Chapter 4 – Spell of the Spotlight

The following morning brought a choice.

"All right, Solonn. The contest hall here in town will be holding two normal rank contests—those are the ones for newcomers—in the upcoming months," Morgan said. "There'll be one in three weeks, on the twenty-fifth, and then there'll be another one two months afterward, on August twenty-fifth. Now, if you start your training now, you could enter into the earlier one, but you might want to wait until the August contest so you can get more practice in and be more prepared. But it's your call, Solonn."

"I'll go for the earlier one," Solonn said at once. In his mind, it was no question at all—the sooner he got started with these contests, the sooner he could be done with them and go home.

Morgan nodded. "Okay, then." She'd have preferred for him to wait until the later contest; the extra time to prepare might have done him good. But she chose to respect Solonn's choice and allowed his decision to stand.

- o -

That afternoon, Solonn's contest training began in earnest. It started in a strange manner: Morgan offered him a small, indigo-colored cube and told him to eat it, claiming it would help him do well in the contests.

Solonn looked at Morgan as if she were crazy. "How is this thing supposed to affect whether or not I win?"

"Well… what it does is it refines your appearance. These pokéblocks will help you look as healthy and as… er, handsome as you can look. Making a good visual impression on the audience and judges is very important."

Solonn continued to gaze skeptically at the human. Whatever, he decided finally, and took the pokéblock from Morgan, devouring it quickly. The little candy was… okay; it was kind of good, except it had this funny, sort of sour aftertaste. That was really the only fault Solonn could find with the pokéblock, though, and it was really only mildly unpleasant—at first. Then he found the little candy cube beginning to disagree with him… then to strongly disagree with him…

Morgan looked on with pity and poorly concealed revulsion. But the snorunt's reaction to the candy didn't dissuade her from attempting to feed him another one later that evening. Solonn resisted at first—he wasn't exactly eager to throw up again, after all.

"This one's different," Morgan tried to assure him. "I made more than one formula since I didn't know which you'd do best with. Unfortunately, they just so happen to be the same color—but I promise you, they're not the same. I even got rid of all of the other kind, so there won't be any mix-ups."

Solonn stared warily at her for a long while, his stomach threatening to go sour at just the mere memory of what the last pokéblock had done to him. Then, with a resigned sigh, he accepted the identical yet supposedly different pokéblock—and immediately discovered that Morgan had indeed been telling the truth. This little indigo cube was a far cry from its predecessor, with a great flavor and no disagreeable aftertaste. Seconds passed, and it showed no threat of sickening him. Solonn looked up at Morgan with an approving smile.

Morgan smiled back. "Ah, so this one's a winner, huh?" Solonn nodded. "Good! Okay, then. You'll be getting two of these a day until they've done as much for you as they can," she told him.

This was certainly an aspect of contest training that Solonn didn't mind in the least. Still, he was skeptical that merely eating candies would be enough to prepare him for any sort of competition. What else, he wondered, might Morgan have in store for him?

- o -

Around noon the next day, Morgan left and returned a short while later accompanied by someone unfamiliar.

"Solonn, this is Sei Salma, an alakazam," Morgan said.

The pokémon at her side bowed, her blonde mustache twitching slightly as she smiled warmly. -A pleasure to meet you,- the alakazam said, her telepathic "voice" simulating a slightly gruff contralto that Solonn guessed was also the sound of Sei's actual voice. -I understand that you and Ms. Yorke have a most unique relationship, yes?-

"…What?" Somehow Sei's statement had come across in a way that she surely hadn't intended.

-You're able to speak to Ms. Yorke in her own language, are you not?- Sei said.

"Oh… Yeah, that's right," Solonn confirmed, albeit a bit hesitantly.

-Ms. Yorke and I were discussing this on the way here. We've arrived at a conclusion regarding your abilities. It's best that other humans don't discover your abilities, don't you agree?- Sei asked.

"Yeah," Solonn said. "I'd really feel better if as few people knew about this as possible." By "people" he was referring not only to humans but to other pokémon, as well. In fact, he really would've preferred for Morgan to ask him for permission before revealing his secret to Sei…

-I understand your concern,- Sei said then, -but I assure you, Ms. Yorke had your best interests in mind when she told me what you're able to do. She wouldn't have told me otherwise. Furthermore, you have my word that I won't reveal your secret to anyone without your consent… And yes, I've just read your thoughts. I do try to tune such things out for the sake of courtesy, but…- She shrugged. -Sometimes thoughts are simply too strong to block.-

A mind-reader… Solonn figured that, courteous or not, Sei would've probably absorbed the knowledge of his abilities on her own sooner or later.

-The privacy of those with no form of mental defense is something my people take very seriously,- Sei assured him earnestly. -We wouldn't be trusted very well by the majority of other species if we didn't stay out of their minds as much as possible. Even with our measures to respect their privacy in place, many species still don't trust us.-

Whether or not that was meant as a guilt-trip, it certainly worked as one. "…Sorry," he said. "I'm sure you don't mean to pry into anybody's business."

Sei gave a relieved, satisfied smile. -Now. Since protecting the secret of your skills is so important, I'm offering you a means to speak more securely with Ms. Yorke.-

"And what would that be?" Solonn asked.

-This.- There was a brief flash of light in Sei's eyes.

-Well? What do you think?- Morgan asked.

-What do I think of… Hey! How are you using telepathy?- Solonn asked—then, with a jolt, he realized that he, too, was speaking telepathically.

-Sei. She's connected us via her own mind,- Morgan explained. -That way, we can talk to each other without anyone figuring out that… well, that we can talk to each other, get it?-

-…I think so,- Solonn said, still somewhat bewildered at the notion of being able to communicate telepathically. There was something about it that made him feel oddly powerful yet kind of vulnerable at the same time. He wondered if he'd have agreed to try this if he'd known beforehand that it would involve his mind being opened and shared in such a way.

-Telepathic communication is undetectable to humans,- Sei told Solonn then, -and you should be concerned with protecting your secret from humans above all others. You see, pokémon who can speak to and be understood by humans are quite rare, and humans often look upon rarity as something from which they can profit. If certain humans learned of your abilities, they would seek to exploit you for their own ends. I can guarantee you that you wouldn't find such exploitation to your liking.-

Solonn cast a troubled gaze at Morgan. -Is this true?- he asked. Morgan had come across as trustworthy, but now Solonn wondered if she was merely a rare exception to a generally untrustworthy species.

-Yes,- Morgan said, sounding more than a little ashamed. -Solonn, I would never want to see you exploited like that.-

-Well, I wouldn't want that, either,- he said, shuddering slightly. He turned toward Sei. -Okay. I'll accept your connection,- he said. -Thanks.-

-Think nothing of it,- the alakazam said, and with that she severed the psychic link between herself and the other two.

Sei's offering was a welcome convenience indeed. As Solonn thought about it, something dawned on him: he wondered if the link could be used to let Morgan communicate with her other pokémon. After all, Sei's telepathic abilities could trick people into hearing words they understood, thus eliminating the language barrier between Morgan and her pokémon. Why hasn't Sei offered this to the others?

To Solonn's surprise, Sei turned her gaze upon him and then shrugged her plated shoulders. "Because they never asked," she said simply, using her natural voice and the language of her own kind this time. The snorunt only stared at her in response, not quite knowing how to reply.

Sei let out a long sigh. -Whew… It seems I've still got a bit of recovering to do before I'm quite up to speed again…-

"You want to return to your ball for a while?" Morgan asked her.

-Mmm… yes, I think so,- Sei answered. -I could do with a little time out of this poor, downtrodden flesh,- she added with a laugh.

Morgan chuckled. "All right, then." She removed an ultra ball from her belt and recalled Sei with a beam of red light. The alakazam smiled wearily at Solonn before dissolving into energy and being drawn back into her ball.

"I just don't understand how anybody could stand being inside one of those things," Solonn said with a small shudder, eying the ultra ball as Morgan minimized it and reattached it to her belt. "It's just so… " He trailed off, unable to truly describe what it was like in a capture ball.

"So you really don't like being in a ball, huh?" Morgan asked. Solonn made a disapproving noise and shook his head. "Well, okay. You don't have to go back in there if you don't want to," she told him.

Solonn smiled at her. With no return to the great ball looming over him, the time he'd spend with Morgan would be much easier to endure—and perhaps even enjoy.

- o -

Several hours later, Solonn stood outside with Morgan and Sei in the backyard. Though evening was approaching, the sun was still hot enough and bright enough to bother him. Direct sunlight had a peculiar sort of harshness about it that the artificial light indoors lacked.

There wasn't much Solonn could really do about it, other than to seek shade. Without delay, he made his way across the yard to stand under the large sitrus tree that stood tall in the backyard. Much better, he thought, satisfied.

Morgan and Sei crossed the lawn to join Solonn. Sei promptly took a seat, leaning back contentedly against the trunk of the tree and opening a magazine. Meanwhile Morgan came to stand before the snorunt and presented a small, cylindrical plastic case. She opened it and produced a cyan-colored disc from inside.

-I'll bet you're wondering what this is, huh?- Morgan said, making use of Sei's telepathy. -Well, this is a TM, Solonn. A technical machine. You can gain a new technique from it.-

An elemental technique being obtained from a little plastic disc. It wasn't the most ridiculous idea Solonn had ever heard, although it came very close.

-Now, we might not even need to use this,- Morgan continued. -Let's find out if we do… Solonn, could you show me the strongest ice-type technique you know?-

-The strongest? I guess that would be this.- Solonn called on the power of his element. The glow of his eyes intensified momentarily as he gathered the ice-type energy that he'd need for the technique. A second later, the elemental charge coalesced between his hands, then fired forth as a jagged, electric blue beam that blasted a flurry of frozen leaves and twigs from the branches as it streaked off toward the sky.

-Ice beam, huh? Okay, then it looks like we will need to use this.- Morgan knelt before Solonn, then popped open a compartment on one end of the TM case and slipped the disc inside. -There's another, stronger ice technique that you'll need to pull off your routine,- she said as she closed the compartment once more. -You'll get it from this.-

Solonn eyed the case with uncertainty, his gaze caught and held by the lens that seemed to stare right back at him from one end of the case. -…This won't hurt, will it?-

-No, it doesn't hurt,- Sei tried to reassure him. -I've received one myself. It'll be a funny feeling, but it won't last long. You have nothing to fear from it.-

-Oh. Go ahead, then,- Solonn said, nodding toward Morgan.

Morgan nodded back, then activated the TM, bringing the lens to bear on Solonn's forehead and pressing a button on the top of the case. It whirred to life, but apart from that nothing seemed to be happening at first; the beam projected by the case was invisible, and its initial impact was intangible.

Then, with a rather strong shudder, Solonn found himself overwhelmed by a sudden surge of power. It reminded him of how it felt to summon some of his ice-type techniques, only it was stronger and went straight to his head rather than spreading throughout his entire body. It escalated into a giddying rush, and when it reached its abrupt end, he found himself feeling incredibly lightheaded.

Solonn teetered comically for a moment, nearly falling onto his butt before he managed to shake himself out of his dizzy spell. -That was weird,- he remarked. -So, that's it? That's all it took?-

-Mmm-hmm. You've just learned the blizzard technique,- Morgan confirmed as she removed the disc from the front compartment and put it away. -Go on, try it out—but be careful where you aim it, though; it can be pretty nasty.-

-…Wait, blizzard? Are you serious?- Solonn asked. Morgan nodded, smiling brightly. But Solonn remained too bewildered to try out his new technique right away. It was just all too incredible that a simple disc could bestow any sort of power upon him, let alone one of the highest powers of his element.

Though still skeptical, Solonn finally decided to go for it. Once again, he gathered elemental energy. He felt a sizable thrill as the surge of power defied his expectations and answered his summons, then manifested itself in a blast of icy wind and snow.

As the blizzard howled forth, Solonn realized with a jolt of horror that he'd forgotten to aim the attack—its present course could blow a hole in the Yorkes' back fence. Fortunately, the blizzard proved underpowered, petering out before it could do any real damage.

Solonn stared briefly at the small pile of snow that sat in the grass, watching as it began to melt in the heat of the June afternoon. That thing actually worked… He laughed to himself, pleasantly surprised.

-Not bad,- Morgan remarked. -That was just a little one, but with practice, you should be able to pull off a much more impressive blizzard. And wait 'til you see what you can do when you combine that with other techniques!-

-You can actually do that?- Solonn asked, intrigued. He'd never seen multiple techniques used in combination, not even by glalie.

-Oh yes,- Morgan said. -In fact, artful combination of techniques is what contests are really all about. A good, creative, graceful presentation is what comes out on top every time. Now,- she went on, opening the TM case once more, -there's another one of these that you won't necessarily need, but it could still do you some good. Do you want to go ahead and take it now, or do you want to wait a little while before you take another one?-

Solonn considered it for a moment, finally deciding there was no real reason to turn the offer down. -I'll take it,- he told Morgan. -Let's do this now.-

The human nodded in acknowledgment and pulled another TM from the case, a fuchsia-colored disc this time. Solonn watched as she loaded it into the front compartment and activated it, wondering what sort of new power it would give him.

Absorbing this technique felt quite different this time. The sensation of connecting with the raw power of his element was absent—he wasn't gaining an ice-type technique this time. Solonn didn't even have a chance to guess the alien element of his new power; the rush that accompanied its acquisition was gone almost as swiftly as it had come.

-So what was that one?- Solonn asked once his head had cleared.

-Light screen,- Morgan answered. -It's mostly a defensive technique, but there are also some pretty cool things you can do with it that are just for show. Try and call one up now,- she suggested. -It's not as difficult or powerful a move as blizzard, so you should be able to pull it off pretty easily.-

-Okay.- Seeking the new, unfamiliar element within him, Solonn found the root of his new power and called it forth. There was a fleeting, tingling sensation in his head, peculiar but not unpleasant. Then he saw a bright pink aura form around each of his hands. He watched, fascinated, as it swiftly spread out into a force field that surrounded him completely.

-Wow… this is pretty neat…- Solonn said as he gazed upon the wall of psychic energy that now surrounded him. -Wait, though… how do I get out of this thing?-

-Oh, you don't have to get out of it. You're not trapped in one place by that thing; it'll follow you as you move,- Morgan said.

Solonn decided to test that claim for himself. Sure enough, as he walked back and forth across the lawn, the shield that surrounded him stayed up and around him through his every movement. Then, unexpectedly, the light screen simply vanished.

-What happened?- Solonn asked.

-A light screen can only stay up for a few minutes at a time,- Morgan explained.

-Oh. So are there any more of these I can use?- Solonn asked with a glance at the case.

-I'm afraid not. Nearly all of the techniques you'll be using come naturally to you—your routine will mostly be ice-based. Anyway, it's not really very good for you to learn so many moves in one sitting. You could get a nasty headache,- Morgan said.

Solonn's eyelight dimmed slightly; he was mildly disappointed to hear that he wouldn't be gaining any more new abilities anytime soon. -Well, okay then. So now what?-

-Hmm. Right now, nothing,- Morgan replied. -You've really had enough excitement for one day. You may not feel like it right now, but physically, you've just had quite an experience. You've instantly learned two moves that usually take pokémon several years and lots of hard work to learn. Give it a little while, and you'll probably start feeling pretty tired. So let's just take it easy for the rest of the day, okay?-

Solonn nodded. He would've liked to go ahead and continue preparing for the upcoming contest, but his energy had begun to wane the moment Morgan had said it would.

-Your training will really start tomorrow,- Morgan told him. -You see, there are three rounds to each contest. Each one's different, so you'll be training in different ways.

-For the first round, we'll just go out on stage along with all the other contestants, and the audience will basically just compare all the pokémon contestants based solely on their looks, and they'll all vote on which one they think looks the best. You don't really have to train for that; the pokéblocks pretty much take care of that aspect.

-The second round will be your solo performance. This is where you'll be showing your techniques, combining them to make nice effects, et cetera. Don't worry too much about it—you'll be rehearsing your routine plenty every day. You'll get it down just fine.

-Now, the third round is a battle,- Morgan told him. -Have you ever battled another pokémon before? You know, just for fun.-

-Yeah,- Solonn answered, -but not very often, though.- He recalled the matches that Zilag and a few of his friends had held just for sport. The snorunt had never seriously hurt each other; they'd mostly just wrestled, with only the occasional, half-hearted bite or headbutt thrown in here and there. Ice-type techniques had been thrown around sometimes, too, to little effect. On several occasions, Zilag had invited Solonn to take part, but Solonn had only occasionally obliged. By and large, Solonn had been unenthusiastic about battling, even though he sometimes won those matches. As far as he'd been concerned, it was merely something to do in the event that there was nothing else to do. It hadn't exactly been his idea of fun.

-That's okay,- Morgan assured him. -Some experience is better than none. Besides which, contest battling really isn't the same as battling anywhere else. Your goal won't be to hurt the opponent so much as to upstage them. You don't even necessarily have to 'beat' the other guy as long as you manage to look better during the match. I'll let you practice battling against a couple of the others here. Raze'd definitely be up for it—don't worry, she won't use any steel moves on you. Her style's a little different than the one you'll be using, but you'll still get the gist of how to handle yourself in one of these matches. All you have to do is to keep your poise and battle with grace.-

Solonn nodded in acknowledgment, mentally reviewing what Morgan had told him to expect. It seemed there was more involved with being a contest pokémon than he'd initially imagined. He hoped the span of time separating him from that first contest would be enough to adequately prepare him. The sooner he could get that first ribbon, that first step behind him, the better.

- o -

Each day that followed brought diligent training. Solonn spent many hours rehearsing his solo performance, as well as battling with Raze and even once with Sei Salma. He also continued to receive two pokéblocks each day until Morgan told him they'd finally done all they could for him.

Solonn had assumed these measures were the only ones they'd need to take in order to prepare him for his debut. Then one night, five days before the date of the next contest, he was offered one last suggestion.

He was sitting on Morgan's bed, waiting for her to return from an errand. When she got back, the first thing she did was take a capture ball from her belt, maximize it, and release Oth from inside it.

"All right," Morgan said to the claydol. "It's time for you to check him out and see if he's ready." She gestured at Solonn.

Huh? As Oth brought themself before Solonn, he wondered what in the world could possibly be going on. Without any form of explanation or warning, the foremost of the claydol's eyes dilated dramatically, and a pale red beam lanced forth from it and struck the snorunt. He almost cried out, but realized a split-second later that there was no pain. Very puzzled, he merely stared at Oth as they expanded the beam and swept it up and down over his body.

Mere seconds later, Oth stopped scanning him, the beam disappearing. They turned toward Morgan (which seemed strange given the fact that Oth had eyes on every side of their head) and nodded as well as they could, inclining their entire body slightly in her direction.

Morgan smiled. "Good news, Solonn. Ominous says you're ready."

"That's nice, but ready for what?" Solonn asked in a quiet voice. He and Morgan had decided it was safe enough to converse openly in Morgan's room as long as they kept their voices down. Solonn had also decided, though not at all hastily, that Morgan's other pokémon could be trusted with his secret; he didn't mind Oth's presence there as he spoke with her.

"Ready… for this!" Morgan reached into her pocket and pulled something out for Solonn to see. Nestled in her palm was something small in a blue wrapper. "I'd been looking around town for one, and I finally managed to scare one up."

Solonn gazed at the proffered object for a moment, then turned a questioning gaze up toward Morgan.

"This," Morgan explained, "is a rare candy. These give pokémon something of a boost. According to Ominous…" Morgan paused as excitement flitted across her features. "Well, this'll give you just enough of a boost to make a huge difference. With this… you could evolve."

Solonn's eyes widened. "…That thing can't possibly cause evolution!" he said, laughing.

"Oh, yes it can. So what do you say? Are you ready to do this?" Morgan asked.

Solonn hesitated to answer. Part of him still couldn't believe that evolution could be induced by a piece of candy, but the part that could believe remained apprehensive in its own way. "Is there any particular reason why I need to evolve?"

"Well, you don't necessarily have to do it, but it might work out to your advantage to go through with it," Morgan said. "Your routine is based almost exclusively on your ice-type powers, after all, and glalie have more finely-tuned abilities where their element is concerned. They can handle ice-type techniques more easily than snorunt can."

Solonn couldn't argue with that. He knew firsthand that his people didn't truly come into their ice-type abilities until they evolved. And he had no doubt that he could execute his routine more easily as a glalie, and he was certainly concerned with succeeding in the upcoming contest.

Still… this was a physical transformation she was suggesting. This wasn't something to be taken lightly—particularly not where his kind were concerned. Snorunt who evolved too early ran the risk of being corrupted by incomplete instincts. Furthermore, the changes involved with becoming a glalie were so drastic that it was almost like a change into a different species altogether. They began as snow-eating bipeds. They turned into limbless, floating predators.

"The choice is yours, Solonn," Morgan told him gently. "I won't make you evolve if you don't want to."

So… am I really ready to evolve? Solonn asked himself. Well… technically, I probably am, he answered. He was at roughly the age that was considered the safest and most appropriate time to start considering evolution. In fact, once they got to be very much older than he was now, his kind found themselves having to make a conscious effort to stop the process from occurring on its own.

But… do I really want to go through with this now?

Solonn couldn't answer that question, though he certainly tried. He wished he'd been given more time to think this through rather than having it dropped on him out of nowhere at nearly the last minute. In the end, he could only lower his gaze and sigh in response.

"You don't want to do it, do you?" Morgan asked. Solonn shook his head. "That's okay, Solonn. That's perfectly fine."

"Okay." Solonn's eyes followed the rare candy as Morgan put it back in her pocket. "Hey. Hold on to that. Just… you know, for whenever."

Morgan nodded in acknowledgment. "Sure thing. If you ever decide you want it, just let me know. Do you want back in the ball?" Morgan then asked Oth. The claydol nodded in their curious fashion and was subsequently recalled.

"All right, then," Morgan said. "Now, don't worry about your decision, okay? Like I said, you don't really have to evolve to do this. You'll do just fine."

Solonn sincerely hoped that Morgan was right.

- o -

In what felt like no time at all, the twenty-fifth had arrived. All at once, the task at hand was upon him, and it swept him up into a situation that made him realize that nothing could have truly, completely prepared him for it.

Next thing he knew, he found himself riding in a car for the very first time. As he gazed out through the window, the scenery rushing by mirrored his perceptions of this experience: hurtling irresistibly forward, he scarcely had a chance to take it all in.

The car came to a stop, and as he hopped out into the parking lot, Lilycove's contest hall seemed to blossom into being before him, right out of thin air. It was huge, and it loomed even larger with each step closer to its entrance.

Solonn was immediately awestruck as he passed through the front doors into the contest hall's lobby. All around him, humans of widely varying appearance stood, accompanied by pokémon partners Solonn could've never imagined.

Morgan led him into a queue, and there they waited for their turn at the desk before them. After a fairly short wait, they made it to the front, and the receptionist waiting there asked Morgan to present her contest pass. Without delay, Morgan produced a card and handed it to the human behind the desk. The receptionist held on to the pass for a few seconds; Solonn wasn't tall enough to see exactly what she was doing with it.

When the receptionist gave the pass back to Morgan, she took a moment to peek over the edge of the desk at Solonn. "Oh, now isn't that a cutie," she remarked airily, flashing a very bright smile.

Solonn returned her gaze with a slightly skeptical look. Cute? I'm not cute…

"You may now proceed," the receptionist then said. Morgan smiled at her, then led Solonn out of the lobby and toward the backstage area.

Several minutes of doing nothing but waiting followed. The other contestants gathered backstage along with Solonn and his coordinator, anticipating the impending events with varying degrees of patience. A television mounted in the corner showed the scene that awaited the contestants. With an incredible amount of noise and a level of enthusiasm that was almost tangible, an audience was filing into the seemingly endless rows of seats, eagerly cheering for the show to begin.

Their wait wasn't prolonged much further. The voice of the announcer came blaring forth, the audience quieting somewhat while he spoke.

"Ladies and gentlemen," boomed his greatly magnified voice, "get ready to witness the hottest up-and-coming faces in the Hoenn contest circuit! The normal rank beauty contest shall now begin!"

"It's time," Morgan informed Solonn in an excited whisper, then began guiding him before her as they made their way to the stage in an orderly procession along with all the other contestants.

As Solonn emerged onto the stage, he was greeted by an unbelievable level of light and noise. The number of humans gathered just to look upon him and the other contestants was staggering—Solonn had never seen so many people in any one place before.

He hadn't expected the audience to be that large…

The coordinators and their pokémon partners lined up side by side across the stage, facing the audience. One by one, the announcer stopped before each team and introduced them, then moved on down the line to the next team. Before long, he arrived at Solonn and Morgan.

"Next up, hailing from right here in Lilycove, it's Morgan Yorke and her snorunt, Solonn!" the announcer said. The audience gave them a peal of applause, just as they'd done for the other teams. Part of Solonn wondered just what they were applauding; neither he nor any of the other contestants had actually done anything yet.

"Now it's time for you to cast your votes," the announcer told the audience after introducing the last few contestants. "Who will make it to the next round? You decide!"

Solonn couldn't count the moments that passed as the audience cast their votes. His awareness of their scrutiny only intensified now that they were literally judging him. Unbeknownst to him, a close-up view of each of the pokémon in turn appeared on the colossal screen behind him—he might have been surprised, to say the least, to see a gigantic image of his own face staring back at him.

Finally, the votes were all tallied, and the results appeared on the screen behind the contestants, who all turned to see who among them would proceed to the next round.

"Look!" Morgan exclaimed. "There we are!" She pointed to the upper right corner of the screen; she and Solonn were indeed pictured there. They'd made it through the first round. With that obstacle out of the way, Solonn followed Morgan with a funny little detached sort of thrill as they and the other contestants returned backstage to prepare for the second round.

The television there allowed him to watch the contestants who'd been slated to go on before him. For a crop of newcomers, their performances were generally pretty competent; none of them thus far had made any mistakes, at least not as far as Solonn could tell. He found a few of the routines boring despite their technical integrity, but there were a couple of the others that really stood out.

Those performances easily held Solonn's rapt attention—and also managed to stoke the doubt within him even further. As his own turn came along, he found himself worrying that maybe he hadn't sufficiently trained for this after all.

That worry followed Solonn out onto the stage as he was called forth. It was much darker as he emerged than it had been during the first round, but he could still see the crowd, could still make out all those faces. He'd been told what to expect since his training had begun, yet Morgan's descriptions seemed awfully weak and ill-fitting when held against this moment, these surroundings, the expectations held by all these people he had to impress…

He came to stand in the center of the stage, and a single, bright spotlight fell upon him as the music that Morgan had chosen to accompany his routine rose up, seeming to emanate from the very walls of the contest hall itself. Under the ray of white light bearing down upon him, he felt overemphasized to dimensions far greater than his own, yet all too aware of how small he was compared to the vast, scrutinizing crowd.

A moment later, the spell of the spotlight abated enough to let Solonn realize that he'd missed his cue. With a jolt, he hastily cast his hail technique up into the air above him. The summoned hailstones began falling at once, but at twice the normal intensity and not at all in the pattern he'd rehearsed—it was fortunate that this was a solo performance. Had Morgan accompanied Solonn on stage for this round, she'd have had to take cover from his bungled first move.

Solonn winced a little at the mistake, hoping to make some sort of recovery with his next move. He called upon powder snow and felt the faintest relief as it bowed to his will, its winds sweeping up the falling hail in a gently turning, tamed cyclone. Solonn's creation partly obscured his view of the audience, for which he felt a wave of gratitude spread throughout his nerves. But he knew that his next move required him to forfeit that comforting veil.

Sighing softly, Solonn kept the powder snow blowing as he slowly expanded the vortex of snowflakes and hailstones around himself, the music swelling in a slow crescendo. The winds swept around him in a growing spiral, and as the cyclone widened and thinned out, the multitude of humans before him filled his sights once more.

Don't pay attention to them, Solonn urged himself, just pretend they're not there… He fought the urge to close his eyes and shut them out; letting his nervousness show could count against him in the judges' eyes. He was also fighting a burgeoning desire to simply cut his performance short and run.

Trying desperately to keep a hold on his fraying nerves, he called upon the next aspect of his routine—the one that had given him the most trouble during his training. He still couldn't quite believe that he'd gained one of the highest powers of his element in a single moment's rush, disbelief that had caused him to struggle all the more with the technique.

Don't think about what you're doing, Solonn tried to remind himself, just do it… At the music's cue, Solonn unleashed a blizzard to join his dancing cyclone. It howled forth, stirring the spiraling snowstorm into a frenzy as it was meant to do… but then, disobligingly, its winds began to falter. Solonn swore that he could feel his heart stop as the blizzard, along with the rest of the cyclone, came apart right before his eyes. As if in slow motion, snowflakes, sleet, and hailstones alike all fell to the stage.

No… Solonn lamented, certain that his chance to obtain the ribbon and thereby take his first step back to Virc-Dho had died along with his enchanted snowstorm. His musical accompaniment suddenly blurred into a formless din in his ears. The spotlight swelled to an abnormal brightness, then swiftly vanished altogether, taking the stage, the audience, the surrounding noise, and Solonn's consciousness along with it.