Despite the fact that the room was filled with people who were usually boisterous, loud, and refused to remain quiet when things became difficult, the room was dead silent.
"You're kidding, right?" Gold scoffed. Despite his attempt to sound casual, his words came out in a shaky tone.
"We wouldn't joke about something like this. You're all really, truly going to kill each other. Now, unless any of you have any further questions, will I explain the rules?" Giovanni asked.
Gold scowled, and looked as if he had more to say, but decided against speaking once more. Everyone else seemed to be dazed, or merely too afraid to speak up at all.
"I'll take that as a no. Anyway, moving on. The Program is a death competition. Various groups have toyed with the idea, but no one has attempted to push it forward, but that's all changed now. We believe we have the right technology to begin this, and you will all be the proof that this experiment does work.
"It's a very basic concept, really. You've been brought to an evacuated island, with the help of my grunts. In a few minutes, as you leave this classroom, you will be handed a duffel bag with various items. Food, water, a map, and a weapon chosen at random. When it comes to killing, there's nothing that will be against the rules."
"What if we refuse to take part?" Black asked, sounding slightly cocky about his idea.
"I was getting to that. You will have to play. If you don't leave the classroom within two minutes of your name being called, you will be killed by one of us on the spot. If you do go outside and choose not to play, that's fine, but that can't go on for very long. You see, if no one dies in twenty four hours, all of your collars will detonate immediately. You'll all die, and there will be no winner."
With that explanation, various people touched the collars around their necks. They looked at each other helplessly.
"Giovanni, you didn't explain the collars", Lysandre interrupted, noticing how nervous the participants looked.
"My bad. The collars around your necks are what we use to track you. It records your pulse, and once it detects there is no sign of life, we will know. Of course, it also serves for other purposes. If you try and pry it off, or if you try to escape this island, it will detonate. We don't recommend trying it", Giovanni explained. He let out a sigh, sounding tired from explaining so much. Sitting down, he looked up at Charon to continue.
"Right, ahem. I'll explain the danger zones next", Charon began, "Once you get your maps, you'll see that the island is divided up into various sectors, such as E-1, C-2, etcetera. Every six hours, we'll announce the names of those who have died, as well as danger zones. Once an area becomes a danger zone, you cannot go into it. If you do, the collar will explode. We don't want that, do we? To put it simply, avoid danger zones. Oh, also, the school will become a danger zone twenty minutes after the last student has left, so don't wait for anyone."
Charon took a step back, and waited for Giovanni to get up again. In that time, everyone kept to themselves, almost afraid to look to the others. They were all trying to convince themselves that they were surrounded by good people, and no one would ever kill. Many of them, however, could not shake the suspicion that, under dire circumstances, they would be driven to extremes.
After a few seconds, Giovanni stood up once more. He paced to the front of the desk, causing those in the front row to edge back slightly.
"Now, we know that this group is made up of people with great morals. In fact, we even doubted whether or not you would kill. So, after some deliberation, we decided to bring in two people of our own to get the game up and running. They're not special; they knew as well as you did that you were coming here."
With that, everyone began to look around the room immediately to spot the two extras. After a few seconds of searching, Red saw the back of Lance's head at the top of the room. His spiked red hair, and strange outfit, was impossible to miss. It's no problem, though. He's changed, hasn't he? And even if he hasn't, he's afraid of Yellow. We're fine. He won't hurt us.
"We won't leave you in suspense. The first person we have brought in is Lance, a member of Kanto's Elite Four. I'm certain some of you are already acquainted with him", Giovanni introduced, nodding his head towards Lance. The younger man ignored him, and continued to look straight ahead.
"The second person we brought in is, in fact, Ghetsis' child. N, the king of Team Plasma, and certainly well acquainted with some of you from Unova." Giovanni pointed towards the back of the room. Towards the left, a man with long, green hair, and a simplistic outfit on, approximately the same age of Lance, sat there. He looked slightly confused upon having all eyes on him.
The men at the front of the room didn't miss the way that they looked more distrustingly at N. They all understood immediately why, given the fact that the first piece of information Giovanni gave out was that N had a connection to one of the supervisors.
"If you're thinking that anyone related to the supervisors will be given special treatment, think again. As I said, they were under no impression that they would be coming here either. So, in case anyone in this room thinks they'll receive special treatment because of who you're related to, you are sorely mistaken", Giovanni stated clearly.
He glared down towards the middle aisle, where Silver was seated. The red-haired boy was clutching the sides of his desk, visibly shaking. He tried to maintain a cold expression, but failed to, with his father staring at him with such harshness. He looked downwards.
Once he did, Giovanni looked around at the various students around the room. Many of the teenagers had confused, blank looks upon their faces. It was slightly alarming that they merely looked as if someone had just wrote an overly complicated mathematic equation on the board.
"They still don't seem to understand", Lysandre spoke quietly.
"What isn't there to understand? Children, if any of you have questions, we'll happily answer them before we let you go outside", Pryce offered.
Everyone in the room was silent for a moment. Pryce folded his arms across his chest, waiting for someone to speak up. Several seconds later, Kris raised her hand uncertainly.
"You have a question?" Pryce asked.
"Yes. Do you know the age of the youngest person in this room?" she questioned. Gold looked back at her, raising an eyebrow.
"Of course. The youngest in this room would be... this young man aged thirteen, correct?" Pryce said, pointing to Trevor. The short boy nodded his head, going pale.
"How many other children are taking part in this?" Kris asked, her tone losing its calm qualities.
"We have a few. Half of the participants from Unova, and all those from Kalos, are thirteen. I take it that'll clear any suspicions you have."
"Yes, I suppose so. I take it you also know that there are eighteen year olds in this room? How can you pit people with such a large age difference against each other?! You're asking them to die!" Kris snapped, half raised from her seat. The younger participants were beginning to look more and more nervous at that announcement.
"The oldest people in this room are twenty, actually. Don't forget about our two other contestants. Apart from that, we did bring that into consideration. For starters, it would have been much more complicated to assign you to different sectors so you would all be within your age groups. Secondly, given your skills, we've arrived at the conclusion that age clearly plays no part in your skills. We have predicted champions and high-ranking police members amongst us, after all", Pryce explained.
Kris bit her lip, looking clearly unsatisfied with his explanation. Her fingers lightly brushed her collar, and she knew that trying any acts of defiance would result in the metallic device exploding. Slowly and reluctantly, she sat back down.
A few seats ahead of her sat Yellow. Out of everyone, she still looked the most confused, as if she were still dreaming. Throughout Kris' argument with Pryce, she had paid no attention to it, and instead searched through her belt. The felt rings, which usually held Pokeballs, were now empty. She shoved a hand into her pocket, trying to see if she had misplaced them.
"Yellow, is everything alright?" Giovanni asked.
"I... um... Yes, it is", she mumbled.
"If you're wondering, you didn't lose your Pokemon. We knew some of you would keep them with you at all times for safekeeping, but we couldn't let you keep them. We're not stupid. If you had been allowed to keep them, we figured that you would have used them against us. As we said before, this experiment will be foolproof. Don't worry; the winner will be given their belongings back once the game ends", he explained, having clearly caught on to what she was doing. Yellow removed her hand from her pocket, biting her lip.
"Hey, you have time for one more question?" Sapphire spoke up.
"Go ahead."
"You guys really think the professors won't notice that we're missing? Someone's gonna notice sooner or later", she said, sounding proud of her discovery.
"Do you honestly believe we didn't think of that? Our grunts are keeping a close eye on each region, and if anyone voices their suspicions, they'll be reassured in one way or another", Giovanni replied nonchalantly.
"And what does one way or another mean?!" Green snapped. Several people turned towards him, surprised by his sudden outburst.
"We've left that up to the Commanders. If they have any brains, things won't get messy, so just concentrate on your own game."
Many of the teenagers sitting there looked at each other in disgust and disbelief that he had the nerve to call something like this a game. As they did, Charon pushed through the clutter of supervisors. Sliding the partition, he revealed a stack of bags, thrown lazily on a cart.
"We've had our question and answer session, but we can't waste any more time. I understand you're still in disbelief about this, but once you leave this school, people will certainly begin to play. Anyway, your weapons in here. We'll be calling out your names in alphabetical order by first name. Lysandre, write down the names of the students who left", Giovanni instructed.
Lysandre nodded, grabbing a piece of chalk. Giovanni pulled a folded piece of paper out of his jacket pocket, and unfolded it. Holding it out in front of him, he called out the first name.
"Bianca."
A blonde, ditzy-looking young girl let out a squeak from the first row. She looked back, her eyes wide and terrified. When she saw how Black and Cheren kept their eyes downwards, she shakily stood up. Walking slowly towards the front of the room, Giovanni looked like he was becoming more and more impatient. Charon handed Bianca her green duffel bag, and pointed to the door. Lowering her head, she left the classroom slowly.
"Black. And don't move as slowly."
In contrast, Black hopped up from his seat, teeth clenched together. Making his way quickly through the desks, he snatched the next duffel bag from Charon's arms. Without sparing another glance back at the classroom, he ran out. His loud footsteps could be heard clearly, until they were able to confirm he had left the building.
"Blue."
A soft sigh was heard from the back of the room. Blue stood up from her seat, and flattened out her skirt. As she walked up the aisle, she briefly stopped by Silver's desk, and gave his shoulder a brief squeeze. When Silver looked up with raised eyebrows, she had already moved towards the top of the classroom, looking straight ahead. No one missed the way she glared at Charon as she received her bag, causing the scientist to return the look with offense.
This process of role-call continued for quite a while, as Giovanni left a two minute interval between the calling of each name. Blue was nowhere near the last student to show her frustration toward Charon, some worrying that someone would end up using physical violence against him. Nothing like that happened, making the process feel longer. Slowly, the number of empty tables increased, along with the tense atmosphere in the room. By the time Trevor left the room, only four remained.
"White."
Blinking rapidly, White looked around the room at the remaining students. She had begun to cry shortly after Black had left, and had yet to stop. She almost stumbled towards the top of the room, where Charon practically shoved the bag against her chest. He was clearly becoming fed up with handing out bags.
"X."
The boy who had been previously staring at the board absentmindedly immediately stood up. His head remained lowered as he walked towards Charon, holding out his arms to receive his bag.
"Psst, X! Plea-" Y began to speak, but was quickly interrupted.
"No interfering with the others before the game! If you speak up once more, you'll be killed before you leave the room!" Ghetsis snapped. Y immediately became quiet. X had taken no notice of the scene behind him, and left the classroom quietly.
"Y."
The girl who had been previously scolded by Ghetsis stood up. She looked back over her shoulder at the last person in the classroom, before looking straight ahead once more. Avoiding eye contact with Ghetsis, Y took her bag and ran out of the classroom, her footsteps light and dainty.
"And lastly, Yellow", Giovanni announced, before sitting down once more.
Yellow stood up slowly, once again clutching the empty hooks around her belt. She walked towards the front of the classroom, and received the last bag sitting on the cart. Before she left, she looked back at the classroom, noting how empty it was. It wasn't too long ago everyone was sitting in here. Everyone's out there now. Who knows what's happened out there while I've been sitting here?, Yellow thought.
Not wanting to spend another minute alone in the classroom with the supervisors, she ran out of the classroom, and into a dark corridor. At the end of the corridor were fluid lights from outside, illuminating the battle ground that waited before her. Pushing her fears aside, Yellow ran out into the unknown.
In the classroom, Giovanni was seated at the teacher's chair. The other supervisors were sitting in the front row, looking exhausted from their introduction to their game. Lysandre remained standing, finishing up the last name on the board, before admiring his work.
Bianca, F, 15, Unova.
Black, M, 15, Unova.
Blue, F, 18, Kanto.
Cheren, M, 15, Unova.
Crystal, F, 16, Johto.
Diamond, M, 14, Sinnoh.
Emerald, M, 15, Hoenn.
Faitsu, F, 13, Unova.
Gold, M, 16, Johto.
Green, M, 18, Kanto.
Hugh, M, 13, Unova.
Lance, M, 20, Kanto.
N, M, 20, Unova.
Pearl, M, 14, Sinnoh.
Platinum, F, 14, Sinnoh.
Rakutsu, M, 13, Unova.
Red, M, 18, Kanto.
Ruby, M, 15, Hoenn.
Sapphire, F, 15, Hoenn.
Shauna, F, 13, Kalos.
Silver, M, 16, Johto.
Tierno, M, 13, Kalos.
Trevor, M, 13, Kalos.
White, F, 15, Unova.
X, M, 13, Kalos.
Y, F, 13, Kalos.
Yellow, F, 17, Kanto.
Clutching his throbbing hand, Lysandre put down the piece of chalk, and took a seat in the front row. He scanned through all the names, wondering how many of them would survive the night, and whose name would be the only one not crossed out.
Despite the fact that many of the contestants were known for their morals and selfless behaviour, he knew that they would show their most hideous sides in a situation like this. It would happen faster than any of them would think. As soon as they left the classroom, the fight to the death had officially begun.
27 Remaining.
