Matias' retort left Josh stunned. How in good faith could someone like him hold such a high office? Yes, Rocket was the enemy, but they were human beings and needed to be treated with at least very basic rights. He listened, growing more and more bewildered by the moment. The tenets Matias spewed were maddening. Totalitarian. Silencing. Was the League a government for the people, or was the League an absolute regime, its people serving the government with no room for even the slightest questioning of its practices? Josh knew what that answer was.

How had Matias not been fired yet? Or at the very least, an impeachment inquiry motioned for by the Council? It was well-known that Matias was not a popular leader in the League, and now it had come full circle why.

"Listen to what you're saying, Matias. Just take a step back and listen. Because, and pardon my Kalosian, holy fuck do you sound like anything but a just leader right now."

Josh started breathing more heavily. If Matias ever blew his top, Josh was a dead man walking. One major drawback to his close synchronization with his Manectric was his increased vulnerability to Ground-type attacks. One spire of PRECIPICE BLADES was all it took to end his life.

"If they fight for the League flag, they die under it," he spun Matias' words. "You know what that sounds like? Something like... what GAVIN MERLINO (Cillian Quinn  would say. There's no redeeming people like him. But you would sweep even the rank and file under the rug, too?" Josh paused to let his words sink in. "Am I right?"

Josh's jaw dropped at Matias' blunt answer. To once be trusted with the secret knowledge of an Avatar's identity when his search for Raikou, not to mention receiving the Volatile's support for his search made him feel like he could be trusted. Today, his world came crashing down around him. It was clear to Josh that Matias never truly cared. He had taken advantage of the fervent boy's determination, his willpower, and his zeal. All for what? To feed the agenda of a true monster that, in the Gym Leader's eyes, was an autocrat.

If Matias were to become Commissioner, the League would be exactly like Rocket under a different name.

"It is beyond stunning to hear those words come from the mouth of someone trusted with one of the highest office in the land. You are deplorable, Matias. You are deplorable. Despicable. Inhuman. Do you understand how many people are in Rocket against their will? My restitution, and working with the least fortunate people in Mauville, has made me acutely aware of the number and kind of people ensnared in their trap in that city alone. And yet, you would bury all of those people under Hoenn's red earth."

The Gym Leader's voice continued rising, a clear passion in his eyes like a vicious lightning storm about to spark an unquenchable forest fire.

"I just don't see how senseless mass executions of Rockets at the very bottom of the pecking order accomplishes the League's vision. What you propose to do would make the League no longer the League. The League would become... Rocket Two. I implore you... take one step back and think about what you're saying. Please."

Matias' doubling down made beads of sweat drip from Josh's spiky hair. If the temperature in the room wasn't physically boiling, it was mentally and emotionally so. The more he pleaded with Matias to see the other side of the story, the more the Gym Leader felt his words were going in one ear and out the other. His criticism had likely fallen on deaf ears thus far, and it was at last apparent to him that it would continue so.

"You're absolutely lost, Matias. Don't get me wrong. I hate Rocket's guts, too. I won't forget what they did to my family, either. I worked hard to get them back. I want to see the people up top rot in prison for the rest of their lives. Stick Gavin in particular in psychic solitary. Those are the kinds of people I would love to see torn limb from limb. But those who joined Rocket because the League refuses to provide basic human necessities for them? Sentencing them to death for working for Rocket just to put food on their plate and a roof under their heads is discriminatory at best and immoral at worst."

Asher Baran and Isaac Merlo were living proof of Josh's words. Unbeknownst to him, howard slayte , too. He wished he could give Matias their names, but he had sworn those names to secrecy. Plus, he felt it would just give the Volatile all the reason to hunt them down and brutally end their lives just for being Rocket.

"The gaslighting really needs to stop. Now. You are manipulative, deceitful, and dare I say it, immoral. But it is very clear that you will not listen to a word I, or anyone else in the League, says to you. It is also clear that you and I will never see eye to eye. If you heed one thing I say to you today, please let it be this one. Committing a wanton genocide of Team Rocket's forces makes you no different from Rocket. Replacing one autocrat with another won't do Hoenn any good. It will just cause the families of those who suffer at the hands of your crusade untold, and frankly unnecessary, trauma."

With that, the Gym Leader stood up and pushed his chair in, Raikiri standing up and ready to be withdrawn. "We could talk all day and never have a productive discussion. It's clear as Suicune's crystal to me now that you're not willing to listen to your Gym Leaders that get to see both sides of Rocket. You would brush off valuable feedback from people who see the League's day-to-day operations that affect Hoenn's people from the ground up rather than the top down. That's not how a leader should act. I'm ashamed to call you my Elite Four."

A stern gaze accompanied by red ears was the last eye contact Josh would make with the Volatile that day.

"See you in the fall. And when I do, I'm gonna kick your ass."