As expected, somewhere around the week after Zubat started training with its parents (that only resulted in some green coming out of Zubat's body), here is Anthony now on a Saturday, his hair just got combed after taking a bath, but Zubat, having its rest day, is already perched above it. He is currently in front of the front door of their house, in his sight is a boy with a yellow shirt and blue short pants. Atop the boy's shoulder is a Treecko that's standing upright, looking at Anthony and Zubat with sparkling eyes.
"Zuu! Zubat!"
"Tree! Treecko!"
Before even the two humans could greet each other, the two Pokemons made their cries of greeting; however, unlike their last meeting at the main area of the city, they were mature and didn't jumped each other. Obviously, their training not only made their bodies develop greatly, even their mentality has become more mature, which made the two trainers quite happy; however, Glen Shoebill, a friend of Anthony, didn't come here for their Pokemons to greet each other or to assess their maturity.
"Good morning, Anthony. I want to ask your mom a favor."
Anthony, already predicting such an occurrence, nodded before coaxing Glen to enter the house. When Glen and Treecko did so, Anthony and his friend started to walk towards the mini farm area while letting Treecko and Zubat get off their head and shoulders, respectively. They silently watched Treecko and Zubat in front; the bipedal lizard was walking while the blue-colored bat circled the former.
This way, the 4 reached the door to the minifarm.
On the side of the mini farm's door is a barbell with 3 pairs of plates attached on each side. This barbell is not in the recently cemented side of the minifarm but instead is being curled at a moderate pace by the mom of Anthony, her whole body, that is covered with a sports bra and black boxers, is producing endless sweat. Just this week, Hana, who normally goes to a nearby gym once a week to lift some weights and to hit the treadmill to maintain her shape, has bought a barbell set to be used in the house.
Anthony reckoned that it's because of the daycare, and his mom will not be able to get out of the house after the chores if the business needs the tending of hers and her husband. There's also a treadmill in the living room next to the PC.
Hearing the door creak, Hana looked in its direction with her face contorted slightly due to the weight of the barbell. Glen and Anthony looked at the barbell that was obviously many times heavier than them, gulping while sweat trickled down their forehead.
_Isn't that supposed to be in the deadlift category?_
Even the adult Anthony, who knew the charms of a woman's body and had personally experienced all of them, ignored the assets of his mom; he reckoned that if Hana lost a 6v6 Pokémon battle, she could enter the field and make it 6v7.
"Good morning, you two. What brings you here, Glen?"
Hana gently put the barbell down so as not to startle the kids and the Pokemons with the sound. Glen, going out of his stupor, remembered his intent and immediately spoke.
"I want to ask for permission to talk with your Venusaur, my Treecko here is not having any progress with the Absorb move using the imitator we have bought."
Hana, who was wiping herself with a white towel, nodded at this.
"Normally, those imitators are only for the Pokémon to get a feel for how Absorb works; it won't let the Pokémon gain insights on how to use the move itself. You will be a trainer, so you should know when to and not buy stuff. Trainer items are quite expensive despite being mass-produced, after all."
Such is the case because everything is foldable except for glassed things, such were Anthony's thoughts.
Glen nodded at this as well as Anthony, and as Hana put on her home clothes to end her barbell curls, she continued.
"You can go to the forest of the minifarm. I'm sure a whole day's worth of talk with Venusaur will make Treecko learn Absorb."
Glen nodded at this while taking the advice of Hana to heart before going to the forest and because its Anthony and Zubat's rest day, they decided to tag along, something that they immediately regretted as they watched how did Treecko was able to learn the basic proficiency of the Absorb move in just a whole day of talking and relentless training as Treecko wanted to show off to its friend, Zubat. This showing off, however, turned into Zubat not talking to Treecko, so the two trainers have to reconcile the two of them.
When the day ended, Anthony and Zubat couldn't help but click their tongue in envy after such a short effort learning of a Pokémon move that Zubat had yet to even scrape through. Anthony, of course, knew that grass-types are very adept at either Absorb, Vine Whip, or both, like how Zubat is adept in Leech Life and Supersonic, but still, knowing and feeling are two separate concepts, so his mood the whole night is grumpy until he sleeps.
___________
The next day, Anthony, wearing his jogging attire while waiting for her mom to also change clothes for a mother-son jogging (which makes the treadmill useless) bonding is watching TV, trying his best not to cock his head forward and see the contents of the advertisement.
_Oh man, two of my parents will be together with me soon... how will I hide my worsening eyesight..._
Anthony sighed while Zubat, perched on his head, looked at him from his forehead with an odd expression. Just as Anthony was lamenting his growing need for prescription glasses, the advertisement ended and suddenly, the morning news went on break to telecast a hall. The hall is semi-circular in design with mahogany tables and corporate chairs spread out in a semi-circular position. These tables were divided into three groups for the Senators and other resource people to be able to walk to the designated tables of theirs.
_The plenary session for the amendments of the code of ethics and its teeth-giving laws? Does the working days law in this world include Sundays? No, that would be against human rights. Maybe this is a special session where the whole cabinet needs to attend, as they saw the urgency of the matter._
Anthony, with interest peeling his eyes on the session he analyzed the implications of such laws. Well, the main implication of this law is that the Professor will have a lessened load, while Officer Jennies and Nurse Joys will have increased duties as notary of trades. Also, Daycares will be permitted to sell Pokémon eggs, a magical organic object that seems to be able to control when it will hatch, or so the books have told.
These implications, however, are of little concern for Anthony, and the only one that he wanted to happen the fastest is his father's retirement and his receiving hands-on insights.
_Though from the week when he had vacation, I was able to hear ungodly things and fears that their room would have a hole..._
As Anthony remembered his first week in the world of Pokémon, he suddenly heard the voice of his mom.
"Hurry up."
It was sonorous, even a little rasped, making Anthony flinch a little before nodding and turning off the TV.
"You sound angry, Mom."
While stretching towards the door, Anthony quipped rather monotonously, Hana replied.
"That's because you're not yet outside."
Anthony didn't reply, though he wondered if something so simple as slacking off for a minute or two really deserved the big man voice of his mother.
_Whatever, maybe she's not in the mood today..._
Such were Anthony's thoughts before jogging with his mom. He made sure that his pace was not the same as Hana's, as that would sentence him to a whole day of sore thighs because of how fast 'jogging' is for his mother.
After jogging, Anthony continued his training with Zubat. In the course of a month, this is what Anthony's routine has become, train, one day rest where he can do whatever he wanted, which he exploited to go around the city with his mom that's preparing new clothes, cabinet and more when Ben Dover, the man of the house when he finally retires from training Pokemons and start the family business.
Because of their reputation for being prominent trainers, they were both confident that they would be able to flourish in Fuchsia City.
___________
Just like that, one month had passed. In this span, Zubat's progress in slowly mastering the moves it knew has increased substantially; it was finally also able to learn Absorb after a grueling physical theory training from its parents and was able to employ it in battle with the Pidgey. The Pidgey, of course, not being a bum, also improved and learned a lot of moves, which made the win-lose record of Zubat 2-2 despite learning the Absorb move and omitting the Leech Life move from its repertoire.
The battles have also become tight as Pidgey was able to close its ears effectively; however, Zubat can mitigate Pidgey's method by maxing the volume of the Supersonic, though, of course, it won't always work. This month, the amendments to the code of ethics and its teeth-giving laws were also approved, and as Anthony has speculated, the professors will have their load lessened while making Officer Jennies and Nurse Joy have the right to notarize trades and gifts.
This matter is immediately taken advantage of by the Sylph and Devon Corporations, who immediately made an autonomous registering machine. The specifics of how it was operated are not disclosed to the public but only to Nurse Joys and Officer Jennies. Basically, it's a trading platform where the Pokémon registries are connected to the database of the Pokémon League.
On a Saturday in October, a day when Anthony and Zubat rested, the trainer and Pokémon duo lounged lazily on a sofa, watching the failed challenge of Elite 4 Drake of Hoenn to champion Wallace. With this, the Champion Wallace, last year, was able to secure his title in 4 consecutive years, making Wallace able to qualify in the World Coronation Series when Anthony turns 11.
_Even in the offseason, the mainstream telecasts are still Pokémon battles, huh...-
Anthony sighed as he watched the advertisements on the Television. He and Zubat didn't want to do anything and just let the contents go and flow; however, just when he two were about to fall asleep, a breaking news that shook Anthony and the three islandic regions, Kanto, Johto, and Hoenn to the core was broadcast to the world.
"Breaking News! Ben Dover, the Husband of the renowned trainer Hana Dover and renowned trainer himself, the poised next champion of the Ever Grande Conference of the next Pokemon league season has announced his retirement! The whole Pokémon training community has immediately denounced and condemned the retirement, citing that the Dover duo have used their clout within the league to approve the permission of all Daycare centers to purchase and sell eggs. It can be remembered that the League announced the amendment of the Code of Ethics last week, this month of October."
"We have tried to get his side about the accusations, but 'Not True' is Ben Dover's only answer. Our Team flew to Fuchsia to learn Hana Dover's side. Good day."
Anthony was stunned, and, of course, as Ben's son, he knew that he was the projected next champion after Wallace went to self-train.
_Why did they announce it a week after the amendments? What are those two thinking? And the way it was grandiosely announced..._
Anthony, who is adult enough to know that such a move will be wishing for controversy, squinted his eyes. His parents are known to be researchers; the two have co-authored censuses and Social Science theses with renowned Breeders and even the Kanto Pokémon Professor himself. There is no way that they wouldn't be able to predict the repercussions of hastily announcing retirement after daycares were permitted to sell Pokémon Eggs.
This will basically imply that the two intended to use the law as a way to start a business, and even though that in itself is not bad, for such prominent and widely acclaimed individuals, it's basically asking for controversy, and overbearing Journalists who always cite freedom of the press to harass people will be orgasming because of a potential scoop.
Anthony felt something strange... something... very suspicious about this matter; however, the original owner of the body is not privy to any secrets that might connect to this seemingly foolish move.
"It's like... they're giving the middle finger to someone..."
For the first time, the adult mind of Anthony looked at Hana and Ben with suspicion. As Anthony mulled over this matter, Hana went out of the living room to the door and tossed a Poké Ball outside, causing a massive serpent to come out.
"As long as they're not injured, it's fine."
Such were Hana's words to Gyarados, which made Anthony all the more speechless.