As Kyle greeted Josh, he may have been able to hear the young Gym Leader, who had his hands folded and eyes closed, mumbling a prayer that could sound familiar to him. It was similar to the prayer he had made to the Great One, Ho-oh, when the rainbow deity made its appearance above the surface of 99943 METENO.

"O Great One, hallowed bird of rainbow colors, thy will be done, Impart me with thine FORESIGHT, thine JUDGMENT, and thine INSIGHT to carry out thy will, and to deliver Hoenn from thine enemies. O Great One, impart thy faithful servant with the Blessing of Thunder, and make me a messenger of the new kingdom to come. A kingdom where your Blessed serve your Great Will for ever and ever. Amen."

"Morning," Josh replied to the Minor League Director with a shaky wave of his own. It was glaringly apparent that he had the jitters. It was understandable, too; the first time he had met Entei, it was on the field of battle. While it was certainly far from intended, the Beast's extraordinary power was at least partially responsible for the pain the young one had suffered during his failed challenge of the Battle Arcade.

"This takes me back," the Master of Faster mused aloud. "You were my first Gym challenger back when I first entered the Minor League. You really put me on the spot." His eyes wandered, recognizing the remnants of Twist Road. He remembered the race the two had in surprising detail. "Never did I imagine this day would come. My chase of the Beast of Thunder, Raikou, had brought me to many different people. They brought me to Melody, Matias, even Thomas. And as I said after the Battle Arcade, your name kept coming up. And now I know why."

Even Saber's expression had turned solemn, the Manectric unusually silent. "After the day we brought the barrier down, I realized I hadn't treated you with enough--"

The sound of a fast-approaching stampede drowned out his voice. As the surrounding dust cloud came closer and closer, Josh saw that it was a stampede of one. As the majestic, masked emperor lion barreled down the nearby foothills, every single blade of grass underneath the fire-type's paws was uprooted from the simply legendary speed that was on display. Reading about it was one thing.

Seeing it was totally different.

For a long time, Josh had suspected that Braver's EXTREME SPEED would be able to keep up with the blistering speed of a Beast's effortless gallop. The display of Kyle's legendary partner called those suspicions into question. Perhaps the Johto trio were even faster and more elusive than he thought. "If this is what the Great Entei is capable of... then I cannot fathom what the Great Raikou can do. Can a human truly ride on him like the Hero of Johto once did?"

With the way Josh's eyes were shifting back and forth between Kyle and Entei, on top of the carefully selected language he was using, it may have been obvious to Entei exactly what Josh was looking for. "If it was a one-off thing, sure," he replied, "but this isn't the first time I've had dreams like this. They've also never been this intense until now." Perhaps Kyle was right. If Raikou was actually dead, then maybe it was all in his head. It didn't make much sense to him, though. Why was this a recurring thing? When Raikou was still alive, was he trying to reach out to Josh? After his death, had that message manifest itself and become its own desire in the Gym Leader's heart, independent of the Beast's life?

His eyes closed, wrack with disappointment. Not dread, but it was getting there. He needed something to cheer him up. Perhaps it wasn't Johto's Raikou trying to reach him. Maybe, just maybe, there was another Raikou out there trying to find him. He couldn't focus on trying to befriend something that didn't exist. For now, his dream would be relegated to the back foot. He needed a new driver to keep pushing forward. The moment he discovered another Raikou, though, the dream would be front and center, just as it had been since joining the Rangers.

"Your story tracks," he answered, still with eyes closed and head down. "Those three almost always travel together when it's important. Just as the Heroes of Johto. My dream, from childhood, was to play the role of the Hero of Johto, the one that rode Raikou. The fastest Pokémon on land..."

He stopped to ponder his words, as well as Kyle's follow-up comment. He tilted his head up and faced Entei with his full attention, his resolve slicing through the runner's PRESSURE for the first time since meeting at the Battle Arcade. "I'm not giving up yet, though. And there... is a way you can help me. It's a huge ask, and I won't be upset if you turn it down, but..."

Josh's heart was pounding as he trailed off. With the Johtonian Raikou dead, this was realistically as close as he would ever get to his dream. It wasn't the fastest Pokémon on land, like he wanted to befriend. It was, however, the second fastest that he knew of. There would be no training experience that would help Josh more than he was about to ask Kyle for. Even if Kyle let him, it would be a daunting task, if his experience with Laurence Anderson taught him anything. He couldn't make the shot unless he took it in the first place, though. Kyle seemed understanding, but ultimately, it would be up to Entei.

"Would it be too much to ask for a run on Entei's back?" Josh's question seemed to echo throughout the former Racing Grounds that were in disrepair. "Whether alongside you or by myself does not matter to me. I just feel there would be no better way to prepare than getting a feel for just how fast a Beast is." His heart was going thump thump thump as he awaited both their reactions to his admittedly wild request...

Entei's rejection didn't surprise Josh at all. After all, he wasn't Entei's Avatar. Neither was Kyle. The two clearly had very different attitudes toward Entei, and Entei's reserved personality meant the only person the Beast of Fire would likely tolerate in his metaphorical saddle was Kyle himself. After all, legendary Pokémon were revered for a reason! They, like all Pokémon, had wishes that needed to be respected. Without being routinely in the presence of one, like Kyle was, it was almost impossible to truly appreciate the magnitude of presence and power they commanded, and the magnitude of respect they deserved.

"It's not your fault," Josh answered, his eyes starting to well up. "I get it. It's ultimately not your decision to make. From Entei's perspective, it's got to be the most pointless, most childish request in the world. In the twelve years I've been chasing Raikou, I've failed to consider the chase from his perspective. A mere human, whom he has little to no interest in what he has to perceive as a one-way relationship, would have to feel nothing short of desecrated. And seeing you and Entei work together has opened my eyes." His tears grew in number as he came to the grim conclusion that so-called presentability was a non-factor. It was a matter of whether the electric Beast looked down upon him by the concept of "favorability" in its own view, and that was something that humans had positively zero influence over. "There is no such thing as looking presentable to--"

Kyle's one-up was something Josh never could have been prepared for.

From the rainbow flames Kyle conjured through his bond with Ho-oh came the only thing that could transform the Gym Leader's tears of angst into ones of overwhelming joy. The ashes coalesced into the shape of vicious claws that converged at a single point, building into the body shape of a sabertooth cat that was roughly Josh's own height. A purple thundercloud materialized next, in Josh's eyes a natural saddle. Next, a thin, bolt-shaped tail that sparked with electricity that made even Josh, a Gym Leader with a talent for raising electric Pokémon, flinch. Lastly, the faceplate, mane, and fangs materializing hit Josh the hardest. He knew the folklore of Ho-oh reviving the Beasts from SACRED ASH. That was all the evidence he needed to see. Entei truly was the only survivor of the Johto invasion.

This was, to Josh, conclusive evidence that the Raikou and Suicune Josh knew truly were dead.

With a roar indistinguishable from the sound of thunder, Raikou's presence was known. Seeing the Beast in the flesh, though it wasn't the real thing, felt identical to the original. Even the PRESSURE felt identical to that of the genuine Entei. This Raikou, created from the Great One's SACRED ASH, appeared to be physiologically identical in every way. In Josh's eyes, that included the blistering speed the Beast was known for. In a split second as brief as a flash of lightning, his tears turned from those of self-destruction and despair to overwhelming bliss. Even if it wasn't the way he wanted to live his dream, this was happening, and he could not believe it.

Balling in overwhelming happiness, Josh opened his arms wide and embraced Kyle in a great big hug if he allowed it. "Arceus, Kyle..." he trailed off, his sniffing perhaps making him difficult to understand. "When Melody Miro , MATIAS SILPH , Thomas Benoit , and all the others led me to believe that all roads to Raikou would lead to you, I didn't they think they meant it so directly. There were conflicting, nagging feelings in my head, both overwhelming. One that said today would never would come, and one that said today would come soon. And today is...here." His face had turned beet red from crying so hard. "I... is this a dream? If this is a dream, I never want to wake up from this dream." This was far from a dream, yet also a dream at the same time. He was about to live a childhood dream many of his friends had sensibly ridiculed him for having.

He was about to ride Raikou.

Even after the weight of his realization started to lift from his shoulders, his face was still red. He slowly walked toward Raikou and tried to hug the electric tiger, burying his face in its white-and-yellow mane if the Beast allowed it. As he rest his hand on Raikou's yellow, striped mane, looking ready to climb aboard, Josh sent out Braver, his Arcanine, who was a comparable size to Entei. "I'd love to have Braver here run alongside Raikou. He's the fastest land Pokémon at my Gym." Though he already had a way to obtain a reference of just how much speed his temporary legendary steed could put on, thanks to Josh Dragomir 's Vision he wore under his racing helmet, having a relative reference independent of technology would be helpful. After all, the presence of a legendary Pokémon could very well be a disruptor.

Josh had finally let out most of his stressors. One, of course, remained. He had trained for this moment, and hard at that. He had developed the Three Virtues that the Raikou of his dreams asked him to. He had developed friendships with other Avatars that were more than helpful in aiding his search that had led him to this moment. Even his own Gym Trainers helped Josh in preparing to withstand the booming speed of his Manectric's HYPERSONIC PLASMA CHARGE. Was it enough, though? Enough to withstand the legendary speed that came from the fastest land creature on the planet? There was no more serious test of whether Josh truly was worthy of the title "Master of Faster". Surely, Raikou would let Josh prove that worth. He couldn't put it off anymore. He wiped his red eyes clean of tears, clicked his helmet's visor into place, and took a deep breath.

It was time to mount up.

Josh grabbed a handful of yellow fur and climbed atop the replica legendary's thundercloud. In a strange way, the cloud not only served as a natural saddle, but the outer tufts of cloud could even serve as natural reins if the Beast allowed it. And even if he didn't, the talented rider had fundamentals to draw on: leg pressure for speed and shifting of body weight to change direction. "Braver, go on ahead!" Nodding, the Arcanine bounded forward, accelerating rapidly down the former concourse now littered with grass from a lack of maintenance.

The stage was set. All that remained was for Josh to give the command to go. One thing was missing, though. "Kyle, you remember our race here, right? What kind of boosts are Raikou and Entei capable of?" Regardless of the answer, he wouldn't be commanding Raikou to use them any time soon. He had to get an expectation of what Raikou was capable of without them. Hell, he might not even be able to handle them at all if it got to be too much. Thinking about it made every hair on his body stand on end, and not from the latent static that came from sitting on the Beast's thundercloud. Corresponding with what method of control Raikou approved, he held the sides of the Beast's thundercloud like reins, or buried his hands in the noble predator's fur.

There was no going back now.

Shaking from the PRESSURE and his own nerves, he braced himself for the worst. Josh leaned forward in an attempt to minimize air resistance and avoid being blown off by the huge apparent winds that came with being astride the fastest land Pokémon there was. He gently jabbed his knees into Raikou's sides as a command to start running.

"Hyah!"

The fastest land Pokémon in the world was also capable of EXTREME SPEED, the most intense burst of speed any Pokémon could use. If Josh skin didn't tingle from tension and anticipation before, it certainly did now. The first time he had ridden Braver's EXTREME SPEED scared him, particularly after seeing how banged up Matt Vice was that day when he had to chase Nana down. It was incredible fun to go on and let the world fly by, once a rider had trained their body to handle it. Braver, using the move, exceeded the speed of the fastest race cars in the world. It took a lot of practice, but he was able to control his body during the fastest run any known common Pokémon was capable of. He was also adept at controlling his body through the explosive acceleration of his Manectric, feeling like he was being whipped backward as he rapidly got up to speed at the start of every race he entered Saber in.

As Josh would find out, this would combine aspects of both.

Josh breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed from the Raikou's willingness to leave the rush to come in his hands, as well as Kyle's comment to merely trust the Beast, he would be able to control it like his own Pokémon! This was getting more and more exciting by the moment, his heart continuing to thump. He wasn't sure if his hair standing on end was from nerves or from the latent static his mount was radiating. He raised the outer two tufts of thundercloud, holding them like reins and giving them a light tug to see how responsive he was. The response was almost instant, seeing Raikou's head tilt left, then right. "See if you can catch us, Kyle!" Josh teased, leaning as low into his mount as possible while still being able to see.

At Josh's cry and jab at the Beast's sides, the electric tiger's vicious roar startled and jolted him harshly, his arms already tingling both from the static and the vibration behind the bellow. Beast and rider were off along the concourse, springing forward with maddening acceleration. While it wasn't quite as intense as Saber's explosion of electricity propelling him to his top speed quickly, that lasted only for a split second. The backbreaking force shook him from his shoulders down for second after second, even the seasoned rider finding it difficult to hold the thundercloud reins steady as Raikou looked to overtake Braver. He caught out of the corner of his eye the competitive Arcanine putting on a burst of EXTREME SPEED to avoid being passed.

One eye ahead of him and one eye on the speedometer in the corner of his Vision, he was coming up to the concourse's first turn. He tugged on the left side of the Beast's thundercloud reins, feeling like a Sawk chopped him in the gut as it made the fairly sharp turn following the concourse. While he couldn't see it, he could already feel the whites of his knuckles beneath his racing gloves as Braver re-upped his EXTREME SPEED to attempt to stay in front of Raikou. It was futile, though; on the next long straight stretch of the concourse, Raikou was slowly gaining on Braver as the acceleration force finally began to relent. "Wheeeeee-haaaaaaaa!!!" the young Gym Leader started hooting and hollering as the former Racing Grounds' natural obstacles whipped past him. As Raikou and his rider passed Braver, he felt relieved in the most odd way that his chase was on hold, thanks to this very ride clearing up a misconception he had about the Beast from the very beginning of his chase.

Even his Arcanine's EXTREME SPEED was not able to keep up with the electric tiger's rapid and effortless gallop.

The fire-type Pokémon's legs were nothing short of a blur, yet Raikou was moving faster with clearly visible yet rapid strides from his legs bulging with pure muscle. His right eye shifted to the corner of his RaiCorp vision to check his speed, and it was already faster than he'd traveled on any other land Pokémon before. How much faster could his EXTREME SPEED be? Josh wanted to find out, but even shallow turns at such high speeds physically strained him. Any sort of turn at a full EXTREME SPEED sprint risked tearing the young man limb from limb. Was this the true power of Raikou's legendary speed? He wondered how the Hero of Johto did it so long ago.

Even if was for a day, Josh truly felt like he was the Hero of Johto, the one chosen to sit astride the Great Raikou and fight for the region's liberty and peace. Having noticed his mount's speed had at last leveled off, he briefly lost his mind at how fast he was going. Not one of his land Pokémon could outpace Raikou, even at the fastest burst speeds they were capable of. And yet, the electric Beast's gallop was effortless, as though he could run at this speed all day. He let out another loud whoop from underneath his helmet as he realized he was in control.

He gently tugged on Raikou's thundercloud to ease the legendary runner into a shallow left turn. While it didn't exactly follow the concourse, it did set him up to round the back of the expansive properly and let him set up for an all-out sprint on the trip back. After making the turn, he finally had the chance to peer behind him, seeing if Kyle gave chase with Entei, or even a second Sacred Ash Raikou.

Regardless, once they had rounded the back corner and started heading back toward the distant Battle Tower, Josh buried his hands in the electric legend's fur and held on tight. He expected the Beast's EXTREME SPEED to be similar to his Arcanine's, except with a similar speed ratio between the two. His vision was already constrained by blurred peripherals. He wondered that if he stomped on Raikou's metaphorical gas pedal and caused the Beast's legs to become a single yellow and black blur beneath Josh, how much worse would his own blur get? It may have been dangerous, but this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. He wasn't going to give up the opportunity to experience the very fastest land speed any Pokémon, legendary or no, had to offer. He was only getting one chance in Raikou's thundercloud saddle.

There was no going back now.

Every fiber of Josh's hair stood on end in anticipation of a violent explosion of pure speed. As much as he tried to brace himself, he was in completely unknown territory. At last getting a moment to catch his breath, he cried out, "Faster, Raikou! Faster! Use your EXTREME SPEED!"

For once, Josh's legendary steed didn't obey his command to EXTREME SPEED. Perhaps the Beast suspected that without divine powers imparted to him directly by a true legendary Pokémon, rather than a near-perfect facsimile, the true speed the Johto legendary could offer was too much for him to handle. He felt the sonic discharge from the thunderous roar buck him, his knuckles white from the grip needed to avoid going flying. "Waaaaah!" Josh cried as he felt the recoil from the Beast's bellow. The sound was completely indistinguishable from thunder. The longer he stayed in the Beast's thundercloud saddle, the more he was realizing that nearly everything he had learned at Ecruteak University regarding Raikou was more truth than tale.

The roar summoned grey, almost black clouds across all of northeastern Hoenn, stretching from Mauville to Fortree to Lilycove. Not one raindrop reached the ground, yet the sky flashed with near-constant lightning. Was his mount's PRESSURE so intense that it was deflecting the weather away? No. It was causing the rain around them to evaporate back into the atmosphere before it touched the ground. The thundercloud Josh clutched with his four limbs glowed white in his hands, crackling with electricity yet somehow not frying Josh to a crisp. He let out another loud grunt as Raikou effortlessly raced up a steep hill, not showing one sign of slowing down. They were charging into the fence marking the property line at full speed.

With a graceful leap far higher than was needed to clear the fence, Raikou had escaped, giving Josh an unexpected view of a Route 111 almost completely devoid of wild Pokémon within sight. And yet, still no EXTREME SPEED. The Beast hung a gentle, uncommanded right turn, though it felt like his right leg was being squeezed from the awesome momentum the fastest land Pokémon in the world possessed. He tested gentle tugs on Raikou's cloud-reins to try to regain control, but the Beast wouldn't listen to him until they had fully passed the outskirts of Mauville to the grasslands and beaches of Route 118. There, he found himself in full control, and yet, still no EXTREME SPEED. He had ridden Braver using the move many times along the highly rural roads of eastern Hoenn before. Was Raikou's just so fast that he thought Josh couldn't safely handle it?

"Gah!" Josh grunted loudly as Raikou slid across the dirt and toward Route 119: the longest Hoennian thoroughfare he regularly patrolled as a Ranger, and at high speed at that. This, though, was blowing that speed out of the water. The trees whipping past the two were indistinguishable from the forest, the Beast running so fast Josh could only see at acute angles in front of him. To his side were nothing but green and brown strobe lights reflected from the nearly constant lightning fueling the added speed. Every time Josh caught the leftmost digit of his Vision's speedometer tick upward, the weight of the responsibility in his hands grew exponentially. The added speed from the thundercloud, to Josh, felt like EXTREME SPEED.

Little did he know that he had a long ways to go.

What was an hour-long patrol route for Josh's Pokémon took mere minutes for the electric Beast to cover. Every small turn on the road felt like a harsh U-turn from his Absol by comparison. How could the Hero of Johto handle this? His legs were beginning to buckle already, and they were about to turn onto an abandoned thoroughfare just south of Fortree City! If Alexei Ivanov was in the air on one of his bird Pokémon, as unlikely as it was in this weather, he may have been able to see Raikou passing near the rural town at full speed, Josh and his legendary ally uprooting grass in their ultrafast wake.

Another strong purr from Raikou rattled Josh as two left Fortree and the much twistier Routes 120 and 121. It was the route he had scolded Matt Vice and Nana for using their own EXTREME SPEED during their impromptu race when they had first met. That was before Matt had become a Ranger, even. If Matt saw him riding at even more reckless speeds, even with the Johto legend having much greater control than an Arcanine would, the Mauville Gym Leader wouldn't hear the end of it. The corner rounding the Safari Zone's entrance was particularly painful, Josh feeling like his left leg was going to pop from the high speed slide Raikou made.

The slide put the two on a direct route to Mount Pyre. By the time the bay was in sight, it would be mere seconds before Raikou reached the water. The Beast trusted Josh enough to carry him on the run of a lifetime. And yet, despite his thundercloud gleaming white and the rider feeling like his body weight was leaving him at times, the Beast was still holding EXTREME SPEED back. That made the prospect of such a violent speed boost all the more frightening to think about.

He had to put his trust in Raikou, too.

"Jump, Raikou!" the rider cried as he flicked the electric-type's outer cloud tufts as though they were reins.

He was grateful that Raikou's thundercloud was softer than any piece of leather he had ever strapped to any of his Pokémon, feeling like his buttocks would have split apart from the sheer power behind the legendary mount's skyward leap. The bay and sacred island shrunk before Josh's eyes as Raikou's leap peaked. He felt his legs be lifted up the Beast's sides as the tufts on the back of the thundercloud conjoined with those following the duo from above.

"Whoa, you can fly?!" Josh gasped, dizziness beginning to set in from how long and hard he had been riding. The view from the bottom of the cloud was breathtaking, able to see lightning striking the lake from above. With Josh having loved watching thunderstorms as a child, it was nothing short of surreal to see the bolts and flashes from the perspective of the storm itself. "Whoa!" he gasped again as a lightning bolt flew dangerously close to the rider. Raikou simply nodded, giving Josh another warning purr. They were coming up on the longest yet most gently meandering road in all of Hoenn: Route 123. It was the same road Josh first practiced with Braver's EXTREME SPEED, which gave him the high-speed fundamentals that kept him in Raikou's metaphorical saddle. The warning was enough for Josh to realize that Raikou was simply waiting for the right time to unleash his merciless EXTREME SPEED upon his poor body.

What the Master of Faster was about to enter was completely uncharted territory.

"Raikou, EXTREME SPEED!"

With a loud roar that physically rattled Josh and a matrix of arc lightning enveloping Raikou, the Johto Beast leaped out of the cloud to the ground in a living lightning strike, just how the tales said he had descended to the earth. The longer the ride went on, the more accurate the tales he had learned in years seemed to be. The tales had, however, greatly underestimated just how fast Raikou could get to. With both hands on Raikou's glowing cloud reins and one eye on his Vision's speedometer, Josh braced for the worst.

Raikou's four legs became a singular, yellow blur beneath his body, his impossibly rapid running stroke feeling like a high-frequency tremor to Josh. Even through his helmet and with all the high speed experience he had, the racer felt like his face was going to tear itself apart from the paralyzing acceleration, the skin of his cheeks being pushed toward his ears. Both his hands beneath his racing gloves turned white as the violent acceleration whipped him against the rear of the billowing thundercloud, the only thing keeping him from falling off and taking an almost certainly lethal spill.

The intensity of the burst was well beyond what Josh could fathom; not even Saber going into a QUICK ATTACK from a standstill could match the level of explosive acceleration that pinched shut the blood vessels and nerves within Josh's arms. The overzealous rider had asked for Raikou's EXTREME SPEED, and he was getting it. And he wasn't done yet; though the roughest part of the ride was over, Raikou's speed slowly grew, Josh barely able to see through his squinting just how fast he was going. It was far faster than he had ever flown on his Dragonair, and this was land speed.

It was speed that truly made Raikou legendary.

The wetland-surrounded road beneath Josh flew past in such a blur that he could only see clearly in a narrow cone in front of him. Even with what he could clearly see, he had less than a second to react to the gentle twists and turns that each felt like being swerved from side to side by a Pokémon trying to forcibly dismount its rider. The feeling in his legs was starting to disappear as the skyline of Mauville City came into sight. He wanted to scream, but he could not physically do so.

As the two rounded the corner back to Route 111 and Trainer Hill, he let Kyle get a good look at Josh racing the Raikou-familiar at a full EXTREME SPEED sprint before at last letting off the metaphorical gas. The length of the dash completely upset the racer's sense of speed, the Beast's "normal" top speed feeling almost stress-free by comparison. Raikou made a wide turn before jumping back inside the fence and gently coming to a stop near Kyle and Entei. Josh removed his helmet, revealing every orifice of his head covered in a deluge of sweat and an unnaturally red face.

It was apparent just from looking at Josh's face, skin, and overall exhaustion that he had broken his body's own internal speed limit. He had lived his dream, yet it was not the dream he expected it to be. Raikou was painfully fast. He was right to have trained by riding other legendary Pokémon, but the sheer speed Raikou possessed was something not even other legendary Pokémon could truly prepare him for.

After hurtling across Hoenn at such speeds, the weight of his own hubris had left him speechless. He had originally chased Raikou as an easy way to vault to the top of the racing circuit. Not only had Josh learned that Raikou could run far faster than he thought, but even if he could condition his body to adapt to that kind of speed, every Federation course simply was not designed with that kind of speed in mind. Much of what crushed Josh was the very lesson he had constructed Mauville Racing Grounds to teach, and yet here, he completely ignored his own advice:

"With great speed comes great responsibility."