Whether by design or by chance, Quill's makeshift tail barb found a spot where the needle barrage pierced Queen Zing's carapace. It widened the wound, disrupting the Infinity Energy conduit between trainer and Pokémon, causing her to revert from her apex form.

Shalin gasped; Queen Zing was writhing in pain, unable to push any of her stings out of her body. She attacked with the one weapon she had left. Zipping toward Quill, the insect would attempt to snatch the Smeargle before whipping up a huge TAILWIND. The aim was not to evade attack, but to vibrate Quill fast enough to deprive him of his senses.

The barrages of TWINEEDLES flew at one another, piles of them landing in the no-man's-land between the combatants simply due to how dense the fields of projectiles were. Queen Zing's carapace was tough, blocking many of the painter Pokémon's fabricated ones. Only a few pierced her armor, but they were still painful.

Fighting through it with glowing eyes, the bass of her buzzing wings would be accompanied by the treble of whirling stings. It was a tactic the Smeargle had seen before, but this time, it would be with four stings, not two! The four whirled with the ferocity of a Rhyperior's horn, the DRILL RUN threatening to bore into Quill if they didn't do something to stop it!

Law's strength was impressive, able to stop the whirling stings from rotating and fight back in close quarters. It was all in vain, though; time had been called, and the match would go to a judge decision. That decision didn't take more than a few seconds; Shalin had been declared the winner by a unanimous vote.

Recalling her Pokémon, Shalin walked up and offered Ashley a handshake. "Great match. Glad to reconnect with you, Sawyer -- er, Ash. Wanna drop by my Romping Grounds in Petalburg some weekend? I'd love to reconnect."

Just as Queen Zing was winding up for a lethal sting, the foretold psychedelic bomb exploded right on top of her, blasting the wasp out of bounds. The side judge promptly raised their red flag and pointed it at Shalin, the Top Champion the winner.

"Great match - thought I had you for a moment!" Shalin exhaled, able to speak again after withdrawing her fallen Pokémon. "Your Sygna Suit's neat. I wish I'd have brought mine, but I felt it would be better to understand what causes Queen Zing to go berserk after she Mega Evolves. Now I understand, and I think I have a way to fix it. Thanks! If you're adventurous, want to go exploring the corners of Hoenn sometime soon?" It was less about that and more her wanting to impress him with her Sygna Suit, but both were fun to think about!

Shalin was in disbelief when Domon fought through the Beedrill's fiercest vibration, cracking her Pokémon's carapace and prompting the judge to immediately raise a red flag the Captain's way. It took a Sygna Suit for Shalin to withstand vibration like that. Urshifu were truly a species overflowing with Infinity Energy, weren't they?

"Your Pokémon is... incredible for being able to stand on its feet after that. Queen Zing's vibration is no joke," Shalin said as she signed the match slip before walking over to Kazimir and handing it to him. "I look forward to watching you in the top cut."

Was Priam in the tournament just to collect off his Espeon's PAY DAY, and not actually win matches? Strange. Then again, she was no stranger to the unusual; she was a walking anomaly herself, especially in her Sygna Suit. Her Beedrill wore s saddle, for Arceus' sake. Sitting between their wings had to be unfathomably loud, and the vibration had to be uncomfortable. She was just... built different, it seemed.

It did not take long for the red flag to be waved in Priam's direction, Shalin the winner of her third match in a row. What a hot start! In high spirits, she waved toward Priam, the girl quickly taking a seat in her Beedrill's saddle if Priam wanted a picture. "Thanks for the match!" she chirped, Queen Zing happy to crawl about with her trainer in tow.

If the Poochyena wanted to PLAY ROUGH, then play rough Queen Zing would, likewise. Her rear sting would be a perfect weapon if it hadn't been disabled already. The Beedrill had plenty of deadly weapons in its arsenal, including a creative one Shalin gave the double thumbs-up to use.

The saddle-wearing wasp flew toward Kilo, feigning a second Poison Jab volley. Instead, she would pull up at the last minute, trying to snatch the small dog Pokémon in her legs and stings. Were she successful, she would whip up a powerful TAILWIND with her wings, not to fly faster, but as a makeshift Bug Buzz, her body vibrating furiously to leave the Poochyena badly disoriented (and perhaps sick to his tummy, too!)

Shalin breathed a sigh of relief when the judges waved red flags in Caesi's direction, giving her credit for the match win. Even Queen Zing was spent. It would take a bit of extra time in a healing machine for the wasp to fully recover for her next match. If only there were healing machine like that for humans... because Shalin looked tired. Especially after such an intense match.

"Good luck in your next two..." Shalin trailed off before stumbling, catching her balance on a nearby bench. Grabbing onto a nearby rail, she would inch herself toward the nearest healing machine before passing out at a small table. Only the announcement of the twenty-third round would wake her up...

As powerful as a Mega Beedrill's vibration was, it was also unwieldy to use as a weapon. The elemental burst kept Queen Zing far away, but Shalin was unsure if that was necessarily a bad thing. Time was running out, and she was confident the judges would rule her way if the match came to a decision. Even so, she couldn't risk a last-minute knockout.

Waving for her Beedrill to stay near, Shalin made a shooting motion with her hands, like she was holding a firearm. With a nod, Queen Zing pointed her four stings toward the foe, spraying a large barrage of TWINEEDLE the paradox Pokémon's way.

It was clear from the Urshifu's movements that he was on his last bit of fight in him, too. Queen Zing had already injected enough venom to bring down the Pokémon, but there wouldn't be enough time if she just flew idly. She needed to agitate the fighting-type one more time, and she only had one way to do it.

Turning around, she would let the Urshifu come to her before roaring her wings. While they were not strong enough to fly, they were still plenty strong to create a significant TAILWIND. Were the King of Fighters to tough Queen Zing mid-move, the vibration could mess up his insides!

Two of the three FLASH CANNON beams sailed wide, but the third struck Queen Zing squarely, blasting her well out of stinging range. As much venom as she injected into the Pokémon, no doubt in her mind corroding the robotic Pokémon's insides, she couldn't rely on just that to win. Queen Zing's wings roared as Shalin exposed her partner to the light of MEGA EVOLUTION from her MEGA CIRCLET, the wasp sprouting a second pair of foreleg stings.

Her much larger wings buzzed far louder and more menacingly, bestowing upon her much greater speed. It was speed that would make the green insect even more slippery than normal. With a TAILWIND giving her the ability to zip back and forth, she would try to land on Rhodium, buzzing her wings at full speed to vibrate the Iron Jugulis harshly. If that didn't mess up its inner circuitry, then nothing would!