With Josh's work schedule as tight as it was, what with him working tons of overtime to try to get as much of his community service as frontloaded as possible, it was rare for him to have a day where he had the energy to do something as strenuous as practice with his Pokémon. Today was one of those rare days. While he brought a flying mount or two, most of his Pokémon were land ones he needed to do more work with to get them ready for a return to his position as Gym Leader in September.

He felt like a new man. Taking the advice of Fern, Navy, Kyle, and many others, he had at last bottled up his dream back to what it should have been from the beginning: a dream. A wish. That meant being the best he could be not for a deity that didn't even know him. It meant being the best he could be for Hoenn, but most importantly, for himself.

Returning to the grove where he once fought Elinor Anderson in bitter yet friendly battle, there was a large bud where Josh planted his Gracidea. It looked like it was going to blossom and flower any day now. He slowly guided his Zeraora mount along the edge of the grove before coming across lam logan in the near-distance, a roosting Corviknight giving his position away. Squeezing the thundercat's sides, Josh sped toward the fellow racer. The electric-type kicked up quite a bit of dirt and grass in his slide to a stop. "Whoops, sorry I missed you! Congratulations on your strong finish, by the way. Almost podium is nothing to scoff at." Raikiri shot Lam a curious greeting.

It was certainly vast, with few landmarks. "I could see it; normally I would do this at my Gym, but I can't have it there. This is almost as good, though; these lush plains go on for miles in every direction. Can hardly ask for a better place to saddle up and practice for the next big event." The Pokémon Josh would be working with, though, was not legal to enter in the Hoenn Racing Federation. Outside of exhibition races where rare and even legendary Pokémon were allowed to compete, Zeraora were forbidden from being entered on account of safety for the rider. The level of INFINITY ENERGY within them would not only put the rider at an elevated risk of complications in the event of a crash, but competitive balance would be greatly upset.

"You should!" Josh encouraged Lam. "You've got a real talent for it. I know you already challenged Mauville Gym once, but if you enjoyed the Silph Cup so much, feel free to drop by! We have pickup races happening on site more often than you think." That wasn't why he was here, though. "So what brings you out here? I'm going to be practicing with Raikiri. My duties as a Gym Leader put me on the front lines against Team Rocket more than I'd like, and I want to learn how to truly handle Raikiri here. Not just to battle alongside him, but to truly fight as one, as mount and rider." Lam may have been able to notice a sheathed blade of significant size at the Gym Leader's hip.

Josh had a lot of memories of the Mauville-Verdanturf rural road that expanded into a huge field. His first was with Isaac Merlo . How much had the troubled Rocket learned from his experience on the Dragonair? He longed to rein up the flying serpent and take people into the air with him... though that required a certain level of bravery. Dragonair were not easy to ride, and they could put on blistering speed matched by very few Pokémon in the sky. Extreme Speed was quite the move, wasn't it? "When I feel the need for speed, I often come out here or to 111. Both of them have wide open fields just built for the very fastest Pokémon in the world. Especially since Shawn died... I just want to go back to my Gym." The Leader's suspension still weighed heavily on him, and the thought of losing his Gym again would forever strongly reinforce his ability to keep his emotions in check.

Josh's remarks were genuine compliments, far from the flattery he interpreted lam logan thought it was. "Remember, that was a Gold Class race. You were not far from punching a ticket to the pros. There's a lot of money to be made there if you're willing to put in the work." Overland races and aerial ones were so different that surprisingly few skills overlapped, so the young man's apprehension was understandable. "I know it sounds funny, but I actually enjoy riding a Pokémon over land more than through the air. Being able to feel every stride lets you connect with your Pokémon more. That's how I feel, anyway."

Josh gasped in half-horror, half-awe when the Paradox Pokémon appeared before his eyes. "I've never seen anything like that before. The one I have looks like a Salamence, and I've been trying to break him to the bridle for weeks now. Almost six weeks, and no luck. The Pokémon from the Interdream Zone are so different." He guided Raikiri around the Slither Wing to take a look at the unusual Pokémon. "Wow, they're big, too."

After idly observing the bug-type for a while, Josh slid his hands down Raikiri's reins, the Zeraora rattling his rider with a purr. "I think he's looking to run. Speaking of running, how familiar are you with Z-Power?"

Lam's positivity was contagious, getting Josh's thoughts away from his Gym and back to what he enjoyed doing: going fast. "Life is a lot easier when you do something you enjoy. It's why I've kept working as an Elite of Mauville's Rangers. I don't do it for the pay; it's a labor of love. If I can use my talent of raising ride Pokémon to help save lives, I want to keep doing so. Obviously my restitution has kept me busy, but at least they're letting me count Ranger tickets toward my community service requirement, as long as they're unpaid."

It seemed Josh's initiative to move Pokémon racing to Hoenn had sparked others' interest in the thrilling sport. "Absolutely - flying is a blast. I've ridden on the backs of every common Pokémon capable of learning the move Extreme Speed. Dragonair, Dragonite, Togekiss, and Arcanine." Because of course he could name them all. "There's truly nothing like it. Dragonair was the first, and Resheph is still one of my favorite ways to fly. There's something just amazing about being able to jump from sea to sky in one motion."

It seemed the Pokémon from the Interdream Zone weren't exactly as friendly as standard ones, even after being captured. Ao wasn't an anomaly, after all. "Tell you what - once I can get Ao under control, want to go flying together? I think it would be fun. He's a big boy, more than capable of seating two!" The report of a metallic Pokémon was intriguing to him. "That's fascinating. I spent quite a bit of time in the Interdream Zone that day, and I didn't run into a single Pokémon made of metal. I might have to head back there and take a look." illeana reyes would probably be interested, and if he needed to research Ultra Deep Sea anyway, he might as well go there, too.

At least Lam had a passing familiarity. "There's a particular Z-Move I discovered months ago, and it has become synonymous with Mauville Gym. I am confident that it is the second fastest Pokémon move in the world. Second only to the move Rayquaza used to smash the meteor." Josh had firsthand experience, having ridden on Rayquaza's back during that move. "I've taught it to many of my Pokémon with Quick Attack, especially electric Pokémon. It's called Hypersonic Plasma Charge. The thing I brought Raikiri out here to do was to go riding during that move. It's unfortunate that it's so difficult to practice. As you might know, a Pokémon can only use a Z-Move once per day."

Josh's smile grew; he was going to get Lam hooked on the adrenaline rush that was flying on a Pokémon, and a very powerful one at that. It would be some time before Ao would set aside his pride and allow himself to be bridled, though it was something for Josh and Lam to look forward to. "Fantastic! When I get him fitted, I can call you or shoot you an email, and we'll make a day out of it." The mention of Macro Cosmos' game briefly soured Josh's mood. "Ugh, don't get me started on it. Now every soul on Hoenn knows I want to be Raikou's Avatar, and the class action lawsuit against them has stalled. As if I didn't already have enough of a target on my head for being a Gym Leader..."

He stopped rambling to get his head back in the game, as he was going to need every bit of his strength and concentration to withstand what Raikiri was about to put him through. "This is not my first time seeing him use it, but this is my first time riding him doing so. I'm confident that it's faster than Raikou using Extreme Speed." His skin tingled in anticipation, and nerves visibly grew on his face. When he rode Raikou last December, the great speed had caused his skin to flatten against his muscles and bones. While this would only be a short burst, it would be even faster than that. Descriptive to a T, the move involved a discharge of Z-Power so great that it propelled the user beyond the sound barrier. In Raikiri's case, well beyond it. "Gonna need a lot of space for this one. Might want to cover your ears, too. HYPERSONIC..."

With that, Josh crossed his arms to begin his Z-Pose, the QUICKINIUM-Z in the Zeraora's possession glowing an electric yellow. In a sudden motion, he uncrossed them and pulled back sharply with both his arms, squeezing his mount's sides hard to finish executing the pose.

"...PLASMA CHARGE!!!"



Gym Leader and mythical thundercat zipped forward at speeds that made them an unrecognizable yellow blur, a shockwave tearing up grass around them from the violent air disturbance. The unprecedented acceleration, at least by Josh's experiences, forced him to almost lay on top of the Zeraora... at least as much as his cocoon would allow him. He had ridden with his Manectric before using this move, and several times at that. When all went silent from passing his own sound waves, the electric wolf ceased speeding up, and it was rare for them to be at peak speed for more than a second or two.

With Raikiri, that was not the case. Even after no sound reached Josh's ears, he felt the sting of his skin rippling against his body. To Lam, the Mauville Leader and his mythical Pokémon may have looked like an electric comet making a slow circle around the gigantic field.

When the Zeraora sensed Josh's posture starting to fail, he began pumping the metaphorical brakes. The rider's hearing returned to him in a headache-inducing sonic explosion, taking more time to burn off his speed than building it. They overshot Lam once before circling around and coming to a stop next to him. Josh looked flushed and quite dizzy. Even Raikiri's breaths were heavy, which was to be expected after the use of a Z-Move.

"No... kidding..." Josh huffed after Raikiri had come to a stop, the feline's heart thumping fast enough that a human heart would burst if it beat at the same speed. Riding during the Z-Move had suppressed many of his senses at the same time. His hearing was gone mid-run by way of riding at supersonic speed. His sight was gone mid-run by virtue of his environment becoming a soup of greens, browns, and blues from that same speed. His sense of touch had been impaired from absorbing the shock of a gallop so rapid that it, too, would have produced its own sound had the speed itself not masked it.

Without the cocoon on Raikiri's back, Josh would have fallen and suffered a grievous injury. Josh's body as it was simply did not have the strength to fully withstand and control the fastest known Z-Move. "N-n-no..." Josh stuttered, still recover from being flung about in the saddle with force that had every right to crush his legs. And yet, if there was one soul in Hoenn that could conquer this kind of speed, it was him.

It took Josh significant time to respond to Lam's concerned question, which perhaps would make him more worried. "I... should be okay..." he replied between breaths. "It'll take a lot of... getting used to. But it will be... second nature... before long..." It may have been for the best that the Zeraora could only use the Z-Move once per day under normal circumstance; he doubted he could handle the whiplash-inducing acceleration any more frequently. "I can confidently say it's faster... that anything I know Raikou... to be capable of..."

It took him a few minutes to catch his breath, but he already looked better than he was. The red spots on his skin may still have been a concern for Lam, but those would take more than a few minutes to heal. Perhaps bringing Pokémon healing to future training sessions would be a good idea. "I don't think I can handle any more today. It was great to see you and your new Pokémon; perhaps I'll be able to return the favor and help you with them later on. For now, let's head back to Mauville." Raikiri started a much more relaxing run that almost any Pokémon would be able to keep up with.