As her partner talks to the deeply unprofessional ranger, explaining everything that’s happened over the past few days over the barren rock, Tanya finds herself relaxing into her more relaxed beanbag shape and watching through half lidded eyes.
The training regimen for everyone, herself included, has put an increased load on her mental, physical, and aural reserves. Not an unmanageable strain, but finding ways to limit test herself while simultaneously working as a training aid, picking apart the scraps of Professor Dacite’s underlings, and studying nursing is finally putting Tanya to the point where she’s struggling to find the time and energy to do everything.
Fortunately…
The ‘mon’s eyes lazily drift from the two humans to where Taillow is nibbling on some pokechow right in the center of a crowd of magnemite, only appearing uncomfortable in small flashes when his feathers pop with the latent static electricity in the air.
…all this effort is working.
“Alright. Thank you for the report Nu–er. I mean… Trainer Joy.” He says awkwardly, looking small despite being taller than the soot stained Joy. “It’s not your job or anything, but in the future, if you see large movements of wild ‘mon and no rangers nearby, regardless of reason, try to alert a ranger”
Amelia nods, still presenting her ‘Joy face’ as she so puts it, in full force with a placid and understanding smile.
“I understand, thank you. Is there some way I can get in contact with the forestry service? I’m not aware of any method other than to signal an emergency.” She says, gesturing to the distress beacon that’s clipped to her waist.
“Oh. Right.” The ranger blinks, then grabs an identical copy from his own belt and holds it up. “Just twist the arming lock to ‘alert’ instead of ‘distress’ and send the call out normally. Big pokemon migrations fall under ‘disruptive route activity.’”
“Sure is.” Amelia sighs, her mask cracking with the emotion. “I’ve had to sleep on top of my last few lantern batteries to keep some of them from nibbling, and I know they’re scaring the other wild ‘mon away.”
The ranger looks somewhat surprised by the broken facade, as if the minor emotional outburst broke some kind of spell. But that sense quickly disappears as he nods sharply at Amelia before turning on the spot, twirling his stylus around his finger, and waves at the flock of magnemite as they pretend to not notice him.
“There it is! You heard the lady! Fun’s over!” He shouts, waving his stylus through the air in a wave of iridescent sparkles. “The ferrite pole at your old nesting spot is fixed, and because you all chose to leave it’s just sitting there”
Immediately the entire mass of electric ‘mon lock their eyes onto the human, then glance at each other, a competitive fire burning in each
“A new buzzy pole?”
“My pole is back!”
“Your pole?”
“It was in my territory last time I checked you buzzer.”
“Wait, no one stayed behind? Does that mean…”
“Buzzer!?”
“Yea! You wanna fight about it!?”
“Lets go then– Wait where are you going!?” One magnemite shouts as it notices another speeding back the way they came.
“Mine!”
“Wh–”
“Not a chance!”
“Not if I get there first!”
At the sight of a single ‘mon rushing ahead, everyone appears to realize at once that fighting here doesn't actually determine who controls the pole, triggering a flood of ‘mon flying back the way they came.
Seeing the ‘mon speed off into the distance, the ranger jolts in alarm and sprints toward his own partner.
“Oh ssshoot, how are they so fast!?” He yelps, struggling to buckle his helmet and climb onto skarmory’s back. “HaveANiceDayNurseJoyI’veGottaGoManageThisNotAStampedeRightNowBYE!”
His last shouted syllable is obscured by a gust of wind, followed by the voice trailing off into the distance as the ranger chases after the flock.
Tanya blinks rapidly as her mind catches up to the rapid shift in events, trading her expression with an equally surprised one from Taillow.
She’s certainly not tired anymore.
But as she looks back to Amelia, the ‘mon sees that not all the magnemite left, a lone ‘mon hovering indecisively between the trainer and the direction where the rest of its flock went, back toward home.
Amelia approaches, reaching into her pocket and half pulling out a pokeball, but stops as she sees the ‘mon quickly retreat.
She remains still as the ‘mon studies her for a few long seconds, eye flicking between her face, the ball barely peaking out of her pocket, and the disappearing sight of its flock.
Until finally the ‘mon gives a thankful trill before spinning rapidly on all three axis and shooting off to catch up with everyone else in the race to the ferrite pole.
Amelia holds still for a few seconds longer, then seems to sag before removing her hand from her pocket and looking back at her partners.
“Well… exercise on the go? We need to keep moving.”
—--
Continuing down the trail, Tanya had no idea exactly how used to the constant buzzing of the magnemite she’d gotten until it was removed, leaving them to walk in relative silence,
But as Amelia’s daily training goals are met and they transition into a newly strange silent walk, it’s only half an hour before the trainer breaks it.
“Do you think I should have pushed harder for one of the magnemite to join up?” She asks,
Tanya glances down at her, loosening the straps of her pack.
“It’s clear at least one was considering it. But to more aggressively pitch the position…” She muses, considering the problem from all angles. “...Logistically, it would require some more due diligence than the average acquisition, but it’s negligible compared to our current workload. I’d be more concerned about morale and a willingness to work.”
Amelia hums, tilting her head.
“How do you mean?”
“To ‘sell’ the idea of joining the team does not remove the clear hesitance. That lack of conviction could easily be expressed as regret, the conflicting emotions would damage work ethic and sabotage development.” Tayna elaborates, satisfied to see Amelia’s eyes widen in realization before narrowing in thought.
“...huh… I’m not sure why I never thought about it like that…” She mutters. “But you’re right. We’ll get the best results from teammates who really want to be here…”
It’s at this moment that Taillow finishes his slow spiraling descent from the sky and flares his wings before landing gently on Amelia’s shoulder.
“It’s really quiet down here.” He chirps, ruffling his feathers. “So what are we talking about?”
—--
As the days go by, winding though and over the hills of the lava bed, the terrain only gets more and more steep. Always uphill, the incline seems to only increase with every day that passes and the treetopped craggy cliffs at the base of Mt. Chimney get larger, and every day that walk gets more draining.
But as she charges up a normal strength egg bomb as Amelia sets up her tent for the first time since they entered this place, Tanya can feel how close her success is, stronger than the pressure of the oncoming rain.
The egg bomb is given a charge fit for combat, and the projectile is slowly removed from her pouch and placed on the rock.
From there, she squints her eyes till she can barely see and pinches her lips into a thin line, carefully remembering one of the descriptions given in the training manual for the move double team, to focus on the paradoxical objective of –not split– but to simultaneously be in two places at once. Both configurations equally true to the world in all ways but the one that matters.
An egg appears in her pouch, and Tanya cannot think about how that egg exists relative to the already primed egg bomb as she primes it to become an attack.
Several times she almost slips in her concentration, but after several long tortuous minutes of draining mental effort, Tanya removes the egg from her pouch.
Before both flare purple and rise into the air as Tanya inadvertently releases a quietly satisfied warble.
That sound, barely louder than the wind, has Amelia immediately stop setting up her tent and twist her entire body around to be looking at her partner as fast as possible. Locking eyes with Tanya, the trainer’s attention seems incapable of settling on any one element that she’s seeing until finally she drops the canvas and turns around.
“Did… Did you…?”
Tanya grins, and in lieu of a response both eggs shoot up into the sky in different directions, each gaining a vibrant pink glow though the purple as the shell starts to crack before–
Twin flashes of light illuminate the rocky ground like fireworks, followed by the distinctive crack of successfully buffering and firing two attacks at once.
“Yes.” She answers, unable to keep vindictive satisfaction from her voice as another egg appears in her pouch, ready to be primed. “I figured it out.”
It’s still nowhere close to being combat viable, but now she’s though the all, and now that the most difficult part is out of the way she has to assume turning this breakthrough into something viable is only a matter of effor–
“Yes! Yes! Yes!” Amelia shouts, jumping up and down on the spot before dashing across the space between them and swapping as much of her partner as possible in a hug. “Chansey you did it!”
It takes a second to realize that she’d reflexively returned the hug, before the ‘mon huffs in amusement at her partner’s enthusiasm.
“So I did. It took me long eno–”
“I can't believe it!” Amelia shouts, voice muffled by Tanya’s bulk. “I was starting to think it wasn't possible! I was this close to bringing it up with you!” She laughs, pulling out of the hug, to look into the ‘mon’s eyes with a smile. “Well thank goodness I didn't! I’d look ridiculous!”
Disengaging from the hug, the trainer grabs Tanya by the arm and pulls her over to the fire, continuing to chatter as she goes.
But as Amelia urges for her partner to sit down next to the fire before running off back to her backpack, giving a constant steam of dialogue as she goes, Tanya finds her attention expanding from just her partner to the scene that surrounds her.
Contrasting the desolate and lifeless seeming rock all around, the sound of life and energy from her partner, energy that has her teammate looking up from his bowl of avian pokechow where it sits clipped to his perch, completely unphased by the explosions but the sounds of joy rousing his curiosity.
The cheerily burning fire as the dark is accelerated by dark clouds on the horizon, that blaze blunting the chill of the wind.
Tanya takes it all in, carefully committing every aspect of this moment to her long memory. From the note the wind sings on the rocks to the afterimages that the popping embers trace across her eyes as they twirl with the smoke into the sunset orange and steel grey sky.
She breathes in.
And out.
Then she closes her eyes.
---
A/N: HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL AMERICANS. TO ALL OTHERS, HAPPY KNOWING THAT AMERICANS HAVE EATEN UNREASONABLE AMOUNTS OF TURKEY