The battle continues, and Akira has lost his first pokemon! But that doesn't mean this match is already over, he still has two more! Does he have anything else up his sleeve? Misty's Seaking is immune to electric attacks, and she's shown quite a mastery of the Water type. What could Akira do to beat her? Let's see if he can pull it off!

The Harmonium: It's certainly something that will be explored, don't worry.

KedharS: Yeah, and unfortunately he isn't going to use his trump card because Satsuki is still recovering. But he does have other pokemon that can fight!

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 826

"Sparky, go," Akira said, sending out his next pokemon. The small Chinchou he was caring for emerged from his pokeball, landing in the water.

Misty was surprised by that choice.

"You're using your Chinchou? Even though Seaking has Lightning Rod?" Misty asked. "That's an interesting decision."

"It's an unpredictable choice, can't say I disagree with that," Sylvia grinned. "Come on, Akira! Show me what you've got! I'm excited now!"

Sylvia doubted that Akira could pull this off, considering how weak Dakota's Chinchou was. But she thought it would definitely be a good show. She always liked a surprise decision like this one. So she cheered Akira on.

The reason Akira had chosen to go with Sparky next instead of Nami, even in spite of the obvious disadvantages, was because he wasn't sure if Nami would be able to hold up against Seaking in her current state. And even if she could, then she would probably not be able to beat Misty's other pokemon, either.

Nami was strong, but she might not be strong enough to sweep through the rest of Misty's team, even if they were Water types. On the other hand, Sparky was weak. Even though his Electric type moves should have given him an advantage against Misty's Water types, Akira knew that Misty wouldn't lose to type advantage, and Sparky wasn't suited for sweeping no matter what. He would be lucky to take down one of her pokemon.

So he would choose Sparky to weaken and possibly even defeat the already-weakened Seaking, and rely on Nami to be his trump card and last resort.

It sounded like a good plan in theory. He just had to hope that Sparky would be able to pull it off. Akira turned to Misty and grinned. "Hey. I figured what the heck, I might as well try him out, see what he's capable of. And who knows, he might surprise you."

"Well, if that's what you want, sounds good!" Misty nodded, cracking a smile. She was looking forward to seeing what the little Chinchou was capable of too, without his Electric type attacks. "Seaking, use signal beam!"

"Seaking!" Seaking turned her horn towards Sparky, gathering eerie energy into it.

"Sparky, use confuse ray," Akira quickly ordered.

"Chin!" Sparky lifted up his antennas, and they began to glow. A throbbing orb of light appeared between the two shining protrusions, zigzagging across the field towards Seaking. The jittery orb disoriented Seaking, disrupting the flow of energy she was building up. It blew up in her face and she hurt herself in confusion.

"Seaking!" Misty cried.

"Good work, Sparky!" Akira cheered. "Now use your signal beam!"

Sparky raised her glowing antennas again, and another orb of light shimmered into existence between them, but this one was blue and red. It throbbed and shifted, and grew into a powerful beam that shot across the water and hit Seaking directly.

"Seeeeaaaaa!" Seaking cried in pain, the gym spinning around her as she tried to regain focus. But she couldn't concentrate, her mind was swimming.

Akira nodded in joy. Sparky was doing it! The only problem was, the damage he'd inflicted was minimal. He might have the upper hand, but he didn't have the power to seriously hurt his opponent. Akira was going to have to change tactics and get in with chip damage.

It wasn't a strategy he was used to. Satsuki, Starla, Kumari, Harris, his team was designed to hit hard and fast, he wasn't used to more grindy strategies like this. Lilia was the closest pokemon he had to something like that, and Nami had the stats to play defensively but she was still more often used for her devastating Water type moves.

But just because he wasn't used to fighting like this, that didn't mean he wasn't capable of it. He just had to be smart and careful about this.

"Sparky, keep it up with a bubblebeam attack!" He shouted.

Sparky opened her mouth and spit out a blast of bubbles at Seaking, causing a chain of explosions that shook her.

"And now you're using Water type attacks against an expert at Water types?" Sylvia laughed. "Dang, Akira, you really are learning a lot from me, aren't you?"

"I see, that attack doesn't do much damage, does it?" Misty noted. "After all, Seaking resists the Water type moves. But that wasn't your intention, was it?"

Akira shrugged.

"Exactly, bubblebeam reduces the speed of opponents that it hits," Akira explained. "With your Seaking's speed being what it is, it's better to slow her down! Keep going, Sparky, more bubblebeam attacks!"

"Chinchou!" Sparky buzzed, opening his mouth and firing more bubbles at Seaking, who was still too confused to dodge. She floundered in the water, rocked by the explosions, the fluid of the bubbles getting into her eyes and causing her to slow down as the water foamed up around her. Akira wished the attacks could do more damage, but right now he was glad that Sparky was at least landing good hits like this.

"Seaking! You've gotta snap out of confusion!" Misty shouted.

Seaking eventually did manage to regain her bearings, but it wasn't fast enough. She was hit by another signal beam, and the pain was strong enough to snap her out of it and regain control over herself. She turned towards Sparky and aimed her horn at the Water type again.

"Great work!" Misty cheered. "Now Seaking, dive under the water and prepare your megahorn attack next!"

"Seaking!" Seaking nodded, diving beneath the waves. As deep down below as she was, she was safe from Sparky trying to confuse her again.

"Sparky, can you see her under the water?" Akira asked.

"Chinchou," Sparky said, shaking his head. He looked down at the water, but couldn't see where Seaking had escaped to.

"Now, megahorn!" Misty cheered.

Seaking shot up towards the surface, horn sharpened and spinning. She hit Sparky directly from below, coming up too fast for him to dodge.

"CHINCHOU!" Sparky cried in pain, launched out of the water by the force of the attack. He splashed down hard, looking frantically for his opponent, but Seaking had already dived down beneath the waves again.

"Sparky, you've gotta go under the water!" Akira shouted. "Even though we slowed down Seaking a lot, she's still fast enough to attack from below without us being able to respond! So we've gotta take this fight down to her!"

"Chinchou," Sparky nodded obediently, diving under the water.

Misty frowned.

"Akira, that was a bad decision you just made," she said.

"Huh?" Akira asked, confused.

"Normally, you'd be right," Misty admitted. "Fighting Seaking underwater is the right call. The problem is, this isn't exactly a normal situation. There are two things you're not considering right now. But I'll tell you all about them later. For now… Seaking!"

She turned to the pool and shouted as loudly as she could. "When you've spotted him, use signal beam!"

On cue, the water began to glow a myriad of reds and blues, and a large beam of light broke the surface, sending Sparky flying through the air. He landed hard on the sand, gasping in pain.

"Sparky!" Akira cried.

"Chin…" Sparky gurgled helplessly, fainting.

Akira clenched his teeth, resisting his urge to shout. He was frustrated. He knew Misty was powerful, but she'd been able to defeat two of his pokemon fairly easily.

"Like I said earlier, there were two things you forgot, Akira," Misty explained, holding up a finger. "The first thing is that you and Chinchou aren't real partners."

Akira blinked, confused.

"What? What are you talking about?" He asked, not sure what she meant. "I know that he's Dakota's pokemon and not mine, but that doesn't mean-"

"No, that's exactly what it means," Misty interrupted him. "You haven't fought with that Chinchou very much, have you?"

Akira blushed sheepishly. "…This is my first time, yeah," he admitted.

"Exactly. You haven't ever used him before," she said. "I'm sure you know that it takes a lot of practice and experience between trainer and pokemon to really get comfortable with battling. But you don't have a lot of experience. You're new with him, and that means that the two of you need to train a little bit more."

Akira could accept that. It was true that he didn't know how to fight with him. It wasn't just that Sparky was a lot weaker than the pokemon he had trained, or Misty's team. He was also a new pokemon, and Akira was still learning the ropes and figuring out how to fight with him. That was why he wanted to train here, with Misty.

Getting close with Dakota's pokemon made it feel like a part of her was still here with him. The rest of her team may have been under Serena's care, but at least with Sparky he could still feel a connection between them.

"So what was the second thing?" He asked, sighing. He returned Sparky to his pokeball, silently apologizing for sending him out into battle when he wasn't prepared for it himself. "You said there were two things I'd forgotten."

"That's right," Misty said, raising another finger. "Although the second part kind of falls under the first category of you not having enough experience with that Chinchou. See, you don't know enough about how he fights, and you also don't know a lot about the natural qualities that Chinchou possess, which if you had more experience, or knowledge, you might have."

"Akira's just an idiot from way back," Sylvia chipped in. "He can't really be blamed for not having a lot of knowledge. Just kind of how he is."

Akira shot her a scathing glare, with zero effect.

"What are you talking about?" He asked, ignoring Sylvia and turning back to Misty.

"What I'm talking about is the fact that Chinchou's eyesight is exceptionally poor," Misty explained. "Lanturn have it, too. That's not to say they're blind or anything, no, they can see just fine under normal circumstances. But think about what make Chinchou and Lanturn special."

Akira blinked. "They're… Water/Electric type pokemon?" He tried.

Sylvia burst out laughing and Misty sighed.

"I see we have a lot of work cut out for us before you're ready to be an expert at Water type pokemon," she said sympathetically. "What I'm getting at are their antennas." She pointed at her own forehead. "Because their eyesight underwater is very poor, they need to rely on the glow of their antenna to see where they're going."

As she said that, Akira realized what his mistake had been.

"Oh, wow," he groaned. "I didn't even think about that."

"Exactly," Misty said, nodding. "Because Chinchou naturally glow under the water, it serves as a natural beacon. While he was searching for Seaking, he was pretty obvious. Seaking could find him immediately, and attack with impunity."

She shrugged her shoulders. "Sorry, that's just the way it is. It was a difficult situation either way, and since you didn't know what you were dealing with, or what your Chinchou was capable of, you made a bad call."

She smiled. "But that isn't a bad thing, Akira. It just means you have room to grow! And besides, you still have one more pokemon left, right?"

Akira nodded. It made sense, in a twisted way. Misty and Seaking had defeated Sparky because she was an expert in Water types, and he wasn't even close to that. A "Water type enthusiast" was the closest it came.

And if he was being honest with himself, he didn't even have a particular affinity for Water type pokemon. He just happened to have collected several of them because they were pokemon that he liked. And while Satsuki was his favorite, that didn't mean he loved Water types. He preferred a balanced team. But he was going to be the Water type member of the Eight Leaders next year? Sometimes he felt like he didn't deserve it.

Misty was showing him right now that there was a lot of room he still had to grow. It was a pretty clear look at how inexperienced he was not just as a type specialist, but as a pokemon trainer in general. Something that he needed to change.

Originally, he had come here because it was part of his coursework. And after that, because he needed to go to Kanto in order to find out more about what had happened to Dakota, in order to do whatever he could to help cure her.

Right now, though, he was considering rethinking that. He was definitely going to try and help Dakota, that hadn't changed. But while that was the priority, it wouldn't hurt to really give learning more about Water type pokemon a try.

He might even find some way to help Satsuki while he was at it.

Akira smiled. "Thank you, Misty."

"Hmm?" Misty asked, raising her eyebrow. "You're welcome, but thank you for what?"

"You showed me that I still have a lot to learn as a trainer," Akira explained, reaching for his last pokeball. "And as a Water type user. I'm looking forward to training with you even more now. I'm happy that we had this battle."

"I'm happy, too!" Misty grinned. "Especially because you're learning a lot! You've certainly got a knack for battling, and I'd like to see what else you and your pokemon are capable of! I'd be happy to help you get stronger, Akira!"

Akira nodded. That sounded good to him.

Sylvia rolled her eyes. This was getting a little too "Movie of the Week" for her tastes, she didn't like the touchy-feely stuff. "Come on, guys, get on with the fighting!"

Akira ignored what Sylvia was saying, but he was still going to give her what she wanted anyway. "Well, Misty, if you want to see what we can do, then I'm happy to oblige. Let me show you what else I can do! Nami, you're up next!"

Akira threw his pokeball into the air, and Nami emerged from it with a purr, splashing down into the water.

"Ahh, a beautiful Vaporeon!" Misty swooned. "But we're going to take it down! Go, Seaking, use signal beam!"

"Seaking!" Seaking surfaced and turned her horn on Nami next, firing a beam of glowing light at the Vaporeon.

"Nami, use haze!" Akira ordered.

"Vaporeon!" Nami opened her mouth and breathed out a cloud of hazy white smoke that billowed over the battlefield, temporarily blinding Seaking.

"What's with this mist?" Misty asked, looking around.

"I've reset all of our stat changes back to normal," Akira replied. "There goes that massive boost to your Seaking's special attack stat from her Lightning Rod ability is set right back down to normal!"

Misty grinned. "That's not a bad play. But we don't need to rely on something like that! Go, Seaking, use signal beam!"

"Seaking!" Seaking swam forward, lowering her horn and turning it towards Nami, preparing another signal beam attack. But this one was nowhere near the level of the previous ones she had used, even if it was just as fast.

Nami was able to easily dodge the attack, using her quick attack to avoid the blast. She swam forward and slashed Seaking in the side, knocking her away.

"Sea!" Seaking growled, turning her horn towards Nami again. But Misty was quickly realizing that method wasn't going to work.

"Seaking, she's faster than we are with that quick attack of hers," she advised. "We need to rely on something else! Use bounce to get out of the water!"

"Seaking," Seaking agreed, bouncing up into the sky. She turned her horn towards Nami, preparing to drop down onto her from above.

"Nami, use shadow ball!" Akira ordered.

Nami raised her head up towards Seaking, opening her mouth wide. She fired a giant orb of ghostly energy, the shadow ball flying right at Seaking.

"Seaking! Use water gun to dodge that shadow ball!" Misty ordered.

Seaking turned her head, opening her mouth and firing a burst of water that propelled her to the side, allowing her to dodge the shadow ball easily. She landed back in the water and shot forward, using her agility to boost her speed.

"Nicely done!" Misty complimented her pokemon. "Once you've finished with agility, use megahorn! She won't be able to dodge this one!"

"Seaking!" Seaking gathered energy into her horn and pierced Nami in the side before she could evade the attack. She hit Nami like a torpedo, knocking her through the water. She picked up speed and prepared to slam her into the wall of the pool.

"Nami!" Akira shouted. "Use acid armor to block it!"

"Vaporeon…" Nami groaned. She had been hurt by the megahorn, but it wasn't a critical blow. Her body grew wet and slimy, heightening her defenses and causing Seaking's horn to slip off past her, wiggling free of the attack.

Nami ducked under the water as Seaking slammed on the brakes, turning and preparing to take another run. But she didn't get the chance.

"Nami, use charm," Akira ordered.

"Vaporeon!" Nami smiled at Seaking, batting her eyelashes sweetly at her opponent. Her adorable cuteness reduced Seaking's attacking power, causing her to reconsider whether or not she should attack the other pokemon.

That hesitation would prove fatal.

"Nice work, Nami! Hyper voice!"

Nami opened her mouth and howled, and a deafening shockwave slammed into Seaking, knocking her backwards. Seaking wailed, thrashing in the water.

"Seaking, swim back and dive under the water!" Misty cried, but her voice couldn't reach the stunned pokemon's ears.

"Frustrating, isn't it?" Akira grinned. "Having your pokemon not be able to hear your orders. That was a trick I learned from a very special girl."

Akira nodded to Nami. She didn't need to hear the orders, she knew what he wanted. She swam up close to the floundering Seaking and opened her mouth.

"Vaporeon!" Nami shouted, hitting Seaking at point-blank range with a shadow ball. The power of the attack was enough to knock her clear out of the pool, landing painfully on the side.

Seaking flailed about for a few seconds on the tile, before succumbing to the damage and losing consciousness.

Akira's chest surged with triumph. It had taken his entire team, but he had managed to defeat one of Misty's pokemon!

Of course, there were still two pokemon left to deal with.

So Akira finally managed to defeat Misty's Seaking! But he's down to his last pokemon. Wil; Nami be able to defeat the rest of Misty's pokemon? Or will Misty prove strong enough to emerge triumphant? Can Akira pull off a comeback victory? Let's find out!