Josh's favorite ride Pokémon were still mostly on the mend after bitter battles in Dewford. He was reduced to some of his newer Pokémon that spent much of their time roaming the Gym and helping inexperience students learn how to ride Pokémon. It would be those ones that at last came with Josh, free from their typical confines and seeing the world outside Mauville City Gym. Speaking of Pokémon that he wanted back, he had heard nothing but good things about King Zing's rehabilitation with the Pokémon League. The Beedrill had become quite amicable, not to the level of Shalin Nariya 's Queen Zing, but no longer aggressive as he was when he nearly stung Eris Halla to death.

March of 2024 couldn't get here fast enough; he wanted to see the Beedrill and ride the giant bug again... if anything, just to build rapport with him. As it was, he was reduced to some of his newest partners. The young Gym Leader was seated on the back of a Linoone whose height reached not far above his waistline. The saddle he wore was so tall that Josh's legs reached only midway down the striped Normal-type's tan fur. The seat covered most of Screech's back, too, the whole setup stretching the classification of ride Pokémon to its limit. It was a creative solution to be able to ride a Pokémon normally too short for the task.

"Long time no see, Yuina," Josh waved, reining Screech toward the fire-type and catching up to the two of them. It was a bit strange to him looking up toward Yuina rather than down due to his mount being larger, but Bos was taller by quite the margin even with the raised seat. Without his Sygna Suit on, many, many scars would be visible on the racer's exposed skin, most of them small. If the Elite Ranger looked closely and had some knowledge or experience on the front lines, it was clear that the Mauville Leader had been shot many times. Those were BULLET SEED wounds that were healing.

Josh's eyes shifted toward the impressive-looking Blaze Breed Tauros. "Your Pokémon's impressive looking," he complimented Yuina on her recent catch. "I need to track one of those down at some point when work lets up." Had it really only been a couple of weeks? It felt like an eternity since they had last met, especially after what happened at Dewford. He had spent several days in an infirmary in the island town after being badly wounded in battle.

"As a Gym Leader, how could I not be?" was Josh's dejected answer. "It's part of our job description. We're Gym Leaders. We're League officials. We have to be out there." It wasn't that he didn't want to be out there. He did. He felt a sense of duty not only toward Mauville's citizens, but those of Hoenn as a whole. Alongside Greyson Connors , he had stolen blueprints for a complex he had infiltrated with Hideo Kino . In the depths of the Terastal Chasm, he had battled Xenon Antheil in a bitter conflict that ended in failure for the League. The madlad had secured a massive deposit of Terastal and Dynite ore to craft new biological weapons with. Weapons that would almost certainly be used to take lives.

"It was hell out there. Pure hell." At the mention of war, Goose came out of his Poké Ball, startling Screech and causing him to rear. The Unfezant gently wrapped one of his wings around Josh, trying to comfort him. "Goose, I know. Slider's gone. I've come to grips with it. As much as it hurts us both to understand it... death is just a part of war." He sniffed before returning his attention to Yuina. "Sorry you had to hear that. My Braviary was killed in action out there."

It seemed Yuina had been toughened up by the fires of war, as well, showing little emotion for any losses she may have suffered on the front lines. The war had turned him into a monster he wanted to hide under his bed. He and his Zeraora had taken many, many lives of Rocket soldiers that day. Many of them did not have the true conviction of the syndicate's higher-ups. It was only those that doubled down, truly all-in on Rocket with their hardened hearts, that were irredeemable in the Gym Leader's eyes.

Those were the Rockets that Josh so desperately wanted the opportunity to put divine lightning through the skulls of.

The blanket empathy Josh once had for Rocket was gone. Outside the warzone, of course, he still encouraged and supported those he knew were trapped within Rocket, seeking to get out from beneath the heinous, irreparable hearts of those who ran the show. In the warzone, though, the Gym Leader's victories galvanized a perhaps unhealthy battle lust in him. In times of peace, he was a Ranger. In times of war, Raikiri turned him into a super soldier that showed no remorse for enemy combatants regardless of their identity. Even howard slayte .

Josh shook his head as he gave Screech another comforting pet. Not for the Normal-type, either; he rubbed the Linoone's fur to soothe himself. "I want to get another Braviary, but nothing can truly replace Slider. But enough of the war. What else has been new with you? My Gym's really slowed down of late. It's not constant challengers like it used to be."

Josh had served in so many League operations that they had all started to blur together. It all started with the Mirage Island linked to a computer simulation. Then an apocalypse thwarted singlehandedly by Eva Morales and her ultrafast Patron. Then a memory of Galar where he was the Knight of Thunder he dreamed of being, thanks in part to King kyle lopez .

The Gym Leader had not yet been apprised of the goings-on around northwest Hoenn, nor for the Megalopolan incident around Alexei Ivanov 's precious town. He looked genuinely confused; while the Cicatrice had made regional news when it happened, so many things had been going on that Josh had not given what had truly happened there a thought. "What island? What happened in Fortree?" Josh asked.

Caves beneath the swamps didn't surprise the Gym Leader at all. Ever since Meteno, Terastal caves had started appearing beneath the surface. Now, they were so commonplace that the focus on exploring them had taken a backseat to the war effort in Dewford.

"Megalopolans? Are you certain?" A wide-eyed Josh asked. The last time the alien race drifted to Hoenn, the cannibalistic race had caused untold chaos. The death toll, both human and Pokémon, was staggering. He had seen much of their technology in the largely derelict Ultra Plant, an area he had explored at the League's behest, in part due to its proximity to Mauville. "And these caves... were they Terastal caves? Those have been showing up everywhere in Hoenn."

After Yuina gave her answers, Josh had one more follow-up question. "...Have you been through the rift in the desert yet? That might answer a lot of questions you have about them." Even Screech looked on edge, feeling the rider's emotion flare.

The Megalopolans' ability to shapechange, as limited as it was, was part of what made them so dangerous. "They possess technology unlike anything you could ever believe. If you haven't been through the rift north of Nauville, in the desert, it might be worth your time. It can be a bit rough on your body if you don't have a Sygna Suit, though... do you know what those are?"

Screech shifted about, the Linoone showing signs of boredom listening to the Rangers' deep conversation. The normal-type wanted to run. "I know you're antsy. Soon, Screech. Soon," he soothed the swift, straight-line sprinter with a gentle pet across his head and neck. "So they have the power to create, or at least predict, Space-Time Distortions, if I'm understanding? That's... wild."

That settled it. Josh really wanted to push for Yuina to come to the lightning-laden world with him. "I think we should make a day to take a look in there. I still have some unanswered questions. I started going there before I had my Sygna Suit. If you were able to survive something like that, then the Ultra Wilds should be no trouble at all."

One other point Yuina made troubled Josh. "You were saying something about an island, too?"

"There's a rift in the Great Desert north of Mauville, and on the other side of it is an abandoned Megalopolan network of power plants," Josh explained after Yuina provided him details of her own harrowing journey through Lesser Megalopolis. "It's only a matter of time before the League sends me there to research the place; I've been asked to explore the rifts and learn as much about them as I can. I've been to... three so far, and from what I understand, there are... seven, I think?" he shrugged. That information seemed to change as rifts opened and closed.

He continued to describe the other side of the Desert rift. "If I wasn't hurt after Dewford, I'd go right back. The atmosphere there is toxic unless you have a Sygna Suit, so you have to watch how long you're there if you don't have one. I love it there, though; even when I'm not on business there, I'll bring my electric Pokémon there." It was clear the Gym Leader was about to go off on a big tangent. "Electric Pokémon can run faster in natural thunderstorms. The more intense the storm, the faster they run. That rift has some of the strongest thunderstorms I've ever seen. It's one of the only ways I can feel like I'm riding on Raikou again. At least going as fast as he does, anyway."

Before he got too far off topic, Yuina's mention of Dewford snapped Josh out of his trance. "You... were in that hell, too?" he grimaced. "Are you okay? I spent the better part of a month in a hospital there after being shot so many times. Were it not for the marvels of modern medicine and Pokémon healing, I wouldn't have spoken to you now." He wished he could have shared more, particularly his acts of infiltration alongside Hideo Kino , but the League still wanted to keep those operations under wraps. The kinds of weapons Rocket was building in there could cause a panic in the general populace were their existence to be made public.