Anthony, Mary, and their fellow intern are in a trainer-item-less lab gown with only gloves, goggles, and masks as their protection alongside their Pokemons, Pickachu and Skitty for Mary, Miltank and Zubat (that's atop the head of the latter) for Anthony, and a Riolu and Bulbasaur for the other intern. This is a policy to prevent contamination, especially evolution stone contamination that might accidentally make a Pokémon evolve without the consent of the Pokémon and their trainer, which the lab can't do.
Of course, there is also a reason for the fear of having some fearsome final evolution to go on a rampage if this happened, after all, Nidorinos and Nidorinas, among other evolution stone requiring Pokemons, are known for their unsavory temperament in the lab too.
No one would want a Nidoking or Nidoqueen rampaging about, especially so if some interns have taken the challenge to put their grades on the line to raise a worthwhile bug-type Pokémon, and yes, no one ever contacted a Heracross.
"Today, we will be tending to the Psychic types."
The field researcher said as the trio followed her to the inside of the artificial environment, while doing so, Melissa Edison started to explain the early activities of the Psychic type.
"Psychic types, as you know, are the most intelligent Pokémon type that has been discovered by humanity as of now. They can create a rather monotonous, but still, what can be considered a small civilization if they are isolated enough and if they were near the cities, individual Ralts, Abras, among others, can be seen building campfires."
Melissa, that's actually holding some sort of device, which looks like a heart monitor but has two needles in it as if to stab temples, paused for a moment as the 3 interns finally saw the 'mini-civilization' of the psychic types, and it is a mini-civilization, alright.
"Zuu..."
"Miii..."
"Pika? Pika pika?"
The Pokemons, and even Anthony, Mary, and their fellow intern have shock evident on their face, you see, despite seeing it in books, upon seeing the farm fields being tilled by Ralts and Kirlias as well as Alakazam, Mr. Mime and other plethora of Psychic type Pokemons, they still can't help but to feel awed by how advanced they are.
_Psychic types are apparently the most mysterious type apart from Ghost types, and some people even proposed to call them human types, obviously, it was immediately rejected... I, however, already see why this name was proposed... trading berries to the scarcely-treed rocky mountain of the fighting types for labor to collect Pokemon poop for fertilizer is a basic barter system of a civilization... I only focused on their waterfall and didn't see their farm before..._
As Anthony, Mary, and the other intern looked over in shock at the hustling and bustling, Melissa continued his explanation.
"After all of these tasks, the Psychic types will start their meditation for the whole day, so every day, in rotation, you interns need to analyze their brain activity using this device. Furthermore, you have to have your Pokemons assist them in their farm so that they can start training faster."
At her last sentence, Melissa looked at Anthony and Miltank, which prompted the human and the Pokémon to unconsciously put their eyes on one of the Alakazam using its spoon to carefully plant a potato... or maybe a berry that somehow looks like a potato.
"Alright, command your Pokemons to assign themselves tasks. I would have said to let them negotiate alone, but because they are still not that adept at knowing your will, you can do that first. I, however, will soon stop you from babysitting your Pokemons."
The 3 interns nodded, Mary and the other intern made deals with Alakazam and Gardevior to let their Pokemons train non-battle chemistry, which is essential because being a researcher, or a trainer, actually requires more survival skills than battle skills.
How can you go to the next town if all you can do is battle in an arena?
Mary and the other intern went and asked the Ralts to make Pikachu and Bulbasaur till and plant seeds. For now, this is the only thing these two Pokemons can do as their size doesn't allow for any menial tasks. For Anthony, he, Miltank, and Zubat went to the bunch of fighting types doing manual labor and struck a conversation with one of the Machops about if Miltank can help them, the Machop looked at a Machamp that Anthony is not sure if guiding its pre-evolution companions or striking some WWE poses, putting one hand into its waist and pointing its 3 hands in different directions.
_What is this..._
Anthony thought to himself, but ignored the shenanigans when he got permission, he made Zubat the one in charge for Miltank to behave, and as Anthony went back to the lecture of Associate Researcher Melissa, Anthony can't help but lament.
_I have to make Miltank more disciplined. Soon, it will be able to dodge or even become immune to supersonics... unless Zubat can Pavlov Miltank into fearing its supersonics in general, which is something I don't want to do._
Again, however, Anthony knew that he couldn't forcefully train discipline, so he had to be patient. As Anthony was thinking such things, he finally arrived at the sight of Melissa, who was waiting for the interns. He looked at Anthony for a little while before looking at her back, a place wherein a Pokémon seemingly draped in a dress of white and green with a horn on its chest is present.
"This will be your job every Tuesday morning. Here is Gardevior. It will help me demonstrate how this device works."
As Melissa said that, the tall Gardevior leaned towards her, letting Melissa put one of the stethoscope like-apparatus of the rather cumbersome device.
_So it can detect signals from the brains of multiple Pokemons? Wouldn't that require a lot of energy, though? How is it that its ran by a battery? Is it perhaps run by a Rotom? A Rotom brain monitor?_
Anthony, of course, is carefully taking notes while secretly observing the device, but he soon gave up and focused on the lesson.
"How you use this device is very much like the stethoscope, except that you have to be able to know when to stop the analysis once the Psychic types you're analyzing are in an unstable state and run away as fast as possible before you get brain damage..."
Melissa looked at the students as he said the last line; however, to her disappointment, all of them were proactively taking notes and were even copying parts they didn't quite copy. She specifically looked at Anthony, with parents infamous for being quite the free-willed people, yet she couldn't see any fear or even apprehension in his blue eyes.
_I know this warning rarely happens in the lab as all of the pokemons here have trainers, but seeing kids... well, I am not that much of an adult either, but still, seeing my future juniors so focused makes me want to yawn._
Melissa sighed inwardly before demonstrating the steps of how to analyze the brain activity of the Gardevior.
She switched the device on, causing it to hum silently as she took hold of the earpiece-like thing that seemed to go (latched) in the temple.
"When you're analyzing a Pokémon's brain activity, be sure to ask for their consent, and be sure that they genuinely agree to you. There is no room for negotiations. If you received yes, then go ahead; if no, then make a report and move on."
After Melissa said as such, she murmured 'Can I?; to Gardevior, who nodded gently. Melissa then gently put the earpiece (or templepiece?) in the temples of the Pokémon before continuing.
"This is not only a breach of general ethical conduct, but this is also the rule of the lab, as even just a slight aggression from the Psychic types can cause changes in your brain... You see, some elite 4 or gym leaders that specialize in psychic types often get to taste some strays because of these mistakes, so you have to be careful."
Melissa then let the Gardevior hold the templepiece for her and started to tweak at one of the screens of the device. Mary then asked a question.
"Like the pokedex, did Professor Oak invent this device too?"
Anthony and their companion nodded, it has to be known that Prof. Oak became famous because of his dissertation that earned him his PhD is the Pokedex, in Anthony's previous life, even though he's not an academic, he knew that a doctorate requirement dissertation, despite being a developmental one, is very rare to be able to crack the status of being a daily necessity and at most, can become a copyrighted material where researchers have to buy before adapting or, at best, their graduated university wanted to utilize it.
Anthony himself wanted to be a master of business at one point, but he couldn't just put himself into the mindset of producing a thesis after already having a stable job.
_It can also be said that Prof. Oak might already have been funded at that time by the Pokémon League._
As Anthony was thinking of such things, to their surprise, Melissa shook her head.
"No, this is a relic of the great war, it was recalibrated by the Electric type gym in the Kalos region to be not inhumane at all... the inventor is actually unknown, it seems like the league wanted no honor to fall from that person's name... or I just forgot about it..."
Melissa sighed before snapping back to attention when she heard a beep in the device. Anthony and the interns immediately made a rough estimate of how long it took before the results appeared.
_About a minute and 30 seconds..._
Mary looked at her watch and wrote down the exact time, whilst Anthony did so too.
"Going back, the normal time for a complete analysis is about 1 minute and 30 seconds, give or take the 30, but the device has such a range, meaning that if it becomes too long, the device might be malfunctioning and needs maintenance, and if it's too short, the battery is about to die."
As Melissa paused, Gardevior gently gave the templepiece back to her before straightening its back again, after which, Gardevior glanced at its back and muttered some 'Gaa..' and 'Vior' sound as if coaxing some people, and indeed, in its back, several purple beams suddenly appear behind its back, causing a Pokemon with a rather small stature and a smaller dress that accentuates their height to appear.
They were like a small version of Gardevior, but their eyes were covered with green, seemingly overgrown bangs, and their horn are in their heads instead of the chest, they greeted Melissa gently with a nod, which the former reciprocated but still looked warily at the new people.
"These 3 will be your practice Pokemons for your first job; however, the subsequent ones will be about 25% of Pokemons around here, as other interns needed to be able to do this on other days as well."
After explaining, Melissa got out of her position and made way to the 3 standing interns.
"Go ahead, be sure to remember all my teachings."
Anthony, Mary and the other intern looked at each other and nodded before slowly going in front of the 3 Ralts, they then proceeded to talk with them if they were allowed to give the test to them, the 3 became slightly nervous as the 3 Ralts looked at Gardevior for a moment before agreeing, prompting them to look at their senior, Melissa who gave them a nod as if to confirm that such a response is acceptable, and thus the 3 went and gave the templepiece to their respective Ralts and make them put it in their temples before going to the other 3 monitors of the device.
After which, they reported normal results, which made Melissa congratulate them before saying.
"Now, we have to quietly leave the area as their tending in the fields is already over, and their meditation will start shortly after."
Hearing this, Anthony immediately went to fetch Miltank, which, as expected, is tired, not to the point of fainting, but still needed some refreshments. Anthony immediately gave it some water and cleaned it up before instructing Miltank to slowly walk to make as little noise as possible.
Just like that, on the day of the official internship, one of the interns carried on while Anthony made a preliminary assessment of his new Pokémon.
_Miltank really has stamina problems. I have to fix this, and by fixing this means I have to make it tired at all times, which is fine because Pokemons generally have more tolerance and stamina threshold._