Unlike with the Johto Beasts and Sacred Swords, Josh's knowledge of Rayquaza was limited to what he had seen above what were now called the Silent Icelands. He remembered the green comet slicing through 99943 METENO with godlike might, sparing not only their Hoenn, but every other Hoenn, from a grisly fate. Had the future Josh was trying to prevent been prevented, denying him an alibi to meet Raikou? He didn't want to dwell on it for now. He was beyond excited.

He was about to go for an exciting flight on what may have been the fastest Pokémon in the world.

"Yo!" Josh waved back from the back of his Dragonair, unable to contain his giddiness as he greeted the Peacemaker. "Thanks again for letting me do this. I think it's going to be a big help for when I meet Raikou. I wouldn't be surprised if he asks me to do something similar." Unsurprisingly, Eva was in a full flight suit. After all, Josh had a full racing suit himself for his very fastest rides, including the Dragonair he rode to Eva's lab on.

The gravity of what Josh would be doing settled on his shoulders as he took his leave and changed into the second flight suit in the nearby locker room, activating his RaiCorp prototype HoloWear's speedometer function. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. This would be a direct way to measure just the kind of speed Rayquaza was capable of. It would be valuable information for researchers worldwide, particularly mythologists, to have. "I'm back and ready! Thanks to Josh Dragomir 's tech here, I'll be able to see just how fast we're going, too!"

Come to think of it, Josh was helping Eva get used to her new Patron, too. For the Master of Faster, riding Rayquaza was an opportunity he would never get to relish again. For the Peacemaker, though, it was something she might end up doing routinely. "I'm already shaking just thinking about holding Rayquaza's reins in the event of--"

Wait. Did she just say EXTREME SPEED?

The professor may have been able to see a look of worry on Josh's face. His Dragonair's EXTREME SPEED had pushed his limits back when he rode with Isaac Merlo and had to save him from a terrible fate. His mind raced back to that day as he sent Yosei out, ready to take off after Eva's Salamence. "You're going to love it. My first experience riding a Pokémon using EXTREME SPEED was with my Dragonair. The field of dragon energy whipping past you, as well as Hoenn itself, is something else." It was almost painfully obvious how uncharacteristically nervous the Gym Leader was; it was almost like he was a different person at the very mention of the blindingly fast move. "G-got it," he stuttered, promising to keep his emotions in check until they were in flight.

It felt a little different flying on the dragon with a flight suit on. As he rest his hands on the creature's back, he found himself having to exert quite a bit more force just to remove them and properly grab Yosei's reins. With it extremely likely that Rayquaza would not be wearing a saddle, this would aid him greatly in holding on during the flight. "When I first approached Kyle about riding Entei to prepare for my pursuit of Raikou, the Beast was apprehensive about it. As much fun as it would be to hold Rayquaza's reins for myself, and don't get me wrong, I would love to, but I get it. I get how they can be. They are gods, after all." And even if it were the case, said reins would almost assuredly not be physical.

Regardless, he would need all the help he could get.

It was not long until the duo reached the offshore island where the emerald serpent hovered. It was as though weather itself ceased around the dragon, the conditions surrounding the island ideal for their flight. Josh's jaw opened at the sight of the Hoennian dragon capable of the most maddening speed any Pokémon had to offer. There were no words he could say to Eva; he instead humbly dismounted and withdrew Yosei, bowed to the snaking sky god, and followed his partner's lead in getting ready to soar.

Josh planted his feet firmly after the first strong gust of wind hit him upon landing on the offshore island. Where did all the wind come from? "I expected that Rayquaza, like other legendary Pokémon, has their own rules," Josh agreed with the Peacemaker and Head Scientist. "I felt that when I flew with Laurence Anderson and Articuno that day. November 18, the day Hoenn changed forever." Even for Josh, one without a true connection to a god, he had been greatly changed by both the battle on the meteor and the clash with Kyurem. If it weren't for his conscription, Twilight's Mega Stone would still be intact. Aslan, his Pyroar, wouldn't be in the hospital fighting for his life right now. But he was a Gym Leader, and one of the responsibilities of a Gym Leader was to fight in Hoenn's army and defend her from her enemies, whether external or internal. "I more meant figurative reins than literal ones," he said with a laugh. "I wouldn't ever expect a legendary Pokémon to willingly wear riding gear like an ordinary Pokémon."

Rayquaza's golden stare was intimidating, but a nod from the green serpent quelled the Mauville Leader's fears and allowed him to be more relaxed in the titanic Pokémon's presence. He could feel the sheer power of Rayquaza's undulations just by watching them take off and hover near them, uncoiling their tail and letting them both aboard. He made sure his own helmet was secured before hopping on the legendary dragon. The serpentine body was the perfect size for Josh, almost as though the sky-dwelling Pokémon was meant for carrying people into the stratosphere.

Josh gently stroked Rayquaza's scales in front of their first set of stability fins before swinging his leg over, just like with his Dragonair, and hopping on behind Eva. When he found himself touching the fin, he scooted forward a little, the specialized flight suit interlocking with the tough, green scales. It served as the closest thing the Master of Faster would get to a harness, and he would find himself needing every bit of help we can get. He exhaled and flicked his helmet's visor down. "Alright, Eva! Let's see what Rayquaza can do with their new Avatar as a pilot!" He kept one eye on the corner of his Vision, too; after all, he was taking a speed measurement for Eva as a condition of the ride into Hoenn's skies.

"I am!" Josh replied, grateful the Peacemaker had thought of adding such a feature in advance. He wished he had thought of it when he took Isaac Merlo on a ride on his EXTREME SPEEDing Dragonair that blissful day so many months ago. As much as he would have loved to relive those moments, he would not also have wanted to relive Meteno. No one would have.

The Gym Leader shifted about on his perch just in front of Rayquaza's first red-tipped stability fin. He wasn't going anywhere, not with his lower body locked in place like that. Josh braced himself as the green, living rollercoaster crawled over the cliff's edge, experiencing zero gravity as the emerald serpent tumbled toward the waves at an angle that would have almost assured caused a real rollercoaster to derail. "WOOOOOOO!" he cried as the dragon leveled out over the sea.

Even warming up was really fast, reminding Josh of how fast his Dragonair's AGILITY or DRAGON DANCE was. With their similarities in body shape, he expected the ride on Rayquaza's back to be similar to that of Resheph, though with the same speed ratio. It was frightening to think about what he could have potentially gotten himself into, especially with how open Eva was about having Josh back her up on her first EXTREME SPEED run.

Though Josh didn't know it, Rayquaza using the Sacred Arte was likely the fastest rush any Pokémon had to offer, legendary or no. When Eva called out that she was going to have Rayquaza speed up, Josh braced himself for the worst. Dragon energy gathered around the legendary Pokémon, in the same formation as it did around Resheph.

It was a good thing Eva thought to sandwich Josh between herself and the dragon's fin; if he had too much room to move, he would have ragdolled about on the Skylord's back. While the burst of speed wasn't as whiplash-inducing as Raikou's EXTREME SPEED was, the dragon's acceleration much more smooth, its sheer magnitude caused Josh's facial skin to rush to the back of his head. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched the roaring creature's speed climb rapidly, even beyond what Saber's HYPERSONIC PLASMA CHARGE was capable of. Even as the fourth figure appeared, the acceleration showed no sign of ceasing.

What really made the intense speed hit home was seeing Mossdeep on the horizon when Rayquaza initiated the Sacred Arte. Seconds later, the large island whipped past them. Josh's favorite racing video game, involving futuristic hovercars, reached the kinds of speeds Rayquaza was flying at, and having that visual reference was one of the things keeping him from getting immediately sick. Rayquaza's speed was still continuing to climb. "Just how fast does this dragon get, anyway? This is nuts!" He wondered how that had to come off from Eva's perspective, a Gym Leader who crafted his Gym on the premise of high speed seemingly having trouble adapting to the legendary mount.

The acceleration continued to squeeze Josh as Shoal Cave flew past him in a split second. The isolated air pockets that were their flight suits was the only reason the two could communicate while riding a mount that he felt was flying at multiple times the speed of sound. The rush on the emerald serpent made it clear to him. He was a passenger on the undisputed king of speed, legendary Pokémon included. Even if Rayquaza wore reins, there would be no way a human would have the strength to pull them when flying at nothing short of lunatic speeds.

Though Rayquaza could ease such pressure for Eva, Josh had no such luck; he had to rely on his skill with his Dragonair, which offered him similar relief from the physical ordeal he was putting his body through. Once instructed to do so, Josh followed Eva's guidance, and he was glad he did.

At long last, the pressure on him relieved as Rayquaza's speed leveled off. Though it was still steadily going up, the explosive acceleration had worn off. It seemed like the dragon was able to maintain its burst speed for far longer than most Pokémon. "YEEEEEE-HAAAAA!!!" Josh cried through his comms, lost in the rush of having conquered the fastest speed of the fastest Pokémon in the world. Even acute angles were nothing but a blur, the waves beneath an incomprehensible sea of blue and white. "I can't imagine what it's like to drive or control them! Wonder how long it takes him to circumnavigate Hoenn?" he idly mused.

After the emerald serpent and their two riders passed Shoal Cave, Josh felt his stomach sink into his gut as the Peacemaker's Patron curled upward and started pounding through cloud layers, the blue of the sky getting increasingly dull as he felt the stability fins along the dragon's spine squeezing at him again. Even with Josh leaning as low as he could on Rayquaza, he felt so much more power from the undulating Pokémon that he was shaking. "Wait, his Extreme Speed's not it?!" Josh asked with a hint of panic in his voice, but mostly anticipation. Rayquaza's flight had been smooth but fast up until now. The shaking meant that at last the Skylord was starting to show their true colors. He had no reference to just how high above Hoenn he was: just the color of the sky and the frightening display of Rayquaza's speed in the lower right corner of his Vision. It was the true fastest rush Rayquaza was capable of.

The DRAGON ASCENT.

The emerald serpent and two riders were surrounded by a green field of dragon energy so dense and were at such a high altitude that he could not recognize a single structure on the ground. They were so high up that Josh could see all of Hoenn looking down. There was no way even Resheph, his Dragonair, could fly this high up without freezing. They had to be miles above the surface. Though he didn't know it due to a lack of familiarity, he was getting first-hand confirmation that Rayquaza truly did live near the ozone layer in the sky! The only sounds the two could hear were their own voices and the hum of any technology contained within their specially-designed aerodynamic flight suits as they flew far faster than even a fighter plane at burst speed. Eva's whoop alongside his own made him smile. "I bet Rayquaza's having a lot of fun too!" Josh mused as he took in just how small Hoenn was at this altitude.

"Arceus, me!" Josh grunted as Rayquaza made a shallow turn after passing from Dewford to Meteor Falls faster than it took them to fly between Sootopolis and Mossdeep while they were on the surface. He could have sworn he felt his gut fluids violently splashing within him as the legendary dragon started twisting sideways to give them a view they'd never forget.

After passing Petalburg City, Josh could feel Rayquaza turning the other way. "Wait, why are you turning them away from Hoenn? I thought we were racing to see how fast he could circle Hoenn?" He didn't need to think about it long before realizing what happened: Rayquaza was so fast that they had to overshoot all their turns and make a 270-degree arc to be gentle enough with their riders to not cause them to immediately pass out. As they crested the lazy left turn, Josh pointed in the distance. "Is that Johto? No way! That's quite the trip by airplane!" It truly gave the Gym Leader a sense of how fast Rayquaza was: a sense that only the growing number in the lower right corner couldn't give him. The concept of this kind of speed was difficult for even the Master of Faster to comprehend. "Perhaps you should take my title instead!" Josh joked.

Even now, Josh could still feel Rayquaza slowly building speed during the Dragon Ascent. Meteor Falls, Fallarbor Toen, Fortree, and Lilycove all flew past them in seconds. It was quickly becoming apparent that the dragon god's speed was designed for interstellar travel, not regional travel. It was a sight, and an experience, that would forever be burned into Josh's memory. What were they building all this speed for?

"I know air speed and land speed aren't the same, but this makes Raikou seem so slow now!" Josh chirped. And how much slower would Raikou's speed seem, wild as it was, before they would land back at the island north of Ever Grande, or wherever Eva decided to drop them off at. They had miles upon miles of altitude to shed when the time came, far beyond any commercial aircraft had ever reached. After all, the Dragon Ascent had two parts to it: the ascent to the stratosphere and beyond, and the Dragon Descent back to the surface.

There were no words or images in Josh's head that could even come close to what he felt he was going to experience soon.