[nospaces]

The Space-Time Distortion had faded, and with it, Josh's doppelganger from another Hoenn. Yuina couldn't have acted a moment later, otherwise Higumei would have absorbed the full force of the Z-Move he was famous throughout Hoenn for. A supersonic, electric ramming attack not even the most steadfast of Ground-types could absorb.

Josh was relieved to see he had survived the storm. He had hunted for Pokémon in such distortions many times. This one had spawned a bitter foe that had overpowered even him: himself at his full potential. Himself as an Avatar. But not the self he was now. No. The Josh they had narrowly escaped was a doppel of the Josh that had been purified in the Emergent's Sacred Fire.

Once they had faded away, Josh stared at the inert RAINBOW FEATHER. "I... have a lot of questions, Yuina..." he trailed off before composing himself. "But not here. We still need to talk about another... anomaly. But with Swift recovering... this is embarrassing." He sulked around before making eye contact with Celebi's bearer again. "Can you give me a ride to Mauville? I don't have a Pokémon that can take me back to town."

---

Yuina Higashi

{PC: 8}

NAME          SPECIES        STATUS
Swift         Raikou         KO

While the Raikou's body had the appearance of fur, like one would expect of a giant tiger Pokémon, it had the complexion of ash. Uxie would be able to detect two clear sets of indentations in the dark gray thundercloud that floated above Swift's back. One, close to the rear of the cloud's flat part, covered the three inner tufts. The other group, only present on the outer two, was closer to the front. The front ones were smaller than the back, roughly in the shape of human fingers. The psychic-type may have been able to infer that Josh rode the Beast regularly, using the outer two segments of thundercloud like reins.

"It's certainly a golden ending to the Champion Assessment and my redemption with the League," Josh answered, cuddling with and embracing the ashen creature. The facsimile of the legendary Pokémon looked as tame as most of his other ones -- tame enough for even children to interact with. "I just wish he didn't come at the cost of Kyle's life. Other than that, it couldn't have turned out any better."

But now was not the time for reminiscing. The Rotomdex would not get the chance to witness the Beast's hair-raising speed a second time, for a familiar TOXIC CHAINED Pokémon tromped toward Josh, determined to drag his escaped prisoner back to what he could only presume was their new jail. Aleph stood between his trainer and the Okidogi, threatening to slice and dice with his CRUSH CLAWS.

"Might be a bit late for that, Hideo," Josh replied, raising his guard in sync with his legendary partner.

---

Hideo Kino

{PC: 3}

NAME          SPECIES        STATUS
Swift         Raikou         Good
Aleph         Type: Null     Good

Josh's smile grew when he heard Dirk's reason for visiting the Gym. "Indeed, we have quite a few openings. As long as you don't mind me eating in front of you, we can talk employment over lunch -- in my office upstairs!" Provided there were no objections, the Leader would guide Dirk to the Gym's main elevator. Once they were inside, he would make small talk with the candidate. "You must be an athlete, like I used to be. What's your name?"

Once they arrived on the Gym's top floor, the only one with windows on all sides, Josh led him down a hallway and through double-doors leading to a lavish office that was clearly designed to hold a mainframe computer. One of the room-sized ones from the early days of computing. The amount of memorabilia in the room was staggering: small plastic figures, a display of trading cards, some posters, and even a Ride-On plush toy not far from Josh's desk. All of the memorabilia was of a single legendary Pokémon: Raikou.

The Gym Leader unwrapped his burger, put it on one corner of the paper wrap it had been surrounded in, and spilled his waffle fries near the other corner. He took out a sealed ream of printer paper and placed it to one side, resting his shake on top of it. Upon smelling the food, a rather-large Manectric wearing a saddle woke from a nap and walked toward Josh. Even the electric-type's saddle looked like a Raikou's thundercloud. "Oh, Saber, you must have smelled lunch! Here, have a few! I got a large for a reason." He slid a small pile of them for the canine to snack on.

"I see you have an application on file," Josh started after checking League and Gym records. "Currently, we have positions open for Gym Trainer, Pokémon Caretaker, and in Security. Refresh my memory; which of those positions were you interested in?"

---

dirk summers

{PC: 2}

NOTE: All of the Pokémon in Josh's PC are present somewhere on the Racing Grounds.

The saint in Josh couldn't help but be moved by Rose Soleil 's shout. Battles were going on, and if someone was hurt, it was his job to ferry them to one of Doug's tents. Either to the Jinxed himself or one of the healers working for him. Yes, he needed to make his delivery, but he wasn't going to say no to helping an injured Leaguer.

The boy wheeled his Shiny Charizard toward the source of the shout. "Is someone there?!" he cried. Were he to find Rose Soleil , he would greet the young woman. "Are you hurt?" As Aqua Kennedy learned, the lightning-speed Champion had the passion to crush Team Rocket, but also the compassion to rescue conscripts from beneath the syndicate's iron fist.

---

Rose Soleil

TOTAL MP: 20
Post (20)

{PC: 2}

NAME          SPECIES        STATUS
Ares          Charizard**    Good

EXCHANGING MP

THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS!

[break]
2165: Resurfaced Treasures
880: TFW Prelude
675: Complacency Josh Devlin vs. Absinthe Blackwood
775: Cat Fight! Josh Devlin and PETRA MONROE vs. jayden cross
1160: SKIRMISH: Josh vs. Robin vs. Aqua (YES THIS WAS 3 FRONTS, GO READ IT)

EXCHANGING: 2000 MP FOR Iron Leaves[break]
300 MP for Shadow Sludge (PC)
300 MP for Mythical Pecha Berry (PC)
125 MP for Shiny Swap (PC)
125 MP for Tera Shard (PC)

CURRENT TOTAL MP: WHAT IS YOUR TOTAL MP NOW?
2805

With Petalburg City having been taken over by Team Rocket, there was sentiment brewing among Josh's Gym employees that Mauville or Rustboro would be the syndicate's next target. Not wanting to be caught in the middle of a siege, several employees had voluntarily left, leaving the racing entrepreneur with no choice but to offer overtime. Overtime he didn't want to pay long-term. As such, he had put out a wave of advertisements looking for help in nearly all of his Gym's positions. dirk summers was one such applicant.

The young man had caught the Leader returning to the colorful blue, purple, and yellow lobby after getting take-out from the Checkered Flag, a restaurant and bar that had only recently reopened its kitchen after suffering quite a bit of damage in Hitoshi Inoue 's recent Dynamax attack on the city. He would not be able to return the handshake, for his hands were filled with a shake and a bag filled with a steakburger and waffle fries. "You caught me getting lunch, Dirk," Josh shrugged. "Great to meet you, though! Gym Leader Devlin or Champion Devlin, but please, call me Josh! What is it you need?"

---

dirk summers

{PC: 1}

NOTE: All of the Pokémon in Josh's PC are present somewhere on the Racing Grounds.

Every person had insecurities. Every person had failures. What separated the great people from everyone else was learning to handle their flaws and use them to better themselves. "That's a completely normal feeling to have, Beckett," Josh replied as he reached for his cell phone, dropping it. It hit the linoleum floor with a loud thud. "Ugh... Beckett, if you would, please?"

Once he had his device back were his coworker so kind, Josh would continue voicing his thoughts. "I was like that, too. I'll put it this way. There will be some moment in your life that will change your outlook completely. For me, it was the Eris Halla incident last February. The one that I got suspended for three months because of and had one of my Pokémon impounded for a year. It's gonna happen, and it's gonna hurt. But when you come out on the other side of it, you'll be glad it happened to you."

The young man's eyes wandered toward the clock and suddenly widened. "Sorry to cut this short, but the doctors are coming back soon. They have to run some tests on me. Hopefully I'll be back at Mauville Gym and we can spend some time together there. Appreciate you keeping me some company. It gets lonely up here!"

---

beckett carlson

{PC: 7}

This Scyther acted like ones from Distortions. Increased size, increased aggression, and increased speed. It would have been one Josh tried to outright capture and add to his Gym's massive roster. If there was a Pokémon that had the right size and body shape to strap a saddle to, he wanted it at his Gym. Even if the species wasn't traditionally fast, he could make it fast. There was even a new Internet meme circulating about; it was a giant Slowpoke wearing a saddle, ferrying Josh past a galloping Rapidash in a slight blur. While this was, of course, an egregious exaggeration, there was truth in it. The Mauville Leader really would ride almost any Pokémon.

"Kokusho, floor it!" Josh shouted over the wind. "DOUBLE TEAM!" The three heads all leaned in, the dark-type dragon stretching his six wings and zooming away from the Scyther. It matched the DOUBLE TEAM with a DOUBLE TEAM of its own, the illusory copies quickly dispatched in the wake of the ally Hydreigon's TRI-ATTACK. The golden mantis Pokémon hissed at Lasciel Elis and her dragon with another volley of FURY CUTTER swipes, trying to cleave them both into pieces.

---

Lasciel Elis

{PC: 4}

NAME          SPECIES        STATUS
Kokusho       Hydreigon      Fair
Aleph         Type: Null     Good
Swift         Raikou         Good

As a Gym grinder, Josh had the support of others who had already risen to the top. It was only right for him to pass that support on now that he was a Champion himself. "Holy...!" Josh gasped, Andrea's squeeze quite a bit stronger than he was expecting. "You're strong!" She was a dragon trainer, after all -- very few dragon trainers were anything but physically strong. Even Josh was; he had to have iron thighs to stay in a dragon's saddle!

"And don't be shy about it either," Josh reassured her that he was willing to help the emotional cosplayer who desired no more than to become a Pokémon. "I know he's not Chomper, and no Hydreigon will be. But you're more than welcome to hold Kokusho's reins the next time we go flying together." And even if she didn't want to utilize tactile control, Kokusho was more than willing to listen to verbal commands. "Need a ride back to town? Eriette's got room for another." Regardless of travel arrangements, the two would be on their way to their next destinations, Josh's being a hotel bed in Oldale Town. He was growing tired, and Mauville City was quite far away!

---

Andrea Vaneau

{PC: 6}

NAME          SPECIES        STATUS
Eriette       Spectrier      Good
Danjuro       Honedge        Good
Kaboola       Drifblim       Good
Dampe         Houndstone     Good
Sidewinder    Dragapult      Good

Josh was too blinded by his confrontation to notice that Aqua Kennedy had radioed in before taking off on Aleph's back. What didn't go unnoticed, however, was how all of her Pokémon retreated back into their Poké Balls in protest. All except for her Toxtricity. The scene was eerily similar to when Josh himself was at his lowest point, in his greatest, most desperate longing for the Beast Kyle had later bestowed upon him.

FEBRUARY 2023

The Leader's Pokémon took a defensive stance, Josh laying as low as he possibly could in the saddle, using his mount as cover. The SPRINGTIDE STORM still badly hurt both of them, Blitz more so. Both of them felt the Fairy-type move's shredding winds, even the blooms carried in its wake having cutting power. The Gym Leader was bleeding in several places, and yet still, he was blinded in his own rage. "One hundred volts, Blitz," Josh sternly ordered, getting a shake of the head. "ONE HUNDRED VOLTS, BLITZ! NOW!"

There was no saving Josh now. He was lost in his own rage.

The wounded Luxray stepped off Eris, the young lady free to move once more. The first thing she might have seen afterward was Blitz spinning and bucking Josh like a Tauros at a rodeo, the Gym Leader holding on for dear life as a few drops of blood went flying around him. It didn't take long for the electric-type to fling Josh out of the saddle and away from Eris Halla , in a heap on the rocky plateau. The big cat stood in front of Josh, ready to defend his trainer at all costs but showed no signs of further aggression. One paw remained on Josh's upper right arm, pinning him to the ground and preventing him from standing.

Before Josh could respond to the psychic's hateful remarks, Robin's Z-CHARM glowed brightly, a web of ethereal chains completely binding and immobilizing him just after he had leaped into the thundercloud saddle to fight alongside his ashen friend. Though the Raikou could not think or even act on his own, he was still a friend to Josh. A friend he would not have taken away from him. Her psychic abilities gave her the precognition to foresee how Josh would be placed at his most vulnerable. The old Josh, the one Eris Halla struggled against, would have begged for mercy and thrown his Poké Balls to the ground.

Not the Josh that came from the pyre of the Great One's RAINBOW FEATHER. The Josh kyle lopez , Melody Miro , Greyson Connors , MATIAS SILPH , Navy, and Callan Young had cultivated and transformed through the Champion Assessment.

"No, Robin, you aren't in control," Josh retorted using the only set of muscles he could move: the ones around his mouth and throat. "You're making a huge mistake. A mistake I made, too, and one not far from your own. Your lust for power is getting to your head... just like my lust for speed once destroyed me. And the life of a child." She was far from an innocent child, having committed some truly heinous acts under Rocket's directive. But she had completely repented under the League's amnesty program. She was a valuable asset to the League, alongside Cassandra Kubrick and Hideo Kino .

"Eris Halla . My Pokémon, too, turned on me after I gave the command to attack her when she was most vulnerable. All but one: King Zing, my Beedrill. It took me months of being separated from my Gym, and well over a year of being ostracized by my coworkers, to mend relations with the League. I was separated from that Beedrill for over a year, too. It would not surprise me if the League did the same thing to you for what you've already done to that Rocket who already laid down their arms. I went through this, Robin. You don't have to. Please... stand down. The League will handle them from here. There is no reason for us to fight. You're not a victim. You're a Ranger. A hero. Think about all the people and Pokémon you've brought back from nearly certain death. What would those people think if they saw you like this today?"

The way Josh's mind had shaped Swift's capabilities, he was almost all-in on his recognition of the Beast's unparalleled land speed. Quick Attack and Electro Ball both relied upon the electric tiger's unparalleled land speed to be at their most effective. The spheres the Pokémon launched from his crown were far less effective when done so from a standstill. There was far more nuance to the electric legendary Pokémon than that. While his extreme speed was what Raikou was most well-known for, he was also a god of thunder and lightning.

And there was more than one way to harness lightning's power.

While he could not move his arms nor his hands, Josh curled his fingers like he was in prayer. "O Great One... Robin needs your help. She, like I once was, is a lost Mareep. In Your name, I pray for your help in guiding her back to Your flock. To a place where she can use her Arceus-given gift not for evil, but in Your name. To spread not emnity, but benevolence. Purity. She cannot do this on her own. When You delivered me from my sins, O Great One, I could not do it on my own, either. Please, grant her the strength she needs to overcome this great trial. May she surface from the darkness, her mind and body emerging from it into the light of Your Most Holy Rainbow. In Your name, amen."

As if beckoned by Josh's prayer, a gigantic downdraft blew upon the entire battleground as black storm clouds rolled in. A light drizzle rapidly turned into torrential, hurricane-like rainfall, bathing the grassy plains north of Petalburg in a deluge. A RAIN DANCE whose floodwaters would almost assuredly conduct the ashen Beast's electricity. In the boy's moment of greatest plight, he and his mind's reflection realized a new power.

MOVE SLOT REGAINED

Swift the Raikou regains the move RAIN DANCE.

---

robin coello Aqua Kennedy

TOTAL MP: 765
Post (80)
use a legendary, mythical, ultra beast, paradox pokemon in a way that reflects your character or highlights another character. (50)
have an antagonistic exchange of dialogue between your character and another writer's character or NPC. (50)
include a motif or recurring symbol of some kind in your thread. (50)
have your character learn something from the other character. (50)
have your pokemon be inflicted with a status condition by an opposing pokemon. (25)
have your character recall a past thread or event that they have participated in or not (link the thread). (50)
reference (tag) another character that is not in your thread in a meaningful way. (50)
have your character learn to respect another character in some way. (50)
have your character self-doubt or cast doubt on another's confidence/allegiances/beliefs, etc. (50)
have your character reflect on why they're fighting/reflect on their loyalties. (50)
have your character attempt to or successfully take revenge in some way. (50)
have your character's Pokemon symbolize or represent in some way, the condition of your character. (50)
have your character "hit rock bottom" (their lowest point). (50)
showcase a meaningful moment between your character and their Pokemon. (50)
have your pokemon set weather, terrain, or a magic, trick, or wonder room in your thread. (10)

{PC: 8}

NAME          SPECIES        STATUS
Entei         Gouging Fire   Poor
Swift         Raikou         Good
Aleph         Type: Null     Missing

[player]https://fi.zophar.net/soundfiles/nintendo-gamecube-gcn/f-zero-gx/226a%20-%20Osc-Sync%20Carnival%20%28Lightning%29.mp3[/player]

Josh listened to Miyako's bravado as he zipped himself securely into Mastema's cocoon. When she described the incident, he facepalmed; Shalin Nariya had told Josh about it. "That's... why I recommend a cocoon saddle for flying Pokémon," he answered as he put both his hands back on the reins. "It can feel a bit restrictive at first, but you won't fall off your Pokémon. Period." While he felt the cursing was unnecessary, he appreciated the enthusiasm. "Now, watch that banner and the lights on it, just like we discussed. See you on the other side!"

Once the five were lined up, three images of the legendary Pokémon Raikou at full gallop appeared on the banner monitor above the starting arch. Behind them was a "GET READY" prompt, Josh and his Gym Trainers tensing their legs in anticipation. The first of the three images began to fade away, with it sounding a loud squawk as a simultaneous aural warning that the race was about to begin. A second, then a third followed. When the final image of Raikou disappeared, the prompt changed to a green "GO" alongside a longer and higher-pitched squawk. The Champion squeezed Mastema's sides, his Togekiss hovering forward and accelerating slowly. Though getting up to speed was a challenge for the fairy-type, once he was there, he would be one fierce competitor -- one Miyako Noguchi would do well to give no quarter!

---

INSTRUCTIONS

After each posting round, a prompt describing the upcoming section of the track will be posted. These prompts may highlight different sections of the course on each lap. You will react to the prompt, then [ roll ] twice. For the first lap, the Leader's rolls will be capped at 130 before modifiers.

---

LAP 1 | OBSTACLE 1

Prompt: Subtle curves pepper the opening stretch. If there were no other racers to deal with, the curves were so slight that one could coast straight ahead, making it easy to get up to speed! With the heavy traffic that was typical of the start of any race, though, finding that ideal line would be easier said than done! Furthermore, building up speed was important, as the first of several vertical loops was marked by a pair of yellow, triangle-shaped signs at the abrupt end of the road beneath them! Much like a roller coaster, the racers would briefly fly upside down before diving onto the adjacent section of the course to their right!

Target Number: 125 (Speed)

Special: A Pokémon that rolls beneath the Target Number by more than 30 will instead result in a loss of 150 TP and one use of BOOST from the Pokémon not completing the loop properly.

---

Miyako Noguchi

"Like I said, it took weeks and weeks to win enough of a bankroll to buy Resheph," Josh reiterated as Regole swished about in the mostly calm waters. The Shiny Dragonair felt easier to control, but didn't have the kick that Resheph had. That pop from the first few tail swishes that really gets the adrenaline pumping. "You have to ramp the difficulty pretty high up to make the game profitable. It takes about the same amount of skill to count cards in Blackjack that it does to make Voltorb Flip positive value. But she was worth it. I cherished that Dragonair with every fiber of my heart."

Once the two had reached the Sootopolis archipelago, Josh gasped at the task he had to go. "There's so much here..." he trailed off as he dismounted from the Shiny Dragonair. "I'm gonna need to get some Rangers involved, too. I need to place some phone calls. Want to load up Staccato and Regole while I try to get us some additional help?" Regardless of whether they did or not, the Gym Leader would get ahold of his secretary to send some more water Pokémon into the Storage System, then to Mossdeep and Ever Grande's Rangers. Any extra muscle power the duo could get would help a lot!

---

Lutgarde Dijkstra

{PC: 3}

NAME          SPECIES        STATUS
Staccato      Primarina      Good
Regole        Dragonair**    Good