Just when Marion thought she was doing so great with her Dondozo combo, things took a turn for the worse! Willa brought out her Parasect and put the big catfish to sleep like it was nobody's business! And if that wasn't bad enough, she brought out her secret weapon, a special drug that caused the shell on her Slowbro to grow big enough to swallow him whole! What sort of boosts could this drug have on her pokemon? We'll have to find out!

Arbiter8991: Don't worry, Marion's far from done! She's got more fishy friends to spare!

KedharS: I don't know, I think Marion'll do things in her own way. She's got all sorts of fishy friends to rely on, after all!

Hyphenman: Don't worry, Marion has a more pokemon at her disposal, she'll be fine even if Donnie doesn't wake up any time soon.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1202

"What's up with your Slowbro?!" Marion exclaimed, her eyes practically bulging out of their sockets. "He looks so… what the heck?!"

She'd never seen a transformation like this before.

"It's a result of my mega potion," Willa proudly stated. "It stimulates the growth of the Shellder attached to Pelletier's tail, causing it to undergo an extreme transformation. It's almost like what happens when you expose a Shellder to a water stone!"

"So it… evolved?" Marion asked curiously. Shellder and Cloyster were two of her favorite pokemon (like every other pokemon that lived in the sea, and the ones from other bodies of water) but she'd never stopped to wonder what would happen if a Cloyster bit a Slowpoke on the tail; or, for that matter, if the Shellder latched onto a Slowbro or Slowking was even capable of evolution in the first place. Once the two were linked together, they became inextricable, regardless of what cheeky scientists hypothesized in their research notes.

"I wouldn't quite call it that," Willa said, shaking her head. "The transformation wears off, of course. But it does cause Pelletier to take on some of the traits natural to Cloyster. For example, his base defense stat has now risen to 180 to match a Cloyster's, and he obtained the ability Shell Armor as well to guard him from critical hits. Isn't that fascinating?"

Marion was definitely surprised. And she wasn't the only one.

"I've never seen a transformation like that!" Giselle breathed.

"It's so unusual," Chloe murmured.

"Marion's definitely in a tough position, having to deal with something like that," Ian nodded.

Alden, on the other hand, remained silent. This wasn't even the first time this week he'd seen a pokemon completely change its form into something unnatural. And while the root cause seemed different, he wondered if this was at all related to the transformation that Corin had undergone in the Battle Tower?

He glanced at Ange, the only other witness present, but she said nothing. What would she have to add, anyway? Her memory of those events was twisted, putting it lightly.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts. He shouldn't be caught up in this. Right now, he needed to focus on the fight. The questions he had could come later. Alden wasn't much one for big thinking anyway.

Ange wasn't curious like Alden. She was seething. This was the worst thing yet. Willa's drugs had actually caused a transformation of this magnitude in one of her pokemon. It was unnatural, obscene, and the only thing she could do was hope that Marion wiped the floor with this scrawny bitch and put her in her place for defying the natural order in such a hideous way.

Unfortunately Marion might have a little trouble with that, as her Dondozo was fast asleep.

"Thanks to all the iron defenses you let him build up, Pelletier is harder to get a breakthrough on than a cure for Pokerus," Willa smirked. "But that's not all! Pelletier, time to make use of those defense buffs! Use stored power!"

"Slowbro!" Pelletier bellowed. His body began to glow. He spun on the tip of his tail like a top, and released a shockwave of psychic power that slammed into Donnie and knocked him backwards. The force of the blast threw Marion off her feet.

"Yikes!" She cried, landing on her ass. "That stung! Donnie! Are you okay?!"

She could tell he wasn't. Even though he wasn't conscious, his thoughts were still floating on the surface of his mind, and Marion could feel how much damage he'd taken.

"Stored power is a move that increases incrementally for each buff I stack on my pokemon," Willa said. "With the three iron defenses he used, that means the base power of the move is 20… plus 20 six times, for a grand total of 140 base power! And given the boost to Pelletier's special attack from the mega potion making his base stat 130, that means your Dondozo is in a world of hurt!"

"No, Donnie!" Marion cried. She tried to wake her pokemon with harmonia but it just didn't matter. The spores from Willa's Parasect were simply that powerful. She wondered briefly if another drug was responsible; it would make sense that the pharmacist would do something to make her Parasect's spores that much more effective at causing sleep.

In spite of Marion's protests, Pelletier's second release of his stored power hit Donnie for all it was worth, and the effects were brutal. Donnie was blasted clear out of the river, crashing back on the grass where he lied unconscious.

Marion winced, feeling her connection with her pokemon sever. Even Maree wasn't spared from the aftereffects of the attack, due to their symbiosis she was knocked out right alongside him. Or maybe it was the result of being tossed around inside his mouth. Either way, both her Dondozo and Tatsugiri were defeated. She had no choice but to recall them to their Dive Balls.

"So what now?" Willa asked, raising her eyebrow. "Are you going to send your other Tatsugiri back out?"

Marion, to everyone's surprise, just laughed.

"Nah, of course not!" She chuckled, shaking her head. "Mary and Marie can't fight on their own! Even with how high their special attack is, they wouldn't stand a chance without Donnie to boost! But that's fine! I've got other fishy friends to fight with!" She assured the pharmacist.

Willa was curious, and she wasn't the only one. Everyone wanted to see what other pokemon Marion had up her sleeve, given that she wasn't the type to battle.

"Are you going to use Mana next?" Ian asked. Marion shot him a scandalous look, like he'd just called her a bad word.

"Of course not!" She gasped. "Mana's my Partner Pokemon, she doesn't like fighting!" Her smile quickly returned to show she wasn't serious, and she began digging around in her bag.

"No, these two are really tough all on their own! And unlike her, they're both itching for battle!" She carried a Dive Ball in each hand.

"Bass! Harry! Come on out and show 'em what you're made of!" She chirped, sending out her two pokemon.

What appeared from the pokeballs shocked Ange to her core.

"N-No way," she gasped, staring once more at a pokemon that shouldn't exist.

Two of 'em.

"Basculegion!" The large fish pokemon floated above the river as if carried by some spectral force. His long green body was accented by red patterns that seemed to resemble smoke, billowing behind it like a trail of lost souls.

"Overqwil!" Unlike his counterpart, the Overqwil remained in the water, though he was no less obvious or imposing. He looked like a Qwilfish; at first, that's what everyone thought he was. But upon closer inspection it was clear that, no, this wasn't just a really fat Qwilfish but a whole new pokemon entirely, with a large round body and very long, sharp spines.

Both pokemon glared angrily at their foes across the battlefield.

"What pokemon are those?!" Chloe gasped, shocked behind her mask. "I've never even seen them before!"

"Are they… is that a Qwilfish? …No, it can't be. An evolution, then?!" Donoma was a Poison type expert. While her knowledge paled in comparison to certain other individuals (but she was way hotter than that garbage bag of a sophomore so who really wins, huh?) she was quite certain that Qwilfish didn't have an evolution.

But her eyes weren't lying to her.

"That's… an evolution of Basculin, right?" Ian asked, squinting. It looked like a Basculin, and Basculin was a pokemon whose appearance changed slightly depending on the water source, but there was having a different coloration and then there was something like this.

He was certainly confused.

"This is Bass, my Basculegion, and Harry, my Overqwil," Marion said, crossing her arms in front of her chest and smiling proudly. The rain had stopped, allowing her cheerful smile to have a dance of brightness with the sun. "They're both very tough pokemon! And exceptionally rare, as well, I had to search all through the seas of the Sinnoh Region to fish these two up! Of course, they were just a Basculin and a Qwilfish at the time; you wouldn't believe how difficult it was to evolve them!"

She skipped happily into the river, ignoring her soaked sandals, and patted Harry on a space between his spikes with one hand while petting Bass with the other.

Ange couldn't believe it was true. Among the list of extinct pokemon, Basculegion and Overqwil were at the top of her list of sea-dwellers. Due to the changes in Hisui's environment over the years, Qwilfish and Basculin were driven out of their habitats to other regions, where the secrets of their evolution were eventually lost as time passed them by.

But apparently, Marion had found survivors. Stragglers who had remained in the waters of Sinnoh, in hiding, growing and thriving there where other species had fled; it was the only thing that made sense, and knowing it was true made her heart skip a beat.

Willa wasn't impressed.

"I see I'm not the only one who spurs strange transformations in their pokemon," she said, deciding that Marion's fishy friends were a result of a strange mutation, rather than a natural evolution. After all, Qwilfish populated the waters around Cianwood, and she'd never once spotted an evolution of one like Marion claimed. "Pelletier, use stored power again! Aim for the one in the water!"

"Slowbro!" Pelletier's eyes flashed and he began to spin, releasing the psychic energy he'd build up in a shockwave aimed at Harry.

"Uh-oh!" Donoma winced. "A Psychic type attack is going to be super-effective against a Poison type pokemon!"

Marion and Ange both smirked.

The shockwave slammed into Harry and he didn't even flinch. If anything he just got angry.

Willa gasped, clearly not expecting that. "But… Pelletier's power…"

"Nope! Not happening, nada!" Marion crowed. "Now Harry, use dark pulse!"

"Overqwil!" Harry bellowed, puffing up his body until he was so large that his massive spikes resembled a regular Qwilfish's. He rapidly deflated himself, releasing a blast of dark energy aimed right at Pelletier. The Slowbro was too bulky to dodge, taking the super-effective shockwave head-on.

"That's how you use a super-effective move," Marion chirped.

"Pelletier!" Willa shouted, clutching her chest. She felt the force of that attack. Pelletier's transformation may have given his defense a serious boost, and the iron defense went even harder. But when it came to special defense he was as average as any ordinary Slowbro. And unlike with Serturner, she couldn't use the equalizer drug on him; her other medicines had no effect while Pelletier was under the influence of the mega potion.

"How did he shrug off that stored power without even flinching?" Giselle wondered in amazement. "Shouldn't a Qwilfish be weak against Psychic type attacks?"

Marion rolled her eyes and tried not to laugh. "Weren'tcha listening?" She asked, whipping her head back towards the contest girl. "Harry's not a Qwilfish!"

"W-Well, yes, he's an… Overqwil, you said it was?" Chloe adjusted her mask shakily. "That's, um… I don't really get it…"

"It's a different typing," Ange stated, stepping forward. "Overqwil aren't like the Qwilfish of modern oceans. They evolve from Qwilfish caught in the waters of Hisui, and Hisuian Qwilfish-"

"Sinnoh," Marion corrected. "I fished up little Harry in Sinnoh. Just off the coast of-"

"Hisui," Ange hissed, narrowing her eyes, and nobody thought for a second to interrupt her again.

Seeing that no one had anything else to say, Ange continued.

"Hisuian Qwilfish, while they live in the water, are not, in fact, Water types. Their typing is Dark/Poison," she explained. "And as a Dark type, it's only natural to be unaffected by Psychic type moves."

"Another Dark/Poison type? Wow, rocking!" Donoma said, impressed. Dark/Poison was a very special type among poison enthusiasts, since it only had one weakness, Ground type attacks. Drapion on Skuntank were the only breed of pokemon she knew that had that type combination, but now there was another one?"

"I'm just surprised," Ian said, shaking his head. "Marion Rivers is using a pokemon that isn't a Water type? That's like a crime against nature."

"Hey!" Marion snapped, scowling. "Apologize right now! Apologize to all the cute fishy friends out there who aren't Water type pokemon! I'm a lover of the sea, you jerk!"

"Alright, alright, sorry," Ian said, putting up his hands in surrender.

Giselle was mumbling to herself in the meantime. She was stunned that Qwilfish, a pokemon she'd seen in the waters of Johto her entire life, had a whole other branch that she'd never even known about. "I've never even heard of a pokemon like that before. You'd think if Qwilfish had an evolution then they would be more popular."

Donoma tried not to get offended.

Ange wasn't so polite.

"It's because they went fucking extinct," she snapped. "They used to populate the waters of Hisui, but over the years they eventually died off. That pokemon shouldn't even exist!"

Marion just smiled. "And yet he's right here!" She grinned. "Because he just couldn't resist being my little fish friend, isn't that right, Harry?"

"Overqwil," Harry grunted. He was more focused on the battle, and the fact that Pelletier was getting back up.

"I'm just… stunned, I guess," Ian said. He looked at Ange with renewed interest. "How is it you know so much about Hisui? I know you're in the Research Course, but isn't that stuff really obscure? I'd heard that most written sources from that time period didn't survive to the modern day, and the legends were possibly distorted over the years."

And yet Ange seemed to talk about Hisui like she was there.

Ange snorted and rolled her eyes. She crossed her arms over her chest, not about to dignify that with a response.

On the other hand, Alden had a pretty good inkling of what was driving Ange. Their little battle in the tower had been eye-opening, and Ange herself possessed a pokemon that in her own words should no longer exist.

Out of respect for her (even though she showed zero respect for anyone else) Alden didn't share what he knew, asking instead about the other pokemon that Marion had brought out to play.

"What about Basculegion? Is that also from the Hisui Region?"

Ange let out a long, tired sigh, and nodded.

"…Yes. Basculegion evolve from the white-striped Basculin that used to live in Hisui's waters. But like Qwilfish, the Basculin were eventually forced to migrate elsewhere due to the destruction of their natural habitats, and as they populated other oceans around the word the Qwilfish and Basculin gradually changed, losing their ability to evolve into their prior forms.

Her voice was wistful when she said it, but bitter as well. Like someone talking about the murder of a loved one that they hadn't quite gotten over yet.

Willa, on the other hand, was curious for a different reason.

"Ancient pokemon… pokemon that should be extinct… how fascinating!" Her eyes were shining with a researcher's curiosity. "I can't wait to study them! I wonder what the reaction to my drugs would be! Or perhaps, how could I use them to further my own creations? That Overqwil is a Poison type, I wonder if its toxins have any medical use… oooh, I'm shivering just thinking about it!"

Her lips spread in a twisted smile. "You've got so many fascinating pokemon, Marion, I'm so thrilled! Once you become our friend you just have to let me take a closer look at them! Don't worry, I promise I'll give them back to you in one piece! Discovery requires experimentation, after all, and live test subjects work best!"

Marion smiled coolly and shook her head. "Sorry to say, but I'm not that interested," she apologized. "Not that I don't trust you, of course. It's just… well, I'm going to win. I'm not gonna become Samarra's friend or anyone else's… though if she wants to become my friend, she can just grab herself a fishing rod and join me on the beach!"

Willa didn't really know what to say to that, or to Marion's bright and shining smile. So she didn't say anything.

"Parasect!" Bradham scurried forward, carrying out his silent order courtesy of Willa's harmonia. He approached the two pokemon and flexed his mushroom, releasing a cloud of spores out across the battlefield. Like with Donnie, the attack was a lot faster than that of an ordinary Parasect.

"Uh-oh, something tells me that Samarra doesn't give a fig about the battler's courtesy not to put all their opponent's pokemon to sleep," Alden grimaced.

"That's not good! Spore's accuracy is 100%!" Chloe wailed.

But Marion wasn't fazed in the slightest.

"Come on, come on, we won't fall for that again!" She chortled. "Harry, use minimize!"

"Overqwil!" Harry shrunk down so small he disappeared beneath the river, completely vanishing from sight. At his diminutive size there was no chance of enough spores landing on him through the waves to put him to sleep.

Willa wasn't deterred. "If that won't work, then we'll just aim for the other one instead!" She snapped, turning her attention to Bass. The cloud of spores hovered in the air for a brief moment of hesitation before turning and billowing towards Bass instead.

Marion smirked, and snapped her fingers. On cue, Bass disappeared from sight.

It was so shocking that no one knew what to say for a moment. Everyone had been caught off-guard by the hovering fish disappearing, save for Ange.

She'd expected something like that.

"These two are a little more tricky than Donnie," Marion said, her eyes sparkling with glee. "You may have been able to put that big lummox to sleep easily, but Bass and Harry are going to give you a much harder time."

Willa clicked her tongue in frustration. "So how'd he do it?" She asked out of curiosity. "Was it an invisibility potion? Because I've been working on something in my lab, and it-"

"What? No, nothing like that," Marion said, taken aback for a second. But she quickly laughed it off. "It's because Bass isn't at all like a regular Basculin, that's why. He's an evolution, which gives him some moves in his arsenal."

She whistled.

"Isn't that right, Bass?!"

"BASCULEGION!" Bass appeared from a hole in space, hovering above Bradham, and in an instant everyone knew what had just happened.

"It's phantom force!" Alden was the one who put to words what they all collectively realized in that moment. Ian nodded in agreement and Raizer punched the air excitedly.

"Go, Bass!" Marion cheered as her Basculegion slammed into Bradham, knocking the Parasect into the water.

Ange smirked. "That's right," she nodded. "Basculegion… is part Ghost type."

Nicely done, Marion! It seems Willa isn't the only one with a few surprises up her sleeve! But who would have thought Marion would come to play with the tag team of Overqwil and Basculegion? Ange certainly didn't. She's a girl who's full of surprises, that's for sure. And who knows? A Dark/Poison type and a Water/Ghost type might be just what the doctor ordered for taking down a pokemon as strong as Willa's strange Slowbro! We'll have to see!