William walked across the deck of the ship, mentally calling himself five kinds of fool. He wasn’t sure what angered him more, the fact that he himself hadn’t noticed the hologram inset in the invitation, or the fact that the punk in the red leather
had.
Either way, it was precious time lost investigating this Diamant Industries. He’d certainly never heard of the company before now, if it was even real. He had done a quick search with his PokéEtch on the beach, but nothing had come up, and now both that device and his laptop had been confiscated by the strange woman attendant. He, of course, had other devices hidden among his baggage, but he would have to wait for private quarters before he’d be able to use them without anyone knowing.
In the meantime, he had other things to investigate.
The common area of the ship was a large room towards the center, partially protected by the elements with a ceiling and four walls, but large open doorways at each corner opening onto the deck. A half set of stairs led down from each doorway to the recessed room which was furnished elegantly for a sea-going vessel. The walls were tastefully appointed; the only thing standing out awkwardly was a projector screen taking up one wall. The couches and chairs were made of plush, soft leather, and tables positioned intermittently offered tantalizing snacks and drinks.
A larger table in the middle held something more interesting: a bowl filled with small, electronic devices. William walked over and picked one up. It was a slim device, similar to the Holo Casters popular in the Kalos region. These were thinner and lighter than a Holo Caster, however, little more than a piece of glass or plastic with metal caps around the corners.
As his thumb pressed onto the glass, it left a glowing blue fingerprint behind, and a cheerful female voice said, “Acknowledging.” William stared at the screen for a moment as a series of lights ran over the screen, eventually forming a glowing diamond shape. A short, brilliant flash caused him to blink and flinch away.
“Welcome, William Conor,” the device announced as he looked back at the device. “Accessing apps and contacts.” The diamond disappeared and was replaced with a series of names and faces, his own appearing alphabetically after “Lisa M. Callimede” and before “Idalia Fisher.” His picture – a surprised, half-blinking face – was likely taken just moments before when the device flashed. The other faces identified the other contestants that had already picked up their own gadgets, with a few faces missing.
On a whim, William pressed the name of one of the contests, Ririka E. Knighton, a pretty blond girl he remembered seeing on the beach. She must have figured out how to set the photograph setting since, unlike most of the others, her picture was actually posed for with a smile and a victory symbol. As he touched the name, her photo expanded to fill the entire screen, and then a larger, almost full-size, holo projection appeared above the screen, showing Ririka against a background of the sea and sky.
“Oh, hello. You must be William.” Ririka smiled and waved. “Aren’t these new Holo Casters just brilliant? I do hope we’ll get to keep them after the tournament.”
William smiled. “I guess this must be what that woman meant when she said we’d get alternate communicators.”
“Yes, indeed, and a shame they’re limited to radio communications. Kayla and I have been playing around with the features, and they’re very sophistic– oh, guess it’s time to go.”
The device trilled softly once as Ririka hung up and the holo dissolved. When William raised his head, he saw why she had hung up. The ramp was now removed from the dock, and the woman in the suit was standing at the top of one of the entranceways, waiting patiently. Ririka and two others, a boy and a girl, all came down from the top deck, bringing all 17 contestants into lounge area.
Once everyone was seated, the woman stepped forward and peered into the bowl. “Oh, good, it looks like you all have received your communicators.”
“His isn’t working,” A young woman in a lab coat called from her spot, perched on the armrest of a chair near the back. Based on the picture on the phone, William knew that her name was Juliet. She was pointing towards a young teenager with an orange and a white cap. Most people were looking at the youngster in question, so it was likely that only William noticed the look of surprise and recognition on the face of the young, rich girl that had been late earlier, one Terra Reynolds.
The boy in the cap blushed beat red, and William was instantly suspicious. No tech problem should cause that amount of embarrassment. “It won’t take my fingerprint, Miss."
The young woman who had come down with Ririka, Kayla according to William's list, had been playing around with her phone device during the conversation, and she suddenly looked up. “You must be Justin Ryder, right? That’s the only name without a face.”
“Er, yeah, that’s me, though most people just call me by my nickname, Leon.”
“Well, let’s see if we can take care of your problem, Mr. Leon.” The woman in blue walked over to Leon’s seat and bent forward, grabbing his arm with one strong hand. With the other, she pressed the tip of her index finger against his, and Leon yelped sharply. Before Leon’s cry was even finished, the woman pressed his index finger against the screen of the device, which lit up instantly with a flash.
“Welcome, Justin Ryder. Accessing apps and contacts.”
Leon’s face was flushed and sweating, but he looked at the woman with gratitude. “Thank you.”
The woman nodded then walked to the side of the room with a projector screen. “Please take a moment to listen to a message from your sponsor, Mr. Diamant.” She pressed a button on the side of the screen and the lights in the vessel shut off as the projector came to life.
On the screen was a man of indiscernible age. His hair was pure white and fell to his shoulders, but his face and posture were not that of an old man. Indeed, his face was almost as blemish-free as the woman’s, though William instantly wrote it off as plastic surgery. His clothing was of a fashionable cut, white material decorated with silver trim and adornments. In short, he looked like one of the foppish nobility of Kalos, albeit one with more style than most, and with a foppish smirk that looked out of place on his face.
“Welcome, contestants, to my vessel and to the wonderful opportunities that await you,” he announced, spreading his arms wide. “Within the hour you will be transported to my island, the Isle of Tajna, where the tournament will occur.”
As Mr. Diamant spoke, a photograph of the island appeared behind him on the screen, a rocky, tree-filled place with cliffs for coasts. No scale was given, but based on context William guessed that the island was relatively small, smaller than Jubilife City at least. He didn’t have much time to focus on the map, though, as Mr. Diamont continued his exposition.
“For the next hour, my assistant, Safiri, will provide refreshments for you and your Pokémon, to help you relax while you still can. Once you reach the island, we will show you the tournament bracket, and the tournament will begin immediately.”
“What?!” Several people called out at once. Drinks were spilled and jimmies rustled as the surprised contestants turned to each other and the woman, now known to be the mentioned Safiri, for confirmation. Safiri merely bowed her head and gestured back towards the projector screen.
“After a battle to warm everyone up, we will take dinner, followed by another battle by starlight, then you will be shown to your rooms for this evening.” On screen, Diamant tilted his head and smiled. “I know the schedule seems tight, but there is little sightseeing to be done on the island, and I’m sure you’re all anxious to receive your prize money and get back to your lives.”
Diamant blew a kiss towards the audience and bowed deeply. “I shall see you soon, on the Isle of Tajna.”
The video disappeared as the light turned back and the contestants were left in a daze. “Oh dear, I hope we’re not fighting first, I haven’t even had a chance to brush Oshawott’s fur!” one girl exclaimed, rushing out of the room with a Pokéball clenched in her hand. The other trainers similarly started fussing and preparing their Pokémon, none of them paying the slightest bit of attention to Safiri, the food, or anyone else.
None of them except William, that is. He grabbed his communicator and walked out onto the deck of the ship, trying to find a place with a bit of privacy. Settling for a lifeboat near the stern of the ship, he hunched over and studied the communicator, memorizing the names and faces of the other contestants. After all, it was possible that one of them was the person he was here to find, the person he’d dedicated his life to catching.
As he scrolled through the names and faces, he immediately wrote most of them off. While he himself was proof that a youthful face could disguise something deeper, he couldn’t believe that any of the young teenage kids in the group could have been a part of something so terrible when they were so young. The only one of real interest was the Justin/Leon kid, but whatever strangeness that kid was involved in was likely something unrelated.
There were a number of older contestants, though. Two women, Lisa and Shirley according to the phone, seemed to know each other and had spent most of their time chatting to one another. They also looked vaguely familiar to him in some way that he just couldn’t spot. The hobo guy, James, was also old enough to be involved, as was the dark-haired Idalia.
Oh, don’t worry, I’m not forgetting about you, pal. William smiled grimly as he looked at the awkward photo of Edward Hughs, the smug, smirking guy in the red leather jacket that had pointed out the logo hidden in the invitation to everyone on the beach. Although William hated to assign suspicion so early on in a case, he couldn’t deny that he thought of Edward as his top suspect, even higher than the mysterious, fake-looking Mr. Diamant.
As he walked back towards the lounge area to grab a soda and some chips, he couldn’t help but notice Edward standing at the bow of the ship, hand raised to keep the glare out of his eyes as he looked ahead toward their destination.
***
Forty minutes later, Lisa leaned against a wall towards the front of the ship, watching idly as they pulled into a small cove on the north side of the island. On the deck in front of her, Shirley was working up a sweat, practicing moves with her Purugly and paying little attention to their surroundings.
“We’re almost there, y’know,” Lisa said, her eyes still focused on the island they were approaching. With huge cliffs on all sides, this small bay seemed the only way on or off the island, and she didn’t like entering somewhere without an escape route in mind. Her gaze scanned the beach leading up to the giant rock formations that surrounded the narrow entrance to the cove, then dropped to the crystal clear water beneath them. At worse, they could swim for it if the need arose; it wouldn’t be a pleasant trip, but they would survive.
“Are you sure you don’t want to get any practice in before we land?” Shirley asked, breaking Lisa out of her contemplation.
“Oh, nah, I’ll be fine. You were always more serious about this sort of thing than me anyway.” Lisa took a moment to take a nice good look at her friend and former partner. In the nearly three years since Team Galactic was brought down, Shirley had really begun to come into her own. Her eyes burned with a spirit and determination that she’d never had while fighting for Cyrus, and both her and her Purugly were in top-fighting form.
But the best thing, in Lisa’s eyes, was that she smiled more often. She had never seen her friend smile as much as she had since they met up on the beach, and she shared with Lisa the adventures she’d had while traveling through Unova and beating the league. Her face broke into a wide grin and shined with the pride of herself and her Pokémon. Hearing everything she’d accomplished, Lisa couldn’t blame her for being as happy as she was. She deserved every bit of it.
“Well, I may work hard,” Shirley joked, punching her friend playfully in the arm, “but you’ve got all the intuition. It takes me days to formulate strategies that you could think up on the spot.”
Lisa smirked. “You’re giving me far too much credit. In any event, I didn’t come here to win.”
Shirley’s smile drooped and she cocked her head in confusion. “You didn’t? Then why’d you bother coming?”
“Don’t you think all this,” Lisa waved her hands around, indicating the boat, the island, their surroundings, “is a bit much? I mean, seriously, one hundred million dollars for a tournament? Even for trainers like you, I mean, don’t get me wrong, you’re good, but there’s no entrance fee, no publicity, nada. So why’s the guy doing it? What’s in it for him?”
Shirley looked at her friend skeptically and raised an eyebrow. “Maybe you spent too much time with Cyrus after all. Not everyone does things just so they can get something in return, you know. The world isn’t inherently selfish.”
“Maybe not all of it, but most of it,” Lisa shot back. “You don’t see rich f**ks like that Diamant constantly throwing money around just for the hell of it, do you?”
“Not usually, no.”
“In fact, I’ve never even heard of this guy, nor his company. Usually these rich guys, the ones that give money out to causes and sh*t, they’re all over the news like; newspaper people can’t get enough of ‘em.” As Lisa talked, she realized she was getting so worked up that her east-side city accent was starting to come through, and she forced herself to calm her speech. “I just think something might be up is all. That’s why I came, plain and simple. If anything bad is going on, I want to put a stop to it.”
“You think this guy might be another Cyrus?” Shirley asked soberly.
“I dunno who he is, but I’m going to find out.”
While the two friends were having their conversation, the boat eased onto a dock located at the mouth of a narrow river that flowed into the cove. Safiri, the unsettling woman designated as Diamant’s assistant, clapped her hands to get everyone’s attention. Most of the other contestants were already on the port side of the ship, waiting to disembark, and Shirley quickly recalled Purugly and grabbed the small luggage she had brought. “Are you coming?”
Lisa nodded and grabbed her own duffel bag, following behind Shirley. The two were the last to disembark, and as Lisa stepped onto the ramp, Safiri followed closely behind her. The presence of the woman made Lisa anxious for reasons she couldn’t quite understand, and so she almost jumped out of her skin when the woman clamped a cold, heavy arm on her shoulder.
“I assure you,” Safiri said in a flat, dead tone and they descended the ramp, “that my master’s motives are most sincere. You would do well to focus your thoughts on success, rather than leaning towards useless conjecture.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Lisa replied, still shaken from the sudden touch. Safiri removed her arm as they stepped out onto the coast and quickly walked to the head of the group, leading them onward through the sand to what appeared to be a cave entrance in the rock ahead. It wasn’t a far walk, but one of the other contestants was struggling with her luggage until a young man in a red jacket helped her by grabbing two of them.
Three suitcases for a tournament that won’t last longer than a couple days. Lisa choked back a snicker as she hefted her duffel bag on her back, following the others into the entranceway.
What appeared to be a cave entrance was actually a concealed glass door. A small camera popped out of a crevice and scanned Safiri’s eyes before the doorway slide open, revealing a cool white interior. The hallway they entered felt like it belonged more in a hospital than a tournament hall, with bright fluorescent lighting and swing doors to either side, but Safiri led them purposefully straight forward about a hundred meters to another set of closed glass doors.
Another retina scan later, the contestants all entered into a large, circular room about the same size as the main train station hall in Lumiose City. The walls were filled with display screens about a story tall, circumnavigating the entire room. The only other feature of the room was a white, circular station in the exact center, with white countertops and glass walls and a ceiling, keeping the station separate from the rest of the room.
Exiting from a barely visible door in the side of the central station was Mr. Diamant himself, just as handsome and radiant as he’d appeared in the short video they’d seen of him on the boat. Lisa flushed for a moment, wondering if his body was as perfect
under his clothes as he looked
in them. As he neared the group he smiled with teeth so white they just about glinted off the lights.
“Welcome, welcome to the Isle of Tajna!” He called out to them in a loud, soothing voice. “Here is the place where you shall compete in the tournament of your dreams, myself only the humble specter and benefactor,” he completed with a flourished bow and Lisa choked back a laugh, thinking him anything but humble.
“If you will join me, please.” Diamant raised a hand and beckoned them forward before turning and walking back toward the station. Sitting inside was a woman who looked similar to Safiri, but not quite the same; sisters, but not twins. This one’s hair was a fiery red, so bright it could give Shirley a contest, and she chewed bubblegum as she sat, typing at some kind of computer terminal.
“This is the machine that will decide your fates,” Diamant explained cryptically, leaning against the glass wall of the station. “It is a randomizer that will assign the contestants for our tournament. The first round will consist of eight matches, single elimination. The first two matches will be tonight, and I hope to finish the round tomorrow, with the matches spread throughout the day. Those that remain will enter into the second round on day three.”
He smiled charmingly. “So, who’s ready to see their match?”
Without waiting for a reply, he gestured at the red-haired woman who nodded back and typed furiously at the computer for a moment. Diamant then turned his attention towards the screen surrounding them on the walls, and all the contestants turned as one, waiting to see the results.
The walls, previously showing a flowing image of water, had now faded to black, all except one right above the door they had entered through. This screen showed shots of all of their faces, the same photos stored in their communicators, matched with their names, and the text “Calculating Challengers” underneath. Lisa grimaced at the sight of her candid shot up on the big screen; she’d have to figure out how to take a new picture soon.
Within a few moments, the screen had changed, the faces and names rearranging themselves into a tournament bracket pattern. Lisa held her breath as she searched for her name among the list.
There she was, second-to-last match, fighting someone named Terra. Lisa pulled her communicator out of her pocket and scrolled through the names until she came to Terra Reynolds, the girl with the massive quantities of luggage.
Well, I guess that
won’t be a difficult match. She looked over at Terra and was surprised by the look of fierce determination the young girl gave back. It was a face that said the teenage trainer was more than she looked like, and Lisa thought for a moment of throwing the match in the girls favour.
As soon as the word’s entered her brain, she happened to glance over at Safiri only to find Safiri staring right back. The strange woman’s words came back to her,
“You would do well to focus your thoughts on success.” Maybe I shouldn’t think of giving up so easily after all…
“Now, if you’ll all follow me,” Diamant called from behind them, already heading in the opposite direction towards a large pair of doors on the other side of the room, “it’s time for our first match!”
