In this chapter, we take a step back from all the drama and intensity, and just focus on some other students and how they're handling the tag tournament! No need to worry about Blake and Ayame, Elaina's troubles, Caelia's stalking, or what Sylvia might be planning. Just a nice little break.

KedharS: Ayame: Blake, I don't feel so good…

Thunder Fire: They aren't really violating any school rules. Sure, there are factions and power dynamics, but it's not like they're attacking students in the streets. It's mostly been a cold war, with matches to assert dominance and no real "warfare" yet. So there's not really anything for the school to interfere with, since there's nothing really "official" and nobody's getting hurt. It's really just about influence and making connections.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 347

Julia scowled, walking out of the pokemon center with Reiner in tow. She was pissed off about her loss, especially since it had ruined their record, but right now she was mainly pissed for reasons that she couldn't quite understand.

"Hey, you good?" Reiner asked.

"I'm fine," Julia grumbled. Something about that match had just bugged her. The way Elaina had broken down like that, even while hurting them… and then afterwards, the way she'd run out of the pokemon center, it made her wonder what was really going on. She'd been terrified of Elaina before, but right now, what she was feeling wasn't… it wasn't exactly fear, not of the same kind. Watching Elaina's meltdown had definitely made her a little worried about her safety, but more than that, she was worried about Elaina's health, as well. She felt pity for the girl, seeing her in that state, like she was getting just as hurt, if not moreso. It made her feel a little queasy. Not quite guilt, no, nothing like that, it was just, well…

I wonder if Kitty is going through something that rough…

Julia shook her head. She was worried for her friend, certainly, but she needed to keep her head in the game.

"Yo, Nick, what's up?"

Julia raised her head, surprised. She hadn't noticed it, but she and Reiner had come across Nick and Will while walking back to their dorm. She wore a scowl. It was getting late in the afternoon and she had been hoping to run into another team to fight against to offset the loss they had just experienced, but it seemed that she was in for more unfortunate occurrences. Beating Nick and Will again wouldn't affect their record in the slightest.

"Oh, Reiner, Julia, how's your day gone?" Nick asked, a smile on his face. "We've been getting more wins!"

"One loss," Julia bitterly replied. Reiner shrugged his shoulders. Before the match, he'd been the one to warn Julia about the risks, and she'd been the one willing to risk a loss if it meant getting the chance to score some information. Now it seemed that their positions had been reversed, and Julia was the one who wasn't all that happy about losing while Reiner was surprisingly cool with it.

"Whoa, really? Who against?" Nick asked, surprised.

"Blake and Elaina Bishop," Reiner replied.

"You guys fought Elaina Bishop?" Will had been drawn into the conversation now. His normally composed expression had been twisted into surprise. "I'm surprised that you guys are both still walking."

"Barely, thank the snow," Julia grumbled. Reiner nodded in agreement.

"So that was your only match today?" Nick asked. "We've gotten four wins so far."

"And two losses," Will reminded him, glancing at Julia and Reiner pointedly. "We still have a ways to go to make up for that."

"Yeah, and two losses," Nick admitted. He let out a sigh. "To be honest, though, that's the difficult thing. We need to keep winning, but my team is starting to get a little exhausted. I don't know how many more battles we can get out of them, today."

Nick reached down to his belt and unclipped the dive ball affixed to it. "I've been planning to use my new Poliwhirl, but I haven't been able to work up the courage to do it, to be honest. My team has been pretty consistent, and using him, well…"

"Huh? But didn't you catch that guy just for the sake of using him in the tournament?" Reiner asked. "Seems like kind of a waste if you ask me."

"Yeah, I want to train him," Nick admitted, "but I'm not used to pokemon I'm not used to, you know? I guess I'm just kind of stuck in my ways, you know?"

"Oh, shut it," Julia said, rolling her eyes. Nick turned to look at her, confused

"Huh?"

"Look, I get it, it's hard raising new pokemon when you're used to your existing team," Julia said, rolling her eyes. "I had to train up my own Seedot, and it was really hard. If you want to get used to a new pokemon, then you gotta battle with them."

Julia unhooked a pokeball from her belt.

"Want the chance?"

Nick blinked.

"Huh?"

Julia rolled her eyes again.

"A battle, Nick, I'm asking if you want to battle."

"But didn't we already lose to you guys?"

Julia shook her head.

"No, not a tag team battle, just you and me, one pokemon each, so you can get used to your Poliwhirl, you know?"

"Oh!" Nick said, finally getting the picture. "Um, yeah, sure, that'll be great."

"Good," Julia said. "I've been meaning to do some more battling practice with Percy myself. Training is fine and all, but I'm really more of a hands-on kind of learner."

"Um, is this really the best climate to use your Seedot, though?" Reiner asked, glancing up at the clouds of hail overhead. "Weather isn't looking that good."

"Percy's tough," Julia reassured him. "He'll do fine. Still, we probably shouldn't do this in the middle of a snowfield."

"They cleared the streets," Will brought up. "You two can do it over there."

Julia and Nick glanced to see one of the wider walkways to the main campus had been cleared of snow. They nodded, heading over.

"Think it's a good idea to have a battle in the middle of the pathway? People could walk by at any minute you know." Reiner asked Will. Will shrugged his shoulders, not really caring that much about the difficulty.

Julia and Nick stood across from each other. Julia sent out her Seedot, the tiny acorn pokemon shivering in the snow.

"Go, Poliwhirl," Nick said, sending out his Poliwhirl.

"No nickname?" Julia asked, raising her eyebrow.

"Er…"

"You don't nickname any of your pokemon, except for Abbie," Julia said. "Maybe that's why you have difficulty connecting to them?"

"Well, I mean, Abbie's special," Nick explained.

"And your other pokemon aren't? Nicknames are how you connect to your pokemon, you know."

"I… I guess so," Nick admitted. "I just haven't really given it much thought before, they've always just been my team, I didn't feel the need to name any of the others. My mom was the one who named Abbie, I didn't. But I guess I can think about it…"

"Anyway, before you think about your pokemon's nicknames, let's put some thought into the battle," Julia coaxed him. "Gotta keep your head in the game, after all."

"R-right," Nick said, nodding. "Poliwhirl, use bubblebeam!"

"Poli!" Nick's Poliwhirl opened his tiny mouth, a stream of bubbles flying towards the round pokemon ahead of him.

"Percy, use your bide attack," Julia ordered. Percy began glowing white, energy building up in his body as the bubbles hit him, bursting in a chain of small explosions against his rough skin, sending him rolling back across the pavement.

"Bide, huh?" Nick frowned. His Poliwhirl only had offensive moves, so there wasn't anything they could do, unless they wanted the Seedot to build up even more energy for its counterattack. Nick was well-versed in how counters worked, thanks to Callie.

"Poliwhirl, stop attacking for now," he ordered. "There's gonna be an attack coming, prepare to dodge if you can, if you can't, then brace yourself."

"Now, release," Julia ordered.

"Seed!" Percy used the energy he had stored up to launch himself forward in a powerful leap, slamming into the slippery, bulky pokemon. Poliwhirl stumbled back, the attack taking a decent chunk of his health out.

Julia raised her eyebrow.

"So, what's it gonna be, Nick?" She asked. "Your pokemon's got some offensive chops, sure, but we'll keep using our bide attack. Think you can overpower our defenses with your attacks before our bide takes you out?"

Without Poliwhirl having any non-attacking moves to use, Nick couldn't take advantage of the Seedot's delays with bide. And indeed, the pokemon once again began to glow, preparing to store more energy off of Poliwhirl's moves.

"Poli?" Poliwhirl glanced back at Nick, not sure what he should be doing.

"That is a tricky one," Will murmured.

"Nick, you can't win by just doing nothing," Reiner reminded him. "You need to find a way to take her down."

"How about a little support for your teammate, huh?" Julia scowled, looking back at him. Reiner shrugged his shoulders.

"Nick's my friend you know, and he needs help more than you do at the moment. That's what this is for, right? Just trying to help our friend get used to his new pokemon."

Julia was still a little miffed, but she understood, nodding her head. She turned back to Nick. "So? What's it gonna be?"

"If Poliwhirl had some super-effective moves, he could take the high-risk, high-reward approach of spamming attacks before that Seedot could release the energy," Will noted. "But right now, he can't do enough damage to try that approach, everything he uses will just be sent back with twice the force. Without any status moves to buff while Seedot is doing nothing, he really is in a bad situation at the moment."

"In this situation I would swap out my pokemon," Reiner agreed. "This really isn't the best matchup for his Poliwhirl."

"Thanks guys, you don't have to remind me," Nick said, rolling his eyes. "Either way, I'm trying to train Poliwhirl up, so we have to get used to this situation."

"Geez, you guys just have no confidence," a voice called out from behind Reiner and Will. The two boys turned their heads to see Callie tromping up to them through the snow, a big poofy pink jacket covering her. Combined with her pink hat, scarf, snow pants, and mittens, she gave off the appearance of a round strawberry marshmallow.

"Callie?" Nick asked, surprised. Julia glanced over as well. "I thought we were meeting up at the pokemon center?"

"I waited for you so we could go get dinner, but you were taking too long," Callie said. "What's up? You two getting into a pokemon battle? Not for the tournament, though."

"Yeah, I'm helping him train up his Poliwhirl and get used to it," Julia explained. "We're just taking things nice and slow."

"That's one way to look at it," Nick replied.

"So why are you two just standing there?" Callie asked. "I mean, I know that in this story pokemon inexplicably pause their battle and wait for their trainers to discuss things with one another, but don't you think this is a little much?"

"Well, he's using bide," Nick replied, gesturing towards Percy, "so there's not a whole lot that I can do to fight back right now, since Poliwhirl only has attacking moves."

Callie scowled.

"Come on, Nick, you're my boyfriend," Callie laughed, walking over to his side and placing her hand on his arm. "We both know that you shouldn't be having this much trouble. I know what I'd do, anyway, and you're smarter than me, after all."

Nick looked at her with confusion.

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"Well, I mean, there's more than one way to attack, right?" Callie laughed. "And there are attacks that aren't technically attacks!"

She patted him on the back.

"We do this all the time, you know?"

Nick's eyes widened, and he finally realized what she was getting at, getting his head in the game. He turned back to the battle with a new idea in mind.

"Finally thought of something?" Julia asked, interested in what Nick had come up with. Reiner and Will were also interested.

"Okay, Poliwhirl, here's the plan," Nick said, Poliwhirl turning to look intently at him. "Go and grab that Seedot."

"Poli?" Poliwhirl blinked, unsure of what Nick was asking. Julia was also confused.

"Just go grab it," Nick said. "He can't move right now thanks to using bide, so there's nothing he can do to fight back."

Julia clicked her tongue in irritation.

Poliwhirl nodded, though he still wasn't sure what the plan was. He ran over to Percy and wrapped his large gloved hands around the small pokemon, lifting him up. He turned back to Nick, awaiting further orders.

Reiner and Will were resisting the urge to laugh at the amusing sight, Will the more successful of the two. There was a Poliwhirl holding an unmoving, glowing Seedot like a football, turning to Nick like he was questioning what to do.

"Okay, throw him into the snow," Nick ordered. Callie snickered. Julia's jaw dropped. Poliwhirl nodded, turned, and hucked Percy into a snowdrift beside the road, hard enough to completely bury the small pokemon.

Julia blinked.

"What the heck was that?!" She demanded. "Percy! Are you okay?"

Seedot!" Percy's muffled voice came from within the pile of snow.

"Bide only stores up the energy from pokemon attacks," Callie explained. "But when it comes to just normal stuff like that, it doesn't do anything. In the Pokemon Fight Club, we train our pokemon up to not just fight in pokemon battles, but against people, with grapples, holds, normal punches, all sorts of stuff! Poliwhirl there hasn't gotten to start training officially yet, but there's all sorts of ways that a pokemon can fight without actually using their attack moves."

"Yup, totally slipped my mind," Nick agreed. "It's not like the video games where you can just order pokemon to use moves, we can use all sorts of stuff in battle."

"Of course it slipped your mind," Callie slapped him lightly on the arm with back of her hand. "You haven't been to the club in a long-ass time you know, you've been playing those video games too much."

"Well, you're the one who keeps insisting we go out on dates in my free time," Nick reminded her. "I haven't had the time."

"You should be able to do both club activities and be able to go out on dates," Callie huffed, crossing her arms in front of her puffy chest. "I do, and I have way more responsibilities on top of just those, you know, being the First Leader!"

"And your grades are…?"

"Lalalala not listening," Callie plugged her mittens into her ears, not wanting to be reminded of her abysmal transcripts.

"Finals are coming up you know!"

"Still not listening, lalalala!"

"Hey, are we fighting or do you two want to flirt some more?" Julia asked, Percy finally climbing his way out of the snow and rolling down the bank, righting himself on the road.

"Julia, I thought sitting back and doing nothing WAS how you were fighting?" Reiner called to her. Will snickered in response to that.

"Put a sock in it, Reiner," Julia replied, flipping him off. "I don't want to get lip from the peanut gallery. Now, where were we?"

"If you use your bide strategy then we'll just do the same thing again," Nick reminded her. "Not the best tactic you know. Eventually that Seedot of yours is gonna poop out."

"Fair play," Julia nodded. "Percy, use absorb."

"Seed!" Percy nodded. His body began glowing green, draining energy from Poliwhirl to replenish his own health.

"Stealing your attacks, your health, doesn't she have anything of her own?" Callie huffed. Nick rolling his eyes at that remark.

"Poliwhirl, use double slap," Nick ordered.

"Poliwhirl!" Poliwhirl cheered, happy to get the fight going for real. He ran forward and raised his hands, unleashing a barrage of slaps on the slower pokemon.

"Percy, use harden," Julia ordered, Percy raising his defenses to better withstand the force of the moves. Going back to the bide strategy would get some hits in, but then Nick would just switch tactics and fling Percy around a little more, and he was right. Compared to the more experienced Poliwhirl, Percy didn't have the stamina to do it. Percy had the endurance to take a hit, but it took almost no energy for Poliwhirl to fling him around. That wasn't a fight that Percy could win, especially not in this cold, with the snow chilling him like this. Percy might have the type advantage for Poliwhirl, but he certainly didn't for the terrain.

"Nick, those light hits aren't going to do much," Callie said. "You need to use a big move to get through those defenses."

"I can't use a big move," Nick said. "Poliwhirl's stronger moves are water types, and if I try to use body slam…"

"Your Poliwhirl knows body slam?" Callie gasped. "Then why are you using those double slap attacks? Some body slams will knock 'em over."

"Can't," Nick replied. "Something like body slam? If it won't finish that Seedot off in one hit, he'll almost certainly use bide. And I don't know if we can brace the counter. We've got to chip away point by point. Julia's smart. Now that I've shown her our counter, she won't use bide on these light moves. She would get practically nothing from it, and we'd just be back to where we were before, her using bide, and Poliwhirl flinging her Seedot into the snow again. She wants us to use a big move. That's going to be how she gets her hit in."

"Wow, really? I didn't even think of that!" Callie gasped.

"Clever boy," Julia smirked. "Called our play before we even made it. Your girlfriend, though…"

Julia turned to Callie.

"How'd you even become one of the Eight Leaders if you think that just attacking without thinking is a good strategy?"

Callie stuck her tongue out at Julia.

"Well, this battle's gonna get real boring," Reiner sighed, rubbing his head in annoyance.

"Even without bide, it looks like this is gonna be a long chipping away at each other's health," Will agreed.

"…No, I'm good," Julia said, shaking her head. "Percy, return."

Julia held up her pokeball and recalled her Seedot.

"Huh?" Nick asked, confused.

"We're just doing some sparring," Julia reminded him. "We aren't fighting for keeps, remember? The goal of this was just to get us more comfortable with battling with our pokemon. I've learned some things about Percy, how're you feeling?"

"Actually…" Nick turned to Poliwhirl, who looked back at him. "Yeah, I guess this was worth it. I think I'm getting a little more used to Poliwhirl."

"Poli," Poliwhirl nodded, giving him a thumbs up.

"Ready to use him in your next tag battle?" Julia asked.

Nick nodded.

"Great, mission accomplished, then," she said, grinning. "And that was just what I needed to blow off some steam."

"What?! That's it?!" Callie exclaimed. "I was just getting into it! You guys are just calling it quits?"

"It's fine, Callie," Nick laughed, recalling his Poliwhirl. "I don't know which one of us would win, but it would be a tough match, and our pokemon would definitely wear each other down a lot. Nothing much to be gained from more of the same. I'm getting a better feel for Poliwhirl, and that's good enough for me right now."

"Same," Julia nodded. "I've gotta rethink the bide strategy, figure out other ways to make use of Percy's endurance."

"..Still wanted to see the rest of the fight," Callie grumbled.

"Well, you two can use the free time to go out on another date," Reiner teased.

"Oooh! Good idea, right!" Callie nodded, her face brightening. "We can get an early dinner, then go out to see a movie!"

"Yeah, I guess," Nick said, nodding, clipping the dive ball back onto his belt.

"…Hey, wait!" Will said, realizing what they were talking about, walking over to the couple. "We still need to fight a few more trainers today, to pump our numbers up, we can't afford to take an early break, finals week is starting next week! The number of battles is definitely gonna decrease, we need to be getting as many wins as possible!"

"Boo," Callie huffed. "You're not an ally of romance! No wonder your girlfriend is so cold and emotionless."

"Misato is not my girlfriend!" Will asserted. The three began to bicker.

Julia glanced back at Reiner, and the two smirked. It was a relief to not be the most dysfunctional pairing for once.

"Pokemon center again?" Reiner asked.

"Percy could use a rest," Julia agreed. "Shouldn't need a full medical treatment though. Let's go find a team to take down."

Reiner and Julia left the three to their discussion and headed down the road to find some new trainers to fight against.

Just a nice little breather chapter after all the past drama. We could use a break.