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[attr="class","displaytitle"]THE SANCTUARY

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This sanctuary once held the Marshadow Robin met after her third trip to the Border.[break][break]

It didn't just haunt her like a ghost, but it reminded her of the Marshadow that KO'd her team and contributed to her almost-abduction.[break][break]

Now, the Type: Null she rescued is similarly transfixed by her.[break][break]

The explorations of both are below.[break][break]

Robin's heart clenched at the sight of all the Wailord. She, unfortunately, had a mixed record so far when it came to environmental disasters, but she was hoping to clean up her Ranger reporting history. "Might need the services of someone better equipped," she remarked sardonically as they approached the pod. "I always forget how big Wailord are until I see them." Ghost types had variety, but not so much that any of them were this large.

She thought hard about her best approach. "I have some large pokemon, but they're going to have to work together to even begin to move one of these guys." She brought out Dragapult, Rillaboom, and Snorlax. Only Dragapult broke six feet in terms of height, but it was ultimately more length than anything. "Hmm. Maybe brute strength won't work. Maybe we could get a huge rock wall behind us to block off the beach, then use water pokemon to create a tidal wave to bring them back into the sea?" Her mind worked a mile a minute, but she didn't have a clear answer with her limited tools.

Kion's performance was good, but it didn't hold a candle to Zeraora's speed. Still, Robin greeted the other pride members warmly, eyes hanging on the shiny leader. Josh had an impressive collection of them already, but Robin was certain he would have a larger and more diverse pack before long.

"Water races, eh?" She followed him out, eager. Sinistea floated along side, chittering excitedly. "I have a Carracosta and Seadra, but not much else in the way of water types. I'd love to see what you've got in store." She hadn't really ridden on any water types except when Phione took her away, but the day that occurred was the darkest in Robin's history, and she didn't care to revisit it. "How many water types are large enough to comfortably ride?"

His explanations of Wyrdeer were clear. She was impressed with how knowledgeable he was because she struggled to retain any information related to the rifts. "You should be a professor," she observed before he continued speaking about his pokemon.

Robin took a step back instinctively as the Hisuian Zoroark appeared. It looked rather intimidating, but she tried not to express that. The Zoroark seemed less intimidating as Absalom explained the origins of their meeting. She was sure as a Zorua it was less scary also. "That's really sweet. My pokemon came to me, basically." She thought it was nice of him to have found an ally through triage. And pretty lucky, too, because the Zoroark could clearly hold its own in battle.

She was surprised at his candor about his condition. "Oh, that sounds difficult. I guess you could use ride pokemon to get around some of the exercise travelling requires, but that seems so inconvenient. At least you're managing it. I think I am accident prone given that I sleepwalk a lot. I need my pokemon to keep me from going off in the middle of the night and getting lost in the woods or something."

She meant to explain more, but pager went off, alerting her to a task regarding a missing pokemon on the fairgrounds. "Sorry; I'm really on the clock all night tonight. I need to go look for this caterpie, but thank you! And it was awesome to meet your Zoroark. I hope I'll catch you around!" Her pager buzzed again, urgent and impatient, and she turned tail to run off to the Western end of the fairgrounds where it was last spotted.

Sinistea chittered from the sidelines, cheering her and Kion on as they settled at the line. The initial pace was fine, Kion keeping a canter that was comfortable enough for her. She was used to being on dragons, but standard quadrupeds were different. Still, she waved at Sinistea as they made their way around the track, at ease.

And then Raikiri and Josh really committed.

Holy magikarp. If she blinked, she missed them passing her. The wind picked up from their speed whipped her hair around, forcing her eyes to close completely as her form grew tense. Kion edged them a little further from the faster duo, but he kept the same pace, minimizing the changes Robin experienced as the Zeraora moved at breakneck speeds. Robin eventually gathered her wits and pulled her hair out of her face, glad Kion had a solid head on his shoulders. Or, perhaps, it was just that all of Josh's pokemon were too used to this kind of environment to be shaken up by any kind of display of speed.

"Man, and he doesn't get sick from going that fast?" Her question was directed at Kion, who seemed to huff in response. Robin ran a hand through his mane, pleased with him. She wasn't sure she'd be able to walk after an experience like Zeraora was demonstrating. Moreover, she was glad Kion wasn't blown away by the displaced air from the speedier duo.

Things were getting hectic, fast.

Robin did her best to scramble to her feet even as an onslaught of ice came her way. She took the offered hand and thanked the man, standing unsteadily. Things were unraveling into a catastrophe, and she didn't have all her pokemon with her like a fool. A Ranger had to always be prepared, but she was chopped liver.

"Hm? Oh, yes. Hypnosis should work perfectly." The man's authority went unquestioned by Robin, especially as his idea seemed perfect, and she didn't have a plan of her own. "Gen! Use hypnosis on the bad bird, okay?"

Gengar, thankfully, followed her command without any hemming or hawing. He liked to dawdle when she demanded urgency, but perhaps he didn't want to act as foolish as usual in front of this audience. He approached the wild bird with no care in the world, performing hypnosis despite iron bundle's focus on destruction. Robin fought the urge to bite her nails as she stared at the tracks. "Direct combat will get messy if it doesn't go down. I wonder if we can distract it with something it wants." She was totally unfamiliar with the pokemon, but she suspected that bribing it with berries wouldn't work like it did for her Snorlax.

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tl;dr: got up, sent gengar to put iron bundle to sleep with hypnosis

Type: Null was definitely more obedient than she'd seen it back at their first Border expedition. She was glad the pokemon was so cooperative, because it was no less fierce than it'd been initially. Robin relaxed as the Beartic fled.

A detour? Hm. It wouldn't take them super deep into the cave, and she had Shalin, so things were safe enough. Besides, what if there was something super awesome over there? She didn't want to waste the whole spelunking trip just seeing a couple rocks and icicles. "Okay, let's go check it out!" She mounted Dragapult again, letting the pokemon traverse the uneasy terrain as she followed Shalin to the wonder. As the scene began to unfold before her, she was awed. "What could have unfolded here?"

Robin liked Mastema, moving a little behind him as Tiamat made himself and his insanely fast wings known. "Geez, these guys are fast..." She couldn't imagine the terror she'd feel if someone's Dragonite was coming at her so fast it broke the sound barrier. She felt her decision was made for her when Kion came up to her, letting her touch his warm mane. She appreciated the collection of Pyroar Josh had. While he had a focus on them, he had certainly not neglected other pokemon, much like Robin focused on ghosts but cared for several types.

"You wanna ride?" He didn't seem as mellow as the female Pyroar behind him, but something in his eye made Robin feel like she'd be in good hands. "Alright, Kion, I trust you." He lowered himself for her so she could get on easily, then lined up next to Raikiri, though Robin could already tell they would be lapped. "You don't have to race," she assured, "We can just travel leisurely."

Did the Pyroar just snort?

Oh, boy.

Robin lurched back as a Nickit appeared, but before she could choose a reaction, the dark-type was sniffing at her curiously. It nudged her hand when she crouched down to pet it, then nudged at her bag. Was it hungry? She pulled her back aside to open it and revealed an oran berry. It was Mun's favorite snack. She offered it to the quadruped. She scratched behind its ears and smiled. "Aw, do you wanna come home with me? Lot more berries where that came from."

As Robin's hand curled around Dragapult's pokeball to retrieve it, the earth began to shake and Snorlax cried out in pain. Robin whipped her head around to see icicles embedded in his thick fur and skin, a gift from the ice cat herself. Robin wanted to stop and help him, but the smoke Shalin brought gave her a unique window for the Marshadow that she couldn't give up -- and if she tried to help Snorlax, she'd be too busy hacking to triage.

She put the Dragapult pokeball on her belt, as Marshadow had already learned his moves and by the sound of Honchkrow's cry, he'd adjusted to her's, too. She needed something unexpected.

She pulled a pokeball she hadn't summoned in a while. Her sick Toxel, plagued by darkness and shadow ever since she had forced him to train til fainting for days in a row. After almost getting abducted or worse at the last Rocket confrontation, she'd needed the baby pokemon to evolve and be strong, for all their sakes, but. He hadn't evolved at all. And the sickness that had overtaken him after his nightmare-laden sleep, well... she hadn't found a solution for it either.

But she brought him out, revealing the baby pokemon and its flickering shadows. Marshadow could not see as well in the smokescreen, but Toxel didn't need to see. She'd witnessed him do a weird shadow attack the last time she had tried to fix him, and now it was his opportunity to show off.

Toxel listened for Marshadow's erratic flight to get closer before using shadow rave, assaulting the area in front of him with equally erratic shadow energy. Robin heard it, finally: the cry of a Marshadow. It was a relief, it was a victory, and it was a tragedy all the same. Marshadow again ran through her team like nothing, but she still had some standing, and this time she'd landed a hit, and it was all because of the strength of her team. She was on the right path to stand up to Rocket, to find that masked man and pay him back.

The smoke cleared, and there was no Marshadow or ice cat.

Robin picked up Toxel in her arms, kissing his head and returning him to his pokeball before getting to Honchkrow's side, the bird nearly fainted. "You did so good," she said shakily. "You held your own this time. I couldn't have done this without you." She pushed back her sniffling and rubbed at the bottom of the Honchkrow's beak before returning her to her ball for later care. And finally, she returned to Snorlax' side, rubbing his belly as he bemoaned the ice. It was a hard-hitting assault, but he was her strongest pokemon in terms of tanking hits.

"Thank you." And when he made a fist with his hand, she bumped it with her own, overwhelmed with unspeakable emotion. She returned him to his ball, then turned to Shalin, feeling a little battered and shaky over the earthquake and other events. Her entire team was injured save Toxel, but they had all made it out on the other side. "Let's get outta here, eh?" She sorted her pokeballs on her belt. As they moved to return, she asked with a grin, "how was that ride?"

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"Ooh." A squid-like pokemon entered the path; it wasn't the kind of dark type she'd expected to see on the path. Still, she got a bad feeling about it. She pulled her dex to read it. It told her about Inkay, a dark-type, but the secondary typing wasn't water as she expected. Oh. Oh no. A psychic type pokemon. She avoided it as she walked down the path, completely uninterested in it despite the fact that it was delightfully unusual.

Honchkrow knew Marshadow by now and continued to dance around it defensively, aware it had superior speed and maneuverability. She put herself in positions around the crags and rock formations that forced it to come at strange angles where it could not maximize speed, giving her a fighting chance but little opportunity to fight. She was biding time more than anything, but it was a step up from getting 1-hit KO'd like last time.

Dragapult was angry over Decidueye's fainting, but his barreling after the two air-bound pokemon was interrupted by the presence of the ice cat. Snorlax picked Robin up and held her overhead so she had the proper angle to toss his pokeball out, triggering the return mechanism. The dissipation of his physical form protected him from the fight, but now Robin had to retrieve his ball in the middle of a field where Marshadow was flying around trying to kill Honchkrow and the ice cat was a freakin' blur.

Snorlax growled again, and Robin sighed. "Okay, let me think." Snorlax shook his head. "Wh- no thinking?" Snorlax nodded. Okay. Well, what was instinct telling her? She had no Decidueye, Dragapult was in his ball, and Honchkrow was holding Marshadow off by agile movements.

Well, was.

Marshadow learned fast. It figured out her pattern and hit her with a focus punch, knocking her to the ground. Honchkrow got back up, returning to him with night slash. She hadn't used it before and clipped him with it, but the second time she tried it, he dodged easily. Shit. Robin couldn't do anything twice in this battle. Honchkrow changed strategies and stayed on the ground to reduce the movement of Marshadow, but he was still formidable on the ground as he pursued her.

"Snorlax, we're going to have to take some risks." He let her down, and she ran into the middle of the battlefield towards Dragapult's pokeball. To Shalin, she shouted, "Shalin! Things are about to get a lot harder for both of us!" She turned over to Snorlax to shout over her shoulder: "Use Earthquake!"

And the precarious ground beneath their feet began to rattle and crack.