While the first event of the Jump Course was arguably pretty dangerous, there's no doubt that the second event is even more so. Whoever thought it was a good idea to give high powered weaponry to Cynthia Fafnir, even just the kind used for firing Frisbees, they clearly weren't thinking with their brain. This is a bad situation to be in, folks, hopefully our audience it going to take some cover!

KedharS: Indeed it is.

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: You know what it looks like to me? Ian, a junior, is bullying three of his underclassmen. Well, two underclassmen, and one Cynthia. Not cool, Ian. Not cool.

Hyphenman: "I don't like Mondays." -Cynthia.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1318

A loud gunshot signaled the start of the second event, the Disc Catch. It was followed by several more gunshots, though of a different kind.

"WOOOOOO!" Cynthia shouted, loving the feeling of firing the disc gun. The red Frisbee spun through the air, aiming right for the platform. She'd shot her first shot high.

Cynthia's team had set up in a pretty good position. Rose, her weakest jumper, was standing in the 1 point section, while Elise, her strongest jumper, was back in the 3 point section. The goal was for Rose to go after the easy discs, while Elise got the harder ones that other pokemon missed. This would let her get a decent amount of points. Finally, Tristan was standing in the back, in the 5 point section, as the pinch hitter. If a disc made it all the way back there, then he'd be able to catch it.

"Why is Cynthia putting her best jumper that close?" Kitty wondered. "I would have put Elise in the back and had Tristan where she is now."

"I think it's probably because of how narrow the 5 point section is," Julia said. "Just look. See how all those pokemon are fighting for space?"

She wasn't wrong. At the moment, the back section was split between three groups. Ian's Haxorus was trying to muscle his way into the largest part, so he could catch the most discs. But because Bough, a Fairy type, was there, he had to give the dog a wide berth and thus was doing his best to push Tristan off the platform instead. But Tristan's strength let him hold on just fine. If it had been Elise, who was far weaker, she would have been knocked off easy.

"I'm surprised she could come up with such a good plan even though she can't communicate with her pokemon," Callie said, amazed. "She must have studied strategies for the Disc Catch event and practiced them with her pokemon last night."

Nikita burst out laughing at that suggestion.

"Cynthia?! Study?!" She cackled. "Oh, please. Now if you want to see someone who studied, take a look at what Reiner's doing."

Reiner hadn't sent any of his pokemon into the back row. Probably because they might get overwhelmed by the other pokemon. After all, Invictus was his bulkiest, but as the Lamp Jump had proven he couldn't jump as high as Bough or Tristan. Instead, he hovered right on the edge of the 3 point section, meaning he could seize the initiative and grab discs that came his way, possibly even moving back to the 5 point section to do it.

It was a risky play, but one that he could rely on thanks to the fact that Orion was also vigilantly patrolling the 3 point section, using his speed to run back and forth in anticipation of discs coming his way. Spector stood in the front, waiting vigilantly with Opal and Rose.

Sapphire was also in the 3 point section; all the pokemon that could fly were. Jo had gone for a brazen strategy of focusing all his pokemon near the rear, sacrificing the front area to get more points in general. It was the type of strategy that had the chance for a good payoff, but came with risk as well. He really believed in his pokemon.

"Look at how they're all moving," Lila said, a little amazed. "Although that Haxorus is a bully!"

"He's just doing what comes naturally," Darla replied. "It's part of the strategy. It doesn't have to mean- hey! Come on, that was headed right for him! Boo!"

Bough had leapt up and grabbed a disc that Diamond had been aiming for. Another 5 points for Jo's team.

The trainers were firing disc after disc, aiming for sections where their opponents weren't. It was a difficult thing to coordinate, but because all the trainers here had strong bonds with their pokemon, they could do it.

Then Reiner fired a shot that went wild.

"Shit!" He spat. The disc was spinning outside the line of the platform, which meant no points would be gained for it.

"Treecko!" Spector leapt into action. He jumped back into the 2 point section and whipped his head around. He slammed his tail down on the platform and used it as a springboard, launching him at the disc.

"Spector, what the heck?!" Reiner exclaimed.

"And Reiner's Treecko has just made a daring play!" Leanne exclaimed.

"What's he thinking?!" Lila gasped. "He's going to fall!"

"Luckily, there's a net there," Darla reminded everyone.

But what came next, nobody saw coming.

Spector reached for the disc, but his arm was too short to grab it. Even with the boost of his tail, he didn't have the jumping power.

Then his arm grew longer.

A blinding light filled the stage, and the other trainers were forced to cover their eyes, their discs flying blindly through the air. But everyone's attention was on the growing Treecko. Spector's body grew as he evolved, and he snagged the disc in his claws.

"Grovyle!" The newly-evolved Grass type pokemon hissed.

"Spector… evolved?" Reiner was so stunned, he didn't even think to keep firing.

"Yeah!" Nikita cheered, leaping to her feet. She'd been able to keep her composure up to this point, but seeing one of Reiner's pokemon evolve was too much for her. She cheered with all her heart. "Way to go, Reiner and Spector! You two got this!"

Spector may have evolved, but that didn't mean he could fly. He still fell towards the water, and the net hanging above it. But with his new size, and his increased reflexes, he was able to shoot out his other arm and grab onto the ledge before he tumbled into the net.

"He's safe!" Lila cheered.

"Whoa." That was all Darla could say on the matter.

"I didn't expect we'd see an evolution here today," Leanne said. "Not after last time."

Spector clung to the ledge for a second and then hauled himself back up, showing off his new appearance. He glanced at Invictus and Orion and without even saying a word the three pokemon were in agreement.

With Spector's new body, he had better jumping power than Orion. So Orion ran forward into the 2 point section and Spector took his place in the 3 point section. That would give them a better tactical advantage for getting discs.

The trainers resumed firing. Discs flew through the air and pokemon leapt every which way to grab them as the timer slowly counted down.

"Your pokemon may have evolved, Reiner, but don't think that means you've got this one in the bag!" Cynthia cackled. "We've got all sorts of tricks up our sleeves!"

"You're not the only ones," Jo grinned. He fired a high shot angled past the defenses of the front pokemon, spinning high for the 5 point section.

In fact, it was aiming right for Diamond's position.

Ian didn't know if Jo had misfired his disc, but he wasn't about to complain. While Sapphire caught one of his own discs, he hoped Diamond would take the hint and grab the one coming his way.

The Haxorus did, jumping up to grab the disc. An easy 5 points for the Blue Team… except when he had to come back down.

Because of Diamond's bulk, the platform shook when he landed. And as the bulky pokemon had more experience outmuscling his opponents than jumping, it took him a moment to regain his balance after catching the disc.

That moment was all Bough needed.

With Diamond still off-balance, the pastry pokemon lunged at his legs, knocking them out from under him. And with Diamond's bulk, what happened next was easy to expect. The Haxorus tumbled off the narrow platform and fell into the sea. Or he would have, if not for the wide net stretched across the ocean. But that net was a cold comfort. Now Diamond needed to climb back onto the platform, and with his stubby arms that would take some time.

Diamond had won the Blue Team 5 points, but it had cost them a player.

"That's for what your Miltank did to Bough last time!" Jo growled, firing more shots at the 5 point section now that the way was cleared.

"Don't think it'll be that easy!" Ian growled. He trusted his pokemon. If Diamond couldn't get the shots, then the rest of his team would improvise.

And improvise they did. Sapphire was a beast, taking advantage of her speed and agility to dash through the 3 point section, snagging the discs out of the air before they could get to the 5 point section, depriving Bough of his opportunity.

Jo clicked his tongue in frustration but kept firing discs. Now his Flamigo and Vespiquen had to get in on the action. If they waited for the discs to get to Bough, then Sapphire would snag them first. Which meant they needed to grab them while they were still in the 3 point section.

Ian may have been slowed temporarily due to Diamond falling into the water, but he'd made sure that Jo couldn't race too far ahead in that time.

Meanwhile, Cynthia had a plan of her own. She cracked a grin, and angled her disc gun up higher. She fired a shot that soared over the field, so high there was no way any pokemon would be able to catch it on a jump.

"What was that?" Lila gasped.

"A misfire?" Darla guessed.

"No, she intentionally aimed it that way," Leanne noted. "But why would she do something pointless like that?"

The answer was obvious to anyone who knew Cynthia.

"She's showing off," Julia groaned, rubbing her forehead.

"That's Cynthia alright…" Kitty nodded.

"What do you mean?" Akira asked, confused.

Alcea also seemed perplexed. "That disc will not get caught, is it?"

As the words left her lips she was proven wrong. Elise leapt back, joining Tristan in the 5 point section. She spread her wings and leapt into the air, going high but not even close enough to snag the disc coming her way.

Then Tristan jumped. The Breloom went even higher than Elise, showing that the Swellow had not jumped to her maximum height.

She didn't need to, because the point was getting into the air.

Tristan landed on Elise's back and grinned. Then he leapt into the air once more.

"Cynthia's Breloom just used her Swellow as a springboard!" Lila gasped in amazement.

"Is that even possible?! She didn't give any orders!" Darla exclaimed.

Indeed, Tristan was able to snag the high disc easily. Both pokemon touched down on the ground, grinning at each other.

"Just firing the disc high was all the signal my team needed," Cynthia boasted. "They knew what was going on!"

"…Impressive…" Leanne had to admit. "But hardly a viable strategy. She spent two pokemon to catch one disc. That was time those pokemon should have been catching other discs."

Again, Cynthia was pretty much just showing off.

"That stuff's pointless," Reiner said, shaking his head. "Watch this!"

He fired three discs at once, all of them headed for the same section of the field. There had been a gap in the pokemon line thanks to Cynthia's little stunt. It was something that the average person would have missed, but he definitely wouldn't have.

"Grovyle!" Spector hopped back, landing in the 5 point section. Without the massive Haxorus taking up space, there was room to breathe now. He buckled down, and used the newfound strength in his legs to leap into the air.

"Grovyle's swift moves are grabbing all three of Reiner's discs!" Lila exclaimed. "Look at how fast he's moving!"

"That's really impressive," Darla agreed. "Reiner's not only making great use of his pokemon's natural abilities, even though it just evolved, but he also managed to spot a gap where he could send a cluster of discs to the back line!"

"Reiner's really good at stuff like this," Nikita bragged. "His eyes are amazing! He always finishes those 'spot the difference' puzzles in a flash!"

"I heard from Nick that he always notices when someone moves his stuff," Callie said. "Even when it's something as simple as borrowing a pencil and putting it back."

"He's very vigilant," Nikita nodded.

"Don't you mean OCD?" Julia rolled her eyes. Nikita gave her a dirty look.

"Whatever!" She scoffed. "He was watching for this opportunity, and Cynthia just gave it to him! Now look at how good he's doing!"

Cynthia – 42 Points

Ian – 29 Points

Jo – 38 Points

Reiner – 47 Points

"Whoa, he's actually in the lead!" Kitty gasped.

"His pokemon are doing great!" Nikita nodded. "And time's running out!"

More discs were fired and more pokemon jumped to catch them. Diamond finally made it back onto the field, muscling out Spector, and that meant Ian's points started to increase. The question became whether or not he would catch up with the others.

The buzzer rang as time ran out. Pokemon made one final leap to catch the last discs, before landing on the platform.

"And that's time!" Leanne announced. "Let's see how many points everyone managed to get!" She turned her attention to the scoreboard, displaying everyone's point totals.

Cynthia – 58 Points

Ian – 49 Points

Jo – 54 Points

Reiner – 71 Points

Everyone's jaws dropped.

"I can't believe Reiner got so many points!" Callie gasped. "Especially towards the end there!"

"It was that Grovyle that turned things around," Akira said. "Thanks to his jumping power, Reiner's team got a massive boost in performance ability in the second event."

The trainers recalled their pokemon from the platform and headed back to the main area for the point summations.

"Now then, since we've seen what all our competitors were capable of, capturing all those discs, it's time to calculate how many Athlete Points they got!" Leanne said cheerfully.

"Oh no, not more math!" Lila groaned.

"It's fine, Lila," Darla assured her. "The computer will calculate it all anyway."

Lila sighed. "It better," she mumbled under her breath.

"But you make a good point, Lila," Leanne said. "Let's remind everyone what the formula is for calculating these points! For each team, we'll be calculating {30 Points + [(120 x number of points) / (12.5 + number of points)]}"

Lila slumped forward and held her head down on the table.

Leanne scowled. "Well, fine then. Time for a demonstration! Starting with the Red Team! The total number of points for the discs Cynthia's team caught add up to 58! A very good score! Which means that our formula will look like this!"

The screen flashed, revealing the formula {30 Points + [(120 x 58) / (12.5 + 58)]}

"And that means the Red Team will receive… 129 points!"

"Whoa! Nice!" Cynthia grinned, punching the air.

"That's quite a lot of points!" Callie said. She couldn't follow the math at all, but it was still pretty impressive.

"Yeah, but that's nothing compared to Reiner's score," Nikita smirked. "Just watch!"

It would be a while before it got there, though.

"Next, for the Blue Team, Ian's team managed to get a total of 49 points! Which, when we plug into our formula, means the Blue Team gets a total of… 126 points!"

"That close?" Julia asked, surprised. "But Cynthia got nearly 10 more points than he did!"

"That's the power of math!" Nikita smirked.

"Next, Jo and the Green Team! They got 54 points, which, when put into the formula, means that their team gets a total of 127 points!"

"Seriously?" Jo grumbled, unable to hide his disappointment. "So you're saying that last disc that Bough caught, that was only worth 1 point of change? What a bummer!"

He quickly brightened up though. "Oh, well, that means it should be pretty easy to catch up to the one in first!"

Jo wasn't wrong. Like the last event, the difference in points scored was pretty narrow. The competitors were all neck and neck.

"And finally, we come to Reiner and the Yellow Team! And I must say, they had a truly splendid showing!" Leanne said. "Getting a score over 70, when you're just a beginning at Pokeathlons, that's incredibly impressive! The way you aimed your discs at the blind spots of the other teams was phenomenal work!"

Reiner held his head up high, and Nikita cheered.

Julia rolled her eyes and snorted derisively, earning her another light smack from Kitty.

"Now then, with a score of 71 points, the Yellow Team will receive a total score of 132 Athlete Points to their score!"

Nikita had already calculated that score, of course. And she'd already calculated what everyone's totals would be, when adding their new scores together.

It was the reason she wasn't in as good of a mood as she could have been, even if she was thrilled at how well Reiner had performed in the second event.

"Adding up all the point totals the teams have received, here's what our current standings look like!" Leanne said, as the scoreboard changed again.

Cynthia – Red Team – 253 Points

Ian – Blue Team – 243 Points

Jo – Green Team – 259 Points

Reiner – Yellow Team – 245 Points

"Look at that," Lila said, surprised. She'd been zoning out through most of Leanne's explanation, but now that the numbers were on the board she was engaged again. "There's only a 16 point difference between first place and last place!"

"Yeah, you're not wrong," Darla nodded. "It's still anyone's game at this point! I'm really excited to see who's going to win!"

As the trainers headed into the final event of the Jump Course, the Hurdle Dash, the audience was on the edge of their seats. In the previous round, Ayame and Ange had dominated in a head to head clash for first place, leaving Daryl and Kate reliant on a miracle if they wanted to win.

But that wasn't the case this time. For everyone competing, there was a very real chance that they could win.

Awesome! Things are going great for our competitors! One of Reiner's pokemon evolved! What a turnaround that made! If only Reiner getting such a great score resulted in some major shakeup in the leaderboard… well, in the end, he still got a lot closer to winning! The question is, will Spector be able to get him the rest of the way there? Or will this be as far as he gets? It's anyone's game right now, we'll have to see who's going to win!