An opportunity arose; a Rocket phone had slipped into Shalin's cell, courtesy of a mischievous Haunter. She reached for it as fast as she could, dialing the regional emergency number. "It's Captain Nariya. I'm alive but imprisoned behind enemy lines. I don't know where I am, but I suspect it might be far beneath the surface, with how cold it is here."

Defying Lulu Flint 's orders, Shalin continued to speak up, not realizing the call hadn't yet connected. "I'll try to keep the line open as long as I can, but it's only a matter of time before they're on to me. If I don't make it, please leave my Pokémon in the care of annalise henderson , Josh Devlin , and Mauville's Rangers. Petalburg is done for..."

With Shalin struck by PSYSHOCK, the attempted call abruptly ended when her hand landed on the communication device. Her head thumped, the back of it turning red from being slammed into the ground due to the physicality of the Klefki's psychic-type attack.

She lacked the strength to move. All her physically and mentally battered body could do was moan. No strength to speak. But that did not matter. What mattered was she had communicated to the authorities that were capable of finding her. Even if it took weeks or months to mount and execute an operation.

Little did she know the extent of Rocket encryption. With the current state of affairs, it would take an inside job to break Shalin out of her underwater prison... or another exposure of the Rocket submarine like in Sootopolis.

It took the system-shocked Shalin quite some time to respond; anyone who wasn't mentally and spiritually strong, like robin coello , would have such a reaction. "...Captain Shalin Nariya," she managed in a hoarse voice. "Of... Petalburg." She really just was in the wrong place at the wrong time, wasn't she?

Shalin tried to force her eyes open and look at the screen Lulu Flint showed her, only for them to be forced shut again. She didn't have to look, though; the Head Scientist had put it in plain English for her. No message she could send would get out; were the Rockets' phones more like walkie talkies than true phones? Perhaps they were configured only to be able to call one another. Certainly was a hell of a security feature.

The ex-Captain of Petalburg, in the Rocket's words, crawled toward the center of her cell. "What... is it you... want with me, then?" she asked. Was Rocket trying to use her as leverage to get to someone else? Was it her unique Sygna Suit they wanted to study? Or was it her powerful Pokémon? She had certainly caused Elisabeth Fiorelli many problems with her buzzing insects, both before and after her Avatarship...

Knew something juicy? Shalin guffawed on the inside, though she could not muster the strength to do so physically. "I'm... just a Captain. I don't have the access that AQUA or even Gym Leaders do," she admitted, and were Lulu Flint to use psychic Pokémon or other invasive methods to further probe, the Head Scientist would find that the prisoner was telling the truth. Leverage was the far more likely reason why she was captured. She didn't have access to sensitive date, but her boss, ollie morales , did. Was Rocket trying to use Shalin to get to Ollie?

Lulu was right. She wasn't tough. Without her Sygna Suit, Shalin was a nobody in combat. She held a grand total of two Hoenn League badges: Alexei Ivanov 's, and DESIREE BLOOMS 's Minor League badge. She had relied upon her suit so much that she had forgotten how to fight without it. "Using me to get to others... not you personally, but your organization and your boss are despicable."

With Shalin not having the access that the upper echelons of the League did, it was clear she was being used as leverage. Perhaps Rocket would try to negotiate a prisoner exchange. She could possibly be juicy enough bait to convince the League to let bryan delarosa go in a trade. Whatever the reason, she was also a strong trainer that Rocket had removed from the equation, the League having to divert significant resources to get her myriad of Pokémon to safety.

Shalin shook her head at Lulu Flint . "No. You've been civil, and it's clearly not your decision that I was taken in alive. It's the decision makers that I have a problem with. I've been with the Rangers long enough. I've worked with the Amnesty program. The people who blindly follow orders, trapped within your organization, aren't the people I have problems with. It's the people at the very top, the C-suite executives, are the ones I have problems with."