Josh was right at home in the dry, late-season thunderstorm; the bright flashes of lightning made his electric-types faster, putting on an adrenaline-pumping burst of speed in sync with the thunder in its wake. Were he in ideal shape, it would have been his first good opportunity to see what his ashen Beast was truly capable of. Alas, his Pokémon were still training him, and he needed to work up to that final step if he didn't want to wind up back in a hospital bed.

As he was about to slam his heels into Saber's sides, poisonous words reached his ears. Familiar ones. Ones he remembered from his run-in with the lady outside Petalburg Woods. Eyes reflecting the lightning strike's intensity as though he controlled it, he pulled back on the reins hard. Saber slid to a stop and dramatically reared, crackling sparks flying from his front paws. "Spare me your pittiances," the rider barked back. "Why are you here?"

The sound of engines resulted from Josh opening up his Gym's racing challenges to those with Starmobiles. While they weren't common, the few that showed up with them had given his maintenance crew fits. They were used to having to patch gaps and bumps caused by claws, paws, and the occasional small tire mark from a Cyclizar. The types of repairs needed to undo the damage caused by a Starmobile skidding and squealing made the Leader's eyes roll; at this rate, he would have to hire a maintenance crew, and he desperately wanted to keep his headcount below fifty. Once he hit fifty employees, he would be considered a large employer, which same with its own legal can of worms.

A can of worms that his recent hire, Cecilia Brooks , might need to help him solve.

Locking his office and taking his boxed lunch next door to the female's third-floor office, he knocked on the door before twisting the knob. "Afternoon," the Gym Leader waved. "Starmobiles sure get loud, don't they?" he remarked, seeing if there was a good place for him to sit down, eat, and see how she was doing in her new position.

Mauville City was truly an architectural marvel; nowhere else in Hoenn did nature and technology truly come together. Argyle Park was one of the largest parks on the north side of Mauville's top level, the park having been filled from the ruins of one of the buildings Hitoshi Inoue had leveled in his attack on the Gym. It was one of the few places in the city where trees could grow naturally, without human cultivation.

As much of a symbol as the ashen Raikou had become for Josh, neither the Beast nor the RAINBOW FEATHER was near him; instead, he was astride Raikiri, his yellow Zeraora that preferred to travel on all fours, like a feral cat. While they were traveling well within city speed limits, he could tell the energetic feline really wanted to let loose. "Not yet, buddy," Josh gave the electric cat generous pets, others relaxing at the park tilting their heads toward the Gym Leader and the unusual Pokémon associated with high-level challengers. Behind him followed two large, saddled vulpine Pokémon, one of which Makoto Kurumi may have recognized.

Josh smirked as Snacker's goading had drawn the Turtonator to the channel's edge. Though dragon scales would protect the fire-type from aquatic attacks, he doubted they would keep the Pokémon safe from being completely immersed in water. "Gotcha! Snacker, EXTREME SPEED!" the Gym Leader pointed at the struggling foe.

With a loud cry, snapping jaws, and the highest jet pressure Josh had ever seen from the Sharpedo, Snacker vanished into a blur of whites and deep blues. Were Althus Rex 's Pokémon not able to snap out of it, the reckless charge might knock it into the drink!

Try as they might, the lured phantoms could not resist being drawn into the Dhelmise's mighty WHIRLPOOL over Petalburg's beachfront. All the while, Josh and Eriette jousted back and forth across the swirling water's edge in an effort to chase any stragglers into water they could not escape from. Aleph's X-SCISSOR handled a few more, whether it was by direct strikes on the soul gems or chasing them into the Dhelmise's vortex.

Petalburg had been saved from one threat, but was still captive to another. A more complex one that would require the entire League working together to reclaim. "That's one small step to freeing this place and making it beautiful again," the Champion sighed, realizing how much more they as a larger group had to do. "Great working with you. Thought about dropping by Mauville Racing Grounds? I think you'd like it there."

After Rocket's capture of Petalburg, there was no shortage of citizens that wanted to get away from Rustboro, Verdanturf, and Oldale in search of safer ground. Rustboro and Verdanturf were well-protected by Gym Leaders, but Oldale was not. It would be an easy mark for Rocket, on top of giving them very easy access to the Great Chasm and Area Zero, a gold mine for Terastal crystals.

It fell to Josh and Locke Jamison to help people who wanted to move away from Oldale to towns less susceptible to a Rocket takeover. "Great to see you again, though I wish it were under a little better circumstances," Josh waved from the back of his Aerodcatyl, Meteos. A brave, excited-looking child sat in front of him, well aware of just whose Pokémon was ferrying him about Hoenn. "Normally I'd be thrilled to be helping people move, but not when the war is the reason why." He wasn't the only one; five of Josh's finest flying Pokémon were lined up to fly those who wanted to flee from the impending Rocket threat.

Taking this 2ith Locke Jamison (repeat for Josh)

Rocket's capture of Petalburg made routing the rest of Captain Shalin Nariya 's Pokémon away from the forest a gigantic pain. Before the capture, Josh could simply pass through Petalburg to get to Verdanturf. Now, he had to go through Rustboro, Meteor Falls, Fallarbor, and Mauville to get there. With the Rocket city being a no-fly zone for a high profile Leaguer like him, the long land route was the safest way for him to transport sensitive cargo.

Even Josh got saddle sore when he rode for so long; the terrain was rough enough that Swift couldn't let loose. Being made of ash didn't make traveling through ash storms any easier; one was so bad that it delayed his travels by a couple of hours, forcing him to complete the last leg of his journey by nightfall. Night had proven to be dangerous, as Elisabeth Fiorelli had taught him long ago.

Stopping at his Gym after hours to retrieve the RAINBOW FEATHER and some of his more powerful Pokémon just in case, Josh hopped back onto his Manectric's thundercloud saddle, the full moon illuminating the road to Verdanturf enough to see without needing to rig a headlight to the electric wolf.

For once, Josh wasn't speeding across Hoenn on his Beast. After making landfall at Mossdeep's port on his Walking Wake (the island's waters were too cold this time of year to ride a traditional water Pokémon), he withdrew the raptor-like dragon-type and clicked the switch of a very special Poké Ball. One he had received from kyle lopez long ago. Raikiri leaped outward in a flash of yellow and white, the Zeraora on all fours creating sparks as he dug his sharp claws into the pavement. He looked excited to run.

"Now Raikiri, I know you're excited, but we have to watch our speed," Josh cautioned before hopping onto the big cat for the first time since his injury at the Prismatic Penitentiary. Now that he had experienced riding both Raikiri and Swift, they didn't feel too dissimiliar; the Zeraora really was Raikou at home. With the tension of war breaking out at any moment and Swift having taken so long to heal after Petalburg, he needed to use the Beast only when necessary... and the electric feline was the next fastest land Pokémon he had.

Josh rose the mythical electric-type toward the coordinates MAISIE MAUDLIN had forwarded him, only for both of them to start coughing as soon as the stench of the decomposing body reached his nostrils. He couldn't even respond to the investigator properly, both still suffering even after the Zeraora slinked away from the apartment's entrance. His Type: Null eventually caught up to the two of them, Aleph less sensitive to the awful odor...

"That wasn't a Trick Room," Josh thought as the metallic dragon expanded outward, creating a screech followed by a sonic boom that made the Gym Leader cover his ears. He couldn't even hear Toralf squealing, unable to shield his sensitive ears from the steel-tyle's aural assault. The horrific sound also masked Josh's command for Ixion to pick up the pace, the Rapidash not seeing the SHADOW BALL coming from behind.

By the time the ringing in his ears had ceased, both of his Pokémon were on the back foot, shaking their heads in an effort to overcome their dizziness. The enormous mouse pointed his tail at the Archaludon, understandably wanting to prevent it from making that awful noise again. "No, Toralf; the Runerigus is the real threat. You and Ixion, prepare your X-Strike!" The two stood at right angles from one another, then dashed toward the ground-type. At the last moment, the electric-type swerved away, aiming to whip his IRON TAIL into the statue-like ghost-type. Blue fire danced along the horse's hooves, Ixion not slowing down for a moment in her effort to run over the Steel-type specialist's partner with one of the fastest FLAME CHARGES in Hoenn.

"Really?" Josh asked Nick. "No video games, books, movies, anything like that?" Unusual, but not unheard of; the kinds of people that only enjoyed the outdoors were the ones that were most prone to going stir-crazy when confined to a bed and hooked up to an IV. Josh, too, enjoyed being outside with his Pokémon, feeling the rough and tumble of a strong and speedy Pokémon's gallop. The young Gym Leader had no shortage of powerful steeds; he could deploy an entire Hoennian cavalry force with how many Pokémon he had trained for it. He loved riding more than anything else. When he couldn't, though, he had other interests to keep him going.

So Nick did have other interests, after all. Josh would never have pinned him as an ornithologist. "Have you ever flown on a bird Pokémon before?" he asked. "If you haven't, might keep your mind occupied looking up videos about flying. Maybe even teaching yourself the ins and outs of flying on one before actually getting in the air." All the classroom-type education Pokémon pilots had to take before sitting in the saddle for the first time and taking off. "Tell you what. When you're feeling better, stop by Mauville Gym. I've got more flying Pokémon than you can imagine."

He wasn't kidding, either.

In any other world, Josh would have thought the fairy-type to be a benevolent guardian, whisking those in need off the battlefield and to safety. After Bryan and Xerneas had nearly shattered Hylda's body in their confrontation, Josh had come to understand the opposite. "Very dangerous Pokémon," he reiterated to Yuina. "Far more powerful than it looks."

The markings reminded Josh of the ones on his two monarch Pyroar, Kovu and Nala. "These look like..." Josh trailed off, stopping himself short. While similar to the markings of an Illumina Pokémon, there were major differences. The more he looked at them, the more differences he would spot. Before he could study them too much longer, the Gym Leader's vision faded to white, taking them to the next stage of the simulation.

Josh had known from his time in the Cloud that there was not just their Hoenn, but many other Hoenns. The one his doppel was from was simply one of many. A particularly scary one, where trainers would engage in the equivalent of kaiju battles by virtue of only legendary species existing, but an intriguing one, nonetheless. He wondered how Eva Morales would feel were they both to go there and capture two Rayquaza. The idea of an interstellar race on the emerald serpents was one he could not get out of his head, tuning Yuina out subconsciously. If Swift were outside of the RAINBOW FEATHER, his thunderous growling would have snapped Josh out of it.

The daydreaming Champion shook his head. "Sorry, come again?" he asked. Were Yuina to repeat, he would respond in earnest. "Me too. The region's already a mess with the legendary Pokémon already here. I don't think there would be a Hoenn left to defend if everyone had one, let alone a full belt of them." He had a full belt of paradoxes at his beck and call, giving him staggering power in battle. "And of course, I'm going to continue to chase them for unusually large Pokémon."

A lightbulb went off in his head. "And speaking of time... I've seen you've befriended a mischievous little time goddess," he casually brought up.