Josh's Gym lobby hadn't changed much since Isaac's last visit: it was still a love letter to the legendary Pokémon Raikou. It was also a sad, late afternoon day for the Gym Leader. He was excited to do battle with one of his best friends, Isaac Merlo , fair and square. And yet... depression started to set in. It would be visible on the Master of Faster's face as soon as his receptionist, ANDREW WEISS, admitted Isaac to the rear of the Gym.

Today would be the final Gym Challenge he was personally taking until September.

It was part of the restitution Elinor Anderson had levied upon Josh for the attempted murder of Eris Halla . While the full details would not be public, and may never be public, as it would be a PR disaster for the League otherwise, all of Josh's Gym Staff were aware of the changes. After today, he would be doing mere paperwork for his Gym, relegated to simply watch his best Gym Trainers take challenges all spring and summer long.

It was agonizing to think about.

"Challenger Isaac Merlo?" the short, black-haired man called Isaac to the front desk. "The Leader will see you now. Follow the signs all the way to the back of the Main Sector, to the moat arena. Good luck, and remember: with great speed comes great responsibility."

Provided Isaac followed the directions, indicated with ample signage, he would find the Gym Leader, Josh Devlin, riding on the back of Aslan, a shiny Pyroar, who was moving about the Main Sector's concourse at a good clip. A Skarmory, Manectric, and Dragonair would be watching intently from the battle court's sideline. As the rider caught a glimpse of the challenger, he would rein the Pyroar toward the battle court, then dismount and begin removing the feline's saddle.

"Hey, buddy," Josh casually greeted one of his best friends with a somber tone indicative of something not being right. "You should know these four well. Saber, of course, and the three Pokémon you faced last time you were here. I couldn't think of a better team to match you with. I would have brought Yagyu instead of Saber, but she..." Josh sniffed. "She perished. Died an awful death." Thinking about the Doublade only made his feel worse.

He shook his head. There was nothing he could do about Yagyu now. There was nothing he could do about Eris Halla now. Today, he needed to cherish the very last challenger he would take for six months. "We'll pit our four Pokémon against one another, two at a time. Defeat my four before I defeat your four, and the Badge is yours." Hydraulic lifts elevated the trainers above the large, grassy battle court's surface. The Skarmory and Pyroar looked ready to dive down and engage in combat with Isaac's Pokémon. "This is going to be Aslan's first battle since recovering from his surgery after the Meteno operation. He's been looking forward to it, and I can't think of a better opponent. Now, pit your Pokémon against me. And think about it carefully, as it will be the only decision you will have time to consider."

Josh sniffed as he heard Isaac's condolences. "...You really are a shining diamond in the rough of everlasting darkness, you know that?" Asher Baran . Chu-e Choi . Isaac Merlo . CIAN MAHER . How could people so nice, so considerate, and so loving to their Pokémon be in Rocket? Some, of course, had left. Some were still there. His outlook on them had changed, though.

No longer was the endless war between the League and Team Rocket so black-and-white. For every Asher, Chu-e, Isaac, and Cian there was in Rocket, so must there have been a bad actor within the League. And it took nearly wrecking his career to at last learn the lesson Isaac had tried to teach him the day of the "assassination attempt".

The League was far from ineffable, far from incorruptible, and certainly far from infallible.

Josh was a clear case of this. He had been dogmatized by the League even before coming to Hoenn, thanks to fighting Team Rocket when he was a teenager. He wanted to avenge the living hell his parents had been put through. What he failed to realize was that the Team Rocket that had kidnapped his parents all those years ago, the Team Rocket that killed Raikou in the Kanto War, and the Team Rocket he had faced at Meteno were so different in the way they operated they they were effectively different enemies. They had to be handled in different ways. A one-size-fits-all, scorched-earth approach was not going to cut it anymore.

This was, of course, in direct contradiction with the League dogma that had been shoved in his face when he took the oath of office as a Gym Leader. And which League official had he gotten most of his information about handling Team Rocket from?

MATIAS SILPH , the Volatile.

Fuck MATIAS SILPH . Fuck the League's scriptures and dogma. There were far too many (mostly) innocent people like Isaac within Rocket. Effectively using divine power to carpet bomb the entire organization into oblivion would be condemning helpless, innocent people who were abandoned by the League, and for what? Callan Young was right. Matias' viewpoint was the League's dogma taken to the most literal extreme possible.

He shook his head as he commanded his Pyroar and Skarmory to descend to the battleground. "Bladestorm, lay your SPIKES in the blue corner!" The blue corner, of course, being Isaac's. "Aslan, light that Vikavolt up with your FLAMETHROWER!" While the Skarmory took high into the air, dropping metal shrapnel all over Isaac's half of the battle court, the fresh-feeling shiny lion tore up the grass around him with sharp turns in an attempt to fake out the buzzing bug before spewing a cone of flame its way.

"Slice through it, Bladestorm!" Josh cried. "Faster!" The steel-type's wings started ringing during a burst of AGILITY to soar above the first wave's angle. The second, though, was expertly placed. While the Vikavolt didn't completely strangle the Metal Menace's wings like Isaac planned, it did land on the Steel-type's flight surfaces. While it didn't impact how fast the Skarmory could fly, it did severely limit how much she could ascend. She found herself unable to fly higher than the top level of bleachers, limiting her ability to dodge future attacks.

Aslan and Josh at first hesitant to get close to Duster; while the flery femur was powerful at range, it was even more potent of a melee weapon. Josh was about to command a HYPER VOICE when he remembered that he tried using it against the Alolan Marowak before, to no effect! Grumbling, he instead pointed directly toward the burning phantom. "Aslan, use CRUNCH!" The Pyroar took advantage of Duster ducking down, reaching for the foe's neck with open jaws and attempting to clamp down on it. Even if successful, the lion would be forced to let go when whacked by the BONEMERANG on the return!

The Skarmory and Vikavolt struggled against one another in an aerial tug-of-war, the bug-type's wings droning loudly enough to get Josh to cover his ears. While Bladestorm was the stronger of the two, Lord British had a huge advantage: gravity. He could easily overcome the insect's pull, but not both. He found himself being dragged toward the ground. Josh saw what was coming; this was a one-two knockout blow from two of Isaac's most well-coordinated Pokémon. "Bladestorm, BRAVE BIRD!" Josh cried.

The Skarmory dove straight for the nearby Marowak, the String Shot going slack just after the bug-type burrowed. Josh doubted his foe could dig faster than the Skarmory could dive. The blades of the Metal Menace's wing hummed with a tinny sound as he attempted to beak-bomb Duster. Josh's hope was that his strike was fast enough that on the swoop back up, he could either lift the Vikavolt out of the ground or the force would be so great that the string would not be able to withstand the tensile force.

That would not be the case. Hit or miss, the steel-type would shriek after the string's tension held. The Skarmory lost all his lift, stripping him of the Flying-type and leaving him open to the brutal combination attack of Duster's FLARE BLITZ and Lord British's DIG.

"Skarmory is unable to battle. Judges' call: one point, challenger Merlo," the side judge called, raising a red flag.

Aslan let out a bellow, not letting any of that stand. Without so much as a command, the lion pounced the Vikavolt with a potent TAKE DOWN as Josh withdrew the fallen bird for Resheph, his Dragonair, who twirled and contorted her body in gorgeous ways that would make world-class figure skaters jealous.

"Marowak is unable to battle. Judges' call: one point, Leader Devlin," the side judge announced as the dust from the high speed collision at last cleared. Even Resheph squealed as the shockwave caused her to recoil. The courageous Aslan, though, charged onward, even the TAKE DOWN as blistering fast as an ordinary Pokémon's Quick Attack.

Josh was the Master of Faster for a reason, though; while the focus of the battle was on Aslan and Duster, Resheph twirled through the sky in a DRAGON DANCE. She was glowing with purple dragon energy that made her much faster than she was before. Much of the glow concentrated around her short but sharp horn. She would be one slippery Dragonair to hit, and would strike fast and hard. Exactly what Isaac may have been expecting, given how well he knew his friend and rival.

The crowd gasped as the Vikavolt didn't seem to even make an effort to dodge the attack. That reason was made evident as Lord British started charging an unwieldy ZAP CANNON between his mandibles. Normally an attack Josh's Pokémon could easily dodge, but at such close range, it would have been a sure-fire electric eating. Or it would have been, if Josh wasn't the Master of Faster. "Aslan, boost fire your DOUBLE TEAM!" he commanded.

Acting like he was at the end of an intense race, the Pyroar zoomed forward as though the competitive racer slammed his heels into the big cat's flanks. Three trailing images of the shiny Pokémon materialized in a cascade behind him as the burst of incredible speed carried him out of the way of the ZAP CANNON.

At last, Josh had the upper hand. Both of his Pokémon were in their high speed element. Aslan with his image trails and Resheph with her dragon energy, hurtling around the battle court fast enough that not many in the gallery could follow, sought to take advantage of that speed. Even Isaac was realizing Aslan was simply too fast to reliably hit, and had ordered both his Pokémon to double-team Resheph. "Resheph, DRAGON RUSH the Vibrava, quickly!"

Josh's glowing Dragonair raced horn-first toward the dragon-type with amazing speed, straight into the green-winged Pokémon's DRAGON TAIL and adding to her already high momentum. By the time she could recover, she had already passed the white line at the back of the court. The side judge raised a red flag. "Dragonair has been forced out of bounds. Judges' call: one point, challenger Merlo."

Silently recalling his Dragonair, the sacrifice play worked almost exactly how Josh drew it up. Isaac's two Pokémon were right next to each other. "Aslan, HYPER VOICE!" With a deep breath, the lion's powerful lungs expelled a deafening bellow whose shockwave threatened to ground Lord British. If he could catch Darude in the shockwave, all the better!

Once the exchange had passed, Josh applauded Isaac. "You are truly an exceptional challenger. Few challengers can even scratch my third Pokémon. It is rare for me to need all four. But if you want my Badge, Isaac, you will need to get through a Pokémon I am sure you are quite familiar with." With the Dragonair out of the match, it was up to Josh's ace Pokémon, Saber, the Pokémon his Gym was most well-known for. "This is my closest partner, and he will see me through the Pokémon League. And through you, too!"