Josh was a bit surprised to see Gwendolyn's choice of Pokémon. It wasn't a bad choice, but he thought she would use a fire Pokémon of some kind. "Is your Druddigon going to be cool enough?" he asked, unrecognizable by sight alone while wearing the bulky, white suit designed to create an airtight heat seal. "Because when we get close to the crater, it's going to get boiling. Literally boiling. We can't even bring water down there because it will boil away from within whatever we put it in."

Even if she couldn't enter the crater, the flying Druddigon would make a good scout. Only once the duo were in the air would the Champion respond to her. "You have no idea, Gwen. I wish I could tell you why. But I can't. League secret." They were good friends. It pained him to have to keep Raikou hidden from a fellow Ranger. Unfortunately, he couldn't share his possession of Raikou with anyone except League officials that were Ranger Captains and up.

"I just want to know what happened to him. How he died. Was it just the eruption? Or was it something far more sinister?" He already knew the answer to that question, too. "Anyway, we can split up; just try to turn around to keep an eye on the other from time to time. And let me handle searches lower to the ground if you can. I don't want you falling into the caldera. It may be solid, but there's magma not far underneath it. And your suit won't protect you against any amount of immersion in that."

Josh was better equipped to go diving deeper, what with a fire Pokémon protecting him. "Right. I'll take a closer look if need be. I'd rather stay out of the heat; might need to come back with a full-body heat suit." Several other Pokémon would have done the trick, too, including Talonflame. Any Pokémon that could both fly and resist heat. A waterfowl such as Swanna, with the right moves, would have been able to last long enough to make dips into the burning air.

Even so, it would be a wise idea for them to stay out of any air alight with embers. "You'll find out in due time. I get why they need it to be hush hush." A legendary Pokémon allying with the League was certainly something that needed to stay quiet until deployment. He couldn't wait for that deployment; once it was over, he could at last share with his friends the joy of making his dream a reality.

Josh, too, didn't see anything from his side at high altitudes. He met up with Gwen above the center of the crater, landing Ares on a thick spire so he could rest his wings for a bit. "Nothing from high up. I think I need to go deeper. Just what happened here, anyway? It looks totally different from how it used to."

"Of course," Josh replied. "I know my limits... and not just my speed limits," he joked, trying to get both of them to relax more during their search. Ares needed his rest; with the stakes being higher the closer to the caldera they got, it was important that he had as much of his strength as possible. While the suit would protect him against extreme heat, it offered no such protection against lava. Ares stuck his tongue out at the Gabite, not appreciative of the taunt. "Ares, I'm sure her Gabite doesn't mean harm," Josh assured the dragon, whose pride only grew more after his aged skin turned the jet color dragon trainers could only dream of.

"He was Ho-oh's Avatar," Josh reminded Gwen. Agents of the gods often played by different rules, what MATIAS SILPH 's blanket heat and lava immunity as he understood it. "Those people are built different. Ho-oh is also a god of fire. I wouldn't be surprised if he could survive down there. It's just a matter of bringing the right Pokémon to him." The list of people Josh knew, to his understanding, that could survive in such harsh conditions was small. Kyle just happened to be on that list.