I had to admit that I involuntarily stiffened for a brief moment when I suddenly saw Professor Oak, especially when he directly addressed me after I entered the reception area. Still, that was no more than a reflexive reaction, and I directly relaxed my tense body before I returned his greeting.
"Good evening Professor Oak," I began with a smile. "I honestly did not think that I would get to meet you today, sir, after I learned that you were not present. It is truly an honor to meet you," I finished honestly, and he gave me a happy nod.
"No need to call me sir my boy and Professor Oak is a mouthful, so you can just call me Professor, Prof., or Prof. Oak if you want," he offered and I acknowledged his suggestion with a smile as well as a nod.
"Good," he said seeing me accept his proposal. "Well, I was indeed otherwise busy today, which is why I could only pay a visit right now, but I've wanted to meet you myself and talk to you for a bit, which is why I've said that I've been waiting for you," he began in a serious tone before he finished mirthfully.
"Oh, you wanted to see me, Professor," I asked curiously and he nodded.
"Yes, as I said, I wanted to talk to you, but let's take a seat first before we continue our conversation. There's no need for us to keep standing in the middle of the reception room after all," he said before walking towards the seating area.
Just as I was about to follow him I was briefly stopped by the assistant pair that had accompanied me.
"Mikail, since the Professor is here we'll leave you in his care and excuse ourselves. Take care and make sure you take good care of the little one as well," the male assistant said.
"What he said," the female spoke up. "Take care Mikail, maybe we'll see each other someday," she finished and they left after wishing a good evening to Professor Oak, who did the same.
I watched them go for a moment before I resumed walking after Professor Oak, and sat down across from him so that we could talk face-to-face. The professor began to speak as soon as I sat down.
"I usually keep an eye out on any promising youths, as do most higher-ranked alliance members, so your performance at the competition obviously caught my attention.
However, since I am inclined to the path of academic pursuit, you have attracted my attention even before the student competitions due to the research papers you have published.
It is quite rare for people as young as you to be interested in the academic pursuit of the Pokemon field and your papers showed that you took your work seriously as well, which is even rarer.
Your meticulous work, impressed many people even if the content was not groundbreaking. Not that groundbreaking results are the standard one should expect from anyone.
The personal prowess you showed later during the competition along with that of your Pokemon only increased my interest in you," he shared while commending me on my effort.
"Thank you for your praises," I thanked him. "It means a lot coming from you," I admitted, genuinely flattered to receive high praise from THE Pokemon Professor.
"You deserve the praise," he returned with a smile before turning a bit more serious.
"The reason I came over to speak with you today has to do with one of the previous declarations you've made through the media. You have admitted that you were planning to do an internship during the period of your tertiary education. Have you already sent out any applications?" Professor Oak inquired and I shook my head.
"No, sir. I've been busy dealing with the rewards from the competition and decided to finish handling them first before sending out my applications. I have yet to apply to any trainer school for the same reason," I shared with him, and he gave me a pleased nod.
"It is good that you seriously considered your situation instead of rushing things," he praised me before he continued.
"Now, I want to give you an offer that will save you from writing all those pesky applications. I'm offering you an internship at the main lab of Oak's Laboratory in Pallet City. The duration of the internship will be the three years your tertiary education will take.
If you deliver good work during these 3 years, and if you are willing at the time, I will offer you a field researcher position," he declared and I could not say that I had not expected the offer when he said he wanted to talk, but now that the offer really came, I was still slightly surprised.
"I am really flattered that you personally came to offer me an internship at your laboratory, professor," I began. "However, I would still like to know what would be expected of me during my internship in case I accept," I inquired and he looked happy that I had not immediately agreed to his offer.
"It is good that you decided to gather more information before making a decision," the professor praised me once more. "As for your duties, part of your duties will be shadowing me and my assistants during our work and acting as our assistant.
You will also get to actively participate in some of our research. You might even get the chance to participate in some of our collaboration projects, which will give you the chance to work with other professors.
Furthermore, whenever you are not busy with those duties, you will be allowed access to lab resources for your own research as long as you go through the correct procedures to apply for them," he announced and I was a bit shocked by the number of benefits I was being offered.
I did not even bother hiding my shock as well as surprise and seeing my reaction the professor simply nodded.
"These privileges are normally only given to my leading assistants, but I have decided to make an exception for you due to the potential you have shown both academically as well as with Pokemon.
However, I have to warn you in advance, if at any point during your internship you show that you are slacking off, then I'll reserve the right to revoke those privileges," he warned and I saw nothing wrong with what he said.
I would do the same and I was sure everyone else would do the same as well. Still, now that the offer was on the table I began to seriously contemplate it. Professor Oak just leaned back and waited for me to think over his offer. He explicitly told me I could take my time to think over it.
However, frankly, the conditions he offered were already pretty great, unreasonably so in fact. Additionally, it was not as if I had not been considering applying for a position at Oak's Lab, because I definitely had been doing that.
Truthfully, Oak Lab had been my preferred/top choice regardless, and I had honestly not expected to be given any conditions that were blatantly favoring me like this, so it was not as if I was suddenly being forced to choose something that I had not been wanting before.
The conditions Professor Oak offered were too good to decline, and doing so would be pretty stupid. I was also absolutely sure that the professor knew that fact, which was why he was so assured and confident while waiting for my reply.
Well, that and the fact that he did not really lose anything if I declined his offer. He was the one doing me a favor by going out of his way to recruit me and not the other way around, so I would be the one to lose out if I declined.
Ultimately, there was no way that I would decline such a generous offer, especially not coming from my top pick.
"I thank you for the generous offer professor," I began with a grateful smile. "I'd like to accept it," I admitted before asking something rather crucial.
"So, do I need to sign something right now, and do I still need to hand in an application first," I asked curiously, and he shook his head.
"No, my boy. You don't need to do either of those. One of my assistants will send over a document for you to sign during the next few days that will clearly list the benefits as well as conditions you will be entitled and obligated to for the duration of your internship.
You can read over the agreement first before you sign it, and you can even consult others such as your parents before signing it. You only need to send in the signed document by the end of this month, which gives you more than two weeks to look through it.
For now, your verbal agreement is enough," he answered my question, sounding satisfied and happy with my decision.
"Also, if you want I can also have a list of recommended trainer schools sent to you, to ease your search for a suitable trainer school," he offered and I gratefully accepted the offer.
"I am pleased that you have accepted my offer," he said before pausing briefly. "Another thing we will do for the period you are working with us is to declare Oak's Laboratory as the address and residence of your Pokemon.
That will keep anyone from seriously looking into the place you are keeping the many Pokemon you have gathered so far," he finished while giving me a profound look.
Truly, even I was a bit surprised that I showed no signs of panic when he said that since it implied something rather big. However, if I was honest, I had already expected the Aura Guardians and the upper echelon of the alliance to notice something off in that regard.
It was simply impossible for the individual or individuals that I knew were tasked with looking after my safety to not notice some discrepancies while doing their jobs. Otherwise, they would have to be doing a shit job, which would have been worse than the alternative.
Still, I knew, that they knew, that something was going on, but no one approached me to inquire for details, so I assumed that they threw together their own logical answer for the situation, which was completely fine with me.
I was sure that the reasoning/explanation they came up with was much better than the one I came up with myself, or at least more acceptable in their minds.
What Professor Oak said/implied simply confirmed what I had already been suspecting, which was also the reason I did not react negatively when he said it. Still, I was content to leave them with the theories they came up with themselves and saw no reason to offer any extra explanations.
"That would be great," I simply answered with a grateful nod. "Thank you," I added directly afterward to express my gratitude verbally.
"You're welcome," he returned and that was the moment Mr. Cameron showed up with Alakazam.
Mr. Cameron directly approached us and Professor Oak's presence did not seem to surprise him, so I assumed he had been informed about it, or he had learned about it from somewhere. The two exchanged greetings and asked each other how they were doing.
After they finished the polite greeting tango, Mr. Cameron looked over at me.
"So, did you find an egg that sparked your interest," he inquired and I nodded.
"Yep, I found one that I'm sure will fit right in with my family," I told him and he looked satisfied at that.
"So, did you make your offer," he asked the professor after turning to him. "Yes, and he accepted," the professor returned.
"I'm sure a lot of your colleagues are going to be disappointed," Mr. Cameron said somewhat amused. "Congratulations on getting a promising prospect to join your lab," he added a moment later, and the professor thanked him.
"Alright, it's time for us to go," Mr. Cameron told me more than the professor, so I bid farewell to Professor Oak, who told me that I should expect the document within the next 3 days.
After he said that, the two big shots said their goodbyes as well, and the next moment we, that was me, Mr. Cameron, as well as Alakazam, appeared in Mr. Cameron's office.
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