The first event of Jump Course is already getting up to some spicy things! We've got these trainers doing the best they can, but they're also interfering with each other! That's not nice! And a few people are handling all the jumping better than others. With such a short amount of time, a setback can be really crippling! Hopefully, everyone will do their best, and be able to get a decent amount of points! We don't want someone out of this game before it even really starts!
KedharS: Reiner may be at a disadvantage. But in a game where you can sabotage your opponents, being at a disadvantage can actually be an advantage! After all, nobody is really targeting him, so he can take advantage of that if he can manage to keep his head down! We'll have to see where it goes from here, but it's anyone's game right now!
Just a Bad Writer for Fun: True, it's good to see that Ian is really thinking things out carefully. And not only that, he's using his pokemon well. He definitely came in with a plan, that's for sure.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 1317
Reiner was quick to get back on his feet. He took a quick glance at the scores, and saw there was an obvious difference between how many lamps he'd gotten and how many lamps the others had gotten. He was significantly behind.
Cynthia – 124 Points
Ian – 95 Points
Jo – 110 Points
Reiner – 22 Points
And only half the time was left. He had to go all-out.
"Reiner!" Nikita cried. "You can do it!"
"Orion! Spector! Invictus!" Reiner shouted. Somehow, he managed to catch Nikita's voice, and she reinvigorated him. "Jump with all you've got!"
"Electrike!" Orion shouted. He leapt high into the air, taking advantage of his four strong legs.
"Treecko!" Spector was already jumping, aiming for the lamps with his tiny hands.
"Metang!" Invictus, surprisingly, put the most force into his jump, shaking the trampoline so hard he nearly threw Reiner off.
All three of Reiner's pokemon leapt high into the air and came crashing back down. All it took was one good leap and his points shot up by over 80.
He just had to keep up this routine.
"Well, it's looks like Reiner's finally getting into the swing of things," Callie sighed in relief. She'd been concerned that he'd completely flub it, which would bum Nikita out for the rest of the day. But it looked like there was nothing to worry about.
Jo, on the other hand, was on the warpath. He seethed about what had happened to Bough. Ian was going to pay, he'd make sure of it. The only problem was that he didn't have the opportunity right now, not with how much larger Ian's pokemon were.
Even if Jo gave the order to Bough to do the same thing that Ian did, it wouldn't make a difference. Their pokemon were at different levels in terms of power and weight.
So instead, he decided to put his attention where it mattered, and focus on getting as many lamps as possible.
"Okay you three!" Jo shouted. "We've got work to do! We were set back a little at the start, but I know you guys can manage this!"
Jo's team leapt up and began tagging lights like crazy.
Ian bit his lip. This was why he'd targeted Jo's team first. Unlike Cynthia and Reiner, who were amateurs, Jo was in the Caretaker Course. Sure he was just a first-year like those two, but he knew way more about taking care of his pokemon's conditions for stuff like this, since he was studying to be a nurse. And he'd proven that with how many points he was quickly accumulating.
There was less than 20 seconds to go, and Jo and Cynthia were monsters. Their pokemon were scoring as many lights as possible, and Ian was determined not to let them get an unstoppable lead. He shouted orders to his team, trying to make full use of Sapphire's jumping ability, Opal's weight on the trampoline, and Diamond's imposing size.
Cynthia, on the other hand, had one strategy at the moment.
"Jump!" She shouted, jumping on the trampoline herself. As always, she was a sight to watch. She captured everyone's attention with her passionate cheering, pumping her fist into the air with glee. She seemed alive on the field, with everyone naturally finding themselves drawn to her.
That was just the sort of thing that happened when you naturally put in so much effort. Cynthia could have been conserving herself if she'd wanted to, but her personality made her uncontainable. She was thrilled beyond belief to be doing something this fun, and it was showing in how her pokemon snagged the lights.
The girl was unstoppable!
"And that's time!" Leanne shouted. "Airborne pokemon, snag your last lights!"
Practically every pokemon was still in the air when the buzzer went off. They snagged as many lights as they could and landed in a heap on the trampoline, making it rumble and shake so much their trainers were nearly thrown off. Cynthia plopped down, sitting crosslegged and waving at her team. She was so proud of them!
"Reiner did so well!" Nikita sighed. "Even if he didn't win this one, he did his best!"
"Okay, folks!" Leanne said, and the screen turned back to the trampoline. "I saw some great jumping from all these pokemon! These guys really put in their best effort! But now, let's take a look at the individual pokemon's scores, and see what they've accomplished in this event!"
"I'm so excited!" Lila squirmed. That had actually been really fun. It was hard to believe it had only lasted for a minute!
"You can say that again, Lila," Darla nodded. "I wonder how many points everyone got!"
"Let's display everyone's scores!" Leanne said, nodding to the screen. The points flashed up again, showing how many points they got from the event.
Cynthia – 434 Points
Ian – 408 Points
Jo – 463 Points
Reiner – 395 Points
"Whoa, those scores are closer than I thought!" Callie exclaimed.
"Reiner's still in last place, though," Nikita said glumly.
"Yeah, well, what are you going to do?" Julia shrugged. "He did the best he could, there's no helping that."
Kitty sighed. Julia might have been trying to sound comforting, but when it came to Reiner that just wasn't possible for her.
"Now remember, these are the total points they achieved from all their jumping," Leanne reminded everyone. "And considering the fact that these kids are amateurs, I'd say that's pretty good! But to calculate how many Athlete Points they'll get from this event, we have to take those points and divide them by 3.5!"
Lila winced. "Oh, no, not math!" She wailed, only half-serious. But the half that WAS serious REALLY didn't want to have to do math.
"That's right!," Leanne nodded. "Now, starting with Cynthia and the Red Team! They got 434 points! Which, divided by 3.5, means the Red Team gets 124 Athlete Points!"
Cynthia's score flashed 124. Which seemed pretty good, but a lot lower than the points that had been achieved in the previous round.
Lila was the one who pointed that out. "That seems like kind of a low score, but Cynthia had a lot of points… are you sure that's right?"
"Well, remember, a lot of them probably haven't done anything like a Pokeathlon before," Darla reminded her partner. "It's to be expected that they wouldn't be perfect right out of the gate."
"That's true," Leanne nodded. "And certain Pokeathlon events are just worth less points than others sometimes. Now then! Let's move onto our next team!"
Ian frowned. He was next, and his score wasn't very high. He sighed in exasperation and cracked a grin. Well, what are you going to do? He thought. They'd done the best they could after all, time to let the chips fall where they may.
"Ian and the Blue Team got a total of 408 points!" Leanne declared. "So after dividing it by 3.5 and rounding, the Blue Team will get 117 Athlete Points!"
"Oh!" Ian's expression brightened. That wasn't much lower than Cynthia's score at all!
"Because they're dividing it by 3.5, the points will end up a lot closer than their scores from the event," Nikita explained. "It will be much easier for them to close the gap that way." She was saying that mainly out of hope for Reiner's performance in the next rounds.
"Should we move onto the next team?" Darla suggested.
"Jo and the Green Team? Yes, let's," Lila nodded. She was still a little irritated that Jo was cuter than her while being a boy, but she didn't let it bother her. Too much.
"Well, they got the highest score for the event," Leanne reminded them. "With 463 points, the Green Team receives 132 Athlete Points!"
It was a fairly good score, especially for a first-year who hadn't done Pokeathlons before. But even then, it wasn't much higher than Cynthia's score.
Cynthia grinned. She was brimming with excitement at the possibility of overcoming Jo and coming out ahead. After all, he had two pokemon that were really good jumpers, and Elise was the only one on her team who could really compare.
The fact that their scores were so close meant Cynthia had a real chance of tying things up.
"And finally, last but not least, it's Reiner and the Yellow Team!" Darla declared.
"Well, they may not be least, but they're certainly last," Lila pointed out. Then her sweet smile returned. "Not that there's anything wrong with that! I'm sure he's trying his best!"
Nikita scowled. She didn't like the way Lila was picking her boyfriend apart.
Reiner seemed unfazed himself. He knew he hadn't brought out the best performance he could, but it didn't matter.
"Come on, guys," he said, patting Spector on the head when the Treecko came over to see how he was doing. "We'll be just fine. Don't worry!"
He grinned, and his pokemon looked anxious, but they relaxed a little regardless.
"Now then," Leanne said. "The Green Team got 395 points! Divided by 3.5, that means they will receive a total of 113 Athlete Points for this event!"
Reiner gasped.
Nikita cheered. "Yes! I knew it! I knew there was still a chance!"
The total scores for the first event flashed up on the screen.
Cynthia – Red Team – 124 Points
Ian – Blue Team – 117 Points
Jo – Green Team – 132 Points
Reiner – Yellow Team – 113 Points
All in all, their scores were pretty close. There was a real shot at anyone taking the lead next round, which came as a relief to the fans of the trainers. Nikita sank back in her seat and sighed. There would be another 15 minute break before the next event started, so the trainers and their pokemon could relax and recover.
It was going to be the most grueling 15 minutes of her life.
She could appreciate that Reiner needed the time to relax and recover, but at the same time, she wanted to move onto the next event so she could see him give it his all.
It just wasn't fair!
The students were hanging out over the awning, checking on the condition of their pokemon and chatting with one another. There was an amazing change in atmosphere compared to the breaks for the last event.
In the previous event, the four competitors were Ayame, who was usually taciturn unless talking with her friends, Ange, who was downright antagonistic towards other people, Daryl, who didn't talk that much unless he felt there was something important he had to say, and Kate, who was prickly on her best days.
There wasn't much casual socializing going on between the teams in the previous round, basically. But that wasn't the case here. Cynthia and Ian were both very sociable, and so was Jo. And even though Reiner didn't talk all that much, the fact that one of his friends was here made up for that. And Jo was easy enough to talk to himself.
"That was so cool!" Cynthia gushed, directing the flow of the conversation as usual. "Did you see the way all our pokemon were jumping around out there?"
"It was pretty fun, yeah," Ian agred. "Still, I wish I could have gotten a few more points to catch up with you two."
"Heh. Not on your life!" Cynthia cackled. "That was some brilliant strategy on my part, using Tristan to take down your Crobat! She was your best jumper, and we dealt with her like THAT!" She smacked her hands together for emphasis.
"Yeah, you definitely got me there," Ian laughed, taking a sip of his water bottle. Sapphire was resting on his lap, recovering from the intense exercise.
"Well, it's what you deserve!" Jo scowled. "Having your Miltank crash into poor Bough like that! Frankly that should be against the rules!"
"Hey, accidents happen," Reiner shrugged. "I didn't get mad when your Vespiquen accidentally hit Spector with her dress."
Jo frowned, eying Ian warily. "Assuming it WAS an accident of course," he said. "Well, Ian? What say you?"
"Not an accident," Ian admitted. "I knew you would be the biggest threat, so I wanted Opal to interfere so we could lower your score. If not for that, I think your Vespiquen and Flamigo would have gotten so many points you would have blown us away."
"He's not wrong," Cynthia admitted. "Your pokemon were jumping like crazy, Jo!"
"…Well, I'll accept that," Jo said, smiling proudly. "After all, my team has some great jumpers on it, that's for sure. And I'm going to prove just how great they are in the next round, just watch!"
"Come on now, this isn't over yet," Reiner said. "None of our points are that high. Next round is where we're going to turn it all around!"
"Tree!" Spector nodded in agreement.
"Electrike!" Orion growled.
"Well, bring it on, then!" Jo laughed, his eyes flashing. "I'm happy to play with you for as long as you'd like!"
That sounded a lot more flirtatious than Reiner was comfortable with, and he wasn't the only one who picked up on that.
"Careful," Cynthia teased. "You know he has a girlfriend, right?"
"But not a boyfriend," Jo batted his eyelashes. Reiner realized that he was just teasing him, and decided to ignore it.
"Whatever," he scoffed. "None of that matters. Let's just focus on relaxing for now. It's almost time for the next event."
Reiner couldn't be more right. Less than a minute after he finished saying that, the timer ran out, and it was time to get back to the Pokeathlon.
"We're back from our break!" Lila said.
"And it looks like our trainers are all ready and rested!" Darla noted. "They're certainly raring to go, don't you think, Lila?"
"Yeah! Let's do this thing!" Cynthia charged out onto the field, already full of energy. Of course, she wouldn't be able to run where she was heading.
After all, the second event for the Jump Course was the Disc Catch, and the arena for that event was sitting over the ocean.
"The next event our trainers will be competing in is the Disc Catch," Leanne said, directing the cameras over to the platform raised above the water. "They'll have to send their pokemon out onto those platforms, where they will remain without any orders from their trainer!"
"No orders at all?" Lila gasped. "That sounds really difficult!"
"The idea behind this event is to build up your relationship with your pokemon," Leanne explained. "You want to have a lot of trust if you're going to excel. Sure, you can shout stuff, and even try to give orders if you really want to, but it's going to be very difficult given the fact that the trainers will be standing on shore, see?"
Indeed, the trainers had already stepped onto the boxes where they would be standing, firing discs over the heads of their pokemon. It was quite a distance away.
"She's not wrong," Ian said. "I wonder if my pokemon would even be able to hear me from all the way over there."
"Aargh, I messed up!" Cynthia groaned. "I didn't even consider that! I should have used James, then he would have been able to hear EVERYTHING I had to say thanks to his ears!"
"Well, there's nothing we can do about it!" Jo chirped. He used his pokeballs to send his pokemon out onto the platform. "We're all in the same boat, so we just need to trust in our pokemon and hope they'll get the job done!"
"That's the spirit!" Cynthia nodded in agreement. She sent out her pokemon as well, and Ian did the same.
Only Reiner was left, and he was feeling kind of anxious about this whole thing. But Jo and Cynthia were right. They were all in the same boat. And even if Reiner was in last place right now, that didn't mean he wouldn't be able to drag himself back out!
"Okay, guys, go," Reiner said, releasing his pokemon as well. All the pokemon crowded together on the platform, wondering where they should go.
"For this event, the trainers will each take one of the disc guns that have been provided for them," Leanne said. "They will have two minutes to fire as many discs as possible, and their pokemon will have to jump up and get them! Remember, whatever territory their pokemon are standing in, that will determine how many points each disc is worth!"
"Just spread out wherever!" Cynthia shouted across the gulf. "I'll make sure to get the discs to you, don't worry!"
Her pokemon could just barely hear her, but they all got the message, spreading out.
Cynthia grinned. "It should be easy, so long as I have this," she cackled, picking up the large disc-shooting gun. The wicked smile on her face made everyone shiver.
"Who thought this was a good idea?" Julia groaned, holding her head in her hands. "Who actually thought letting Cynthia of all people compete in this event was a good idea?"
"Everything should be fine…" Kitty said, sounding more like she was trying to convince herself than Julia. "Cynthia won't do anything…"
Callie's face went pale and she stared vacantly at the screen.
"We're all doomed," Nikita said, voicing the concerns the other girl was too stunned to say.
Indeed. Giving a weapon like that to Cynthia can only end one way. And that way is not very good. Hopefully things will be okay, but if not, well… who knows? In the meantime, we've got a fun event to compete in! The scores aren't that different from each other, so this is still anyone's game! Who will manage to catch the most discs? Who will be able to direct their team the best without giving verbal orders? Let's find out!