After meeting so many Gouging Fire in the hands of other trainers, perhaps the paradoxes resembling the gods of Johto weren't as special as he thought. Besides, Elinor was once a Councilwoman. She was Josh's friend. She could be trusted.

Though Elinor's voice on comms was a bit hard to understand due to static, he got enough of the message to understand it. "It's... been rough. He was like a father to me. And with him gone, Raikou's gone, too." A white lie, that was; Raikou was his now. Elinor would find out in due time.

Clicking open a Cherish Ball, from it emerged a saddled Gouging Fire, the dragon-type quadruped at last allowing himself to be ridden outside Area Zero. He still dared not to affix reins to the creature, feeling they would upset the Pokémon he believed to be a regional variant of the Johtonian fire deity. "Entei, you ready?" he asked the Gouging Fire, who was quick to crouch so he could climb into the feline dinosaur's large seat. "Elinor, this is Entei." While he looked like the Johto Beast, a Johto Beast he was not...

Seated on the fire-type, Josh felt like he was in Kyle's shoes, fond memories of the duo blasting across the land with Entei and the Sacred Ash Raikou. To many others, the speed would have been terrifying. To Josh, it was liberating. Inspiring. A source of inner strength. "If I need anything, I will come to you. If it weren't for him, I never would have been a Gym Leader in the first place. It was his Minor League program that got me in the door."

Elinor seemed confused at his choice of name. "Except it's not a name. Of course, Science won't confirm it directly, but my theory is that this Pokémon is an undiscovered form of Entei. You know how some Pokémon look radically different in other parts of the world? Like Ninetales? I think it's like those. And I'm in possession of a Raikou and a Suicune, too. They just can't handle the heat that Entei can."

With Elinor being on foot, Josh couldn't push his false Beast to a terribly high speed. "Is your Hisuian Typhlosion trained to run on all fours? We might need it when we get closer to the caldera's bottom. All that collapsed rock is floating on magma, you know." Regardless of Elinor's answer, the young man continued down the trail toward where the reports indicated the battle took place. It was the best place to start.

The Typhlosion's displeasure was understandable; Josh just had a knack for training Pokémon for use as steeds. Not all Pokémon that were able were also willing. Swift was able, and was willing by virtue of being closer to a construct than a true Pokémon. A husk of the Beast with all the power of a real Raikou, held back by Josh's subconscious. For a Pokémon to serve as a mount, it must be both willing and able. Elinor's Pokémon was clearly able, but not truly willing. Amp, Josh's Toxtricity, was willing but not truly able. A Lucario would be somewhere in between. It was a matter of being both big enough and engineering gear that would work with it. That was a long ways off.

Embers sizzled against Josh's suit, a volley of them landing on its visor and blinding him momentarily. "So far, I haven't seen any sign of him. I was asking because we could cover more ground faster this way, but if your Pokémon can't, or isn't willing to carry you, then..." Josh scooted forward on Entei's back, making room for Elinor to take a seat on the legendary-like paradox if she wanted. "Entei can carry two people. Just hold on tight. He's as fast as his Johtonian counterpart."

Well, that sure was a surprise. Did he offend the ghost-type, who seemed to be stubborn about Josh offering a seat on Entei's back? It mattered not; as long as both trainers were riding fire-types, the crater's lowest points would be safe to traverse... well, as safe as they were going to get. Taking a more comfortable place on the Gouging Fire's back, he breathed a deep sigh as his Pokémon stepped onto the half-molten rock at the crater's floor. An ordinary person's body would have been reduced to cinders in the broiling heat. In Josh's mind, though, not Kyle's. Ho-oh was a fire-type legendary Pokémon. If it were anything like Laurence Anderson and his Patron, he expected the Emergent's body to have immunity to heat.

While they did not find Kyle's body, they did find several fire Pokémon crushed by Mount Chimney's magmatic forces. "Elinor... he's gotta be out here somewhere, right?" Josh said, holding out hope that his theory was true. As their search around the crater bottom continued, those hopes would come closer and closer to being snuffed out by the winds of reality.

Elinor Anderson and Josh had circled the bottom of the crater and come up empty-handed. Gwendolyn Conway and Josh had searched the area just above the burning air. ollie morales and Josh had searched the rim. He burst into tears, letting out a wail when he realized Kyle was nowhere to be found. With the kind of earth-piercing power that Groudon's PRECIPICE BLADES struck with, it was looking more and more likely that Kyle was buried alive in the attack.

With no body, could the Great One even resurrect him?

"He's... really gode, isn'd he, Elidor...?" Josh managed, a stuffy nose making him difficult to understand. Without so much as a command from his trainer, Entei turned around and galloped up the trail leading out of the crater. Though he didn't say anything about it, it was clear what his intentions were.

To go home to Mauville and mourn.