Darla managed to injure Lana's Sneasel pretty badly using her Salamence! But Crescent just couldn't finish the job. Luckily for his trainer, Lana's Sneasel is in pretty bad shape now, meaning that whatever pokemon she uses next will probably be able to take her down without much trouble. So who will Darla use next? And what will Lana's response be? She still has a few pokemon we've never seen before! Remember to review!

KedharS: Don't worry, I'm pretty sure Lana still has a few tricks up her sleeve for handling Darla and her pokemon.

Arbiter8991: Well, she might not have the same amount of raw power as Darla and her dragons, but she's not a weakling either.

Hyphenman: Yeah, I've been really leaning on the brutality of Dragon type matchups because they're just such ferocious pokemon. It's clear why Darla has such an affinity for them, given she's rather ruthless herself.

Tambry96bj: Yeah, I don't think many people could go toe to toe with Darla when it comes to Dragon type pokemon, she's just that good. But it's not like she's a dedicated pokemon trainer either, so it's not like she's certain to win all her matches.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1180

"Thank you, Crescent," Darla said, cradling her Salamence's pokeball. "Your sacrifice will make sure that we can take her down."

She turned to Lana and her Sneasel, staring coldly at the injured pokemon. Sari could barely stand. It was over. Even Lana must have been able to see that.

"Dina, go," Darla said, sending out her next pokemon.

"Zweilous!" The two-headed dragon cried, emerging from her pokeball.

"It's Dina!" Lila cheered, her face lighting up. "Yeah, good thinking, Darla!"

Dina was Darla's weakest pokemon and she was still in training. It was a smart move, using her against a pokemon as weak as Sari was. Sari might be one of the only pokemon on Lana's team that Dina would have the chance of beating in a one-on-one fight now.

"I see," Lana scowled. "Taking it easy on us because Sari is injured, huh? Well, I'm going to make sure you regret that."

Darla smirked. "This isn't going easy on you," she clarified, shaking her head. "No, this is me using you to train Dina to be stronger! Now Dina, use dragon pulse!"

"Zweilous!" Dina opened both her mouths, creating a surge of draconic energy between her fangs. She fired the pulse as a shockwave that ripped across the battlefield towards Sari.

"Sari, can you dodge it?" Lana asked.

"Snea… Sneasel," Sari nodded, leaping over the dragon pulse. She landed on her feet, but when she did, she winced, holding her side. Lana winced as well. This wasn't good at all!

"Sari…" She said worriedly. But Sari shook off her concerns and raised her claws, creating chunks of ice in the air.

"Sneasel!" Sari flung the ice shards at Dina. They moved too fast for the quadruped dragon to dodge, bursting against her body as she tried to move out of the way.

"Zweilous!" Dina cried.

"Shrug it off," Darla urged. "It won't be that bad. If you get hurt, then it'll help you grow."

"Z-Zweilous," Dina nodded both heads warily. Right now, she was following her trainer's wishes, trying to get stronger by training against the Sneasel.

"Darla, is this… really the best move?" Lila asked worriedly. She was happy that Darla was confident enough in her chances of success to risk training one of her weaker pokemon in the middle of the battle, but she couldn't help wish that her partner was taking this a bit more seriously and not pretending like this fight was already in the bag.

They didn't know what Lana still had up her sleeve; so to her eyes, Darla was being far more reckless than she needed to be.

But Darla didn't share her partner's concerns.

"Lila, this is how dragons are trained," she said calmly. "There's no better way to spur a pokemon's growth than with a battle fought between pokemon that are trying to win with everything they have, understand?"

No, Lila didn't get that at all. Maybe because her idol training mandated a different sort of skill be practiced instead.

She sighed and shook her head.

"O-Okay," she mumbled. "Good luck, Darla…"

She still couldn't shake the feeling that Darla should have relied on one of her more seasoned dragons like Midnight or Melody to handle a pokemon as powerful as that Sneasel, even if she was injured. Sure, it was a complete shift from how she'd felt just a few minutes ago, but that was when she thought that Sari couldn't even use Ice type moves and would go down in one hit.

"Dina, she's weak enough where we can build up our strength a little more," Darla said. "But to start, use scary face!"

"Zweilous!" Dina agreed. She turned to Sari and snarled, causing the Sneasel to freeze up. Neither of Dina's heads had eyes, but she could still make an intimidating glare.

Lana scowled, knowing what Darla was doing. "You won't be able to keep us from dodging your attacks," she promised. "Sari! Use double team!"

"Sneasel!" Sari nodded, and even though she was injured, she was able to flood the battlefield with a bunch of copies.

Darla smirked.

"You think a move like that is going to work on us?" She snorted, shaking her head. "You just made a fatal mistake!"

"Wh-Why's that?" Lana demanded.

Darla narrowed her eyes. "Deino and Zweilous have a natural habitat deep inside dark caves, where there's no visibility at all. They're raised in total darkness. Because it's so dark, they don't even develop eyes to see with, because such things are useless. The way they learn to experience their environment is with their other senses, like touch, smell, and hearing."

Lila gave her a dry look. Yeah… I guess that's one way to put it… she thought to herself, remembering how exactly Darla had "trained" her pokemon's "other senses". Namely by turning Dina loose in their room and letting her bump into everything until she realized what was and was not okay to touch. It had not been a fun experience.

"Dina knows exactly which one of your Sneasel is real, because she can't be fooled by simple ocular tricks!" Darla boasted. "That's the reason I sent her out to finish your pokemon off! Because I knew that, as weak as she was, you'd resort to trying to hide using moves like double team! Well that won't work on us!"

Lana scowled. "Fine then! Sari, forget hiding! Use icicle crash!"

Now that Lana knew there was no chance of Sari dodging more attacks due to the reduction in speed and the inability to use double team effectively, it was time for a change of strategy. The goal was to attack Dina with everything they had and weaken her as much as possible for Lana's next pokemon to finish the job.

"Sneasel!" Sari lifted her claws, creating several large spikes of ice that she dropped down on Dina from above.

Darla wouldn't allow that to happen.

"Hyper voice!" She shouted.

"Zweilous!" Dina shouted at the top of her lungs. Her heads sang in harmony together, sending a massive shockwave of sound across the battlefield, shattering through the icicle spikes and going on to slam into Sari, disorienting the injured pokemon and knocking her backwards.

"Sari!" Lana cried.

"My pokemon are all quite excellent with their voices," Darla boasted. "And Dina is one of the best! Not only does she have two heads for extra harmonizing, but because she can't see, she can use her hyper voice attack as a form of echolocation to figure out where she- and more importantly, her opponent- is. And that's not all!"

Dina skipped back over to Darla, and Darla crouched down next to her with a tiny can of spray and sprayed it into both of her mouths.

"…She also comes with a nice throat spray," Darla added with a wink. "It's important to take care of your voice as a performer, after all."

Thanks to the throat spray, Dina's special attack got a nice boost from using hyper voice. And she was ready to make use of it to finish off Sari.

"Sneasel…" Sari stood up, shaking, and prepared an ice shard. But she didn't have the chance to unleash the attack.

"Zweilous!" Dina fired twin streams of bluish-black flames from her mouths, engulfing the Sneasel. The powerful dragonbreath attack lit the pokemon on fire and she thrashed in pain, screaming bloody murder as she collapsed to the ground.

"Aaagh!" Lana cried, feeling like her own skin was on fire. But the pain lasted only for a moment before her connection to Sari was severe and her Sneasel lost consciousness.

"Nicely done, Dina," Darla complimented her Zweilous. "You beat her!"

"Zweilous!" Dina barked back, smiling cheerfully as Lana recalled her Sneasel to her pokeball.

"With this, there's nothing to worry about," Darla said, holding her head up high. "Dina's got the strength to take on anything you can throw at her!"

Lila wished that was true, but she couldn't help but worry regardless. At least Darla was confident, which was somewhat reassuring. She wasn't sure how she'd be acting if her friend was freaking out, that would just be scary.

"Don't think this is going to be over so easily," Lana said, narrowing her eyes. She could tell. That Zweilous wasn't as strong as a fully-grown one. It had only recently evolved. And because Darla didn't spend a lot of time training her pokemon for battle, this might even be her first fight with it.

Lana could use that to her advantage.

It's okay, she reminded herself. We still have our trump card. Nothing's been decided yet. She wasn't certain that she was going to lose yet. There was still quite a lot they could do to win. And she knew just the pokemon she could use against the two-headed pokemon.

"Dash, go!" Lana said, sending out her next pokemon.

"Raboot!" Lana's next pokemon was a Raboot. While certainly not as intimidating as the Commander's Cinderace, Dash still wore a fierce expression on his face and prepared to fight against his opponent, glaring at the Zweilous.

"A Raboot, huh?" Darla said, frowning slightly. "That might be a little tricky…"

"Just you watch!" Lana shouted. "Dash! Flame charge!"

"Raboot!" Dash nodded, charging at Dina. He kicked up flames with his strong feet, and they covered his legs, immediately boosting his speed as he dashed around the Zweilous, who used her senses to figure out where he was.

"Dina, when you've tracked him, use dark pulse," Darla ordered.

"Zwei!" Both heads nodded. Darla was relieved. One of the issues with Zweilous, something she'd never told Lila, was the fact that the two heads sometimes didn't get along with one another, for whatever reason. But fortunately, it seemed that wasn't something she'd have to worry about right now.

Right now, she just had to worry about hitting that fast Raboot.

"Zweilous!" Dina opened her mouths, and formed a pulse of dark energy in each one. The two beams converged in a double helix aimed right for the dashing Raboot.

"Now, Dash!" Lana shouted. "Double kick!"

"Raboot!" Dash leapt off the ground, jumping over the dark pulse with his strong legs. As he did, he flipped in the air, landing on his hands in front of Dina with his feet raised in the air. Spinning his hands on the ground, he did a little twirl, delivering a sharp kick to each of Dina's heads, knocking them together.

"Zweeeeeeeiii!" Dina wailed in pain as her brains rattled in her skulls. She stumbled back, injured from the attack, as Dash righted himself and pressed ahead, preparing for more kicks.

"Oh, no!" Lila cried. Dina tried to force the Raboot back with more dark pulses, but he either dodged them completely or shrugged them off like they were nothing. The situation had gone from the amazing victory Deina had scored over Sari to her being pressed and on the defensive against Dash. Which wasn't good at all.

"Rrrgh," Darla growled, biting her lip. She'd been afraid of this. I know some pokemon have difficulty acclimating to their new forms at first, but I didn't expect it to be this bad, she thought, clenching her fist. If only we'd had time to train inn fighting with her new form! I guess dealing with all the extra sensations that come from her new head is making it hard for her to fight properly…

She had been thrilled when Dina had evolved, after pushing her to her limits. She had shown an amazing performance to Reed.

But now it was a liability, and that was a problem for her.

"Keep going, Dash!" Lana urged. "Use double kick again!"

"Raboot!" Dash nodded, lowering his head and charging at Dina, jumping up off the ground and spinning towards her with his legs raised.

"Dark pulse!" Darla ordered.

"Zweilous!" Both heads fired blasts of dark energy at the Raboot, hitting him directly. But the attacks barely did any damage! Dash plowed right through the dark pulse and delivered two more devastating kicks to the Dark type pokemon. Darla winced. Dina was really taking a beating.

"I don't get it!" Lila wailed. "How come he's able to shrug off Dina's attacks so easily, huh!? Didn't she get a throat spray that should raise her special attack?!"

"I don't get it either," Giselle mumbled. In spite of the fact that no one seemed to notice (or care about) her presence, she was still watching this battle just as intently as Lila. Maybe even more intently, as she wasn't distracted and sent into hysterics every time something went wrong.

"It's Libero."

Both girls turned to see the Commander. Like Giselle, his presence had been all but forgotten, but he was watching the fight intently, presumably because Darla was the strongest pokemon trainer here making it the most exciting show.

But the look on his face didn't show excitement. There was an uncharacteristic amount of seriousness in the expression he wore.

"Libero? I think I've heard about that…" Lila said, frowning. She knew what it was, of course, she was just playing dumb. But Giselle was genuinely curious.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"Libero is an ability that the Scorbunny line may have," Alden explained. "It changes the type of the user to that of the move that they used. My Cinderace, Tracey, has the ability, and that Raboot has it, I'm certain of it. So when he uses Fighting type moves, he'll change into a Fighting type himself, meaning he'll resist Dark type moves."

"Hah!" Donoma crowed victoriously. She had been watching the fight as well. "Maybe it wasn't Protean, but I knew that there was going to be a pokemon with an ability like that in this match!" She held her head up high and laughed smugly.

Chloe rolled her eyes.

"No way! That's rough!" Lila gasped. She turned to Darla. "Darla, did you hear that?! You can't use dark pulse, he resists it!"

"I already figured that one out!" Darla snapped. How many times had Lila seen Libero in action when doing commentary for the Commander's fights? Dozens of times, she was sure. And while she didn't mind a little bit of performed stupidity in their professional work, this was a serious battle, and it was where she was drawing the line.

But then, there was no point in getting upset at Lila. She had more important things to focus on right now, like dealing with that Libero Raboot.

"Dina, dark pulse is a no-go," she said. She'd only been using the move to scout for the Libero ability in the first place, in case the Raboot had it. "So we'll have to rely on dragon pulse, alright?"

"Zwei!" Dina nodded, opening her mouths and firing a shockwave of draconic energy at Dash, trying to strike where the dark pulses had failed.

"Good thinking," Alden nodded. "Raboot can't learn any moves that resist Dragon type attacks. So at worst this will do neutral damage!"

"Assuming we let it hit," Lana said, narrowing her eyes. "Agility!"

"Raboot!" Dash picked up speed, turning into a blur as he evaded the shockwave, darting around Dina and taking her back. He charged forward and leapt into the air, preparing another attack.

"Dina, quick, use earth power!" Darla shouted, thinking quickly of a move to get them out of this situation.

"Zweilous!" Dina stomped on the ground, releasing energy into the grass that erupted in a pillar of fire between herself and the Raboot. If everything went as planned, then Dash would be engulfed in the eruption!

But Dash's reflexes were better than hers, and he had Lana's harmonia supporting him as well.

"Dash, acrobatics!" Lana ordered.

Dash kicked off the air, easily maneuvering in the sky to evade the earth power. It shouldn't have been possible for a normal Raboot to perform moves like that, but thanks to the Libero ability he had become a Flying type, giving him some limited capability for walking on the sky.

And now Dina was open to another attack. Of fucking course.

Dash brought his foot down first, striking right at the joining point of Dina's two heads. Then he followed with more displays of acrobatics, hitting her with punches and kicks of incredible power that the Zweilous could do nothing about other than try to withstand.

"No…" Lila bit her lip. She could tell that this was a bad position for Darla to be in.

Darla managed to take down Lana's Sneasel with her Zweilous! That should have been enough to clinch the victory, but apparently Lana isn't someone to be underestimated! Her Raboot isn't quite at the level of Tracey just yet, but it's clear that he's a powerful fighter in his own right! Hopefully Darla can find a way to take him down!