Gwen sat red in the face alongside Robin inside of the hot springs. Just seeing her in a bathing suit like this was a little embarrassing, but she didn't want to be caught staring. She would have been happy to really spend some personal time with her bestie, though her body language was off. Maybe it was all the time she spent around Pokémon and more now, but the girl was slowly getting used to getting a read on the many creatures of the world. There wasn't much layover when it came to humans, but she could tell something was eating at her.

"Yeah, I've noticed some of it.” Gwen said as she got comfortable inside of the springs. The warm waters felt nice against her tired and slightly tanned skin. "Some of the Pokémon are acting weird lately. It's like something has them on edge."

Robin did seem to be concerned while Gwendolyn could only try and be the more upbeat one. She swallowed back whatever worries were present before offering a smile to Robin.

"Hey, whatever it is, we'll find our way around it. As long as all of us stick together, we can manage through it!" She said, finally looking towards Robin again. "I promise. Do you have any idea what might be causing it?"

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"Roger, roger~" Gwen said in response to Josh's desire to take a diver closer to the surface. Her team no doubt would be able to keep an eye on things up here. Minus the embers and flames being spewed out every few seconds or so. That was just the hard part to deal with around here! "Just be careful around. We can't lose you too. If you start doubting yourself, pull back and we'll come back some other day."

Hew split from her as the period of searching began. Gwen did have to wonder what on earth they would be hush hush about that even Rangers couldn't learn about it. It didn't once dawn at her that maybe a Ranger Trainee wouldn't be privy to information given so freely to captains, but that was besides the point! She just scoffed and shook her head.

Some time later, her and Josh caught back up and landed so the dragons could have their wings rest. The Druddigon was warm, and looked to have signs of overheating. Gwen did her best to try and cool him down, even sacrificing her own water to make sure he didn't give out on them. Gishath, meanwhile, would eye Josh's Charizard and give off a most threatening hiss that only a toothless Gabite could manage.

"No clue. I've only read about the reports of people who came here before...this happened." Gwen replied back to Josh, crossing her arms. "If he fell in here, how do we know he's even still here? The heat here would melt him in an instant. I'm not trying to be a contrarian, but it's getting harder to think that he may still be kicking..."

Did Robin like her? Gwendolyn knew that she did, but would Robin ever like her like...No, that was silly!

She was a wonderful friend and all around coolest person in Hoenn. She had her moments of weakness like everyone else, but Gwen loved her resilience to everything. No matter how many times life kicked her while she was down and out, she kept getting back up, ready for more.

That time when she had almost been kidnapped by that monster Rocket, the doubt of becoming a Ranger, and even getting sick. It was a trait she was envious of in spades. Gwen got pushed back once and she needed a full week to recover and get back to her usual mindset. Robin just kept on trucking.

"Thanks. I really do like her, b-but I'm trying to meet more people too! I can't just spend all my time around my bestie." she said with a smile. "I just really want to ask her something, but I don't know if I have the courage to."

The small pep talk Ameena had gave her would help somewhat. Life was hard for a successful woman in the world, yet it was people like her who no doubt would stand on top of everything one day. Gwen nodded her head along and roamed back up now that the power to the outpost had been restored. A precursory look had shown yes, there was a lot of sprucing up that needed down.

But fortunately for the both of them, they had a handiwoman.

"I can tell the circuit's frayed and need repairing. Check the power flickering." she said, pointing to the lights. "If you help me get some tools and materials, I can try and see if I can't stabilize the flow it so nothing explodes. Other than that, I could maybe see about using some of the electronics here to our advantage. But first things first!"

The Skarmory's attack had been successful and landed just on the side of the Braviary. The large bird cawed out at the impact of the DRILL PECK. It had ceased attacking enough to fly back into the air and leave Gwen to save the egg from its clutches. Although not entirely scratch free. Her hair was messy and her glasses had successfully broken from the talons scratching her.

"Crap, that was my back up pair!" she whined, looking down at Gishath running back over to them. He stomped in a fury, hissing at the circling Braviary. "Thanks for the help. I guess I don't need to see clearly anyway."

The world had become blurry for her, though Gwen could still make out things. She wiped her eyes free of any feathers or anything that might get in the way of her vision before letting out a frustrated sigh.

"At least dragons give you some notice before attacking..."

"We've been through worse." Gwen said and rubbed the side of the Druddigon's head. He was still grumpy but the tail behind him swing back and forth. Gishath even let his intentions be known to the both of them, letting out a sudden hiss while seated comfortably in his ride's hands. "If we need too, I'll hang back and let you dive into the boiling depths. Some of us don't have the luck of getting a Charizard yet." She joked with the other Ranger while taking off soon enough. Sure, things weren't exactly the most ideal teamwise, but Gwen would figure it out on the fly.

The sign of any good craftsman.

"More League secrets, huh?" she repeated, rolling her eyes behind her suit. "I swear, it feels like you guys keep more secrets than Rocket some days, but I won't prod. Let's focus on finding Kyle while we have the chance."

The two were off and diving into the wide area that was the crater of Area Zero. Following Josh's instructions, Gwen remained as high and away from the ground as possible, or what little there was to be considered ground in here. The sheer heat was enough to melt any uncovered skin that wasn't reinforced with scales or some other way to vent heat. The Druddigon slowly flew around farther away from Josh as they split into two separate directions, though not enough to lose sight of one another.

"This is a first for me. Never thought I've come to see this place. Shame I can't stay too long, or else I'd just spend all day watching Pokemon here." Gwen and her crew swooped down by a vantage point while she continued to try and search for any signs of disturbance or something that didn't belong in a place like this. "No sign of him yet. How's stuff on your end?"

”Uhhhh…” Gwen stumbled with the question that was asked of her regarding her professorship status. She had thought about it so hard that she still didn't know exactly where her speciality would lie.

”I'm not sure, to be honest. I thought Professor was a blanket term. But I did think working with Pokémon is what I wanna do.”

The lack of friends here was a bit alarming. Gwen hadn't thought it played out like that. She did meet people like Josh Devlin, freya morningstar, and Shalin Nariya that she considered friends, even if they had never really gotten to know each other the best. But there was one more than any other who Gwen knew just as well she did to her.

”You could say she's special.” Gwen said with a smirk. ”Her name is robin coello. You might have heard of her before, but she's also a ranger. Actually, she helped me get into them in the first place. I owe a lot to her. She helped me break out of my shell in the first place. I…joined because I didn't want her to get hurt and be by herself. She's been through a lot, and I want her to keep that smile she has when she's excited about something.”

After her little rant and rambling about the not-so psychic in question, Gwendolyn rolled her eyes.

”Sorry, I probably sound all weird. We've been friends for a while back home. She probably thinks I'm weird and nerdy, but I look up to her a lot.”

With the power restored in the meantime, Gwen nodded her head in agreement. Securing the camp here would make any future visits much easier in the future. After all, having a little command post in the middle of this weird electric city was going to help things progress as smoothly as possible.

Ameena did share her own little fascination with the Xurkitree. As a computer buff, it was no doubt that Gwen would be compelled to follow things through here with this woman.

”Absolutely! We've come this far already, so I'm in it 100%! Besides, seeing something like that up close is a once in a lifetime scenario. We're ready whenever you are, Ameena!”

Gwendolyn hadn't been able to see the full sights and sounds of Area Zero, as she had been busy with the HOME Project and working with some Pokemon that had been in need of some care and such. But from the scenery she was faced with upon arrival, it was hard to say that this was going to be a feel good trip around a crater. Her brows furrowed at thinking that the body of kyle lopez would be down here somewhere, charred beyond recognition.

"I'm good. I've got my own ride this time."

She tossed out her Druddigon as the rather uncharacteristically colored dragon-type would appear onto the scene in front of her. The dragon huffed as Gishath hopped into its awaiting arms and Gwen climbed onto his back. She had her doubts about the ordeal, but some part of her hoped that they could find kyle lopez out here in all of this.

"But Josh, I...just think you should be ready for this. I'm not close with him, but you definitely were. If we do find him, are you sure you can handle it?" Her comms came through a little staticy as she fiddled with the receiver to try and clear up some of the static. "I'll help you however I can, but if he is out there..."

She hesitated, though soon took off into the air on her Pokemon's back alongside the Champion. She held onto his back and hummed to herself, looking all around their environment.

"I can cover the south if you'd like to head up North?"

”Oh, me?” Gwendolyn asked in response to Ameena's question. ”I, ah, really don't have that many, to be honest. I'm only super into tech because I used to build computers and stuff. That spiraled into learning how to do some other things, like building this kind of technology. I actually want to be a Pokémon Professor when I'm older.”

She kept her gaze ahead at the tunnels in front of them, casually taking a look at the scanner out of morbid curiosity. The screen displayed nothing on it but was a little banged up. So it was either faulty and they could be surrounded or more pleasantly, nobody was around.

”I've been trying to meet new people, so I thought this would be nice! That's why I took it. Plus, you seem pretty cool to get to know too. If anything, I should be thanking you for letting me tag along.”

The two women came across an electrical box attached to a white pole that looked pretty important. Gwen's eyes traveled along the shaft until it met with the firm cover of earth and continued to ascend up to the surface.

”That must be the power switch.” She said, walking over to it and observed the switch, soon pushing it upright into the “on” position.

That was a good point. All that electricity in the sky would make traversal almost impossible without something to defend against it. Gwen scrunched her face in thought while watching Ameena work her magic by summoning Kirilia and getting her to search for something. It was vague at first, but soon was made a bit more clear what she was doing.

”Underground?” Gwen repeated after her, then processed what she had been doing before it clicked. Her eyes widened in surprise. ”Yeah, that makes way more sense! Out of sight and no thunder in the sky that can hurt you!”

The two women soon were faced with one of the entry points into these tunnels after Ameena located one just hidden as a door in plain sight. The ginger haired girl wasn't one to shy away from getting her hands dirty. Gishath even would perk up at the sight of digging his way through a tunnel.

”Not at all! I'm down for a bit of spelunking today.”

Soon enough, she was underneath in the tunnels alongside the other two. The air was muggy and humid as the scent of dirt and metal was there to greet her. Gishath waddled beside with a content grumble.

”Any clue where we're heading to?”