Ange's been attacked by the ninja duo! But fortunately Misato is there to protect her. Now the question remains, will Misato be able to defeat an opponent like Shinobu while using her own pokemon as a weapon? Or will Shinobu's ninja skills actually be able to get the better of a Mechadoll?

KedharS: Well, the thing is, she's still a Mechadoll. At the end of the day, all of her progress as a "human" is just compounding experience for her to act on. So it isn't wrong to say that she's just a tool trying to mimic human behavior.

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: That's definitely an interesting theory. While it would certainly be in-character for the Phantom to manipulate events like that, the question then is whether or not he has any connections to the Children of the Oracles in the first place, and what would be his purpose for associating with them?

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 907

Shinobu was seething. But she had to keep her cool. She had been caught off-guard. That much was clear. She didn't expect to fight against an opponent like… this.

A woman who could resist Parasect's spores, and even more, was capable of holding a pokemon in her bare hands and swing it to take out enemy pokemon… someone with that level of strength and speed, with her reflexes… even having grown up around ninjas, this was just the kind of person Shinobu didn't know how to explain.

If she didn't know any better, then she'd think the girl was a pokemon herself. Or maybe and alien, or a robot or something. But that was just crazy talk. She didn't have time to waste imagining wild fantasies, she had to fight the girl now.

I can't rely on Muramushi right now… he exhausted himself in that fight against Dokukage this morning. How unfortunate. If I'd known I'd be fighting a foe like this later, I would have done things differently… but there's no use bemoaning that now. Shinobu cleared her thoughts and focused on the battle ahead of her.

Shima is counting on me. I can't let him down. I need to show him what I'm capable of. Shinobu only had a few pokemon that were in fighting condition right now, and she might have to use them all to stand a chance against this girl.

I'll have to use my secret weapon. But before that, I'll have to set up a trap of my own, she decided, reaching to her belt and removing a pokeball. "Kunugi, I'm relying on you!"

The pokeball burst open, and an armored pokemon emerged from it, a rough and bumpy purple-grey shell. It split open and large red spikes jutted out, revealing the bug's beady eyes.

"Forretress!" The pokemon buzzed, landing on the ground and spinning towards Misato.

It was quite slow. Misato could counter it immediately. She raised her sword and swung, striking the pokemon with enough force to stop her rotations.

But Kunugi wasn't even injured.

"You'll have to do better than that to break through her iron shell," Shinobu said. "Kunugi, use stealth rock!"

"Forretress!" Kunugi spun back and released energy from her long spikes, lifting up chunks of rubble into the air. The sharp stones hovered in the air around Misato, keeping her hemmed in. But that was just the first step of Shinobu's plan.

"Next, use spikes," Shinobu followed.

"Forretress," Kunugi agreed, keeping her rotations going. Sharp spikes broke off of her shell, and she scattered them across the floor of the cavern, making it even harder for anyone to move around without getting hurt.

"Obstacles detected," Misato said, scanning the floating stones and sharp spikes. "Devising countermeasures. Successful maneuverability without injury calculated at .238%. Statistically improbable. The necessary movements would severely hamper evasive ability and result in increased likelihood of sustaining further injury."

The combination of stealth rock and spikes would have daunted most foes from approaching, but Misato was not most foes. She had zero regard for potential of injury because she was incapable of feeling pain. Furthermore, the damage she would sustain would be negligible. At the same time, her processors had already calculated countless precise movements she could make to fully avoid the stealth rock attack while sustaining minimal damage from the spikes.

There was no cause for concern.

She ran forward, ducking skillfully around the stones while avoiding the larger clusters of spikes, letting the more separated bunches pierce through her shoes and into her feet. But while they cut into her artificial skin, they weren't nearly large enough to cause any damage to her mechanical frame, so there was no cause to be alarmed.

That didn't mean her behavior didn't come as a shock to those who would expect to see some sort of response from someone having their feet pierced by dozens of tiny sharp objects. It was the kind of thing that would give most people pause, after all.

Because of that, when Misato charged forward without even flinching, Shinobu was momentarily thrown off.

But only momentarily. She may not have been able to account for Misato being a Mechadoll, but even without that knowledge she was still a genius. She knew how to handle herself in situations like these, and was capable of thinking on her feet.

So she'd expected that her usual tactics wouldn't have much effect on Misato, and because of that, she was able to react properly.

"Kunugi, use reflect," she ordered.

"Forretress!" Kunugi stopped spinning, and created a silver dome of light around her body that heightened her defensive abilities even more. When Misato brought her blade down upon the barrier, it practically bounced off.

"Kunugi's defenses are unparalleled," Shinobu said. "I already told you, just swinging your sword won't do anything to her."

Ignoring Shinobu's claims, Misato swung her sword again anyway. Because her sensors were telling her something different.

Reflect was a powerful attack, capable of heightening the defensive ability of a pokemon by creating a barrier that guarded the whole team. But the barrier wasn't impenetrable like protect, enough force was capable of shattering it.

And luckily, Misato's eyes were able to analyze the structure of the barrier, and pinpoint the precise weak points to strike in order to smash through it completely.

Raising her sword once more, she brought it down on that spot with perfect precision, while Shinobu thought she was just flailing around pointlessly.

"There's no sense in it," she sighed, shaking her head. "Oh, well. Kunugi, while she's busy distracting herself with that, hit her with flash cannon!"

"Foretress!" Kunugi began to build up energy in her shell, pointing one of her spikes at Misato. She fired a beam of compressed light through the barrier and right at the Mechadoll.

But if Shinobu and her Forretress thought that Misato wasn't capable of defending herself while attacking, they were sorely mistaken. As a Mechadoll, Misato was capable of performing countless mental processes simultaneously, meaning the even while she was targeting the weak points in the protective barrier and striking at them, she was also processing the flash cannon firing at her, and moving her left arm up to block it with her Aegislash's shield.

"Protected. No damage," Misato said, continuing her assault on Kunugi.

Shinobu was quickly realizing that Kunugi wouldn't be able to put up much of a fight in this situation. After all, she wasn't the kind of pokemon designed for offense or speed, the things that would be needed to overcome an opponent like Misato. All Kunugi could really do was defend herself and set up traps.

But the defenses she'd laid were breaking. And the traps she'd set weren't having any effect on the girl, for whatever reason.

That left Shinobu with only one viable strategy remaining. And it wasn't one she was particularly fond of, but it was one that would have to do.

This is a necessary sacrifice for our victory, Kunugi, Shinobu silently thanked her, apologizing for having to make this play. Any ninja would tell you that it was essential to sacrifice a little in order to win. Even Dokukage would accept that. But Shinobu didn't like policies like those. She had been a consummate shinobi and followed all her orders, but Shima had shown her a different way.

She just wanted to live free. And if living free meant she'd have to do things that she didn't like, well… a shinobi didn't object. She followed her orders.

And that's what Shinobu would do.

"Kunugi, use explosion," Shinobu ordered. Kunugi's body began to glow as she started building up energy for a massive detonation.

Forretress were naturally very slow pokemon. They didn't perform attacks very quickly, which is why Shinobu had concentrated on taking advantage of Kunugi's ability to generate long-range scattered attacks like spikes and stealth rock, so speed wouldn't need to play a factor in hitting her opponent. It was also for that reason that she concentrated efforts on maximizing Kunugi's defensive capabilities as well.

But there was one instance in which Shinobu had decided to make an exception. Where she'd focused on teaching Kunugi how to build up and release an attack as fast as possible, and that was with her explosion attack.

Forretress were known for blowing up. But usually, it was a rather slow process, giving their opponents enough time to get away from the blast in order to minimize damages. But that wouldn't do at all, not for Shinobu.

So she'd focused her instruction on how to get Kunugi to build up and unleash her energy in seconds, so her opponents wouldn't have a chance to get away. Combined with moves like stealth rock and spikes to hamper mobility, it was the perfect trap for most foes.

But again, Misato wasn't most foes.

Misato registered the order immediately and began picking up on the energy buildup in Kunugi's shell, calculating to the nanosecond when the explosion would release, the yield of the blast, and the range of the shockwave.

Once those factors were calculated it was immediately apparent that she would not be able to protect herself from 100% of the damage. So she implemented her next decision, and rather than try to escape, she sent a pulse of electricity through her hands and into Arms, stimulating the Aegislash and forcing them to wake up.

"Aegislash?" The pokemon was surprised to see that their trainer was holding them, even though it was a common fighting tactic that Misato implemented. But like their trainer, they were sharp enough to process what was happening.

Misato didn't even have to give the order audibly. The way she clenched Arms' shield was enough instruction, and they immediately used king's shield to protect from the explosion at the last possible instant.

Ange screamed and fell backwards, knocked over by the shockwave. She clutched the Oracle tightly in her hands, refusing to let go even if it meant she might die.

And at the moment, she really feared that dying was a possibility. It would be one thing if the explosion had happened outside in Pyrite Town, but right now they were trapped in an underground catacomb which had already been closed due to safety issues.

It wasn't exactly a leap to say that there was a possibility that an explosion of that level would bring the entire cavern roof down on top of them, killing them all.

But fortunately, that wasn't what happened. There was quite a lot of shaking from the explosion, and indeed, some rocks from up above did happen to fall and smash into the ground, kicking up an even larger dust cloud, but that was it. The stealth rocks had been smashed, the spikes wiped away, but the Under itself remained intact.

When the dust cleared, Kunugi was lying on the ground, unconscious.

Misato was perfectly fine.

"Well," Shima said through a coughing fit, "it seems that your plan didn't work as perfectly as you expected, Shinobu."

Shinobu scowled as she recalled Kunugi into her pokeball. She had been so focused on defeating the woman, this "Misato", that she had completely forgotten that she wasn't carrying any ordinary sword and shield, she was wielding a pokemon. If she'd been thinking straight she would have expected something like this, but the idea had completely slipped her mind.

But it didn't matter. So she hadn't been able to defeat Misato with that explosion, or even injure her. It didn't matter. She had a lot more tactics up her sleeve!

"Kunugi, return," Shinobu said, recalling Kunugi to her pokeball and reaching for another one to replace her.

It was time for Shinobu's secret weapon.

"Minori, go," Shinobu said, throwing out another pokeball. Here it was, her secret weapon, the first pokemon she had ever caught.

"Wormadam," Minori buzzed.

The effect was rather unexpected.

Ange squinted in confusion. This… was her secret weapon? The pokemon she'd been hinging her bets on? It didn't look that impressive… and in fact, it didn't look like any Wormadam that Ange had ever seen before!

Due to her fascination with the Hisuian Region, Sinnoh's predecessor, Ange had done quite a bit of research into the pokemon that populated it, and thus she knew quite a lot more than the average person would about the pokemon native to the region. Burmy and Wormadam in particular were intriguing to her, because of how unique it was to see a pokemon so easily adapt to its environment like the species did.

The Burmy line was a rather unique line, as far as pokemon go. Burmy were tiny black Bug type pokemon that gathered material from the environment around them to shape their cloaks, taking on the appearance of their surroundings.

They evolved in one of two ways. Male Burmy shed their cloaks and spread their wings, evolving into Mothim. But female Burmy were a bit more unique.

Depending on the cloak they wore, a female Burmy would evolve into one of three types of Wormadam. If they made their cloaks out of leaves and twigs, they would evolve into a Bug/Grass type. If they made their cloaks out of dirt and rock, they would evolve into a Bug/Ground type. And if they made their cloaks out of trash and rubbish, they would evolve into a Bug/Steel type.

But this Wormadam was none of those.

Because it had no cloak. In fact, it looked like a large, cloakless Burmy with its slender black figure barely visible in the dim red light.

What was going on here? Ange didn't know what she was even looking at.

As if Shinobu could sense the question in Ange's mind, she explained, "my Minori is unique among Wormadam. As a Burmy, she would constantly practice her ability at changing her cloaks, before battles, after battles, even during battles. And when she finally evolved, I thought that she would choose a cloak which suited her best, as all Burmy who turn into Wormadam eventually do."

She turned to Shima and smiled behind her mask.

"But like me… Minori couldn't be bound by something so simple as a single disguise. She yearned to be free, to soar through the sky as a Mothim… but alas, it wasn't meant to be. So if she decided that if she couldn't have the freedom of a Mothim, then she would have freedom of a different sort; the freedom to choose whichever guise suits her fancy, whenever she likes. And I believe she's found one right now," Shinobu said, nodding to her Wormadam.

In a flash, the Wormadam had assembled a mantle of dirt and stone from the rubble, changing into a Sandy Cloak Wormadam, a Bug/Ground type.

Ange was actually surprised at the possibility that this presented. After evolving, Wormadam learned a variety of different moves depending on the type of cloak they chose. But if a Wormadam never made a solid decision about which cloak they would choose to wear… what would become of their movepool then?

The answer was obvious, and Ange wondered if that would be too much for even Misato.

"Minori," Shinobu called, "use earth power!"

"Wormadam!" Minori buzzed, gathering up energy and directing it down into the ground.

For Misato, it was no difficult feat, avoiding the attack. She could register the rising temperature in the parts of the ground where eruptions would occur, and then jump out of the way. She dodged the blasts like it was nothing, while advancing on the Wormadam.

Misato swung her sword, and once again, it struck the reflective barrier left up by Kunugi. But even with Minori's Sandy Cloak giving her the highest physical defense she could get, it was nothing compared to Kunugi's defenses, and the resulting impact greatly weakened the defensive ability of the barrier, which finally gave way.

But as quickly as it did, it was replaced with another one, a sandy-brown barrier of light that deflected the blade entirely spread up around Minori, protecting her from the damage.

"Protect," Shinobu said, smirking beneath her mask. Misato may have been able to break through a reflect attack, but there was nothing she could do against protect.

Misato wasn't fazed, however. She stepped back and prepared for a counterattack, waiting until the instant the barrier would drop so she could charge in and finish off the pokemon.

But she wouldn't get that chance, because Shinobu already knew what was coming, and she was prepared for it.

"Minori, use quiver dance," she ordered. If she wanted to keep up with Misato's devastating power, the only option available was to maximize her pokemon's speed. Misato may have been faster than a lot of humans, but she still wasn't INCREDIBLY fast. A few buffs to speed and Minori would be able to dodge her easily.

"Wormadam!" Minori nodded, dropping the protective shield and twirling to the side, just barely dodging Misato's stroke.

Misato turned and swung her sword immediately, managing to cut Minori with the tip of her blade, but it was only a light blow. It was a surprise for Shinobu, but she reminded herself just how capable the foe she was dealing with was.

Of course someone like Misato would have the reflexes to follow through with a second attack after the first was evaded, it would be naïve to think otherwise. What was important now was making sure that Minori could continue dodging as best as possible.

"Minori, use quiver dance again, pick up speed," she ordered, feeling a swell of triumph rise up in her chest. This Misato was a dangerous foe, there was no doubt about that. But as long as she could keep a clear head and focus on her victory, there was no way that she would lose!

Shinobu's used her secret weapon! But will a Wormadam that can change its typing and moveset be enough to overcome the overwhelming power of a Mechadoll like Misato? What else does Misato have up her sleeve? We'll have to find out!