Chương 28: 28-Slamfire

The sun is on its way down by the time the duo step into the clearing that surrounds the small lake the falling water feeds. Amelia crows in triumph as she steps into the clearing first, pointing at the falls.

"I knew it! Told you didn't I?" Tanya follows behind, carefully scanning the clearing and surrounding forest for immediate threats. She makes note of the small circle of stones and ashes marking a fire pit before humming in agreement.

"You did." They didn't know the exact location of these falls, working off of Joana's secondhand account from some associate of hers, all the information they'd been given was a large area to the east of the beginning of route 122. Working backwards from there, they'd walked along the trail until coming across a decently sized stream flowing away from their presumed location. Using that, they took their bearing at where they left the trail before following the river upstream until arriving here.

Amelia shrugs off her pack as she gets to the fire pit and claps her hands together.

"Right! Let's run down what we need to do! Step one, set up camp. Step two, get some water purified, we're almost out. Step three, I jump in the lake and clean myself off because I feel disgusting. Then, because we got distracted navigating, step four; we figure out a training plan then get started on schoolwork!" Tanya gives a sharp nod in agreement to the plan and drops her own pack, eyes flaring purple as the compartments quickly zip open and items fly out.

Admittedly, she does find it slightly odd that Amelia has put herself in the position of shot caller, but it's not as if Tanya is a subordinate. More it's the human being most excited about the entire situation, thus the first and most emphatic about the minutia of any situation. Tanya quickly completes her own setup, aided by telekinesis but more the simplicity of the structure. Chansey are equally capable of falling asleep sitting up or lying down due to her…

physiology, and should weather become a problem she's perfectly able to retreat back into her pokeball. With those realities in mind her 'bed' is simply a thermal ground mat on the bare ground, a blanket to go on top, then a larger blanket to wrap around herself with the entire setup exposed to the open sky. Amelia glances at her partner with thinly disguised envy as she struggles slightly with tent poles.

She's gotten significantly better as opposed to last night, where it took half an hour of struggling and muttered complaints before the sun started setting and Tanya offered to help. Pulling her water purification from her pack, Tanya approaches the large pond but slows to a stop as the grass turns to rocky dirt. Looking around the perimeter of the shore, she sees signs of other 'mon approaching and presumably drinking from the water.

There is likewise no local analogue for an alligator that might be lying in wait under the surface. The warnings and guides the forestry service provides for humans on their journeys seem quite comprehensive, and even they don't mention a risk of being eaten. In the forests at least. But at the same time… Her attention is drawn to a waterbug the size of a dinner plate as it skitters around a rock toward them near the shore. After a bit of mental digging she recalls it to be a local species named surskit.

A local, excellent. She puts down her water purification kit and waves for the 'mon to approach. The surskit pauses in its skittering and seems to stare at her with singular focus though their dual black dots. Tanya waves again and takes a half step closer.

"Good afternoon, would you be interested in an exchange? I'd like to know–""Threat?" The waterborne 'mon interrupts Tanya blinks. Apparently it's a common question.

"... Yes, I'm interested in your knowledge of any potential–""Threat?" They squeak again, skittering a body length away before dipping the bottom of their body in the water.

"Food?" Amelia makes an inquisitive hum from behind.

"Who are you talking t– oh!" She cuts herself off with a giggle.

"Chansey… that surskit can't understand you." Tanya takes a step back and looks over her shoulder.

"Oh?" Amelia nods, pausing in her struggle with the second of her two tent poles.

"Nope! They're pond skimmers, there's not a lot of brain space in the first place, and low algae nutrition means they're… uhh…" She trails off with an awkward cough.

"... They don't train well." She says, then quickly waves as if motioning to move on.

"It can be better if a trainer catches them early and gives good nutrition, but even after they evolve into a masquerain it's a struggle to teach them anything." The human pauses, then looks consideringly at the small 'mon as it seems to have forgotten about the two of them altogether, but just as she opens her mouth to say something else she's interrupted by the dreaded sound of metal on metal as the tent poles start to fall.

Tanya looks back at the surskit as the sound of Amelia's half started half pained yell continues behind, taking a step closer to the water and noticing how the 'mon's attention snaps to her just like the first time.

"Threat?" She leans a little closer, looking for a spark of intelligence in those solid black eyes. The 'mon offers nothing, skittering a little further away in search of algae. After another few seconds Tanya spots the murky red shadow of a magikarp as it swims below, skimming the bottom of the pond. Alright then. Filling up the water purifier, she begins the two phase process, adding a strong smelling tablet and sealing the container.

Placing the several gallons of slowly purifying water next to the fire pit, the former soldier looks over at her struggling partner.

"We passed some decent firewood a few little downstream. I'll be right back." Amelia gives an angry grunt of acknowledgement, and Tanya makes her way toward where the stream from the pond enters the treeline. As she enters the treeline, the former soldier gives another quick scan ensuring no present threats that might cause problems while she's gone. The human's struggle with the tent is indicative of a larger problem, of being –not unprepared– but unseasoned in the challenges of the wilderness.

Tanya has noticed some similar issues herself, last night's failure to set up a watch was one of them. Not being part of a larger unit has many advantages, but several downsides. But Amelia doesn't have the advantage of related experience, so now she has to learn those skills herself. An enraged scream cuts through the quiet of the forest. Plus, it builds character.

—-- –_– —-- The sun is near the horizon when Amelia is sitting in with her back to a small fire across from Tanya, carefully braiding her still-damp hair as it dries in the fire's heat.

"Ok. So bad news for us, this is as far up Route 122 as we're going and there's no ground types." The trainer sighs, tossing a wide bristle brush into her bag.

"It was always a long shot, but this locks it in." The 'mon nods, looking down at the map as it rests in the grass.

"They must be further north, in the lava bed." She taps the large swath of brown to their north.

"Very few incentives to head south with the perfect environment." Amelia sighs as she nods, pulling half her hair to finish off one loose braid and starting on the next.

"We could go up further…" She hums, then shakes her head.

"No, it was a slim chance to begin with. The 'mon up there don't work well in a team with you on it either." Tanya telekinetically tosses the first moderately sized log on the fire then blinks.

"You have a roster in mind?" The trainer loosely ties off her second braid and wavers a hand.

"Not… really? I had a few ideas to work around some of our weaknesses but the only one that I was considering and that's ground type is flygon. We're not getting one of those fully evolved." She pauses, eyes growing distant with a shiver.

"And I'm not going into a trapinch nest unless I have several fire type partners, who can fly." Tanya nods, tracing her eyes up Route 111 until coming upon the desert where the other concentration of ground types reside in the region. With nearly every 'mon in existence being either herbivorous or omnivorous, the forest seems to offer the majority of 'mon enough nutrition. At least enough that the locals have learned to avoid trying to kill humans, lest the forestry service come down.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. But in the desert, that calculus of calories falls in a different direction. When talking about the deserts, even the normally upbeat reading material created by the league for trainers turns deadly serious, warning about trapinch nests explicitly. They reassured in the same breath that it's almost certainly safe –as long as one says on the path– thanks to constant efforts by the forestry department.

But Tanya is already skeptical about the risk in the places they assure are perfectly safe, so her doubts on the places they admit are dangerous is… magnified. The 'mon folds the map as Amelia takes out her notebook and starts to scratch away, glancing up at her partner before the trainer points the pen at her and hums.

"Well, if it's going to be just you, I've got a few ideas on what we can do to avoid the paralysis problem. But it's getting too dark for training." She says, continuing to write away.

"Let's get started on dinner and get to studying, then spend all of tomorrow morning training." Tanya nods, pulling her bag of pokechow from where it sits in her bag next to her, then her textbook on common water type ailments that can't be fixed by a trip though the poke-care machine. —-- It's either late into the night or early into the morning that Tanya rises from her ground mat and shrugs off her blanket to the cold air of the deepest part of the night.

Walking over to Amelia's tent, she rubs the nylon door, creating a high pitched scraping sound with a yawn. Inside there's a sharp inhale, then a long groan.

"Chansey… are we really doing this?

'm tired…" Tanya unzips the tent and offers a cup of hot water, warmed on the coals of the fire. They don't have coffee, yet another major oversight.

"Yes. We are." Amelia gives another, even more pained, groan.

"... Fine." She sighs, unzipping her sleeping bag.

"But I want you to know, I don't think a single other trainer does this, especially in the forest." Tanya disagrees with the assumption, but she's too tired for the debate.

"Then they're all taking an unnecessary risk." She says, shoving the cup of hot water into the human's hands.

"There's more water on the coals, I'm going to bed." Walking back to her ground pad, she carefully sits back in the warm spot she'd just vacated and closes her eyes. Without even the need to carefully keep watch, a feeling of deep longing rises from within, as if missing the majority of herself without… Dropping her ironclad control, sleep approaches quickly, but as she lies still and her mind quiets, she feels the love in her chest reaching out for her family, but finding them nowhere around.

Just before she can fall completely into slumber Amelia's voice cuts through the white noise of the waterfall.

"... Chansey?" Tanya grunts, cracking an eye.

"Wh'a?" There's the sound of shifting fabric.

"Nothing." The former soldier gives another grunt and allows her eye to drift closed, mind finally giving into the biological necessity of sleep. But as consciousness fades, the vanguard realizes she was wrong about her family being gone, they're right there, asleep minds vaguely pleased as their Big Sis joins them, no matter the distance. —-- –_– —--"Ok! Training time!" Amelia says with a clap, having just exited her tent from a half hour nap while Tanya prepared breakfast.

"I've got some ideas, starting with some basics up to training new moves and strategies." Tanya hands over a bowl of fire-heated canned food then continues to munch on her own bowl of pokechow.

"Oh?"" Hmm… Yep!" She says, quickly swallowing a bite of chilli.

"Unfortunately we don't have… a lot to work with for your line. There have been a few battlers in the past, but the strategy was typically just to get beat up until something like toxic can wear her opponent down, or they just pass out from exhaustion." Tanya looks up from her food and tilts her head. She'd seen the toxic strategy, and already the video of that battle was thirty minutes long.

"How long did it take for exhaustion?" Amelia grimaces.

"Six. Hours." She says as if spitting bile.

"So we're not doing that, and it didn't even work for that trainer past his fifth badge, 'mon can just do too much damage. So we need a new strategy." Tanya nods, mind getting to work.

"Right, I've had a few thoughts on that. I believe I have a comparative advantage at close range, but I lack any method of closing the gap. I'll need a ranged option or to increase my speed." She says, pausing to eat more pokechow.

"I believe speed training is most useful, as it will also allow me to avoid getting hit in the–""No." Tanya stops, almost irritated at the interruption, and certainly irritated at the flat denial.

"... No?" Amelia nods, then shakes her head.

"No. You'll never be as fast as a naturally fast 'mon putting in a quarter of the effort. You're better off working to increase your evasiveness without working on speed, I'm thinking minimize or…" She says simply, then pauses for a long moment before opening her notebook and writing something down.

"... Trick room, I have to look into that, it's a psychic move and you're already extremely adept at using that kind of energy. But I don't even know where to start with training there." Tanya stares unblinkingly at the human opposite her. Her logic is sound, but…

"I see your point, but maneuver is key to victory, the fact I'm so deficient means I need to work harder to get up to snuff, not abandon it." Amelia glances up from her notebook and nods.

"In a vacuum yes, but we're on a deadline, you need to work with your advantages, speed is secondary to that." She pauses, looks down at her notebook, then back up again and continues in a hesitant voice.

"I… I was looking for a ranged option for you, and there's this move that exeggutor know, and some historical records suggest that your line might be able to learn as well." Tanya waits for her to continue, before sighing as a few seconds pass without a word.

"And that ranged option would be?" Amelia twitches, eye flickering downward to her partner's stomach.

"Now I'm only mentioning this because of yesterday morning with the eggs– but that's not saying I think you'd do this with… er… real eggs under any circm– Uh– I know how much your line care about them but you're already so good with maneuvering rocks and stuff with telekinesis so it would be perfect for–"Spit it out. What?" Tanya interrupts, irritation flaring. Amelia flinches back.

"... It's called: egg… bomb." She says hesitantly. Tanya blinks, looking down at her egg. Her egg? Could be a bomb? How? She gently removes the oblong oval from her pouch and lifts it to eye level as Amelia continues.

"Listen! It's not a judgement on you or your ability to care for– uh– I– I just saw it and realized it might be an option, we can look at others. Yes, right, forget everything I've just said, I've got other–" She's interrupted as Tanya draws from the love in her chest, removes the emotion from the power with the ease of long practice, then shoves that massive barely-contained bundle of power into the egg. There's a flash.

After the smoke clears and the ringing in Tanya's ears fade, she wipes the soot from her face and sees Amelia doing the same as she pushes herself off the ground. HURT?! Before she even has time to consciously register the sight, Tanya finds herself across the distance, shoving as much healing energy into her partner's body as she can. Amelia yelps at the sudden appearance of the wall of pink, then tries to shove the pink arms off to no effect.

"Cut it out! I'm fine! That feels weird!" Tanya blinks rapidly, cutting off the flow of power with some difficulty and taking a step back as another egg appears where the last one was, a single spot of white on the black of explosive residue After a little more checking from both parties to ensure they're actually uninjured from the explosion, Amelia looks over at her partner, back down to the egg, then back up at the 'mon's face.

"Well, I guess you're open to the idea. We'll work on that, and I dont want to spread us too thin, so I think if we just work on egg bomb, gravity, and telekinesis we've got a good shot." Tanya nods, then remembers the other person that needs to have a training schedule worked out. The human trainer tilts her head.

"What?"