Akira came to Cerulean City to figure out more about Dakota's condition. But before he has the chance to accomplish that, he has to get in some training with Misty. Right now, he's training Satsuki. Will she be fine with the training, or will something bad happen?

KedharS: That's always something to hope for. As long as she can keep her emotions in check and not get angry, we shouldn't have a problem.

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: That's quite an interesting theory. That would mean that Dakota now has the ability to transform, which would be rather fun.

JoshGamerV: I wonder if that's a fact… I guess it's not out of the realm of possibility.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 832

"Gyarados, water pulse!" Misty ordered.

"Gyaraaaa!" Gyarados roared, opening wide and firing a shockwave of water at Satsuki.

"Satsuki, dive under the water to dodge!" Akira ordered. "Then counter with your own water pulse attack!"

Satsuki nodded, submerging herself and letting the water blast pass harmlessly over her. Then she surfaced, firing a water pulse of her own at Misty's Gyarados, who similarly dodged the attack by diving under the water.

Sylvia was getting bored.

Right now, Akira was training Satsuki's water pulse. Not even something powerful, like hydro pump, no, they were training water pulse. Misty had insisted that they start with the basics. Which meant that for the last twenty minutes, these two pokemon of immense power and destruction had been firing water pulses at each other, and doing negligible damage even when their attacks DID manage to hit the other pokemon.

"Not bad, Akira! Your Gyarados is getting a lot better at launching those quick water pulses!" Misty complimented him.

Akira glanced at Satsuki. Misty wasn't wrong. At the beginning of this training session, Satsuki's water pulse attacks had been powerful, but they didn't have the same speed and accuracy as they did now. And a big part of that was because he never really had Satsuki use water pulse attacks in battle to begin with. At least not for a very long time.

Satsuki was a physical fighter, so he seldom used her special movesets. And if he wanted Satsuki to use a special Water type move, he would rely on hydro pump, or, in rarer circumstances, brine and surf to attack at range.

But water pulse? It wasn't the kind of move he would have her use, which was why he was initially confused by Misty's declaration that it would be the move they would be training today. But she was adamant.

"We need to work on the basics. Training your Gyarados in being comfortable with her Water type moves needs to start from the very beginning. You never know when a move might come in handy, so you need to make sure your pokemon can master everything," Misty explained. "They're definitely useful, even if you don't necessarily need to use them."

Akira could definitely see the logic in it. By training Satsuki to use her moves faster and with more accuracy, even the ones that she wouldn't normally use, it would allow her to reach a level of efficiency in fighting that she wasn't at yet.

"Power is good, definitely rely on power. But make sure that the power of your pokemon comes along with control," she advised. "Something like this! Go, Gyarados, use a water pulse attack aimed at where she comes out of the water!"

"Gyarados!" Gyarados turned towards the surface of the pond, where Satsuki was sticking the upper part of her body out. He fired a massive orb of water that pulsed with energy, preparing to release a shockwave into the pond itself.

Akira planned for that, too. He knew that if he had Satsuki dodge by using dive again, she would just be hit by the shockwave. But if she escaped from the pond, that wouldn't have any effect! "Satsuki!" He shouted. "Fly into the air!"

"Gyarados!" Satsuki surged up out of the water, evading the water pulse by taking to the sky. She circled above Misty's Gyarados, and prepared a water pulse of her own. She fired it from above, hitting Gyarados in the head, causing him to wince.

"Nice job!" Misty complemented the two of them. "Brilliant use of Gyarados's ability to fly! But don't forget that we can do that, too, right Gyarados?"

"Gyaaaaa!" Gyarados roared, nodding in agreement with his trainer. He slithered through the sky, circling around Satsuki as the two pokemon faced each other off in the air, firing off water pulses at each other.

Okay, Sylvia had to admit, this fight was getting a lot more interesting. Even if she wasn't a big pokemon battle fan, seeing two Gyarados circling each other like this and holding an aerial brawl was still impressive.

"Water pulse!" Akira and Misty shouted at the same time. Both Gyarados opened wide and fired a shockwave of water at the other, the two attacks colliding in a burst. Water rained down into the pond and the two Gyarados returned to the ground, circling around their trainers. They glared at each other and grunted.

"Well, that's it," Misty sighed. "We're both out of PP for our water pulses! That was pretty good, don't you think?" She asked, turning to Akira. "I bet that Gyarados of yours has gotten a lot more used to her moves, right?"

Akira glanced at Satsuki. "Satsuki? What do you think?"

"Gya," Satsuki grunted with a huff. She flexed her scales as if to show her trainer that yes, she was feeling a little stronger.

"Good! It looks like things are working," Misty said, nodding encouragingly. "This is some great progress! And how's her condition doing? None of those signs that bothered you before, right? You said you didn't want to use her in battle because… why?"

Akira didn't go into the specifics, but he nodded. He could see that Satsuki wasn't in any pain, or experiencing any of the side-effects or transformations that he'd noted when she fought with Misato. She was behaving the way she always did, which was a relief. He just had to hope that nothing bad would happen to her if they continued training like this.

"Satsuki, do you feel okay?" He asked. "Nothing feels weird?" He leaned in close so he could whisper without Misty hearing. "You don't feel like… you're transforming or anything, right?" He clarified, hoping that he was right. If Satsuki was okay, that would be a relief.

"Gyarados," Satsuki assured him with another nod.

"That's great!" Misty beamed. "Then we can continue our training like this!" She reached into the pack that she'd slung over her shoulder, taking out a pair of small berries. She set one down in front of her Gyarados and backed away, heading over to Akira.

"What's this?" He asked, examining the berry. Then he glanced at Misty's Gyarados, who was eating his berry off of the ground. Apparently Misty didn't trust her Gyarados enough to feed him by hand, which he had to admit was a pretty smart play.

"It's a Leppa Berry," Misty explained. "When a pokemon eats one, it restores some of its PP for one of its moves. So we'll recover our Gyarados's water pulses, and get back to training. I've got enough where we can go all day!"

Sylvia let out a groan. All day of this?

Misty turned to Sylvia. She frowned. "Okay, fair, I guess that's not exactly the most fun for you, just watching Akira training like that," she apologized.

"Why'd you even bring me here, anyway?" Sylvia asked.

"…Because I can't leave either of you unsupervised," Misty explained. "So I need to look after you even while I'm training Akira."

"Then explain leaving us behind in that bar our first night here," Sylvia replied, raising her eyebrow. "I think that counts as leaving us without supervision, don't you, Akira?"

Akira rolled his eyes.

Misty turned red. "W-Well, I mean, there are exceptions to that… and more specifically, I'm not allowed to leave you unsupervised while we're training. You still have free time to spend to yourselves, without having me around. As long as the two of you are together, of course, think of it like the buddy system!" She quickly explained.

Akira rolled his eyes again.

"The buddy system?" Sylvia snorted. "Well, I get it, but if you don't mind, I'm going to go take a walk while you two train your Gyarados, okay?"

She got up to go, but Misty quickly stopped her. "Hey, look, I get it, this isn't a situation that you're finding that exciting. But Akira really needs some help with his Gyarados, you can understand that, right? Tell you what, I'll help train with you tomorrow, what do you say?" She asked, trying to smooth things over.

Sylvia considered that for a second. She pretended to look unsure and upset. It wasn't like she was actually bothered by the fact that Misty was training with Akira, but she was definitely enjoying this now. And she was going to make use of it.

"Well… I guess Runja and I aren't having a lot of fun right now," Sylvia admitted. "To be honest, she and I were hoping we could get a little bit of action of our own today. But I get it, you need to train with Akira, since he needs to get his Gyarados properly handled, don't worry, it's totally fine. I'm not bothered in the least."

Sylvia gave her best fake smile. It was the kind of smile that someone would wear when they were upset about something and trying very hard to seem like they weren't. The kind of smile that would play perfectly with Misty, who saw exactly what Sylvia wanted her to see. That she was unhappy about what was going on, but didn't want to say anything.

Then Misty had exactly the idea that Sylvia had been hedging towards this whole time.

"Hey, what about this? Akira, instead of continuing to practice your Gyarados's water pulse attacks, we could do something else!" She suggested, turning to Akira. "A little bit of variance never hurt anybody! We can always continue our water pulse training later!"

Akira didn't like the sound of that. "Uh… what are you talking about?" He asked. "I thought we were going to be easing Satsuki into her training by building up from the beginning?" He looked past Misty to Sylvia, and saw the glee in her eyes. This was going exactly as she had planned. He resisted the urge to scream.

"Yeah, that's definitely important," Misty said. "But your Gyarados seems to be in pretty good condition! I think it would be fine to take part in a little battle or two, what do you guys think? Sound like a plan?"

Oh no. No, this was NOT good, not good at all. Akira didn't like the sound of this. She wasn't seriously suggesting what he thought she was-

"So Akira! Why don't you have Satsuki fight against Sylvia's Jellicent?" Misty suggested, her eyes shining with excitement. She was patting herself on the back like this was the most brilliant idea she'd ever had in her life.

Akira was aghast. Oh no. She WAS suggesting that.

"Wow, Misty! I didn't even think about that!" Sylvia gasped, pretending like that wasn't exactly what she had been aiming for. "Yeah, I think that's a great idea! I'd love to have a pokemon battle, wouldn't you, Akira?" She asked, batting her eyelashes at him.

Akira could do nothing but bit his tongue and nod in agreement. Even if Satsuki wasn't ready to fight, it was clear that Misty thought she was. And right now, Misty was the one in charge of the training, and he couldn't exactly speak out against her.

"Great! Then the two of you can have a battle!" Misty cheered. "Normally I make students fight each other all the time, but it didn't really seem fair since Sylvia only has one pokemon. But as long as you're each only using one, then it's totally balanced, right?"

She looked back and forth between the two of them for acknowledgement. Sylvia, of course, was nodding right along, and Akira was still silent.

He turned to Satsuki and fed her the Leppa Berry, even though he didn't plan to be using any Water type moves. It was a treat for the difficulty that she would have to be facing soon.

"Satsuki, are you sure you're up for this?" Akira asked. If Satsuki didn't think that she was capable of battling right now, then that would be-

"GYARADOS!" Satsuki roared, stretching up to her full height and flaring the fins on her face. It had been a long time since Akira had been willing to use her in battle, and since he'd begun training with Misty she had been looking forward to showing him just what she was capable of. She glared at Sylvia, who smiled back at her.

"Well, Akira might not be manning up, but it's nice to see that his ex is raring to go," she purred, flashing Akira a flirtatious grin.

Misty blinked in confusion. "Ex? Huh? What?"

"Long story," Sylvia said, walking past Misty without even looking at her. She held up Runja's pokeball. "It's not important right now anyway. It's time to battle. Let's go, Runja, let's take care of Akira and get some training of our own in!"

With a flourish she called out her Jellicent, the pink pokemon bouncing into the lake across from Akira and Satsuki.

Sylvia smiled. She hadn't expected today to go like this, but she definitely wasn't complaining. Misty's actions had opened up the perfect opportunity.

Just like how she was curious about the µ Gene, there was another thing that she was curious about concerning the incident with Akira. She still had no idea what had happened with his Gyarados. Satsuki had visibly changed, and Akira hadn't given her the chance to transform again, not willing to use her in battle.

But right now she had another opportunity. She could fight him, and see just how far she'd be able to push his pokemon, and get her to transform.

"Remember, Sylvia, we want to go a little easy on him," Misty reminded her. "His Gyarados still isn't ready for battling."

"Absolutely!" Sylvia chirped.

Akira didn't buy it in the slightest. She was definitely going to be provoking him and Satsuki, trying to get her to reveal her transformation again. It was just the way she operated. They may have been allies right now, trying to find out the truth about the µ Gene and Project ADAM, but this was still Sylvia Driscoll. She wasn't going to miss an opportunity to torment him.

"Satsuki, just take it easy, okay?" He urged his partner. "I don't want you to strain yourself trying to win, this is just for training."

Satsuki roared and surged forward. He wasn't even sure if she had heard him.

"Satsuki!" He called. "Use dragon pulse!"

"Gyarados!" Satsuki opened her mouth and fired a shockwave with much more devastating power than the water pulses she'd been using today. The orb of draconic energy crackled and surged towards Runja, hitting her directly.

Akira internally cheered. It might be a different move, but all that training in speed and accuracy was definitely paying off.

"Not a bad move, Akira," Sylvia grinned. "Satsuki's as terrifying as ever! I don't know why you're unsure about using her in battle! With a pokemon as strong as that one, I'm surprised that you don't want to use her in battles."

Akira glared at Sylvia. She knew exactly why he was cautious about having Satsuki enter another battle, she was just provoking him at this point.

"Runja! Let's handle this with some of our own powerful attacks," Sylvia said, flashing Akira a wink. "Nothing too special for our boy, though, how about we start with… a shockwave attack?" She suggested, like it was no big deal.

Akira winced. That was exactly what he had expected, getting into a battle with Sylvia like this. She was planning to attack right at Satsuki's weaknesses, as merciless as ever. It was almost refreshing to see her try something so predictable, but Akira wasn't feeling relieved.

"Jellicent!" Runja growled, raising her tentacles. Electricity surged through them and she released it in a discharge that struck Satsuki, filling her with painful electricity.

"Gyarados!" Satsuki roared in pain.

Misty winced. She'd forgotten about Runja's shockwave attack. Electric type moves were a major weakness of Gyarados. Maybe this wasn't the best sparring match for training Satsuki. She hoped that the attack wouldn't be too painful.

But Akira knew Satsuki's limits well. Something like that would hurt, but it wouldn't be enough to take her down.

"Satsuki!" He shouted. "Shrug it off!"

Satsuki roared again and shook off the electricity, flying through the air towards Runja with fury in her eyes.

Normally, this would be the time that Akira ordered her to use dragon dance in order to make her attacks even more devastating. But he wasn't going to let Sylvia use that against them with her trick room, so he would rely on something else instead.

Good, old fashioned, power.

"Satsuki, use crunch!" He ordered. Satsuki dropped down onto Runja and opened her jaws wide, biting down hard on the Ghost type pokemon. The attack was a powerful one, and Runja thrashed against Satsuki's bite angrily.

"Jelliiiii!" She wailed, trying to shake herself free. Akira knew the next step would be an electric burst with shockwave, so he switched things up.

"Nice, Satsuki. Now, pull back and bounce up into the air again," he ordered. Satsuki obeyed flawlessly, taking to the skies once more and getting out of the range of the Electric type attack Runja just unleashed.

"Not bad, Akira, not bad at all," Sylvia grinned. He was certainly fighting with Satsuki like he used to, making use of her powerful moves. That wouldn't be enough to pull ahead in a match like this, though, and it wouldn't show Sylvia what she wanted to see.

So she thought about taking a different approach.

"Runja, while she's up there, let's take a moment and gather ourselves," Sylvia said. "Use acid armor to boost your defenses."

"Jellicent," Runja gurgled, the surface of her body getting wet and slick as she turned partially liquid, heightening her defensive abilities.

And while Runja focused on being as defensive as possible, Sylvia focused on being as offensive as possible.

"You know, Akira, I remember the last time you fought with Satsuki. That was definitely some ferocity I saw from you," Sylvia giggled.

Akira tried to push her words out of his ears. He didn't want to hear it.

"Especially with how angry you got," Sylvia continued, stroking her chin thoughtfully. "You and Satsuki were quite a combination, all filled with righteous fury like that, attacking whoever you thought was responsible for what happened to Dakota…"

Misty wasn't sure what was going on. What was Sylvia talking about?

"Sylvia," Akira warned her, "you leave it alone. Stop talking about that."

"And then your Gyarados transformed!" She said, amazed. "What a sight that was! I wonder how that happened… want to figure that out?" She asked, her eyes twinkling. "Because I certainly do, let me tell you."

It took everything Akira had not to lose his temper.

So, a training day transforms into Sylvia taunting Akira and entering a pokemon battle with him! What will result from this? Will Sylvia get her way and trigger another transformation from Satsuki? Or will they keep their cool? Will Akira be able to beat her?