Shalin knew she wasn't going to win an election for boruta maher 's seat without a lot of work. She needed an endorsement from one of the Head Rangers to get a jumpstart on the campaign trail. ollie morales wouldn't be a great one to seek out, considering they had a strong business relationship prior to her winning her own election. Laurence Anderson wasn't exactly a fan of what her Sygna Suit could do, just about blowing a gasket when she demonstrated its power for him. That left Razz Kingsman .

The two of them had agreed to meet at Fortree Airstrip for a demonstration of two of her skills: one, what she could do with her Sygna Suit. That would be the easy one. The second and more challenging one would be guiding Razz through one of the remote and dangerous locations she had traversed in retrieving the Medallions of Eight.

The Braviary's Nest.

Seated on the back of her Shiny Beedrill, Queen Zing, Shalin was ready to go when Razz was. Dressed in a red Ranger uniform for the first time, she felt ready to impress the Head Ranger and prove to him that she had the wherewithal to be a Captain. "Ready to set your sights where few others have, Head Ranger?" Shalin asked him. "Don't forget to take lots of pictures. You'll see truly extraordinary things in there." Stowed on her back was the AVIAN BOW, one of two of its kind lifted from the very place they were headed. She also had the replica GALE MEDALLION with her. "I would presume you have a flying Pokémon of your own. If you don't, you're more than welcome to one of mine." Regardless of arrangements, it would not take long for the two to be on their way, the girl putting in her earplugs to ward the deafening noise the giant wasp's wings would create.

Shalin was at first taken aback by Razz's assertive correction, though she relaxed after hearing the Head Ranger's backpedal. "You might change your mind when you get there. It's truly extraordinary. Anyway, going silent - I gotta turn my suit's noise cancelling on. Hopefully your Braviary's agile; there's some real rough terrain that prevents most ordinary flying Pokémon from approaching the entrance." With that, she activated her suit's deafening capability just in time for her mount's wings to start a roaring, deafening buzz. Even with the noise reduction, she could still clearly hear it; without her suit or earplugs, the racket would have caused serious, perhaps even permanent hearing damage.

The blue-eyed wasp bobbed around Razz and his Braviary, the Ranger-Captain candidate's seemingly boundless energy on display as the two flew toward the former location of the GALE MEDALLION: a tall, earthen spire surrounded by a thick, ring-shaped cloud obscuring the peak. Remembering the place where she dipped below the canopy last time, she led Razz to that spot. Beneath was terrain featuring extremely sharp elevation changes and rock formations at odd angles that required great maneuverability to fly around. It was clear that extremely violent impacts had to have taken place here some time in Hoenn's ancient past.

Having been there before, it did not take her long to locate the cave entrance nestled just below the canopy, featuring a natural rock platform perfect for large birds to take off from. There was a 1/3 scale statue of a Pidgeot on the platform's far end, preserved surprisingly well due to its remote location hidden from the elements.

While Shalin waited for Razz to catch up and land, she couldn't help but desire to show off her SYGNA SUIT. Sending out her Flygon, the green dragon's wings chirping as she landed near her trainer, the INFINITY ENERGY began to flow between the two. Her suit glowing a faint green, the explorer slid down her Beedrill's translucent wing, the wasp tilting it up to catch her and prevent her from falling off entirely. It was clear that the suit and bond between her and her Flygon was making this possible. A normal person's weight would have fractured the wing; was the suit making her feel much lighter to her Pokémon?

Grabbing the wing with all four of her limbs, Shalin braced herself as it began to flap and buzz with her on it. Every hair on her body stood on end as she disappeared into a green blur. The glow surrounding her and her Flygon became brighter as the vibration got faster and faster. Razz may have been able to hear a cry of pure bliss as the wingbeat rate peaked. Once they slowed down, eventually becoming calm, the girl looked incredibly woozy, but was otherwise unharmed.

Shalin, not one to see through the sarcasm, took it as a compliment. "She's a strong one to be around Queen Zing making that noise at all! Psychic-types usually can't stand her buzzing." It took her several minutes to regain her senses enough to safely slide off the wasp's wing and onto the ledge they had landed on. "Still getting used to it, but wowee is it ever fun! Once we perfect our bond, I can't wait to go for a full speed run on her wing!"

She withdrew her Flygon and Beedrill, their purpose having been served. Instead, she sent out Treble, a Kommo-o, who would serve as her ride Pokémon as they entered the Braviary's Nest. "This is actually my most popular expedition destination," she answered the Head Ranger with a smile. "It's still dangerous, but less dangerous than other destinations. Nariya Expeditions was initially founded under the premise of travel to places too dangerous for Rangers to serve as guides to in an official capacity. Everyone who comes here knows to be ready to use their own Pokémon to defend themselves if need be."

Mission statement presented, she led Razz into the Braviary's Nest's bottom-most chamber. It looked like less of a cave and more of a fortress on the inside. Six pairs of stone-wrought pillars, each pair bearing the head of a different large bird Pokémon, populated the entryway in symmetry. A portcullis blocked the way directly forward.

If Razz were to look to the right, he would see an entrance to a smaller chamber that looked like an archers' parapet, two nearly empty weapon racks and a wall lever handing from the north wall. To the left, he would see a training hall of sorts, filled with targets and training dummies in disarray and that looked like they had seen better days. There was an identical-looking wall lever in this room, as well.

"My jaw hit the floor when I first discovered this place with Alexei Ivanov ," Shalin said, reminiscing. "It's been... this is funny. It's been a year and a week to the day since I first came here. Learning of ancient Hoenn's earliest-known bird Pokémon trainers was a trip and a half, let me tell you."

The origin of the rough terrain beneath them was one Shalin could only speculate about. "My guess is there was a really big battle down there in ancient times, perhaps with the gods involved," she theorized. "What else could create the kind of force needed to permanently alter the landscape like that? It's too jagged and oddly-shaped for something like a Tyranitar to do. It's more that the bird trainers took advantage of the terrain to set up an unassailable fortress. It would be awful hard to invade without a flying Pokémon. Of course, this is all conjecture, but it's my best guess."

The Cyclizar was a great choice to navigate the labyrinthine inside, what with having a fairly narrow body and allowing a rider precise control. "Those are great Pokémon for beginning riders," she said, pointing in Blurr's general direction. "They're also just fun to control."

As Shalin went into the room opposite the one Razz did, she asked the Head Ranger for a little help. "We need to pull both the levers at the same time to get deeper into the fortress. Can you give me a hand with the far one, please?" Provided he did as requested, the iron bars blocking the way forward would recede into the ground.

Beyond the portcullis was a short hall with a moderate upward grade to it. It gave way to an almost castle-like grand hall, several paintings depicting large bird Pokémon alongside humans wearing unusual garb. Light filtering in from balcony entrances at the top of the stairs on the west and east sides kept the room well lit. Dusty candlesticks populated the room, half still standing and half on the floor haphazardly.

Near the top of the east staircase was a mural depicting two royal figures that appeared to be hand-feeding quite large Braviary. If Razz and Blurr were to approach the staircase, they would be able to feel a draft as it split to the two balcony entrances. "Amazing, isn't it?" the Captain-in-training asked. "It's like getting a snapshot into ancient Hoenn."

Shalin did not intend for her remark about Cyclizar to come off as inflammatory by any means. Razz didn't seem too bothered by it, though, brushing it off in favor of clear appreciation of Shalin's skills as a Ranger as well as this surreal historical site. "Actually, it was Alexei Ivanov and I that found this. We went flying together... around a year ago, and stumbled upon it. There are a limited number of Pokémon that can even make it out here, and getting inside is obviously tricky, even if you know where to look."

As Shalin guided Treble toward the left staircase, she gave Razz a warning. "There's this Murkrow nest that's inside the stairwell to the upper level. It seems like no matter how many times I scare them away, they keep coming back. You might want to cover your ears." The tan-scaled dragon walked to the threshold of the stairwell, the scales near his head and tail starting to vibrate. The NOBLE ROAR, amplified by the shaking, scared the black-feathered birds away. "It's... one of two dangers that still patrols this place. The other... if I hear signs of it, it's a duck-and-cover moment. You'll know it when you hear it. It's...distinct."

Once the way forward was clear, Shalin led the way up the staircase to the second level, its construction more intricate and exquisite than the lower level. It was obvious that the ancient civilization's VIPs frequented the floor. They emerged in what appeared to be a study, full of tightly-packed bookshelves with a couple of exceptions: empty book bindigs on the floor served as evidence of their pages having crumbled to dust once removed. "Unfortunately, the knowledge in those books will likely be lost to time forever. I tried to remove some of them for research, but their pages crumbled when I did."

To the west was a completely dark room, the only place so far that was entirely devoid of light, and to the east was a hallway with a spiral staircase leading upward. Beyond the hallway appeared to be a royal bedroom.

Shalin's smile grew as the Head Ranger and Truth Seeker complimented her on her craft. "Thank you - that means a lot coming from you. You're a good boss, you know that?" she replied, genuine in her emotions even though she may have come off as buttering Razz up. "You are right. There were seven other Medallions, after all." Some of them were pretty wild; the volcanic dome in Mount Chimney's crater was one that even she didn't want to return to. How many close calls did she have with Cillian Quinn there? Too many to count. The other six were fair game, though!

"There's still a bit more I want to--" Shalin started, cut off by an unearthly bird screech. It sounded a lot like a Pidgeot's cry, but far lower in pitch. Razz may have been able to infer the sheer size of the Pokémon from that detail alone. "...On second thought, let's head back." On the way back, she indulged Razz with details of her operations in the Ultra Wilds, wanting to use her Captain position for a lead role in the Rangers' operations within the dangerous realms.