Prof. Oak smiled as he let the students of his class (not really) rave about this announcement. Some of them are truly excited, obviously these are the people that are either like Hana and Ben, who only become an associate field researcher for the salary to fund their training adventures, and didn't plan to be a serious researcher. They can also become like Melissa, someone who's like Hana and Ben at first, but fell in love with research and will soon produce theses and dissertations like her.
For Prof. Oak, both are fine; in any case, associate field researchers are, by technicality, just assistants of the academics to be able to extend their hands on the mainline trainers and coordinators, and maybe nab some people who will find researching fun. It was not meant to force people do research for all their lives even if they don't want to.
Soon, Prof. Oak raised his hand to signal the interns to stop their murmuring, which the interns did immediately. Prof. Oak nodded at this show of discipline before flipping a page of his speech and continuing to speak.
"Now, now I know all of you are excited, because of this, I will immediately say the rules and mechanics of the mini-tournament:
1st: As standard, battles will last 2 minutes, and it will stop the moment a Pokémon is unable to battle, or when the time limit is over. If no winner is determined during the time period, the judges will decide who won the match. To ensure impartiality, no field research that taught or guided any of you will be the judge, meaning the judges will be someone you have never met before.
2nd: The battle will be one-on-one with no substitution or any other support from your partner Pokemons except for cheers and psychological ones. This is standard, but anyone who tries to influence an enemy with a Pokémon not in the field will be expelled from the internship program.
3rd and last: The tournament will be a single elimination-type tournament, this is because the main goal of the event is to judge how your bond with your Pokémon is going. Because of this, whether you are the last mans standing or not have no bearing on whether you will have a high grade or not, though of course, there would be 'benefits' for the intern who won."
The moment Prof. Oak finished his speech, he saw the students taking notes while subconsciously holding their contracted Pokemons. Prof. Oak found this scene every year rather amusing, for it is inevitable for students to try their skill with weak bug-types, and many times he will see Caterpies and Metapods moving like they were on steroids relative to their non-trained counterparts.
This is the reason why associate field researchers are expected to be good trainers when they became registered ones: They came equiped of the bearings of one or they were pounded until they became one, surely anyone who can't use Harden, String Shot and Tackle in great symphony is not worth notice in this field for these interns will quite literally handle Pokemons that can use Hyper Beam if you breathed too hard in front of them.
In all of the interns, however, Prof. Oak is of course interested in the son of his students, Hana and Ben, the most. First of all, he was curious about how he started getting out of the gigantic shadow cast over by his parents, who are jokingly known as 'Two people who didn't become champions because they don't want to', something that Prof. Oak knew was true for Ben, though Hana is a different matter.
Second, Prof. Oak was already able to see differences in the style of learning of Anthony and his parents. First, Anthony can be said to be someone who follows the manual down to the letter, or perhaps someone who can use mere manuals and follow them with almost exact precision. These kinds of students are the ones for whom teachers needed minimal amount of time to teach, making Melissa easily able to focus on her dissertation.
As per the associate field researcher's words, Anthony is not a phenomenal student, but he's like someone who has lived in the era of the internet for a long time.
Prof. Oak knew that despite the invention of the internet and several e-journals, not anyone can follow things just by reading them, this breaks the principle of scaffolded learning where one needed to be guided by someone who knew the thing to be learned before being able to do it on your own as well as the principle that Hana and Ben adheres the most, the so-called learning by experience.
Secondly, Anthony is calmer than the two, which is nice since he doesn't need to apologize for the disturbances because of him every week.
_Somehow, however, I can still see the fire of wanting to be a trainer in his eyes, it's just that it was repressed... maybe I'll see it explode one day, yes, I hope that it's not in the days that he's inside my lab..._
Prof. Oak wished sincerely, though nonetheless, he hopes to see something interesting as usual, like a perfect combo of String Shot, Harden, and Tackle, and some evolutions from Metapod to Butterfree or something. Anthony, of course, doesn't know that an unnecessary expectation has been put upon him, for now, he started to assess his Miltank's prospects.
_Obviously, Miltank will be one of the Pokemons that my intern mates would be most cautious of. Not only did it recently become a sensation because of Johto Normal Gym Leader Whitney making a Miltank her ace, but it is also generally talented in acquiring and mastering skills. I have to prepare for this, also if I were to be wary of any of the Pokemons of my classmates, then that would be the handful of people who were able to evolve Caterpies, Weedles, and Wurmples into their 2nd form, as that means they were confident enough to present the abilities of their seemingly on the books and cliche Pokemon to everyone._
_Species-wise, I have to be wary of Mary's Pickachu, Andrew's Bulbasaur, and someone who actually got a Krabby as they have more variations and are statistically more powerful than Metapods and other cocoon stage Pokemons..._
Anthony is actually not that worried that his Miltank is yet to become mature enough to counter these opponents, this is because Miltank is known to be a physically defensive Pokemon and he knew that at this low level fight, he wouldn't be failed by his Pokemon's defenses and second, his Miltank has been trained to hell and back, specifically in a way that its stamina would increase and its body fat ratio would become more appropriate to a battle-oriented Pokemon.
The only problem would be his own performance, however, because he always keeps tabs on his Pokémon's progress as well as its new moves and how he may command Miltank to utilize them in combo, he was also quite confident on this matter. Of course, this confidence only has theory as a basis, thus Anthony still remembered that confidence is everyone's poison as much as it is a medicine... if that even makes sense.
As Anthony was pondering his prospects of victory and how he would augment the bond between him and Miltank further, Prof. Oak spoke to the mic once more.
"Because of this, you are allowed to train through the 4 days without needing to tend to your usual duties. Your duties will be temporarily handed to the lab researchers, so you don't have to worry about not being able to fulfill the needs of the Pokemons you were taking care of. Finally, the lab has also asked for permission from the mayor of Pallet Town, and you were allowed to use all training grounds for any private training. However, you have to notice the watcher the night or sunset before so as not shock any trainers that might also be planning on using the field."
After seeing the students nod and hear them make affirmative reactions, Prof. Oak also nodded and continued while looking at an assistant of his that has a box in his hand.
"Finally, this big brother here will be making you pick who your opponent will be. The official ramification will be announced to your computers via your email accounts."
Hearing this, the students subconsciously shuffled in their seats, nervous about whom they would face. Some wish to face someone in particular while also wishing not to face certain people in the first round. Everyone is inevitably nervous as they didn't pick up a name, but a certain number where they will report to the assistant.
When the assistant finished distributing, he produced a clipboard and pasted the numbers in ramified boxes before using his phone to take a photo of it and sent the picture through email. Anthony realized that Prof. Oak probably thought of putting up a bigger whiteboard to be a pain, which is true, so he grabbed his phone and saw that his number '15' was pasted with '13', and under the 13 was the name of his opponent.
_Mary..._
Anthony and Mary, who were sitting beside each other, glanced at each other before simultaneously smirking like a silent declaration of war. Prof. Oak didn't notice this bit and just continued.
"That's all, you can start your training now."
Prof. Oak smiled and waved the students goodbye, a gesture that the students themselves gave back to him before rushing towards the different parts of the battle field that they were currently in to make a preliminary assessment of their Pokemon's abilities while also seriously pondering how they would use the moves of their Pokemons to their path to victory, all of the interns have high level of bonds with their Pokemons already, so they didn't worry about how they would show off this aspect, they just have to be themselves.
This is also the matter that Anthony is doing right now as he watches Zubat chop the shoulders of Miltank, who has become serious because of this tournament. Zubat is obviously trying to look like his coach. Anthony ignored the shenanigans of his partner and started to ponder the moves of Miltank.
_So, Miltank, besides its original moves: Milk Drink, Stomp, Rollout, and Defense Curl, has acquired new moves because of the sheer intensity of its stamina and strength training; these are: Bide and Body Slam._
_The principle of these attacks are simple and the most complicated for Miltank (relative to how fast did it learned it) is Bide where it has to store the energy that was used by its enemies to attack Miltank and then release it either by direct contact or in a form of a beam... this move will be rather essential in my journey, and specifically right now where I have to face Mary and Pikachu's ranged attacks..._
Anthony stared at Miltank, intensified as he squinted his eyes, making Miltank quite uncomfortable.
_If I could make Miltank combine Bide with the combo Defense Curl and Rollout, then I can make the life of Pickachu and my other opponents hard... Though winning is another matter because despite Miltank being in the higher ups of power ranking in terms of species strength alone among the Pokemons that are being raised by the interns, the skills of a trainer are another matter to consider..._
As Anthony thought to himself, he made up his mind as he nodded idescernibly before grabbing the quite annoying Zubat and putting it in his head before walking alongside Miltank towards Prof. Oak, who was just about to get out of the podium and ultimately into the battle ground, when Prof. Oak noticed him, Anthony asked the Prof. immediately.
"Can I ask a Fighting-type, maybe their leader, to train with my Miltank for the tournament?"
Prof. Oak's eyes widened for a moment before nodding and saying:
"Of course you can."
Anthony thanked Prof. Oak and trotted towards the lab immediately, though in his mind, he couldn't help but chuckle.
_As calm as he is, he's still the son of Hana and Ben..._
____________
Anthony went immediately with his PPE and lab gown in tow to the Rocky Mountain adjacent to the place where Psychic types train and tend to their mini-civilization. This place is the place where fighting-types are training and also similarly tending to their civilization, which is, as expected, quite centered on 'who is stronger'. Because of this, it came as no surprise for Anthony to see a Machamp kneeling in front of a rock with 4 Machokes entangling its 4 arms for an arm wrestling competition.
Their face contorted in struggle while the sole Machamp looked at them with smugness.
_So Strong..._
Such were Anthony's thoughts.