The battle continues! The Commander has lost three pokemon, but he still has three pokemon remaining! Will they be enough to win? We'll have to find out!

KedharS: Not completely.

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Why does Blake like asses? I can't reveal that yet.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 566

"Tracey, go," Alden said, sending out his Cinderace. The rabbit pokemon landed on the battlefield and cracked a smile, her eyes burning with excitement as she stared at the opponent across from her, ready to fight.

"The Commander's next pokemon is his Cinderace!" Lila declared. "He's bringing out the big guns now! Will Raizer and his Zeraora be able to take down one of his best pokemon?"

"Zera, use aura sphere," Raizer ordered. He knew how swift Tracey could be, and he wanted to soften her up first before he went in for the kill. This would also allow Zera to keep their distance for a time and catch their breath, regaining some of their energy.

"Zera!" Zera held up their paws and began gathering electricity together into a glowing golden orb, which they sent flying right at the rabbit pokemon.

"Tracey, use agility to dodge," Alden ordered.

"Cin!" Tracey nodded, tucking her head down and shooting out to the side, her speed increasing as she dodged around the orb. But unfortunately, aura sphere wasn't the kind of attack that one can just avoid like that. The golden sphere turned as she ran and began chasing after her, and even as her speed increased it wasn't enough. It hit Tracey in the back and released an explosion of energy that sent her tumbling forward, Tracey crying out in pain.

But even though Tracey took the hit, she quickly regained her balance, charging right at Zera.

"Whoa, Cinderace is really tough!" Lila cheered. "She took that aura sphere like it was nothing!"

"It's because of her ability," Akira reminded her. "It lets her change her typing to reflect the move that she used."

Of course, thanks to Tracey's libero ability, she turned into the Psychic type when she used agility. So she wouldn't take much damage from the Fighting type aura sphere, Raizer recalled. Of course, Tracey doesn't know any Ground type moves, which means she won't be able to avoid our electric attacks either!

"Tracey, pyro ball!"

"Cinderace!" As Tracey approached Zera, a fireball began appearing in front of her foot. She dribbled it and it increased in size until it became about as large as a soccer ball. Then, with a powerful kick, she sent the orb of flame flying right at Zera, so fast it could barely be seen.

"Zera!" Raizer shouted. Zera raised their arms just in time to shield against the massive orb of fire that was about to hit their chest. The force of the blow caused them to howl in pain and they were pushed backwards, withstanding the attack as best as they could as they felt their arms start to burn. Finally, they had enough focus to push the fireball backwards, sending it flying away, but not after it dealt some serious damage to them.

"Ora…" Zera panted, glaring angrily at Tracey. That attack had hurt, but it had made them even madder, and they were ready to pounce.

But Tracey was ready as well.

"Cinderace!" Tracey shot forward, flames leaping up around her legs. She leapt into the air, fire dancing around her, and slammed down upon Zera with a powerful kick.

Zera was prepared for that, though. They jumped to the side, Tracey's leg passing through thing air, and was already preparing a counter punch with a quick attack that caught Tracey in the jaw, knocking the rabbit pokemon backwards.

"Cinder!" Tracey spat out some blood, quickly hopping to her feet, putting some distance between herself and the Zeraora. Pressing the attack right now was risky, it was better to let them come to her, so she could counter with a sucker punch.

As Tracey was focusing on that, something began to happen. Electricity began to crackle through the stony cliffs surrounding the battlefield, traveling up through the ground and centering around the rocky outcroppings sticking out. The dark night sky was ablaze with bright lights from the crackling electricity, illuminating the entire battlefield for a few seconds with a thrilling electrical glow.

Everyone was confused for a few seconds, and that was all it took for the truth of what was happening to become clear. The electricity focused even more intensely, a large stone protrusion above Tracey's head beginning to crackle even harder, before releasing a discharge in a powerful bolt of lightning striking down upon Tracey.

"CINDERACE?!" Tracey exclaimed, the lightning bolt hurting her quite a bit.

"An Electric type move?!" Alden gasped, glancing at Zera, but the pokemon was just as confused as Alden was.

"Cinder…" the lightning died down and Tracey gasped out, injured but not too badly. She was mad though, really mad, and she blamed Zera for what happened.

"What was that?" Raizer asked, surprised.

Everyone looked to the announcer's box for clarification, and luckily Lila was prepared to give them an explanation.

"What you guys just saw was a special feature of this battlefield," Lila explained. "The Lightning Cliffs Field is installed with special technology to make battles more… 'shocking'." She paused to laugh at her own pun before continuing. "You see, as the battle goes on, electricity builds up in the rocks and cliffs, and at random times it is directed into different places on the battlefield, where is discharged out in a powerful bolt that will strike whichever pokemon is closest."

"Seriously? Yikes!" Dakota gasped. "That's not fair! Because, well… it just isn't fair! So a pokemon could be doing really well, and then just be taken out by a bolt from the blue?! You don't see how that's a problem?"

"It's definitely an issue," Akira wasn't going to deny that at all. At the same time, he could understand the reasoning for it. "But it does raise a good conflict. See, a good trainer and a talented pokemon know to be mindful of their surroundings, regardless of the terrain. It was the same as with the quicksand field, right? And the various water fields with their lakes and ponds and whatnot. Terrain is just a factor of battle. I mean, sure, this one is a little more proactive than most, but that's just something that they have to take into account from now on."

"…Yeah, I guess," Dakota mumbled, nodding.

Akira wasn't done though. "Except… this isn't exactly an even match."

Dakota looked at him questioningly. "What do you mean by that, Aki?"

Akira opened his mouth to explain, but his point was proven rather quickly. Because electricity was starting to build up in the cliffs again.

"Tracey! Careful!" Alden cried out. "You don't want to get hit by another one of those!"

"Cinderace," Tracey nodded, scanning the cliffs for where, precisely, the electricity was building up, so she could make sure to stay far away from it, while at the same time taking care to make sure Zera wasn't taking advantage of the distraction to attack her.

A smile crossed Tracey's face. The electricity was concentrating on the other side of the field, near where Zera was standing. She jumped back, to put some more distance between her and the lightning, just in case.

Indeed, the lightning was released in a powerful bolt, traveling across the battlefield towards the pokemon closest to the cliffs, which was Zera, striking them and channeling the stored up electricity into their body.

"Zera!" Zera howled, but it wasn't a wail of pain. No, they were feeling energized, the electricity stimulating them and triggering their volt absorb, causing the wounds inflicted on their body to begin healing, much to Raizer's delight.

"Awesome, Zera! Just what we needed to turn up the voltage!" Raizer cheered.

"Zeraora!" Zera nodded, the electricity dispersing. They dashed forward, reinvigorated and partially healed, charging right for the stunned Tracey.

Tracey snapped out of her shock, not having expected Zera to be healed by the electricity. Luckily, she was able to respond to Zera's plasma fists by striking them with a sucker punch to the jaw, the two pokemon knocked back by the force of each other's attacks.

"ZERA!" Zera's move was much stronger, but they still took a significant amount of damage due to their weakened defenses.

"Cinder…" Tracey, in turn, was still recoiling with pain from the force of the earlier lightning bolt and now the plasma fists, but thankfully she was a tough pokemon and not one that would let something like that slow her down too much.

"This is what I was afraid of," Akira commented, having observed the exchange just like everyone else, but unlike Lila and Dakota, he wasn't too stunned to comment on it. He had seen it coming, after all. "Zeraora's ability is volt absorb, which means that Electric type attacks restore their health. And not only that, but apparently regular lightning and electricity do as well. Which means that on a battlefield like this, things are really not good for the Commander and his party."

Dakota was the one who regained her voice first. "But that's not fair!" She exclaimed. "He shouldn't… they shouldn't… it's not fair that Zeraora has such an overwhelming advantage on this battlefield! How is the Commander supposed to fight back if his opponent can just use the electric discharges from the battlefield to heal themselves?!"

"I agree!" Lila said. She'd been gushing with praise over the elements of the battlefield, but she hadn't expected something like this. It was one thing if both sides were at odds with the terrain, but in a situation like this where only the Commander's pokemon had to be wary of the lightning bolts raining down on them, it wasn't fair. "That's totally not okay!"

Akira could understand where they were coming from, so he put it into a context that might make it a little more acceptable.

"Look, guys, think of it like this," Akira explained. "On water fields, Water type pokemon have a good advantage over other types of pokemon, right? Because they can swim in the water when other pokemon can't. So you gotta think of this in the same way, okay? Zeraora just happens to be a pokemon with a natural advantage on this battlefield. And yeah, that's not necessarily fair, but sometimes that's just how it works."

"You and your Water types," Dakota scowled, rolling her eyes. "Seriously, sometimes I can't even with you."

Akira stuck his tongue out in response.

"Well, I still don't think it's fair," Lila decided, crossing her arms in front of her chest. Her expression softened. "But… at the same time, that's just how it is sometimes, you know? Nothing we can do about it."

And that was the decision that was arrived at as Zera charged at Tracey, trying to wear her down with electric attacks.

"Tracey, flame charge," Alden called out. He would need to do some quick thinking to overcome this disadvantage. For starters, he couldn't rely on reliably taking Zera out by wearing them down anymore. It wasn't enough to not use Electric type moves, not that his team really had any powerful ones anymore, the goal would be having to take Zera out as quickly as possible, do as much damage as they could, otherwise Zera would just keep healing.

And for that, he needed speed.

"Cinder!" Tracey kicked off the ground, flames coating her legs, and caught Zera with a kick to the jaw that knocked them to the rocky ground. Tracey leapt back, and with another order from Alden, immediately followed up with a second move.

"Now, Tracey, pyro ball!"

Tracey pulled back her leg and kicked a massive fireball at Zera, hitting them as they tried to stand, Zera letting out a roar of pain as the flames hit their chest, lightning it ablaze with crimson flames. Zera stumbled to their feet, enraged but not down, and charged at Tracey.

"Plasma fist!" Raizer ordered. Zera built up electricity into their fists, and it grew intense enough that it melted into pure plasma. They drew closer to Tracey, fists raised, but Tracey was ready for them to attack.

Not that she was going to strike back, of course. The Commander had other ideas for his pokemon, and Tracey felt that was the perfect play herself.

"Baton pass!" He ordered. Tracey flashed, and returned to her pokeball, Alden switching her out for another pokemon. "Eifa, go!"

"Espeon!" Eifa called, emerging from her pokeball.

"Now, use reflect," Alden shouted.

"Es!" Eifa nodded, her ruby flashing bright red. A barrier of red light appeared around her, Zera's plasma fists colliding with the barrier and bouncing off of it, barely making a dent, much to the pokemon's frustration.

"Nicely done, Eifa," Alden grinned. "Now, psychic!"

Eifa took advantage of her boosted speed, focusing her energy into her ruby and directing a blast of psychic energy at Zera, knocking the Electric type pokemon backwards.

"Zeraora!" Zera growled, leaping to their feet and charging at Eifa again.

"Agility," Raizer ordered. Zera nodded and ran forward, their speed increasing, quickly closing the distance that Eifa had placed between them. "Now, brick break!"

"Zera!" Zera came to a halt at the edge of the barrier, raising their hand and swinging their paw down in a powerful chop, smashing through the force field, shattering it to pieces. Eifa cried out in pain, though not too much, Zera's strike scoring a critical hit right on her ruby.

Eifa withstood the attack, though, and she leapt back, putting some distance between herself and the Electric type again. Eifa was quite quick, so if she was smart, staying out of the range of Zera's attacks was no difficult thing, especially with all the speed boosts that Tracey had passed onto her.

"Psybeam!" Alden called.

"Espeon!" Eifa's ruby flashed, and a beam of crimson light shot out from her forehead, hitting Zera in the face. But Zera didn't let the attack disorient him, charging right at Eifa with his enhanced speed, preparing to strike her again. But not with a brick break attack this time.

"ORA!" Zera howled, plasma crackling in their palms. "ORA!"

The massive boost of electricity that Zera was pumping out made Alden suddenly get a brilliant idea. If it worked, he would have seized a major lead in this fight.

"Eifa!" He shouted, catching his Espeon's attention. "Use skill swap!"

"What?!" Raizer gasped, shocked.

"Oho," Akira blinked, a smile crossing his face. "Smart."

"Espeon!" Eifa's ruby flashed and her eyes began to glow, crimson light shooting out of the ruby on her forehead and striking Zera in the chest, then another ray of light came from Zera and returned to her, the two pokemon both shining for a second.

Their abilities swapped, Zera struck Eifa with the full power of their plasma fists, but unfortunately the attack was not very effective. That was to say that it had no effect on her whatsoever. Eifa's body began glowing, teaming with electricity, as she absorbed the force of Zera's blow and used it to fully restore her health, Zera gasping in surprise.

"Now, psychic!" Alden shouted.

Eifa released a powerful explosion of psychic energy, sending Zera flying through the air, the pokemon too stunned to process what was going on. They regained their bearings after a few seconds and flipped through the air, touching down on the ground, panting.

"Zera, are you okay?" Raizer cried.

"Zera," Zera nodded, shooting him a look that said "what are you worrying about, dumbass?! I'm trying to enjoy this fight!"

Meanwhile, the crowd went wild, roaring with excitement at this surprising turn of events. And no one was cheering as much as the announcers.

"Whoa!" Lila exclaimed. "That was amazing!"

"So the Commander's Espeon switched abilities with Zeraora, and that means she gained Zeraora's volt absorb, right?" Dakota clarified, still trying to make sense of this. "That means that Zeraora can't use Electric type attacks anymore, right? And Espeon can now absorb lightning from the battlefield and use it to restore her health!"

"Exactly," Akira agreed. "And that means Zeraora isn't immune to the electricity either, not anymore. Not that they'll be that vulnerable because they should naturally resist it, but at least that means they won't be able to restore their health with it anymore."

"Yeah! Now that's what I'm talking about!" Alden roared. "We're getting a real fight now, Eifa! Let's do this!"

"Espeon!" Eifa chimed in agreement.

Raizer wasn't fazed, though. Sure, it was annoying that Zera had lost the benefits of volt absorb, and that meant that they had to be a little more careful now, but there was something they had gained from the skill swap, and that was Eifa's magic bounce.

Without magic bounce, that meant Eifa was now vulnerable to being afflicted with status moves, and that was something that Raizer was going to take advantage of immediately.

"Zera, use taunt!" Raizer ordered.

"Zera," Zera nodded, howling and charging at Eifa, beckoning towards her, his eyes flashing with a challenge. Eifa growled in response, her eyes flashing red and her ruby lightning up, and she fired a beam of psychic energy at Zera that he easily dodged.

"Now you can't use status moves anymore," Raizer called out. "Which means we can seize the initiative! Zera, use quick attack!"

"Zera!" Zera dashed forward and hit Eifa in the chin, knocking the Psychic type pokemon back. Eifa quickly leapt to her feet, though, not about to be put down so easily even if her physical defenses were rather meager.

"Zeraora is at kind of a disadvantage," Akira noted. "Espeon resists Fighting type attacks naturally with her Psychic typing, and thanks to swiping Zeraora's volt absorb she can absorb Electric type attacks, too. Which means that the moves Zeraora has available are rather limited."

"Zera, fire punch," Raizer ordered. Predictably, that was one of the best moves they had access to at the moment.

"Ora!" Zera howled, charging at Eifa, their fist infused with flames.

"And use agility to boost your speed even more!" Raizer added.

Their fist already filled with flames, Zera's speed increased even more as they dashed forwards, until they were nothing more than a golden blur. This was a problem for Eifa, since she would have to rely on attacks to try and take Zera down since she couldn't use any status moves.

At the same time that she realized this, she also realized that there was no way she'd be able to land a blow with Zera's speed being what it was, which meant she had to take other avenues. She glanced back at the Commander to see if he thought the same, and as they made eye contact they both knew what was up.

"Future sight," Alden ordered. Eifa focused her psychic powers into her ruby, her eyes flashing bright red, and she sent an attack into the future, as a final trump card.

"Zeraora!" Zera roared, taking the moment to slam their fist into Eifa's side with a powerful fire punch. Eifa let out a wail of pain and was knocked over, rolling over the rocky terrain. She hopped to her feet and fired a bolt of psychic power at Zera, who was already charging at her again.

"Zera! Acrobatics!" Raizer shouted. Zera leapt from the ground, dodging the blast of psychic energy, and leapt off one of the cliff walls, leaping over Eifa and landing behind her, swinging his foot and kicking her in the leg, bringing her down to three legs. Before Eifa could respond and rise to her feet, Zera brought their fist up and hit her in the jaw, followed by a swift barrage of punches and kicks that drained Eifa's health, her low defenses costing her dearly.

Eifa rolled across the ground, finally released by Zera. She let out a whimper before losing consciousness.

"Espeon is unable to battle," Lila declared. "Zeraora is the winner."

So Alden has taken Raizer's ability from him with Eifa, but he lost another pokemon doing it. Will he be able to finish things with his last two pokemon?