Elaina is down to her final pokemon. The battle reaches its climax. Will she be able to emerge successful and overcome Blake's attempts to reach her? Or will Blake manage to bring her back from the brink. Remember to review!
Rowlets and Oshawotts: Not quite new, she's used it before.
Guest: Well, we'll have to see.
Aakareo Kokokuhikari: Definitely enjoying seeing your reactions, can't wait for you to catch up.
KedharS: Hope it will be good.
Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Who knows what the results will be? We'll have to find out.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 723
From Elaina's pokeball came a small pokemon. It almost looked like Uni. It was her Minior, Hope. The small pokemon floated above the ground, slowly spinning. Their body was covered in a thick, brown, rocky shell, the rough exterior looking like an unbreakable wall in comparison to the small and fragile little Solosis.
But Uni was far from small and fragile. She was ready to fight, and she wasn't about to let the anything stop her from doing her best.
"Uni! Use psybeam!" Blake ordered. He wasn't sure if Elaina's Minior was more specially or physically defensively oriented, or the extent of its abilities. It was a pokemon he had only seen her use once, and even then, only for a moment.
Of all of Elaina's pokemon, this one promised to be the most tricky, as he wasn't sure what they were capable of.
The only thing he knew about it was that it was Elaina's trump card. And if that was the case, he was going to have to be cautious.
Uni fired a beam of rainbow light at the Minior, launched at high speed thanks to the ability of the trick room.
When the Minior dodged to the side, that told Blake quite a lot. It meant that the small pokemon was naturally slow, for one thing, since it was difficult to dodge a pokemon as slow as Uni while under the trick room.
"Something like that won't be nearly enough!" Elaina snarled. She focused her harmonia and directed it into Hope. She hated having to rely on Hope. Hope… Hope was hers. They were the star that Elaina had wished on all those years ago, the one she had pinned all her hopes for a new future onto. And it was just that new future she desired. She would work as hard as she could to achieve it, a future where she didn't have to worry about her current condition, or her harmonia overpowering her and destroying everything around her.
I made a wish on you, Hope, Elaina reminded her pokemon. A wish that I could be normal. That I could have a future. That I could have friends. I won't… I won't run from that wish. I will push through it and bring it to completion, because that's the future I desire!
Blake was telling her that she secretly wanted to keep herself isolated from everyone around her, but that was just ridiculous. She didn't do anything like that! She was fighting so hard so that she COULD achieve the future she desired, and the reason she'd cut Blake out of her life was because he was a risk to that!
I'm not running and hiding! I'm not! She refused to believe that. I'm fighting as hard as I can so that I CAN have a future, not so that I can run from it!
It was clear to her now that Blake knew nothing about her. Not really. She had been a fool to think that he did.
Yes… I was a fool. A complete fool. But there's nothing wrong with being a fool. It's just a matter of making a mistake. A mistake that I will correct right now! When Elaina sent out Hope, that was a promise she had made to herself. A promise that she wouldn't be weak. That she wouldn't listen to Blake's poisonous words anymore.
"Blake is just trying to confuse you." Gerard's words touched her ears, confirming her deepest fears. "He's pushing the expectations and worries he has for his sister onto you, Elaina, don't you realize that? If you follow him so blindly, expecting him to show you the way, then the only thing that awaits you is pain and despair."
I won't face that, Elaina promised. My future will only be bright. No matter how much pain I have to fight through, I'm going to seize it for myself, a future filled with happiness, the perfect future I deserve for myself!
"Hope!" Elaina shouted. "Hit her with your stone edge!"
"Minior!" Hope echoed. They focused their power, and spun in a circle, orbiting near the ceiling of the trick room. They ripped massive stones out of the ground, and then extended their cosmic energies out to the stealth rocks floating around the battlefield as well. Stones crashed down upon Uni from all different directions, preparing to smash her into gooey paste.
"Uni, dodge!" Blake shouted. Uni was protected by her reflect attack, but Blake didn't want to take any chances. There was still the chance that Elaina's harmonia had boosted that Minior's attacking power so high that it would smash Uni's reflect into tiny shards of light, and that wasn't something that he wanted to risk. It was safer to rely on her speed.
"Solosis!" Uni bobbed. The stones fell to her, dropping from the sky like meteors. But Uni was quick, able to skillfully maneuver between each one.
"Look at her movements!" Cynthia cheered. "Yeah, that's some serious ninja skills right there, way to go, Uni!"
"Uh… yes, exactly, the way of the ninja is to dodge incoming attacks, and be as free-forming as the water on the riverbank," Dokukage said, nodding, spewing some bullshit about ninjutsu or whatever. He hadn't spent any time training Blake's Solosis at all, those movements were all her. His main focus had been on Blake's Bug type pokemon.
"…I'm so proud of her," Sango said, unable to resist the smile spreading across her face. She remembered when she first worked with Uni, trying to get her help in catching a pokemon when Blake had loaned her to Sango.
Uni had not been a very good pokemon to start with. She was timid and shy, and didn't have much skill for fighting. Sango had struggled quite a bit, thanks to that. And now here she was, fighting against Elaina's final pokemon, using everything she had to win.
Sango couldn't help but be impressed by Uni's progress.
"Way to go, Uni!" Kitty cheered. She was quite fond of the tiny little pokemon as well, she was probably one of her favorites among Blake's party.
"Now Uni, switch to attacking!" Blake ordered. "Use your psybeam!"
"Solosis!" Uni focused her psychic power and fired the beam of light at Hope, hitting the Minior directly. With Uni's special attack stat, it must have been quite a powerful hit, but you wouldn't be able to tell on the surface.
Just like their trainer, Minior's face was an impenetrable mask. They hovered over the battlefield, wavering slightly, but looked completely uninjured from Uni's psybeam, which was rather bothersome for Blake.
"It's okay, Uni," he called. "Don't worry about it! Let's just keep pressing the advantage with your speed! Maybe they're weaker on the physical defense side! Use psyshock next, okay?"
"Sol!" Uni agreed, dropping the psybeam and instead focusing their psychic power into a veil around her body, psychic lightning crackling around her. She launched the green bolt up to strike the Minior, but once again, the attack seemed to have no effect. Blake glanced at Elaina. She didn't seem that injured by the attack, either.
"I'm worried about that pokemon's defenses," Ayame confessed. She could tell at a glance that the shell of that Minior was no small problem. It was like there was nothing that could get through it, their condition was just that good. But she wasn't going to let that get the better of her. She was going to keep believing in Blake. "Come on, Blake! Just keep attacking, you'll get through their defenses! I believe in you!"
Shouting encouraging things was the best she could do right now.
"Aww, with encouraging words like that, I can't believe that Blake could ever lose," Sylvia said sarcastically. Ayame shot her a dirty look.
"But you are correct, that pokemon has quite the powerful defense," Sylvia agreed, a smirk crossing her face. She turned her eyes towards Gerard. "I wonder, which Rock type pokemon trainer was it that taught Elaina how to perfectly raise that Minior of hers?"
Gerard's smirk was the only answer he provided her, and Sylvia matched it with a smirk of her own, of course it had gone that way, how else would it have happened?
"Come on, Uni!" Blake called. "Keep trying to break through Minior's shell! Use another psyshock attack!"
"Solosis!" Green electricity crackled through Uni's body, and she released it in a bolt of psychic power at Hope. But Elaina wasn't about to let her Hope be tarnished like that!
"Not going to happen!" She snarled. "Hope, use cosmic power!"
"Minior!" Hope began to glow, cosmic energy surging through their body and strengthening their hard shell. Alongside Elaina's harmonia boost, it sent Hope's defensive abilities sky high, protecting them from damage.
The psyshock hit the Minior, and did next to nothing, much to Blake's frustration. It was pretty clear that he needed to boost his own attacking stat a little more, and the best way to do that was to improve Uni's special attack with a calm mind.
"Uni, calm mind!" Blake ordered. Uni concentrated her psychic abilities, and her special stats increased to match the boost to Hope's. But he also knew that wasn't a winning strategy. The more he raised Uni's stats, the more opportunity he provided the Minior to boost their own stats.
And indeed, that's what ended up happening. As if on mutual agreement, Blake and Elaina exchanged harmless status moves, until it reached the point where Hope's defenses were maximized and Uni's special stats had reached an equivalent maximum.
But Blake had a trump card up his sleeve that Elaina wasn't aware of. "Uni!" He called out. "Use your future sight!"
With her attacking ability maximized, Uni foresaw an attack, preparing to strike the Minior when it would do the most damage. And she knew just when that would be. Now, it was just a matter of getting to that point.
"Stone edge!" Elaina ordered. While Uni began to focus her power and prepare a future sight, Hope sent stones raining down upon her.
Blake calculated the odds. Uni could probably dodge the stone edge, but he was counting on her reflect to carry her through. In the meantime, he would prepare for a careful attack. "Uni, withstand the stone edge and use stored power!"
"Solosis!" Uni cried. The stones pounded against her reflect, but she remained resolute, protecting herself from the physical attacks. She began to glow bright green, drawing upon the power of her calm mind.
"Oh, so that's his plan!" Cynthia gasped.
"Blake's Solosis is an excellent pokemon to serve as the culmination to his baton pass strategy," Dokukage agreed. If he was the sort of person who would display a sense of pride her would be smiling beneath his mask. "By having status buff passed onto her, she can prepare herself for unleashing the full power of her stored power and knock out any pokemon with an incredibly powerful move."
"Stored power, is that the one where the pokemon's move does more damage with each status buff?" Sango asked curiously.
"Exactly," Ayame confirmed. "And with six boosts to special attack and special defense, that means that its power will be at 260. Elaina was a fool to allow Blake to just accumulate that many boosts." A smile crossed her lips. "Go, Uni, smash through that Minior's defenses!"
"We won't let you!" Elaina cried. "Hope! Use protect!"
Uni unleashed the massive power that she stored up, but it ended up being worthless. The wave of energy slammed into Hope, bouncing off of a protective barrier that surrounded their body to have no effect.
"Aww, come on!" Cynthia groaned. "That's not fair!"
"I see you're still hiding behind your walls," Blake said, narrowing his eyes. "Your Minior has exceptional defenses, Elaina, I can see why they're your ace pokemon."
"I won't let you hurt my partner," Elaina scowled behind her mask. "Hope is my future! They're the one… who will grant my wish… and lead me into the world that I desire! Now, Hope, finish that Solosis with your meteor beam!"
"Meteor…" Sango gasped.
"BEAM?!" Cynthia exclaimed, her eyes shining with excitement in spite of herself.
Blake was cautious. He didn't know what sort of move this was going to be. "Uni, be careful!" Blake exclaimed. "Use light screen, just in case!"
"Solosis!" Uni flashed green, a barrier of light wrapping around her to raise her special defenses as well in anticipation of what was to come.
Hope began to absorb energy from space, pulsing and glowing with cosmic power as they built up to a massive attack. While they were storing up their energy, Elaina was ready to lend a hand, providing them with a little energy boost of her own.
"Take as much as you like," she whispered. She gathered more harmonia to direct her pokemon's way. As Hope built up cosmic power, their special attack increased, preparing to themselves for an amazing attack. "We'll finish that little Solosis off."
Blake could tell that the attack was slow to come, so he decided to prepare something else. There wasn't much more that Uni could do to fortify her defenses, so he was going to switch to offense instead. "Uni!" He cried. "While that Minior is preparing its attack, hit them with stored power and prepare to dodge!"
"Solosis!" Uni nodded. She gathered light up into her body, building up her strength from the power she had already accrued. She released the stored power in a shockwave of psychic energy, the wave surging towards Hope and hitting the rocky pokemon.
Hope had no reaction to the stored power slamming into them, but Elaina certainly did. She nearly doubled over in pain, panting, but refused to let herself fall. The attack would have been devastating to any of her other pokemon, but Hope's special defenses wouldn't lose to a move like that! Even if her body was trembling with pain!
"HOPE!" She cried, gritting her teeth and focusing her power, ordering her Minior to unleash everything she had. "METEOR BEAM!"
"Uni, dodge!" Blake cried. He was ready to take advantage of Uni's very low speed, and the power of the trick room. But as slow as Uni was, it wasn't going to be enough. If Elaina was using a pokemon like her Noivern or her Aerodactyl, that would be one thing. But Minior's base speed was only 60, meaning Uni did not outspeed them nearly enough to get away.
As Uni tried to escape, devastation rained down from above. A massive blast of light roared from the heavens, falling towards Uni like a meteor, the entire field glowing with light. The force of the energy slammed into her, try as she might to protect herself. Her light screen flashed, but it only lasted an instant against the devastating meteor beam.
The light screen shattered and Uni was struck with the full brunt of the attack. She let out a pitiful wail that was drowned out by the explosion, and when the dust cleared a massive crater had been blown in center of the stadium, and in the center of it was Uni, badly injured.
"Uni!" Ayame cried.
"Even with all those boosts to her special defense?!" Cynthia gasped in disbelief.
"So that's the power of Elaina's harmonia," Sango said, shaking her head, stunned.
"Uni! Recover!" Blake ordered. He wasn't going to lose his cool. He knew what Uni was capable of, and he knew that, as injured as she was, she hadn't fallen yet. Uni began to glow with a soft green light, her health starting to recover.
"You honestly thought I would let you heal yourself?" Elaina growled. "Hope! Don't give her the opportunity! Stone edge!"
Large stones ripped themselves out of the crater and slammed into Uni from all sides. As fast as she was, she was far too injured to dodge the attack, stones digging into the reflective barrier to try and smash through and grind the little pokemon into paste.
"Uni!" Blake cried. He had to hope that her defenses would hold, that the reflect would be enough to protect her from the attack. But as the stones began to press tighter and tighter and the reflect began to buckle, it became clear that there was no chance.
Elaina made sure of it.
"Charge beam!" She ordered. Hope gathered energy from above and fired a compressed beam of light that bypassed the reflect and struck Uni from above, causing her to let out a wail. Her recovery interrupted, it was a distraction enough for her barrier to shatter completely, the rocks smashing into her from all sides, burying her under a pile of rubble.
"…Uni…" Blake whimpered helplessly.
Kitty felt like she was going to cry. She averted her eyes, unable to watch any further. Sango knew how she felt, she thought she might cry as well. She hugged her Castform tightly to her chest and bit her lip, not willing to confront what had just happened.
"…Why the long face, Blake?" Elaina asked. Her anger and her frustration was causing her to sound a lot crueler than she meant to, but she couldn't help herself. Blake just made her so mad! She wanted to discourage him completely, make sure that he would regret trying to challenge her! "You were the one who brought this on yourself, weren't you? By choosing to rely on your pokemon to fight me, knowing what I was capable of? This is what happens when you challenge a harmonia user, you have to be aware of that now, right?"
Blake didn't say a word as he recalled Uni to her pokeball.
"And you honestly think you'll be able to save your little sister with that kind of power?" Elaina asked. What are you doing?! Stop talking, you idiot, you don't need to say things like that! That's horrible! Stop it right now!
"Elaina… it's okay. I'm not done yet," Blake assured her. He gave her a smile that might have looked confident, but everyone could see that he was shaken by what happened. "Uni knew what she was getting into, and she agreed to fight just like everyone else. Because like me, she saw a harmonia user in trouble, and wanted to help. So I'm not going to regret, and neither is she. We're both giving it our all, and she's surely happy that she did her part."
Elaina wasn't impressed. "You only have two pokemon remaining!" She spat. "Send them out right now, so I can end this, here and now!"
"You bet I will," Blake said, narrowing his eyes. "Cory! It's up to you!"
Blake flung his next pokeball into the air, releasing his Crawdaunt.
Ayame held her hands to her heart and prayed. Blake would win. He had to win. She couldn't bear to think about what might happen if he lost.
So, Uni fought her best, but was devastated by Elaina's Minior! What will happen now? Will Blake be able to keep going, or has she managed to turn the tide?