With how familiar Yuina was with the DRK TRIAD, she had to be aware of the similar danger Josh was in. Though he was not being directly chased by them, and was not an Avatar, he had expressed great interest in becoming one in the past. He had chased the Johto Beast for over half his life, only becoming its bearer in the wake of Hoenn's Top Champion's death. Realizing his dream of being friends with Raikou -- if only a Raikou that was a reflection of his inner self -- only made him a potentially juicier target.

Josh loved Swift more than any of his other Pokémon. The ashen construct was not Raikou; it was an idealized version of Raikou that embodied everything the Champion loved about the Beast. He had seen what Avatarship did to MATIAS SILPH and Laurence Anderson . In his eyes, it had ruined their lives. He didn't want to fall prey to a god in the same way as they did. What would a flesh and blood Raikou's personality be like? He didn't want to find out, for he liked Swift how he was. Being a reflection of Josh's inner self, he could shape Swift into exactly the kind of Pokémon he wanted. The stronger he got, the stronger the Raikou got.

"Tell me about it," Josh sighed, waving toward Ayashi. "I only was able to make this work because it's the time of the year where Gym Challenger volume goes down. If Kyurem didn't come and mess up Hoenn's weather patterns, I'd be busy year around. But thanks to that dumb dragon, Hoenn now gets a touch of winter, like other regions of the world do." It was a nice break where Josh could catch up socially and do things he didn't normally get to do. Round One was one of them. For now, he wanted to take advantage of the weather being warm enough to go riding across Hoenn's longest road -- one that would take even Swift quite a long time to cross.

Josh mirrored Ayashi's abrupt stop with Swift, doing his best to remain stable as inertia flung him forward on the thundercloud, his hands nearly sliding into the back of the electric-type's head. Though he had hunted for Space-Time Distortions in an effort to find the gigantic Pokémon his Gym was known for, he wasn't sensitive to them on the same level that she was. After all, she had a whole different life to hone her senses to them.

"What's up?" Josh asked. "It's just overcast is all. We might get a little wet, but there weren't supposed to be thunderstorms. I'd love it if there was -- a natural thunderstorm makes Swift run faster."

Josh had seen many Distortions before; he loved hunting inside them to catch powerful, giant Pokémon normally too small to wear saddles. This just happened to be his first time seeing one form. Peering upward, he indeed saw the telltale clouds and veil that formed one. "Wow, you're really sensitive to them!" he mused, though Swift looked much more serious. More on guard. "I'm glad we could catch one forming from the beginning. You know how most of my Pokémon are really big? This is where I catch them from. This is Ninjask territory, too -- I'd love to find a giant one of those here!" The Gym Leader seemed way too excited around the dangerous spacetime storm that was brewing around them.

The storm expanded around them, blue and purple, bolt-like arcs forming around Josh and Swift. Building up from them was the spitting image of the Champion and his Raikou. The last time he had encountered this twisted image of himself, he needed his Sygna Suit to keep up with the Raikou's speed... and he had needed Andrea Vaneau 's help, too. This time, he had his own Raikou.

With a bolt-shaped sword in his hand, the doppelganger readied himself to ram and trample Josh and his mockery of the Beast. "Yuina..." Josh trailed off. unsure how to explain his wild story to the girl while simultaneously keeping her out of danger.

The two Joshes and their legendary steeds contrast one another like day and night; a monochrome young man, wearing light armor and wielding a sword shaped like the Raikou's tail stared at down the delivery boy and his monochrome electric feline. "Go back to the Hoenn you came from!" the Champion barked at the knightly self he once wanted to become. "And leave Yuina out of this! She's gone through enough!" Courier he may have been, but he was as protective as a knight... even if he didn't look like one.

"You sicken me," Josh's twisted doppelganger spat at him in a voice twisted by the Distortion itself. "The fastest and most majestic Beast in the world... reduced to the role of a common race horse. I was wrong to not finish you off when I had the chance. And without your strange Pokémon and that attire protecting you, there is no one to protect you from the speed god's true bearer!" Raikou and his ashen counterpart simultaneously let roars that, when combined with the instability of the Distortion around them, rent the very ground between them apart, raining rocks and dirt upon a wide area of their unstable environment.

Josh reined Swift in front of Yuina to protect her. "He's me, but from another world where everyone realizes their full potential! There's no time to--" Before he could say anything, the Champion's colorless clone and colored legendary steed lunged for them both in a QUICK ATTACK that may have only been visible for a split second before threatening to be on top of him. Powered by INFINITY ENERGY, the attack was much faster than any "priority attack" Yuina had likely seen before.

Priority moves used by Clone!Josh's Pokémon have INCREASED STRENGTH and cannot be interrupted.

The doppelganger was Josh from a world where only legendary Pokémon existed. From a world where Avatar-like powers were more commonplace. The technology their powers let them create was well beyond anything in Hoenn, as were the wakes of destruction their battles left when clashes did happen. That showed in the speed with which the colored Raikou pounced the colorless one.

Much like Ayashi did to protect Yuina, Swift roared and reared, bucking Josh off and away from the now-tumbling tigers clawing at one another. Despite being squished against the ground at points during the clash, the colorless facsimile of the Gym Leader seemed unharmed. It was a supernatural strength mirroring the powers of other Avatars. It was what Josh had been trying to tell Yuina the entire time:

This doppelganger was Josh from another reality where he had become Raikou's Avatar.

Clone!Josh cannot be dismounted from his Pokémon against his will. While mounted, he and his mount have INCREASED SPEED AND EVASION.

Both of them had been slammed to the ground, courtesy of their precious steeds, but the alternative of being run through their foe's electric sword was far worse. In the recoil from the high-speed QUICK ATTACK sending ash flying everywhere behind Swift, Ayashi's retaliating PSYSHIELD BASH spread some of that ash back onto the monochrome Beast's body.

The Gym Leader's doppelganger glared at Celebi, one of the few Pokémon he recognized. He knew of the Pokémon's power to travel through time in his own world, being able to reverse its own wounds by traveling to a previous point in history. He knew of the tremendous stresses time travel put on the psychic-type, and wanted to snuff the oversized onion out then and there. "I slew you once, Timelord. Why are you back?" the vitriolic jockey pointed at the Celebi and its bearer, the Raikou flashing his fangs at them both. A vicious CRUNCH was coming... a technique Josh could not warn Yuina of.

For from his own experiences with Raikou, he was unaware the Beast was capable of such an attack.

"...Celebi?" Josh groaned, at last gaining meaningful consciousness from the fall.

The GRASS KNOT tripped the colored Raikou, causing his fangs to fall short of the slippery psychic-type. As great as as the legendary Pokémon's trap was, Josh's doppelganger's blessing not only made him speedy, but impossible to ensnare in such a way.

Clone!Josh's Pokémon cannot be TRAPPED, and the SPEED of his Pokémon cannot be lowered, including by the PARALYSIS condition.

The tripping attack did slow him down enough for Yuina to help Josh get back to his feet. He embraced the Ranger's grasp, able to independently move once more. "Are you... an Avatar, Yuina?" he asked as the sprite fluttered about. For every bit of raw speed the Raikou had, the grass-type had equal agility. The two seemed like they could dodge one another all day.

"Time may be everlasting," the doppel taunted Yuina and Josh, "but yours isn't. And it will be up faster than you think. Yah!" With his electric sword pointed upward and his steed zooming around the Distortion in circles, a whirlwind of THUNDER began to form around its center, expanding by the moment. The strength and fortitude needed to withstand a rush so fast was frightening, even by the Champion's standards. This was the potential Josh dreamed of prior to the Great One cleansing him and turning him into what he was today.

Fighting them was a Josh that realized exactly what the real one's past self wanted to be... and the power had gone to his head.

Celebi time-traveling a few seconds into the future was one of only a few ways to dodge the Raikou's lightning-fast attacks. Where the doppelganger made a mistake was giving his base counterpart time. With the reflexes and sharp mind the Knight of Thunder had, all he needed was a little time to take cover beneath Higumei alongside Yuina.

A colossal web of electricity exploded from the Distortion that was growing more unstable by the moment. It expanded into every cubic inch on and within the dome, almost looking like an atomic explosion from a distance. The very air itself erupted into the plasma of the legendary's divine lightning. All except the air surrounding and directly beneath the Ursaluna, Josh, and her two trainers. It had even overcome Swift's form, the Raikou now a pile of ash only distinguishable from the other ash around it by the yellow arcing dancing among its grain-like pieces.

"Heathen, your Raikou was but an impostor," Josh's doppel barked as the Champion's RAINBOW FEATHER turned inert, the electrified ash returning to its quill. He raised his Z-GLOVE skyward, leaning as low as he could in the colored Beast's thundercloud saddle. "HYPERSONIC..."

Josh knew exactly what his angry clone was about to do. No Ground-type, not even the hulking Hisuian Pokémon the duo took cover around, would be able to protect them from the might of a Z-MOVE designed to pierce the immunities of ground-type Pokémon. While the Raikou's QUICKINIUM-Z absorbed Z-Energy, the veil forming the Distortion whirled about violently...