Vic and Alden are going at it! Both trainers are giving everything they have in a double battle, and Vic's not only unloading her pokemon's strongest attacks onto Alden, but also all the grief and frustration she's built up over the years! What will the result of this be? Will Alden become more aware of how much he's taken Vic for granted? Or will he just ignore it, like he does everything else about his loyal subordinate? Remember to review!

KedharS: I think you're giving him too much credit.

Hyphenman: I hope that this chapter will be good for informing on your insights. And yes, it's no coincidence that Orre has focused on Vic so much; you might say that most of this arc was a buildup to this moment, so much so that the next battles are more of a formality.

Gyvarius: That's quite an interesting theory. I guess we'll just have to see, won't we?

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1111

Reinvigorated from Vic's harmonia, her pokemon advanced with more fervor than ever. Dash's fur was blazing as he charged across the field, and he opened his mouth wide to let out a howl. His attack stat skyrocketed as he burst into another flare blitz, just as the barrier surrounding Finn and Eifa started to fade away.

Alden clicked his tongue in frustration. It was perfectly timed by Vic, he wouldn't have expected any less. In their present state, his pokemon would have only seconds to react to the Arcanine's devastating attack.

"Finn!" He shouted desperately to his Swampert, hoping that he would have the strength necessary to counter the Arcanine's charge. To his relief, Finn was already prepared, having anticipated an attack like this coming. With a roar he raised his arms and covered his body with water; a meager effort given the intense sunlight, but more than nothing against the blazing inferno approaching him.

Dash smirked, and Vic did as well. As Finn reached out to cut him off, the charging Arcanine was suddenly gone. And in his place, a beam of light was coming straight for Finn, freezing the Swampert in his tracks.

It happened in a matter of seconds, but time seemed to slow down for everyone involved, giving Alden enough of a head start to figure out what was going on. Vic had tricked him once again. She had guessed that Finn would step up to counter Dash's flare blitz, having the bulk and typing to withstand it. So while the Arcanine made a show of himself charging forward, she'd had her Whimsicott fire a solarbeam right behind him. Dash's flames had hidden it from the eyes of Finn and Alden both, and that was the end. Using his incredible speed the Arcanine had jumped away at the last instant, leaving Finn alone in the path of the attack. And this time, there would be no escape. Like watching a film play out in slow motion, Alden witnessed his Swampert get hit head-on by the powerful solarbeam, and the painful bellow his pokemon let out shook the battlefield.

Finn fell back, the water around him dispersing. He hit the ground hard, and stayed there, not moving an inch. Alden was stunned.

How much power had been in that attack? Even with Finn's quadruple weakness, Ellie wasn't an offensive pokemon. And while Finn may have taken a solarbeam earlier in the match, Eifa's light screen had still weakened it considerably.

Dash reappeared, the flames around him dying down. Having never unleashed his flare blitz he was spared from the recoil, but it didn't matter. He had done far more damage than he ever would have hoped to had his attack connected.

Both Rui and Anabel were as stunned as Alden, but he wasn't giving them any mind. All he could do was numbly recall his vanquished Swampert to his pokeball and stare up at Vic, who looked down on him with a triumphant smirk on her face.

"And there it is," she crowed. "Your first pokemon defeated! And with hardly a scratch on me, I might add! I knew it would happen that way too, Alden. After all, that's your style, isn't it? Relying on Finn to put his body on the line to block your opponents, taking advantage of his bulk and his fighting spirit to keep pushing him through injuries that would knock out most any other pokemon? Well, I hope you've learned your lesson," she said with a laugh. Her eyes were shining maliciously. "But then again, you always were the type to not pay attention to the situation."

"You got me with that one," Alden admitted, returning Finn's pokeball to his belt. "But don't think that means you've won this fight just yet. I have other pokemon, you know."

"Oh, of course you do. I know all about what happened down below- or at least, I can guess." Vic turned and looked at her mother for the first time. Rui flinched at the feeling of her daughter's gaze piercing through her.

"You asked my mother to heal your pokemon, didn't you? That's why she's so drained right now," Vic correctly guessed. "Well, our abilities are fairly useful, so I can see why you'd want to do something like that. But I'm afraid it won't work out as nicely for you as you might like. Even if your team IS fully healed, with my strength I can easily crush them!" She snapped.

Alden narrowed his eyes. "Don't you think you're getting a little carried away? You only managed to defeat one of my pokemon, after all."

Vic let out a derisive snort. "Oh, please! Like anything you use would make a difference! Now quit stalling already and send out someone else!"

"Well, if that's the way you feel, then I'll be happy to oblige," Alden said, reaching for one pokeball in particular. "Corin, go!"

"Lucario!" Corin emerged from her pokeball, newly-healed and filled with energy. Of all the Commander's pokemon she had been the one to expend the least amount of energy in the battle with Anabel, and so being fully healed by Rui she was brimming with power. And that was obvious to everyone by the aura leaking off of her, forming a veil of blue light over her fur.

Vic looked stunned, which Alden was quick to capitalize on.

"What's the matter?" He called up to her. "Are you surprised? I thought you knew everything about me, Vic, so you should have been able to see this coming!"

Vic clenched her jaw. She had been caught off-guard. While it wasn't out of the question for Alden to use his strongest pokemon so early in the match, it hadn't been what she'd expected. Usually he saved her for when things got difficult. If he was using her this early, after only one loss…

He's underestimating me! She gasped in realization, her eyes widening. He thinks that Corin will be able to easily clean up most of my party, so he's trying to solve this quickly! Her own bias of Alden's motivations was clouding her thoughts, so she had no way of knowing whether or not he was taking her seriously as an opponent. But it didn't change what needed to be done.

"Dash! Alden's probably counting on Corin to draw our attention, given how juicy of a target she is," Vic silently told her Arcanine using their connection through harmonia. "But we shouldn't forget Eifa. She's the main target right now. If we take her out, then Ellie will be able to weaken Corin with her support moves, and force him to switch her back out."

Vic had been counting on Alden's assumption that Eifa was her main target to take out the Swampert. By putting Finn in the line of fire for what he'd assumed to be an attack aimed for his Espeon, he had opened the door for her to wipe him out in one hit. But now, things were different. And she was going to take care to finish off Eifa for good.

And the best way to do that was with a distraction.

"Ellie, use dazzling gleam!" Vic ordered.

"Whimsicott!" Using the boost from tailwind, Ellie leapt into the air and raised her hands, releasing a blinding burst of light that blanketed the battlefield. Beams of energy shot from her palms to strike both the opposing pokemon, doing very little damage but providing the perfect cover for Dash.

As an Arcanine, Dash had a very strong sense of smell. He charged ahead with his eyes closed, focusing his speed to the maximum. He was planning on targeting Eifa while both pokemon were stunned. But both he and his trainer were quite aware of another mitigating factor that would play a role in this decision.

We need to be careful, Vic understood. Corin could sense the aura of pokemon, so she wouldn't be affected by the dazzling gleam at all. It was another bluff, hoping that Alden would expect her to have forgotten that little unique quality about Lucario, and think that he had a trump card up his sleeve. But she'd seen his fighting style too much to ever forget. When Corin sensed Dash's approach and moved to counter it, they would surprise the Lucario with an extremespeed that would dodge her completely and hopefully take out the Espeon.

"Corin!" Alden shouted. "Earthquake!"

"Lucario!" To Vic's surprise, Corin ignored the Arcanine completely. Focusing her energy she raised her fist, and slammed it down into the battlefield. She released her aura through the stadium and the tower began to shake, the power of the shockwave throwing Dash off his balance and sending him crashing into the wall.

Vic's head was spinning as she was struck from the concussion, barely able to register the pain both her Whimsicott and Arcanine were in. She… she hadn't expected that move coming from Corin, and was paying for it painfully. But it wasn't completely problematic. With Samarra's help, she suppressed the pain, and waited for the light to die down so her eyes could confirm what she already knew to be the case.

Dash picked himself up off the ground, shaking his head. He was mostly fine, thanks to the harmonia. Ellie was alright as well, given the fact that her typing gave her a natural resistance to Ground type moves.

But what was a surprise was that Eifa as well was completely fine. The Espeon had used her psychic powers to lift herself in the air, and stood perched over the battlefield on a barrier of light, her ruby shining. Corin rose to her feet and her eyes snapped open, and she charged for the Arcanine.

Vic smirked. How predictable! Of her two pokemon, it was obvious that Dash was the bigger threat, so of course Corin would make him her prime target. But that was what they wanted. She silently ordered her Arcanine to use extremespeed and the pokemon disappeared before Corin could even get close to her.

Knowing him, he'll probably counter my extremespeed using quick guard, Vic judged. But that's fine. The important part is occupying that Lucario; that should give Ellie all the time she needs to make her preparations.

One of the strongest benefits of harmonia was the fact that Vic could link her consciousness with both of her pokemon simultaneously. It had taken years of intense training and control for her skills to reach that level, but now that she was there it was the most potent weapon in her arsenal; a far greater boon than any combination move she could hope to use.

So she instructed Ellie to do what she did best- set up. While Dash was distracting everyone with his flashy moves, Ellie was slowly building up her power by using growth. In this intense sunlight, the effects would be massive, but she had to be careful. She couldn't make a big show about it, or else Alden would catch on and change his target.

But then something happened that threw all of her plans out the window.

"Lucario!" Corin disappeared as well! Vic had expected that Corin would use quick guard to stop Dash in his tracks. Instead, she'd taken the fight to him, with an extremespeed of her own! She smirked. That was fine with her. After all, Dash was much faster than Corin could hope to be- in a battle of speed, her Arcanine would absolutely-

"Arcanine?!" Dash gasped, and Vic gasped with him. In the realm of speed, where both pokemon were moving so fast they couldn't be seen, Corin had actually managed to catch up with the Arcanine, and was running abreast with him! Dash, who had been specially trained in speed, with a nature that boosted it even further, an additional boost from tailwind, and most of all a higher natural speed stat than a Lucario, had been caught!?

Corin slammed her fist into Dash's side, and the Arcanine responded in turn, slamming his side into hers. The two pokemon flew back from each other while still maintaining a speed so fast no human eye could see them.

H-How is this possible? Vic asked herself, stunned. It wasn't just that Corin was as fast as her Arcanine, which was unbelievable enough. But she'd actually caught up to Dash, even with his head start, which could only mean one thing.

Corin was even faster.

It seemed impossible to believe. But she couldn't doubt the pain in her side, where Corin had landed that hit on her Arcanine. With nothing to do but force herself to go along with it, Vic roared in anger and used her harmonia to boost Dash's speed even more.

The two pokemon slammed into each other again and again. They ran across the battlefield, focusing only on each other, Dash tracking Corin by scent and Corin tracking him through his aura. Then they moved even faster, running up along the walls and even on the ceiling. And this entire struggle went unseen to everyone present. The only proof of their exchanges were the bursts of air exploding in sonic booms where the two pokemon collided.

"Aargh…" Rui reached up and cupped her ears. This was getting really intense. Anabel bit their lip, wondering how this would go themselves.

Finally, the two pokemon collided in the air and fell back to the battlefield, returning to view as they landed safely on the ground. Both pokemon panted, struggling to catch their breath after having covered the entire span of the room dozens of times over in a scarce few seconds.

"So you can keep up with our speed!" Vic screamed at Alden, feeling winded herself. "Do you think that makes a difference?! Your Lucario didn't do any more damage to Dash than he did to her!"

"Maybe not… but it just shows you that even with all those benefits Dash has… he still wasn't able to outrun her, either," Alden reminded Vic, smiling. Vic wanted to scream again. His eyes… they were laughing at her! He wasn't taking this seriously- no, he wasn't taking her seriously! He wasn't even looking at her!

Samarra's voice was sweet in Vic's skull.

"You see, Victoria? You can't prove your capability to him with just this. He'll never respect you as an equal. Not until you FORCE him to. You need to defeat him… smash him with everything you have and drag him down to your level… only THEN will you have proven that you're worth being the only one to stay at his side."

That was it. That was what she wanted more than anyone else. Anabel, Alcea, all the people sniffing around her beloved Commander, taking the place that rightfully belonged to her. As long as they were there, he would never be hers. He would never look at her the way she so desperately wanted him to. But that would all change.

"Once I beat you!" She roared out the last line of her internal debate, startling and confusing Alden and the others. Her harmonia surged even more and she focused her energy on her pokemon, guiding them to even higher levels.

"Uh-oh, this isn't good," Anabel winced as they sensed the level of power Vic was dealing with. Before, she'd been splitting her focus between Ellie and Dash equally. But now, she was giving everything she had to her Arcanine. It was anathema to how Vic usually did things, but at the moment, she was too drunk on Samarra's influence to care. The flames leaping up around Dash were stronger than any so far, so strong they nearly engulfed the entire battlefield.

"If speed won't be enough," Vic hissed, "then we'll make you submit with raw power! Let's go, Dash! Raging fury!"

Alden didn't even know what sort of move that was. But he knew that the outcome wasn't going to be very good. Dash was so hot the room was practically melting, and when he charged across the battlefield his footprints seared their way into the dirt.

"What's with that move?!" Anabel shouted, shielding their eyes as Rui did the same. The air was so hot it was stinging.

Corin grimaced at the power coming her way. But she couldn't lose her cool. She focused her energy and closed her eyes, concentrating not on the raging inferno in front of her but the charging Arcanine that was inside of it.

With her ability to sense aura, Corin knew where her target was. And she also knew that she only had one shot at this. If she calculated wrong, then she was about to get a big faceful of fire, and that would be really bad. So she wouldn't calculate wrong.

Concentrating her aura, Corin prepared a detect attack. But no ordinary one. Given how fast the Arcanine was approaching, if she leapt forward into the flames at her own top speed, staying just close enough to Dash, then she would be able to get through it in less than a second as the two pokemon passed. That would reduce the damage she took to almost negligible levels. But if she calculated wrong then she would probably be knocked out instantly, or worse.

Her eyes snapped open and she leapt forward into the inferno. But to her shock, Dash turned on his heal. He avoided Corin entirely and leapt into the air, his body a meteorite heading right for the motionless Eifa.

"Hah!" Vic crowed. That had been the plan all along. Make Alden think that she had completely snapped, and then rely on her Arcanine to charge into the fray like a rabid dog. Then, at the last moment, when Corin was preparing to counter, Dash would approach his real target- the Espeon!

She could see her pokemon slam into the platform, engulfing it with flame. The barrier shattered and Eifa disappeared from sight. But what she expected to see when Dash landed, the burning body of a beaten Espeon, never materialized.

There was absolutely nothing there.

Eifa reappeared, panting. Her fur was marred with sweat and slightly singed, but she was otherwise uninjured.

"That's substitute," Alden informed Vic of what had just transpired. "Eifa wasn't just standing there this whole time doing nothing. She was preparing a substitute, because I knew that you would be targeting her first."

"How?!" Vic exclaimed. She'd set it up perfectly! All of Alden's focus should have been on Dash and Corin, he never should have seen something like this coming! Even with all the experience with double battles he'd recently acquired, this and that were two separate things entirely, so how…

"I figured it out, because it's exactly the sort of tactic you would use," Alden calmly explained. "One of the advantages of a double battle is targeting the weaker opponent. Not to mention, Eifa has been your target from the start, isn't that right?"

Vic clicked her tongue in frustration.

"With Eifa gone, Ellie will have the freedom to use her status moves to hamper Corin even more, and that's what she really specializes in, not just supporting Dash," Alden continued his explanation. "So if I were in your position, taking Eifa out quickly would have been my plan, as well."

He… he saw through me completely! Vic realized. "That… but that's…"

Alden narrowed his eyes. "This whole time, you've been making big speeches talking about how I don't see you or that I'm not paying attention to you. It seems like you're the one who's been underestimating me."

Whoa, this was an intense one! Vic was using all of her best techniques to take down Alden's pokemon, but he managed to get the upper hand and catch her by surprise! Of course, that doesn't mean that this match is going to end just like that. After all, Alden is still in a tough spot, and he'll have to rely on a lot if he wants to defeat Vic and her pokemon. But he's off to a good start!