Aresdra was deep in her routine, moving with careful precision. She was attempting one of the hardest moves in her choreography — balancing on one tiptoe and spinning a full 360 degrees, four rotations in a row.
She never noticed the clueless duck that had wandered onto the stage beside her.
The audience and the judges spotted the problem before she did. None of them could quite figure out what a dazed Psyduck clutching its head was supposed to add to such a grand performance. Still, after everything Aresdra had already pulled off that evening, most people's first instinct was that this had to be another planned stage effect.
It was, in a sense, quite an effect.
On her third rotation, Aresdra spun directly into the Psyduck.
The collision sent her tumbling. She landed squarely on top of it. Psyduck let out a pained cry, but Aresdra, for her part, felt as though she had fallen onto something surprisingly soft. She was completely unhurt.
The performance was still salvageable at that point. If she had gotten straight back up and carried on dancing, the stumble would have read as nothing more than a small blemish on an otherwise stunning show. For a performance of this caliber, it would not have mattered much at all.
But Psyduck had other ideas.
It yelped in pain from being sat on. And while it was not the sharpest Pokémon around — the kind that would forget to eat when hungry and stand in the rain without thinking to move — it still knew enough to scramble away when something hurt.
So it wriggled free from under Aresdra, still clutching its aching head, and bolted.
It would have been better if it had stayed put.
Torchic had been in the middle of charging up another Ember. But when Aresdra suddenly fell, its focus shattered instantly. It loved her too much to think clearly. The moment she hit the stage, every instinct told it to run to her side.
It lowered its head and charged forward.
The Ember, however, was already in its beak.
It could not swallow it. It could not hold it. With no other option, it fired.
The blast caught Psyduck squarely on the backside.
Now it really was a roast duck.
"Psyyyy! Psy psy psy!"
Psyduck tore across the stage in a blind panic, quacking at the top of its lungs, tail feathers singed and smoking. It seemed to be searching desperately for water to put out the fire, despite the fact that it was a Water-type Pokémon and could have simply used a Water-type move at any moment. That thought, naturally, did not occur to it.
Aresdra's face turned a deep shade of red. Whether it was redder than Psyduck's scorched backside was genuinely difficult to say.
Riolu pressed a small black paw to its forehead and closed its eyes. The performance was done. There was no coming back from this.
Fortunately, the most dependable one on the stage was still Riolu itself. In a flash, it cut across the stage and appeared directly behind the frantic, waddling Psyduck.
It used Vacuum Wave, pulling the air away from behind the flames. The fire snuffed out in an instant. Psyduck, which had been sprinting around in agony half a second ago, seemed to completely forget what had just happened the moment the burning stopped. It stood in place, swaying gently, both hands on its head, staring at nothing.
Psy...
Across the stage, Torchic hurried to Aresdra's side and offered its small wing. She took it and pulled herself back to her feet.
For a moment, her mind had been completely blank. She had not even fully registered what happened when she fell. Now, standing upright again, the sounds of the venue came rushing back to her.
The entire arena was in hysterics.
Every single person in the audience seemed to be laughing. Not politely — really, genuinely laughing. Several of the judges in the front row had given up entirely on composure. Some were doubled over. One had to grip the table just to stay in their seat.
Lennon was among them. She had an image to uphold, of course, so she had at least managed to press both hands flat on the table and bury her face in her arms to hide the expression on her face. But the rest of her was shaking continuously, which rather gave the game away.
The live comments had completely taken over the broadcast screen. Even viewers who had set their comment display to the lightest, most transparent setting could no longer make out the footage behind them.
"Someone tell me this is a planned bit. Please."
"I came here for a talent show and I got the funniest thing I've seen all year."
"That Psyduck just casually walked out and destroyed everything, incredible."
"The way Riolu just pressed its forehead like it was embarrassed for everyone... I felt that."
"Can we talk about how Torchic immediately fired Ember in a moment of panic and hit the duck?"
"Best performance of the night. Best in every possible sense."
"Do you think she planned this?"
"If she planned this, she is operating on a level none of us can reach."
Everyone in the world seemed to be laughing — Nova included.
He was worried, of course. Watching his girlfriend have a mishap on stage in front of a live national audience naturally twisted something in his chest. But...
He tried. He really did try to hold it together.
He failed.
The image of Psyduck charging across the stage, quacking wildly, smoke rising from its backside, was simply too much. Nova pressed a hand over his mouth and lost the battle completely.
Only one person was not laughing.
Aresdra stood very still on the stage. Her snow-white complexion had turned a soft, helpless pink — the color of someone who would very much like the floor to open up and swallow them whole.
Lennon, veteran performer that she was, pulled herself together. She took a slow breath, straightened up, and lifted her microphone.
"First of all," she said, her voice warm and steady, "I would like everyone to give the warmest applause to the young performer who brought us this truly unforgettable show!"
The audience responded immediately. Cheers and clapping crashed through the arena like a wave. But the laughter still woven through the applause made Aresdra feel, if anything, slightly more mortified.
It's over, she thought miserably. Every single image I had — poised, cool, untouchable, the girl above the crowd — gone. The moment Psyduck waddled out onto that stage, I became a comedy act. That's it. That's all anyone is going to remember.
It's completely over.
After the applause settled, Lennon could not quite help herself. She looked at the young girl standing there wishing she could disappear, and said lightly, "Life really is full of surprises."
Another wave of laughter rolled through the venue.
Lennon knew when to stop, though. She had no desire to see her junior's very first big performance end with the girl in tears because of a bit of teasing. She left it there.
The host stepped forward and moved the proceedings along.
"I think everyone here is just as curious as I am to hear from contestant Aresdra about what exactly just happened with that Psyduck," he said. "But in the interest of keeping things fair, before we get to the interview, we'll first ask each of our judges to give their scores."
Aresdra had already decided in her heart that this performance was a disaster.
The first judge, a senior official from the Norlandia Alliance's Department of Arts, held up his score card.
Ten.
The second judge.
Ten.
The third.
Ten.
One after another, down the entire row. Luanna and Lennon, two of the most respected figures in the field of artistic performance, both gave tens without a moment's hesitation.
All sixteen judges. Every single one. Perfect scores.
The audience did not object to a single one. After each score appeared on the board, the arena erupted again — cheering louder each time than the last.