The battle continues, and with it, we explore a little bit more about Elaina and Ayame, and see the issues with Elaina's powers as she tries to keep them under control in the heat of the battle, even with the poison eating away at her.

KedharS: No idea really.

Aquahaze675: Well, she kind of is doing that, or at least trying to. Problem is, people know now that you don't run straight at the cannon, you zigzag.

Aurastar Warrior: Sure I guess.

EpicDinosaurs XD XD: Uh… okay.

Hellraiserphoenix: Yeah, there's a lot of important stuff going on in this battle, that's for sure.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 332

"Elaina, are you okay?" Blake asked.

"You don't have to concern yourself about someone like me," Elaina said. "I'm… I'm fine. My harmonia isn't that weak."

In spite of her tough words, it was clear that the trembling Elaina Bishop was NOT okay. She looked like she was about to fall over, and her hands were twitching. And behind her mask, Elaina felt awful. It was different from the backlash of pain that she endured when she felt her pokemon take attacks. She felt burning pain shooting through her body, like her veins were pumping liquid fire that was melting her from the inside. Her arms and legs felt like lead and her head was ablaze with fever as she struggled to stay awake. Noctre… Noctre looked worse. So this was toxic. Poison was a truly treacherous weapon, even moreso than confusion. She felt like in a few moments she would pass out. Her eyelids were so heavy, she couldn't keep her eyes open. The pain in her chest from that Armaldo's claws striking Noctre didn't hurt, either.

"Hey."

A strong hand grabbed onto Elaina's shoulder just as she was about to pitch over.

"Wh-wha-?" Elaina gasped, suddenly standing straight even though she couldn't feel her legs (or arms, or torso, or anything but searing pain).

"Aya?!" Blake gasped, surprised. He turned and glanced at his girlfriend, who was holding Elaina by the shoulders from behind.

"Let go of me," Elaina muttered.

"Fuck that," Ayame spat. "You're about to collapse, you fucking idiot! What the fuck is the matter with you, huh?!"

"I-I-I…" Elaina couldn't respond, she could only feel her knees knocking.

"Elaina, the poison is pretty bad," Blake said. "You need to weaken your harmonia."

"Wh-what?"

"The stronger your connection to your pokemon, the more pain you'll feel from them," Blake said. "Just look at your Noivern!"

Elaina raised her head and stared through blurry eyes at Noctre, who was dodging Scipio's slash attacks while fighting through the poison, clearly weakening and in pain.

"You aren't the one poisoned, Noctre is," Blake reminded her. "You're letting yourself get caught up in your pokemon, and from what Kitty and Kanone have shown me, this is how it starts, you get it? Just like…"

His expression hardened as Gwen's face popped back into his mind. He shook his head. "If you keep going like this and you'll get lost in your harmonia like last time. You need to control yourself, first, otherwise you won't be able to help your pokemon the way you want to. You'll just be a burden on them."

"Burden…" Elaina muttered. She… she was a burden? She closed her eyes. Noctre… she could feel Noctre's concern flowing back through her. She couldn't fight at her full strength while worrying for the poison eating through her trainer's body. Elaina grit her teeth and balled her hands into fists, ignoring the shocks of pain shooting through her.

"I don't know about this harmonia bullcrap but I trust Blake when he says what's going on," Ayame agreed. "Look, Elaina-"

Elaina shook Ayame off and stormed forward, a blast of wind swirling around her that pushed Ayame back.

"Noctre!" Elaina shouted, her harmonia flaring up as the feeling of pain lessened. "Sorry to keep you waiting! This poison is nothing for us to worry about, it merely caught me off-guard! But now I know that the pain you're feeling is far greater than mine, so you need not concern yourself with my state! Can you feel this?! This power of ours, we won't let a little bit of pain overwhelm it, don't you agree, my friend?"

"Noivern!" Noctre's fevered face brightened and she nodded her head, feeling strength flow through her body. She opened her mouth and let out a roar, a blast of draconic energy shooting out towards Scipio, who just barely dodged the powerful dragon pulse, the attack creating a massive crater in the ground. Scipio took care to separate from the aggressive dragon pokemon now that she had gotten her second wind back. His rock polish had raised his speed to a level comparable with other swift pokemon, and he quickly moved back to Reiner's side of the field and to Luna's side.

Blake wasn't sure if this was a good thing or not. Elaina had regained her energy and her harmonia had kicked in, and it was clear that she wasn't suffering as much from the backlash. But whether that was due to being completely lost in harmonia like last time, or a result of her power improving and allowing her to reap the benefits of harmonia while minimizing the risk, he couldn't be sure.

"Excellent," a silky voice purred in Elaina's ear, causing her to flinch. Her head slid to the side to glance at her duplicate, staring at her with a coy look on her face, her eyes glimmering with excitement and joy. Elaina swallowed.

I don't need you here, she silently growled at her phantom, the mysterious "Harmonia" dispersing and causing her powers to fluctuate in response, shooting up to higher levels before dropping down to a small trickle of energy.

"That was… whoa…" Ayame stood up, brushing herself off. It had only been a small gust of wind that pushed her over, and she hadn't sustained any injuries thanks to the soft snow she'd landed on, but… wow. So that was harmonia? It was clearly a lot more than just a boost for Elaina's pokemon, she had clearly just felt a blast of wind herself.

It's like… it's like she's become a pokemon herself, Ayame observed. But that's crazy, she's a human, isn't she?

Suddenly, the jeers of her schoolmates calling Elaina a monster rang through Ayame's head, and she felt like barfing.

Can you believe that Ayame's actually a girl?

She's taller than my dad!

Ayame's gotta be a dude in disguise.

She even looks like a guy.

It's so weird having someone like that in our class.

She's always alone, too, it's so creepy.

Well yeah, I wouldn't want to be friends with a freak like that.

Ayame knew that pain all too well. And she had just been a little taller than her peers, a little more awkward, a little more boyish.

What must that girl have gone through to growing up with something like that? She wondered, pangs of sympathy beating through her heart. Ayame wasn't a "freak" the way that Elaina was. Ayame looked a little different. But Elaina WAS different. On a very clear, fundamental level she was different from pretty much everyone in her life.

Ayame decided that before she made any more judgments about Elaina Bishop, she would get to know her a little better. It was only fair.

Wait, what was that Olivia told me about her? She mentioned something about her before, what was it?

Ayame thought back on a conversation that she and Olivia had so far back that Ayame had forgotten about it until now. This was before she had been close to Blake, before she had gotten jealous of his attachment to Elaina, back when Elaina was just a girl in a mask with destructive power that terrified her.

"I've gathered some information about her from an associate of mine, a certain Dakota Evans," Olivia told Ayame. "That girl was raised in an orphanage until she escaped. At some point, Gerard Alkwest came across her, and took her under his wing. That's what she's been able to gather so far, but it's clear that this girl is being molded into a powerful weapon. We need to be careful of how we approach her, with his harmonia of hers…"

Ayame bit her lip.

Ayame had been treated as an outcast growing up. But thinking about it, she couldn't compare with Elaina.

Ayame had a mother and father who loved her, and a sister she idolized. Elaina had grown up unloved in an orphanage.

Ayame had met Olivia Himeko, who brought her out of her shell and became a real friend to her. Elaina had Gerard Alkwest, who if Blake and Olivia were to be believed was manipulating the girl to turn her into a weapon.

Ayame had a club who idolized her and put pressure on her, but had come to understand her needs and wants and been able to become real friends to her.

Elaina was alone.

Ayame had made friends with Blake's friends, and was enjoying her last year of school hanging out with them, and her friends through Olivia.

Elaina was alone.

Ayame had gotten close to Blake, fallen in love, and found happiness with him.

Elaina was alone.

If that girl had met Olivia instead of Gerard… would she still be like this, I wonder? Ayame couldn't help but feel grief over that thought.

But there was something else that Ayame had, something that Elaina had never gotten, as far as she knew.

Something had happened in Ayame's first year that had changed things for her. Back when she was still unsure about Olivia, back when she was still that little wallflower who didn't have the courage to run her best in track and field, scared of being compared to her sister, whose running career had been tragically cut short, Ayame had been desperate to fill her running shoes but feared that she would not be able to catch up to her.

She had met a boy who had given her a ribbon. That was all it was. A first year like her, who had told her that she was beautiful with her hair tied back, and that he wanted to see her run her best. And she had. He had been her first love. And while he had transferred out not long after that, and she couldn't remember his face, or even his name, those feelings she'd held back then had given her the courage to take that first step and become the person she was today.

Elaina didn't have someone like that.

She had Blake, who Ayame could see now was trying to be for Elaina what that boy had been for Ayame. But unlike with Ayame, who had flowered thanks to her feelings even though they had gone unrequited, Elaina was rejecting that kindness, pushing him away, and that was clearly causing her pain that neither Ayame nor Blake could salve.

"Elaina!" Ayame shouted out, distracting the masked girl. Elaina, confused, looked over her shoulder incredulously at the loud girl.

"Do your best," Ayame said, giving her a thumbs' up.

Elaina blinked. What the hell was this girl talking about? She shook her head and got back in the game, turning her attention back to Noctre and feeling her harmonia surge back up.

"Noctre!" Elaina shouted. "Hurricane!"

Noctre flapped her wings and conjured a massive hurricane, her strength surging with the power of harmonia, summoning a massive tornado of ice and snow that roared across the battlefield, tearing straight towards the two pokemon and their trainers.

"Maria, get back!" Blake cried out, worried for his pokemon as much as he was for his friends. Maria nodded her head frantically and rushed back to his side.

"Luna, are you okay?" Julia cried. The wind was almost upon her.

"Umbre…" Luna growled, feeling herself weakening from the poison. She clearly wasn't up to it, but she needed to withstand it.

"Scipio, use protect," Reiner ordered, looking to Julia and giving her a helpless shrug. Scipio couldn't protect both of them. A green barrier appeared around the large prehistoric pokemon, causing him to withstand the power of the wind attack, but his partner was not as lucky. The hurricane struck Luna and flung her into the air, battering her with the power of a rampaging blizzard, Luna's cries of pain echoing from within the maelstrom.

"Luna!" Julia cried. She prayed that her pokemon would be okay, that Luna's powerful defenses would be enough to withstand the assault. But there were other pressing issues to worry about. Namely, the fact that the tornado was only growing in power, and was barreling right towards her.

Julia held her arms up defensively and flinched, bracing for the inevitable destructive wind that would tear her up from the ground and fling her through the sky, and this time she might not get off with only a broken arm. Her fear from her past experience had caused her to freeze in place, and in those miserably long seconds she screamed at herself for being such an idiot as to do something so reckless and put herself in danger like this.

But the wind never hit. Seconds passed and Julia cautiously opened her eyes, which snapped wide with surprise when she saw what was in front of her. Straightening out and dropping her arms, Julia's mouth dropped open.

The hurricane was still raging, still battering Luna, but it had stopped before it hit her, now spinning in a tornado feet away from Julia, contained, the power concentrated on her pokemon and not on her, much to her surprise.

"I… what?" Elaina gasped, stunned. She could feel the power raging through her, but she… she was able to keep the wind where it was, under her and Noctre's control. It was that feeling again. She felt Blake's hand wrapped around hers, and the weight on her heart was lightened.

Her harmonia sputtered and died, and Luna fell out of the sky and landed hard on the ground as the wind dissipated.

"Luna, are you okay?" Julia called out.

"Umbreon…" Luna panted, wincing in pain. But her defenses were strong enough to withstand the hurricane this time, even with the poison eating away at her. But even so she was on her last legs all the same.

"Good, then hold on for just a little longer," Julia said. "And use copycat!"

"Umbreon!" Luna nodded, her body glowing white. The wind swirled up around her, and she flung back at Elaina a hurricane matched in destructive power with Elaina's Noivern.

"What?!" Elaina gasped, stunned to see her own attack turned back on her. It wasn't as devastating as a mirror coat reflection, but it was still powerful, and Noctre had to summon up another hurricane of her own to try and deflect it. The two wind attacks collided in an explosion of air and snow that knocked Noctre back and sent Maria flying, the small water pokemon collateral damage. The wind pushed Elaina and Blake apart as well, the two separating before the attack knocked them both over.

"Well done, Luna!" Julia said, nodding. "Now, use moonlight!"

"Umbreon!" Luna's rings began glowing a deep midnight blue and light pierced through the clouds, engulfing her and causing her health to begin to recover. The poison was still causing her pain, but the recovering power of her moonlight attack restored a good buffer of her strength. Noctre had no such recovery powers, and was forced to endure her own hurricane as the toxins coursing through her body increased in pain and potency.

"Noctre… forgive me…" Elaina muttered, feeling the pain her pokemon was going through. She had created a mental block to prevent the damage from eating away at her, as well, but was beginning to wonder whether or not that was the right thing to do. She bit her lip, sweat falling down her brow and blood trickling from her nose.

"What now?" Harmonia's voice echoed in her ears, causing Elaina to swat at the air in an attempt to beat her away. She could feel the cracks begin to form in her barrier of composure, her power leaking out again as she lost control.

"Elaina, are you okay?" Blake went to her side, but his approach was stopped by a raised hand.

"Stop it," she growled. "If you keep… if you keep helping me like this, then I can't… I won't…"

She took a deep breath and forced herself to refocus. Her head throbbed with pain as she forced her harmonia down, keeping it at bay, even as she could see poor Noctre weakening. Her heart went out with sympathy for her pokemon, and a single flicker of doubt caused the floodgates to burst open and her power to break free, Noctre letting out a loud howl that nearly deafened everyone there.

"Luna! Use that hurricane again!" Julia ordered.

"Umbreon!" Luna shouted, wind dancing around her as she launched another tornado of water and snow at her opponents.

"Pitiful!" Elaina shouted, her harmonia flaring up once more. "You think that some copied attack can hurt me?!"

In response to her outrage, the wind around her roared into a maelstrom and Noctre flapped her wings, conjuring a hurricane that dwarfed the previous one in size. The hurricane roared across the battlefield and consumed Luna's attack like it was a light breeze, the size and ferocity of the gale only growing in power as Elaina's powers surged.

Crap! Julia shouted internally, beginning to panic. Elaina had clearly lost it! She was going full force with this one!

"Shit," Reiner cursed, seeing Scipio's protect drop as the tornado approached the two pokemon. It was at a level of destructive power where there wasn't really anything either trainer could do. The hurricane had grown to be the size of practically the entire battlefield, and it was charging right for them. They called for their pokemon to retreat, but where was there to go?

And just like that, it was gone.

"Wh-what?" Reiner gasped, stunned.

"What happened? Where's the hurricane?" Julia asked, confused.

The massive storm that had nearly consumed the pokemon and their trainers had dispersed, the force of the move disappearing completely and causing the wind to shoot off in all different directions, like an explosion of rain and snow that stung, but was not catastrophic. But why had this happened? What could have caused Elaina to call off her pokemon's attack?

A quick glance across the battlefield told the story.

Noctre had lost consciousness, the poison draining away the last of her health, and Elaina had fallen right along with her. The surge in power from her harmonia had granted her pokemon a massive burst of strength, but that hadn't increased Noctre's resilience any. The toxins were still eating away at her, and no matter how much power Elaina was feeding her, she was still in agonizing pain, whether she knew it or not. Noctre wanted to keep fighting, but the poison had rendered that an impossibility, taking her consciousness from her even as she still struggled to remain standing. Noctre stumbled forward and collapsed into the snow, unconscious.

Feeling the effects of the poison coursing through her veins, as well, Elaina didn't appear to be in much better shape. Blake and Ayame rushed to the fallen girl's side.

Well, Elaina loses control once again, and once again bad things happen. Luckily, Noctre fainted before her attack could hit, otherwise there would be more people going to the hospital. So what will that mean for the match going forward?