With the power of Vee being able to switch between all the different Eeveelutions at will, Maddi's seized some real advantage in this fight! Having an incredibly diverse movepool and the ability to change the typing of your pokemon is a massive edge, and it's like she's got a whole second team of pokemon on standby! Will Ayame be able to defeat Maddi's last pokemon? She was doing so well for most of the fight, but this could be the tipping point!

KedharS: Yeah, Vee is really powerful! Thankfully Maddi's got a powerful ace up her sleeve, and it just might be enough to defeat Ayame and her pokemon!

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1217

Ayame nearly collapsed from the strain of being electrocuted, but she didn't. Her connection with Troops was severed when her Falinks lost consciousness, and that, combined with Samarra's influence, was why she was able to keep going. But she was mad. Not as mad as when Maddi had goaded her earlier about her relationship with Blake, but mad.

"That Eevee of yours only managed to defeat Troops," she growled. "Don't think that means you've beaten me! Foof! Go!"

"Woooooo!" Her Wooloo brayed, emerging from her pokeball. The small round sheep looked a lot happier than her trainer.

Maddi cracked a smile. "You know, it's quite adorable that you named your Wooloo Foof, you know that?"

"Shut up!" Ayame hissed, her face flushing. She focused her harmonia and directed it towards her pokemon. "Foof! Retaliate!"

"Wooloooooo!" Foof charged forward at high speed, plowing across the path that Troops had made in the river in their battle against Violet. (Which felt like an eternity ago to both girls) Vee was so stunned that he didn't think to move until it was far too late, shocked that such a fluffy pokemon could run with such speed.

Before Vee could respond, Foof slammed into him, her fluffy cotton serving adequately to stymie the sharp points of the Jolteon's needle-like fur. Vee took the attack head-on and rolled backwards, but to Ayame's disappointment, he remained on his balance, quickly springing upright the second all four palms were on solid ground.

Then she saw why. While retaliate was definitely a powerful move to use in the wake of a comrade being defeated, it wasn't a complete killer. And if Vee had been an actual Jolteon, he would have taken a serious, crippling blow from the hit.

But right before Foof made contact, Vee had managed to change again. He didn't have the reaction time to dodge, but changing forms? That happened in the blink of an eye thanks to Maddi's silent urging with her own harmonia. He had retaken the form of a Leafeon, the Eeveelution with the highest physical defense out of all of them, which allowed him to tank the hit fairly well.

It also served him the opportunity to strike back.

"Leafeon!" Vee cried, swiping his tail at Foof. Sharp razor leaves swept through the sky, spinning towards the Wooloo.

"Cotton guard!" Ayame ordered immediately. Foof inflated her cotton, spreading it up in a shield that blocked her body from taking most of the damage. The leaves buried themselves in the cotton, cutting deep, but failed to actually reach the pokemon underneath.

"Nice work, Vee!" Maddi called out in encouragement. "That was close! But we're going to need something with a little more power, and I'm thinking in the special category, don't you agree?" She asked.

"Leafeon!" Vee nodded, starting to glow. His tail curled up into a slender shape, splitting at the tip, as his ears shrunk down and thickened. A ruby popped out on his forehead as the leaves fell off his fur, which turned a light lavender. Now an Espeon again, he was already building up a burst of psychic energy to take down the Wooloo.

"Madison's doing amazingly," Vic was forced to admit. Everyone was startled by this, none moreso than her mother. Rui knew how much her daughter hated complimenting other people, especially if those people were girls.

"W-Well, I mean…" Vic tried to salvage the situation. "She's fighting Ayame Toujou, right? I've fought her myself, too. And yeah, while she's not in the Battle Course, I never would have thought Madison would get this far. It's all because of that Eevee's power! If he was just a normal Eevee, this would be over by now!" She said the last part in a huff, to keep up her image.

Olivia smirked, happy to tear that right down. "Well, it sounds to me like you just complimented my Aya there, didn't you? Since you didn't think that someone as Madison Whitmore could beat her after fighting her yourself, well… I can't see that as anything more than praise, don't you agree, A-Allie?" She mumbled the last part quickly and shot a hopeful look towards Alcea.

Alcea narrowed her eyes and gave the faintest shake of her head. Olivia deflated. Pet names were still a work in progress, apparently.

"Madison has skill," Alcea stated firmly. "And while I do not purport to know the extent of her Eevee's abilities, she's certainly doing quite well for herself."

"Espeon!" Vee's cry punctuated Alcea's statement perfectly. He fired a beam of rainbow light at the Wooloo, who dashed to the side.

"Don't underestimate Foof and I!" Ayame declared. "When it comes to Pokeathlon events, this little lady is an absolute champ in Speed and Jump competitions, just show her!"

"Wooloo!" Foof leapt towards Vee, tilting her head down slightly to bear her tiny horns. She picked up speed, and then to everyone's surprise she tucked her tiny legs into her cotton wool, curling up into a ball and rolling like a big fluffy boulder towards Vee.

"Espeon?" Vee gasped in surprise, just barely dodging the ball of fluffy death. He was so caught off-guard he didn't even think to counterattack, until the Wooloo turned and rolled towards him again. Then he concentrated his psychic powers and lifted Foof up into the air, removing the problem completely.

"Wooloo!" Foof wailed, her feet sticking back out. She thrashed helplessly, but she couldn't do anything right now against Vee's psychic attack.

"Foof!" Ayame shouted. "Payback!"

"Wool!" Foof began to glow with dark energy, releasing her stored resentment in a small burst of power that broke through Vee's psychic hold and hit the Espeon directly. This time, she was fast enough to strike before Vee had a chance to change his form.

"Espeon!" Vee cried, rolling through the grass. He hopped to his feet, already starting to glow. His tail curled back up and thickened and his ears rounded as well. His fur burned black and golden rings stuck out across it. And when the pokemon opened his eyes they were as red as the ruby he used to have as an Espeon.

"First Espeon, now Umbreon, it's like watching Wes," Rui joked, trying to keep the mood light. But everyone could hear the anxiety in her voice, and nobody missed how she glanced anxiously towards her husband.

"Turning your Eevee into an Umbreon to resist our Dark type moves won't help you," Ayame promised. "Let me show you just why it is Foof has the jumping power that she does!"

"Wooloo!" Foof ran towards Vee and raised her legs, kicking at the Umbreon with everything she had. And her legs were strong, too. Vee ducked out of the way and Foof kicked a boulder instead, and she shattered it.

"Foof's legs are as strong as mine, maybe even stronger!" Ayame bragged. Sure, to everyone there, it sounded like she was claiming that her legs were strong enough to shatter solid rock, but…

…

…Well, no, there wasn't really a "but" there (except for Ayame's of course) because nobody who heard that claim believed strongly enough it was false to argue. Ayame was just that sort of tough.

"If you're going to use Fighting type moves, that works for us," Maddi said, and Vee changed again. His dark fur turned bright cream and pink splotches covered it. At the same time, two long ribbons trailed out of a bow around his collar, and his blue eyes shined joyously.

"Dazzling gleam, Vee!" Maddi ordered, preparing for an immediate attack from her new Fairy type pokemon.

"Sylveon!" Vee's eyes flashed and he began to glow again, but not to transform. No, this was an attack from within, a blast of fairy light to defeat the Wooloo. Beams of energy pierced through the air, concealed by the glare, and struck Foof directly, forcing the Wooloo back.

"Aargh!" Ayame winced, straining herself against the powerful attack. But she wasn't vulnerable enough to be defeated by it; she concentrated her harmonia, focusing on shoring up Foof's defenses, and willed her pokemon to push through.

"Wool!" Foof forced her way forward and lowered her head, charging in with a headbutt attack, which was shocking to Maddi. She'd expected that Vee's dazzling gleam would have more effect, but apparently Ayame's Wooloo was just that tough.

"Sylveon?!" Vee gasped in surprise, leaping back to try and dodge. But Foof was even faster still, thanks to her agility.

"Wooloo!" Foof slammed into the Sylveon and Maddi felt the air leave her lungs as her stomach caved in.

No, wait, that was her pokemon. But it certainly felt real enough regardless. She coughed for air and nursed her ribs, relieved to find that none of them were actually broken. But she could feel the pain that Vee was in, even as the Sylveon tried to stand back up.

Only he wasn't a Sylveon anymore. After being on the receiving end of such a brutal headbutt, Vee reverted to Umbreon; it made him feel safe, being in the form which had the highest defensive stats, even if it did have a glaring weakness to Foof's Fighting type moves.

Maddi needed to take charge. She pressed with her harmonia and Vee agreed, turning back into Leafeon. As he did, Maddi realized that this was an issue they'd have to resolve with more practice; while harmonia allowed her to communicate directly with her pokemon so they could plan out strategies, the simple fact remained that she and Vee were different, a trainer and her pokemon, and thus approached fights differently.

For one, Vee had a far more versatile movepool than any pokemon Maddi had ever trained, maybe even moreso than any pokemon in the world. He could choose between moves from all his different forms, and got the typing resistances from whichever ones he wanted. Because of that, where for most of Maddi's pokemon the discussion was about which move the pokemon would use that would have the most effect, with Vee the conversation was way more complicated.

It was about which pokemon would be best overall.

"Vee, use razor leaf again," Maddi ordered. She knew that Foof would just block it the way she did the last time, but that was part of her strategy. The leaves from before were still sticking in Foof's fur, after all, there were twigs and grass from where the Wooloo had rolled around earlier.

"Foof, block it with cotton guard again," Vic ordered. She was happy to take full advantage of her opponent's foolishness to buff up her pokemon.

"Wooloo!" Foof expanded the cotton around her body, blocking the leaves again. Like Maddi had predicted, the sharp projectiles remained embedded within the cotton, with the Wooloo either not noticing or not caring.

Which worked just fine for her, frankly. She resisted the urge to crack a smile.

"Ayame, I have a question for you," Maddi piped up.

Ayame scowled. She wasn't a big fan of all these conversations in battle. "What is it?" She muttered, secretly giving Foof the order to prepare for an attack.

"About your boyfriend, how much preparation do you do before you go on a date with him?" Maddi asked, the casualness in her voice so out of place Ayame nearly fell over.

"Wh-WHAT?!" She exclaimed. "And how is that any business of yours?!"

"Well, I figure that since you pride yourself so much on preparing your pokemon for Pokeathlons, you would do the same yourself, right?" Maddi smirked. "After all, a date has the same standards, isn't that right? You wouldn't send a pokemon out to compete if their condition wasn't good, just like you wouldn't go on a date without a little bit of makeup, hmm? Wear some nice clothes? Or maybe some perfume?"

Olivia snorted and Ayame turned red in a mixture of shame and outrage.

"B-Blake said he prefers a more natural look!" Ayame exclaimed. "He-He… um…"

Maddi couldn't deny the amusement she felt. Here she was in a fight for her life. Ayame would kill her when she lost, she'd said so herself so nonchalantly. And yet here she was, getting embarrassed and tongue-tied over a conversation about her boyfriend.

It would have been a great punchline in some twisted dark comedy, if not for the fact that this was a twisted real life.

And Maddi certainly wasn't laughing.

"It's not Aya's fault!" Olivia called, catching on to what Maddi was doing. "She tried doing makeup a few times, but she's rubbish at it! I had to be the one to show her how, and even still I have to do her makeup every time she-"

"SHUT UP!" Ayame screamed, stomping her foot in rage. She turned murderous eyes towards Maddi, but the brunette had seen worse.

She'd seen worse on this trip, in fact.

"I know you've got that whole 'tomboy' appeal going for you, but even you have to admit that you're pretty lucky all the girls who like Blake happen to be as boyish as you," Maddi offered.

Ayame's eye twitched.

"…You know, she's not wrong," Olivia said, coming to that realization herself. She began counting on her fingers. "The redhead girl named after his mom, Cynthia, then that blonde ranger gal who's definitely not crushing on him at all, nope…"

"Yup, that's Sango!" Marion chimed in cheerfully.

"Sango likes Blake?" Ian said, mildly curious.

Olivia shrugged. "I mean, probably?"

Chloe scowled behind her mask and Donoma was right there with her.

"Is that a problem?" She asked, failing to keep all the cattiness out of her tone.

"Who else… oh, there's that hideous burned girl, she's… well, I don't even want to know, but there's that. And I think… yep, that's all of them!"

Alcea cleared her throat and Olivia looked innocently at her.

The redhead gave her partner a pointed look. "What about Kate?"

"Kate… Kate… no, I don't know any Kate, sorry," Olivia said, shaking her head. Her brain had this habit of purging ugly people from her memory. Which, considering she remembered Caelia existed, was quite a stab at the poison specialist.

Alcea just scowled.

"Nah, doesn't work, you're forgetting somebody," Lana said. She, more than anyone, knew the extent of Blake's hideous infidelities. Just hearing the topic sent a stab of rage through her heart. "That cheating bastard even put the moves on me! The lech!"

Olivia raised her eyebrow, mildly surprised.

"…'Put the moves on you' is it?" Alcea said, not even bothering to hide the doubt in her voice. "Is that so?"

"You bet it is!" Lana said adamantly. And while no one actually believed her, Kiana was the one most of aware of how her sister tended to… Well, overthinking things was a charitable way to put it.

But Lana wasn't done there, she had more to add. "You know, now that I think about it, Elaina's got long hair, so she counts, right? She definitely has it bad for him."

She turned and shouted towards the battlefield, "hey, Madison! You forgot Elaina! She's totally down bad for him, and she's actually really cute under that mask!"

Maddi blinked. "Oh, that's right, totally forgot, sorry," she said, wearing a smirk that showed she was no such thing. "But you've gotta admit, as far as competition goes-"

"STOP IT!" Ayame screamed. She was so fucking done with this bullshit. "Stop TALKING. Blake and I are FINE! He doesn't care! He likes me for ME! So just… please… please stop…"

Her voice broke at the end, and for a second Maddi thought she was going to call off the battle then and there to just start crying.

But it wasn't the day for luck like that. Instead, Samarra took hold, wiping the bad feelings out of Ayame's heart and causing her to fill with power, replacing pain with harmonia. Foof let out a bray of anger as well, sharing in her trainer's emotions.

"…Well, it is what it is," Maddi sighed. Goading was still a workable strategy, but with Samarra running defense it wouldn't be so easy to get to Ayame that way after all.

But that wasn't really the point.

"Anyway, the reason I brought it up was because if you knew anything about personal grooming or looking good, then you'd know how important it is to do stuff like change your clothes when they start to smell, or washing your hair every day," Maddi explained.

"I take a shower after I run, every morning!" Ayame exclaimed indignantly. "Stop trying to make me out to be some kind of slob who doesn't take care of herself!"

Ayame didn't like admitting it, but it actually took a lot of effort to keep looking as handsome as she did. Sure she might not have been big on fashion and her makeup skills were next to zero, but since puberty had done its business she'd evolved from a lanky teen to a more natural beauty.

Not that Maddi cared one whit. She used her harmonia to silently urge Vee to transform, planning to take full advantage of this lull in the fighting.

"Then you should know why having a Wooloo whose wool is covered in debris is a bad idea," Maddi said calmly.

Vee finished transforming. His fur had grown bushier and turned bright red, and his eyes were glowing with flame.

"Fire blast!" Maddi ordered.

"FLAREON!" Vee opened his mouth wide and fired a blast of flames in the shape of a star towards the Wooloo. The attack had come before Ayame could anticipate it, and her Wooloo was engulfed in fire. She screamed and thrashed, feeling her flew burning, and stumbled backwars. But there was nothing she could do to stop the pain.

Luckily, Foof was a quick thinker. The Wooloo turned and bounded for the river, throwing herself into the water to extinguish the flames. Seconds later she emerged, her wool badly singed and burned in several places, and she was seriously injured.

"Your Wooloo has the Fluffy ability, isn't that right?" Maddi pressed. "It boosts her physical defense by quite a lot, but it means she's also incredibly vulnerable to Fire type attacks. She's as weak to them as a Grass or Bug type pokemon, you know? Which, when I have an Eevee that can turn into a Flareon, it's not that difficult to deal with.

Ayame glared at Maddi. "So that's why you were asking me those rude fucking questions?!" She seethed, giving Maddi a look that was raw hatred.

Maddi shrugged. "I needed to keep you off balance so I could score the perfect sneak attack," she replied. "Nothing personal."

"Oh, no?" Ayame was done playing around, and Samarra was too. "Well, this is."

Foof trotted out of the river and shook off the water and chunks of burnt wool.

Then she started glowing.

Oh no! Foof's glowing! It looks like Ayame got so mad, she spurred her pokemon into evolving! That's not good! Will Maddi and Vee have to fight a Dubwool next? And even then, if she beats Foof, Ayame's still got her Glalie to deal with! Maddi might be winning when it comes to cheap shots, but this match is far from settled in her favor!