Josh, too, felt like a servant of the Great One. In a way, he was; the last person that Ho-oh knighted before disappearing, Kyle's partnership with the legendary phoenix now in the past. It was his duty to carry on the Emergent's legacy and make the Great One proud of their selection.

He knew that he was barely tapping into Swift's speed; after all, when they first met while the Beast was under Kyle's command, he had pushed the Raikou to the most Extreme Speeds that Kyle had allowed him to. It had left Josh temporarily paralyzed from the tiger's harsh gait, as though he were riding a jagged lightning bolt.

As badly as Josh wanted to have Swift put on the afterburners, that would have to wait.

Suddenly, a blood-red comet shot toward Josh and his Raikou, too fast for the Gym Leader to react to. But not too fast for the big cat to react to. With a swerve that made Josh wince from stretching his left arm beyond his comfort point, he instantly recognized the move -- and the species that wielded it. Craggro, Josh's own Hisuian Arcanine, was the only rock-type on his property capable of using that move. And this Hisuian Arcanine was far different than that one.

Even the electric Beast's speed was not enough to get them both out of the way, the fire-type's rocky fur cutting into the Raikou's ashen body. "What is the meaning of..." the Gym Leader gasped upon realizing the Arcanine before him was not his. He immediately dismounted the legendary Pokémon and called for his secretary on duty. Swift erected a REFLECTIVE shield of electricity to ensure his trainer could get reinforcements on the property. "Shelly, it's Josh -- we've got a security breach. All hands on deck. Get everyone to safety and Law Enforcement down here as quickly as you can."

This reeked too much of Isaac Merlo 's and dorian westcliff 's attacks on his Gym in years past. Little did Josh realize that this attack was much more serious, for Hitoshi Inoue 's objective seemed to not be to take Mauville Gym out of commission.

It was to ensure the Mauville Leader would not be a problem for Rocket ever again.

The only thing that was louder than the BLAST BURN was Swift's thunderous, pained roar. His REFLECTIVE net of bolts shattered upon impact, the great tiger brought to his knees from shielding his bearer. Ash flew from the Beast's mouth as he huffed, barely standing after the searing explosion.

Josh was sent flying backward, his phone whirling a totally different direction than him. Shelly would hear a loud impact, then a great deal of wind, then silence. With every security guard incapacitated by the SPECTRA assassin, it was entirely up to the Gym Leader to hold the fort until reinforcements arrived. His clothes charred black, Josh writhed in pain from the superheated detonation having broiled the top layer of his arm that was on the mend. Had the battle in Sootopolis not toughened him up, the Rocket may have been able to add to the body count.

Shaking as he got to his feet in a trail of blood, he seized the only opportunity he had. Hurling Verte's now-bloodstained Poké Ball toward the presumably-reeling Arcanine, the Flygon zipped behind it. Landing on its back, Verte roared his wings, rocking the ancient rock-type with EARTHQUAKE-level vibrations that caused the very air to shudder.

Even Josh winced as he saw what Verte did to the poor Arcanine. Without the Sygna Suit that Shalin Nariya wore, such ferocious vibrations would threaten to tear up the insides of anything near the Flygon. Sweating from the exertion, the dragon-type zipped toward Josh to pick him up and chase after the Corviknight.

The destructive HURRICANE shattered every north-facing window of the three-story office building, blowing the Gym Leader's precious Ride-On Raikou plush into the opposite corner and on its side. As much as ne knew it was a trap, what choice did Josh have? If he didn't, he wouldn't have an office building anymore. In an effort to divert the Corviknight away from his Gym, Josh reined Verte toward one side of his Pokémon and rider foes.

With wings once again roaring loud as a race car, the dragon-type lunged toward the armored avian, intending to hurl and SUPERPOWER it to the ground with reckless abandon. Even from the Flygon's saddle, the vibrations made the Gym Leader's hair stand on end. How much more harsh was it to be on the receiving end of the two-pronged, blunt and sonic attack!

The farther the battle veered from Josh's Gym, where safety protocols were engaged, the more lethal the battle became. By now, Verte and the Corviknight were completely outside the metallic fence surrounding his property, the battle continuing above Mauville proper. Hitoshi Inoue 's bloodthirsty Honedge tasted Verte's innards, making a deep cut through his scales as though they weren't there. The HURRICANE splattered the Flygon's fluids through the air around them, perhaps splashing Hitoshi and the Corviknight he flew on.

Unable to maintain his own flight, the dragon-type tilted his wings away from the Gym, crash landing on the roof of a library. The Champion, though shaken up from the impact, stood on his own two feet. Crashing out in a Pokémon race was part of the sport, making him used to impacts of a certain intensity. That experience kept him well enough to defend Mauville City from the SPECTRA agent in the sky. "Beat me up all you want, but you leave my people out of this!" Josh barked, clicking open not one, but two Poké Balls after withdrawing the fallen Flygon.

Twilight the Absol roared loudly, goading and TAUNTING the Corviknight into attacking her. It was all a distraction for the Gym Leader's Zeraora, Raikiri, to build up speed by hopping from roof to roof in a show of extreme AGILITY. If Hitoshi had studied the Mauville Leader before, he might have an idea what was coming next.

The combination attack sliced and diced Twilight, her bleached fur now red with her own blood. "Twilight! Not yet!" the Gym Leader cried, raising his MEGA GLOVE to chest level. Pinching its KEY STONE with his two forefingers, he tilted its focused light toward the Absol. In a long-practiced ritual, both of them glowed a brilliant white-pink, the dark-type Pokémon sprouting false wings from her shoulders. The light of MEGA EVOLUTION had left her good as new, ready to exact her revenge upon the Kartana with an equally sharp PSYCHO CUT.

The distraction had left Hitoshi Inoue 's Corviknight open to a devastating electric attack from Raikiri. Having built up enough speed to look like a comet orbiting above Mauville's cityscape, the thundercat lunged at the metallic bird, enveloped in a grid of ELECTRO BALLS. Their power and speed scaled with the speed of their user. With one of the fastest Pokémon in the world being under control of a Gym Leader specializing in speed, the electric attack's strength may have been comparable to a Z-Move.

The explosion of wind uplifted an entire department store's support structure. Hundreds of shoppers, dozens of workers and thousands of shelves were leveled in an instant, no more than a three-tiered pile of rubble. Roads near the department store gave way, nearby vehicles on all three levels exploding. The fortunate few that had escaped the clutches of their roaring infernos would have their lives changed forever. Nearby buildings had entire walls taken out of them, the G-MAX WIND RAGE a colossal vacuum that completely altered Mauville's northwest commercial district. Raikiri and Twilight were questionable to survive.

This was the exact reason why Josh was so hesitant on Dynamax technology being usable in Hoenn's most densely-populated city. It was why he had urged illeana reyes to find a way to remove the Power Spot from it. And yet, they had not found a way. This was the exact disaster the Master of Faster had been trying to prevent in his objections during Navy 's Gym Jam. What would the Elite Four think?

"Leave my people OUT OF THIS!!" the Champion barked toward Hitoshi Inoue .

Frantically looking for them and recalling them before they could immediately succumb to their wounds. Josh grabbed Bladestorm's Poké Ball in a fit of anger. Hurling it into the newly-created void in Mauville's skyline, he mercilessly raised his own DYNAMAX BAND. Pinks, purples, and reds enveloped the Skarmory, filling the space the destroyed building once occupied. With a low-pitched, metallic screech, the hollow bird would fall beak-first toward Hitoshi's Corviknight in a horrific MAX KNUCKLE multiplied by the newly-DYNAMAXED Pokémon's weight.

"There will only be one more person whose blood is shed this day. Yours."