Amarillo has emerged successful, defeating Raizer with the help of a hero like Palafin! But what about the other battles? While this is going down, two other fights are occurring, and while neither might be as intense as that one, they're still quite important battles for the future of our heroes. Will Ange and Ian manage to win?

Arbiter8991: You might even say that Samarra's inability to understand human nature in a tangible sense is her greatest weakness.

KedharS: I've been hearing that about most every battle at this point.

Venoms Cross 2: Heroes always emerge victorious in the end.

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: And don't forget to go beyond plus ultra.

Hyphenman: Yep. As Alden noted, Raizer under Samarra's influence isn't all that different from how he is normally.

Tambry96bj: We can only hope. They'll do their best though.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1140

"Dizzy punch!" Ange and Mirar shouted simultaneously. While Amarillo and Raizer were having a heart-throbbing battle grabbing the attention of everyone, Ange and Mirar were having a far less engaging slugfest with their Normal type pokemon.

"Lopunny!" Mimi and Asmo charged at each other and raised their fists, striking their opponent in the same part of the face with duplicate punches. They stumbled back, slightly dazed, but neither pokemon was confused.

This was the fighting style that Ange had settled on. She didn't need anything flashy or exciting. Her only goal was victory, at all costs. So while she hated seeing Asmo getting injured, it was the only way they could win.

Her first strategy of using high jump kick hadn't worked out. It was astounding that Mirar and Mimi managed to replicate their thought process and movements so well that they actually landed their hits on the correct target, but Ange had no interest in praising them. It made her situation even more challenging.

She had to find some way to gain the edge over Mirar, and looking at the two pokemon it was hard to see what that was. Asmo's fur was covered with blood and bruises, and Mimi looked like a perfect mirror of her injuries. The two pokemon were fighting on perfectly equal levels.

That was how Mirar did things. He copied her fighting style perfectly, and all because that Samarra had been poking around inside Ange's brain. The nerve of her! She'd seen everything Ange had to hide, she couldn't imagine being violated to such a degree.

And when she'd found the opportunity to make her dissatisfaction known, and have her pokemon get started on pounding the shit out of one of Samarra's puppets to vent? It just had to be one who could perfectly match her. Even winning wouldn't be all that satisfying!

She honestly hated the way Mirar did things. She owned a Ditto herself. But she would never just have her little Levi perfectly copy her opponent. After all, Levi wasn't her opponent. She was her own pokemon, with her own wants and desires. The moves she wanted to use were HERS to choose, she shouldn't just copy whatever the other pokemon did.

She was glad her opponent was Mirar, in a way. She wanted to smack him in the face. So she would have to win. Even without Samarra's influence, Ange knew that losing this battle wasn't acceptable. If she lost, she'd become a puppet again. And if that happened she wouldn't be able to accomplish her goals.

Losing wasn't an option. So in order to win, she'd have to rely on… unconventional tactics.

The reason Ang seldom used her Lopunny in battle wasn't just because she was embarrassed by how affectionate the pokemon could be. Like her trainer, Asmo wasn't a pokemon that enjoyed battling. If she could speak, she would have described herself as a lover, not a fighter. A lot of her fighting style was focused on her cuteness, lowering the guard of her opponents and infatuating them with her signature move, attract.

That wouldn't work this time, however, because of who she was fighting. Which left battling with attacking moves, which were far from her specialty. In a straight-up contest Ange had little doubt Mirar would win, so she tried things like the high jump kick strategy. When that didn't work, her next recourse became using dizzy punch.

As her Lopunny swayed erratically from side to side, throwing bizarre punches at her equally off-balance copy, Ange was counting on the move's low chance of confusion. This was her best bet. If Asmo managed to confuse Mimi without getting confused herself, then Ange could seize a commanding lead over the battle, and if that happened…

…Well, if that happened, then Mirar could fire her moves back at them all he liked, and it wouldn't make a difference.

"Dizzy punch!" She shouted again, and both Lopunny hit the other in the chest this time, pushing each other backwards. They stumbled shakily… and then it happened.

Ange's eyes widened and her jaw dropped in disbelief.

No fucking way.

Both Lopunny were swaying from side to side, their eyeballs swimming in their skulls. Against all odds, they somehow BOTH became confused as a result of the mutual attack!

Well, so much for the first part of the plan.

Ange quickly regained her composure. Just because they were both confused, that didn't mean the plan had failed. It had just become a lot trickier to execute. Confused as she was, Mimi likely wouldn't be able to synchronize her movements with Mirar's orders. She wouldn't be able to fire back the same attacks as Asmo used, so the strategy was broken!

…The only problem was, Asmo was confused as well. What attacks she used, if any, wouldn't be up to Ange to decide.

But she'd carry on regardless.

"Asmo!" She shouted. "Use high jump kick!"

"Lopunny!" Asmo nodded, leaping into the air as Mimi did the same. So far, so good. Now if Asmo could just land the hit…

Both pokemon sailed past one another, missing by a mile. They crashed into the grass in unison, crying out in pain from their injuries.

A grim expression crossed Ange's face. So much for that plan.

"Asmo!" She instructed. "Get up this instant!"

Asmo dutifully rose to her feet, shaking her head. The confusion was wearing off. But to Ange's chagrin, Mirar gave the exact same order and his pokemon responded in turn, snapping out of confusion at the same instant.

She clicked her tongue. "So that one didn't work either, huh?" She muttered under her breath. Time for a change of strategy.

Of course, Ange had no way of knowing that it was no mere coincidence Mirar's Ditto had happened to snap out of confusion at the same time as Asmo. Mirar had made sure of that thanks to Samarra, whose powers allowed him to connect with Mimi in a way that would have been impossible before. So, as if he had harmonia, he was able to reach out to his pokemon and manually snap them out of confusion with a thought.

The reason he had waited until Asmo came to her senses was simple: Mirar, with the knowledge of Ange and her fighting style at his disposal, was able to convince Samarra of the necessity of maintaining parity with his opponent.

Ange didn't know it, but she was being led into a trap. She clicked her tongue in frustration again as she came up with a new strategy- or more accurately, an alteration of her previous one.

"Asmo!" She shouted, swinging her hand emphatically, "use ice punch!"

"Lopunny!" Asmo charged at her foe, raising her paw. Making a fist, ice began to form over it, and she swung at Mimi, who used a similar attack. The two punches collided in the air in an icy burst and both pokemon jumped back, shaking their numb paws.

So that's her game, Mirar recognized. It was clear from his extensive knowledge of Ange what she would do when pushed into a battle like this. Her Lopunny had a wide variety of moves, but none that would give her the edge over another Lopunny. So she was gambling. She was hoping on the limited chance ice punch had to freeze, and was willing to risk her freedom that the dice came up in her favor and it was Mimi who froze first, not Asmo.

For someone like Ange who valued order so much, it was clear that she was pushed into a truly desperate corner to rely on luck as she was.

"Asmo, charm!" Ange ordered next. The two Lopunny batted their eyelashes at each other and their attacking strength reduced.

The reason for that was simple. Ange was playing the odds. With both Lopunny's attack stats reduced, that meant they could take more punches. Which upped the chances of a status condition landing a few notches.

"Now, fire punch!"

Apparently, Ange had changed her decision. Perhaps, realizing that Mimi could free herself from the ice with said Fire type move if the chance of freezing actually occurred, she decided to change her tune and focus on a different status move. That's what Mirar's estimation of her told him, anyway. So he followed through with the change, and the two Lopunny hit each other in the stomachs with fire punches that stung.

But neither pokemon was burned.

"Use safeguard!" Samarra urged him. "You know exactly what she's planning to do. If she can't inflict a status condition on you, then her entire plan becomes meaningless. Why would you go along with her strategy and leave things to chance?"

"I can't do that," Mirar replied. "You can see her thought process the same as I can. You've seen the record of my strategy and how effective it is. But the second I use a move that she doesn't, it'll all fall apart. We'll start using different moves, and then it won't MATTER if she can't inflict a status condition or not- our moves won't be equal either way!"

From what she saw of his strategy she knew Mirar was correct. The odds of inflicting a burn with fire punch were only 10%. With the amount of health the two pokemon had remaining, the odds that they would knock each other out before such an occurrence was quite high. In Mirar's position, the smartest thing to do was to continue with the working strategy and then, when both pokemon were almost defeated, rely on a burst of power from harmonia and then win.

But to her, that seemed unnecessary. Mirar's entire strategy was, honestly, pointless considering that he now possessed harmonia thanks to her gifts. He'd gone easy on her several times now, because he was being cautious? It wasn't logical.

No, the logical thing to do was to secure victory by any means necessary. Mirar wasn't just fighting this battle himself, he had all the knowledge that she'd accumulated from the various trainers she'd become friends with, and that included Ange herself. She couldn't imagine him losing in a direct fight, even if he stopped copying her moves.

So she decided enough was enough. "Don't you want to be noticed for what you're capable of?" Samarra urged. "You always hold yourself in the background, observing and studying the strategies of those around you. But what about you, Mirar? Why not take the chance and really seize victory for yourself?"

All his life, Mirar had been an ordinary person with an extraordinary gift. His eyes could capture things perfectly, and because of that, he'd grown fascinated with the skills of powerful trainers. His partner pokemon, a Ditto, had been selected by him due to that kinship.

"You and I, we both admire what others are capable of… and we both know our limits," Mirar would often say to Mimi, with the faintest of smiles on his face. In the almost four years he'd spent in attendance at the Pokemon Academy, Mirar had met all types of trainers and studied their techniques flawlessly in the hopes of being able to replicate them. And he was a master at it.

But what had he ever accomplished with his own strength? Samarra was right, all he and Mimi could do was copy what others did, and slightly improve on it. But that didn't make him invincible. There were trainers like Sylvia who could effortlessly force a tie in one move. Or trainers like Raizer whose pokemon had such a passion for victory that, even when perfectly mimicking his style, could still defeat him regardless.

He could only do so much. And what he could do wasn't his, it was due to the strength of his opponent. He tried not to let it bother him, but he couldn't hide anything from Samarra. She saw his insecurity, and she didn't mind. In fact, she was giving him the chance to overcome it.

Maybe she was right? Maybe he could defeat Ange without just throwing her moves back at her. He'd certainly studied enough trainers to think of a few strategies of his own, hadn't he? Samarra seemed to think so. She was urging him to do it because she believed in him. And like the dutiful friend he was, Mirar agreed that, just this once, it was worth taking the chance and fighting without relying on copying his opponent.

"Mimi, use safeguard!" He ordered. Mimi was shocked to hear her trainer give an order that was different from what her opponent was preparing to use, but like a loyal pokemon she did so regardless, covering her fur in a shimmering field to prevent status conditions.

It took a fraction of a second for Ange to come to a decision after the shock of Mirar doing something so uncharacteristic sunk in. Luckily, all those years spent on edge in the wilds, dodging pokemon attacks with nothing but her instincts were coming in handy. She reacted immediately, giving the only order she could now that all trace of mimicry had vanished.

"Close combat!" She roared, and Asmo unleashed everything she had.

Indeed, the Lopunny would prefer to be a lover, not a fighter. But above all she was devoted to her trainer. So even though she disliked getting her fur dirty just as much as Ange despised pokemon battles herself, she didn't hesitate for a second to leap into battle with fists raised and unleash a pummeling on the Normal type.

"Loop!" Mimi wailed, shielding herself from the blows as best she could. Even with her attack stat reduced, Asmo's blows were still fierce. She ignored any need for defense, focusing entirely on unleashing a bludgeoning on her opponent. After expelling all the strength she had left, she jumped back, preparing another attack.

I expected that, Mirar rationalized. He knew that Ange would use close combat in response, and that was fine. Mimi had taken a beating, but in exchange, Asmo's defensive abilities had dropped. Ange had taken the lead, but it was a small one, and one easily overcome with the use of harmonia. But even more than harmonia, there was another weapon Mirar had up his sleeve.

He knew Ange. He knew exactly what her every move would be. Even if he no longer felt compelled to copy it, he knew what attacks her Lopunny would use next, and whatever attacks those were, he'd be able to counter them perfectly.

Like now, for instance. Sensing the damage that she'd inflicted on Mimi, Ange would no-doubt use a move like quick attack or mach punch to capitalize on the damage. And in Mirar's position, it might not be a bad idea to do the same; after all, Asmo's defenses were weaker than Mimi's. And with harmonia available…

…

…No, that wouldn't work. He'd be making Mimi unreasonably vulnerable. Knowing she'd use mach punch next, the smartest course of action was to protect Mimi from damage using protect! It would give him a chance to formulate his next strategy.

"Mimi, protect," he ordered, expecting a mach punch to follow and be rendered useless. Mimi nodded and raised her paws, a white barrier appearing around her body.

But Asmo didn't attack.

Ange smirked.

"Well done, Mirar," she congratulated him. "You read it perfectly. Of course I would use mach punch on your Lopunny, after doing so much damage with close combat. It goes without saying, really, we simply must give you a round of applause for figuring that out, right Asmo?"

"Lopunny," Asmo nodded in agreement, clapping along with her trainer.

Mirar narrowed his eyes. "So you knew I'd use protect, then? That's why you didn't bother with mach punch?"

"I guessed," Ange shrugged. "I knew what I'd do in this situation, which was use mach punch. So all I had to do was not do what I would have done. Or didn't you read that far? It's true, you know everything Asmo and I are capable of… but then, so do I. I thought about what move I would use, if I was in your position, and I decided that a defensive move like protect was perfect for a coward like you."

"…Coward?" Mirar… was a coward?

"That's right," she growled, narrowing her eyes. "You're a coward. You copy the moves of other trainers in order to win, rather than put your own life on the line! It's pathetic and cowardly! As a Ditto trainer myself, the fact that you wouldn't try to get to know your own pokemon and its nature is honestly insulting! Your pokemon isn't just a tool to fire off moves, and I'm not someone whose judgment you can just predict so earnestly! And I'm about to prove it."

With that, the barrier dropped.

"I'll tell you what I'm going to use, Mirar, is close combat," Ange explained. "I'll do it again. So what move will you use, knowing that?"

"Lopunny!" Asmo charged at Mimi with her fist raised.

"Mimi, use mach punch to get the drop on her!" Mirar ordered.

"Ah, so you're finally responding with some survival instinct, good," Ange nodded. "Fighting back. But it's too late!"

Mimi did nothing, she just held her hands up to try and protect herself.

"Do you know what Asmo's role on my team is?" Ange asked. "Well, you have all my memories so you must know. She supports the others with her cheerful spirit and her kind hugs. Not to mention a baton pass or two."

She smirked.

"When your Lopunny- no, your Ditto, used protect, I had Asmo do what she does best. Pump up other people and pokemon," Ange explained. "Using encore! You want to use other people's moves so badly? Well, show me all the protects you can! …But of course, using protect over and over… well, it's certain to fail, now isn't it?"

Mirar could see it all. He could have seen it before, if he'd been thinking clearly. Encore. A move to lock the opponent into using the same move over and over again. It was a tactic that had been used against him many times in the past, to try and get around his strategy of copying his opponent's moves, but it always failed because it just resulted in both pokemon getting locked into the same attack.

But under Samarra's orders he'd broken the synchronicity, which had given Ange the opening to use it. He'd used what he knew about her to try and make judgments about what she'd do next, but she just turned it around and used her own knowledge of herself and her pokemon to alter the flow of the battle.

Even if I'd stuck with just using the same moves as she did… it's likely I would have ended up in exactly this position, Mirar recognized, resigning himself to his defeat. Like Raizer, like Alcea, like all the trainers above him back when he was a member of the Eight Leaders, Ange just had that spark, that absolute faith in her pokemon's natural abilities that he lacked, and thus had raised herself to the level of being able to overpower him.

He didn't even feel disheartened at his loss as Asmo's fists fell, and Samarra's influence was ripped away from him.

Score another win for the good guys! Yet another example of how Samarra making trainers go against their own instincts results in a loss! It looks like our heroes have found a way to possibly win! But will it be enough? I doubt the other trainers will be as easy to overcome as Mirar and Raizer were, and they were both pretty difficult! This war isn't over just yet!