Snorlax was weak, slow, and unable to abuse the terrain given his sluggish size. Normally, he could manage it fine, but his disadvantages were compounding into a white flag.

The loud noise further disoriented the lug. "Hang in there!" Robin shouted, but it was impossible to hear over the uproar. Snorlax was not one to disappoint his trainer, so he kept moving, aiming to strike the Revaroom with a sluggish hammer arm.

The battlefield tore up like paper and threw the Revaroom off its rhythm; the speedy pokemon had to alter their path to navigate. It was good to hinder the terrain, but Snorlax didn't have a lot of good mobility for an offense himself. He would need to wait for Revaroom to get close since his ability to alter the battlefield would be largely redundant from here on out.

The Revaroom's screech left Robin covering her ears and Snorlax trying to follow suit, but it clearly impacted him. He shook it off but walked with less confidence than before as he moved slowly on the broken earth. He didn't have the speed to take the fight to the Revaroom, but he could make it hard for Revaroom to leave a fight it initiates.

Damn.

The Revaroom could poison, apparently. Snorlax was too slow to dodge most of the gunk shot, and she saw the moment its poison connected; Mun's expression was struck for a moment before he recovered. His immunity was a special trait. But it wasn't enough to turn the tide of the fight on its own.

The leader's advice made her next move obvious. "Uneven terrain it is," she conceded. Snorlax obeyed, creating an earthquake over the battlefield.

"Look at all those critters." Robin leaned forward, sitting on Snorlax' shoulders with her binoculars up to her face. "I guess bugs do tend to swarm, but I haven't seen one so big." She put down the binoculars and let them hang from the strap around her neck. She opened her side pouch to reveal a packaged pastry filled with soft cheese and butter. She took a bite, then, as Snorlax predictably whined, leaned down and plopped the rest into his mouth.

"I know it's boring to wait, but I just want to see what they're doing here." The weather wasn't particularly enchanting. What brought them all here?

Aw, geez.

Robin had a soft spot for Tinkaton, but they were destroying absolutely everything. "Hammer arm!" Snorlax charged forward and swung on the tinkaton, blasting her across the street. "We're gonna be knocking 'em down all day, Mun." His determination was clear as he readied another strike. A tinkaton came from behind, but he sensed her before Robin could call it out. He turned and hit her with a right hook that sent her soaring into a building.

Snorlax carried another civilian to the medic tent. The chansey and doctor got to work, and their collaboration resulted in the thick toxic chain around the woman dissipating. Robin sighed as she typed on her rotom phone. Her league reports were never-ending as she flew all over Hoenn to solve the poison problems.

Her reports were also getting a little sloppy. Her dizziness hadn't dissipated over the last few days of poison patrols. Her details were incomplete and the writing was getting far too succinct. The events were kind of blurring together...

"Hammer arm!"

Snorlax obeyed, bringing his strong arm down to smack against the low end of the Arbok. The snake jerked away from the touch, and the force of it helped the Arbok choke out some of the civilian in its mouth. "Again!" Snorlax obeyed, and this time, the snake fully regurgitated the poor tourist. "I gotcha," Robin assured as she grabbed the lady by the arm and pulled her away from the snake. Snorlax picked up the Arbok and tossed him very, very far.

Robin flinches as she witnesses the speed of the Revaroom. Snorlax can't keep up with it; it easily dodges the hammer arm. More importantly, it spins away after running into Snorlax' side. He's too heavy to be moved, but the attack lands with a resounding clap before the Revaroom gets some distance.

Without a doubt, there's no way she can get Snorlax to move faster than the Revaroom. "It's a losing battle to try and build Snorlax up to your pokemon's strengths. It makes more sense to lean into his own. He's a heavy hitter!" Snorlax looks proud at the remark, staring down the gym leader before focusing fully on the Revaroom again. "With all you've got, Mun!" He obeys, launching giga impact at Revaroom.

Okay, fair. She didn't think the Revaroom could freakin levitate. His advice was sound, but she had no advantageous terrain for Snorlax. His mobility was still a little limited with surf or earthquake. She would have to see if it was possible to tutor him in a move that could give him the upper hand.

"I may not be able to set up the battlefield, but... when you have a big hammer, everything looks like a nail!" Snorlax huffed his acknowledgement of her order as the Revaroom came towards him, swinging for a hammer arm. She didn't have a lot of capacity for buffs, but Robin knew her Snorlax had quite a few unusual moves and packed a powerful punch. Brute force would just have to be enough.

It was a little freaky to see so many people get knocked out by the gym leader. He had a variety of pokemon. Robin tried not to look nervous, but the simplicity of the battle format meant there was not a lot of wiggle room. She had to be smart to be successful.

"You got it, chief." She tossed out Snorlax, hoping his energy would help keep her from feeling nervous. Mun had been with her during her entire journey as a Ranger, so he knew her better than anyone and could adjust without her say-so. Still, her homework had been to stop letting her pokemon fight on their own; she had to direct them.

She didn't know much about Revarooms, but they seemed to need good use of the terrain to be totally effective. Maybe ice could throw the other trainer off. "Mun, make it cold!" Snorlax summoned a blizzard into the arena to freeze the environment.

Thankfully, Gwen and her fast-acting Gishath kept Robin from getting blasted by the Medicham. Gwen's Magenton shocked the doctor and had him convulsing on the ground. Robin seized the opportunity to get closer, and once the shocks seemed to leave his body, she jumped on top of him and wrested her fists into his coat jacket to pull him off the floor and sit face to face with her. "WHY? WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS?" Her anger overcomes here, but the heat of it is not enough to negate the hurt and sadness that sit in the pit of her stomach.

Her tears are wet-hot-angry and her voice is enraged-shaky-broken, and she shakes the doctor the second he fails to respond. "What's wrong with you? You think I don't know what that is? You think I don't know what you had to do to make it?" She had seen snippets of its creation outlined in papers gained from her expeditions. More importantly, she has seen Type: Null in the wild, in the custody of Rangers. She knows enough of the scientific monstrosities taken to produce a pokemon from unusual parts and practices. A man-made pokemon, a being brought into the world by people who are only interested in seeing it burn. Something that may not have a soul, that may never become a ghost.

"What's the point of making more of them?" Her voice is barely above a whisper. "How many times do we have to liberate these creations before you understand?" The look in his eyes is utterly unapologetic. And he has the audacity to smile, something knowing, something cocky, something that so loudly proclaims 'You can't touch me and I'll be out of League custody before you know it with my connections.'

She pushes him down so his head cracks against the hard tile of the floor. And she punches him right in the mouth. And again. And again.

Whoa, people were off to the races with a crazy start. Robin patted Carracosta's head as he started moving. "Don't rush, Carra," she urged. "We'll get 'em later in the race. Let them fight it out in the beginning." She figured people would rush for first place immediately. Those folks could tangle and hopefully keep each other down long enough that she could pass them.

As it was, Carracosta moved faster than she expected. She was content to hold on and let him lead. "Yahoo! We got this!" Adrenaline coursed through her as she took in the excitement of the race.