The Commander is pushed to the very brink, but the battle isn't over yet. No matter how weakened Corin may be, she's still giving it everything she has in the hope that she'll be able to emerge victorious! With so much strength of will, can Wes overcome her? Is there anything he has that can crush her indomitable spirit?
KedharS: They're giving it their all. As weakened as their pokemon might be, they're making the smart decisions to keep from losing too many of them.
Big papi: Okay.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 947
"Solaris, use psybeam," Wes ordered. "Lunet, another shadow ball."
"Espeon!" The ruby on Solaris's forehead began to glow, and a beam of red light arced out towards Corin.
"Umbreon!" At the same time, Lunet opened his mouth and fired an orb of darkness at Mimi.
Mimi scurried out of the way, sinking in the shadows just as the shadow ball was about to hit her. Corin jumped out of the way of the psybeam, her speed allowing her to keep out of the way of Solaris's attacks.
"Mimi, I think it's time we stop playing so cautiously, don't you?" Alden asked, nodding to his Mimikyu. "Use shadow sneak on that Espeon!"
"Mimikyu!" Mimi chirped from her shadow, shooting across the grass towards Solaris. She emerged, swinging her stick at the startled Espeon.
But shockingly, Lunet was even faster. He appeared between Solaris and Mimi with blinding speed, raising his claw and striking Mimi with a powerful sucker punch. But the attack didn't made a dent in her. After all, the big bobbing Pikachu head that Lunet had struck was just a disguise, a decoy. It flopped over lifelessly, surprising Lunet, who had no idea of the ghost pokemon's true nature.
Then the stick hit Lunet in the jaw, knocking him over.
"Eeek!" Rui gasped in horror, seeing Mimi's "head" flopping like that. "That poor pokemon, how could you-!"
Then she realized what her harmonia was telling her, Mimi was fine. That just made her confused. She turned to her daughter. "Victoria, what-"
"It's Mimikyu's Disguise ability," Vic explained. "She hides as a Pikachu to fool her opponents. Then when they strike her, the disguise falls away and protects her from the damage."
"Now Mimi, get that Espeon with a shadow claw," Alden ordered. "Corin! You've been going after that Umbreon for a while now, and here's your perfect opportunity! Use brick break!"
"Mimikyu!" Mimi chirped. Corin nodded in agreement. The two pokemon swapped targets as Corin leapt over Mimi, raising her fist as Mimi formed a claw of shadows.
"Solaris, Lunet, use helping hand," Wes ordered. "Keep your distance!"
The two pokemon nodded, and their bodies began to glow red and gold as they assisted one another, boosting the power of their mate. The two made use of their speed to jump out of the way of their opponent's attacks, keeping light on their toes.
"I figured you two would be fast," Alden nodded. "But that's okay, guys! We can handle speed, too! Mimi, shadow sneak!"
"Mimikyu!"
Solaris may have been quick, but even she couldn't outrun a shadow sneak. She would need to use quick attack to keep up the pace, and a move like that would be useless against Mimi. So when the Ghost type pokemon rose out of the shadows at her feet, there was nothing she could do but get knocked backwards.
Wes had been anticipating that, however. Corin was about to land a brick break on Lunet that would have dealt some serious damage, but then Lunet started to glow. With another ally swap from Solaris, the two pokemon switched places, and it was Solaris who took the brick break, resisting it significantly better with her Psychic typing.
While at the same time, the very much uninjured Lunet took her place in the sky, perfectly posed to counterattack on Mimi. He'd already readied a shadow ball, firing it at the startled Ghost type pokemon from above.
"Mimikyu!" Mimi wailed, the attack hitting her head-on and sending her rolling through the grass. That wasn't good. Mimi was fast and her ability gave her some protection, but when it came to her defenses there was still a lot to be desired. She was much more the type for quick and brutal exchanges, not drawn-out skirmishes.
"Mimikyu!" She growled, hopping up, glaring at Lunet from beneath her disguise.
…But that wasn't to say she was entirely helpless, either. It would take more than a shadow ball or two to put her down!
In the meantime, Corin found herself engaging the Espeon once again. Both she and Alden quickly realized that even if they tried to swap opponents again, Wes would use ally swap to switch them back. Which meant her best bet was just to beat this Espeon straight-on.
That wouldn't be a problem. Even though she was getting weaker and weaker from the leech seed and lacked the ability to restore her health, Corin still found the strength to keep fighting. Every breath was painful at this point, but she wasn't about to fall at such a critical point in the battle. She raised her paws, and ghostly energy surged around them into the form of wicked claws.
"Nicely done," Alden nodded. "Use shadow claw!"
"Lucario!" Corin charged at Solaris, swinging her claws at the injured Psychic type pokemon. Solaris was getting a significant boost in health by draining the energy from Corin's leech seed, but she'd still been on the receiving end of some powerful attacks, and she was much more fragile than her mate. She was careful not to let Corin get too close.
"Espeon!" Then she spotted her opening. As powerful as Corin was, after all the damage she'd taken, there were still moments when pain and fatigue pushed up to the surface, and distracted her for a fraction of a second. And that fraction of a second was all Solaris needed to use her psychic powers to strike.
Corin was lifted into the air, a red aura holding her in place, as she felt her strength get sapped away. It was a risky position, not able to fight while taking damage, as the leech seed drained her. If she didn't do anything she wouldn't last another minute.
"This is why Psychic types are so-!" Callie scowled, stomping her foot in frustration. "They just don't fight fair!"
"It's a natural type advantage," Alcea gently reminded her. "There's no need to get so frustrated about it, is it?"
Callie pouted. Yes there was!
In this case, though, there wasn't. Because Solaris might have had powerful psychic abilities, but she wasn't the only one. Corin knew how to use psychic as well. And she had a handle on her aura that most pokemon didn't. As she resisted the pain, she closed her eyes and concentrated, and the red aura shattered, pushed away by her natural blue.
Corin landed on the grass and her eyes snapped open, and she lunged at the startled Espeon.
"Solaris, use quick attack to dodge," Wes said, turning his attention to Lunet. "Lunet, use feint attack to strike."
"Umbreon," Lunet nodded, disappearing from sight. Mimi looked around warily, waiting for the pokemon's inevitable attack. Then she caught Alden's eye, and saw he was staring at her. She paused, seeing him nod. Then she brightened right up, that would be perfect!
Like a demon in the darkness Lunet emerged from the shadows, raising his claw to strike at Mimi from behind. Then it was Mimi's turn to disappear. Not just sinking into the shadows for a shadow sneak, but a full-on disappearing act.
"Umbreon?!" Lunet looked around, confused at where she'd vanished to.
"Ignore it for now, Lunet," Wes ordered, knowing that eventually the Mimikyu would strike. He trusted Lunet's instincts to get him to safety before then; in the meantime, the Umbreon would need to fight back himself. "Go after that Lucario instead, use shadow ball!"
"Umbreon!" Lunet nodded, changing targets. He opened his mouth, firing a shadow ball at Corin from behind.
It was only due to Corin's aura sensors that she was able to dodge, just barely jumping out of the way of the shadow ball. She was fighting two pokemon at once now, and was nowhere near the condition to do it. But that was fine, she could manage.
Rui glanced at her husband's face. She was never good at reading him. Not like she wished she was, anyway. Certainly she could tell his normal moods, even if his expression was usually one of stoicism, but when it came to battles he was always so much harder to get a read on. Was he feeling pressured? Uncomfortable? Triumphant? She just couldn't tell.
"Lunet, use another shadow ball. In the meantime, Solaris, put some distance between the two of you and use your shadow ball as well," Wes ordered. Both pokemon nodded, taking their positions and firing shadow balls from both sides.
Corin wasn't going to lose to some shadow balls. She closed her eyes and her aura sensors flared. She raised her paws and formed a staff of aura, sensing the positions of the incoming attacks. Like a dance she struck the shadow balls as they came her way, smashing them to pieces while twirling the club like a baton.
"Break off, now!" Wes suddenly snapped, an action that startled the audience. They hadn't expected a reaction like that. Solaris and Lunet instantly responded, however, leaping back from Corin and watching her warily.
The reason he'd given his order was because Mimi picked that moment to appear, and appeared right above Solaris's head. Phantom force was a powerful Ghost type move, and one that would be wasted against a Dark type pokemon. But Solaris was the perfect target.
Unfortunately, that wasn't the pokemon she hit. Once again, Solaris used ally switch to change the focus of the attack to a more suitable pokemon, and Lunet took the blow for his mate. It was a painful strike of ghostly energy, but not a critical one.
"Espeon!" Solaris's eyes flashed red and she opened her mouth, firing a shadow ball that hit Mimi in the back. Mimi cried in pain and flopped forward, making her the perfect target for Lunet to finish off.
The Umbreon never got the chance.
"LUCARIO!" Corin shouted, slamming into him with her extremespeed. It was like being hit by a tank. Lunet rolled forward, skidding through the grass, and Corin leapt atop her, fists raised.
Alden hadn't given the order, but it was exactly the action that he'd intended.
Corin unleashed a devastating close combat on the startled Umbreon, while Solaris could only watch helplessly from the side.
Vic winced. As grateful as she was for the fact that the Commander was winning, Lunet had been a pokemon she'd known all her life. She still had memories as a little girl of cuddling up to him when she slept, and seeing him brutalized was painful.
"Umbree…" Lunet wheezed, unable to find an opportunity to escape or fight back against Corin's barrage. He was totally helpless.
"Espeon!" Solaris fired a psybeam that hit Corin from behind, causing her to yowl in pain and finally let up on her assault. She stumbled back, coughing, barely able to see clearly. At this point she was so fatigued she was relying on her aura vision more than her actual eyesight.
But as weak as Corin was, her strength couldn't be questioned. Solaris may have forced her to back off, but it was too late. Lunet had fallen, and he wasn't going to get back up again.
Wes closed his eyes and recalled his fainted pokemon while Solaris tilted her head up to the sky and howled in sadness.
Lu… cario…" Corin panted, holding her stomach. She was badly beaten, infested with seeds, and nearly blind. But she wasn't out of the fight. She was just getting started! At least, that's what her aura was saying, even if her body was saying something a lot different.
Wes was honestly impressed. "Your Lucario is quite fearsome. I can see you've trained her very well. Every time I think she's going to fall, she keeps standing, it's as though she refuses to accept defeat at all."
Alden grinned and shrugged his shoulders. He was concerned about Corin's condition, but he knew she could handle it. "She's having an enjoyable fight," he explained. "She doesn't want to rest until she tests herself against that secret weapon of yours."
Wes raised his eyebrow. "Oh? What secret weapon is that?"
"Secret weapon? His Hariyama, right?" Callie said, confused. "That's the pokemon he used to destroy the barrier, that's his sixth, yeah?"
Alcea glanced at Vic and raised her eyebrow suspiciously. "Is it?"
Vic didn't say a word. She kept her icy stare aimed at the battle.
The Commander smirked. "Oh, please. I'm not an idiot. I know a trainer of your caliber has a powerful pokemon up his sleeve for people like me. And that's what I'm all about! Challenging the best that there is, using everything I've got! So come on, old man! I've been feeling it since we started, send out that pokemon that'll get my 'Sense' surging! Right, Corin?"
"Lucario!" Corin barked, nodding in agreement.
The smallest of smiles crossed Wes's lips. "…Well, alright then. I was planning to save this for the finale, but if you like, we can skip to the main event now. Tear them down, Giraud!" He shouted, throwing his sixth pokeball into the air.
In a flash of light, Wes's last pokemon came out, landing on the ground with such impact it felt like the whole village shook.
"TYRANITAR!" The hulking green pokemon roared, deafening the battlefield.
"Ah! No!" Chloe exclaimed, falling on her but. She curled up and raised her arms to shield her face from the incoming sandstorm that was about to buffet her.
"What the fuck?!" Callie exclaimed, more thrown off by Chloe's sudden outburst than by the monster of a pokemon that Wes had just sent out.
"It's a Tyranitar!" Chloe wailed. "It's about to unleash a sandstorm over the battlefield!" She peaked out from behind her bangs only to see… no. There wasn't a sandstorm. The wind hadn't even shifted in the slightest.
"…Uh… I mean…" Oh god. She had just made a complete and total fool out of herself! What was the MATTER with her?! She could die. She could literally just DIE.
"…It is curious though, is it?" Alcea said, raising her eyebrow quizzically. "Indeed, Tyranitar posses the ability Sand Stream, which conjure up tornadoes of dust and sand whenever they are sent out into battle. And yet…"
She raised her hand, feeling the wind. Not a single grain.
"Maybe… it has a different ability, or something?" Callie suggested, confused. She looked to Vic, who shook her head.
"You have a curious expression," Wes told Alden, raising his eyebrow. "Perhaps you weren't expecting a pokemon like this?"
Alden grinned and shook his head. "Nah, nah, I expected something that strong! No, what I'm curious about is why I'm not feeling the effects of a sandstorm right now. What's Tyranitar's hidden ability again? Unnerve, right?"
"Giraud's ability is not Unnerve," Wes said, shaking his head. "It is, in fact, Sand Stream, just as you would think."
That was a shock.
"But then… where's the sandstorm?" Callie asked. She was totally lost now. "Vic, what's going on here, huh?"
"My dad's strongest pokemon is his Tyranitar," Vic said, her expression darkening. This battle was going just as she'd feared. "But he's a lot different from an ordinary Tyranitar."
Now that she mentioned it, Giraud didn't have the look of destructive rage on his face that was characteristic of the Tyranitars that Callie had seen in books and recordings. No, after that initial roar he looked kind of… calm, actually.
Peaceful, standing still as a status with a serene expression on his face.
What was going on here?
It was Wes, actually, who explained what was going on. "As I'm sure you've realized, most of the Orre Region is a wasteland. A desert of ruin and death."
"…I wouldn't go that far," Alden said.
"Well, I would," Wes snapped, narrowing his eyes. "I've lived here all my life, and I've seen first-hand the damage wrought on both trainers and pokemon. There's so little hope to be found, barely anywhere here that could be considered peaceful."
Vic nodded in agreement, as painful as it was to admit.
"Agate Village is perhaps the one truly peaceful place in this entire region," Wes continued. "A land of lush green, where people live in harmony with nature. So tell me, do you think I would stand by and have one of my own pokemon ruin that every time he left his pokeball?"
Alden was just confused. "What are you talking about?"
"Part of what make Tyranitar such devastating pokemon isn't just their destructive power," Wes explained. "It is also the deadly sandstorms they create with every step. But there is already enough wasteland in the Orre Region, I won't have my own pokemon contaminate this place with sand like the rest of my home. So I taught him how to control it."
"…Control it?" Alden asked, shocked.
"Wait, so it has Sand Stream, but is just… doesn't do it?" Callie gasped in disbelief. "Is… Is something like that even possible?"
Alcea shook her head. "I have no idea. I have never heard of such a thing, is it?"
"Giraud was like the rest of Wes's pokemon," Rui said solemnly, a pained expression crossing her face. "Experimented on mercilessly by Cipher, turned into a weapon of destruction. A particularly potent one, at that, given the already temperamental nature of his species. I've heard from Victoria that you've witnessed the power of Shadow Pokemon firsthand, have you not?"
Alcea winced. She remembered her fight with the Phantom. The devastating brutality of his Shadow Pokemon wasn't something she would ever forget. And with a pokemon renowned for its destruction like Tyranitar…
"Of all the Shadow Pokemon we reached, Giraud was the hardest to open the door to his heart. And even then… even after he was freed… that didn't mean he was cured."
Shadow Pokemon were traumatized. They were dangerous even after they were freed from their corruption due to how much they had endured.
"Giraud… used to rampage. Destroy everything around him in a rage whenever he remembered the pain of what was done to him," Rui said. "It took time… a long time… but eventually… Wes and I managed to reach him. We taught him to meditate. To get in control of his feelings and emotions, to find the inner peace needed to keep going."
"And that's what we're looking at right now?" Callie asked, glancing at the tranquil Tyranitar.
"My husband helped him even more than my own powers could," Rui said, glancing at her hands. "To be able to give him sanctuary here, at the one spot in the Orre Region not filled with despair, he spent countless hours by Giraud's side, helping him control his destructive power, so he wouldn't ruin everything around him. And as you can see… he succeeded. That is his strongest pokemon, and the foe that your Commander must overcome."
She was looking at her daughter as she said that last part, praying that Vic would understand what she was trying to tell her.
But the only thing Vic understood right now was that her hope looked further away than ever before.
So Wes has sent out his sixth pokemon, a Tyranitar! Will this powerful pokemon be the final nail in the Commander's coffin? Or will he be able to win? The battle has reached its climax, how will Alden and his team fare against this beast?