We've still got a few more preparations to make before the Toughness Competition can really begin! The girls have to check out the facilities, see where they'll be competing, and most of all, scope out the competition! What pokemon will our ladies choose? What obstacles await them? Is there anything they still need to learn before they can start? We'll have to find out!

KedharS: It's definitely going to be a challenge.

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: It certainly would be.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 759

By the time the bus pulled up to the drop-off point where the obstacle course had been set up, the sun was starting to set on the horizon and it was almost night time. Sango was still a little shocked that she had spent so much time on this contest, it had been one full day. She glanced around as she stepped off the bus, Silver floating beside her. Once again, the girls had gone through some wardrobe changes to match their competition.

Well, most of them, anyway. Alcea was, for some bizarre reason, still wearing an elegant red dress, which struck Sango as rather… foolish, given events. Sure, she hadn't gotten changed either, but considering she had been wearing her ranger outfit that wasn't exactly an adequate comparison to begin with.

Darla was also wearing a dress, but it wasn't the same sort of dress. It wasn't fancy, but it was a light dress that blended in with the approaching midnight, with long sleeves and high boots. The sort of outfit a girl might wear if she was expecting to do some physical activities, but still wanted to look pretty feminine.

Sango was surprised, because she thought that Darla, of all people, would be totally fine with wearing pants.

But no, apparently the one who was wearing the pants was her partner, Lila. It was like Darla had put on her dress to offset the school tracksuit that Lila was wearing, and Sango absolutely expecting that their wardrobes would be switched. It just seemed rather strange to see such an aspect.

Lila wasn't exactly pleased with her choice of dress, either. She had a sour expression on her face, and for once, she was shying away from the cameras on the plateau. The exact opposite of the cheerful camera-hog that Sango knew her as.

She had made her reasons known the second she stepped onto the bus and everyone had gotten a good look at her clothes.

"It's not fair!" Lila whined. "This was the only thing I had! There's no way I could get mud on any of my nice dresses!"

Sango felt like the fact that Lila didn't have any clothing that wasn't fancy and didn't need to be kept far away from dirt was a problem in and of itself, but she wasn't Lila and didn't have anything that needed to be said. Lila could make her own choices.

Lila wasn't the only one who was surprisingly masculine in their choice of garb. Where before, Gabrielle had been wearing various kinds of feminine dresses, and a leotard at one point, now she was wearing something downright frumpy. A dark hoodie and jeans, and hiking boots. It wasn't the kind of outfit that one would expect, coming from her. It made sense, though, considering that she was already out of the tournament. She couldn't win, so maybe she just wasn't going to try.

Serefina was wearing the same outfit that she had worn for the Cuteness Competition, not seeing any need to change. She also couldn't win the tournament, and again, she didn't care. She wanted to keep participating anyway, having fun. And she thought it was wonderful to be able to spend time with her beloved pokemon, it would probably be fun!

Ayame had changed as well, though it wasn't as drastic of a change as most of the other girls. She was still wearing jeans, but unlike the tight jeans she'd been wearing before, now she had faded jeans with frayed cuffs and a simple sweater and vest in order to be able to move athletically and not ruin her nice clothing with mud.

Blake, watching from the Milotic Dome, thought she looked just as lovely, even though she was wearing normal clothes. Aya looked lovely in whatever she wore, after all!

And even though they weren't skinny jeans, they were still rather tight, and showed off Aya's ass marvelously, much to Blake's pleasure.

But the most drastic change of all was certainly Olivia. Used to wearing nice fancy dresses and designer brands, it was quite a marvel to see if the Empress would be wearing something that could actually be used for a mountain treck.

And, well… it wasn't a dress, at least!

When Olivia stepped off the bus, she took everyone's breath away. She was wearing a tight catsuit, clinging to her curvaceous figure, and a coy look on her face. Her hair was tied back in a tight ponytail, and her eyes shined with confidence as she strutted her stuff, showing off to the camera like she was on the catwalk.

Erik stepped off the bus last, and the reaction to him wasn't nearly as impressive as to the beautiful girls. But he didn't really care about that.

"Okay, ladies," Erik said, turning to gesture at the obstacle course. "This will be the course you'll be completing."

It was a long and intricate course with all sorts of obstacles. It was split into eight rows, each set of obstacles split into eight. As Sango looked at the obstacle course and saw Ayame begin to swell with pride, she felt her confidence dim.

There were tires of many kinds, organized for running through. A large net was strung up to climb over, and a series of rope swings with disks at the bottom to jump through. A climbing wall was next, along with crawling under barbed wire through mud, and a bunch of other things that were probably not going to be entirely safe to have on a school campus. It was like an army training simulator, rather than a friendly obstacle course for children. SCHOOL children.

Was that a mine field?

But the bigger problem was the fact that it was the kind of obstacle course that Ayame was made for. After all, she trained in Pokeathlons, and had trained her pokemon up perfectly. She was built for something like this, more than Sango was.

Sango had gone through some training drills, but they weren't enough for her to handle this, she didn't think. But she wasn't going to let her doubts get the better of her, she was going to do the best she could, and try to come out ahead! And she would make it up in the maze and the mountain climbing portions as well! That would be excellent!

"Now, ladies, this is the time for you to choose which pokemon you would like to accompany you on your Toughness Competition," Erik said, turning back to them. "You can choose whichever pokemon you like, as long as it meets the requirements."

Lila raised her hand immediately, and Erik's eye twitched.

"I already told you, it isn't allowed for you to have for Gardevoir use teleport," he said. "You have to actually go through the obstacles and the maze and everything else, understand?"

Lila dropped her hand in defeat and sighed, a scowl crossing her face. "That's not fair," she muttered under her breath.

"Which pokemon are you going to choose, Ayame?" Sango asked, walking up to her friend. She knew she was planning to use Silver, but she wanted to know what Ayame was planning too. She had noticed that the girl was taking a hard long thought process before.

"Oh, definitely," Ayame grinned. "Come on out!" She flung her pokeball into the air, and from within emerged her Wooloo, "bah"ing excitedly.

"Oh!" Sango brightened. That wasn't the pokemon she had been expected, she had thought that Ayame would use her Falinks, or maybe her Golem. She hadn't really ever seen Ayame use her Wooloo at all, in fact, now that she thought about it.

"Foof, we're going to do our best, aren't we?" Ayame asked, picking up her cuddly Wooloo, cuddling it up to the cuddly close to her cheek and squeezing her tightly. The furry pokemon was soft and sweet, and the image of Ayame cuddling her was a heartwarming one that brought a smile to Sango's face.

She was certain that Blake was absolutely going to be fawning over that image, which stung a little bit, but she didn't let that bother her too much. She changed focus, smiling and nodding along with Ayame as her eyes checked out the pokemon everyone else was choosing to use. And there was quite a selection.

The other girls were beginning to make their own choices, thinking hard and letting out their pokemon for inspection to see if they were appropriate. As Sango had expected, Serefina was using her Banette, but that was about where the expectations ended.

The other girls had chosen pokemon that were either small and mobile, capable of limited flight, like her Silver and Serefina's Banette, or were in other senses small and easy to carry and/or light on their feet. It was clear that they had realized the same thing that she was realizing; the obstacle course was intended to be just that: an obstacle. And that was the reason that Alcea wasn't using her Venusaur, and Darla wasn't sending out her Tyrantrum to sit on.

Rather than a helpful tool to aid the trainers, the pokemon were more of a hindrance, something that the girls would have to help guide through the course, rather than them helping the girls get through it themselves.

And so, factoring that in, the girls' choices made quite a lot of sense. Gabrielle had chosen to rely on her small and nimble Glaceon, while Alcea chose her Roserade. Sango would have expected Alcea would use her Tsareena, but it seemed that she decided Roserade would be the better choice, maybe because Anastacia wasn't the kind of pokemon who would do well on an obstacle course, considering her pride and stature.

As for the idols, Sango didn't know much about their teams, and she didn't care much. But they clearly both had their own pokemon they could use.

"Dina, I'm counting on you," Darla said, holding up a pokeball. While her other dragons were more battle-oriented, Dina, the tiny Deino she was raising, was the pokemon that she could count on to get her through this. The tiny thing was probably her best bet, she didn't want Rex to accidentally knock that climbing wall down, or her Salamence trying to climb under all that barbed wire to get to the finish, especially since flying over the maze wasn't allowed.

"Dein!" Dina chirped, nuzzling her head against Darla's leg, bringing a smile to her face. Besides, Dina was a sweetie and she was looking forward to competing beside her.

Lila was far less onboard with this whole thing, and was probably enjoying herself the least out of all the girls. She grumbled, considering her options. She was regretting having chosen Vivy for her battles in the Coolness Competition, because now the Ribombee was in no shape to help her in the Toughness Competition. She would have to rely on another pokemon that would be able to get her through the upcoming challenge.

Fortunately, she had another good choice. Raindear wasn't maneuverable on land and Aria wasn't the kind of pokemon who was good for physical endurance like this, but she could at least carry her tiny Morelull around in her arms, so the small thing wouldn't be too much of a hindrance. At least until they got to the rock climbing, anyway.

"Well now, girls, this is certainly looking like an enjoyable little competition," Olivia interrupted Lila just as she was sending out her small fairy, distracting the other girl who suppressed the urge to glare at the other girl.

Olivia ignored Lila's look contempt. "But I think we all know which one of us is going to win this," she continued. "Belle, shall we go?"

Olivia sent her pokeball skywards with a flick of her wrist, the ball capsule crackling with a discharge of electricity and releasing her adorable Pikachu. The small pokemon was distinctive from other Pikachu for two reasons. For one, her tail bore a heart-shaped symbol with a notch at the end of the tail, like other female Pikachu.

The other difference was a lot more notable, namely the fact that she was dressed up in a wrestling outfit to show off just how tough and strong she was to everyone. Olivia was leading with some of her best.

"I'm surprised," Sango noted. "I thought for sure you'd be using your Grapploct, considering he's your Toughness Contest pokemon."

"Oh, I definitely thought of using Benny," Olivia admitted, shrugging her shoulders. "But I think Belle will appeal a little more to the cameras, don't you? A cute and adorable Pikachu trying her best in a hand-sewn outfit, progressively getting more ripped up and torn? It's perfect, don't you think?" She asked, her eyes gleaming with triumph.

"Uh… yeah, sure?" Sango asked, shrugging her shoulders noncommittally. She didn't exactly agree that what Olivia was saying made sense, but she wasn't going to argue with the girl's choice in pokemon. If she wanted to was mud out of a wrestling outfit that was her business.

"It looks like you've all gotten your pokemon out," Erik said, scanning the assembled group of girls. "So I take it that means you're ready for the competition to begin?"

"I'm going to mess up my hair!" Lila wailed, but no one had a single word of comfort for her, not even Darla. Now wasn't the time.

"I'm definitely ready!" Ayame grinned, giving him a thumbs' up. She didn't speak for everyone, but she spoke for enough people, including those in the audience. Sango nodded along with her, ready to start the match.

"Then let me explain how it's going to work," Erik said, leading the girls over to their starting positions. As someone in a three-way tie for third, Sango was located right in the middle, flanked on either side but the pair of idols.

Erik continued his explanation. "You'll me navigating through this obstacle course with your pokemon. Both you and your pokemon will need to make it to the end of the obstacle course before you can make it to the next course. If that means your pokemon gets exhausted or incapacitated and thus you'll have to carry it with you, then so be it.

Sango was fine with that, Silver was rather light. And it was exactly what she and the other girls had clearly expected, given that all of them had chosen pokemon that were light and easy to carry around with them.

"Once you've made it through the obstacle course, then you can get started on the labyrinth," Erik said, gesturing to the large raised walls that had been erected behind the obstacle course. Sango was rather surprised by how well-built it looked, even though she was looking at it at a distance. How long had it taken the members of the Ranger Course to build that thing?

Well, however long it had taken, she could feel the hard work coming off of it, and resolved that their efforts wouldn't be for nothing.

I'm going to win, she urged herself. And even if I don't win, I'm going to give this the best that I can, to show them how much I appreciate them rooting for me. And it wasn't just her friends in the Ranger Course, either, it was also her friends that were cheering for her back in the Milotic Dome, probably freshly returned from dinner.

…

Ugh.

Dinner.

Sango had almost forgotten. She'd barely had anything to EAT today! She had eaten a small breakfast before the contest had begun, but she had been in performances or planning in her dressing room all day, and had only been able to sneak in a few berries for lunch. Was this what it was like to be a model, practically starving herself so she wouldn't fail her performances?

…No wonder Olivia could be in such an ornery mood sometimes.

And of course they weren't given anything on the bus to eat, either. Sango wondered if this was part of the "toughness" part of the Toughness Competition; it wasn't just about maneuvering through the obstacle course, or finding her way through the maze, or even climbing her way up the mountain, it was about doing it all on an empty stomach.

She hadn't even been able to bring her berries with her for another snack, this was really an insidious competition. She was going to give it everything she had, but she couldn't be blamed if this competition didn't go so well.

She was going to give it everything she had, but at the same time she couldn't be blamed if the way the situation turned out was that she passed out on the trail due to starvation. She sighed, and rubbed her forehead, when the "thud" of something dropping in front of her drew her attention. She glanced down and saw a backpack sitting in the dirt.

"Huh?" She glanced up towards Erik, but the Sarge was already passing her by, dropping off another backpack for Lila, then one for Serefina and one for Gabrielle.

"These packs are going to be very important for you," Erik explained. "They have everything you'll need to get through this course intact. We've included a compass to navigate, a change of clothes, emergency rations so that you will have something to eat and give you energy, a first aid kit if you need medical help, and an emergency beacon."

Sango was stunned. An emergency beacon? For a simple contest like this? That didn't sound right at all, now that she was hearing it.

Luckily, Erik was quick to clarify.

"This is just a fun event for the school," he explained. "We don't expect anyone will actually get injured or need to use their first aid kits or emergency beacons. But we're always prepared in case an unlikely event happens," he continued. "So if you're in need of emergency help, please, light the beacon and withdraw from the contest. Your safety is what's most important."

Sango couldn't help but think that if that was true, maybe he should have designed the competition so that no one ran the risk of getting injured. But of course, she didn't exactly have it in her to say that, voicing objections right now would probably not be for the best.

Besides, she figured that, just like the lack of food, this was just another part of the Toughness Competition, making the girls go through some harsh challenges. It was exactly the perfect setup for the event, even if she wasn't all that thrilled about that.

…Wait, what was that Erik had said about emergency rations?

Sango snatched up the pack and practically tore it open. Yup, there it was, a veritable mountain of berry bars. Well, there was less than ten, but as far as Sango was concerned, that might as well have been a feast!

Her stomach was already rumbling, telling her to give into temptation and snatch one of the bars and devour it right now. But she held herself back. She was trying to win this competition, and she couldn't do that if she ate all of her food right now.

"The competition will last until the break of dawn," Erik said. "After you make it through the labyrinth, you have until the sun rises to make it to the peak of the mountain, where you'll get the chance to sign the goalpost. We'll record the order you arrive, and assign points accordingly. The first team to make it through gets 10 points, the next team gets 8, and, well, you get the idea. Last place, or anyone that doesn't make it to the finish line before the sun rises, will receive zero points. Are there any questions before we start?" He asked.

Sango had a few, but none that she felt comfortable asking. They were more in the sense of "can I get some more rations?"

Erik saw that while a lot of the girls were wary, and had questions, no one was raising their hand, which meant it wasn't his problem.

"Okay then," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "Then let's get started!"

And now, the competition would begin!

The final competition, the Toughness Competition, begins! What will the results be? Who will win? Who will be elected our new Miss Pokemon Academy? We'll have to find out!