Josh respected Andrea's boundaries. It was a lot imagining what could be done with temporal manipulation; the Gym Leader had barely scraped the surface, and with innocent use cases at that. "Exactly, and that's what I was getting at. Reversing the act of spilling a drink is harmless, right? Or reversing the act of someone breaking something?"

Legendary Pokémon were still Pokémon, after all. "It's why I still hold out hope for Raikou finding me. He has to find someone, right?" The two points of view on legendary Pokémon were great contrasts to one another, Josh revering them more like gods, while Andrea seemed to lean into them being simply rare and not very well understood Pokémon. Perhaps Josh had been misunderstanding the entire time and Raikou was as playful as any other cat Pokémon?

Grasping Sidewinder's Poké Ball in hand, Josh's smile grew. "Andrea, have you ever been on a Dragapult's back before? They have a unique talent no other Pokémon can replicate. They can take you to the ethereal world and back." That wasn't exactly true, but it was the only Pokémon that was readily available.

Besides, even Josh would give caution to strapping a saddle to Giratina's back. How did Katherine Fairburne befriend such a behemoth, anyway?

"Wait, Isaac Merlo is alive? And Suicune's chosen him?" Josh asked, bewildered as though an enormous gust of wind blew him off his feet. Not that Suicune had bonded with him, but that he was alive at all. He hadn't heard a peep from Isaac since the day of the Mauville riots. That was before the Eris debacle, too. Had it really been so long?

As much as Josh would be disappointed to see Raikou choose someone else, he wouldn't be bitter over such a choice. At least not for long. Befriending Raikou didn't necessarily mean being chosen as an Avatar. As long as he was good friends with the person Raikou did choose, his dream was his own.

Not to mention the more he looked into what Avatars were and what they did, the more he realized it would put him in an uncomfortable amount of danger. He was no front-line fighter. He was a messenger. Perhaps the fastest messenger in Hoenn. It was part of the reason Josh had submitted to the League the idea of war courier training as a Gym Challenge.

"Oh, so you have one, too!" Josh chirped, releasing his own phantom dragon, Sidewinder. Taking a seat on the ghost-type's back, his smile grew already from feeling the creature's idle undulations. "...Right, that was so long ago. Ready for our first dive of the vacation?" he idly asked.

Oh, Arceus. How much more he looked forward to a reunion with his friend. He wondered how close of a race it would be between Raikiri and Suicune. Would Isaac let Josh drive? The prospect was so exciting. "See, Andrea, I don't need to be Raikou's Avatar to be his friend. I just need to be friends with the person who is." What a small world Hoenn was, indeed.

On Andrea's count, Josh squeezed Sidewinder's sides, issuing his own command to use PHANTOM FORCE. Both of them vanished into the cold, ethereal world with their trainers. More experience riding during the attack let Josh stave off the chills some, or at least be more prepared for them. The purples and grays reminded Josh of his trip into the Reverse World with illeana reyes , only this time they would only be inside for seconds.

Sidewinder's tail jiggled fast enough to vibrate much like an Arbok's when scaring predators away. Faster and faster the two dragons hurtled down the mountain, a tunnel of light approaching fast. Within a few seconds, it had turned from a speck of light to covering their entire field of vision.

Josh emerged back in the material world, expecting that Andrea and Stella would in tandem with him. "YEEEEE--" his whoop would be cut off by an aural explosion, followed by a conic dust cloud forming behind him as his surroundings went silent. The cone grew more and more acute as the Dragapult continued to dive, going faster than even Tiamat could.

With Eterna City on the horizon, Josh had to turn south to avoid disturbing the peace of the elderly municipality with the sonic boom trailing him. Though the turn was shallow, Josh's entire body shook from his Pokémon's crushing momentum. It was the second fastest the Gym Leader had ever gone before -- and perhaps the fastest Andrea had, too, if she rode alongside Josh.

Would she ever get a turn perched on Rayquaza?

Even Josh was huffing after Sidewinder's supersonic dive, speeding through the material and the ethereal. Their speed made even a lazy turn feel powerful, their wake creating a heaven-rending boom. Coming off the adrenaline high made him feel just as tired as Andrea was. "I... think so, too!" the speed-crazed Gym Leader exhaled. Who knew riding a ghost could be so thrilling?

When the adrenaline high wore off, Josh, too, felt like he could fall asleep at any moment. "Yep, let's head back. I get the feeling we're gonna have no trouble sleeping tonight!" Even in a casual flight, Dragapult were still amazingly fast, getting them back to their place of lodging faster than any taxi would. Such was the advantage of dragonback travel that strong trainers enjoyed the privilege of. And this was just day zero. They still had two weeks to enjoy the sights of Sinnoh - and more importantly, not worry about the disasters befalling Hoenn!