Shalin was relieved that the League's assignment for her didn't necessarily involve fighting. She didn't want to be in Dewford; she would rather have been in Rustboro, handling paperwork needed before she could take her new seat as Captain. Instead she was ready to take to the skies on a surveillance mission. It was an important one, too: the League had been planning an upcoming siege operation on a complex deep within enemy territory, and they needed valuable information on patrol routes, number and kind of the rank and file involved, and any schematics they could get their hands on.

"Great to see you again, Captain," Shalin greeted Guillermo Marceliño as her own Flygon touched down, Sandy's humming wings scattering more salty dust around her. "They'll be calling me Captain in a couple weeks - can you believe it?" she tried to break the ice before moving on to something more serious. "So from what I get, we're just supposed to gather intelligence about an upcoming Rocket operation and report it to HQ, right?"

Memo's smile made Shalin feel warm inside; the tenured Captain expressing interest and giving praise to new leadership meant a lot to her. "Thanks. I'm a little nervous about it, but you never know until you try." Being a Captain would mean slightly less field work, but it meant having more of the League's ear. Deep down, she wondered how her eccentricities didn't disqualify her from the position.

"I think the best way to go about this is by air," the green-ette suggested. "Flygon are common enough mounts that they shouldn't raise too much of a ruckus." Though being Sygna Suited up might have drawn attention to them than she would have liked, she was largely helpless in the air without it, unable to use her partner's best attacks for fear of being reduced to mush by way of vibration. On the plus side, she had no need of goggles; her red eye shields would keep the wind and dust away from her eyesight.

"When you're ready, let's fly. And Sandy?" she asked, turning away from Memo and facing forward to give her Flygon a pat. "Try to keep the volume down." The dragon responded by silently fluttering her wings just below the threshold of human hearing.

Shalin wanted to use her new leadership position to truly make a difference in Hoenn. At Littleroot, she felt all she did was cause the League trouble, not even able to shoot down Elisabeth Fiorelli despite wielding a bow blessed by Alexei Ivanov 's god. Today, she felt even more burdened than she did before. More people were relying on her than ever before. "Had I known wren rourke was retiring, I would have run for Petalburg's position instead," she idly remarked. "I live off-grid in Petalburg Woods, so a bigger city like Rustboro will be an adjustment."

Shalin smiled as she saw Nike mounting up. "Love your choice of flying, too. Sandy here is one of my favorite ways to fly." A low hum occasionally left the Flygon's wings as she got a feel for just how fast she could flutter without being heard. "That's smart. Hopefully that won't be the case, but I'm not holding my breath. I can try to snipe some of them with my bow and arrow, too." As if on cue, the AVIAN ARROWS in her quiver shook as if being blown about by a stiff breeze.

Both of the Flygon took to the air, their wings silent by human ears. She pointed toward a communications dish in the distance; that sounded like an easy target, at least in theory.

The two soared high in the air, the only sound around them the whirring of Flygon wings beating at a speed just beneath the threshold of human hearing. "Of course," the green-ette nodded. "Ranging isn't a competition. It's about saving lives. I don't agree with the way we're being made to save lives, but ultimately what we're doing will save lives by bringing Hoenn one step closer to peace."

She felt a little vulnerable without her Sygna Suit on, but it was needed; with how few people had them, she felt she would be instantly recognized if she wore hers. That would not do. Setting Sandy's reins down and holding a pair of binoculars to her eyes, she zoomed in on the communications dish and the building below it. "I think we'll need to let the League know they should consider sending a strike team to that building with the dish on top of it," she pointed toward the place, its scaffolding stairways swarming with Rockets.

All of a sudden, an unsettling alarm blared about the facility. Shalin gulped, hoping the alert was for another intruder and not them...

It was a good thing Shalin at least thought to bring her earplugs: the double BOOMBURST from both Sandy and Nike would have left them both with little more than a ringing noise in their ears. The twin shockwaves felled the two Scyther with ease, but at the cost of putting the entire base on edge. If the alarm blaring didn't get the attention of every Rocket in the vicinity, then the ear-warping rumble of layered sonic booms would.

Shalin's thighs were also throbbing; without her suit on, she had to absorb the full force of Sandy's wings vibrating fast enough for their tips to reach supersonic speed. She winced in pain, clutching her waistline to try to keep her riding posture as good as she could manage. The vibration's intensity had robbed her of feeling from the upper legs down; she couldn't even feel the impact of a BULLET SEED tearing a hole in her left leg as several Rockets opened fire on them with automatic, high-magazine weapons that filled the air around them with pellets of the Grass-type attack. She tried to call out to Memo to make a tactical retreat, but was unsure if the Captain could hear her over the cacophonous buzzing or the loud gunfire.

Breathing a sigh of relief that Memo noticed the distress she and her Flygon were in, Shalin reined Sandy behind the same rocky shelter their fellow Captain was headed toward. It was only when the two landed, Shalin staying seated on her Flygon's back due to the tingling in her lower body, that she started to feel the sting of the Bullet Seeds lodged in her leg. The intense wind from riding as fast as they were dried the blood around the wound, which worked in her favor by stemming any subsequent bleeding.

Her leg thumping, she knew the pain would have been unbearable if she slid down from her mount's saddle. Instead, she remained seated and pointed to roughly where the discomfort was coming from. With how swollen the skin was, the wounds would have been easy for Memo to locate. "When I signed up to take Rustboro's Captain seat, I didn't think I would be on the front lines like a Gym Leader would," she moaned as the fellow Captain examined her...

Shalin's collection of the Medallions of Eight put her on the front lines in a different way. She had fought against nature's revolt rather than Rocket directly, but it unearthed an important key to hatching Ultra Beast eggs. Olivia and Nymris were as friendly as they were because they had been hatched from eggs. That rapport-building was important in bonding with the alien Pokémon and using their immense powers to fight for Hoenn rather than against it.

She breathed a sigh of relief, the HEAL PULSE not only patching up Shalin's skin, but pushing the BULLET SEEDS stuck in her leg out of the skin safely. A procedure that would have required surgery was averted thanks to the powerful healing the Galarian horse possessed. "Thanks so much, Captain," Shalin replied. "Not good as new, but good enough. Good as new will only come with time."

The duo stayed hidden until the alarm ceased. "We learned quite a bit about their operations, but it might be time to cut our losses." She poked her head around the corner, many of the Rockets firing at them having left to handle tasks at another warfront. "I think upper management can use our report to cook up an operation to take them down." Perhaps a task for Dewford's Gym Leader, Michael Navidson .