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-pink, 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.