The giant robot was at Howard's belt, masquerading as a bigger threat than it truly was. When the time was right, it would be used.

"Josh Devlin?" He raised an eyebrow at her. The question was redundant, given that Josh was one of the League's premiere trainers and a current Gym Leader. Even more so, given his tackling of the Pokémon League. Howard hadn't seen the Master of Faster in a hot minute but their journeys were great quests.

They had plumbed the depths of ruins, rescued civilians from doom, fought Dynamaxed Pokémon together, witnessed death together. They had chatted about baseball, racing, and what team would win the upcoming game. Heck, the Gym Leader had helped teach him to ride.

That Gytm Leader had also thoroughly thrashed his team at the Island Cave. The admin had never been so humiliated. That was the island that held Regice. If he had just had it then, he could've...

No use crying over it.

"Yeah, a bit. I heard you finished your newest pet project." Howard's eyebrow furrowed. "Tell me it's easier to operate than the RKS Simulation. I never got the hang of that one."

---

Lulu Flint

Tera Crystals were involved? Wonderful.

Truthfully, he didn't really understand why Lulu put so much stock in their glimmering facets. Tera Crystals were dangerous, reliable, and prone to manifesting things that loved to murder them both. He hadn't forgotten about the Scream Tail that he and Lulu had prodded, way back when.

"You make it sound like this machine is the recipe from a cookbook." Ingredients were used to make tasty cakes that Howard stole from the break room. Ingredients were used to brew the coffee that Lulu inhaled by the metric ton. Ingredients were used whenever Grigori Sokolov was working in the mess hall.

Whatever. Hopefully this thing didn't kill them. Howard sighed and flung up a hand. "Turn it on, I guess."

Hopefully the dream version of Josh Devlin didn't manifest insane magic powers. If he did, Howard was going down into Area Zero and smashing every Tera Crystal into dust. As mist filed the room, Howard immediately turned antsy as he gave Lulu a worried glance.

"Is this Interdream Mist? How'd you manage that? Do you bottle it up in a jar?"

---

Lulu Flint

Orange and white flames billowed from the Great One's mouth, spreading as soon as they reached the ceiling of kyle lopez 's private battle chamber. They rained upon Bladestorm the Skarmory's DYNERGY BARRIER, the very air from within it burning white. As the SACRED FIRE shattered the barrier, Josh's Pokémon did not faint; it disappeared from sight completely. "You too, Bladestorm?!" Josh cried, Ho-oh having similarly erased his Absol from existence earlier in the battle.

He clutched the Raikou stuffie in his hands tightly, a RAINBOW FEATHER's quill pinched between its white mane and gray crown.

"Are you ready for your judgment?" boomed the Great One's voice.

"I--I am," Josh stuttered, doing his best to remain brave in the face of one of the most powerful gods in the Pokémon pantheon.

Dream mist would be weaponized one day. It was an inevitability for humanity to eventually plumb the depths of their knowledge in an attempt to turn everything ever studied into an engine of war. That was the burden of man, to watch as everything became a tool for which to instill misery in others.

It was a tale as old as time, and it was a tale that Howard had read many, many times. Nobody knew that fact as well as he did.

"This feels really weird, Lulu..." Howard's voice rang out from the mist. "Shit."

Howard's eye opened to the pinnacle of Victory Road and the sight of a man waging a war against a god. Its utterances shook Howard's bones. This was no manmade construct like the Regice he possessed. This was a deity of the land and world.

A god.

"Can he see us, Lulu?" Howard's voice was a low whisper as his senses adjusted. "Lulu?"

---

Lulu Flint Josh Devlin

The LIFE DEW that followed the SACRED FIRE refreshed the badly-hurt Manectric not physically, but mentally and emotionally. Seeing the electric, fire, and water attacks come from the Great One gave new meaning to the legend of the Burned Tower as he understood it. The THUNDER was the spark that stoked rebirth symbolized by SACRED FIRE, the LIFE DEW to follow washing the newly-born body clean of remaining impurities.

With Saber and Ho-oh both invigorated, it was time for Josh to put all his chips in the middle. If he couldn't overcome Ho-oh even with this last stand, it was clear he was not worthy to be called a Champion.

"O Great One, pass judgment upon thy loyal servant," he said to the god with confidence.

Josh raised his Z-GLOVE, its Z-ENERGY and the riding-style pose from its bearer prompted the glow of Saber's QUICKINIUM-Z. Unlike almost every other time where Josh called his Z-Move out, he did not perform such a callout.

A wreath of lightning enveloped the great blue-and-yellow wolf as he broke the sound barrier in a crash with Ho-oh. Lightning, thunder, and physical force zoomed toward the patron deity of Johto too fast to follow. It was poetic that the move he planned to use as a trump card in chasing Raikou down was his last stand against their very creator.



The Z-MOVE: HYPERSONIC PLASMA CHARGE.

An archaeologist and collector of curiosities, it didn't take Howard long to recognize the feather in Josh's possession.

"He does. What a gorgeous specimen. I wonder if he'd let me buy it off him." Such gifts were priceless to humanity. They were not meant to be owned or held by mortal hands. They burned fragile fingers and splintered them into scraps of bone. "Hell, he'd probably trade it for something Raikou-adjacent."

As time passed, the admin's opinion of Mauville's Gym Leader had soured. He had done little to stop Howard from plundering the New Mauville Power Spot of precious ore, and his defeat at Josh's hands at the Island Cave wormed into his heart. Why had Howard been so weak back then, and Josh so strong?

If he had Regice back then...

"So loyal that he left his home region behind, when it needed him most." A smoke would have been nice, but he didn't have a box on him. As he watched, his voice softened. "But he always had heart. Nobody can doubt that."

Josh's Z-Move shot across the battlefield like a lightning bolt, causing Howard to jump behind Lulu as a barrier.

"Holy..." He peeked out from behind the scientist. "Good shot!"

---

Lulu Flint Josh Devlin

An aura of determination rippled from Josh's skin, just as strong as the desperation Z-Move Saber used to fling himself into Ho-oh at supersonic speeds. The rainbow-colored avian screeched, collapsing to the floor. The duo struck triumphant victory poses. "We won, Saber!" Josh cried, celebrating his victory over his idol. "We're Champions now!"

His celebration was premature: what Saber defeated was a shard of the legendary Pokémon, no more than ash the true Ho-oh could create with but a thought. White, purifying flames fanned outward like a supernova, roasting the Manectric and racing toward Josh. The young Gym Leader did not feel pain; instead he felt warmth as the fire washed over him like a warm shower.

The flames formed white wings around him, embracing him and making him take on the appearance of an angel. At the same time, they reduced the Raikou plush in his arms to ash. Ash that dripped from the quill of the RAINBOW FEATHER. Ho-oh etched white flames directly onto the surface of Josh's mind, revealing to him the sacred Sign of the Knight of Thunder.

And so, holding the quill in his hand, he drew the Sign.

As he drew, electrically-charged ashes hung in the feather's wake. Penning the last stroke, the ashes swirled about, coalescing into a feline form that expelled a thunderous roar.

[player]https://file.garden/ZDeuoB-J4RNQd5aY/Raikou%20GIFs/raikou_cry.mp3[/player]

"Nah, we share a fantasy football league. I'm kicking his ass in it right now, but don't tell him that."

In Howard-speak, that meant that he and Josh were good friends. Not as close as they had once been, but the two collaborated often on multiple things from exploring New Mauville to ranking Unovan baseball teams. The Master of Faster had also bought him lunch on multiple occasions, and had taught him how to ride Pokémon.

Josh had also utterly thrashed Howard at the Island Cave.

It was complicated.

Then the Raikou manifested, and it went from complicated to incomprehensible. Ash swirled and coalesced into a form not seen since the burning of Johto, since kyle lopez had trekked through the hallowed streets of Ecruteak.

Raikou.

"Shit." Howard wiped his brow in realization of what was going on. History was being made, and the admin was getting a front row seat to all of it. "This is bad."

For Rocket and for Howard. The Gym Leader was a bigger threat now.

"Can Josh see us in this dream? Will he remember us?"

---

Lulu Flint Josh Devlin