The battle between Blake and Kanone has begun! Blake's gotta win this if he wants to learn about his sister. But Kanone is far from an easy opponent. Even with just one pokemon, it's his beast of a Samurott! Will Blake be able to overcome that behemoth and take down his brother? Or is Kanone right, and he's not yet ready for that information? We'll have to find out!

Jjjdunk1: We'll have to see.

KedharS: The battle's going to start off strong.

Hyphenman: Definitely something to get hyped over, that's for sure!

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1279

"Maria! Go!" Blake shouted, sending out his Mareanie. The tiny Poison type pokemon landed in the dirt, hissing.

"So Blake's first pokemon is his Mareanie!" Olivia declared.

"Ew, gross!" Lila grimaced. "It's so slimy and icky!"

"Hey!" Kate shouted from the stands. "Where do you get off, bitch?! That thing is adorable! Shut your fucking mouth!"

Alcea nursed her forehead with a sigh and dragged Kate back into her seat.

"So he sent out Maria first, huh?" Sango said, biting her lip.

"Makes sense," Julia nodded. "He's probably hoping he can poison the Samurott fast."

"That's what I'd do, if I was in his position," Akira agreed. "Kanone needs to take out six of Blake's pokemon, while Blake just has to wear down ONE of his. Poison is the most effective tool he has to do that with."

"It's the strategically correct choice," Kate agreed, flashing a smug smile. "In fact, he even contacted me to craft some new TMs for him!"

Alcea raised her eyebrow. "So that's why you went to see him, is it?"

"That's right," Kate nodded. "I made Blake three TMs, actually. Though I don't know what pokemon he used them on…"

"Maria, use toxic spikes," Blake ordered immediately.

"Mareanie!" Maria took a deep a breath and the tentacles on her head flared, shooting out their spikes. They rained down on Sammy's side of the battlefield. With some quick swordplay Sammy was able to deflect any of the spikes from hitting her directly, but they still littered the ground around her feet anyway.

"He's using toxic spikes when Kanone's not even switching his pokemon?" Nick asked.

"Of course he would," Julia said. "Toxic spikes isn't just useful for catching switching-in pokemon. It also serves as a way to hem in an opponent and keep them from maneuvering well. When dealing with a pokemon as fast as that Samurott, it's essential to deal with that speed.

"Samurott!" Sammy snarled, clutching her swords tight.

"Not a bad play, Blake," Kanone said, narrowing his eyes. "But if you want to hem in our movements, you'll have to do more than that! Swords dance!"

"Samurott!" Sammy howled, raising her swords and spinning them. She scraped the blades against the ground and spun in a circle, sending a blast of wind through the air.

"No way!" Lila gasped in amazement. "Kanone's Samurott is using the wind pressure from her sword strikes to blow away all the toxic spikes!"

"That's the kind of creative thinking I would expect to come from a trainer like Kanone," Darla nodded in agreement.

"Blake's in a bind now, that Samurott is free," Olivia frowned.

"Samurott!" Sammy charged at Maria with her blade raised. Darkness began to surge through the sword.

Blake wasn't deterred. "Maria, use toxic!" He ordered.

"Mareanie!" Maria spit a blast of toxic sludge right at Sammy. But with her speed she hadn't a prayer of actually hitting her. Sammy zigzagged around the glob of poison and closed the distance between the two of them in a flash. She raised her sword and slashed at Maria with a devastating night slash.

Maria ducked out of the way at the last second, avoiding the strike.

"Whoa!" Lila exclaimed. "Blake's Mareanie just dodged that like it was nothing!"

"How, when that Samurott is so fast?" Darla questioned.

"Did you see that?!" Nick stared in amazement. "It's like she knew the blade would be coming from the angle and already prepared to dodge it!"

"Good dodge, but you'll need better!" Kanone shouted. Sammy was already turning her sword, swinging it from the side at Maria and aiming right for her throat.

Maria hopped back, once again avoiding the stroke of the sword by inches.

"Mareashishishi!" She giggled wickedly. Sammy pressed her attack, continuing to slash at her fellow Water type pokemon, but it was like trying to grab a leaf in the wind; no matter where her blade struck, Maria had already moved out of the way.

"It's like she's seeing the future," Akira frowned, studying the Mareanie's movements closely. "She knows where the attacks will come from, and she's avoiding them. But that kind of foresight should be impossible."

"You'd think so, right?" Cynthia smirked. "But she's just that good."

Kanone frowned. He hadn't anticipated a slow pokemon like Mareanie being this hard of a target for Sammy to set her blades upon.

"You must have done something, eh?" He asked, smiling a little in spite of himself.

"Of course I did," Blake smirked. "You didn't think I just wasted these last three days, did you? I've been training against the best opponent I could."

"What's he talking about?" Sango wondered. She'd been completely in the dark about Blake's training regime. She looked to Cynthia. "Cynthia?"

"It's simple. The reason Blake's pokemon knows where that Samurott will strike… is because she's already dodged that blade thousands of times."

Julia flinched in her seat, whirling around to see who was sitting next to her. Everyone else turned as well, responding with varying gasps of surprise. Sylvia didn't, of course, and neither did Dakota or Cynthia. But no one else had recognized Mirar there at all.

"Mirar?" Alcea asked. "I would not have expected a match like this to interest you."

"Normally it wouldn't have," Mirar agreed. "But then… normally I'm not so invested in other people's battles to bother going in person."

Alcea's eyes widened as she realized what Mirar was getting at. "You mean you…!"

"I put Blake in contact with him," Dakota boasted. "Once Blake understood what I was offering, he realized it was the only way."

"Only way to do what?" Reiner asked, still confused. He wasn't the only one.

Mirar frowned. "Have you all already forgotten my specialty?"

Sango gasped. "…Your Ditto!"

"That's right," Mirar nodded. "For the last three days, I had Mira transform into that Samurott. Mimicking Kanone's fighting style perfectly, we drilled all of her movements and tactics into Blake and his pokemon's minds. They all know exactly where her swords will land, and how they have to move to avoid those attacks."

The group was a small gap of silence in the cheering crowd.

"Is that… even possible?" Kitty whispered.

"Yeah, that sounds insane!" Nick said, shaking his head. But he couldn't deny the evidence of his own eyes. The usually-slow Maria was skillfully avoiding every slash Sammy aimed at her, and she did it with a smug smirk on her face!

"Normally it would be insane to think you could get these kind of results with just three days of training," Mirar agreed. "But that's only when dealing with a specific kind of trainer. Blake had a strong enough starting foundation to make it possible."

A small smile crossed his lips.

"After all… there's no one who's studied Kanone's battle styles more than Blake Harker. He already knew what needed to be done, he just needed a practice partner to give his team something to fight against."

"But is that really going to be enough?" Elaina asked quietly. Everyone turned to the silent girl, confused what she was asking. But before she could elaborate, the momentum in the battle shifted in a drastic way.

"Samurott!" Sammy roared in frustration, stabbing her blade down towards Maria's skull. Maria rolled out of the way before her attack could connect, and opened her mouth wide, spitting a big glob of poison right in Sammy's face.

Sammy roared and stumbled back, clawing at her eyes. The poison was already sinking in, and it was doing a lot of damage.

"Ew, this is so gross," Lila winced. "Stupid Poison types…"

"It's a good strategy, though," Darla noted. "After all, the debilitating effects of toxic will do serious damage to that Samurott. It's the kind of ruthless play Blake needs if he wants to win this thing, you know?"

"Maria, use venoshock!" Blake ordered, ready to capitalize on Sammy's injured state.

"Mareanie!" Maria cried, flailing her tentacles and summoning sparks of poisonous miasma that she launched at the thrashing Samurott.

Samy snapped her eyes open and swung her sword, slicing through the poison strikes effortlessly. She stood whole and hale, unaffected by the toxic.

Kanone smirked.

"You didn't really think it would be that easy, did you?" He asked. "We were preparing for something like that."

Blake narrowed his eyes. "A Lum Berry?"

Kanone shook his head. "A Pecha Berry, in fact. You see, I knew it would be poison. It would be your best bet for wearing us down! And you walked right into it."

"We can always poison you again," Blake snarled. "Maria, use toxic!"

But Maria couldn't. She opened her mouth to spit poison at Sammy, but she was too enraged to remember what chemicals to combine inside her.

"She won't use it anymore," Kanone shook his head. "She's fallen for the taunt!"

"Samurott," Sammy smirked, beckoning Maria to attack. The small starfish obliged, scuttling towards the towering Water type.

"That's not good!" Darla noted. "With taunt in place, that Mareanie can't use any status moves, which means toxic and toxic spikes are off the table!"

"That's good," Lila sniffed. "Hopefully we won't see any more gross stuff, then."

"I wouldn't put it past Blake to come up with something, though," Olivia frowned. "Though I have no idea what that could be. Which begs the question, why am I here? I'm not exactly a talented battle commentator, I can barely fight myself."

"Because you always have to be the center of attention, maybe?" Lila muttered under her breath, covering the microphone.

"Maria! Use sludge wave!" Blake ordered.

"Yes! There it is!" Kate cheered. "The first TM I gave!"

"Mareanie!" Maria took a deep breath, and poison began to leak out of her. It was pouring out in buckets, swirling around the tiny pokemon in a tidal wave. With a cry, she sent it roiling towards the Samurott.

"Sludge wave is an incredibly potent move!" Kate bragged. "It's even more powerful than sludge bomb! All that sludge and poison is released in a massive tidal wave instead of being compressed into a single ball!"

"Not a bad move, trying to overwhelm us with power like that," Kanone admitted. "But what else do you have?"

"Samurott!" Sammy raised her sword and summoned a tidal wave of her own. The wave of water crashed down, slamming into Maria's wall of poison, the two attacks striking at the same time with a furious splash.

There was no question which move was superior. Sammy's wave of water overpowered the sludge wave, washing it and Maria away instantly.

"M-Mareanie…" Maria wasn't injured, but she was still a little dazed. She hopped up just in time to see Sammy's darkness-infused sword swinging at her face.

"Mar!" It was only by a miracle that she managed to dodge that stroke.

"So we're back to this, huh?" Darla grumbled as she watched Maria quickly fall back into the previous pattern. She easily evaded every attack from Sammy with a smug smirk.

"I think it's nice," Lila smiled. "It's like watching a dance."

Elaina frowned. She had a bad feeling about this. Normally, if an opponent was able to avoid all your pokemon's moves so effortlessly like this, then that would throw you off. She'd seen it dozens of times, when her own foes were so sure of their strength and yet were completely routed by the power of her harmonia.

Kanone wasn't like that at all. He was perfectly calm, as if this was entirely within his calculations the whole time.

Is it because he's just that powerful of a trainer? She wondered. He doesn't feel the need to be concerned? Or is there something else?

"Just keep dodging, Maria, and look for an opportunity to attack with that," Blake called out to his pokemon.

"Mareanie," Maria nodded, dodging another slash from the Samurott.

"Okay, Sammy, back!" Kanone shouted, and Sammy leapt back, raising her sword. Darkness began to surge through the shell, and she charged forward again with a roar.

"Dodge it again, Maria!" Blake ordered.

"It doesn't matter how many times you try," Kate smirked. "Maria's already trained against all those attacks! Kanone's Samurott won't be able to get the better of her."

Sylvia smirked, leaning forward with her hands steepled under her chin. "Oh, really?" She asked, causing Kate to flinch.

Elaina frowned grimly as she watched Sammy slash sideways at Maria. Once again, Maria leapt back before the attack could strike, preparing to dodge it by a couple of centimeters.

Then, to everyone's shock, before the night slash started its arc, the blade of darkness grew in power and extended, until Maria was right in its path again.

"MAREANIE!" Maria cried in pain as the night slash connected, sending her flying through the air. She crashed down hard on the ground.

"MARIA!" Blake shouted.

"What the hell was that?!" Cynthia exclaimed. "Her blade just extended! It's like the attack got a… power… boost…"

She gasped in realization.

Elaina narrowed her eyes. Her worries had been unfortunately confirmed.

"Harmonia," she growled.

"I don't get it," Kate whined. "That shouldn't have happened! Maria should have been able to dodge that attack!"

"If it had been a normal attack, sure," Serefina nodded. "But that attack was far from normal. It suddenly expanded."

"Rather like your boobs," Sylvia muttered darkly, giving Serefina a death glare.

"It's simple observation," Mirar frowned. "Before the attack could connect, the Mareanie tried to dodge. But Kanone simply used harmonia to increase the power of the attack, thereby lengthening the shadows of the night slash so they would hit. He scored a direct hit where he couldn't before, and also increased the strength of that blow. Excellent form."

"I don't believe it!" Dakota gasped. "But then all your training, it was worthless!"

"I don't possess harmonia," Mirar frowned. "So there are things that can be done with it that I can't replicate. I could show Blake how to take down Kanone's pokemon by drilling in all the fighting styles he's demonstrated, but if it's things he can do with that power, there's nothing I can do about it. It was the same with that surf attack from earlier, I imagine. In our simulations, sludge wave would always cancel the water out completely."

"So what?! Blake's just going to lose?!" Nick cried.

"Not at all," Cynthia said confidently, shaking her head. "Even though Mirar's plan didn't work, it wasn't for nothing. Blake's pokemon all still know how to move against Kanone's Samurott, after all, and that's important."

She grinned. "Besides, Blake still has two more trump cards left to play."

"Maria, use acid spray!" Blake ordered.

"Mareanie!" Maria took a deep breath and spat a glob of steaming acid at Sammy.

Lila grimaced. "Ew, ick, it's that poison again."

Darla rolled her eyes. "Just get over it," she grumbled.

"That's the way!" Kate grinned. "That's another TM I gave him, acid spray!"

"Dodge it, Sammy," Kanone ordered. "We don't want to get that on us!"

But Sammy was immobilized in place.

"Sammy?" Kanone could feel through his harmonia that Sammy was stuck. He looked down at her feet to see what had happened.

Countless tiny insects were clinging to Sammy's legs, holding her in place. They kept her from dodging the acid spray as it landed on her. The steaming liquid burned as it made contact with Sammy's fur, and she screamed in pain.

"That was infestation," Alcea noted. "A technique that uses insects to immobilize the opponent so that you can strike."

She turned to Kate, curious. "Did you also teach him that move?"

Mirar shook his head. "She already knew how to use that," he replied. "And I think we can both guess who taught him."

"That's right," Sango remembered. "Blake was doing some training with Dokukage, too."

"This is his second trump card," Mirar nodded. "All the TMs and training he's given to his pokemon, specifically Kate's Poison type moves. By making use of them, he's managed to severely limit what that Samurott is capable of."

"What do you mean?" Kitty asked. "What does acid spray do?"

"It's not a very powerful technique," Kate said, shaking her head. "But it has a very potent move. The corrosive acid is so powerful it drastically lowers the special defense of any pokemon hit with it. So now, that Samurott is a lot more vulnerable to special moves!"

"That's perfect!" Julia gasped. "By weakening her like that, even if Maria is knocked out, then Blake's next pokemon will be able to take advantage of the lowered special defense, and their attacks will hurt even more!"

"That's the strategy we worked out," Kate nodded, smiling. "It's a death by a thousand cuts. Blake anticipated that Maria wouldn't be able to poison his Samurott. Kanone was too prepared for that, even going as far as giving her a Pecha Berry. Because of that, he wanted Maria to prioritize using her acid spray to weaken her, so his other pokemon could finish the job. That's how we practiced."

Kate frowned. "But unfortunately, if he's using it now, that means…"

"Sorry, Maria," Blake whispered, gazing apologetically at his Mareanie. Maria looked back and nodded, understanding. She scuttled forward and opened her mouth wide, gathering together another blast of acid.

"Enough of this," Kanone scowled, narrowing his eyes. His own skin was burning, and he'd had enough of it. "Sammy, ceaseless edge!"

"Samurott!" Sammy roared, breaking free of her insectoid bonds and charging at Maria, raising her shell high. She swung with everything she had, and this time Maria didn't even try to dodge. She shell slammed into the Poison type pokemon, spraying shards of black shell all over her side of the battlefield. But the sharpest shards were the ones embedded in Maria's body.

"M-Mar… Mareanie…" Maria coughed out as Sammy held her aloft on her sword. "MAREANIE!"

With her last bit of strength, Maria spat more acid onto Sammy, hitting her in the face. Sammy growled and swung her sword, flinging Maria to the ground as she wiped away the acid.

Maria hit the ground hard and bounced, rolling to a stop. Her eyes were spinning and she'd lost consciousness.

"Blake's Mareanie is unable to battle!" Lila announced.

"That means he's down only five pokemon!" Darla reported.

"Things aren't looking so hot!" Olivia chimed in. "And not just because it's two guys on the field, no, Blake's in a tough position, his Mareanie only went down in a couple of hits!"

"Sorry, Maria," Blake apologized, recalling Maria back to her pokeball. "It was part of the strategy… but I still shouldn't have sacrificed you like that."

He felt bad for his pokemon, but Maria had agreed that was her role as the lead of the battle. It was inevitable that she be defeated first.

But that didn't mean Blake had to like it.

"Alright, then," he said, narrowing his eyes. "Let's get the real thing started! Tara, come out!"

He flung another pokeball into the air, calling out his Snivy.

Nice work! Blake may have lost a pokemon, but in doing so he severely weakened Sammy, and set the stage for his other pokemon to finish her off! The only question is whether or not all this planning and preparation will be enough! Will Blake be able to take Kanone down? Are his pokemon strong enough? What about his trump cards? Has he played everything he's got?