The League had tasked Josh to keep watch over a dangerous criminal in rehabilitation: Chu-e Choi . From what the Mauville Leader understood, she played a major role in why the Dawn of the Darkest Day was such a dire blow. It turned the Tree of Life into a mass grave, and one he was glad he had avoided. If he was a Gym Leader, he would have had to decide which six of his Pokémon to throw at arguably the third most powerful force in the world.

"You must be Chu-e Choi ," Josh greeted, sliding down from his Jolteon's back as he and his rather large, also saddle-wearing Vaporeon smiled toward him. "Elite Ranger Devlin or Gym Leader Devlin, but I go by Josh. I'm glad to see the progress you've made. They just want me supervising the move, but I'd be glad to give you a hand with it. These two are Blinky and Kairi," he introduced the Jolteon and Vaporeon mounts, "and they're just as willing to help you move. I've got six more Pokémon like them, too. They're mainstays of my Gym."

Chu-e moves slow. There is an ache in joints and bones that can't be escaped. Groaning, a carboard box is moved over to a glass cabinet.

Inside, Josh Dragomir would see rows and rows of Love Balls sitting on neat little pillows. The pokemon Chu-e had had before had been taken away for a time; healed up and kept sealed tight until his release from the medical prison. Those were on his hip, one spot missing; Princess had given her life to protect him from Orion Lykos's pokemon.

Lifting his phone up, Chu-e scans them each to start the long process of digitizing them into his PC. Call him old fashioned but he had always enjoyed keeping his pokeballs close to him instead of online. Most of what was contained here was just pets, anyway; nothing that faced any real batter and did more than get pampered.

"I've seen your races on TV, Mr. Devlin. You're very skilled. I have a few Galarian Rapidash who came from racehorse blood. They might have fun running with your pokemon."

Chu-e hums and glances over his shoulder, nodding to the man, before his phone beeps. Frowning, he turns back around and picks up the pokeball he had been trying to scan. Flipping it over to view the bottom, Chu-e sighed.

"Well, this is troublesome. Beepin isn't in her pokeball."

From the man's rehabilitation and slow motion, Josh could tell that the deadly battle affected even Chu-e adversely. It gave him chilling flashbacks to Meteno, though this seemed to be far worse, of what he remembered reading about the Darkest Day. Meteno was bad, too; his Espeon, Skarmory, and Absol had nearly given their lives that day. It was a memory he wished he could forget, but alas, it was forever painfully etched into his mind.

"Sadly, being a Gym Leader has kept me far too busy to race in all but the big events," Josh lamented, Kairi gently nuzzling Chu-e if he allowed it. "Thank you, though! I'd love to meet your Rapidash! If they're looking for a place to run, you should come to my Gym in Mauville City sometime! As convenient as modern transportation can be, there truly is no joy like riding on your Pokémon."

When Josh heard the news, Josh loaded the current box he was working with onto a harness stapped to Basil, his Leafeon, who was quick to move it to the moving truck outside. He then returned to Chu-e's side. "How long has Beepin been gone?" Josh asked. "If it hasn't been too long, my Pokémon should be able to track her down. What kind of Pokémon is she?" Blinky the Jolteon also approached Chu-e, letting out a crackled bark and sitting down next to her. "Blinky is willing to give you a ride if that would help you search for her!"

Chu-e shook his head at Josh Devlin's offer of help. The guy seemed raring to go, but Chu-e wasn't as concerned.

"I've been in prison for months. This is my first time back home since then. Could be an hour. Could be a month. I wouldn't know." Chu-e didn't like not knowing but that was the simple truth of it. But, Chu-e wasn't really concerned if Beepin was safe or not. She was a hearty pokemon who could take care of herself. He was more concerned about...

"Shit! Duck!" Chu-e lifted a hand, a burst of black crystal erupting from his palm. While it might seem like an attack, if it landed it would do no more than shove the other out of the way.

Of what?

Of... Cillian Quinn?!

The man was snarling like a beast, blond hair wild and hands lifted, intending to Slash Josh right across the chest.

"With no parole to maintain your house, even?" Josh asked. "That whole thing still confuses me; I came to Hoenn after that nonsense was past. As much nonsense as has happened in Hoenn, I only got to read about it. I felt overwhelmed. I wanted to go back to Johto. And now, even if I wanted to go back, I couldn't. Not after Meteno. Not after becoming a Gym Leader. And certainly not after--"

A loud grunt came out of the racer's mouth as a black crystal flew out of Chu-e's palm faster than he could react. While he didn't know it, this force of those crystals pushing him back had just saved him from a terrible injury at the hands of a young man that would have otherwise smacked him across the chest with the force of a Pokémon's SLASH attack. "Blinky, THUNDER WAVE!" Josh shouted out of self-defense. The Jolteon was quick to obey, shooting a weak wave of electricity at "Gavin" intended not to harm, but to incapacitate.

"Cillian Quinn" snarled, growling low and deep in his throat at the missed attack. Turning sharply, he tried to get another swipe in. But the point blank Thunder Wave hit home, locking his muscles and making him yelp out a high pitched whine. Drool and froth gathered at the corners of hips lips as he growled and roared.

Chu-e ran over to grab the 'man' by the back of the shirt, jerking him down.

"Beepin, you stop that!"

Scolded, the Zoroark shook herself off and faded back into her true form. She still kept her eyes narrowed on Josh Devlin, licking her muzzle and showing off her sharp fangs to try and intimidate.

"Sorry about that." Sighing, Chu-e pushed past his now-mollified pokemon to offer the other man his hand. "Are you okay? She's very protective and doesn't really like strange men. I would have warned you sooner if I knew she was out of her ball."

Josh breathed a deep sigh of relief when his would-be "assassin" was merely a Zoroark. "Don't scare me like that! When Beepin attacked me, I thought this whole thing was a trap for a second!" the Leader gasped, Blinky relaxing her quills. "I'm just glad she didn't get too far. But who was that she was impersonating? I've never seen him before."

The rest of Josh's Eeveelutions also dropped their guard and went back to work moving boxes for Chu-e. "I think I'll be okay for now. I'm sorry if my reaction was excessive; as you can imagine, just by virtue of being a Gym Leader and publicly known as one who pursued Raikou for years, there are some unscrupulous folks that want my head." While he had made amends with Isaac Merlo , there were plenty who still wanted him dead, possibly including Gerald Kaiser . "But that dream died when I found out about the Kanto war." He sighed, lost in thought for a while before shaking his head. "Come on Josh, stay on task," he said to himself. "Let's keep moving. What's ready to go in the truck next?"

"She's a rescue, so it's not really her fault. Beepin came from an abusive home before I took her in." Fearless of the sharp teeth she had, Chu-e lifted a hand to scratch under the Zoroark's chin. He gave her a small smile when she snorted, butting her head lightly against him and grumbling. She was still wary of Josh Devlin; but not on the attack anymore. Instead she moved over to sniff at Josh's pokemon.

"Who, Cillian Quinn? That's surprising. He's probably one of the most famous Rockets in Hoenn. Lugia's Avatar and high ranking criminal in Rocket." Chu-e frowned and sighed, wistful. He turned back to the pokeballs, starting his work again. "He also used to be my best friend."

But Chu-e only sits on that for a few moments, letting the silence stretch between them before he picks up on what Josh is saying next.

"Seeking Raikou? It's not fun being tangled up with Legends, even if you like them. It doesn't always turn out how you expect." Chu-e doesn't hide the bitter tone, reflected in his own 'bond' with a pokemon he hated. "I'm surprised, though. My family worshiped Ho-Oh, so I heard about that Trio. I used to collect dandelions and whispers secrets into them in the hopes it would hear." Just a silly legend for children; Chu-e didn't think it actually did anything.

"What happened in Kanto? I was there. I don't think we fought any Legendary Pokemon." Chu-e had been a Rocket Beast during Kanto. If Josh wanted answers on it, he might be able to press Chu-e for some.

Josh had raised a Pokémon like that before: Crash, his Boltund, had been subjected to heavy abuse by its previous trainer before being abandoned in New Mauville. He told Chu-e about the Boltund as he helped move another heavy box into the truck outside. "I'm more than familiar with Pokémon like that. I don't get why people think abusing their Pokémon can ever lead to good."

Josh gasped for multiple reasons. "I'm not actually a Hoenn native," he explained. "You see, I came here on vacation at the very end of June. Right before the barrier went up. By the time Rayquaza shattered it, I had become a Gym Leader here and couldn't move back to Johto. I miss Johto. I really do."

CHu-e's story of a relationship with one of the top Rockets continued. "...Wow. Were you high-ranking, too?" he asked. "Lugia and the Great One, Ho-oh, at least according to Johtonian legend, were diametrically opposed. They would never get along."

The discussion quickly turned to the fickleness of legendary Pokémon. "I've been around quite a few of them. Articuno, Entei, Rayquaza, and Virizion. I even got to ride on kyle lopez 's Raikou-familiar." Josh showed Chu-e a photograph of himself on the Beast's back, holding thundercloud reins in both his hands. "It was the experience of a lifetime, racing across the land faster than any supercar the human race has ever built. I love all three of them. It was my favorite story to read and study when I was younger."

The question about the Kanto war was a perfect place to transition. "Ever since I became a trainer, my dream was to meet, befriend, and ride Raikou. A dream I have not grown out of. Even as recently as three months ago, I've had these vision-like dreams about him. I think he's trying to reach out to me." Whether the dreams were genuine or delusional, he would likely never know. "But that dream died in the Kanto war. Team Rocket killed Raikou and Suicune." A tear slid down his cheek. "They almost took my family away from me. And now they've taken Raikou away from me. I couldn't be happier than to see those &%#$ers burn to the ground. Why did Team Rocket kill Raikou?"

"Lugia is pretty scary. I think it's more because of her corruption, though." He wondered how much Josh Devlin knew of that. A lot of people blamed Rocket for Lugia's Shadow process. Yet it was actually the League who had imprisoned her and experimented on her from what Chu-e could gather. Cillian Quinn had simply assisted the Shadowed Legend into being more than a mindless killing machine.

But then killing Raikou is brought up.

Chu-e tilts his head to the side, frowning.

"We didn't kill Raikou in Kanto." He says of that, confident in his answer. "I was a Beast at the time. If we had routed any legends, I would have been involved." That would answer two of Josh's questions. Yet it also kept another secret close to his chest. No one in the League knew he had been an Underboss. "My only guess could be... it got in Rocket's way? Powerful pokemon would be convinced to join Rocket or captured. If they refused or were difficult, they were killed. It must not have liked Rocket very much if they killed it."

"...Corruption?" Josh asked. While Lugia and Ho-oh were aloof, unlike the Beasts. They were known to interact with humans with some regularity. "This is news to me." Little did Josh know he would go toe-to-toe with the corrupted Lugia herself in a chance encounter with Cillian Quinn in the near future. Chu-e's next remark took Josh by even greater surprise.

"Wait, Team Rocket didn't kill Raikou in Kanto?"

This did not bode well for him. Was his extreme aggression toward Eris Halla all a misunderstanding? On one hand, it gave him a glimmer of hope that the Beast he sought was still out there somewhere. On the other, that memorial to Raikou and Suicune in Johto was pretty grim. And if Raikou really was alive, that would make him feel worse about the young girl... even if she was on the side of Rocket. Having a dream was healthy, but when it turned obsessive... and even destructive...

"Maybe... just maybe... Raikou's still out there somewhere."

"She got, uh... I don't know exactly what happened. It was before I moved back to Hoenn. But some jellyfish Ultra Beast, like, infected her or something? And an old Council member had her locked up till Rocket got her." This was just the vague memory from reports that Chu-e had read in the past. It was hard to say which parts were accurate and which not.

At the second bit, though, Chu-e shakes his head.

"As far as I know, no Legendary pokemon even bothered with Kanto. But,"

Chu-e lowers his voice.

"That doesn't mean shit couldn't have gone down in Johto. I wasn't in Johto; I was in an intensive care during all of the Johto Siege." The failed attempt to take over Johto was a hollow mark in Rocket's history; and one Chu-e knew little about even with his previous rank.

"Usually we get some type of signs from this shit, though, you know? If something happened to Raikou, I think there would be some kind of evidence it happened. And if it's out there, I'd bet my balls it's in or around Hoenn, now. Legendaries love to use this place as some fucked up chess board."

It seemed there were still a lot of unknowns at play, as was to be expected with any legendary Pokémon... both with Lugia's fall from grace and from Raikou perhaps being caught up in conflict in Johto. "It would make sense for Raikou to want to defend Johto to the death. And Entei and Suicune, too. Of course, Entei is with Kyle now." He remembered hearing about the Ultra Beast war from Alexei Ivanov . It was terrifying to think about that kind of power. "A power so strong not even Lugia could resist it... that's sickening to consider."

Josh continued to listen to Chu-e, bringing up more details about Johto. "As a Johto native, I was thankfully pretty far west of the conflict, so I didn't get to hear a ton about it." He had been warned by multiple Avatars about how they were at the mercy of their Patrons, most prominently Laurence Anderson . "That isn't going to stop me, though. I still want to meet him. Given what happened, if he's still out there, Raikou would almost certainly have the League's interests in mind. Of course, you never can tell."