Mason intended to show Callie and Rafe the power of his maid pokemon, but in the process, he ended up uncovering a dark secret from Callie's past… the fact that, as a little girl, she was basically a beauty pageant star, but for tag battles! What a shame… Callie has been haunted by the ghost of her past, and now she must embrace that part of herself if she ever wants a chance at defeating the army of maids and remaining her own pokemon. …Oh, and Rafe might help. Maybe.
KedharS: Imagine feeling inferior to someone like that. Callie's lived a pretty rough life. And she's short, too.
Hyphenman: Yeah, honestly, as far as sibling relationships go, Callie and Rafe are probably one of the healthier pairs in this series. At least they can get along with one another in small doses, as opposed to, say, the girls in the Harker family.
Tambry96bj: Kiana is pretty lucky. Plus, she avoided the stress of fighting Darla since she was possessed the entire time, too. So that's another good thing.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 1189
Mason could sense dissension in the ranks. It was one of the advantages of a two-on-one like this; his pokemon could work in perfect concert together, while Callie and Rafe… struggled a bit more in that respect.
"Misaki, use calm mind to boost your stats," he ordered. "And Lilith, that Passimian is the main attacker on their side, I want you to put her to sleep with hypnosis like you did to the Medicham, alright?" If it worked once, he saw no reason it wouldn't work a second time.
"Watch out, Shuka!" Callie shouted. "Don't fall for it!"
She still had a bit of a grudge about the time she and Cynthia had a double battle all those months ago at the beginning of the school year, when her Breloom had put one of her pokemon to sleep so she could gang up on the other one.
It had brought up a lot of unpleasant memories. Back then, she'd made it out as though she had no idea what double battles were in order to keep anyone from finding out about her dark past. But now that the cat was out of the bag, she decided there was no point in playing pretend anymore.
Shuka braced herself, waiting for the hypnotizing effects to happen so she could find some way to avoid them. But nothing happened, much to her confusion.
"Huh? What's going on?" Callie asked, confused.
"What did you do?" Mason demanded, narrowing his eyes. Not only had Lilith failed to use hypnosis, but Misaki wasn't concentrating her psychic power, either. Both pokemon were glaring at Vyasa, who fanned himself lazily.
He was smirking.
"Oh, that's what you wanted to do?" Rafe said, raising his eyebrow. "Well sure, I guess taunt can work, if you think so."
"Oranguru," Vyasa grunted with a nod.
Callie smirked. "How do you like that?" She snapped at Mason. "Now your pokemon know how I feel, wanting to beat up that annoying Oranguru all the time!"
"I can't believe you fell for such a cheap taunt," Mason said, shaking his head. "I trained you two better than this!"
"I forget, aren't maids supposed to be able to follow orders?" Rafe asked, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "How strange…"
"Maybe you should try it," Callie muttered under her breath. She turned her attention back to the battle. "Alright Shuka, we've got the edge! Now, use earthquake again!"
"Passimian!" Shuka raised her berry and slammed it on the ground with as much force as she could, causing the battlefield to start shaking.
"Wow, with Oranguru's Telepathy rendering him immune to the effects, that earthquake is a really powerful move," Ian said. "I'm impressed."
"Yeah, but Mason doesn't seem bothered," Donoma noted.
The answer became apparent shortly. Both Lilith and Misaki started to glow blue, and they lifted themselves off the ground and out of the field of damage.
"What?!" Callie gasped.
"As a Fighting type trainer, you should know how scary Psychic type pokemon can be," Mason said, pushing his glasses up his nose. "A skilled maid team assists each other when necessary, and my pokemon are exactly the same. By using their psychic powers on one another, they can both rise above your attack. Now Lilith, use dark pulse!"
"Gothitelle!" Lilith raised her hands and created a mass of dark aura in her hands. She fired it in a concentrated blast at Vyasa.
"Oranguru?" Vyasa grunted, raising his eyebrow.
"Uh-oh, that's not good!" Callie cried.
"Passimian!" Shuka cried. In spite of her dislike for her partner, she didn't want him taking a powerful Dark type attack like that.
She would reconsider that thought a few seconds later.
Vyasa's eyes flashed blue and he began glowing, and Shuka began to glow as well. He used ally swap, and the two pokemon switched places, putting Shuka right in the path of the incoming dark pulse, which hit her head-on.
"RAFE!" Callie screamed at her brother, who was beside himself with laughter.
"Don't blame me!" Rafe said. "Vyasa chose that move all on his own!"
"I WILL blame you!" She snapped. "He only did it because you won't rein him in!"
"…She says that, but it seems like the tactically-sound move," Donoma mused. "After all, that slow Oranguru wouldn't have dodged the attack normally. Besides, look, her Passimian barely took any damage from that Dark type move."
"Passimian!" Shuka roared angrily, shrugging off the dark pulse and throwing her berry at Vyasa, who dodged it effortlessly.
"That's not the point," Chloe mumbled. "It's the principle of the thing, you shouldn't ally swap someone else into the path of an attack without their position."
Donoma rolled her eyes but didn't press the subject so as not to upset Ian.
"…Forget it, Shuka," Callie groaned, shaking her head. "Let's just focus on taking them down, alright? The faster they're dealt with, the faster we can be done battling with my brother."
"Passimian," Shuka nodded. That was certainly something she could get behind.
"Misaki, return," Mason said, recalling his Indeedee, to everyone's surprise.
"An exchange this early?" Ian said. "But it doesn't seem like his pokemon is particularly disadvantaged in this battle."
"Misaki is an exceptional maid," Mason stated firmly. "That means she specializes in support, whether that's supporting her teammates or supporting me, her master. If she can't do an adequate job of providing support, due to, for example, being under taunt, then it only makes sense to switch her out for someone who can. Rem!"
Mason sent out his next pokemon.
"Gardevoir," his third "maid" emerged from her pokeball, standing elegantly in her white dress. This Psychic type was very tall, and because of that, she gave an impression like she was looking down on her opponents. Paired up side by side with the dark and gothic Gothitelle, the duo gave off a very unique appearance.
"Rem, that Oranguru is the problem," Mason said, adjusting his glasses. "Ignore the Passimian, she's just a vulgar girl who doesn't understand the true quality of maids."
"Hey!" Callie snapped. "Don't talk that way about Shuka!"
"I was referring to you," Mason clarified.
Callie's eye twitched. "Okay, that does it! Shuka, use iron head!"
"Passimian!" Shuka lowered her head and clutched her berry to her chest like a quarterback running with a football. She charged at Rem.
"Misaki, use psybeam," Mason ordered.
"Gothitelle!" Misaki fired a beam of psychic energy at Shuka, but the lemur was able to dodge it with her speed and kept running towards her goal.
"Oranguru!" Vyasa grunted. And suddenly, Shuka had completely leapt to the other side of the battlefield, right back where she started.
"Passimian?!" She gasped in disbelief, raising her head and looking around in confusion. Vyasa had used ally swap again.
"Ra-!" Callie's frustrated exclamation was cut short when she saw why Vyasa had used the move; Rem had just hit the Oranguru with a moonblast.
"Sorry sis," Rafe apologized with a sheepish smile. "It looks like Vyasa has a mind of his own, just doing as he likes."
"…Whatever," Callie mumbled. Yeah, so Vyasa stepping in without her permission had saved Shuka from a powerful hit. So what? It was about the principle! The principle!
"That's just what we wanted," Mason smirked. "Rem, use taunt!"
"Gardevoir," Rem nodded. A coy expression crossed her face and she beckoned towards Vyasa, who was stunned by the pokemon's bewitching eyes. He rose to his feet for the first time in the fight and shuffled towards her.
"Vyasa! What are you doing!?" Callie exclaimed.
"I hope you don't think less of Rem for using such a vulgar move," Mason said. "Indeed, it's unbecoming of a maid to taunt her opponents. But some sacrifices of dignity must be made, for the sake of her duty to serve."
Callie didn't understand a word of that but it still sounded creepy. "Whatever!" She snapped. "Shuka, go knock some sense into that idiot! And while you're at it, beat that Gardevoir a good one, too!"
"Passimian!" Shuka nodded, charging at Vyasa with her berry raised. She flung it at Vyasa, who ducked down to avoid the berry aimed at the back of his skull. Because of that it kept on going, smacking Rem in the face.
"Gardevoir?!" Rem exclaimed, her appealing visage shifting with rage as she glared at the Fighting type pokemon.
"Not so smug now, are ya?" Callie smirked. She turned to Rafe. "Rafe, Mason might be weird, but he had a point before. As much as I hate to admit it, without his support moves, Vyasa isn't a very useful pokemon! Swap him out for someone else!"
She might have hated how Vyasa would use instruct to force Shuka to keep attacking, but even she was mature enough to admit that it was a working strategy. If he couldn't do that, then their teamwork wasn't all it was cracked up to be.
Rafe blinked. Then he shrugged his shoulders. "Nah, don't feel like it."
"What?! What do you mean you don't feel like it?!" Callie was apoplectic. "This is an important battle you know! We can't just waste time!"
"What can I say? Vyasa so rarely gets the chance to stretch his legs," Rafe shrugged. "I say just let him go and have some fun!"
This was just another reason why Callie couldn't stand her brother. Here she was trying to win the most important pokemon battle of her life to date, a battle where losing meant the loss of everything that she was as a person, and her brother… was letting his pokemon indulge themselves, rather than fighting with strategy!
"Fine!" She snapped. "If he wants to fight, then let me give him some orders! For starters, Vyasa, get back here! You won't do any good that close!"
"Oranguru," Vyasa nodded. At least he wasn't so far gone as to ignore strategically-sound advice. He turned and lumbered towards their side of the field on his knuckles.
But Mason wasn't going to let him get away that easily.
"Oh please," Mason scoffed. "Lilith, use dark pulse! Rem, use moonblast!"
"Gothitelle!" Lilith shouted, creating a sphere of dark energy in the palms of her hands.
"Gardevoir!" At the same time, Rem was focusing her power into an orb of bright moonlight.
The two Psychic type pokemon fired their attacks at the retreating Vyasa. The dark and fairy energies swirled together in a helix and hit Vyasa in the back, practically exploding from the force of the shockwave.
"ORANGURU!" Vyasa groaned as he crashed to the ground. He struggled to pick himself back up.
"Not good!" Callie scowled. "Shuka! Keep up your guard! Use protect!"
"Passimian," Shuka nodded, dashing in front of Vyasa and creating a barrier of white light that protected them both from attacks while Vyasa tried to recover.
"Okay, Vyasa," Callie said, turning to Vyasa. She would have to take the reins of this fight if her brother wasn't going to step up (which was almost always the case). "I know you're not good on the physical side of things, but that's fine. I just need you to back up Shuka with your attacks, can you do that please?"
"…Oranguru," Vyasa grunted, nodding in agreement. He'd taken some damage from those attacks, but as far as it went, he was a pretty resilient pokemon. It came with the fact that he had such high special defenses.
"Great! That's just what I like to hear!" Callie nodded. "Now Shuka, use fling at that Gothitelle! It's a Dark type move, so she should take some serious damage! As for you, Vyasa, I want you to use psychic! I think you'll know on what!"
Callie had slightly exaggerated when she complained that back in the day Vyasa made Shuka do all the work. While it was certainly the case that Shuka was the powerhouse of the team and Vyasa had been very liberal with his use of instruct to force her to go above and beyond the call of duty, that didn't mean Vyasa just slacked off the entire match.
He wasn't Rafe, after all.
No, the Oranguru had a few strategies he was more willing to be an active participant in, and this was one of them.
"Passimian!" Shuka started the attack like she always did. Thanks to the boost in speed she'd gotten from Jaina's brief appearance on the battlefield, she could run circles around the other pokemon in the battle. She used that to her advantage, dashing at Lilith and Rem and raising her berry, flinging it at Lilith's face.
"Oh please," Mason said, rolling his eyes. "That attack can only work a few times. By that point, it's easy to see where you're going! Lilith, dodge it!"
He had a point. As fast and hard as Shuka had flung the berry, it was still traveling in a straight line at the end of the day, and visibility was clear. Lilith used her psychic powers to propel herself well out of the way of his attack.
Then to Mason's shock, the berry changed directions midair and slammed into Lilith's side, knocking her over.
"What the hell?!" He sputtered in disbelief.
Callie smirked. "What do you think of our combination attack?" She asked. Vyasa's eyes were glowing blue, and his fan was shining with a blue aura as he waved it.
"So that's it!" Ian said. "She's using the Oranguru's psychic attack t control the direction of the berry! Her Passimian can only throw it in a straight line, but like this it becomes a homing projectile that can chase down its prey!"
"That's pretty clever," Donoma agreed. "I never would have thought a Fighting type trainer like Callie would come up with something that smart."
Callie scowled.
"No offense," she hastily added, not wanting to look too catty in front of Ian.
Callie had to admit though, Donoma had a point. I'm really not used to fighting like this, she thought with a sigh. I guess it's just another factor of having to deal with my brother all the time…
At her heart, Callie was a Fighting type trainer. Growing up watching fancy pokemon show off for a crowd rather than actually using their skills to fight seriously had jaded her on the concept of pokemon battles in general. But then she fell in love with tough Fighting types. Pokemon who were all business and respected combat for what it was. At the same time, though, they weren't savage beasts mindlessly hammering away at whatever was in their path; rather, they carried themselves with dignity and composure, fighting seriously in a sportsmanlike manner.
She wanted to be like them. She wanted to have serious battles, and not performances where she was forced to do all the work.
It was no exaggeration to say that if it wasn't for the Fighting type, Callie's career as a pokemon trainer would have died the day she quite the pageant circuit.
So yeah, she wasn't used to using Psychic types. But necessity was the mother of invention, and when it came to her brother, there were a lot of necessities.
Like the necessity of smacking some sense into his head to get him back into the game.
"Rafe!" She snapped. "I can't handle this forever you know!"
Vyasa was guiding the berry with his fan, directing it towards the Gothitelle and forcing her back. And while that was happening, Callie was giving orders to Shuka at the same time to direct the Passimian to attack herself.
She was fighting on two fronts, and she could really use her brother right now.
"Passimian!" Without her berry, Shuka's methods of attack were limited. But she could still charge at Rem with an iron head while the Gardevoir was distracted.
As Shuka ran towards Rem, Vyasa worked with his partner, directing the berry to come after the Gardevoir next. It flew through the air like a homing missile, battering Rem as she tried to dodge out of the way.
But in her heavy dress, with her thin stick-figure legs, the Psychic type pokemon didn't have a chance of outrunning the berry.
So she didn't even bother.
"There's one flaw in your strategy," Mason said, narrowing his eyes. "You can control that berry with your Oranguru's psychic power because it's no longer in possession of your Passimian. But at the same time… that means OTHER pokemon can control it as well."
"What?!" Callie gasped. She hadn't even considered that; no one had tried such a thing when they used this combo in the tag tournaments!
"Rem, psychic!" Mason ordered.
Rem's eyes began to glow red, and the crest on her chest started to glow as well. Vyasa's blue aura around the berry was overpowered by a red one, and the Gardevoir seized control of the ball, turning it away from her-
…And sending it back where it came.
Shuka cried in pain as the berry slammed into her stomach, knocking her over and canceling out the devastating iron head she was about to deliver to her opponent. She crumpled to the ground at Rem's feet, leaving her totally at the mercy of Rem's attacks.
Uh-oh! This isn't good! While Callie and Rafe may have been skilled at tag battles back in the day, on the kiddie circuit, it seems those strategies don't translate perfectly to the present! Mason was able to turn their combo against them, and also severely limited the abilities of the supportive Vyasa. Will Callie (and Rafe, I guess) be able to come out of this successful? Or will their lack of teamwork spell their doom!? We'll have to find out.