Alden's definitely been put on the defensive with Wes's powerful assault! Will he be able to turn things around, or will his team sadly prove no match for such a strong trainer like Wes? Vic's future, and her past, are on the line here, he's gotta give it all he's got! Remember to review!

KedharS: He's a very strong trainer, so it's certainly not outside the realm of possibility.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 944

Alden could feel the pressure against him. Finn was resisting the double solarbeam assault with everything he had, the powerful protective barrier doing its best to keep from buckling under the force of the attack. While he did, Tracey was recovering from taking a solarbeam herself, slowly rising to her feet safely behind Finn's shield.

When she finally managed to stand, she glanced at her trainer, and understood in an instant what the Commander wanted.

Alden didn't have any ability to communicate with his pokemon like Vic did. His "Sense" wasn't anything at all like harmonia, it was just his instincts as a trainer speaking. But that didn't mean he and Tracey were incapable of communicating. He was close enough with his pokemon that just a glance and a nod was enough of an order.

He turned his attention back to Finn. The solarbeam attacks were dying down, and the protective barrier would drop soon. When it did, he had no doubt that Wes's pokemon would begin their assault once more. That's what they did, after all. And when that happened, he would be in trouble. Protect wasn't a move that worked well in succession. Which meant that if he wanted to counterattack and disrupt the flow of this battle, he had to do it now!

Alden wiped the sweat from his forehead, unable to stop the grin spreading across his face. It wasn't just the intense sunlight that was heating him up, it was the excitement! He didn't know if he was going to win or lose, and that made the battle only that much more exhilarating!

The outcome was ahead of him, and his pokemon were going to help him seize it! It was time to retake the momentum!

"Finn!" He shouted immediately when the barrier dropped. "Use high horsepower to charge right at that Typhlosion!"

"Swampert!" Finn bellowed, getting down on all fours. He charged forward, his powerful arms and legs carrying him across the grass as he picked up speed, turning into a blue tank bearing down on the Fire type pokemon.

For a moment, Wes was surprised. But only for a moment, and he didn't let it show on his face. He certainly hadn't expected that his opponent would switch to a direct attack like this, not after having been forced on the defensive through a double solarbeam.

He contemplated ordering another solarbeam assault, but then rethought it. The sun was still intense, but Megan had used solarbeam quite a few times already, and she didn't have very many more shots left in her. And there were a wide variety of other Grass type moves she could use, regardless. So he turned to his Meganium and shouted "razor leaf!"

"Meganium!" Meganium sent a large barrage of leaves flying at the approaching Swampert, while Bagun prepared another solarbeam. He didn't need any instructions, knowing already what Wes would want from him.

That was when Tracey made her move.

Having boosted her speed significantly with agility, the Cinderace was by far the fastest pokemon on the battlefield. That meant she had a significant advantage, and with a quick dash she was able to get to the other side immediately.

Tracey darted around the Typhlosion so quickly it was like she became a blur. And then she started to glow.

Alden grinned.

"Now!" He shouted, and in a flash Tracey and Finn swapped places. Now it was Tracey about to be on the receiving end of the double grass attack, while Finn was the one who had taken the Typhlosion's back.

Finn, who was still charging forward like an unstoppable train.

Having greatly shaved down the time, Finn slammed into Bagun before the Typhlosion could unleash his solarbeam. The attack fired wildly off into the air as the pokemon flew, crashing painfully into the ground. At the same time, Tracey used her agility to dodge as much of the razor leaf as she could, but found that she couldn't avoid all of it. But that was okay. A few cuts and scrapes was more than a fair price for the amount of damage the Typhlosion had just taken.

"Ty… phlosion…" Bagun gasped, rising to his feet. Taking an attack like that from behind hadn't been pleasant. The pokemon was badly beaten, but to Alden's amazement, he was still conscious, his mane burning brighter than ever.

"…I'm surprised," Alden admitted, shaking his head in disbelief. "That's quite a tough pokemon you've got there."

"All of my husband's pokemon have been through more than you could possibly imagine," Rui said quietly. She could feel Bagun's pain right now through her harmonia. He was giving it his all, like he always did.

"Meganium!" Megan growled angrily, glaring at the Swampert. It enraged her, seeing her friend so badly injured like that. She, Bagun, and Wes's Feraligatr had all been captured together by Team Snagem, and taken to Cipher to be experimented on. They had been through so much together, and, to her relief, had all been rescued by Wes together.

Seeing one of her oldest friends injured like that made her desire to win burn that much stronger, and with a roar, she raised her head and fired a solarbeam directly at him.

"Swampert!" Finn cried, jumping out of the way as quick as possible. But he couldn't avoid the full force of the attack, and the solarbeam caught him in the shoulder, causing him to crumple over onto the ground.

"Finn, you good?" Alden shouted.

"Swamp…" Finn panted, clutching his shoulder. It was the same place the last solarbeam attack had hit, and the painful-looking burn it had left had grown even larger. Alden didn't like the look of that. He glanced at Tracey, who wasn't in very good condition herself, and made a quick judgment call.

He could have pressed the advantage and taken out that Typhlosion, but that would have probably cost him Finn. And when he was a pokemon behind, he couldn't afford to give up even more ground to Wes, so he had to play conservatively.

"Tracey!" He called. "Baton pass!"

"Cinderace!" Tracey nodded, glowing red and returning to her pokeball. She passed on the speed boosts from her agility to a pokemon that would be able to make the most of them: the Commander's ace, Corin.

"Lucario!" Corin growled, landing on the grass. Her aura sensors flared up and she immediately took stock of the situation. She didn't even need to wait for orders.

Charging forward, a blue aura wrapped around her, and she raised her paw, summoning a large bone made out of energy.

Vic's heart soared with joy. She was always happy when the Commander sent out his prized Lucario. Corin was his strongest pokemon, and when she took the field, she would always turn the situation around.

If there was any pokemon that the Commander had who would be able to defeat her father's pokemon, it was Corin.

"Bone rush," Alden ordered. Corin spun her bone like a staff and struck Bagun before he could react, knocking him onto his back. She hopped atop him, jamming her foot into his throat and raising her bone again, bringing it down on the defenseless pokemon.

"Ty-!" Bagun gasped, trying to spit fire at the Lucario, but Corin didn't give him the opportunity. Normally both she and her trainer would have preferred a drawn-out battle that would get their "Sense" going, but this time she and the Commander were on the same page.

If the Typhlosion was allowed to continue fighting, that would reduce the chance of Corin getting to make the most out of this battle due to the power of his Fire type moves, and the advantage of the intense sunlight.

Corin loved to fight as much as Alden did, and she even loved fighting a difficult battle against a tough opponent. But at the same time, she understood that when the time came, it was still important to end the battle, and if she could take this pokemon out then she could then fight the next one, without having to worry about any burns.

There were more pokemon to do battle with, she didn't have to leave this one standing.

This realization came to her in a matter of seconds, which was all the time Bagun had left to remain conscious. With all he'd withstood already, Corin had made quick work of him, leaping off the Typhlosion when she was certain it was done and turning her bone upon Megan next.

Megan, as well, was enraged by what had just happened. Turning her attention from Finn to the new foe, she glared at Corin, burning with frustration that her partner and long-time friend had fallen so suddenly, without her able to do anything about it.

Wes understood her feelings, and shared them himself. But at the same time, it was important for her to take care and calm down; the match was just getting started, and at the moment, they were in a bit of a difficult situation, because the intense sunlight had finally started to fade.

"Return," he said calmly, recalling Bagun to his pokeball. Now that the sunlight had returned to normal, solarbeam would be much less effective. The advantage he'd had over Alden's Swampert had diminished significantly, and there was a new player as well in that Lucario, and he didn't have a Fire type anymore to fight it, either.

But he still wasn't worried.

"Orgon, go," he said, sending out the third pokemon of the elemental trio he had liberated from Team Cipher.

"Feraligatr!" Orgon emerged from his pokeball with a savage roar, just as enraged as Megan was. He had been watching the match from within his pokeball, and what had been done to his lifelong comrade burned him up as much as it did her. He hadn't been able to do anything until now due to the intense sunlight, but now that that was gone he was going to make up for lost time and show these pokemon what he was made of.

Wes's order came immediately. As a veteran trainer he could tell from a glance exactly how dangerous that Lucario was, and knew that he needed to handle her as quickly as possible. So he shouted to Orgon, "aqua jet!"

"Feraligatr!" Orgon lowered his muscled body, water rising up around him in a torrent. He charged at Corin like a water bullet, raising one of his mighty claws.

But Corin was no slouch herself. Of course she knew what sort of opponents she would be facing, and she'd faced better pokemon than him. She stepped to the side and raised her bone club, swinging the aura staff at the approaching Feraligatr. With how perfectly she'd timed it, she knew that she would score a direct hit.

But she didn't. To her surprise, Orgon suddenly changed direction, like he'd been yanked to the side, and slammed into her. Stunned, Corin tumbled back, quickly righting herself, leaping back to Alden's side to take stock of what had happened.

"…Wow. That… wasn't something I expected," Alden said, shaking his head.

"Feraligatr," Orgon snorted, standing up proudly.

"Meganium!" Megan nodded to him, smiling. The vine that she had wrapped around Orgon's arm returned to the flower on her throat.

"Whoa, what… what even was that?" Callie asked in disbelief. She knew, of course, what her eyes had seen, but she was still having trouble putting it together.

Tommy, on the other hand, hadn't even seen the exchange in the first place because the light had been in his eyes, so he was asking for real.

"When the Feraligatr charged at the Lucario, she stepped aside at the last minute, is it?" Alcea noted. "But then the Feraligatr's direction suddenly changed, and he scored a direct hit. Because that Meganium used her vine whip to pull him back on course, and thus Lucario was hit. Very clever, is it?" She mused.

"Yeah, that was awesome!" Callie said in amazement. She knew that she was supposed to be rooting for Alden, and especially for an amazing and cool Fighting type pokemon like his Lucario, but she couldn't help but admire a good strategy when she saw one.

"My father has all sorts of tricks like that," Vic scowled. But she knew that the Commander had tricks of his own. Corin was definitely suited for single battles, but that didn't mean she was useless in a double battle, either.

One major advantage she had was about to be used right here.

"Corin," Alden said, nodding to Finn. Corin picked up on that immediately.

Finn was still crouching in the grass, on Wes's side of the field, holding his shoulder in pain. It was the only thing keeping him conscious at this point. He wanted to continue fighting, but he barely had the strength to stand.

Fortunately, Corin was there to help him. With her extremespeed, she crossed the battlefield in a second, taking up a defensive stance in front of her partner.

Then she held her paws up, and a glowing orb of water appeared between her palms.

"Life dew," Alden ordered. The water spread over both pokemon, restoring some of their health. Finn was far from healed, but he had recovered enough to stand up strong, ready to resume the battle with renewed strength.

And now that the sunlight was back to normal, he could really show what he could do!

…If he wasn't up against a Water type and a Grass type, of course. Alden could tell right away that his was far from a favorable matchup, and was already thinking about how he would pull Finn out of the fight. He just needed the perfect pivot, and that Meganium was a good start.

"Feraligatr!" Orgon had gotten tired of waiting. He charged at Corin and opened his mouth wide, firing a massive spout of water at the Lucario. But a clumsy move like that wasn't about to hit a pokemon as skilled as Corin, and everyone there knew it. She danced to the side as Finn rolled for cover, the hydro pump soaring past both pokemon.

But Wes had never expected that to score major points. He just wanted to disrupt the flow so he could get his real attack in.

It was quite clear that the biggest advantage Alden had at the moment was his agile Lucario. The pokemon could make strong attacks very quickly, and if left alone would only increase her strength even more.

Wes needed to make sure that didn't happen. And the first step of doing that was to reduce her mobility as much as he could.

"Megan, now," he ordered, and Megan began to glow green.

"Meganium!" She bellowed, sending her energy into the grass, using the power of Agate Village's fertility against her opponents.

Tendrils of grass shot up around Corin, wrapping around her legs and tripping her up.

"Grass knot, is it?" Alcea observed. "Not a bad gambit."

With the tangled grass temporarily immobilizing Corin, most of her power was quickly sapped. She wouldn't be able to carefully evade her opponents any longer, and everyone knew it, especially Orgon, who smiled gleefully.

It was the sort of strategy that he trained with Megan for. While working with Bagun, Megan's tactic was to take advantage of sunny day to barrage the opponent with solarbeams, while also using aromatherapy to exploit Bagun's restful habits.

But with Orgon, a more subtle touch was needed, so she would provide support from the rear, impeding her opponents, while Orgon beat them down with brute strength.

With a roar of triumph Orgon raised his claws, preparing to strike Corin, but he didn't get the chance, because another bulky Water type pokemon tackled him from the side.

Like Orgon, Finn was a pokemon who prided himself on his brute strength. The two grappled, Finn focused on keeping Orgon as far from Corin as he could while the Lucario worked to untangle herself from the grass.

Finn may not have been in as good of condition as Corin was, but he knew how important she was to the team. He was a fighter first and foremost, so he was aware that his own strength, and thus, his utility in the match, was quickly coming to a close. So he was prepared to make the sacrifice if necessary.

Alden had other plans.

"Finn, use flip turn!" He ordered, surprising the Swampert. But he nodded, following orders, and shoved Orgon back. The Feraligatr stumbled in surprise, and when Finn slammed into him again he was even more surprised because the attack barely hurt.

But the Water type move wasn't to deal damage, it was to serve as a pivot. Finn shifted and turned back to Alden, returning to his pokeball so Alden could send out another pokemon to take his place, and this time Eifa was coming back out.

"Espeon!" Eifa cried, her ruby glowing red. She landed on the battlefield and immediately fired a psybeam at the Feraligatr, who only barely managed to dodge the attack.

"Fera-?!" Orgon gasped in surprise, turning towards the Espeon. He glared at her, but quickly pulled back, remembering his initial goal. He had to do as much damage to the Lucario as he could!

It was a good thing he remembered that, because turning towards Corin had given him just enough of a head start to realize that she was coming right at him, having broken free of his restraints. He ducked down and rolled to the side, dodging her fist within a fraction of a second.

"Orgon, use agility!" Wes ordered. "Megan! Use petal blizzard!"

"Meganium!" Megan roared. While Orgon dashed back, putting some distance between himself and Corin with his increased speed, Megan was working hard on giving him cover. She unleashed a tornado of devastating razor-sharp petals that swept across the battlefield, threatening to cut into both Corin and Eifa.

Corin jumped back, swatting away the petals that came close to her, but she couldn't get rid of all of them and some managed to cut into her fur. But they were barely scratches. She was prepared to strike back already.

"Eifa, reflect!" Alden ordered. In a flash a crimson barrier rose up around Corin and Eifa, protecting them from the petal storm, much to Vic's delight.

Yeah! Now that's more like it! She silently cheered. More moves like that, and it was possible that this match would be turning in her favor after all!

Nicely done, Alden! With the strength of his Lucario leading the charge, it looks like he's managed to turn this battle around nicely! But will he be victorious? They're tied at one pokemon apiece, but Alden's team has taken a lot more damage collectively than Wes's has, and with Wes's experience and well-trained pokemon, this is definitely going to be an uphill battle!