After rounds and rounds of slacking off, it looks like Rafe is finally ready to join the fighting! But how long can he be counted on? Callie better settle things fast, or else her brother might just decide to start slacking off again. For now, though, she's got him on her side, and she'll need all the help she can get dealing with Mason and his team of maid pokemon!

KedharS: Yes, he really is. It's pretty amusing.

Guest: They have an interesting relationship, that's for sure.

Hyphenman: Teeter dance is really frustrating, especially in double battles.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1192

Callie was excited. Her brother was finally getting back into the fight! She knew that this may only be a temporary measure, though, so she moderated her expectations. There was a good chance that he would go back to slacking off sooner than later.

So she would make the most of this while she could.

"Jaina, use aura sphere on the Liligant!" Callie ordered. She knew that Jaina could do more damage with acrobatics, but she didn't want her to get that close if she didn't have to.

"Mienshao," Jaina nodded. She raised her hands and formed a sphere of aura in her palms that she fired at Sadayo.

"You already tried that!" Mason reminded Callie with a sneer. "Sadayo, block it with energy ball again!" He ordered.

"Liligant," Sadayo nodded. She fired an orb of nature energy at the attack and the two spheres cancelled each other out in a small explosion.

But that was just the opening that Rafe needed. "Lovecraft!" He shouted. "Use dark pulse!"

"Malamar!" Lovecraft raised his tentacles and fired a shockwave of dark energy at the Liligant, knocking her backwards.

"Liligant!" Sadayo cried out in pain, falling backwards.

"Rem!" Mason shouted at his Gardevoir. "Use moonblast to take them down!"

"Gardevoir!" Rem nodded, firing a blast of fairy energy at Lovecraft. The attack hit him head-on and he floundered, stumbling backwards.

"Rafe, you good?" Callie shouted to her brother.

"Ah, we're all fine here," Rafe called over to her, helping his Malamar back up. As usual, he had no qualms with getting right into the center of the fight. It was one of the few things Callie admired about her brother.

"Well, that's good," Callie nodded. "That means we can give our all in focusing on this fight! Jaina, use calm mind like them to build up your special abilities!"

"Mienshao," Jaina nodded, concentrating her power to focus. Her special attack and defense both increased and she was able to use her aura sphere with even more effectiveness.

Rafe had a helpful warning, though. "Callie, are you sure that's the best idea?" He asked. "What if Lovecraft decides to use topsy-turvy again? That would be really bad, because then your aura sphere would be weakened."

"That's fine, just tell him not to do it," Callie shrugged. It was a simple enough fix.

…Although, knowing her brother…

"Come on, Callie, you know that's not my style," Rafe laughed. "If Lovecraft wants to use that move, then more power to him!"

Callie could scream. She could just scream.

"Whatever," she mumbled under her breath. "Let's focus then." If things were going to get messed up for her and Jaina, better they do all they can rather than be caught with their pants down. Right now, Jaina's aura sphere was going to STING.

Jaina raised her hands and formed a massive sphere of aura, which she fired at Sadayo. This one was so big, there was no way that an energy ball would put a dent in it.

But Mason had other tricks up his sleeve.

"Rem, use light screen!" He ordered. The attack might have been large, but it couldn't compare to the defensive barrier that Rem was able to erect, blocking the incoming aura sphere completely.

"Nice work!" Mason congratulated his maid, who accepted the praise with a bow. Callie didn't care though, that barrier was coming down soon. She glanced at Rafe to see what he was going to do next, relieved beyond belief that he was still focusing on the fight and not slacking off again.

"Time for a new play," Rafe grinned, throwing his sister a wink. "This one I borrowed from you, little sis! Lovecraft, use superpower!"

"Malamar!" Lovecraft roared, lifting up his tentacles. They bloated up to more than double their size as he flexed them, and he leapt forward, swinging them at Sadayo. With his speed enhanced as a result of Shuka's scary face, he was able to close the distance in seconds, and Sadayo was helpless against his assault.

The look of pain on the Liligant's face as Lovecraft's tentacle struck her in the stomach was awe-inspiring. She cried out as she was knocked backwards, and to everyone's surprise, Lovecraft stood even taller than before.

"Oh, that's very good," Alden said, a coy smile spreading across his lips. "Very clever indeed."

"Why?" Donoma asked curiously. "What did he do?"

"He had his Malamar use superpower," Alden explained. "Under normal conditions, superpower is a strong move that comes with a serious downside. Certainly the user's strength is significantly buffed, but that power gain is only temporary. When the move is finished being executed, it's like the strength leaves their body."

"It's the same thing with muscle training," Callie called over, having listened in a little on the conversation. "Overtax your muscles too much, and you're going to hate life when that rush wears down."

"But that Malamar doesn't look weakened," Donoma noted, glancing at the Malamar. Indeed, Lovecraft looked much stronger than he had right before executing the move. "What's up with that, then?" She asked curiously.

"It's a result of Malamar's ability, Contrary," Alden explained. "Remember? It reverses all stat changes. That means any buff to a stat becomes a debuff, and vice versa. You saw what happened with scary face, right? It made his speed increase instead of decrease."

Chloe gasped, realizing what that meant.

"So by using a move like superpower that would normally decrease his physical attack and defense stats, with Contrary…" She shook her head, too shocked to finish the sentence. She never would have imagined a strategy like that in a million years.

Seeing what she was getting at, Alden finished her thought. "Exactly. Superpower isn't lowering his stats with each use- it's raising them!"

"Malamar!" Lovecraft let out a roar of supremacy, flexing his tentacles again. Things weren't looking good for Mason and his maids.

"Nice work, Rafe!" Callie said. For the record, she wasn't at all jealous that Rafe had a pokemon that could use superpower without lowering his stats, thank you very much.

"Sadayo!" Mason shouted. His harmonia flared up. They were in a bad situation. Normally he'd have her use quiver dance to boost her stats, but he couldn't give that order while that Malamar was still an active threat.

There was something else he could do, though.

"Sleep powder!" He ordered.

"Liligant!" Sadayo released a cloud of green spores from the flower on her head, and sent them flying towards Callie and Rafe's side of the battlefield.

"Oh no!" Callie gasped. He's trying to put Lovecraft back to sleep again!

That was really bad. She'd just managed to get the Malamar back in the fight. If the sleep powder put him back to sleep, would Rafe switch his pokemon out this time? Or would he just go back to slacking off again?

A third possibility crossed her mind, which made her shiver. Given how close Rafe was to his pokemon right now, what if he fell asleep as well?

No, no, this was no good at all.

"Lovecraft!" She shouted. "Rafe!"

But then she realized that the sleep powder wasn't heading towards them.

"Jaina?!" She gasped in disbelief. The cloud of powder was heading for her Mienshao! She had to think quickly. "Use agility!"

"Mien!" Jaina leapt back, doing a few cartwheels to put herself out of the way of the sleep powder. It was an elegant evasion, but it still didn't answer Callie's question about why Mason was trying to put her pokemon to sleep when Rafe was the bigger threat.

Oh, so that's it, she realized. Because he's the bigger threat, Mason wants to take my side of the field out of the fight and double-team him.

That was going to be a problem.

"Rem, use psychic," Mason ordered.

"Gardevoir!" Rem's chest horn began glowing red and suddenly Jaina could no longer move. The Mienshao was lifted up into the air, where she struggled helplessly against the Gardevoir's psychic powers. The sole bit of comfort was that, thanks to her calm mind, the move wasn't doing as much damage as it could have.

But since she wasn't able to move, she couldn't evade the sleep powder.

"Jaina, no!" Callie cried as the sleep powder washed over her.

"Malamar!" Lovecraft was quick to jump to his partner's aid, raising his tentacles and firing a dark pulse at Rem. But the Gardevoir shrugged the attack off with little struggle and turned her focus towards the Malamar.

"Moonblast," Mason ordered. "And Sadayo, now that the Mienshao is out of the picture, hit it with your pollen puff; that move should be four times the effectiveness."

"Gardevoir," Rem nodded, firing a moonblast at Lovecraft.

"Liligant!" While she was doing that, Sadayo created a massive orb of pollen that she launched at him as well.

Rafe whistled. This was looking pretty bad. Luckily, he had an out to that.

"Light screen," he ordered. Lovecraft created another light barrier to block the attacks. They pushed hard against the screen but it remained standing.

Meanwhile, Callie was in a bind. Jaina was lying in the grass, fast asleep. She'd been counting on Jaina to hold the line, as her trump card. And now…

"She needs to swap out her pokemon," Alden said. "She can't just let her Mienshao just sleep there, she needs to be more proactive."

"I know that!" Callie snapped.

"It's not that simple, though."

Ian and the others turned to see Raizer, who had an uncharacteristic frown on his face.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Alden asked his brother. "What's not so simple?"

"While you guys were gone, Callie and Rafe got in another battle," he explained. "Against two really strong trainers. Several of their pokemon were injured and exhausted, and are resting in the pokemon center right now. Callie doesn't have her Infernape, Hawlucha, or Crabominable in fighting condition. And as for her Lucario…"

Callie was holding Rio's pokeball and feeling very tense. Rio had taken a severe amount of damage fighting against Blake's sister. Nearly as severe as the damage Callie herself had taken. Just staring at the pokeball made the scars on her chest flare up again. The nurse at the Pokemon Center had said that such devastating injuries right after evolving had caused a lot of trauma to Rio's body, and she might not be up for fighting in a while. Callie trusted her judgment; she wasn't sure if her pokemon was ready to get back into a battle just yet.

But if she didn't use Rio, then she only had two pokemon left. One was her Jangmo-o, the little dragon she'd gotten from Reed. He was energetic, but she'd never used him in battle before; she wanted to use this trip to bond with him before she added him to her team, and she was afraid that if she sent him out into a dangerous battle like this, things would be bad.

Then… there was Champie. The little Pancham had a lot of spunk himself, but she wasn't sure if he had the power to handle these pokemon.

But she didn't really have a choice, now did she?

"Champie, go!" Callie shouted, sending out her Pancham.

"Pan!" Champie cried, taking up a fighting stance. He didn't baulk in the slightest at the strong pokemon he was facing down, a fact that made Callie smile. She knew she could count on the little guy to be tough.

"So that's your next pokemon, huh?" Mason smirked. "Seems like a bit of a downgrade, if you ask me. Unlike my glorious maids, who are all just as special and amazing as the last!"

Callie's eye twitched. "Don't look down on him!" She snapped. "Champie can hold his own, right Champie?"

"Pancham!" Champie nodded. He punched his fists together and his fur stood on end. He began to use work up, boosting his attack and special attack stats. But he'd only need one of those.

"Lovecraft, use night slash!" Rafe ordered. Callie was amazed he was still so active in the battle. His Malamar charged at Rem, raising his tentacle. Dark energy surged through it and he slashed at the Psychic type pokemon. Unlike with the dark pulse, Rem wouldn't be able to shrug this one off!

The slash hit Rem before she had a chance to dodge, knocking her backwards.

"Gardevoir!" She howled with pain, feeling the deep gash rip through her flesh.

"I agree, Lovecraft, that teleport attack is annoying," Rafe said, patting his pokemon on the head. "Let's take her down!"

"Sadayo, use pollen puff!" Mason snapped.

Rafe and Lovcraft braced themselves behind the barrier, but no attack came their way. Instead, Sadayo fired the orb of pollen she'd formed at her partner.

"What the heck?!" Callie exclaimed in disbelief. It was one thing when Shuka did a little friendly fire on Vyasa, since the Oranguru had Telepathy to dodge it. But why was Sadayo attacking her own teammate like that!?

The answer came quickly when the pollen burst upon impact, surrounding Rem's body, and began to heal her wounds.

"Pollen puff is a unique attack," Lila of all people said, poking her head in on the battle before returning her attention to Darla's fight. "It deals damage when used against an enemy, but when used on an ally, it heals them."

Everyone stared at her in shock, not used to Lila being the person in the room to know what a move did or didn't do.

"Wh-What is it?!" She said, flustered. "My Ribombee knows it, it's one of Vivy's favorite moves, that's all!"

Everyone nodded and returned their attention to the battle while Lila hustled back over to Darla's match.

"Well, so she can heal, not a big issue, right, Rafe?" Callie asked, turning to her brother.

"Ah, what a pain," Rafe sighed, slumping back into the grass. "Lovecraft, you can handle this yourself, right? My motivation's shot now…"

He yawned and laid down to get some sleep.

"RAFE!" Callie shouted, stomping her foot. "You can't just back out of a fight like that, you jerk!" She snapped. But it was no use. You couldn't make Rafe participate.

…Well, at least Lovecraft was still awake. That was a good thing.

"Lovecraft, Rafe was right, that Gardevoir's ability to teleport through your light screen and reflect is a problem," Callie agreed. "She can even teleport through protect! But I think we should focus on the Liligant."

"Malamar?" Lovecraft looked questioningly at Callie, wondering what his trainer's sister was getting at with her suggestion.

Callie quickly clarified, "with that Gardevoir, she's a Psychic/Fairy type. Now, that's a type combination that's a big threat to my pokemon, so I definitely get why she needs to go down. But see, there's a more important type to consider, and that's the Grass type."

Callie pointed at Sadayo as she said that.

"As a Psychic/Fairy type, Gardevoir resists Fighting type moves. That's why you only used your superpower against the Liligant, right? Well, as a Fighting type expert myself, I know how powerful a superpower can be. And since your stats are only rising when you use it… I think the priority should be taking down that Liligant with as many superpowers as you can muster, then using all those stat boosts to finish off the Gardevoir, what do you think?" Callie knew that it probably wasn't the best idea to illustrate her plans like that, not when Mason was listening she also knew that it was important to explain things; Rafe's pokemon weren't her own, after all, and they were more used to fighting with whatever tactics they wanted. She needed to make things clear if she wanted them to listen to her orders.

But what did he think of the plan?

"…Malamar," Lovecraft nodded in agreement, and Callie sighed in relief.

"That's great!" She cheered. "While you're doing that, Champie and I can occupy that Gardevoir! We've got a few surprises up our sleeve!"

"Pancham!" Champie nodded in agreement. He turned and ran towards Rem.

"A small pokemon like that is nothing to us," Mason snorted. "Rem, deal with it!"

"Gardevoir!" Rem raised her hand and her eyes began to glow red. Champie was surrounded with a red aura and was lifted into the air, where he struggled against her psychic powers.

"How many times are you going to try that?" Mason smirked. "Your Fighting type pokemon are worthless against our psychic moves!"

Callie smirked. "Think so? Champie! Use payback!"

"Pancham!" Champie began to glow with a dark aura, and he released a burst of energy that overpowered the psychic, filling his body with strength. He charged at Rem and leapt into the air, delivering a powerful punch to the gut.

"Garde-!" Rem coughed in pain, clutching her stomach and falling to her knees.

"Malamar," Lovecraft nodded in approval. He turned his attention towards Sadayo, surging forward and raising his tentacles. He was moving too quick for the Liligant to respond; with his superpowered tentacles he unleashed a devastating barrage of strikes, sending Sadayo flying through the air. He stepped back and roared with triumph, flexing his muscles proudly.

"Pancham!" Champie was awestruck by the Malamar's strength. Like his trainer, the little pokemon had no idea that a Dark/Psychic type pokemon could be even better with Fighting type moves than Fighting type pokemon themselves!

Well, Rafe stepped out of the battle, but fortunately it looks like Lovecraft is sticking around, and doing some major damage while he's at it! We don't know what else Mason has up his sleeve, and Callie might be down to her last pokemon who can really fight, but this match isn't over quite yet! Will Mason and his maids be defeated by the odd brother/sister duo?