(XI) Last Chance

Isaac awoke and was unable to move. He wiggled around and couldn't break free... Then he noticed he was in a sleeping bag and not bound.

He smiled and shook his head, 'My imagination is starting to get a little too wild...' He thought as he managed to loosen the zipper and escape from the sleeping bag.

He looked around the small tent. His bag, PokéSpecs, and Trainer Belt were all neatly resting together in a pile near the entrance. Isaac quickly rushed over and put the visor and belt on and looked through the bag.

He opened the pokéball and let Ava out as she looked around at the new scenery with interest. Isaac smiled, kneeling next to her as he stroked the top of her head.

He released a heavy sigh of relief when he saw everything was safe. He didn't like thinking the worst but after last night, his guard was up. He slung his bag over his shoulder as both he and Ava peeked their heads out of the tent and saw the camp alive as everyone quickly rushed around completing tasks.

Isaac looked down at Ava who looked up at him and he smiled opening the tent as she went prancing out into the morning sunlight. He couldn't help but be happy that she was safe and behaving normally.

'Sam didn't seem like a bad guy... But why was I knocked unconscious last night..?' He thought to himself as he walked through the camp, oblivious to all the odd stares he was getting.

"Isaac!" Sam shouted smacking him on his back with a resounding boom and a smile. The young trainer stumbled forward as the wind was knocked out of him.

"Hi... Sam..." He managed to reply, gasping desperately for air.

"How'd you sleep? You passed out almost immediately once you got here!" The pair walked as they talked.

"I slept well... I don't know what happened, at first I was excited to meet everyone and then... I smelled something sweet and woke up inside a tent!"

"Oh! I'm sorry, most trainers are trained to resist Sleep Powder nowadays, I haven't ran into someone who can't resist it in almost a decade!"

"Oh! I see... Now I feel silly for thinking I was kidnapped or something..."

"WHAT!?!" Samuel jumped in front of Isaac as he shouted, "I am a former Pokémon Champion of Kanto! I'm THE Samuel Oak!! Don't you know who I am..? I would NEVER kidnap someone!"

Isaac's jaw dropped as it dawned on him that the older man in front of him was a younger Professor Oak! "Wait... You mean... YOU'RE THE POKÉMON PROFESSOR?!?"

"I mean SOME people affectionately refer to me as that..." He replied rubbing his nose with a smug look plastered all over his face, enjoying all the praise.

"I can't believe I'm actually meeting you! Oh my god, I never thought this would actually happen!" Isaac rambled off as he was star-struck, "I-"

"Alright... Alright... Enough with the brown-nosing!" Sam interrupted, patting the young man's shoulders, "Come, come! We have some food prepared over here and I have some things I want to discuss with you."

Isaac was a little taken aback, pausing before he nodded, "Of course, I'll answer any questions you have!" Sam nodded in return and led him through a maze of tents, tables containing vials and beakers, and others with various flasks and burners.

Near the back of the camp, a young man was busily cooking in a massive wok over a roaring fire. He was surrounded by tables lined with plates and cutlery. Some had leftovers from the previous patrons while others were empty waiting for someone to sit down and be served.

Isaac and Sam sat down at two of the empty seats with empty plates side-by-side as the man came over and placed two small tin cups, filling them with piping hot coffee. Ava had hopped into Isaac's lap and was eagerly looking up at him with a hyper tail shaking back and forth.

The chef grabbed both plates in a swift motion as he glided back to the wok and loaded two plates with a hash of potatoes, peppers, eggs, and sausage.

He spun and expertly flung both plates onto the tables in front of the two men, spinning quickly without flinging food everywhere or making a mess.

"Bon appétit!" He said with a heavy Kalos accent as he raised his thumb, index, and middle fingers to his lips and kissed the air before returning to the wok. Isaac reached into his bag and grabbed a pellet of pokéfood and fed it to the gluttonous Eevee.

Sam asked Isaac dozens of questions about where he was from and how he got here but Isaac explained how society was where he was from and stated that he couldn't remember what it was called, feigning ignorance.

He explained being knocked out in his city and waking up in the village before it was destroyed by people he couldn't recognize and running for his life.

It wasn't that Isaac didn't trust Sam, he just couldn't explain it. Anytime he tried to say he was from another world or mention it by name it was as if all the air in his body rapidly exited and he couldn't breathe.

He went into great detail about the last two days and what he had gone through, he even showed the egg to Sam who told him to keep it. Isaac sighed in relief, thinking to himself, 'If I can manage to raise this Larvitar properly, I'll have a really powerful Pokémon on my team!'

Isaac shot to his feet remembering the two Nidoran and explained, "Before you found me I was hunting this pair of Nidoran, I wasn't strong enough to take them both on and try and capture them, so I was training nearby when I heard this explosive roar and I ran away!"

Sam's face became flush as he realized the sound was made by Tauros and he began scratching his cheek with his finger.

"I want to try and capture them, but they have a lot of numbers on their side..." Isaac added, "I'm gonna go train some more and see if I can find them!"

Sam stood up, leading him toward a scientist with glasses and slick black hair, "Isaac, this is Jack. Jack, Isaac." Isaac extended his arm and Jack to his hand shaking it.

"Nice to meet you." Both said at the same time causing Sam to laugh.

"Jack, Isaac here is interested in that group of Nidoran you discovered yesterday. Think you can take him where they are and give him a hand?" Sam explained the situation and the man nodded, leading Isaac down into the valley, he turned to Isaac, "You don't have a lot of time before the rest of my team returns, I'll stay in camp and contact Jack your time is up.

Isaac nodded as he departed with the scientist. Jack remained quiet and stared at a small device around the size of a Gameboy that had an antenna pointing out the top and functioned like a submarine's sonar as he led Isaac through the woods.

Isaac had taken the time to review his Daily Quests and noticed that they had completely reset and he even had some new ones:

『Daily Quests: 5/5』

『DQ1: Plank for 10 minutes [0/10] - Reward: +1 Stamina』

『DQ2: Complete 100 push-ups [0/100] - Reward: +1 Strength』

『DQ3: Catch a pokémon [0/1] - Reward: +1 Intelligence』

『DQ4: Beat 10 pokémon [0/10] - Reward: +1 Perception』

『DQ5: Train with partnered pokémon for 1 hour [0/1] - Reward: +1 Insight』

'No food this time but stat upgrades this time!' He thought to himself. As the three of them drew closer, Ava began pushing against Isaac's legs as he walked.

Jack put the device in his coat and pulled out a pokéball before sending out a Magnemite. Isaac inspected it but was disappointed by the stats it was worse than the two Nidoran he wanted to catch. Even his Eevee had grown stronger from her battles.

Even though she was at the same level as the two Nidoran, he had faith he could beat the two if Jack was able to take care of all the small and weaker Nidoran that he expected would jump in to defend their 'King and Queen.'

"My Eevee doesn't have any real decent method of taking out these weaker Nidoran, do you think your Magnemite can do it?" Isaac asked turning to Jack, who maintained his solitude and simply nodded as he walked out from the bushes with Magnemite in tow and pointed his hand at the group of Nidoran, "Magnemite! Use Shock Wave!"

———

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