Associate field researcher Melissa Edison is currently looking intently at a gravimetric setup, which consists of a flask and a funnel with a filter paper inside it. This setup is atop a weighing scale, a common setup for gravimetric analysis. As usual, Prof. Oak, who seems not to worry about his own research, is looking at Melissa's solution, a poison that came from her Seviper, and the precipitating agent of hers, using a pair of gloves, a disposable mask, and plastic goggles.
Melissa, however, doesn't particularly mind the intrusion of the Pokémon Professor; after all, it's just a routine checkup for her Pokemons in another perfunctory challenge for the Pokémon League's Indigo Conference and the overall health of all her Pokemons.
Melissa herself is quite distracted, having her eyes frequently glance at the glass at the backside of the chemistry room of the laboratory, where several Associate Field Researcher also uses multitudes of methods to check the potency of the powders or liquids that are being secreted by their Pokemons during battle.
_I wonder when will Ma'am Hana's child arrive... I wanna ask more about her..._
Melissa, even though more inclined to be a field researcher rather than a trainer, contrary to the famous Hana Dover, still idolizes her simply because of the strength of her Pokemons and their randomness. One should remember that a normal strategic trainer will make a team that will one way or another, cover all existing types so that they will be hard to catch off guard in battle, except champion Wallace and Steven Stone, of course.
_Unfortunately, there are levels of talent in being a Pokémon trainer, while being a researcher just requires stubbornness..._
Melissa sighed, which made Prof. Oak immediately know what she was thinking.
"Associate Field Researchers can't talk to interns, not until tomorrow, at least."
Melissa nodded at this sighing, but still, he wanted to talk with the child named Anthony, she wanted to know how his mom battled, or if he ever saw his mom and dad battle live on the flesh, how does it feel...
_Unfortunately, it was sternly said by Prof. Oak that Anthony might not know that much in the more private aspects of Ma'am Hana and Sir Ben's life, like their love story... which makes sense because the internet doesn't know how their love bloomed either... We fans can only rely on some crazy fanfictions... Not to mention, asking Ma'am Hana and Sir Ben's past to Prof. Oak will make me see one of the few instances where Prof. Oak looks actually like a Professor that revolutionized the Pokémon world by digitizing the Pokedex..._
Melissa sighed at these thoughts, and just as she did, she, the lab... or perhaps, the whole town itself heard a sonorous sound of the air itself being pierced through. Which made Melissa smile. Yesterday, she realized that Hana Dover's Gyarados is withdrawn.
_Anthony is finally here._
____________
Anthony, strapped from armpit down to the saddle to prevent any accidents felt the wind in his face as Gyarados, a Pokemon of his mom that he never get to ride felt the need to show off to its young master, coiling its body as if a certain dragon that slapped the asses of Groudon and Kyogre when they tried to square up again after so many years.
_How extra..._
Anthony looked down and saw the children clapping and shouting the iconic Hana's Gyarados' name, which is 'Gyarados', and couldn't help but sigh. The only Gyarados kept near the lab is his mother's Gyarados, as it has a family that settles in. It, alongside its husband (which is also a Gyarados, but apparently, Gyaradoses are not monogamous), had a nest in the middle part of these parts with some eggs being sold as the one and probably the only good-selling Magikarp egg in Anthony's Parents' day care, so the citizens are used to it.
Slowly, while still twirling like the coiling dragon that it is, Gyarados descended, which it seemed to just do when it noticed that Anthony started to feel dizzy. Obviously, a crowd was formed upon the slow slithering of Gyarados into the beach in front of the waters between Cinnabar Island and Pallet Town. Anthony made Zubat get out of its Poké Ball, making the Pokémon weakly slump on his head, obviously still sad because of the one-year departure.
_Gyarados is a celebrity here, huh... Well, wouldn't it be nice if I'm the one being cheered on..._
While unbuckling himself and watching the crowd slowly get out of Gyarados' way, Anthony shook his head.
_That would suck on its own way..._
Soon, Gyarados finally lowered Anthony on top of the dike and let the kid fetch his luggage. Anthony and Gyarados bid farewell to each other while the serpent Pokémon tried to cheer up Zubat, to no avail. In the end, Gyarados just went back to the sea.
Anthony looked at the whimpering Pokémon atop his head before shaking his head and walking towards the designated apartment. The apartment is just adjacent into the training field/classroom area of the lab of Prof. Oak and the Creek itself is just near those two establishment, so Anthony doesn't need that much time, according to the internet posts of the official page of the lab, the apartment is ready to house about 50 or so individual students and can double the amount if it's 2 person per room.
However, the list of passers is just at exactly 20; this is because of two reasons: one is the toughness of the selection process without a recommendation from a gym leader, Nurse Joys, and Officer Jennies. A simple diagnostic test will be conducted by these accredited individuals to see if they are or at least can be trained to be ready in such a dangerous line of work.
Just this alone sifts the lazy, the just for money, the unhealthy and the generally unprepared and the second reason, natural scarcity of people interested in the job (both because of the boring nuance for the 'researcher' part or because they knew how dangerous it was as a job) made it so that the highest number of students accepted in the history of the initiative is just about 30 with only 3 not being able to pass in that batch.
In Anthony's batch, there are 20.
_Apparently, there's even a time when there are only 7 people who were accepted..._
_Fortunately, this world's academic body's research contribution is just third in terms of impact, even Professor Oak doesn't have education units and is just a Dr. in both Pokémon training technology and Laboratory Management... just like how Nurse Joy is actually a Doctor of Medicine, his title is just more intuitive..._
_This way, the ones that needed more students are breeder research facilities and government-funded ones. Meaning the educational programs are kind of like a ground where the two higher sectors of research handpicks specifically talented people that they can cultivate, besides the general population of their professionals._
Anthony also inferred as he arrived at the apartment that this was also the reason why the breeders sector had a big headache because of their small number of takers and passers each year.
_They might have quite the headache when mom and dad refused to become higher-ranking breeders... those two are really free-spirited, after all._
As for Anthony, his previous degree didn't require any master's unless a job he was targeting needed another diploma, which is a fuck no for Anthony at that time. This time, however, Anthony wanted to try becoming a Senior breeder.
Though that would need a very long time to be realized.
Anthony stopped thinking about such things and walked up the stairs of the 2-floor apartment and opened the door, besides the door is a male receptionist with a security guard badge, Anthony respectfully bowed to the rather gentle security and presented his permit, letter of acceptance and pointed at Zubat who's looking at the security guard, seemingly becoming languid because of its emotional state.
After some checks, the security guard kept the corresponding documents in his desk and said.
"You may come in."
Anthony nodded politely once more, accepted the keys to his room given by the receptionist, and walked towards the designated room. This time, the number of passed applicants are just 20, so only the first floor room and some at the second floor are being used, Anthony is at the first floor, Anthony put his year's worth of clothes, papers, ballpens as well as some disposable masks, rubber gloves and other amenities that a researcher might need to always be ready with into a cabinet.
You never know shortages, as they say.
_Who said it, I wonder?_
As Anthony thought, he looked around the simple room of a standard boarding student, with the addition of free cartridges and consoles on the side of the multi-purpose PC for the children's enjoyment. Anthony reckoned that they would be allowed at playgrounds during their play, as they're still kids, which made Anthony excited to challenge someone to a battle.
_Yes, they should know that every one of us here has some battle training, so they won't be arrogant._
Anthony changed into his casual clothes and slumped on the bed, thinking of what he would need to do. Seeing this, Zubat, seemingly able to recover a little, slumped onto Anthony's forehead.
_For now, I can't pester Prof. Oak to train with me, nor can I really go to the lab as I'm not a designated guest... I'll have to do it tomorrow._
Anthony basically had nothing to do for the day... or so he thought.
_I have to cheer my Pokémon up, I can't exploi... I mean, use the training facilities of the lab appropriately if it's going to look like a wilted vegetable..._
Anthony immediately knew what to do, he went back to his suitcase that he put under the study table and then pulled out his newly bought phone before gently pulling out Zubat out of his head using its right wing, and as Anthony went back to the bed before putting on the video call, the phone rang 3 times before being answered on the other side.
Zubat, that still has its 'eyes' slumped with sadness to suddenly lit up.
"Oh? Where's your trainer, Zubat?"
It was Hana, who was at the reception desk of their Day Care, apparently not having any customers. Zubat's ears perked up to and it charged towards the phone with renewed vigor as it cried out with mixed sadness and happiness.
_That was easy._
Such were Anthony's thoughts.
The video call went on for the whole morning before the two went to the cafeteria area of the apartment for lunch, and then continued on until midnight before Zubat finally piped down and seemed to make amends with the temporary arrangement and fell asleep.
This long cheering-up session made Anthony skip dinner, and because they were required to have a roll call, he had to call in absent and say that he had to cheer up his Pokémon in all honesty.
Such is the first day of Anthony in his internship.
____________
It was the second day of the 2nd week of January, snow still dominated the field, though, because of the super advanced 'meteorological' tools, the snow was not too overbearing, and the people did not need to shovel snow away from their roofs that often.
This arrangement also means that agriculture, especially cattle farming, is not severely affected. Such is the case in the farm of Zaldy, an old man who's just taking care of his Miltank farm until his son learned the ropes completely and inherit it in its entirety, he doesn't need to worry about how would the seasons affect the mood of his Miltanks and thus consequently not worry about the quality of their infamous Momoo Milk, a little heating would suffice which can be done through chimneys.
However, 3 months ago, one of his breeding sessions between a Miltank and a Taurus yielded a rare and troublesome battle-ready Miltank, something that's only heard 3 times in the recent history of Pallet Town.
Now, Battle-ready Miltanks are still a source of Momoo Milk, and if not for the fact that the one single Miltank always bashes itself into the peaceful ones, made Old Zaldy's yield to decline as of the recent due to the stress induced by all the noises the Battle-ready Miltank makes.
This caused the old man and his son to put the battle-ready Miltank in a separate cage just so that it wouldn't affect the yields of the other Miltanks. However, day by day, the battle-ready Miltank gets close to destroying the metallic fence of the specialized cage, which made the two farmers worried that one day, the Miltank would escape its enclosure.
And as they say, everything that can go wrong will go wrong, and thus today, in such a specifically unpleasant cold morning, Old Man Zaldy and his son looked at the enclosure of the Miltank with their eyes trembling in fear.
"Miltank is gone!"