Episode 91: Best Friends For-Never

Gillian Meridian proudly proclaims, "The Cosm City Pokémon Contest is finally here!"

That it is, Gillian! With the tension growing by the second between Brenda and Michelle, this contest promises to be quite a spectacle! What does this rivalry have in store for us? Let's find out. Take it away, Gillian!

"Cosm City attracts thrill seekers from around the world, and today, all that attention is focused right here, on this stage! So, let's give them all a show worth remembering! How about I introduce some thrill seekers of our own? The judges! Our first judge comes to us straight from the Contest Committee, it's Mr. Contesta!"

Mr. Contesta waves to the audience. "Hello to one and all. I just got off a rollercoaster, and now my adrenaline is pumping. Let's see if these performances can keep it that way!"

"And from the Pokémon Fan Club, it's none other than Mr. Sukizo!"

"Cosm City is a remarkable place, so I'm expecting equally remarkable performances!"

"And finally, it's Cosm City's personal Nurse Joy!"

"I'm used to seeing Pokémon come in to my Pokémon Center, tired out by all the fun they've had. I want to see the same thing at the end of today!"

The contestants, including Brenda, Michelle, and Jessie dressed as Jessileia, sit backstage, watching the opening ceremony on screen. Gillian declares, "I'm sure all of our contestants have worked extremely hard to put on a show for you all, so how about we kick things off?"

Michelle glances at Brenda and mutters under her breath, "Some of us more than others."

Brenda hears, and looks over towards Michelle. At first, she looks saddened, but then she shakes it off and replaces it with a look of determination.

Gillian announces, "You all know our first contestant, and you may or may not love her, it's Princess Jessileia!"

Jessie stands up and walks out. Just before exiting, she turns around and announces, "Watch and learn, peasants." She arrogantly strolls out.

Walking out onto the stage, Jessie blows kisses to the cheering audience. She announces, "Prepare to witness a spectacle unlike any you have ever seen before!" She throws a Pokéball into the air. "Repiv, darling, come on out!"

Repiv appears from a storm of hearts generated by the ball's seal. "Repiiiiiiiiv!"

"Now, let's do this just like we practiced. On the count of three. One… two… three!" Jessie leaps up into the air, just as Repiv reorients its body into an upright circle, so that its nose is touching the tip of its tail. Jessie lands on top of the Repiv-wheel, and begins to move her legs in such a way that causes Repiv to begin to roll like an actual wheel. In no time at all, the two of them are rolling around the stage in all directions.

Gillian exclaims, "I can't believe this! The synchronicity between coordinator and Pokémon to pull this off is off the charts!"

Backstage, Brenda watches with surprise. "Wow, that must have taken a whole lot of training."

Michelle snorts. "As if you would know."

Brenda clenches her fists in an attempt to contain her frustration. She takes a deep breath to calm herself and makes no response to Michelle.

Jessie and Repiv have now moved on to greater tricks, as they bounce up into the air. Jessie even jumps off of the rolling Pokémon and does a backflip. Repiv then straightens its body, raising its head high into the air. Jessie lands atop Repiv's hood and takes a bow.

The audience immediately begins to clap.

In the audience, James cheers, "With a performance like that, Jessie's bound to make it to the next round!"

Meowth agrees, "No doubt about it!"

Wobbuffet appears to add, "Wobbuffet!"

Mr. Contesta declares, "This was a performance that required the utmost coordination between human and Pokémon, and seeing as your called a coordinator for a reason, it couldn't be better!"

Mr. Sukizo exclaims, "You and Repiv must have a strong connection to pull this one off, it's remarkable!"

Nurse Joy concludes, "Very few Pokémon could actually pull off a performance like that, but Repiv's extremely musculatured body is perfect for it!"

Jessie takes one last bow, and exits the stage.

A little bit later in the first round, Gillian announces, "And next up is Brenda!"

Brenda gets up to head onstage. As she passes by Michelle, Michelle arrogantly says, "I would wish you luck, but I guess you have more than a natural supply of it, regardless of what I wish."

Brenda is perturbed by this comment, but once again she manages to keep herself calm.

She steps out on stage, takes a moment to re-center herself, and then throws her Pokéball. "Kappaqueous, center stage!" A flurry of bubbles is generated by the seal. As the bubbles float everywhere, one massive one pops, revealing that Kappaqueous was inside it. As soon as this happens, Brenda shouts, "Kappaqueous, Confusion and Aqua Bomb, now!"

Just as they practiced, Kappaqua begins to juggle orbs of water. This instantly catches the attention of the crowd.

Ash declares, "Yeah, just like we practiced, Brenda!"

Seeing that she is entertaining everyone puts a much-needed grin on Brenda's face. Within moments, she's forgotten entirely about Michelle. "Okay Kappaqueous, let's turn things upside down!"

With practiced precision, Kappaqueous tosses the orbs higher into the air than usual, leaps into the air itself, and does a half backflip, landing on its hands. Now standing on its hands, Kappaqueous resumes juggling, but now with its feet. This garners much applause.

Watching backstage, Michelle turns her nose at this, as she thinks, Making stuff up on the spot, as always.

Now Brenda declares, "Okay, now let's elevate this performance!"

Kappaqueous first hops back onto its feet seamlessly, then it uses Confusion on itself to levitate itself. Kappaqueous is now juggling in midair.

Gillion exclaims, "Brenda and Kappaqueous have just brought this performance to new heights! Literally!"

Brenda grins broadly. "Great, now let's wrap this up! Hydroshock!"

Kappaqueous throws each of the Aqua Bombs straight up into the air, one-by-one. Once they're all above it in a line, Kappaqueous thrusts its arm up towards the bottom, delivering its Hydroshock attack to it. The sudden jolt of kinetic energy causes the orb to burst in a display of light and mist. A chain reaction occurs, as the imparted force of the Hydroshock travels from one orb to the next, until all have burst in the same way, creating a dazzling spectacle. Kappaqueous lands on the ground and bows.

Brenda joins it and bows as well, proclaiming, "Tah dah!"

The audience breaks out in applause. Mr. Contesta judges, "A perfectly polished performance! You must have been working for hours on this one!"

Mr. Sukizo agrees, "If it were any better, I'd have to find a word other than remarkable!"

Nurse Joy concludes, "I follow contests on the holovision, and I've seen many of your performances. It is abundantly clear how much you have grown since you made your debut. Congratulations!"

In the audience, Brock says, "It really is amazing how much of a difference training has made for Brenda. She was great before, without any, but the way she executes her performances now are so much more professional. Anyone should be able to see how much work she's put in."

Ash nods in agreement. "She's like a whole new coordinator."

Brenda walks off stage, feeling very content with herself after her successful performance. As she does, she passes by Michelle, who's going to the stage for her performance.

Michelle says, "That was a really great performance out there."

Forgetting everything that's been going on, Brenda smiles and responds, "Thank you so much, I-"

Michelle cuts her off and jabs, "Only you could spend all of five minutes putting together a move, call it training, and then perfectly perform it on stage. You may have everyone else fooled, but I know exactly how you operate."

Brenda freezes up. "But…it's not like that-"

Michelle holds up a hand. "Don't even bother. I've got better things to do, like showing these people what real hard work looks like." She begins to walk past Brenda.

However, she stops when Brenda suddenly shouts, "No!"

Michelle looks back. "What?"

"I said no! I'm done taking this from you! You call me the selfish one, but all you can do is think about yourself! You can't even fathom the possibility that maybe I've changed! Well you know what? I'm done trying to prove myself to you. If you can't see what everyone else in that audience so obviously did, then you're just blind."

"I'm not blind. I'm the only one with my eyes open!"

"Yeah, right! If you ever truly were my friend, then you would be able to see how much I've changed! I've grown so much since I've started this journey, but you're just too jealous of me to admit it!"

"So, what if I'm jealous!? I think I've earned that right! In case you forgot, it was my childhood dream to become a Top Coordinator! While you, you didn't even know what a coordinator was until you randomly decided to enter your first contest! You hadn't even heard of contests! I spent an entire year training hard, making sure I could be the best coordinator possible, before I entered my first contest, and I still lost it! You, on the other hand, entered your first contest on whim, only weeks after getting your first Pokémon, without any prior knowledge of it whatsoever, and you still got second place, and then went on to defeat me in your second contest only a little later!"

Brenda retorts, "So what? I'm your friend! You should be happy for me!"

"Are you really my friend? What about what happened at the Horizoport Contest? You needed a partner for the tag team contest, and it didn't even occur to you to ask me! You left me to team up with that creepy Damien! We could have both won a ribbon on that day, but you hogged it to yourself!"

"That's not fair! I met up with Will before I even knew that the thing was a tag team contest! I only learned it was when he asked me to be his partner! Did you expect me to say no!?"

"Maybe if you weren't so focused on your boyfriend, you would have realized that the person who was supposedly your best friend since childhood would have made a much better partner!"

"He's not my boyfriend! And I didn't even know you were going to be at the contest! What was I supposed to do? Turn down Will's offer on the off chance that you just happen to be at that contest?"

"Well, I was, wasn't I!?"

"That's not the point!"

Before the argument can go any further, Gillian can be heard asking with confusion, "Um, excuse me, Michelle, would you please report to the stage! Michelle!"

Michelle looks Brenda in the eyes and says, "I need to go." Without any further words, she turns and continues to the stage.

Brenda just stands there for moment, completely at a loss as to what to do. A few moments later, she continues backstage.

Who's that Pokémon!?

This Pokémon has incredibly strong legs – it can easily clear a 30-story building in one leap. Its blazing punches leave its foes scorched and blackened.

Michelle walks up onto the stage. Despite her heated anger just moments ago, something makes her hesitate. She freezes for a moment. Everything I said is truth, why do I feel so bad? Quickly after, she shakes her head and pulls out a Pokéball. "Poliwrath, come on out!"

Poliwrath appears from within a cloud of mist. "Poli!"

Backstage, Brenda is surprised to see that Poliwhirl has evolved. She quickly searches for her Pokédex and pulls it out. "Poliwrath, the Tadpole Pokémon, and a Water and Fighting Combo-Type. An odd mutation made it so that this tadpole Pokémon never fully developed into a frog Pokémon, but it has adapted to living in both land and water regardless. Its strong muscles used for swimming also allow it to pack a powerful punch. Evolves from Poliwhirl with a Water Stone."

Brenda says to herself, "That's the very same Poliwag that Michelle and I used to play with when we were young… It's all evolved now…"

She's sucked into a flashback of younger versions of her and Michelle, dressed in swim suits, splashing and playing in a pond with a Poliwag. They look to be having so much fun.

Brenda pulls herself back to reality and quickly shakes her head as she thinks about current events.

Michelle begins her performance by ordering, "Poliwrath, use Water Gun!" Poliwrath creates a powerful stream of water, which is shot up into the air. "Now switch to Mud Shot!" Poliwrath flings a ball of mud at the water in the air. As the two attacks collide, they explode, creating a spray of water and mud across the stage.

"Great, now use Submission, just like we practiced!" Poliwrath grabs its own feet and begins to roll around like a wheel. "And now add your Water Gun!" Poliwrath begins to shoot water. This water causes Poliwrath to rise into the air, as it remains spinning. As it spins, this water now switches between propelling it into the air and spraying out across the stage like some kind of fancy fountain.

This excites the audience and they begin to cheer. Even Brenda, in spite of herself, begins to cheer, but she soon catches herself and stops.

Michelle thinks, You see Brenda, this is the next step in the evolution of our water jet technique. We never settle for good enough. This thought pulls Michelle into a flashback of her own. Just as Brenda remembered, Michelle thinks of a time that she, Brenda, and Poliwag were playing at the local pond. Poliwag had leaped into the air and uses its Water Gun to propel it towards the side. Both young Michelle and Brenda cheer for it as it does so. Michelle forces this happy memory away.

Michelle shouts, "Okay Poliwrath, take it away!" Poliwrath uncurls itself, and now is levitating in the air from its downward pointing Water Gun. Moments later, it increases the force of its water several times, forcing itself high into the air. Michelle shouts, "Body Slam!" Poliwrath reorients its body, and lets itself fall straight down, shoulder first, through the water that lifted it only moments ago, causing it to spray off in all directions, concluding Michelle's performance.

The maneuver is met with much applause. Mr. Contesta wastes no time declaring, "Michelle, you and your Poliwrath are always interesting to watch perform because you take the same moves, and never stop improving them. We get to see a new variant of that water levitation technique of yours every single time, and I always look forward to seeing how you've improved it."

Mr. Sukizo proudly proclaims, "The amount of training you must put into that one technique is remarkable!"

Nurse Joy concludes, "I may not have seen you perform in person before, but I still get a clear sense of progression from you in this performance. Good job!"

It's Blaziken!

Gillian declares, "Okay coordinators, the judges have made their final decisions! Let's see who makes it into the next round!"

Everyone looks to the monitor with anticipation. The very first face to appear on the screen Brenda, quickly followed by Michelle.

Brenda cheers. "We did it!"

Michelle scowls at Brenda. "Of course she got first place for the appeals…"

Two more faces appear, followed by Jessie's.

Jessie proclaims, "Prepare to lose, peasants."

Despite her bold words, Jessie goes on to lose her first match. She has to be dragged from the stage as she throws a tantrum at the judges.

Brenda and Michelle, on the other hand, win swift victories and climb the ladder. They both make it to the final round.

Gillian broadcasts, "This is it folks, the finals have arrived! And this time it's going to be quite a spectacle, with a childhood rivalry of two coordinators from Launch Town. On my left, it's Brenda! On my right, Michelle! As normal, we'll put five minutes on the clock! Begin the battle!"

Each coordinator glares at the other with extreme conviction. Neither is willing to lose. Both throw their Pokéballs at the same time.

Brenda shouts, "Glitterfly, center stage!"

Michelle, "Radeon, come on out!"

The Pokémon that appears in front of Michelle is a quadrupedal canid Pokémon colored a light yellow with gold trim. It's most notable feature is its tail, which begins thin, but thickens as it goes out into a rounded bulb-like shape. This tail glows a brilliant golden light. The Pokémon has large eyes, ears that are diamond-shaped and stick straight up, a radiant gold gemstone on its forehead, and a regal-looking tuft of gold fur around its neck.

Ash is caught by surprise and pulls out his Pokédex. "Radeon, the Radiant Pokémon and a Light-Type. Its tail suffuses the space around it in a warm glow. It is said that the light from a Radeon will cast aside evil spirits of the night. Evolves from an Eevee by training with a Light-Type move."

Ash gasps. "Woah, that thing evolves from Eevee too! Awesome!"

Brock nods. "That explains the way Michelle was battling with her Eevee last time we saw her."

Ash asks, "What do you mean?"

"Remember? She and it were particularly focusing on using the move Swift. Just like your Traineed evolved into Arborrior when it mastered the Fighting-Type move Low Sweep, Eevee can only evolve into Radeon if it has mastered a Light-Type move like Swift."

Ash nods. "I get it."

Michelle declares, "Alright Radeon, we lost last time we battled Brenda, but let's show her we won't allow that to happen again!"

"Radeon!"

Michelle opens, "Radeon, use Photon Beam!" Radeon leaps into the air and from its mouth fires a highly focused beam of golden light at Glitterfly.

Brenda counters, "And we'll show her that we're not going to back down from anything! Block it with Signal Beam!"

The two beams collide and cancel mid-field. Because her attack was stopped, Michelle loses a small amount of points. She appears irritated by this.

Brock observes, "With both Pokémon being Light-Types, this should be an interesting battle. Light-Type moves don't do very much damage against Light-Type Pokémon. That means this battle is going to come down to the performance, instead of the power of the Pokémon."

Ash agrees, "Should be interesting."

Brenda calls the next attack, "Glitterfly, String Shot from all directions!" Glitterfly swoops in towards Radeon and begins to fly in circles around it, spitting gooey webbing at it. Radeon is unable to avoid it, and become covered in a cloak of the stuff.

Michelle isn't about to let Radeon become immobilized. She thinks quickly and orders, "Dazzling Gleam!"

From between the seams in the webbing, a rainbow glow can be spotted. Within moments, this glow becomes so intense that literally burns the webbing away, completely freeing Radeon. Brenda points take a large hit for this one.

Michelle follows up, "Now use Swift!" Radeon attacks with a flurry of glowing stars.

Brenda quickly orders, "Out of the way! Dodge it!"

Glitterfly attempts to dodge, but the stars seem to hone in on it and make contact anyways.

As Brenda loses some more points, Gillian points out, "Looks like Brenda didn't know that the attack Swift will always hit its target!"

Brenda refuses to let this get to her. "Glitterfly, Sparkling Flare!"

At the same time, Michelle orders, "Radeon, Dazzling Gleam!"

Both Pokémon attack with extreme flashes of light. Gillian is forced to shield her eyes as shouts, "Those two attacks just combined to create the most blinding light I've seen! What's going on in there!?"

Moments later, and the light has subsided. Both sides seem to have had the same idea, and they have launched at each other for a physical attack, attempting to get the upper hand while opponent it stunned by the light.

Brenda shouts, "Signal Beam!"

Michelle shouts, "Swift!"

The attacks collide and cancel. Gillian says with surprise, "I can't believe how evenly matched these Pokémon are! Move for move, they just keep on trading attacks!"

Both coordinators hazard a quick look at the scoreboard. Time is just over half up, and Michelle just barely has more points than Brenda, but not by any substantial amount.

Michelle thinks, Brenda and I know each other so well that we can predict each other's moves with near perfect accuracy. She may have once been my friend, but now I've got to prove to her once and for all that the power of hard work, determination, and training can defeat natural talent and luck any day!

Simultaneously, Brenda is thinking, Michelle and I are a perfect match. I have to win this. I have to prove to Michelle that I really have changed! I have to prove that I can train, and use that training to win! My days of relying purely on luck and talent are over!

Brenda orders, "Glitterfly, Signal Beam, once more!"

"Gliterererererfly!

Michelle shouts, "It's time for something you can't predict! Radeon, use Reflect, just like we trained for!"

"Radeon!" Radeon leaps into the air and suddenly mirror-like panels of energy appear all across the stage. Reflections bounce off of them in every direction. Radeon is quickly lost amongst a crowd of Radeon reflections. Glitterfly's Signal Beam hits one target, but it's nothing but a reflection.

Brenda gasps as she loses some points.

Michelle takes advantage of her surprise and orders, "Quick, Radeon, Photon Beam!" From behind Glitterfly, the beam attack is launched. As Glitterfly was too busy searching for the real one, it has no chance to dodge.

As fast as she can react, Brenda orders, "Turn around and use Signal Beam!" Glitterfly turns and attacks, but ends up hitting another reflection.

Michelle orders, "Now, Swift!" Now from Glitterfly's left, Radeon attacks with Swift, also hitting Glitterfly.

Once again, Glitterfly attempts an immediate counterattack, but once again it hits nothing but a reflection.

Brenda thinks, Darn it, I can't do anything as long Radeon is hiding in those reflections!

Gillian shouts excitedly, "This is amazing! Michelle and Radeon have used the move Reflect in a completely unorthodox way! They've turned this stage into a hall of mirrors!"

At the mention of a hall of mirrors, Brenda's eyes suddenly go wide with realization. "Hall of mirrors! That's it! Glitterfly, use Sparkling Flare, just like in our training yesterday!"

Glitterfly catches on right away. It turns to the mirror closest to it and attacks with an intense Sparkling Flare. The light bounces right off the mirror, and into another. From there it continues to bounce from one to the next until the entire stage is filled with the light from the attack. Radeon is unable to avoid the spread of the attack and is hit. Upon this hit landing, all of the mirrors shatter. Michelle loses a large chunk of points.

Michelle's eyes widen with disbelief. "No way…"

She has a flashback to the previous day, when she accidently stumbled upon Brenda training with Ash in the hall of mirrors. Pikachu hides in the menagerie of mirrors and reflections. Brenda shouts, "Alright Glitterfly, use Sparkling Flare on the mirror in front of you!" Glitterfly attacks with an identical result to what just happened. Pikachu, in its hidden corner, is blasted by the attack.

Ash smiles. "That was a great idea Brenda! You flushed out Pikachu, no problem!"

Michelle, who has been talking to Brock, shakes her head with disapproval. "See, dumb luck. She didn't know that was going to happen. Things just go her way every single time."

Brock suggests, "Isn't the point of training so that you can try out those crazy situations, so that you can later apply them in an actual battle with a refined version?"

The flashback ends, and Michelle says to herself, "That is what training is…"

Brenda takes advantage of Michelle's hesitation and shouts, "Glitterfly, use-!"

Before she can call the attack, Gillian announces, "And that's time! This match is over!" Everyone turns to the scoreboard with anticipation. Both coordinators are nearly out of points entirely. By only the slimmest of margins, Michelle has more points than Brenda. "The winner is Michelle!"

This takes a few moments to sink in with Michelle. "I…won…? I won. I won!" She looks to Radeon. "We won, Radeon! We won!" She and Radeon jump up with glee and celebration.

Brenda's head sags with defeat. She takes a deep breath to center herself.

Ash is concerned, "Brenda really needed to win this one too. I don't know if Michelle will ever believe her now."

Brock shakes his head grins knowingly. "I don't know about that. Something tells me that battle revealed a whole lot to Michelle, regardless of who won and lost."

Brenda solemnly sits alone in a dressing room. She has yet to change out of her contest clothes, and doesn't look that motivated to do so. She sighs, completely lost within her own regrets.

There's a knock on the door.

Brenda unenthusiastically responds, "Come in."

The door cracks open and Michelle peeks in. She slowly opens it all the way and steps in.

Brenda scowls. "What do you want? Come to gloat about how much better than me you are because you train and I don't?"

Michelle takes a deep breath and prepares herself. She shakes her head. "No, I've come to apologize."

Brenda looks up in surprise.

"I…I…well, there's no easy way to say this, but I realized today, during our battle that I was just being a big selfish jerk. You were right, you had changed, but I was too self-absorbed to see it."

Brenda isn't sure how to respond. Finally, she asks, "What changed your mind?"

"Yesterday, when you were training in the hall of mirrors, I saw you and Glitterfly flush out Pikachu. At the time, I played it off as you just pretending to train, but then when you pulled off the same move in our battle, I realized that you may never have come up with that move if you hadn't been training with Ash yesterday." She sighs. "Look, I don't expect things to ever be the same between us again, but I just want you to know how truly sorry I am."

Before she can say anything else, Brenda suddenly gets up from her seat and hugs Michelle tightly. She's crying tears of joy. "Michelle, you're my best friend in the whole world, and I want it to stay that way. Besides, you weren't really wrong. I have let you down in the past. Maybe we're both a little self-absorbed. Let's just drop it all and learn from it."

At first, Michelle has trouble getting over her surprise at this response, then she clasps her arms around Brenda and hugs back.

Once they separate, Michelle asks, "So, best friends?"

Brenda nods, "Forever." After a moment more, Brenda adds, "But there is one thing."

"What?"

"Next time we battle, I'm totally going to beat you."

Michelle accepts the challenge. "We'll see about that."

The Narrator sniffles, as if he was just crying. It truly touches one's heart to see the bonds of friendship reunite two who have so bitterly fought. It just goes to show that the greatest friendships can withstand just about anything. Stay tuned.

To Be Continued…