Val and Gwen have gone wild attacking the Commander's group! Taking advantage of the fact that none of their strongest members are available, the girls have gone on a rampage, and it's time for the other members of the Commander's organization to step up! Will they be able to hold off the overwhelming power of Val's Tyranitar and Gwen's Gallade? Remember to review!

So far, we've got some great girls running in the Nomination Round! Any others we want so far? We've only got a few days left before the nomination round will come to a close, so if there are any other girls you think should be added, make sure to add them in the reviews! Let's see who the third Best Girl will be!

Currently Nominated: Ange, Ayame, Caelia, Cynthia, Donoma, Elaina, Maddi, Marion, Misato, Sango, Satsuki, Sylvia, Vic

KedharS: Yeah, this is certainly not the best situation, that's for sure.

JoshGamerV: Don't worry, Katrina and Kyrese have plans in the future. I can't tell you when, though, but we'll see them all grown up.

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Yeah, things are going to get really interesting when we enter Relic Cave, that's for sure.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 959

Chloe couldn't believe what she was seeing. Tommy, Ross, and Maddi were all fighting their hardest, using their pokemon as best as they could. But no matter what they tried to do, the Tyranitar was just too powerful.

A few hours ago, she had thought that the devastating power wielded by Wes's Tyranitar was one of the most fearsome things she had ever seen. But now she could see that Wes had been going easy on the Commander, in a manner of speaking. His Tyranitar had some measure of control, after all, it wasn't just rampaging.

Val's Tyrant had no such composure. The sandstorm raging through the air was like an extension of its fury.

"TYRANITAR!" The beast yelled, grabbing Tommy's Ursaring by the throat. He lifted the struggling bear pokemon into the air and slammed it down on Ross's Mr. Mime, knocking both of their pokemon out at the same time.

"Kuh!" Tommy clicked his tongue in frustration as he called back his pokemon. He only had one left. "Alright then! Go, Harvel!"

Tommy threw a pokeball into the air and sent out his final pokemon, his Tropius.

Val smirked. "Finally using something worthwhile, huh? But you think a Grass type like that's gonna match against my Tyrant? Keep dreaming! And as for you…" She turned to Maddi, who scowled back at her.

"Violet, use water pulse!" Maddi ordered her Spheal. Like Tommy, she was only down to one pokemon, because she hadn't brought any of her teams with her. The only other pokemon she had at her disposal was her Duskull, and she wasn't willing to risk such a low-leveled pokemon against a monster like that Tyranitar.

"Spheal!" Violet puffed up her cheeks and fired a pulse of water at Tyrant, who smirked just like his trainer.

"TYRANITAR!" Tyrant roared, firing a devastating barrage of stones that blasted apart the piddly water and continued on to hit the already-weakened Spheal.

But it didn't get there.

"WOBBUFFET!" In a flash of light, a big blue pokemon appeared in the path of the stone edge, raising his rubbery arm in a salute. His body began to glow red. The large rocks struck the Wobbuffet, sending his torso bobbing backwards, only for the pokemon to immediately spring forward and bounce the rocks back at Tyrant with twice the power.

"Tyranitar!" Tyrant roared in pain as it took the full barrage of the stone edge.

"Well, that's a tricky counter you got there," Val grinned, Ross smiling back at her. In spite of the situation, he hadn't lost is affable demeanor.

Val shrugged. "Not a bad tactic, I must say. But something like that's fine to deal with! As a Dark type, Tyrant's immune to your mirror coat! Which means I can use special attacks as much as I want! Now, Tyrant, blow away that Wobbuffet with your dark pulse!"

But Tyrant didn't do anything, much to everyone's confusion. Everyone save Ross, of course, who simply smiled.

"Actually," he said, pointing above his head, "you can't."

Val glanced up to see another barrier surrounding them, with more sigils painted into the reflective surface. Her eyes immediately shot back down to Ross, who was standing next to a very tired and exhausted Smeargle.

"I thought I already dealt with that pest," she scowled. "How tricky…"

"I made sure to call him back with a little HP for precisely this purpose," Ross calmly explained. "Of course, using two pokemon at once isn't exactly fighting fair… but then, you're not exactly a traditional opponent, are you?"

"So let me guess, your new rule says I can't use special attacking moves, is that about right?" Val smirked.

"Something like that. All pokemon within the barrier are forced to use physical moves only. No special moves, no status moves, only physical attacks. But, fair is fair. Everyone here is under those same restrictions."

Callie and Gwen were outside the confines of the barrier and thus immune to the conditions that were set. But Val's Tyranitar and everyone else's pokemon were now restricted to only using physical attacks to fight.

And when Ross had a Wobbuffet that could only use counter, that seemed to turn things very much in their favor.

Chloe was thrilled, but she was also confused. "I don't get it, what are all these rules?" She mumbled to herself, shaking her head. It was great that they'd taken the advantage, but it kind of rubbed her the wrong way. After all, part of the importance of battling was strategy and study, to develop the right tactics to use to fight. And this, well… this didn't make any sense at all.

"Perplexing, isn't it?" Alden's voice from behind her made Chloe jump in the air in fright.

"Uh, um… wh-what do you mean?!" She stuttered, turning and looking back at the Commander. His smile set her at ease, though it also unnerved her. How could he be smiling in such a dangerous situation?

"It's always exciting seeing Ross fight," Alden said, as if he'd read Chloe's mind. "He and his pokemon come up with all sorts of restrictions to place on the battles, isn't that interesting?"

Chloe thought it was cheap, herself. "Why can't they just fight normally?" She mumbled in spite of herself, knowing full well how important it was that this battle go off seamlessly. She shouldn't be quibbling about the rules at a time like this.

"Ross has always been a pretty easygoing and flexible guy," Alden explained. "And like me, he tries to have fun. But see… he's a bit OCD at times."

Chloe's jaw dropped. That guy was OCD?

"Oh, not in the way you're thinking," he quickly assured her. "It's more like… he's always looking for patterns and things, even when he shouldn't be. And because of how quick his mind works, he finds himself getting bored pretty easily. Say, if he was playing a game, it would only take him a few minutes to determine the most effective strategy to win," Alden explained.

"Wow…" Chloe was envious. She had to study for hours to develop good strategies for battling. She was even writing her thesis on the value of hard work and dedication to improve one's skills as a trainer through exhaustive study.

"…So of course, he'd never do that," Alden quickly added.

"Huh? Why not?!" She sputtered, forgetting her usual deference to others due to how startled she was. Why wouldn't someone want to use the most efficient strategy to win?

"Apparently he finds it boring," Alden shrugged. "Can't say I blame him. I don't find boring matches all that fun, either. But let's say he was playing one of those video games, you know, the ones for kids who can't catch pokemon yet?"

"Oh, yeah, you mean the kind where you catch your own team and challenge gyms and stuff? What about them?" Chloe asked. She was too embarrassed to admit that she still played them on occasion, even if she wasn't a kid anymore.

"Well, those games are really easy, but Ross still plays them," Alden explained. "He just comes up with his own rules to make them more challenging. Stuff like how he can only capture the first pokemon he encounters on each route, or how whenever one of his pokemon faints he can't use it anymore, or he can only catch pokemon of a specific type… He even had one run where he beat the game using only a team of six Smeargle!"

"That… wow, that's…" Chloe couldn't believe someone would go to that much trouble to make things hard on themselves.

"I was impressed by the way he approached things, so I offered to let him join the Battle Frontier project," Alden smiled with pride. "I told him he could come up with whatever sort of facility he liked, with whatever rules and restrictions he would like to set."

"…And what did he choose?" Chloe asked in a mixture of both curiosity and caution.

Alden glanced away.

That… wasn't promising. Chloe gulped. "Wh-What did he choose?" She asked again, a little more forcefully. She really hoped that the Commander wouldn't get mad at her.

"He, uh… said he wanted to leave the rules up to fate," Alden mumbled, resisting the urge to burst out laughing.

Chloe blinked. "Huh?"

"His facility is going to be called 'The Battle Roulette'," Alden explained. "Trainers begin by spinning a roulette wheel before the battle starts. The roulette wheel is filled with different conditions and restrictions, similar to the ones we're seeing right here. And whatever it lands on, that's the restriction that will be placed upon the battle."

Chloe's jaw hit the ground.

"But that… that's insanity!" She sputtered, her brain short-circuiting. Why on earth would anyone come up with such a crazy battle facility?! There wasn't any strategy involved in that sort of thing at all, it came down to random probability! What if you had a pokemon specialized in physical attacking, but had to fight under the restriction of 'no physical attacks'?!

You would lose and not be able to do anything about it!

"That's stupid! It's so… so stupid! Stupid and unfair!" She cried. Alden glanced at her and she immediately froze, realizing that she had just said something incredibly rude. She clamped her hands over her mouth and began to shake. "I-I mean… I just…"

But Alden wasn't upset. He just smiled at her, and shrugged his shoulders. "It's fun, that's really the only reason I can give."

Well, it didn't sound like fun to her! If Chloe ever decided to try some of the other facilities in her spare time, she knew which one she would be skipping! All her hard work and preparation meaning nothing because a roulette wheel decided "fuck you" sounded like the most infuriating thing she could possibly imagine!

"Normally, Ross doesn't step in to battle himself," Alden said, his tone turning serious as he returned his attention back to the battle. "And when he does, he usually doesn't impose his own restrictions on the fight, at least not ones that would make things unfairly balanced against his opponent. He's not that kind of person."

Chloe gulped, understanding what the Commander was saying. Because right now, Ross was doing exactly that. Which meant that this fight… it was so dangerous that he was really going into this seriously.

Meanwhile, I'm… Chloe glanced down at the grass. The Commander's pokemon were all injured, he couldn't do anything to help. But as for her, she… what was she doing? She still had her pokemon, so why wasn't she fighting?

Because I'm a coward, that's why, she reminded herself. Because I'm too afraid to fight a battle without preparing first.

Chloe knew she was being hard on herself. There was a difference between not being willing to fight any battle without preparation, and being in a situation like this where you were facing a terrorist trying to kill you. But she still couldn't help but feel like a coward when she didn't even have the strength to fight against these girls like everyone else.

While Chloe was doubting herself, there was another girl outside of Ross's barrier who was absolutely not a coward.

Callie was fighting with everything she had. Even though her opponent used the Psychic type, her biggest weakness, and even as she kept losing pokemon after pokemon in increasingly desperate attempts to continue, she wasn't going to give up.

The others were fighting, trying to take out that Val girl so that they could come and help her. It was the least she could do to keep going until then.

"Harriet, use acrobatics!" She ordered her Hawlucha.

"Haw!" Harriet nodded, flapping her wings and leaping into the air, bounding around the Gallade at high speed. With an agility boost combined with the boost from her Unburden, the Fighting/Flying type pokemon was moving at a speed that was more than a match for the swift Lancelot.

Unfortunately, no matter how many attacks she unleashed, the Gallade took them all without even flinching.

This is insanity, Callie thought, shaking her head. She wiped the sweat from her brow. She'd used almost all of her pokemon trying to take out this Gallade, and it was like the pokemon wasn't even winded! But she couldn't let herself get discouraged. She had to keep going. She had to do this! If she didn't, if she lost…

…

She really didn't want to think about what would happen then.

"Hawlucha!" Seeing her opening, Harriet jumped under Lancelot and sprung up, hitting him with two acrobatic kicks right underneath his arm. It was a critical hit! Callie soared as she watched the Gallade flinch, momentarily, and then that hope came crashing down when he turned and slashed at Harriet, knocking her backwards.

What's the matter with this girl!? Callie turned to Gwen, whose face was filled with madness. She wasn't saying a word, but it was clear from the crazed gleam in her eye that she wasn't thinking rationally. Her harmonia was clearly active, judging by the energy burning around her and making her hair stand on end, which explained her Gallade's insane strength and resilience.

But isn't harmonia supposed to transfer the damage sustained by a pokemon back to the trainer? Callie remembered. So she should be feeling everything that her Gallade is… and yet she hadn't even blinked! What kind of monster can withstand an assault like that?

Callie didn't want to toot her own horn, but even though she was objectively losing this match, she had still managed to get her fair share of hits in on that Gallade. She wasn't a member of the Eight Leaders for nothing, after all! But neither trainer nor pokemon seemed fazed whatsoever, and it really began to make her wonder if anyone could take this girl down.

Then, Callie felt Gwen's piercing gaze land on her, and a shiver rolled down her spine. In an instant she saw Lancelot's sword arm pierce her heart and kill her, and she nearly collapsed from the pressure of it all.

In a flash, Lancelot had dispatched with Harriet, and the Hawlucha was brutally knocked into unconsciousness.

"Sorry, Harriet…" Callie said, recalling her pokemon.

"Finish her," Gwen icily demanded, and Lancelot advanced.

"W-Wait!" Callie cried. "I still have a pokemon left!" She wasn't going to use Jang. She wouldn't subject a new pokemon to this kind of brutality. But she wasn't out of options, either. "Rio, come out, please, I need you!"

Callie's final pokemon was her trusty Riolu. She'd debated leaving her with Nick over the break, since the two seemed to get along so well, but she thought better of it and decided to take the pokemon with her instead.

And thank god she did, because right now the little pokemon was all that stood between her and a probably-very-brutal death.

As if she could sense what her trainer was feeling, the tiny Riolu glared up at the menacing Gallade, standing resolved and ready to fight against a foe that by all merits she had no chance of defeating. But don't tell her that.

Personally, Callie believed that trainers shouldn't play favorites among their pokemon. It was important to treat every pokemon with equal amounts of love and respect, to show them that they mattered just as much as every other member of the team.

But if you held a gun to her head and demanded that she pick her favorite, she probably would have chosen Rio. Ever since she caught the little thing, the Riolu had always held a special place in her heart. Like her, the tiny pokemon tried her hardest, even against foes she had no chance of defeating, like when Nick used her against Naya and her brutal team of pokemon. She had fought her hardest and not given into the torture the other girl subjected her to.

Rio wasn't just a pokemon with an Adamant nature, she was a stubborn little thing as well, which Callie respected. After all, she was exactly the same. And while they didn't have the level of connection that the Commander had with his Lucario, Callie knew that, someday, she and Rio's hard work and perseverance together would be rewarded when her partner finally evolved.

Until that day happened, she would be proud that her Riolu was just like her, willing to stand up to a fearsome foe, even with her small stature.

If Gwen showed any consideration for the bond between Callie and her pokemon, though, she certainly didn't show it. These people were all just in the way. The only thing that mattered was getting the Oracle. Val told her that to do that, she needed to capture the girl in front of her, so that was what she was going to do.

Then, when she got the Oracle, she would be one step further to creating her perfect world, a world for just her and her brother and their pokemon.

The thought of that dream brought a smile to her lips. Her harmonia surged and she sent more power to Lancelot, bidding him slay the foes standing in his path.

"Gallade," Lancelot nodded, raising his sword and teleporting. He reappeared behind Rio and slashed down at the small pokemon, but his swing missed by a mile.

"Riolu!" Rio ducked under the attack, taking advantage of her small stature to evade the sharp blade. She dashed between Lancelot's legs and sprung up off the ground, turning and delivering a swift kick to the face that made Gwen's cheek sore.

"Don't underestimate Rio and I!" Callie grinned. "The two of us may be small, but we've got puny power going for us!"

The words passed meaninglessly by Gwen. For all she knew, Callie was talking to someone else entirely.

Things aren't looking so great for Callie, but the other trainers seem to be turning the situation around against Val! Will they be able to bend the rules to their advantage to take out her and her Tyranitar? Or will Val's overwhelming strength be too much for them to handle?