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Sam Audin knows he’s not the besttrainer in the world, he’s not one of those stupid kids who think that they’re naturally the greatest ever and don't need to study the manuals and copy time-honed methods of improvement.

He does study that stuff, he just doesn't do it as much as he really knows he should.

Back at school he knew a few people who’d already read every trainer manual that could get their hands on backwards and forwards, though out of that group he’d say only one or two of them actually got what the books were for.

The people studying that hard split into two groups, those Sam would call actual trainers, and kazamheads who thought they were trainers but smarter.

The difference between a trainer and kazamheads is that a kazamhead has memorised every book, attribute, and historical team. But then they try to use that knowledge and treat training like it was… an equation of some sort. Like a ‘mon could be broken down into a list of objective attributes and doing this or that exercise would push cleanly push those numbers higher, then all a battle becomes is pitting one ‘mon’s numbers against the other’s, and whichever trainer got their ‘mon to have the highest numbers and created a team only so their type energy synergy will have the greatest advantages and the smallest weakness would win

He took Kyudo as an elective at school, and because their range was pretty small he spent a lot of time sitting next to Lee, the biggest kazamhead Sam has ever met, and was forced to listen to him ramble on and on about his ‘mathematically and probabilistically perfect team composition’ accompanied by pages of math, every step of an imaginary ‘journey’ –from zero to elite four– written out in exacting detail.

Sam’s pretty sure Lee is part of the reason he’s so averse to looking at anything training related unless he forces himself to, aside from the fact it’s so boring, especially when there’s not even the guarantee that the knowledge will be useful to him. But the effort he’s putting in allows him and his team to progress at a speed they’re happy with, so it balances out.

It doesn't hurt that Marshtomp is easily one of the strongest ‘mon he’s ever met, sure the ‘mon on TV and spectating from the stadium of a league match are stronger, but of those he’s met personally?

There’s no contest, there might have been a debate when they first met but after the first gym? The moment he evolved his partner blew past them all.

Or at least… he used to be.

The trainer looks over to the ‘mon where he’s sitting in the impromptu arena, watching that quite frankly freakishly large Chansey lecture them with rapt attention.

Now he knows why Marshtomp’s so strong, he would never have guessed it.

Sam has gotten better as a trainer, at the start of their journey he’d practically worked himself to be boneto make sure he wasn't going to be accused of a nepo-starter, and after all that effort his impact is… still smaller than he’d like, but he’d made some good callouts and he can confidently say he’d almost never made an outright bad call.

Though a good amount of credit still has to go Marshtomp for being so independent in battle, on the trail they’d battled a bunch of trainers from the zero to two badge range, and every time there would always be this… moment, where the enemy ‘mon doesnt know what to do and looks back at the trainer who doesn't know either.

His partner has never had that indecision, even when they’d ended up fighting a four badge trainer coming back for her second season Marshtomp didn't hesitate even once. Even when he was clearly outmatched and going to lose, his partner just pushed on.

Again, in these past few days it’s become abundantlyclear why.

His eyes linger on the massive blob of pink.

The hesitation was beaten out of his partner with repeated and brutal hammerings against the dirt like Chansey was expecting candy to come out.

That ‘mon is… almost frightening.

Chansey shifts where she’s sitting and Sam quickly looks away from the ‘mon’s back.

Scratch that, she is frightening. She carries herself with a kind of manic intensity at all times, wild eyes skittering across everything before coming to settle on her target of focus, watching everything and everyone around her like she’s searching for a weakness.

To make matters worse, it almost seems like she’s trying to keep all that severity hidden, but if she is, the ‘mon is doing an outstandingly poor job. Because it only makes it worse, her neutral but cold tone, the long moments where nothing but her eyes move as she listens to conversations slightly too far away for comfort, how impossibly quiet she is when not looking for attention.

Sam glances back at the ‘mon, then looks away out of a very real fear that she can feel him looking at her, which would be completely ridiculous with any other ‘mon.

The fact all this craziness comes from a chansey should make it funny, or at least less frightening.

It doesn't.

But even if Chansey was another pokemon more suited to her personality –a garchomp perhaps– Sam could have never imagined what kind of trainer it would take to partner with a ‘mon like that.

He’s not personally met a real dragon ‘mon, but their reputation precedes them, their respect of strength precedes them. No dragon would ever be a starter because for a dragon ‘mon to respect the trainer everyone knows a trainer has to prove they’re strong enough to be worthy of that respect.

He glances to where their newest traveling companion of a few days is sitting in her little fold out chair, a medical textbook in her lap from which she’s diligently taking notes.

At first when Amelia decided to stick with them and he really started to get a sense of how crazy Chansey is hecouldn't understand either side of their partnership. He knows Joys have some kind of special relationship with Chansey but, aside from the fact that thing is barely a chansey, he couldn't understand how Amelia actually found a way to helpa ‘mon that strong, and the even more impossible idea of the giant ‘mon deciding to listen.

But as the days roll on and the more they talk as they travel together, the more clear the reasoning is to why the Joy’s first partner was a ‘mon like Chansey.

Because Amelia Joy is not normal.

As if reading his mind, Amelia looks up from her book and meets his eyes, giving a soft smile and a small wave. Sam smiles and waves back, then quickly looks away to some random spot in the distance.

The first signs were subtle, an odd comment here or there on the first day and a slightly intensetraining schedule that was clearly unsustainable, he’d concluded the girl was doing to impress them for some reason.

–_–

“Tighten your circle before the dive and air slash before you break off!” Amelia shouts up at Swellow, Sam subtly watching as their group continues down the mountain.

Because the first time Amelia told her partner to do that he’d thought it was impossible, not difficult, impossible.

Then Swellow did it after two attempts, he dove from about a hundred metres, straight through a ring barely larger than his body, before flipping over and firing an air slash through a second ring that had been tossed at the same time, all to break off the dive and start climbing again so close to the ground the ‘mon could have touched it with his claws.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Then Amelia started throwing the rings lower, and Swellow did it again.

But this time, the third time and with the rings barely going higher than their heads, Sam is positive it’s impossible.

Amelia doesn't seem to think so.

“Ready!?” She shouts, lowering the target rings in preparation. “Go!”

She throws the rings and the instant they leave her fingers Swellow tucks his wings and enters a dive, dropping so fast that he’s whistlingby the time he shoots through the first ring.

There’s a blur of motion, too quick for Sam to track, and by the time he can spot Swellow again he’s screeching triumphantly as he climbs higher into the air, Amelia pumping her fist.

“Yes! I knew you could do it!” She cheers, pulling out her notebook. “Now! Next exercise!”

–_–

Other things were… weird, and not something easily explainable, but also not odd enough to really note outside of hindsight.

–_–

“Hm…” Amelia hums, prompting Sam to look up from his cup of ramen. “You know we fought a lotof pokemon today huh?”

“Chan Chansey chansey chan an an chan.” Her partner adds, to which the trainer takes a moment to think, then nods.

“I mean… would the earthquakes disrupt wild ‘mon this much? I guess you’re right about landslides but… we’ve only seen one so far, and it was pretty small.”

Sam once again tries to figure out what Amelia is playing at, acting like she can understand her partner that well. Sure partners who’ve known each other forever can… kinda use a mixture of experience, intuition, and half understanding of a ‘mon’s speech to have near conversational fluency, but even people who’ve known their partner for years have to play a little charades to communicate anything too complex.

But either because she’s humoring her partner or Amelia got close enough, Chansey acts like the human’s response was coherent somehow, nodding once before looking down and continuing to eat her dinner.

Then Kate finishes chewing and clears her throat

“...A lot? We only fought like… seven? No, the beautify came as a pair eight ‘mon today.”

Amelia looks back like Kate had grown a second head.

“Yea? That’s a lot. On my entire journey I’ve fought like…” She trails off, counting on her fingers.

“Chan.” Chansey cuts in, causing Amelia to look over.

“No, I think count each magnemite as a separate ‘mon, but only the firsttime, when they started following me around it’s a different thing– whatever!” She cuts herself off, looking back at Kate. “Most days I never see a wild ‘mon.”

“...Really?”

“Yea!” She confirms, throwing up her hands before taking another bite of her canned chili. “Maybe it’s because you guys are all in a group?”

That… sounds wrong but it seems that no one else has a better idea, so Sam just shrugs.

“I dunno.” He mutters, already returning to his meal.

Maybe she keeps her ‘mon in their balls most of the time? It was mentioned offhandedly in a few ranger guides but they quickly learned that having ‘mon out of their ball is practically a magnet for challengers to come running out of the forest.

–_–

Even after four days Sam doesn't think he’s ever seen Chansey go into her ball, he’s half convinced she doesn't actually haveone, just refused to be caught and follows Amelia around despite that.

But all of these… wobbles in normality, the cracks in the facade of Amelia being a normal human being are nothing compared to the following morning.

–_–

Opening one eye with a bleary yawn, Sam rolls to his side and grumbles as this… rhythmic thudding sound coming from somewhere outside the tent wakes him up.

For a moment it stops, then it starts up again, three staccato thuds, then silence.

Three, pause.

Three, pause.

Five,then a longer pause.

Sam grunts as he pushes himself onto an elbow and looks at the wall of his to where the sound is coming from, but cant make anything out.

Judging from the cold light of dawn, it’s like six in the morning, what in the world could be going on out there?

For a moment the trainer considers laying back down and trying to ignore it, but the longer he listens the more he’s sure he hears the sound of heavy breathing under the thuds.

Then Chansey’s voice cuts through the silence.

“Chan. An an chansey.” She says in a strange combination of stern and quiet, presumably to avoid waking them up.

“Hah.. Right… Thumbs… Don't want to break them.” Amelia softly says back, puffing for breath.

“Ansan.”

“Again.” She says with another deep breath.

Then the thuds start up again and now Sam can't ignore it.

Quietly, he unzips sleeping bag, puts on his socks, then slowly creates a crack in the tent zipper and looks out.

The pinhole means it takes him a second to find her, but after a second he sees Amelia standing beneath a nearby tree near the edge of the camp… fighting something?

He squints.

…Are those bundled up clothes?

Sure enough, Amelia is punching two floating bundles of clothes in three short burst then weaving side to side to avoid the bundles as they juke towards her in a scene that almost reminds him of an old Unovan boxing movie.

Fully awake now, Sam unzips his tent the rest of the way and shoves his boots on, walking over towards the tree so he can figure out what is going on here.

On his approach he sees Amelia glance at him but she doesn't pause in her punching which, now that he’s closer, he realizes she’s actually hitting pretty hard and moving very quickly.

After another five hit burst the trainer takes a bouncing step back from the floating clothes and smiles at him as she wipes the sheen of sweat from her forehead.

“You’re up! Sorry if I woke you, we were trying to be quiet.” She apologizes, still breathing heavily.

“You didn't." Sam lies, glancing at the clothes again then subtly looking around for Chansey as he realizes she’s not here. “Why are you… punching clothes?”

Amelia laughs, still quietly so as not to wake the others, then walks forward and snags one of the bundles from the air.

“Oh! No wonder you’re confused. I wanted to learn how to throw a punch and stuff, keep fit you know? But we didn't have sparring pads so Chansey had the idea to wrap two of our textbooks in some shirts and use that instead.” She says as if it’s normal, unwrapping the collection of shirts to reveal a textbook in the center. “Helps me hit harder as well, I can't tell you how many times I’ve wanted to punch these things.”

She laughs again, releasing the bundle into the air, caught by a psychic glow the instant it leaves her hands instead of falling to the ground.

“...Oh.” Sam says eventually, taking a moment to look around them more thoroughly for the massive pink mountain of a ‘mon he knows needs to be nearby. “Where… where is…”

“Chan.”

Sam holds back a scream as his head whips to look up the tree only to see the massive ‘mon standing on the trunk!

The sight has the trainer’s brain stutter, trying and failing to understand what he’s looking at as he watches the ‘mon stand on the trunk of the tree as if she’s on the ground, looking down at him as if he’s the one whose gravity is turned in the wrong direction.

It takes at least five seconds before he can even begin putting together words.

“I– Wh– How… How is she doing that?” He asks faintly, to which the ‘mon begins chattering in her indecipherable way, Amelia starts talking too but at this point he’s too dumbfounded to listen..

But whatever she says is completely lost on him, because by the time he’s managed to escape his confusion Amelia is wrapping up her explanation.

“...en all she had to do was mimic the same ‘pattern’ and she could use her psychic aura directly! At least I think… I got a bit lost in the middle.” She admits as the ‘mon trudges down the tree, every step causing the thing to shudder until she steps off the tree with a clean ninety degree rotation.

“...Ok.” Sam says softly, looking into Chansey’s eyes to see that frightening intensity, almost completely unshielded right now.

Then he looks over at Amelia, and notices for the first time that her eyes have that exact same madness.

She smiles at him, a genuine smile despite the look in her eyes.

“We’re actually just about to get started with gravity assisted cardio, wanna join in?”

“...Ok.”

The following two hours were one of the worst mistakes of his life.