Chương 36: 36-Battle.

A buzzer echoes across the arena, and immediately Jolteon shoots off to the side, avoiding Tanya's gravity zone as she strains to get her bulk up to speed, rushing directly toward her foe. Swerving in the other direction as Tanya moves the enhanced gravity zone in front of him, Joleton's attention flickers back to Wattson as he shouts 'Agility!' from behind.

In an instant, the 'mon begins to fizzle with electricity, flowing from his face and down to his legs, which suddenly seem to lose the smallest bit of cohesion, dissolving into lighting while his footfalls leave glowing trails of electricity in their wake. Tanya crosses the halfway mark of the arena and pulls her egg from its pouch, using the lack of an attack she quickly begins to suffuse it with power as her foe only gets faster. He's not attacking, or using his greater speed to close the gap, meaning…

Joleton's yellow lightning begins to twirl and mix with the electric blue she recognizes as a rain dance. Unacceptable. She quickly presses more energy into her projectile and fires it off as soon as possible to disrupt the attack. He dodges easily, trailed by lightning in his footsteps as he jukes in a different direction again to avoid magnified gravity, but the blue disperses before the lightning enveloping his body grows stronger and the 'mon gets faster.

Tanya glances at his feet, trying to pick out where they fall in the blurring mess of lightning and drawing on her psychic energy in preparation to grab the ground beneath, but she's interrupted by the hairs on her body standing up as Jolteon skids to a stop and flares with power. Recognizing the building attack for what it is, she throws herself to the side, disrupting her headlong charge just in time as a bolt of lightning explodes in the air between them and crashes where she would have been.

Pulling her egg from its pouch, she tries to capitalize on her foe's momentary stillness and fires the bomb half complete, but it's to no effect as Jolteon launches to the side from his crouch, avoiding the attack before it can even cross half the distance. Using his enhanced speed, Tanya almost doesn't see her opponent start rushing toward her, but just as quickly seem to catch himself and pull back to the same distance he's been keeping to every time she tries to close the gap.

As he dodges yet another zone of gravity, Tanya half reaches for another egg but stops herself. This isn't working, she cant hit him and at this rate he'll continue to get faster until he can hit her. Wasting energy on egg bombs only accelerates that inevitability. Even now she's struggling to keep her eyes on him as he keeps running around to get behind her, where she's at her most vulnerable, half of her efforts in herding her opponent is simply to avoid getting flanked. She needs a counter.

She dodges another thunderbolt while keeping up the pressure with gravity. From behind, Amelia says something but the content of the message is ignored as Tanya strains to simultaneously keep up with her ever faster opponent and work though solutions. Another thunderbolt, this time it connects and Tanya hisses as she tosses a large clod of dirt to disrupt his positioning, preventing a followup strike. He dodges once more, avoiding the attack even faster than– There.

Tanya's eyes train on the most subtle of movements in his right forelimb just before he shot off. A tell, combined with her observations on how he moves means a thread for her mental model to pick him apart. Jolteon flares with yet more electricity and begins to blur at the edges, disappearing into the lightning and zipping all around her in a jagged semicircle. She can't track him anymore. But, if he holds true to the pattern…

A zone of enhanced gravity appears in Jolteon's path and he dodges yet again, turning on a dime and running– Directly into a patch of faintly purple glowing earth, which rises up and sends Jolteon tumbling across the arena. Opening secured Tanya rushes in, grabbing the dirt beneath him and precisely moving it to stop her opponent from finding his feet again. She puts an arm to the egg still in her pouch, hurriedly pushing energy inside, and as she enters her final approach launches it–"Baton Pass!"

Wattson shouts, his voice wobbling with restrained laughter. The instant the first syllable leaves his lips Jolteon turns red and flows away, leaving a strange electric outline of the 'mon hanging in the air. The empty outline lasts less than a second, replaced by a flash of light that is itself obscured by the egg bomb as it detonates. Tanya, panting, watches the plume of dust and smoke carefully as she tries to recover from the energy she'd been forced to exert on her first opponent.

That expenditure was untenable, worse, she'd not even disabled him. If she wants to win, that cannot happen again. As smoke begins to clear it reveals the steady blue glow of semitransparent hexagons as they float in the air, behind which a magnanimite floats easily, electricity buzzing across his form and lone eye twisted into a smug squint.

"Missed me– hey!" It buzzes, then cuts itself off as they zip out of her enhanced gravity and higher into the air with an angry crackle.

"Alright fine!" With that the 'mon spins in the air as electricity shoots off from its dual magnets, forming a balls of energy that are shot toward their opponent as the 'mon dodges mid-air to avoid thrown clumps of dirt. From behind, Amelia shouts something but it's once more disregarded as a distraction at a time where every resource needs to be spent efficiently.

As the attacks accelerate Tanya quickly retasks a fraction of her attention to them, estimating their trajectory, threat, and necessary expenditure to avoid it, then returns to focus completely on keeping track of the streak of lightning as it dodges and weaves through three dimensions. But just as she steps out of the way, a distant memory tries to call attention to itself, recognizing the attack that's– The Magnet Bomb's turn. Block!

Tanya grunts as the two bombs hit true and detonate, skidding backwards a good distance but keeping her feet as electricity ripples across her bulk, making her body twitch and writhe in strange ways. She's lost sight of Magnemite, the blur of electricity zipping above and around. Energy flares from behind and Tanya dodges forward, avoiding a bolt of lightning. She needs to– More magnet bombs appear from two different directions, tracking her and moving too fast for her to outrun. Another thunderbolt, jump back.

Tanya focuses on the seemingly unavoidable attack, looking for its weakness. The balls either have zero or very little mass, so working against their inertia for an overshoot is impossible. Perhaps she can block? Clumps of dirt in front of the balls fire toward them but they merely weave around, like trying to press magnets of matching poles together. Damn. She jumps back to buy more time, dodging another thunderbolt and reaching for her egg to… Tanya looks at her egg for a fraction of a second.

It's targeted at her… The magnet bombs draw closer as yet another thunderbolt forms and there's simply no time to think. She shoves just enough energy into the egg to make it easy to control before tossing it at one of the bombs. Sailing through the air, Tanya notes how the ball of energy starts to turn –ever so slightly– toward the egg before it connects, exploding with the combined force of both attacks.

The remaining magnet bomb enters its terminal phase, so she dodges the coming thunderbolt into the bomb, wincing as the electricity writhes up and down her body once more, slower to fade this time. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Immediately after minimizing her damage, the whirring crackle of electricity fades slightly as a metallic voice releases an indignant squawk.

"Wh– How did you– That's not fair!" Locking onto her opponent and realizing he's stopped moving, Tanya finally gets a zone of enhanced gravity around him, shoving him down toward the ground at speed. As she does, she carefully observes how it reacts, expanding on the mental model needed to predict its next move. Most likely a dodge counterclockwise, they'll pull up into the air but not move forward or back, a similar tactic to Jolteon.

She's proven correct as the 'mon buzzes with electricity then shoots off counterclockwise, rising higher than before and slowly falling back to the set height as it zips around, firing off another magnet bomb. Tanya responds with another egg to intercept, exploding both in the air, then grips dirt from beneath her foe and shoots it upward, attempting to herd the 'mon into her gravity.

Magnemite dodges, firing off a thunderbolt she can't avoid in time, but as she stumbles with the attack, her eyes never leave her opponent, working her way though the final pieces needed to understand and predict the next move. Pooling energy into her egg, she creates a gravity zone in Magnemite's path. The 'mon dodges, reducing speed and committing inertia into a new direction. She throws her egg bomb.

Another dodge, this time dropping closer to the ground to convert height to speed, they'll put an illogical amount of focus on getting back up to the original height. Clumps of dirt fly up, trying to herd yet again into the gravity zone. Another dodg– The egg bomb reverses directions mid-air, telekinetically fired from behind in the 'mon's blind spot. It connects, and as the explosion knocks Magnemite toward her Tanya creates a circle of gravity around the 'mon and slams him into the dirt in front of her.

She rushes across the final distance toward her disoriented foe, reaching out to grab the medicine ball sized 'mon she– Magnemite screeches, a long keening sound like ripping tinfoil and nails on a chalkboard. Tanya stumbles as her vision blurs and 'down' feels like it's in three directions at once, but she doesn't stop. Staggering across the final distance, she grips the slowly rising 'mon with both arms and bashes him against the ground.

Her arms begin to spasm and scream in pain as is she'd touched a live wire, worsening her confusion and allowing Magnemite to– She adjusts her grip, lifts higher, and slams her enemy into the dirt again. The pain of electricity falters then starts again, weaker. Again. Her enemy starts struggl– Again. They stop moving. Tanya slowly raises the enemy up again only to blink in confusion as there's a flash of red and the weight disappears.

Squinting though her blurring sight and fogged mind, she tries to get a lock on her opponent. Staggering to her feet, the 'mon shakes her head to try to clear it and remove the ringing from her ears. She… she's injured somehow. Her arm flares green and she presses it between her eyes and tries to heal herself, but something resists her efforts. Grunting, and too foggy to consider another option, Tanya pours more energy into the heal, demanding that she be better.

She can't kill the thing that hurt her if she can't walk, and she will, so the healing will work. It doesn't work very well but, after a few seconds, her sense of balance steadies to that of being on a rocky ship and the ringing in her ears clear enough that she can pick out a male voice from the outside world.

"... o I'm glad I didn't swap her out for someone else! Shows me to underestimate your partner! I'm just surprised I'm going to need to slow down a chansey." He says, giving a long and hearty laugh as… Amelia.

"Chansey!" She calls out, worried.

"Can you hear me!? Are… are you…" Tanya glances behind her, eyes straining to focus on her partner across the arena. As she squints, her addled mind begins to assess. Uninjured, no immediate threats, distressed. The 'mon glances around. Where's the threat? Then there's a pop and a flash of light, and the 'mon wobbles as she turns to look at the source, finding– A pink creature with white wool –Flaaffy, she dimly recalls– stands tall as a white glow fades. Tanya squints. Right, she's fighting someone…

Where'd the electric ball go?

"Well well well!" Flaaffy laughs.

"Look what we have here! It looks like I'm on cleanup squad. Because all it would take to knock you over is a stiff breeze!" Tanya shakes her head again as she takes a step toward the new enemy, picking up speed with a wobble as she briefly struggles with the equations for gravity. That delay means Flaaffy has the time to charge in herself, rushing to meet her between them and charging past where the gravity zone was supposed to be.

Tanya drops it as adrenaline kicks in, pushing back the fog in her mind slightly, and she can feel her mouth twisting into a wide smile as she– Her opponent comes to a sudden stop and, electricity flaring from her wool, seems to explode into a cloud of electrified fluff that shoots toward her. Charging in, Tanya feels a crackle of static as a piece of wool attaches to her side. She reaches over to pull it off only to find it stuck fast, and suddenly she's struggling to remove her arm from its grip.

Sluggishly realizing the threat only that she's in the thick of it, the 'mon feels more and more wool sticking to her as the cloud of fluff settles and crackles with static like clothes freshly taken from the laundry. She continues to charge blindly through the wool even as the static sticks and slows her down more and more, until she gets through the bulk of it and out the other side, only to see her opponent is long gone. Amelia says something from behind.

Tanya tries to look around for her enemy, but finds the wool compounding her already blurred vision, sticking to itself just as readily as her body, it resists every movement and pulls painfully at her skin when she tries to move too quickly Where…

"Oh ho ho! Aren't you in a sorry state?" Flaaffy laughs from behind, smirking as Tanya grips some of the wool partially blocking her vision.

"And don't try to remove it! Unless you– Oh!" Tanya grunts in pain as she rips the wool away, the removal ripping at fur and skin as she uses her marginally improved vision to turn and start charging at her opponent again. Amelia's shouting has not stopped, instead, it's grown in intensity. What's she– Flaaffy yelps as she fires a thunderbolt, making the wool crackle as it connects.

Tanya doesn't slow, the opposite, each footstep tearing more and more of the restrictive wool binding her movement as she closes the gap separating them. Her opponent fires bolt after bolt into the wall of pink, but even as the strikes make her body spasm and seize while the wool tugs painfully with every movement, she does not stop.

Flaaffy realizes this too late, attempting to dodge the oncoming assault only as it's upon her, eyes widening in shock as Tanya rears up and slams her arms onto the blue hexagons of a protect. Behind the barrier, the 'mon tries to give the same smug smile, but it's fragile. She says something but Tanya's beyond listening, rearing up again even to break though– A voice screams both from behind and through the bond in her soul, desperate, pleading, warning.

Amelia, Tanya can feel her, clouded thoughts easily registering her partner despite how muddled everything else has become. She can feel the urgency, her certainty that success for failure hangs on…" Gravity!" And before she realizes what she's doing, Tanya blinks as she realizes a zone of enhanced gravity is enveloping herself and her opponent, more powerful than any she'd managed before.

Then she notices more faintly sparking wool, pressed into the dirt under its own weight and prevented from attaching itself to her by the move. With the fog clouding her mind slowly disappearing, Tanya realizes only after the fact why she'd performed the move. Seeing her gambit failed, Flaaffy tries to get out of melee range, electricity cracking as an attack is primed. Then Tanya reaches out, grabs the 'mon by the arm, and slams her into the ground until she stops moving.

Breathing heavily, the 'mon tries to take a step away from the still dangerous wool, but instead spasms as electricity writhes under her skin, randomly pulling at muscles and disrupting her control. With her mind and vision clearing, Tanya blinks a few times as she watches Flaaffy disappear in a flash of red and tries to slowly triage the situation. She's hurt, tired, heavily slowed by the wool still attached to her, and partially paralyzed by the electricity saturating her flesh.

Her body involuntarily makes a long chirping warble and her eyes snap to Wattson as he barely stifles his laughter and sends out Jolteon again.

"Alright Jolteon! No more support! Time to show them what you've got! Agility!" He shouts, answered only by a single nod before the 'mon buzzes like an electrical substation as he crouches into a launch. Tanya slows her breathing and rips away the wool covering her egg with a wince. Unfortunately her injuries are the least concerning issue plaguing her, the impaired movement and exhaustion pose more of an immediate threat.

Even if it wasn't, healing herself takes time, focus, and energy that could be better spent on attacks. Lifting an egg from her pouch, she ignores the twinge of pain as organs under her bulk begin straining to make another and starts to suffuse it with power.

Then Jolteon pulses with electricity and suddenly the 'mon shoots directly toward her with a crack of thunder, erratically zagging into range he easily dodges the egg then flares again, speeding up further the 'mon fires off a thunderbolt that Tanya strains against her own body to dodge. Turning it into a glancing blow, she tries to lock onto her opponent again, only to find him–" Southwest!"

Almost disregarding the seemingly random word from her partner, Tanya staggers as a bolt of lightning hits her from behind and to her left. He's in her blindspot, she'd been struggling to keep him out of there when she was fresh and didn't have this damn wool binding her, but now.. Spinning to get a lock on her opponent, she sees a lingering blur of electricity as Jolteon dodges the zone of gravity trying to force him out of her blindspo–" South southeast!"

Another attack, this time a let of electrified jaws clamping down on the puffy bulk of her back, trying to drag her to the ground. Almost directly behind her, but a little bit to the right, and in her blindspot. Ah. Clever. Tanya throws him off and pulls an egg from her pouch, cringing as her body protests the decision. Feeding more power into it, she continues using every means at her disposal to get him out of her blindspot until…" West Southwest!"

Tanya throws an egg bomb to her left and into her blind spot, detonating it as soon as it reaches the distance she'd determined Jolteon prefers, and hears a rewarding yelp of pain. Finally, she turns and spots the 'mon trying to get up following the detonation of her egg. Seeing this, Tanya grabs the dirt beneath and once more impedes his attempts. He'd learned since the first time, trying several new tricks to get his feet under him, including attempting to break her concentration with an attack.

She tries to step forward, only for a thunderbolt to hit and her body to seize up, releasing after several long seconds. Working through the pain, he doesn't find his feet. Then she gets within grapple range. —-- –_– —-- Amelia winces as Chansey wildly slams Jolteon into the dirt like he's a wet rag, Over and over, until the 'mon stops yelping at every impact She understands the reasoning, she agrees with it even, but it's still…

Electricity crackles down Chansey's body, making her freeze up and shiver where she stands. Jolteon takes the opportunity to weakly try and escape, wiggling against her grip. Then she recovers and swings him over her head one last time, heaving for breath as she stares at their now unconscious opponent.

Jolteon is recalled, leaving Chansey panting, alone on the field, and once again Amelia curses their idiotic decision not to learn the non-egg version of soft boiled, instead focusing on training offence and trusting her partner's bulk to handle any damage. From a distance, she tries to figure out how much her partner has left in her, how many hits she can take and dish out, made infinitely more difficult by the patchy wool still clinging to the 'mon and blocking her vision. She can only hope it's enough.

Chansey does something in front of her, and Amelia squints for a few seconds, trying to figure out what she's doing before trying to say anything, but before she can get a closer look her eyes are forced to turn toward Gym Leader Wattson as the man gives a hearty laugh before beginning to speak.

"I'll admit Miss Joy! I underestimated both of you!" He laughs again, pulling his final pokeball from his hip and holding it out "You've fought well! But I think it's time to end this with a bang!" With that he flicks his wrist, sending an Electrode onto the battlefield. For an instant, Amelia panics at the thought that he's going to use explosion on her already weakened partner, certainly taking her out.

But as Electrode starts pushing forward, she realizes she still has Taillow on her hip, a valid battler regardless of whether he's been sent out. If they explode, she wins, he knows that too, so the comment must have been a feint. The trainer grimaces. He expected her to panic, and she did, losing precious time as their opponent picks up speed in the time Amelia spent jumping at shadows. Looking over at her partner for what she's doing, Amelia's eyes widen as she sees that Chansey hasn't moved! No!

With no time to think, Amelia latches onto the first idea she can think of as Electrode begins to crackle with power as they cross the halfway point. Defense curl, they just need some time to think– Then, she feels as much as she sees the egg in Chansey's grip, barely constrained power pressed inside the shell after a solid minute of infusion. Amelia grins wide enough the corners of her mouth begin to sting as it clicks. Of course Chansey used the time to prep!

With a plan, Amelia can align her thoughts with her partner, looking for anything that could help or hinder their chances for victory. They've got one shot. Entering the final approach, Electrode begins to zig and zag erratically, a pattern that seems completely random. But as Amelia watches it move, she can't help but think it looks… familiar. Then she spots it, a small discoloration on the seam of where white meets red on the right side, and she realizes she knows this 'mon.

From videos of the gym circuit from a few years back, on one of Wattson's one badge teams. They were a surprise then too, instead of using any moves, the 'mon would just use their body as an electrified bludgeon instead of exploding or keeping distance and firing ranged attacks. Though they're a lot more powerful now, she's seen this exact attack approach before, the 'mon is going to feint right then attack–" Northwest!"

There's a fraction of a delay, Chansey already halfway through throwing the egg in the other direction. For a moment, the entire world seems to quiet as seconds drag into minutes.

Then the egg abruptly changes direction mid-air and rockets off to the left at the exact same time as Electrode switches directions with impossible speed, two objects close in within the blink of an eye, and on contact– Amelia's eyes reflexively close as her hair feels as if it's being yanked by the wind and she's nearly blown over with the force of the explosion. She staggers, her ears ringing and black spots almost completely obscuring her vision even after she opens her eyes.

Rubbing them desperately, she tries to look though her own spotty vision and quickly clearing smoke to see what happened. Who won? For a few seconds there's no answer, just swirling smoke and the unique quiet that follows an extremely loud noise. Then the smoke clears. And Chansey is the only one standing, at her feet the gently sparking unconscious form of Electrode. Amelia can't believe it, staring at the 'mon as if expecting them to rise into the air and continue the fight.

They don't, and as Electrode dissolves into a streak of red, her eyes track it without conscious thought, leading her to Wattson's smiling face. He'd crossed three fourths the distance between them already, walking across the scarred dirt of the arena as he easily reclips the ball to his belt. He laughs again, loud enough to be heard even though the ringing in her ears.

"Well now! That was a fun one!" He chuckles, removing a hand from his jumpsuit pocket.

"You've more than earned this badge." He offers a handshake, which Amelia accepts on reflex, but as she holds out her hand a badge appears in his own as if by magic. He firmly places the piece of metal on her hand, creating a static shock as it comes in contact with her skin. Amelia closes her hand into a fist and presses the badge into her sternum as the metal digs into her skin. Wattson keeps talking, but all she can focus on is the feeling of that badge, proof that she can do it.

Her eyes drift over to Chansey as she limps closer, the bits not covered in crackling wool instead discolored with red and purple bruises in uneven circles and jagged branches like a lightning bolt. Her eyes still slightly unfocused, there's some sort of abrasion oozing blood close to her left arm. In that moment, she's the strongest creature Amelia has ever seen. She can do it. Amelia looks back at Wattson with a wide smile. They can do it!