Inside the Viridian Forest, which divides Pallet Town and Viridian City, are two people: one is a man in his late 20s, while the other is a boy, barely a teenager. Both of them are wearing a lab gown, with the only difference being that the man in his late 20s, named William, is wearing his buttons up to his neck, while the boy, who is obviously Anthony, seems to have made his parents modify his lab gown and make it look like a frock coat; William even saw that the undershirt of Anthony is a black t-shirt.
_Wouldn't that be too hot to move around?_
Anthony, of course, doesn't know the thoughts of his senior, as he just hurriedly put all of his attire on as he was given a prompt reminder that he's still not in a lab gown. While his face doesn't really look like it, he was still quite embarrassed by needing to go back to the hall alone and change his clothes, so to force himself to forget such a basic blunder, he moved around his blue-colored eyes in front of them 'cautiously' whilst looking at Zubat that's making 'Zuu... zuu...' sound repeateadly, using its echolocation to see anything suspicious or at least noteworthy and tell Anthony (though it only happens ocassionally).
Miltank is also in front of Anthony and his senior William, whilst William's Pokemon, which is a Venusaur, is at their back. This is a standard operating procedure, and if a researcher is doing lone work, then they would need to cover both their front and back, left and right, with their Pok.
"So, how far is the habitat from the main paths, Sir William? It seems like Zubat and Miltank weren't able to see any kind of wild Pokémon around here at all."
Anthony looked around at the not-so-densely packed forest as he remembered the time when he saw heaps and piles of Pokémon that got dismantled by Miltank when he first met it; given that density, it should only be normal to see lots of Beedrill hives, Butterfree habitats, and more. While they did see those habitats and some more around 2 to 3 kilometers and counting from their current position, it has started to get more and more scarce until all Bug-type hives and habitats seem to have just suddenly vanished.
William replied.
"We will be there for around 500 meters or less. Also, the Bulbasaur line is strong in general, and normal herbivorous Pokémon can't compete against them, so you will rarely see scattered Bug types here even though Grass types are weak against Bug types. Sometimes, you will see rare and strong Bug types, though; the one I know is here is a Heracross and some from Unova, though I'm not part of the team that usually monitors Bug types, as you can see from my Pokémon and from where I'm heading you into."
Just as William said, Miltank suddenly put its left hand in front of Anthony, which made the two associate field researchers slowly go right and look to their left. In their path is a Leavanny slowly standing up, its hands stopping from knitting a pram using leaves and branches for its children that are at its back; unlike the calm approach of the mother, the children are squinting their eyes towards the strangers.
They were able to pass quite easily, though Anthony doesn't think Leavanny can go toe to toe with a Venusaur; they sure as hell can make Bulbasaur and Ivysaur run for their money. Anthony nodded at this sight, finally understanding the words of his senior, and as he did, he suddenly saw a large clearing of about 50 meters.
"Whoa..."
The clearing had a pond on its left half and land on the other half, with some flowers and an altar with a large Venusaur on it. It was quite simple, and not that grand, really; however, it was the first time Anthony saw a very large population of the whole Bulbasaur line in the wild, in Viridian Forest's main routes; there would be one or two that can be seen in other places and sometimes none for a whole day.
Yet in this place, all of them are just eating berries, making their own Pokemon talks, or playing with the big Venosaur in the altar-like platform; this is like seeing a lot of RDJs in a single room back on Earth. After letting Anthony, who seems to be somehow excited and is showing it in his own way, William finally spoke.
"Now then, you will be needing to get the SD cards to the cameras around the circumference of the habitat. All those cameras has a two factor authetication, which are the front and the back of your ID, remember this or you will be shocked until you pass out and I would laugh. For your and the data's protection, all associate field researchers are not allowed to learn how these security features work."
Anthony nodded at this as he started to count the cameras, which were supposed to be only 5.
_There's 6 of them..._
Now, Anthony and William already made sure to have a sign if there's anything that they were to find suspicious, such as having 6 cameras when the mission description only said 5. After all, science and research are all about precision, except when the number is too small or too big that a margin of error is inevitably allowed, and 5 cameras is not one of those two, so Anthony elbowed William's upper arm, which he could reach due to his sudden growth spurt, as hard as he could.
William immediately recognized the signal, though he remained silent.
"So, 6 cameras, right? 6 cameras?"
Now, the Pokemons of the two are obviously also briefed on this kind of situation and immediately got tense; Zubat's echolocation started to go far beyond the command of his trainer whilst its ears started to twitch repeatedly in all directions. Miltank and Zubat also assumed a pouncing posture. William and Anthony, of course, noticed these changes, which made them praise each other's Pokémon's training and readiness, though because of the situation, no one could voice it out; William spoke.
"Yup, 6 cameras, alright. I'll wait here to see your performance. Be sure not to agitate any of the grass types or ghost types around."
William can see the nervousness on Anthony as the little boy's already barely visible adam's apple bobbed up and down due to him swallowing his saliva. Anthony, of course, due to his constant acting with his parents as a kid, has an instinctive way of acting as one, but in truth, he would know when to blast all of his considerations out of the window and punch a hole out of almost any situation so long as it doesn't involve anything above his weight class.
"I will keep that in mind."
Anthony replied before going towards the cameras and putting the front and the back of his Associate Field Researcher license in all of them and retrieving their SD card. However, as expected, the excess camera doesn't have any security feature and an SD card of any sort, actually it seems to be connected to a digital drive, at the same time that Anthony inspected the camera, Zubat slapped his forehead with its right wing whilst its ear fixed themselves in the northwest direction, though Zubat was ignored by its trainer and was noticed by William instead.
The mission is really not that hard and just took 20 minutes due to the fact that Anthony needs to circumnavigate the whole 50-meter radius of the habitat. After that, the two researchers went and walked towards the main road once more with Anthony's mind, which had calmed down from its small adrenaline rush, being in quite a turmoil.
_I know that my dad said to not figure out things that I shouldn't, but there's definitely something wrong with that camera. For starters, that 6th camera is directly situated 5 inches to the right, at the back of another camera, and doesn't get to have another angle of the habitat's shot at all; it's as if someone wanted to get the same shot as that camera... are there no Pokemon rangers there? No, that place is surrounded by Ghost types and is a 'no unauthorized personell allowed', so the rangers might be a bit further away._
At this moment, it seems like the senior of Anthony, William, was able to somehow realize the worries of his junior, which made William put his hand on the shoulder of Anthony. With still neutral-looking face, Anthony looked up.
"It will be fine. I'll handle it."
Whilst saying this, William hit the send message function on his phone to the phone number that has a simple name, 'Birds'. As if on cue the air atop the forest started to reverberate and create harmless blades that made the top branches of numerous trees flap hard, they were numerous Pokemons from both the Pidgey and Spearow lines that were trained to make amends of their differences to be commanded effectively.
_You say that, but I can't get over the fact that I saw something grown-up associate field researchers should be dealing with. Plus, from the reports Cynthia has leaked to me, I'm the 'tipping point' that made the operation of Interpol against Team Rocket start and ultimately become successful, and because I know Team Rocket will definitely make a comeback, I know I would be on their target list..._
Anthony sighed.
_Well, let's prepare ourselves and our Pokémon; I'm not an esikai Kingdom Building protagonist that can ask soldiers to do that for me._
Anthony then nodded and looked at William.
"Well, that's a relief."
After Anthony replied, the humans and Pokémon team were finally able to hit the road once more, and as they did, Anthony's phone exploded with vibrations. William, Zubat, Miltank, and Venusaur looked at his pocket and into his eyes. Anthony, of course, ignored them and immediately pulled out his phone; there were around 5 emails from the official accounts of major tv and a radio news channels, requesting his presence and approval for an interview due to him passing the breeder's exam with flying colors and in the top 10 of the passers.
"Well, I guess I need to schedule some interviews, agree to and reject some, and then challenge a gym so I can make Zubat evolve... among others, so if everything's fine already, then I will be going to Viridian and to Pewter."
After saying as such, Anthony drafted two messages: rejection notices to the TV interviews and his intention to accept the radio interview. While the main reason is that he doesn't want to get teased by his mom and dad, there's also the reason that he might get tracked by the alleged remnants of Team Rocket that again, allegedly, has grudge towards him.
While he can still get tracked through the radio station in Pewter, it's better than showing one's face; there's also a competent gym leader in Pewter, Brock, that he knew he could rely on, unlike the Gym Leader in Viridian who's just a stand-in before finding someone truly good. After sending all of the rejection and one acceptance replies to the TVs and the radio respectively, Anthony looked at William.
"Then, this is a good mission... I hope nothing bad happens."
William smiled at this and nodded before making Venosaur go back to his Pokeball as he watched Anthony walk the trail going to the route out of the Viridian Forest. William then pulled out another Pokeball from his holster and let a Pokemon go out of it. It has a mohawk-like mane whilst its eyes are covered in black, mask-like fur color; though its body is brown in color, its hooves are covered with thick mud from the knee down, and it was so heavy that while it's not moving, 4 small depressions started to form beneath its feet.
"Mudsdale, let's go back to the habitat."
With a 'Muuddieeggh!' sound, Mudsdale made its trainer ride it before galloping towards the direction of the Bulbasaur line habitat once more.
The truth is, William's job description as someone who's already experienced in the field of associate field researchers is to directly respond to possible threats to Pokémon. He also adheres to the saying, 'everything is fine as long as no one is dead, which is just a way for Interpol to be flexible with the deeds of their agents as long as it's not just for the sake of their enjoyment.
As the senior associate field researcher reached the habitat once more, making his Pokemon go in front of him, he once again counted the cameras, and as he did, William couldn't help but smirk as he saw that the extra camera was now nowhere to be seen.
"There are only 5 left... they're dumber than a 10-year-old..."
____________
Read my novel Sophia Demiurge, remove the open and close parentheses
http://wbnv.in(remove this)/a/3ak49Kj