Knowing what kind of challenge she had signed up for, Shalin left the foam spheres covering Queen Zing's three stings even as she met with the Gym Leader directly. While it wasn't exactly a phobia, she was aware that giant insects were among the Birdfather's least-favorite flying Pokémon. She shot Alex a grin at his greeting mentioning Ethan's disbelief. "Who else in Hoenn would be crazy enough to hop on a Beedrill, right?" Besides Josh, whose Beedrill was still in League custody for another six months, the only other that came to mind was oscar clayton .

"Nice Flygon!" she complimented the Birdfather on his choice of Pokémon. "Had I known you would bring a Flygon to the challenge, I would have brought my own!" It may have been for the best; it had been a long since since she had been astride the Flygon without her Sygna Suit. It would be a big adjustment to get used to vibration that fast and powerful again. "This should be a blast. I've wanted to try racing at Josh's Gym, but his Pokémon scare me. One thing before we get started, though," she asked, pointing to the BEEDRILLITE embedded at the end of her mount's saddle. "Is Mega Evolution on the table?"

"You would?" Shalin asked, a smile on her face as she looked surprised that the Gym Leader would entertain her challenging with a Pokémon she didn't register. "Let me switch, then!" The girl slid off her Beedrill's back then recalled the giant insect, sending out an insectile dragon, her Sygna Flygon. Clambering aboard and hastily taking her seat, her hair stood on end from a blast of vibration fueled by her almost invisibly fast wings. It wasn't anywhere close to as loud as her Beedrill's buzzing, but it still drowned out plenty of noise around her. It was the only buzzing Pokémon she had whose wings were quiet enough for her to not need ear protection.

It was a good thing she switched, too; the aerial course Shalin was subject to looked absolutely insane. It was almost as though the course was designed for the tremendous agility her Flygon could display. The green dragon's wings chirped, Shalin's hair standing on end from the vibration fueling them. She laughed when Alex mentioned Isaac's challenge with a Golurk. It was definitely unusual, but riding a Golurk seemed... boring. No gallop to feel. No sliding around corners. No recoil to keep her sharp. They were reasonably common ride Pokémon -- just not for her.

Shalin spit at the mention of boost moves being forbidden. "Who do you think I am, the Master of Faster?" she retorted, Sandy's wings vibrating with a low pitch. She wanted in the air. What was taking him so long to start?

Shalin giggled at Alex questioning whether they were related. "The closest thing we are to related is we both came from Johto," she snickered. "We're not even from the same town. Ecruteak's where I grew up!"

The receptionist described the course as "insanity". Shalin guffawed, nearly choking on her own saliva. "Can't be worse than any of my so-called insanity, can it! Let's see Mausika try to throw me off their wing!" she continued bragging, proud of her Sygna Suit's unique abilities to help her withstand vibration that would shred others who attempted the maddening feat.

At the starting line, Shalin snapped her own borrowed goggles into place. She approached the first obstacle with glee: many Charizard spewing FLAMETHROWER in erratic patterns. "Alright, Sandy, I know how we're getting through this!" The Flygon churned her wings at close to top speed, not to attack, but to make the already nimble insectile dragon even more agile. As a cone of flames approached, Sandy swerved away from it in an instant, flinging Shalin to one side of the saddle. She was responsive as a Ribombee, reacting to the challenger's commands in an instant.

Shalin would have laughed if she could have heard Alex's comments about his hair, but she could not. Such was the price of riding on the back of a Pokémon as noisy as a Flygon. She was glad she decided to switch Pokémon last minute: her Beedrill would not have liked all this fire being spewed above the Aviary. At least it was normal fire and not dragonfire.

As much as she wanted to push her Flygon to higher speeds, there was no catching up to the Birdfather, the master of the skies. He won the season opener at Fortree Gym for a reason. Shalin wasn't into racing to begin with. As much as the Master of Faster goaded her into trying, raw high speed made her dizzy, and that was something her Sygna Suit wouldn't protect her against. Its design was oddly specific, letting her withstand vibration and other micro-bursts of speed, as she had found out with Saria.

It seemed the warm-up was over; rather than streams of fire covering the course, the course itself seemed like fire, with narrow, safe bands to pass through. Her eyes shifting toward the source of the FLAMETHROWER attacks, she waited for a large enough gap in them before squeezing Sandy's sides abruptly, the dragon darting forward with insectile acceleration.

Shalin was glad she switched to using her Sygna Pokémon last minute. If those flames touched her Beedrill even once, they would have grounded the queen wasp; the stress of their flight would have turned any hole burned through them into an uncontrollable disaster. Sandy was also more agile than the bug-type, and she wasn't sure of the legality of Mega Evolution during her challenge. It may have been buried in the fine print she missed.

As she weaved around several more cones of flame from Alex's dragons, another stream of hot stuff came at her head on. "Yeek!" Shalin cried, flinging her Flygon's reins to one side. Sandy responded almost instantly, stopping only one of her wings in a hurry. The differential thrust flung Shalin to one side of the saddle, her body contorting in a way that was uncomfortable even for her.

As it turned out, Flygon were just as capable of making whippy turns as a Venusaur's vine was!

Alex was an astute observer; without her Sygna Suit on, she was fully susceptible to the effects of whiplash. The punishment she routinely exposed her body to while in her suit helped, but it could only do so much. As the Gym Leader flew alongside Shalin, he may have been able to see some unsteadiness in her: a sign that perhaps she overdid it with that last wild maneuver.

The rounds of BULLET SEED sounded like a firing squad holding the triggers of automatic weapons, the added heat not doing the rodeo girl any favors. She let Alex fly ahead, giving her the opportunity to catch her breath. When she felt she was ready, she leaned in the best she could before making a pulse with the reins and squeezing her dragon's sides tightly. Sandy's wings chirped loudly, the green duo shooting after Alex and leaving the steering mostly to the insectile Pokémon. Given the species' habitat was the desert, they had to be used to flying around in heat mirages, right?