The first round of the Pokeathlon Competition preliminaries has begun! A bunch of trainers are relying on their pokemon to get them ahead, from more orthodox methods like Sango and Cynthia riding Flying type pokemon and Vic using her Arcanine, to more unique methods like Marion and her Clawitzer. But whoever wins, we can at least be relieved that there aren't any serious stakes to this little contest, and it's just a fun tournament… right?

KedharS: Naya was very wholesome as well, no?

Arbiter8991: Riding an Excadrill is significantly more difficult than riding a Rapidash, I would imagine. Unless the Rapidash decides to burn you.

Hyphenman: Yeah the different methods and tactics are one of the fun things about a competition like this. And glad to hear you're rereading some of the older stuff. Caelia's backstory is just tragic. Too bad she's not taking part in this competition, she might have had some fun. If that's something she even knows how to do.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1291

The students jockeyed for positions, trying desperately to be the one to pull ahead of the others. Every person passed was another chance to make it to the finish line.

Almost there, Ange said to herself. She was sitting on the back of her Tauros, Sati, as the massive pokemon plowed ahead. Very few people wanted to stand in front of a Tauros when it was charging, and for good reason.

She just has to cross the finish line within the first hundred spots. A lot of people were trying to aim for first, but Ange wasn't like that. All that mattered was getting to the next round; she'd figure out what to do after that.

"Pick up speed," she urged her pokemon.

Ange had an advantage over a lot of the students in this competition. She had actually ridden pokemon before. One of the things she missed most about Hisui was having access to the noble pokemon she could call to assist her. Those ride pokemon helped her traverse the harsh wilderness that was the Hisui Region, and she was indebted to them.

Plus, it felt nice to have a pokemon she could call on for aid without having to rely on pokeballs. Letting the pokemon be free to live its life and only come assist her when she needed it sounded like the perfect compromise and the kind of world she wanted to someday create.

But she didn't have ride pokemon anymore. Her flute would not call a Wydeer or Basculegion when she played it, not anymore. So she would have to rely on Sati to get her where she needed to go, even if the Tauros was more suited to aggression than speed.

"Just a little bit more, Sati," she encouraged her pokemon as she picked up speed. "Just a little bit more and we'll get there."

It might seem like Ange was making an unusual decision in joining this competition. After all, she never took place in other school events. She despised using pokemon as tools, and even if this was just a fun competition where people worked out with their pokemon and not a battle, it was still an example of a human event designed for human goals, and using pokemon to achieve those goals.

Normally, she never would have agreed to something like this. But there was one thing that could get Ange to change her mind about anything.

And that thing was the possibility of an Oracle.

For the prize of the Pokeathlon Competition, Olivia had offered a very large and shiny stone as a reward to the winner. It was an enticing offer. If it was a gemstone, then it could sell for a fortune, and it looked even smoother than one from the distance Ange had seen it at.

If she was a harmonia user then she would have been able to sense whether or not the stone was an Oracle. As it stood, the only thing she could do was win, collect her prize, and determine whether or not the jewel actually was.

And if anyone stood in her way, they'd be run over.

"Out of the way!" Ange roared as her Tauros barged through the center of the crowd. While it was against the rules to use attacking moves against other participant, there was no such rule about brute-forcing your way through them with a mightier pokemon. If there was, Kate would have been kicked out within the first two minutes.

You weak pokemon won't stand a chance, Ange promised, narrowing her eyes. "We'll smash through all of them and seize victory! Let's go, Sati!"

Ange had taken her beliefs in survival of the fittest into a very strange direction. Anyone paying attention to her actions would certainly believe that.

At the same time Ange was fighting her hardest to succeed, someone else at the front of the game was enjoying the feeling of the wind rushing through her hair.

"Nice work, Ayer," Sango said, patting the Aerodactyl on the back. "We're ahead of everyone. You're amazing."

"Aero," Ayer grunted, his long snout curling up into a toothy grin.

Sango was surprised how well she got along with Elaina's pokemon. When she first proposed this idea to the Flying type trainer, suggesting that she use the other girl's pokemon in the Pokeathlon Competition, she'd been expecting to get laughed out of the room.

After all, Elaina loaning her pokemon to Sango? Why would such a thing even happen?

But the other girl had agreed, much to Sango's shock. In fact, she even seemed excited for it.

"It would be nice if my pokemon could get some exercise without having to worry about them going on a rampage in a battle," Elaina had explained when Sango questioned her motives. She had to admit that made a certain amount of sense.

The real surprise had come when Elaina sent out her pokemon to meet Sango and train with her. Due to the way they tended to behave in pokemon battles, Sango had expected it would be overwhelming to work with them. They would be wild or violent, completely untamable.

But the truth hadn't worked out like that at all. Elaina's pokemon were sweet and understanding, and accepted her without question. She rode on their backs like it was natural, and they were all happy to help her.

Such a thing had come completely out of left field.

…They are Elaina's pokemon, I suppose, Sango thought as she felt the warmth of the Aerodactyl between her legs. It makes sense that they're so gentle and understanding.

She couldn't help but smile. These pokemon she was using couldn't be sweeter, and she knew part of that had to be because they belonged to Elaina. Like so many other people, Sango had been frightened by Elaina and her powers at first. But since getting to know the other girl, she knew now that there was absolutely no reason to be afraid of her.

Elaina was Elaina. She couldn't control her powers, but she desperately wanted to. She wasn't a threat to anyone so long as she wasn't using her harmonia, and she didn't WANT to hurt other people, either. She just wanted to be left alone.

So of course pokemon owned by a trainer like that would be easy for her to ride. Elaina had helped her get used to all her pokemon while they'd been practicing, and now it was almost like Sango had raised them herself.

"Just a little bit further," she encouraged the Aerodactyl. Considering Sango was in first place, the chances of losing were slim. She might certainly fall out of first place, but outright losing? The chance of that was far too low.

But she couldn't grow complacent. Until the end, she would push herself to try her-

"WOOOOOOOOO!" A flash of red in the corner of her eye caught Sango's attention and she turned to see Cynthia shoot past her on the back of her Swellow.

"Heya Sango!" Cynthia waved at the blonde with a grin as she pulled ahead. "We'll see you at the finish line!"

"Swell!" Elise squawked, flashing a grin.

Sango's eye twitched. She knew she shouldn't let it bother her. Coming in second wasn't that much less respectable than coming in first, and frankly, she didn't even really care about her placement in the rankings at all.

No, the reason she spurred her Aerodactyl forward and encouraged him to beat Cynthia was purely motivated by her own spite and desire to win, nothing more complicated than that.

"Aerodactyl!" Ayer roared, flapping his wings and picking up the pace as he soared through the sky towards Elise and her redheaded trainer.

That's when another flash of red in the corner of her eye caused Sango to turn around and see who it was that was coming around on the other side.

"Go, Weiss!" Blake shouted to his Scizor. The crimson pokemon had his arms wrapped tightly around the boy's chest, giving him a good grip on Blake that he could use to get him to the finish line without risk of injury.

Sango scowled. Blake was here. He was catching up to her, they were almost at the same distance. And she didn't like that.

Sango still hadn't totally forgiven Blake for abandoning Ayame in favor of his older brother's challenge earlier in the week.

Oh, yes, her anger had cooled somewhat with the revelation that Blake was trying to devote his time to both activities, but she still felt uncomfortable. Because all that time he spent training to fight could have been spent on training his pokemon to do their best, like she had.

But that anger had mostly subsided. Because she understood why Blake had made the choice that he did. The other boy was desperate to reunite with his sister, and would do anything to achieve that goal, even risk his relationship with Ayame. He was determined to bring back Ayame's memories, but he was also determined to help Gwen.

It really wasn't fair to blame him for abandoning Ayame, when the alternative was abandoning Gwen. And he was still clearly doing his best to try and win.

No, the reason Sango was having a hard time forgiving Blake was because of the little mess he'd created when she called him out for being a jerk.

He'd tried to kiss her. No, that wasn't really true, was it? Blake had no intention of kissing her. He just pretended he was going to so she would get angry and lash out at him, and he could sabotage their friendship. It was so obvious to read, Sango expected that he'd done so on purpose so she wouldn't think he was some kind of jerk.

Well, it certainly backfired on him. She thought he was a jerk, because he had acted like a jerk. And yes, he'd done it for an admirable reason, but still. Jerk!

…Yes, Sango was being very petty. She could recognize that. But it didn't change the way she felt about the situation, so she didn't really care.

That pettiness was what drove her to spur Ayer ahead, so he wouldn't be overtaken by the Scizor. She'd kick Blake's butt in this tournament, she was certain of it. She refused to let any other outcome occur, honestly. She was going to kick his butt, and then he'd compete with Ayame at some point and bring back her memories, and everything would be fine.

Then, and only then, would Sango deign to clear the air between the two of them and go back to being his friend. Even though the pain of not being his friend stung worse than she ever could have imagined it to.

I really do care about him, don't I? Sango thought with a sigh. She loved Blake. She really did. And because she loved him so badly, she felt awful whenever he felt awful, which seemed to be a lot of the time now.

But she needed to stand her ground and set up some boundaries with him, because this was starting to get ridiculous.

"You won't get ahead of us!" She shouted to Blake.

"WHAT?!" Blake shouted back.

"I said-"

"I CAN'T HEAR YOU! WEISS'S WINGS ARE FLAPPING TOO FAST TO HEAR YOU!"

Sango turned bright red. Oh, right. She'd completely forgotten. While she was riding on the back of a massive prehistoric pokemon, Blake was being carried by a large bug. Which meant Weiss's wings were on either side of his head, flapping so fast it was almost impossible to see them. The soundwaves that they must have been generating? No wonder Blake couldn't hear a word coming out of her mouth.

Embarrassed, Sango shook her head and turned her attention forward. Cynthia was even further ahead now, and she couldn't let that slide. Stupid Swellow! Why did Elise get to be so fast, huh?

No, calm down, she reminded herself. You're riding an Aerodactyl now, and Aerodactyl have incredible steed of their own.

"Come on, Ayer!" She shouted. "Let's catch up to them!"

"Aerodactyl" Ayer roared in agreement. He flapped his wings and the massive pokemon increased speed, following behind Cynthia. Then he did something she never would have expected. He slid to the side, floating right behind her. Sango gasped, feeling a change in the wind as he repositioned himself like that.

What's going on? She wondered. Why does the air current feel so weird all of a sudden? And why are we going so much faster?

That's when she realized what was going on. This was the slipstream effect! She had read about it! This was one of the many reasons why Pokeathlons confined the pokemon to their own lanes. The slipstream effect was occurring when Ayer flew behind Elise, allowing her to clear the air with her own body, while he just rode on a curtain behind her, traveling in her wake.

It allowed him to move faster and with less energy expended. Frankly it was a pretty cunning ploy, Sango had to give the pokemon credit.

Of course, she realized. He's one of Elaina's pokemon. Of course he would understand how to read the wind like this.

Elaina was a master of the Flying type, and birdlike pokemon in particular. It made sense that any pokemon she would use would have an adept understanding of the win, given how much of her powers revolved around it.

"Well, with that in mind… we should be able to win!" Sango couldn't help but smile. Then she felt something looming behind her and whirled around. It was Blake! He was riding in her slipstream the same way she was trying to do with Elise!

She muttered something under her breath, frustrated but still able to recognize the good play from her friend and rival.

While those three were jockeying in the sky for the position of first place, there were some students who were just worried about whether or not they would make it to the next round at all. These were the students at the back of the pack, all bunched together, none of them sure if they'd be able to make it to the next round.

Nikita was watching the match unfold, and she was counting, trying to see where in that clump of people their friends were.

"So how is it going?" Callie asked excitedly. "Is everyone winning?"

"From what I gather… yes," Nikita nodded, sinking back into her seat and sighing in relief. "It's not quite victory, but everyone we know is in the first one hundred spaces, at least. That's gotta count for something. We won't have to worry."

She wasn't quite correct when she said that. The more accurate statement would be that everyone they knew except Will was in the first hundred slots. But then, Callie didn't know Will very well. Would she even care about his placement in the tournament?

Will was not ahead of the others. He wasn't close to the top one hundred students. In fact, he was even lagging behind them, as his Beldum strategy was clearly not paying off. He was in dead last, a position that was rather embarrassing.

But what was he supposed to do? He didn't really have any pokemon that he was capable of riding on, as sorry as it was to say that.

"Come on, Cobalt, just do your best," he encouraged the little floating ball of iron. "You don't have to worry about winning."

He'd only joined this competition in the first place because, at the time, he thought it would be fun. If he'd learned that he'd be doing something this pathetic, he might not have bothered.

"Beldum," Cobalt murmured.

"It's okay, buddy," he encouraged them again. "You don't have to try any harder than that. We'll just finish the race with our pride, we don't need to care about winning.

Then a blinding light from above him nearly made him shield his eyes, which he would have done if not for the fact that his hands were otherwise occupied.

That only lasted for a little while, though. Because the Beldum he was holding onto was starting to get bigger and expanding outwards, and in less than a minute he was completely incapable of holding onto Cobalt, who dropped him into the grass.

"Cobalt?!" He looked up in amazement at his pokemon.

"What the hell was that?!" Lila exclaimed, her jaw dropping. She'd been entirely prepared for a photo finish, but something else stood out even more on the cameras.

"It looks like that boy's Beldum evolved into Metang," Darla noted. "What a bit of good fortune."

"Good fortune?" Leanne asked. "Or careful rearing? That boy made a very smart decision, raising a pokemon like that for a tournament like this. After all, when a pokemon first evolves, they get a sharp burst of energy perfect for turning a situation like this around."

"Oh! So he planned it?!" Lila gasped in amazement.

"That's pretty hard to believe," Darla said, raising her eyebrow.

"It's not as surprising as you might think," Leanne said, smiling. "That boy clearly knows what he's doing."

Will had no idea what he was doing. He hadn't expected Cobalt to evolve!

But he was going to take every advantage he could.

"Come on, partner!" He urged his Metang. "Let me get on your back and we can take this whole race for ourselves!"

He was talking out of his ass at this point; he knew that several people had likely crossed the finish line already. Winning was out of the question. But with Cobalt's boost in energy, at the very least he'd be able to get into the next round.

"Metang!" Cobalt lowered their body to the ground so Will could climb on top of them. It was a strange sensation, getting onto a pokemon that less than five minutes ago you were hanging onto. But Will wasn't going to question it.

Cobalt used their psychic powers over magnetism to lift their body up into the air, and they shot ahead, towards the rest of the students.

Awesome! The first round is really heating up! While Blake, Sango, and Cynthia are fighting for the top spots, it seems we have more pragmatic competitors like Ange and Will who are just focusing on getting into the next round. What else are we going to see? What will the next round entail? And who will win the first round? Let's see how this goes! The lighthearted Pokeathlon Competition is just getting started, after all!