The moment Prof. Oak announced their activity for today and for the remaining days of the internship, the small crowd burst into murmurs, which the Professor just let happen.
"W-woah..."
"Aren't they usually dense in cemeteries?"
"Are trainers allowed to go there and then try and catch one?"
"Apparently Lavender and Pallet Towns are one of the few places where trainers can battle wild Ghost Types inside cemeteries. So we should be fine."
As expected, because all the interns remaining after the failed kidnapping attempt are all serious researchers (except Mary), their conversation is more technical than when there are still many of them. Even Anthony, who's obviously more mature than the children, is pitching in as he doesn't know that much about where tamed and lab-grown Ghost Types are being stored. Because of this, he was able to observe that despite the technical nature of the conversation of the interns, their expressions are still slightly brimming with fear.
_Right, only wild Ghost-type Pokemon Pokemons out of all discovered Pokemon types, have a statistically over 50% chance of killing someone inside a city, even when well-guarded against hostile-natured Pokemons. While Pokemons in general are the reason, they are one of the frontrunners in why people are advised to always have a Pokemon on them when going out of cities._
This is all the information Anthony knows regarding Ghost Types, as he paused all his studies for the impending breeders' exam when he turned 10 until yesterday because he was too tired to continue after data collection. In this regard, it's quite convenient that the latest tests for Miltank indicate that it has the Scrappy ability, which allows a Pokemon to hit Ghost types using normal and fighting type moves.
Anthony is sure that he is completely safe in this activity.
After making the 7 interns indulge in their own talks, Prof. Oak knocked on the table gently to gather their attention to himself once more. When he was able to confirm that all ears were on him, the Pokemon Professor continued.
"Before we start, I will be giving you an introduction to everything that you should know about them. Please listen carefully because, as you all know, Ghost types are one of the most tricky Pokemons to take care of, and mishandlement of them can cause great physical and mental damage, and worst of all, death. Every person who doesn't have any note-taking materials can go outside first and get them."
Even though Prof. Oak expected the kids to be prepared to take notes, as one of their purposes here is to learn things from him, he still made such a statement. After all, it's better to be cautious than to just solicit blind confidence, something that Prof. Oak had to learn the hard way some months ago.
When it was confirmed that all students had their own yellow pads, binders, and clipboards with them, ready to take down everything that he says, Prof. Oak nodded in satisfaction before grabbing a Poké Ball in his pocket, pressing the enlargement button in the middle and then throwing it at the table. The ball revealed the most common Ghost-type Pokemon in all of Kanto: Ghastly, which is basically just a ball of black gas with sharp eyes and a moon-shaped smile.
"GhaAaAAstly~"
The Ghastly said, its voice high, suggesting it is still a child despite its perpetually sneering expression. Alongside this, the Ghastly moved its floating and lightweight body around left and right while its sharp eyes seemed to shine with excitement, which confirms that the Ghost-type Pokemon in front of them is on the young side of things.
This, of course, is noticed by the interns, making them intrigued.
"W-whoa... is it a child? I have never seen a child Ghost-type before..."
One intern gulped as he closed-in his pen into the Pokemon. Upon seeing this, the Pokemon tilted its whole body as it glanced at the student, which is actually Andrew, before looking at the pen, approaching it slowly before licking it.
"GhaAaAA~?"
The Pokemon once again looked at Andrew, now in confusion, though Andrew is not too sure if it's confused by the taste of the pen or why Andrew put the pen in front of it in the first place. Seeing this, Prof. Oak chuckled before continuing his speech.
"Hah! What a curious child, huh? Well, before we begin, this is the first thing you have to learn: While Ghost types in general are considered to be mischievous, they are still arbitrarily classified by nature, so some would be curious, some would be prideful, and some would be pranksters; thus their potential as Ghost types is still somehow dependent on their natures. If you want to train one in the future or are dealing with a prank of any depth, make sure to remember this, or you can get misguided by yourselves, understood?"
While they looked at the child Ghastly, the interns were also writing rigorously while slightly nodding to Prof. Oak's warning. After scribbling their notes, making their most understandable version of the Professor's words, they finally replied: "Yes."
While true educators would've found this behavior odd and even disrespectful if they really thought so highly of themselves despite not doing their jobs properly, Prof. Oak nodded at this with satisfaction and is not one bit felt desrespected at all. After all, he's teaching how these students can avoid dying, so them taking his points seriously is something that fulfills the job Prof. Oak is trying to do.
As the Ghastly moved towards the Professor as it saw that the interns were not paying attention to it, the Professor put up his right hand and made the Ghastly jump over it. He then continued.
"Now, while most of you already know this, Ghost types are one of, if not the most mysterious amongst all types that are currently confirmed and discovered by humans. There are a lot of things to be considered on why they are mysterious, like how they can phase in and out of things but seem to not be able to do so if they were expending their energy extensively before, during or after an attempt, however this is just because it needs immense concentration and can actually compensated through willpower of the Pokemon or completely exhausting their mysterious energy reserves. Instead, their most mysterious feature is the fact that they feed on 'negative emotions'."
As Prof. Oak paused, he suddenly looked around at the interns who were also looking at him intently. He then raised his left hand and said: "What are 'negative emotions' in the context of Ghost-type biology, and why is it so mysterious for us researchers and scientists?"
Prof. Oak have his pherepherals focused on Anthony, who was able to somehow sense it as he suddenly felt the urge to say 'why the hell are you looking at me?', though he was strong enough to not say it until someone finally dared to raise her hand, though the girl is obviously not as outgoing as Mary, the only girl in the internship that Anthony have and is interacting with.
"Uh... uh... in Prof. Oak's book titled: 'How to train your Ghost types', it is said that scientists are still unable to create a version of an infrared thermometer to see 'negative emotion' energy, and it seems that only Ghost types can make it manifest during times when they actively 'eat' them. Ghost types also, interestingly, can eat normal food, but would prefer the negative emotions like fear, fright, and sadness of Pokemons or humans and would actually grow stronger if they are constantly put into a cemetery, a mental asylum, or the sewers."
At this answer, Prof. Oak nodded and smiled, making the students confirm that what the girl said was correct, consequently making them scribble a summary of the words. The Pokemon Professor continued speaking.
"Right, as Lady Samantha has said here, negative emotion 'energy' is something that can only be seen and 'commanded' to materialize by Ghost types. Also, when you touch a stream of negative emotion energy, it's not hot at all, which is odd since it clearly energizes a Pokemon and is not stored in lard. Also, regarding their physical Pokémon foods, the best thing Ghost-type breeders can do is to do trial and error on the amount of energy gained by Ghost types by making them eat different dosages of different berries and mashing together the most compatible ones."
Prof. Oak paused for a moment to let the students scribble on their notes before once again continuing.
"But, we can confirm one thing: there's always a distinction between self-made and permeating negative emotions energy. As its name implies, self-made are fear or despair that were felt because of a Ghost type's intervention, while permeating are those that are already in places with lots of grieving or unresolved heinous cases. While the two are both good for Ghost types and their preferred delicacy, the permeating negative energy is more like the mass-produced version, while the self-made negative energy is the real high-quality one. It's actually proven that self-made ones make Ghost types generally stronger than their peers who are inside 'mass-producing' sites."
Once again, the Professor paused and looked around before talking: "Another question: who discovered these two types and who proved their differing effects in Ghost Pokemons?"
This time, it was the time of Andrew, who calmly raised his hand and was quickly chosen by Prof. Oak to stand up.
"The two types of negative energy were discovered by Elite 4 Agatha through a scandal where she made a horror house too scary and realistic, using Ghost-type Pokémon as a business venture to the point that 68% of ongoers reported non-permanent mental illness and heart conditions. The Pokemon League ordered her to shut it down before any cardiac arrest could happen inside the horror house. There, she realized that a faint amount of energy is sucked into the Ghost types; it's said that she's still doing things to harvest genuine negative energy."
As Andrew paused, Anthony nodded and remembered the mangled-up leader of the double spies that tried to abduct him; however, he focused on the lesson and not on how he could fit the image of Elite 4 Agatha to the reasons why the girl got every bone in her body destroyed.
"The one that confirmed their different effects is a young Phoebe, the projected new Elite 4 to champion-level trainer of the Hoenn region, when she went to Mt. Pyre as a young adult and wasn't able to control the pranks of her ghost types. At first, she barely noticed it, and with the help of her associate field researcher license, and with the interest of Elite 4 Agatha in the study, she was able to make an experimental setting and publish the pioneering paper; from there, many things were able to be inferred regarding how Ghost types are created, how they can be trained more effectively, among others."
At this moment, Anthony's head craned back in confusion as he slowly raised his hand after Andrew stopped talking, looking at Prof. Oak, who immediately agreed for him to speak by nodding his head.
"Andrew, does that mean that Ghost types are not as effeciently trained before as compared to now? Does that also mean the danger of training them is way higher before than it already is?"
Andrew looked at his friend before looking at Prof. Oak.
"I only know that this discovery made it so that scientists can explain why Ghost types are pranksters in nature, and some don't even use hypnosis to intimidate others."
Seeing that it was his cue to speak, the Pokemon Professor spoke.
"The percentage certainly lowered since now people can be more strategic and either have Normal types to have as their Pokemons or really any Pokemon that's trained to not easily be intimidated. Also, in terms of training Ghost types, this did make training easier, especially for Ghost geniuses like Agatha... sigh, I remember the time when I was defeated because I didn't think through how this paper would affect our rivalry..."
Professor Oak smiled faintly as if reminiscing about a good memory before snapping back to his professional smile.
"Going back, the paper made it easy because now, trainers knew how to cut themselves above others: just let your Ghost-type prank other people and make sure that it would be harmless. There's even a whole paper determining what kind of pranks will cause the least cortisol spike while still giving the most quantity of negative energy to the Ghost types and also a law penalizing the use of Ghost type pranks as an excuse to acquite someone of murder or homicide of any type or degree, kind of like how protective-natured Pokemon are given the benifit of the doubt in law by making the complainant the one that should defend themselves with more evidence rather than the ones being accused of harm done by the Pokemon in court."
Anthony just nodded and scribbled down the information, even though he felt like such a law would result in a disaster. Normally, there are these creatures called Psycic type Pokemons that can tell when someone is lying very reliably.