CH158 (522), Closing A Chapter (2)

"I've made my choice. I'll take this one, Professor," I told Professor Oak while taking the Pokeball in the middle and putting it away. I saw him smile knowingly at my choice.

"Ah, yes, the irregular," he began with a nod. "Cases like that one only come around once or twice a century, sometimes even less than that, so I've already suspected that it might arouse your interest. I'm looking forward to its growth under your care," he proclaimed while showing that he had gotten an idea of my preferences.

"We'll do our best to give you a nice surprise," I assured him. "I don't doubt that," he returned before closing the case and putting it away. He then motioned for me to take a seat before pulling out a folder from somewhere under the table, which he then handed to me.

"That folder has the certificate that proves that you've completed your internship here at Oak Labs. I've also added a personal recommendation that you can use to apply for the Junior Professor title. Otherwise, they might hesitate due to your young age, and instead plan to grant you the title in another 5 to 6 years.

However, my recommendation letter should be able to save you that time. Though, another impactful paper would leave them no room or reason to hesitate regardless of your age if you decide to apply for the title without relying on my recommendation. After all, it is your mettle and work that, in the end, makes you worthy of the title and not your age.

Your papers so far were either related to evolution, variants, or materials linked to those two subjects, so if you do plan to do that, I'd recommend that you focus on that," Professor Oak clarified and I could not help but be thankful for his care as well as consideration.

"Thank you, Professor," I gave him a warm smile. "That recommendation will help me a lot. I'll make good use of it," I assured him and he returned a pleased nod.

I had actually been thinking about applying for the Junior Professor title, but I ultimately decided to wait with my application until I had a good paper at hand to further boost my resume as the Professor said just now.

However, with everything that was going on and would be going on in the next year or two, I thought that it would take me at least 2 to 3 years before I had something noteworthy to hand in, so I had to shelve the idea. Yet, now with the Professor's recommendation, I could apply for the Junior Professor title without having to worry about all that.

The reason I was happy about being able to get that title early on was that it would make some things I had planned much easier, and even applying for a pass to one of the Beldum/Metagross territories/habitats would be a lot easier with the Junior Professor title.

"I'm happy that you think so," Professor Oak said with a warm smile before turning a bit more serious. "Now that your internship is over and you've graduated, you'll be going through the practical year. Have you already looked into the details of it?" He asked, and I gave an honest answer.

"Well, as much as one can find on the topic. I know what places I'll be assigned to and for how long, but I don't know which one of the various branches I'll be assigned to.

There are a lot of Military Camps, PokeCenters, Hospitals, as well as Police Stations after all, and I don't know which one of the many available options I will be assigned to. The same is true for the other departments," I admitted and Professor Oak nodded in understanding.

"It's normal that you don't know that bit," Professor Oak began. "The alliance has not publicized the distribution process after all. I won't go into detail, but I can tell you that your assignments will send you to at least 3 different areas of Kanto," he responded but it did not look like he was planning to expand any further on it.

It was obvious that the alliance wanted the prospective trainers to see different parts of Kanto before their "journey" even if it was only around the area one was assigned to.

"I got that feeling as well, but I was unable to see any pattern to it, so I let it be," I admitted. "That's not surprising, as I said that knowledge is not public, and the alliance wants it to stay that way," Professor Oak replied before looking me straight into my eyes, which involuntarily made me sit straighter.

"Mikail, I usually don't interfere with the alliance's arrangements, but if you want it, I'm willing to do so for you. I can try my best to ensure that you get assigned to the best available options at each step of your practical year," the professor offered seriously, and knowing that it would be stupid of me to refuse, I did the only sensible thing.

"Professor, I can't describe how grateful I am," I bowed my head in gratitude, genuinely thankful for all the things Professor Oak was willing to do for me. He definitely deserved my gratitude. "It would be terrific if you could do that. Thank you," I accepted his offer and he appeared happy that I was willing to accept his help.

After that, we talked a bit about the things I could expect during my practical year, and how to go about my application for the Junior Professor title/license along with the privileges and responsibilities that title conferred on me.

We spoke for like an hour before we were done and I left Professor Oak's office, after thanking him one last time. I did not immediately leave Oak Labs and instead visited all my acquaintances one last time to say my "final" goodbyes to them.

That took roughly another hour, and only after that did I make my way out of the lab. As I left the lab behind me, I could not help but feel as if I was closing another chapter of my life while starting a new one.

Seeing how I was already in Pallet City, I paid Jessie a brief visit. The visit was just long enough for me to say hi to her, ask her how she was doing, and tell her what I had been up to before coming over. All in all, I left after less than 15 minutes since I did not want to distract Jessie from her work more than necessary.

Nonetheless, that short visit alone was enough to make Jessie really happy, and she looked much happier by the time I left than she had been when I arrived.

My next stop was at KFC, where I bought a lot of Fried Chicken to go for lunch. I made sure to call Mom beforehand to inquire whether she and Dad had already eaten lunch or not. Only after she shared that they were waiting for me, did I tell her that I was going to bring along some KFC chicken.

With the chicken in hand, metaphorically since I stored the chicken to ensure that it stayed warm, and Mothra/Butterfree on my head, I made my way home. I decided to leave the teleportation to Mothra, and we made it home in roughly 6 minutes.

Mom happily took the chicken off my hands once I pulled it out of the storage, and put them on the plates she prepared beforehand. While we were eating lunch, they asked me how my trip to Oak Labs went, and I told them everything that happened.

They were visibly moved when they heard that the Professor had written a recommendation for me, and both Mom as well as Dad emphasized how lucky I was to have the goodwill of Professor Oak. The two were truly grateful to the professor, and if they were not reticent to waste his time, I was sure they would have made a trip to Pallet City to thank him in person.

Instead, they had me make a phone call and thanked him over the phone. They even added that they only called like this because they did not want to disturb him at Oak Labs.

Anyway, they asked me to show them Beldum, and I told them that I would do it after I had introduced it to everyone else. That was my cue to go to my room, so I excused myself and did just that. Once there, I locked the door and entered Utopia, where I proceeded to let Beldum out of its Pokeball.

Naturally, it directly went through the Utopia Special, and it actually stopped moving while the process was happening. It seemed that Beldum had noticed that something was happening to it and was trying to analyze what was going on.

I gave the usual greeting committee members that had started to join us a nod before I began explaining to Beldum what exactly was happening right now, and where it/we were at the moment.

Meanwhile, my second thought stream moved the newly created habitat to the inner circle. The optimization process ended before my explanation, so Beldum began to scrutinize the new arrivals while listening to me.

The fact that aside from Mothra/Butterfree, and Enji/Arkanine, the rest were psychic types was something it definitely noticed. Nonetheless, while Beldum was checking out Horus/Xatu, Gwen/Gardevoir, Ali/Gallade, and Tatsumaki/Alakazam, I finished the basic introduction to Utopia before I introduced the others to Beldum starting with Horus and Mothra.

Afterward, I left the more detailed introduction to the others along with the detailed explanation of Utopia, while I checked Beldum's status sheet.

'Name: N/A

Species: Beldum

Gender: Neutral

Age: 2+ Years {2 years, 16 months}

-

Type: Steel, Psychic

Potential: Light Purple (99.86%)*

{Deep Blue (39.86%) -> Light Purple (99.86%)}

(Genetic) Modifier: Ability-Variant

Abilities: Clear Body, Heavy Metal

Talents: None

Affinities: Steel, Psychic

-

Bond: Mikail (artificial)

Quirks: None

----

Parameters:

Stage: Iron Stage (high)

Vitality: C

Strength: C

Endurance: B

Agility: D

Energy Capacity: C

Energy Density: B'

I looked through the first part, and could not help my surprise when I saw Beldum's potential. I was not surprised to see that it had risen to light purple since that had been a guaranteed thing. Yet, to see that Beldum had come so close to attaining purple potential, but missed out by such a tiny amount was regretful.

Nonetheless, 0.14% was an amount I could cover within less than a year, so I was positive that I could allow him to break through while possessing purple potential. I resumed looking through the rest of his status, and only when I reached the type relation section did I see something noteworthy. I was not counting Heavy Metal since I had already known that Beldum had it.

'Immunity:

Poison

-

Resistance:

Psychic (Major), Normal (Minor), Grass (Minor), Ice (Minor), Flying (Minor), Rock (Minor), Dragon (Minor), Steel (Minor), Fairy (Minor)

-

Weaknesses:

Fire (Minor), Ground (Minor), Ghost (Minor), Dark (Minor)

-

Standardized:

N/A

-

Resistance Training:

N/A

----

Condition: Healthy, Inquisitive'

I had to say that this section was rather impressive to look at. Poison immunity aside, the number of resistances Beldum had was remarkable. Four minor weaknesses in exchange for that seemed more than fair, especially since we could and would take care of those with time. After admiring Beldum's list of resistance for a bit, I began to look through the rest of its status sheet.

'Masteries:

Steel Energy Manipulation (Beginner)

Psychic/Psionic Energy Manipulation (Novice)

----

Techniques:

-

(Unofficial) Initial:

N/A

-

Novice:

None

-

Beginner:

None

-

Proficient:

Iron Defense, Take Down

-

Advanced:

Tackle

-

Mastered:

None'

I was not surprised to see its low mastery over its energy since its move pool was pretty small. However, its mastery over the moves it did have was pretty great, especially Tackle, and I knew that we could use them to work on the moves it could still learn as a Beldum such as Iron Head, and Headbutt.

The only prospective move that could probably pose a real challenge was Zen Headbutt, but I was confident that we could get that one down as well. We had enough partners that already knew the move and could help Beldum along.

Anyway, once I was done checking Beldum's status sheet, I praised him for his hard work until now, before sharing his new potential with him and the others. Afterward, we brought Beldum around Utopia and introduced him to the others. Roughly an hour before dinner, I brought Beldum as well as Mothra out and introduced Beldum to my parents.

---------------------

---------------------

This part is purely to display Bedlum's status screen in one piece and does not count to the word count.

-

'Name: N/A

Species: Beldum

Gender: Neutral

Age: 2+ Years {2 years, 16 months}

-

Type: Steel, Psychic

Potential: Light Purple (99.81%)

{Deep Blue (39.81%) -> Light Purple (99.81%)}

(Genetic) Modifier: Ability-Variant

Abilities: Clear Body, Heavy Metal

Talents: None

Affinities: Steel, Psychic

-

Bond: Mikail (artificial)

Quirks: None

----

Parameters:

Stage: Iron Stage (high)

Vitality: C

Strength: C

Endurance: B

Agility: D

Energy Capacity: C

Energy Density: B

----

Immunity:

Poison

-

Resistance:

Psychic (Major), Normal (Minor), Grass (Minor), Ice (Minor), Flying (Minor), Rock (Minor), Dragon (Minor), Steel (Minor), Fairy (Minor)

-

Weaknesses:

Fire (Minor), Ground (Minor), Ghost (Minor), Dark (Minor)

-

Standardized:

N/A

-

Resistance Training:

N/A

----

Condition: Healthy, Inquisitive

----

Masteries:

Steel Energy Manipulation (Beginner)

Psychic/Psionic Energy Manipulation (Novice)

----

Techniques:

-

(Unofficial) Initial:

N/A

-

Novice:

None

-

Beginner:

None

-

Proficient:

Iron Defense, Take Down

-

Advanced:

Tackle

-

Mastered:

None'

-----------------------------

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