Agatha looked at her Pokemons that started to phase out of the room in secret; her whole body emitted silence as she couldn't help but smile a little at how majestic Ghost types really were. This is the reason why Agatha became a mono-type Ghost-type trainer. However, soon, Elite 4 Agatha's smile was wiped out, turning solemn as she remembered the order of the Interpol President to her: Use this opportunity to capture Team Rocket members and then interrogate them.
Normally, this is something that doesn't carry any weight for Agatha, who has the principle that anything that will happen to anyone is justifiable as long as they're not dead. This time, however, is different due to the fact that the Interpol will be using the son of the two people they wanted to befriend the most as a bait, and while they're also so sure that Hana and Ben will most likely use this to establish their Daycare throughout their city or even Kanto region, Agatha is still slightly disagreeable on this strategy.
_If ever the situation has come to a point where little Anthony is in grave danger that his life will be on the line, then I would risk my license to train Pokémon to save him..._
This is better than putting a wedge in the relationship of the Pokémon League and the Dover couples any further. Furthermore, Elite 4 Agatha, as an old person or even as just a sensible being, would do anything to protect an innocent life. While thinking of her resolve, Elite 4 Agatha suddenly remembered the ingenious contingency of Anthony to the hard-to-revert situation his Pokémon was in during the battle she had just watched through Livestream. It's not something that is especially unique, yet it still contains convincing acting for a deceit to happen.
It was so good that if Agatha hadn't fought kids that can do such a thing her whole career, she would've been deceived too.
_I hope my worries are nothing but something unfounded..._
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The main difference between the strategies of using moderate to highly defensive Pokemons and those that are weak in their defenses is how much they prioritize getting in a range rather than their speed or attack strength. This is because of one thing, despite not being entirely accurate, the words of Anthony's animals and this world's Pokemons still have a vague similarity: defensive Pokemons definitely have stronger attacks, and less defensive ones have weaker attacks.
This is, of course, not a law, as there are so-called 'glass cannon' Pokemons that have very strong offensive moves but have low defense, but in terms of bug types, this rule is a very good rule of thumb to get by, especially if you're training one or in a place that makes you fight a lot of them.
While bug types are ignored by most trainers except for the ones in Unova onwards due to their strength, those who wanted to go far into the trainer profession knew that no rule of thumb is negligible. This is what's in the mind of the interns that are now in an intense... and blurry battle in the middle of the battlefield as spores were being scattered by their Butterfree and Beautifly, respectively.
It was a rather low volume spore moves: Stun Spore for Beautifly and Poison Powder for Butterfree, these two Pokemons then will try to use Gust to push their respective spores to the opponent. Now, normally, these two species are not supposed to learn Gust days after they evolve, but their trainers, having adept on bringing the potential of Pokemons to their most optimal states due to their parents' and the lab's training, are able to teach their Beautifly and Butterfree, respectively, it he shortest time possible.
Their problem, however, is that their Pokemons is unable to make Gust be paired with other moves like String Shot or Absorb, etc., as they were still so young and not that adept in fighting with many moves activated at the same time. Being able to even make a chained attack using different moves is already a feat of its own.
The spectators either knew of this or knew a limited amount of the application of Pokémon training, which is why they still went and cheered for the child they were rooting for. Hana and Karen, knowing that they would certainly bring inspiration to the children who are fighting, also started to cheer, specifically in rare instances when they used different moves or combos as part of their strategy.
Though, of course, like Mary and Anthony's fight, the shifting of strategies in the move is quite sparse. While shouting, Hana looked at the clock that depicted 1 minute and 3 seconds, and counted in it, and as she did, she saw several people slowly retreat away from their seats and encircle the place.
The people, both men and women, of about 6-7 people, went towards the direction of the back entrance of the medical unit of the lab.
_That's a lot of people... it seems like this operation of Team Rocket is bigger than I thought, or they just want to make sure that Prof. Oak and I will be held back long enough to kidnap my son. Though those people are not certainly neutralized..._
From what Hana knew of Agatha, who had a lot of vanity in her body despite her old age, the Elite 4 member most likely already incapacitated any stand by outside the battlefield and made her Pokemons use Confusion to make those bums enter the unit through the easiest route. This, however, is most likely a ploy of the Elite 4 member to have a 100% catch rate and get the most information out of all the parties involved.
_I know it's a standard operating procedure for Interpol to prioritize catching all involved individuals, but this is oddly very in line with the personality of Agatha..._
Hana smirked and picked up an item in her purse, which was a small ball with red and white stripes on their top and bottom, respectively. Karen looked at the Poké Ball in the hand of her friend and asked.
"I thought you would let Agatha do the protecting of your son?"
Hana looked at her friend and smirked before shaking her head.
"I'm not a bad parent, you know. Also, I bet my son already knew that something was bound to happen..."
Hana slowly stood up and looked at Glen's mom to say goodbye, whilst Karen made way for her.
_I pray that Team Rocket gets slimed out by Anthony instead of these two psychos..._
Karen chuckled before also pulling out a Poké Ball from her purse and releasing it under her feet. The spectators became perplexed for a moment as Karen's Murkrow flew to the head of the gorgeous future Elite 4. Karen then pulled out a pouch with fake Pokedollars bills and put it in Murkrow's beak before saying.
"Go and fetch my parcel in Viridian City Poke Mart."
Murkrow nodded for a moment before flying upwards until no one was able to see the Pokémon. While watching this, future Elite 4 Karen once again focused her eyes on the match that seemed to have reached its maximum intensity, though in her mind is the current upheavals in the world of Pokémon.
_More evil organizations have emerged outside Indigo Plateau, seemingly with higher ambitions and more complicated plans besides selling rare Pokemons in the underground market. The Pokemon League is focused on these regions and is watching them more carefully than here, so that they only rely on the Elite 4 and a genius kid that's closest in skill to the Dover couple in their youth, as well as the Field Researchers, to monitor this region and were very desperate in mending the relationship between them and the Dover couple..._
Karen scratched her eye due to the spore that went in it; however, she once again remembered an instance.
_They are giving me a mission to monitor Red and Blue... The off-season that started during the birthday of Anthony's birthday has already ended in the middle part of January, all trainers who are known to be good friends with the league will be spread out again, now all of them need to be monitored for their safety..._
Karen's head ached from all of these conjectures. She felt like the on-season of the Pokémon League would be really, really busy.
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Inside the medical unit of the main Pokémon lab of the Kanto region, a bunch of Chansey and Blissley, as well as Nurse Joys wearing lab coats instead of their usual medical uniforms, are looking at the healing machine that is being operated with more care than the one in the Pokémon Centers. This is something that Anthony is already aware of the reason and it's not that the one in the centers are automated and this one is manual, subsequently, it also doesn't mean that the machine inside the lab is outdated.
Rather, the machine in the lab and in the centers are just the same, the difference is that, the automation will only work when there are Poke Balls while the 'automatic healing machine' needed to be manually and more meticulously operated when a Pokemon has entered it outside its Pokeball. Normally, these cases will be referred to the upper floors of the Pokemon center and will take the whole day or even more to heal, but obviously, Anthony and Miltank doesn't have any time for that, so the Drs... or nurses have to work double time.
This will what woud happen to the other participants' Pokemons too.
The machine worked like a non-magnetic MRI wherein a Pokemon will be glued to it and would need differing level of care in every 5 inches of the injured part of their body, this is obviously much harder to accomplish than just admitting Pokemons to the hospital for graver injuries. Anthony, who would of course absorb any knowledge that he can have (primarily because he have loose plans on becoming a PhD) watched intently as small needles pricked Miltank every 5 inches in its body continously.
Strangely, the Pokemon seem to only be a little uncomfortable and not at all in pain despite the continous pricking of the needles. These needles are only present in instances like this, thus it's Anthony's first time seeing it. It took the Nurse Joys another 5 minutes to finish it up, Miltank, who seem to recover form its injured hand as well as its emotion as it saw earlier that Pickachu is in a fine condition, though in a more intensive care.
"Ok, we would be on our way, please use the intercome to report any abnormalities from Miltank, some Nurse Joys will surely respond."
Anthony nodded at this as he approach Miltank that was balling up its fist and massaging its previously injured arm. Zubat circled around Miltank and made 'Zuu, Zuu' sounds as if also happy that its friend has recovered, it also directed the sounds to Anthony to coax its trainer to go to Pikachu's room.
However, at this moment, Zubat suddenly became extremely silent as if making its metaphorical eyes widen, the trio heard the automatic doors made buzzing sound saying: The medical unit has been locked down! No Nurse, trainers or Pokemons are to attempt a breakout, attempt in destroying anything will be punishable by the Pokemon Professor itself!
Zubat immediately looked up, and like when it first battled for Zubat against its now friend Miltank, all its fur bristled up as it made a screeching 'Zuuuu!' sound. Miltank is no different, it didn't even think of itself as a newly recovered Pokemon as it made Anthony go on its back and look at the ceiling with animosity.
Anthony was confused for a moment, however, he immediately remembered the two strange Pokemons he have seen in the comfort room before any matches started.
_Is... is my conjecture a mistake? Perhaps those Gengar and Banette are owned not by Elite 4 Agatha, but an old enemy by my mother that wanted to kidnap me for some revenge? But who the hell gets so beaten up in a Pokemon match that they held a grudge many years later?_
Anthony was perplexed about the truth of this matter and the only thing he knew is that he is the target of this anomaly and if he didn't break out of this encirclement, a lot of Pokemon and nurses would be implicated. Just at this moment of conviction when Anthony is about to make his Pokemons deprioritize the threat from above and make sure that they got out of the room before engaging in a hot escape, he was rather confident that he can make a noise loud enough for the Dark type specialist, Karen to come and rescue them from the Ghost type incirclement.
At this moment however, Anthony and his Pokemons saw the vent in top of their heads bend before a green-colored rock with two arms and a face bursted out of it.
_Oh, I'm wrong..._