Vic and Alden's fight is only getting fiercer! Vic's managed to take the lead by taking out Finn in one hit, and her ferocious pokemon are only getting stronger! Given how difficult this situation is, Alden's already had to make use of his trump card, Corin! Will she be able to give him the victory? Or will not even she be enough to overcome Vic's strength?

Hyphenman: Ever seen a Swampert get hit by a solarbeam before? That's how.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1112

Vic was stunned by Alden's revelation. He had… been paying attention to her? Vic had always assumed that Alden took her for granted and didn't pay her battles any mind, but now here he was, telling her thee exact opposite. The knowledge made her shake; could she really trust what he was saying? If so, then why…

"Does it matter?" Samara hissed through her skull. "Even if he has seen you fight, does that change how little he cares about you?"

And that was all it took for the doubt Vic had been building up in her heart to corrode away. She hardened her expression and clenched her fists. "Even if what you're saying is true, that doesn't matter," she spat. "With my power, I'll be able to defeat you!"

"Arcanine!" Dash howled, his body still covered with the blazing corona of light. He charged at Eifa again, but he never got close. Eifa's eyes began to glow red and a crimson aura spread from the jewel on her forehead to cover her entire body. At the same time, Dash's charge was stopped. His burning body was lifted into the air by Eifa's psychic powers and he struggled futilely in Eifa's grasp, his flames roaring and increasing in power as he realized there was nothing he could do.

With a flick of her head, Eifa sent him flying through the air, and he crashed into the far wall with a yelp. The flames around his body died down as he collapsed, and as he struggled to stand back up his vision was swimming.

"Urgh…" Vic held her guts and felt herself getting nauseous. The confusion pounding in her skull was making it hard for her to stand. But then, another urge from Samarra was enough to get her to refocus, and she turned to her Arcanine, reinvigorated.

"Dash!" She shouted. "Are you alright?"

Dash wasn't responding to her cues from harmonia, so she needed to use her words. To her relief, the Arcanine seemed alright, just a little weary.

She needed to give him a second to rest. Luckily for her, Ellie had just finished what she'd been doing, and was ready to strike back. A small smile spread across Vic's face. This time, she'd attack the Commander in a way that he didn't see coming!

"Ellie, use solarbeam!" Vic ordered.

"Whimsicott!" Ellie raised her hands, gathering energy from the sunlight. She concentrated her power and fired it in a powerful blast at Eifa, hoping to knock the Espeon out even through whatever barrier she tried to construct. She was very careful. By concentrating and focusing her solarbeam, it looked no different from the last one she used. There would be no way for Alden to guess that she had built up her growths until her special attack was maximized. And at this speed, it would be impossible to dodge on foot! If Alden tried to protect his pokemon with light screen, that would be the end!

"Eifa, substitute!" Alden quickly ordered.

"Espeon!" Eifa's jewel flashed red and she disappeared, being replaced by a stuffed Espeon pokedoll. The solarbeam hit the doll and shredded it instantly. Then Eifa reappeared, slightly weakened but no worse for wear.

Vic clicked her tongue in frustration. "Substitute again, I see! Well, you can't maintain that sort of trick forever!"

"Don't need to," Alden replied. "Corin, use bullet punch!"

"Lucario!" Corin shot forward with her fist raised, unleashing a barrage of swift punches on the Whimsicott. Ellie curled up to try and protect herself from the attack, but Corin's fists were fierce and she was still a Fairy type.

Vic wasn't just going to LET her Whimsicott get attacked like this! Dash had been given enough time to recover! "Dash!" She shouted. "Use flare blitz!"

"Arcanine!" Snapping out of confusion, Dash covered his body with flames, charging across the battlefield towards Corin. The Lucaro reacted immediately, jumping back from Ellie and using her detect to evade the attack with only a few seconds to spare.

Dash wasn't going to let it be that easy, though. Digging his claws into the battlefield he kicked off the ground and turned on his heel, continuing his attack on Corin. He might have taken some damage from that psychic attack but he still had more than enough health to maintain a flare blitz for longer than Corin could evade.

He would never get the chance to prove it, though.

"Eifa, use psybeam!" Alden ordered.

"Espeon!" Eifa gathered energy from the sun in the ruby on her forehead, and fired a beam of rainbow-colored light at Dash. The psybeam hit the Arcanine in the side, and pain blossomed through Vic's torso, much to her shock.

"Urrah!" Vic cried, falling to her knees and clutching her side. That pain was like someone had jammed a sword through her gut! "What… that power…"

The effect was instantaneous. The power of Eifa's psybeam was enough to knock Dash off of his feet, and the Arcanine came crashing into the ground. He skidded to a stop, unconscious, his connection with Vic forcefully snapped.

"What was that?!" Vic hissed, recalling her pokemon. She was seeing red, not even focusing on Dash's loss. She was too concerned with what was going on with Eifa. "How could your Espeon's psybeam have that much power!?"

"Weren't you listening?" Alden asked, raising his eyebrow. "I've been watching everything you do, Vic. I know all about those tricks that you use, even though you think I'm not paying attention. You were using growth to boost the special attack of your Whimsicott, isn't that right? Taking advantage of the intense sunlight and her Prankster ability to maximize your attacking stats, so you could unleash some incredible damage with Ellie's solarbeam."

Vic was stunned. "But… but I executed it flawlessly! How could you know that?!" She demanded. Alden shrugged his shoulders.

"I told you already, know the kinds of moves you use, Vic. And that's how I knew that if I had Eifa use psych up on your Whimsicott, then I could copy those stat changes for myself. And wouldn't you know it?" He smiled at Eifa, who smiled and nodded back. Vic's expression darkened as she felt the power radiating from that Espeon. She had tried to use growth in order to take Alden down, and it had just ended up powering him up even more! She ground her teeth together in frustration.

"Whatever!" She shouted. "If you already know what's going on, then there's no need to try and hide it any longer! Ellie, show them what a REAL solarbeam looks like!"

"Whimsicott!" Ellie shouted, opening her mouth wide. She drew in sunlight and held out her arms as far as she could, building up the energy for a massive attack. The solarbeam she fired nearly covered the entire battlefield.

"Corin!" Alden shouted.

"Lucario!" Corin leapt forward, jumping in front of the attack. She raised her paw and a blue aura spread out from her body, forming a protective barrier that covered both herself and Eifa. The solarbeam struck the barrier and engulfed it, but this attack wasn't some fragile light screen. It was the move protect, a shield more than enough to protect both pokemon behind it.

When the light died down and everyone could see again, Vic was stunned to see that the Commander's pokemon were both unharmed.

"You think you can win this by hiding?!" She shouted. "Well, think again! Ellie, we just have to use another one!"

"Whimsicott!" Ellie shouted, charging her solarbeam up for another attack.

Corin leapt forward and charged at Ellie, unleashing a barrage of swift punches. Vic was right, defending simply wasn't enough. If she wanted to win, then she would need to get on the offensive, and that was just what she planned to do. Her bullet punches slammed into Ellie like real shells, and Vic felt like she was exploding with pain as she stumbled back.

"Whi… Whimsicott…" Ellie mewled pathetically, her small, fragile body starting to crumple under Corin's assault.

"Now, finish her with meteor mash," Alden ordered.

"Lucario!" Corin pulled back her fist and unleashed a devastating punch that his Ellie straight in her tiny little face. The Whimsicott let out a wail of pain and flew backwards, crashing into the ground at Vic's feet.

Vic said nothing. She just stared silently down at her Whimsicott and recalled her to her pokeball without another word. It was only with the faintest of glances that Alden could see that Ellie was smiling.

It unnerved him. He had a pretty good idea what was happening.

"You…" he realized. "You had her use memento, didn't you?"

"She couldn't win on her own," Vic replied. "So I had her take herself out, so that the rest of my pokemon would have a better shot. It's as simple as that."

"Lucario…" Corin fell to her knees, struggling to catch her breath. The effect of memento were strong on her, and she could feel the strength leaving her body as Ellie's wicked curse spread through her. She clenched her teeth and tried to stand in defiance, refusing to let herself be overwhelmed by a little stat reduction.

Vic actually smiled. "Your Lucario is as stubborn as you are," she said wistfully. "I'm honestly jealous you have someone that devoted to you."

Then her expression turned serious. "But then, you would never throw Corin away, would you? Because she's the perfect pokemon, obedient and loyal to a fault. But someone like me… someone who would do anything for your happiness… someone like me would just be thrown away the minute I was no longer useful, isn't that right?!"

Alden's expression hardened.

"Come on, Vic. Do you really think I'm like that? That I'm similar to the Phantom? I'm not the kind of person who uses people and tosses them aside," he scoffed.

"What a joke!" Vic shouted. "You're exactly alike! Both of you… you both only care about the things that matter to you, and everything else… everything else just gets ignored, and tossed to the side. I can see it on your face, Alden… it doesn't matter how hard I try… Anabel… Alcea… you'll never look at me the same way you look at them…"

"Oh, Victoria…" Anabel said softly.

Vic's expression went from pained and vulnerable to bitter and confrontational. "But I'm not like that anymore! I've changed, and I'm not going to satisfy myself any longer with just being your puppet, your pawn, manipulated as you see fit! My team will defeat you, here and now! Theo! Sunny! Come out now and show him what you're made of!"

"Gastrodon!" Theo rumbled, his pink body shifting as he slithered across the battlefield. Above him, her Togekiss flew through the air, chirping happily.

"Togekiss!" Sunny began to glow, receiving a power boost from Vic's harmonia. Even with the tailwind having petered out, her speed was nothing to scoff at, and she flew straight for the injured Lucario, preparing to strike.

"You're a big fan of this move, isn't that right?" Anabel asked, smirking playfully like a Meowth that had just caught its dinner. "Sunny, aura sphere!"

"Togekiss!" Sunny formed her aura into an orb of light that she concentrated in front of her mouth. Tilting her head back, she spat the orb at Corin, and the aura sphere turned towards her like it knew exactly where she was standing. Dodging was worthless as the attack was guided by Corin's aura, and it hit her directly, scoring massive damage.

"Corin!" Alden shouted, quickly recalling her to her pokeball. She would need time to rest to recover from the effects of the memento attack. In the meantime, the pokemon he would rely on next would have to be…

"Jaune, you come out," he decided, sending his Vikavolt out to continue the battle.

"Vika!" Jaune buzzed, hovering in the air across from Sunny, who greeted him with a bright smile as always.

"Why would he use an Electric type pokemon?" Rui asked. "Doesn't he know that Theo is a Water/Ground type? Even if his Vikavolt has the advantage against a Flying type pokemon like Sunny, her speed will still be hard to deal with…"

Rui might not have known a whole lot about pokemon battles, but she'd definitely seen her daughter fight against her husband enough times to know what her pokemon were capable of, and right now Alden was at a definite disadvantage.

"It's fine," Anabel assured her. "Alden sent out Jaune because he wants to counter Vic's next trick, don't worry."

"You were counting on Theo to use earthquake, isn't that right?" Jaune asked. "That's why you usually team him up with Sunny, they make the perfect team together."

"So what?!" Vic snapped. "Just because you're capable of playing around one of my strategies, that doesn't mean you'll be able to act so smugly for long!"

"So nothing," Alden said, shrugging. "I'm just letting you know that I've already fought against someone who was using the same strategy." He glanced over at Anabel, who turned to Vic with a smile and a wave.

Vic's eye twitched. Yes, she should have seen this coming. Since Anabel had fought against Alden already, they had used some of the strategies that Vic herself liked to use. And in this situation, she was at a bit of disadvantage.

"…Of course, even if I hadn't fought Anabel before, I still would have seen it coming," Alden quickly added. "After all, I know exactly what kinds of tricks you use."

That got Vic feeling downright indignant. "Well, fine then!" She spat. "If you're so well-informed, then you must be ready for this! Sunny, use air slash!"

"Togekiss!" Sunny flapped her wings, sending a blade of air flying towards Jaune to try and interfere with his flying. But the air blades bounced off a barrier of red light, barely leaving a scratch.

"I'm sorry," Alden smiled, beaming at his Espeon. "But if you're trying to break through our barrier it's going to take a lot more than that!"

Vic was incensed. Dash had the raw power to smash through the light screens and reflects, but now he was out of the picture. And the immensely powerful Espeon who had defeated him was causing even more headaches.

"It's all the fault of that Espeon, you know that, don't you?" Samarra's voce was as sweet as honey to her ears.

"That's right," Vic murmured, hate for Eifa blossoming up in her chest. Samarra was stoking the fires of jealousy in Vic's heart to the point where it wasn't just Alden's human friends that she was envious of, it was even his pokemon themselves.

I'm the one who deserves to be standing at his side! I'm the only one who does! She reassured herself. Everyone else who gathered around him, they didn't deserve his presence! The Commander… Alden… he was precious to her, and that was why she had to win this.

She needed him by her side. Finally, finally she would have him all to heself, and not have to worry about his wandering eye.

"I'm done with this…" She murmured. "I'm done being ignored and neglected… looked down upon, and taken for granted."

There were tears in her eyes, and they burned furiously. "We'll take you down!" She roared, gathering her strength. "Theo! Use earth power!"

"Gastrodon!" Theo bellowed, rearing back his head. The ground beneath Eifa's feet began to heat up, and erupted in a massive burst of power.

"Espeon!" Eifa managed to just barely leap out of the way due to her quick attack, much to Rui's relief and horror.

"Can she- can she do that?!" Rui cried to Anabel, not sure what was going on. "Isn't light screen supposed to protect against special attacks!?"

"Yeah, in theory," Anabel nodded. "But it looks like attacks that can slip inside of the barrier are alright as well. How odd…"

"Don't let up!" Vic shouted, her harmonia bursting vibrantly. "Sunny, follow it up with your extremespeed!"

"Togekiss!" Sunny cried, her body turning into a blur. She shot across the battlefield, flying right through the light screen and tackling Eifa directly. The Espeon was knocked back by the force of the attack, crying out in pain. Even with the boost that she'd copied from Ellie, she was still vulnerable to physical moves. But that could be remedied.

"Eifa, use reflect," Alden ordered. "Jaune, use thunder wave to take care of that Togekiss' speed as well!"

"Espeon!" Eifa nodded, her eyes glowing red as she prepared a barrier of light that covered her side of the battlefield.

"Vikavolt!" Jaune was next, building an electric charge in his mandibles, releasing it in a shockwave that traveled towards Sunny.

"You won't clip our wings that easily!" Vic snapped. "I'm done being held down by you! Sunny, use safeguard!"

"Toge!" Sunny nodded, her body covered in a pink sheen of light. The electricity wrapped around Sunny's body, but had no effect on the Togekiss, preventing her from being paralyzed. She flapped her wings and flew towards Jaune next, increasing her speed.

Vic smirked.

"Brick break!" She shouted. Sunny sped up even more, slamming through the light screen and smashing it to pieces. She collided with Jaune, knocking him out of the air. The attack didn't do much damage, but Jaune was caught off-guard by it, and so was Alden.

"Oh, what's that?" Vic smirked. "You didn't see that one coming? I'm sorry, but your defenses won't do anything against us! Now, Theo, use ancient power!"

"Gastrodon!" As Jaune fell from the sky, Theo created several energy stones and flung them at Jaune, hitting the Vikavolt with a powerful barrage.

"And now… the true beauty of our performance!" Vic smirked. Exhilaration surged through her body as she felt Theo's stats increase across the board, her strength increasing even more.

Rui winced, watching her daughter. It was like she was looking at some twisted phantom.

Oh man, Vic's only getting stronger and stronger! Alden might have regained the advantage by defeating two of her pokemon, but it seems like she's still in a position where she can seize the lead! What other tricks does she have up her sleeve? And what does Alden have that can stop her? We'll have to see how this goes. This match is heating up!