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((Gastly awarded to me by lavatar71 for getting correct answer in a trivia question.))

Almus sat up in his bed and yawned. Sun light was shinning down through his window as he rose slowly out of bed. He wiped the sleep out of his eyes, got dressed, and casually made his way downstairs to see what was for breakfast.

"Almus Rayne! Young man do you have any idea what time it is? I thought you would never wake up." Shouted Ms. Rayne as her son walked into the kitchen.

"Good morning mom."

"Morning?! Morning has come and gone young man!" She said, not angrily but more as if she were overly concerned with something.

Almus looked over to the kitchen clock. It was well passed two in the afternoon. "Oh well good afternoon then." He said calmly, sitting down at the table.

Ms. Rayne opened the refrigerator and pulled out Almus' breakfast that had been waiting for him for several hours. As she reheated it for him, she turned her head to ask, "Son, weren't you supposed to pick up your Pokemon today? The appointment time for new trainers to receive their Pokemon was 8:00am this morning. On top of that, you normally wake up on your own right about dawn." She served him is food, speaking now in a very concerned voice. "Are you feeling ok?"

"I slept in on purpose." He said before beginning to eat. "Don't worry mom, the professor can't not give me a Pokemon just for being late. That is the point of scheduling things in advance. My Pokemon is there, I just have to pick it up." He said in his best 'matter of fact' voice. However, .... he looked up and still say confusion in his mothers eyes. So he finally said what he had been avoiding to talk about.

"Mom... I slept in on purpose... because I wanted to avoid the crowd..." Her expression instant softened to an almost sad look as she understood. She threw her arms around Almus and hugged him, before walking off to some place in the house, outside his view. Almus could hear her bashing her fist angrily into something in the house but he made no reaction and simply eat his food.

The day before, there had been an incident between Almus and the other children of his school. Almus didn't have a father and that had always made him feel different some how from everyone else who had both their parents. Because of this he was always interesting in things that were labeled weird or different. As such, many of the other children in his school treated him like a freak and an outcast. This in turn only drove Almus emotionally deeper into wanting to be away from everyone else. His mother was very worried about the effect this was having on her son. She was sick and tired of having to watch her son hold himself back from things just because they both knew other people would be cruel to Almus if he were around.

Finishing his food, Almus walked to the door, put on his long trench coat that was his father's, picked up his bag and then hugged his mother good bye.

"Almus, let me walk you to the Oak's lab. No one will bother you if I go along with you." She asked pleadingly.

"No that's ok. Thank you though mom. It's almost three so everyone should be long gone by now except for the laboratory staff. I'll be fine. I love you mom, good bye." With that, he stepped out of the house and on to the lab.

~~~

Just as Almus had expected, the area outside the lab was deserted. He strode in through the doors and looked around to see many staff working about. Then all of a sudden, an elder man's voice shouted out from behind him, making him spin around in surprise. "Almus!"

The professor was standing there looking wide eyed at Almus, coming out of a doorway labeled 'restricted'. "I thought you weren't going to show up. Are you here for your Pokemon?" He stepped over to the young boy and smiled to him. Almus could tell by the look in his eyes that the professor was busy but was willing to given Almus the time that he needed.

"I'm sorry Professor Oak. I slept in on purpose. I wanted to avoid the crowd." He said, resisting the urge to show any of his emotions.

Putting a hand on Almus' shoulder, the Oak said to him, "Almus, I heard about what happened between you and the other kids at your school yesterday. I think that was very wrong of them to treat you badly just because you might or might not be a little bit different. But more importantly, you don't deserve to be locked up and held away from anyone else, not even by yourself. Even if someone is different, they deserve to live a full free life without being harassed by others for their differences. I want you to remember that, alright?" Almus nodded. "Alright then, let's step over here and you can tell me which Pokemon you would like." He said, handing Almus his pokedex.

Almus looked over the available Pokemon and only had one single thought. "I'm sorry Treecko. You would be the best starter for me of all... but Sceptile just isn't my style." A moment later Almus made his choice and called forth the Pokemon that he selected.