A smattering of applause began to circulate throughout the arena as Gerald slowly got to his feet. Although he was able to walk over to his section of the sidelines it wasn't without aid, he was visibly shaking as he was attended to by some of the school's trainers. Beth glared at him with an irate expression, her displeasure plain to everyone.

"That was not supposed to go down that way," she muttered. "I was counting on Gerald to win his match, this throws everything off," she growled to the espeon standing beside her.

"This is a load of crap, Beth," growled the espeon in turn. "You told me you were going to assign me the ghost."

"I thought he could handle it," she snapped back. "Whatever, it's too late to do anything about it now. I'm not expecting you to win this battle, but you're going to have to do whatever it takes to mess her up, as much as you possibly can, so Derek can finish the job. He has to win if we're going to push this match into a tiebreaker between that bitch and myself."

"Gee, I appreciate your vote of confidence," answered Simon sarcastically.

"She's going to own you Simon, accept that," replied Beth with a shrug. "You have to look at the big picture, it's time to take one for the team."

"So says the one who's been taking it from the team," he muttered under his breath as he turned away.

"What was that?" yelled Beth angrily. Simon just shrugged apathetically as he sauntered his way to the middle of the arena for his match. His opponent, Tenebra, was already there, having wasted no time with conversation before coming into the center circle.

"We're now ready for round two of this match, Simon Kreskill versus Tenebra Blackclaw!" yelled Coach Marceau over the school's P.A. system. A loud chorus of cheers and taunts was his reply, most of them devoted to Tenebra and Simon respectively. "I want a good, clean battle. Let's try to keep this civil, shall we?" he asked. Though he was directing his comments toward nobody in particular, it was obvious who he meant them for.

"Good luck," said Simon as he held out his hand. The mightyena didn't reply, in fact she didn't even move, just continued to stare at Simon through blood-red eyes that made him even more uncomfortable than he already was. "Alright then," he said with a slow nod of his head as he retreated backwards to his starting position.

"On your marks?" asked the Coach. "Begin!" he yelled with another wave of his hand. Unlike the previous match there was no immediate burst of action, both of the combatants just stood there staring at each other, as though locked in some sort of mental or spiritual duel. After a few seconds worth of tension Tenebra was the first to move, rushing forward with a speed that caught everyone watching by surprise, most especially Simon. Wreathing her fist in a dark aura, she threw a massive punch to the side of his head, nearly taking it off and spinning him around a full three-sixty. Wasting no time she grabbed the sides of his head with both hands and drove her knee into his face with a disgusting crunching sound that sent blood flying. Spinning around she hurled Simon across the arena like a rag doll, sending him flying about fifteen feet before he hit the floor with an audible thud and rolled to a stop while the crowd cheered wildly.

Most 'mon would have been content to call it there but to his credit Simon got to his feet, just barely dodging another punch from the charging mightyena. Taking advantage of her being slightly off balance, he threw a quick punch to her ribs to no noticeable effect then spun to his left, whipping his tail to the back of her legs. It hit with much more force than anyone watching would have expected. The shot knocked Tenebra on her back but she just rolled through it and got back to her feet in an instant. She rushed forward again, throwing another punch toward Simon's midsection that was blocked by a shimmering barrier of light that sprung up between them.

"She just doesn't stop," said Albrecht from the stands. "No hesitation, no mercy. It's like she intends for every attack she makes to end the match, but when it doesn't, she just throws another one without breaking stride," he said in quiet appreciation. "How do you fight something like that?" he asked in a rhetorical voice. His teammate Gweneth didn't have an answer for him, but watched the action with an almost disgusted look on her face. Snowy wasn't paying attention to either them or the battle, he was watching the cheerleaders at the far end of the arena, a scantily-clad chimchar girl in particular.

True to Albrecht's observation, Tenebra was neither surprised nor stopped by Simon's defense. Without hesitation she reared back, roared loudly, and threw another punch at Simon. This time her fist was enveloped by an utter blackness that left shadowy afterimages in its wake and shattered his barrier of light as though it were glass. The punch hit Simon squarely in the face, sending more blood flying and the espeon staggering backwards. But as Tenebra rushed forward to finish him off he vanished in a bright burst of light.

Several sparkling rays of light struck the mightyena in the back but they served to do little more than annoy her. "You think you're th' only one with a messed up past?" yelled Simon from across the arena in a course voice. "My parents were umbreons, they were real thrilled to have me!" he yelled as Tenebra rushed toward him again. This time Simon was a bit better prepared and managed to duck underneath her, throwing a hard kick to her back as he did so. She whipped her fist backwards to strike him as he did so but again only connected with a bright flash of light. "This dark type crap is nothin' new to me," he taunted from the other side of the arena.

"Play your games all you want," she said with a sneer. "You'll get tired long before I do, I guarantee that," she snarled as she approached him again, this time a bit more slowly, watching for his movements.

"Maybe," shrugged Simon. Despite his bravado he was breathing heavily and in terrible pain. His vision was blurred and he was having to use most of his psychic abilities to shut out the pain and was partly moving by sheer force of will alone. Dashing to his right Simon left a trail of afterimages in his wake that took on a life of their own, mimicking his own actions. All of the images released another sparkling beam of light, all of which struck Tenebra, although the effect was no greater than his first such attack.

Tenebra stepped forward and threw a hard punch toward one of the images of Simon but at the last moment spun around and drove a vicious elbow strike into the head of a different one, causing the real espeon to drop to the floor, bleeding profusely. "Illusions don't smell like cheap cologne," she growled as she drove a kick into the arena floor where Simon had been laying, a split second after he managed to teleport away again.

Simon stood up on shaky legs. Coach Marceau looked as though he was going to call the match but Simon looked over at him angrily and waved him off. Though he thought better of allowing it, Coach Marceau had seen Simon take some vicious hits before and knew the espeon was tougher than he looked and so backed off. "My parents couldn't teach me a damn thing," muttered Simon through a sprained jaw. "So they sent me off," he panted. "To some kadabra. Old 'mon knew they were pricks," he growled as Tenebra approached. "So he taught me a little somethin' to even th' score. You're not the first one to wave your precious immunity in my face," he said with a bit more conviction as his eyes began to glow with a bright radiance. After a brief moment the jewel on his forehead began to glow as well, the ghostly image of another eye appearing within it.

Simon reached out toward the mightyena with his psychic powers and felt the familiar wall of darkness shut him out, a cloud that his mental abilities couldn't penetrate. But within the psychic plane he saw the light from the jewel on his head shine forth and cut through that dark cloud like a knife, opening a hole for his psychic abilities to reach into his opponent's psyche. Simon knew from experience that the mind of a dark type was not a pleasant place to be but he had prepared himself for the worst. But there was nothing that could have prepared him for what he found.

All Simon found beyond the veil of darkness was something even darker and blacker than anything he had ever known. Through the hole in her dark type immunity he felt something forcing its way into his own psyche rather than the other way around. Simon panicked and tried to shut it out but it was to no avail. Within the psychic plane he saw black tendrils reaching out for him, wrapping around his mind and trying to burrow in with a sickeningly evil hunger.

Back in the physical world Simon clutched his head and screamed. "Nooooo! Get out! GET OUT!!!" he cried, staggering backwards and flailing his arms as though he were trying frantically to fend off an unseen attacker. The espeon started clawing at his own skin, drawing blood and screaming frantically. Coach Marceau yelled for help from the trainers as he moved toward him but before he could take a step Tenebra was on Simon, rushing across the arena floor and tackling him to the ground. Simon was oblivious to her presence or anything else for that matter as he continued to thrash about on the floor. The mightyena stepped on his chest and held her hand out toward him, letting loose a pulsating blast of ebon black energy that hammered him in the face and slammed his head against the floor. As Simon lay there twitching and mumbling incoherently she blasted him again, cracking his head against the floor and causing him to stop moving.

"That's enough!" yelled Coach Marceau as he ran over to them and pushed Tenebra off of Simon, interrupting her before she could fire again. The crowd fell silent as Coach Marceau and a number of the trainers and medical staff rushed over to check on the espeon.

"I've just never seen anything like that," said Albrecht quietly as he watched the flurry of activity around Simon. "I mean, I hate to take any sort of pleasure in another mon's suffering," he continued with a sigh. "But she elevates brutality to an art form."

Gweneth watched the same scene with much less enthusiasm than her articuno teammate. "Albrecht, there's something we need to discuss," she said coolly, drawing Albrecht's attention away.

"Of course Gweneth, what is it?" he asked with a chipper smile.

"If we're going to continue to be competitive as a team, I feel it is imperative that we find a fourth member. There are only so many teams willing to indulge us by battling a 'mon down, and I think the absence of a full roster is going to worsen our position, not improve it," she said in a flat tone.

Albrecht slowly nodded his head, considering her words. "Understandable, and I agree with you. While I think our team is quite strong as it is," he grinned, patting Snowy on the back for emphasis. "You do raise some valid points."

"Furthermore," continued the glalie, taking Albrecht's response as mere formality. "If you're going to run for class president, it will be necessary for you to have a cabinet that you can trust and rely on. A good secretary to keep things in order would be quite beneficial."

"One with a short skirt and loooong legs, eh?" laughed Snowy through a large grin. Albrecht returned his comment with an annoyed look.

"And on a personal note, although we may have won our midterm match, the results of my own battle have left me somewhat... uncomfortable," she said with a sneer. "There are some very unsavory types at this school, and when you are elected student body president there will be a need for security."

"Oh come now, I hardly think that's necessary," answered Albrecht. "Who would want to do me harm?"

"As I said Albrecht, this is a personal issue," replied Gweneth in a slightly harsh tone. "This is Tuscany," said Gweneth, pulling the piloswine girl with shaggy hair dressed in loose-fitting sweat pants and an oversized t-shirt who had been akin to her shadow for the past few days forwards. Tuscany held her head downwards as she stood in front of the impressive and charismatic articuno, but held her eyes up to meet his. "We've been talking a great deal, and I think with the proper encouragement she could fit the bill nicely on all counts."

Snowy tried his best not to look skeptical but failed miserably, subtlety was never his strong suit. For his part though Albrecht looked genuinely enthusiastic. "Excellent!" he exclaimed. "If Gweneth thinks you'd be a worthy addition to our little family, then I look forward to working with you," he said with a smile, extending his hand.

"She doesn't like to talk, particularly to people she doesn't know very well," said Gweneth as she nudged Tuscany away.

"I understand," said Albrecht, politely backing off. "Well I hope we'll get to know each other better then," he said with a grin.

"Indeed," muttered the glalie. "Come along Tuscany, there's no need to watch any more of this... barbarism," she said with a sneer as she turned to leave. Tuscany was a bit slow to follow her though, taking a few moments to gaze longingly at the sight of Simon's unconscious form being carried off of the arena floor on a stretcher.

"What in the hell was that all about?" snarled Coach Marceau angrily as he confronted Tenebra.

"Mercy," she replied quietly, an answer the mimic wasn't quite prepared for. Coach Marceau glared at her then shifted his gaze back to the arena exit that Simon had been carried out of. "That had nothing to do with the battle," she said flatly. The mimic was about to go off on her but felt a buzzing sensation in his head that he recognized as the telepathic presence of Headmaster Felinduce. Coach Marceau stepped back and looked up at the observation booth where he saw the headmaster shake his head solemnly before standing up to leave, the medical ward his intended destination.

With a heavy sigh Coach Marceau took the microphone and called out over the P.A. system, "Round Two goes to Tenebra Blackclaw and Team Jet!"

"No way!" screamed Beth from the sidelines, storming her way to the center of the arena floor. "She should be disqualified for... that!" she yelled at Coach Marceau.

Coach Marceau sighed in response. "Simon indicated that he wanted to continue," he explained. "And under the circumstances, I can't rule it excessive," he said, looking up toward the observation deck with a slightly irritated look.

"They had to carry my teammate out on a stretcher, he was gushing blood coach, Arceus only knows how many bones this psychopath broke!" yelled Beth. "And you can't call it excessive?"

"There was no deliberate malice involved, Beth," answered Coach Marceau. "My decision in this stands, if you disagree with it, you can file an appeal with Principal Felinduce on Monday," he grumbled, eager to pass the buck.

"Oh I will," snapped Beth. "This is a load of crap! They're getting away with everything!"

"That's enough Beth," retorted Coach Marceau in an authoritative tone. "Now get back over there before I penalize your team for you coming out here!"

The azumarill snarled to herself but turned and stormed back to her sidelines without another word. "She wants to play that way, fine," she growled to Derek once she got over there. "They've made it quite clear what they're going to allow in this match, take full advantage of it."

The aipom grinned wickedly as he took off his jacket and began cracking three sets of knuckles. "'Bout damn time," he said to himself as he glared at Tenebra, who hadn't left the arena floor. "Just 'cause she can kick that little panty-waste's ass don't mean nothin' ta me," he said confidently.

"The next match of this series will be Tenebra Blackclaw versus Derek Armand," called out Coach Marceau. Looking over at Tenebra and then over to Derek as he sauntered his way to the center of the arena, he knew this battle was going to be ugly. But he also knew that there was little to be done about it, sometimes you just had to let them fight.

Derek made a show out of stretching his neck from side to side as he stood at the center of the arena, staring the slightly taller mightyena in the eye. The crowd above was cheering loudly for his opponent. While his teammate Gerald was one of the more popular students at the academy, Derek was almost universally hated. Not just for being a sadistic bully, but for being such an effective one. "I don' like ta hit girls," he taunted. "But I don' see any here so I guess it's aight." Tenebra didn't respond. "Not much ta say? That's fine, I'd rather talk with these anyway," he sneered, holding up all three of his fists.

"Knock it off Derek," admonished Coach Marceau. "Nobody wants to hear your trash talk, least of all me. Are you ready?" he asked the combatants. Neither of them paid any attention to the coach, which he took as an affirmative. "Begin!" he yelled as the stepped back.

Derek wasted no time with his attack, leaping forward and throwing a hard punch with his right hand, his fist erupting in flame as he did so. Tenebra easily dodged out of the way of his telegraphed punch then threw a forearm block for his follow-up left cross which threw off shards of ice as it made contact. Ducking his head in a weaving motion Derek struck with his third hand, his tail lashing over his head like a scorpion's sting and trailing sparks of electricity in its wake. Tenebra blocked that shot as well, shoving Derek back in the process.

Tenebra took the offensive, returning fire with a hard right of her own, darkness enveloping her own fist as she did. Derek sidestepped and rolled to the side, leaping high up into the air once he finished tumbling over. On his way back down he spun in midair, swinging his tail at Tenebra and hitting her hard in the side of the head. Taking it on the literal chin she swung back, hitting Derek in the stomach as he landed, using his own weight and momentum against him. The aipom grimaced but recovered quickly, throwing a hard kick to Tenebra's midsection that found its mark as well.

Putting his hands on her head and shoving he leapt into the air with a grace and agility that was stunning for someone his size. Flipping over Tenebra's head Derek shot out with his legs and kicked her in the back, bounding forward as he did so. Knocking the mightyena down he tumbled and rolled to the floor and sprung back up to his feet. "Too slow bitch," he laughed as he bounced back and forth in a showy manner.

Tenebra stood up and growled at him, which Derek also laughed at. "Oooooh, scared," he said mockingly as he waggled his fingers. Tenebra moved as though she were going to charge at him but as soon as the aipom flinched she held up and threw another pulsating blast of darkness at him. Derek was momentarily surprised by her attack but held up his arms and shrugged off some of the blast. Now wearing his own look of anger he thrust his left arm forward, projecting a pulsating blast of frigid water at the mightyena while as part of the same fluid motion he spun around, cracking his tail like a whip as a bolt of electricity shot forth from the outstretched hand at the end of it. Both of the attacks hit Tenebra at once, amplifying each other as the collective arena crowd let out a combination of groans and cheers.

Tenebra remained motionless as the powerful electrical blast washed over her, her head cocked slightly to the side. She stared at Derek with an expression of anger and contempt but made no move to retaliate. "What a joke," laughed Derek. "Put you in here against someone who can fight back, an' you're nothin'," he growled as he bounded forwards, spinning to the side and crashing his tail-fist into the side of her head, knocking it sideways and sending blood flying. Cocking his fist he fired back with a strong punch to her muzzle but again she made no move to defend herself, taking his attack in full. But as Derek reared back to hit her again, this time his fist igniting with flames, she suddenly sprang into motion. Letting loose with a fierce roar she reached out and grabbed the back of Derek's head and drove him face-first into the arena floor with enough force to crack the very ground. Yanking him up in one swift motion she threw a vicious punch to the aipom's face, a dark and shadowy aura trailing her fist as she did so. The blow knocked Derek back several feet and took out one of his teeth which flew off to the side in a spurt of blood. Derek fell onto his back, instinctively got back to his feet, then wobbled again and fell to one knee as a shocked hush washed over the arena crowd for a moment before loud cheers erupted from them.

"Oh come on!" wailed Beth, looking over to Coach Marceau. "You're gonna allow that?"

"That was a legit hit and a fair use of bide, Beth," shot back the mimic. "Now stay on your side of the line!"

Tenebra dashed forwards, grabbed Derek's head, and delivered a vicious knee strike similar to the one that she gave Simon earlier. But much to everyone's surprise Derek didn't go down. The aipom reacted swiftly, reaching out to grab the leg that struck him with his two arms while his tail snaked around and yanked on her other leg, taking her down. Staggering backwards it was obvious to everyone watching that his attack was born of instinct and desperation rather than skillful planning. On the sidelines Beth watched the battle in a furious rage while Nicole wore an expression of calm satisfaction. After her misdreavus teammate whispered a few unheard words into her ear however, her expression changed to match Beth's, albeit for an entirely different reason.

Tenebra quickly got back to her feet as Derek tried to shake off the effects of her attack. With adrenaline and his second wind kicking in the dazed look on his face was quickly replaced with one of anger. Turning his head and spitting a glob of blood aside he regarded his opponent with hatred and malice in his eyes. The taunting chants of the arena crowd were gone to him now, Tenebra was the only thing that existed. Derek charged toward her in a tumbling, evasive fashion, nimbly ducking underneath one dark pulse while acrobatically leaping over another. Using his momentum to his advantage the aipom threw a powerful punch at the mightyena from a crouching position but she was no less mobile, dodging to her right to avoid it. Tenebra retaliated by rushing toward the crouching aipom and throwing another shadowy punch at him, but he countered by rolling backwards and flipping her over his head with his feet before nimbly springing back up to a standing position.

Tenebra stood up as well but was a little slower than Derek in doing so. She lunged for him but his attack was just a bit faster. Derek caught her off guard a bit by raking with his rarely-used claws, digging into her forearm, drawing blood, and causing her own attack to miss. Derek followed up with an uppercut that caught his opponent under the chin then leapt into the air again when she threw another punch in retaliation. Tenebra lost track of him for a moment, but that moment cost her as Derek landed on her, bringing all of his weight and momentum crashing down onto her back.

The aipom, breathing heavily, backed off to give himself plenty of room to maneuver and make his next move, but the mightyena only snorted at him. "Is that the best you can do?" she mocked as she stood up. With anger in his eyes, Derek leapt toward her again, intending to club her with his iron-like tail, but as he began his attack he saw her blood-red eyes cloud over with an ebon blackness and a shroud of absolute darkness erupt from her outstretched hand, surrounding her. Derek's decent took him straight into the cloud as the arena crowd gasped, unable to see what was happening.

Derek was blinded as well. He knew his opponent was somewhere in the darkness but the mist had an eerie, supernatural quality to it that was distorting his hearing and sense of smell as well. From the darkness he felt something hit him in the back and grab his arm, twisting it. Derek nimbly flipped over to reverse the hold but when he tried to move away he felt that something still had hold of him. Just then the mist faded, reduced in intensity to a gloomy haze, through which he saw Tenebra standing next to him. The leather belt that she had been wearing was wrapped around both her wrist and his, lashing them together.

"Hop around now," she snarled as she yanked Derek closer and threw another shadowy punch at Derek's head. The aipom instinctively tried to move out of the way but the mightyena's hold of her makeshift tether prevented it and he took the punch square in the face, staggering backwards. A succession of such strikes followed, pummeling the aipom mercilessly as he was helpless to evade them.

"Stop!" yelled Coach Marceau as Derek fell to the floor. The coach's yell seemed to reinvigorate the aipom for a moment as he managed to rise to a knee before the coach approached. Although the aipom was barely aware of his surroundings, he was technically still up and so the coach was obliged to ask the question that no fighter wants to hear. "Derek!" he yelled to get the aipom's attention. "Do you wanna continue?"

Derek looked up at Coach Marceau with a dazed expression but when he turned his gaze toward Tenebra it changed, hatred once again taking hold of him. Derek spat blood in Tenebra's face, pulled out his claws, and lunged for her face but this time the mightyena was faster. As Derek began his attack she pulled him off balance with a snarl and threw a vicious low kick at him. The attack caught him straight on his left knee, where all of his weight was focused, and shattered it with a disgusting splintering sound. The aipom screamed in agony and collapsed, his left leg bent nearly thirty degrees in the wrong direction. Most of the arena crowd instantly fell silent, a few screamed, and a few others were on the verge of vomiting just from the sickening sound and sight.

"That's it!" yelled Coach Marceau as he interposed himself between the two as best he could. Grabbing hold of the leather strap that had them tied together he snapped it in half and shoved the mightyena back. "You're outta here, NOW!!!" he yelled before turning his attention to Derek who was laying on the floor in shock. Coach Marceau held him still as head nurse Gordon and several of his assistants approached but backed off immediately once the medical staff started to tend to the fallen aipom. The mimic stormed after Tenebra who had turned to leave without a word. Grabbing hold of her arm, he spun her around to face him.

"I want you in my office first thing on Monday," he snarled. "But right now, go home, you're done here!"

"He should have said 'no'," she said dryly as she turned to walk out of the arena, a hushed crowd in her wake. She wouldn't make it there without being intercepted by her team leader however.

"What in the hell was that for?" she yelled angrily, pointing back toward the crowd of people gathered around Derek. "You had him easy! We could have won this entire match just now!"

"But that isn't what you wanted," sneered Tenebra. "You want this whole thing to come down to you," she said as she shoved her way past the meowth.

"Nicole!" yelled Coach Marceau. "I want you in my office on Monday too!"

"What?" she protested. "I didn't do anything!"

"You're the team leader, that makes you just as responsible," he growled. "And if I find out you had any hand in this, I'll have your entire team disbanded and your collective records stricken. Don't think for a moment that I can't or won't," he threatened in the most serious tone he could muster. Turning away from her he grabbed a microphone, cranked the volume up to maximum to allow the noisy distortion to get the attention of the crowd, then put it back to normal and spoke into it. "Derek Armand and Team Riptide have won this match by disqualification," he announced in an angry tone. The crowd made their displeasure known but he paid them no attention. "There will be a fifteen minute recess before the next match, but nobody is going anywhere!" he ordered before accompanying the medical staff back to the arena's medical ward.

"That couldn't have gone better, really," drawled Methelza as she drew up to Nicole, who still looked furious. "Her loss pushes this series to a tie, it's come down to you and Beth, just like you wanted. And people are going to be talking about this for a long time. Nobody is going to want to mess with her after what she did to Simon and Derek. And by extension, nobody's going to want to cross you, either."

"I'm finding it hard to smile," growled Nicole.

"Don't worry about Marceau, he's just making noise. Your hands are clean," shrugged the misdreavus. "Beating Beth isn't going to be enough now, though. You're going to have to humiliate her," she said, her eyes glowing with a pale violet light.

"That's easily arranged," said the meowth with a scowl as she glared at Beth, who was conferring with Gerald over on her sidelines.

Down in the medical ward there was a flurry of activity around Derek. Coach Marceau moved past them, his objective was the headmaster in the back who was looking over Simon. "What was that all about?" he asked in an irate tone as he approached the mewtwo.

"What exactly are you referring to Michael?" asked Headmaster Felinduce through his telepathy. Coach Marceau always found his mindspeak annoying, but was finding it even more so now.

"Why did you step all over me back there?" asked the mimic. "At the end of his match," he clarified, nodding his head toward Simon. "You appointed me referee, so why don't you let me make the calls?"

"I did in fact appoint you as referee, and I most certainly trust your judgement," answered the headmaster silently. "And under any other circumstances I would never think of interfering. But there were some very extenuating circumstances that you are not aware of, and her actions regarding Simon were both appropriate and... necessary," he answered solemnly. "Though I do fully support your actions regarding her match with young Derek, and rest assured, disciplinary actions will be taken."

"I don't appreciate being kept in the dark, Felix," muttered the mimic. "She's violent, vicious, and uncontrollable."

"I agree," answered the headmaster as he slowly waved his hand over Simon's forehead. "But I trust that you of all people are aware of the irony of your criticism?"

"As I was going to say," continued Coach Marceau with some irritation. "While expulsion is certainly justified after something like that, I don't think it's called for."

"And again, I agree," nodded the headmaster. "No, it is best for all concerned that she remains here at the academy, under my watchful eye. But as I said, disciplinary action is called for, and I will trust your discretion in handling that. Hopefully we can avoid any future... incidents."

"You're keeping something from me," said Coach Marceau in a low voice.

"Yes, I am," answered Felinduce flatly. "I'm afraid that sometimes my duties as headmaster of this academy require such. Now if there is nothing more, I believe there is one more match for you to officiate?"

Coach Marceau glared at the headmaster but ultimately decided not to push the issue there and then. Silently he turned to return to the arena, the headmaster's steely gaze following him out of the room. "Foolish, foolish boy," muttered the mewtwo as he returned his attention to the espeon laying before him. "Yes, I'm speaking to you," he said to Simon in a telepathic voice.

"Everyone settle down," ordered Coach Marceau over the P.A. system, causing the noisy assemblage of students to quiet down and come to attention. "We're now ready for the final match of this series between Team Riptide and Team Jet. Both teams have two wins, so this match will decide the overall winner. Bethany Harrill, Nicole Blackclaw, come up here please," he ordered. Both girls approached the center of the arena, regarding each other coolly. "In light of the events surrounding this match so far, I'm going to add my own stipulation to this battle," he said. "Two of them in fact. First, this match will be conducted with zero tolerance. If either of you so much as bend the rules of battle, I'm throwing you out and the other side will be declared the winner, no questions asked. Secondly, there must be a winner. No tie, no draw, we will have a decisive winner. Any questions?"

"No sir," answered both girls in unison.

"Good. We'll begin momentarily, wait for my signal," he said as he went over to confer with some of the other members of the faculty.

"Long time coming, Beth," grinned Nicole as she adjusted her gloves.

"You think you're so smart, don't you?" retorted Beth. "All this work to set up this match?"

"Wouldn't have had to if you hadn't spent to much time ducking me," sneered the meowth.

Beth laughed in response. "Ducking you? You are so full of yourself. Do you think I'm stupid, Nicole? You think you manipulated things to get this match? I manipulated you." Nicole glared at her with a slightly questioning look. "I had you pegged as a threat a long time ago. But I knew if I strung you along you'd eventually do something stupid. Fact is I could have beaten you at any time, but I know your type. When I took you down, I needed to do it on a grand stage, after you've talked yourself into a corner."

"Rationalize it all you want Beth, you're only fooling yourself," answered the meowth with a bored sigh.

"You think you caught me by surprise with that little loophole in the academy regulations? Who do you think pointed it out? Sherilyn?" laughed Beth. "I'm the one who told her. I knew you'd bite, and I knew you'd throw your own teammate aside to get to me."

Nicole looked at her askew for a moment, then looked up into the stands where Sherilyn was sitting. The manectric looked back at her and shrugged with a faux innocence that silently confirmed what Beth was saying. Nicole glared at her angrily for a moment before returning her attention to Beth. "It was an easy way to get that fiery furball out of the way," she taunted. "She's a wild card I'd just as soon not have to deal with. All I had to do was promise Sherilyn a match in exchange for her help in setting you up."

"Whatever," grumbled Nicole. "Doesn't change anything, you still have to fight me, and you still can't win."

"Did Sherilyn tell you that too?" laughed Beth. "You've got a lot to learn. You can't even do anything, my powers are way stronger than you think."

"Alright, that's enough," interrupted Coach Marceau. "Get to your places," he ordered. The two girls did as they were told, Nicole sulking off while Beth sauntered off confidently. "Are you ready?" he asked. Both of them nodded in unison. "Begin!"

The two combatants slowly began circling each other, each watching the other, waiting for the right time to attack. Nicole moved first, dashing toward Beth with her claws extended but the azumarill's reaction was just as swift. After taking a moment to focus a pulsating ring of water erupted from her, an attack that at first glance seemed poorly timed as Nicole was nowhere near her. But as the waves crested and began to fall, Beth held her hands out to the side and spun about, projecting beams of absolute cold that froze the water solid in its place, forming an icy wall around her.

Undaunted, Nicole moved to leap over the wall but was met by a frigid blast of air from the other side that knocked her back as laughter echoed off of the icy walls. Nicole landed on her feet and slid to a halt, the claws on her feet digging into the ice. Ducking to her right, she avoided a frigid blast of cold that shot forth from between a gap in the wall, then dashed toward the ice, using her claws to maintain her traction. With a fierce kiai yell she threw a hard straight punch at the wall, shattering it and opening a path to Beth.

Without breaking stride the meowth lunged at the azumarill, slashing at her with her claws. Beth calmly threw up a forearm block for the first attack, spun away from the second, and made a sweep for her opponent's legs as she ducked underneath the last claw attack, knocking the meowth down, even if only for a moment before she nimbly rolled to her feet. "Problems?" laughed Beth. "I know we've never fought before, but I've done some training with someone you have done battle with," she taunted as she threw a punch at Nicole, cold and ice trailing behind it. The meowth evaded it easily enough but Beth spun around and threw another icy attack in the form of a backhand strike that found its mark. "You see I'll be gone next year, but once I've knocked you down, it'll clear the way for Team Cobalt to step over you. Sherilyn's team will be poised to take the number one ranking next year and now that you've built up your own ranking, my team's ranking will climb even higher once we've beaten yours. Everybody wins!" she laughed as she threw up her arms, causing a cascade of water to erupt from her hands and fall toward Nicole. "Except you!"

An angry look shot across the meowth's face as the cascade of water fell toward her. Springing forward she avoided the bulk of Beth's attack and made a surprisingly fast strike that caught the azumarill off guard, raking her across her stomach. Spinning around quickly she landed a powerful kick to the side of Beth's head that knocked her back. "Real cute Beth," snarled Nicole. "You've been the queen of this school long enough, now it's time to hand that crown over to me."

"As if," spat the azumarill as she stood up and wiped a streak of blood from her mouth. With a quick rush forward she threw another icy punch at the meowth but Nicole easily saw it coming and dodged out of the way. Beth spun in a circle, swinging her tail at meowth using all of her momentum to her advantage but Nicole leaned backwards to avoid it. With a crashing sound the spherical end of Beth's tail impacted into one of the remaining ice walls like a miniature wrecking ball. Nicole took advantage of Beth's missed attack by throwing another powerful kick at her but Beth sidestepped out of the way and shoved Nicole in the back, causing her to slip on the ice and fall. The azumarill took the opportunity to blast the meowth with a blast of cold that she was unable to avoid. "Sad," she mocked. "I've studied your attacks, I know your moves. You've got nothing on me," she said with a sneer as she threw another ice punch at Nicole as the shivering meowth stood up.

Nicole moved quickly despite the cold, dodging out of the way of Beth's attack and grabbing the azumarill's wrist as the punch flew past her face. Giving it a slight twist, Nicole threw a solid attack to the back of Beth's head, forcefully kicking her face-first into the wall of ice. The azumarill bounced off of the wall, leaving a red streak in her wake. Nicole maintained her hold of Beth's arm as she flipped the azumarill over her head to land hard on the icy ground. "Study this," she growled as she reared back to launch what would be a match-ending punch at Beth's face.

However Beth wasn't quite as stunned by Nicole's attacks as the meowth had thought. The azumarill pulled Nicole over with a surprising strength and shoved her away, standing up in the process. Nicole leapt back to her feet just as quickly but was met by a powerful blast of frigid wind that knocked her backwards. Extending her claws and digging them into a nearby chunk of ice, Nicole held her ground, but with some distance now between them, Beth switched off to another ice beam, hoping to catch the meowth off balance. As Beth fired Nicole slashed at one of the remaining walls of ice next to her, carving off a chunk of precariously-balanced ice that tumbled into the path of the ice beam, deflecting it. Swearing to herself, Beth took a few steps back, holding her shoulder and rotating her arm to work out some of the soreness from where Nicole had thrown her, an action that Nicole watched with a sinister grin as she took shelter behind a large chunk of ice.

Nicole dashed around the chunk of ice and prepared to close with Beth but to her surprise the azumarill was nowhere to be found. Looking around she saw a hole in one of the larger chunks of ice and could hear the cracking of ice all around her. Nicole began circling, her whiskers twitching as she tried to track her opponent. With another yell the meowth threw a powerful punch at one of the walls of ice, shattering it and causing a cascade of ice to rain down upon the battlefield. As the ice crashed noisily to the arena floor there were several eruptions from the large chunks of ice surrounding Nicole and half a dozen Beths lunged out of the ice toward Nicole. The meowth turned toward one of them without hesitation and caught the azumarill, both of them rolling to the ground as the remaining images went through the motions of an attack. The attack had much less of an impact than Beth was hoping for but she still managed to knock the wind out of the meowth. Beth used the momentum to hurl Nicole into one of the larger chunks of ice, then stepped forward and threw a punch at her midsection, ice crackling around her fist and adding even more of an impact as it connected. A second punch struck Nicole in the face, splattering some of the meowth's own blood onto the ice.

"Well look at that," laughed the meowth. "Little Miss Bitch knows how to throw a punch. Weakly," she taunted. Enraged, Beth threw another punch but Nicole dodged out of the way, grabbing Beth's arm as she did so and dragging her to the ground. Beth reacted quickly, getting her leg under Nicole and kicking her off. It would buy her little time though as Nicole was on her immediately, lashing out toward Beth with her claws. Beth moved to block Nicole's attack but realized too late that it was but a feint as Nicole changed her direction in mid-swing, raking her claws across Beth's already-injured right arm and causing the azumarill to shriek in spite of herself. "You think I showed Sherilyn everything?" hissed the meowth. "I never show anybody everything, and I'm not losing to you!" she yelled. Nicole moved forward to grab hold of Beth but she twisted out of the way, shoving the meowth back in the process. Reacting quickly she screamed and sent another cascade of water spreading out from around her, the waves knocking Nicole down again and drenching her with frigid water. Panting loudly Beth held out her hand and tried to use an ice beam to freeze the drenched feline in place but she was a bit sluggish and slow and Nicole managed to duck and roll away, just barely catching some of the ice across her back.

"That's the problem with those flashy, 'powerful' attacks, Beth, they take a lot outta ya," said Nicole in a quiet, shivering voice as she stalked the azumarill. "Look at you, outta breath, slowing down. Me? I can do this all day," she taunted as she dashed towards Beth, leaping over an ice beam that was noticeably weaker than Beth's previous attacks. On the way down Nicole raked her claws across Beth's back, knocking her off balance, then followed up by hitting her with a powerful roundhouse kick that sent the azumarill sprawling as the students in the stands cheered.

"I still have enough," panted Beth as she stood up. "To take you out," she growled as she confronted Nicole. Straining to tap her inner reserves of power, she stirred up another frigid wind around herself, gathering up shards of shattered ice before using the frigid wind to send the shards of ice flying at the meowth. Nicole managed to use her claws to shred some of the larger pieces of ice that were flying her way but could do little to escape the full brunt of the assault. She tried her best to shield herself from the piercing ice that tore into her, drawing blood from a multitude of cuts and other injuries. But just as the storm of wind and ice seemed to reach its peak, it stopped, shards of ice flying across the arena as the winds died down, Beth leaning against one of the large chunks of ice, exhausted.

"Yesterday's news, Beth," shivered Nicole, now battered and worn in her own right. But she was still better off than Beth, who weakly stood up and took a fighting stance, waiting for Nicole to close. The meowth surprised her and everyone else who was watching by dashing forwards faster than the azumarill could have expected. Sliding across the ice that covered the arena floor, Nicole tucked and rolled, throwing a slash to Beth's midsection that the azumarill was just too worn out to evade. Beth winced in pain but maintained her composure enough to make a counterattack, throwing a punch at the meowth, but to Beth's dismay it barely radiated any cold at all.

Nicole blocked the weakly-delivered punch with little difficulty, grabbed hold of Beth's wrist, and spun the shaky azumarill about, pulling Beth's arm into a position behind her own head. Stepping into Beth with a practiced ease the meowth slipped her other hand in between Beth's forearm and bicep to grab her own wrist, locking Beth's arm in an extremely painful position, then used a surprising strength of her own to lift the azumarill up and slam her down onto the icy floor while maintaining the hold. Beth cried out as she landed on a rough, uneven part of the ice and screamed in pain as Nicole pulled and wrenched her arm, twisting multiple joints in a way that they were never intended to bend. Beth tried to call upon any sort of power that she could but it was to no avail, she just didn't have anything left.

"I'm not letting go, Beth," snarled Nicole. "Not ever," she spat. "Until I get what I want!"

"No," growled the azumarill defiantly. Her struggles to free herself were met by a swift knee to the ribs from the meowth followed by an increase in the pressure of the hold that Nicole had her in.

"I want what's mine, Beth!" snarled Nicole, applying even more pressure and inflicting even more agony upon her opponent. "Say it!"

Beth screamed again, an expression of utter agony scrawled across her face, her free limbs thrashing in a frantic yet futile attempt to free herself. But for every movement she made, Nicole had a counter, punishing her for the attempt each time. Finally after what seemed like an eternity Beth screamed out, "I quit!" and frantically began slapping Nicole's shoulder with her free arm in a gesture of surrender.

"What was that?" growled Nicole as she twisted Beth's arm again, nearly dislocating it.

"I quit," she answered softly, tears in her eyes. "Please," she begged as the crowd of students began to cheer wildly, having heard her quite well the first time.

"That's it, let her go! It's over!" yelled Coach Marceau as he approached the two battlers. Nicole let go of her submission immediately, shoving Beth aside as she stood up. The azumarill rolled to her side, grabbing her arm and trying in vain to fight back tears, both of pain and defeat. "Winners of this battle, Nicole Blackclaw and Team Jet!" yelled Coach Marceau as he raised the meowth's hand, cheers erupting from the assemblage of students. Nicole's teammates rushed to the center of the ice-covered arena, Mitzi picking her team leader up and hugging her hard enough to nearly finish the job that Beth had started.

As the celebrations continued in the middle of the arena and the chants and cheers surrounding it began, Methelza approached Nicole, getting her attention. "It's all yours now," she said with a sinister smile, gesturing to the assembled arena. "Now it's up to you to hold on to it. I trust you know what it's going to take to do that," she asked, her eyes glowing with a now-familiar violet glow.

"Yeah, yeah I do," answered Nicole as she was being wrapped up in heated blankets. "Like I said, things are going to change around here," she said with a sinister tone of her own. "Some people are going to learn a little respect, one way or another," she scowled, pointedly looking up into the stands at Sherilyn, a dim violet glow reflected in her own eyes.

A great finale!
I'd like Kade to tackle Tenebra sometimes. Just to see how he'd fare against The darkness in her mind.

Well Simon didn't fare too well. But it wasn't the dark part that got him.

I meant "the lingering shadow" behind it. As to wether or not he'd fare better.....fate only knows...

Diiizamn, this was one awesome read, man. Very, very awesome.

Great finish and now we know the dark and blood stained past of team jet.

Well they're not alone. I figure that these battles are more likely than not to cause some bloodshed, after all they're throwing some pretty intense attacks at each other when you look at it. While in the anime they just fly backwards with a shocked expression and flashing colors, I tried to take a little more realistic view of it.

But on the other hand these pokemorphs are inherently much much tougher than us fragile ol' humans, so most of what looks like serious damage is to them no worse than the cuts and scrapes one of us would get while playing football. Again, most of.

Hmm...

Kind of a shot in the dark here, but you don't plan on having "history" repeat itself do you?

Nice story, Carlito! So the ascension is complete...

Storm: Tenebra scares me... she GENUINELY... scares me...
Stiletto: Y'know, outside the ring I think she's kinda interesting.
Storm: *gives her a weird stare*

Very awesome, very dark, very dramatic! Love it! I think Derek got what he deserved, frankly. But the Sherilyn angle--ooh, that was a shocker. I wonder how things were after that for them.

But brava! I thoroughly enjoyed this whole series! Magnificient!

Actually I planned to do an epilogue but kinda forgot. Nikki was initially mad but came to realize that realistically she would have done the same thing. Might have been different if Nikki had lost that match though. Beth broke her word and refused to give Sherilyn the match they agreed upon but Sherilyn had proof of her agreeing to it and after presenting it to the student council they forced Beth to honor it. Sherilyn beat her, although it was a one on one battle, as her team wasn't in any condition to battle. During final exams that year Team Riptide (minus Derek) lost to Team Summit while Cobalt lost to Team Jet.

Ah. Alls well that...wait, no nevermind. To quote the Simpsons. "So is it a happy ending or a sad ending?" "It's an ending. Let's leave it at that."

Dexter: You got to feel sorry for Beth though. She shown how stupid and how powerless she was compared to Nichole. If she only accepted and tried not to make Nichole look like an idiot she would of gotten off easily.

She wasn't powerless, she just badly underestimated her opponent after thinking that she held all the cards. I did want her to seem sympathetic at the end though so I'm glad that worked out.

And thus in an attempt to cleanse that what she felt was wrong with the 'mon and team that held the top position, one could almost stop and wonder...did Nikki turn into that what she was fighting against?

Again, well done with the battle scenes and describing the attacks in a way that made them easy enough to pick out.

Hm that is the question of the day isn't it?

This might be the first time that an anaconda vice was employed in a poke-battle...

Two words:

IN

TENSE

Damn again, man. I absolutely love your writing style. Amazing finale to such a kick ass story. I usually pride myself on being not surprised by any twists in a story, but that angle with Sherilyn, man, totally caught me off guard.

It's always the quiet ones...

Is it true? Is Felinduce the only member of the faculty that is aware that Tenebra is a shadow pokemon? One would think that it would be obvious from the point that she used her first shadow attack in the open.

...

Oh, wait, that's right! Shadow pokemon are rare to the point of being legendary, since there are less than a dozen currently in existence in the world at the moment. (It's a wonder Nox managed to gather so many in less than a decade.) This means that most people would be unfamiliar with what they're like and when they see an attack like shadow mist or shadow strike, they just say "What the hell kind of attack is that?" instead "OMG! It's a shadow pokemon!". Is that really the case?

At the moment, are there any other people besides Felinduce and the Blackclaw family that are aware that Tenebra is a shadow pokemon?

Odds are most people would mistake a shadow attack for some sort of weird Ghost, Dark, or maybe even poison or psychic attack they've never seen before, and in general, shadow pokemon would not disabuse them.

There's literally thousands of documented pokemon attacks, and odds are, thousands and thousands more undocumented. Being able to identify specific attacks on sight would be an important skill, but even experts would be occasionally surprised- so the strange, rare nature of Shadow attacks would not immediately tip off even experts- Experts would recognize, "I've never seen that before!" but not "Shadow Pokemon! Danger, Will Robinson, Danger, Danger!"

Tenebra doesn't use her shadow attacks very often and although she has openly used them in the arena, they more or less look identical to her dark ones. She used both Shadow Blitz and Crunch here, but try to figure out which was which. (Incidentally, although the "official" game Crunch is described as a bite, Tenebra's version takes the form of a knee gouge, elbow strike, or other nasty sort of attack. Same effect, different look. The shadowy aura that accompanies it is just "special effect" to distinguish it from just plain punching someone).

Indeed not every aspect of pokemon powers have been documented, there are plenty of new ways of using their abilities that are being developed every day. After all, when the next generation of game comes out there will be all sorts of new moves. But because Tenebra is a dark type, doing things like throwing out a black obscuring mist (Shadow Mist in this case) doesn't really raise any red flags, that's something you would expect them to be able to do.

Now if an electric type were to do that, it might raise some eyebrows. But she has no difficulty disguising it.

So then, if Natalia (Psychic), Ignacious (Fire), Sergei (Water/Flying), or Esmeralda (Electric/Flying) were to use a shadow move, it would raise suspicion, especially since such an act would force the curse mark that binds their shadow energies into overdrive, making it visible, as it spreads over their entire bodies (think of something similar to the marks on the giant Alakazam and Gengar from Episode 74: The Ancient Puzzle of Poke-mopolis, only much more intricate, like the marks on a Maori warrior).

By the way, when Simon did look into Tenebra's mind, that was the aura that comes with being a shadow pokemon that raped his mind, right?

Well, also remember, pokemon are often capable of learning off-element attacks. *many* pokemon can learn shadow and ghost attacks, even naturally, when its not their element. Odds are, it might be harder to disguise in Non-Dark and Non-Ghost pokemon, its far from impossible.

magnificent job

Sherlyn is a bit of a conniver there, wasn't she, trying to play both sides against each other for their own advantage!

Also... Methelza's machinations are becoming quite... Sinister, while still being very subtle. One wonders what her ultimate objective is?

Wow. Especially impressed by tenebra's fight. slightly fightened, but impressed =)

Its agressive reads like this that makes my punching bag look like a pile of sand. I'm riled up and ready to fight now. I'm glad my school has a free weight room for staff and students.

Thanks for getting my blood pumping.

Ah well, glad to be a good/bad influence. Only question is who it is you're thinking about hitting :P

Adjuncts.... Lots and lots of adjuncts...

Lol, sorry for the super short comment, I was just super tired.

So yeah... Tenebra's fight... absolutely loved the entire thing. The part where she got into Simon's head was extremely interesting and what she did to Derek... I don't even want to think about that happening to someone, but it was still (somehow) cool. And I guess I need to brush up on what I know about Pokemon. I have no idea about what a shadow pokemon is haha, but then again, I haven't played the game or watched the show or anything for about 5 years, so... thanks for getting me interested again!

I guess it's true that if you want something, you just gotta keep gripping it by the balls (or arm, in this case) until you get it.

When you say shadow pokemon are you reffering to the shadow pokemon that debued in Pokemon Colleseum? You know the ones that you had to purify because their trainers abused them?

Yep those are the ones, though there's a little more to it than that.

Ah crap. Forgot to fave this. It's been a busy week.

Always good to see Michael getting some airtime. :D

Ah yes hope I did right by him, was going for the "good intentions but kinda in over his head" approach. Figured he'd opt for asserting his authority over erring on the other side.

Well done. :>

In the words of Mark Twain: History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme.
It'll be interesting to see how much more influence the Chained Banshee gets over her Sith Aprentice.

Also, I must compliment you on Nikki and Tenebra; after reading these stories, They an even more eiry symetry to them. I actually like Tenebra a lot more after reading these, and actually almost feel bad for Nikki.

The respect Nicky sees would actually seem to be Intimidation through fear, not respect through deeds.