Chương 85: 85-Slide

Tanya sighs as she telekinetically wrings out her blanket for the fifth time before placing it on a rock to dry in the early morning sun. Apparently the rain in the forecast had come a bit early, a surprise, fortunately as breakfast was getting ready Swellow flew up and confirmed that there weren't any landslides as far as he could tell. With any luck further rain will wait until the ground has had more time to settle. She ignores the amused look she knows Amelia is giving her back.

"I mean seriously, Chansey, it looks like it was pouring out here, how did you not wake up?" The Joy asks from her small gas cooking stove where an almost comically large bowl of oatmeal sits atop the comparatively tiny burner. Tanya sighs with a roll of the eyes. Admittedly she's been asking the same question herself, and while she has… impressions of a memory of her waking up in the night, she could just have easily dreamed or imagined it for how vaporous it is.

"It seems the rain didn't bother me as much as I thought it would." The 'mon responds instead as her partner ladles out a hearty bowl of oatmeal before grabbing the sweet variant of Tanya's high energy pokechow and dumps two large scoops into the pot.

"We're lucky my bag was water resistant." Amelia nods with a hum as she stirs the pokechow into the oatmeal, causing swirls of vibrant color as it incorporates.

"Oh yea, I know our stuff is waterproof, but I didn't expect it to hold up against…" She gestures at the soaked, muddy ground around them.

"... this." Tanya shakes her head as she walks over to her partner, trying to ignore the slightly off-putting feeling of walking on mud. Right up until now she'd not missed, or really thought about, her lack of shoes. But even if her biology is hardy enough to handle walking around 'barefoot' the slimy texture of mud hasn't gotten any more pleasant.

Now that she's thinking about it, she's very fortunate that her lack of shoes, or really clothes at all, hasn't bothered her, if not physically then certainly mentally, considering the logistical nightmare of trying to buy –or more likely commission– something to fit her. Thinking on it for a moment, if she had to make a guess explaining her… casual acceptance of waking around like this. It'd start with her fuzz acting as a kind of mental transition aid as her subconscious figured out it's socially acceptable.

The fact that for the first few months it didn't feel like her body probably helped as well. Tanya's eyes flare purple as she picks up the pot of oatmeal and the serving spoon Amelia had just used to fill her own bowl and shovels a mouthful of flavored and fortified breakfast down her throat with a chew.

"Just water resistant I'm afraid." She corrects as the fortified oatmeal starts to fill the hole in her stomach.

"As good as it is, the bag isn't that good." Amelia grunts in confusion and hurries to swallow a mouthful of breakfast with a tilt of the head.

"Wait, what's the difference agai– Nevermind, I remember. Right." She interrupts herself with a laugh.

"No scuba diving for us then." Tanya gives the idea an amused exhale through the nose as she quickly works her way through breakfast. Eating is another one of those things that reminds her of how… different her current form is to that of a human, to say nothing about the proportions of her mouth, even her teeth are radically different. Humans, being natural omnivores even if they're not in the habit of using that flexibility much in this universe, have the familiar range of teeth Tanya's found in every life.

Flat at the front, incisors at the side, molars at the back, simple. The teeth also stick out pretty far from the gums, to easier rip mouthfuls off of something otherwise too large to fit in the mouth. Tanya, by contrast, has mostly molars which barely poke out from the gums and six flat teeth in the front that stick out a bit further, but even those are probably shorter than Amelia's front teeth despite the massive difference in relative mouth size.

In the end it doesn't really matter, her teeth work just fine, but unless something… unforeseen happens, if she wants to grin at someone all they'll see is her open mouth. Not that it's much of a loss, Tanya hasn't needed the ability to give a 'toothy grin' recently. Or… ever? The 'mon squints in thought as she finishes her fortified oatmeal and starts the simple process of cleaning everything up and packing away as Amelia breaks down her tent.

As she scrubs the pot and Amelia's bowl the sound of beating wings preludes Swellow's indignant squawk.

"Hey! You had breakfast without me!?" He complains, landing on the rock next to her.

"I needed to dry off!" Tanya glances up at the nearby tree where the avian had been sunning himself in the early morning light after getting back from his sunrise scouting mission.

"You were asleep." She states, continuing over Swellow's objection.

"Your breakfast is in your perch bowl, eat it quic–" The 'mon launches off the rock before she can finish speaking, almost knocking his perch over with the force he lands on it and having to beat his wings back in the other direction to keep upright. The instant later he's pecking at his avian specialty kibble with more than enough speed to be done by the time everything is packed away and thrown on backs.

Amelia claps her hands together as she stands at the edge of the campsite after giving it a once over to ensure they didn't forget anything.

"Allll righty then! We had a bit of a lazy day yesterday, and our Center time had us already let training slip! So we've got a lot to work on! Swellow!" She shouts, pointing up at the 'mon where he'd been slowly circling higher as Amelia started talking.

"Get down here! You need to hear this!" There's a pause before Swellow tucks his wings as if in a struggle against some great force trying to keep them open, entering a dive that ends with him softly landing on Amelia's outstretched arm.

"... You sure you don't want to wait another–""Nope!" Amelia cuts him off as she turns and starts walking down the trail.

"Now, excellent dive Swellow, but since you evolved we're going to need to make your reflexes and maneuvers fit your new body!" She says with a smile and a poke to his breast.

"We'll start with a full agility course, I actually bought a few training aids by mail order. I got you… uhh…" She trails off, patting her pack before unzipping the rearmost pocket and rummaging around. A second later she pulls out… a handful of plastic tubing.

"Target rings!" The trainer proclaims, naming the object as she waves them at Tanya.

"Chansey could you– thank you." Before she could finish speaking Tanya's eyes flare purple and the plastic tubes float into the air, a moment later they're bending into a loop with one end being inserted firmly into a flared coupling on the opposite side. She floats them back to Amelia who loops the rings around her arm not holding Swellow.

"Now normally the way we'd use these things to train is that I throw this ring in the air, and you're supposed to fly through the ring when it's as close to the top of its arc as you can. It'll train your timing and accuracy as we go to smaller and smaller rings." She holds the armfull of rings up to Swellow, gesturing to how they keep getting smaller.

"But I was thinking that after you've gotten that done you and Chansey could do some more advanced stuff with her moving the rings around." Swellow looks at the rings, Amelia, then glances at Tanya before looking back at the trainer with a groan." Ffffffine then, let's get started." He complains with exaggerated anguish, and as he flares his wings to take off Amelia continues.

"After we get to a good stopping point on that we'll move on to teaching you a new move! Tailwind!" She says with an excited smile, one that –supprisingly– appears on Swellow's face as well.

"Ooh! New move!? Finally!" He crows, launching off Amelia's arm with speed.

"C'mon! Get throwing!" Amelia blinks at the enthusiasm then holds up a finger for him to wait before, turning to look up at Tanya.

"... I didn't expect him to be so excited about a new move."

"Me neither." Tanya agrees with a metaphorical shrug.

"But people who don't respect the fundamentals are known to focus on the ostentatious over their foundations."

"Right." Amelia nods, hesitates, then scrunches her face and continues.

"I don't want to disrupt Swellow's flying with gravity right now, and I think you've got a pretty good handle on that. I've got a few ideas on some new moves for you to try and learn, or you could work on minimise, you're still struggling with it right?" Tanya nods.

"Yes, but I'll be doing both either way so let's discuss potential new moves while we walk, I'll work on minimize as we go."

"Right." Amelia nods back, patting herself down until coming out with her notebook and flipping it to the most recent page.

"So you've got a few options that I think would be useful for you. I've noticed that whenever you get distracted the gravity effect flickers, but I know it's possible to make gravity… stick to an area, even if you're in your ball or unconscious." The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Tanya takes a second to answer as she removes her bag and floats it behind her as the world grows larger with a strained groan.

"I– ng– I've looked into it. I can't figure out what I'm supposed to do to achieve the effect." She admits.

"Maybe if I saw the effect be 'placed' at a location I could figure it out, but I'll admit I don't even know where to start."

"Hm. Alright." The trainer mutters, crossing out a few things in her notebook before looking back down at the now smaller 'mon.

"Well it knocks out a few of our other options, unless you think you can figure out how to generate a new kind of type energy without a reference. Though… hm…" She looks over her notes again.

"I was really hoping you could learn something that paralyzes. You spent a lot of time around the magnemite and we have some batteries. What are the chances you think that you could figure out electric type energy?" Tanya considers the idea in bursts between throwing every ounce of effort at making herself smaller, rewarded each time by the world growing larger each time. …And by the fact that she has to keep moving her already short legs faster to keep up with Amelia.

"It's worth trying, but by that same token it's equally worth trying to learn fire, water, or grass type energy. You believe electric is best?"

"Oh yea." Amelia nods.

"Even with tailwind and gravity, a 'mon that's just naturally faster than you has a small advantage. But with just gravity you being able to paralyze is practically a win condition all on its own. Muscle spasms throw off balance and slow an opponent way down, combine that with your other advantages and..."

"Hm." Tanya acknowledges with a considering hum, thinking it through herself.

"You could also work on grabbing living things with your telekinesis, I don't think I've ever seen you do that. It's difficult and energy intensive, even for powerful psychic 'mon, but if you need to grab your opponent in a battle–""I would prefer for it not to come to last ditch moves like that, and in most circumstances an opponent strong enough that I would need to do that would also likely be too powerful for it to work." Tanya counters.

"I can see a few edge cases where it would be useful, such as on a retreating target, but first let's decide what to train to avoid needing to do that. Paralysis works, what else?"

"Protect." Amelia responds immediately.

"I can't believe we've gone so long without you learning it, your bulk and healing works as well, but it'd be better not to take the damage at all." Tanya grimaces as she nods. She'd already tried to figure out the move in the nursery, unfortunately even the most stripped down, basic versions of her defensive formula are too complicated to do without an orb.

But, knowing the usefulness she'd tried to do it blind, but her skill in defensive formulas constantly interfered to the point she was making zero progress, so she'd shelved it and instead trained using her telekinesis to block incoming attacks.

"Agreed, I've had some difficulties trying to learn myself, but it's too useful to be ignored." Amelia smiles, scribbles something into her notebook, then snaps it shut.

"Right! So… minimise till lunch, I got the protect instruction book, which for some reason is a specialty move book I had to buy separately. We work through that till we get moving again, either minimise or help Swellow with the airborne rings till we make camp, then try to learn electric type energy until bed. Sound good?" Tanya nods but the motion has her minimise fail, rapidly shooting up to her natural height with a deep stretching sound and causing Amelia to stumble back, almost slipping in the mud.

The 'mon grumbles as she gets started again, and just as she gets below Amelia's eyeline, the Joy looks down at her with a smirk.

"You know… I have to admit it's nice not having to crane my neck to talk to you all the time." She says, waving her hand to indicate Tanya's temporary stature. The 'mon spares a glance up at the trainer, then ignores the comment as she's forced to move her legs faster to keep up. She refuses to do that stupid bouncing thing again. —-- –_– —-- Their hiked training session is productive, strenuous, but productive.

The constant straining of minimise to push herself smaller had Tanya feel like her skin was several sizes too small by the end of it, but progress was made. The academic breakdown of protect and some basic testing was less obviously productive, but necessary for the groundwork to learn the move.

Though as lunch ended and the strange physical strain of minimise still hadn't faded by the time, Tanya began working with Swellow to tighten his flying after evolution pushed his flight profile to be slightly different than he used to be. It's not a large difference, increased size means more weight and greater wind resistance, but his proportions kept relatively the same, so even just an hour after lunch he was flying with just as much precision and accuracy as he'd done before evolution.

Thus Tanya changed the objective to make him better, aided by the rings allowing her to choose targets of almost arbitrarily small size. Unfortunately their training was put on pause after Swellow smacked into the side of a ring so hard he fell into a flatspin to the ground and even after Tanya healed him he was too dizzy to fly.

So, with the 'mon resting on her head again, Tanya pauses as they turn a corner to the top of a steep downhill slope and she spots a group of people further down the trail, but as she opens her mouth to point it out Amelia inadvertently cuts her off.

"Oh! Hey look, people." She calls, coming to a stop and pointing at them before raising an arm in a slow wave.

"Do you think they see us?" Tanya squints at how they're moving, then shakes her head as she walks up to the lip of the hill.

"Probably not, but we're moving faster than them, so we'll catch up." She says, pursing her lips as she leans forward and looks down the steep muddy hill, noting clear signs of people slipping in the slick mud.

"We should be careful going down, I'd be unfortunate if either of us were to–" She tries to step back away from the hill, but her foot just slides backwards without finding purchase. She takes another step backwards to the same result, then another, but this time the 'mon notes that she's actually moving toward the lip of the hill. … This is suboptimal.

Putting more effort into not sliding, Tanya notes that, unlike a human with their high center of gravity, she's at no risk of falling over despite the fact she's practically jogging backwards in place to reverse herself. It's not working.

"Wh– Hey! Chansey!" Amelia shouts as she lunges forward and grabs her arm with both hands and tries to pull her up.

"You're slipping!"

"I'm aware." Tanya grunts as she tries to use the new leverage to pull herself away from the inexorably approaching lip, but all that manages to do is slow her acceleration at the expense of Amelia being dragged along with her. It's better if one of them slides down this hill rather than both of them, so she releases her grip on Amelia's hands and opens her mouth to command the Joy to let her go.

But the moment she gets out the first syllable Amelia's boots lose traction, suddenly yanking herself against Tanya's side with a thud. And the force of the contact is more than enough to fling the both of them off the lip of the hill. … This is more than suboptimal. It's a testament to Tanya's low center of gravity, allowing her to stand upright as if on level ground even as they pick up speed on the near thirty degree slope accompanied by Amelia's piercing scream as she realizes what's happening.

"Let go!" Tanya orders, but by the time she gets the words out they're moving too quickly for Amelia to save herself from the hill. Regardless, it's clear the Joy didn't hear the order through her own screaming, gripping Tanya's pack and body hard enough to almost hurt as she uses the 'mon to keep upright even as the continue to pick up speed.

However, it turns out Amelia's attempt at keeping her from sliding did effect something as the momentum imparted by the human has Tanya slowly rotating counterclockwise as they slide down the hill. This effect has them sliding completely backwards at about the halfway point down, the trail around them beginning to disappear into a green blur"Chansey! Turn around!" Amelia shouts, the first coherent words she's said since going over the edge. Does this girl think she wants to be sliding backwards!?

But a moment later her heel digs more firmly into the mud, accidentally adjusting her rotation slightly and vague memories of the singular time she'd gone skiing come to the fore. Acting more on instinct than thought, the 'mon digs her heel more firmly to spin herself around but she overcorrects, entering an unstable spin to the sound of Amelia's screaming that almost topples them. Wobbling on her feet, Tanya digs her other heel in deeper to stabilize and thankfully slows her spin to a stop.

Only to find herself still facing backward! She tries again, and the second attempt has her facing forward just in time to see the group of humans they'd seen ahead violently throwing themselves out of the way as she rockets past, headed toward a gentle bend in the muddy trail as it levels off. But at their speed there's no way they're going to avoid getting flung off the trail and into a–" Tree! Turn! Turn!

Slow Slow Stop Stop STO–" Amelia shouts, her orders devolving into shrill screaming as the tree rushes toward th– Tanya digs her heel into the mud, rotating so her right side hits the tree. Grab Amelia, brace head and neck, press her against left side. Brace– The impact as she goes from great speed to a dead stop via tree rattles her, the rebound throwing her backward and into the mud where she's forced to lay still for a few moments and regain her bearings.

The moment she does Tanya presses a green sparkling arm against herself to heal herself as she scrambles to her feet again, looking for… Amelia is slowly sitting up herself, apparently uninjured, looking back at her with adrenaline wide eyes. Pushing healing energy into herself as she makes her way over to her partner, Tanya realizes that, aside from what feels like some bruising where she hit the tree, she's completely uninjured.

By the time she gets over to Amelia she's already standing, looking down at her clothes with a grimace, her entire front half now covered in mud. She looks up from her clothes first with realization, then a concerned expression as Tanya puts her arm on the Joy's shoulder. No injuries.

"You alright?" She asks, to which Tanya nods.

"Just fine, some bruises I've already healed, you're uninjured. Amelia nods back.

"Good… good." She says, slowly looking away from her partner and up the large hill they'd just slid down. She lets out a relieved chuckle, an action that transitions into her struggling to keep back a laugh. She manages it for a moment, before an ugly snorting heave of laughter escapes before Amelia locks her expression back down with attempted seriousness." N-n-no! This isn't funny!" She reiterates, looking in any direction but where they'd come from.

"That was so dangerous! We could have gotten seriously hur–" That's as far as she gets before she breaks out into uncontrollable laughter, the kind of laughter that has a person struggling to breathe as she braces herself on her knees and tears begin to run down her face.

Tanya watches her partner lose her composure with long practiced neutrality, looking up at the group of humans they'd blown past, and the memory of their speed blurred faces as they were forced to fling themselves out of the way– Tanya feels her lungs spasm and she releases a singular barking warble.

Shocked by the sound, the 'mon looks down at herself, but in the process her eyes trace the long track she'd made in the mud leading up to her impact with the tree, now sporting a jaunty slant– Another barking warble, this time in a triplet that has her breathing heavily. She can see the outline in the mud where she'd come to rest after rebounding off the tree, and sees the shape of Amelia's imprint. She made a snow angel, in the mud.

Neither of them manage to stop laughing before the other group manages to catch up with them.