The Gym's lobby was busy from aspiring racers wanting to get in their practice for the Gym-hosted 2024 season finale while they could. While unsubstantiated, rumors had been flying around that due to the Petalburg takeover and the war heating up, the 2025 Silph Cup season would have a late start or be completely canceled. Bring part of the board for the Silph Cup gave Josh some inside information, though they had yet to make a decision.

The young female receptionist, SHELLY SPIEL, looked Kōji Morishita up in the Gym's employment records. "Koji? Great to see you. Take the elevator to the left to the third floor, then follow the hallway to the double doors in the back. The Leader should be in his office now. Good luck!"

Provided Koji could follow her directions, he would find the office doors wide open, revealing a large office space that looked like it used to house a mainframe computer. Scattered near the room's walls was a myriad of Pokémon memorabilia, all of it depicting the legendary Pokémon Raikou. There were small figurines, a collection of one copy of nearly every Raikou trading card ever produced, and even a Ride-On Raikou plush that the Gym Leader was sitting on.

He truly had the mind of a child trapped inside the body of an adult, didn't he?

Near the bookcase was a saddled, blue-tailed Shiny Sylveon that let out a low-pitched, alien-sounding mew of greeting toward Koji before sitting down, his feelers reaching toward the guest. Upon hearing his footsteps, Josh turned his head toward Koji, set the plush's felt reins down, and waved toward him. "Koji! Glad to see you again," the Gym Leader greeted him. "Thank you for your time and coming to this last interview. I just had a few more questions for you before taking you down to the Gym grounds, where I can see how much hands-on experience you have."

---

Kōji Morishita

{PC: 1}

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

EXPEDITION TEAM

FAREWELL, MY FREE ADVENTURERS!

CHARACTERS: Nikita Sokolov Josh Devlin (at least two)
EXPEDITION #: Josh: 1st to Ultra Sea, 13th total; Nikita; 4th to Ultra Sea, 4th total
SELECTED PROMPT #s: 08 28 29 33 34
NOTES: Listed in thread starter

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Eddie seemed excited to see what Swift was capable of. Though the Raikou was among the fastest land Pokémon in Hoenn, Josh had to temper expectations. "I want to preface that I'm still in rehab, learning how to withstand his very fastest speeds. I won't be able to Quick Attack with him, but I'm sure you're okay with that, heh!" He didn't want to flatten poor Eddie with the Beast's true velocity. This was their first time riding together at all, making him realize just how big the soldier was. He was taller and more muscular than Josh by a long shot. The big cat let out a thunderous purr that rattled the Knight of Thunder, and perhaps Eddie, too, as he got used to the extra weight on his thundercloud. "With that out of the way, let's go! Hyah!" he cried, flicking the two outer tufts of thundercloud.

With that, the monochrome tiger was off, Josh and Eddie able to feel the raw strength behind Swift's powerful, flexing spine. The acceleration pushed the Gym Leader back, though perhaps Eddie would have better luck maintaining proper posture through it. The skin of his cheeks began to collect at the back of his head, stretching against his bones from its intensity. The craziest part was how long the Raikou accelerated for. It wasn't that they were accelerating slowly; halfway through it, it may have felt like a hurricane crashing into them.

Swift's top speed was just that high.

---

Eduardo Hisakawa

{PC: 5}

NAME          SPECIES        STATUS
Swift         Raikou         Good
Aleph         Type: Null     Good
Zaborg        Zeraora**      Good
Raikou        Raging Bolt    Good
Entei         Gouging Fire   Good
Suicune       Walking Wake   Good

That was what Rocket got for sending a single grunt to intercept one of their most storied trainers. Soldier he was not, but he didn't need to be. He was a Champion. He was more than capable of fighting if he needed to, but fighting wasn't his forte. His strength was in extreme speed. And extreme speed came with glaring weaknesses -- ones that Greyson Connors had tried time and time again to bring to his attention. No eye was keen enough to discern minute details while moving at a speed more easily expressed as a factor of Mach. Sometimes, one needed to slow down to win the race.

That was the Elite Four had been trying to teach him during his entire Champion Assessment. His demonstration of that understanding with kyle lopez was a start. Now, he needed to further act upon that understanding if he wanted to be a more serious contender for the Elite Four.

As the Salazzle's toxic SMOG spread outward, Josh reined his Pidgeot above it. Were his mount's Hurricane not on cooldown, he could easily have blown the attack, and the user, far away. Even Pazuzu could not keep up the relentless, powerful assault. "TWISTER, Pazuzu!" Josh called, the Mega Evolved Pokémon flying above the cloud and compressing it into a toxic whirlwind. His eyes shifted to the ground for signs of Absinthe Blackwood and her Salazzle.

---

Absinthe Blackwood
{PC: 6}

MP TOTAL: 520
- Posts (60)
- Enemy KO (25)
- Self-KO (Garchomp) (50)
- Mega Evolution (10)
- showcase your own character's strength(s) meaningfully. (50)
- showcase your own character's weakness(es) meaningfully. (50)
- have an antagonistic exchange of dialogue between your character and another writer's character or NPC. (50)
- have your pokemon be inflicted with a status condition by an opposing pokemon. (25)
- reference (tag) another character that is not in your thread in a meaningful way. (50)
- have your character recall a past thread or event that they have participated in or not (link the thread). (50)
- have your character reflect on why they're fighting/reflect on their loyalties. (50)
- have your character become inspired or consoled by another writer's character (50).

NAME          SPECIES        STATUS
Alphamax      Garchomp       KO
Verte         Flygon         Good
Bladestorm    Skarmory       Good
Pazuzu        M-Pidgeot      Good
Flint         Typhlosion     Fair
Screech       Linoone        Good

From the way Islwyn composed herself, Josh knew she was the real deal. Though her experience may have largely been in wooded environments, she seemed to have enough skills that crossed over into a subterranean environment. "Alright, I'll trust that you can hold your own down here. And if you ever get in trouble, there's room for two on Entei's saddle," he gestured toward the seat covering the front of the long Gouging Fire's back. The paradox Pokémon as a whole wasn't known for extreme speed, but under Josh's care, Entei could run.

The Gym Leader reined the horned Beast to a stop, Josh unable to see over Entei's horn as he reared and stomped. "Stay on your guard. It might be another of Entei's kind. I really hope not; they're almost too much for even me to handle."

---

Islwyn Pryce

{PC: 3}

NAME          SPECIES        STATUS
Aleph         Type: Null     Good
Raikou        Raging Bolt    Good
Entei         Gouging Fire   Good
Suicune       Walking Wake   Good
Swift         Raikou         Good

As much as Josh wanted to, the closest he could get to the speed of light was his Pokémon's Z-Move. Riding during a Z-Move was dangerous, not only due to the Pokémon's output of Z-Energy, but the incredible stresses it put the body under. It took many months of practice for him to master it with his Manectric. His one exposure to truly colossal speeds with Rayquaza, thanks to Eva Morales , helped a lot. "I only teach that to masterclass graduates due to how difficult it is," he answered. "Easter, if you've been a member for this long, you must be familiar with Mauville Gym's unique Pokémon art, the Hypersonic Plasma Charge. Fueled by Quick Attack, it's the fastest land speed any Pokémon can reach." Perhaps if he were to meet june sleigh and her Miraidon, that viewpoint might change. For now, the move made his Pokémon the monarchs of speed.

One day, Swift would be able to join their ranks. He just had to figure out how. And with so much of his time dedicated to helping out on the warfront, that research took a back seat. If anything, working his normal job duties as Gym Leader felt like a treat compared to the hell that was fighting off ambushes from the likes of Tempest Quinn , Absinthe Blackwood , and jayden cross .

"Nope, we've got to work up to that first," Josh replied, his head shaking gently. "You've come a long way, but you've still got a long way to go. But you're advanced enough that I trust you to learn with just about any of my Pokémon." Some of his more exotic steeds would surround him at the Gym's rear entrance. Among them were Toralf, a Raichu that stood on all fours about as high as Easter was tall; Winky, a Greninja that stood a little taller than Josh and looked tremendously nimble; and Milo, a Thievul whose long, bushy tail swayed in the wind. Pura was also present, a stout-looking Purugly whose stubby paws became too blurry to see when he ran.

Just what did he feed these Pokémon for them to grow so big?!

---

easterbelle flowerly

{PC: 1}

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

(Sep '24) easterbelle flowerly

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The Pokémon before them was one Josh had never seen before: a floating shadow with a white head, the clawed entity of darkness moving with dizzying speed. The black orbs hurled toward the trainers in the center immediately put almost all of them to sleep, their bodies subconsciously shivering from the nightmares the dark-type induced. The Infinity Energy radiating from the creature was on par with the Great One. Was this a legendary Pokémon?

If so, this was truly an emergency. One that had to be responded to with maximum force.

Plucking the RAINBOW FEATHER from his shirt, Josh hastily drew the Sign as another volley of dark spheres converged toward Xuying Zhou and himself. The enormous lightning bolt that struck the Sign's ash created an equally large peal of thunder that he hoped would wake the trainers from their sleep and allow both of them to resist the sleep-inducing attack.

"Swift, ELECTRO BALL!" Josh ordered, a thunderous roar leaving the fanged cat's mouth as he built up speed. The Raikou built up so much speed that he looked like the base of a whirlwind, electric spheres whizzing around and converging upon the Darkrai almost too fast to follow.

---

• Dodge and battle the Darkrai.

RKS POINT: 100

Xuying Zhou

{PC: 3}

NAME          SPECIES        STATUS
Swift         Raikou         Good
Aleph         Type: Null     Good
Nala          Pyroar         Good
Kovu          Pyroar         Good
Kokusho       Hydreigon      Good
Pazuzu        Pidgeot        Good

Josh's hands flew into the air as Mr. Toral brought up the idea of a draft. "I highly doubt that will ever happen. A draft would be simply throwing bodies into the slaughterhouse," he argued. "And Hideo's special. He is aware of the risks. He's a wonderful Gym Leader. Probably a better Gym Leader than I am." He only said that because Hideo was Hoenn's only Gym Leader to find Josh unworthy of his Badge... for a reason Josh thought was completely wrong. He did have a point, though, as did some of the higher-ups. The speed with which Josh battled left little time to think things through. Instinct was a wonderful tool, but it was far from infallible.

Turning his head back toward Kee, Josh tried to relate to his woes. "That's something I had to learn the hard way, too. I've been hospitalized not one, not two, but three times since moving to Hoenn. All fighting on the front lines. That was when I realized that the front lines aren't where my skill is." There was more to war than fighting. Anyone who wanted to contribute could. They just had to find their niche. "Kee, you don't have to be a good fighter to contribute to the war effort. You know what I'll be doing in the next warfront? Running supplies. Messages. War bulletins. I've got some of the fastest Pokémon in the world."

As to prove a point, the Gym Leader plucked the RAINBOW FEATHER from his shirt and began drawing the Sign's four strokes. The wind began to pick up as dark, rainless clouds rolled in. The feather's ashes, wreathed in yellow static, hovered in midair in the shape of the Sign Josh had drawn. A gigantic lightning bolt struck next to Josh, a black silhouette of Raikou manifesting in its wake.

"It's hard to deliver anything faster than by lightning strike, after all."

---

Keenan Toral

{PC: 9}

NAME          SPECIES        STATUS
Eriette       Spectrier      Good
Hylda         Glastrier      Good
Swift         Raikou         Good
Aleph         Type: Null     Good

While it would be a battle with no real stakes, Josh wasn't one to pull punches. His battle style was speed-centric but not speed-reliant. He had Pokémon that were more than capable of overpowering foes. More than capable of holding down the fort. One of these days, he would show the Elite Four that his victory over them indeed was valid and deserved. Perhaps before his next deployment, he would be able to meet with Greyson Connors and Melody Miro again. Show them what kyle lopez taught him. How he had learned.

Josh tugged on the outer tufts of Swift's thundercloud like reins, bringing the ashen Raikou to a stop. The Beast crouched next to Eddie, Champion and Gym Leader scooting forward on the black, fluffy mane. "Feeling brave enough?" he asked Eddie with a big smile.

---

Eduardo Hisakawa

{PC: 4}

NAME          SPECIES        STATUS
Swift         Raikou         Good
Aleph         Type: Null     Good
Zaborg        Zeraora**      Good
Raikou        Raging Bolt    Good
Entei         Gouging Fire   Good
Suicune       Walking Wake   Good

Having walked out of Thomas Benoit 's ranch with a much greater understanding of his three paradox Pokémon, Josh and his Walking Wake stood in the stiff breeze blowing over east Pacifidlog. He had heard some peculiar reports of a powerful Pokémon terrorizing the seas: not Kyogre, but a leviathan just as large, with a bright glow quite different than that of a Terastal Pokémon.

"Didn't think we'd be working together again so soon," Josh admitted as he peered toward Thomas, Suicune standing still on the water's surface just like Isaac Merlo 's Beast was capable of. "On the Rangers' end, we've received a few tickets describing these Pokémon that are really big. Even bigger than the ones out of Distortions. Anything on AQUA's end you can share?"

---

Thomas Benoit

{PC: 1}

NAME          SPECIES        STATUS
Suicune       Walking Wake   Good