Such were the difficulties of riding an apex predator, a Pokémon not built to ferry a human around like a Rapidash or Lapras. They were built for the hunt. Josh took note of Silverio's posture as he rode the blazing lion, and was impressed with how on top of his balance he was, never looking like he was in danger of falling off! It was one of the stickier training sessions Josh put Mauville's Rangers through, as he loaned the big cats out for missions on a frequent basis.

The Gym Leader caught on to the smell, causing him to cough incessantly. He, too, slid down from his Pyroar's back, Aslan exercising caution in following the scent. This scenario reminded Josh of his first Ranger mission with Elinor Anderson , where he had helped the victims of a plane crash get back to Fortree. "I do, and I don't like it," the Champion replied. "Keep your ears open for Pokémon cries."

They were certainly in the right place to find fire-type Pokémon. With Route 111 being a natural habitat for Pyroar, it was easy for Josh to expand his pride if one got too close to the Gym. That was how he had captured most of his lion friends. "As a Gym Leader whose focus is on very fast Pokémon, I'm inclined toward fire-types," he related his own interest in them. "Where are you from, if I may ask? I'm actually... originally not from Hoenn. I'm from Johto, but... circumstances forced me to move to Hoenn a couple years ago."

It seemed like Clover was willing to hear Josh out, at the very least. "I'll... try not to be too detailed, then." While he wasn't keen on physically embracing with the stranger, the Mauville Leader would at least show the kind gesture. "Air hug," he replied, setting his Manectric's reins down to make the embracing motion from a distance. "Wouldn't want Saber here shocking you."

Josh's pride shifted their eyes back and forth between the two. "The short version of the story is that Aslan, my pride's king, died in Sootopolis, when the war broke out. And they're competing with one another to see who will be the next king or queen." He had several good candidates, but he felt he had to narrow it down to one.

After all, the materials to make a Pokémon Shiny were not cheap!

"Some, not all," Josh corrected Clover. "What makes them special, from what I understand, is their ability to think like humans do. To analyze. To form an agenda. The people they ally with are chosen because their viewpoints align with that agenda." Josh's legendary Pokémon was different. His Raikou lacked even the intelligence of an ordinary Pokémon, his thoughts instead a reflection of Josh's subconscious. What he wanted the Raikou to be deep within his mind. If he could harness that elusive portion of his mind, then he would be able to harness its true power.

Admittedly, the Master of Faster may not have been the best person to ask about the relationships between legendary Pokémon and their bearers.

Josh hummed over hearing Clover's childhood dream, momentarily distracted by Wiley running in circles with his passenger doing his best to stave off dizziness. The other child, too, was growing weary, both from King Zing's constant tingling and a headache induced by the yellow insect's vibrations. They both gathered around Valoo, Josh's Drampa, who cooed toward them both gently.

"That's a noble dream," Josh replied. "With a vision like that, have you looked into the Ranger program? It's pretty robust and full of thinkers like that."

Josh let out a loud and long yawn as the dream mist dispersed, feeling like he had just woken up after a good night's sleep. Hideo didn't seem particularly happy with how the Mauville Leader navigated the story. Hearing Hideo's remark made Josh freeze. That was far too close to home, thinking of how he ruined Eris' life with ambition taken too far. She could well hate him forever for what he did to her. And justifiably so, too; he pounced upon her at the slightest scrap of a lead of the Johto Beast's whereabouts.

"That was... a lot tougher than the time I came here before you were promoted," Josh sighed, sweating more than he should have. "As bad as I felt for the child, choosing a single life over the lives of many..." he trailed off. "Intuition says you leave the one behind to save the many, but in reality it's... not that simple."

It was the most difficult part of learning to be a hero.

"I know this is going to sound like a tangent, but were you at the Dyna Tree?"

Though Buzz and the redhead were running away with the race, the blowout performance didn't bother Josh at all. The purpose of these races was not for him to win; it was to ensure the challenger's bond with their Pokémon was adequately evaluated. Despite the slip-ups on the first lap, Elaine and Nephthys seemed to be of one mind. Shifting one eye toward the duo, Nephthys seemed to react almost instantly to the trainer's orders, whether verbal or tactile. They seemed to be able to tell what the other was thinking. It was that level of mastery that was needed to keep up with the Gym Leader that could have easily turned pro with the skills he had now.

Both his eyes shifted back to the course ahead of him. He knew Megalo could blast ahead of the rival Milotic if they tried. Having run the course many, many times, he had a plan. One he would not deviate from. Deeply inhaling, the Champion made a risky move. "Dive, Megalo!" he ordered, the beautiful serpent sumberging and attempting to surface on Nephthys' other side in an effort to get a better angle for the whip-like turn coming up.

Elaine Highland may have been narrowly in last place, but her tenacity kept her in the race as the course narrowed. The two MILOTIC swam alongside one another almost in perfect sync, neither one giving the other even the slightest edge. That was when Josh made a daring maneuver: diving beneath his opponent to make the chicane less tight. He had failed to account for the DRAGONAIR in front of him, whose tail was camouflaged by the hue of the channel around them. His Pokémon and ERON IUNIS' became tangled up for a split second, barely able to recover in time for the back-to-back right angle turns.

Ever the opportunist, Elaine Highland swerved her own MILOTIC around the two-Pokémon accident, cutting ARAVAN ESCHER and his PRIMARINA off from the inside line as the home stretch approached. When she rounded the last turn, she glimpsed ACE SHEEKE and his FLOATZEL gracefully leaping over the falls far ahead, giving her an idea of just how distant of a second she was. She didn't need to win. As long as her current position held, that Badge would be hers!

Prompt: The course remained narrow in the home stretch, making going any more than two wide dicey at best. The long straightaway ahead was the racers' best opportunity yet for their Pokémon to let loose with AQUA JETS and the like. Some Pokémon might need it to cross the starting arch; that jump from the top of the waterfall was rather long!

Target Number: 120 (Speed)

Special: None

Swift did not immediately respond to Andrea Vaneau . He was an ashen construct that reflected Josh's subconscious. He felt a real Raikou would have a true connection to this place, and truly would be able to awaken any latent abilities. Instead, the Beast roared, clouds beginning to cover the sky, as though he was summoning a storm. Just as quickly as the dark clouds rolled in, they dispersed, every drop of rain that dripped from them absorbed into the dry air. Andrea might have recognized the motions as a RAIN DANCE. A weak, unsuccessful one, but still a RAIN DANCE. "...Swift?" Josh slowly asked, uncertain what was happening.

Snapping out of his trance, Josh turned back toward the dragon lover. "Yes, this is where Raikou was born. I do not know of Swift's origins. The longer I raised him, the more questions I had." Inside the tower's remnants, there were tributes to Entei and Suicune, too. "Wonder where they're at? I haven't heard from either of them since we saw those toxic chained Pokémon."

After Swift took in the scenery of the Raikou's birth place, the two turned toward Tin Tower. "Andrea, there's something I feel I need to do. I never thought I would go back there after seeing Shawn's soul pass on. With Kyle's body not showing up anywhere, I have to confirm it. I have to go back to The Border and look for him."

That was part of what Josh was afraid of when Swift's weight was thrust upon him. His dream was too good to be true; while he could race across the land, he felt pressured to be a lap dog for the League, even in kyle lopez 's absence. "That so many of them have gathered in this region is concerning. But I think more of them are benevolent than you think. Death hasn't stopped the Great One before, nor will it stop her now," he replied, referring to the Top Champion's passing. "It's just a childhood dream. I just wanted on the fastest Pokémon on land!"

And now that he had it in his possession, he could live his dream once his doctors had seen sufficient progress in his rehab.

The young, indecisive child at last pointed to the Beedrill. Seeing his desires, Josh gave the excited young one a boost to reach the insect's saddle. Guest and bug-type were off with a noisy buzz, the swift Pokémon's trainer hearing laughter coming from him the whole time. "Whee-hee-hee! This tickles!" Glover may have been barely able to hear.

"Exactly," Josh signed. "I resigned to that as soon as I was in the hospital after returning from Ultra Space. It's more the timing of the whole thing that's infuriating. You don't realize just how many muscles it takes to do the thing you enjoy doing... until one of them stops working and has to be re-trained." Riding required a lot of muscles -- far more than the average person could imagine. Controlling a steed, especially at high speeds, required a strong core as well as four strong limbs. It took an increasing amount of strength to pull on the reins and squeeze a Pokémon's sides the faster one traveled. As much as Josh enjoyed the bouncy gallop of a feline, it took a strong core to be able to ride one without being worn out.

By the time his arm was strong enough to withstand a cat's exaggerated gait, his core would be so out of shape that he would have to relearn how to ride many of his fastest Pokémon. With the war heating up, it was time he didn't have.

Josh was appreciative of Ayashi's efforts to make the landing as smooth as possible. "I still haven't caught a Wyrdeer of my own. Given their psychic typing, it seems like it would be a good Pokémon to relearn with. Not as smooth as a horse, but not as rough as a cat." He loved his feline Pokémon for their extreme speed, but it came with the price of putting a rider's frame under quite a bit of stress. It was stress that Josh had once adapted to, but being put out of commission for so long made him lose some of that resilience.

Reaching a fork in the Power Spot, Josh followed Yuina leftward, his team still on edge from the intensity of the Dynergy around them. "Both of the ones I've been to look pretty similar," the Gym Leader remarked. "If it would help, next time I travel to the more remote ones, I could take some of those readings for you if you have the technology for me to do so."

The lioness' legs were warm to the touch, something Josh was certain the Oricorio would appreciate. She purred loudly in an effort to tickle the smaller bird -- a sign of not just how well-behaved they were, but how social, as well. "Great to meet you, Clover," Josh waved before extending his right hand. "This is a great spot to look for Pokémon! There are all kinds of fire-types out here, including Pyroar if you wanted one yourself."

Having his question turned on him made Josh frown. "I could tell you, but... I don't want to trauma dump. These Pyroar have... gone through some hard times, and I have a difficult decision to make." Not everyone took the finality of death the same way, and dumping those kinds of sob stories onto a stranger was not a way to make a good first impression. "If you want to hear, I don't mind telling their story, but... it can be a little heavy."

Lars' concerns were not unfounded. Josh still did not have full motion in his left arm. It was enough for him to ride a Pokémon whose gait wasn't particularly pronounced. "Physically, I'm okay... still some rehab to go, but I feel like I can hold reins like I used to. Somewhat. Mentally, though... Aslan..." One of the things Josh had looked forward to was racing across Hoenn on the Pyroar king's back. The great Shiny lion possessed remarkable speed, great strength, and one hell of a Z-Move.

Now, his body was a pile of ash inside a red, yellow, and white urn in Josh's office in Mauville City.

"I told you Aslan died in the war, right?" he asked Lars, holding tears back the best he could. "As long as you're not in a hurry to find him, I think I have an idea. There were two Pokémon of his I now have in my possession. I brought them both because of their link to him. If anyone can find him, they can." Sending out the first, the quadrupedal Zeraora named Raikiri, it may have looked odd to see the electric cat's saddle empty.

The second one would be coming out soon enough, Josh grasping the RAINBOW FEATHER's quill between his fingers. He lifted it upward and began to draw the Sign as his Type: Null kept his eyes open for any stray Pokémon that sought to haunt the duo.

Wiley's saddle was designed for an adult to sit in, though a rider had to lean quite low to the ground to avoid dragging their feet on the ground. A child, though, had more freedom. "One at a time, one at a time!" Josh laughed as the two raced to be the first to hold the Furret's reins. Ultimately, one beat the other to Wiley's back, the child hooting and hollering as the Furret bounced him about in place.

The other child backed up to see Josh four other ride Pokémon, Zira the Pyroar expectantly crouching. The Beedrill looked fun to hop onto, as well! Overcome with decision paralysis, the young one stood before all four of Josh's unoccupied Pokémon with their mouth wide open in awe. He wanted to go on all of them!

"Not at all!" Josh replied, turning toward Clover as he watched the guest rider pull on Wiley's reins haphazardly, the Furret giving them the illusion of control. "I was like this when I was young too. When I was their age, I dreamed of riding on the back of a Raikou." He wondered what his childhood self would think of being able to make that dream a reality. Once he was through rehab and his arm function had been restored, Josh would want no more than to blast across Hoenn at the speed of a lightning bolt.

The young, brown-haired individual gushed compliments all over Josh's pride, his smile beaming when they expressed how fast they were. "They are all mine," the Gym Leader answered as one of the lions crouched next to him, seemingly beckoning him to sit in the large saddle adorned with the Mauville Ranger logo. "Kovu, you know I can't yet," Josh turned toward the big cat, giving the fire-type predator a cuddle before turning back toward his guest. "But yes, they are all mine. I do loan them out to Mauville's Rangers, so in a way, they're Ranger Pokémon."

Nala, apologizing for any harm she inflicted upon the Oricorio, sat down next to him and his trainer. She gently purred, letting her red mane blow in the breeze. As scary as the species looked, all of them looked incredibly well-behaved. They had to be, given each and every one of them wore saddles! Pyroar were not easy species to break to the bridle, either, making it perhaps more impressive that Josh was able to do so with so many.

"Gym Leader Devlin or Champion Devlin, but please, call me Josh," the off-duty Ranger kindly introduced himself. "What brings you out here?"