The Speed Course has been blazing by fast! Ange's in the lead right now, but as we move onto the hurdles, anything can change! Will Ayame be able to pull ahead and get some ground over her opponent? Or will Ange overpower her with sheer force of will? This is going to be a really exciting round, that might determine the entire flow of the competition! Who's going to come out on top of this event? Remember to review!

KedharS: Hopefully Alcea's message to Kate will help her turn it around, because if not, she's going to be in pretty bad shape.

Hyphenman: That would certainly be interesting, yeah. It would definitely come out of left field, that's for sure.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1312

"Look at the results!" Callie's eyes were shining as she looked at the projection screen. Beside the image of the runners projected, there was a ranking displaying the order of all the pokemon on the track.

First – Falco (Braviary)

Second – Roll (Voltorb)

Third – Mami (Persian)

Fourth – Asmo (Lopunny)

Fifth – Dana (Eldegoss)

Sixth – Foof (Wooloo)

Seventh – Puu (Stunky)

Eighth – Amethyst (Sableye)

Ninth – Crow (Croagunk)

Tenth – Luci (Zoroark)

Eleventh – Ari (Arbok)

Twelfth – Ezio (Accelgor)

"I'm surprised a pokemon as fast as Accelgor is in last place," Nikita marveled. "Aren't they known for their speed and agility?"

"But look at the way he's running," Julia said. He has to fully stop before he can jump, that's going to shave off time.

"Kate's Arbok is facing the same issue," Alcea noted. "Due to her massive size, she's having a difficult time navigating the hurdles."

The same could be said for Luci, Ange's Zoroark. The pokemon may have had an agile figure, but the fact that she was so large made it difficult to pick up good speed for leaping over the hurdles. They were obstacles keeping her from living up to her full potential.

At the same time, the race between the trainers was surprising to witness as well.

"Come on!" Ange roared, pumping her legs with everything she had. This was just like leaping over ledges back in the wilderness. She ignored the ache in her chest from her heart pounding like crazy and pushed through her fatigue, forcing herself to go as far and as fast as she could just to stay competitive with Ayame.

The two girls were neck and neck, practically clearing the hurdles in unison. Ayame was graceful like the trained runner she was, demonstrating her flawless form without a hint of unnecessary movement as she leapt over the large wooden plank.

Ange… was not that. It seemed like every time she leaped, she was straining herself. Several times it looked like she might crash, trip, or fall trying to get to where she was going, but she didn't. She kept pushing her body, practically throwing herself ahead. Even the audience could see the desperation in her actions.

"Whoa…" Lila didn't even know what to say. Seeing Ange move like that shook her. She trained for hours every day to be the best idol she could be, and even she couldn't imagine putting in this much effort into something.

Something that didn't even matter, either.

Unlike with the Relay Run, though, things were a little more even between the trainers. Ayame specialized in speed and distance; she could go very fast in a short period of time, and keep that up for a long while before she lost energy.

Hurdles required something a little different. Because there was less time to build up to maximum velocity and you had to focus some of your attention on jumping, it wasn't raw speed that carried the day here, which meant Daryl and even Kate could remain in close proximity to the two front-runners. Kate in particular pushed with everything she had, passing Daryl and actually, to everyone's amazement, getting close to the other girls.

"Look at Kate move!" Lila gasped in amazement, relieved she had something else to focus on other than Ange's frightening display of determination.

"She's really putting in a lot of effort in the back half," Darla nodded in agreement. "I'm surprised she has so much energy, after what happened in the Relay Run."

"Seems like an activity like this is more her style, I suppose," Leanne mused. She was just as curious as the others why Kate's performance had improved.

"Was Kate always this fast?" Kitty asked, turning to Alcea.

Alcea shook her head. "No… this is surprising, is it? I would never have expected her to perform so well in a physical competition."

"Daryl's hanging in pretty good, too," Julia noted. "That guy's got some talent raising his pokemon, given how well his Braviary is doing. But I don't know if that's going to be enough to win."

The pokemon had all finished clearing the hurdles. As expected, it would still take a few seconds before their trainers could catch up to them. Enough time to turn things around, maybe?

As for Kate herself…

The reason she was pushing herself so hard wasn't just due to Alcea's supportive message. Certainly, getting a note like that helped inspire her to try her best. But the real reason she was doing so well with the hurdles is because she'd finally found her groove.

Like most of the things that were positive in Kate's life, she owed her thanks to the sewers.

During her training with Roxie, the gym leader had encouraged her to be more vigilant of her environment. The sewers made the ideal location for training with her pokemon, and she'd had to navigate them carefully. There were all sorts of cracks and exposed pipes and sludge to dodge so as a result, while she didn't have speed nor a body built for running, necessarily, when it came to being vigilant of her surroundings and moving forward through an environment filled with hazards, she knew how to handle herself.

These hurdles were perfect. She imagined that she was dodging a wild pokemon's attack, and leapt over the hurdle like it was a sewer pipe. Taking care to watch her head (she didn't want to bump anything, after all!) she focused on getting away.

As for Ayame and Ange, both girls were focused solely on each other; neither paid any mind to the girl catching up to them.

Ayame had the drive to win. But she could feel that her desire to win paled in comparison to the girl running next to her. Ange radiated frustration and desire like crazy. She could actually feel the heat coming off of her rival.

It was starting to get her fired up.

Ayame had been prepared to pace herself, not wanting to exhaust all of her energy before the final event. But the way Ange was keeping up with her, the fact that she had gotten ahead of her in the last race, and Ayame hadn't been able to catch up, those factors were pushing her to do even better.

With a grin, Ayame decided to go for it.

"Uraah!" She leapt clear over two hurdles tightly packed together and hurled her body towards the finish line.

But that wasn't enough. Ayame was thinking of this like a sporting event, but it wasn't. For Ange, this situation was an all-out war.

So when she jumped over the first hurdle, she intentionally aimed for the second. Not to clear it, not, but as a landing point. She came down on the wooden plank at an angle, shifting her body forward, and kicking off the board, she launched herself forward with her arms outstretched like a Persian pouncing on its prey.

Tucking into a roll, Ange cleared the finish line a split second ahead of a startled Ayame, who could just gape in amazement at what her rival had just done.

Ange rolled through the dirt and sprang to her feet. Her track suit was covered in gravel and her hands were scraped up but good, not to mention the fact that her hair was a mess. She had a few cuts on her face as well. But she looked completely fine with her injuries, not showing a trace of emotion as she dusted herself off.

Kate and Daryl crossed the finish line not long after that. They'd both been thrown off by Ange's actions as well, but not enough to keep them back.

"Well that's… certainly the most original thing I've seen someone do on the hurdles," Nikita had to admit.

"Is that okay? Is she okay?" Kitty asked worriedly. From what she could see, that fall looked pretty bad from where they were sitting.

Elaina winced. "That had to hurt…"

Callie wasn't worried. "She's probably fine. I watched the whole thing. That wasn't any ordinary fall. It was similar to a fall in martial arts."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Julia asked.

"When learning martial arts, one of the first things they teach you is how to fall properly," Callie explained. "After all, a bad fall can be crippling. So we learn how to turn into the momentum and use the fall ourselves, to minimize potential damage to our bodies. And judging by how she curled up like that, I'd say that girl did the same thing."

Callie was astounded. That wasn't the kind of thinking that just occurred to people. Who would even think to leap off a hurdle, turn it into a pounce, and then roll through rough gravel, sand, and cinder all to get a few seconds ahead of someone else.

"Um…" Lila squirmed in her seat. She didn't want to be the one to deliver this news, but she'd lost rock-paper-scissors.

"…That's a foul."

Ange's head snapped up and she leveled a glare at Lila that nearly gave the blonde a heart-attack with fright.

"Foul?!" She snarled, balling her scraped-up hands into fists. "What do you mean it's a foul!?"

"Of course it's a foul, and an obvious one," Ayame said. "You're not allowed to fucking jump off the hurdles!"

"Where?! Show me in the rulebook where that's stated!" Ange growled, turning on Ayame next. Her blood was rushing to her head and her exhaustion was making her lose her cool. It looked like the trainers were about to start throwing punches at each other!

At the same time, their pokemon, who had been waiting at the end of the track, took the opportunity to turn on one another. Mami and Luci both snarled while Asmo glared, and Foof puffed up his wool in preparation. Dana's leaves began to shake and sparks started to fly across Roll. Things were going to get out of control really fast.

"That's enough!" Leanne snapped, standing up. "It's written in the Pokeathlon handbook that any contact with a hurdle, deliberate or otherwise, by trainer or pokemon, is an automatic two-second penalty to the runner's time! Ange, because of that little stunt you pulled, we'll be adding two seconds to your time! Is that understood?"

Ange looked like she wanted to strangle the announcers, but she managed to tamp down on her anger, took a few deep breaths, and spat out a "yes" through gritted teeth.

Everyone in the stands relaxed. There were more than a few sighs of relief.

"Now then." Leanne cleared her throat before continuing. "With that settled, let's take a look at what the trainer's individual times are. Normally we'd do the pokemon first, but since we're already on the topic, we might as well start there. Of course, for these points, we'll be rounding to the nearest second on your times. And then, of course, we'll be subtracting that number from 200. Now, starting with the Red Team!"

Ayame stood up straight.

"Ayame Toujou, with a time of 148 seconds, your team will receive 52 points!"

"Yes!" Ayame made a fist in triumph.

"Is-Is that good?" Kitty asked.

"Every little bit helps, I suppose," Alcea replied. From the length of the track, she couldn't imagine many people getting a lower time than that.

"Next, the Blue Team, Ange Moonshadow. Your total time also rounds out to 148 seconds, but with a 2 second demerit added-"

Ange clicked her tongue in frustration.

"…Your team will be receiving 50 points."

"The irony is that it wouldn't have mattered," Nikita sighed. "Those extra fractions of a second she tried to get wouldn't have gotten her more points, since their times were both rounded to 148 seconds anyway. She lost those two points for nothing."

"That must sting," Julia winced. She couldn't imagine the animosity building up in that blonde girl right now.

"Up next, the Green Team!" Leanne continued. "Daryl Thorne, with a time of 157 seconds, you'll be receiving 43 points!"

"Not bad," Daryl nodded. It wouldn't get him close to winning, but he was hoping Falco's excellent performance would push him over the edge.

"Pretty good score, even if it was the lowest one," Akira nodded.

The real surprise was coming next.

"Finally, the Yellow Team!"

Kate gulped, waiting to hear her time. She wasn't even looking at the screen displaying it she was so anxious.

"Kate Nomia, with 153 seconds, will be receiving 47 points!" Leanne declared.

"YES! AWESOME! FUCKING YES!" Kate threw both hands in the air and cheered, jumping up in down in place.

"From her reaction you'd think she just won the whole thing," Nikita noted dryly.

"She's burning a lot of energy she could be saving for the last event," Elaina noted.

Alcea smiled, and shook her head. "Kate… is simply that sort of person, you see. Something like that it to be expected, is it?"

"With those points determined, we will now take a look at the competing pokemon," Leanne said, turning to the screen. The times of each of the pokemon were displayed, to determine how many points the pokemon would get.

First – Falco (Braviary) – 22 Seconds

Second – Roll (Voltorb) – 26 Seconds

Third – Mami (Persian) – 28 Seconds

Fourth – Asmo (Lopunny) – 30 Seconds

Fifth – Dana (Eldegoss) – 32 Seconds

Sixth – Foof (Wooloo) – 34 Seconds

Seventh – Puu (Stunky) – 37 Seconds

Eighth – Amethyst (Sableye) – 40 Seconds

Ninth – Crow (Croagunk) – 41 Seconds

Tenth – Luci (Zoroark) – 42 Seconds

Eleventh – Ari (Arbok) – 44 Seconds

Twelfth – Ezio (Accelgor) – 45 Seconds

"As you can see, compared to our human competitors, the times for the pokemon were very short," Leanne noted.

Lila nodded in agreement. "How are we calculating the points again, Darla?"

"That's very simple, Lila," Darla replied. "We'll take the sum of each pokemon's individual time, and calculate the total time for that team. Then, we'll divide that number from 11500 to determine how many points we got."

Lila nodded. "Right, so… we chose 11500 why, again?"

"Because it's arbitrary," Darla answered.

"Right. Arbitrary. Yup." Lila nodded once again.

Leanne scowled, not amused by the idol's shenanigans. "We chose that number because it's in the Pokeathlon Handbook," she icily replied.

Lila stared at Leanne with a genuine look and placed her hand on the older woman's arm.

"Professor… the meaning of life can't be found within a textbook, you know."

Leanne's eye twitched. "Listen here, you little brat-"

"Okay!" Darla cleared her throat, drawing everyone's attention before Leanne choked out one of her students in front of the entire school. "What say we get to calculating those times, professor, sound good?"

Leanne caught herself and slumped back in her chair, wiping a lock of blue hair out of her face. "Why yes, I think that would be for the best," she agreed. The heat was starting to get to her. "Now then, what were the times again?"

She took another look at the screen.

"Ah, yes. Starting with the Red Team! The Red Team's times were 26 seconds for Voltorb, 32 seconds for Eldegoss, and 34 seconds for Wooloo! Add them all together, and how many seconds is that in total?" She asked, turning to Lila.

Lila stared blankly back at her.

"Um… a lot?"

The professor's eye twitched.

"92 seconds!" Darla blurted out before things got off track again. "The total time for Ayame's team is 92 seconds!"

"That's correct," Leanne said, sighing in exasperation. She quickly forced a smile back onto her face. "The Red Team's total time is 92 seconds! And that means the points they'll receive from this event are…"

The scores calculated on the screen, displaying a number.

"…125 points! Which, combined with the 52 points that their trainer got from her own time, brings the total up to 177 points for the Red Team this event!"

"Oh yeah!" Ayame grinned. As if there could be any doubt she'd do well.

"Next up, the Blue Team," Leanne said, moving on to the next team. Persian got 28 seconds, Lopunny got 30 seconds, and Zoroark… oh, my, 42 seconds. Which brings the total time for the Blue Team to 100 seconds exactly!"

Ange scowled. 9 seconds shy of beating Ayame's time.

"With that in mind, calculation should be a simple matter," Leanne said, glancing over at Lila, who looked down sheepishly. Inwardly though, the idol was seething. She could do the math! But she was playing a ditz! It wasn't fair for the professor to single her out like this!

"Blue Team will receive 115 points from their total time!" Leanne declared. "Which, while adding Ange's time, brings the amount of points from this event up to 165!"

It was a modest score. But it wasn't enough to beat Ayame's, not even close.

"Two of Ange's pokemon were ahead of two of Ayame's," Nikita noted. "But that wasn't enough for her to win. Her Zoroark's low score really dragged the rest of the team down."

"It's good to have a wide variety of times, I imagine," Callie said. "Even if you can't get first, as long as you can keep your pokemon all at relatively low times, that's really good."

Julia nodded in agreement. "I think we're going to see just what happens when only one of your pokemon has a good score."

"Next is the Green Team! Braviary's time was 22 seconds, Sableye's time was 40 seconds, and Accelgor's time was 45 seconds! Bringing the total time of the Green Team up to 107 seconds," Leanne announced. "That means a total of 108 points, which, when added to Daryl's score of 43 points, is a total of 151 points for the Green Team!"

"You know, one of his pokemon was in last place, but his score isn't that low," Akira said. "Kinda weird he got 151 points in both events."

"Oui, his Braviary kept his score low enough to remain competitive," Alcea agreed. "As for Kate, well…" She didn't have high hopes for her friend's performance.

"Finally, the Yellow Team!" Leanne continued. "Stunky's time was 37 seconds, Croagunk's time was 41 seconds, and Arbok's time was 44 seconds! Bringing the total time up to… 122 seconds! That means the Yellow Team will be getting 94 points, which, combined with Kate's score of 47 points, brings them to 141 points in total!"

"Darn it!" Kate groaned. Her positive cheer had been too premature.

"So even though Kate got a better time than Daryl in the hurdles, she still got the least amount of points from this event," Kitty said. "Too bad…"

"It is to be expected," Alcea stated. "Her pokemon were all in the back half of the scores. There's nothing she could do."

Now, let's take a look at the total scores of our Pokeathletes from this event!" Leanne said, and the teams' new scores flashed up on the screen.

Red Team – Ayame – 353 Points

Blue Team – Ange – 343 Points

Green Team – Daryl – 302 Points

Yellow Team – Kate – 288 Points

Well, the scores have shaken out! And it looks pretty bleak for Kate! While she could still theoretically win, those hurdles really cost her; coming in last for both events isn't a good look when you're going into the third! As for Daryl, he's still hanging in there, so he could win, but it looks like this is going to be a battle between Ayame and Ange in the final event!