Ch. 2: Young again
The ten year old version of Professor Samuel Oak stammered the words "I'm a child" once more, as he examined his now smaller and wrinkle free hands. He touched his smooth face, observed a strand of his brown hair; his bright, curious brown eyes darted from one new feature to another. The now older researchers stood gaping at the young boy.
"How did this happen?" asked Tracey, as he rubbed his dark eyes, blinked at the young boy, then shook his head, as if he were a Growlithe trying to shake water off its back. The action caused his pink head band to slide out of place, making his black spiky hair cover his eyes. He placed the band back in place, still blinking at the child.
"I don't know", said Gary, stunned, looking at an almost replica of himself as a child.
The boy was now examining his feet. As Gary watched, he had a feeling of déjà vu, remembering a time when he was a small boy and had gone into his grandfathers closet and had worn his clothes. They were, of course, too big for him, but the way that the pants had dragged on the floor, the socks bunching up over his feet, the way the lab coat had almost completely hidden him the way that they did this child, it was almost as if he were watching the same memory this time, instead of being a part of it.
"What do you think, Bill?' asked Beth, jerking her head in his direction, her short blond hair whipping across her freckled face.
The young researcher looked paler than usually, as he continued to watch the boy, who had seemed to lose interest in them, and had now began flexing his joints, watching with glee as bent his right knee while standing on his left foot. He had begun to swing his knee faster, then switched sides, his smile growing larger as he held his balance.
"I-I have a f-few ideas…", stammered Bill, as he ran his hand through his light brown hair.
"What do we do now?" asked Beth.
"Get me some new clothes, for starters!" piped up the young boy, as he rolled up his sleeves to free his hands from them. The researchers jumped as he spoke and stared at him with stunned expressions.
"I'm still Professor Oak", chuckled the boy, as he folded his arms across his chest, giving them a childish grin, "Just the much younger version."
"So, you think you know what happened….err….Professor?" asked Tracey, not sure how to respond to the younger version of his boss.
The boy chuckled again.
"I have a hypothesis or two, but for now, we need to Teleport back to my lab to do some research and to find me some clothes." He looked at the clothes that were practically falling off of him and shook his head, "Why didn't any of you ever tell me to go on a diet or something?"
"Grandpa is right", said Gary, as he grabbed a red and white Poke' Ball from his lab coat pocket and pressed the center button.
Later at the Oak Lab in Pallet Town, Kanto.
The researchers had managed to find a pair of navy pants that fit reasonable well, once rolled up some from the bottom a few times and with a belt. They were also able to find an old shirt of Gary's that he had gotten from a Pokémon circus when he was a child. The beat-up looking shirt was an ugly color purple, with a Poke' Ball in the center with the words 'The Greatest Pokémon Show on Earth!' in big, yellow, tacky letters over it. It was still a bit large on the now young professor.
Once the little professor was clothed, he and the other researchers sat in his living room in his lab. The room was of medium size, with cream colored walls with the occasional map, painting, or photo, and was occupied by two brown chairs and a red couch, with a wooden coffee table between them. Gary had provided everyone with a mug of coffee, hesitating some when he got to his grandfather. The young boy didn't seem to notice as he took a hot mug from the serving tray and took a sip, settling himself in the brown arm chair across from the others, his feet dangling. Gary sat on the couch beside a nervous looking Bill, whose hands were shaking as he held his mug. Beth sat on the arm of the couch, donning a pair of jeans and a loose green turtle neck sweater, as she sipped her coffee. Tracey had placed himself backwards in a wooden chair, holding his mug, but not paying it any attention to it.
"Well", said Gary, after a moment of silence, "Any ideas, anyone?"
"Well", said Bill slowly, placing his mug on the table, "we know for a fact that it was a malfunction in one of the energy projectors. I believe it was from a misplaced wire. Undirected energy like that can cause it to lose control."
"Alright", said Beth, "next question: what did it do?"
"A bit obvious, don't you think?" remarked the young Oak, lifting his eyebrows at her as he took a sip of coffee.
"What do you mean?" asked Gary, turning to her.
"I mean, yes, Professor Oak has turned from a sixty-six year old man-"
"I was sixty-five!" interrupted Oak, scowling.
"Whatever", said Beth glancing over at him, as she sipped her coffee, "you were old, that's all that matters. Anyway, back to what I was saying, the professor has turned from an old man with a bad knee and bad sight to what my charts shows a ten year old boy, who is obviously in great shape. No signs of old age at all. He doesn't even need glasses."
"What's your point?" asked Gary.
"My point is the energy that the projectors were supposed to send different types of energy beams from each projector. One to send the energy needed to make a 65,000 year old egg into an egg whose age is around two to three months. Another to reverse the aging process, in other words, same egg with the same fossilized fetus, just back to the age we want it. The age reversing energy is controlled by the age progressing energy. Both are used to balance out the age progressing and age reversing. That is, to even out the growth of the Pokémon throughout its existence. We wanted to examine the life of this Pokémon as naturally as we could."
"Uh…"said Tracey, feeling very confused as he often did when hearing Beth make scientific statements like that, "I still don't get it…"
"I know what you mean!" said Bill, turning wide-eyed towards Beth.
"Oh, no…."muttered Gary.
"Is there any way to know?" asked the young Oak.
"Only time will tell, according to my calculations", said Beth.
"Huh?" said Tracey, looking at everyone for some clue as to what was going on.
"Don't you see?" said Bill, turning to Tracey, making the statement seem as if it was completely understandable, "Yes, the professor is a child, but from what we can tell, we don't know what type of energy he got hit with or if it got mangled with anything. Is he a complete DNA counterpart of his ten year old self, or is he exactly his ten year self and will age as such? Will he age? Or did he get hit with the reversing age energy and actually reverse in growth? Will he grow or decrease in age or emotionally or mentally or all three? If he is a counterpart, what are we going to do? Counterparts have no predicted path in development, especially in growth reverse. You understand now, Tracey?"
"Oh, no", said Tracey, wide-eyed.
"Well, one thing is for certain, he is mentally and emotionally the Professor Oak", stated Beth, "Now is he a counterpart, or his actual self reversed in time?"
"How can he tell?" asked Tracey
"A counterpart would be completely whole", explained Bill, "No missing teeth, wounds, scars, bruises, or birth marks or any of the sort."
"Do you have a scar or something from when you where ten, Gramps?" asked Gary.
The boy crossed his dangling legs and brought his hand to his chin, rubbing it in thought, his brow furrowed in concentration. The sight would've been very funny to any new comers. Suddenly, after a moment of thinking, his eyes lit up with a thought.
"I got a scar on my knee after trying to catch a Sandsrew", he replied, as he began rolling up the left leg of his pants. The crew waited with baited breath as he did so, hoping that he wasn't a counterpart. The group sighed with relief, as the young boy revealed a skinny, knobby leg, with a slight pink scar about three inches across his knee.
"That's a relief", grinned the boy, as he covered his leg again, "Now the next question, how will I develop?"
"And how to get you back to normal", added Gary.
"And what process will work", said Bill.
"Let's not rush that", said the boy with a sneaky smile, as he crossed his arms and sat back in the armchair.
"What do you mean, Professor?" asked Tracey.
"Yeah, I'm confused, too Grandpa", said Gary.
"I'll be quite honest with you all, I don't want to rush this miracle", stated the boy, "I know I'm being selfish, but do you know how long it's been since I've been able to walk with no pain? To be able to sit in a chair without my back throbbing? To be able to see things with ease? You all don't understand what it's like to not be able to do as much research as you would like because your body just can't handle it. I'm not saying that I want this to be permanent, but I'm also asking that I be able to have a few pain free days. I'm thinking we could research this some more, perhaps we've found a cure for aging symptoms! What do you say?"
"We have no choice but to agree with him, guys", said Beth turning to the others, "It's going to be a while before we know what's going on exactly, maybe even a few months", she turned to the young Oak and shrugged, "and this is a major research opportunity, that is, if Professor Oak is willing to be the experiment."
"Great! It's settled!" exclaimed the young boy, as he hopped out of his chair and grinned, "But, for now on, you all can't call me 'Sir', 'Professor' or 'Professor Oak', and especially 'Gramps' or 'Grandpa'. From now on, just call me 'Sammie'."
"And you most definitely need new clothes", said Beth, her eyes narrowing down at the hideous circus shirt. She shook her head, "What were you thinking, Gary?"
"I think that we need to keep this as quiet as possible", said Bill, "perhaps only tell your granddaughter and the other region professors, Profes-oh, I mean Sammie."
"Over my dead body about the other professors!" said Sammie, spinning towards him in a speed much too quick for the older version of himself to do.
"Why?" asked Tracey, "I'm sure they could help out a lot."
"I bet", snorted Sammie, rolling his eyes, "If they hear that this experiment screwed up big time, I'll never hear the end of it! Especially from Elm….and don't get me started on Rowan! But, yes, Daisy needs to know about this. I think your wife should know, too, Gary."
Gary nodded in agreement.
"What about the great-grand kids?" Sammie asked Gary.
"They are too young, this would only confuse and maybe frighten them", said Gary, shaking his head.
"I think Ash and Misty should know", said Tracey, "I mean, they're always over here."
Sammie nodded his head in agreement.
"What are we going to tell the media?" asked Bill, "They'll notice if you're gone."
"Tell them I ran away to my long, lost lover on Two Island", said Sammie, with a rebellious grin. The comment got him wide-eyed stares from everyone else.
"Just kidding!" laughed Sammie, holding up his hands in innocence, "You all can't take a joke, can you? But seriously….hmmm….tell them I'm doing some long term research in the northern mountains in Sinnoh to study the climate effects there. They should believe that."
"What about you?" asked Gary, "I mean, the story 'some kid followed me home one day' isn't very believable. I'm just grateful it's summer so no one will question why you're not at school."
Sammie thought for a moment.
"Tell them I'm a traveling Trainer and Watcher from Johto who has come to the Oak Lab to study some of the Pokémon here. It's not far from the truth. Back in my day, that was what I did: trained and watched Pokémon", said Sammie.
"All Trainers have a team of Pokémon", stated Beth, "You could just use the team you have here at the lab, but that would look suspicious."
"Then I'll catch and train a new team. No problem", said Sammie, "If that's everything, Beth, seeing as you're a young lady, may I ask that you accompany me to the local mall for some new clothes? I have no idea what the style for young Trainers is nowadays," he said to her, smiling and extending his arm out to her in a gentleman fashion.
"Let's work on your speech and mannerisms, too while we're at it", she laughed, as she accepted his arm and they both left the room. The remaining men stared at each other.
"Well," said Gary, pouring himself some coffee, "This is going to be very interesting."
-To be continued
Hope you all enjoyed it! Reviews and advice would be welcomed and appreciated. A little motivation helps, too, heheh...
