97-Boing

It’s official.

Tailwind is Tanya’s favorite move.

Looking at her partner across the clearing, Tanya throws herself forward and for the first time since she had this body, it stops fighting against her every movement. Instead she feels as if her bulk catches the sudden wind at her back like a sail, shoving her forward at such speed that if she wasn't prepared for it, she would have faceplanted.

But she is prepared.

Amelia laughs as she winds up and throws the largest target ring in an overhead toss that has it spinning vertically through the air toward her.

Tanya grins as she pivots on the spot, foot carving a furrow in the dirt in the instant before the wind at her back shifts directions and she throws herself to the side of the ring, only to then instantly reverse back toward it and leap–

Focus.

The world grows twice as large for a single instant, the ring expanding all around her for just long enough that she can slip through with room to spare, her feet slamming back to the ground as she releases her hold on minimise and her height catches up to the distance from the ground.

But the moment she passes through the first ring Amelia tosses another pair of rings, these two at inconvenient angles and diverging from each other quickly.

In an instant Tanya calculates the approach vector to maximize speed, leaping forward in a stride that sits between a run and a bounce. Minimizing beneath the lower ring, she uses a combination of strength and the rebound of releasing the move to launch herself up and through it toward the second ring, long practice allowing her to shrink herself back down in the fraction of a second between leaving the ground and passing through without contact.

She’s mid-air as Amelia throws another ring, but it only takes a moment of concentrated effort to telekinetically adjust her flight vector then amplify her own gravity in an area barely larger than herself, cutting it off just in time to retask her attention to shrinking.

She’s almost at Amelia now, and it’s clear her partner is planning something. Her smile gains a mischievous slant as she throws all but one of the rings at Tanya in increasingly awkward angles and smaller sizes.

Tanya is forced to concentrate on getting through the loops without contact, but whatever attention she can spare is focused entirely on the girl, looking for whatever it is that has her so confident.

Hitting the ground again with a flare of enhanced gravity, Tanya charges across the final distance at a speed she’d not been able to enjoy in far too long as Amelia winds up to throw her final, largest, loop and–

As Amelia partially releases her grip, the loop of the target ring snaps back to the straight pipe that it stays as while not in use. Using this added length, the trainer wields it like a saber, going for a one handed leaping thrust at Tanya’s center of mass to get contact.

For a breath, Tanya was caught off guard, but the surprise doesn't stop her from compressing her bulk beneath the attack, then using her enhanced speed to dodge the followup swipe as she gets into Amelia’s guard range and–

“Done.” The ‘mon says calmly as she returns to full size behind Amelia and places an arm on her head, slightly out of breath by the effort.

“Oh come on!” Amelia moans, leveling an irritated expression with a wide smile on her face. “I should have hit you there!”

To that bit of illogical thought Tanya gives a tilt of the head, earning a whistling thwap from tube to her side, the impact creating an echoing sound that can only come from hollow plastic pipe.

Glancing down at the tube her flare purple as every target ring floats up and drifts toward them while the chaotic feeling of the calm before a storm begins to fade, the wind at her back fading with it.

Tanya keeps disappointment at the move’s disappearance from showing as Amelia reaches up and stops the electric stopwatch around her neck.

“Good effort switching it up with the throws.” The ‘mon comments, earning a huff of amused frustration. “Another… two seconds of linger time?”

“I stopped feeling it at two point five.” Amelia confirms, pulling out her notebook to note the improvement to how long the tailwind can exist without Swellow actively maintaining it. “But I think the fall off is starting too… stretch? Like the full strength is growing slower than the time it’s fading. I’m worried this is training the wrong thing, sacrificing power and consistency for duration.”

Tanya considers it, then slowly nods.

“I did notice the falloff was lasting longer. You’re sure the growth is uneven?”

Amelia takes a moment to check her notebook as she pulls Swellow’s ball off of her belt, then grunts in confirmation.

“Yea. Growth rate differential is like… twenty percent.” She pauses, flipping back and forth through a few pages. “Maybe it’s a raw power problem? But I don't wanna just say ‘do it better’ because that’s not helpful…”

Amelia hums to herself as the ball in her hand shakes with impatience, eventually popping open to reveal an annoyed looking Swellow, who flutters up onto Tanya’s head with muttered grumbles along the lines of ‘what was taking you so long?’

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This is, of course, despite the fact that Tanya is not a mobile perch for the lazy bird.

She glances upward as the ‘mon makes himself comfortable and settles down, then decides it’s not worth it and looks back to Amelia.

She’ll consider it payment for all the effort he went to learning tailwind, and from that lens this exchange is more than fair.

Tanya takes a breath and allows herself to relax into her bulk slightly.

While not something she’s constantly thinking about, the sheer mass and lack of leverage this body gives her is, at times, quite frustrating. Even with the advantages of telekinesis, there are times when she feels like she’s wading through a thick mud, especially whenever she tries to move at any faster than a brisk walk.

It’s a constant struggle to get her body to coordinate and push itself any faster than a jog, yet it’s not the actual physical effort that poses the biggest hurdle. It’s the fact it requires so much focus to extract any amount of speed from a body clearly not designed for it.

Which means that the faster she tries to move the less she can do anything else.

Tailwind just solves this, and compared to her natural state, even being accelerated to match Amelia in a dead sprint is such a breath of fresh air it’s almost embarrassing.

Especially considering how far she is from her old top speeds.

Tanya glances at the sky, then hears Teddiursa growl in a way she’d quickly learned was him feigning anger to cover for a combination of frustration and pain.

Her eyes flick to the side, seeing the ‘mon just in the corner of her vision laying defeated after his most recent bout with Skitty.

She rapidly assesses his health. He’d been defeated, that much is for certain, because while Skitty doesn't put as much effort into her training as the others do, that ‘mon and her partner have devoted a great deal of their time into strategies requiring low skill in execution and maximizing success.

In other words, she backs up a lot and fights passively, using her small size and superior mobility to slowly wear down the opponent. Combine that with a genuinely impressive ability to read the opponent’s next move and she becomes a respectable threat.

Of course, that skill is contingent on being able to outlast the opponent and achieve a kind of death by a thousand cuts victory.

The colloquial term here is ‘chip damage’ if memory serves.

Tanya looks across the clearing at Skitty, licking one paw as the other is pressed against the top of Teddiursa’s head as it lays in the dirt.

The small number of times they fought it became clear neither of them were going to learn anything from the interaction. Skitty could not hurt her, and while Tanya had more than enough energy and firepower to slowly hem her in, it was a lot of time that could be spent more efficiently.

Skitty freezes as their eyes meet, but only for an instant as Tanya looks back at Amelia.

“One moment.” She says with a sigh, interrupting whatever her partner was about to say before turning and walking over to the aftermath of Teddiursa’s battle.

By the time she looks back Skitty has removed her paw from Teddiursa’s head and taken a few steps back, which allows Teddiursa to lift his head to let out a posturing aggressive growl, the embarrassed and frustrated undertones practically transparent.

Tanya’s not sure how it only became apparent only after a few days of interacting with the ‘mon, but he has absolutely no ability to disguise his emotions, as evidenced by the faux upset groan masking embarrassment.

“Ugh! Chansey! Don't come over here! Skitty hasn't won yet– I mean–! She– She’s not going to win this time!” He shouts as Tanya walks up to the ‘mon.

Honestly, he has to practically be screaming every emotional subtlety to the sky if she’s able to pick them up.

Tanya suppresses a roll of the eyes as she starts channeling healing energy into Teddiursa’s minor injuries. Then focuses on pulling on Caretaker’s mask again.

A combination of trying to wean Teddiursa off of the false pretense of her overly sugary act and the fact that the Caretaker mask is difficult means her words sound more strained than cheery.

“Of course.” She hums, adjusting her hold on the ‘mon as he wiggles in her grip. “So since you hadn't lost, what was your plan to win?”

Healing energy smoothly dips down to nothing as the final abrasions clear up, the soft twinkle of green sparks reflected in Teddiura’s eyes as he huffs.

“...Hit her harder?” He says eventually, the response in the tone of a question. One that has Tanya tilt her head and adjust her grip again.

“Were you not trying as hard as possible already?” She asks, the rhetorical causing Teddiursa to grumble as she continues. “I’d say you’re having so much trouble because you’re allowing her to determine the tempo of battle.”

Teddiursa blinks in confusion, then mutters something about her being weird before looking away, but anyone looking at his body language could easily see that he’s still paying attention.

Again, zero poker face. Before he leaves her care Tanya needs to teach him how to mask his emotions, or someone is going to take advantage of that weakness.

“The tempo of battle is simply who is reacting to who. You attack, she dodges, you attack, she dodges, you attack, she sees you make a mistake. You get hit, and it all starts again.” She elaborates, adjusting her grip to support his head. “That’s her main advantage, if you can get the tempo you have a much better chance.”

“How do I do… that?” Teddiursa asks, abandoning the pretense of not listening, and Tanya takes a second to answer.

“There’s a lot of ways.” She answers with the closest thing she can do to a shrug. “Deliberately create openings you can attack if she tries to exploit them. Charge her down with raw speed. Put her in a position where she can't dodge. As long as you are controlling what happens you’re on the right track.”

Teddiursa doesn't say anything for close to a minute, clearly thinking through what she said.

Eventually he gives a full body twitch as his face lights up in realization.

“Oh! I get it!” He shouts, beginning to wiggle again. “Can you put me down now?”

Tanya blinks as she looks at the ‘mon, realizing that yes, she is holding him somehow.

How…

The wiggling grows more frantic as she starts setting him down with a slightly confused frown.

“Appologies.” She states, then looks over at Skitty, who’s looking at her with the same expression she always wears when seeing Tanya interact with Teddiursa. “Would you also like to be healed?”