Anthony knows Zubat for 2 things: it having so many friends and it being someone so prideful. He was able to immediately predict that Zubat would not follow the advice of Lapras (or what sounds like to be an advice) to fly in front of its back so that air resistance would be less harsh towards Zubat; indeed, Zubat immediately retorted that it was trained to be able to dodge and glide through air resistance.
Anthony sighed at this and made it so that Zubat would learn a lesson through experience. At first, Zubat, which, for the first time, was able to use its ability to ride with air resistance over great distances, was very happy as it was able to show off its gliding and air gymnastics ability. However, the Lapras made a continuous sound of persuasion while still going at full speed. Anthony knew that he was worried about his Pokémon, but Zubat already had a Poké Ball, so he's not really that worried.
Instead, Anthony felt quite amazed as hours went by and his Pokemon continued to glide through the wind even 1 hour into the afternoon, going into circles or straight gliding or strong wing flaps in succession despite its face and fur slowly being wetted by both its sweat and the drops of water vapor that's being syphoned by the sun. Anthony didn't expect that the stamina and endurance of Zubat had reached such a level that it could fly for several hours straight while dodging air currents and reducing air resistance on its own.
And while it's expected that it would start to falter after several hours, the once worried Laprases had approving nods while Anthony caught the panting Zubat and made it rest in its Poké Ball after eating. Miltank is also very hyped because of its senior, and as Miltank made sounds to declare its pride in being junior to Zubat, Anthony observed the Lapras that they are riding, which didn't even try to give way to ships because ships are prohibited in these waters except for government-sanctioned ones.
_Even when they're going at full speed, they're not heaving their lungs at all, it's like they never tire... well, they do are called the Cargo Pokemon, and these Laprases in specific is trained to race against the full speed of ships while being as stable as physically possible, I can even see them going full speed without stop from the shore of Pallet to Cinnabar without stopping if me and Mary are not on top of their shells._
Anthony sighed while his Pokemons rested, and Miltank swam around in front of Lapras, which was watching the cow Pokémon splashing around with a faint smile. While doing so, it occasionally dipped its head into the water and then munching on something when it made its head back upwards. Anthony saw their Lapras eat Magikarps, making him wonder if Lapras can be satisfied with such a bony meal.
Anthony himself is eating a Farfetch'd lunchable while Mary is eating a bunch of berries, apparently made salad style. After around 30 minutes of rest, the group once again blasted through the seas at fast speeds with Zubat still wanting to do full-speed flight with Lapras, but this time using the Cargo Pokémon as a shield against air resistance, making it able to preserve its stamina better. However, Zubat struggled to control its speed at first, bumping into the head of the Lapras. Anthony just let it readjust itself (mostly because Zubat did it to itself because it adjusted its body in resisting air resistance the whole morning), it's a good thing that Zubat is not trained to be a cave Zubat, so it was able to adjust just fine.
Anthony watched his Pokemons do their stuff with carefreeness while reading an e-book on his phone since his physical books can get damaged if he opened them in such a humid environment, at least his phone is wrapped in plastic and has sensitivity enough for its touchscreen to work just fine despite being covered. As he and Mary are about to publish their first paper, and he knew that Mary was rather repulsed by writing a paper, Anthony took it upon himself to be the leader of the pair and to also make sure to teach Mary everything he could, with so little experience he had with doing research.
Though that may not be so helpful given that all he knew about research before was Likert scales and how to adapt questionnaires so that he won't be bogged down by validations, it's still better than nothing. In any case, this part is the only strange one for Anthony because interpretation is interpretation, no matter what field he is in.
Anthony studied until the descent of the sun and stopped when it finally completely set. Instead, for a moment, he admired the view of the moon slowly going up to do its nightly duties to bring a dim and soft illumination. Mary, Zubat that already stopped its flying, Miltank, Skitty, and Pikachu also quieted down and stopped what they were doing as they looked at the starry sky.
"Laaa~ praa~"
Suddenly, the peaceful ambience was pierced by a similarly tranquil voice of two Lapras alongside their flipped pointing in front of them, and as the humans and Pokemons trailed their eyes to the direction of the Lapras ' flipper, they saw a vast port directly attached to a medium-sized island. The port doesn't have any boats or ships but seems to only be underwater ne663sts for countless Laprases, both provided by the labs and made naturally by the Laprases.
As Mary, Anthony, and their Pokemons docked and said goodbye to their 'vehicles', they saw a not-so-populated island in terms of permanent settlers, but rather has a lot of inns and hotels for trainers that can't fit in the rooms of Pokemon Centers, as well as tourists who wanted to see the infamous fossil lab and the green development lab. There's also the fire-type gym, which is the most prolific tourist attraction. Permanent settlers seem to be scientists of both the fossils and the environmental science lab.
In the port are two associate field researchers with a banner 'welcome interns' even though there are only two of them, when Anthony and Mary have a weirded out face, the associate field researchers said that the Professor of the lab is in a research conference presenting a new paper of the lab herself in Hoenn, which is a new method to syphon energy from the sun besides silicon-based methods.
Anthony and Mary are not so sure if they really need to say that, but in any case, they congratulated them. After that, they were guided through the island and into the lab, and because it's already nighttime, they were given accommodations first as well as dinner and advice to think of several, any kind of specific issues in the environment they want to research. Mary was rather happy when she learned that they could use Likert scales for now for an awareness-based research, but Anthony knew that this kind of research was rare in their field, so after dinner, he wrote in a joint document a topic he had thought of on the fly:
Effects of Microplastics in aquatic fossil age identification through relative and active dating. Though, of course, if this is too hard for them (as they were not taught how to date fossils), he would immediately scratch it. There's also the certainty that the fossil lab in Cinnabar Island itself most probably has research about this, and Anthony won't be banking on people being dumb. Still, for now, Anthony jots down every idea that he gets, even the ones that just use some survey questionnaires.
While Anthony wished to have more experiences besides just giving questionnaires, he knew that he could still have many opportunities to do such a thing. He also has to consider Mary, who looks visibly scared about the thought of research. Anthony can't really blame her, as it's normal to be intimidated by 'research' when your experience of it is in search engines only.
_I myself am quite nervous, but someone has to lead the duo._
________________
Early in the morning, a Flygon descended atop the roof of the green development lab in Cinnabar Island with a woman on top of its back that has a simple backpack and was wearing a long-sleeved turtleneck t-shirt. Anthony and Mary woke up because of this, and because they had just come from an attempted kidnapping by Team Rocket, they immediately reported the noise to the assistant researchers and security staff.
Surprisingly, they didn't respond that much, and some just waited outside to meet the professor, who seemed to have the same neutral and seemingly unfeeling expression as Anthony. Even Mary was shocked and looked at Anthony for a moment when they met at the gate of the lab, which also made the head scientist of the lab look at them and nod a little.
"Good morning, we will meet at eight."
The two interns nodded at this while muttering 'good morning' to the Professor, who seemed to forget to introduce herself. However, the prof. seems to have finally remembered this important part of human interaction.
_Nope, she's not like me at all. I'm not an airhead._
Anthony silently sighed in relief for some reason while remembering that he should also have enough presence of mind not to disturb the neighbourhood with a giant Flygon descending after a full-speed dash in the air from Hoenn to Kanto. Actually, you shouldn't do that except when your child got knocked unconscious because he's too excited to ride a Charizard.
"I'm the lead professor of this place, Josie Ford. Nice to meet you two."
Anthony and Mary nodded a little once more before replying.
"I'm Anthony Dover, and this is Mary Hane. We are the interns sent yesterday by Prof. Oak here to help you with your research and also publish our own."
Anthony said in one breath, which seemed to be appreciated by Prof. Josie, Mary, and Anthony, who was of course more mature than their age due to their dreams of having such a mind and body challenging job, immediately noticed this. This made them not talk about anything unnecessary, though Zubat and Miltank, as well as Skitty and Pickachu, seem to wonder why their trainers are just looking at Josie without talking.
"Dover..."
For a moment, Josie Ford's eyes squinted before finally lighting up, or at least what her face can muster.
"Are you the son of Ben and Hana Dover? You did something crazy some days ago. Are you quite alright now?"
Anthony and Mary was first quite shocked that someone from far away knew of what happened in Pallet, but now considering that she's most probably also former student of Prof. Oak, Anthony just nodded tersely and after the Prof. said 'That's Good', the two interns took a good inhale and long exhale before going back to their rooms to groom themselves for their briefing and their data collection duties that would happen today.
Mary seemed to be pumping herself up and even went to jog earlier than Anthony and her two Pokemons, making some scientists ask Anthony if he had made her angry or something. Of course, Anthony denied the allegation and went at her own pace as he knew that it was a way for Mary to calm her nerves. After he and Mary jogged, the two of them went and had breakfast, which again made Anthony avoid Miltank beef recipes and eat outside of the dining area in order to respect his Pokémon Miltank (though it looks like it doesn't really mind).
Anthony felt like he would have this as a normal routine when he finally became an official Pokémon trainer.
After breakfast, the two went and grabbed their lab gown, their uniform for today's activity, whilst being guided by a scientist to the meeting place of them and Professor Josie, which is also the conference room of the lab. Normally, it would be a much bigger and more formal place, but because of their number only being two, they were reduced to a rather bare room (compared to the conference room of Prof. Oak's lab).
The two interns didn't complain as they came here to do research and not to complain about the darnest of things.
When Anthony and Mary went and entered the conference room, the black-haired professor was already inside, typing something on his laptop. Without looking at the two, Josie Ford spoke.
"Come in, be sure to close the door."
The two interns did as they were told; they stayed silent, just like the professor in front of them, and for a second, only the sound of the keyboard of the laptop being stroked by the dexterous fingers of Josie could be heard. Mary, who was particularly nervous about this set of activities, continuously gulped saliva.
Finally, Prof. Josie spoke.
"Hello and good morning again, welcome to your briefing on this part of your internship task."