The third round of the preliminaries is still going strong! Trainers are pulling all sorts of tactics out of their sleeves to try and get ahead! And while there are some obvious frontrunners like Sango and Sylvia, there were also some shocking defeats! No one could have seen Akira fall out of the tournament that fast, but Dakota's not one to mess with when she's feeling petty! We'll have to see who else is going to make it through the preliminary rounds! Remember to review!
KedharS: I'm confused why you thought that Lila would be anything but obnoxious. When it's not involving Darla or someone else she's fangirling over, her sweetness tends to be of the backhanded variety. And yes, Kate is making full use of her training with Roxie and building on her well-known mastery of the Poison type!
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 1302
The final round of the preliminaries had everyone on the edge of their seats. Action was happening everywhere you looked, and it was difficult to get a complete view of the situation.
"Tara! Vine whip!" Blake shouted. His Snivy's vine shot out, grabbing the headband off another student and pulling it loose. He sighed in relief. The more people he knocked out, the faster they could get to the main tournament.
"I'm surprised Blake still has the stamina to give his all like this," Callie noted with wonder. "You said he fought against your Samurott?" She turned to Kanone incredulously.
Kanone nodded. "He defeated Sammy," he corrected her. "And two of those pokemon down there were a part of it."
Callie was amazed. The wound on her chest throbbed. Blake was pushing himself and his pokemon hard, but he didn't show any signs of stress or fatigue.
He must have incredible drive… Callie thought enviously, remembering what Kanone and Alcea said about his motivation to win this for Ayame's sake.
She clutched her chest, remembering how she had nearly ended things with Nick out of her own self-doubt. A miserable feeling welled up inside of her and she shook her head, scowling. Now wasn't the time to think about that.
Now was the time to cheer Nick on.
"Go, Nick!" She shouted as her eyes landed on her boyfriend, who was trying to evade attacks from other trainers. He was never too far out of her line of sight; she wanted to see every minute of Nick's gallant figure.
Unfortunately, he had caught the eye of someone troublesome.
"Ara… you again, eh?" Naya loomed over Nick and his pokemon on the back of her Ferrothorn, her eyes glowing menacingly. She hid her smirk behind her sleeve. "Rey, what say we have a little more fun with this boy, shall we?"
"Ferrothorn," Rey bellowed. He raised up one of his vines and swung it at Nick, trying to whip him off of his pokemon.
"Charmeleon!" Nick's Charmeleon turned his head and opened his mouth wide, sending out a burst of flames that hit the ground. The propulsion from the flames managed to push him and Nidorino out of the way, allowing Nick to evade the attack.
Naya wasn't discouraged in the slightest. "Keep scurrying around like a Ratatta," she chirped. "It will make things more fun when you're finally punished."
"Uh-oh, this isn't good!" Lila winced. "Naya has Nick in her sights, and she's putting the pressure on hard with her Ferrothorn's power whip!"
"Nick's team does have a type advantage," Darla noted. "A Fire type like Charmeleon and a Poison type like Nidorino have a good resistance to Grass type moves. But the problem is that they lack the power to do a lot about it."
Leanne frowned and nodded. She wasn't a fan of the way Naya was handling things, but she could acknowledge that it was within the rules. So long as the students weren't actually injured, of course. They had several students from the Ranger Course on standby, including Andre and Erik, ready to step in and save anyone who was put in too dangerous a situation.
But Naya was being careful not to cross the line, only pressuring her opponents when the opportunity arose.
Nick found himself quickly being forced back.
"The nerve of that girl!" Callie seethed. She turned to Alcea with a glare. "How can you let a sadist like her into your club?!" It baffled Callie how Alcea just put up with her behavior. Alcea could only offer a shrug in response.
"It's simply how things are," she replied. "Whatever my personal feelings towards Miss Nadeshiko may be, the school doesn't let me arbitrarily expel people simply because they are more aggressive than usual in school events."
Callie fumed, but she understood that Alcea had a point.
"Sabo, use spikes!" Naya ordered.
"Cacturne!" Her Cacturne sent a rain of spikes out from his body, covering the area around Nick and Naya.
"And now you have nowhere to run." Naya's green eyes were practically glowing and she hid her mouth behind her sleeve, so no one could see her licking her lips. But her body was a live wire of excitement as she'd finally cornered her prey.
"Flamethrower!"
Suddenly, a burst of flame from the side caused Naya to back off. The fire attack had nearly hit her, and it would have if not for Sabo's sudden implementation of a spiky shield. The cactus pokemon deflected the flames, and Naya whirled around to see who was spoiling her fun.
Standing at the edge of the field of spikes was Julia's formation. The flamethrower had come from Blaze, her trusty Growlithe.
"Nice work, Blake!" Julia cheered.
"Yes!" Callie cheered herself. "Julia, you're the best! Way to go!"
Julia was just getting started. "Luna, use dark pulse!"
"Umbreon!" Luna opened her mouth and fired a blast of darkness at Naya's team next. Rey shifted to the side, barely managing to twist himself out of the way before the attack could strike.
Naya seethed, irritated that someone was getting in her way.
"How inelegant," she scoffed. "Coming at a lady from all sides like that. And here I thought we taught you better than that, Julia," she sneered at her fellow member of the Gardening Club. But Julia had zero feelings of camaraderie or sympathy for her sadistic clubmate. In fact, she'd been waiting for an opportunity to take her down.
"I'd consider picking on someone weaker than you just as inelegant," Julia fired back, glaring at the black-haired and black-hearted girl. She quite enjoyed cutting Naya down like this, after all the disdainful backhanded words Naya had aimed her way while she was training.
Naya's eye twitched.
"Hey!" Nick protested.
"You lost against her in the Fall Festival Tournament," Julia reminded him. "It's a fair assessment of your skills."
"Rey! Start with her then," Naya ordered.
"Ferrothorn!" Rey bellowed, raising one of his whip vines and swinging it at Julia. But the vine never connected with her, it never even came close. Her pokemon, in a stunning display of coordination, all leapt backwards with her on her backs. But the attack didn't even make it that far.
It froze, halfway to her. The bulky disk at the end of his vine was glowing, frozen in place by a psychic field.
"What the-?" Julia stammered in confusion, not sure what was happening. Her head shot up in shock and her eyes bulged at what she saw.
"Speaking of picking on weaklings… I'm pretty sure you were eliminated in the preliminary round of that Fall Festival Tournament, isn't that right?" Reiner called down to Julia with a smirk. He sat on Invictus' back as his Metang's eyes glowed, keeping the vine in place with their psychic powers. "I'd hate to see history repeat itself."
Julia was furious, glaring up at him. "No one asked for your help!" She snarled. "We had that covered just fine on our own!"
Reiner rolled his eyes. "A little thank you would go a long way, you know."
It was Nikita's turn to cheer on her boyfriend. "Yeah! Way to go, Reiner!" She grinned. "Nice save!"
"Seeing you two cheer for your boyfriends is quite amusing, is it?" Alcea murmured, chuckling. Nikita and Callie both blushed and Elaina made a sour face. She could cheer on Sango, but it wasn't the same feeling she would have gotten from cheering on Blake.
"RRrrgh!" Naya growled in frustration. Rey tugged at his vine, trying to break the psychic hold Invictus had over it, but he had no luck.
"Sabo!" Naya snarled. "Use pin missile! And Masha, use your dazzling gleam!"
"Orion, use light screen!" Reiner ordered.
"Electrike!" Orion's eyes flashed gold and he created a barrier of light in front of him to deflect the destructive rays from the dazzling gleam.
"But that won't stop the pin missiles!" Naya shouted.
"True enough," Reiner agreed. "Specter, I'm counting on you for that! Use bullet seed!"
"Treecko!" Specter opened his mouth and sent a barrage of bullet seeds flying out. The seeds collided in the air with the needles Sabo sent flying their way, creating a chain of tiny explosions in the air as the attacks collided.
"Look at that!" Lila gasped in amazement. "Three of the freshmen competitors are working together to take down a sophomore!"
"That's one of the best parts of this competition," Darla grinned. "Being able to work with your friends to take down a greater threat!"
"Hey! You take that back!" Julia snarled at the announcer's seat. "Reiner and I aren't friends! And I'm not working together with him, either!"
"Looks that way from where we're sitting!" Lila fired back.
Darla just stared at her, wondering why she felt the need to get into an argument with one of the competitors.
"RRrrrgh! What do you know!" Julia scoffed. "Luna! Use mean look!"
"Umbreon!" While most Umbreon had red eyes, Luna's eyes were gold. They were glowing, and she sent a threatening glare at Rey, forcing him to remain where he was standing. And he was in a rather precarious position, with one of his three tendrils he was using for balance extended out past the point of comfort and held in place with psychic powers.
"Ferro…" Rey was petrified by the pokemon's menacing stare. But then the Ferrothorn met his trainer's eyes. Naya was staring down at him from where she was perched on his head, giving him a glare that wouldn't lose out to Luna's.
Rey didn't know what to do.
He wouldn't have a chance to find out, either, because Nick had finally prepared himself to take action and join the fight.
"Mankey, have you finished using focus energy?" He asked his small primate pokemon.
"Man!" Mankey nodded, opening his eyes. While Mankey were known for their aggression and anger, Nick's was unusually calm.
"Oh, yeah!" Callie cheered, pumping her fist into the air. "This is what we've been waiting for!" Finally Nick's Mankey was getting into the fight!
"Mankey, use force palm!" Nick ordered.
"Mankey!" Mankey swung his hand, palm out, and struck the air. For a second, it looked like nothing had happened. But then a shockwave slammed into Rey, pushing him backwards.
"What the hell is this?!" Naya gasped in amazement, nearly losing her balance on top of her pokemon. She stared incredulously at Nick and his pokemon.
"Mankey has been training hard," Nick declared. "Focusing his power and concentrating, while you've been messing around with my friends."
"Hey, we're not-!" Julia exclaimed on reflext, before remembering who she was talking to. "Oh, sorry. That's right, you're not Reiner. Proceed."
Reiner shot her a dirty look that she ignored.
"By focusing his energy, Mankey can use the sorts of attacks that other Fighting type pokemon master, but pokemon of his species are generally too angry to bother focusing on," Nick continued his explanation. "A lot of Mankey just focus on brute strength and attacking! But mine's special, thanks to all the training we've got! Now, he doesn't just use force palm through the water! He can channel it through the air itself and strike you from a distance!"
"Mankey!" Mankey wound back his arm and swung his hand forward again, striking with a powerful force palm that hit Rey in the face again.
"Nicely done, Nick!" Reiner cheered. "We'll lend a hand to that, too!" At the same time, Invictus' eyes began to glow and Rey's vine suddenly shot backwards, pulled from behind. Along with the momentum from Mankey's force palm barrage, it was impossible to maintain his balance on just two vines.
"No!" Naya howled as she felt her pokemon falling out from under her. "NO!"
"Look at that!" Lila gasped in amazement. "By working together, they managed to take down that Ferrothorn!"
"Nicely done," Darla smirked.
Naya had no way to recover. She tumbled off of Ray and landed in the dirt, a truly inelegant defeat. To add insult to injury the spikes she'd had Sabo litter all over the ground in order to trap Nick sliced up her kimono to ribbons, ruining the expensive garment. She was just lucky she hadn't been shredded herself on the spikes.
You wouldn't be able to tell that by looking at her, though.
"I won't forget this!" She hissed, glaring murder at Nick. Her cheek had been cut open, marring her otherwise flawless white skin as blood rolled down her face. "This makes twice now you've frustrated me."
She narrowed her eyes, committing Nick's face and name to memory. She was going to find some way to make him pay for humiliating her like this.
"Ah, keep talking," Reiner scoffed, smirking down at her from his perch on Invictus' back. "That's all you can do now, after all!" He turned to Nick and grinned. "Nicely done, pal! You really showed her not to mess with you!"
"I couldn't have done it without you," Nick smiled shyly. He turned to Julia. "You too. Thanks for helping out."
"Ah, don't mention it!" Reiner waved his hand dismissively. "Us Bulbasaur House folks, we gotta stick together, you know."
"I'm amazed," Lila said, shaking her head. "It's like night and day from how Reiner was during the Fall Festival Tournament."
Darla smiled. "People change."
"Especially when they begin to form bonds with others," Leanne agreed. "I think that led him to make an evolution of his own."
Nikita heard those words and her heart skipped a beat. She glanced down at the ground, feeling her chest lighten with pride. Reiner's transformation… didn't she have some of the responsibility for that? She felt good, having helped the boy she loved so completely.
"Thank Reiner for me, okay?" Caelia asked Nikita. The dark-haired girl nodded.
"What even was that?" Elaina asked. She was still trying to figure out how Nick had taken down that Ferrothorn. Having fought Naya herself, she knew the other woman was not some weakling who would go down easily without a fight. "I could feel the air current shifting, it was as if that Mankey controlled the wind itself."
"It's one of the unique things about Fighting type pokemon!" Callie bragged. "There are two types of styles Fighting type pokemon use in battle."
"Only two?" Nikita asked, surprised. "I would have thought that each species had their own fighting style, like how we have a ton of different martial arts."
"…Okay, yeah, there's that, too," Callie admitted. "But that's not what I'm talking about. This is more how physical and special moves apply to Fighting type pokemon."
The others listened intently as Callie explained one of the few subjects she was an expert in.
"You've got the big, bulky pokemon like Machamp, or my Infernape and Crabominable," Callie explained. "They rely on brute force. Using muscles and martial arts moves to overwhelm their opponents physically. But the other type is more like my Mienshao, or…" She fought back a wave of nausea. "…Or my brother's Medicham. They focus more on the inner nature of the Fighting type, relying on technique. Building up their internal strength and then projecting it out of them, with moves like aura sphere."
"So you're saying that Nick did something similar to an aura sphere?" Nikita clarified.
Callie nodded. "Mankey focus their offensive power in most cases through their brute strength," she explained. "They don't tend to have the focus to do anything else. But Nick's Mankey is different. We trained him to be able to focus and concentrate. Right now, he's got more than just muscle, he can focus his inner power, too. It's why he can use force palm to channel his inner strength through the air, and strike!"
"That's really impressive," Kanone noted. "Being able to train a Mankey to do something like that, not every trainer would be able to."
Callie blushed, her chest swelling with pride at Kanone's praise. She held her head up high. "Well, it just goes to show you the sort of stuff we learn in the Pokemon Fight Club!" She boasted. "Isn't that right, Raizer?"
Raizer blinked. He'd been still focusing on the competition. "Uh, what? Nah I'm the brute force type who attacks whatever's in his path."
Callie sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose in frustration.
"Let's just be happy our boys are getting along so well," Nikita smiled, easing the situation by patting Callie on the back.
The blonde nodded in agreement. "Yeah! Hey, maybe they'll be able to make it to the main tournament together!" She agreed.
But while Nick and Reiner were bonding over working together to take down Naya, someone wasn't having as much fun.
Julia felt sour. SHE had been the one to step in and save Nick from Naya first! SHE had used Blaze's flamethrower attack to make the Grass type trainer back off!
And while Nick had thanked her, she felt it was hollow. Reiner had been the one to really lend a hand, all she'd done was keep the Ferrothorn where he was!
So even if everyone was calling it a collective victory, to Julia it didn't really feel that way. She just felt sour inside.
And now that Naya had been defeated, she wanted to make up for those feelings.
"Blaze!" She growled. "Use flamethrower on Invictus!"
"Growlithe!" Without hesitation, Blaze turned his flames on Reiner and his formation next, startling him and Nick.
"Oh, no!" Lila gasped. "Julia's attacking Reiner!"
"So much for teamwork," Darla said, raising her eyebrow.
Alcea sighed and shook her head. Julia's impulsiveness hadn't changed, no matter how much training she underwent with the girls in the Gardening Club.
"Julia?!" Reiner exclaimed, shielding his face instinctively as the flames flew towards him. "What the hell are you doing?!"
The light screen he'd had Orion set up went completely forgotten by him until he realized he wasn't burning. The flames wrapped around the ball of light, pressuring it.
Julia hadn't forgotten. She wanted to weaken it first.
"It's part of the competition," she reminded Reiner. "And you were an open target! Now go, Luna, smash through that light screen with a dark pulse!"
"Umbreon!" Luna opened her mouth, firing a blast of darkness at the light screen and smashing it to pieces. The dark rings went wild, knocking Invictus back. It was all Reiner could do to hang on as he tried to right his pokemon.
"Nicely done!" Julia grinned. "Now, let's throw him off!"
Yikes, Julia's letting this petty rivalry with Reiner really get the better of her. She needs to calm down a little bit and see that she was just as invaluable in the struggle to take Naya down as he and Nick were! They all worked together. Unfortunately, Julia's grudge kept her from being a real team player. Is this it? Are they going to end up wiping each other out?