Wow, was this woman ever energetic! No wonder Josh was suggesting she meet her! "Glad to finally get to meet you, too! Name's Shalin, wildest Pokémon rider this side of Hoenn!" The Beedrill beat her wings just below the threshold of human hearing as she spread her stings wide, looking to embrace the multicolored, heterochromatic trainer if she allowed it. Sonikku could have been able to feel the wake of wind from the Beedrill's wings going even at such a low speed. "And this is Queen Zing, my Beedrill and perhaps my most loyal Pokémon. She'll be helping with the Mightyena problem. What's your name? I didn't recognize you at all from the email briefing."

Of course, she had other Pokémon with her, but they would come out as they became useful. As much as she loved joyriding around Hoenn with her senses dulled, she learned from former Head Ranger annalise henderson the importance of staying on task. "If you don't have a ride of your own, I've got plenty to go around! It'll help us cover more ground and figure out what's got these Mightyena so upset."

Another hyperactive girl with a face that stood out? Now this was a friend she could get behind! It seemed she wanted to challenge Shalin for her title, and was serious about it, too, from the grin on her face! Was she a Pokémon rider, too? She was certainly a brave one, willingly approaching the shiny, saddled Beedrill and looking at them like she wanted to mount the bug-type with her. She waved the flat of one of her stings toward Sonikku before facing the woods north of the Pokémon playground.

Shalin smiled and laughed at the girl's dramatic introduction. This young lady made her look stoic with her own grandiose saying. "I think we'll get along great, Sonikku!" The green-ette's smile widened when her offer was fearlessly accepted. She sent out her saddled Yanmega, which was also quite a bit bigger than most Pokémon of his species' size. "Flit here will put all your big words to the test, you know that?" she teased. "And you'll want these in your ears, too," Shalin handed the girl her backup set of earplugs. "You'll want these before you take off."

If Sonikku was willing to scamper aboard Flit, the curious dragonfly would put her to the test. He would plant his legs in the ground beneath him to keep himself anchored, then start churning his wings. The shaking would be relaxing at first, but would grow in intensity until reaching the pitch and speed of a shrill BUG BUZZ. He would let his wings buzz at full speed for a few seconds before slowing them down and letting Sonikku fully control the Yanmega through his reins. Shalin and her Beedrill would follow behind once they were headed away from the play area and toward the woods the Mightyena supposedly came from.

Even through her earplugs, Shalin could hear Sonikku's hooting and hollering as the duo gained a lot of altitude. She wondered if Flit's impulse to impress the blue-haired girl was a bad idea, perhaps scaring the Mightyena away. The two bugs landed on opposite sides of the top of a giant tree, giving them a good vantage point of the lightly-wooded grassland. "Fun, isn't it?" she said with a raised voice; she would still need to speak up even with the insects' wings silent. "Have you flown on a Yanmega yourself? That much vibration can take a lot of getting used to, and you looked like you were having so much fun!"

With a bit of downtime during their survey, Shalin answered the chipper girl's questions. "No, my Pokémon are nowhere near as close to as fast as his. I'm... I'm actually afraid to ride as fast as his very fastest Pokémon go. You'd never catch me on an Arcanine. They're way too fast." Shalin smiled when Sonikku asked about her other Pokémon. "Well, if you liked Flit so much, I have this Kommo-o I want to show you sometime. They're dragons that attack by vibrating their scales so fast, he can even throw me off him!" She went on to list more highly unusual ride Pokémon, such as Skuntank, Persian, Seismitoad, and Raticate.

Suddenly, Shalin heard some rustling from beneath. "Any idea what that was?" she asked.

Shalin was truly looking at a blue-hued mirror image of herself, wasn't she? It seemed the Yanmega tuckered the poor girl out. "It took months of practice to get to where I am now," she explained. "I used to be afraid to be on him at all. It just takes a lot of getting used to. And I've got the perfect place to practice, too. Some other day, how about we meet up at my Romping Grounds northeast of Petalburg Woods? You'll be able to meet all my Pokémon there!" Plus, she wouldn't have to worry about any bystanders giving her the side-eye from some of the utterly ridiculous things she enjoyed doing with her Pokémon.

"If Flit's too intense, how about we switch Pokémon? You might like Queen Zing a little better; she doesn't shake as much when she's flying, even though her wings go faster." Provided she would agree to switching ride Pokémon, Shalin would get a better look at the surface below, peering over the saddled dragonfly's sides. "Look at all those Thievul down there," she pointed. "They're territorial rivals of Mightyena. I think what happened is they took over their territory. I'm gonna light 'em all up!"

With that, the Yanmega took to the skies again, riding down toward a clearing where the Thievul were gathering. Agitated at the Bug-type's presence, the wilds began to leap at the duo with an array of NIGHT SLASHes. While most of them fell short, one of them latched onto Flit's legs, the weight of both Shalin and the Thievul dragging him down. Shalin let go of Flit's reins and stretched her two arms to her sides, forcing her forearm muscles to spasm as part of her Z-Pose.

"FLITTING FORTISSIMO!!!" she shouted, immediately putting her hands back on the reins and holding on for dear life.

As Flit was being dragged to the surface, he churned his wings faster and faster, uprooting grass around himself and even causing trees to creak. The vibration became louder and stronger, the young girl unable to feel a thing. Even at a distance, it would have been easy to see how harshly Shalin was being shaken. Even she looked woozy and bewildered from the feedback of the violently-buzzing wings that left unprotected ears deafened. Several Thievul had collapsed from their internal injuries resulting from the massive shockwave, the others retreating from how much pain the brutal noise in their sensitive ears caused them.

Sonikku seemed, in an odd way, a reflection of Shalin herself. She was a boundless well of energy, and like her, seemed to enjoy the thrill of being astride a Pokémon unusual for the task. "We'll need to pick a day to get together, then!" She looked forward to it; perhaps this heterochromatic girl would be the first to conquer one of the explorer's wild romps! None of her other friends were skilled enough riders to do so... or they didn't care to show that skill. One of the two.

Even after Flit landed on the ground, surrounded by unconscious Thievul, Shalin took a couple minutes to recover from what the Yanmega had subject her too. While she was used to strong vibration by now, a Z-Move was something special. She wasn't immune to a shockwave of that strength, either. "No, not all Yanmega can do that," she answered. "That technique was only possible after forming a very close bond with Flit. Are you familiar with what Z-Power is?" she asked, buying time to let the guest rider recover from the maddening shaking.

Super open? Vanessa seemed like a freelancer, much like herself. She liked those kinds of people: easy to schedule around. "It can be mid-morning, then! Might be for the best. That way no one loses their lunch, hee hee!" she giggled. She wasn't kidding, either; if her Pokémon didn't make the greenhead's stomach churn, then they were doing it wrong.

Shalin slid off her Pokémon's back, then pointed out the Z-Bracelet on her left arm and the lime-colored crystal the Yanmega was carrying. "If you have one of these and have your Pokémon hold onto a matching crystal, they can perform a really powerful move. I discovered this crystal myself. It turns Bug Buzz into Flitting Fortissimo. Great name, huh?" She further described what the move was like, Flit vibrating his wings faster than was normally possible to create a destructive sound wave that not only tore foes up from the inside out, but made it impossible for them to hear for a time. It matched what Vanessa had just witnessed, in frightening detail.

With that, their work was done. "It seems like we've gotten to the bottom of this. Just a rival predator causing trouble. Either way it's taken care of. How about we saddle up and head back to Verdanturf? Our paycheck's waiting." Queen Zing crawled toward Sonikku and gently bumped her, trying to coax her aboard for one last flight back to the quiet town tucked away near the mountains.