Special thanks to my awesome Betareader MewMewExorcist: if this chapter is here is thanks to you.
It would be great if you would like to show her your appreciation and/or have a look at her stories too: u/3246323/MewMewExorcist

Chapter 1: Flight

26th April 1990, Thursday – Pallet Town, Kanto Island

It was an afternoon like many others in Pallet, that paradise announced to the world only 29 years ago was feeling part of their lives since ever.

The pure azure sky was bright, and not even a cloud would have stained it on that day. The grass was a lush green color, thick and waving slightly under the breeze. A beautiful ceiling for a beautiful floor. Under that luxuriant green meadow, precisely cut, extended towards the groves framing that small town; not even a single blade of grass was longer or shorter than the others.

The sound of gentle waves lapping against the seaside and the chirping of little pokémon created the perfect theme for such a calm landscape. Only green as far as the eye can see, aside from the little beach at south and the rocky formations on the east, the "Lab Hill".

Two little houses were the only sign of human settlement.

The only things different between the little houses were the surnames on the mailbox. "Oak" and "Suzaku" were the only two families in Pallet Town. Simon Oak and his wife Allison Rowe had left California to establish permanently in that pacific place, work duties. The same applied to the Suzaku family which, after five years living together after the move, got married.

The ceremony was pretty similar to the one happened a few years before, after all Claire, the bride, was Christian. Even the church chosen was the same, it was the only one on Kanto Island. The banqueting hall was different, however. Hikaru wasn't fond of French cuisine so they opted for the "Nihon": a Fuchsia City Japanese restaurant.

Claire had been surprisingly happy to hear Samuel Oak's concert again during "Stranger in the Night". That song from Frank Sinatra was their first dance together, it couldn't have been missing. Even if life itself was good in Pallet Town both the families had to travel back in the States every two or three months for tidying up documents, or for important meetings.

Claire was the only one to stay at home.

After the wedding she decided to abandon her role of intern to that work that she never liked in the first place. So she would, gladly, take care of Oak's child while everyone was away. Never a fight occurred between the families and, in case of imminent trouble, the little Daisy was always capable to soften everyone. Ah, warm reminiscence.

Daisy was already 17 and both families had one more child. Two playful and noisy boys of 8 and 9 years old: if there was uproar in town, they were the culprits. In the past, their dads used to smile while watching them be pests, even if their wives disapproved of the ruckus caused by the children. Like when the kids broke a whole dining set back at the fifth birthday of Sukaku's kid.

"Let them play, they're just boys! They have to exercise their muscles somehow!"

Of course discipline wasn't absent, especially if the broken objects were Hikaru's or Simon's. Tough, even for a chapter closed and put away. It was 1990 after all.

Claire lived alone with her son, and in Oak's house it was just brother and sister almost all the time. From time to time, both Simon and Ally spent a couple of weeks away from Kanto Island, in Chicago, to organize their work documents, and it was Daisy left in charge in their house during those days. Screams and laughs from the boys were the only thing unchanged since the previous three years.

It was an afternoon like many others in Pallet.

A brown haired kid left Oak's house, rapidly walking towards his neighbor. He knocked at their door, which Claire opened.

"Like and alarm clock, aren't we?" She said, playfully reproaching the kid. "Just look, 4 PM o'clock!" Claire continued, making him chuckle. They kept chatting briefly until another kid rushed out the little house.

Nine years old, with the darkest black hair, slant-eyed, pale skin, and a little shorter than his friend. No one could have ever guessed that he was the older one of the two, even if just by one year.

"Bye mom!" He shouted. "Call us when snack's ready!"

"Good bye miss Claire!" Said the taller one, waving his hand. They both ran off to an open space in the grass field to play in the fresh and gentle spring weather.

"Look at what Grandpa Sam gave me!" Said the little Oak, while the gentle breeze ruffled his wild brown hair. "He told me this are pterotype... proto... These will be the Pokémon League Badges!"

He took some pins out of a bag, all of the same shape, shiny, with different symbols printed over them.

"Oh c'mon... Enough with pokémon, let's play football!" The black haired kid answered.

"What are you saying!? These are really rare! And they give them to my grandpa 'cause he's super strong!"

"Your grandpa's strong, huh...? If you say so..."

The two looked at each other with surly expressions for a couple of seconds.

"Fine! Then I'll keep all of them for me!" Said annoyed the little Oak while, carefully, putting the precious badges back into his bag.

"Let... Let me have another look at them..." The black haired kid was trying his best to fake disinterest.

"Ah-ha!" Cheerfully shouted his friend. "I knew you wanted one! Hmm... I'm taking this one!"

"Then I'll take this one!"

Now that they had found the same lightheartedness as always, the two of them continued to scream, laugh, and run around to their hearts content day after day.

Life was fine in Kanto. There was work, money, and the nature was so pure that doctors usually suggested it to their patients. But it was not out of the grasp of the world, and news came there too. Good news and bad news.

Two figures walked solemnly through Pallet Town's trail.

Kanto was a Japanese colony and communications often came from the Land of the Rising Sun, but when those were brought by hand, it meant bad news.

It was like a gloomy déjà-vu for the black haired kid.

Only three years before, it was June 1987, and his father, Hikaru, should have come back home from an umpteenth work trip; but at the Suzaku's door, two men in uniform knocked in his place.

On that sad day his mother, Claire, was desperately trying to hold her tears back while explaining to her son what happened. Although his eyes were hidden by his black fringe of hair, the child couldn't stop the tears from showing.

"No mom..." He told her. "Those bad men told us a lie...! The plane, dad's plane is not... Fallen... in the sea..." His voice shook and tears ran wildly down his cheeks. "It... It doesn't swim! I saw it mom... The plane... It was flying! So high up in the sky..." His sobs became stronger and stronger until that little kid, usually so lively, couldn't do anything but crying; still, in his innocence, he was dead sure about his words.

The day after creeped by. The little boy's emotions flickered wildly, going from sobbing cries to utter silence, his mood always sad and sullen. Slowly but surely, more time passed, and the little boy came to have the certainty he needed to come to terms with it all. The feeling of his mother embracing him, and the sounds of her sobs were the last things he could remember about that… That strange day.

Hikaru never came back. Without even realizing it the kid have buried the whole memory deep inside him. He was only six. It took a lot of time for things to be like they used to be, in part at least.

And now the sight of those men had violently brought those memory back to the surface like an eruption, shocking the black haired kid's innocent mind once again. His eyes became watery. Everything looked exactly like that gloomy day, again. Slowly the two men in uniform got to the fork of the trail turning, however, towards his friend's house only for them to vanish behind its door. It was a mirrored version of the images marked with fire in his memories.

Simon Oak's son's brown hair, uncombed as always, was gently moved by the wind, together with some edge of his clothes, highlighting the seated kid's body. Motionless. He was staring at his home door without knowing what would have happened, but he remembered those uniforms. He perfectly remembered that day of three years ago. He remembered his friend crying, his word of solace for his father loss passing through him without results at all.

And that elegant black suit, it gave him a different attitude. He almost looked older. A lot of people dressed in black came on that day - he had never seen a crowd before in Pallet Town. Even his "grandpa Sam", always busy, was there. He looked like he was in pain. Only one man had different clothes, and he was a priest. Constantly speaking about Hikaru, about the person he was used to call "uncle".

All of a sudden the Oak's house door opened, bringing the brown haired kid to the present. A girl ran towards him, throwing her arms round his neck. Daisy was crying desperately. She couldn't even speak, she was so shaken by her sobs. Mom, dad, and plane were the only comprehensible words. But they were enough.

A few days later, once again, Pallet Town was filled with people, all dressed in black and with a solemn attitude. No one dare to spoke, it was not a happy moment after all. For the second time, an airplane towards Kanto Island crashed in the ocean water, and no one survived. Newspapers and newscasts would have talked about for some time.

Everyone gathered around a man and two lucid brown coffins.

The priest started talking about Simon and Allison, about how much beautiful they were in person. But in the end no one really cared about those words. After all, the coffins were still there. The brown haired kid was immobile at his sister side, his blue eyes furiously glaring at the caskets, like if this all mess was his own parents fault.

It was an afternoon like many others in Pallet. The azure sky was bright and not even a cloud would have stained it on that day too. An empty ceiling for an empty floor.

From time to time the little Suzaku managed to see his friend. He wanted to play with him so much, to recover together, to be at his side... For his friend and for himself. Pallet Town was a tiny place, he didn't wanted to lose his only friend.

Instead he would have constantly been ignored. Not even looked at.

He never heard a word about him. That kid was always busy studying pokémon books with his grandfather Sam, an old man that arrived there since his friend parent's funeral and showed no intentions of leaving.

Oh, pokémon.

Not that he didn't like them... But each person he loved left him because of those damn creatures. First his father, Hikaru, then Uncle Simon and Aunt Ally, and now his friend.

Days kept flowing by like this, and the peaceful calm of the place was now turning into and overwhelming silence that, hour after hour, was wearing out the once again shocked minds of the few inhabitants in the little town.

"Well Claire. I deeply thank you for overseeing them so often... Now they come with me."

So said the voice that woke up the little Suzaku. It was his friend's grandfather.

"Where are you going now?"

"I have a villa in Cerulean where there's plenty of space for the three of us. You don't have to worry."

The next day brother and sister Oak left with their grandfather. Only a single woman was waving to the leaving carriage. The black haired kid chose to stay alone in the center of his room looking at his pin.

"I hate them all, they sucks..." he said to himself, with his eyes full of tears. "Pokémon sucks..."

That last incident had been the finishing blow to the calm of the town, making everything collapse like a house of cards. He couldn't believe that those two people he loved had died while in flight. It felt like a conspiracy. It felt impossible.

Kanto Island: a place so beautiful and tranquil it seemed to curse its inhabitants. Maybe they shouldn't move there in the first place. Maybe that island should have been left uninhabited but... Maybe those were just conjectures from a nine years old kid on the verge of falling apart in thousands of pieces.

Only one thing was sure, that time was a strong painkiller.

Question Of The Week

Well this was quite sad... Sorry you guys ^^''
May I ask you what was your impression about these three characters?

Still here?
Then let me thank you, I really appreciate it! I would remind you that the following chapter will be available on the next Monday; it would be awesome if you'll decide to Fave/Follow/Review my story, just one click means a lot.

Thank you so much.