A.N. As stated at the end of the last chapter, I wasn't exactly sure what to call the last chapter, it wasn't exactly a prologue or an epilogue, so I just called it "Chapter ?" as it isn't the first chapter, merely a way to introduce you to the main character and Lola. This chapter will be the actual beginning, before he has realized his potential as a psychic and before he has even gotten a Pokémon, a decade before the events of the rest of the story, at the end of the events of Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal.

Chapter 1, A Chance Encounter

"Happy Birthday Deecun!" My father, Zax, said.

I smiled, sitting in the center of our couch, looking down at my cake which sat on the coffee table, it had 7 candles, 7 years. I couldn't wait to open my presents, the year before I got a Raikou action figure. I'm pretty sure I was literally the happiest kid in the Kanto region that day. I've always loved electric types, especially the legendary ones.

"Happy Birthday Deecun!" This time it was my mother, Celine, literally screaming with joy, practically tumbling over the couch to give me a hug. "You're 7 years old! Stop growing so much! You're making me feel old." She said she felt old but she was only 27 years old, still beautiful. She had long black hair and was tall for a woman, almost as tall as my dad, and he was easily taller than most men. She had a smile that filled me and my dad with joy and a laugh that was soothing. She was so pleasant to be around that her friends swore she had taken a bite out of a Blissey egg, she was a better mom than anyone could ask for.

I broke free of her embrace after nearly suffocating and inhaled, practically gasping for air. "But if I don't keep growing I'll never be big and strong like dad." I cried indignantly, pointing at my dad. He made a show of standing up tall and flexing, a grin never leaving his face. His jet-black hair and muscular build combined with his beard and height made him seem very imposing to strangers, but those who knew him could've told you that he had a bigger heart than a Wailord. He looked older than he actually was, probably around 30, though he was actually only a year and a few months older than my mom. He prided himself in being the "epitome of manliness", whatever that meant, all I knew was that he was my dad, and I wouldn't have traded him for anything in the world.

"Well… maybe you don't need to be big and strong. I'm okay with you being small and adorable the rest of your life, how about you dear?" She pulled away from me, giving me a brief respite from her smothering. She was one of those mothers who loved their kids so much she would literally smother them to death if she wasn't careful.

He shook his head, "No, he needs to be strong, like me," He emphasized this with another flex, "But he needs to be smart too, like you."

"Yeah, see, he thinks so too. I wanna be like Surge when I grow up, big like Dad, smart like Mommy, and I wanna have electric Pokémon like him too." I said, my eyes practically shining like stars. My Dad more or less deflated in the corner when I said that Surge was my role model.

"Well, being a strong trainer takes effort. You need to learn how to battle if you want to do that, and you're at least finishing Middle School, so you're not becoming an official trainer for another 6 or 7 years at least."

"Yeah, yeah. So… what'd I get!?" I jumped up, forgetting all about what we were just talking about, literally jumping up and down from the anticipation.

"Should we tell him?" My dad asked, raising an eyebrow, looking towards my mom.

"*sigh* I guess, there's no point not telling him, he'd be upset that we didn't get him anything else." My mom responded.

"Well… we're going to Mt. Silver next week, we're gonna hike up to the top. We'll be staying in a fancy hotel up in Kalos, Lumiose City, and on our way back we're gonna stop at the Vermillion City Museum here in Kanto. We're basically going on a vacation."

I couldn't hide the look of disappointment on my face when I heard that I wouldn't be opening any presents, but it was quickly gone when I realized where we were going. I ran up to my Mom and Dad and threw myself at them, hugging them as tightly as I could. I had always wanted to go to Mt. Silver, they knew it, I talked about it practically every day. I didn't exactly know why I wanted to go there, it'd always just been this strange fascination of mine, kind of like the electric types.

"So... when are we leaving?"

"Uhhh..." My Dad paused for a second, rubbing his forehead. He'd clearly forgotten.

"We're leaving on Thursday." Mom smacked my dad's arm as she said it.

"THURSDAY! That's in 5 days, I wanna leave now!" I cried.

"Tough, the plane tickets are for Thursday. We wanna leave ASAP too but the airport says we can't." Dad replied.

As I walked out of the plane my eyes absorbed the scenery around us, buildings surrounded us that dwarfed the office buildings and apartment buildings that I was so familiar with back in Saffron City. I felt small and insignificant, I didn't like it. I was suddenly snapped back into reality by a voice over the intercom, "Welcome to Lumiose City of the Kalos region, please exit the terminal."

My Mom gently grabbed my hand, forcing me to walk to keep pace with her and Dad. I couldn't focus on one thing for very long, there were vibrant colors, people, and unfamiliar white dog Pokémon walking with their trainers everywhere. Everywhere I looked there was someone doing something, I unconsciously walked past every one of them trying not to get left behind by my parents, who obviously were accustomed to crowds of people like this.

Before I knew it we were outside the airport, a yellow taxi waiting for us. My parents climbed in and told the driver where we were heading, I just stood outside the taxi looking every which way, still mesmerized by my surroundings. "Deecun!" My Dad's voice snapped me out of my trance, "We're gonna leave without you if you don't get your butt in the taxi." I could tell he was joking, but I still hurried inside, I didn't want to keep them waiting.

A few moments of silence passed in the taxi, I could tell my parents were a bit tired from the flight, I slept during most of it so I was wide awake, but they didn't sleep, I wasn't really sure why. The silence was broken by the voice of our driver, who I hadn't even looked at until now, "So, you guys ever been to Kalos before?" She was probably just under 20, with blonde, shoulder length hair. I thought she was beautiful.

"We have, little Deecun back there hasn't been. He's been in Saffron City most of his life." My Mom responded.

"Yeah, he hasn't expressed much interest in going anywhere but Mt. Silver, we're actually going there later this week, this was just the closest place to it with a nice hotel, hahah." My Dad added with a halfhearted chuckle.

"That's not true!" I shouted, "I wanna go on an adventure in Johto when I'm older."

"Really? Well, Kalos ain't bad, once you get used to it. There's a lot of sights, especially here in Lumiose City, if you get the chance I recommend you check out the museum, even a kid like him won't mind it. There's some pretty cool stuff in there, even a mural of the legendary beasts from Johto, Entei, Suicune and Raikou." I bolted up at the mention of Raikou, "I wanna see it!" My mom's hand came down on my chest instantly, pushing me back into my chair, "And where's your seatbelt?" I rolled my eyes and buckled myself in.

The driver giggled, I noticed she was looking at me with a smirk on her face, I stuck my tongue out in response, eliciting another laugh from her. "You're funny, little mister… what's your name again?"

"Deecun, D-E-E-C-U-N. My teacher's never spell it right." I replied.

"Well, I'm Viola, nice to meet you Deecun, and… what're your names?"

"Zax, nice to meet you." My Dad said.

"Celine." My Mom replied, looking down at me with a smile on her face.

"Well, we're almost to your destination, the Aromatisse Hotel, right?"

"Yeah, not sure why they named a hotel after such an ugly Pokémon, but I ain't judging, it's a very good hotel." My Dad said.

"It probably has something to do with the scent of it, to be perfectly honest I've wondered that myself." Viola replied.

A couple of minutes later we were standing outside the biggest building I'd ever seen. Bigger than the Silph Co. building a couple of blocks down from where we lived. Dad grabbed me and hoisted me up and over him, letting me sit on his shoulders. "She's right, the place smells pretty good, even from out here. I hope the smell isn't too overpowering inside."

We slowly walked into the hotel and were greeted by the same smell from outside, it seemed that no matter where we went the smell wouldn't get too strong, and the smell was so good that I was sure we'd never get tired of it. To this day I don't think I've ever smelled something quite as good as the smell of that hotel. My dad approached the counter with me still on his shoulders, a darker skinned young man sat behind the counter and greeted us with a smile, "Excuse me sir, do you have any reservations for a room?"

"Matter of fact we do, it's registered under Zax Severn."

"Severn! Like the actress and gym leader Sabrina Severn!?" he yelled.

"Yeah, calm down, don't want to make a scene." My Dad gestured to the rest of the room, people were staring, "I'm just bringing my son here on a vacation. If you must know Sabrina is my wife's younger sister." My dad nudged his head towards my mom. The guy took a look at her, recognition flashed in his eyes. He took a deep breath and searched for my Dad's name on the computer behind the desk, "Your room is on the 6th floor, room 607, here's the key, if you need a duplicate key for your wife and son... wait a second, why'd you take her name when you married?"

"Getting a little personal there..." my Dad took a second to read the guy's nametag, "Grant. I'd prefer it if you wouldn't tell anyone that the family of a gym leader is staying at this hotel. I'm sure that you can see how that could cause problems." My Dad strode over to his wife, a frown on his face.

"What was that all about?"
"Nothing much, just another person spazzing out about our last name."
"If you wouldn't have taken my last name you wouldn't have this problem as much." She teased.

"You know damn well why I took your name Celine." My father suddenly took on a far more serious tone, a fierce expression falling across his face.

"Whoa! Calm down, don't wanna make a scene."

I could feel my father somewhat deflate as she said that. A moment of silence passed between the three of us. "Sorry, Celine. Let's go." He flashed the key and took her hand, a smile spreading across his face.

We walked into the elevator across the lobby. Curiousity got the best of me and I whispered into my Dad's ear "Why did you take mom's last name?" It was customary for the woman to take the man's last name when married in almost every region, Kanto was no exception, even kids knew that. That same dark look fell across my Dad's face that he quickly covered up with his usual jovial smile, he looked me in the eyes and told me "Well, that's a long story, I'll tell you some day."

After that he looked away, but for an instance I could see something that I now recognize as pain in his eyes. The rest of the elevator ride passed in silence, I was too scared to ask anything else, for the first and last time I felt afraid of my awesome Dad. A moment later the light for the 6th floor lit up, the sliding doors opened and at that precise moment my Dad tore out of the elevator.

He turned right as he exited, going down the hall, after noticing that he was passing rooms 617 and 618 he turned around and passed us again, saw room 607, realized he was going too fast, grabbed the door frame to stop himself, and pulled out the key to enter the room. He turned the key in the lock and disappeared into the room. "What was that all about?" Mom wondered aloud.

My mom and I followed him into the room and saw the bathroom light on, my Dad nowhere to be seen. "THIS ROOM IS AWESOME!" I shouted, I ran from the doorframe to one of the two beds and proceeded to jump up and down on it.

"Deecun, don't jump on the bed, you'll break it!" My mom softly chided. I quickly abided and sat down on the edge of the now untidy bed. My mom handed me my bag and promptly sat down on the opposite bed, unzipping her bag.

She pulled out a few of her things while I just sat on my bed looking around at the room, it had a desk, a big TV, our beds, a couple nightstands and a sliding glass door that opened up onto a balcony from which you could see out into the streets of Lumiose City. Something dawned on me while I did this, "Mom, you've never told me that you had a sister." I asked, cocking my head to the side while I spoke.

"What brought that up?" My Mom asked, mimicking my movement, I assume it was to subtly make fun of me in jest.

"Dad said something about it when the guy at the desk asked about his last name. He said she was an actor and a gym leader, I think. Is she good?"

"Oh yes, she's always been a prodigy child, to be perfectly honest I used to be really envious of my younger sister, she was able to use psychic powers since she was your age, well, maybe a little younger. I've never been as talented with mine as she is. When she was bending spoons I was barely able to move a penny, when she was lifting baseballs I was bending spoons, she's always been a couple steps ahead of me I suppose. She's even a talented actress now, not that she gets to act in much, she is a gym leader after all." A distant look fell across my Mom's face and I could tell that she wasn't really talking to me.

A moment or two passed and the sound of a toilet flushing interupted my Mom's thoughts and my own. The bathroom sink started running and stopped, a moment later out of the bathroom walked my Dad, casual as usual, wiping his face with a towel. We gave him an incriminating look and he shrunk back, "What!? I had to go to the restroom, I haven't gone since we were at the airport in Kanto!"

A.N. It's been a long ass time since I put anything up on Fanfiction, sorry about that, I've been a bit busy and got a new laptop, my old one basically stopped functioning so I had to do some file digging to retrieve my stuff (not exactly tech savvy so I had to do some research on how to do it) which took me a couple weeks. Anyway, hope you guys liked the chapter and the reveal of the protagonist to be related to possibly one of the most powerful gym leaders in the Pokémon series (not from a gameplay standpoint, she's just a really strong psychic and kinda a badass). In case you didn't notice I included two Kalos gym leaders in this chapter, Viola and Grant they aren't gym leaders yet in this Fanfiction, the Kalos gym circuit isn't established until the Protagonist is roughly 11 years old in my universe, so roughly 4 years after the events of Heart Gold and Soul Silver (which does make sense in the Pokémon timeline).