One of the reasons why Anthony chose a final evolved Pokémon, and a fighting type, a weakness to normal types like Miltank, is so that he can immediately see the limits of Bide. One should know that in this kind of compressed training environment, there is no time for a gentle scaffolding training method, for they only have 4 days to prepare, most of this preparation is not learning a new move, making ones Pokemon this particular weight so that it can hit harder or among other cumbersome things that only medium to long training duration can achieve.
The best a trainer can do in this short span of time is to learn the current limits of the combos they and their Pokémon have devised, and also their strongest move. And at this moment in time, Anthony knew that Miltank's best way of attack, except for the fact that it only knew one defensive move, was Bide since it can absorb more energy from moves than its game counterpart.
Thus, when he saw Miltank attack again, be blocked and pushed by an Arm Thrust once more to the other side while Machamp whipped its hand for a moment as it felt the pain of blocking a fully raging Rollout, he peeled his eyes intensely, lifting Zubat so that it wouldn't be slapping on his forehead. For a moment, Miltank's Rollout, apparently reaching its limit, loosened for a moment, making Anthony worried as it looked at Miltank's pained face pulling out a nipple from its mammary glands and putting it in its mouth and sucking on it.
Anthony, who was quite grossed out as he remembered that there are moves that are bound to be way different in games and in real life Pokemon world, was stunned when the sprawling red aura from Miltank was suspended for but a split second before entering the Pokémon. Miltank then curled up again, but this time, its pink body turned a level redder before shooting, disappearing into its spot, making Anthony and Zubat shocked.
Then they saw a fast approaching streak of red light towards Machamp, who doesn't have a time dodging it, causing it to just cross its 4 arms into its chest to counter the attack that hit it like a cannon. And that is not meant to be euphemistic. When Miltank's Bide-powered Rollout landed, a loud explosion that made some Gardevior, Riolu, and a plethora of other Pokémon stick their head out from atop the mountain reverberated.
The force caused the Machamp to stagger and stumble on its feet, falling on its bum. On top of it is a plume of smoke due to the released energy.
"Zuaaaaahhh!"
In excitement because of its friend's skill, Zubat started to slap the forehead of Anthony again, however Anthony immediately pulled out two potion bottles free from his free medicines for Pokemons perk as an intern and sprayed everything to the Machamp's arms, well it's just mildly injured but it's not his Pokemon, so he had to make sure that it's good. Of course, he also took care of his Pokémon. Before spraying, Anthony had already called some lab staff to put Miltank in a medical cart and deliver it to the clinic of the lab, again, free of charge.
After receiving the scolding of the attendants because he had just made Miltank go to the clinic within an hour of the start of the training, and making sure that Machamp also received ample treatment and is now in good condition, Anthony started to summarize his findings.
_So the universal limit is 5, and I suppose Miltank is only barely able to do that, though this might be because of it fighting a very strong evolved form of its weakness's type. Also, I thought the main theory is that Bide can be infinitely stacked given enough power from the user, but according to the attendant, that was just debunked recently and only applied with the so-called 'basic' moves that are repeatedly administered in a non-battle environment..._
Anthony shook his head as he followed the attendant, not believing that he was hit with the Pokémon version of the alpha wolf publication that is so badly wrong but so badly accepted that it turned into the slop of that orange app with a cursive W logo before AI was even popularized. Anthony shook his head and stopped the chatter with himself in his head, as the author doesn't want any backlash to his already struggling fanfiction.
_In any case, it's already debunked and said that differences exist in the usage of Bide among the species and type of Pokemons that can use it, as well as their age, and of course, if they were trained by a Pokémon trainer, Pokémon Breeder, Pokémon Coordinator, or an Associate Field Researcher._
Anthony read through a literature review on a certain online journal related to the Bide move so as to make his knowledge more comprehensive. Anthony noted that there are always 'This is in contrast with the findings of...' at the end of each paragraph of the literature reviews he read.
_It seems like researchers really hate the person who published that torturous research, huh. I wonder which hole in this world they are hiding in while suffering this humiliation._
Anthony swore to make sure of his rigor and hopefully not become avoidant of it when the time comes that he really decides to be a researcher pursuing a PhD. After the attendants reassured him that Miltank was fine and also made a check himself, and also asked Miltank if it could keep going, Anthony went to the other places of the other types.
Now that Anthony already knew the limit of Miltank in general and not wanting to abuse the durability of his Pokémon, Anthony went to the types that don't have a type advantage with Miltank. In any case, the training right now is for him to know how well Miltank can control Bide and how well it can use it with the Rollout-Defense Curl combo, and of course, how well it can normally release Bide (which is a mid-range attack if not used creatively by Pokemons or trainers).
Just like this, Anthony observed his Pokémon's performance.
__________
Unlike the Indigo Plateau in the games that is just an establishment with 7 facilities including the reception hall, the battle field of the Elite 4, the battle field of the champion and the Hall of Fame area, or in the anime that is just a seemingly big court with some filler buildings for the sake of being a filler, the Indigo Plateau of this world is different.
Instead of 5 battlefields, the Indigo Plateau has countless ones to serve the plethora of fights that are bound to happen during preliminaries, and being one of the most lucrative economic and cultural events of the Pokémon World, a single battlefield is not suitable. In this setup, the reception area, where rockets, snacks, PCs, a restaurant for trainers and fans, a Pokémon Center, and a Poké Mart will also be inside the countless battlefields.
Besides that, the main battlefield where the semifinals, finals, the elite 4, and champion challenge will happen, which is much bigger in capacity, is in the middle of this grand structure. It was so big in fact that it has 4 different entrances and reception areas in the 4 primary directions and another 4 to the secondary ones, in short, all 8 directions correspond to a gate. In this arena is also the office of all the office executives of the whole Kanto region and 5 of its most powerful trainers: The Elite 4 and the Champion.
Unfortunately, the headquarters for Pokémon Coordinators is in the Hoenn Region and hasn't reached the prominence of Pokémon training or the importance of Pokemon Breeding to have headquarters in every region. Though some traction is seen in the Sinnoh region due to a trainer-coordinator genius, Cynthia, and the Coordinator gym leader, Fantina.
Going back, in one of the office of the Elite 4, the 4 strongest individuals below the champion that acts not only as the final hurdle of everyone who wanted to take the throne of Kanto's strongest, but is also mandated hunters of evil organizations that poaches and uses Pokemon in their nefarious plans, a dark purple ghost Pokemon with 4 limbs and a spiked back is as always, grinning with all of its teeth exposed.
Gengar, or more specifically Agatha's Gengar, floated around the office of its master, on top of its head is Gengar's master herself, Elite 4 Agatha, dressed in a rather light clothing, unlike its public appearances, though they're just purple housemaid attire. Recently, Agatha felt like being an Elite 4 has become a bore already; furthermore, recently, all of the challenges she received are a matter of the moment victory on her part.
Agatha felt her age catching up quickly, which made her quite happy when she heard that an aspirant named Karen from the Johto region, another region governed by the Indigo Plateau, would soon come for his spot and give her a run for her money. She wished that the youngster Karen would finally be able to get her out of her throne as an elite 4.
For Agatha, even if she is to get out of her post as an Elite 4 in a defeat, at least she was able to guide the next generation, unlike her old friend Samuel, who just suddenly gave up because he felt like being a Pokemon Researcher instead.
"Sigh..."
With an energetic yet aged voice, Agatha exhaled a dragged-out breath when suddenly, her personal phone rang in her pocket. This made Agatha, who knew that no important figures were in her personal phone, as those contacts are in her working phone, perplexed as she pulled it out.
On it is the name 'Hana Dover', which made Agatha more confused. From the moment Hana and The League have some temporary friction that the latter is trying hard to mend, the throneless champion didn't call any Elite 4 and didn't answer any calls from them unless it was on an official letter of request to do something.
Agatha picked it up and put the phone to her ear while hopping down from Gengar as she heard: "Hello Agatha, will you be going to your ex's lab on Friday for the interns' tournament?"
Agatha's temples suddenly bulged out with veins; however, before she could even berate the disrespectful young lady, Hana immediately added.
"I know you will, you did it in our time. Anyway, I have two things for my call right now. First, some Team Rocket snoopers might approach my child during the tournament. Please make Gengar or maybe your Banette back in the lab around my son and protect him. You know, those guys are monitoring Ben, as they were high-strung about the reason for his retirement."
As Agatha walked towards her table, she couldn't help but be more confused.
"Why? Won't you watch your child?"
Agatha, Hana, and Ben will definitely come to the first-ever tournament of their child, because, well, they're parents, and even Agatha has a period of being a doting mother.
"We will, but we don't have a Pokémon that can properly loiter around without detection. Also, we can't bring our Pokemons because they refuse to get away from their eggs."
Agatha sat down, now understanding the point of Hana. Anyway, the couple is notorious for having gigantic Pokemons and hit them harder tactic in their early life as Pokemon trainer. Hana and Ben probably won't comprehend the rationale of catching a Shuppet in their early life, and won't have the patience to raise one even if they did.
"What's the second matter?"
Agatha remembered that there were two things that Hana wanted to talk about.
"You may want to investigate Viridian City and its Gym, you see, the disappearance of their Gym Leader and the restart of the activities of Team Rocket are very near each other."
Agatha's expression suddenly froze, suddenly swatting a stacked folder on her table and starting to flip through it.
"... Team Rocket restarted operations... near the disappearance of the Viridian Gym Leader? We have already investigated if there's a correlation, but it says here that it's unlikely since Viridian doesn't have any traces of Team Rocket, plus the first activity of Team Rocket that is recorded is at Mt. Moon, the city nearest to the cave is Pewter City, which is after Viridian City."
One should know that the Indigo Plateau is continuously searching for the whereabouts of this gym leader and temporarily promoted a minor gym to a league gym status as a way to mend the disappearance.
"I don't know how you didn't see it; either a skill issue, or someone is blocking these informations to your investigation team. So, there's that, that's all, bye."
Agatha sat there with a frown before picking up the landline and tapping a certain number.