Josh was happy to leave the political discussion where it was; he felt it was best for his mental health to avoid the subject. He was knowledgeable, but could also get very heated over those kinds of topics, as evidenced by his cursing. He was completely unaware of a wild Greninja stealthily approaching Saber that managed to get all the way in melee range of the Manectric. The Water-type socked him with a barrage of POWER-UP PUNCHes, downing his main mount. The attack didn't go completely unanswered, though; the STATIC discharge overwhelmed the wild, causing her to fall limp. He bopped the wild with a Poké Ball before it could cause any more mischief, summoning out Twilight, his Absol, in case the water-type broke free.

"This is Twilight, my Absol," Josh gestured toward the geared-up dark-type. Was every single one of his Pokémon fitted with tack? Given his career, probably. If not all of them, then the vast majority of them. "Don't mind her; she's not very social." The topic quickly changed back to regional weather patterns. "That's the only thing I don't like about Hoenn. It's the heat. It is nice that it stays warm enough to race year round, though; hopefully they don't expand the season next year."

The remark about Hoenn's allergy season made Josh laugh maniacally; while it was a clever joke, it shouldn't have been that funny. "Arceus, tell me about it. I had to buy extra strength allergy relief at the Pokémon Mart because the stuff I take back home just wasn't cutting it. It's expensive!" He wasn't kidding, either; it was almost twice as much as the regular strength pills!

"Goldenrod's big," Josh answered. "It's not Lumiose or Castelia big, but the 2020 census put us at over half a million people. Whatever you want to do, as long as it doesn't rely on the weather, you can probably do it there somewhere. Huge commerce hub." He went on to describe some of the city's architecture; for being such a big city, it was also old; many of the city's main thoroughfares were brick rather than asphalt, and the city was designed to be traversed by Pokémon as mounts rather than vehicles. Only regional highways that ran through the city were paved like modern roads. "If you come out to Johto, you have to visit Goldenrod. That and Ecruteak. It's just up the highway a piece."

[attr="class","wildtemp"]

[attr="class","wildbgsaf"]

[attr="class","wildtitle"]A WILD KABUTOPS APPEARED!

[attr="class","wildshiny"]

[attr="class","wildpkmnbox"]

[attr="class","wildpkmn"]

[attr="class","wildtab"]

[attr="class","wildtabox"] FEMALE	[attr="class","wildtabox2"] WEAK ARMOR
[attr="class","wildtabox"]ANCIENT POWER	[attr="class","wildtabox2"]FEINT
[attr="class","wildtabox"]LEER	[attr="class","wildtabox2"]SCRATCH
[attr="class","wildtabox"] ICY WIND	[attr="class","wildtabox2"] ---

[attr="class","wildtag"]CJ Mizikar Josh Devlin

[attr="class","wildnote"] WHAT WILL YOU DO?

[attr="class","wildtemp"]

[attr="class","wildbgsaf"]

[attr="class","wildtitle"]A WILD VOLTORB APPEARED!

[attr="class","wildshiny"]

[attr="class","wildpkmnbox"]

[attr="class","wildpkmn"]

[attr="class","wildtab"]

[attr="class","wildtabox"] GENDERLESS	[attr="class","wildtabox2"] AFTERMATH
[attr="class","wildtabox"]TACKLE	[attr="class","wildtabox2"]SONIC BOOM
[attr="class","wildtabox"]DISCHARGE	[attr="class","wildtabox2"]SWIFT
[attr="class","wildtabox"] SELF-DESTRUCT	[attr="class","wildtabox2"] ---

[attr="class","wildtag"]CJ Mizikar Josh Devlin

[attr="class","wildnote"] WHAT WILL YOU DO?

BOTH OF YOUR CAPTURE ATTEMPTS ARE SUCCESSFUL!

"You won't be disappointed," Josh continued to try to rope CJ into visiting his homeland. Once the League had dealt with the meteoroid, he wanted to take a quick trip back to Johto. Say hello to his family, go back to his home arcade, visit Ecruteak City...there was a lot to do in western Johto, for sure. He couldn't wait to show his family some of the new Pokémon he had captured overseas!

"I should get going too," Josh concurred. "Saber's not in very good shape, and I need to get him to a Pokémon Center before anything bad happens to him. I hope our paths cross again and I get to show you Blinky someday!" With that, Josh turned around, only to see an angry Voltorb he had accidentally encroached upon the territory of! With a split second reaction, Twilight's horn-blade glowed purple, mentally slicing beneath its metallic body and toward its core with PSYCHO CUT. Clearly seeing it was about to SELF-DESTRUCT, Josh threw a Poké Ball at it in a last ditch effort to protect himself, his Absol quick to let him mount up and run for cover.