The Pokeathlon Competition is really going tough! There are a lot of skilled and talented trainers at this school, and not all of them are even in the Caretaker Course! But will everyone make it to the second round? What about the second round itself? These competitions are great for reducing the amount of students necessary to compete- we'll have to see what everyone is made of! Let's find out who succeeds and who doesn't!

KedharS: Yeah, chapters like this where it's just trainers getting along with their pokemon is one of the reasons I wanted to do a chapter on the Pokeathlon. That plus Ayame is leaving soon (relative to the story, I mean. It'll take us a while to get there in terms of chapters.)

Shogun lord poke burst: While I appreciate your character, I'm not accepting any more OCs at this time.

Tambry96bj: Yup, we've got some pokemon to show off in this chapter, that's for sure!

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1296

As more students reached the beach, the target number of one hundred students was slowly starting to shrink. And students getting close to that line were starting to worry.

Chloe was one of those students.

She clutched onto the back of her Excadrill as the pokemon charged towards the sea, hoping she'd be able to make it in time. But there were a lot of people ahead of her. And a lot of people were around her, too. She was starting to worry if she'd be able to get there in time.

Far up ahead, Ian had just arrived at the beach, and Lana wasn't far behind him. Ian got off of Opal and called the Miltank back to her pokeball, already moving onto his next two pokemon.

"Iron, Lazuli, go," Ian said, sending out his Aggron and his Lumineon. He would have preferred to not use Iron this early in the game, but he didn't have a choice. It wasn't like he could just hold on and ride Lazuli, the Lumineon was too small to properly support him. Whereas Iron, in spite of his massive weight and armored bulk, was actually capable of ferrying him across the water, believe it or not.

A lot of people couldn't believe it when they saw him get on the back of the armored pokemon and then enter the water. But indeed, Iron proved more than capable of swimming. Lazuli swam beside the two of them, preparing her water gun to strike down the targets as accurately as possible.

Lana dismounted her Flygon as well and got ready for the next stage as well. "Bree!" She shouted, tossing out her next pokeball.

"Beedrill!" Bree, her Beedrill, emerged from the pokeball, flapping her wings. She wrapped her pincers gently around Lana and lifted her into the air, allowing her to travel over the ocean. But it wasn't enough to just have one pokemon, this wasn't the first round of the preliminaries. So Lana needed to have a second pokemon capable of shooting down the targets, and she didn't exactly have a lot of space to do so with since Bree was carrying her.

Luckily, one of her pokemon happened to be capable of wrapping herself around Lana's arm, which worked perfectly for everybody.

"Comfey!" Leilani chirped as she hugged Lana's wrist. With everything in place, Bree flew off after Ian just as Ange arrived at the shore.

Ange scowled as she looked at all the other competitors reaching the water. Events like this made her sick. Seeing her opponents treat their pokemon like glorified vehicles and not like fellow living creatures made her nauseous. She recalled Sati to her pokeball, assured of the fact that she wasn't anything like them as she had a bond of trust with her pokemon (something most trainers had, of which Ange was willingly ignorant about).

With Sati not a viable choice for crossing, that left a few other pokemon she could choose from. Bell, of course, would not be getting used in this tournament. There was frankly no point. The Slaking was far too lazy to bother with the exercise necessary to get her ahead. She could take a nice, long nap, instead. But it would be fine. That's why Ange had seven pokemon. So if one needed to take it easy, the rest of her team could pick up the slack.

"Beel! Mami!" She shouted, throwing out two of her antique pokeballs. She released her Snorlax and her Persian.

"Snorlax!" Beel bellowed. She let out a yawn and walked over to the water, flopping down into the ocean with a mighty belly flop that practically summoned a tidal wave.

"Excellent work, thank you," Ange smiled, climbing onto her pokemon's back. "Now, if we manage to get to the next round, I'll throw a feast for you, how does that sound?" She asked.

"SNORLAX!" Judging by the roar and how fast Beel sprung into action, it must have sounded pretty good. The Snorlax raced across the water, swimming with all her might as Ange and Mami rested comfortably on her expansive back, having more than enough room to stretch out. It also gave Mami the space she needed to start striking at the targets.

Julia had been right. Swift was exactly the kind of move that would get a trainer far in a tournament like this.

"Well now…" Naya mused as her Leafeon came to a stop at the water's edge. She hopped off the Grass pokemon as Fia shrunk back down to her regular size. "Who should we use to deal with this, I wonder?" There was a note of the rhetorical in her voice as she mused about what to do. Her next choice was frankly pretty obvious. She only had so many pokemon capable of crossing the water.

"Moju, I'll be using you," she decided, sending out her Tangrowth. The pokemon's mass of tendrils provided the perfect cushioning for the water, while also giving him a lot of additional appendages to propel them through the water. Really, he was the only viable choice.

"And as for taking down the targets… well, that seems like something Wata would be perfect for, don't you think?" She said to no one in particular, sending out her energetic Jumpluff. The two Grass type pokemon made for a strong combination for taking down the group of targets.

Naya headed off next, and the number of viable contestants was shrinking rapidly. The number of potential participants in the next round of the preliminaries shrunk down to 10, then 8, then 5.

By the time the finish line was in sight for Chloe, there were only two spots left.

"So close, Chloe!" Donoma called behind her, enjoying the sight of the one-eyed girl struggling to keep up. "But I'll be getting to the next round. I'll go on with Ian, you just… I don't know. Do whatever it is you do, alright?" She chirped.

Chloe bit her lip, looking not at Donoma, who was already ahead of her and poised to cross, but at the actual threat.

No matter how much she coaxed Dvalinn, he wouldn't be able to catch Donoma. Her pokemon were just too fast.

But Will and his Metang? She could catch them. She was certain of it. She gritted her teeth. "Come on, Dvalinn!" She cried. "We can do it! We just have to go a little more, okay?!"

Was that really her voice? She never knew she could sound so passionate about something. But she couldn't help herself. She was competing with Donoma, after all, and the other girl just rubbed her the wrong way. SOMEBODY had to shut her up!

"Excadrill!" Dvalinn nodded in agreement. Chloe didn't need harmonia for her pokemon to be on the same page as her, they both thought that it was essential to take the other girl down.

Will was pretty much just a bystander. But he wanted to win, too. His trust Beldum, Cobalt, had evolved into a Metang for the sake of this victory. And we wasn't going to let that action go to waste. At the very least he'd make it to the next round of the preliminaries for Cobalt's sake. If he lost now, after his pokemon went to the trouble of evolving, he wouldn't be able to forgive himself.

"Come on, Cobalt!" He urged his Metang.

"Metang!" Cobalt picked up speed. The two Steel type pokemon were leading the pack, which was causing the trainers behind them to slow down. The understanding that there were so few slots remaining and they weren't going to be getting one had killed the motivation for a lot of people, turning what could have been a competitive race into basically a run-off between Will and Chloe, who were competing for the final slot.

That status was cemented when Donoma crossed the finish line on the back of her Drapion. Now there would only be one slot remaining.

"The first round of the preliminaries is wrapping up!" Darla announced. "Who will be the last one to make it to the second round?"

"Ooh, this is so exciting!" Lila gushed, squirming in her seat.

"It's going to be a close one, that's for sure," Leanne said. "It will come down to the one who wants it more, I'd say."

She wasn't wrong. Both Chloe and Will wanted to get into the next round, but for different reasons. Will wanted to get in because of his pokemon's efforts up until that point. He wanted Cobalt to be rewarded for all their hard work.

Chloe, on the other hand, was really just trying her best to compete with Donoma, because of the other girl's taunts. And when you examined the motives of the two trainers, the one who had the most drive between trainer and pokemon was plain to see.

"…And by just a fraction of an inch, Cobalt and Will make it to the next round!" Darla announced cheerfully.

"Whoa, that's so close!" Lila cried. "I totally thought it would be going the other way!"

"Well, these things can be tricky," Leanne agreed. "I think we can thank the massive power boost Will's Beldum got for evolving into Metang for his placement. That was really close.

Chloe sighed, hanging her head and getting off Dvalinn's back. At least she was done. She nearly collapsed as her body got used to being on flat ground again, recalling her Excadrill back to his pokeball. The Pokeathlon was still going on, but she would be the first competitor to watch the rest of it from the stands.

…Wait, what am I so bothered about? She wondered. This wasn't like her. Now that she thought about things a little more clearly…

I didn't even care about this whole thing in the first place! She realized. She'd been getting closer to Ian just fine on her own; she didn't need to show up Donoma. That's right, the only reason she'd even taken part was because the Commander had asked her.

It had completely slipped her mind. No wonder she'd lost, something like this hardly mattered at all to her.

She glanced at Will, seeing the cheerful expression on his face as he hugged his new Metang. It looked out of place there, like he wasn't used to smiling.

That makes two of us, she thought, smiling beneath her mask.

"Well, too bad, Chloe, I know you really tried your best." Donoma strolled over to her with a smirk that brought Chloe's face down. But behind her mask, she was safe, at least.

Chloe shrugged. "You win some, you lose some." She didn't get why Donoma was bothering to mess with her like this. What did she ever do to the other girl? Was it because her friendship with Ian was a threat?

…Yeah, the more that she thought about it, that had to be it. It made sense.

"You'd better hurry," Chloe advised Donoma, showing her how unfazed she was by the other girl's taunts. "Your time for the second round starts soon."

Donoma stared at her with a cold expression, letting the mask drop for a fraction of a second. But Chloe was absolutely correct.

"Thanks for the encouragement!" She said, a saccharin-sweet smile reaching her lips in a flash. "I'll do the best I can! I hope you'll root for me!"

Donoma turned to the water as Chloe suppressed her urge to scream and curse her out.

"Well now. That hideous girl stole my thunder, didn't she?" Donoma mused, standing on the bank of the river. She felt insulted by Kate's actions, frankly.

"No, no, that simply won't do." Donoma shook her head, seething internally. "I'll have to show her what's what. Achlys!"

"Dragalge!" Donoma's own Dragalge was bigger and meaner than Kate's recently-evolved one. The Poison/Dragon type spread out its long reedy appendages and sank into the water.

"Eww, gross! There's another one!" Lila made a face. "And he's even bigger than the last one, yuck, why use a pokemon like that?"

Darla rolled her eyes. She had neither the time nor the inclination to bother explaining the merits of Dragon type pokemon to Lila. Not when Lila herself so often refused to care about the information when she received it.

"Just calm down," Leanne assured the two girls. They'd bene on this part for a while now, but things were about to heat up. Once the second round of the preliminaries were complete, it was time for the all-important third round.

"Galib, I think I'll rely on you, as well," Donoma decided after a quick look at her available pokemon on the register. The stoic Crobat emerged from his pokeball, staring silently down at his trainer as he flapped his wings.

Donoma smirked. Just the firepower she'd need if she was going to get within the top 50 of the second round.

"Let's go you two!" She declared, getting on Achlys' back while her Crobat circled around her. They headed off through the course as Will sent out a pokemon of his own. When it came to crossing the water, there was only one teammate he could rely on, really.

"Ness!" He said, sending out his trusty Lapras. Ness would be perfect for ferrying him across the ocean. It was what the Water/Ice type pokemon did. Now he just needed a pokemon with some firepower that could pop those balloons.

He had that, too.

"Come out, Sol," he said, sending out his Larvesta. He had considered relying on Agni and Rudra for this little task. The floating swords would have been an excellent tool in his arsenal; after all, with their No Guard ability, the goal of getting a perfect score and moving onto the third round would have been in reach.

But instead he relied on Sol. The reason for that was simple. He trusted the Larvesta to get the job done, and if he did, then that would mean he could use Agni and Rudra for the next round of the competition instead.

It was a risk he was more than happy to take.

"Phew, there's that," Lila said, slumping back in her chair as the last of the competitors to make it to the second round sailed towards the obstacle course. With all the stress that had happened over the last few days, especially including Blake's show with his brother and his little second go-around to pop the target that had given her a heart attack, she just wanted to be done.

But an idol's life was never over.

"They're heading for the obstacles!" Darla gushed, skillfully able to make herself sound far more excited than she actually was.

"I can't wait to see who goes to the next round," Lila agreed. "Leanne, what do you think?"

Leanne stroked her chin thoughtfully. "In the first round, the priority went to speed. The trainers needed to use their fastest pokemon, that they could ride, of course, to get to the finish line before the rest of their competitors.

"So speed doesn't matter now?" Lila asked. Of course she knew that was a bunch of bullshit, but it came with the territory. Part of her job was to play the role of the ditzy airhead, and there was no one at this school better suited for it than her.

"Speed certainly does matter," Leanne corrected her, as both ladies knew she would. "After all, you still have to get your pokemon across the finish line in the allotted amount of time. "But it certainly doesn't matter as much as it did in the first round of the preliminaries.

"Oh? And why's that?" Lila asked. She really hated how much of an idiot she was supposed to sound like all the time.

"That's simple," Leanne smiled. "Because we're focusing on precision here; what matters is how many targets you're able to hit with your pokemon, see?"

"Lazuli, use ice beam!" Ian shouted. His Lumineon fired a beam of compressed ice at the final target, popping the balloon instantly from the overwhelming cold. He was one of the few that made the final target, which was something to be proud of. But at the same time, he had missed a few easier shots before this one, so he didn't have a perfect score either.

But judging by the performances of a lot of students in the second round, he had pretty much assured his place in the rankings. In fact, it was clear that most people who got over 40 points would be making it to the last round of the preliminaries.

As the waiting area of the beach began to fill up, Blake realized that he needed to take some action, and he needed to do it fast.

Ayame was still embarrassed over what had happened earlier. So when she saw Blake coming to greet her, her fight or flight instincts kicked in, and she contemplated kicking him- or at the very least, running for the door.

Only there was no door.

Ayame didn't want to hurt Blake for something that wasn't even his fault (SHE had hugged HIM, not the other way around, as much as she hated to do public displays of affection) so she paused, staring warily at him.

"What is it?" She finally asked, her survival instincts kicking in at the last second, settling on "freeze" instead of flight or fight. She stared numbly at him as she waited for him to say something.

"You did a good job," he said. It was a little more formal than she was used to, but it still struck a chord with her.

Am I really that thrilled to be receiving praise from a guy like Blake? She asked herself, feeling her heart pounding in her chest.

Yeah, she really was.

"Blake…" The fact that he wasn't here to talk about the hug had her completely thrown off her game. She stared cautiously at him, but Blake just returned her cautious expression with a smile.

"I'm excited to keep going," he informed her, digging around in his pocket. She tensed, not sure what he was going for.

Then he withdrew a sky blue ribbon and she gasped.

"That's my ribbon!" She exclaimed, her hand shooting up to her head to verify that, yes, she was still wearing her ribbon. "What are you doing with it?"

"It's a long story," Blake laughed, shaking his head. "But the important thing to understand is that this is something precious to me.

When he said that, Ayame's heart skipped a beat and her face turned red.

"Pr-Precious, huh…" She mumbled, not sure what else to say. Sure, he wasn't talking about her directly, but the way he said that made her body remember the bond they'd shared.

Mentally, she cursed how easy her body was clearly seduced.

"I'm going to win," Blake continued, holding up the ribbon in front of her face. "Because I have a good luck charm. No, wait, make that two good luck charms.

He leaned in and planted a chaste peck on the cheek before she could respond. Ayame gasped, turning red as her knees turned to jelly. But then the feelings of pleasure blossoming through her quickly turned to rage as she imagined all the ways she was going to make Blake pay.

"Yeah?!" She spat. "Just you fucking try!"

So Blake's thrown down the gauntlet and is challenging Ayame directly! Meanwhile, a lot of people are crossing the ocean, getting more involved in the Pokeathlon Competition. It's a tragedy what happened to Chloe, but that's the way the game is played. You can't always be a winner, and clearly Nick wanted the victory more than she did. Now at least she should be able to relax and not do any more chores for Alden, right?