With Chloe defeated, all the people Samarra sent for her first attack have now been freed of her influence! But that doesn't mean this war is over just yet. There's still much more to come! But at last we've earned a tiny breather… right? We can only hope so. As for the others, I wonder what's going to happen next? Who does she plan to send out now?

KedharS: It's a good thing he kept fighting.

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: I'm glad you liked it. They're both your characters, so I wanted to make sure it was a match that you could enjoy. I hope I could do them both justice. And I'm glad my story can bring you so much happiness.

Tambry96bj: That's true, there's a lot left to go.

Hyphenman: Let me just say that Blake has no memories before he was 7 years old, and there is a very specific reason for that. That's all I'll say on the subject.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1151

"Mmng… ungh?" Chloe had a pounding headache. What the hell was going on? She blinked, feeling the warm sunlight hit her eye, and winced. Why was she lying on her back? Why did she feel so sore? Why was…

Why was Ian staring down at her?!

"Uwehg?!" Chloe gasped, springing up so fast she smacked Ian in the chin. He let out a groan and fell backwards.

"S-Sorry," Ian mumbled, rubbing his jaw. "Are you okay?"

"What… what…" Chloe looked around, confused. This was Agate Village. But wasn't she… didn't she… wait…

"Was… was I possessed?" She squeaked out, staring at Ian like a Deerling caught in the road.

Ian averted his eyes. It was all the answer Chloe needed. She turned red behind her mask and slumped over, hiding even more of her face with her hands.

"H-Hey, come on, it's not that bad," Ian said, trying to reassure her.

"B-But I… I…!" Chloe snapped her head up, only to look past Ian and see her Leavanny lying unconscious on the ground. She gasped.

"Phyllii!" She ran over to Phyllii's side, and recalled her. The poor thing! She was so badly injured. "I'm so sorry for this," she apologized, cradling her Leavanny's ball tenderly. "I didn't mean to send you into battle so recklessly."

She didn't even know if she was being reckless. All her memories were a blur. Her matches against Mason and Ian didn't make a lot of sense, but what she did know was that she had lost, twice. And the second time was because she was under Samarra's influence.

It was so humiliating that she wanted to die.

"It's alright."

Chloe flinched. Ian wasn't the one giving her encouraging words right now. No, she knew that voice, and it belonged to…

She slowly raised her head, trembling. Donoma Marima was staring down at her with a cheerful smile, acting all nice and friendly. Chloe was petrified.

"Uh… um…" She wasn't good with words on her best day, and being confronted directly after whatshe must have done made her even more tight-lipped. But apparently Donoma had enough to say for the both of them.

"I was really surprised!" Donoma said. "You fought Ian so well! You must have studied his battles really closely, and so thoroughly, too! Almost like a huge-"

Ian interjected at this point. "Donoma, you can stop now," he said, not sure why someone who acted so nicely all the time was being so rude to Chloe. "She's not under Samarra's influence anymore, so please stop calling her a stalker."

Chloe went pale. She felt sick to her stomach. Her headache was long-forgotten, there were other things more important to deal with.

Stalker… she thinks I'm… b-but… Chloe had finally been sniffed out. Caught dead to rights. Red-handed. Found with her fingers in the cookie jar. There was nothing she could do, Ian though she was a stalker now. She should have never woken back up!

"Whaaaaaat?" Donoma gasped. "Ian, you've got it all wrong. I would never! All that 'stalker' stuff was just to cause her to lose her cool during the match! I didn't actually mean any of it! That was just me trying to support you!"

Ian perked up a little at that. "…Really?" He asked, feeling relieved.

"Of course!" Donoma lied through her teeth. "What I was going to say is that for Chloe to have researched your strategies so thoroughly, she must be a huge fan! I think that's quite neat, don't you, Ian?"

Donoma was staring at Chloe, and the look in her eyes were definitely accusatory. All the pretty language was just bullshit, Chloe could see that clearly. She gulped.

She knows. She definitely knows!

And there was nothing Chloe could do about it, either. She'd have to get used to Donoma torturing her, maybe for the rest of her life.

"W-Well, I mean, I already knew Chloe was a huge fan of mine," Ian admitted, smiling sheepishly. "We've talked before."

Chloe blinked. That was news to her!

"W-Wait, really? B-But… then why did you introduce yourself to me when we saw each other last time in Agate Village?!" Did he… did he really remember their conversation from the library? But Chloe thought… it just didn't make sense!

"Well, I mean… I was pretending, I guess," Ian admitted, scratching his head sheepishly. "Since you're usually so quiet I thought you might be a little sensitive to being put on the spot, so I pretended it was the first time I met you. Since, well… if I acted like we knew each other, then…"

Ian's voice trailed off, but Chloe could see the honesty in his eyes. He hadn't wanted to bring knowledge of her studies to light in front of Donoma and the others, and that was why he'd played along. He was respecting her privacy!

She felt her face get even hotter.

Donoma cleared her throat, shattering the mood. "Yes. Well, this is all right and good, but we have other issues to deal with right now," she said. "Namely, now that these matches are over with, we should head back to the Carvers' house and regroup. We don't know what's going on with Madison and the others, after all."

"That's a good idea," Amarillo nodded. "And we need to let our pokemon get some rest. We don't know when they'll attack us again, so we need to meet up with the others soon."

There were a lot of trainers gathered in the clearing, but not many of them had pokemon in any shape to fight. Amarillo explained that her Palafin needed rest after all his heroics, and that was true for Ange and Asmo as well; they'd pushed themselves too far. And nobody needed to ask about Ian and Iron, everyone had seen that with their own eyes.

So considering that all the pokemon from the Commander's group hadn't had the chance to get a real long rest either, it was pretty clear that they would be in for a bad time if anyone decided to attack them.

Darla clenched her fist tensely. She was worried about Lila and the others. How were they doing on the evacuation? What about-

"Darla!"

Darla whirled around to see her partner running up to her. The Empress was with her, and Giselle was, too.

"Lila!" Darla cried, forgetting for a moment about maintaining her cool façade. She was just happy to see her best friend in one piece!

Then she saw the look of wild panic on Lila's face.

"HELP!"

"FLYYYYY!" Soaring above them was a Flygon, roaring and spitting dragonbreaths down at the trio. Atop the pokemon's back was a trainer. But Darla didn't see that. She only saw red.

"Get away from her!" She roared, flinging a pokeball. Her Salamence emerged with fury in his eyes, letting loose a roar of his own.

As Crescent rose to challenge the Flygon to a match of aerial dominance, Lila closed the last bit of distance between them and flung herself into Darla's arms.

"Darlaaaa!" She wailed, sobbing into the other girl's clothes. "I-I did it… I did what you said… I didn't get into any battles! Swearsies!"

"I know, I know, good job," Darla cooed, stroking her friend's hair as she hugged her. She didn't need Maddi to test her, she knew that Lila was herself.

"That bitch attacked us," Olivia growled. "Lila and… um…" She glanced at Giselle for a moment before turning back to Darla. "…Whatever. The three of us managed to get away. But there are more coming, we need to-"

"Drakon, u-turn!" Lana shouted. Her Flygon slammed into Crescent and returned to his pokeball. As he did, Lana flipped in the air and landed on the ground, reaching to her belt for her next pokeball. She was glaring coldly at the girls.

"We can talk later," Darla growled, stepping in front of Lila and holding her arm out defensively. Her Salamence dropped down beside her, snarling. "For now, you three get behind me."

Callie was starting to panic. This was just the worst! People were attacking, and they didn't have any time to rest! Not good, not good. She appreciated a fight as much as the next person, but half of her team was still exhausted from that intense battle with those Children of the Oracles. She only had maybe three pokemon capable of putting up a good fight, the rest were still at the Pokemon Center! If the attack had been just one day later…

"It'll be fine," Rafe laughed, completely unfazed as usual. "Don't worry so much, little sister. You'll stunt your growth."

Callie's eye twitched. Well, she wasn't angry anymore. Now she was pissed.

"Where's Alcea?!" Olivia demanded, looking around. The redhead was nowhere to be seen.

"She went back to the house," Vic answered. "She needed to-"

"Take me there." Olivia snarled, staring murder at the other girl. Her eyes were so intense that Vic actually flinched.

"R-Right, fine," she muttered. It's not like she wasn't worried about her friend, either. She turned to Alden. "Sir, what about you?" She was split between loyalty, to her friend, Alcea, and to the Commander, who was everything.

"You go," Alden said with a smile. "This is important. I can handle things here, right Raizer?"

"Uh… yeah." Raizer still had a bit of a headache from his own battle.

"Fine," Vic spat out. "Tommy! Ross! You're both with me!"

"Huh? But I wanted to watch the battle!" Tommy complained. Having seen a teaser of dragons fighting dragons with Ian and Chloe, it was something he wanted more of.

But Vic's glare was not to be questioned.

"…I think we should go," Ross said.

"And you," Vic snarled, grabbing Anabel by the wrist, "are coming too."

No way in hell was she letting them score more points with the Commander, not on her watch. Anabel wasn't leaving her sight!

"I'll come as well," Amarillo said. She didn't want to leave Marion by herself, but she couldn't just let the others wander off either, not without any pokemon capable of fighting! She turned to her daughter. "But Marion…"

"I'll be fine, mom!" Marion assured her with a smile. She patted her backpack. "I've got a whole ocean's worth of fishy friends who've got my back! Don't worry about me!"

Amarillo beamed. "Even so, I always will," she said. Then she caught herself. "…If you were my daughter, of course," she added, clearing her throat. "Which you're not."

Marion just laughed. Amarillo led the others back towards the Carver's house, leaving everything in the hands of the others.

Unfortunately, it wasn't long after she left that three more people showed up.

Mason stepped up to the bridge, adjusting his glasses. He didn't say a word, but it was clear from the look on his face what he was here for. And standing next to him was the scrawny Willa Pemberton, who nobody recognized but Ange.

"You," Ange sniffed in disgust."What are you doing here?" She wished she'd saved her Lopunny to smack that pretentious potion-maker around a little.

"It's simple tactics," Mason smirked, adjusting his glasses. "After the first wave of trainers softened you all up, we were sent in to deal with what remained. And it looks like most of you are on your last legs, isn't that right?"

"Not on your life!" Callie growled. She was one of the few trainers left with pokemon capable of battling, and she was going to give it everything she had. "Come on then! Let's do this!"

Mason raised his eyebrow. "Well, fine then. I'd hoped to fight someone a little more intelligent, but I guess you'll have to do."

Callie snapped. "Huh?! Who are you calling unintelligent?!" She demanded.

"An intelligent person would know the answer was you," Mason replied. Alden noted that he seemed a lot more talkative while under the influence of Samarra.

"Good on you, Callie!" Marion cheered. "I'll take on this one, then!" She turned to Willa and reached into her bag of Dive Balls.

"Well, I suppose I should help," Rafe sighed. He turned to the third member of the trio. "So that means you?"

The last person there was Kiana, the chaperone. She blinked.

"Oh, I don't have any pokemon," Kiana said. "I'm not going to be doing any battling today."

Rafe brightened. "Oh! Okay then, I'll help you out, Callie!"

"What?!" To Callie that sounded like the absolute worst idea in the world. She had to fight beside her bother of a brother again!?

"Well, you don't have a full team after that last battle, right?" Rafe asked. "As your big brother, I can always lend a hand."

"Rrrgh…" Callie wanted to scream. She knew he was right, but at the same time, fighting as a team with Rafe…

"Assuming you're okay with that, of course," Rafe said, turning to Mason. "If not, well… Callie won't be coming out to play today."

"Hey! Don't decide that for me!" Callie snapped.

Mason adjusted his glasses. "Twice the number of friends when I win, then? Understood."

He took a second pokeball from his belt. "Misaki. Lilith. Time for service."

Mason flung the two Luxury Balls into the air, and two pokemon emerged from them. One was a tall figure in a long black gothic dress with hair styled in a strange pattern that stuck out to the sides, her outfit covered in white ribbons. She stared at Callie and Rafe with empty, blue eyes. The other pokemon had a much warmer appearance, with a polite smile. She had downturned horns and a pear-shaped body, with black and white fur patterned to resemble a maid outfit.

"A Gothitelle and an Indeedee, huh?" Rafe mused. "Curious choices."

Mason smirked. "My team is perfect," he boasted. "When it comes to service, there's nothing that can match the power of maid pokemon!"

Callie took a second to process that.

Oh. So he's a weirdo. That was the conclusion she arrived at.

To her surprise, the ground around them began to change. Eerie purple light emanated from the Indeedee, and soon the field was covered in an iridescent glow.

"…I see, so your Indeedee has the Psychic Surge ability," Rafe said. "Setting up psychic terrain right from the start? Well, we can work with that."

"It's essential for a maid's environment to suit their job performance," Mason smugly explained.

"Well, I don't know that much about maids, but I'm sure our pokemon can have a grand old time," Rafe said, smiling. "Charon, let's go."

"Medicham," Charon said, emerging from his pokeball ready to battle.

Rafe turned to Callie. "What about you, little sister?"

Callie scowled. "You don't have to tell me twice!" She shouted. "Jania!"

"Mienshao!" Jania emerged from her pokeball, just as prepared to fight as her teammate.

Mason didn't feel threatened in the slightest. "Two Fighting types against two Psychic types. This should do nicely."

At the same time as this was happening, Marion was facing off against Willa.

"So… I suppose we have to do this, huh?" Marion sighed. "Well, come on then. Might as well send your pokemon out, right?"

Willa scowled at her.

"Flemming, Serturner," she said, sending out her Delibird and Shuckle.

"Those are some interesting choices," Marion admitted, digging out two Dive Balls from her bag. She was smiling as usual. "A double battle, then? Fine. We can do that."

She tossed the Dive Balls into the air.

"Donnie! Mary! Come on out!" She called.

The balls burst open and two pokemon emerged from them, landing in the river.

"Dooooooon!" A massive pokemon touched down, making a giant splash that nearly flooded the field. It was an enormous blue catfish pokemon who was so large he practically filled up the entire river bank! Comparatively, the other pokemon Marion sent out was much less impressive.

"Giri!" The tiny orange pokemon chirped happily. It looked like a small sushi roll, only with the fish being in one piece.

"Meet Donnie and Mary!" Marion grinned. "My Dondozo and Tatsugiri pals!"

Her smile took on a menacing shade as her harmonia flared up.

"Now, let's get this done."

Well, Marion's certainly pulled some big guns out of her bag! And the others are getting ready for their fights as well! Our heroes may have survived the first wave of Samarra's attacks, but that doesn't mean that this battle is over! Not by a long shot! We've got way more matches to get through! Will our heroes last through this onslaught of powerful trainers? We'll have to see!