The hustle and bustle of the people of Pewter City seems to always be obvious even just a few hours after the sun has risen. Especially for those who are not Pokemon trainers, as they don't need to haul-ass in order to reach the city on foot, which is what they were doing for the sake of saving money and to catch Pokemon that they can use for battles or, better yet, raise to be league-calibre Pokemon.
However, the reverse is also true: the workers and facilities that are directly catering for Pokemon trainers have most certainly expected themselves to be not disturbed during this time of day. If not for the fact that they're obligated by their status as government facilities and government employees to wake up early to serve the 'public', then these facilities, such as the Rock-type Pokemon Gym of Pewter City, would still be asleep.
Well, normally, the only thing alive and awake at this hour for them is the lights of their facility, while the personnel, who're also awake, are still dreaming about sleeping or are just awake out of their paycheck. This time, however, is different.
"Good morning and welcome to the Pewter City Gym. You are here quite early; may I know what your business might be?"
One of the gym trainers, thinking that he would be having a few hours of paid rest since it was still about 6 in the morning and trainers usually go and challenge the gym around 8, snapped from his half-asleep state and stood straight up as he greeted the quite fashionable trainer/researcher in front of him. To the right of the boy is a Miltank whilst a Zubat is perched atop his head, both of which look excited about what their endeavors would be for the day.
"I'm here to challenge the Pewter Gym. Good morning to you, too."
The gym trainer nodded succinctly at this; his shoulders were slightly slumped because he needed to work so early in the morning, though Anthony, who also felt that it was quite early but couldn't sleep that well because of his excitement that he unfortunately couldn't physically show in his face, was able to see them and chose to ignore it and give the receptionist some slack. He can't even make a little summary of what he's supposed to do in the next days. Of course, he can't really beat himself up for it; after all, every fan of Pokemon, or at least the majority (since the release of Pokemon Coordinators in Emerald), always dreams of challenging a Pokemon gym to qualify for the league.
"I see, then let's go inside."
Anthony did as the gym trainer commanded, coaxing his Pokémon to enter the gym, which is, as Anthony observed this world, not designed like the anime, you know, the one that has a sprinkler on top despite being made entirely out of rocks. Instead, the place Anthony was in does still have no wood or any flammable materials except the plastic in the wires of the electrical lines, but the roof is supported by welded metal whilst the floor is made up of pounded dirt; this is the truth alongside the battlefield, which is just right up the entrance.
"Please sit down on the bench for the moment; I will go fetch the gym leader Brock."
After nodding, Anthony saw the man guiding him finally find something good out of being disturbed in his paid rest as he smiled at him whilst saying such words. Just as the gym trainer said, Anthony sat down alongside his Pokémon, whose eyes, both literal and metaphorical, were brimming with excitement.
_The very first thing I have to do this morning is, of course, make sure that Zubat's evolution will be a success. After that, I need to make the next training plan for Golbat and make sure that it won't hinder the primary on-field job of Zubat, which is to be a very long-range reconnaissance Pokemon. Right, I also need to look around to see potential research paper pitches, but I will probably do that. Of course I will have to do the data collecting missions that can go my way while making all of these happen..._
Anthony is also aware that Interpol might tap his services, but he believes that a researcher in his day 2 is not that needed by Interpol, unless they wanted to see if his escaping stunt in the hands of the attempted kidnapping of him during the internship is a fluke or not; it better not be the case.
While Anthony was waiting for the gym trainer to get Gym Leader Brock, he suddenly felt his phone vibrating, and when he opened it, he saw a notification from an exclusive associate field researchers-only app that has no job other than giving him and other field researchers their data collection job. Since Anthony doesn't have anything to do other than wait, he immediately read it.
"Title: Dr. Burgundy's Data Collection Request
Description: Dr. Burgundy is a Pokemon Breeder that specializes in Pokemon behaviors. Recently, due to a research paper by two interns, he has gained interest in how domestic and street Pokémon's behavior differs if the two are all inside a noise-polluted area. Right now, he's looking for assistants to help him collect observational data: one in households and commercial buildings and the other in sewers and along intersections of buildings in Viridian City."
Anthony's eyebrows can't help but widen a little as he learned that a Dr. in Breeding was inspired by what he and Mary just randomly thought. Though he also felt like this would be a great opportunity to learn from the so-called Dr. Burgundy and also get some job done while looking around for research inspiration, he didn't shy away from the call and immediately pressed 'accept mission'. Apparently, it needs around 5 associate field researchers, and Anthony is the first one to answer the call.
"Mr. Trainer, Gym Leader Brock is here. He wanted to talk to you about the formalities of the gym challenge before the battle proper."
After Anthony clicked the accept mission button, the gym trainer seemed to have already fetched the gym leader of Pewter City, who is a man with seemingly perpetually shut eyes wearing a green polo shirt and an orange and black blazer. Brock, the first gym leader of Pewter City, had a faint smile on his lips. Seeing him, Anthony couldn't help but gulp some saliva before standing up and offering his hand in a handshake by instinct; thankfully for Anthony, Gym Leader Brock immediately took Anthony's hand and shook it.
"Good morning, Gym Leader Brock. I'm Anthony Dover; it's a pleasure to meet and challenge you today."
Hearing this, Gym Leader Brock smiled at Anthony as they parted their hands.
"Good morning to you too, Mr. Dover. Congratulations on being one of the topnotchers of the Pokémon Breeder's exam. You're quite the celebrity now."
Anthony nodded at this, while doing so, he also coaxed his two Pokémon to greet Gym Leader Brock.
"Thank you very much. I hope I can keep being one if it's all for the right reasons."
Gym Leader Brock nodded; all this time, he was observing how Anthony reacted to seeing someone well-known like himself and being complimented. For the Gym Leader, the ability to not deflect compliments while also not projecting oneself as arrogant is a very good way to show character; being humble and being insecure are sometimes mixed up by people. After all, Gym Leader Brock was impressed as of now. Anthony, the middle-aged man that he is, was able to notice this much, and as a way to make a good first impression, he took the liberty of saying things that Gym Leader Brock wanted to hear.
"Alright then, now that you're an associate field researcher, I know that you might be busy wanting to claw your way up to the 'real stuff' and not just making people check Likert Scale, so let's cut to the chase and let me introduce you to the papers you have to sign."
As Gym Leader Brock said those words, he produced a brown expanded envelope and pulled out 3 papers. Anthony noticed that all of them were consent papers except the one with a very short contract of sorts. Gym Leader Brock then continued.
"As you can see, it contains 2 consent forms and 1 short contract. The consent forms will give us your consent for me to use the footage of our fight, whether you win or lose, in our paywalled battle breakdown content, and the other will let us show your face. On the other hand, the contract has only 2 clauses: if you win, we will give you the badge unconditionally without any form of coercion unless, of course, cheating is involved; do read them carefully before signing."
The explanation is brief, and Anthony was able to understand all of it quite easily, though of course, he still read the clauses of all the papers. Anthony also noticed that there are no clauses saying anything about hurting a Pokemon, which is just natural because battles are supposed to hurt them, and Anthony can give his Pokemon the first aid they need and then lift them to the Pokemon Center if it so happens that the battle becomes too intense at their expense.
_Hm, I guess even in this world, some formalities for the darnedest things are still present, huh._
Anthony, who took a pen from his bag, clearly remembered that in his country, any design that put their flag's homage directly without distorting it in any way will land you in jail, so designers have to rely on pattern recognition so they can use the colors of the flag legally. At one point, Anthony even thought that Spider-Man is from his country since he has red, blue, and white colors.
"Here."
After a short while, Anthony affixed his signature to the 3 papers before passing them to Gym Leader Brock. After checking the 3 papers and making sure that it was all good, Gym Leader Brock put them back into the expanded envelope and then looked at Anthony.
"Alright then, let's start."
After seeing Anthony nod, Gym Leader Brock looked at the gym trainer beside him, who seemed to already know that such a stare meant as he nodded.
"What will he do, Mr. Brock?"
In order to pass the time, Anthony struck up a conversation. Gym Leader Brock seemed to also be able to understand the cue as he sat down beside Anthony and replied.
"He would be our referee. How about you, Anthony? Besides the badge, why did you challenge my gym?"
Anthony, caressing Zubat, the Pokémon that was the reason for his whole challenge by the head, replied.
"I want to make use of your rock-type expertise as the rock-type gym leader of the Kanto region as a challenge for Zubat to make him evolve."
______
At first, it thought of itself as weak. But it thought of such things as natural. It would be fine; it was just a child, not to mention it was aware of its species' great final evolution: Crobat. It was fast, it was vicious, it was strong. Zubat, despite being weak, aspired to become a Crobat one day.
To be fast, to be vicious.
However, reality is much crueler than the Zubat's imagination, for with a swat of a Kangaskhan's hand, it was incapacitated and brought to the brink of half-death. At that moment, the Zubat felt helpless, and for the first time in its life, it hated being weak and wished to have become a different Pokemon. Maybe if it were not a Zubat with pathetic defenses, then it could have put up a fight and escape.
Thinking about it now, Zubat can't help but think of its desperate wishes to be foolish. After all, if it did become a new species, maybe it won't meet its friend, the one who nursed it back to health, the friend who made it train tirelessly to get out of the binding of its so-called 'weakness'. The friend who made it able to cross seas and race against stronger Pokémon that swim supposedly faster than it.
If Zubat were any stronger before, then it wouldn't be able to meet Anthony, and right now, Zubat wouldn't have the same conviction of paying back all of what its trainer did for it.
"Zubat, are you ready?"