Josh had asked a tech about the House of Mirrors challenge. The maze was changed daily, but the distance traveled to get through to the end was a constant, making the leaderboard fair. "Alright, I'll just go into it normally and do the timed challenge later in the week!" Handing his tokens to the attendant, the Gym Leader and his Zeraora entered the highly reflective maze. The thundercat dropped to all fours, standing behind Josh with his saddle exposed to the ceiling. Jack Napier may have been able to see its reflection as Josh turned a corner, getting lost in the same dead-end as Jack did.

"...Is that you, Jack?" Josh asked. "Long time no see! Didn't expect to run into you out here." Raikiri raised a paw to greet him, but in the distortion of the curved mirrors, the paw may have looked like a living thunderbolt. "Planning on riding the Rayquaza coaster after this?"

The saddle strapped to Raikiri's back may have clued Jack in about how unusual Josh may have clued him just how unusual his Zeraora was, even among the rare species. "Yep, Josh, Mauville's Gym Leader!" he introduced himself. After all, it had been a long time since they had seen one another. "I just got in here not long ago. There's a time trial they're doing for the house of mirrors, and I'm going to attempt it tomorrow once they reconfigure the maze."

When he heard about the missing Wooloo, Josh, too, let out a weak laugh. "You have your Wooloo and I have my Pyroar. I've got five, with a sixth on the way. Thankfully it's a day where I'm not stuck running my booth with them. It's fun seeing all the kids ride them, but I want to enjoy the carnival myself, too." The word rogue had escaped Josh's mind before Jack's smile clued him in. "When did your Wooloo go missing? If it's not far, I'm sure Raikiri and I can track them down. Raikou may not have made it through the invasion, but Raikiri here is almost as fast," he bragged, the feline ready to drop to all fours and let Josh mount up the moment they were out of the mirror maze. "Let me lead you out, then we can find your Wooloo."

Were all Yamper like that, or was it just Sumi? Josh never had those kinds of problems with Crash, his Boltund, even when he was still a Yamper. Then again, his Pokémon didn't seem to have the disciplinary issues Jack's did. Perhaps Jack treated his Pokémon too soft? The Gym Leader pampered his just enough to convince them to wear saddles, but when he was on them, he was a totally different person, often pushing the Pokémon to their limits in the name of shaving seconds.

"Right, you were the one with all the Wooloo," Josh replied with a fake laugh. It seemed everyone had a Pokémon species they loved so much that they had to have more than one. Josh wondered what Jack would have thought of his own attraction, seeing the five saddled Pyroar and other Pokémon prancing about a field, giving many children and young adults the chance to live the dream of being astride an apex predator.

Once they were free of the house of mirrors, Raikiri fell to all fours, his own saddle clearly exposed to natural light. Josh got on the back of the Zeraora and reached toward Jack, offering him a space on the thundercat. "Hop on. I'm sure Raikiri can track your missing Wooloo down."

Raikiri was almost certainly unlike any of the Zeraora Jack had seen before. The one he received from Kyle had the unusual ability of hybrid locomotion, able to run like a feral cat, like a bipedal Pokémon, and even switch between the stances on the fly. Seeing how rambunctious the Yamper was made Josh feel blessed his Pokémon were so well-behaved. "Aslan was like that while he was a Litleo," Josh related his story to Jack, unsure whether he had seen the Pyroar before. If Jack was to visit his attraction in Mauville next week as part of the carnival, he would be finding out! "Even is a little bit to this day. Some Pokémon's minds just don't grow up with their bodies, do they?"

When offered lunch, Josh shook his head. "I'll take you up on that offer after we find your Wooloo," he deferred. "You sure you don't want a ride on Raikiri? He can cover a lot of ground really fast, and I'm sure if you give him a whiff of Wooloo scent, he'll find your Pokémon for you."

Being that Raikiri was about the same size as the legendary Pokémon that inspired his name, there was plenty of room for two riders on the Zeraora. "Of course there is," the Gym Leader answered. "Don't be modest! Hop on! Just be sure to hold on tight. Raikiri is really fast." That part was obvious. Even when bipedal, the species darted around like a living lightning bolt. How much faster could a quadrupedal Zeraora get, let alone one raised by a trainer focused almost exclusively on speed? Provided Jack agreed and was able to provide a scent for the wildcat to follow, they were about to find out.

With a purr that may have rattled Jack a bit more intensely than expected, the duo would be off. The various stalls and carnival rides flew past, Josh perhaps taking Jack on a carnival ride of his own mid-search. "It's as close to Raikou as I'll ever get," Josh mused aloud as he set the Zeraora's reins down, letting Raikiri sniff out the missing Wooloo.

The Zeraora sniffed the yellow piece of ribbon, committing the scent to memory. "Thanks. I'm sure he'll be able to track down your missing Wooloo now. Let's ride!" With a soft kick to the feline's sides, the two riders were off, going at a brisk but relatively slow pace. They were still in a public area, after all; even in a lane for Pokémon, they still had to respect speed limits! That was, until Josh rubbed his hands together, Raikiri a bit confused by the sudden, erratic, yet light pull on both his halters.

"He thinks your Wooloo is on the completely opposite side of the park. I've got a shortcut we can take - hang on tight!" While it was more distance for them to cover, the carnival's proximity to the city line meant Josh could rein his Pokémon outside city limits - and outside the confines of speed limits. Once they had left through the east exit, Josh squeezed his mount's sides more sharply. "Faster, Raikiri!"

While the acceleration was amooth, the force it put on the riders was still strong, the two being pushed back in their seats as Raikiri sped down the property line. He knew the Zeraora could get far faster, but they were already going much more so than Jack may have ever gone. He didn't want his guest to lose his lunch, would he?

Raikiri pumped the brakes close to another of the entrances, going back to a more normal speed as he stepped inside the carnival grounds. They had to briefly stop to show their wristbands to attendants before continuing their search. "Raikiri thinks your Wooloo is close by, Jack. Keep an eye out for them!"