That explained everything. Alex had to have been there, too. But that was enough of that topic. Recalling the events of the Cloud left him in physical pain, even beyond the mental and spiritual agony that attempted to shake Josh's faith that he was the one Raikou was seeking, though it ended up galvanizing it in the end. "I'm glad you're okay. But sure, I'll repeat it. It's a tale that's a little different depending on what part of the world you hear it from. This is the version I've known." He closed his eyes to visualize the tale in his mind.

A deep, deep valley blocks the way.
If you can cross, go ahead, I say.
The scary valley likes to brag,
"No one can cross my rocky crags!"
What nonsense speaks the silly valley?
For Great Raikou, it's one bound.
Hero on its back, just one bound.

"Like I said, the valley is symbolic for something serious. It's symbolic of a horrible war that nearly tore the human race apart. This was when humans first learned how to tame Pokémon, and they did it without Poké Balls, centuries in the past." If Alex recalled his visit to the Braviary's Nest with Shalin Nariya , a lot of the story would share motifs with the lore of the original Birdkeepers--his ancient ancestors.

"As the war dragged on and on," Josh continued, "the remaining troops had more and more powerful Pokémon. If the war continued much longer, no one would have a home to return to. That's when three heroes chosen by the gods swept through the battleground. One of them rode on Raikou's back, one on Entei, and one on Suicune. The three, working together, forced the warring nations to an armistice."

Josh re-opened his eyes. "And that's it. Those three sound a lot like the Avatars of Hoenn, don't they?"

Josh sighed. "Could be a translation issue from another language. Maybe it rhymed in the original language it was written in." He wished there was more to the tale. "No, that's it. That's what gods tend to do; they get their way, or the world starts breaking, and fast. That's all I have to share about them. Every region has their own stories about them." Josh ran his hand over his mount's fur, his hand briefly standing on end from the static, though he was quite used to it. As it turned out, riding Electric-type Pokémon made one quite used to having static coursing through oneself!

"Every region seems to have different stories about them," Josh reiterated, forgetting he just said that. "Have you heard any stories of the Sacred Beasts from Hoenn? Or anything of the like? I want to learn as much about them as I can."

"The Three-Day War..." Josh mused. "Gimme a bit." Given his return to Hoenn was recent, being right before the dome locking them in came over the region, he did not know a lot about the region's recent history. After all, he was completely unaware of MATIAS SILPH bonding with Virizion, which the standing Elite Four member used publicly, yet the Leader was one of the few that was aware he was Groudon's Avatar.

Josh quickly logged into RangerNet on his phone and searched for the Three-Day War Alex mentioned, finding a restricted file titled "Slateport Night Market 2020". Unfortunately, he was denied access due to his suspension. Thanks Laurence Anderson. "I did a quick search. Is that related to Slateport City?"

Josh and Saber both perked up at the mention of the Weather Trio. "Weather trio? Is this another Unovan legend?" he asked Alex. "I'm only familiar with the Swords of Justice from there."

At the mention of the term "Ultra Beasts", Josh did a search for the term in RangerNet, and got a fairly large number of hits. Like with the Slateport incident, most of the documents were restricted, and he could not access them due to his suspension. Some of the documents, though, were based on public information, and he could comb those without difficulty. One such file was a list of all known Ultra Beasts with photos. "...You're not kidding!" Josh gasped, flipping through the images. While technically a breach of Ranger protocol to show a non-Ranger any Ranger documents, this one was based on information available to the public. Surely there was no harm in showing Alex this one...right?

"Oh, the Weather Trio," Josh replied, facepalming into his helmet. "I know which three you're talking about. Yes, Kyogre is one of them." One of the others, the one he was terrified of, was thankfully on the side of the League. While that was information he could not share with Alex, as part of his promise to protect MATIAS SILPH , learning about Groudon's siblings could be helpful. After all, if he were to succeed in his chase, he wouldn't be meeting just one legendary Pokémon. If not immediately, then shortly after. After all, where one gathered, often many more did.

Josh hadn't studied the Weather Trio too much, but all of them were terrifying. The legendary Pokémon Josh sought had a much more narrow domain. From what little he knew about those three, all of them had region, nation, or even planet-altering scales of power. Rayquaza in particular had another problem. Raikou was the fastest Pokémon on land, but there was an enormous difference between that and escape velocity. He looked like he wanted to say something, but he had to keep Matias' identity a secret. He promised. "If only Laurence Anderson didn't scare me so much..."

All three of the Ultra Beasts Josh was asked to pause at looked so otherworldly. "These don't even look like Pokémon," he remarked, particularly at the tentacled creature. "Can you fill me in? I didn't come back to Hoenn until recently. I only planned on spending a couple weeks here, but that barrier locked me in. And now everything's changed." Even Josh's heart was starting to pound in his chest. There were so many legendary Pokémon roaming Hoenn now. And these... these otherworldly creatures. What were they, and why were they terrorizing people?

Josh flipped back and forth among RangerNet pages as Alex described the horrors that befell the battlefields of Hoenn. This was serious stuff; it was way worse than anything he could recall in Johtonian history. "Arceus..." he shuddered at the descriptions of the war. This was was far worse than the ones the heroes that rode Suicune, Entei, and Raikou were involved in. Far worse. What had poor Josh gotten himself involved in? Even if he could go back to Johto, he had a civic duty to Hoenn now. He was a Gym Leader. He had to see this through to the end.

"Blue people?" Josh asked with a confused look on his face. All the talk of legendary Pokémon the aliens known as Ultra Beasts, and now this? It felt like he was starring in a feature-length, high budget fantasy film. Except this was no fantasy. It was one hundred percent real.

Josh's mouth opened progressively wider as he listened to Alex's account of the damage the Ultra Beasts Nihilego and Buzzwole caused. It was nothing short of catastrophic, and that wasn't even accounting for the human factor. It seemed like a lot of people gave their lives. The way he described Nihilego's powers was chilling. "Full mental control? No Psychic-type Pokémon I've heard of can do that. Not even a legendary Psychic-type. That's terrifying to think about. I'm glad I wasn't here when this nonsense happened."

The next story about Buzzwole was arguably more chilling...and gruesome at that. No wonder the Rangers wanted to keep some details under wraps from the public. He pondered just how much information about the Ultra Beasts wasn't public knowledge. Probably far more than he thought. There were no words when Alex gave the account of a former Champion being devoured by Buzzwole. Not a single word. Just a wide-open mouth of worrisome awe.