The interruption caused Josh to miss a wild spawned Pokémon. Thankfully for him, he could tell exactly what it was just by the sound of its hooves: another Ponyta. Shaking his head, he was happy to let it gallop off without bothering him too much.

After distributing his points, he and his horse soldiered onward, separate from one another. He hoped the trail of blood dripping from his shorts wouldn't attract another Drilbur, or he might really go on a trip to the Everworld this time!

More easily able to feel the familiar rumbling, Josh could tell that another Drilbur was coming. With his HP low, one DRILL RUN from the ground-type would result in a White Out, his Zebstrika likely on a one-way trip to Seta's realm. He would not let that happen.

With the reaction time of a BOLTER, the young boy withdrew the electric dog and frantically accessed his Box, sending the Zebstrika back in favor of a flying mount. Misclicking when he meant to select his Pidgeotto, he instead added Mirage to his party. The Pokémon seemed to burst out from his Poké Ball on his own, enveloped in a bright white light. Josh felt himself be whipped off the ground as the wild broke the dirt away, the DRILL RUN harmlessly bouncing against the now flying-type's underside.

Before he got a reply from the insect, the compound-eyed Pokémon spotted an approaching Duraludon. Zipping around it several times per second with a maddeningly fast display of DOUBLE TEAM, the powerful bug-type added his claws to the mix, each clone kicking dirt into the steel dragon to emulate a MUD SLAP attack. Blinded and bewildered, the Duraludon wandered away.

Mirage returned to answer Josh's question with a snippy answer. "I'm not like your other Pokémon, kid. I don't offer my back to just anyone. You want to hold my reins? Prove yourself worthy of them. Go back to the Challenge Tower and win that race."

"Mirage, I'm working on it. The moment I find one of the three Pokémon, I'm catching it, and we're gone," Josh sighed. Out of all the Pokémon that had to have an attitude problem with him, did it have to be this one?

The scenario was both exciting and terrifying at the same time. Ninjask were already some of the fastest Pokémon in the world. Just what kind of speed could he get to with such a move? How would he look in the middle of the move? Every Pokémon the boy acquired was yet another Pokémon to experiment with regarding the move mod. That it cost him nothing to move was a tremendous plus.

Seeing a couple of Nidoran charge toward Josh, Mirage came to his rescue again, lowering his claws into the dirt and flying around them too fast for even the speed demon to track. The more he watched Mirage, the more he realized that a standard saddle was all but useless. He would need to get a cocoon saddle fitted for the bug. It would make the vibration feel a little more intense, but it was needed to avoid being launched.

This was all, of course, assuming that the Ninjask would agree to the change of gear.

As a Rufflet swooped in, landing on Mirage's saddle and attempting to commandeer him, Josh raised his hand to his forehead. "There's a Smoochum in the Briarbane trade shop, isn't there?" he dejectedly moaned, his voice quickly drowned out by a shrill cry from the Ninjask. The bug-type zoomed and zipped to try to dislodge the Rufflet, but could not do so before being PECKED from behind. As Mirage was a Pokémon built for pure speed, he had almost nonexistent defenses, a single attack bringing him down.

Exhaling, the boy went into battle with the Rufflet himself. Sparks sprayed from his fingertips, frying the Rufflet with a casting of ZIONGA. While it did a moderate amount of damage, it left to be desired. "Might be prudent to invest in Rarity..." he mused, ready to catch this Pokémon and head to the trade shop as quickly as he could.

The Rufflet, defiant and confident as it was, lacked the reaction time to land more than a glancing scratch on the Bolter. Though fully evading attacks was impossible, turning every attack into a tiny scratch was just as satisfying as dodging an attack in any other game.

Tilting his helmet's visor down, Josh flicked Pazuzu's reins, urging the Pidgeotto to fly even faster. Both the legendary babies dug into the normal-type's down, Pazuzu taking more punishment from them than he was the Rufflet. Josh himself got in on the action, too, letting his left hand slide to the center of the cords controlling his mount while his right hand held the HEAT BLADE. With masterful skill, he swooped along the Rufflet's left side to attack with a burning slash.