FERNANDO SILPH 's words rang loud in Josh's ears. Indeed, Raikou had come to him, but Raikou had not come for him. "Who are you, really?!" he cried toward his armored self. At first, the only response he received from his haughty self was a slash of the Lightning Sword, the Gym Leader just barely fast enough to duck behind Saber's head and use the Manectric for cover from the shocking pulse headed his way. If Andrea was not paying attention, she and her Hydreigon could have been hit by it, too.

"Are you really that dense to not recognize me, the Determined?!" the Beast's zealous rider spouted. "Then I will give you my name, and it will be the last bit of knowledge you will take to your grave! Hear it and tremble, fiend! My name is Josh Devlin , Knight of Thunder and most holy Avatar of Raikou!" The intimidating, armored man's gaze turned to Andrea. "Stay out of this! This does not concern you!"

The real world's Josh was stunned. He sounded just like, and acted just like, the Josh that nearly took the life of a child over his fanaticism over the very Beast before him. Had Blitz been able to stop him from beating Eris to a pulp, would this have been how he turned out? The Josh before him was a monster, drunk on the power that Raikou had bestowed upon him. His haughty self continued to belittle him.

"And I can tell you why Raikou chose me instead of you! It's because of your unwillingness to commit to finish the job. The only path to ensuring Hoenn, Johto, and most importantly, my family, remains safe from Team Rocket is simple: eradicate them all. There are two choices for Rocket: repentance or death. There is no in between. But you... you are too weak. One strong enough to be worthy of Raikou's name would have finished the job. Why didn't you finish the job? Why didn't you kill Eris?!"

Josh's heart skipped a beat. The airtight seal on the truth behind what happened between him and Eris had began to leak. In the split second be began to ponder the consequences, a yellow glow surrounded the Determined and his legendary steed, the two of them wreathed in a blur and moving at double the speed they did before. The impossibly fast slash could not be parried, sparks flying from the man's SYGNA SUIT whose resistance to electricity served as vital protection against the Beast Rider's thunderbolt-shaped sword.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU KILL ERIS HALLA?!"

As the Hydreigon drew on his partner's anger, all three heads lunged toward the Johto Beast with terrifying vigor. All the vigor in the world wouldn't help Andrea, though; the Hydreigon's lunge looked more like a crawl from the perspectives of electric tiger and rider. In an impossibly fast leap, Raikou leaped above Chomper, the shiny dragon's teeth instead finding a yellow afterimage. "She's a CHILD!" Josh barked back, though it sounded like more like mooing to the hasted Avatar. "Not even Raikou is worth the life of a child! Rocket or no! She is not the one we should be going after! It's the bigwigs up top - they're the ones our hatred should be directed at!"

A thunderous roar from Raikou physically blew Josh and Saber back, striking with the same force as a shockwave of crashing thunder. The Beast's power was awe-inspiring. He trembled at the power his Distortion-fueled alternate self wielded. Even if Josh were to get his hands on that kind of power, would he be able to handle it? Would it, like the intense obsession he once had to be in that position, consume him? The more Avatars Josh spoke with, the more evidence he was presented with that his mind and body were not yet ready for the burden of a god.

"You weren't listening! If you are Rocket, you either repent and wear the brand of your sins against the League, or you die! Whether rank-and-file or the head honcho, they are all the same! Your inability to perform your SWORN DUTY AS A GYM LEADER proves how you are far from worthy of the Great One's Blessing of Thunder!" The Determined turned to Andrea. "Your friend desired my Beast more than anything else in the world. More than his friends. More than his Gym. And look at him now. He has neither Raikou, nor his friends, nor his Gym. And it's all because he refused to commit to his destiny. Raikou has chosen one who sees eye-to-eye with his desires: eradicate Team Rocket for what they did to the Great One's children during the war!"

"QUICK ATTACK, Saber!" Josh ordered, slamming his heels into the Manectric's flanks for maximum speed. The two turned into a blur, courageously rocketing toward Raikou.

"Raikou, EXTRASENSORY!" the Beast's rider barked back. In a split second, the pupils of Raikou's eyes turned yellow. With a power similar to what Eris had used to defend herself while at death's door, the electric legendary repelled the QUICK ATTACK, sending Manectric and rider hurtling toward Andrea and Chomper at double the speed they had charged at.

This facsimile of the Mauville Gym Leader was everything Josh wanted to be, in the physical sense. He held in his hands the reins of the fastest land Pokémon in the world. He did so with no fear, willing to push the Beast to his very highest speeds without bodily repercussion. He even had a sword that looked like it could cut through anything. If he could get his hands on that kind of power, he would be capable of serving the League in the capacity he dreamed of.

This, though, was not the Josh he wanted to be. This Josh was clearly a manifestation of the kind of person he was prior to his restitution. A cold-blooded Gym Leader who saw the League-Rocket conflict only in black and white. The kind of person who would murder the likes of Isaac Merlo and Asher Baran without a second thought. Were the conflict that simple, it would have been resolved years ago.

The sound of thunder amplified the voice of the Determined, the only reason he could be heard over the roaring wind of the thundercat's high speed charge. "What god would answer to such naivete?" he retorted, his sights now squarely on Chomper and Andrea. Blood sprayed from Josh's arm as he hurtled into the Distortion's wall, letting out a loud scream as though he were being electrocuted by it. Even Saber struggled to stand after the divine psychic attack slammed into him. If Andrea looked his way, she would have been able to see a clump of fur missing from the electric rider's suit, showing the exposed, bleeding skin underneath.

"To be an Avatar, one must be of one mind with their Patron," the dimensional Josh's thunderous voice continued to boom as the Shiny Hydreigon and legendary continued toward one another at a mind-blowing closing speed. "And more than all else, Raikou wants to avenge Johto for what Team Rocket did. Your friend was not chosen because his wishes ceased to align with Raikou's, full stop. And now, both of you shall--"

The added speed from Andrea's JOLLY retort caught the Avatar off guard. Raikou reared in pain as each of Chomper's three heads tasted divine fur. The distraction had bought Josh the time to get back in his Manectric's saddle, ready to back up his friend again. "Thanks for the save, Andrea," he exhaled, a trail of red still dripping down his yellow and blue suit.

In the meantime, the armored fighter raised his sword above his head. A field of INFINITY ENERGY unlike anything the two had ever seen started to build between Avatar and Patron on the ground and a yellow-and-purple swirling cloud at the top of the Distortion. If either of them looked closely, they would be able to see a small crystal of RAIKOUNIUM-Z handing from the Beast's neck. It started glowing a bright, lightning yellow from the energy field surrounding the duo. "I'm DONE PLAYING AROUND!!" Raikou's rider shouted as a lightning bolt struck the blade, its entire business end glowing bright as an electric Pokémon's attack.

The Determined flicked Raikou's outer tufts about in a Z-Pose that looked strikingly similar to Josh's. Rather than outstretch his arms at the end like the Gym Leader did, the Avatar before them raised them above his head, then flicked them harshly, as though ordering a Pokémon to jump.

"Raikou! End this with your TACHYON TEMPEST!!!" Josh's clone screamed.

TACHYON TEMPEST
[Electric][Special][Priority]
After obtaining Z-Power, the user, Raikou, assumes the form of a gigantic lightning bolt and strikes in the blink of an eye, dealing mega damage to one target. This move always goes first. Afterward, Raikou's SPEED is MAXIMIZED.

With a leap that made them nearly invisible due to the Beast's godlike speed, the duo hid in the Space-Time Distortion's clouds at its apex, turning them yellow. One lightning flash later, they descended on top of Andrea's SPECIAL SHIELD, perhaps pushing her to and beyond her suit's limits. Though the shield shattered, it absorbed the main lightning bolt.

That wasn't the only part of the attack, though; between the space it launched from and where it stood now, a wide line of lightning bolts rained down upon the two dragons. Josh's Manectric steed absorbed the bolts aimed at him, though they proved to be too much for tha electric wolf to overcome. With quick thinking, Josh slid out of the saddle just before his mount collapsed. His SYGNA SUIT now inert, the PRESSURE of the Raikou's presence was too much for him to handle. He, too, keeled over.

Andrea's attack was not in vain, though; the Raikou's rider had focused so hard on making Josh pay that he didn't immediately see the OUTRAGE and HYPER BEAM headed his way. Spurring the Beast into an evasive maneuver faster than a whip, Josh guided his mount out of the Iron Jugulis' way... straight into Chomper's HYPER BEAM. The searing column of energy burned the Avatar and Beast badly. "You're next, woman! EXTREME--"

Just as suddenly as the Distortion had formed, it had faded, taking the racer's clone and Avatar with him. Both the Gym Leader and his Manectric were unconscious on the ground. If Andrea were to examine them, she would find ample evidence that they were alive, though badly wounded. It was a stark reminder that even SYGNA SUITS made one far from invincible...