Glitched

12 - Reprogramming

Vector winced as Nybble pulled the stitching tight and snipped the thread.

"There you go! All done." She popped the needle on the little table and wiped her paws on a hot towel.

He rubbed his upper arm and admired the emolga's handiwork. The only sign anything had been done was the slight tint of red around the incision area which would wash off the next time he bathed.

"How are you feeling?" she asked.

"A little sore, but that's to be expected," he said. "Thank you."

The little emolga flushed and rubbed the back of her head. "Heh. It's nothing, really."

He looked over at Leaf, Pixel and N00b sat at the foot of the sofa, deeply engrossed in their computer work. "How are you getting on with that?"

"It looks completely authentic." Leaf looked down at the tiny microchip. "Anyone who scanned this would think nothing of it. To them you would be a nineteen year old patient at Central Meta Hospital."

"This would fool anyone who didn't know you." N00b turned the microchip around in his paws. "They went the whole hog. It's not a counterfeit device. It's a standard RFID microchip with a full duplex."

"What I want to know is why they made it all up," said Pixel. "Surely they'd have got more right than this if they did their research."

"They made up all the information I didn't give them, or that they didn't ask for," said Vector. "I had no idea they were going to chip me."

"They didn't ask for your age?" asked Leaf.

"Yes. I told them I'm twenty three. They clearly didn't listen."

"You'd think they'd at least make notes," said Switch. "It's pretty sloppy work on their part."

Pixel pursed her lips together. It really was sloppy work. You'd think professional scientists would do a better job at covering up a fraud microchip. She eyed Vector curiously. It was hard to believe he was five years older than her. Maybe they hadn't listened at all, they'd just looked at him and hazarded a guess. When he noticed her staring, she cleared her throat and looked back down at the chip in N00b's paw. "So you're not an analyst?"

Vector shook his head. "No." He paused and rubbed his paws together. "I suppose there's no harm in telling you now, since my team disintegrated. I was an undercover scientist and soldier working for a project called Bridge."

"From what you said, you were searching for a way to help humans get back home?"

Vector nodded stiffly.

"I'm pretty excited about you joining our little project," said N00b. "We might actually get somewhere with an extra scientist on board."

"Well, now this is out of you," said Leaf, "they won't be able to track you. Wherever you go, you're safe unless you hang around Meta City. As for us, we need to get off this island fast before they return."

"First they'll need to find another way to get up here," said Pixel. "And I'm guessing that pidgeot turned in those two pokemon, so we may have a little while yet."

"That's a little while longer we can be on the ground looking for a place to retreat to."

N00b and Switch exchanged a silent message.

"Why don't you come with us?" N00b asked. "They won't find you in our base, I can assure you."

"That's a kind offer," said Leaf. "But I'm afraid we have our own mission to take care of."