching her fist in victory.

"Growl!" Larosa yipped in agreement, smiling.

"Vee!" Maddi cried out. Larosa's attack strength was incredibly high, and fighting-type moves were super-effect against normal pokemon like Vee. That attack had done a significant amount of damage to her pokemon, Vee struggling to rise to his feet.

"Ee… Vee…" Vee gasped, forcing himself back up onto his shaky legs, his eyes brimming with fighting spirit. Maddi let out a sigh of relief. That was a close one! But it looks like Vee is still ready to fight. But since the Tentacruel had disappeared, it looked like this was a 2v1, and Maddi wasn't entirely certain her could handle those odds.

Especially not against an opponent with harmonia…

Maddi's knowledge of harmonia was limited, and her experience with it even moreso. But Kitty didn't seem to be tearing apart the battlefield or knocking the two of them around like ragdolls. And her Growlithe, in turn, didn't seem to be giving off a feeling like a wrathful force of nature, just a slightly stronger pokemon than usual.

Come on, Sango! What are you doing? Maddi silently asked her teammate, trying to figure out what her next move should be.

Then, as if to answer her unasked question, the water around Kitty and Nikita's side of the battlefield began churning. Long gray tentacles erupted from the pools of water as Sting surfaced from outside of the stadium, his stingers weaving below and reaching up and out, wrapping around Larosa and Hammy and squeezing down tightly.

"Sango!" Maddi smiled.

"Go, Sting! Wrap them both up!" Sango ordered, Sting squeezing down on the two pokemon tightly, his slimy tentacles rubbing against the two pokemon.

"Grumpig?" Hammy didn't really seem to care about the tentacles squeezing his rotund body. His partner felt differently.

"Growl?!" Larosa squirmed against the tentacles as best as she could, but in spite of their slippery texture they remained tight around her.

"Yeah, we've got 'em," Maddi said, nodding.

"…" Kitty's face turned red as she felt something wriggling over her, wrapping tightly around her. Then her face got redder and redder. "M-meep…"

"Ueeeee…" Kitty squealed.

"Kitty?! What's wrong?" Nikita asked, running over to her partner's side.

"Maaa maaaaa maaaa!" Kitty squeaked out, falling to her knees as the strength left her body. Her face flushed and her body began to tremble.

"Are you okay? The backlash from harmonia isn't hurting you, right?" Nikita asked frantically. She didn't know if that was how it worked, but she thought she'd heard something about it working like that, didn't she? And something was clearly getting to her.

"It, it's… squeezing tightly," Kitty stammered out, too embarrassed to say more.

"Uh… that kind of looks like…" Sango eyes widened and she realized what was going on.

"So slimy and… eeewww…" Kitty wailed, trembling as the sensation of the constricting tentacles worming their way around her pokemon fed back into her, in all the worst ways that she had never imagined when she trained with harmonia. She'd expected to have to brace herself against pain, not… this.

Marion and Maddi slowly turned their judgmental gazes on Sango like she was the worst person in the world.

"…Sango you realize that when you use harmonia your sensations are linked to your pokemon, right?" Marion coldly asked, looking at Sango like she was trash. "So you feel everything that happens to them through your connection."

"Uwow, that is… wow, what complete scum," Maddi said, shaking her head.

"Why are you two acting like I planned it that way?!" Sango exclaimed, her face almost as red as Kitty's. "I had no idea that it would… THAT would happen, I was just trying to restrict their movements! I wouldn't-!"

"Perverted scum," Maddi said, utterly disgusted.

"Maaa…" Kitty gasped again, her body twitching. She was a few seconds from breaking her connection with Larosa to spare her dignity.

"Hammy, use psychic," Nikita ordered.

"Grum," Hammy nodded, his body glowing with psychic energy. A blue aura shimmered into existence around him, and then enveloped Sting as well. The light froze the water pokemon's movements, preventing her tentacles from squeezing down any further. Her grip loosened, and Larosa slipped free, Hammy plummeting to the ground without a care in the world.

"…Phew…" Kitty sighed, no longer being assailed by the phantom appendages touching her in places that were absolutely not okay. Her breathing evened out and she wiped her forehead, her heart-rate slowly returning to normal. After getting her bearings back, she reached up and wiped her forehead, and took stock of the situation.

Her face turned red again, and she buried it into her hands, sobbing.

"I showed everyone something so disgraceful…" she cried. Nikita patted her comfortingly on the back, glaring at Sango and Maddi, but mostly Sango.

"How could you do something so rude?!" She demanded.

"I didn't mean to-!" Sango exclaimed, stopping herself. This wasn't the time. "Sting! Try to attack!"

Sting tried to attack, but he couldn't. Hammy's psychic powers were too strong, much to the surprise of everyone there. It didn't help either that Sting was naturally weak to psychic moves due to his poison typing, something that Nikita was taking full advantage of as his health slowly depleted.

"Okay, fling it on the stadium," Nikita ordered.

Hammy nodded and raised Sting up into the air, attacking him with a blast of psychic power. With a turn of his tiny hands, he slammed Sting down onto battlefield with a powerful thud, the jellyfish pokemon letting out a cry at the pain of the impact and the assault on his mind.

"Tentacruel!" Sting grunted out, losing consciousness.

Everyone watched in silence, Sango quietly recalling the Tentacruel to his pokeball. Apparently, everyone wanted to put what had just happened behind them.

"…That's what you deserve, you enemy of women," Maddi scoffed.

"IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!" Sango shouted at her teammate. "Aren't we on the same team?!"

"I don't recall teaming up with a pervert," Maddi replied.

"That wasn't how it went and you know it!" Sango protested.

"Relax, I'm kidding," Maddi said, but she wouldn't look Sango in the eye.

"You don't sound like you're kidding! You sound totally serious!" Sango exclaimed. "Absolutely serious! You sound like you're going to call campo when we're done here!"

Kitty continued to cry into her hands, but more out of embarrassment than actually being hurt. She couldn't believe she'd shown… ew, just thinking of it sent shivers down her spine.

She suddenly empathized all too well with Elaina Bishop's desire to be rid of her harmonia, though for a reason Elaina probably never would have imagined.

Poor Kitty, it's okay. That ecchi Sango didn't mean it.