"So, how long do we have to get to wherever the Pokémon League is being held?" Ash asked. "I checked before, but I've lost track."

"You have three months," Arc told him. "You also have literally dozens of Pokémon who can break the sound barrier, before counting the Pokémon who can make distance literally not exist. I do not think you are in danger of getting there late."

They paused. "Setting alert for three days before the Vertress Conference."

"Thanks, Arc!" Ash said.

"Well, if we've got months, what about if we spend the time on holiday?" Iris suggested. "And training, obviously, but it might be nice to stay somewhere pleasant."

"Oh, yeah, that's a good point," Ash frowned. "I wonder if I could ask Mirage Mew to let us see what they've built on the moon…"

"Ash, is that you?" a familiar voice called.

"Cynthia?" Pikachu asked. "I thought she lived in Sinnoh."

"So did I," Ash admitted. "But I guess I live in Kanto."

He waved. "Hi! How are you doing?"

"Cynthia?" Iris repeated. "You mentioned her, but I'm still not used to how casually Ash knows so many important people."

"Really, it's not that," Cilan decided. "It's that Ash is so earnest and normal that you forget he is an important person by that standard."

"Oh, yeah, that would be it," Iris agreed.

While they'd been talking, Cynthia jogged over.

"I knew you were in Unova, of course," she said. "But I didn't realize you were coming here to Virbank – I've got a villa not far away. You're all welcome to come and visit, of course."

She smiled. "And how many Legendary Pokémon have you caught in Unova? Is that Keldeo one of yours?"

"No, Keldeo's his own," Ash said. "I did catch a Zekrom, though… and I guess it depends how you count the timing of when I got Arc? Arc doesn't have a Pokéball, technically."

He waved. "Oh, yeah, I should introduce you! This is Iris, she's from the Dragon Village… is it a Dragon Village? It's a Dragon Something but I can never remember the exact wording. And this is Cilan, he's from Striaton City, he's normally one of the Gym Leaders there but Dragonite took over for him."

Cilan chuckled. "Ash's Dragonite are a surprising number of Unova Gym Leaders at the moment."

"And this is Keldeo," Ash resumed, pointing to N (who waved a hoof). "He's got a Reshiram, and I can't remember how many of the Pidove count as his and how many are just locals."

"I tend to be surrounded by critters," N said.

"And this is Meloetta," Ash finished, making everyone else look over to see the Pokémon he was pointing at. "I'm not sure why she's here, but she's here, and it'd feel wrong to leave her out."

Meloetta looked confused. "How do you know that that's what I am? I don't think I've ever seen you before."

"Yeah, not you you," Ash confirmed. "But I've met another Meloetta once, it was one of Latias' birthdays. She did the singing."

"I'd never thought of that before," Meloetta said. "But how would that work? Unless she sang only one song and then switched modes? Whenever I sing I change forms."

"Oh, that must mean the only song move you know is Relic Song," Ash realized. "My friend Brock's got a Swablu that knows all kinds of singing moves, you could learn Sparkling Aria? That's the move the other Meloetta used."

Cynthia was taking notes.

"That would be very helpful," Meloetta said. "Do you have a phone number I could use? I don't want to take up too much time."

"Yeah, that would probably work," Ash decided. "I think Vulpix can translate phone conversations."

N blinked.

"He really is like this all the time, isn't he?" he asked Cynthia. "It's weird to see it from the outside like this."

Cynthia invited them around to her villa, including Meloetta, but she said that unfortunately she had a prior commitment so she'd have to decline.

As it turned out, though, Cynthia's idea of "nearby" wasn't quite what any of them had been expecting. It was halfway across Unova, all the way over in Undella Town, which meant a jaunt by seaplane, and as they took off Iris asked the obvious question.

"Do you move around this much normally on holiday?" she asked.

"Sometimes," Cynthia replied, shrugging. "Garchomp likes giving me a lift sometimes, but it depends how she's feeling, so I indulge her when she feels like that and sort out my own transportation otherwise. It helps that I've got quite a lot of money from my winnings."

"Is it just Garchomp who gives you lifts?" Ash checked. "I think your Togekiss could probably do it as well… I suppose that wouldn't be as fast, though."

"That's right," Cynthia confirmed. "I've also got a special edition Porygon-Z, who thinks that she might be able to translocate me digitally like a Pokémon in their Pokéball… they're still working on it, though."

"Allow me to demonstrate!" said Cynthia's bracelet, and a drink materialized in front of Cynthia.

"That's kind of impressive!" Cilan said. "Rapid teleportation food delivery? It'd allow takeout of eat-in quality!"

"I'm still working on it," Cynthia's presumable Porygon-Z told them. "That was supposed to be a banana split, but it came out as a smoothie."

"Hm," Cilan frowned. "So, for now, mostly it's limited to transporting soups and occasionally cous-cous."

Cynthia took a sip. "It is a nice smoothie."

The villa was quite a sight, a surprisingly large building set in a well-managed garden not far from the sea, and the door opened just as Ash got out of the car.

"So that's who Cynthia meant!" Dawn said, waving. "Wow, if Whitney turns up this is going to turn into a Sinnoh reunion!"

"That'd be nice," Ash agreed. "Actually, if she is around then her Chatot could help Meloetta out with that singing problem… but then again, Meloetta was in Virbank, and I gave her Brock's number."

"Sounds about right," Dawn nodded, then sent out her Pokémon. "Hey, everyone, look who it is!"

"We can hear inside our Pokéballs, you know," her Luxio said, giggling. "It's good to see you again, Ash. Oh, is that an Emolga I see on your friend's head?"

"That's right," Iris agreed. "You're Dawn, right? The one who's an Electric and Contest specialist?"

Dawn gave a thumbs-up, as the others sent out their Pokémon as well and the greeting broke up into knots of Pokémon being introduced to one another.

"Oh, right, since Whitney's not here, I have to ask," Dawn added. "What kind of Pokémon are you?"

"Keldeo," N said.

Dawn giggled. "I meant the humans."

"Yes, of course," N said. "I should have realized."

"I've ended up as a Zoroark," Iris explained. "It's the hair, I think. But it's great, because it means I have a secret identity as someone who turns into dragon type Pokémon."

"How secret is a secret identity if you tell everyone?" Dawn's Cyndaquil blinked, tilting his head.

"I don't tell everyone," Iris replied. "Obviously."

"That's the way to do it," Cilan smirked. "And I'm a Kecleon, which I think is something about cooking, because it usually is."

"I have an important question," Nickit said, standing on her hind legs and raising a paw. "Does anyone here have some surfing talent I can borrow? I want to see what all the fuss is about, and there's a beach down there."

"You didn't ask me," Piplup huffed.

"That's because I know the answer," Nickit told him, sticking her tongue out.

"That was a good point," Piplup grumbled. "I don't like it."

Two days later found the friends – including Dawn – on a boat out to an island not far from Undella.

"This should be interesting!" Ash said. "It's going to be neat to see what Unovan Onix are like."

Arc made a confused noise.

"What is it?" Ash checked. "Oh, hold on, do you not know about Unovan Onix?"

"I know there are Onix in Unova," Arc replied. "But I have no information about the distinct type called Unovan Onix."

"Well, uh, maybe they're listed as Orange Onix?" Ash tried. "Or Crystal Onix? Didn't you say there was a special Onix on this island, Dawn?"

"That's what I heard," Dawn agreed. "The man said normal Onix and an unusual Onix, and obviously that either means there's the kind of Onix we're used to and a different kind of Onix, or one of the kind of Onix we're used to plus a whole colony of Unovan Onix."

"What are the kind of Onix you're used to like?" Cilan checked. "Because here in Unova they're big Rock and Ground type Pokémon with greyish rocky bodies."

"That sounds a lot like most of the Onix we've ever met," Pikachu said. "Except the one who lives at Professor Oak's place."

"Okay, now I'm confused," Iris admitted, as the boat began to slow down. "Are you saying that the Onix you're used to are the same as the Onix we're used to?"

"Sounds like it!" Ash confirmed. "But it wouldn't be the first time I've met an unusual Onix on an island. The Crystal Onix only occasionally goes back home, but maybe if the Onix we meet here is a male Crystal Onix she'd be interested. Or maybe not! I don't think I ever asked her her preferences, and even if she's the sort to like other Crystal Onixes of whatever gender we find there might be a personality clash."

"And that's something we can only find out by asking," N agreed. "It looks like we're here."

There was a dire warning from the person who'd taken them over in the boat, and they advanced off the beach onto the island itself.

Then the ground shook, and a conventional Onix appeared in front of them with a rocky crash.

"We don't like strangers on the island!" it roared, as two more came slithering over to back it up.

"Oh, that shouldn't be much of a problem," Ash said. "Hold on a minute, please?"

Cilan sent out Stunfisk, and jumped onto the Electric-type like he was a surfboard. Iris took a sip from a bottle at her belt, briefly turned into a Zoroark, then re-shaped herself into a Flygon and hovered into the air with a whirr of wings.

N lifted off the ground as Reshiram lit his turbine with a whine, Dawn sent out Pichu and jumped into the air before both of them lit up with a blue flash and stopped falling, and Ash and Zygarde stepped onto a pane of frozen air created by Arc's time manipulation.

"...um, what?" the Onix said, in a considerably less roaring way.

"Well, none of us are on the island now," Ash pointed out. "We're flying over the island. Or, I think most of us are… Dawn, you're not so much flying as just not falling, right?"

"Falling, like many things, takes time to happen," her Pichu agreed. "I'm not letting it."

"This makes an enormously small amount of sense," Onix muttered to itself, blinking.

"Do any of you know where the unusual Onix lives?" Dawn added. "We know they're on this island somewhere, but the details aren't clear… oh, and can someone give us a tow? We don't have great traction like this."

"I'll help," Pikachu volunteered, springing off Ash's shoulder and skidding through the air on a watery surfboard to give Dawn a push.

"I think I'm going to go back to bed," one of the other Onix decided. "It shouldn't be hard, because I'm clearly still dreaming."

One of the Onix eventually did give them directions, and before long the group had made their way to near the middle of the island and a large cave.

With a slow, grinding movement, another Onix came out. This one was a sort of sandy yellow colour, that glittered in the sun, and regarded them with a stony expression.

"Good afternoon," it said.

Ash's Boldore materialized. Before she hit the ground, her crystals glowed, and she bobbed up into the air to eye-height with the Onix.

"You don't look like a normal Onix," she said. "How does that work?"

"I'm a Shiny Pokémon," Onix replied. "Obviously."

"Well, yes, but how does it work?" Boldore repeated. "You're clearly made of rock, but so are the other Onix and they're a different colour. They're made of a sort of greyish coloured rock, which metamorphoses to Steel type under certain conditions so I partly want to say a normal Onix is an iron bearing rock, but they can't rust so it might be massively crystalline haematite? Or maybe an Ilmenite cocrystal."

Onix blinked at her.

"What."

"But for you, you're clearly different," Boldore went on. "And you're not magnetite, that's not rust colour for example or really anything close… are you sandstone? Because if you're sandstone then shiny Onix would be way weaker than normal Onix, unless I missed my guess and a normal Onix is actually made of shale… not that I think that's likely, they're weak to water but not to the level of vanishing when wet, and I've never heard of an Onix getting absolutely hammered by a Fighting type attack and turning to slate."

Onix turned pleading eyes on the trainers, and Ash shrugged.

"She's the expert," he pointed out. "I'm not even a geologish, and I'm nowhere near the geologiest of my friends."

"I don't think those are words," Zygarde said.

"Oh, maybe you're made of gold?" Boldore asked. "That would explain the glitteriness, though it'd mean you were way heavier than normal Onix. Have you ever been on a scale?"

"Checking registered weight of the Onix type specimen," Arc said. "Two hundred and ten kilograms."

"Really?" Cilan asked, turning his head. "That's a bit light. Was the type specimen a baby?"

"According to the paper, the type specimen crushed the scales and that was the last number seen before the scales collapsed," Arc told him. "However, the data on the type specimen is always taken as diagnostic unless it can be proven it was incorrect, and the type specimen returned to the wilderness before anyone could attempt another weighing."

"Topaz?" Boldore pondered to herself. "Hmm. I'd have said normal Onix were made of black onyx and you were made of a different coloured onyx, but I don't think yellow is a common colour and really for chemical purposes it's just a banded version of chalcedony. Maybe you're technically fire agate?"

She spun gently in the air. "Have you ever noticed normal Onix having an easier job opening their third eye chakras, but yourself being more able to breathe fire?"

"I don't know how I'd notice either of those things," the shiny Onix said. "Well. I suppose technically I would notice if I breathed fire."

"We could go and get a normal Onix and do an experiment?" Ash suggested. "I blindfold myself and teach you both how to use Flamethrower, and see if you get it quicker!"

He frowned. "Wait, hold on, experiments need to be double blind. You'd have to wear a blindfold too…"

AN:

Oddly enough, there are probably more dangerous ways to combine "blindfold" and "flamethrower" than Ash's first idea.

Like his second.