Ayame's continued the pressure with all of her pokemon! She was bragging about her team being perfectly trained, and it looks like her boasts are being backed up! It's not every day you see an Eldegoss deal so easily with a Cyndaquil. Ayame's pokemon are tough! Will Maddi be able to hang on and remain conscious? Or will Ayame take out another one of her pokemon this easily? Cynder's already on the edge, things aren't looking good!

Jjjdunk1: It's not looking good for her at all. Hopefully she'll be able to fight back, but if not, well… things might get difficult.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1213

Maddi fought the urge to stay conscious as the effects of sing rang in her ears. She could feel Cynder slipping away and even as she tried to force her pokemon to stay awake, it was taking everything she had mentally to keep her going.

In the end it didn't matter.

"ELDEGOSS!" Dana opened her mouth wider and her light singing turned into a painful shockwave of sound that slammed into Cynder like a physical wall, knocking the Cyndaquil backwards and waking up both her and her trainer for good.

Maddi's head was ringing. The loud noise was good for jamming her awake, but it was also deafening. And for someone who listened to loud rock music all the time, that was really saying something. She clutched her skull as it pounded in pain.

"Cynda… CYNDAQUIL!" The flames on Cynder's back began to burn and she rose up onto her hind legs, glowing bright red. Maddi gasped.

"It's Blaze!" Hiromi cheered. Now that she could see the battle, she was rooting for Maddi again. She couldn't tell much about what had happened, but Maddi was using a Fire type against a Grass type, and that had to be a good thing, right?

Maddi felt her own body heat up with power. Her harmonia was pumping out of her like a faucet with the nozzle torn off, and she was sending it all towards Cynder. The Cyndaquil was ablaze, her power having received a massive boost.

"So that power will let you offset the loss from your overheat I see," Ayame said, wiping the sweat off her forehead. "If only that would be enough… I'm sorry to say, but it also means that Cyndaquil of yours is on her last fucking legs! Dana, hit her with another hyper voice!"

"El!" Dana nodded, taking a deep breath. She prepared another sonic blast to knock out Cynder for good this time, now that the pokemon had woken up.

But Cynder and Maddi weren't going to let that happen. The two of them both knew that they were low on both power and time, and needed to make the best of this moment while they had it. Maddi needed a move that would definitely hit.

"Heat wave!" She shouted. The blast of hot air might not have had perfect accuracy against most pokemon, but against Dana it was certain to hit. Eldegoss were sensitive to changes in wind pressure, and an attack that was one big blast of hot wind was certain to catch her up in it.

Cynder began to glow bright orange. She opened her mouth and sent the wind blowing towards the Eldegoss, causing the sky to shimmer before their eyes. The heat wave rolled across the battlefield and swallowed Dana, setting her ablaze as she struggled to fight off the gust. It was a futile gesture; Cynder's Blaze-boosted attack was too much.

"Aaaaaaargh!" Ayame screamed as the hair on her body stood on end, feeling like countless little match heads burning down to nub. Her skin was on fire and she could feel her blood boil, and then it was all gone.

Dana fell to the ground, smoking, and Ayame collapsed. She could just barely catch her breath enough to recall Dana to her pokeball.

"No, Aya!" Hiromi wailed. "Are you alright?!"

"Shut up, mom!" Ayame spat. She didn't have time for Hiromi to fawn over her. She needed to defeat Maddi. If she did that, then the other girl would be her friend, and then…

Wait…

No, that's not how it worked, was it? Samarra had tried that before. Maddi was immune to the effect of Samarra's harmonia, meaning that she could never become their friend, not really.

So then why was Ayame fighting her? What was the point of all this?

"You're fighting her because she attacked us," Samarra's silky voice echoed in Ayame's skull. "And we need to stop her."

"But… weren't we the ones to attack her first?" Ayame had brought Maddi to Samarra personally, after all, to turn her into one of their friends.

"You don't understand, Ayame, the existence of her power is a personal attack against us," Samarra explained. "If we don't stop her, then none of us will be safe."

"Stop her… how?" Ayame wasn't sure she liked the direction this was going. She didn't know Maddi very well, and the girl had done nothing but piss her off this entire fight. But the way Samarra had said "stop her" it sounded really…

"It's none of your concern." Samarra said that, and it was final. Ayame didn't even notice her thoughts reshaping to accept Samarra's words as the top priority. All she knew was that she needed to put a stop to Maddi by defeating her.

What came after that, when Maddi was defenseless… that wasn't something that crossed her mind. It didn't concern her in the slightest.

"Troops! You're up!" Ayame said, sending out her next pokemon. The squad of Falinks emerged from their pokeball, raising their shields in a challenge against Cynder.

Maddi clicked her tongue. Of course Ayame wouldn't send her Glalie out, that went without saying. But her Falinks was almost as large of a challenge.

"It must be difficult, splitting your focus across six bodies like that," Maddi said. "Are you sure it's not exhausting you?"

"We're fine," Ayame replied, narrowing her eyes in a glare. Her ribbon was flicking atop her head with the power of her harmonia. "Let's go, Troops!"

"Falinks!" Troops charged at Cynder, surrounding her in a flash. It was astounding, this sort of movement was even more efficient than normal. Maddi realized that it was Ayame's harmonia. Normally, Falinks are guided by the leader, "the brass", and follow their instructions. But Ayame was handling things a different way. Using her harmonia, she could direct all six of the little pokemon at will, moving them like her arms and legs. And because the Falinks were so used to following orders, it was hardly a cognitive strain at all; they were less individual pokemon and more a group practically united as a hive mind already.

They had become her own personal little army.

"Troops, use first impression!" Ayame ordered. It may have been a Bug type move, but first impression was a priority move that allowed the Falinks to immediately close in on Cynder before she could even fight back. The fact that she resist Bug type attacks was the only reason she was still conscious after the Falinks drove their horns into her from all sides like an iron maiden.

"CYNDAQUIL!" Cynder wailed, thrashing in the grass as the Falinks withdrew, maintaining their surrounding formation of the Cyndaquil. Maddi bit her lip. She couldn't call Cynder back, not in this state. If she did, then she couldn't use her in battle again. She'd faint immediately upon contact with the stealth rocks.

So the only move left was to have Cynder put all of her remaining firepower into one last attack, to do as much damage as she could against the Falinks.

"Lava plume!" She ordered. It was the perfect move for this situation. The Falinks were already surrounding her; now she just had to unleash the fire inside of her in a massive eruption that would swallow them all.

"Cyndaquil!" Cynder began to glow once more, maximizing the strength of her Fire type attacks in the face of certain defeat. The flames on her back lit up brightly and a wave of fire and magma erupted from the ground beneath her feet, rolling out to swallow the Falinks around her.

"Troops! Use protect!" Ayame ordered. She wouldn't have sent out her Falinks if there was a risk of them getting too badly injured this early.

"Falinks!" The Troops cried as one, raising up their shields in unison with one another. What happened next was rather interesting. Usually, protect formed a dome-shaped barrier around the pokemon using the move, to protect them from enemy attacks. But what happened when the pokemon who used the protect wasn't one body, but several? And what if, like Troops, the bodies were capable of moving independently, separating from one another and surrounding an opponent who was attacking them in the center?

Well, Maddi found out. Troops' shields formed what looked like a bridge of light, rather than a dome. The barrier connected to each one of them while leaving out the Cyndaquil in the center, almost turning into a donut shape. It might have looked ridiculous, but the effects were real; the lava plume rained fire and ash down on the Falinks, while they remained safe inside their barrier.

Cynder hadn't been able to do anything, unfortunately, and now it was time for the Troops to strike back.

"Brick break!" Ayame ordered.

"Falinks!" The Troops shouted in chorus, moving in unison to aim their horns at the injured Cyndaquil, with the brass' horn being the sharpest of them all.

The sextet of pokemon leapt forward, driving their horns into Cynder from all sides. And this time, the move wasn't a Bug type move, so the damage it had inflicted was severe; Cynder didn't have a prayer of remaining conscious.

"Eeeeeyaaaah!" Maddi screamed, doubling over in pain. She felt the sharp horns of the Troops pierce her on all sides and collapsed, falling to her knees in the grass.

"Madison!" Hiromi cried. "Are you alright!?"

"I-I'm fine…" Maddi panted, regaining her balance and standing back up. The pain was already starting to fade. Grim's defeat had been painful but Cynder's was even more brutal. The injured pokemon had taken quite a beating.

Taking a deep breath, Maddi recalled her to her pokeball.

I only have three pokemon left… If I don't use Vee yet, that means I can send either Violet or Mist back out…

The choice was pretty obvious. Mist had more health remaining, and also lacked a weakness to the Fighting type that would have made Violet a liability. And not only that, without the trick room in play anymore, her Spheal was back to being one of the slowest pokemon around; she doubted that Violet would be able to outpace those speedy little Falinks, especially when they could split up so easily.

So common thinking would suggest she use Mist; if Maddi was making decisions like she normally did, she wouldn't even question it. Send out the pokemon with a neutral typing, rather than the pokemon who was incredibly vulnerable to the opponent's type.

"Violet, go!" Maddi shouted, sending out her Spheal. The small round pokemon emerged from her pokeball, cutting her blubber on the sharp stones.

"Oh? You're using Spheal? I have to say, I wasn't expecting that," Ayame said, raising her eyebrow curiously.

Well… neither was Maddi.

Common sense told her to use Mist, but there was something that Maddi felt was more important, and that was Mist's clear smog attack.

Clear smog was a vital move for dealing with Snows' Moody ability. If she let her Seadra faint before the Glalie came out, then things would get really bad, really fast. And Maddi couldn't afford to let that happen, she had to save Mist until the end.

Which was why, as much of a disadvantage as Violet might have had, she was the pokemon Maddi chose to rely on.

Maddi just had to hope she'd be able to do enough.

"Violet, use surf!" Maddi ordered. She wanted to start off strong, and strike hard before the Troops could surround Violet like they did Cynder. Violet might not have been as fast as the Cyndaquil, but she was a lot harder to corner due to the terrain they were fighting on.

"Spheal!" Violet proved Maddi right by immediately retreating into the river. Maddi cracked a grin as her Spheal summoned a tidal wave.

Cynder had been surrounded, and the Falinks made quick work of her. But that sort of tactic wouldn't work against Violet. The Spheal was safe in the water; the Troops wouldn't be able to get to her that easily.

"A tidal wave, huh? That's a pretty dangerous move," Ayame said, though her tone of voice showed that she thought the opposite. "Troops! Use no retreat!"

"Falinks!" Troops aligned themselves in a phalanx formation with the brass at the front, and they all raised their shields. Their condition received a boost in every stat, giving them enough power to withstand the surf attack with minimal damage.

"Troops are quite well-trained," Ayame boasted. "What do you think of their signature move? No retreat boosts all the stats of my pokemon, making their perfect condition shine even more! But it comes with quite a downside. Once they use the move, they've decided- they won't be switching back out. They'll keep fighting until they faint!"

"I know about it," Maddi nodded.

"Then I'm sure you know how the move originated?" Ayame asked, raising her eyebrow. "A long time ago, a group of Falinks were fighting against an enemy army, and were pressed back against a river. The forces outnumbered them ten to one. But they couldn't give in; knowing there was no chance of retreat with the river behind them, they stood their ground and fought, and ended up driving back the enemy pokemon. That trait has been passed down through Falinks, to the point where they are proud to carry the tradition and fight as if their backs are always against that river!"

"But now the river's what's coming to attack them," Maddi noted with a smirk. "Rather ironic, don't you think?"

Ayame rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Troops!"

"Falinks!" Troops charged forward, approaching the bank of the river. Violet remained safe in the water, at least as she saw it.

But Ayame was a little more clever than that.

"Troops aren't going to back down so easily," she smirked. "They couldn't cross the river back in ancient times, but now they can! With my guidance, of course!"

To Maddi's surprise, one of the Falinks hopped on top of another. Then a third climbed on top of those two.

She realized what was going on when the improvised tower of Falinks began to tip forward, with the brass at the top.

"A bridge? Are you serious?!" She cried in disbelief.

Ayame smirked. "Well, it's more of a chain," she said. "They've linked together in perfect unison to strike your Spheal!"

"Well good luck with that! Violet, break their little connection!" Maddi snapped.

"Spheal!" Violet opened her mouth and fired a beam of rainbow light at the amassed Falinks, trying to strike with aurora beam. But the brass blocked the attack with their shield. The aurora beam did some damage, but in Violet's weakened condition it wasn't enough to seriously injure the Falinks through the buff from no retreat.

Violet saw that she was in a bad position and quickly turned to swim deeper into the water. But the Troops wouldn't let her get away that easily.

"Megahorn!" Ayame shouted.

"Falinks!" The brass' giant horn slammed into the river, sending enough force into the water that it actually parted. Violet was knocked across to the other bank from the force of the attack, and the water quickly rushed back in to fill up the river once again. But if Maddi hoped the Troops would be washed away, she was in for some disappointment. Ayame controlled her team well, and they grabbed onto each other to pull themselves back from the brink.

Of course, now there was a river separating them from their opponent, which provided Maddi and Violet with the perfect opportunity.

"Violet!" Maddi shouted. "Use surf again and wash those Falinks away! They can't get to you on the other side!"

"Spheal!" Violet clapped her flippers together and the river rose up, turning into a tidal wave once again and washing over the Falinks.

"Falinks!" Troops cried as they were pushed back by the powerful wave. But they quickly regathered themselves and stood in formation on the riverbank once again.

"It looks like those Falinks of yours are trapped by the river once more," Maddi said, a shaky smile crossing her lips. She wasn't fully confident in Violet's safety. The story Ayame had told was one of the first things anyone learned about Falinks, and it was practically a myth.

Which meant it was probably less than accurate. From the way the Falinks had moved as a team, Maddi seriously doubted that a river would hold them back for very long.

Needless to say, she was quickly proven right. It was just that sort of day.

"Troops, use rock slide!" Ayame ordered. If they couldn't strike Violet at close range, then there were still long-distance attacks.

"Falinks!" The Troops stomped on the ground and dug massive rocks out of the riverbank with their horns, launching them into the air. The rocks and debris rained down on Violet and the river between them.

"Violet, defense curl!" Maddi shouted. She knew it was a risky gambit, but Violet wasn't nearly fast enough to evade all the boulders. All her pokemon could do was defend herself, and all Maddi could do was bolster that defense with her harmonia and hope that it would be enough.

As Violet curled up into a tiny ball, Maddi felt the stones slam into her own back. They were painful, but Violet was able to hold on. Maddi concentrated her harmonia and focused every drop of power she had on strengthening Violet's defenses, even as pain pounded through her skull. She wasn't about to let this end.

When the rocks finished falling and Maddi still felt sore, she smiled. Violet had made it through! And now she could strike back!

"Avalanche!" Maddi shouted.

Avalanche was a very potent Ice type move. It took damage that the user had received, and allowed them to turn that damage into even more power. It was a move that Spheal didn't even know, normally, but Maddi had managed to teach it to Violet regardless.

And now the payoff would hopefully be enough.

Violet let out a cry and sent a wave of hardened snow rolling across the river, burying the Falinks in a mountain of ice. The six pokemon were buried within the snowdrift, and Maddi could finally catch her breath.

At least for a second.

"That's cold," Ayame shivered. She smirked. "But I've told you already, my pokemon and I trained on Mt. Silver. Troops fight in snowball fights. This won't be enough to take them down!

"Falinks!" True to Ayame's word, her Falinks burst out of the snow one after another like soldiers emerging from camouflage. That's when Maddi saw how bad the situation really was.

Ayame hadn't just ordered her Falinks to use rock slide in order to strike at Violet from across the river. They'd used the attack in order to fill the river with rocks! Massive boulders jutted out of the water, forming a series of platforms that the Falinks could use to cross!

And that was exactly what they did.

"Falinks!" In single file, led by the brass, the Troops leapt from stone to stone, crossing the river in a flash. Violet wasn't able to respond with little more than a couple of bursts of aurora beam. The Troops shrugged the attack off and lowered their horns, preparing their assault.

"No chance for escape now," Ayame promised. "Smart strike!"

The Falinks' horns began to glow, sharpening to become like steel. When they charged, they did so with precision and power, enough that Violet didn't have a prayer of evading. She was struck six times in total and Maddi felt each of those blows, stumbling back and nearly falling into the river herself.

The effect of the barrage was plain to see. Violet lost consciousness, another pokemon defeated by Ayame's Falinks.

Yikes! Maddi's really getting the pressure put on her! She may have defeated three of Ayame's pokemon through her strategies and guile, but Ayame's really turned things around with her Falinks! Troops have a lot of power and Maddi's pokemon just can't seem to keep up! What will she do now? Will she be able to hold on and fight back? Or will Ayame's Troops force her into retreat?