Without her Sygna Suit, Queen Zing's buzzing tingled Shalin's skin, making her hair stand on end. Part of her made her wish she had worn the suit for the trip to the ranch, impressing Thomas' Pokémon and getting the adrenaline flowing by holding onto the vibrating wing. Without her suit, it would not only mess up her insides, but hurt the Pokémon, too! Instead, she waited for the wasp to land, giving her sense of touch a moment to return before sliding down.

"Nothing special!" Shalin giggled as she withdrew the giant insect that had scared off many of Thomas' Pokémon. "It's time to stop kicking this bucket down the road. I wanna get good enough to challenge Josh Devlin 's Gym. And I brought five of my fastest Pokémon to do it with." Clicking open the rest of her team's capsules, they assembled around her: a Persian, Shiny Jolteon, Espathra, Type: Null, and Iron Leaves, harnessed up similarly to Josh's Pokémon. Even the Paradox Pokémon had been fitted by now, though the saddle was largely unnecessary due to the psychic-type being able to hold her in place.

Even if the Pokémon at Thomas' ranch weren't afraid of Queen Zing, the noise her wings made wasn't particularly pleasant. Midori sounded a digital chirp, prancing about like lam logan 's Sacred Sword would in a good mood. Volt sounded a crackling cry of his own. "With a Pokémon like Rufus, I can't imagine it going terribly wrong for you," Shalin said, knowing firsthand just how fast the Arcanine was.

It was a question Shalin had to ponder, Volt standing next to Shalin and crouching, the shiny Jolteon beckoning his trainer to mount up. "Sorry, Volt," she replied, giving the electric-type a careful and gentle pat, "but I want to learn with Rufus first." Shalin gave the friendly Arcanine a gentle pat, waiting for him to sit down and let the girl aboard.

Shalin was not used to such a wide-bodied mount, barely able to bend her wiry legs around the Arcanine's back. She looked a little tense as she held on, not used to riding a Pokémon without reins.

Thinking about it, Shalin was used to sitting in one rather than riding bareback. While she could, keeping her balance would be easier. "I recall Josh's Arcanine both wearing cocoons - the kinds of saddles you mostly see on flying Pokémon. If you have one of those for Rufus, that would be ideal!" Some thought of a cocoon saddle akin to training wheels when learning to balance on a land Pokémon; the material surrounded a rider up to their waist and kept them from falling off. It was borderline necessary for riding a flying Pokémon.

Regardless, Shalin would slide down from Rufus and let Thomas outfit the Arcanine before getting situated again. "Where I struggle with a Pokémon like Arcanine is the really high sustained speeds. It sounds weird, given my Sygna Suit lets me withstand vibrations that would melt anyone else, but I struggle with just the... pure velocity of an Arcanine. Let's... get this started. You joining me with a Pokémon of your own?"

Admittedly, this was Shalin's first time zipping up in a cocoon while being on a land Pokémon. Only a few of her flying ones had them; specifically, the ones that were table of of flying upside down. Many insects' wings were designed so that they couldn't fly upside down or at high angles. Even if she fell, bug-types were fast enough and nimble enough to catch her before she descended too far.

She wasn't falling while sitting in this thing.

"Then you might have an idea how to prevent exactly that from happening, I would hope," Shalin replied as she leaned into the wind. "How does Josh do this again?" she asked herself before remembering. "Hyah!" the Captain cried as she squeezed at Rufus' sides, ready to see what kind of speed he could reach from a standstill.

Shalin's eyes shifted toward Thomas and his posture, Rufus' gait already quite bouncy due to his size and the great speed he had already reached... but she knew she had a long way to go. It took truly high speeds to trigger her fears and reach the limits of her body as they were. Speeds that Arcanine were more than capable of reaching even without invoking EXTREME SPEED. Speeds that boggled her mind every time she saw Mauville's Leader racing one. "Isn't seeing over their heads an--"

As she did her best to mirror Thomas' stance, she found she could see over Rufus' head just fine. When running, the giant dogs lowered their heads to reduce drag. It was necessary for their bodies to become streamlined enough to survive the punishment their bodies would endure from the tornadic winds their speed exposed them to. She seemed to be comfortable for the time being, but only time would tell how much of that would evaporate when Thomas was ready to kick it up a notch... or three. "It feels weird that you can't see over their heads while they're at a standstill, but you can while they're running," she remarked as she reined the Arcanine to the left, making a turn toward the opposite end of the ranch. She fell toward the outside of the property, underestimating how much strength it took to steer the striped canine.

Thankfully the grass was thick enough to cushion her; she was used to impacts like that one from being bucked off unruly Pokémon. Memories of riding Eduardo Hisakawa 's ferocious Tauros flooded her mind. She realized why she had fallen pretty quickly once Thomas, and presumably Rufus, had come back to check on her: she had forgotten to zip parts of the cocoon in place. "I'm... used to it," she shakily admitted, slowly getting back to her senses.

Provided Rufus would give her the chance, she would climb back onto the Arcanine, this time making sure to zip herself into place so she wouldn't fall. "Maybe I wasn't leaning far forward enough or something. I think it was that turn that did it. Can we try... a straight-line run across the length of your ranch?" she asked.