HM01: Cut

Amber Hatchitt, a 10-year-old girl from Goldenrod City, was flying home after a vacation in Alola when the unthinkable happened. Her plane crashed onto an uncharted island in the Alolan Sea! With the pilot dead, Amber has no choice but to survive on her own and find some way to get home.

Chapter 1

Amber Hatchitt stared out the window of the small seaplane at the endless ocean below. Every few minutes they would pass over a small island, but otherwise there was nothing.

The blue water and white sands of Alola had been exciting at the start of her vacation, but she was ready to return home to Johto. She had grown up in Goldenrod City dreaming of one day beginning a Pokémon journey. Now, finally 10-years-old, she would get her chance!

The engine of the plane roared much louder than she expected. Even for how old it was. The pilot, who was named Polu, had been running tourists to and from Alola for decades.

Her parents had to leave the resort in the middle of the night on another plane. Apparently, there was an issue with the tickets for their connecting flight. Amber, still half asleep, insisted on staying and meeting her parents on the mainland later that afternoon. They'd have time to get the tickets sorted out, and she'd get a few more hours of sleep. Win win!

Polu had flown them to the resort on their first day, so they knew their daughter would be in the best of hands.

In another thirty or forty minutes, Amber would be back on land and getting ready to board a commercial flight to Johto. And unlike this old seaplane, that plane would have snacks.

The sights were beautiful but all she wanted to do was gush over her upcoming journey. No matter how loud she spoke, though, Polu couldn't quite hear her. She wanted to chat for hours about which starter she was planning to pick (Chikorita), which badge she would try and get first (Plains Badge), and the Pokémon she was most excited to see in the wild (Snubbull)! But until they landed, there was no point in talking.

The closest thing to conversation she got was when Polu would occasionally point to something outside. There would be an island with a mountain, or one made of falling volcanic ash. There would be a sandy atoll here or a dense jungle there. He would mouth the name of the place to her, but Amber could never really tell what he was saying. One may have been the word Decolore but it was hard to be sure.

The trip was starting to feel longer than expected, but at least there were a few things to look at. However, at only about the halfway point, while watching Wingull fly by her window, Amber saw the last thing in the world she wanted to see.

A sound to her left just barely registered above the plane's engine. It was like a mix of gasping and coughing.

Amber turned towards the pilot, who was holding his chest tight and grimacing. She looked at him with eyes suddenly wide in fear, and he mouthed the words: Something hurts.

As a spasm came, and then a second, Polu reached out for the switch on his mic cord and turned it on, saying, "This is flight seven two-"

He jolted as though taking a skull bash to the chest, and crushed back in his seat. Amber reached out to him, but had no idea what to do. At first she didn't know what was going on, but the phrase suddenly popped into her head.

"Heart attack. You're having a heart attack!" she said as loud as she could, but even if the pilot heard her, his eyes were shut tight.

And they stayed shut tight.

For endless seconds she sat holding the arm of a man who would not open his eyes.

A white hot feeling of fear ran down her spine.

Before Amber could linger on this feeling and consider what had happened, the small plane dived down. Amber was pushed back in her seat. The steering wheel jerked around wildly. She tried to grab it and hold it steady like she saw in movies, but her arms were too short, and her body suddenly too heavy. The pressure of the nose dive made her feel heavier than the plane itself.

There was nothing she could do, and it began to feel like she would faint.

When the plane hit the ocean below, Amber was nearly unconscious. She was jerked forward hard enough to nearly knock the life out of her.

Before she could pass out from pain and fear, the cold water began rushing in. It woke her right up.

Just in time to finally scream.