Right. So I will continue this story once I fully get back into Pokemon. I don't know when that will be but yeah... Anyway, review if you wish.

Thank you

Chapter 1:

"Good afternoon Alex,"

"Afternoon," the youth mumbled back.

"Are you ready for your exam?"

"…To be honest, no."

"Now, Alex, you should have more confidence in yourself," the instructor lectured back warmly. "Your father was a school favourite, and his blood runs through your veins."

The young man, Alex, rolled his eyes in the dark, "Yes ma'am."

As the lights brightened intensely, glowing like explosive Voltorbs, Alex narrowed his eye. Observing his surroundings he saw that the examination room was no ordinary room. No, it was an ordinary patch of forest. Surprisingly the ground was grass, a few trees were dabbed here and a couple of berry bushes rimmed the walls. "We will be moving into exam condition soon, so, before we begin, do you have any questions?"

"Yes," Alex jumped in immediately, his heart rate racing. "Let me out. I can't do this. Really, I can't do this exam."

As the youth rambled on in panic, the woman answering through the speakers tried to calm him down, "Now, Alex. Alex… Alex…Alex, calm down!"

"Will you please let me out?"

"No, you must take this exam otherwise you'll never be a ranger."

The young man shook his head urgently, "I don't care. I don't need to be a ranger. I'll be a mechanic…or a teacher like you."

"Alex, that is enough. The exam will begin in 5 seconds," the woman stated firmly.

Frowning Alex cried back, "You can't be serious –" …5… "–You can't force me to do this –!" …4… "–I have rights!" …3…2… "No, don't make me do this!" Alex shouted desperately.

…1…

He was cut short when a small yellow pokémon suddenly bounced out of a bush.

"Shit!" the boy hissed in response, backing away as though the pokémon was something deadly like a Croagunk. To a majority of people Alex had no right to be stiff and scared of pokémon, especially this certain one: a Pichu. The mouse-like pokémon blinked innocently at the youth, its large ears twitched.

"Pichu," the pokémon chirped playfully. However, Alex misinterpreted this request to play as a cry of attack.

"Get away from me!" he demanded, pushing himself into the wall. The Pichu cocked its heads and bounded towards him. Swearing again Alex hoped the wall would swallow him up. His wish was ignored, obviously.

On the other hand, Alex remembered, he had something that should save him –I mean –help him. Digging into his jackets pocket, Alex jerked out a capture styler. Quickly glancing at the electric type again, Alex clicked the styler onto his wrist. "Okay, okay, Alex, you can do this. Just like Dad taught you…just like everyone's taught you!"

The Pichu, thinking this was all just a silly game, giggled like a toddler and made its way closer. The human was acting like a defenceless woman in a horror movie. "Alright…and…go!" Alex said through gritted teeth. To his dismay the disc remained where it was, puking back a begrudged clunk!

"What? You got to be kidding me! What the hell is wrong with you?" Alex frantically cried, shaking his wrist madly. "Get out of there you stupid –Ah! Crap!" the boy yelled when the disc finally made a bid for freedom, slamming straight into Alex's forehead. Stumbling back, overhearing the Pichu burst into laughter, Alex rubbed the bruised area.

"Damn," he muttered angrily. Blood pumping loudly in his ears Alex took the disc and connected it back into place. He tried again and luckily it worked. "Finally," he said; the disc spinning now ready to capture the Pichu.

"Alright…go," he said under his breath, trying to control the disc; key word: trying. The disc missed the baby pokémon at an embarrassing length and collided into a tree. The end of the disc started drilling into the bark making an irritating screech. Pichu poked its hands into its head to keep the sound out. Alex would have done that too, however he had an exam to pass.

Controlling the disc out of the tree Alex flung the object towards the Pichu again. Only it smacked into the wall. The continuous game of miss-and-hit-an-inanimate-object went on for quite a bit. The room looked as though a pack of Sandshrew had migrated through the place, slicing and clawing everything in their path. The disc was dented and dirty; the Pichu was as joyous as a child opening Christmas presents.

And Alex was out of it. With the Pichu returning to its bush Alex walked to the disc now unafraid of any danger. Instead a heavy weight was tugging his heart. Picking up the disc he glanced up at the speaker and said to it, "Can I go home now?"

He waited for an answer for a few seconds before the door behind him slid open. Turning around Alex saw his school teacher frowning at him. His whole body hot and sweaty Alex swallowed thickly and said sheepishly, "I'm guessing I failed, right?"

~o0o~

"What was that?" Mrs March asked.

"Nothing different from my usual performance," Alex replied truthfully.

The teacher and student had returned to the classroom. The sun was setting outside the window, casting an orange light into the room. Ten single desks with chairs were lined together facing the teacher's desk and blackboard at the head of the classroom. Pinned to the wall were posters of pokémon ranger importance. Such lessons like: how to capture, what to do in a serious situation, what type is superior and inferior to the other, what pokémon can become partners and what to do to calm one's self down.

Alex had a feeling Mrs March was going to go through that today. "Is that what you call your education? A performance?" the teacher huffed in reply.

"When it comes to me? Yeah. I make it look like a clown act." Alex admitted grouchily.

The woman, who had guided Alex at the prologue of the exam through the speakers, shook her head with a disappointed expression. "Alex, I don't think you're trying."

"I am, thank you!" he interrupted crossly.

"Then what do you think you're doing wrong?" Mrs March interrogated. "This is the third exam you've failed. You haven't passed any of your prac assignment. The theory work you're excellent at, but the actual capture? You fall to pieces."

The ground, Alex noticed, had become very interesting all of a sudden, "I know."

"I've discussed with the principal about this…and your parents," Mrs March tried again, aiming to get a proper answer from the boy. Finally she decided to ask the question she'd been leaning toward, "Has it got to do with your father?"

"No!" Alex countered a little too loudly.

"Alex, do you feel pressured by your father's success?"

"I-I don't, okay? Believe me, it's anything but that." He insisted. It wasn't unknown that Alex's father was the child prodigy of the pokémon ranger school. He had graduated with honours and then went on to become a top ranger in the Union. And last, and most importantly, he was the ranger who had saved Almia from Team Dim Sun years ago when he was seventeen-years-old.

Mrs March didn't leave the boy alone, "Are you sure? I've had children before you who had little to no confidence out on the field because they feared they won't reach their parents' level of success."

It was strange how every wooden plank was a different shade of brown yet they all mixed together from afar to form a single light brown colour, "–Alex, look at me."

Sighing heavily Alex tore his eyes away from the ground and replied, "Mrs March, it's getting late and my parents do not like it if I get home later than 6: 00. They'll worry, believe me."

The teacher folded her arms, sighed hopelessly and shook her head, "Alex, you should know where you went wrong in the exam so you can fix yourself."

The youth sank into his chair, "Go ahead, where did I go wrong? Or, rather, where didn't I go wrong?"

"I hate to say this but I have to agree with you there," Mrs March said. "Besides using crude language you didn't examine your environment or the pokémon. You obviously haven't been taking care of your stylus and cleaning it because, if you had, the disc would not have been jammed."

"Of course," Alex exhaled tiredly.

"The first thing you should have done is secure your stylus onto your wrist immediately. You shouldn't wait for a reason. A ranger always wears it on a mission, even a quest. Secondly you must go back to your aiming lessons. You damaged the environment. A ranger is meant to protect the flora and fauna; not run away from the fauna and destroy the flora.

"And lastly, I ask you with no means of embarrassing you Alex," the youth watched, wondering what the teacher was going to say. "Are you, perhaps, poképhobic?"

Alex swore he could he hear the world crashing down on him. His face flushing furiously and he spluttered back, "W-what? No! No way. I'm not afraid of pokémon."

Mrs March raised an eyebrow, "Are you sure? I could organise a counselling session for you. I'm sure your parents wouldn't mind –"

"–No! Mrs March, I'm fine! I'm not poképhobic! Can we drop it already?" Alex yelled back. The teacher jumped slightly from the outburst. She gave her student a solid nod, "You may go home now Alex. I think I've found out your problem."

The young man stumbled out of his chair, shooting a dark look at the teacher, before storming out of the classroom and slamming the door shut. Upon hearing, the echoes of his footsteps down the hallway Mrs March hastily grabbed her mobile phone and dialled a number. It took only two rings for the person on the other side to pick up.

"Hello, Mrs Audin? Good evening. This is Elise March, Alex's teacher…Yes, we met at parent/ teacher night. I just need to discuss with you a few things about Alex…his exam? Um…yes…he didn't pass is putting it lightly…b-but Mrs Audin, I think I know the problem. Yes…yes…let me tell you…"

~o0o~

As Alex was marching home crankily he thought to himself, poképhobic? That's the last thing I am! I am not poképhobic! However, just as Alex had finished that sentence, another creature came into view. A small brown bunny shaped pokémon. It had a button nose and cream coloured cotton covering its slick coat in certain areas. It sniffed the air and called out, "Bun."

Upon hearing the sound escape the pokémon's mouth Alex froze. Darting his eyes to the cry's direction he saw the Buneary. "Crap, not again," he whispered harshly. His body now rigid and shivers running up his spine, Alex couldn't even move this time. In the exam he knew the Pichu was tame but this Buneary, it was wild! Nothing was training this…this… beast! The Buneary started licking its paw.

"Okay, okay, Alex, what do you do in a situation like this? Um…"

The teenager was stuck. One side of his brain was shouting hysterically to run, while the other was bringing up his pride, his education, and the words of Mrs March. "Are you, perhaps, poképhobic?"

NO! I'm not poképhobic! Only, Alex's behaviour wasn't exactly helping him prove otherwise. The rabbit pokémon stopped grooming itself and, instead, hopped a few feet forward in search for food, ignoring the human in front of it who was acting particularly strange. Alex swore again when the Buneary moved. The stupid creature was blocking his way to the bridge.

"Capture on!"

Oh crap.

A sleek and shiny disc shot from the bush and began circling the Buneary, leaving a trail of blue light behind. The Buneary would have gasped at the sight if she had come from somewhere else in the Almia region. However she had lived by the Ranger School for years and was used to it. The only thing she wasn't used to was a human freaking out like the present one had done. Once the capture was complete the light faded and the disc moved back to its owner, who stepped out from the bushes.

He was a fairly tall man in his mid-forties with thinning brown hair, holding a calm and collected disposition. "Alex," he called.

"Dad," Alex muttered back, staring at the ground again.

"Alex, look at me."

And so he did, thinking bitter thoughts about why people couldn't just have a conversation without eye contact. It makes things so much easier. "Yes Dad?"

His champion-of-a-ranger father inspected him for a few uncomfortable silence (Alex inwardly pleading to avoid his glare and see that fascinating ground) before saying, "So, you're poképhobic?" Alex flinched at the disappointment dripping in that statement.

"I'm not! Where'd you get that from?"

"Mrs March and don't roll your eyes son! She's a nice woman who has remained very patient with you. She's also taken the time to help us figure out your problem and I have to agree with her. You are afraid of pokémon, aren't you?"

Alex tried again to avoid the inevitable, "No…No, Dad, really, I'm not afraid of –"

"–Then what the hell did I just see? My son turning as pale as a sheet at Buneary. If it was something like a Feraligatr I would understand, but a Buneary? A Buneary, Alex –"

"–They're more dangerous than most people realise, Dad," Alex opposed.

"How are they dangerous? You should know from your studies that a Buneary is a herbivore. It only feeds on berries and nuts –" His father was saying this annoyingly slowly.

"–What about those claws?"

"To stab into trees so they can climb up them to get food from high heights!" His dad persisted. "Alex, can't you understand that? A Buneary will not hurt you."

"Well what about other pokémon?" Alex said defensively.

The Top Ranger cast an impatient look towards his son, "In class you must have heard of the saying 'they're more afraid of you, than you are of them?'"

"If that's the case than, wow, pokémon must be 'humapohobic' or whatever,"

"There! That's it! You admitted it!"

Alex's heart skipped a beat, "No, I didn't!"

"Yes you did. You are poképhobic. You are afraid of pokémon. Alex it's okay to admit it." The father laid a consoling hand on his son's shoulder. This time, Alex refused to even acknowledge he was there; the ground been easier to look at. The unmistakable blush on his face told his father that he clearly didn't want to discuss his phobia.

"Come on son," he said with a sigh. "Let's go home."

Alex's heart wrenched painfully at the sight of his father walking. He was disappointed in him. Here he was: the top ranger of the Union, the hero who saved Almia with a son who would shatter at the sight of baby pokémon. Alex clenched his fists and called himself numerous cruel names before thinking, Damn. I really am poképhobic. Now, everyone's going to know.

~o0o~

Chicole Village at this time of the late evening was not very busy.

There were a few teenagers out and about and maybe a family-and-friend get-together but, all in all, Chicole Village was relatively quiet. Except for a screaming match between a parent and a child. Though the father would always try to avoid fights breaking loose in his household sometimes his wife would not let things fly by.

Clair, a woman who had moved to the Almia region from Sinnoh when she was seventeen, had met Dan Audin a year after he saved Almia. Their relationship kicked off easily and years later, they fell into a happy marriage, a child born a couple months after. Now Clair loved her son very much. However she hated it when he would never allow anyone to help him.

So the screaming match was between her and Alex over counselling sessions.

"I'm not taking counselling!"

"Oh yes you are and you're going to like it!"

"Bullshit!"

"Don't you swear at me! Don't you swear ever!"

The Audin family knew by now what happened after a screaming match between Alex and Clair. Alex would stay in his room for a while. Then his father would come in. The two would have a talk to sort things out. Clair would agree and then requests for forgiveness would be passed around. So here Dan was, knocking on Alex's door. He didn't bother waiting for a "Come in."

Unsurprisingly he found his son fiddling with his camera. When Alex was around seven his interest in photography spiked and evolved into an obsession when he was given a camera for his eight birthday. Through the years Alex had treated his cameras with care and used them religiously. The house, especially his room, was coated with photos of all kinds of subjects. The objects he would capture would take their course for about a month until Alex would become fascinated in something else. During this month Alex had zoomed his camera lens on tiny objects like water droplets to show off the small world from a large angle.

Dan, confident his son knew his presence, walked across the room and slumped onto Alex's unmade bed. "So what do you suggest we do?"

The rhythmic clicking of buttons from the camera ceased. Alex gently placed the camera on his desk and crossed his legs, "There's nothing to do, dad. We've done nothing for years and everything's been fine."

Dan breathed in deeply, "No, things haven't been 'fine.' You haven't been able to participate in everyday activities in and outside of school. You've failed practical assignments and exams. Its threatening your future career –"

"–What future career?"

"–Whether you become a pokémon ranger or an accountant, you realise Alex that pokémon-related missions manage to wiggle themselves into careers somehow, not just–"

"–You're talking like a ranger again."

"Alex," Dan warned. The smirk on his son's face fell.

However Alex still felt the need to drag his dad further, "I love how you guys are only concerned now. I've been…a-afraid –" He felt like such an idiot saying it. "–of pokémon since…I don't know how long."

"We just thought it was a little fear, never a phobia," Dan replied. "We thought you'd grow out of it. We never thought it would become a phobia; never thought it would disrupt your studies, disrupt your life."

"It does not disrupt my life!" the teenager cried angrily. His dad was pushing him closer to the edge with every word he spoke.

Dan slammed his hand on the desk loudly to make a point, "It is! I don't see you with any friends and I think it's got to do with your phobia. You had friends in primary school when you weren't allowed pokémon, but as soon as you go to high school where you are allowed to bring them in –"

"–where I had no friends from my previous school, thanks." Alex spat back sarcastically.

Ignoring him Dan continued, "You have no friends. According to your teachers you didn't even try to make conversation with other kids…when they had pokémon around."

Again Alex felt his face flushing ridiculously. This was getting embarrassing and yet his father kept going, "I thought it was because you wanted to become a ranger like most kids, that's why we enrolled you in the Ranger School. Your mother and I thought you would have grown comfortable with so many kids and pokémon to bond with, apparently not."

"Apparently not," Alex repeated spitefully.

After another long heavy sigh from Dan he buried his head in his hands, rubbing his eyes. Alex decided to leave him, his father always did that when he was concentrating…he usually had no idea what he was father was thinking but he had pretty good guess at what this time. Alex stared at the floor while his dad thought.

"Alright. I think you and I should get out of Chicole Village for a weekend."

It took a second for Alex to realise his dad had spoken and then another for his dad's words to make an impact. "Get out? Why?"

"Chicole Village isn't invested with a lot of pokémon," Dan said. Alex felt the urge to rip his hair out in frustration. "You never get trainers coming through; rangers rarely come round, even for quests. It's so quiet and peaceful here. You spend most of your time inside so you don't even communicate with pokémon who are pets to our neighbours."

"So?"

Dan looked at him blankly, "I don't think this distance between you and pokémon has helped with your phobia at all. For you to grow out of it you need to meet and understand pokémon. You won't here in Chicole Village. I reckon I should bring you out somewhere. We could go camping. And then, perhaps, we can convince your mother to finally allow a pokémon pet in the house." Dan smiled at this.

Only Alex wasn't looking so pleased, "We're going…camping? Really?"

"Yes. Come on son. It'll be fun."

Alex highly doubted it, "Where?"

"My favourite place to visit when I was a young ranger was near Almia Castle in the north." Dan answered pleasantly. It was clear from his body language Dan couldn't wait for this chance to escape.

Alex, in reply, had to do a double take, "W-what!? Almia Castle? Dad, it's freezing up there. It's always covered in snow."

"I know and it's great!"

Silent words escaped Alex's mouth before he realised he hadn't formed them, "Dad, no. I really –"

"Alex," Dan cut in firmly, "do you honestly think you're in the position to say no?" Dan then gave his son a stare.

Alex hated that stare. This stare was the stare that all parents would use when having cornered their children into a question that only had one answer, an answer that the child usually couldn't stand. This stare was just a fraction of the reason behind Alex's constant spying of the ground instead of making eye contact. Alex drummed the side of his chair softly as he answered to the ground, "No,"

Dan's smile managed to reach his eyes this time, "Thanks son." Like he had a choice! "Come on, we'll start packing tomorrow."

The teenager flinched, "Tomorrow?"

"Of course," Dan shortly said, ending the discussion. He left the room to talk to Clair about the arrangement. Alex knew, without a doubt, that his mother would not disagree. Damn it! Alex clenched his hands furiously. He tried flicking through the images on his camera to calm his nerves but it just infuriated him further.

Why couldn't they just leave it behind? And they wondered why he never let them know? Because they'd simply drag him to counselling session, to pokémon stores to buy a pet, to the coldest place in Almia for a 'camping' trip. Camping? How was that going to work in that temperature? Alex mentally cursed the world and, in particular, his stupid phobia for all the trouble it's brought.

And there is the first chapter. Thank you for reading