Pokemon: Crimson Chronicles

Chapter 1 - The Long Haired Boy From Johto

Done.

With a thump, the last box hit the wooden floorboards of his new bedroom, and it was the last box of his things that he had to unpack until he could be "officially settled". Running his fingers through jet-black, layered, near-shoulder-length hair, he slumped back in the office chair by his new desk, sighing.

"Matt, hurry up and come down! I need your opinion on some of these pictures!"

"I'll be there in a sec, mom!" Matt called back sheepishly.

Fifteen-year-old Matthew Kyria was a rather quiet boy, who would sooner have his nose stuck into a comic book than get out and socialize with other kids. He loved Pokemon, just like his father, though his mother had forbid him from ever becoming a Pokemon trainer, due to the dangers of such a thing.

Matt's bright, icy blue eyes gazed over to a framed photo on his desk, of himself, his mother and his father. This brought a more somber expression to his face. From a young age, Matt would begin to watch his father be involved in less and less of his life, until at age ten he permanently moved away to the Hoenn region to take a job as a gym leader in Petalburg City. When it came down to it, Matt really didn't know much about his father at all, and could barely recall what he looked like in person.

Yet he forced down the feelings of neglect. He knew his father was a loving, dedicated man who worked hard for his family. They weren't particularly well-off, but James always kept a roof over their heads and food in their mouths. Matt guessed he just missed him a lot sometimes, or maybe all the time.

Deciding he'd go downstairs to see what his mother wanted, Matt stepped out into the short hallway. His mother's room was directly across from his own, a thin hallway separating the two and attaching them to the staircase. The staircase went down one flight, then turned to the right to go down to another flight. Matt was almost at the bottom of the first flight when his mother called out again.

"Matt, hurry! Your dad's on TV! Come look!"

At the mention of his father, Matt ran down, almost tripping over himself as he jumped the last few steps, to see his mother pointing frantically at the television, where his father was giving an interview. Matt was in awe - this was the first time he'd really seen his father's face in five years. Matt and his Mom couldn't afford a trip to Hoenn to visit, nor could his Dad take time off work to come home, so this was a life-changing thing to be so close.

The two of them had just completed a move to Hoenn. Although they couldn't afford to live right in Petalburg City, they could afford a small home just two towns over, in a small community known as Littleroot Town. It was rather isolated, and there was more grass than houses, separating it from the big cities that Matt so hated. It was a small village, with only a hundred or so residents, and everyone's house was within walking distance of each other's.

As the broadcast ended, Matt looked to his mother, who was staring back with a deeply sympathetic expression, and it was then that he noticed there was tears in his eyes. Clawing them away, he smiled slightly at his mother, who looked around.

"So what do you think of our new home, darling? You even get your own room!"

"It's pretty nice, I guess.." Matt shrugged, shoving his hands into the pockets of his blue and white short-sleeved jacket.

He always wore that jacket, along with a pair of black skinny jeans, a white sleeveless top underneath the open jacket, and his favorite black high-top sneakers. Everyone he walked by would always call him a "punk" or a "rebel", but he didn't mind. He liked his hair long and his clothes ready for anything that might come his way. His Mom never seemed to mind.

"Look, I know you don't like change. I don't blame you, we've been through enough already, but this move is going to turn out wonderful, I promise you. Aren't you excited to see your Dad next month?" Jen leaned down to Matt's level, placing a hand on top of his messy hair.

"I know.. I am excited, but.. What if the other kids don't like me? They don't seem to anywhere else. I don't like making friends, you know that."

"I know, but just give it a chance. There's a Pokemon Professor here in town, a friend of Dad's. He's got a daughter around your age who's just as keen about Pokemon as you are. Maybe you could be friends. They live right next door. Why don't you go and see them, while I finish unpacking?"

With a mighty sigh and the most rebellious expression he could muster - which his mother often referred to as "cute" - Matt nodded, and grabbed his blue and white hat off the table, emblazoned with a black cross on the front, and pulled it on, making his mother chuckle.

"You and that hat. It's a good thing I told your father not to throw it out all those years ago when it was his, right?"

"Right!" Matt smiled, and quickly said goodbye to his mother before leaping out the door.

He was nervous as he walked to the house next door, wringing his hands idly as he took each slow step. Matt had always had an issue with trusting people, which his mother blamed on the negative influences of other family members when he was younger; their family had never particularly had an easy time at any point in Matt's life, and had faced a lot of hatred, betrayal and abandonment, for reasons he couldn't begin to fathom. Yet he was told that wasn't an excuse to be rude and raised to become better than anyone who tried to hurt him, so he gathered his courage and knocked on the door.

The few moments it took for someone to answer seemed agonizingly long, but eventually a woman with short, light brown hair opened the door. She had brown eyes, and stood just a little taller than Matt. Her smile was warm as she realized who he was, and she fully opened the door.

"You must be Matt, our new neighbor!" she announced cheerily, "come on in! I think May is upstairs, you can head right up and meet her!"

"Y-yes.. Thank you.." Matt managed, cursing himself silently for having nothing better to say than that.

Stepping cautiously up the stairs, he entered May's room - it was the only upstairs room. The room was plastered with Pokemon posters, Pokemon charts, Pokemon memorabilia, there were various Pokemon dolls scattered around the room, a Pokemon rug, and even a Pokeball sitting on the ground by the bed that intrigued Matt.

Stepping over to it, wondering why it was there, he bent down to pick it up, but as soon as he touched it, a loud voice called out behind him, making him jump. He went red as he turned to face the girl, who must have been May, who was grinning at him. She was shorter than him, and had hair that was longer on the sides than at the back - the exact same brown color as her mothers. She wore a green outfit, a shirt that went halfway down her thighs, then a pair of black tights underneath. She wore white gloves with black fingers, and a pair of muddy boots, as well as a green bandanna on her head, tied at the back. Her emerald green eyes shone as she smiled at him, and he realized he was staring and ignoring her.

"I-I'm sorry, your mother said you were up here.. I'm Matt, from next door," Matt stepped over and held out a hand politely.

"I know who you are. And I was just out the back doing some Pokemon sketches, actually," May smiled a little more, "so I heard you like Pokemon?"

"Of course. My Dad's the-"

"Petalburg Gym Leader, I know. That's awesome! My Dad's Professor Birch, he runs the Pokemon Lab here in Littleroot Town!"

"That's impressive, you'll have to show me sometime!" 

"I can take you over there later, Dad's out doing some field work right now. If you'll excuse me, I have some of my own field notes to type up, so how about I come and find you when I'm done?"

"Yeah, sounds good. I'll see you then," Matt actually smiled back, waving as he exited the room.

It was strange, by the time he got downstairs and out the door and was walking along the dirt road outside the house, he still found that smile on his face. There was something about May that didn't make him feel uncomfortable, that made him enjoy her company.

Maybe I could find a friend here, after all... he thought to himself, before being interrupted by a screech, followed by somebody's voice calling desperately.

"HELP!"