I don’t recognize the numbers that Sycamore gave me, nor do I expect any immediate reply.

So, I fire off a quick text mentioning that my name is Nicole, and that Professor Sycamore gave me their number because I heard that they were interested in my pokémon. A quick question as to the identity of the recipient, send, copy, paste, and send.

As I walk deeper into Prism Tower, I note that I haven’t received a response in over ten minutes which means it’ll be a while before I receive a text message. People usually fall into two categories: responding to text messages in under ten minutes, or over five hours. From my admittedly small group of twelve people, I’ve been proven correct so far.

I peer around the dark hallway. Usually this place is kept pretty dark and quiet ever since the Clembot took over, and I remember a Magneton and Magnemite that patrolled. But now, as I look around, the hallway is suspiciously empty.

I come to a steel service door with a slightly rusty handle. Still looking around, I press my weight into the handle and lift. It doesn’t budge, but I remain determined. Focusing completely on the door, I wrestle all the gumption I have and push on the door.

*Thunk*

The lock comes loose, and I quickly run through the door, shutting it behind me. Now, I’m basically within the internals of the gym structure. Most of the tower is open to the public except this area. It’s where most of the utilities like air conditioning and electricity run through to make the gym look the way it is.

As I walk up the metal frame stairs, I run my hand along the rusted handrail, taking my sweet, sweet time. All of the patrolling pokémon aren’t allowed in this area; there’s too many delicate machines and such back here. Magnemite would fry half of the servers back here just by floating through.

I come to a series of grated panels that serve as the roof of the gym floor. Peering through, I can see that Clembot is doing battle with a trainer for once. In fact, it’s doing fair battle and not abusing the very nature of battle like I usually do. Hmm, Clemont must have finally fixed the darn thing. That’s so unlike him.

Well, the battle is finishing up, actually. So, as the challenger goes to retrieve his badge, I walk over to the ladder which leads down into the thin walls of the gym. As soon as the trainer leaves, I press a small square button on the side which causes the access panel to move out and to the side.

Clembot immediately acts, pulling out a pokéball and scrutinizing my direction. “Trespasser! Identify yourself!”

I roll my eyes and begin walking calmly towards him. Instead of a pokéball, I pull out a tattered notebook and flip to the 27th page. “Here’s my identification,” I say, showing him the page.

He reads over the page to completion, then the servos responsible for emulating his emotions relax. Clembot stands ramrod straight, staring at the wall behind me. “Override command accepted. Welcome back, Mistress Bellerose.” His tone, although already robotic in nature, had an emotional tone to it that was now absent.

I smile, thankful that Clemont had the robot read text literally which allowed me to inject my own code into its software. “It’s great to be back, Clembot. Close the access panel and follow me. We have some work to do.”

“Of course,” he responds. His eyes flash for a second and the panel moves back to its place. I walk to the back area of the gym where Clemont’s temporary living quarters and Clembot’s workshop is. Each door clicks open as I approach it as Clembot automatically unlocks each one for me.

I command him to lay down on the worktable in the middle of the workshop and shut down. At the same time, I boot up the terminal, checking what changes Clemont made to Clembot’s original programming and if he noticed anything I added.

After a satisfactory check, I plug Clembot into the terminal and get to work. Luckily, I don’t have to change much of the assembly in the system since my code injection did most of that work, i.e. I had the paper commands connect Clembot to the internet and download and execute a package I wrote. Most of the stuff I need to actually change is contained within a bunch of text files.

First, I change his vocabulary to be cluttered. Instead of saying simple phrases, everything will now be worded as if he needed to hit a minimum 500-word count.

I load up the personality files and begin writing a few familiar faces into the system, taking great care to only access certain aspects of emotional bandwidth.

I reinstate his unfair battle rules program and remove some lines of the normal battle standards, such as the six-pokémon limit, or the usage of healing items mid-battle. That one is debated across several regions.

A few changes to his costuming algorithm, electric controls, and memory mapping just to make things perform better. Since he’s linked up with most of the building, I make sure to change all of the electronic locks, so I don’t have to go through the whole process of sneaking in again.

I install some remote-control protocols allowing me to see through Clembot’s eyes and take remote control of him if needed.

For the finishing touches, I modify the section that entailed Clemont accessing administrator privileges. I appears he changed it to ‘Sandwich’. I like the idea of something more along the lines of ‘I possess an inferior intelligence to Nicole Bellerose’. For my access key, I set it to ‘I love girls’. Simple, on the nose, and Clemont would never say it because he’s too shy to go on a date with any girl.

Not like Bonnie doesn’t try.

I remove Clembot’s memory from the last hour, close the program, and reboot him. I make my way back through the tower before Clembot comes back online, ready to continue my day in prosperity.

flintseal

I've written at least an essay a day for a writing class I'm taking, and it burnt me out so much, I was contemplating not uploading a chapter.

Then, I drank a Dr. Pepper and I felt better.

Thanks for reading!