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.