CH5 (369), Welcome To Oak’s Lab

Well, finding the lab was not hard since it was such a prominent location. I had been informed that I could show up anytime from 9 a.m. to noon, and it was 10:30 a.m. when we showed up at the reception hall of the main building.

I went up to the reception and notified them of my arrival. A quick call on their part later and I was informed that someone would be coming for me in a few minutes. They asked me to take a seat in the waiting area until then, so my parents and I did just that.

Roughly three or four minutes later I saw a man walking towards us at a brisk pace. At least I was assuming that he was heading toward us, and I was proven right when he stopped in front of me.

"Sorry for the wait, everyone," he said addressing all three of us.

It was not surprising that the man could recognize us since we had made public appearances. Moreover, the lab had my file which had my picture, and probably that of my parents as well.

"I'm James Hatter, and I'll be the one who is going to show you to the dorm and your room, as well as the major locations Mikail needs to know to settle in until he can be given a more comprehensive tour later on," he introduced himself and I recognized his name as the assistant that had been responsible for my enrollment mail.

"Hello, James," I greeted back. "I'm Mikail Geo, though you already knew that," I introduced myself for propriety's sake before motioning to my parents, "and these are my parents, Edward and Arya Geo."

"Would it be possible for them to accompany us on the tour, or is that not allowed?" I asked since the two had followed me here because they wanted to see the place I was most likely going to stay for the next three or so years. Well, that, and they might have wanted to see the lab as well.

"But only if it is not causing any inconvenience," dad spoke up. "Yes, we don't want to cause any problems," mom chimed in as well, but James shook his head in denial at their words.

"No, that's alright, there is no problem with you two accompanying us. We won't be visiting any confidential areas during today's tour, so your addition won't cause any issues," he said with a friendly tone and polite smile, that put my parents at ease.

"Thank you," both thanked him at the same time. "No worries, as I said it's no trouble," he assured them before turning to me.

"Alright, let's start with the dorm and the room you're going to stay in for the foreseeable future, shall we?" James declared before he turned around and walked out of the building, but not before asking us to follow him.

"The dorms have a building of their own since sleeping accommodations inside the lab have proven themselves to be a bad idea. History has proven that too many accidents happened that way, so all professors made a joint agreement that any living quarters had to be separate from any laboratory," James shared with us while leading us to our destination.

Well, something that is only natural, but generally does not come to mind was that Oak's Lab, or rather the plot of the lab, was really huge. According to James, the whole place was bigger than some villages, and considering that he said that it was around 15 km² in size I was inclined to agree with him.

Taking the general size of the place into consideration, it was not that surprising that it took us 5 minutes to reach the dorm building at the speed we were going. We passed only one other building on the way that James said was a library, but according to him, it only housed Pokemon-related books/documents. The building itself was pretty big and three stories tall.

Anyway, the building we were seeing right now was not as big as the library, but it was 3 stories tall as well.

"This here is our staff dorm," James declared while leading us inside. "As you can see it has three upper floors, and it also has a basement. The basement has a laundry room and a storage room. The mechanical room is there as well, but I don't think we need to go down there," he began his introduction.

"You do know how to use the washing machine and the dryer, right?" He asked directly after he said that, and mom spoke up before I could.

"That's no problem. My boy is skilled with all household chores," she said proudly and I just nodded in confirmation since it was true.

Mom had shown me how to use all home appliances and how to do all household chores, quoting that I would need to know how to do them for my official journey since I would need to do them myself at that time.

"That's good since we don't have a laundry service, so he'll have to take care of his clothes himself using the laundry room. It also means he probably won't have a problem using the public kitchen on the first floor," he said while leading us to said kitchen.

It was a pretty standard kitchen that had all appliances as far as I could see, with two tables with 4 chairs each for those that wanted to eat or just sit around.

"Just don't forget to label your things before storing them in the refrigerator or one of the cupboards," he added while we left the kitchen.

I nodded since that made sense and I was sure someone lost his pudding before that rule was implemented.

"The first floor also has the janitor's room, you can go there if anything is wrong with your room, such as a flickering light, or a leaking faucet. If he is not in his room, which is possible since he's responsible for more than just the dormitory, stick a paper on the door, and he'll get back to you," he declared while showing us where the room was.

On the way back he also pointed out a public hang-out room, which had a TV, and another public room that could be called a study since it had a few bookcases and study tables.

"Each one of the other floors has 8 rooms, and yours is on the third floor. Actually, it would be more appropriate to call them 1-room flats without a kitchen, since each "room" has a separate bathroom, with a shower, sink, and toilet, as well as a small storage room.

The main room is 25 m², the bathroom 9 m², and the storage room is 1 m² in size, so the total size of the "flat" is 35 m²," James explained while we went up the stairs toward the third floor.

That was honestly quite generous for a dorm room, so I had zero reasons to complain. I saw that my parents were impressed as well, and mom looked especially happy since she had been worried that I would have to squeeze into a small room.

"Are all rooms beside Mikail's occupied?" Dad asked after we walked past the second floor.

"No," James answered with a shake of his head. "While all rooms on the second floor are occupied, only 3 out of the 8 rooms on the third floor have occupants, so even after Mikail moves in only half the rooms on the third floor will be taken," he clarified afterward.

"I'm staying in the dorms as well since it's more convenient for me to live near the lab, and this is my room, so you can try knocking to see if I'm there, in case you need to talk to me for something. Usually, I should be available after 8 p.m.," he proclaimed while pointing at the first door on the right once we stepped onto the third floor.

"Alright, while the rooms are essentially the same, I was told that you could choose any of the empty rooms," he said as he stopped in front of the second door on the left, which I assumed was the first empty one on that side.

"All rooms beside the first one on the left side are empty, while the same a true for the second and fourth rooms on the right side," he announced ad then stopped talking, opting to wait for my answer instead.

"I think I'll take the fourth room on the left," I shared with my parents after I turned toward them. "I won't have to worry about causing or hearing any noise," I added to explain my decision.

"The rooms have excellent noise insulation," James piped up when I said that but made no other comment otherwise.

"If that's what you want," dad said with a shrug, and mom told me to go with it if I wanted that room. They probably assumed I did it for additional privacy's sake, and they were right.

"I'll take the last one on the left," I declared to James after that, and he nodded.

"No problem," he said before moving towards the room. The door was unlocked, and apparently, the key was placed inside the drawer of the desk since that was where James took it from.

"Here's your key," he said while handing it over to me. "As you can see the room is already furnished, so you can move right in, but I'd like you to wait with unpacking until after I finish the tour," he said before asking me to follow him out.

I locked the door behind us just to test if there were any problems with the key and lock, but it worked flawlessly. After the dorm, he led us back toward the main lab, but instead of entering the building, we kept walking. He showed us the sub-lab, which was only two minutes from the main lab.

"There are three sub-laboratory facilities on the property, this one is for possibly dangerous experiments and projects. Of the other two, one is for more delicate experiments and projects, and the last one is for certain experiments and examinations due to housing specific devices. We will be visiting those two later today," he disclosed before moving.

Our next stop was the cafeteria, which had a building of its own. The place was really big, but that made sense since according to James most staff members ate there, and he said that close to 900 worked for the main branch of Oak's Laboratory.

Obviously, only a part of that consisted of researchers since there were caretakers, medical staff, ranch workers, and all kinds of jobs that were necessary when dealing with a place of this size.

Anyway, after the cafeteria, we stopped at the medical center, and from there he brought us to the onsite grocery store. He showed us the workout/fitness building which was mainly used by the fighting types staying on the property but was also open to the staff.

We stopped by the two sub-labs he mentioned, but just like the first one, we only looked at the building from the outside. After that, he asked us if we wanted to take a look inside the library, and brought us there after we gave a positive reply.

We stayed there for a bit. My parents and I went around the library for a bit checking out the section and some of the book titles. Surprisingly, Professor Oak visited and greeted us before he welcomed me to his research team.

My parents were visibly excited at seeing the good professor and he just smiled good-naturedly, probably already used to such a reaction, and talked with them for a bit, before leaving since he was a busy man. Once the professor was gone, James cleared his throat and declared the tour complete.

"You'll be shown around all the other places throughout your internship. Covering everything in one session is impossible and this one was to show you the places you needed to know to live on the property," he explained before he said that he had to go back to the lab now that the tour was over.

My parents and I left the library with him and went to the dorm from there. We took an hour to unpack some of my things since mom insisted on helping with that.

Afterward, we paid a visit to the cafeteria for lunch, before we left the Oak property and headed toward Pallet City to stroll around the place until dinner. My parents left for Hope Town after hugging me, and I headed back to my dorm room.

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