Chapter Text
Ash wasn’t far past his ninth birthday when Mew first took him flying.
She was a psychic Pokémon, but she didn’t do it by just lifting Ash into the air and carrying him with her mind. Instead she turned into a big Flying-type – Ash thought it was a Staraptor – and let Ash climb on before taking off and showing him just how fast she could move like that.
It was kind of amazing to get such a view from high up, and just twenty minutes later they were on a tiny offshore island that Ash thought maybe nobody had ever visited apart from Pokémon.
“It’s really nice here,” Ash said. “It’s kind of… you know? Warm, but even though it was warm at home it feels warmer here without feeling hot.”
That drove Mew to a giggling fit.
“Humans are silly!” he said. “You keep coming up with all kinds of ways to feel uncomfortable!”
“But I feel fine at the moment,” Ash said, smiling himself.
Then there was a crash from the other side of the solitary hill on the island.
“What was that?” Ash asked, already running over to see what it was.
What it was turned out to be two Pokémon picking themselves out of a crater. One black and the other white, sort of dragon-ish, and each had a big tail that had spinning bits in it as far as Ash could tell.
“Oh, I know who they are,” Mew announced, as he popped over the hill. “I think they’re from Unova… hi, Reshiram, Zekrom!”
The two dragons had been squaring off as they got upright, but at the sound of Mew’s shout they both turned to look.
Immediately, the black one jumped into the air. Its turbine whined, and it flew right up the little hill to land just in front of Ash.
“Hello,” it said. “You’re very interesting.”
“My name’s Ash!” Ash said, thumping his chest with his thumb. “I’m nine years old now, so it’s only a year and maybe a bit more before I’m able to be a Pokémon trainer!”
He looked up at the Pokémon. “Are you Reshiram or Zekrom?”
“Zekrom,” the dragon told him.
“It’s nice to meet you, Zekrom,” Ash said. “Mew says you’re from Unova, there must be some amazing Pokémon there. What kind of Pokémon do you find in Unova?”
He paused. “Oh! I think Keldeo was from Unova, I met him once. Have you met him? Or are there lots of Keldeo and you don’t know which one I’m talking about?”
“I haven’t met a Pokémon called Keldeo,” Zekrom told him. “Did you think he had strong convictions?”
“Um… I think he had strong something,” Ash replied. “He was really determined to learn a new move, if that counts?”
While they were talking, Reshiram sidled over to Mew.
“That human is giving me a terrible headache,” he said.
“Oh, that’s no good,” Mew said, paws over his mouth in horror. “Why’s that?”
“He’s not lying, at all,” Reshiram answered. “But… just listen to him.”
Mew tilted his head, tail twisting into a question mark as he tuned into Ash.
“...what about other Pokémon, like Rattata?” Ash was saying. “I was asking Miss Suicune about it, and she said that they were even more common than Lugia, but I’ve met two Lugia already – one of them twice – and I’ve never met an actual Rattata. One time I thought it was, but it turned out to be Mew, so I was wondering if you’d met any or they’re instead just really rare?”
“What am I even supposed to say to that?” the Dragon of Truth asked. “And I can already tell Zekrom loves him…”
Mew’s tail scratched his head.
“You could just give up being serious about it, and laugh instead?” he proposed. “That might work.”
“Come on, brother,” Latias whined, floating in the Secret Garden in Altomare. “I’m bored. Bored-bored-bored. Bored.”
“It’s our duty to protect Altomare,” her brother replied. “That’s just how it has to be.”
“But Altomare’s been safe without us having to protect it for decades,” Latias said, still whining. “I can’t even remember a time we had to protect it. Can you ever remember a time we had to protect it?”
Latios couldn’t, but didn’t say anything about about that.
“Besides, Latios, I’m not talking about leaving for good,” Latias continued. “Just for a day, or less! Just so we can leave Altomare and I won’t go completely crazy!”
“That’s not possible, though,” Latios said, but a tone of longing crept into his voice.
“It really is!” Latias replied. “Look!”
She zipped over to where they kept some of their things – Latios’ latest book, for example – and came back with a poster.
“See?” she demanded, as Latios took it and read it.
“Hoopa Holidays,” he read. “You’ll be surprised by how relaxing it can be to have a simple trip, just a ring away. Mew approved.”
“The terms and conditions and stuff are underneath,” Latias added. “We can just have a single afternoon, and that’ll be fine!”
Latios wavered.
“All right, but only if it isn’t dangerous,” he said.
A golden ring promptly appeared in front of them, in mid-air.
“There we go!” Latias said. “See! Look, there’s a sort of little tunnel, with two rings, and on the other side must be our holiday!”
She floated over to the hole in the air, and Latios followed, and he didn’t quite stop in time.
Ash’s wardrobe opened with a thump , and two Pokémon came out.
One of them was white-and-pink, and the other was blue-and-white, but otherwise they looked really similar to one another.
“Oh, hi,” he said, waving. “You came out of my wardrobe, so… I guess that must have been Hoopa?”
“Wow, you’re really good at that,” the pink-and-white one said. “Hi! I’m Latias!”
“Latias,” the blue-and-white one objected.
“And this is my brother Latios,” Latias said, continuing the introductions. “He’s kind of boring sometimes.”
She hovered over to whisper to Ash. “We’re on holiday!”
“We didn’t expect to turn up in a human’s bedroom,” Latios chided her. “This is a bad idea.”
“Well, I kind of can’t go outside today, it’s raining kind of hard,” Ash said. “But I do have some video games we could play? I got some new ones recently, there’s a racing game?”
“Can I give that a go?”Latias asked. “Come on, brother, this is meant to be for fun!”
“...fine,” Latios grumbled. “You can, but don’t expect me to do anything.”
“On your left!” Latias whispered urgently. “You can get past him!”
“No way,” Ash protested, and skidded his car to the right.
That slowed him down just slightly, though, and Latios slid his car sideways through a little gap to get over the finish line less than a metre ahead of Ash.
“That’s eight-one,” Latias cheered. “Want a rematch?”
“Nah,” Ash answered. “I think you’re way better than me at racing stuff, the only time I won was when you dropped the controller. You win that, let’s try a fighting game instead!”
He ejected the cartridge, swapping it out for another one, then sat back down with his controller. “I’m picking Blastoise!”
“Then I’ll pick a Grass type,” Latios said. “Whoever wins plays against Latias, right?”
About halfway between his ninth and tenth birthdays, Ash learned to cycle.
It was kind of tricky, because you had to keep moving or you’d fall over, but Ash was determined to get it right and so he kept getting back up every time he fell off.
Sure, he might scrape his knee, and that was something where he had to stop for long enough for mom to wash it out. Or he might bruise. But neither of those things were a good reason to stop , and once he’d got the hang of it he started taking longer bike rides out along country paths – through the roads and fields that surrounded Pallet Town.
Mom had sort of given up trying to keep him all that close to home, and Ash was careful not to go into tall grass where there might be dangerous wild Pokémon. But the freedom you could get from riding along a trail on a bike was… kind of fun, even though Ash knew he’d have to give it up when he went on his Pokémon journey.
It was a fine afternoon in the middle of autumn, and Ash was riding along the trail with a Pidgey orbiting overhead – Mew, of course, Ash was starting to vaguely wonder if Pidgey were actually real or just some kind of legend – when a blue blur shot past.
Hey, not so fast! Mew called from overhead.
The blur loped away over the fields, and then a few seconds later came up from behind Ash all over again. He wobbled slightly as he tried to look, and then the blur slowed down enough that Ash could see it was actually Suicune – now running alongside, easily keeping pace with Ash’s bike.
“Hi!” Ash said. “Is there anything the matter? Or are you just out for a run?”
“I was passing through and thought I’d see how you’re doing,” Suicune replied. “Watch out, though, you don’t want to fall off.”
Ash falls off a lot! Mew announced, giggling. But he always gets back up! It’s, um, a metaphor or something.
“I think it’s a mountain bike,” Ash corrected.
I’ve got an idea! Mew announced. Let’s race to the top of that hill!
“I think I’d win that a bit easily,” Suicune said. “Unless you teleported or changed shape.”
“Yeah, she’s got a point,” Ash agreed. “It’d be kind of fun, but I know I’d lose.”
Aww… Mew said, chirping. Oh, better idea! Let’s race, except Suicune has to do it backwards!”
“Now that’s more of a challenge,” Suicune agreed.
“Yeah, that’s more like it!” Ash agreed. “Three, two, one, go!”
Not long to go until you’re ten! Mew said, his whole body moving in reaction as he swung a racket and knocked a tennis ball aside.
It swung around in a half-circle on a rope, and Ash knocked it back the other way with his own racket.
“I know!” he agreed. “And then it’s not much longer until I can become a Pokémon trainer!”
Isn’t it something that happens on your tenth birthday? Mew asked, spinning around and hitting the tennis ball for a complete circle and a half before Ash could stop it.
“That’s what I thought too,” Ash said, giving his latest shot a good whack to try and get back to about an even position with Mew.
The Psychic-type was kind of good at swingball, but Ash was still going to win this one!
“But I mentioned that to Mom, and she said it was that, uh, I got to go on a journey when I was ten, not on my tenth birthday,” he added. “So… I guess that’s my mistake.”
Aww, that’s kind of unfair, Mew pouted, then missed the next shot at the tennis ball. So you’ll have to wait for months still?
“Yeah, it sucks,” Ash agreed. “I… huh, look, another Pokémon!”
Mew hit the ball, just to make sure that Ash wasn’t trying to distract him, then spun around to have a look.
In total silence, Calyrex rode past on Spectrier’s back, gazing calmly at Ash from the moment they came into sight to the moment they rode into the side of an escarpment and vanished.
That was weird, Mew said, eventually.
As his alarm beeped insistently, Ash yawned and rolled over in bed.
He’d been up really late, both before and after getting home, because he’d been so excited over starting his Pokémon journey… and while he had managed to wake up from his alarm it still meant he was kind of fuzzy and tired.
Sliding his feet over the side of his bed, he found what felt like his slippers, then tried to take a step and fell flat on his face.
“Hey!” a Pokémon objected. “What was that for?”
“Uh?” Ash asked. “Who said that?”
He blinked sleep out of his eyes, and looked back towards the direction of the voice.
There seemed to be a small flowerbed next to his bed, which shook itself and turned to look at him.
“You kicked me!” the flowerbed-Pokemon explained, sitting back on his haunches with a huff. “I was asleep until you did that, that’s rude!”
“Sorry,” Ash said. “Uh… this is my bedroom, so I guess I wasn’t expecting an unfamiliar Pokémon here.”
“Oh, okay,” the Pokémon said. “That does make a bit of sense I guess. But if it’s your bedroom, why weren’t you in here when I got here?”
“I don’t know, when did you get here?” Ash asked. “...actually, how did you get in here?”
He looked at the Pokémon, and then at the wardrobe. “Was it Hoopa?”
“Hoopa?” the Pokémon repeated. “No, I don’t know who a Hoopa is. I flew in through the window!”
Ash thought about that, and looked at the Pokémon.
There was no sign of any wings, but then again Mew didn’t use wings either.
“So… should I open the window so you can get out?” Ash asked.
“No, I can’t fly now,” the Pokémon replied. “Don’t you know anything about Shaymin? When it’s night-time we can’t fly any more. That’s how that works!”
“Shaymin, right,” Ash said. “And, uh… it’s not night time any more.”
“Yeah, but I’d need some Gracidea flowers,” Shaymin said. “And since you don’t have any Gracidea flowers, I can’t fly out.”
He yawned. “If you’re going to be up and making noise, is there anywhere I can just go and finish my rest?”
Ash thought about that.
“Mom’s got a flowerbed?” he suggested.
Sorting out Shaymin’s situation meant Ash had to get dressed, then go outside, get a trowel, get a watering can… he was running back and forth so much to get the probably-a-Grass-type sorted out that he lost track of time, and by the time he remembered what day it was he was way too late to turn up at the lab with the other new trainers.
Still, there was a Pokémon left for him, so that was all right in the end.