One day after a trip to the arcade, Shalin's dancing partner told her about a shrine in the Fortree area that was responsible for how much his life had changed. While she didn't exactly believe how a single historical site could do that, it was another relic of Hoenn's past she had never been to. Her curiosity sated, she made the journey to Fortree City on Starr's back, the Espeon's green fur glowing against the dark sky. Was some weather coming?

The shrine was small, and she could not see inside it from the distance she was at. "Starr, can we pick up--" Before Shalin could even finish her sentence, the Espeon had read her mind, running faster at her request. It did not take her long to cover the rest of the distance and locate the Fortree Leader just outside the priceless site. "Hopefully we can get through our shift before this weather rolls in!" she waved toward Alex, her Espeon mount wearing only a saddle and not full riding gear like the rest of her team did.

The excavation site's most prominent feature was a petrified tree that had been struck by lightning many times. "At least if the weather gets bad, we'll have some cover," Shalin gestured toward the south-facing entrance to the hollowed-out tree. With Vince being a lookout, she felt comfortable looking inside.

She could not believe her eyes.

The interior walls of the tree were covered in gorgeous murals of the Johtonian mythological Pokémon Raikou, a Pokémon so fast that not even the most powerful supercars in the world could match the most extreme of its EXTREME SPEEDs. "This is... nothing short of amazing," Shalin slowly said, the images of surprisingly high quality. She was particularly impressed with one image of the noble creature in full sprint. "It's a shame this place even has to be protected at all. People, I tell you..."

"That was a rough one," Shalin concurred with Alex's hopes. Frostbite on top of deep wounds from Mightyena cuspids was something she had already experienced one too many times. Yes, one time was one too many. "Would be nice if things were nice and quiet for a change. They wouldn't have asked us to come out here if there wasn't heightened risk, though." Her eyes wandered from mural to mural. "Ah, you are familiar with the Great Raikou of Johtonian history, then?"

Without warning, two arcs of MUD SHOT came hurtling toward Vince and Starr, completely blindsiding and blinding the Espeon! While she was a powerful psychic-type, she did not have telekinetic sight! Her Pokémon unable to see, Shalin withdrew her and peered around the shrine's entrance, trying to get an idea of what Pokémon that attack came from before sending a new one out.

The blasts of MUD SHOT had come from a pair of Golisopod, who were now visible as dark clouds rolled in. Rain was going to start falling within minutes, one of them performing a RAIN DANCE as their owners came in. The other Golisopod PROTECTed itself from Alex's Pokémon. The first looked quite disoriented, squinting from the squealing noise Carina's wings produced.

"Dis place belongs ta th'Girthy Grumpig now, y'hear?" one of the hulking thugs announced in a thick southern Unovan accent, the two water-types holding blasts of LIQUIDATION at their trainers' command. And with the rain coming, those were gonna hurt. "Y'gonna scurry away like the li'l kids y'are, er y'gonna become smears on th'shrine walls?"

That was IT. Shalin wasn't holding anything back anymore. Ground-types or no, she was ending this now. Standing just inside the shrine's entrance to take cover from the assailants' previous attacks, she waited for Alex to distract them, palming Queen Zing's Poké Ball in her right hand, her left hovering near her MEGA CIRCLET...

Shalin's retort to the Girthy Grumpig duo was uncharacteristically cold. It was a single word in an uncharacteristically low-pitched tone, considing how cheerful her normal voice was. It was a resounding "neither" as she clicked the release switch on her palmed Poké Ball, her saddled Beedrill materializing. The green-haired female put her earplugs back up, mounted up, and pinched her fingers over her MEGA CIRCLET's Key Stone.

The explorer was furious, unlike anything anyone had seen since she returned to Hoenn. She was putting herself in danger riding her Beedrill into battle. And she did not care. Her mount shared her rider's anger, churning her wings at full speed as she charged toward the Golisopod Alex's Lucario had softened up. "...FELL STINGER," she commanded with a coldness that, again, was uncharacteristic of her usual self.

For those without ear protection, Queen Zing's vibration in her Mega Evolved form had to be nothing short of deafening. Even for the girl used to being on buzzing Pokémon, the shaking was so intense as to be almost numbing. Until these thugs were out of her sight, though, she was running on pure adrenaline, not caring one but about how intense it got. The two charged toward the bug-type with speed a certain Pokémon racer would be proud of, Shalin feeling her body drop parallel to the ground as her mount pointed her deadly rear stinger at her foe.

Such a slow Pokémon had no chance at evading the blistering fast charge, Queen Zing adding insult to injury by putting on a burst of wing speed that caused her body to start throbbing wildly. Though Shalin didn't feel it yet, that vibration was going to hurt when her adrenaline high was over. The effect on the Golisopod was far worse, intoxicating the bug-type with some of the most lethal venom known in the Pokémon world. "You want a face full of Beedrill sting, too?!" she cried in the general direction of the thugs terrorizing the town.

The two thugs, gravely outmatched, raised their hands in defeat. They had certainly not counted on a Mega Evolution user and a Gym Leader thwarting their plans. Once the Pokémon had been withdrawn, Queen Zing reverted to her normal form. Shalin groaned and slid out of the saddle; she had, in her fit of rage, forgotten to snap her cocoon harness together! It was an important part of being able to safely ride the bug-type while she was Mega Evolved. She had now learned from experience, and it would be one she would never forget. Her elbows became bruised from being the first joints to absorb the impact with the road. She couldn't feel a thing; all she could feel was tingling from Queen Zing borderline throttling her with the fierce vibration the Beedrill badly injured the foe Golisopod with.

If Alex were to inspect the fallen Shalin, it would be quickly obvious that while she had suffered minor physical harm, she had simply passed out from what was likely an adrenaline rush of great proportions. The Beedrill hovered over her sleeping trainer, trying to half-embrace her without stinging her by mistake. Just like Shalin, it seemed that Queen Zing and the Mega Evolved Queen Zing had two different personalities. As a Beedrill, she was uncharacteristically docile, but as a Mega Beedrill, the species' instincts seemed to take over.