Ayame's brought out a brand new trick with her harmonia, and it's a dangerous one! By using her powers, she can alter Snows' mood, and make him change his stats however she wants! She turned a random but advantageous ability into a powerful weapon in the trick room, boosting her pokemon's speed and attack considerably. Maddi will have to think fast if she wants to find a way to defeat that Glalie!

KedharS: Yep. Like I said, it was only going to get worse.

Hyphenman: Well, it certainly makes sense that she'd be able to. It's a good thing Ayame doesn't have harmonia under regular circumstances!

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1212

Ever since Maddi got treated by the professor (gosh, was really only so recently? It felt like a lifetime ago) her eye hadn't been giving her any trouble. Even now, when she was using the full extent of her harmonia for the first time, she wasn't feeling any pain in her eye.

On the other hand, her head was pounding like a drum. She winced, staring at the Glalie hovering over the battlefield, and ignored her headache.

She was in a difficult spot. A really difficult spot. Snows was clearly Ayame's toughest pokemon even before she'd acquired harmonia, and now that she had, things had gotten so much worse. The trick room that she'd set up would slowly be turned against her, and the Glalie had enough bulk to withstand Violet's attacks.

She needed to do something fast, or things would get messy.

"Violet, return!" Maddi said, calling her Spheal back to her pokeball. The stealth rocks would hurt if she came back out, but right now Maddi needed a different pokemon on her side. "Mist, come out!"

"Seadra!" Maddi's Seadra came back out of his pokeball, landing in the water. As he reached the water, though, he cut up his fins on the sharp rocks hovering over Maddi's side of the battlefield. This was getting tiresome.

Ayame was intrigued. "So you sent your Seadra back out, instead? Are you sure that was the right move? He'll take damage from the hail, you know."

"Yeah, I get it," Maddi growled. That was just the least of Mist's issues. There was also the fact that his base speed was 85, meaning he was at a severe disadvantage in the trick room compared to the Glalie, whose speed had dropped a few notches.

But she had a plan for taking care of that.

Ayame just smirked. "Well, it's your funeral," she snorted. "Snows! Use crunch to take a bite out of that Seadra!"

"Glalie!" Snows shot forward, plowing through the hail with his mouth wide-open. Maddi anticipated that, of course, it was a working strategy. After all, Glalie's coverage was fairly shallow; their primary means of attacking were through Ice type moves, with crunch as a backup. Which meant he'd have to get close to Mist if he wanted to do some real damage to the Seadra.

Which gave Mist and Maddi the precise opening they needed to strike. Now they just had to wait for the right moment…

One of the benefits of harmonia was that the trainer's thoughts were linked to the pokemon. The two shared their minds and focused their thinking, and that meant they were able to arrive at the perfect moment to strike without Maddi even saying a word.

When Snows got close enough that he couldn't avoid the counterattack, but still far enough away where he couldn't hit Mist before he employed it, Mist acted. His snout flexed, and he sent a cloud of smoke out. Horsea and Seadra often squirted ink into the water to disorient prey, this was as natural to them as swimming. And Snows was right smack in the middle of it.

"Blinding us with smokescreen?" Ayame coughed, wiping her eyes. They stung even though she was nowhere near the smog. "It's not a bad plan… after all, accuracy and evasion aren't affected by the Moody ability… but as long as Snows shares my senses, I'll be able to help guide him accurately with my eyes!

And true to form, Snows did exactly that. He emerged from the cloud of smoke with a scowl on his face, opening his mouth wide to bite down on Mist.

"Seadra!" Before he could strike, however, a blast of water hit him dead in the face, sending him spinning backwards.

"Gla-Glalie?!" Snows gasped in disbelief, regaining his control over his round body. He looked to his trainer in questioning but Ayame was as stunned by the move as he was.

"You hit us with another attack?" She asked, confused. "How were you able to fire it off so quickly? How did your Seadra speed up?!"

The trick room was still up, so Mist should have been the slower of the two pokemon. But he'd managed to fire another attack before Snows could attack with crunch. It didn't add up, something was definitely wrong here.

Maddi smirked.

"Let me put it like this," she said simply. "Mist didn't speed up. Your Glalie slowed down. You should be feeling that, right?"

Now that Maddi had drawn attention to that fact, she was right. Ayame's body felt a lot more sluggish than it had with Snows.

"…What did you do?" She growled. "What the fuck did you do?!"

"That smokescreen wasn't to lower your accuracy," Maddi replied. "And it wasn't a smokescreen attack, either."

"Then what was it?!" Ayame demanded.

"It was clear smog," Maddi said. "A special kind of smoke. A pokemon who inhales the gas has their stats reduced to normal. That goes for the both of us. Now your Glalie's Moody ability is cancelled, and he's just another pokemon that's… well-rounded. Stat-wise, I mean."

Maddi was starting to understand why Cynthia liked to crack jokes so much. Dunking on your opponent was a little bit fun, she had to admit.

Ayame wasn't seeing it as fun, though. She let out a frustrated scream.

"Well, fine then!" She growled. "That clear smog barely did any damage, though! And it's not like you've stopped the problem completely!"

On cue, she used her harmonia to influence Snows' Moody ability once again. His attack got a sharp boost once more, and his speed was reduced.

But Maddi saw that coming and responded immediately. After all, presently, Mist's base 85 speed wasn't much slower than Snows' base 80. Now that their stats had returned to normal they were a lot closer to even in that regard, and Mist could strike with impunity while his opponent wasted time trying to buff.

"Clear smog again!" She shouted, and her Seadra spat another blast of smoke. Snows couldn't help but inhale the dust, and began coughing up a storm.

That was enough for Ayame to say enough.

"Return!" She said, recalling her Glalie back to his pokeball. That was a surprising move, Maddi had to admit.

"So what, you're just going to call him back like that?" She asked, raising her eyebrow.

"That clear smog of yours makes using moody an annoyance," Ayame replied. "I'll wait until that Seadra is finished off before I send out my next pokemon. And besides… it looks like the hail has finally stopped, so that's one advantage down."

Indeed, the hail had finally trickled off, clearing out the clouds to make space for the starry sky of the room. The peaceful view was of little comfort to Maddi, though.

"Dana, it's your turn!" Ayame shouted, flinging her next pokeball. Now that the hail had cleared up and Maddi had sent out a pokemon with respectable speed, her Eldegoss was a safer choice.

Plus, as a Grass type pokemon, she was the best pokemon to fight Maddi's Seadra with.

"Eldegoss," Dana said, bouncing in the air as she hovered over the battlefield.

Maddi made a sour expression. "So that's how it is, huh? You're trying to force us to switch."

"Of course I am," Ayame snorted. "Your Seadra doesn't have a very good matchup against Dana, I'll tell you that right now. So you'd better switch him out for someone else. …Oh! But wait! If you do that, I might go back to Snows, right? And you can't have that. You'd have to send Mist back out."

She wore an uncharacteristically cheery smile on her face.

"Pokeathlon events are challenged in teams of three," she said. "A trainer can bring their three best athletes to the events, and switch them out whenever necessary to keep one pokemon from exhausting themselves too much. And that taught me the benefit of teamwork, but also about how important it is to keep your options flexible. You don't want to be in a position where you can't rely on one of your teammates, right?"

Maddi glowered at the other girl. She knew where Ayame was going with this.

"It's not going to work," she seethed. "You're not going to make me just switch Mist in and out of battle like that. You've got stealth rocks set up, I'm not an idiot. Won't happen."

Ayame rolled her eyes. "I thought you were a skilled trainer?" She said. "Of course it won't happen. That's my point. The value of stealth rock right now is that I can switch my pokemon in and out with impunity, but if you tried to do that, then your pokemon, well… they wouldn't emerge unscathed, is my meaning. You're at a disadvantage, Maddi, and we're taking full advantage of it ourselves! Dana, use leaf tornado!"

"Eldegoss!" Dana spun the leaves on her dress and sent a tornado swirling towards Mist, moving much faster than it would under normal circumstances.

Maddi scowled. "Mist! Dodge it!"

"Seadra!" Mist moved to swim out of the way of the leaves, but he found himself still cut by a few of them. He turned his snout and fired an ice beam at his opponent, but unfortunately the attack wasn't fired as fast as he was used to.

"Dana has a base speed of 60, that won't hit us," Ayame promised. True to her word, her Eldegoss bounded out of the way, avoiding the ice with ease. As she dodged, she prepared another leaf tornado to strike.

"Mist, return!" Maddi immediately recalled her Seadra, allowing Mist to avoid the harmful tornado coming his way. Ayame was surprised.

"Well, that's… that's really something," she said, shaking her head. "Weren't you just making some big fucking point about how you won't switch out your pokemon all willy-nilly like that?" She grinned, her eyes sparkling.

Maddi glared back at her. "You called my bluff," she scoffed. "Doesn't mean you'll win. Because I'm calling your bluff, too! Cynder, come out!"

"Cyndaquil!" Cynder cried, emerging from her pokeball. She winced in pain as the stealth rocks dug into her.

"Another pokemon hurt by stealth rock," Ayame said, shaking her head. "You can't keep switching out your fucking pokemon forever, you know!"

"Obviously," Maddi said. "But you can't either! Cynder, use fire spin!"

"Cyndaquil!" Cynder opened her mouth and the flames on her back fired up. She spat a tornado of fire at the Eldegoss. The attack was swirling in a firespout around the floating pokemon and singing her leaves, as well as burning up the pollen that gathered on her round head. Ayame winced, she could feel that burning herself.

"Believe it or not, your pokemon is still faster than mine," Maddi said. "Trick room works much better when all your pokemon are slow. Base 65 speed isn't where I want to be against an Eldegoss, but I guess since your pokemon is a higher level than mine, that makes up for the difference."

"I guess it does," Ayame replied evenly. She was actually in pretty rough shape herself, given the fact that she couldn't switch back. Dana didn't have much she could use against a Cyndaquil, after all. She'd have to make the most of it.

"Dana, use hyper voice!" She ordered.

"ELDEGOSS!" Dana weaponized her cries of pain, sending a blast of sonic energy across the battlefield. Cynder was struck by the shockwave, rolling backwards. It was just the opening Ayame was hoping for, too!

"Now, Dana, use sleep powder!" Ayame shouted. If she could put the Cyndaquil to sleep, Maddi would have no choice but to switch her out. That would just cause more damage to whatever pokemon she sent out next. This was Ayame's new plan. Put as many pokemon of Maddi's to sleep as possible, and force her to keep switching. Soon enough, the stealth rocks would wear her entire team down, and Ayame would win.

Was it a bit of a dirty trick? You could think about it that way. But right now, Ayame didn't care. She wasn't the same noble girl who cared about honor and doing the right thing. Samarra had suppressed her sense of fair play. She'd lost enough friends to their own personal interests coming second to what Samarra wanted, and she wasn't going to have it here.

"Eldegoss!" Dana sent a wave of pollen over the battlefield, drifting towards Cynder. It threatened to put a quick end to the pokemon's battling capabilities in this fight.

But Maddi wasn't going to just sit back and let her pokemon get put to sleep.

"Cynder, use lava plume!" She ordered.

"Cyndaquil!" Cynder curled up into a ball so less of the sleep powder could get on her. Then the flames on her back blazed up, and an eruption of heat and magma burst out of her, melting away the spores before they even got close. Some even prayed back on Dana, who cried out in pain.

"So that's your game, huh?" Ayame growled. She focused her harmonia. "Well, fine then! If your pokemon won't get put to sleep, then we'll just have to knock her out the old fashioned way, right Dana?"

"Eldegoss," Dana nodded. She began to glow.

"Boosting your stats with growth, huh? That's just like a Grass type," Maddi said. "You've left yourself wide open! Cynder, use flamethrower!"

"Cyndaquil!" Cynder fired a stream of flames out of her mouth, engulfing the Eldegoss in a burning inferno. The pokemon's screams could be heard coming from within the blaze, and Ayame was screaming too.

But she didn't yield.

"I don't think you realize just how high Dana's special defense is," Ayame seethed, clenching her jaw to avoid the pain. "She's tough. A few fire attacks won't put her down."

Dana might have been Ayame's star in the Jumping events, but she was also pretty good at the Skill events as well. And that meant she had a great deal of control over her body.

Enough control, at least, to block out the pain and counterattack.

"ELDEGOSS!" Dana responded with another hyper voice. The sonic blast was overwhelming, knocking Cynder back. Maddi could barely hold on, it felt like her eardrums were rupturing.

All this power… it's incredible. Ayame's drawing out the full force of her harmonia…

Maddi was getting a first-hand look with one of her biggest problems. Her pokemon weren't on a high enough level. Sure, it hadn't hurt Grim that much, and it wasn't like Ayame's team were seasoned battlers or anything.

But a lot of the time Maddi spent training her pokemon, she was training her specialized teams. Those pokemon were ready to fight at a moment's notice. She may have been neglecting her own team's efforts, just a little bit. Or at least Cynder's. She'd expected an easy victory for the Cyndaquil due to all the Fire type moves she taught the little guy, and yet he was still losing to a Grass type? It was difficult to believe.

This is her harmonia…

It was the only explanation. The only way she could accept Cynder being overwhelmed like this.

But no way was Maddi going to let that stand.

"CYNDER!" She shouted over the screams. "Use overheat!"

It was a gamble. The type of move that should only be used after careful consideration. Cynder would be granted incedible firepower, but at a steep cost- his special attack would decrease considerably. But if it defeated the Eldegoss, it was more than worth it.

Cynder sucked in air and the flames on her back raged. They burned hotter and hotter until they were glowing white with heat, and the condition of the room began to change. Maddi wiped the sweat from her brow and grinned, feeling the power at her fingertips.

"CYNDAQUIL!" Cynder unleashed the power she'd built up, firing the overheat attack at Dana. The column of fire that shot out of her mouth was massive, big enough to encompass the Cyndaquil herself, and pure white.

But it never hit the target. Dana just disappeared. Instead, it sailed through the air and slammed into the trick room, causing the field to crack. Those cracks turned into much larger fissures and soon enough the whole room came tumbling down.

"…Haaah!" Ayame gasped, sucking in air. It felt good, to finally be free of that suffocating box. She felt like herself again. (Even if she was still being possessed by Samarra)

"Cynder!" Maddi cried. Her Cyndaquil had put everything into that attack, but she hadn't hit her target. Dana had taken advantage of her speed boost from the trick room to dodge at the last second.

"Elde… goss…"

At least, that's what Maddi had thought, anyway. Upon closer inspection, Dana was in pretty rough shape herself.

"That's some move," Ayame said, wiping the sweat off her forehead. "We were just barely able to dodge it… and it looks like the heat got to us anyway."

Overheat wasn't just a compressed beam of hot flame. It even burned the air itself, warping it with heat. So while Dana was able to avoid a direct hit, she still got a lot of damage from the aftershocks. After all, Eldegoss were pokemon that drifted on the air, they were practically Flying types. Any change to the heat and pressure of the atmosphere could have an adverse effect on them.

That wasn't exactly what Maddi was hoping for, but it was a good place to start.

"Okay, Cynder! Use flamethrower next!" She ordered.

"Cyndaquil!" Cynder dutifully spat a stream of flames at the Eldegoss, but Maddi immediately realized the issue. Her flames weren't powerful enough, not after that drop in special attack.

"Hmph, you have no idea," Ayame said smugly, crossing her arms. "Your Cyndaquil's condition is terrible! But don't worry, we'll help her get a nice rest! Put her right to sleep, Dana!"

Maddi knew what was coming and she didn't like it. "Cynder, use smokescreen!" Hopefully the sleep powder wouldn't be able to reach her pokemon under the cover of the smoke. She wasn't even sure if a lava plume would be enough to stop the spores this time.

"Cynda!" Cynder panted, spewing a cloud of black smoke out of her mouth to cover the field, protecting herself from the sleep powder.

But Dana never used any.

Instead, she opened her mouth and began to sing.

"Wh-Wha…" Maddi clamped her hands over her ears to block out the noise, but it didn't matter. The pokemon's haunting melody was already causing her to feel drowsy.

"Dana has more tricks up her sleeve than just a couple of powders," Ayame said, stifling a yawn. It seemed even she wasn't immune to the effects of her pokemon's singing. "You can burn away sleep powder with a Fire type attack… but you can't block out our song…"

Maddi's eyes were starting to get heavy. And if that was how she felt, what much Cynder be going through? She could feel how difficult it was for her pokemon to hold on; she wanted to say something, but her connection with Cynder was starting to fray.

If she didn't cut it soon, then she'd fall asleep along with her Cyndaquil!

Yikes, Maddi's getting really pressured now. I think she's starting to see the issue with her own strategy. While there's nothing wrong with training tons of pokemon, you only have so much time to do it with. And Maddi's Cyndaquil might have the type advantage over Dana, but there's a lot more to winning a battle than just type.