Marion and Willa are fighting! And Marion's already off to a great start thanks to using the incredibly powerful fish combination of Dondozo and Tatsugiri! With those two (or three… maybe four?) at her disposal, Willa's going to be in for a tough fight… but then, we have no idea what sort of drugs she has for her pokemon. This could be quite an interesting match! Remember to review!

KedharS: Marion seems like the kind of person who would make any battle fun, she behaves a lot like Cynthia.

RKS Legacy: Yeah, Dondozo and Tatsugiri are a really powerful combination of pokemon. It's almost serendipitous that they would be released not long before Marion got into a pokemon battle in a region famous for double battles. Which gives her the perfect opportunity to show off just how brutal of a combination they can be!

Hyphenman: Marion just brings her fishy friends wherever she can. She had to bring them in Dive Balls this time around because the natural water sources in the Orre Region aren't the healthiest for pokemon to inhabit. But thanks to Shaymin, that's changing!

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1199

"Alright, Donnie! Marie! Let's do this thing! Order up!" Marion cheered. That was one of the best parts of her personality- she was always chipper! About everything. Even though this was a very serious situation, Marion was still smiling and full of energy- the vivacious girl couldn't be contained, and neither could her pokemon. Her enthusiasm was infectious.

"DONDOZO!" Donnie roared, surging forward. His giant body rose out of the river and slammed into the approaching Delibird, knocking him backwards.

"Delibird!" Flemming gasped, stumbling back.

"Nice work!" Marion cheered.

"DOOOOON!" The energy around Donnie surged and he got even tougher.

"Marie isn't like Mary, even though their names are similar," Marion said. "Mary is a curly form Tatsugiri, as you could see from her curled body and orange splotchy pattern. Marie, on the other hand, is a droopy form Tatsugiri."

Willa remembered that the magenta Tatsugiri's body seemed to be slumped down over its throat sack. So that's what Marion meant by a droopy form? Interesting. She'd ben curious about why the two Tatsugiri looked different, and it seemed as though Marion was prepared to confirm a hypothesis she'd been building.

"What's the difference between the two of them?" Willa asked as her enraged Delibird picked himself up off the grass.

"Simple," Marion said as Donnie scuttled back into the water. "Curly form Tatsugiri increase the attack stat of a Dondozo when they use order up. But droopy form Tatsugiri do something completely different."

Her eyes were sparkling.

"You can tell, can't you? Donnie's defense has increased!"

"Dondozo!" Donnie bellowed. Willa narrowed her eyes. She could tell, Donnie's defense had risen after using that attack. How curious. That certainly put her in a difficult position, she couldn't deny that. So different types of Tatsugiri raised different stats when the Dondozo used order up? That was certainly a combination.

She had to think about this. Unfortunately, her Delibird wasn't in a position where he could think clearly at the moment.

"Flemming, use foul play!" She ordered. If Marion was going to boost her pokemon's stats so colossally, then she'd have her Delibird take advantage of it.

"That's a pretty good trick," Alden said, raising his eyebrow. "Since Marion's Dondozo has increased his attack stat so much, foul play will allow that Delibird to take advantage of that massive attack stat as well."

"Normally, this technique is used in conjunction with the berserker potion in a different way," Willa admitted. "The goal is to give my opponent the potion to boost their strength at the cost of their critical thinking, and then steal their stat gains with foul play. But this can work just as well!"

"Delibird!" Flemming ran towards Donnie and raised his wing, swinging it in a strike. The blow was so powerful it nearly knocked Donnie out of the water.

"Dondozo!" Donnie bellowed, thrashing around and smacking at Flemming with his tail. Even with the boost to his defenses the attack still hurt.

"Donnie, use heavy slam!" Marion ordered. A Steel type move would be perfect for overcoming an Ice type pokemon like Flemming.

"Dondozo!" Donnie surged ahead, lifting up his colossal body out of the water flinging himself forward onto the Delibird.

"Serturner, use protect!" Willa quickly ordered. Her Shuckle scuttled in front of Flemming and created a brown barrier around the two pokemon, blocking Donnie's attempt to attack.

"Nice protection!" Marion smiled. "But that won't do a lot! Donnie, get back in the water, we're trying something else!"

"Dondozo!" Donnie nodded, flopping back into the river with a giant splash.

"Alright, great, use rain dance!" Marion ordered.

"DONDOZO!" Donnie howled up towards the sky, and the clouds overhead began to darken. Rain fell down onto the battlefield, flooding the river even further and covering the fish pokemon with water. When the barrier fell, the two pokemon behind it were soaked as well.

"Rain…?" Willa asked, holding out her hand. She was scowling.

"I was thinking about how you tried to use your Delibird to soak my pokemon in your potions," Marion said. "Can't say I'm a huge fan. While I'm not going to stop you from testing on your own pokemon, supposing they're okay with it, of course, there's no way I'm letting you use Donnie or Marie for your experiments."

Now that the catfish pokemon was covered in water, and Marie was safely hidden away inside Donnie's mouth, there was little chance of the potions being able to affect them in time. They'd be washed off too quickly.

But Marion didn't need to worry about that.

Willa shook her head. "You already showed me the futility of an act like that," she assured the other girl. "That's why I had Flemming take the berserker potion in the first place- I knew there was no chance of him using your pokemon as test subjects. But that's fine. Because my own pokemon are more than capable of testing out my drugs for me, right Serturner?"

"Shuckle!" Serturner nodded, scuttling over to Flemming's discard satchel filled with all sorts of potions and concoctions.

"Serturner, find the red potion with the blue cork!" Willa ordered. "Flemming! While he's doing that, you focus on attacking that Dondozo! He may have boosted his physical defense, but let's see how well his special defense holds up! Use air slash!"

"Delibird!" Flemming raised his wing and slashed down with incredible power, sending out a blade of wind that carved through the rain and even some of the grass. It parted the river as it traveled through the air, slicing into Donnie and cutting open his scaly hide.

"DONDOZOOOOOO!" Donnie wailed, thrashing around in the water frantically.

Marion winced. "Sorry, Donnie! That looks like it stung!"

"That Dondozo pokemon is definitely physically bulky," Alden said, stroking his chin. "But apparently, the same can't be said for its special stats. Even though everything got a massive buff from the Tatsugiri, it's still vulnerable to special moves."

"You've got a good eye," Marion nodded. "I guess that's why they call you the Commander, since you're so good at figuring out the situation."

She smirked.

"Of course, my Marie is the real Commander on the battlefield right now!" She boasted. Alden rolled his eyes.

"So I'm right, that pokemon's vulnerable to special moves," Willa smirked. "I noticed it the second I saw your stats raise!"

"Oh?" Marion raised her eyebrow curiously.

"Because of my extensive research with pokemon pharmaceuticals, I've developed quite an eye for determining how my drugs affect pokemon," Willa explained. "It's something an good researcher should know. And that's why I could tell that your Dondozo has gotten really powerful, but at the same time, when it used order up the first time, only his physical attack got an increase."

"Whoa, really?" Marion gasped, her jaw dropping. "You could tell something like that!?"

"Of course I could," Willa said. "And when you used it again earlier, your physical defense increased, but not your special defense. That couldn't be a coincidence. Two boosts from order up, and they only increased your physical stats? That left me with two hypotheses. Either there existed other forms of Tatsugiri that boost your other stats, in which case there could be as many as five kinds, or, because Dondozo is such a bulky pokemon and only hunts specific kinds of prey in specific ways, it hasn't needed to adapt to hunt other kinds of pokemon! So it hasn't had a need to boost its special stats. How's that? Am I close?"

"Even if she was, there's no sense in confirming it," Alden said. "Marion might not be a pokemon battler, but even she knows enough to not just give her opponent an advantage by confirming something like that-"

"You're totally right!" Marion gushed. "Oh, but to be clear, it's the second one. Yeah, Dondozo have very low special stats, only 65 in special attack and special defense. Compared to 100 physical attack and 115 physical defense, there's no wonder why your air slash did so much damage!"

Keya glanced at the Commander, who rubbed his temples and sighed.

"So there aren't a bunch of other forms of Tatsugiri, then?" Willa clarified. "Good. I guess that means we've found our method of attack!"

"Well, there's one more," Marion offered. "And since you'll be relying on special moves starting now… Marie! Use baton pass!"

"Tatsugiri!" Marie chirped from within Donnie's mouth. She began to glow magenta and returned to her Dive Ball.

Everyone could guess what Marion was going to do next.

"Maree, go!" Marion called, throwing another Dive Ball into the air.

"Tatsugiri!" The third Tatsugiri to enter the battle emerged, flopping into the water. This one looked even angrier than the previous one, and her sticky body was a bright yellow. She lay straight on her throat sack, her body stretched out.

"This is Maree! She's a stretchy form Tatsugiri!" Marion introduced her new pokemon. "Maree! If you would?"

"Tatsu," Maree nodded, flinging herself out of the water. She landed in Donnie's mouth like the other Tatsugiri did, quickly bonding with the big catfish using her Commander ability. Donnie roared, his stats returning to their heightened state.

"Now Donnie, order up again!" Marion ordered.

"Dondozo!" Donnie surged forward with even greater speed than before, which startled Willa. She wasn't expecting a bulky pokemon to move so fast.

"Flemming! Dodge it!" She shouted to her Delibird. But in his current state, Flemming didn't even know how to dodge. The only thing he could do was attack.

So that's what he did.

"Delibird!" Flemming roared, charging at Donnie with his wings raised, raining more air slashes down on the approaching catfish.

Donnie withstood the attacks as best as he could. It was one of the disadvantages of being the biggest pokemon around; dodging was almost impossible. But thankfully he had a massive HP stat, which meant he wasn't going to go down to a few measly air slashes.

Willa stared thoughtfully at the Dondozo as it approached.

"Well the first two Tatsugiri boosted physical attack and physical defense, so I'm assuming this third one will be boosting your speed?" She guessed.

"Absolutely right!" Marion nodded. "Go, Donnie!"

"Dondozo!" Donnie slammed into Flemming, sending him flying backwards. The force of the blow was incredible, nearly knocking out the Delibird even with the berserker potion stimulating him. Flemming hit the ground hard and rolled through the grass, struggling to stand back up. As he fell, Donnie's stats received another boost.

Willa narrowed her eyes. Just as she suspected, she could see Donnie's speed stat getting a boost.

Giselle was amazed at how good Willa was at checking her pokemon's stat changes. Was it even possible to be so skilled at that?

Willa wasn't lying when she said it was something that she'd developed out of necessity as a pokemon researcher. But that wasn't the entire story. The truth was, even though that was what she'd said, her ability to determine those things was still rather limited. She could tell the conditions in her own pokemon, of course, because she'd spent a lot of time monitoring their health. But when it came to other pokemon, she'd never been this skilled before.

The reason why that had changed was due to Samarra's influence- or more specifically, because of someone else who Samarra was friends with.

Ayame Toujou.

Ayame was a talented athlete and trained her pokemon to take part in Pokeathlons. And a big part of her skill was that she had a natural ability for judging the condition of her pokemon; she could tell what their stats were specialized in at a glance, and how well they were doing on a specific day. It was a natural talent that she'd been born with and cultivated over the years, and now that Samarra was her friend, someone like Willa could benefit from it as well, without even realizing.

It made things much easier for her. Willa couldn't wait for this mess to be finished and for everyone to be friends, so she could use this newfound ability of hers to further her research even more. It was going to be perfect!

But first she needed to beat this Marion girl.

Willa wasn't the kind of person to care about things like the Daevas or the power struggle between them. There wasn't much she did care about, besides completing her research and experimenting on the newest potion idea that crossed her mind. Because of that, even though she knew Marion's title as the Mermaid, she didn't really know what that entailed.

Maybe she would have been more cautious if she understood just how significant the Daevas were, but then again, Marion wasn't exactly carrying herself like someone who was the grand poobah of the Ranger and Caretaker Courses.

It was easy to forget just how talented and skilled the girl really was, due to how she often carried herself.

"Alright, I think that's enough playing around, don't you?" Marion asked calmly. Serturner had just finished drinking the potion Willa had ordered him to.

Willa tensed when she felt the atmosphere change around Marion and her pokemon. The green-haired girl tipped the brim of her hat up slightly, revealing the glint of her blue eyes. Unlike Willa, her face was clean as could be thanks to the hat keeping off the rain.

And it was clear that Willa was dealing with someone else now.

During her time at the Pokemon Academy, Willa often locked herself up in her lab focusing on research. She didn't have any friends, and didn't really want them, either. Even among the other students in the Phantom's organization she didn't have anyone she was close to. People kept their distance from her because of that, seeing her as someone a little "out there" who was always curled over her beakers like a witch over her cauldron.

But she was harmless enough- when she wasn't partaking in an experiment, of course. Kiana and the other people in her group had experienced her true nature firsthand not long after they'd arrived at the Orre Region; they'd seen the way she fought with that street performer, and subjected her pokemon to all sorts of horrible drugs.

It was the reason Ange was focusing such a cold glare on her at this very moment. She didn't trust or like Willa in the slightest, given how easily Willa exploited pokemon, both her own and those of others. Even if it was for the "greater good" as the pharmacist often said.

Willa shivered. She knew what it was like to have two sides to a person; after all, she was the exact same way. And just like how everyone had been unnerved seeing her battle for the first time, she was feeling that same sense of nervousness; because Marion Rivers had gotten serious as well.

The fishing enthusiast was practically glowing with a blue aura as she focused on her pokemon, strengthening them with her harmonia.

"Phew," she said, wiping the sweat off her forehead. She was still grinning. "That really takes a lot out of me! Alright, Donnie! Let's do this thing! Rock slide!"

"DONDOZO!" Donnie roared, and the ground began to shake. Willa stumbled and fell back. What was this, an earthquake?! Had Marion ordered her Dondozo to use earthquake, even though she had a Flying type pokemon? That was insanity! A harmonia-boosted earthquake would practically tear Agate Village apart! It felt like the whole town was going to slide off the mountain!

But that wasn't what was happening. Marion wasn't foolish enough to do something like that. No, the move she used was a little more powerful, at least against Willa's team.

Massive stones tore themselves up out of the ground; it was like Donnie had pulled the entirety of the riverbank up into the air, and had it hover above the battlefield. Willa's jaw dropped in shock.

Marion was straining her harmonia, giving every bit of strength to her pokemon as she could. She wasn't going to end this easily.

"Rock slide!" She ordered.

The stones that fell upon Flemming and Serturner were massive, far larger than those Serturner had attacked Donnie with earlier. And there were more of them too, so many they seemed capable of blotting out the sun, if the rainclouds hadn't done so already.

"Serturner! Quickly, you need to protect yourself!" Willa shouted. Even with Shuckle's massive defense stat, she wasn't sure if he would be able to withstand such a brutal attack.

"Shuckle!" Serturner nodded, creating a brown barrier of light around his body to protect himself from the onslaught of boulders raining down on him from above.

The only problem was that he was too far away from Flemming to protect the Delibird as well.

Not that Flemming would have asked for protection in the first place, even if he needed it. The Delibird was under the influence of the berseker potion, and wouldn't have listened to orders for cover, he was focused on attacking. He charged at Donnie even as he was pelted by rocks, raising his wings to try and slash at the Dondozo and cut him apart.

He didn't even come close. The rock slide buried him alive, stopping his advance with a mountain of dirt and mud. Even with all the strength that came from the berserker potion, he couldn't dig himself free of the landslide.

The only thing Willa could do was recall her Delibird and think about her next strategy. But she was very careful when she recalled him- she made sure that the bag of potions and other concoctions that Flemming always carried remained right at her side.

She would have use for them, if she hoped to defeat an opponent with as much brute strength as Marion Rivers.

Alden was shaking. A smile crossed his face in spite of the tense situation, and he could feel his brother's "Sense" tingling as well.

Because of the way she always acted, it was easy to forget just how powerful Marion was. But the fact remained that she was one of the Daevas. And not only that, she was the only one of the four of them who had harmonia.

She may act like a ditz who only cared about fishing (and both of those things were completely true) but it couldn't be denied that when she put her mind to it, she was a force of nature in her own right; it was like the rivers and oceans of Orre itself was Willa's opponent in this match.

Alden had to wonder if the pharmacist could even give Marion a good fight.

So yeah, Marion's got quite a load of power up her sleeve, that's for sure! Dondozo and Tatsugiri are a brutal combination on their own, but when paired with harmonia? That's a recipe for a natural disaster right there. We'll see if Willa has any potions up her sleeve that will help her with that, but if not, this fight might turn into quite the anti-climax.