Upon the magnificent yet violent flap of Charizard's wings, an explosive sound of the wind being pierced by its effective aerodynamic echoed in Anthony's ears while his vision blurred, the lapse by which his eyes was able to see things was unable to keep up with the speed of flight despite Charizard effectively flying just a kilometer per hour faster than any commercial planes.
Every flap of the Flame Pokémon's wings was like a teleportation to another place, at one flap they arrived at the beach of the sea going to Cinnabar island, next flap and they are already in the middle of the said sea, looking at trainers in swimsuits battling under the ocean against Tentacools, Goldeen, Seadra, Staryu and Starmie, and again, when Charizard flapped its strong wings, the northern entrance of the Cinnabar island is already upon their view.
Because Anthony's house is at the edge right before the entrance of Route 15, they skipped Seafoam Island and were barely able to see Cinnabar as they decided to pierce directly to the West before Charizard swerved northwards, which again, created a magnificent show of wing power.
_I would have appreciated it if he were slower, but the main show of this travel is for me to be introduced into the line of work of researchers, though what I read in the books is that Field Researchers often have more physical and labor-intensive work than the lab researchers... obviously, of course._
As Anthony thought of such things, in just a total of 3 hours, around 11 am sharp, the gigantic Charizard descended on the seaside of Pallet Town, causing quite a startle for the people and Pokemons who were mingling around the ocean.
"Oh, it's Hana and her son."
However, upon an old lady's calm exclamation, the trainers who are trying to use their luck to catch a strong water Pokémon for the next season of the Pokémon league challenge, or trainers who have already caught one and are trying to catch some wild pokemons by the beach to become their sparring partners, calmed down.
The Pokemons like Krabby and their leader, a Kingler, Slowpoke, and some scattered Slowbros are present who went to have a 'serious dialogue' with the trainers. The seaside has a dike so that pokemons will know the limits of the range of their range of mobility range, after all, Pokemons and humans have to have a certain boundary.
There is no port from Cinnabar to Pallet because part of the seaside of Pallet Town is used as an observatory and controlled habitat of Pokemons some evolved Pokemons here are owned by trainers like Anthony's mom who have a contractual lending agreement with Professor Oak so that their offsprings can naturally get released in the wild and trainers can have a lot of fun catching them.
_In the end, the league challenge is part entertainment and part activism for Pokémon rights... which is quite confusing as they are being made to battle and hurt themselves._
As Hana greeted the old people who were watching the children chase around Krabbies and get chased back by the Kingler, or trying to make a sensible conversation with Slowpokes and Slowbros, Anthony finally realized why Natural Harmonia Gropius, aka N, questions the morality of Pokémon battles.
_Well, I'm not questioning it unless it's a deathmatch._
Anthony sighed, and soon, he saw a man with greying hair, he has a red polo as an undershirt below his lab gown.
"Hello Hana, again here to use your connection to stay as a licensed breeder, I see..."
Professor Samuel Oak, the Pokémon professor of the Kanto region, then looked at Anthony and smiled.
"And this might be Anthony, nice to meet you, young one."
Hana went to her son and, alongside Charizard, climbed the creek. Anthony respectfully bowed while Charizard and Hana greeted Professor Oak.
"Yes, this is my son, Anthony."
Professor Oak again smiled at Anthony who also greeted back before silently bringing out Zubat from its pokeballs, as usual, the social butterfly pokemon immediately looked around in curiosity, forcing Anthony to hold it in his hands while him, Professor Oak and Hana are walking towards the Pokemon Laboratory, as they do, the two adults are talking about the status of the Pokemons that Hana lent to Prof. Oak's lab.
Anthony, who was nervous and excited as he was able to go to a bona fide lab for Pokemons and also because he was able to see the Pokémon Professor in the flesh, remained silent as he quietly listened to their conversation and ignored the protests of Zubat.
And as they arrived, Anthony and Zubat's eyes widened, even though the latter doesn't have eyes.
"Whoa..."
"Zuu..."
The two children exclaimed, especially Anthony, who, as an adult, had a glaring question about the size and the darn windmill of Prof. Oak's lab in the anime; obviously, these two things will not fly in real-life infrastructure and space principles.
"Haha... amazed?"
Hana patted the head of Anthony, who nodded silently. Indeed, the sheer size of the lab, which is in a town, is really surprising. The laboratory of Kanto's Pokémon professor is just as big as the earthen labs; most of the upper floors are tightly sealed by concrete, and all glass windows are installed on the ground floors and a few floors up.
On its side is a stylized Poké Ball that marks it as an official league-funded lab for general Pokémon studies and breeding, as well as the temporary sanctuaries of reserve or pet Pokemons of trainers.
"Isn't this too large for a town to have?"
Anthony muttered, which made Prof. Oak and Hana, who were letting the two children in front of them admire the vastness of the building, get startled.
_That's what you're worried about?_
Prof Oak smiled awkwardly before explaining.
"Haha... well, indeed, economically speaking, Pallet Town could have become a good job hub for aspiring researchers, maybe even enough for it to become a city. However, in the world of Pokémon, some things are more important than development. If this town ever became a city, its land size would not be able to hold the requirements, making it required for the Town to push out of the Viridian Forest and into the sea."
Prof. Oak smiled and then looked at Anthony.
"Do you know why these expansions will be bad?"
Anthony was startled by such a question and tilted his head, obviously confused... or at least, wanting to look confused.
"Pokemons will be losing their homes..."
Anthony answered, in the best way as a child can answer, well, he have already studied ecosystem preservations in this world, so there might be no problem if he talked about habitat destruction, but if he slipped up and then suddenly talked about cost and effects to the trainers who will lose their primary catching spot of bug pokemons in the Viridian-Pallet border as well as the rare Pikachu and as far as Anthony know, even a Bulbasaur, making them skeptical to go to Pallet Town and Viridian City because of the lack of worth except the gym that's seem to be perpetually closed, then he would be in trouble. Anthony is not known to be studious, after all.
"That's right, good job, we humans and Pokemons are partners, and thus both species should know how to compromise for each other, and even though we normally reach agreements in building passageways for pokemons and humans alike, like the Viridian Forest and the Diglett's cave, the case of Pallet is not the same."
Anthony looked at Prof. Oak and nodded. Interestingly enough, the goofy Prof. Oak, who always gets smacked by the pokemons he studies despite being a capable retired trainer, was not seen by Anthony as someone so righteous. However, now that he thought about it, a Pokémon Professor having such philosophies is normal.
As Anthony and Prof. Oak talked, Hana suddenly spoke.
"Alright, alright, it's already almost noon, let's go inside."
Anthony and Oak were then dragged towards the gate of the Lab, where a pair of Lopunnies with a security guard were standing on guard.
"Lopuuunyyyy!"
As the trio (or 4 because of Zubat) entered, the two Lopunnies opened the gate to the lab and saluted, making a seemingly at your service!' sound, Zubat that's in the hand of Anthony, all this while also putting the tip of its wing to mimic the gesture.
"Zuu!"
Anthony, despite thinking how cute his Pokémon silently entered the reception hall of the lab, and as Hana registered Anthony as a guest, she said.
"Now then, I'm going to renew my Breeding License and the lending contract, for now, go with Professor Oak like we talked about a week ago, okay?"
Anthony nodded, while Zubat, seemingly still wanting to imitate the Lopunnies, saluted, too. Hana chuckled at this and also saluted before going to the General Trainers' Affairs section of the Lab.
_Isn't that supposed to be an executive branch's job and not the research department? But then again, in this world, labs act like a 'retirement home' for pokemons who are already unfit or are temporarily sidelined by their trainers, plus the Professors are surely breeders too, so his going to a city office for renewal is unbecoming of his prestige._
As Anthony looked at his mother, Professor Oak smiled at him and said.
"So, Anthony, where do you want to go first? The indoor labs or the Pokémon sanctuaries?"
Anthony looked at Prof. Oak before glancing at Zubat, which also glanced at him. Immediately, the two children (with one having an adult inside him) nodded and said.
"Since I want to be a field researcher, or at least learn how it really is to become one, I want to be taken on a tour in the sanctuary."
Anthony put out the phone of his mom, at his age, he was still not allowed to have one, one of the not-so-many things that his mother controlled from him. The previous app's history already has the camera and the notes apps to have notes on the additional insights of the legendary Pokémon professor who chuckled at the eagerness of the child in front of him.
"I see, then, because visitors are not allowed to enter the sanctuary without Personal Protective Equipment, let's go to the changing room."
Anthony nodded at this and went with Oak. After they donned the standard PPEs for tourists, Anthony, Zubat, and Professor Oak made two field researchers open the gates of the sanctuary that's made out of fortified glass. And upon entering the man maintained forestry, Anthony immediately saw several bug-type Pokémon from different regions, Beedrill, Butterfree, Dustox, Beautifly, Heracross, Scizor, Crickitune, etc., facing off against a flock of also assorted Flying types, Pidgeottos... Fearows... Staravia, Straptors, and many more.
The two supposed predator and prey pokemons looked at each other, both with hostility. The bugs are not backing down, and seemingly, the birds wanted to put them in place.
"Zuu?"
Zubat looked at Anthony, worried and confused, though it silently went in front of him to protect its owner, Anthony, however, who knew what was truly happening and wanted to show off to the Pokémon professor, smiled and said.
"Don't worry, Zubat, these bug types on the left here probably have just evolved and are using a simulated battle to get out of their past as simple prey for the flying type. Most likely, those Pokemons are owned by the lab or by trainers who agreed on a turf war of some kind."
Prof. Oak, who was watching the kid, smiled, obviously impressed, and added.
"That's right, if a trainer read the manual, he/she can say that even though theoretically we can say that bug types are the easiest to evolve, their rearing should actually start before even their journey with their trainer starts, that way, it can have good battle experience and wipe out the prey mentality faster."
Anthony nodded at this knowledge, thankful that he had just read the general training manual for Pokémon types as a guide for Zubat's training regimen for the next 3 years.
"However, sadly, trainers these days have become so centralized that some young trainers thinks its fine to just copy the teams of the Elite 4, only for them to find out that they have to have constant part time jobs to fund their journey, the time consumed alone in this part will hinder their journey if they don't have a good backer, so most trainers becomes Coordinators that doesn't require overly strong Pokemons except for some people like Wallace and his mentor."
Anthony nodded at this. Indeed, it's as he has thought, being a trainer is very expensive, and even if you can join battle clubs for regular funding as long as you perform well, you will forgo your freedom to catch your favorite Pokémon and will raise generically strong ones.
Anthony finds that boring; that's the equivalent of a high schooler going home knowing that he will just spend his time at school tomorrow, and for the years to come.
"So, is this why my mom became a Field Researcher?"
Anthony asked, which, in his shock, made Prof. Oak shake his head.
"At first, yes, however, she admittedly started enjoying the danger of this line of work."
As Prof. Oak looked at the bugs and flying types that were having a standoff in front of a forest, he looked at Anthony.
"That's why she wanted me to observe you, because in the world of Field Researchers, it's not just about application of knowledge about Pokemons in battles, you have to go count Charmanders in a volcano, negotiate with Totem Pokemons, and help professors in their dangerous research, ones where it concerns legendary Pokemons."
As Anthony stared at the Professor, the latter asked him.
"The only way to cope in this work is to enjoy the dangers, or at least, make it a normal part of your life... can you do that?"