Chapter2: The Professor Oak
The peaceful green town of Viridian City glowed with a red haze as the sun was sinking over the horizon, giving night to the Viridians, and giving morn to the other side of the earth.Adam finally got back to the Pokemon Centre out of breath from the battle he had with the Team Legends Grunt, he had a familiar brown parcel under his arm as he walked into the air-conditioned Pokemon Centre as the automatic doors opened for him. He looked around the big dome shaped building while he strode over to the counter.
The room was a plain white dome shaped room, with white marble floor: just like a normal hospital. There were green plushy couches on the left hand side of the building while there were wooden chairs and tables on the other hand side, and a plain red counter on the other side of the room. Adam stopped at the counter and found no one there, he noticed a bell on the counter, he rang the bell hoping that some one would come soon, he looked at the Hoot-hoot clock hanging from the wall, it read 6:13pm.
A female Nurse in white with pink hair in two buns walked up to Adam from the counter. "Hi Adam, how may I help you?" Asked the kind nurse. Adam had known her very well, like all the other towns folk in Viridian City, it was a relatively small town, so you got to know everyone quite easily.
"Hey Nurse Joy, umm, I came up to check on Prof. Oak, is he around?" Asked Adam looking around at the few people that were sitting in the couches and chairs, none of them were Prof. Oak.
"Oh, he's booked a room for himself until you came back, he's in room 24." Replied Nurse Joy as she pointed to a door that Adam missed at the side of the room, it lead to a hall way to rooms that Pokemon Trainers use when the staying for the night.
"Thans Nurse Joy." Thanked Adam, and he walked over to the the door, he turned the cold steel door handle and walked into a hallway that was as white as the entrance room. there was a sign on the wall saying that the rooms 1-30 are on this level. Because Viridian City is the closest to the Indigo Plateau, it had 70 rooms for tired Trainers that would come from all around Kanto when the Pokemon League was held at the Indigo Plateau, every 4 years. The next one was next year, and only the 1st of July came 4 days ago.
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Prof. Oak was sleeping in a small rectangular cream coloured room, which consisted a table, a chair, a bathroom and a bunk that Prof. Oak sleeping in the bottom one.
There was a soft knock on the door that didn't wake the ageing Professor, but a young boy's voice that came through the locked wooden door, the Professor awoke in a start. he grabbed his lab coat and threw it over his already dressed body, apparently the Professor just crashed in the bed after arriving.
"Who is it?" Asked the Professor concernedly as he eyed the small gap between the floor and the bottom of the door, there was definitely someone on the other side, and not Nurse Joy or a Chancy, a caring Pokemon that has a energy reviving egg stored in a pouch on it's stomach, they're usually found in Pokemon Centres and Hospital helping out Doctors and Nurses.
"It's me Professor, Adam. I got your parcel back from the thief!" Answered the person on the other side of the door, the Professor couldn't remember any Adam's, his age finally taking its toll on him. But the mention of the parcel catched his attention, the Professor remembered telling a boy to get the DNA samples he ordered, but wee stolen early this morning. That's why he was in the Poemon Centre.
"Oh, I'll unlock the door for you, Allan." Replied The ageing Professor as he scrambled over to unlock the door. There stood a boy around 13 to 14 wearing baggy jeans and a white long sleeved shirt. What caught the Professor's eyes was the brown parcel that was under the boy's arm.
"I got it back Professor!" Replied the boy with excitement, he had a few cuts and bruises on his arms an legs, though not deep. There was a lump in his right hand pocket, the size of a tennis ball. And what looked like the shape of a book in his other.
"So, Alan, you finally got it back! I'm impressed. I knew you had something in you!" Smiled Prof. Oak as he walked over to the boy to pat him on the back.
"Er, my name is Adam, Professor. Here's your parcel, your Pokemon Charmander and your Pokedex." Said Adam as he handed the parcel, a red and white ball and a metal book.
"Thank you very much Adam! you have helped the discovery of finding how there is so many Pokemon species and how they got to what they are now." Said Prof. Oak as he took his belongings back from Adam. As the Professor got his things, there was an eerie silence. It was Adam who broke the silence.
"So, er, I might see you around some day then Prof. Oak." Said Adam, feeling all gloomy as he enjoyed the Pokemon Battle he had earlier, and that might be last time he would ever have. He looked at the Professor as he started to walk to the door.
"What do you mean? you have to come by my Lab before I lose you, I might never remember you, my time is starting to slip..." Sighed the ageing Professor. Seeing him sigh made him look older than what he is now thought Adam. But when he took in what Prof. oak just said he started to cheer up.
"You mean, I can, I can go to your lab!?" Replied Adam, excited at the idea.
"Shore, why not, I have to give you something after what you done today." And at that the Professor walked out the door, Adam at his heels.
They walked out in the dying sun light. Adam hesitated to go back to see his Mum, but thought better as though it was a jail back home, no matter the cost he kept up with the Professor. Adam glanced over at the brown parcel under Prof. Oak's arm, it reminded him of that Team Legends Grunt,
(continued from last flashback in chapter one)
The Police men clad in blue uniform walked up to the 7 year old Adam. There were 4 of them, and one of the policeman in the middle with anti-flash wraparound sun glasses bent down to come up level to Adam.
"Is your Mum at home right now big guy?" Asked the policeman as nice as he could. Adam just stared at the police man, unable to see his eyes through his anti-flash sunnies. This made Adam to hesitate to answering the police man, almost intimidated.
"Mummy's, Mummy's in the back garden pruning the Carnations, they're really pretty. Do you know where my Dad is?" Asked Adam, his Dad was already two, nearly three hours late. And he usually never was.
"Thanks kiddo." Replied the Police man simply. He got up and nodded to his fellow colleagues, then they disappeared around the corner of the house. Adam looked around at his neighbours: some had their heads poking out of their windows, some just minded their own business. Adam heard a scream from the other side of the house, fearing that his mother was in danger he ran to her aid, but only to find her collapsed on the neatly pattered earth that she took so long to perfection. She had her hand over her mouth and tears were streaming down silently from her emerald green eyes, her hair brown as Adam's. The police officer that had talked to Adam just then with the sun glasses was kneeling next to her, trying to comfort Adam's Mum.
"What's wrong?" Asked Adam as he ran over to his mothers side. She was out of words from what ever she just heard.
"Dad's, Dad's..." His Mum tried to reply, but her words just couldn't come out. She started to sob hoarsely. The nice police officer sighed and told him what he had to tell.
"Your Dad, his, well, he's died trying to catch a horrendously strong un-named legendary Pokemon that's living in the deepest cave in the Mt. Silver, so I've been told of anyway, his body hasn't been found yet." Answered the kind Police Man. Adam was out of words. He just stood there staring at nothing, the wind pushed right out of him.
"Hey, you Ok Adam?" A familiar voice snapped Adam back to reality. It was Prof. Oak who pushed Adam back to his senses even if he like it or not. He found himself walking on a dirt road in the middle of a giant meadow, with common Rattatas and Piddges, a small brown bird with a small crest and a creme underbelly, and the tips of its wings the same colour.
As they walked through the Meadow, the sun finally sank and there was a dim glow over the horizon. It became dark in minutes, and soon, they could start to see the glowing dots of houses far off into the distance: the town of Pallet.
They arrived at Pallet Town and headed straight to Prof. Oak's lab. Adam looked around at the houses: it was dark enough not to be able to see without the lamp posts, the town wast relatively a small town and the houses were identical in shape and colour, and the only difference Adam could make was the gardens and the mail boxes.
They finally got to Prof. Oak's lab, it looked almost, alien compared to the houses around it. The lab was three stories and had manually made attachments to the outside of the lab like satellite disks and a barn attached to the side of the lab. The weary Professor walked up to the front door of the lab and unlocked the door with a key. He opened the door and took a step inside, but he turned around.
"Well, are you coming in or not?" Smiled the Professor. Adam shrugged and walked in side the lab with Prof. Oak. The as the blinding fluorescent lights blinded Adam's eyes as they were now used to the dark, he blinked to get the blind spots in his retinas. He looked around him and literally his jaw dropped: the lab was plain white, but it was huge, there were desks and chairs and PC everywhere. and as he looked up the roof was high as it could be, three stories of hight Adam never even imagined that this lab was this huge! he looked over to his right and saw a door with a sign labeled: PokeBarn. And to his left he saw an escalator! that was really unreal! An escalator in a lab!? wow, he thought.
"Welcome to my Lab Adam." Said Prof. Oak smiling as he saw the expression on Adam's face. He led Adam to the escalator. "Ground floor is where all my assistants do the programming and the entrance to the PokeBarn, were we keep injured Pokemon and Pokemon that we are recently studying, Level two is the experiment level, it's where we do experiments and build new Pokedexes and other handy machines, and last but not least Level three, living quarter's." They got on the escalator and Prof. Oak pushed a button on the side, and the stationary steps started to move. They walked onto it and it started to take them up wards. They got off at level two and waited for Prof. Oak pushed a button to stop the escalator that they came on from and pushed another one to make the other one start to move. while the Professor was busy with this Adam looked around level two, though couldn't see because the lights weren't on, but he could see the outlines of stools and tables.
They hopped on to the last escalator and it took them to level three, it had plushy coaches and tables with chairs tucked underneath them. On the side there were counters with coffee machines and kettles for fast-food like 2 minute noodles, meaning that they didn't have the time to cook. There were four doors on the other side of the room, each labeled differently: Men's Dormitories, Woman's Dormitories, Prof. Oak's Dormitories and W.C. Prof. Oak walked to a cupboard and withdrew a blanket.
"Sorry Adam, but there isn't any more bed's for guests, so do you mind if you sleep on the couch?" Asked Prof. Oak, a bit of embarrassment on his face.
"Not at all Professor." Replied Adam. He took the green blanket and a pillow off of Prof. Oak. and went over to find the comfiest couch.
"We'll talk about what happened tomorrow shall we?" Yawned Prof. Oak, sleep was slowly taking it's toll on him.
"Yeah, I agree." Replied Adam, he himslef tired as well. Prof. Oak walked over to his own dormitory and closed the door behind him, he changed into his pyjamas and put his Pokedex, Charmandar's ball and the parcel on his bedside table, and slowly went into bed, and turned his bed-side lamp off.
Adam found a comfy enough couch and started to get comfortable. He pulled his blankets tight aound him and thought of all the excitement he had today and he might never be able to do the same thing ever again, only to be a shopkeeper or a taxi driver.