The research publication activity, as well as the daily activities of the interns to achieve the tall task for a child to publish a rigorous research paper is not only advised and monitored by the head of the lab/center where the interns are helping out, Prof. Oak also required them to report to him live, through a video conferencing on how do these remaining interns of his is doing.
Of course, normally, it won't be like this, and written reports are already enough due to the fact that there are a lot of interns (well, 20 is considered a lot for kids wanting to be an associate field researcher). Furthermore, the lab head is not required to be the one to be teaching the children and advise them on their research publication activity as they will not be transferred to the centers itself during normal circumstances, however, Prof. Oak who is obviously the one responsible for the accident that would ripple and diminish the number of the interns for the years to come decided to give them the most responsible, experienced and decorated scientists he have under his wing as a guide to the students as a gift for the inconvenience he have caused.
And it's just so happened that half of them are associate field researchers who were under his wing before, and the other half used to be researchers directly inside the main lab of Kanto, so they were forc-, begg-, ahem... given the honor to teach their successors. Going back, right now, the first video conference that will present all of the interns ' status of the interns is about to start.
In the screen of the adviser of Anthony Dover and Mary Hane, Professor Josie Ford is one of her counterparts in the different labs across the Kanto region, while in the middle is the head of all Pokémon Research in Kanto, Prof. Oak himself. It's not exactly a fun and colorful bunch of people, as all of them are in working mode and in lab gowns, except for Prof. Oak, who was being bitten by an Ekans on the neck.
_What is this old man doing..._
Prof. Josie, who had just come from lunch, sighed while waiting for Prof. Oak to start the meeting. However, the Pokémon Professor seemed to still be struggling to get the Ekans out of his neck and was also spasming a little from its venom. It was a good thing that his assistants immediately helped him and brought in some low-dose sedatives enough to just make the Ekans languid.
All the heads of the labs sighed in relief as the meeting finally started after Prof. Oak sighed and smiled on the screen.
"Good afternoon, Doctors and Professors of Pokemon research labs, well, you already knew why you are here, and we're not really here for something so lengthy, so let's start already. Prof. Marlon, adviser of Pokémon Behavior interns, you may start..."
The presentation of the progress of the students will normally proceed monthly, with the special exemption of the month of February happening 2 times, so that Prof. Oak can monitor if this arrangement is detrimental for the interns and the research heads. Prof. Josie stared blankly at the screen that was presenting a counterpart of hers, making what he was saying go from her right ear to the left, as it's not something worth paying attention to, yet, after all, it's not even a month yet since these interns went to their designations.
Prof. Josie, in short, just wants to get this over with to have some work done before another video conference with her interns, whom she tasked to further modify their title and discuss it with her during the night. That being said, she was still interested in the titles of the research topics of the interns, as it was one of Prof. Josie's past times to give the titles corrections in her mind without sounding them out, which she also did to her students.
After around 20 minutes of Prof. Oak asking questions on the first two out of the four Professors that will be reporting, it was already Prof. Josie's turn, which made her turn serious as she had some concerns to put into the table of Prof. Oak, which subsequently is also the reason why she wants everything to proceed fast.
"My interns, Anthony Dover and Mary Hane, have already formulated an initial title and will be polishing it with me tonight after their data collection of our census on Lavender Town. I made this data collection not include Ghost type and made the scientists of the satellite lab do the ones for the ghost because the internship doesn't provide training to ghost type handling until the last months of the internship... going back, their title is currently: 10-year biodiversity index analysis of the effects of noise pollution in Fuchsia city."
At that moment, Prof. Josie paused and didn't continue on with her concerns as she knew that Prof. Oak was interested in the duo that she's been guiding. Indeed, because Mary can use a finesse type Pokemon as a partner to carry out reckless strategies, Hana-Esque and Anthony can escape an attempted kidnapping (plus he's a child of one of his most troublesome students) made him have some preference in anticipating what the duo has been doing.
Though of course, he doesn't play favorites, and his question to them is the same as others.
"Are there any difficulties that they have been through, even though it's only been a week?"
Prof. Josie nodded at this question before succinctly answering.
"Yes, albeit it's minor and seems to already be expected on your part. You see, Mary Hane seem to be scared and exaggerate the difficulty of data collections and research in her mind, making her have attitudes potentially detrimental to their progress, however it was able to resolve itself through Anthony Dover and needs limited intervention on my part except those times where I have to ask her questions to make her remember that she have researched enough and knows enough about these topics."
Prof. Oak was shocked at this as he faintly smiled, knowing that interesting things would always happen when Anthony was around. Well, he hopes that interesting doesn't mean survivor stories before asking once more:
"What did Anthony Dover do?"
At this question, Prof. Josie seemed to look at something on her table, but in truth, she was just looking at the time to see how many minutes had passed. They were already going strong for almost an hour and a half and more.
"You may have noticed this already, Professor, but Mary Hane is very afraid of the 'researcher' part of the associate field researcher profession to the point that she vibrates hard when they were given the task of thinking up titles. I don't know what exactly happened or the reason for this terrified reaction from her, but according to the scientists who were cooking at that time, Anthony said that there would be no new Hana Dover and Mary Hane is just Mary Hane."
In truth, Prof. Josie is in the conference room sleeping soundly when this happened, so she was late in the information, but that's not really important as she saw the widened eyes of Prof. Oak. After all, Anthony is just 7 years old, being able to notice and lock in the reason on why is his friend seem to unable to come into terms with research is something admirable. Of course, Prof. Oak already knew that Mary wanted to be the same as Hana, as he already saw lots of people who wanted to be like someone they idolize, himself is the best example, as lots of the current assistants of his and the assistants of the other labs wanted to one day also be known as the Pokémon Professor of the Kanto Region.
However, Prof. Oak has a more important question.
"Is it effective?"
Prof. Josie nodded as a sign of affirmation before further elaborating.
"Yes, it seems to be effective as I observed more enthusiasm and less fear in the eyes of Mary Hane. If I may add, through the two data collection activities that I have assigned them, Mary Hane seems to be able to see that research and data collection in specific is not as hard as she makes it out to be. This may be further strengthened because their research needs just secondary data, so who knows she may contribute to the academe in the future, though she mainly wanted to be a trainer with more unfair advantage than the ones who don't become associate field researchers."
Most associate field researchers that is also serious about their Pokémon League challenge are almost certainly big or intermediate figures in the trainer's world. The best example is Hana and Ben Dover, while the current example is Melissa Edison and her senior, Jeremy, who are always coming in deep runs every Pokemon League tournament and even went as a finalist of the Pokemon League challenges twice or thrice in their ongoing careers, though they were either defeated or didn't challenge the champion.
While Prof. Oak is basking in the satisfaction of knowing that Anthony and Mary solved the problem within, Prof. Josie finally decided to raise her concern.
"However, there are some concerns with their safety with the way the Interpol is currently conducting sweeping operations of all Team Rocket bases. And knowing Team Rocket's cockroach-like resilience, I bet this will take a year at the very least, even with champion calibers Blue and Red, and Cynthia Celestica being used as a diversion."
This is immediately seconded by the other professors, who silently nod. Prof. Oak is, of course, aware of the possible dangers of letting the interns roam around while an active hunt for Team Rocket members is happening in different towns and cities of Kanto and Johto. This is already a concern in the briefing of the head scientists, as even though the hunt hasn't even reached a month yet, Team Rocket is still known for their violations and their lethal use of Pokémon force.
However, it seems like Prof. Oak has already considered this.
"I'm not really one to leak any kind of classified information, but let's just say that Cynthia Celestica's task is to flush out Team Rocket out of the main cities and then make them move out of their wilderness hideouts. For now, you can focus on making them either go to the ocean or make them collect data near cities and prevent them from going inside caves or mountains, as well as sites with hard terrains. I'm still coordinating with Interpol to get a map of the wilderness hideouts, but you already knew one quite well, right?"
As the professors nodded, one of them muttered.
"Mt. Moon..."
Prof. Oak nodded before continuing.
"For now, you should avoid the places I just said and make sure that their sites of data collection are something that can easily be accessed by you. The Interpol is also scattered all over Kanto as we speak, so it should be fine."
As Prof. Oak assured the Professors, the meeting continued whilst Prof. Oak also continued his questioning of the interesting events during the short period of the internship.
________________
While the professors met among themselves in the online world, the world of Pokémon continued to rotate around the sun, making time goes by until it's time set, slowly turning from bright yellow into glaring ruby, sending beautiful and mesmerizing rays of red light that hit several houses in the outskirts of the town of the Pokémon Tower, Lavender Town.
"Good afternoon, ma'am, we are interns of the Cinnabar Island Center of Green Development conducting a census on the non-ghost type Pokemons of Lavender Town as a part of the yearly biodiversity index update of the Green Development Center in Lavender Town. We came here to ask you the following: Number of your Pokemons, their types, and the species of your Pokemons."
"After you answered these, we will be putting a sticker in every one of your Pokemons so they won't get recounted. This sticker is waterproof, so you can still bathe your Pokemons like normal. We ask that you not remove them until tomorrow at 6 in the evening, after we finish counting wild Pokemons. Thank you."
In front of an old lady who's holding a Persian in her left hand while playing with it with the bristle grass in her right, are two children of small stature in lab gowns speaking. One is a boy and another a girl; the first statement was memorized by the boy while the other was made by the girl. The old lady smiled as she saw yet another aspiring associate field researcher inside their town, which she has been seeing a lot of in recent years.
"Oh, oh, of course, young ones. Hey Skitty, Delcatty..."
Anthony and Mary looked at each other and nodded as they were not on the verge of completing their last house in their census of domesticated Pokemons. Unsurprisingly, it seems like the people of Lavender are already used to the presence of the interns and cooperated 100% of the time, making their job easier, and walking around town was the hardest part of the census.
_Finally..._
The two interns sighed in relief while writing down the information needed on the sheet they were provided by the satellite lab.