Elaine Highland 's shaking brought Shalin to her senses, getting her back in the fight. Though it didn't make the hallucinogenic Pidgeot disappear, it did send a rush of confidence and focus into her, as the detective desired. "Fight it, Toxrill!" the Captain ordered, her Ultra Beast writhing and stabbing toward the bird... and ultimately, glowing a bright purple-pink. The alien grew to a form that was much larger in size, boasting wings of a dragon and a rear stinger that was several feet long.

Unable to hold the now-larger Pokémon in its talons, the avian behemoth beat its wings rapidly and powerfully, whipping up a HURRICANE that lifted Shalin off the ground and tore into her skin like an air blade. Enraged, the Naganadel soared toward the bird and stabbed through its back with a POISON JAB, the foe screeching before it... disappeared? Along with the girl's wounds?

Was she really just seeing things that weren't there the entire time?

Exhaling, Shalin turned toward Elaine, even the power of her Sygna Suit starting to waver as the hallucinogenic environment had preyed upon her. "We... should probably head back to the surface. My Sygna Suit's power is starting to wear off. Are you doing okay?" she asked as Toxrill swooped in front of her, offering her a ride back to the surface. "Toxrill, thank you, but I can't. Your body is too sticky for me to ride on without a saddle. I'll get a saddle commissioned for you when we head back to Hoenn." With a distant "air pat" to try to comfort the Ultra Beast, Shalin instead hopped astride her Flygon and prepared to ascend the long trip back to the Ultra Sea's "surface" level.

ULTRA DEEP SEA: SE

2nd Expedition

The effect wasn't complete. Though she had been able to snap Shalin back to the present in some aspects, it wasn't a full return to reality. Though, perhaps being aware of your own hallucinations was a step up from merely hallucinating.

But that all came to an end too. Shalin was taking rapid shallow breaths. The Poipole had evolved.

"We... should probably head back to the surface. My Sygna Suit's power is starting to wear off."

"Yeah. That's probably for the best."

They had gone through 'underwater' veins for long enough. If Shalin's suit was beginning to drain, then the two of them were reaching operational limits.

But before she could make any further moves, she saw something in the background of her periphery below them--a faint light below that seemed to almost beckon her. As she did, she found herself floating down for just a moment.

And that was when it had happened. She could not have estimated it, but as she had been momentarily distracted by the strange light below them, she had floated into something she shouldn't have.

It was a single string that let out a clicking sound the moment she bumped into it.

"DAMMIT!" Without a hint of hesitation, she let out Metagross. There was no half-assing this. Whatever she had tripped was about to activate. They were in an underwater cave system so if they were lost here, then it was over. In the next moment, she tapped at the Keystone she had kept underneath her diving suit.

"SHALIN! GRAB ON! WE'RE BEE-LINING IT!"

She called out to Shalin and reached out to her as she grabbed onto the back of her transformed patrner.

"UPWARDS!"

It was in that moment that it all triggered. Rocks began to collapse as small explosions rang out from within the cave walls. But there was no way she was letting them get caught up in here.

"NOW!"

And as the group had made its way to a very specific wall, Elaine cried out.

"METEOR MASH!"

A pair of metallic limbs glowed before thrusting out above them towards the cave walls. And then...what they saw in that next moment was...

---

TL;DR:

• Prompts fulfilled: 31, Mega Evolution

Tags: Shalin Nariya

Shalin didn't heaitate when Elaine Highland asked her to grab onto the Mega-Evolved Steel-type. She withdrew all her Pokémon and began to cling to the Metagross, a Pokémon that was much stronger than her nimble Flygon or Naganadel. "Be gentle, okay? I can't handle really high speeds well..." she said, embarrassed that mere high speed was her weakness as a rider. She could sit on Flygon wings beating fast enough to create a Boomburst, but she couldn't handle high sustained speeds? What a strange flaw for her suit to have.

The bones within the rider's limbs rattled as the steel-type powered through the cave walls, the debris field raining around them making it difficult to see. Once they were through, they saw... the light of a vortex. The rift they had entered the Ultra Sea from. With her Flygon back in her Poké Ball, the Sygna Suit was not sustaining her ability to survive in the harsh environment. The tired girl desperately swam for the entrance to Granite Cave, unsure she could make it to a Pokémon Center -- or a hotel -- on her own.

ULTRA DEEP SEA: SE

2nd Expedition

"That's fine. We're breaking through in 3..."

The harsh rocky surface grew ever nearer.

"2..."

But that was fine. In the next moments, they would have to break through. The needed to. That was why despite Elaine and Ginga's reckless move, neither of them backed down.

"Now!"

Was it tenacity or recklessness? Whatever it was, the attack smashed through layers and layers of rock, until they broke through. Hallucinations? The depths? Not a single one of those things was enough to stifle a will to live and a will to get her companion to safety.

And at the end of it all, the three of them safely made it through the vortex. They were tired, and drenched, but they were alive. There was a way to light.

"Easy there, Shalin." Before she could recklessly try to force herself to safety and collapse halfway there, she grabbed her and placed her arm across her shoulder to support her.

Shalin had been crucial in saving Elaine from her hallucinations before. The least she could do was repay the favor and support her till she could get to a place where she could let herself be more vulnerable.

"Just take it one step at a time, alright?"

---

TL;DR:

• Prompts fulfilled: END
  

Tags: Shalin Nariya