"So, no Job Day today?" Jon asked at the assembly in the morrning of the third day of the week.
"None at all. But count your blessings." Starman confirmed, making both groups start applauding him. Bryce in particular threw up his hat in celebration, as if he was graduating university.
"That doesn't mean you get to be lazy! We have an extra special presentation today, ran by an extra special guest, so I want you on your best behavior. Be modest, be polite, be gentlemanly, and don't be anything like Larry." Starman continued. He turned to glance at Larry, who was, as always covered in chips.
"You're just jealous because i get more girls." Larry shrigghed, making Starman shake his head in dissapointment.
"It's not nice to lie to blind ladies, Mason. Anyhow, let's head down, shall way." With the push of a button, the stage transformed into a lift once more, taking both groups back down to the laboratory.
As it turned out, the guest in question was Renee, who had come in that morning. She was busy discussing the day's presentation with Dr. Parr.
"I don't even know why you're here. You don't havethe slightest clue about the complex data and machinery behind all this." Parr complained, clutching her head.
"Yeah, well, nobody would really pay attention if it was you gving the presentation, Christine." Renee pointed out. Parr grimaced at the comment.
"Are you calling me ugly!?" She exclaimed, offended.
"No, I'm calling you sleep inducing." Parr rolled her eyes, saying something about 'kids these days' and 'spoiled little daddy's girl'.
In the meantime, Bryce was busy bothering Jon, while Dex and Thomas watched.
"For the love of God, could you please cut it out?" Jon complained. Bryce was trying to make him wear his leather jacket.
"What? You don't want my wingmanning? Look at you! You're wearing your daddy's oversided ass coat, this yellow shirt that's been in the sun so much, it looks like the color of my toothpaste and this headband that... uhh..." Bryce explaied everything wrong with his outfit.
"At least your trousers are fine, Jon." Thomas said.
"Ain't nothing to see in his pants!" Bryce exclaimed. Dex stiffled a laugh, his only addition to the conversation. He was busy sending hand signals over to Group B.
"What are you doing?" Thomas asked, looking gloomy.
"Wha- me? I'm just telling them to kiss my ass in sign language!" Dex explained, gving an unconfident grin. Thomas raised an eyebrow, but elected to ignore it, as Jon scolding Bryce about the comment on his trousers was far more entertaining.
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"Welcome, gentlemen! My name is Renee, I work for the government and I will be presenting to you this incredible, gadget that we've invented for your use." Renee began her presentation, as soon as everyone had been moved to the room with thhe treadmills from the day before. Dr. Parr was standing next to her with a tired and disaprooving frown plastered firmly on her face at all times.
"You don't need to adverstise the thing, Renee. What are you, a saleswoman?" She whispered to the King's daughter, who frowned at her.
"Hey princess, if you do a spin, maybe we'll buy!" Larry heckled from the back of the crowd, chuckling like an idiot.
"Okay, can someone get the fat fuck out of here? Thanks in advance." Renee ordered, and Nick, who was also standing in the back of the room, quickly grabbed Larry by the shoulders, and (somehow) carried him outside.
"Okay, now that that's done with, everyone come here and put this bracelet thing on. Chop chop." Renee ordered, and kicked a box filled with 'bracelet things' in front of the crowd forthem to wear. Parr scoffed at the mention of 'bracelet thing.'
The bracelet thing in question was a lean silver band with a small screen in the middle. A button was also off the side of the screen, like a watch.
"This is a Medical Analyzer. It displays the status of everyone wearing one that is connected to the user's. This includes heartbeat, blood pressure, and various other information useful in a combat state. Press the button to turn it on, then flick the screen outwards to see the data." Renee explained, and did so, a colorful holographic display dow being projected from the band, displaying a tab with a bunch of heartbeats.
A couple oohs and aahs came out of the crowd, with Thomas even commenting on how impressive the holographic technology is. Dex made sure to mention how much money he'd make if he sold these.
"Now, we will run an excercise, you we can see if they work properly. One volunteer will begin running on this treadmill for a couple minutes, and we'll watch his heartbeat rise in real time." Renee proposed. Not many (actually none) volunteered.
"Y'know, your highness, my boy Johnny here is super fast. How about you let his run for you, he'll knock your socks off." Bryce said, pushing his friend forward, out in the open.
"What the fuck are you doing!?" Jon whispered to his buddy. "You know I don't do good under pressure!"
"Uh, it's not always good to be fast, y'know." Renee commented. Dex chortled from the crowd, earning a diabolical side eye from Bryce. "And it looks like your heartbeat is rising ever so slightly."
"Actually, come to think of it, Dex here seems to be in a great mood today. He'd definitely want to run." Bryce said, putting Dex on the spot immediately. He frowned.
"Are you challenging me!? Fine! I'll show you I can run!" Dex proclaimed, and began triumphantly walking towards the treadmill.
"You should probably take that suit jacket off, bowl hat." Renee proposed, and in response, Dex turned aaround, staing at her with the most disgusted look anyone's ever looked at her with.
"I will not undress for you, wench!" Dex exclaimed, and climbed up on thetreadmill, leaving the lady in stunned silence. "Come on, max speed! I'll show you dissenters what a Tuscan can do!"
For those curious, his heartbeat definitely rose.
"Uh, can we get some medical attention here? His heart seems to be beating 3 times a second." Renee said, as Dex was amazingly still going at the treadmill, wearing the full getup, albeit with far less enthusiasm than before. "We should get him off that thing."
"What are you talking about coach!? I've still got another round in me!" He blubbered, and then he collapsed on the ground.
___________________________________________________________________________________________ After the area was cleared out, and Dex was taken upstairs to the infirmary, only the remaining boys from room 221 and Renee remained in the room.
"Truth be told, I didn't really want to do this presentation. I came here to see you guys." Renee explained.
"You've met her before, haven't you two." Thomas pointed out, staring at Renee's bright purple eyes.
"Yes we have. She's here every week, i'm suprised you've not seen her before." Bryce explained. Thomas nodded in response.
"I for one, could definitely appreciate some more Renee." Jon added. "The routine here is rather mundane."
"Well, I'm glad you like seeing me." Renee chuckled, as she leaned against the wall. Suddenly though, she shot back up, letting out a sall 'ack!' Jon quickly ran closer, to ask what was wrong.
"I seem to have pricked myself on this uncovered nail. I should get that checked..." Renee explained. "Good talk, guys."
As Renee began leaving, Jon and Bryce tailed behind her.
"Hey, maybe next week, you think we'll finally be able to get that more Renee I've been wanting?" Jon asked her, and she raised an eyebrow at him. He awkwardly smiled.
"Johnny was thinking maybe you'd drp by for an extendedvisit this time around, eh?" Bryce explained for his buddy.
"Hm. We'll see. See you around." Renee said, winking at the two dudes as she headed outside the laboratory.
In the meantime, Thomas was still in the room the 4 of them were before. Faded light emanated from his fingertips, as he pulled the nail that had pierced Renee's shoulder off the walls.
"Very interesting development." He muttered, and put the nail in a small plastic bag, and hid it in his vest.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
"So, telling me to kiss your ass in sign language, eh? Do you even know sign language, or were those just gang signs?" Nikolaoff asked. He was visiting Dex in the infirmary, whose situation seemed to have calmed down.
"Do you know sign language smart guy? Anyway, I had to talk to ya, and here I am talking to you, so it got the point across." Dex shrugged, proud of himself. Nikolaoff urged him to say what he wanted already. Dex sighed, and put on his hat.
"Something unusual happened last night. Gardner is definitely a morning person, but yesterday he came in late to sleep, at arounf 1AM, while iwas out taking my midnight smoke." Dex explained.
"Just as we began investigating him? Coincidence?" Nikolaoff pondered.
"I'd say so, but it's definitely not a coincidence this happened the same day we got to the underground lab for the first time." Dex said, sighing.
"So you think he's looking for something in the lab then?" Nikolaoff suspected. Dex nodded, a serious stare overtaking his face.
"Our next order of business should be to figure out how he gets in. I've yet to figure out the exact location of the door, other than it's in the staff building." Nikolaoff said.
"We'll try to follow him tonight, then."
___________________________________________________________________________________________
"That stakeout was a complete waste of time." Dex mutteted to Nikolaoff while they were getting breakfast the next day. He had visible eyebags under his eyes.
"You've told me as such 50 times now. I'm sick of hearing you." Nikolaoff complained, as he poked around his plate of slop.
"I can't believe he didn't even head out yesterday night..." Dex shook his head in disbelief.
Shortly after everyone had breakfast, the day's morning assembly got called at the stage, which was occupied by Leo, who was juggling three small metal boxes in his hands.
"Good morning, kids. I hope you're ready for the day's expedition! Featuring, as always, a cool new thingamabob. Now, this thing, we call the Map Mind, and when you press the big red button..." Leo began presenting the day's machinery, and pressed the button in question. A glowing display projected from it upwards, and hovered in front of him. It showed a map of Isle Monroe, complete with various marking on it, and a legend off to the side to explain them.
"This thing scans the envirnonment in a range of up to 50 meters, digitizes it, and displays it in live Holo-3D. After that, you can selec point of interest on a map, the docks over there for example, assign them an icon and put it on the legend, and bam! Interactive map, all using the buttons and lever on the control pad over here. I'm sure you all understand the tactical advantage this provides." Leo explained the workings of the machine, the explanation being followed by mild applause.
"And this has what to do with the expedition?" Asked someone from the crowd, rasising an arm in the process.
"Glad you asked. The map in this thing is incomplete, as it currently only has the data of Sowei City and this island. So, each group will get one of the Map Minds, and head into Linam City and Stomhaven, and collect the data of each city, while noting down the points of interest. So, go on then, time to get on the ship and hit the mainland, dudes." Leo said, making the assignment clear to the groups.
The 50 of them headed on the battleship that was waiting on the docks, and shortly arrived in the port city, where Group B began their task. Group A began making their way to Linam, in the meantime.
"Hey, this thing's pretty cool! It even records the trees!" Bryce exclaimed as he was looking at the displays the Map Mind made. After that, he began marking down every tree with a 'tree' icon, before Jon snatched the machine from his hands.
"O-kay, that's enough of that. Check it out, it's the public stage. This is an actual point of interest." Jon pointed out, and jotted the details of the stage down. Dexshighed loudly.
"God, this is so boring... I need to sleep, and here I am doing this." He muttered, rubbing away at his eyes. "By the way, where did Gardner go?" He asked.
"No idea. I think i saw him taking a hard left into some medical building a while ago." Bryce commented, shrugging. Dex went wideyed.
"What!? Why didn't you tell me? We shold go get him immediately!" Dex raised his voice, panicked.
"Relax, will ya, he's fine. Probably went to hceck his eyesight again, or something. Isn't that what glasses-wearing people do all the time?" Bryce yawned. Dex couldn't even begin to process how nonsensical that statement was, so he just let it go, and kept moving forward with the rest.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
In the meantime, back in Stormhaven Nikolaoff and Vasquez were hanging around back, letting the other members of Group B handle the Map Mind.
"You've been acting kinda weird this week, man." Vasquez opened up the conversation, confusing Nikolaoff.
"What are you talking about, Jet?" Nik stared at him with a weirded out expression on his face.
"Well, first was the whole thing with Jason, and now you're colluding with Nepo-baby Tuscan from Group A. What's that all about?" Vasquez explained his concerns, making sure to count with his fingers to show the severity.
"I'm not colluding with Dex, we're just working on something important together. And no, I can't let you know what it is, you'd be putting us both in danger." Nikolaoff explained. Jet didn't really buy into it.
"Whatever. You're loco, man." He finally said, and moved in front of the pack, to take a hold of the Map Mind.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
By the time everyone got back to the island, the sun had set. Leo took a look at the maps they had made, questioning why there were 500 spots marked 'tree' in Group A's map, when we could all clearly tell they were trees just by looking at them. Bryce explained he got bored on the ship on the way back.
Most notably though, Thomas had come back, and he was holding an envelope, with the ensign of a doctor on it.
"Whatcha got there, Tom?" Dex tried to pry, but Thomas was having none of it.
"It's an eyesight examination. Is there a problem?" He said, sounding rather peeved.
"Man, I knew it! It's always the eyes man, always the eyes." Bryce exlaimed, proud of himself for guessing correctly. Dex managed to let out a muffled noise of confusion.
"It's okay to be wrong sometimes, man." Jon said, patting him on the back.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
The following morning, the trainees of Isle Monroe got a rather late start to their day, being woekn up at around 9AM, and being told to get to the stage quickly. Though, most of them thought there must have been some mistake, seeing as when they got there, nobody was present.
"Is this a joke!? Because it's not very funny!" Vasquez complained after having to wait for two minutes. Chatter ensued amongst the crowd, mostly agreeing with him, but it all soon came to an end, when suddenly a booming voice echoed aross the isle.
"And then I decended, like an angel from heaven, on a mission from God!" The voice said, as Geowar from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, slowly came down from the sky, arms extended outwards, basking in the light of the sun, that illuminated the metal acessories in his combat suit, making him appear glowing.
He gracefully landed on the stage, and deeply bowed to his 'audience', who applauded him, and someone even threw a rose on the stage, despite there seemingly being no way for him to get that on the island.
"Were we standing out here in the sun just for this guy to do a dramatic entrance!?" Vasquez shouted, but the clapping muffled his nonsensical cries.
"In the final day of the SSW, I proudly present to you, LIFE!" Geowar exclimed, like a magician revealing his next trick. As he did that, a small metallic discus was thrown on the ground in front of him by someone from backstage. He pressed a button on it's side, and blue lights began exuding out of the center on the disc, flipping and folding between themselves and in the end creating what appeared to be a humanoid form.
The hologram appeared to be dressed in a combat outfit similar to Geowar's, it's hair was slicked back and it sported a goatee. It's eyes however, were blank.
"Greetings! My name is Holo-Bud, how may I assist you today?" It asked, standing tall and staring towards the crowd, whowere amazed.
"Everyone say hi to Holo-Bud, the greatest virtual assistant the world has ever seen. He can procure any information, he can fight, he can dance and he can make the best omelettes you've ever had." Geowar explained, circling around the holographic man as he did so.
"Please, do come up and ask him anything. He's eagerly awaiting your questions." Geowar said, urging the crowd to come up and talk to him.
And so they did. Everyone in the compound went up the stage and asked Holo-Bud a question. Jon asked it for a cooking recipe, Bryce asked it for the best method to ganer the interest of a woman, Dex tried to get it to evaluate the cost of his outfit, which it correctly asessed cost 35.000$, Nikolaoff tried quizzing it on Sowei history, and Vasquez tried (and failed) to get it to fight him.
Thomas was the last one to get on the stage. He went close and whispered to the hologram.
"UserName: AG4, requesting execution of command 66." Was what he said.
"Affirmative." Came the response shortly after.
"What'd you ask it?" Bryce asked Thomas as he climbed down from the stage.
"Just some fun fact about brainwaves. It's a well studied robot, i'll tell you that." Thomas explained, shugging.
"So wait, so if this thing is the perfect soldier, then why arent you just having him do our jobs? He seems like he could do a better job." Asked a random guy from the crowd.
"Well, for one, we can't mass produce him. A lot of rare materials went into his design. And, he's a simple mechanism, who can't really fight against the likes of me, other than basic self defense. I'm certain that if i fought anyone on Holo-Bud's level, i'd wipe the floor with--" Geowar was interrupted halfway through his sentence by Holo-Bud, who for seemingly no reason attacked him! Geowar was knocked aside, off the stage, as the hologram started shooting lightning from it's fingertips in his direction.
"I'll show you now, Geo-Geo-Geowarrrrrr!!!" It screeched at Geowar, it's traquil voice from earlier being replaced by a gravelly, unhinged shriek, that's glitched him out, causing him to spazz out in erratic movements.
"I gotta say, this guy really knows how to put on a show." Muttered Larry to the person closest to him, who happened to be Jon. He had somehow come up with a bucket of popcorn and 3D movie glasses.
"I doubt this is a show..." Jon said, witnessing Geowar conjure a golden shield to protect himself from the electric barrage.
Jon ran up the stage to where the disc-base was, just as George Renie began making his way from backstage, and he pressed the button on it, turing off the Holographic Man.
"We do need to iron out some kinks though..." Geowar chuckled from the ground. George extended an arm and helped Geowar get up.
"I told you we shouldn't have shown him off... I was certain this would have happened." He muttered, and then went off to retrieve the disc from the stage.
After George ad Geowar left, Leo and the Generals made their way to the stage.
"That would be the end of the Special Science Week. I hope you guys enlighetened yourself a tad for what's to come. Now, the science group will be leaving by the end of the day, and the laboratory will be locked, so don't even think about going down there!" Leo warned them, and they all nodded at him.
"And remember, starting next week we're going back to our regular schedule!" Starman said.
"Have a blessed evening!" Lavender added, and the three of them left.
After that, itwas time for lunch, where the men of Room 221 gathered together again.
"That was an interesting week to say the least." Bryce said.
"You can say that again..." Commented Dex. "Sure sucks we have to go back to regular training next week though.
"What did you think, Thomas?" Jon brought him back to the conversation.
"It was alright." He said, gazing off to the distance.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
At the dead of night, one man alone was wandering the halls of the compound.
Tomas Gaspar, finally alone with the masks off, was making his way down the stairs to the back entrance of the laboratory. All the scientists had left by then.
He pressed his palm against the keyhole, blue light making it's way throught the gaps in the lock, forming into a key.
Tomas pushed through the door and entered. To his right, the giant set of armor, painted Sowei black and blue, with a golden crown emblem on it's chest, on top of where the heart would be. 'HERO-001' was engraved on it's foot.
Tomas pressed a button on the side of the display, lowering the glass and freeing the armor set for the world to see. He opened a compartemnt on it, only to see nothing. He sighed.
"Fine then." He whispered. It was time to get to work.