The second round of the preliminaries of the Pokeathlon Competition is underway! The trainers have to guide their pokemon through an obstacle course in the water, and while they're doing that, they have to shoot down special target balloons! It's going to be a very tricky game, but if anyone can handle it, it's definitely Ayame! Let's see how everyone faces this situation! Who's going to make it through the second round?

KedharS: You can tell how crazy things are getting in this. And it's only going to get more intense after seeing what Sylvia just pulled.

Hyphenman: This job is only a temporary thing, so she won't be doing it after the Pokeathlon has concluded. So she'll be fired in a couple of days. As for Sylvia and Hoopa, well, she's the kind of girl who always has a few tricks up her sleeve, so who knows?

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1293


Sylvia had been the first one to start the second leg of the Pokeathlon Preliminaries, and she was off to a good start. She controlled her pokemon masterfully, guiding Runja with speed while instructing her Mismagius's attacks with precision.

"Look at her go!" Lila gasped in amazement. "Her pokemon is destroying those targets one after the other!"

"I guess coming in first in that last race wasn't just a fluke," Darla agreed. "She's destroyed every target in her path so far!"

There were only 50 targets to hit, and Sylvia had cleared almost all of them without even breaking a sweat. The problem was that they were getting more tricky. Like a shooting gallery, the balloons were starting to dip up and down behind cover screens, making it almost impossible to get a clean hit. Almost impossible for anyone but Sylvia, of course.

"There's your target, Magia," she said, narrowing her eyes and pointing at the final balloon, which was waggling frantically behind the shields, almost impossible to pin down.

"Mismagius!" Magia nodded, focusing all of her magical power into a single rainbow leaf.

"This is it!" Darla shouted, on the edge of her seat along with most of the audience. "If Sylvia can hit this last target, she'll have gotten the full 50 points!"

"Oh, I'm so excited, Darla!" Lila squealed, squirming in her seat.

Sylvia narrowed her eyes, following the shaking pattern of the target perfectly. This was the ideal challenge for someone of her skillset. With her sharp eyes and genius intellect, she could easily calculate the precise moment to fire the attack so that it would pop the balloon.

"Now, Magia!" She snapped.

"Mismagius!" Magia fired her single leaf at the target, sending the rainbow projectile spinning through the air and towards the wobbling balloon.

It dug firmly into the shield and stayed there, leaving the target unharmed.

"Oh, so close!" Lila groaned.

"She really was, Lila," Darla agreed.

"With that, she's scored 49/50 points," Leanne noted as Sylvia's Jellicent reached the shoreline. "I've gotta say, for the first contestant, that's really something!"

Of course, none of them knew just how impressive Sylvia's performance actually was.

"Perfectly done, Magia," she whispered to her Mismagius as she got off Runja, returning the Jellicent. "You timed that brilliantly."

Of course Sylvia had missed the last target on purpose. It was part of her strategy. She had showed off the entirety of that round and made it seem like these targets weren't a big deal for someone of her skill level (which they weren't). The reason she did that was because she wanted to set the stage perfectly for her little trick.

After such a brilliant performance, to flub the last shot so blatantly would set it in the minds of many of the competitors that making that final target was a world of difference compared to the others. They'd get anxious and sloppy as they missed more and more of the targets moving forward, and it would be absolutely impossible to hit that final one.

After all, if Sylvia couldn't do it, what would be the chances of someone ordinary? It just wasn't going to happen.

This was the strategy Sylvia had concocted to mess with the competitors of the Pokeathlon. This way, I can all but guarantee that the people making it into the next stage of the preliminary have the mental control necessary, Sylvia thought. But the reason read was much simpler. She enjoyed screwing with people because she was Sylvia Driscoll, she didn't need any more thought than that.

She couldn't help but smirk as she walked over to the waiting box, lounging back on a beach chair with a smirk of anticipation on her face. She stared up at the large screen installed for the competitors to watch. This was going to be good.

One of the best parts about this competition was the abundance of targets made available. The more people who took to the water and tried to get through, the more targets were set up for them to hit. This was fortuitous for the trio of Blake, Cynthia, and Sango, who were all moving at roughly the same pace.

But there was one person who managed to pull ahead of them.

"Nice swimming, Rhox!" Ayame shouted to her Golem as the massive pokemon pushed his heavy body through the water. It was an amazing sight to see, a Golem swimming with such speed and ferocity when he had such a significant weakness to Water type attacks.

Ayame was holding onto Dana, using the fact that her Eldegoss was floating to balance herself as her pokemon maneuvered through the course. This had the benefit of allowing her pokemon to move at top speed without the risk of her falling off.

"There's the target!" She shouted, pointing to the next series of balloons for her to pop.

"Eldegoss!" Dana spread her leaves and some shucked off, ready to be flung at the balloons. The spinning blades danced through the air as they shredded the targets completely, just as Sylvia's Mismagius had done.

But this was about a thousand times more impressive because Dana wasn't using magical leaf to turn every attack into a guaranteed hit. She was using razor leaf, which had far more accuracy issues to deal with.

The fact that Dana still hadn't missed a shot was testament to how high her Skill was in respect to Pokeathlons. Ayame had really raised a party of monsters when it came to physical challenges and exertion.

"Nice work, Ayame!" Blake called from behind her, and the tomboy flinched. The trio was starting to catch up, but only one in particular was really moving faster, Sango. She had decided to slow down to match Blake and Cynthia's pace, since she was working with pokemon she only had a bit of experience with. But it was time to speed up.

"Raiver! You can catch her!" Sango said, lightly nudging her foot against the Braviary's side.

"Brav!" Raiver squawked, flapping his wings even harder and tearing through the sky, desperate to catch Ayame. As he flew, Mukuro aimed his arrows well, popping balloon after balloon with no end in sight. This match was perfect for an archer.

"Whoa, would you look at that?!" Lila cheered. "Ayame is doing perfectly! She managed to gain a lead over Blake, Sango, and Cynthia, even though she placed behind them in the starting race!"

"She's finally showing her real fangs," Leanne noted. "She's not going easy anymore, now that the competition is so tight. That girl's playing to WIN."

And she was right on the money. Ayame didn't hesitate for a second to give Rhox the order to pick up speed, leaving Sango in the dust. But Sango wasn't having it.

"You think you can get away from me?" She growled. "No chance! Braviary were born predators that attack from the sky!"

Because Braviary were the national symbol of her home region, Unova, Sango knew a thing or two about them. Especially about how fast they could fly over water when hunting their prey. But this wasn't any ordinary attack. Sango wouldn't necessarily win this competition just by having the fastest pokemon in the room.

No, she needed to prioritize accuracy over speed. That was the way to win. While true that she would need to pass the finish line before time elapsed, at her current pace she was definitely going to make it. Which is why she was counting on Elaina's Decidueye to make sure she qualified.

"Excellent work, Mukuro," Elaina said under her breath, smiling and holding her head up a little higher. The other student would have their own speculations as to why Sango was using pokemon that belonged to Elaina Bishop of all people, but Elaina didn't mind. She cared about Sango in spite of her best efforts, and she hoped that by loaning the other girl her pokemon, Sango would make a real difference here.

She still wasn't fast enough to catch up with Ayame. Sango bit her lip, feeling a sense of déjà vu rising up in her gut.

It's fine, she told herself, trying to calm down. You just have to focus a little more carefully on getting through this challenge. Then everything will be fine.

Even as she tried to tell herself that, she was doubting the voracity of her words. Ayame was that intimidating of a fighter.

Maybe if it had been someone else ahead of her, things might have been different. She'd already lost to Ayame, in a fight far more significant than some silly Pokeathlon. But it wasn't someone else. It was Ayame, and she was beating her.

Again.

Ayame's eyes snapped open. She'd been feeling the sea breeze wash over her as she focused herself, and now she was ready to put those phenomenal eyes of hers to work.

"Ayame and Sango have entered the final lap of the competition!" Darla exclaimed. "There are only three targets left!"

"Gosh, I'm so excited!" Lila squealed, squirming in her seat. "This is going to be so cool!"

"We'll see if that girl can pull it off," Leanne said, leaving the identity of "that girl" as vague as her meaning of "pull it off".

Sango wasn't even listening to her. She wasn't listening to anything except the body of the pokemon underneath her.

I don't have harmonia so I can't connect with you the way Elaina can, she silently apologized, even though she knew that the pokemon wouldn't be able to hear her words. But you're her pokemon, and I'm going to believe in you!

"Fire!"

Ayame and Sango both commanded their Grass type pokemon at the same instant. Mukuro drew back his bow while Dana prepared more leaves, and the two attacks shot through the air.

Mukuro's arrow traveled faster than the leaves. It pieced through the sky like a nail from a nail gun, aiming right at where the balloon should go.

But the balloon ducked behind a screen, and Mukuro's arrow sailed harmlessly into the water.

"Oh, so close!" Lila winced.

"But look," Darla said, pointing at the other target, for Ayame's pokemon.

It had been completely shredded.

Lila gasped in amazement as Rhox carried Ayame to the finish line.

"It's our first perfect score!" She exclaimed.

"That's right," Darla nodded. "Talk about tricky! And Sango really did her best, too!"

"She got 49 points," Leanne agreed. "With a score like that, making such good time, it's hard to imagine someone will be able to knock her out of the preliminaries! She's going to the third round for sure, that's my judgment."

Hearing that almost made the feeling of hopelessness in Sango's chest go away. Almost. She still felt miserable over the fact that she hadn't been able to make the shot that Ayame had.

It's because Mukuro's bow was too fast, she thought, almost about to cast blame on Elaina's pokemon before she caught herself.

No, it's my fault. I misjudged things and had him attack too early, she chastised herself. I wanted to compete with Ayame, so I made a bad call and ordered an attack when I should have waited a little longer.

It sucked, but it was a learning experience for next time. Don't be too impatient.

"Nice work out there, Sango!" Ayame greeted Sango with a smile as she disembarked from Raiver. She tried to return it, but she still felt shaky. And why wouldn't she? Her rival was a sweet girl, but hearing such words from her, they almost sounded patronizing.

But Ayame's not like that. She's too nice and honorable to play mind games or look down on her opponents, Sango reminded herself.

Ayame enjoyed the thrill of competition, of matching up against a powerful foe. Just the opposite of Sylvia, who entered these games out of amusement. Or, in this case, to screw Serefina over if at all possible.

That bitch was going to pay for her words, Sylvia would make certain of that.

Ayame and Sango walked to the waiting box, both feeling excellent about their chances. And due to their grapple for the lead in their race, Blake and Cynthia weren't even close to where they'd just been earlier.

"Nice water gun, Chris!" Cynthia cheered her Spheal on. The round pokemon's sharp spurts of water had just taken out three more targets.

"Great work, Maria," Blake smiled at his Mareanie, who had just done the same thing with her poison sting attack.

Blake and Cynthia glanced at each other and grinned.

"Doing pretty good for yourself!" Cynthia called. "Here comes the next wave of targets! Hope you're prepared!"

Blake was. Even though he should feel exhausted from all the hard work he'd gone through this past week, first training to defeat his brother and then training for the Pokeathlon, it was a wonder he could still smile at all.

But he was smiling because he was confident he would win.

"This is incredible!" Lila gasped. "Just like our last three contestants, Blake and Cynthia have made it to the final target with perfect scores!"

"They're really doing a marvelous job," Leanne agreed, nodding. "But the other students aren't doing so poorly at all!"

She wasn't wrong. As Blake and Cynthia drew into the final set of targets, the hardest ones to his as Sango and Ayame had proved, the other students were starting to enter the water themselves. Sango watched in amazement as Marion blazed through the course without hesitation, her Remoraid shooting down target after target.

"Look at her go!" Sango cheered. "She's not slowing down at all! She's smashing through those targets without hesitating in the slightest!"

"Her control of her pokemon is phenomenal," Ayame agreed. "But-"

"But she doesn't have as much accuracy as you would like, hmm?" Sylvia smirked. "I noticed the same thing."

Marion's Remoraid was doing phenomenally, keeping up the pace with her Mantine as he fired at the targets. But even though Remoraid were known for their accuracy, that didn't make them perfect. And even though Marion's handling was skillful, she couldn't force her pokemon to keep going.

"…And Marion Rivers crosses the finish line with 45 points!" Lila announced.

"Shame she couldn't hit that last one, either," Darla sighed. But given as she'd missed some of the other targets, it wasn't exactly a surprise that she'd flubbed on the hardest one.

Marion bid goodbye to her pokemon and skipped over to the waiting box.

"I'm surprised you overtook those two," Ayame said, raising her eyebrow. Cynthia and Blake were still approaching the final target.

"It was no sweat at all!" Marion laughed. "Maneuvering through something like that on Mana's back is nothing!"

Sango narrowed her eyes. Marion said that, but she still felt off. The way she was shaking and looking around, like she couldn't allow herself to relax, it was suspicious.

She was about to ask what was going on when Ayame asked for her.

"Marion, are you alright? You look kind of… twitchy."

"All that water…" Marion mumbled, staring back at the wide-open sea. "All that water… and I couldn't fish!"

"…Ah." Sango was reminded of the reason Marion had failed every Pokemon Ranger Probationary Exam before she had come along. "There's a time and place for everything, you know," she said dryly, not sure how else to put it.

"I knooooooow!" Marion wailed. "That's why I had to lock up all my fishing rods with Jessie! But it's no good! I can't take it anymore! I need to fish!"

"Ayame, put her in a chokehold, will you?" Sango pleaded. It was just a joke. …Mostly. But Sango couldn't help but admit how much easier things would be if Marion just passed out every now and then rather than make herself a fool like this.

"So now it's just those two," Ayame said thoughtfully,staring up at the screen where Cynthia and Blake were fighting. Both students had tied at 49/50 points. Almost a perfect score.

It would all depend on whether or not they would be capable of shooting down that final target.

"We're almost there, Blake!" Cynthia called to him. "Better prepare yourself! We're going to take down that last target and get a perfect score!"

"Just you try it!" Blake shouted back. "I'm going to be the one who gets the perfect score, just you watch!"

Secretly, they both hoped that the other would also make their shot. But they were both a smidgeon too prideful to admit it.

"Well, well, well, you certainly sound confident!" Cynthia called to him. "Say, how about we make this interesting! Whoever gets the higher score has to pay up!"

Blake raised his eyebrow. A wager? Now? He didn't have time to get roped into one of Cynthia's crazy games. He needed to get to the finish line, for Ayame's sake.

But still, the temptation was there, and he couldn't help but be curious.

"What kind of bet are you thinking?" He called over to her.

Cynthia grinned, exposing her pearly whites.

"How about the winner gets a kiss from the loser?" She teased.

Blake rolled his eyeballs. Of course she'd go for something like that, it was Cynthia.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding!" Cynthia called over to him. "How about treating the winner to dinner at a fancy restaurant?"

Blake knew a date when he smelled on, but Cynthia's competitive fire was infectious. He couldn't help himself.

She's gotta be planning something, he expected.

But nope. Cynthia was just lost in the fire of competition.

"They've reached the last target!" Darla announced.

"Oh, I'm so nervous!" Lila winced.

"This is a tricky one," Leanne said. "You're going at it at your top speed, and only have a fraction of a second to hit it before you pass it by. It requires timing, precision, and luck to get this last one, and it's going to be a photo finish, that's for sure."

"Chris! Use water gun!"

"Maria! Use poison sting!"

Both trainers shouted to their pokemon as they passed by the targets, hoping to hit.


So what's going to happen? Will they both hit? Both miss? If only one of them gets a perfect score, who do you think it's going to be and why? This competition is already heating up, and the characters are reuniting with several friends and rivals that are going to raise the stakes of this match by a lot. Will anyone get a perfect score like Ayame did?