Even though Anthony is worried about his optical health, the combined necessity of the studies of his and the fact that all of such studies are as interesting to him as a mother's eyes, scent and voice is interesting to a newborn child, in the end, Anthony burnt the midnight oil until he was barely able to place back his books to the big shelves in his room because of exhaustion before slumping to bed. Most of the time, except when Anthony finds the loving embrace of the bed too tempting due to his exhaustion from his workout, he spends almost the entire day reviewing and training Zubat. This is the scene that Anthony will make before sleeping.
When Anthony, alongside Zubat entered the land of dreams, time seem to fast forwards, and just like that, the rays of the sun peaked through the windows of the room of Anthony, conquering the thin curtains that has the job to veil the room, even just for a little to make the insides transparent, signaling the start of yet another day that will surely become progressive for the trainer to be and his Pokemon.
_Ugh... another day..._
Anthony woke up groggily, looking at the small bed at the cabinet beside his own where Zubat was in, he saw his Pokemon also barely just woke up, however, unlike Anthony who looked for Zubat immediately after waking up, the Pokemon looked at the direction of the mini farm which made Anthony, who have just woken up, confused before such feeling turned into cautiousness.
_Is there something happening outside?_
Anthony furled his eyebrows together while Zubat flew towards his head. Soon, Anthony heard the sonorous flapping sound of wings that barreled against and bypassed the walls of his room despite all openings being closed for privacy. Anthony finally decided to stand up and go towards the direction of the flapping sound that stopped after 5 seconds or so.
_Zubat is not reacting to it with hostility... that probably means it's not something bad. But still, who the hell uses a Pokémon to blast off at 7 in the morning besides Mother? Is she aura farming so early again?_
As Anthony retrieved his slippers and walked towards the entrance of the house, he thought before immediately shaking his head.
_Mother always lands at the mini farm to not stir up trouble with the neighbors... also, she said during dinner last night that yesterday is the final day of her commission, and someone will be coming for the responses she has received all throughout Fuchsia._
Anthony, upon concluding who might be the most probable visitor of theirs calmed down his early morning-induced alertness. Just when he did, Anthony and Zubat heard a knock at the door.
"He... hello, good morning, Ma'am Dover...?"
Anthony smirked a little at this before clutching the knob and twisting it.
_Does she really think Mom will still be asleep after her grand entrance?_
Anthony didn't think of anything further and just pulled the knob, making him able to see a little girl, about 13-14 years old, wearing a lab gown with a waist bag that had 6 special compartments in front of her belt. At the girl's back is a giant bird Pokémon of cream-colored feathers, its inner part being lighter and the outer being darker.
For Anthony, however, the most outstanding feature of such an imposing and majestic bird Pokémon is its iconic crest of golden and red colors atop its head.
_So it's a damn Pedgiot..._
Anthony sighed as he replied to the nervous girl.
"Good morning to you, I'm Hana Dover's son, Anthony. May I ask what do you need from her?"
At this question, the nervous girl was seemingly a little disappointed that it was not Anthony's mother who opened the door, which made the man wonder just how famous his mother is, as the original Anthony was never given any idea, nor was he able to find any references besides some interviews about such matters. The little girl didn't linger on her disappointment and scurried to open her bag, pick up her rather stuffed wallet, and pull out a card.
In the upper middle part of the card is the 'World of Pokemon, Licensed Associate Field Researcher' while the name 'Melissa Edison' is at the lower side, as well as her birthday and other information about the girl in front of Anthony. The Background of the card is brown in color with a Pidgey at the side, cutely peeping at anyone who sees the card.
Anthony actually already saw the license card of his mother and father, which has a Charmander and a Squirtle, respectively. This is because a license of an Associate Field Researcher will be incorporated with the figure of one's partner Pokémon.
Anthony received the License card as the woman named Melissa introduced herself.
"Good morning, Anthony, I'm Melissa Edison, an associate field researcher tasked to receive the manuscript of all the responses of people that was interviewed by Ma'am Hana Dover. Professor Oak said that he needs them by 8 in the morning, so I would really appreciate it if you deliver my message."
Anthony silently nodded at this request and gave back the license before going to his mother's room. Anthony was not shocked to see his mom frowning with some veins popping out of her temples.
"Who the hell was that?"
Anthony sighed at this, the new and old Anthony is already used to this crankiness of Hana, his mother as in rare times she will make Anthony have a glimpse of her behavior and attitude during her times as a trainer if he broke a glass or if he messed up the measurement of the Pokemon food the two concocts among others, thus, without even so much of a flinch, he asked.
"An Associate Field Researcher named Melissa Edison is asking for the responses you have procured these past months."
Hana, her eyes a little bloodshot because of her sleep being interrupted, stared at Anthony for a second before sighing, seemingly able to finally release her rather justified anger. She then went to retrieve a whole roll of bond paper from her wooden cabinet, where her clothes are, and then went with Anthony towards the entrance. Melissa, upon seeing Hana, who now wears her usual confident yet kind smile, made an 'Ohhh' sound, making Zubat, which is on top of Anthony's head, and the Pidgeot at the back of Melissa, the Associate Field Researcher to tilt their head in confusion.
"Go... good morning, Ma'am... I... I'm here for the responses..."
Hana and Anthony glanced at each other before the former chuckled. She then squatted down and put the rim of fully occupied bond papers in front of the Associate Field Researcher while using her free hand to stroke the hair of Melissa, who was shaking because of being starstruck.
_My mom must be a very famous trainer. I hope I can measure up to her and Dad's reputation._
Anthony shook his head. He then heard Hana say.
"Don't be so nervous, I don't eat people."
Melissa's trembling... further intensified, as expected, for her idol just patted her in the head, though her presence of mind seemed to have recovered, the associate field researcher received the rim of paper and tucked it inside her rather big belt bag before putting out a halved index card and a pen and putting them nervously in front of Hana.
"Thank you for your services for the betterment of Humans and Pokemons... I would like an autograph, too..."
Melissa obviously doesn't know how to bring such a request up and just randomly mustered up the courage to ask for an autograph, and as expected, Hana didn't disagree. She picked up the index card and pen and whipped up her autograph signature before handing them back to Melissa. The said girl muttered "Thanks" in a daze before putting the index card at the back of her belt bag.
Melissa again bowed, now more respectfully, as if to show gratitude.
"Thank you for the autograph, I'll cherish this gift for the rest of my life."
Hana chuckled at this. Finally standing up, she said.
"Don't worry about it, just remember not to land directly above heads of people's heads as they might get very, very angry, understood?"
Anthony and Zubat nodded at this slowly while Melissa flinched. Realizing the mistake of her deed that stemmed from her excitement of being able to persuade Prof. Oak to let her meet the infamous Hana Dover, Melissa bowed lightly.
"I'm... I'm very sorry..."
Hana replied with a "Just don't do it again" before seeing to it that Pidgeot was put back in its Poké Ball, and while watching Melissa trot slowly as if beating herself up in her head because of her blunder, Anthony looked at his mom.
"Mom, what are the chances that the Code of Ethics and its fang-giving laws will be amended?"
Anthony is really curious about this matter, after all, the amendments of these laws bear his way to a more surgical strategy lessons as well as hands-on instructions with his dad, who will retire and make the house a daycare for Pokemons if ever. Of course, this is not to say that Hana is not a good parent; however, as they say, everything has positives and negatives, and one of the negatives of Hana's way of teaching Anthony is that Anthony has to grasp at straws and use his adult logic to create training plans.
The disadvantages of relying on an adult mind to beat children during times when Anthony gets to fight against truly prodigious youngsters would be apparent if he didn't rely on a scaffolding approach soon. Hearing this question, Hana shook her head and smirked a little, her anger of being woken up subsiding upon a chat with her son.
"Ha! If the league has started a widespread social thesis like this, expect that change will always come. This world, because of humans practically stopping widespread conflict due to Pokemons helping them solve scarcity in manpower and even resources sometimes, is rapidly expanding, and if the League as a world government didn't adapt at the same rate, it would again descend into chaos... So yeah, you will be welcoming your dad soon."
Anthony kind of deadpanned at this answer, thinking if his mother really knew that Anthony outside is nothing but a 7-year-old, nevertheless, he nodded and matched the enthusiasm of a kid as much as possible.
"I'm excited."
Well, Anthony is indeed excited, though not for a reason his mother would expect. He can only be thankful that the original Anthony is already quite bland with his reactions, so he doesn't need any exaggerated gestures or some shit. As Hana and Anthony went inside, Hana asked:
"When will you start your training, by the way?"
At this question, Anthony flinched and replied.
"I'm supposed to jog at 7 and start training with Zubat at 8... I guess I have to go."
As Anthony said as such, he went and dashed towards his room to change attire, went back to the living room, where he temporarily handed Zubat to his mom, who had told him to go immediately to the fence of the mini farm as she would make him see something amazing before going out to jog.
Anthony can't help but wonder what his mother has in store for him.
_______
Hana and Zubat looked at Anthony as the little boy started to jog at a moderate pace, shutting its mouth tight to avoid worsening the slowly building fatigue of the activity, and as Hana did so, Zubat went and perched itself on Hana's shoulder.
_That boy is too absorbed in protecting and babysitting his Pokémon while training it. He even lowers his expectations and makes all of its shortcomings a matter of course instead of finding a more effective method of training it._
Hana shook her head, for the past 3 months, besides going around and soliciting responses from the stakeholders of the amendments of the code of ethics and teeth-giving laws she was also looking out for the training of Anthony and his Pokemon through the pinhole cameras all over the mini farm which is caused by incidents of attempted theft during her and Ben's stay in this place, it became worse that her Pokemons needed a little bit of nudging to injure the robbers to stop them.
Now it's being used as a way to monitor her child; however, in this monitoring, she has seen a massive flaw.
_All of Zubat's training is built on the idea that Zubat will learn such skills somehow while being trained slowly. So much so, his attitude towards its training is basically 'it's okay, Zubat is still a child'._
Hana frowned.
At first, Anthony was able to steel his heart and whip Zubat into shape; however, slowly, complacency as well as the inherent pity that can be felt by seeing such small Pokémon tire itself out made Anthony have such a lazy and counterproductive philosophy.
Hana estimated that if Anthony kept up with his initial intensity, then Zubat wouldn't need 3 months to be fully capable of high-intensity movements.
_This can't do._
As Anthony said, even though Hana almost lets her child do anything that he thinks is best for himself, she wouldn't let his son become a soft trainer that gets dragged around by his Pokémon's whim.