William awoke with a start, staring into a pair of dark eyes, their white pupils glinting into the light. He instantly recoiled from the strange face only to find his arms and legs tied down. Trapped! His body immediately panicked, struggling against the bonds before he consciously acknowledged any danger. With a deep breath, he forced his body to relax, slumping down against the bed his was in, his restraints relaxing.
The face with the weird eyes pulled back, revealing a head of medium-length red hair on a tall, built body dressed in leggings and a white coat. If it weren’t for the eyes, she might be somewhat attractive, but William had other things on his mind. He pulled his gaze away from her face and swept his eyes over the room, which appeared to be a laboratory of some sort. Unfortunately, being strapped down horizontally as he was, his view was rather limited, but it was better than nothing.
Done with his initial scope, he turned back to the woman, only to find her still next to his bedside, staring directly into his face. He arched an eyebrow. “Can I, uh, help you?”
The woman pursed her lips and walked around to the other side of the bed without an answer. She looked him up and down, focusing on his feet, then his groin, then his chest, and then back to his face, puckering her lips and tapping her cheek in an awkwardly forced look of confusion. “Can you do that thing again?” she asked. Her voice sounded familiar, though a bit strained.
“What thing?”
“That thing where you move yourself about, trying to escape.” In imitation, she waved her arms, mimicking his earlier thrashing.
“Oh, sure.” Confused but without much choice aside from playing along, William dutifully tugged on all of his restraining straps, pulling his arms up and kicking his legs. “Is this good?”
The woman watched him closely as he continued his bogus struggle, circling around the bed again. Finally, she sighed. “I don’t understand why you are so dangerous. Perhaps you could try again, harder?”
William cocked an eyebrow. “But I’m not dangerous.”
“No, I’m afraid you’re very dangerous.” She reached into a pocket of her jacket and pulled out a small notepad, flipping through it until she found the right page. “‘All arriving contestants are extremely dangerous and must be controlled or watched closely by personnel at all times.’ See? You’re not even just dangerous, but extremely dangerous. Esmeralda said so.”
“Who’s Esmeralda?”
“Oh, you’ll meet her soon enough.” She flipped the notepad closed and slipped it back into her pocket, eyeing him curiously.
Seeing a possible information course, William decided to turn up the charm, smiling wildly. “My name is William, what’s yours?”
“I’m JS.” She smiled back.
“Well, JS, since your instructions say to either restrain me or watch me, would you mind taking these straps off for a bit, if you’re planning on sticking around.”
She tapped her cheek again, as if thinking, then nodded. “Yes, that should be fine. I’m not sure how to shower or feed you while you’re tied up there anyway.” With deft fingers, she quickly released the restraints on the bed, and William was free.
He massaged his wrists and stretched his muscles slowly before turning to the side of the bed. The action made his head swim a bit, and he paused before stepping down to the floor. As he turned, he spied another girl on a bed up against the wall, similarly restrained. It was Alex, one of the other trainers, the girlfriend of the guy with the Grovyle. She was deep asleep, her breathing regular, and he could see the straps tying her arms and legs to the bed.
“Would you like shower first or food first?” JS asked, pulling his attention away from the sleeping Alex.
“Uh, shower, I think,” William said, realizing that he was dressed in a hospital gown, not in the clothes he had been wearing earlier. “I’d prefer to get properly dressed before eating, if you don’t mind.”
“No problem at all.” JS smiled. “Your clothing and effects are this way.” She turned around and let him to a separate room, one filled with lockers and showers.
William opened the locker that was assigned to him, finding a towel, some soap, and his own clothes and shoes, washed and pressed. William quickly grabbed his pants and starting digging through their copious pockets; aside from the Pokéball with his Breloom, everything else was in place. He quickly grabbed a pen from his upper left pocket and palmed it, then grabbed the soap and towel.
He turned around and gave a start again, as JS had walked up behind him so closely that their bodies were almost touching, and she was so silent on the tile floors that he hadn’t even noticed her approach. Thinking quickly, he asked, “Where is my Breloom? I thought the Pokéball was in my pocket.”
“Oh, it’s being cared for elsewhere, don’t worry. Do you need anything else for your shower?”
William blushed. “I guess it would be a bit much to ask for some privacy, wouldn’t it?”
JS gestured with her head towards the showers. “They have curtains, but I’m staying with you until you’re back in bed.”
William nodded and went into the closest shower stall, closing the curtain behind him. It wasn’t completely opaque; he could see the silhouette of J2 as she sat down on one of the benches in front of the lockers. With that in mind, he stripped quickly and turned on the water. Covering his motions with his body, he grabbed the pen and twisted it in half, revealing the electronics inside. He quickly fastened one end to his ear and stuck the patch of the other end to his throat. The communicator was one of the dorkiest-looking pieces of equipment he had, but it would allow him to communicate silently with his computer back in his room.
“Miku, do you read me?” he subvocalized, the device on his throat interpreting his motions and directing them towards his AI personal assistant.
“Reading you loud and clear, William,” Miku responded, her voice perky and cheerful as always.
“Can you run a locator and find my position.” As he talked and waited, William soaped up, cleaning his body and hair to avoid suspicion.
Within a moment, Miku replied. “Trace complete. You appear to be in the below sea level in this complex, in the northeast corner of the island. Our mapping project is still incomplete, but I can at least say with accuracy that you are in the basement.”
“What about Breloom?”
After a longer pause, Miku’s voice was back in his ear. “Trace complete. Breloom is approximately fifty-three degrees above you towards the south, and moving.”
“Moving?” William furrowed his brows and almost dropped the soap.
“Yes, he appears to be moving in a south-westerly direction at approximately 5.8 kilometres per hour.”
“Keep a monitor on him, ok?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Any luck breaking into the network?”
“I am still unable to even read the security parameters, let alone break them. I will need an access point to go any further.”
“And Diamant Industries?”
“As an exact match, the company doesn’t appear to exist on any public records, nor any of the private ones that I can break into. I’ve found several related companies, most French, but none seem to fit the profile.”
William had cleaned about everything he could clean, so he decided to cut the conversation short before JS got suspicious. “Over and out, Miku.”
“A pleasure to serve you, William,” she replied, her usual farewell, as William removed the ear- and throat-pieces under the pretence of rinsing his hair. Within seconds, it was back into its pen shape and held in his armpit while he dried himself off with a towel.
“Uh, JS?” He called out as he towelled off his hair. “Would you mind bringing my clothes next to the shower so I can get dressed in here.”
JS snorted. “I never thought you would be so modest,” she said curtly, but he could see her silhouette as she walked over to his locker and grabbed his clothes and shoes.
“Thanks.” He snuck a hand out and grabbed his clothes, dressing himself quickly and slipping the pen back in his pocket. Moments later, he was ready to go.
With a single nod, JS led him back out of the shower room, though the lab and over to the kitchenette. She sat down at a table and watched him carefully as he opened a can of soup and poured it into a microwave safe bowl. As the soup cooked, he looked through the cabinets and drawers, finding plastic spoons and crackers, but little else, and nothing he could possibly use to escape.
“You want anything?” He called out to JS.
“Oh, no, thank you,” she replied, watching him just as calmly and carefully as ever.
As William grabbed his hot bowl of soup, a spoon, and a package of crackers, he allowed himself a small sigh. He sat at the table next to JS and ate his lunch silently, pondering his options. The computers nearby would be just the access Miku needed, but his options of getting near them seemed slim. Did something happen that had caused such strict security?
Regardless, there was nothing he could do about it so soon. For now, he had his access to Miku, his brain, and a hot bowl of soup. It would have to do for the time being.
