Tanya is beginning to suspect that her partner’s conversation partners actually don't know that she’s a Joy.

  “So wait, you’re the reason there was a trail advisory through the valley of steel?” One of the humans asks incredulously as he scrapes the bottom of his bowl of soup.

  Amelia gives a nervous laugh at the question, rubbing the back of her neck and taking care to keep her floppy sun hat completely covering her hair.

  “Well… I didn't do anything. I just helped out some magnemite, and they decided they wanted to follow me around until a ranger showed up to shoo them away.” She deflects.

  “Yea but like… what did you do? You said your partner healed a few of them, but that can't be everything.”

  The conversation continues with Amelia giving evasive and confused answers but Tanya tunes it out, closing her eyes as she sits nearby in the clearing, feeling oddly tired.

  Though the soup didn't do much to fill her up, the following supplement with her pokechow made up the difference and the hot meal did its work, giving a warm feeling in her stomach.

  The recent meal, accompanied by the sun dappled shade of the first trees she’s seen since entering the lava plain has created an environment that's unusually enticing to take a nap.

  With her eyes closed, she allows herself to drift, time becoming elastic as she hovers in a relaxed doze, eyelids only fluttering open to glance at Taillow as he swoops through the trees above as he returns from his flight.

  But shortly after Taillow’s return, her relaxation is interrupted by an arrogant sniff from somewhere toward the ground in front of her.

  The mudkip?

  She doesn't open her eyes to check, a decision that results in a dismissive scoff.

  “Lazy. No wonder you’re not a nurse.”

  The insult has Tanya crack a single eye, looking down at the ‘mon with an unimpressed air.

  “...Hm.”

  She’s about to close her eye again when Mudkip taps her foreleg against Tanya’s egg sharply.

  “Well listen here.” She hisses. “I don't care how long you’ve known each other, Marshtomp is my rival.”

  Considering how to respond to the aggressive proclamation, Tanya sighs as she pulls herself back into her proper shape. But before she’s forced to say anything Amelia’s voice cuts though the atmosphere from the other side of the clearing.

  “Hey Chansey! You up for a battle in a minute?” She asks, waving at one of the humans.

  Marshtomp is standing next to the human, presumably his trainer, and looks very excited.

  It's his expression that has Tanya sigh and nod.

  Amelia’s face breaks a smile that’s eerily similar to Marshtomp’s.

  “Great!” She says, turning back to the other human. “I’m thinking two little one on one battles? I’ve stayed here for longer than I planned anyway.”

  The three trainers glance at each other, followed by Marstomp’s trainer and the girl half raising a hand and stepping forward.

  “Sure? Wurmple is out forging anyways and Skitty’s been a lazy bones all morning.” Says the girl.

  Watching the trainers slowly get into position, Tanya rouses herself to full vigor as Amelia sends out Taillow against a small skitty and the first battle is joined.

  From the first exchange it’s clear this isn't even close, Taillow using his inherently superior mobility in conjunction with his training and ranged attack to completely negate his opponent’s every move. Precise flying accompanied by attacks and counterattacks which don't give his opponent any room to force an opportunity, even when he flies into the melee with beak and talon.

  It took a few minutes longer than it should have, but that’s only by the fact that Skitty was quite good at dodging and Taillow hasn't trained as much on mobile ground based targets.

  Because Tanya never had to deal with mobile ground based targets.

  Without even realizing it, Tanya finds herself dissecting the fight with careful attention, breaking apart how each modified attack vector the avian is using falls short against an unfamiliar enemy.

  The battle ends when Taillow draws his opponent into leaping into the air to chase after him, tail beginning to glow with an attempt to knock him down with iron tail, only for the bird to burn most of his speed in a zero radius turn and fire a final air slash at the unprotected ‘mon, sending the feline to the floor with a cry of pain and doesn't get up.

  “Skitty!” The trainer calls, taking a half step toward her partner.

  Seeing the incapacitated ‘mon Tanya immediately rises from where she’d been sitting and marches over, underhand tossing a transparent pink egg at her as Marshtomp practically shoves his way past his trainer to get to his position opposite her.

  “Your po– Gh… Er. Thank you Chansey” Amelia stammers as Tanya presses a mild heal pulse into Taillow for the minor exhaustion. “You ready Sam?”

  The trainer, Sam apparently, grins in a mirror to his partner and holds out a thumbs up.

  “You bet! Show ‘em what we got Marshtomp!” He calls as his partner steps forward.

  “Time to show you what I’ve learned!” Her batchmate shouts as he gets into a ready stance.

  Tanya huffs in amusement and starts to mirror her opponent, but the instant she does she’s immediately stepping to the side to avoid a firehose of water.

  Inhibit mobility, close the gap.

  Carefully, a thread of power is funneled through the simplified equations for gravity, constrained with her at the origin point and just large enough to encompass the two of them as she breaks into a rumbling sprint toward her opponent.

  He charges to meet her and his throat bulges with another attack, clearly intended to make her dodge and break her charge.

  She almost does it, but then she remembers what she’d agreed to, then leans into her momentum.

  The water stings as it breaks against her flesh, at the speed it’s going it feels more like being pelted by thousands of rocks.

  But the attack doesn't break her stride, and it doesn't slow her down.

  Marshtomp's eyes widen as he realizes it was ineffective, leaping to the side to get out of the way of her charge faster than Tanya can manage the inertia of her bulk.

  But her eyes track him, before they flare purple and a blast of psychic energy hits him square on the jaw.

  He staggers, off balance and only made less stable under the magnified gravity.

  “Bubble beam!” His trainer calls, and for an instant Tanya stutters, considering how to counter another ranged attack while also reconciling what she expects to happen with what she’s seeing.

  Because Marshtomp appears to ignore the instructions, instead linking his arms together and swinging the limbs like a baseball bat at her side.

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  Her instinct is to dodg–

  She steps in, wincing as she realizes the attack used fighting type energy that bores into her and attempts to destabilize the aura protecting her from harm.

  She reaches for a grapple, but Marshtomp has fought her many times before, so he ducks her stubby reaching limbs almost without looking at them.

  Then her eyes flare purple again and another blast of psychic his him in the same spot.

  He’s sent further off balance, his trainer begins to shout another command, but whatever the human had been trying to say becomes panicked stammering nonsense.

  Tanya pulls an egg out of her pouch, infusing it with an appropriate level of power in under half a second before it shoots off toward Marshtomp with a crack of displaced air.

  But that fraction of a second is enough for her opponent to find his bearings again, and the instant before the ‘mon is obscured by the explosion she can see the blue hexagons of a protect flicker to life.

  “No! Marshtomp! You can't just ignore me!” The opposing trainer shouts from behind the smoke.

  Losing track of her opponent, Tanya takes a second to breathe and take stock of herself.

  Minor hits barely got through the aura shielding her and energy is nominal.

  Then her partner’s voice calls from behind.

  “Heal?” Amelia asks in a slightly hushed focus, to which her partner answers by pressing her arm to her stomach and pressing healing energy into herself without a word.

  “Marshtomp! Mud slap!” Comes the enemy trainer again, and this time a large wave of mud shoots out of the smoke in a wide arc in Tanya’s vague direction.

  Attempted battlefield control, options are to negate or dodge.

  Her instinct is to dodge, and this time she follows that impulse.

  Stepping to the side, the ‘mon compresses her bulk down and to the side to avoid the majority of the mud followed by another psychic blast at Marshtomp the instant he steps into view once more.

  She marches through the muddy ground toward her enemy once more, tanking another blast of water without flinching. He attempts to get out of her way again, but his predictable movements have two clumps of muddy earth floating into the air and sending the ‘mon to the ground.

  She gets to him, firing another blast of psychic as he attempts to rise, and her limbs punch straight through the weakened hexagons of a protect.

  Gripping him by the arm, she freezes on reflex, breathing slightly elevated as she stares down at her batchmate as he stares back up at her, gasping for breath.

  “...You’ve improved.” Tanya says simply, the fight reminding her of who Marshtomp is better than any conversation. “Your ability to think on the spot and continue fighting through distractions in particular.”

  “Thanks…” Marstomp pauses to breathe as Tanya helps him to his feet and presses a pink egg into him. “That psychic blast thing is unfair.” He says with a laugh. “You want me to wash the mud off?”

  Tanya considers the idea, but she’s distracted by Marshtomp’s partner shouting in wordless confusion.

  “Wait. Why did… Are we still fighting? What happened?” He asks, looking at Amelia, who looks similarly confused.

  “I… I guess not?” She asks.

  Marshtomp rubs an arm across the side of his mouth sheepishly.

  “Oh. Sorry. Back at the nursery Chansey always… you know.”

  The boy’s face makes it clear he very much doesn't know, so Marshomp is forced to explain himself further. As Tanya gives a much more abbreviated explanation to Amelia, she absentmindedly catches sight of Mudkip from where her eyes are poking out from behind a log near the fire pit.

  She looks…

  Tanya looks away to not be rude and tries to parse the emotion she sees in those eyes.

  Whatever it is, it’s not pleasant.

  She’s never been good at reading people, ever, but she’s pretty sure there’s jealousy in the mix somewhere.

  A second later Amelia walks across the field and shakes the opponent trainer’s hand before pocketing her winnings.

  “Well. Good battle, but I’ve got to get going!”

  The boy smiles back as she stuffs his wallet back into his pants.

  “Yea! Great battle! You’re like fifteen minutes from Lavaridge and we’ll be here until Tyler beats Flannery, so come back anytime! Later!”

  With that Amelia throws her bag over her shoulders and waves for Taillow to follow behind as they get back on the trail.

  As they walk, Tanya notes that the path they’re walking on abruptly merges with a train track and suddenly they’re walking alongside the twin steel rails on the bed of gravel, a thin wire fence the only thing separating the packed dirt of the trail from the hazard.

  Continuing down the trail in silence the only sound aside from the rustling of leaves and their footfalls is Amelia jotting down notes of those two battles into her notebook. But about halfway through a process Tanya’s long become familiar with, the trainer lets out a slightly consternated sigh.

  “I just don't get it…” She mutters, but her expression abruptly shifts to one of apology at the sight of Tanya’s inquisitive stare. “Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to say that out loud.”

  The ‘mon glances at the notebook.

  “Something about the battles?”

  Amelia hesitates, then wobbles her head uncertainly.

  “Kinda…” She hedges. “I’m just confused about why you have so much trouble with doing a complete minimization, I mean you’re already doing it with parts of your body. It just didn't realize extending the effect all over was so difficult.”

  There’s a few seconds of confused silence, Tanya attempting to parse what her partner just said.

  Because that doesn't make any sense, every attempt at minimize has been a complete failure, the emotional component just isn't there.

  “...Elaborate?” She asks slowly.

  “Oh. Uh.” Amelia mutters, flipping back though her notes. “In training you can't seem to replicate the effect, but in battle you sometimes perform a partial minimize to dodge an attack. You did it to dodge the mud slap just now.” She comes to a stop at a page and taps it twice. “Here, in your after action reports you call it ‘compressing your bulk’ which you use… to… dodge…”

  She trails off at the sight of Tanya’s expression.

  Because that… that can't be what she’s doing.

  The mass isn't being reduced, she’s been compressing her bulk since the nursery. It’s just being… moved?

  The ‘mon squints into the air, replaying snippets of memory over and over in her head.

  No it’s not being moved, if anything her center of gravity shifts in the opposite direction. Her weight isn't shifting like she’s just moving her mass, so she’s not sure where it’s going.

  But she’s not using the emotional component, and it’s not really making her any smaller, so it can't be what she’s looking for.

  Focusing slightly, Tanya compresses her bulk downward, then to the side, then in a kind of swirling motion like a wave on a rolling sea.

  And as she focuses, she slowly realizes she is drawing on an emotion, the ghost of one at least, barely pushing through the barrier memories like this one have been put behind.

  The memory of laying splayed out on the cold ground like a corpse, suppressing her mana signature as much as possible to hide from an enemy patrol as it flies above.

  A soul deep need to remain hidden.

  …

  …..Oh.

  Tanya stops in the middle of the trail, closes her eyes, and firmly rubs the space between her eyes with an embarrassed groan.

  “Oh… Damn it.” She sighs.

  —--

  –_–

  —--

  Walking down the trail in silence, Amelia is increasingly worried she somehow managed to break her partner.

  She suspects she broke Chansey because every time the trainer looks at her partner from where she’s trailed a few steps behind, the ‘mon is staring out into space with an irritated expression on her face.

  Then, every few seconds, she begins to violently giggle and morph like a ditto full of pop candy, an action that ends with her looking no different and the ‘mon’s frown getting more severe after the motion settles.

  The trainer feels a warning in her gut and she hurriedly faces front just as Chansey looks up at her.

  Amelia had tried exactly once to suggest that she stop. It took less than a second of Chansey’s expression being turned on her for her to decide shutting up is the best decision right now.

  That resolve to not bother her partner is tested when the trail opens up to a concrete paved walkway leading out of the wooden train platform and further into a valley, where she can see the tourist-y hillside buildings of Lavaridge.

  Glancing back, she’s pretty sure Chansey didn't notice their arrival, despite the fact that she’s looking right at the town.

  After half a minute of walking on the paved road and the full town slowly comes into view, the trainer works up the nerve to clear her throat.

  “Hey Chansey? Just wanted to tell you we’re h–”

  “Chans.” The ‘mon grunts out without blinking.

  “Right. Got it. Later.”