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.

She was excited to see more of his pokemon in action, imagining the movement of a Sceptile in the forest as he described, but she found her eyes nearly bugging out of her head when Josh said he was interested in hunting for more pokemon. "More pokemon for the gym?" Her jaw dropped a little at the thought, given the absolute army he already possessed. She doubted anyone in Hoenn had a faster partner of any of the species Josh owned -- surely, he had the fastest specimen for each already. And he was looking for more pokemon at that?

Sceptile and Salazzle appeared with the usual speed she associated with Josh, but she was more captivated by the odd seat on the Salazzle. It did look rather narrow. She wondered how she would seat herself on the pokemon, but the poison type seemed pretty approachable despite the odd seat. "Hm. Okay, I think I get it..." She situated herself on, adjusting as she felt the Salazzle move to compensate for the placement of her weight until she found a posture that didn't make the Salazzle overcompensate. Suddenly, though, she felt a little less confident about learning to ride a pokemon on unusual terrains. "Maybe we should table this-" She barely got those words out before the Salazzle was moving, not needing input from a rookie rider.

"O-okay!" She responded with a nervous laugh, feeling a surge of adrenaline at the pokemon's rabid turns as it jolted up and down a rock formation, returning to the ground like an afterthought. "Got it - you're more comfortable with this than I am." She was happy to let the pokemon take the reigns, as she didn't feel knowledgeable enough to be an authority on ordering Fire Eyes to go as she wanted.

Robin froze as the Glastrier snorted. She had a thing about equine pokemon, though she'd never state it aloud. She could admire its regality from afar, but up close, the pokemon seemed terrifying. She was happy to take Shalin's lead again. Switching focus to evolution stones, she considered Shalin's offer. "That'd be really cool!"

Dragapult made a pleased noise, and Robin patted him comfortingly. "Dragapult really liked running through those woods." Plus, it'd be cool to see what kind of pokemon Shalin was working with. She'd demonstrated a diverse but powerful collection in all their time together, but Robin wondered what kind of pokemon she held onto that hadn't been needed on their missions or expeditions thus far. "I wonder if you have a stash of ghost types, like you've been holding out on me." She laughed. She felt like Shalin had an inclination towards bug types -- given the Beedrill and Yanmega she had such strong bonds with -- but it'd amuse her to see Shalin show an affinity for ghosts all the same.

Okay, so the train derailing was less than ideal.

She nodded at schuyler tate 's instruction. "We can do that!" She turned to Snorlax, who got a running start towards the front of the train and then dove forward, rolling the last several yards until he was belly-up, thankfully lined up with virgil roach and his pokemon.

She liked the onslaught of fire that the Iron Bundle was facing, but she didn't bring any pokemon with her that could accompany that approach. "Try Hypnosis!" She shouted at Gengar. He had been attacking the wrong Bundle in his confusion between the real one and its ditto!clone. If Gengar could put the Bundle asleep, it'd be easier to put the nightmare to rest.

"I don't know how to keep slowing the train down." Her concern was evident. She didn't have any wall-creating techniques, and she had a huge aversion to psychic pokemon, so she didn't have anyone who could generate force fields either. She hoped every other good samaritan could help bring things home.

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tl;dr: threw snorlax at the side of the train to break virgil's fall, gengar used hypnosis on the iron bundle

Robin's childish plans were interrupted. Sea water fell over her and Hydreigon, making the dragon flinch and shift position while Robin wiped her face clean of the salt water, spitting a little as the overly salty taste hit her tongue. "Yuck! What's your problem?" She turned to the culprits, some kind of trainer and his Sharpedo. He removed his rebreather, sounding angrier than she had. "This distance is totally fine! Hydreigon can out-fly a water attack."

She assumed so, at least. The dragon was plenty fast, though she hadn't had a lot of sea battles with him as she preferred land to the ocean. "If you're here, you must be around for the same thing: seeing Kyogre. But I was here first, so you can either share the space or scram." It wasn't as kind as she would normally deal with things, but he clearly wasn't a young child still learning etiquette, and he certainly had come on strong and aggressive with his approach.

With the Frosslass held at bay, Robin collected a few stones quickly, not wanting to use up all their luck. She tried not to sound so eager as she insisted, "I'm ready to head out." She got back on Dragapult and let her Vulpix sit in the front, the duo riding the energetic dragon with relative ease. "I've got plenty of stones, now." The trip wasn't too harrowing, all things considered.

Her wallet definitely appreciated the savings in making the trip as opposed to coughing up hundreds of PD for some evolution stones. She could understand the pricing a little better now that she'd made the excursion. "It's going to be awesome to see a stone evolution up front for the first time!"

Robin felt pleased with herself while Josh had to think about his answer to his question. It wasn't often that she saw him stumped. But then he had a solution. "Oh! I've never seen a Sceptile up close," she commented with amusement. She had seen several Treecko in her time, as they were adventurous rascals, but she hadn't seen their evolutions. "Okay, I'm down. It'll be fun." She wasn't sure what kind of pokemon she'd expected him to offer up, but a Sceptile and Salazzle were interesting ones.

"Spelunking is a little scary," she offered as they headed out. "But it's not so bad when you have a good partner. I just wish I felt better-equipped to be in there. Dragapult handles well, but my other pokemon aren't so helpful. Ghosts don't tend to have a lot of command of the environment." Sinistea made a displeased noise as she followed close behind Robin. "Shalin Nariya helped me through the Shoal cave for some ice stones." She was glad to have the experience, but she had anxiety around the cave to work through. "I saw a Glastrier. Those things are so strange." Her tone wasn't negative, however. It was definitely a good strange.

The Golurk swung at Robin, and she barely ditched backwards to avoid it, the bloodied hand of the ghostly protector whispering through her hair as it narrowly missed her head. She landed on the ground and quickly scrambled on all fours to gain distance. Her Hydreigon re-balanced himself from the Shalins, battered but undefeated. He flew over and chomped down on the Golurk's shoulder with crunch, but the defender was undeterred. It brought an arm backwards -- far more flexible than she thought it would be -- and pulled the Hydreigon off, slamming him into the ground.

Robin covered her ears as Shalin insisted, stunned at the vibration and sound that surrounded her. She'd need to invest in high-quality ear plugs if she insisted on staying around pokemon like Flygon and Yanmega, it seemed. She felt a little dizzy as she recovered. The Golurk reached out to grab her. Robin panicked and tossed the smoke bomb, bringing Hydreigon back with her pokeball and fleeing away. "Time to go!" She shouted, her Marshadow joining her by her side and tugging on her sleeve to go back and fight the Golurk. "Nuh-uh. Fight another time." She fled the battlefield, waiting on the edge for Shalin, so the duo could safely leave together.

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Dragapult came down the slide after Shalin, tongue flapping as a dopey expression crossed his face. He landed gracefully on the ground, ephemeral tail wagging. Robin turned her attention to Tinder as the two of them looked at the best stones to take; Dragapult came over and licked at a rock that he seemed to want, but Robin just sighed. "Why can't you be better behaved like Shalin's pokemon?" Despite the exasperation, she was pleased he was enjoying himself. It made her less anxious about the caves, but maybe that was a bad thing.

Shalin's warning about the Frosslass rang in her ears, but it had taken second place to her focus on Dragapult. Thankfully, the Frosslass that had been sneaking up on her was tackled by her Vulpix. "Oh! Those things are quiet!" She jumped backwards away from the fighting ice types. Dragapult left the tasty stone and threw himself into the mix, using bite on the Frosslass trying to slam Vulpix to the ground. "What's the deal? Are they protective of the ice stones?" She wasn't used to the behaviors of ice pokemon, but those she'd encountered had been largely passive or uninterested in people.

Josh mentioned something she hadn't considered before: the weight a pokemon could withold. Some bug types were big enough for people, but she hadn't realized they wouldn't have the ability to carry a person because of being weighed down. Fortunately, the riding pokemon Robin liked so far were dragons, so that wasn't an issue she had. She nodded along as Josh explained how well a Barraskewda could move. "It'd be cool to see one in the wild running evasive maneuvers. It sounds like it'd be hard to keep track of 'em." Though, she didn't often find herself out at seas these days.

His offer was generous. Instead of a specific pokemon, she had never experienced riding a pokemon while climbing, only flying or walking. "I could use practice with staying seated on a pokemon while climbing, but I'm not sure who would be best to practice that with. I've recently found some interest in caves, especially ones filled with ghosts, but... I worry about my capacity to get around in caves." She wasn't sure she had any strong climbers among her team anyways, but it wasn't like she would be visiting a cave alone for a long time.

Marshadow refused Robin's instructions, but she could no longer dedicate time to persuading him. Hydreigon lifted her higher in the air to get distance from Shalin and her shadow, but then the Shalins were approaching with a pounce attack. Hydreigon flipped over, belly-up, and the suddenness of it had Robin falling from her dragon as he took the brunt of the attack. Descending to the ground, Robin instinctively cried out. She should've reached for a pokeball at her belt, but human panic overtook her.

She covered her face with one arm just as Marshadow zipped over and grabbed her other arm, keeping her from falling into puddle on the ground. Marshadow lowered her to the ground at a less drastic velocity, though it still moved at a brisk pace. It let her go a foot from the ground and didn't look back, instead darting up to where Hydreigon was righting himself to face the shadows and the real Shalin. Hydreigon prepared an attack, but Marshadow put himself between Hydreigon and the shadows, attacking with spectral thief.

"Take it easy!" She shouted to the sky above, not wanting either of her pokemon to hurt Shalin. Just as she shouted, she felt an imposing presence. Turning slowly, she saw the largest Golurk ever, bloodied and surrounded with angry spirit energy. Oh. This was going to get ugly.

Geez, this Iron Bundle was rage incarnate. She thought the Togepi approach had potential, but Robin wasn't sure she could out-think such a feral pokemon at this point. She was pleased with their impromptu-leader's approval with the thumbs-up and followed it up with more support for the plan at hand. She didn't think Gengar would understand what the brake was, so she didn't send him out to it.

"Gen, use shadow ball on the baddie!" Gengar floated close to it, but it was being assaulted by a similar-looking bundle. Gengar kept pace with them on the train as he considered his odds of hitting the right one for a moment before deciding malicious compliance was better than no compliance. Gengar used shadow ball at hopefully the right bundle.

"Snorlax, slow the train down! Freeze it!" Snorlax moved to the back of the train which was rapidly leaving and summoned a blizzard aimed low to hit the wheels more than the train carts. Freezing it would better the chances of her team maneuvering to the brake, she felt.

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tl;dr: gengar used shadow ball at the iron bundle, snorlax using blizzard to try and freeze the wheels of the train to slow it so everyone else can reach the brake.