The Hisuian Braviary was impressive; though its sheen was different than Sirocco, the black one under Josh's care, it would still be a fine choice to survey the crater with. She smiled briefly upon receiving eye contact from Beckett before turning serious again.

"Wow, he must be making some real lettuce if he's hiring that many people," Shalin remarked. "He keeps the place running so well; I drop by from time to time. Transformed Mauville from a military city to Hoenn's sports hub months after be became Gym Leader there." While she wasn't terribly sports savvy, she could appreciate it through her friend. "Anyway, how about we saddle up and survey the trail?" she asked, Sol's wings beginning to flutter silently.

Leo purred in appreciation of Caelan's scritches before crouching near them, as if beckoning them to hop on. She was going to ask if the Lycanroc was trained to carry them across the land, but refrained from it when she noticed the rock-type's aggression, already sniffing to get on the trail.

Regardless of whether Caelan rode alongside Shalin and Balan, she would try to learn more about the issue at hand. "Were you able to ask the farmers if they knew what kind of Pokémon was snatching the Wooloo?" she asked them. "We can narrow our tactics if we know what we're hunting down."

The confidence Reinier had in their Pokémon to battle autonomously was a sign that they would be able to handle the dangers the millennia-old bird den's dangers without trouble. "How much practice have you had riding on a flying Pokémon?" Shalin asked them. "If you haven't had much, Alexei Ivanov 's bird sanctuary in Fortree is a great place to learn - he taught me a lot of what I know about flying!"

Admittedly, she had learned a lot on her own, given that she usually flew on giant insect Pokémon that weren't exactly the most... traditional of creatures to soar on. Even so, she had some Pokémon that would be easy for a beginner to learn with. "It's also a really good place to catch a flying Pokémon of your own. I always recommend that trainers get a Pokémon they can fly on. Especially in Hoenn - this region isn't exactly friendly to travel by foot."

What an unusual fellow; Pokémon were so intertwined with daily life that it was unthinkable to not have at least one to help out! As hard as it was to resist the urge to make a comment about it, what with the symbiotic relationship she had with her entire team, Shalin kept her thoughts to herself. "Leo can give you a hand -- er, a paw -- if you need one with the deliveries! It'll be a bit of a long trip across Petalburg Woods and to the city proper. You're more than welcome to hop on him!" The Luxray crouched next to Cyrus, offering him a lift once the egg cartons had been loaded onto the small wagon Lady would be towing.

Regardless of travel arrangements, Shalin and her three Pokémon would get started with their delivery route. "So, what do you do to make ends meet?" she asked Cyrus. "You don't have to answer if you don't want to - just trying to pass the time while we head south!" Even by Pokémon, the trip through Petalburg Woods wouldn't exactly be short...

Shalin was too delirious to hear Dorian's first cheer; by the time she was able to slide off the Beedrill's wing and did so, his Volcarona was already fluttering around them. She steadily walked toward her Venusaur, who extended both of her giant, thick vines. "Thanks! It's what a Sygna Suit can do when synced to a Flygon!" Shalin explained right before Queen Zing buzzed her wings loudly, as if goading the Volcarona to see if it could churn its own six wings just as fast.

Saria's throat rumbled as the noise from the two giant bugs calmed down. "And that's only the first half of the show!" she advertised as one of the vines snaked toward her, the girl sitting on the thick pod at the very end of it. It was the part that Venusaur used to smack their foes with: one of their Power Whips.

As the intense rush of Infinity Energy filled Shalin, it left her just as swiftly, her vision fading to white. She wished she could have kept her Avatar powers, too, what with what was lurking at the bottom of the EPOCH RUINS.

Or perhaps it was more of a blessing that they didn't come along, for being Rock-weak would have been an awful way to go, given she was staring down REGIROCK. With little time to think, the girl reached for Treble's Poké Ball, clambering aboard the Kommo-o as quickly as she could. "Don't worry about me! Just grind that thing to dust like you do any other rock wall!" Shalin bravely ordered, her mount entering CLOSE COMBAT with the legendary.

Shalin's exposed skin violently rippled as her dragon mount's vibrating fists clashed with the broad side of the rock-type's STONE EDGES. "Faster, Treble!" she encouraged. Faster and harder the Alolan dragon's fists shook, the Captain and her Kommo-o beginning to blur from the attack's incredible frequency.

It was hard to recommend a place to start. There were so many fascinating tales of Hoennian history hidden throughout its ruins, strongholds, and other geographic features. She, too, was overwhelmed by how vast Hoenn was. As she dredged up memories of her expeditions, she came up with a good starting one.

"What about the Braviary's Nest northwest of Fortree?" Shalin suggested. "It's a stronghold where the first-known bird Pokémon trainers lived. You need a flying Pokémon to get there, but it's worth seeing. We could go there together sometime if you don't have a flying Pokémon of your own!"

Shalin wasn't quite sure why Reinier wanted to cut the conversation short; 121 was a very rural route. It was unlikely anyone would be eavesdropping on them in the middle of nowhere. She paid the Gallade nearby no heed as she and her Type: Null watched Reinier's battle with Golett.

One weekend in late April, Shalin and the Mauville Gym Leader had their schedules align to the point where they could go to the arcade and play Step Step Revolution in front of a crowd at Slateport City's Round One Arcade. Shalin could clear much of the game's hardest content, and wanted to give the newest level 19 chart a try; unlike the rest of the folder, the chart she wanted to unlock and play was a bridge between the much easier level 18 folder and the highest level of difficulty seemingly in a league of its own.

That would not be the case; Rangers throughout Hoenn had been overwhelmed with missing persons reports toward the end of the month, some of which were VIPs. The Champion and Knight of Thunder, Josh Devlin , was on that list. She felt miserable for the young man. He, at long last, fulfilled his dream of befriending Raikou, and didn't even get to be with the Beast for a month before disappearing. The number of other people that had vanished was alarming, too. Every city had Rangers searching for the missing people around the clock, and Rustboro had become so overwhelmed that the Captain herself had joined the effort. She had loaned out almost all of her flying Pokémon to Rustboro Rangers who needed aerial assistance. The only two left in her possession was Sandy, her Flygon, and Sol, the Shiny Volcarona upon which she was seated and ready to soar atop.

"Beckett, right?" Shalin asked the young man. "Captain Shalin Nariya of Rustboro. The Mauville Gym Leader is one of my best friends, and I couldn't bear it if I learned something horrible happened to him so recently after becoming a Champion."

So it was even the more innocent-looking bugs that were problematic, not just the dangerous-looking ones that Shalin saddled primarily to look more intimidating than she actually was. Zachary really was a psychic specialist, like Josh warned, wasn't he?

The fire and ice moths landed just as Zachary's Swadloon defended him against a Croconaw that looked like it wanted to take a bite out of the poor, scared young man. Despite how he felt toward bug-types, the Swadloon repelled the wild with a leaf barrage, forcing the amphibian's retreat.

Curious, Shalin approached the Swadloon to give the grass-type insect a pet if they allowed it. "Swadloon are bug-types in addition to grass-types. You seem comfortable around them," she noted aloud. "What about them makes you like raising them more than another bug Pokémon?"

Right. They had come to the bottom of the Power Spot to extract Dynite Ore and Tera Crystals. "I got it!" Shalin did her best to smile, though she was not the ball of sunshine she normally was. The LIFE DEW helped patch up the Captain and the rest of her team, but it wouldn't help poor Bass Boost. Only treatment at a Pokémon Center would help them. Shalin slid off her dragon-type mount, needing to conserve her energy for the flight out.

With the bellow of a dragon, the Kommo-o slammed his fists into the mineral vein and began to vibrate every sale on his body. The hum turned into a loud rumble, Lutgarde possibly able to feel the vibrations themselves. The CLANGING SCALES dissolved the rock into sand, the much harder Dynite and Terastal ores floating to the top. Shalin didn't fill Sandy's saddlebags too much; with how sharp they were, a dislodged crystal could puncture even her scales.

Once Shalin had finished transferring their small haul aboard their flying-types, she followed Lutgarde into the air, the echoing hum of Sandy's vibrating wings the only ambient noise all the way back to the surface world.

Shalin and Sandy darted across the sands of Hoenn's great desert with the agility of a hummingbird, the Rustboro Captain hooting and hollering from within her SYGNA SUIT. JOLLY as could be, the INFINITY ENERGY flowing between the two let the Flygon break her normal limits, the two of them looking like one Flygon with how indistinguishable she was from her synced Pokémon. She had to get ready for war, but even Petalburg Woods was a bit too close for what she wanted to do. The Great Desert was vast enough that the enormous shockwaves from her wings at speed would not cause much disturbance. It was the perfect place to practice the ultimate synced technique the duo could unleash.

Shalin guided the Flygon to a rock formation a few feet off the desert's sandy surface. "Let's get warmed up, Sandy!" she chirped, sliding off the dragon-type's back and onto its insectile yet sturdy wing. Both of them glowed a faint green, the flow of Infinity Energy enabling the Flygon to support Shalin in this unusual way. "It's been a bit, so don't go too fast right away!" With a nod and a chirp of her own, Sandy's wings began to hum and vibrate, turning Shalin into a blur even at the relatively low frequency.

Little did she realize that some nasty winds were going to ravage the Great Desert sooner than forecast...

After seeing the Beartic's facial expression, it seemed Leo wasn't being forthcoming. The past Shalin, before she ascended to Rustboro's Ranger Captain, wouldn't have seen through such a ruse. She had to deal with a lot more people now. That experience let her see right through Leo's little fib. "It's called Meteno. As in meteor. The meteor that was on a collision course with Hoenn before Eva Morales and Rayquaza shattered it to pieces."

When asked about the Type: Null's armor, Shalin's instinct was to caution Leo about petting the creature, but it was too late; he had already done so. A menacing-sounding hybrid of a purr and a growl, one strong enough that he would feel vibration if he continued to try petting the Pokémon, would be the only warning he would get to stop. "That's a question I've been trying to answer for over a year of raising her," the Captain answered. "You see, Type: Null were originally designed to be a bio-weapon solely for killing Ultra Beasts. That mask she wears is a retainer. Even if you know how to remove it, doing so makes the Pokémon almost impossible to control. She's moody enough as she is. I couldn't imagine it then."

As Leo explained how long his tenure was and the motivation for joining the Rangers, Shalin nodded along, waiting for a huge gust of wind to stop before replying back. "If your primary goal is to punish Team Rocket, Law Enforcement is more your field. We do a fair amount of Rocket busting as Rangers, too, but not quite as much as the cops get to do. Let's put it this way. Rangers are to Pokémon what Law Enforcement is to people."