Two of the three events in the Speed Course have been completed! All that's left now is the Pennant Capture! We've finally reached the climax! Who will win? Ayame? Ange? Daryl or Kate? This is the final event for Block A, and someone here will be making their way to the finals of the Pokeathlon Competition! The Speed Course comes to an end right here!

KedharS: It's still anyone's game, the Pennant Capture is pretty forgiving in that regard, a great way to make a massive swing in the points!

Guest: You never know. We can't count Kate out just yet. Let's see her performance in the Pennant Capture before coming to any conclusions.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1313

After another fifteen minute break to recover everyone's energy and give Ange a chance for a medical checkup (thankfully everything was fine) it was time to begin the third and final event of the Speed Course, the Pennant Capture.

"This has been such an exciting match!" Lila giggled, squirming with excitement in her seat as the teams lined up on the starting line.

"You can say that again, Lila!" Darla agreed. "And this next event promises to be the most dynamic one yet! Wouldn't you agree, professor?"

"You're absolutely correct, girls," Leanne nodded. The fifteen minute break had helped her calm down as well. "The rules of the Pennant Capture are very simple. Each trainer runs out onto the course with one of their pokemon, and the team tries to capture as many flags as possible before returning back to the line, where the flags are then stored up."

"But why would they return back?" Lila asked. "I mean, that sounds like it would take time, right? Wouldn't the smart thing to do be to just stay out there and keep gathering flags?"

"That's true, Lila, but you're forgetting about the pokemon's stamina," Darla reminded her. "These pokemon have been giving it their all in these events; forcing them to keep going will only wear them down even further!"

"Oh, I think I get it!" Lila nodded. "So to help the pokemon recover their stamina, you switch between them! Yeah, that makes perfect sense!"

"That's not the only reason," Leanne continued. "If a pokemon and their trainer tries to grab too many flags at once, it's possible that another pokemon may steal them."

Lila gasped. "Steal them?! You can do that?!"

"Yes," the professor nodded. "It's a very big risk, carrying too many flags at once. While the use of moves is forbidden, the rules state that it's permissible for pokemon to tackle into one another, or even trainers, to try and grab flags from their opponents. To prevent that from happening, it's usually necessary to go back to the starting line to store your flags in the team box."

"This sounds like a really tricky game, then," Lila said worriedly.

"Yes, that's true," Leanne nodded. "The Pennant Capture is usually saved for the last event because the chance of injury is higher. It's part of the reason why the field for the event is a sandbox like this. Everything to reduce the rate of injury."

"It doesn't hurt either that running on sand is a challenge in its own right," Darla noted.

"I would hate to do this challenge," Lila scowled. "Imagine, falling over in the sand? Getting sand all over my dress?! Ick, no thank you."

"Well, you shouldn't be doing a Pokeathlon in a dress," Darla said. "You're supposed to be wearing a track suit, like them."

"A track suit? Ugh, that's even worse!" Lila winced. "Those things are absolutely NOT fashionable, no thanks. Although, if I could get one in hot pink…"

Darla rolled her eyes.

"Ahem." Leanne cleared her throat. "Ladies, if we're quite done here, I'd like to move onto scoring, if you don't mind?"

"Yes!" Lila nodded. "Absolutely! What about the scoring?"

"Well, it's a lot more straightforward than the previous event," Leanne explained.

"No arbitrary numbers then?" Darla cracked, earning her a scowl from the other woman.

"Nothing like that," she muttered. "No, the way it works is that for each flag you manage to bring back to your box, or are holding onto, you earn three points. Simple, don't you think?"

"Wait, for real?" Lila asked, surprised. "But I read that the only flags that count are the ones you bring back to your box! If you're holding onto any but don't make it back to your section in time, then they don't count!"

Darla and Leanne both stared at her and she gasped.

"Err, I mean… nothing! Me reading? Hah! Unlikely!" Lila laughed innocently, but the genie was out of that proverbial bottle.

Leanne sighed. "Yes, that used to be the rule," she admitted. "But we're using the advanced rules for this tournament, and recently the Pokeathlon League has changed the rules for some events to promote more dynamic competition. Now the trainer just has to be holding the flag. Not only that, there's no longer a limit to the amount of flags that can be held at any given time; before, a pokemon and trainer team were only allowed to carry nine flags and couldn't pick up any more until they returned to their box and stored them."

"That should make things a lot more exciting then," Darla said. "I wonder who's going to win!"

Ange had her eyes focused on Ayame. I need to get four more flags than her in order to get a high of enough score to defeat hers.

She clenched her fist, and then opened it up. The faintest of smiles crossed her lips.

That should be a simple task. That girl has no idea how long I've been training for an event like this one, she mused.

"Okay! Trainers! Pokemon! Are you ready?" Leanne asked.

Ayame, Ange, Daryl, and Kate all stood on the line with their pokemon beside them. Ange and Kate in particular looked rather cramped for space, due to the size of their Alpha Pokemon; Luci and Ari both took up a lot of room. Fortunately Foof and Amethyst were small enough to make up for this.

"Then begin!" Leanne declared, and a starting pistol went off. The timer began to count down as the students ran into the enclosed sand area.

"So what do you think?" Nikita asked. "Ayame's in the lead right now, yeah? Do you think she has a chance?"

"Given the rules of this event, I'd say anyone has a chance," Akira said.

"WHOA!" Kitty gasped in amazement. She wasn't the only one. Someone got off to an explosive start right off the bat, and it wasn't who they were expecting.

"It's only been a few seconds, but Kate Nomia has already captured five flags!" Lila exclaimed, her eyes bulging in shock.

"Arbok!" Ari hissed, slithering through the sand. She was the reason for Kate's efforts. Her golden scales glittered against the terrain as she shot forward, using her long body to her advantage. She snared out her jaws and grabbed flags while Kate dashed through the sand and picked up her own, working together as a perfect ream.

Hah! Compared to training in a sewer, this is nothing! Kate grinned. Finally, an event that didn't require much physicality on her part. The only thing that the others had over her were their physical abilities. But that wasn't as essential in the Pennant Capture as it was in the other two. Kate could go at a more leisurely pace and take advantage of Ari's speed and size to cover more ground, letting her snatch up multiple flags in her territory.

In a matter of moments, she'd taken a commanding lead of this final event.

Kate – 8 flags

Ange – 6 flags

Ayame – 5 flags

Daryl – 4 flags

"Look at Ayame go, though!" Callie said.

Ayame and Foof navigated the course like they were born to do it. They kept their distance from the others and their eyes on the prize, gathering flags like it was nobody's business as they ducked under parasols and leapt over pipe obstacles.

"You good, Foof?" Ayame glanced at her Wooloo, her brayed in agreement.

Then she saw a flash of purple out of her eye. Daryl and Amethyst were approaching them. More accurately, the team was running towards a flag pretty close to her.

Ayame made a move to go after the flag but quickly turned on her heal, running back to the starting line instead.

"Huh!? Why's she going back?!" Callie asked in confusion. "She could have grabbed that flag just now, what gives?"

"She probably realized it wasn't worth it," Akira replied. "She's thinking strategically here."

"Why'd Ayame do that?" Lila asked, confused. "Her Wooloo looks like he still has a lot of energy left, right Darla?"

"That's true, Lila, but remember, it's possible to steal flags from others," Darla reminded her. "And Sableye are particularly well-known for their habit of hiding out in caves and stealing things from travelers. I don't think she wanted to risk it."

Darla was right on the money. Ayame dropped her collected flags in the box and gave Foof a break, heading back out with Dana.

Not only was Darla right about Ayame's motives, she had also called Daryl's thought process correctly, too. He kept his attention focused on Ayame, and nodded to Amethyst.

"New target," he whispered.

Daryl knew he was pretty far behind in the point totals. If he wanted to win this one, it wouldn't be enough to just collect flags the normal way, he had to steal them from people. He may not have liked it, but it's the way the game worked.

Ange in particular would have been the perfect target, but he couldn't risk it. The girl just refused to let her guard down.

Every time he glanced at the blonde, she turned towards him, even while she was running or picking up a flag. It was like she could feel his gaze on her. Was she just that paranoid? Or was he mistaking her wariness for something else?

"Look at Ange go!" Darla marveled. "She's not slowing down for a second! She keeps pushing her body to the max!"

"It's very reckless," Leanne said. Even though Ange had collected a massive amount of flags, the professor couldn't find it in her to offer praise for the other girl's actions. After all, one wrong move, and she was likely to hurt herself.

Kate – 28 flags

Ange – 20 flags

Ayame – 16 flags

Daryl – 14 flags

"Okay, Ari, that's enough," Kate called to her Arbok. Her arms were practically overflowing.

Then the worst happened.

"Sableye!" Amethyst slammed into Kate, causing her to drop a bunch of her flags before Ari could get to her. While she managed to gather up most of them, Daryl and Amethyst together managed to snag up five, and both trainers returned to their boxes to store up their flags like Ayame did, while Ange went on to gather more.

"That's the risk of carrying too many flags at once," Darla said, frowning. Kate had taken a commanding lead, but now that lead was being threatened. Ange had already passed her, grabbing her 25th flag relatively quickly.

"That girl always did have more heart than sense," Alcea sighed, shaking her head. But she continued to believe that her friend could do it.

"Okay, Crow, change of plans!" Kate called as she headed out with her Croagunk while Daryl exited with his Accelgor. "Take as many flags from people as you can!"

"Cro!" Crow nodded.

Their first target was Ange. With all the flags she had, she must be dropping them all over the place, yeah?

But when Kate and Crow came upon the blonde (gathering a few flags off the ground on the way there) they saw that Ange's hands were free.

"What the heck?!" Lila gasped. "Ange has almost 30 flags by this point, where's she keeping them all?" She wondered.

To answer that question, Ange snared another flag as she leapt over an obstacle, and tucked it into her track suit.

"She's storing them all in her jersey?" Darla couldn't believe it. "Is that even possible? How skilled to you have to be to fit that many flags inside your clothing?"

The answer? Very skilled.

Ange smirked.

Who do you think I am? I didn't labor through all those lessons about making more space in my satchel, wasting millions of pokedollars, just to lose here! Ange let out a roar of triumph, ducking under Crow's clumsy fumble, and grabbed another flag for good measure.

Kate clicked her tongue. Time for a change of tactics.

"Forget her, Crow!" She shouted to her Croagunk. "Focus on getting more flags!"

"Cro!" Crow nodded. The Croagunk cackled and turned to an open spot on the field, going to gather more flags. In the end, that strategy was the best. Kate's experience with navigating difficult terrain thanks to her training in the sewers made her a natural at this event.

Soon enough, Kate's numbers were right back up there, competing with Ange's. And Ayame wasn't far behind; the tomboy's speed made up for the fact that she kept going back and swapping her pokemon, taking a methodical approach that kept her competitive in this last match. She used the fact that she was ahead in points to take a more conservative strategy than the others.

Kate – 34 flags

Ange – 33 flags

Daryl – 30 flags

Ayame – 28 flags

"I can't believe Ayame's losing," Kitty said in amazement.

"She's behind, yeah, but it's not so simple," Nikita said. "Remember, she's got a lead in points. She can afford to be behind in a few flags."

"That's not all," Julia noted. "Look at the condition of the others. They're starting to get worn out, see? Whereas Ayame is doing fine."

She wasn't wrong. Kate was well ahead of the others in points as she made it back to the starting line, but she and her pokemon were both exhausted. When she exited with Puu, she could only gather a few flags before returning to get Ari; she needed the Arbok's speed and size to stay ahead of everyone else in the match.

At the same time, Daryl's stamina was starting to wane, too. He had gathered a fair amount of flags, but he couldn't keep this going forever.

Then there was Ange. She had finally reached the end of her rope, and it was clear to everyone who looked at her. She finally returned to the starting line, panting, because her Zoroark was exhausted. Time was almost up, and for the first time she was changing her pokemon.

That's because she had a change of plans. And she'd need Mami's help to do it.

Her Persian was defined by her greed. She was so greedy that she had forced herself to retain the ability Pickup from when she was a Meowth, just because she wanted to keep accumulating wealth. Because of that, Ange had taught her several moves that would help her when it came to stealing things from other people.

Now the time came to put her to work.

"Come on, Mami!" She growled at her pokemon as the two set out, making a beeline for Ayame. "Let's settle this!"

Ayame gathered up flags as fast as she could, but a glance at the leaderboard told her she was nowhere close to Ange's score. Her Persian was too fast. She snagged flags from Kate and Daryl effortlessly while collecting some of her own as well, and soon she had a 10 flag lead over the other girl.

Kate – 48 flags

Ange – 44 flags

Ayame – 32 flags

Daryl – 31 flags

Ayame clicked her tongue. She needed to do something, fast, because time was running out. She and Foof had already picked up a few, but she couldn't risk returning to the starting line. She looked out across the sand and saw multiple flags waving in the wind. A veritable gold mine right in front of her eyes.

If she went back now, she'd lose out on it. That would be the game.

The time for conservative playing is over, she decided. Now I'll go full power!

As Ange approached her foe, her instincts honed in the wild caused her to shiver. She felt the same sensation in that moment as she did when a wild pokemon spotted her, ready to attack. Ayame was on the offensive now!

"Look at her move!" Lila exclaimed.

"She's like a different person!" Darla couldn't believe how fast Ayame and her Voltorb grabbed up the flags. Her speed was night and day compared to before, and her numbers kept rising. Kate was collecting even more flags herself, but it didn't matter at this point; Ange knew who her opponent was now.

"No!" She growled. She wouldn't lose here, she refused! "Mami!" She shouted, turning to her Persian. "After her!"

"Persian!" Mami hissed, darting through the sand at Ayame, who was preoccupied with grabbing one of her flags.

Then her head snapped up and she jumped out of the way, dodging the Persian's pounce.

"Hey, that can't be legal!" Lila scowled indignantly. "You can't just order your pokemon to attack a trainer, it's not fair!"

"You can," Darla said simply. "That's how the game works. Besides, it goes both ways."

"Wooloo!" Foof dashed forward, slamming into Mami and knocking her backwards. The Persian hissed, circling the sheep pokemon furiously.

But no one saw Ange.

Ange had spent years and years honing her abilities at sneaking up on wild pokemon. Hiding in the shadows of the tall grass, waiting for hours at a time for an Alpha to turn away so she could capture it without a struggle, it felt like all that practice was right for this moment. She crept towards Ayame, whose arms were crammed with flags, and leapt at her to knock her over, hoping to take as many as she could.

Ayame turned towards her at the last second and raised her foot, driving it into Ange's ankle.

"Uraagh!" Ange roared as she tripped and fell. A couple flags slipped from her jacket and Ayame grabbed them from her before she could catch herself. She rolled through the sand and hopped to her feet, whirling around and glaring at the tomboy with fury in her eyes.

"You didn't think I'd fall for that, did you?" Ayame glared at her. "I figured you'd be coming at me from behind! You're a cautious person like that, after all, doing whatever it takes to win!"

Ange spat in the sand.

"You don't understand!" She growled. "This is going to be MY victory! I'm the one who's getting that prize, not you!"

Ayame's glare softened into a look of sympathy.

"You really think you're in any shape to be saying that to me?" She asked quietly.

Ange was about to demand to know what the hell she meant by that when suddenly her legs gave out from under her and she collapsed into the sand.

"What is this?!" She exclaimed, barely managing to break her fall. It was like her legs were made out of jelly. But even as she shouted for answers she knew there could only be one.

After pushing herself this far and abusing her body all morning, she'd finally reached the limits of her physical ability. Her willpower still demanded she succeed, but her body didn't have the strength to listen to her anymore.

"NO!" She roared, pounding her fists in the sand. "NO! Move damn you, move! I won't lose like this! I can't!"

Ange had been through far more taxing situations than this. Moments when her life was on the line, and not getting up and moving would be the difference between survival and a quick and painful death. She was still in that mindset right now, knowing that a loss would mean the end.

But as much as she could be mentally convinced of that fact, without a direct physical threat in front of her, she couldn't convince her body. Maybe if Ayame was running towards her, maybe if she was attacking, maybe then Ange could have relied on her adrenaline to keep her going. But right now, Ayame was just walking slowly towards her.

Wait, no! Not towards me! Towards…

There was a flag only a few feet away from Ange, the last flag in their vicinity. Ange's head snapped, getting a close look at their scores.

I'm still three flags ahead! She realized. And there were only seconds on the clock. She whipped around and pushed herself forward, dragging her body through the sand as fast as she could.

If I can get my hands on that flag, then it's over! I've won! That's all that mattered right now.

Realizing what she was doing, Ayame broke into a run, charging at the flag. She turned to Foof, ordering her Wooloo to fend off the Persian so she could get to it in time.

"Look at them go!" Lila gasped in amazement.

"With only seconds left, Ayame and Ange are both going for that last flag! Will either of them get to it in time?" Darla wondered.

"It's going to be tight," Leanne said, narrowing her eyes.

I have to do it! Ange shouted at herself, pulling her body closer to the flag out of sheer force of will. If I don't, then I lose here! I won't lose! I can't lose! If I lose, it's the same as dying! I won't die, I can die here! I'm not someone so weak as to lose to a girl like that! Weakness is a sin!

Ayame leapt at the flag as Ange flung herself forward. Both girls' hands were outstretched, but only one's fingers managed to wrap around it as the timer went off.

And that's the game! With this event, the Speed Course has come to a conclusion! But who won? Was it Ayame? Ange? Did Kate's amazing flag-gathering skills (unlike her flag-triggering skills) manage to get her above both of them? What about Daryl? How many points did all the teams get it? We'll have to see what happens and who will move onto the finals in the next chapter!