"Breaking, Kanto Champion Blue Oak announces he will not entertain any challenges for his champion status until the Pokémon League yields a winner and challenges him. His staff has also said that he's running an errand for his grandfather, Samuel Oak, the Pokémon Professor of the Kanto region..."
Ben Dover, as usual, is enjoying his retirement as he listened to the radio broadcast of the news in his ear pods while cleaning up his desk and stacking up on stocks for the freebies of the buyers of eggs of their Pokemons in their daycare center that had become rather scarce due to the onslaught of customers, which has doubled since the Pokémon League challenge season started. It now includes Pokedex cases and chains as well as stickers, this is so that some memorabilia enthusiasts may buy an egg for the sake of the freebies.
_Hm, I wonder if this breaking news is really 'breaking', it might just be a delayed 'breaking' news for the Interpol to mess up the time perception of what remains on Team Rocket. It seems like Interpol was pressured by Prof. Oak quite hard because of the incident with Anthony and because Interpol and the world government are still scourging the heaven and earth for non-elite 4 and champion force after the retirement of Hana and me, as well as Hana's almost refusal to meddle with their operations, they immediately gave in and did as Prof. Oak said._
Ben is quite sad to not be able to help Hana in rescuing their son, which ended up not being needed at all. There's a possibility of Team Rocket using his son as a diversion in order to ransack their house of evidence on the true reason for his retirement. Well, what can the Dover couple say? Those bastards won't just leave them alone.
_Hana even said to me that she will come if the government requests our aid..._
Ben was quite shocked when Hana, who hates the government the most between the Dover couple, suggested as such. Though she would not need to suggest something like that, as Ben would go by himself if Hana insisted on not helping the government with major matters.
_That being said, Blue and his rival Red seem to have already become strong enough to be utilized; however, they still seem to need the full force of the core of the league. That's not very good. They have to find a batch of trainers who have talent. I wonder if they have other prospects besides Red here in Kanto. I'm quite burnt out and don't have the drive to browse the internet about Pokémon trainers and their ranking. Only kid I know is Red and Cynthia, as well as Blue and Red._
Just as Ben was mulling over the current state of his former job, the sound of Hana resounded in the entrance of the Daycare center's Biome. This prompted Ben to pull out the '1 hour lunch break' sign under his counter and hang it in their front door, which has now been made of glass so the customers can see what's inside.
Ben then went to the entrance of the biomes, where he saw Hana already eating. The latter then looked at Ben as she gulped the food she had been chewing and said.
"Heracross is not in its biome."
While doing so, Hana is pointing at the forested area of the biome, which has grown in size as they bought more land adjacent to it and connected it through higher fences, which will surely make Anthony look surprised when he comes back from his internship. Ben smiled as he heard his wife's words.
"It's fine, Heracross is just... visiting Route 12."
Hana smiled at that. Unfortunately, Gyarados and Charizard are tending to their eggs.
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Once again, Anthony found himself coursing through the ocean at the back of a Lapras, feeling the wind and the mildly salty vapor that was coming from the combined forces of the wind and the sun. While this may make his deteriorating eyesight worse, causing him to close his eyes while just making sure to savor the slap of the wind in his face, Anthony still finds these moments relaxing, especially since his next few months would be very stressful and filled with work.
This time, Zubat is inside its Poké Ball to have some rest while Miltank is also relaxing with its trainer. Even the Skitty of Mary is being held in its Poké Ball, after all, they need to capture Magikarp, and while Gyarados (except Hana's and ones being taken care of by the Pokémon lab) are always in the larger expanses of oceans away from any landmass, they still won't leave anything to chance.
In this case, a simple warning from the instinctual or biological abilities of their Pokemons would be useful in the off chance that they may come near the peril of being near a Mama Gyarados, giving them have lots of time to escape. Though again, it was said that there's no Gyarados in Route 12.
Besides this precaution, Anthony and Mary are both relaxed; specifically, Mary seems not to mind what Anthony has just said to her, or at least is trying to hide her feelings and thoughts. Anthony didn't know if what he meant went through his friend's brain; he just had to perhaps wait for a response or repeat it once more, plus he could see if she had changed any of her habits of imitating the image of his mom in Mary's brain when battling or when doing associate field researcher-related stuff, so it should be fine.
All in all, it was a relaxing and quiet journey as the two continued their relaxed pace. Well... relaxing, yes, but now that a beetle two times the height of Anthony with a large horn on its snout is descending on them, the quiet part has become questionable. Mary's eyes, who seemed to also be affected by the salty vapor, suddenly lit up and looked at Anthony in wonder.
"Is... is that Sir Ben Dover's Heracross!? Has it visited you?!"
Anthony can't help but sigh and look at his friend with worry, wondering if she will really embody what he has just said to her about an hour ago. He then replied.
That seems to be the case... though I wonder where dad is..."
In order not to fail the fangirling Mary, Anthony asked Heracross if his dad was somewhere near them. Unfortunately, the Pokémon crossed its arm into an 'X' before pointing its right hand at itself. It seems like Heracross came to visit him alone, which made Mary quite sad, though she cheered up immediately and played with Heracross that was still hovering above the Lapras, who seemed not to mind the existence of the bug-type Pokémon.
"Heeeee...."
Heracross looked at Miltank, that seem to be excited about meeting one of its master's dad's Pokémon. Anthony waited for Heracross to send any message or anything; however, he instead heard his phone notify him of a message from his dad.
"Is Heracross with you? It seems to miss you, take good care of it, and make sure to make it come back before your activity starts."
Anthony looked at Heracross as he absorbed the message, just sighing and putting back his phone to his pocket after replying. Anthony doesn't really mind his father's Heracross being here, so he gave in, though soon he was bombarded with questions about how his father raised his Pokemons and if they can go to their house since it's close to others.
Of course, Anthony has to decline going to his house as that would need a lot of time again.
______________________
Disembarking from the Lapras' enormous back through its similarly enormous flippers, Heracross waved farewell through its hands, making Anthony squint a little, for he felt that the only reason Heracross came here was for the journey to be noisy. Now, his plans on adding more to the 5 topic directions that he crafted for their first published research while enjoying the flying Winguls and the own talks of Lapras to its fellow water types, but now he has to just make do with the 5 and ask Mary if she has some herself.
_Huh, I should have passed this to Prof. Josie... hm, well me and Mary have to talk about this for now before we pass it, maybe during the travel hours when we go back to the green development lab..._
As Anthony thought of that, Lapras went away as well, whilst the two interns were received by 2 adult in lab gowns, it seems like it was the head researcher of the satellite lab affiliated with the Green Development lab and one of his assistants.
It seems like this lab is less busy, at least the head is present.
The head immediately welcomed them to the plank-bridged Route 12. While it may look dangerous and may seem to be too irresponsible to not convert it into concrete, the trees that are used to get these planks are a research product of the green development lab, specifically their bioengineering unit, specifically made to last long and be unbearably bitter for Pokemons that eat wood and trees. Furthermore, these planks can be planted through stem cutting means, so the beams underneath have roots instead of concrete to hold them up.
Or so the head of the satellite lab said, he even made Mary and Anthony scan the DOI of the 5-part research articles of that made this bridge alongside other wooden bridges in Kanto, and soon the whole Pokémon world became possible. And indeed, it was really a multi-research effort from the green development lab long ago, and even until now, it's still something that impacts cultural preservation efforts.
_This is especially useful in Johto as they have the most wood and bamboo-based infrastructures..._
On Earth, a lot of people and groups called themselves conservatives because they want to conserve cultures, but no one that Anthony knew of came close to this kind of effort. While walking and feeling a little melancholic, Anthony glanced at Mary to see how she reacted and to gauge how much of an impact what he said had on Mary.
Contrary to his expectations, Mary's eyes remained sharp and not as wavering as before. Well, it IS still wavering, but just on a weaker scale. If before she looked terrified, then now, Mary is more uncomfortable, which Anthony is not sure is a good progress, but any change of emotion from fear is something good. After all, you cannot triumph against something that you fear.
_Ah, isn't it 'do it scared' or something? Well, this is not a love confession, so I don't like Mary doing it scared..._
The two interns were tasked to eat their lunches in 30 minutes as they would be having a 30-minute briefing on how to use the equipments that they would use in their data collection, which they did. The equipments only has two components: a surface-supplied diving equipment, 5 separate cages, and non-harmful sedatives.
It was quite an easy set of equipments to use, the surface supplied diving equipment is just something you put in your body, and as long as you are not a complete idiot, no one will mess it up. It was also lighter and even weightless somehow, and can adjust its buoyancy so the wearer can easily float while the sedative is in the form of 5 pieces per set of large syringes that would be injected into the brain of the Magikarp.
After the briefing, the assistant who was instructing them pointed at Anthony.
"How do we lure Magikarps?"
Mary seemed to be eager to answer, but Anthony calmly did what he was asked to do.
"They have almost no muscle and almost can't go against any current, so wafting the water with your hands is something feasible unless we have specific equipment for more efficiency."
In response, the assistant clapped two times and smiled.
"Very good, now, you will be given another 30-minute break to familiarize yourself with the equipment and make sure that it doesn't have any malfunction, as we will be dropping you in a not-so-shallow area of the waters. If there's any or potentially suspicious rip or dent on any equipment that I have just given you, you two are obligated to report it, and if we discover the malfunction in the data collection, you will be punished."
Anthony and Mary nodded seriously, as of course, no one wanted to have an almost life-ending experience because of a wardrobe malfunction and then get punished because of it. That's like tripping to the ground, and then your mom proceeded to beat your ass with a hanger; it's quite unpleasant to imagine. This is the reason why the checking went on for 15 minutes before they were finally guided to the vessel that they would be using. It was a small research vessel in the dock area named 'Blue', seemingly only used around the waters between Cinnabar and Fuchsia.
Anthony and Mary looked at the vessel whilst the assistant said, "Let's go?"
The two nodded solemnly.