Shalin's defiance continued, her emotions heated upon seeing what Rocket had done to her city. Though quite a bit of the city was covered in sand still, there was a lot less of it than before. This police state was not her home. This twisted version of Petalburg was not the free, vibrant city she helped run. "You couldn't even get within a few hundred feet of him," Shalin barked, continuing to fight the good fight. "Not when he's on that ashen lightning bolt of his," she referred to the Raikou. "And given what you did to his Gym, I doubt he would be one to pull any punches. My Sygna Suit protects against a lot of wild motion, but it won't help you ride on a lightning bolt."

The chaotic, masochistic Rocket gave Shalin a look at the race course Josh and the Pokémon Racing Federation had planned on having next year's season opener at. It was the biggest reason the entire 2025 season was in jeopardy. "What about him?" she asked, scowling as she could feel the Genesect rumble. "And what is the meaning of this... stage down there?"

The man before the Captain was heartless. Cold and calculated as a Gholdengo 500 CEO that never considered the human element. To him, and to Rocket as a whole, only two things seemed to matter: political power and the bottom line. "The Rangers do more than you think they do. Who is going to quell unruly wild Pokémon? Who is going to keep Hoenn's delicate ecosystem from overrunning Petalburg? Who is going to rescue your own men when something untoward happens to them far from the city?"

She doubted any of those arguments would work. People and Pokémon were but tools to Rocket. To the syndicate, survival of the fittest was the law of the land. Those who did not pull their weight in life would have it taken from them, whether Pokémon or human.

Rocket was open about what they did, yes, but that didn't make it any less morally reprehensible. She was right, though; few in the League truly followed the ideals that they preached. Even the most entrenched, the most brainwashed, had begun to question their dogma. Shalin had a long time ago. Her Gym Leader friend, the second-in-command of Mauville's Rangers, was seemingly one that was purest of heart, practicing what the League preached. Little did she know, from how long she has been imprisoned, that even his faith was starting to crack.

"It's that kind of thinking that makes me sick," Shalin shook her head as she walked toward her Pokémon's cages, giving Queen Zing, then Prower, then Lathiel hugs the best she could through their bars. "Pokémon are intelligent like we are. Some even more so than we are. While they don't have the same extent of free will that we do, only by being partners and not tools can they truly reach their full potential."

As she embraced each of her Pokémon, she whispered to them, "The League will find us and get us out of here before long. I just know it."

"You can endure higher steady speeds than I can," Shalin continued to praise Miyako for what she perceived as natural talent. Burst speed she had a leg up, but that was in large part due to her Sygna Suit. It was, after all, difficult to beat the speed of a whip with a Pokémon alone. One day, through rigorous training, she might be able to close that gap, though she was more interested in pushing what she was good at even farther. Were she to reach her peak, there would be not a single Pokémon that could buck her off, legendary or no.

A missing person? That was certainly an odd reason to join Law Enforcement. "If you're trying to find a missing person, I'm surprised you didn't enlist with the Rangers instead. Mauville's search and rescue squad is second to none." How little did she understand just how much the search and rescue process was shared between Rangers and Law Enforcement, what with her duties largely being on the environmental side.

As Shalin shared her history with the Rangers, three Ultra Beasts spun, danced, and tromped about a moderate distance from them: a Naganadel, Pheromosa, and Buzzwole. The saddle on the poison-type's back was designed similarly to that of her Beedrill. How did she sit on the other two, though? The white insect in particular seemed too frail to bear her weight. Even if he could, though, just where would she sit?

"I actually did work for the Rangers long before I formally joined them," Shalin told her story. "Before I became Rustboro's Captain, I was a freelance expeditionary, leading archaeological teams, those with daring passions to see the corners of the world, and the like. Exploring ancient fortresses, ruins, natural wonders, and the like. I even discovered the secret to hatching Ultra Beast eggs. It's just unfortunate that the place to do it is beneath Sootopolis..."

Easy to puppet? Shalin was not one to be puppeted. She was a wild and free spirit, and there was only so much being bound by chains could do. "I'm no marionette of the League," she spouted back at the scientist. "To be frank, I think that Hoenn would be better off without both of them. I can't stand for how immoral Rocket is... but I also can't stand by upper management's incompetence."

It was a strange choice, yes, but she was far from the typical Captain to begin with. "That's not the first time I've been told that, either. Until you've experienced it yourself, you couldn't imagine how much of a rush it is... whether by Venusaur vine or Flygon wing, like I'm sure you've heard by now." She imagined word of dorian westcliff 's experiment had traveled far and wide within Rocket ranks. "The applications, both productive and for amusement, are countless." If being flung about at supersonic speeds didn't get the adrenaline flowing, what else would?

Seeing Kelpie pull at the suit's threads and zipper made Shalin wide-eyed. "What are you doing to my suit?!" she cried, using nowhere close to an inside voice. Had panic set in?

Shalin's eyes widened. Cian had stepped down without picking a replacement? What a horrible mistake the League had made; they had left Hideo Kino defending western Hoenn all by his lonesome. Their central location had split Josh Devlin 's and DESIREE BLOOMS ' attention between west and east. Perhaps they were overvaluing Kyogre, too, determined to recover the leviathan's loyalry after skyler dross and angelo vestri fled Hoenn. "CIAN MAHER wouldn't step down without finding a replacement first," the Captain insisted. "He's been Rustboro's Gym Leader for a long time. He knows how important his role is." Rocket likely did, too... which may have been why they were so quick to pounce on the port city and stake their claim on the mainland.

The distressed girl rolled her eyes at the demeaning admin. "Don't try that with me. You would sooner disband the Petalburg Rangers than be a Captain. What is being a Ranger to you?" To Shalin, it was conserving people and Pokémon from disasters, both natural like Hurricane Yellen that hit Ever Grande's south hard, as well as man-made ones like the devastation of her city. The city she wasn't around to defend.

The purpose of Shalin's question was to gain insight into what value she had to Rocket. It was clear after speaking with both Chu-e Choi and Lulu Flint that she was no more than a bargaining tool, an asset to negotiate a prisoner exchange with the League... just as the league held bryan delarosa as their own prisoner of war.

"That's because I was busy wrangling that Toxic Chained bird," Shalin recalled. "And I was so close, too. Would have been mine, were it not for what your forces did." Were there still a few of Fezandipiti's pheromones afflicting her? From the look on her face, she seemed genuinely interested in the poison and fairy-type. Had her fateful ride on the aerial member of the Loyal Three poisoned her mind?

Shalin rolled her eyes at Howard's bold request. Why should she thank him? There was little to be thankful for. The city had been leveled. She knew about his command over Regice. "You're asinine to think I should be thanking you for leveling downtown Petalburg," she scowled. "You haven't just made their lives miserable. Oldale and Littleroot depend on Petalburg's Rangers when their smaller forces can't handle it. And now, they're on their own."

Shalin, likewise, was relieved that Miyako was okay, just badly shaken up. She knew Savanna was fast. She had seen Josh's reach even greater speeds before. She had trained with Thomas Benoit to be able to withstand higher speeds without becoming dizzy... and after seeing the yellow blur that Savanna and Miyako had become, she knew just how far she had to go. As a token of appreciation for the kind words, Savanna inhaled deeply before sounding the mightiest purr she could muster before letting the girl dismount.

Sensing weakness in Miyako, both in her voice and the way she moved, Shalin slid down from Volt's back and leaned against one of the trees the Zeraora had avoided crashing into. "You're such a talented rider," the Captain complimented her. "What made you want to be an officer instead of a Ranger with skills like that?" As the sun slowly crawled lower above the western sky, two more of Shalin's Pokémon hopped and crawled by: Keimi, a Greninja, and Savra, a Salazzle. The water-type hopped around like a traditional frog rather than a biped, and both looked like they had ferried Shalin around Hoenn many times before.

Though Savanna meant no ill will, there was no denying that the feline was one swift Pokémon, able to outrun even the fastest motorcycles known to the region. If Miyako Noguchi was confident enough to sit in her saddle and control her, she was confident enough to trust Miyako. That trust was what convinced Savanna to unleash her full speed upon the cop -- far faster than Shalin had ever ridden.

Perhaps Savanna had found Miyako's breaking point, her rider begging for her to stop. And stop she did, fully extending her claws and slamming on the brakes. She tore into the dirt and grass beneath her, creating a trail of burned grass both from her electric nature and her extremely high speed she had to suddenly shed.

The deceleration let Shalin and her Jolteon catch up, the Captain worried about her new friend. "Arceus almighty, are you okay? I didn't even know she could run that fast! I'm so sorry!" she apologized, feeling Volt's heartbeat from how long she had to run just to meet them.