Yup, here's the obvious, obvious, next chapter! Thanks to W0lfWarrior and Commander Jupiter, not to mention Platinum, for your feedback, obviously!
I still feel guilty for uploading this chapter, though, as I want to write other chapters in other books like Inception, but I want to get this off my mind. And, I should really be studying for midterms, as a university student.
Here's the 'obvious' read!
Chapter four: The International Police Gadget Master
Now what Mars really didn't expect was that the gadgets Looker was talking about would not be found in the IP office, but outside of it. In fact…
It was just a technology studio: a place where people come to purchase computers, laptops, or even televisions. To Mars, it looked nothing like what would belong to the IP. Was Looker even being serious?
"You show signs of doubt," Looker plainly stated, looking at Mars' expression. "Is this not what you had imagined, or even had in mind?"
Mars shrugged, proceeded to follow Looker into the store.
Literally, the store looked exactly like a typical technology retailer. People were examining and browsing through store items, while others were either asking employees for help or purchasing their goods at the main cashier.
Looker, ignoring the people in the store, marched straight for the main counter where two employees, both female and pretty, were helping customers with their respective duties. Behind the two employees was a man who what looked to be the manager.
"Now if you happen to be dissatisfied with the product," the manager said to his customer. "You will be granted a two week warranty period before you consider returning it. But nevertheless, I think you'll be fine with it."
The customer nodded and went on his way. Immediately after that customer left, Looker marched to the desk.
"Good afternoon sir! I'm looking for something to take to Orre and Unova."
Suddenly, the friendly emotions of the manager became neutral, eyes full of realization.
"Ah, Orre and Unova. Yes."
He gestured for the two IP agents to a side room in the store, to a door with a red label reading "STORAGE" and they went right into the room.
Of course, the sight did not impress Mars at all. It was basically just a typical 'storage' room where whatever spare supplies and extra computer parts that were needed for the shop to use. There was nothing of ideal value in there, if not counting the used hard drives and RAM.
"A simple mechanism engages the elevator by torque alone," the manager explained, moving over to one of the bulky racks placed against the wall.
"If not a manager, what's your name?" Mars asked.
"My name is of no importance," he said. "But anyway, I go by Atelier. Can't you see the nametag here? I suppose you didn't, but you can tell me your name. I already know Looker here, so…"
Mars was just about to edge out her own name, but it appeared that Looker had planned one step ahead of her. He raised a hand.
"Your codename," he warned.
Taking the simple instruction into thought Mars nodded and looked to Atelier's direction.
"My name is Eclipse, I'm simply a new worker for the IP," she shortly explained.
Atelier smiled, "Pleased to meet you Eclipse," he reached for the side of the rack and grabbed it a quarter of the way above center and pressed the rack down to the floor.
"With the application of torque, I only need to give as much force as I can before the elevator starts up. It's ingenious, really, because no one would spend any given thought on torque!"
Mars rolled her eyes, waiting for whatever could happen next. A secret elevator would probably pop up somewhere, like what she would see in classic movies. But of course, wouldn't that mean that if someone were to break into the store, the storage room would also be compromised?
However, what Mars wasn't expecting was that the room (or at least the floor) began to sink downward. At first, she shuddered at the feeling that she was being travelling downward whilst feeling the opposing force from her feet up to her head that made her feel weightless.
"This is the best way to conceal a workshop like mine within a legally operating retail shop," Atelier explained.
That was unexpected.
The lift (or the floor) finally came to a halt, and Mars found she was looking at a spacious room illuminated by lights infused in the ceiling. Several tables lined up with mechanical parts and tools while others had messily placed papers piled on top of it. Mars could not believe that a person like Atelier could actually be messy. After all, he seemed organised enough when he was operating the clothes shop.
"I keep my special supplies in here, not where the public is allowed," he said.
Atelier gestured for Mars and Looker to follow him to a polished mahogany table and to take a seat in the leather armchairs provided.
"Shall I get you any drinks?" he offered.
"Uh… tea, please," Mars asked. "Cream and sugar."
Looker pondered a moment before saying, "Coffee, please. Cream and sugar as well."
Atelier went over to quickly prepare the requested drinks, served in frosted glass cups, and brought them over to the table served on a tray.
"A while ago, Looker here was sent on a mission to infiltrate the Pokémon League in Unova," Atelier explained. "You might say that the gadgets he brought were… interesting. But sadly the IP didn't approve of Looker's gadgets after the mission, so they employed me to make some."
"What kind of gadgets did Looker make?" Mars asked, curious.
This prompted Looker to bow his head in shame, as Atelier grinned and went to a display rack showcasing some gadgets, in which he grabbed two and brought them back to the mahogany table. When he placed them on the table, Mars could only stare.
"Wha – what is this?!" she continued to stare.
"This is the so-called International Police Secret Weapon No. 13: the Unbelievable Metamorphosis Set," Atelier said. "Looker used it to maintain a separate identity, but the superiors at the IP identified Looker instantly, so the gadget was defective," Atelier grinned. "That being said, it was invented by Looker."
"It was of no importance," Looker interjected. "It was only so I could slip into the League without anyone noticing that I was undercover."
Mars burst into a series of laughs.
The so-called gadget looked like a joke. It was merely a pair of glasses with fake lenses (that had small eyeholes cut into it), an oversized nose, and a large mustache. In Mars' eyes, there was no way that this could ever be considered a 'secret weapon'.
"There is nothing funny about that," Looker coldly said, but Mars just kept on laughing. Even Atelier managed to keep smiling.
"Anyway, here's the next gadget Looker created," Atelier placed the other gadget on the table. Mars finally calmed down, but still tried to suppress a few more laughs she had when looking at the other gadget.
It looked like a cross between a sophisticated telescope and a pair of glasses, where the frame was like a normal pair of glasses, but the telescope itself stuck out of where the lenses should have been. To Mars, it looked ridiculous.
"What's it called?" she asked.
"International Police Secret Weapon No. 1: Excellent Scope Ver. 2," Looker answered this time.
Mars could only laugh at the name.
"Seriously, are those really the names you could think of?" she said between laughs. "The 'unbelievable metamorphosis' set and 'excellent scope ver. 2'?! I'm surprised it's even called 'secret weapon number 1' on your list! Even Team Galactic grunts back in the day could think of smarter names than those! It wouldn't make the gadget so obvious."
That brought Looker to his senses this was Mars, and had resurrected the 'obvious' debate.
"What I name my gadgets is supposed to make sure the names don't deter themselves when I'm dealing with criminals," Looker said in hopeless defence. "I've faced criminals countless times and they never discovered what they were! And above all: not obvious."
Mars and Atelier looked at each other, and they both shrugged.
"It's probably because criminals never touched your gadgets anyway," Atelier said, finally bringing the argument to a slow stop. "Speaking of gadgets, stay here and wait for me to present you with mine."
The first gadget that Atelier brought up was a scanner that certainly had the appearance to be attached around the ear. The fact that it had an earpiece suspended in the centre meant that it had to be put on the ear altogether.
"This is one of the gadgets of the IP at pinnacle level: the e-Scope Lens Mark VI (that is, 6)," Atelier explained. "It looks small, as the gadget itself only needs to fit around the ear, with the earpiece in its respective place and the lens doesn't seem to be present."
It was true. The bulkier part of the gadget, at the spot that was the side of the head, contained the essentials of the gadget. In spite of being bulkier, it was still proportionally thin enough to not stand out on the head's side. The bottom line was that that was all: just an earpiece to attach on the ear, a piece to attach behind the ear, and a thin scanner, but no lenses.
"Go on, Eclipse, try it," Atelier picked up the e-Scope Lens and gave it to Mars to experiment with it.
Upon receiving it, Mars was surprised at how light the scanner weighed. To her next surprise, as she tried it on, she found that it was astonishingly rigid when it came to putting it behind her ear. The scanner itself rested comfortably on the side of her head (having a matching height of Mars' ear), and the friction provided by the gadget disallowed any chance of it coming loose from her ear.
If nothing else, her hair was enough to keep the gadget concealed.
"The Mark VI of the e-Scope Lens enables you to use the gadget in a very covert method," Atelier continued. "There are two ways: you can either physically touch it or you can blink three times in succession as an alternative."
But Mars had no exact idea what he meant. There was no lens. As far as she could tell there was only an earpiece and its respective counterparts surrounding it!
"Just will the gadget to activate," Atelier said.
So Mars blinked three times.
She failed.
And failed badly.
"Eclipse, it's a physical term," Atelier said, half-amused that Mars tried to turn it on with her own hands. "The fact that it can't be physically turned on by someone else means that only you can turn it on, provided that you're wearing it. Otherwise, you could let agent Looker to use it when –"
"No need!" Looker cut in. "I still have International Police Secret Weapon No.1: Excellent Scope Ver. 2!"
Mars shook her head, but Atelier seemed fine.
"Alright, I'll try again," Mars said, trying to focus on what to do with this thing.
It can't be a physical thing, Looker said, Mars thought. Therefore, it's non-physical, so it has to be none other than mental. Impossible! But it's worth a shot.
So Mars willed the gadget to turn on. She blinked three times in succession.
In an instant, the thin box-like gadget popped open and several light rays shot out of the box to beam sideways stretching across only Mars' eyes. Through Mars' eyes, she could see an overwhelming amount of technology put into the e-Scope Lens. It was incredible that this was pure light she was looking at. The light had no frame, yet it looked like it traced perfectly across her eyes.
Mars finally understood how complex the making of this gadget was.
"Clever light refraction is all that's needed to customise this gadget. With this, you can magnify to a distance of a maximum 500 metres (547 yards)," Atelier said. "One of the best parts of this thing is that it gives you direct access to our resources with the International Police via computer and satellite, as well as uninterrupted communication with HQ and Looker. With the resources in mind, you could target several individuals at once and our databases will provide you with whatever information they can supply. Simply ask who the person might be, and the database will get to work. Given that you could identify them, you could also listen in on their conversations, even if there's a wall or window between you."
"WHAT?!" Mars exclaimed, her eyes wide with surprise. "How – what – HOW can you even do that?! It defies logic that you could hear through a wall!"
Atelier smirked. "There's a reason why this e-Scope Lens is called the Mark VI. It's the best engineered scope lens we have to date! When we had the Mark I, the distance it could get was a mere 10 metres but it was good for scouting a short distance nonetheless, followed by the Mark II which could magnify 25 metres; the Mark III with 50 metres; the Mark IV with 100 metres, and finally the Mark V with 250 metres. Audio capability wasn't even possible until the Mark IV came along, and at the time it wasn't even that well-developed. Furthermore, the kind of light screen you see right before your eye is the second of its kind after the Mark V, and communication and data transfer didn't come until the Mark IV. You should consider yourself lucky for getting your hands on the Mark VI, because it's near impossible to have such a sharp screen and create a range of 500 metres whilst still maintaining a sharp audio, and data transfer with HQ is at its smoothest yet!"
"So, any questions?"
Mars was dumbfounded at the amount of information she was given in a single speech. While it didn't take that long to process everything, it still needed some time.
"So in the event that the Mark VI runs out of power, assuming it does run on power," Mars said. "How am I supposed to recharge it? I can tell that with this kind of technology involving light, it must be very power-consumable."
Atelier looked offended.
"This is the Mark VI!" he emphasized. "I've engineered this thing to be the best it can be so far. Of course I've thought of that area."
He detached the gadget from Mars' ear (it didn't hurt, rest assured) and showed a glass-like surface on the box-like gadget's side.
"This is a solar panel," he explained. "It can automatically recharge the gadget if you leave it out in the sun, and also the consumption of energy for the e-Scope Lens Mark VI is 80% efficient, so just ten minutes of direct sunlight should be able to sustain the Mark VI for an hour."
Mars raised her eyebrows.
"Of course, since the gadget will be well hidden in your hair," Atelier continued. "Sunlight will be hard to reach which is good, because you definitely do not want it to be seen. Still, a few glimmers of sunlight could give you precious minutes of gadget time."
The IP agent Mars could easily ask another question with that reference.
"Is it anywhere effective in the night?"
Again, Atelier looked very offended.
"This. Is. The. Mark. VI!" he shouted each word in chunks. "Of course there's night vision! However, in order to be undetected during a stealth mission the scope lens Mark VI will have its light screen reduced to a darker tone of colour in order to blend with your surroundings but it will illuminate your eyes at the very least, lest the mission should get compromised. I'll show you."
With successive snaps of his fingers, the lights in the room went out. Mars then saw the light rays in on the scope lens reduce to about half the lighting, and it was sharply visible.
Atelier turned the lights back on, set the scope lens on the table, and pulled out a pair of black-framed medium-sized sports sunglasses.
"If you think that the e-Scope Lens Mark VI might be to blinding for your eyes, you can always customise the amount of lighting and brightness however you want," Atelier explained. "If all else fails, you can wear these sunglasses."
Mars raised her eyebrows. "What do they do?"
"They protect your eyes from the sun," the gadget master said, with his tone making it sound extremely obvious. "However, its hidden functions are more complicated than that. There is a little chip in the side which can link with the e-Scope Lens. While you're wearing the scope lens on your ear, you can casually wear the sunglasses as if you're putting them on normally, and the sunglasses will automatically establish a connection with the e-Scope Lens. However, you may manually attach the two pieces together if you desire. In effect, all the capabilities of the gadget will be transferred into the sunglasses for you to use. Since the images are one-way, the sunglasses are an excellent cover for using the e-Scope Lens in plain sight. These sports sunglasses are useless without the scope lens and, of course, they protect your eyes."
Atelier brought out the next gadget: a laptop.
"It may look small, but the amount of mechanical engineering and programing should prove its worth," Atelier said. "This computer is solely made for crippling entire security systems and seizing control of entire buildings as well as their electrical systems. Just turn it on, plug it into any given outlet in a building, and take over the place."
He disclosed a cell phone.
"When all else fails, or if you need a diversion, place this cell phone anywhere and activate it from the laptop. It should be able to disrupt all technology within an entire building."
Atelier stowed it in a compartment in laptop and gave it to Mars. Afterwards, he put a metallic pen on the table.
"Fountain pen, not really used much," he said. "It contains a micro-trigger that can fire small EMP pulses. I've heard you and Looker are dealing with bombs, and we at the IP suppose that they must be electronically activated. Just fire the EMP at a single bomb, at the systems will break."
Mars stared at Atelier as he continued to place more gadgets on the table, the first being a pair of black rubber gloves.
"These gloves are actually harder than they look, like, literally hard," Atelier said. "The reason is that each glove has magnetic fibres weaved into the fabric. They are flexible, so they won't break. If you ever needed to make a climb on a metallic surface, the time would come to use these."
He threw the gloves to the metal wall across the room, in which the gloves stuck to the wall instantaneously.
"I have to warn you, though, that if the gloves ever come into contact with a demagnetizer, the effectiveness will be reduced by 99%. You will have to bring it for repairs to get it functioning again," Atelier explained some more.
After that, Atelier placed two Poké Balls on the table: a Great Ball and an Ultra Ball.
"Don't confuse these with your regular Poké Balls!" Atelier swiftly warned (again and again…). "The Great Ball is actually a bomb full of knockout gas, mixed with the equivalent of a smoke bomb. Anyone who breathes it is liable to be knocked out cold for at least six hours. Just press the button on the ball to arm it, and you will have a five-second fuse to throw it before it goes off. The Ultra Ball, in contrast, is a flashbang capable to blind your enemies for a good ten seconds. I would advise you so stay away from it once activated. All the same, arm it the same way like you do with the knockout gas."
Mars took the gadgets and equipped them accordingly: beginning with the e-Scope Lens Mark VI on her ear, placing the laptop into one of the bags she was given, the fountain pen into one of her coat pockets, and the gloves into another coat pocket.
"Thank you, Atelier," Mars said.
"It's my pleasure to do it, Eclipse," Atelier replied.
Now it was Looker's turn to receive his gadgets…
"International Police Secret Weapon No. 1! Excellent Scope Ver. 2," Looker held up the horrific-looking twin telescope/glasses in the air. "This is all I need and some communication."
"Yes, communication," Atelier agreed. "But you will need a lot more than just those…"
He jumped off his leather armchair and went to grab a heavy-looking metal briefcase in the distance, and opened it right in front of Looker.
"It's basically what you need to create a makeshift base. You will have to use this to establish a secure connection directly with the IP. You can even transmit a given substance like oil or some corrosive chemical via using the analysis sheet in the briefcase. Just make sure you've got gloves on and you're using a clean dropper. HQ will look at it and provide you with information from our database. Radar is also equipped to detect anyone in the vicinity within a given radius. If nothing else, a few security locks should be enough to keep the both the briefcase secure and, depending on where you're setting up your base, to secure a door. Ensure that one of you stays in the base so you don't lock yourselves out. If you do have to go in the field together, keep the briefcase hidden."
Atelier closed the briefcase and gave it to Looker, and then he pulled out a hand-sized tablet.
"Finally, Looker, here is one of the gadgets I made just for you. This is a technically and electronically advanced notepad in which you can take multiple notes and memos by use of the stylus. If you need to scratch something off, just rub it off using the other end of the stylus. Sort of like a pencil. Furthermore, you'll be able to achieve and save any liquid sample you've found, and transfer it into the briefcase, and we'll be on the receiving end."
As Atelier passed the tablet to Looker, Mars felt the need to ask, "What about solid samples?"
"You will have to bring them directly to the briefcase and place them onto the analysis sheet like normal. They're sure not to fit into the tablet of course," Atelier finished. "Anyway, that's all I have for you, so… yeah, use these gadgets wisely."
"Thank you, Atelier," Mars said.
Now it was Looker's turn to jump. "Okay! The time has come! We must move to the field, now!"
Looker quickly ran off to the elevator.
"What are you waiting for, Eclipse?! The time is now!"
"Looker, you're not seeing the obvious, are you? You've forgotten the briefcase!"
Haha. It's so obvious!