This really wasn't Robin's cup of tea; she had little interest in protecting a bank of all things. It was boring and far from the imagined lifestyle of being a Ranger, but she supposed she couldn't be outside protecting people and pokemon from environmental disasters all of the time. The banker had not been too happy when he asked for her own dragon type, and she explained she hadn't brought her own because she'd been unaware they wanted dragons until they arrived.

And her pokemon fought just fine, thank you very much.

Miffed by the bank operator, Robin pouted until Gwen explained she had brought her over so they could chat and catch up. It was overdue after all, as it'd been about a month since they'd seen each other, and Robin had been a mess about her Rocket encounter. "Yeah," she said as she deflated from her irritation, "it's been too long. I see you have a new member of the team." Her dragon seemed rather hungry. "I didn't take you for a dragon fan." Robin wasn't beholden to any type beside ghosts, though she had two dragons of her own that had been excellent so far. Dragapult was very stubborn and... a little lacking in marbles, but her Hydreigon was uncharacteristically mellow for its species and had been easy to partner with.

But she had brought her original partner with her today, as she went nowhere without Mun- er, Snorlax. "I don't have a new member per se -- well that's not true, remind me to show you the pokemon I literally hatched before we go -- but Mun has finally evolved!" She released Snorlax, the large pokemon standing with them in front of the bank. "He's so big now!" Robin beamed with pride.

Robin didn't fare too well with the bank owner, but to be fair, he was kind of anal about his wanted ad. Gwendolyn wasn't going to hold Robin accountable as she didn't really know if she had any appropriate dragon types. Goomy was likely somewhere in her bag just chilling along as Gwen dealt with her Gabite's teething. If Robin were to look, Gwen's fingers all had little bandages here and there, some even dotted with blood.

"This is Gishath, at least for now. We're still working on a name for him. But it's a funny story." Gwen said to her friend, beaming with an interest that was rarely seen outside of a computer. "I read a compendium on dragon types and went to the author of the book, Ms. Morningstar! She was a huge help and introduced me to some dragon types she was helping. Gishath was one of the ones I got to know a little and I'm taking him out to see the world outside of his home."

She smiled, thankful for the help that freya morningstar supplied her with. Sure, they were a little rough in terms of teamwork now but Gwen was hopeful that she could make something out of her little Gabite. A hand dipped into her bag to produce a faux ruby that glittered as the sunlight hit its surface. Gishath's eyes locked onto it as a soft hiss was heard from him. Gwen lowered her hand down for him to take as he approached and sniffed for for several seconds, then accepted the gift and became preoccupied with fuddling over its surfaces.

"I guess I just sort of read the book and felt inspired! I don't know if I want to dedicate myself to dragon types, but it's good knowledge to have for an aspiring Professor. And they do offer way more of a challenge than most types."

Robin showed off her signature Munchlax, who had now surpassed its former, smaller self. Once the pokemon popped out of its pokeball, a well fed Snorlax had appeared before her. "Wow! He finally evolved!" Gwen chirped to Robin. She had recalled the pain that the other girl had went through back after she was attacked. It filled her with pride to be able to show her that she just needed a little time and trust in her Pokemon. "You've done an excellent job at training him, Robin. I bet he can take on the world now! What about your other Pokemon? Anybody else improving?"

"You chased down the author?" Robin pushed at Gwen's shoulder in disbelief, exclaiming, "Gwen, you're such a nerd!" Gwen's intellect had never been disputed, but she was always surprised at the lengths the other went to learn something. The redhead was very determined and studious. It made Robin consider the relative challenge of dragons, though she had lucked out with Hydreigon's easy-going nature... Dragapult was more of a handful, though.

She appraised Gishath, but she wasn't sure what to make of him. He looked a little freaky, but she was used to that as a ghost type fanatic. She wondered how hard-headed he was. "I wanna see him in action. What does he do?"

She then considered Gwen's questions about the rest of her team and felt her mood sour. "Toxel's still... all shadow-y. No changes. Gengar's same old, same old. My Alolan Vulpix evolved, though. And dealing with Dragapult instead of Drakloak has been a better challenge. He's grown into his chaotic energy, believe it or not." She pondered the question a little furhter. "Oh, and I hatched an egg! It was a Sinistea. I'm so fortunate." She beamed.

Her mood had been in a good place so far. Gwendolyn loved to see Robin so joyvial and playful. Her lips curled into a smile was the only expression that she had wanted to see them in. The homebody had remembered that day with her near the springs with her Munchlax and Toxel. The sheer stress and emotion from her best friend had echoed in her mind. She would find the man who did this to her.

She'd make him pay.

Maybe that's why her mood soured at the playful nerd part. Gwen's brows winced as for a brief moment, her patience snapped. "Look, can you please not...I'm trying to get out more, trying to be a better ranger. Trying to be enough for y-"

She caught herself mid-sentence. Her hands were balled and stance sterner and more aggressive. Her expression calmed down as the Gishath beside her looked up at his trainer. "Sorry, I'm sorry. I just- I've been going through stuff." She leaned against the wall and flushed about for a moment or two before picking up where they left off. "It's nice your team's been growing. I've gotten a few stronger Pokemon as well."

The Gishath's top fin flickered as it took off running in a hiss. "Gishath! H-Hey! Wait up!" She ran after her little bundle of violence. He held both hands behind him as he scampered towards one of the trees near the side of the building and then began to attack it. His sharp fins weren't too much of an issue but it was doing considerable damage to the foilage around it. "Gishath! Stop!" He growled up at the tree before one final ram, and then...

The fall tree had damaged the gate around the bank, landing with a loud thud as the top part landed on a roof of the next business. But something had fell out. Several men and woman bearing the uniform of Rocket grunts as they removed themselves from their hiding spot.

"Crap! That brat's Gabite tracked us down! I told you not to open up sleeping powder bag early!" one said to another larger one, smacking him upside the head.

"Ah, I see. Good work, buddy. I'm sorry for doubting you." Gwen offered him a slow pat of the head. Gishath continued to growl as yellow eyes looked up at her. They were a bit fearsome but he appeared more willing to allow her to touch him now. "You were going to try to rob the bank, huh? Well that's not happening! Robin, let's go!"

Robin's brow furrowed as Gwen snapped at her, but before she could offer much of a retort, the gabite was fleeing the scene and the two of them were following it all the way to a group of Rocket members. The sight of them made her blood run cold, her first run-in with Rocket since The Incident. These guys were less intimidating than the masked one that'd almost abducted her successfully, but she couldn't afford to underestimate an enemy again.

"Earthquake," she instructed of Snorlax without a doubt, her voice purposefully devoid of emotion and warranting no back-talk from Mun. He stepped hard on the earth, generating the earthquake at a magnitude that the civilians inside the bank most certainly felt it, but its magnitude was only great enough to disrupt the earth into cracking around the grunts, not so much as to crack the foundation of the building. The disruption of the ground forced the grunts to the ground. Their pokemon team broke out of their pokeballs, revealing a tropius, klefki, and magmortar -- strange pokemon for grunts, but whatever.

Robin considered if surf-then-blizzard or giga impact would do more damage, unthinking of the damage it would certainly do to the environment around the bank and the building itself.

"Uh-Um, dr-drop the bags...creeps!" Gwen said to the Rocket members, pointing at the ground in the most threatening manner that she could. Granted, the act was fairly hilarious given how this nerd was trying to be as demanding as possible, her heart was in the right place.

The first one to speak up took a look at the two ordering them around. "You and what army? We ain't- WHOA!"

The ground around them shook from the Snorlax's Earthquake. Their pokemon spilled out as the trio fell to the ground, a Klefki, a Tropious and a Magmortar. Gishath scratched his fin blades together and gave his best hiss, ready to spring into action. The other two would look about, terrified.

"What do we do?! Our cover's blown, mate!" The female of the group whined.
The third more portly member would grovel before the leader. "I'm too young to go to jail, boss!"

"No worries, mates! We're fighting our way out. It's 3-on-2! Let's smash these brats and get a move on the heist!"

For as aloof as the other two were, they quickly took up arms beside their leader and commanded their Pokemon.

"Uh...G-Go for the Magmortar, Gishath!" Gwen ordered. The Gabite hissed in agreement, seeking out the Magmortar and using Sand Tomb on the fire type. Gishath sped towards the Magmortar and kicked up diust with his claws, creating a whirling sandstorm around it, as chunks of ground and earth were thrown over the place.

Gwen was too close to the grunts for her comfort. "Stay back!" She ordered, though Gisath was still listening to Gwen and incapacitated the Magmortar. "Gwen -- don't get too close. You don't know what they have." Sure, they might have sounded like run of the mill goons, but nothing was run of the mill with Rocket, not anymore. Maybe never. She had seen pictures of Kanto.

Rocket was a collection of boogeymen. The worst of the worst. Robin had to keep Gwen from getting to close to them, regardless of whether or not she'd grown in the past months. "Blizzard." Obediently, Snorlax generated the next large, environmental attack, sending a flurry of ice and snowflakes down to the goons and through the front and side of the bank, cooling the temperature inside and outside alike.

The snow impacted the Rocket trainers far more than their pokemon, but their team was still raring to fight. Tropius charged Gwen's dragon to get it off its teammate, shaking off the frost to use outrage; Klefki, on the other hand, focused on Snorlax, using psychic to throw him backwards. The force of the pokemon only confirmed Robin's fears. More frantically than before, she pleaded: "They're dangerous, Gwen, take cover!"

She didn't care if it was too dangerous or not. Gwen wanted to prove that she wasn't a benchwarmer to both Robin and herself. The trio of Rocket pokemon were a grab bag if they'd be a threat or not but she was certain they could take them all.

"I'm fine." she said to her friend, though her expression betrayed the sentiment. "You're Snorlax is pretty strong."

The enemies took their turn, with their own pokemon looking to get even with the damage inflicted on them.

"You dirty brats, you okay Maggy?" The owner of the Magmortar asked their fire type. It would "harumph" in response.

The leader continued on, ordering his Klefki to attack. "Try this on, girlie!" The steel type surrounded itself with psychic energy and forced the Snorlax back along with most things around it. The force made the trees overhead be pushed back with the force thrown at the target.

Gwen was still, scared, but stepped in front of Robin regardless. She had let Rocket break her down once because of her inability, she wouldn't allow them to do it again. Her expression had slowly shifted from hearing her so frantic.

"I won't let them hurt you." Gwen said to her. Gone was any hint of her usual apologetic self, replaced entirely by a serious, bitter ranger who had found her resolve. "Focus on the battle."

"Aw, lookit the BFFs. Time ta end this." The Tropius leapt into action to defend the Magmortar and began to cause an outrage all across the battlefield on its way. Gishath hissed and met the attack with his own, blocking against the Tropius. "Dragon Claw, Gishath!"

The Gabite raised its arm and slashed against the Tropius, leaving a deep mark against its neck. Letting out a small roar, his eyes went back to Gwen and growled to her. Was it saying the same thing as Robin had been? Or was this more of a threat to not tell him what to do?

Gwen's dismissal and flattery of Snorlax weren't easing Robin's nerves, but the clear confidence she had, the steely disposition she demonstrated as she evaluated the fight and ordered Gisath to keep the pressure on did ease her nerves. It was an epiphany of sorts. Gwen wasn't in her element -- wasn't in front of a computer, wasn't being dragged somewhere by Robin -- and yet, this moment betrayed that understanding. It looked like Gwen was in her element. Like she was not just a seasoned Ranger but experienced trainer and tactician.

Gisath gave it good to Tropius, but Robin was thrown off her rhythm. Her jaw moved without sound as she thought about what to order Snorlax to do, but like he always had when she was clueless, he took the battle into his own hands. Rising to his feet, he charged the Klefki, slamming at the key pokemon with hammer arm, a neat little revenge for the psychic abuse. Robin was reeling, still, like a rug was pulled out from under her. She was playing catch-up.

"No, no this isn't-" Her breath was caught in her chest, air was barely being pushed in her mouth as she tried to get back on track. She could no longer sit on an ice throne at an extreme distance from what was happening, could no longer disconnect herself from the fight to ensure victory instead of an emotional failure; Gwen was an emergency off-switch to that forced impersonal approach, and Robin was defenseless against the panic that rose in her chest. The reality (the Rockets aren't too intimidating, Gwen can protect herself and more) and the perception (the Rockets will scorch the earth if they're unimpeded, Gwen needs Robin to be safe) weren't coming together.

Robin fell to her knees, clutching at her chest as Snorlax clobbered the Klefki and left the other two in Gwen's capable hands.

"Huh?" At hearing Robin shuffle closer to the ground, Gwen's rhythm was thrown off once more. Her serious posture and voice had all but disappeared once seeing her friend unable to process what had been going on.

"Robin!" she called out, swiping behind her to try and make sure that she was alright. Gishath had lunged at the Tropius again, coating his arm blade in a bright light while cutting through the quadraped's defenses in total. The tropius hit the ground unconscious, with the tiny terror hissing at the other two.

"Ah! Tropee! Oh nooo!" The grunt owning the pokemon said.
"Dammit, Magmortar, roast that Gabite!"

The Magmortar brought both hands together, the cannons glowing a fierce white as it launched fireballs around them. The sound of flames searing the grass around the side of the building caught Gwen's ears as Gishath would dodge and weave around them. One such was aimed at the two of them as she dove into Robin, knocking them both out of the way of the fireball.

The ginger rookie found herself on top of Robin, looking down at her with her glasses ajar, glancing down at her with concerned eyes. "Are you okay?"

The Gabite had eventually been hit by one of the blasts of fire, letting out a pained hiss. The Gabite steadied himself, rearing his head back and unleashing a torrent of Dragon Breath.

Rocket was a dark cloud that would always threaten to suffocate the ghost enthusiast; she could never get enough distance, enough time, to separate her from the event at the ocean routes. And yet, despite the heaviness of it, the sheer blind animal panic that had filled her, she looked up to see her childhood best friend and found herself still in the past, but in one filled with light and softness.

Gwen was nerdy, quiet, and stuck to Robin's side, uncaring of Robin's lack of gifted future sight like her family members. No, Gwen had always made Robin feel special despite every indicator of the opposite. And in that moment, in looking at Gwen's eyes, she felt like that savored, precious girl again.

And she was -- the almost-abduction, like the black sheep status she bore in her family, was rendered irrelevant in the caring eyes of her friend. How stupid she was being with her insecurity and her fear. "Yeah," she said softly, wiping at her eyes, "I'm okay." She got back to her feet steadily, watching as Snorlax and Gisath kicked Rocket butt. "I'm okay, since I have you here. Finish them off. Let me see your real Ranger debut, yeah?"

The glasses wearing face behind the curtain of orange hair smiled as Robin declared herself in good health. Gwen slowly came to realize the position they were in and rolled off of the top of the poor girl.

Gishath had been holding his own against the Magmortar, the shark fin waggling as it hit the towering fire-type with another Dragon Claw. The fire-type was sent down tumbling as the leader would cursed.

"Damn it! I had it to!"
The third person took off in a dead sprint while yelling back, "I'LL TELL THE BOSS TO COME FOR HELP!"

"Gishath, after him!" The Gabite hissed and ran after the fat one as he held his head down and began to accelerate towards the runner. He was able to catch up in record time and tackled the third wheel in these bumbling villains. He bared his teeth with and growled.

The three of them were rounded back up near the bank while Gwen stood with Robin while calling the police.

"The cops should be here soon to wheel these guys away."

"Noooo! I'm too pretty to go to jail!" The female said, flailing about.
The leader would grumble under his breath about something until Gishath's growl would cut his words off.

Gwen performed perfectly; her and Gisath were in sync much as Robin and her Snorlax always were. It was warm and comforting to see her friend take care of herself so well. Robin put the bitterness and loathing away and let herself, this once, be Gwen's cheerleader, whooping as Gisath finished the Rockets off.

Officers were definitely on their way, but Robin was a little nervous about the bank manager. Her use of earthquake earlier would've disturbed the customers inside. She wasn't sure she could sell that the earthquake had been natural and not a result of Snorlax... though, it was a TM she'd used to teach him. Surely the bank manager wouldn't know that Snorlax had the capacity for that ground type move, right?

She didn't want to stick around and get in trouble, but she couldn't leave Gwen to face the music alone. "I'm sorry for overreacting," she finally said to her best friend. "I can explain to the bank manager that the disaster out here was my fault. You shouldn't get in trouble for the earthquake or all the ice out here now."