Maddi only has one pokemon left that's capable of fighting, her Eevee. And Ayame has three pokemon left, including her powerful Falinks and Glalie! Will Maddi and Vee be able to find some way to win? Or are Ayame's pokemon just too powerful? This fight is approaching its climax, and Maddi herself is in danger if things get bad! What about everyone else? Where are they? She could really use some backup right about now.

KedharS: Vee's gonna show what he's got!

Epifanio Therion: Yup, Ayame's very talented. Between her physical capabilities and her ability to see the condition of others, with harmonia she's dangerous.

Hyphenman: Ayame is really powerful. She's lost her battles, but they were against students in the Battle Course. For a Pokeathlete who focuses on competing in sports events, that's pretty impressive for her.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1215

Maddi was down to one last pokemon. She recalled Mist to her pokeball and stared up at the sky. This felt like the longest day she'd ever lived. Part of her just wanted it to end. But it wasn't over yet. She still had so much left to do.

"Hey!" Ayame's snappish voice cut into Maddi's thoughts and she blinked, turning back to the tomboy. Ayame crossed her arms over her chest and scowled.

"What are you doing?" She demanded. "You still have one more pokemon left, don't you? This battle isn't over yet. Unless you want to give up, of course, then-"

"Not a chance in hell," Maddi snapped, her face darkening with a scowl. "If I give up, are you going to kill me?"

Ayame flinched, taken aback by that. Hiromi gasped, her eyes going wide. Her voice died in her throat but she shook her head, trying to convince her daughter not to do it.

Maddi noticed that she'd found a vulnerability, so she pressed on it. "I've heard a lot of people talking about how good it is to be friends with Samarra. I can understand the motivation behind fighting your former allies to turn them into her friends. It's sick and wrong, but the rational part of my brain can make that work."

She narrowed her eyes. "But murder? That's a little harder to swallow. The Ayame Toujou I know is rude and strict, but she's kind. She cares for pokemon and people and even if she can be violent at times, she doesn't really want to hurt anybody."

Ayame felt a little sick to her stomach. Maddi's heterochromatic eyes were drilling holes in her. "Look, I just…"

"There's nothing you can say!" Maddi cried. "You don't want to do this, Ayame, not really! You're not a killer! And I don't think any amount of twisting from Samarra could make you into one!" It was a pretty bold claim on her part.

From what Maddi had seen, both with her regular eye and the eye with her harmonia, Samarra could influence people to do a lot of things. Even now, she could see the wisps of malevolence clinging to Ayame like mud, wrapping around her and burning like a wicked bonfire. Samarra could compel people to do a lot of bad things, that much was clear.

But murder? Could she really control someone so utterly that she could get them to do something uncharacteristic as that?

Maddi didn't want to believe it. She didn't want to accept the possibility that Samarra could turn someone as kind as Ayame into a cold-blooded killer. It defied everything she knew about the gentle tomboy.

Ayame was a good person. That much was obvious to anyone who knew her. But would that be enough for her to resist Samarra's orders? This wasn't like the fight with Gerard, where Samarra made him attack Gabrielle to force the Commander's hand. Gerard was a jerk and scumbag from way back, a dirty move like that wasn't out of the realm of possibility.

But Ayame… would she really…?

Maddi swallowed her doubts and decided she didn't want to find out. It wouldn't help anyone if she called the other girl's bluff, especially if it turned out Samarra DID have the control she boasted that she did.

And frankly? Maddi didn't want to die.

So she hardened her resolve and clutched her pokeball tightly, hoping that Vee would be enough to take down the rest of Ayame's pokemon.

"Vee!" She shouted, sending out her Eevee. "I need you!"

"Eevee!" Vee cried, landing in the grass. He wailed a little as the sharp stones dug into him, but he stood strong.

"…At last, your Eevee," Ayame muttered.

"That's right," Maddi nodded. "And the thing about Vee-"

"Oh, I know," Ayame said. She nodded towards Wes.

Maddi scowled. That's right. Wes was one of Samarra's friends now. He'd seen everything Vee was capable of at the professor's lab, so now Samarra knew what Maddi had up her sleeve. It was one of the most dangerous things about her powers.

Well, if that was the case, there was nothing she could do. She'd just have to keep fighting and take Ayame and her pokemon down regardless.

"Then you should be able to see this coming!" She snarled, focusing her harmonia. Vee began to glow, and to Hiromi's surprise, the tiny little Eevee grew into an Espeon.

"She evolved!" Hiromi gasped, having no reason to suspect anything else was going on. The knowledge of Vee's transformations was a carefully-guarded secret, after all.

"Vee, use psybeam!" Maddi ordered. Now that she had harmonia she could see everything that Vee was capable of in his new form, and of course, an Espeon was the right choice to fight against a Fighting type pokemon like Troops.

"Espeon!" The ruby on Vee's forehead flashed, and he fired a beam of rainbow light at the assembled Falinks.

"Dodge, Troops!" Ayame ordered. The Falinks scattered, evading the beam of light. Once the attack had ceased, they quick reassembled.

It was at that point that the others made it to the Pokemon Center and witnessed what was going on.

The first ones to show up were the ones who'd been closer, the group that had been fighting in the clearing. Raizer was in the lead, holding a very flustered Willa in his arms.

"Hold me more gently you oaf!" Willa snapped, pounding her tiny fists against his chest. "That hurts! You're the most careless person in the world!"

"Stop yer griping!" Raizer barked. "You're not exactly light you know! Why the fuck do I have to carry your bag, too?!"

"I'm not leaving the fruit of my research in the middle of town, where anyone could stumble by and grab it!" Willa responded, sounding scandalized. "Do you know how dangerous that would-"

"If you two are done flirting we've got an issue," Donoma scowled. The battle between Maddi and Ayame was between their group and the Pokemon Center, which was really bad for Callie. Her condition was getting worse, in spite of Willa's questionable medicine. Ian could feel her getting colder in his arms, and her face was strained with pain.

There was a bigger problem, though. A problem by the name of Wes Carver, who had stepped in front of Maddi and was now glaring at them.

"Is that… Maddi?" Alden squinted, looking past Wes and at the battle. "Since when did she get an Espeon?"

"She must have, um… evolved it, yeah," Chloe stammered. "…Yeah, that's it." She didn't know how to explain what she knew about Maddi's Eevee; heck, she didn't even really get it in the first place! But there were bigger things to worry about and she didn't want the Commander to spend his time focusing on something irrelevant like that.

"Well, hello there."

Everyone tensed as Samarra approached, with Wes standing beside her. It was enough to make everyone freeze in their tracks. Wes was the strongest trainer any of them knew, he had even been able to defeat the Commander.

And now he was on Samarra's side. And she was ready to do more. The way the girl's fingers were twitching was a very bad sign.

Everyone collectively tensed, but Samarra laughed.

"It seems you don't want to become my friends? How odd. So many of you got to experience it for yourself, did you not? The feeling of acceptance that comes with my friendship? Please, consider it! When you're with me, I can give you anything you want!"

"You mean you'll force us to want anything you're willing to give us," Ange corrected her, narrowing her eyes. "I'm done being your puppet."

"Th-That's right!" Lana nodded. "I train my pokemon for me! I don't want you using them for your own purposes!"

Samarra sighed. "…Well, I suppose it's not really up to you, is it?"

This wasn't a negotiation, after all. Samarra took a step towards the others, which forced them all to back off.

Almost all of them anyway.

Raizer dumped Willa onto the ground rather unceremoniously.

"HEY! What the hell are you doing?! What if I'd broke my potions?! Are you even listening to me?!" Willa demanded. She still hadn't regained the strength in her legs so she threw her tantrum from where she was seated, pounding his leg. Raizer ignored her.

"…You are NOT seriously thinking about fighting her, are you?" Alden scowled. He knew his brother was reckless but even he wasn't that stupid, right?

"She caught me off-guard last time," Raizer replied, cracking his knuckles. "I just have to make sure she doesn't lay a hand on me this time. Besides, look at her. She's bleeding."

He wasn't wrong. The lower half of Samarra's face was covered with blood from her nose.

"If she's bleeding, that means we can make her bleed some more, right?" He said.

"Harmonia and nosebleeds kinda go hand in hand, y'know," Marion said. "I wouldn't take that as a sign of anything in particular."

"…Oh, this?" Samarra reached up and dabbed at her nose. "Yes. This is from Madison. She got quite violent when I extended her my hand in friendship. So now we're taking care of that problem in a different way, as you'll see."

"Bring it on then, if she can do it, I can do worse," Raizer said, his eyes flashing with excitement.

"This is why I hate stupid people," Willa groaned, burying her face in her hands.

Raizer would never get the chance to find out whether or not he could take Samarra in a fight, though, because someone else tackled him.

"Hey! Back off!" He groaned, shoving Rui off of him. The redhead had sprouted out from nowhere, it seemed.

"YOU back off!" Rui hissed.

"She's one of them now!" Darla snarled. "She's working with Samarra too!"

"No! I'm not!" Rui snapped.

"…Ah, you're conscious," Samarra said, raising her eyebrow. "I knew I should have turned you into one of my friends when I had the chance. But I got so caught up in the fight…"

"Rui, what happened here?" Alden demanded. "Wes… did he… is he working with…?"

"Samarra turned my husband," Rui said. "It happened after Ayame attacked us." She nodded over to Celia. "She knocked us unconscious… or at least, she thought she did. I played dead to see if I could find an opportunity to strike, but…"

Her eyes began to water. Her husband had been turned before her very eyes. The man who promised to always devote himself to her and be there for her now served another woman. It was enough to break her heart, if she wasn't pissed off enough to break Samarra's everything.

"Is… Is Celia alright?" Giselle mumbled, staring warily at the blonde. She couldn't believe that Ayame had really hurt one of her closest friends. It spoke to what Maddi had been alluding to previously- the tomboy was under Samarra's control completely.

"She's fine for now, I guess," Rui mumbled. "But we need to get her to the doctor. The rangers went to go round up the rest of the villagers and bring them back here, we need to barricade in the center! If we can do that… if we can heal up your pokemon, then…"

"I won't let that happen," Wes said, stepping forward. His hands rested beside his belt, ready to take off his pokeballs. "I'm sorry, Rui, but it will all make sense once you become friends with Samarra. Don't worry. It isn't like you'll be betraying me by becoming her friend."

His words almost seemed real. And what a rarity it was, to see her husband's treasured smile. It tore Rui's heart open to know that it was all because of this wicked woman's manipulations.

Samarra sighed. "We are running out of time. Madison is fighting right now, and I shan't want to miss it. Now if you would-"

She took another step forward but Wes grabbed her by the collar of her leather coat and yanked her backwards, just in time to see a dagger embed itself in the grass at their feet.

"What the hell?!" Wes roared, whirling in the direction the projectile had come from. There, standing among the tree branches, was Dokukage.

"A ninja always shows up when he's needed most," the masked shinobi declared. "He becomes like the shadow, ready to strike from the cover of darkness."

Damn I sound cool!

"MOM!" Vic cried, bursting out of the forest with the others from her group. Alcea, Olivia, Anabel, Gabrielle, Ross, and Tommy, dragging a tied-up Keahi behind him.

"Mom!?" Marion cried, seeing Amarillo come out with the others, carrying Gerard on her back.

"Victoria got a warning that her mother was in danger, and I wanted to bring Gerard here to the Pokemon Center to get medical treatment," Amarillo explained. "Little did I know we would all be heading for the same place."

"Only one problem though," Alden said, turning forward. "There's an obstacle or two between us and the center."

And even if everyone was together, they were fresh out of pokeballs.

"No way, not me," Lila said, frantically shaking her head. "My pokemon aren't suited for battling!"

"I-I don't think I could do it, either," Giselle mumbled, looking a little pale. She hadn't seen Wes fight herself, of course, but the way everyone else was treating him…

"It's not something you need to worry yourselves with."

Dokukage dropped down into the field, standing between Wes and the rest of them. "I shall step in and help."

What are you doing, you fool!? Run! Get away from here! This guy is a monster!

Every instinct Dokukage had was telling him to get the hell away, but that was all the more reason he had to step up and be a man about this. He needed to help the others, he was the only one who could possibly fight off someone as powerful as Wes.

…Not with his pokemon, of course. They needed to rest.

"Aren't your pokemon a little worn out?" Keahi grumbled. He wasn't thrilled at having lost to the ninja a second time, even if he couldn't remember it. If he knew the circumstances of his defeat, he'd be even less enthusiastic.

"I have more than just my pokemon to fight with," Dokukage said. "Have you all forgotten? I am a shinobi from a long line of ninja warriors. Even without my pokemon… I can hold off someone like them. At least long enough for the rest of you to get to the Pokemon Center."

"Dokukage…" Kiana gasped, surprised.

"You're sure about this?" Ian asked. He wasn't totally convinced.

"Yeah, go for it ninja dude!" Tommy cheered, punching the air in excitement.

"Indeed," Dokukage nodded. "Behold!" He made a hand sign. "Ninja art: lightning blade!"

Dokukage reached into his clothes and withdrew a thick black object.

"…That's a stun gun," Donoma said dryly.

Dokukage nodded. "It is capable of delivering 1,200 volts of electricity into any target."

"That's weaker than a thundershock!" Tommy exclaimed. He couldn't believe he'd gotten so worked up over nothing.

"Tried and true self-defense tools are an adequate substitute for-"

"Oh, come on!" Lila groaned.

"My dad's pokemon would take you down before you even had a chance to try it," Vic warned. Dokukage scowled behind his mask.

"…What? I'm just saying."

"Then it appears we're in a difficult position," Dokukage said, tucking his stun gun back into his robe. "What a pity. If only I'd brought my smoke bombs with me, this would be a nonissue."

Ange perked up. "Smoke bombs?"

"Indeed. A handmade recipe passed down through my village. They are capable of obscuring the footsteps of a shinobi, allowing them to sneak from place to place," Dokukage explained.

"Oh, fascinating. In fact, I've made my own smoke bombs on occasion," Ange revealed. "What's your recipe? Mine is mixture of sootfoot root and caster ferns."

"Really?" Dokukage was astounded that someone else knew of his village's formula. "That's supposed to be a secret of my village! A hidden recipe as renowned as our potato mochi."

"You make potato mochi too?" Ange asked, surprised. "With sootfoot root as well, right? It's such a versatile plant."

"Indeed. But I'm curious how you learned of these hidden secrets? It should be that only those from my village are aware of those recipes," Dokukage said, stroking his chin thoughtfully.

"Well, I happened to meet this nice old man who ran a shop in a village I lived in for a time, and he had all these fancy recipes. He was happy to teach me them, so-"

"Excuse me," Rui cleared her throat, "is this REALLY the time for this?"

"W-Well… the issue is that none of the materials necessary to make them can be found in the Orre Region due to its environmental issues, so…" Dokukage wasn't sure how to explain himself. Then he felt a tug on his trousers. He glanced down to see Willa sitting next to him. Even though the two students were in the same tour group, they hadn't spoken to each other once. But the look in her eye said it all, as did the bottle filled with milky purple liquid she held up to him.

Dokukage took it and chucked it at Wes and Samarra. The bottle burst when it hit the ground, spraying the contents everywhere. Immediately, the purple liquid evaporated into a thick fog, filling the area with smoke.

"That's my patented *cough* smoke potion *hack* for you," Willa coughed out, smiling proudly as the others used the cover of the smokescreen to get around Samarra and Wes. "In fact, it…"

"…"

"HEY DON'T JUST LEAVE ME HERE!"

Suddenly, a strong arm wrapped around her waist and she was hoisted up like a bag of dirt over Raizer's shoulder. He jogged through the smoke as she kicked the air helplessly.

"Even the stupid princess carry was better than this! It HURTS you jerk!" She fumed, smacking his back in frustration.

"Shut it or I'm chucking you in the river, and all your potions with you!" Raizer snapped back.

Willa shup up real quick with that one.

"Urgh… pointless…" Samarra grumbled, wiping her eyes as the smoke cleared. By the time Willa's concoction had run its course, everyone had made it to the Pokemon Center, and to safety. At least for now. They'd have to get between Maddi and Ayame's right if they wanted to pursue.

The only issue was, the battle was only getting more intense by that point.

A short little interlude in the fight! Now, everyone is together at last! All the groups have come together at the Pokemon Center, and unfortunately Maddi is the only one with pokemon still capable of fighting. Even if she can defeat Ayame, what will they do against Wes? Things aren't looking good for our heroes, Agate Village is in trouble!