Josh was taken aback by the news, Swift's eyes opening wide almost in sync with his rider's. Were the red of his eyes red instead of grey, they would have been narrower than what looked healthy. "I don't know how you haven't heard. It's been all over the news." He began to sniff, not wanting to accept it himself. But he had to. It was reality. His mentor and the Great One were gone. "Especially since you're a part of AQUA. You get these sort of updates way before we even do as Gym Leaders." Another sniff. "...Lars, Kyle's been killed. Possibly murdered."

He perked up when Lars shifted away from the discussion on the late Top Champion and toward the monochrome steed Josh confidently sat upon. Swift walked a slow circle around the Composed without so much as a verbal or tactile command from Josh. "Not one bit, Lars," he answered. "Because... that's how much I love Raikou."

The anticipation was off the charts. This was going to be Josh's first truly fast run on the Johtonian god of speed. He expected the Beast to accelerate so quickly that he might just ragdoll in the thundercloud saddle. That was one nice benefit of the shape of Raikou's thundercloud, and why he thought of the legendary Pokémon in the way he did.

"Alright, Swift! Let's go!" Josh cried, about to slap his legs into the Beast's sides when he heard a familiar voice. With the young man pulling back on the outer two tufts of thundercloud, the monochrome Raikou reared and about-faced.

The source of the voice was none other than the Fortree Leader, Alexei Ivanov .

"Hi, Alex!" he greeted the Birdfather. "If you're still at Fortree, then that must have meant freya morningstar and Michael Navidson didn't write you up, huh? How you been?"

Elise's skill and confidence had come a long way if she had the wherewithal to fully control Wiley. "Alright, I'll work on my command of Screech," he replied before taking to the raised seat on the Linoone's back. With the two of them on Josh's normal-types, he would let Elise set the pace for the time being, allowing her to get used to the Furret's unusual gait.

"I'll follow you when you're ready! Screech here can also make sharp turns, but not in the same way Wiley does." Once they were off, Josh would keep pace with whatever running speed Elise and Wiley set, giving them distance in case the princess was chomping at the bit to be yanked about from some wild turns!

If the Pokémon with rainbow antlers was a god, then of course it made sense why Josh was so badly beaten. "An Avatar..." he logically concluded. "No wonder I was overwhelmed. Their powers are on... a whole different level than anything I've ever seen." Pinky stretched her feelers toward his trainer's good side and gently rubbed them against his arm to console him.

The mention of the Tree of Life piqued Josh's interest. "Elise, I love mythology. Tell me more about this... Tree of Life." If he could learn more about Xerneas, perhaps he would be ready if they were to clash again. Little did Josh know that such a contest was not to be...

"I've told you this many times, and I'll keep telling you over and over: getting old is not for the weak," Jim insisted as the first hand played out. "Elise, you might understand that when you have a son or a daughter some day. You would do anything to be with them... because that's how much you love them."

The discussion uneventfully continued late into the day; between the card games and the football game, it was easy to lose track of time. Thinking of turning in early, Josh asked, "Hey, it's getting late, and we were planning on heading up to Ecruteak tomorrow. I don't know if you booked a hotel, Elise. If you didn't, do we have a sleeping bag or something for her? Just for tonight, Mom?"

"I think there's one in the closet," she answered. Regardless of lodging arrangements, the two would be on their way the following morning, Josh insisting they go out for breakfast...

Josh's emotions were a swirling thunderstorm; just sitting on the Raikou's back made his hair stand on end as he let the purple thundercloud form around him, almost like a harness. He grabbed its two outermost tufts and held them like one would reins. "Elise..." Josh trailed off, tears still cascading down his red face. "I would have ran away with you, had I known Raikou was going to take Saber's life," he lamented. "I... I let him control me. But nothing's bringing him back now. He'll... he'll live on inside Raikou."

What a whirlwind of events. The price of Avatarship was the life of his most trusted Pokémon. Had he been aware of that price when pledging his loyalty to Raikou, he may not have agreed to it. No -- he wouldn't have. This was what Laurence Anderson warned him about all this time, wasn't it? The price of being an Avatar was often steep. "I need time to process all of this before I speak to the Council about AQUA. I'm not even sure I want to join AQUA. I might remain independent. But for now, we should get back to Mauville City."

The young man scooted forward on the legendary feline's back. "Let's saddle up and get out of here."

Josh deeply inhaled beneath his helmet as the terrain at last flattened. His right thigh was still thumping from the pressure of the sloping terrain before, though not as much as it once was. He would have this home stretch and the opening stretch of the final lap to relax before Moosh would have to really watch his footing again, lest he slip and slide off the course.

He had another problem, though: with a loud cry, Wiley and Eron were trying to make a move on him. He couldn't let them pass just before the final lap was to begin. "Moosh, let's go! Cut him off!" Josh ordered as he squeezed the bear's sides tightly, tromping forward in a burst of HIGH HORSEPOWER. The duo were just wide enough to fit through the narrow lane, and it wouldn't end well if both of them tried to enter at the same time!

howard slayte 's BLOODMOON URSALUNA, desperate to catch up to those in front of him, bellowed and charged forward in a HEADLONG RUSH. Unimpeded by traffic, it was just them against the course. The duo were able to use Moosh's tracks as a visual cue of where to line up. He made a last-second adjustment when he realized Josh Devlin and his URSALUNA might be cutting it a bit close. How prudent -- and race-saving -- of him.

Two seconds in front of the challenger, the battle between the Leader's Pokémon and ERON IUNIS' FURRET reached a fever pitch. The white-haired racer yielded to the ground-type's HIGH HORSEPOWER when it was apparent his competition was too far to the left. The URSALUNA roared after scraping his side on the narrow pass, Josh yanked to one side after the left leg of his attire split in two, his piece of ruined clothing violently flapping in the high winds. The loss of speed was significant, too, the FURRET zipping past moments after the course had widened.

A white flag appeared on the starting arch's display as the three Pokémon were to cross it, indicating that it was the last time around the track!

Prompt: By now, the racers had become familiar with the LATERAL SHIFT's main gimmick: abrupt lane changes that, if not heeded, would result in falling off course and suffering quite the time penalty. A right turn that sloped toward the inside was a reminder that they had passed the last piece of flat ground before the home stretch. The two lane changes ahead were the last "easy" part of the course left. Pokémon were inevitably starting to tire, but those who trusted their partner's stamina may have found it tempting to risk trying to weave among the lanes with added speed!

Target Number: 140 (Endurance)

Special: Boosting does NOT impose disadvantage on this obstacle, but doing so will raise the Target Number of this Obstacle by 20 only for purposes of whether the Obstacle is passed or failed.

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED

Cain Stille

Your challenge has been accepted! Please tag Josh Devlin in a new thread in Mauville City. Your movesets are not locked in until the first post of your Gym Thread. You have until May 15, 2024 to post your Gym Thread or you will lose your spot.

It was clear to Josh that Ollie had a lot on his mind about Kyle, too. Not directly about Kyle, but what happened that day. "Weren't you one of the last people to see him before he died, too?" he asked, recalling that the Head Ranger was on the list of people brought onto the Mount Chimney operation. "...I've been asking around and I just... I want answers. What exactly happened out there? I know it got really, really hot around Lavaridge that day. I had to close the Gym completely and bring my Pokémon back into their Poké Balls. As it turns out, bringing a hundred and twenty Pokémon into their Poké Balls is a lot of work on its own, heh," he laughed as he took a look toward the crater -- no, caldera.

Memories of the Minor League came back to Josh. How he got more challengers than any recent Minor League Gym Leader since the program's inception. How Kyle recommended him for promotion to the Major League. And now, he had been denied the chance to re-challenge the Battle Arcade.

"Ollie, I have my doubts he's dead. The Great One is his Patron, who once resurrected Raikou, Entei, and Suicune after they perished in the tower in Johto. And they've done it again with Swift here. Not quite in the form I remember, but he's still Swift -- my Raikou." He held the two outer tufts of Swift's thundercloud in his hands, then slid forward. "I have my doubts he truly died. I think he's still out there. And even if he did die for real, his body will give us a lot of clues as to what happened. Wanna hop on Swift with me and survey the caldera?" he offered Ollie a ride on the electric tiger.

War was coming.

With Josh likely being deployed to Sootopolis in the invasion to come as early as next month, he needed to get his reqs squared away with the Rangers first. He had requested all of his monthly patrol hours be scheduled for the first full week of May, not knowing exactly when his duties as a Gym Leader would send him off to battle.

After completing his short patrol shift between Fortree and Lilycove, Josh arranged for lodging for the next several days in the east-coast city, knowing he was going to be helping out a lot in the area this week.

In Lilycove's largest park, even those lodged in battles turned their heads to see not one, not two, but ten saddled Pyroar, the Ranger logo emblazoned upon their gear. Seated on the back of one of them, the only Shiny one, was the Mauville Leader and newest Champion - the last one before the Top Champion gave his life fighting MATIAS SILPH and his Patron. The glowing felines would have been difficult for Reinier Justice to miss...

Josh cuddled Swift, the exposed skin on his face and arms visibly rippling from the Raikou purring in reflected sorrow over Kyle's untimely death. His own tears likewise rippled across the ashen Beast's form, sounding a small hiss as they made contact. "Ollie, when the Great One passed Swift down to me, I was the happiest man alive," he sniffed as Raikou let out another crackling cry, telling Aleph not to go so far ahead. "Had I known that this was to happen... Kyle knew he was gonna die, and that's why he made me a Knight of Thunder, isn't it?"

He doubted Ollie knew the answer to that question. "Sorry to ignore you like that. It's been... really hard without him. I wanted to take all the Champions out to dinner to celebrate that night. MATIAS SILPH , Melody Miro , CIAN MAHER , Michael Navidson . All of them. It's... really hard to get into the Hall of Fame. I should be happy. Thrilled, even."

Josh pat Swift's black thundercloud, the Champion swinging his leg above it to sit on the electric tiger's back. The big cat remained seated, the racer having to flex his legs to keep his feet from touching the ground. "Ollie, he was a mentor to me. He taught me much I not know about being not just a Gym Leader, but a leader. Did I tell you that when I first opened the Racing Grounds as a Minor League Gym, Kyle was the first person to challenge it?"

Josh had one last defensive measure up his sleeve; while the Raichu was distracted with Zachary's Pokémon, he called for his Milotic, Megalo, who rained LIFE DEW upon Josh at his command. While he was still not in fighting condition, what with the human body conducting electricity, he no longer felt like he might be going to an emergency room.

He was conscious enough to be a bit jealous that Zachary was going to capture this speedy Raichu. Even he had some trouble following the motions of the psychic-type's AGILITY. It would be such a thrill riding the oversized rodent, whether via saddle strapped to its back or by sitting or standing on its surfboard tail.

It would be the perfect Pokémon to add to Mauville Gym... but alas. He lacked the strength to catch it. All he could do was watch the chaos unfold, Morgana distracting the electric-type with enough LEAFAGE to blind it. Now was Zachary's chance. This was his moment to shine while Megalo continued to administer convalescent care.