Alden vs. Raizer is really heating up! With such an electric matchup, who's going to win? Zera is incredibly powerful as a mythical pokemon, but they're still only one pokemon. Can they really defeat a team as strong as the Commander's? We'll have to find out! Remember to review!

KedharS: Hopefully.

Aquahaze675: Zera is pretty powerful. They're a mythical pokemon, after all.

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Everyone's "Sense" is different. It's not something you can grade on a scale.

Rus0804: Nah. He loves fighting, but he's not a moron. That's why he's good at it, he relies on his and Zera's instincts.

Guest: Thanks for your kind words. And that's the thing with Alcea. Sometimes, you end up nurturing people and it only leads to them becoming worse people. Bad people exist, after all, you accept the weeds with the flowers and just try to trim them when they sprout. I also can't wait to see how their characters develop.

JoshGamerV: Well, we'll have to see.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 565

"Zera! Let's do this!" Raizer shouted. "Fire punch!"

"ORA!" Zera's fist was enveloped in scarlet flames and they charged forward, hitting the stunned Vikavolt with a full-force punch. Jaune had seen the attack coming and tried to dodge, but with Zera's speed such an act was unfortunately fruitless. Zera's punch hit Jaune in the face and sent him spinning, the bug pokemon crashing into the side of the cliff.

"Now, finish it with blaze kick!" Raizer ordered. Flames covered Zera's legs and they leapt into the air, propelled by the fire, swinging his leg and lashing out at Jaune with a powerful kick to complement the punch they had given him.

But that was something Jaune had been expecting.

"Vika!" Jaune buzzed, opening his jaws wide. A blast of sticky silk flew out, hitting Zera directly before they could strike.

"Zera?!" Zera gasped, the string shot tangling up their movements. They fell to the rocky floor, pinned down by sticky threads holding them in place.

"Now, Jaune, use u-turn," Alden shouted. Although he didn't move fast, Jaune flapped his wings and leapt from the wall, striking the pinned Zeraora with his powerful jaws and flying backwards into the pokeball, Alden quickly replacing him with Finn.

"Swampert!" Finn roared, landing on the ground, the stadium shaking. He immediately sent a powerful shockwave through the battlefield with an earthquake attack, the power of the tremors doing major damage to Zera.

"Nicely done, we're seeing the key of the Commander's 'volt-turn' combo between his Swampert and his Vikavolt," Akira noted with a grin.

"But isn't this more of a 'turn-turn' combo?" Dakota asked, raising her eyebrow.

"The important thing is the earthquake!" Lila gasped, looking at the shaking table they were sitting at. "If they're not able to get away, Zera's going to take some serious damage from this!"

Indeed, Zera was finding it difficult to escape the string. But the pain of the earthquake and their desire to fight to the fullest were great motivators, and with a roar they ripped through the strings and leapt into the air, propelling themselves at Finn from their safety above the shaking ground.

"As expected, an earthquake won't be enough to beat you," Alden grinned. "Finn! Use screech!"

"Swampert!" Finn opened his mouth and prepared to screech again, but Zera wasn't about to let that happen. Focusing their energy into their fist, hitting Finn on the head with a strong mega punch, knocking Finn's head down and forcing his mouth shut as he collided with the stone floor, Finn groaning in pain. He picked himself up, shaking his head, still disoriented from the hit to his skull. Zera narrowed their eyes, they weren't going to let Finn recover.

It was a calculated weakening.

"ORA!" Zera roared, channeling all their energy into the fists, and unleashed a barrage of punches and kicks at close range, spread out across all of Finn's body. His face, chest, arms, legs, Finn was hit everywhere with the powerful close combat, Zera expending so much energy that their defenses were drastically reduced to compensate. "ORA! ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!"

"Zeraora used close combat! Look at all the damage that they dealt to the Commander's Swampert!" Lila gasped.

"To take a hit to their defenses, that must be quite a trade," Dakota marveled.

"ORA!" Zera finished, turning on their heel and swinging their other leg in a powerful kick right to Finn's stomach, sending the pokemon flying backwards while clutching his chest.

"And all that was from one power-up punch," Raizer boasted.

Everyone in the audience was stunned from the display of power, the stadium shaking as Finn hit the ground.

"Swamp… ert…" Finn rasped out, picking himself off of the ground, panting, badly injured by the blows. But before he had a chance to capitalize on his opponent's reduced defenses, he was hit in the face by Zera's knee, striking him with a quick attack. Finn stumbled backwards, trying to regain his balance, but Zera wasn't about to lose the momentum.

"Aura sphere!" Raizer ordered. Zera leapt back, holding their paws together at their waist, forming a bright golden sphere of energy between their palms. The aura condensed into a blazing ball and with a fling of their arm they sent the aura sphere flying at high speed at Finn, hitting him in the chest with a massive explosion.

"SWAMPERT!" Finn exclaimed, hitting the ground hard. He lost consciousness, the first of the Commander's pokemon to fall to Zera.

"Swampert is unable to battle!" Lila announced. "Zeraora wins!"

"Return," Alden said, recalling Finn to his pokeball. He wasn't fazed by his Swampert going down so quickly.

"Whoa, no way! That Swampert was, like, the perfect pokemon to fight against Raizer's Zeraora, and he already fainted!" Dakota gasped. "What an upset!"

"Indeed, you would think that a Swampert would be the perfect trump card against an Electric type pokemon," Akira agreed. "But it looks like the Commander isn't too bothered over losing him so quickly. I wonder what he's got planned next?"

"Eifa, go," Alden said, sending out his next pokemon, his Espeon. "Use psych up!"

"Espeon!" Eifa emerged from her pokeball, the ruby on her forehead flashing bright red, her body glowing with a bright red aura as she copied Zera's stat boosts.

"Ah, trying to borrow our speed?" Raizer grinned. "Fine then, if that's how you want to play things, Zera, let's take care of her!"

"Ora!" Zera growled, electricity surging through their body.

"Now that you've finally sent out a good opponent, we can use our Electric type moves to their fullest!" Raizer laughed, the electrical current running across the battlefield thrumming in agreement. "Go, Zera, use plasma fists!"

"ORA!" Zera howled, the electricity surging through them condensing and amplifying until it transformed into pure plasma, and they leapt forward, lunging for the psychic pokemon and preparing to unleash one of their strongest moves.

"Now that he isn't using a Ground type or an Electric type, Raizer and Zeraora can go all-out," Akira observed.

"Yikes, that's not good! The real fight's beginning now, I guess," Dakota said, shivering a little in fear as she could feel the air crackling with electricity.

Raizer was confident. Eifa was a difficult pokemon to beat due to her magic bounce ability reflecting back status moves. So even if he tried to use taunt, it wouldn't work. That meant that Zera would have to smash through her with pure power.

"Eifa, reflect!" Alden ordered. Eifa's ruby flashed again and a barrier of red light appeared between her and the Zeraora, Zera's plasma-infused fists striking the barrier and bouncing off of it harmlessly, plasma and lightning flying in all directions as they tried to smash through. But it was no use, amplified with Eifa's light clay, the reflect was staying strong.

"Eifa's barriers are as annoying as always," Raizer noted, though he didn't seem annoyed by the news. Rather, his smile grew wider. "That's fine! Zera, let's smash right through it with your brick break attack!"

"ZERA!" Zera nodded, leaping back and raising their paw, charging forward and preparing to smash through the barrier.

"Like I'd let that happen! Eifa, baton pass!" Alden called out.

"Espeon!" Eifa nodded, her ruby flashing. Engulfed in red light she returned to her pokeball and was quickly replaced with another pokemon, Zera's paw swinging down to smash through both the barrier and the pokemon behind it.

But no barrier appeared around the pokemon to break. That was the first sign that something was wrong. The second was that Zera's paw struck the small pokemon… and kept passing right on through them, striking the rocky ground and creating a massive crevice in the stone floor.

"What?! What just happened?" Dakota asked, squinting. She'd captured a picture, but she couldn't exactly make it out.

"It's… a Pikachu!" Lila gasped. Alden's next pokemon was a Pikachu. But upon closer inspection, it looked a little… off. A little paler than an average Pikachu, and its markings were a little more… jagged? And its head was sort of tilted a strange way, its body unnaturally bulky… it was still adorable in its own way, but certainly not compared to a Pikachu.

"Mimi!" The small pokemon chirped, spinning a little on the ground, enjoying the fact that Zera's brick break had passed through her without causing a scratch.

"Nicely done, Mimi!" Alden cheered.

"It's a Mimikyu," Lila realized, correcting herself as her face brightened. Pikachu were cute and all, but Mimikyu? Mimikyu were something special!

"What's a Mimikyu?" Dakota asked, confused.

"They're a rare fairy pokemon," Lila explained. "But they're also part Ghost-type. Their true appearance is… disturbing. But because they want to be loved an accepted, they disguise themselves as Pikachu so that people will treat them nicely."

Lila sighed wistfully.

"So tragic… I wish I could capture one myself… I would shower it with all the love and affection in the world…" She thought that a pokemon who desired to be treated so lovingly, it deserved to receive kindness.

"Mimi's your next pokemon, huh?" Raizer grinned. "Tricky as always, brother."

"No more Fighting type moves," Alden shot back. "Mimi, use swords dance!"

Mimi began to spin in place, the long wooden stick making up her disguise's tail shaking in anticipation as her attacking strength rose.

"So that's your game, huh?" Raizer smirked. "Not a chance! Zera, use taunt!"

"Zera," Zera nodded. They turned to Mimi and smirked, staring at her disguise as a Pikachu. Then they rolled her eyes. "Zeraora."

Mimi's eyes widened. Not the eyes that were on the Pikachu's disguise, but her real eyes, that were lower, on Mimi's body.

That Zeraora… Zera had just insulted her disguise! They had said that she would NEVER be loved the way a Pikachu would be, that no one would ever find her cute or desirable! That she was just a pathetic pokemon playing pretend!

Mimi would not tolerate that. Those words were absolutely not going to slide! She forgot all about strengthening her attacking power, or any other status moves, she was absolutely going to tear that dumb mythical pokemon into as many pieces as she could.

Beneath Mimi's disguise, shadows began to churn and shift, and her shadowy hands erupted from below the cloth, slicing at Zera with her shadow claws.

"Zera!" Zera leapt back, dodging the cuts, electricity charging through her fur. She swung her paw in a thunderpunch at the small pokemon, but it never hit, bouncing off the reflective barrier that was still in place from Eifa.

Raizer scowled. It was going to take some time for Zera to break through that barrier, and attacks of a much higher caliber than a mere thunderpunch.

Luckily, Eifa hadn't had the time to set up a light screen to go along with her reflect, which meant that the Mimi was still vulnerable to special moves.

"Zera, get back! Use discharge!"

"Zeraora!" Zera nodded, leaping back, holding their paws together. They began to build up electricity in between their paws, an electrical current charging through their fur, building up from the electric terrain covering the battlefield.

But before Zera could release it, Mimi was already going to strike.

"Shadow sneak," Alden ordered.

"Mimikyu!" Mimi sunk down into the shadows, hidden by the field of electricity covering the rocky field, hiding the pokemon from sight.

Although the shadows were hidden by the electricity, there were still plenty of them for Mimi to hide in. The current made for the perfect cover as she closed the distance with the electric pokemon in a flash, emerging from the shadows beneath Zera's feet.

"Zera!" Zera gasped in pain as Mimi struck them with a blade of shadows, more claws and slashes cutting into their fur.

Zera shielded themselves with their arms, blocking the attacks as best as they could. They leapt back, dodging the shadows quickly, glaring at Mimi.

"Zera, use your discharge now," Raizer ordered.

"Mimi, play rough," Alden countered.

Zera released the electricity they had stored up, sending a shockwave out across the battlefield even as Mimi lunged forward, preparing to strike.

Mimi didn't mind the electricity. The discharge wave was absorbed completely by her disguise, the fake Pikachu head flopping back as the power smashed through it, but not stopping Mimi at all, the tiny little fairy pokemon still charging forward as they prepared to attack.

"Mimikyu!" Mimi growled, unleashing a barrage of shadowy punches from beneath the cloth disguise they were wearing, hitting Zera repeatedly. The mythical pokemon let out cries of pain, skidding back, the swords dance-boosted fairy attack dealing serious damage to them even as they tried to withstand the assault.

"Yeah! Go Mimikyu!" Lila cheered. "That's what I like to see! Go, give it your all!"

"It just shrugged off that discharge like nothing!" Dakota gasped in shock.

"It's her ability," Akira explained. "Disguise. Mimikyu, just once, can shrug off any attack by using their artificial Pikachu disguises as a covering for the hit. Think of it like a built-in substitute to deflect the first blow, giving them a brief opening where they can set up on their opponent and prepare to attack without having to worry about being hit."

"That's so powerful!" Dakota marveled.

"Mimikyu are just the best!" Lila nodded in agreement.

But Zera wasn't about to let that be the end of things. They were enduring a lot from their opponent, and they weren't about to let Mimikyu strike them down here. Luckily, Zera had quite the powerful card to play.

"Zera, use rising voltage!" Raizer ordered.

"ZERAORA!" Zera roared, swinging out their hands and fending off Mimi's attacks, knocking the tiny pokemon back. As they did, their energy began to glow, electricity gathering up from the electric terrain around them. They channeled this electrical current into their body, the electricity receding from the battlefield, and directed it into a compressed blast of plasma that hit Mimi directly.

"MIMIKYUUUUUU!" Mimi wailed, the plasma orb sending her flying back, badly singeing her disguise. Mimi hit the ground and rolled, slumping down until all that was left was a meager, thin wrap of cloth and a charred stick. The actual pokemon had been drained of all her strength.

"Mimikyu is unable to battle…" Lila murmured, unable to hide her disappointment. "Zeraora is the winner… again…"

"Sorry, Mimi, you did your best," Alden apologized, recalling Mimi to her pokeball. "Now then, Jaune, let's try this again!"

"Vika!" Jaune re-emerged from his pokeball, flapping his wings and flying towards Zera, mandibles spread wide. The Electric type was reinvigorated, and he was ready to take down the Zeraora for real now, already preparing an attack. He opened his mouth wide, and sent out a buzzing sonic wave that began to rattle Zera.

"Zera!" Zera winced, holding their palms over their ears as the sonic attack assaulted them. But it wasn't nearly enough to faze them.

"Blaze kick," Raizer ordered. Zera kicked up off the ground and flung themselves at Jaune, flames covering their legs as they swung out at Jaune, ready to kick them.

"Jaune, iron defense!" Alden ordered. Zera's leg smashed into the ruby red barrier, bouncing off of it. The barrier was still standing strong. While that was happening, Jaune landed on the ground and hid his wings within his carapace, which began to glow a bright silver, hardening up to be as strong as steel. His defenses boosted even more, Jaune was withstanding quite the assault from Zera, preparing to strike back.

Raizer frowned. This reflect was getting irritating. This time, though, there was no ghost pokemon left for his brother to switch out for.

"Brick break!" He ordered.

"Zeraora!" Zera raised their paw and brought it down in a chop that smashed through the ruby barrier and hit Jaune in the head, but Jaune wasn't about to let that faze him. Not only did he resist Fighting type moves, but the blow was greatly weakened by Jaune's hardened exterior, which meant Jaune was ready to fight back.

"Vikavolt!" Jaune tilted his head up and flapped his wings, turning his head so that Zera's arm, still chopped down on Jaune's head, was now between his mandibles.

"Crunch!" Alden ordered. Jaune squeezed his mandibles down tightly, biting down on Zera's arm with as much force as he could muster.

"ZERA!" Zera roared in pain, feeling their bones start to break. The damn bug! Zera wasn't about to let that get the better of them! Shifting their stance, Zera flexed their muscles and pulled their arm back, lifting Jaune up into the air with as much power as they could muster.

"Fire punch!" Raizer shouted. Turning, Zera punched the ground with all their might, flames erupting up their arm all the way up past their shoulder, traveling down Jaune's mandibles and lighting his whole body ablaze.

"VIKA!" Jaune cried in pain. He had been able to withstand the brick break attack, but a fire punch was a whole other matter. He kept trying to hang onto Zera as best as he could, biting down with his mandibles as hard as possible, but Zera wasn't giving in. No matter how much it might have hurt, they were going to use their full strength and wipe him out.

"Zeraora!" Zera turned, their leg glowing red with flames, and they kicked Jaune in the chest with a powerful blaze kick, sending the already-burning pokemon flying through the air. Jaune crashed into the ground and wailed, Zera leaping up after them. "Ora!"

Zera spun and brought their leg down in an axe kick that hit Jaune directly, smashing through the last of his defenses and knocking him unconscious.

"ZERA!" Zera threw their head back and roared, standing triumphantly over the fainted pokemon.

"Vikavolt is unable to battle!" Lila judged. "Zeraora is the winner! …Again."

Zera had now defeated three of the Commander's pokemon. They had taken some major hits, but they were still standing, ready to keep fighting. They turned to the Commander and roared, their eyes crackling with electricity.

Alden recalled Jaune to his pokeball, and considered his remaining options.

The Commander's getting pretty pressed! Will he be able to come out ahead? Zera is really tough, they are a mythical pokemon, after all!