"Psy-duck!"
Psyduck let out a sharp cry and threw both arms forward with everything it had, as if physically shoving its two opponents away. Sceptile and Meganium, still completely locked down by Disable, were sent flying off the edge of the stage like they had been launched from a cannon.
The final bell rang.
The match was over.
The commentator's voice cracked with excitement.
"Unprecedented! Unbelievable! A true one-of-a-kind moment in Contest history!"
"Contestant Aresdra and her Psyduck, who spent most of this match making the audience laugh, have actually done it!"
"This is a Contest Battle that will go down in the record books!"
"Contestant Aresdra was outpaced from the very first exchange, with her Appeal Points reduced to single digits by the end. And yet she won!"
"Contestant Thelma's Appeal Points were still completely full right up until the moment her two Pokemon were pushed out of bounds!"
"I don't have the words for what I just watched. All I can say is: if you didn't see this match, you are living in a different world from the rest of us!"
The moment it had shoved its opponents off the stage, the pink Psychic light filling Psyduck's eyes faded away entirely. As the final bell rang out, Psyduck dropped straight down and sat on the edge of the arena with a thud.
Then its left eye began drifting left. Its right eye drifted right. Old habits were not so easy to break.
Aresdra had been rushing forward to celebrate, ready to sweep Psyduck into a hug. She stopped when she saw it.
The joy of winning was still there, but it stepped aside to make room for something quieter. She looked at the Psyduck sitting on the floor, eyes going their separate ways again, and felt a pang of sympathy she had not expected.
If there was a choice, who would want to live like this? Being laughed at every moment, not even fully in control of your own mind?
She thought about how seriously Nova had spoken when he handed DIO over to her. She had not fully understood it then. She thought she did now.
This was a Pokemon that needed someone in its corner.
DIO's brief moment of clarity had given her an impossible victory. Now it was her turn to return that trust, and to help it find a way through the headaches that had ruled its life for so long.
On the other side of the stage, Sceptile and Meganium had landed and were standing with their heads down, not quite willing to meet Thelma's eyes. They braced themselves.
The scolding did not come.
Thelma let out a quiet breath through her nose.
"Don't look like that. It's not the first time we've lost."
She was not unaffected. Anyone would feel the sting of a match where neither of her Pokemon had taken a single point of damage and she had still lost. But she knew better than to let that show in front of them. That was her responsibility as their trainer.
"Honestly, you two. How were you supposed to know the opponent would pull something like that? There's clearly something very unusual about that duck. Give me some time to figure it out, and we'll have a proper answer for her next time. Same as I always do with that idiot Nova."
Sceptile glanced at her sideways, considering whether to say anything.
It was probably not the wisest moment to point out that the young lady had not actually managed to beat that idiot Nova yet. Sceptile kept that thought firmly to itself.
Thelma recalled both Pokemon into their Poke Balls. Neither of them had a scratch on them after six matches, so there was no need for a trip to the healing machine. Though there was something strange about losing a match without losing a single point of health. Pokemon battles had a way of surprising you like that.
She looked across the stage. The staff had taken Aresdra's Poke Balls for treatment. Aresdra stood in the middle of the cheering crowd with a slightly dazed expression, as if she had not quite caught up to what had happened. But there was a small smile at the corner of her mouth.
Thelma felt something stir. The same feeling she remembered from a few months ago, going toe to toe with Nova.
This was getting interesting.
She walked to the center of the stage and came to stand beside Aresdra. She looked at her with the best version of her signature expression, the kind that said she was absolutely not impressed, while clearly being very impressed.
"You won in the ugliest possible way."
Before Aresdra could respond, Thelma grabbed her hand and raised it high toward the crowd.
"But a win is a win. Congratulations!"
The photographers on the sidelines caught the moment perfectly. It ran as a front-page headline in every major newspaper the following morning.
The brilliant performances of both girls, combined with Thelma's gracious display after the loss, sent both their fanbases climbing at a rate nobody had expected.
When the award ceremony wrapped up and the Group A auditions officially closed, the final standings were clear. Aresdra had earned full marks in the Stage Performance and taken the Contest Battle championship outright, making her the undisputed winner of Group A.
Second place went to a local contestant from Purple Gold City. She had placed runner-up in the Stage Performance and made it to the semi-finals in the Contest Battle before being eliminated by Aresdra. It was her strong performance that had pushed Torchic past the point of exhaustion, which was precisely what had forced Aresdra to bring Psyduck out for the final. In a roundabout way, a portion of the credit for how the night ended belonged to her.
Thelma placed second in the Contest Battle, but her Stage Performance score brought her overall placement down to third. Her artistic vision was simply ahead of what the judges were ready to appreciate.
All three would advance and face the top finishers from the other groups. But anyone watching closely could already see that the second-place contestant was filling out the bracket. The real story of Group A had two names.
Aresdra Cortana and Thelma Tucker.
One an artistic talent unlike anything the competition had seen. The other a battle trainer of a completely different class. Whatever the other groups brought, it was difficult to imagine anyone challenging either of them for a top position.
The conclusion was already sitting quietly in the back of everyone's mind: two of the four debut spots in the K.D.A. Girl Group had effectively already been decided.
After the ceremony, Aresdra and Thelma walked together toward the venue's medical center. Thelma's Pokemon were completely uninjured, so she had no real reason to go. She went anyway, because she was not quite ready to stop talking.
"Hey! You have to teach me how you do Stage Performance, alright? Those judges have some nerve, telling me I have no artistic sense. I am going to prove every single one of them wrong."
Aresdra looked at the girl who had linked arms with her so naturally, saying something so completely unguarded, and nearly laughed.
It had always been that way for Aresdra. She had been the best among her peers for as long as she could remember, in looks and in ability both. That kind of gap had a way of putting distance between people. Not out of meanness, most of the time. People simply drifted toward those they felt at ease with, and Aresdra had rarely made anyone feel at ease just by being in the room.
Nova had worried about it more than once, quietly wondering if what Aresdra experienced was something worse than just being alone.
Aresdra did not think of it as cruelty. She understood how it worked. But understanding something and not feeling it were two different things.
Which was exactly why, right now, Thelma felt like a genuinely rare find.