"It's kinda pretty; I understand wanting to try it." She appreciates the new Ranger's curiosity. It's a good quality. She leans in towards the rock wall beside them to listen for the sound again, but she doesn't hear anything. "Maybe it was something silly, like-"

Her guess is interrupted by the presence of a Zubat that swoops down and threatens to consume Robin's hair. She swats it away with a squeak. It quickly flees. Robin straightens, clearing her throat. "Um. Don't put that in your report." It's not often she encounters a Zubat, but she also doesn't laze around in caves. "I think we've seen as much as we're going to. Do you feel ready to submit a report to a captain?"

Two weeks is pretty green. Robin's impressed she's getting so many missions in such a short time. "Well, if you need any semi-formal trainings, I'm your gal. The real formal stuff can be scary, so I can help bridge the gaps without being so stiff." She pushes the rest of the sludge in front of her into a container.

Her question is curious. "I love working with pokemon. They unlock our potential, and we do theirs. I'm better for having Mun and Sinistea with me. I like to think they are, too." That symbiosis allowed people to accomplish insane feats. Unfortunately, in the wrong hands, that partnership could also cause great chaos.

"Are you having second thoughts?"

Robin's glad she's earned his approval so far, but he's throwing more curveballs than she can keep up with. Sinistea is focused on subduing his Dragapult, so she's unprepared for the Palafin's quick attack and swap. Sinistea is hanging on by a thread, leaving Snorlax to face the Cyclizar and - oh Arceus, a Salamence? "Get distance," Robin instructs to her. She floats far from Robin, sitting almost above Michael himself.

His words resonate with her. "Used your pokemon against you?" Her voice is soft, a little shaky. She's always had a hang-up about psychic types, has barely permitted her most trusted pokemon to attempt to use psychic moves. They've always had it out for her and always seemed... sinister. Perhaps coming from a family of psychics as a failed one is a bias, but. It chills her, the idea that Rockets would use a trainer's pokemon against them. "Was it mind control?"

Her only saving grace when she was nearly abducted was the resilience of her pokemon, even if her Seadra had almost left her to drown. Even as the idea of mind control sickens her, he's given her an idea. She's down to one pokemon against a team of four; there's no more space for pulling punches. She need to use pokemon against him.

Salamence brings down a flamethrower. "Switch with Mun!" It's a sacrificial play, but Sinistea obeys, ever faithful since hatching in Robin's very arms. Sinistea eats the flamethrower and faints, but more importantly, Snorlax is in her place and descending quickly, his large body threatening to crush Michael. "Blizzard!" Snorlax obeys, commanding an icy blast to fill the room as he falls down towards the gym leader.

All the same, Robin's hand hovers over Mun's pokeball in case the gym leader can't pull out in time.

The researchers were pretty stiff. Mimi seemed to know that already, so Robin didn't comment on it. She would be a cool researcher if she ever pursued that path, at least.

"Um, I think eating it will make you sick." Again, not a researcher, but. She was pretty sure that was coming from the paradox pokemon in the area since it hadn't been reported before and hadn't even been sent out as a warning to Rangers, suggesting it was new.

"Let's just focus on-" She pauses as a low grumble comes from deep in the cave. Robin freezes instinctively. Quietly, she asks, "does that sound like a pokemon you know?"

Robin laughs at her response. "Fun? If this is fun, I think your previous missions were pretty bad." No Ranger starts off the same way, so it makes enough sense. The shovelling isn't the worst thing in the world, but it's also not very riveting. The poisonous sludge is an environmental hazard. That makes it a priority, sure. But it also makes the job unpleasant. Fun just doesn't come to mind.

A haunted house, though? Fun all day. She thinks Mimi needs to experience some real excitement.

She grins at the question. "Been a Ranger since August. How about you?"

Robin nodded her assent to Gwen's request. She'd be as careful as possible.

Before long, Sinistea ferried them both to the back room of the lab. Gwen was against a rack of mysterious chemicals. Robin caught Gwen's commentary right as she was ally switch'd behind the redhead. "What was what?"

Her question is partially answered by the sound of a loud, angry scientist shouting "GET THE PSYCHIC TO CALM IT DOWN!"

Robin shot to her feet and scrambled down the narrow hallway. Sinistea floated down to her from above. The space was far too narrow for her to summon Snorlax, so she tossed Toxtricity out behind her as she turned at the end of the hall to see an open lab. There was too much equipment everywhere for Snorlax to comfortably fit, but the ceilings were two stories high, at least.

An odd creature sat in the center of the room, sprawled on a metal slab. A medicham was above it, using psychic energies to mess with its mind. The creature cried out in pain.

Robin saw red.

She didn't want to hurt the creature further with anything AoE, so she had to use a more delicate touch. There was a scientist and two assistants and a psychic type to take out...

"Shift gear, poison jab-" she ordered in a shaky voice; Toxtricity obeyed, chaining the moves together to knock the assistant closest to the creature back into a glass cabinet that shattered. "Aromatic mist, poltergeist." Sinistea generated the mist that improved the stats of allies, then possessed the beaker of strange fluid in the other assistant's hand to toss it into his face, leaving him to scream and clutch at his head. Meanwhile, the medicham released her psychic attack on the creature and turned to use psybeam right at Robin's angry, trembling form.

The firework blasts of Blacephalons breathe a terrifying life into the city's broken, decaying bones. The city is artificially alive, possessed by the sudden activity, and Robin catches only a glimpse of what it might have looked like in the moments between detonation. It's a good thing Noah's dragging her because dead things have always transfixed her. He pulls her into an alley of suicidal party streamers, and it finally occurs to her that all the seeing is the problem.

"Lights off!" Toxtricity does his best to lessen the electricity flowing through him, but there's noise and chaos surrounding them and that's precisely where he wants to be. The explosions make his heart race better than any adrenaline, so she gives up the losing battle and forcibly returns him to his pokeball. She throws out Sinistea instead. "We need to get distance, fast." Sinsitea chimes her assent and floats through the alleyway buildings. Robin doesn't know where she's gone exactly, but she makes sure to hold onto Noah tight.

"She's gonna switch us around -" Robin's poor explanation doesn't give much warning between Sinistea activates ally switch, transporting Robin and her held Noah to the very place Sinistea had been.

It's gentler than teleportation, in her opinion, but she's still disoriented as she looks around. They're in some building with a busted elevator. Robin takes a breath, letting her stomach settle. "I guess this works for a hiding spot." She hears the chime of Sinistea approaching the building from the streets, perhaps escorting Noah's Urshifu to where she'd quickly placed them.

Robin's grim expression is highlighted by the sharp contrast the blinking streetlight casts upon her face periodically. She is serious. "It's not just that woman's worry. I feel it in my gut. Something really bad is happening down there." She didn't have a lot of gut feelings -- something her psychic family judged her for -- but she had not been proven wrong just yet.

"Sinistea is already floating down there. When she gets to the lab, she'll use ally switch on you, then float down again and use it for me so we can both be down there without worrying about security. She'll pick a good, hidden spot; you'll be fine while we wait for her to get me, too." She puts a hand on Gwen's shoulder, offering a squeeze.

"My feeling's getting worse. We've got to act fast. We can call for more support once we incapacitate them." Her strategy was loose, but she was more focused than ever. They would not fail.

Ariados had a bit of a reputation as they tended to freak people out, but the uptick in attacks was cementing the terror surrounding them in the minds of many. "Shock 'em," she instructed, and Toxtricity obliged, electrocuting the webs near him. Meanwhile, Sinistea floated high to cut webs off and force the descending Ariados to the ground, where they met Snorlax and his hammer arm and crunch attacks. The trio of pokemon worked in tandem to rid the immediate area of bugs...

But Robin couldn't shake the dizziness she was feeling. She fought nausea. "Um, keep going guys." Her encouragement was fainter this time, catching the attention of her empathetic ghost. Sinistea came down and chimed at her to settle down. She took a seat on the ground and watched as her team continued to carry the effort.

Biohazards were spreading at an exponential rate in Hoenn. "Let's put an end to this," Robin told Marshadow. It made an affirming noise. Then, he charged forward at a Phermosa with thunder punch. The ultra beast took the hit very well, barely flinching. "Don't give in!" She cried out before tucking her mouth into the crook of her sleeved elbow. She didn't know what the pheromones would do to her. People seemed to be sick all around.

The phermosa struck Marshadow to the ground. It flicked back forward and used sucker punch, pushing the ultra beast back. A fellow Ranger's Blastoise entered the fight, and the two of their pokemon struck it down. Still, there were several others loose in the city. They had to keep working through it.

Rustboro City sucks. The smoke emitted from the buildings choked her, the industrial buildings burned her eyes, and the constant symphony of metal noise rocked her skull. But she received a hurriedly-written note from someone while walking in peripheral route. Strangers sometimes caught sight of the Ranger headband and seized an opportunity to get help.

But this? The woman had not offered any context or allowed any questions. She ran off after giving the note. It had an address in Rustboro and two words: ROCKET SCIENTISTS. It was underlined four times.

Robin had called Gwen instantly. She shared the few details she had while turning tail and hurrying to Rustboro. "Fly over; I'll meet you across the street from the building." Hanging up, she broke into a run. She'd caught a glimpse of the woman's haunted expression and knew waiting would be a mistake.