The Grand Database

A week had passed from the commission of the Grand Database, and now it was finally complete.

George And Dr. Parr had been working day and night throughout the entire week, not even leaving the basement where they were working to get food; Nick, much to his dismay, had to take the food to them.

George had invited Leo, Geowar, Renee, Detective McCord, Director Rowan and Craig to the basement to reveal the megacomputer. Nick was also there even though nobody had invited him.

"Where's Christine, George?" Leo asked.

"Dr. Parr was invited to an overseas EDGE convention. Oh, I wanted to go too. My friend Henry, he's presenting his new Fish Finder, a revolutionary technology that will revitalise the field of marine biology for years to come! But alas, I had to oversee the presentation of this here Grand Database..." George started saying, but abruptly stopped.

He realised that his audience was bored out of their mind. Nick had started picking his ear and Craig had fallen asleep standing.

"Get on with it!" Rowan snapped.

"Oh, of course... I apologise." George said. "Now, I present to you... The Grand Database!" He exclaimed, and lifted a blanket revealing the intricate machine. It had thousands of buttons, three screens and even had a built in drawer for some reason.

"Wait a minute..." Leo said. "These are the curtains from the Meeting Room!"

"We couldn't find anything else to cover the machine..." George explained. "Sorry?"

"So how does this work?" Detective McCord asked.

"Right. Well, with the push of a button, the grand database uses advanced holographic technology to scan and insert anything into the database to be accessed later! Files, items, even people!" George explained, then pressed a button on the console.

A blue humanoid figure appeared out of the drawer.

"Hi, my name is Holo-Bud, your personal digital assistant. How many I help you today?" It said.

"Holo-Bud, will you please scan this book?" George asked, and held out a book titled "Some Weird Sitcom".

"Gladly, Dr. Renie." The holographic humanoid took the book and enabled the scanners. Suddenly, the book and it's contents appeared on the screen.

"Holo-Bud, patent pending, knows the ins and outs of the Grand Database, so should you want to scan anything, you can ask him to teach you, or have him do it himself. But you'll have to register in his user database by saying "override vocal block key" and a number starting from 3. That's all." He finished.

"Impressive." Rowan said.

"Thank you. The machine is quite intricate-"

"Not the machine. Holo-Bud. You could make an army out of these."

"I'm afraid I can't. It takes an absurd amount of resources for just one. I've been working on him since I was 16 and I still haven't figured out some stuff. He's very prone to cyber attacks." George explained.

Rowan didn't say anything and was simply impressed.

"That's wonderful George, now would you mind leaving? We need to discuss the future of this operation." Leo said.

"But this is my lab..."

"This is my castle. Scram."

George didn't object. He just walked out, head hanging low.

"Wonderful. Renee, I think it's time we discuss about your idea." Leo said.

"The Soweiland Intelligence Agency." Renee said. "Rowan, Detective McCord, I will need 5 if your best men to operate as agents for SWIA. I will take it upon myself to be the Director."

"Well then!" Rowan said. "Craig, are you alright with taking on this project?"

"Yeah." Craig said.

"Great! Now go get MacArthur, Sanders, Peterson and Carlton to join you." Rowan ordered. " Report back here in one hour so you can get new instructions by your lovely director, yeah?"

"Yeah!" Craig said, and ran off.

"Leo, Geowar, Nick." Renee said. "You guys can leave. I'll take care of it from here."

"Good luck, Renee." Geowar said, and portaled out of the room, leaving Rowan and Detective McCord shocked.

"Could he always do that?" Detective McCord asked.

"Yes. See ya'round." Leo said and followed through the portal, it closing behind him. Nick on the other hand, didn't budge.

"Nick, can you leave?"

"Nope." Nick said. "After what happened too Monroe, your old man was afraid you'd be targeted too, so he ordered me to bodyguard you."

Renee glared at him.

"Trust me I don't wanna be here as much as you don't want me here." Nick explained. "But your dad promised me a raise if you don't die, so you're gonna have to live with me."

"Pfft, What are you supposed to do if she gets shot, smack the bullet away?" Rowan asked.

Nick grinned evilly in response, shocking Rowan.

"Okay I'm going back to the station. I've heard enough nonsense for one day." He said and walked out.

"So, did you need me for something?" Detective McCord asked Renee.

"Yes, actually." Renee said. "I made my opinion of you pretty clear that day in the manor, and as much as I don't like you, I want you to keep tabs on Rowan and his boys for me. Can you handle it?"

"Sure. I'm glad to be of assistance." He said. "I'll be getting back to my work now."

McCord left the castle, and Renee turned to the machine.

"Holo-Bud, override vocal block key 3." Said Renee. Holo-Bud's eyes went red, and it started speaking in a more mechanical tone.

"KEY 3 OVERRIDEN. NEW USER DESIGNATION?"

"Rin."

"Good morning, Rin! I am Holo-Bud, your personal digital assistant! How may I assist you today?" Holo-Bud said, back to his normal tone.

"I want you to teach me how to work the Grand Database."

_____________________________________

Craig had assembled his team and was headed to Black Island on a dinghy.

Rowan had instructed him to get some of the most elite and skilled members of the organisation.

Leading the team was Craig himself, joined by military cadet Brock MacArthur, Parker Peterson,elite member of the AXON Shadows, a division of AXON specialized in covert operations, police academy graduate Janet Sanders and the man who always plays a character, Joel Carlton (currently disguised as an Italian monster).

Everything was going smoothly, the team had made it to the island and had triangulated the possible positions of the Black Island Mafia hideout...

And then it all went to hell when they went into the Little Fish Casino and Lounge and Craig was recognised in public.

"Craig? What are you doing here?" It was Aaron! And he was drinking... Again.

"That job you said didn't work out so you came to drink your worries away?" Aaron asked, seemingly not even noticing the other four people with him.

"Yeah...?" Craig said, really nervous that he had blown the entire operation.

"Ah that's fine! Come 'ere and have a drink with me, man!" Aaron said. Craig agreed, maybe he got something about the Mafia he could use from that butler guy.

"Well Craig I've been meaning to talk to ya. Job's been going pretty good, y'know working as an assassin, but it's been real lonely." Aaron said.

"Yeah?" Craig asked.

"Yeah working at the mafia ain't as fun as I thought." Craig perked up at this. "I rarely get to see Jeeves and when I do it's usually bad news. Plus my assignments aren't all that fun. Last week I had to kill a politician guy even though I was agreeing with what he was doing."

"Yeah..."

"Oh hey, ya don't think you'd wanna join the Mafia too eh Craig? Cure my boredom a little? I could get Jeeves to put in a good word too." Aaron proposed.

"Yeah!!" Craig immediately replied.

"Awesome! Follow me Craig!" Aaron said and ran out of the lounge, shoving Craig's team away in the process, who were still standing in the entrance confused out their minds. Craig gave them a reassuring thumbs up on his way out.

"What the hell just happened?" MacArthur asked.

Carlton took of his hat and slammed it to the floor.

"How are we supposed to work together when our leader says nothing but "Yeah"?!" He exclaimed in annoyance.

Sanders simply shrugged while MacArthur and Peterson exchanged confused glances.

_____________________________________

The same night, back at the castle, the man with the rectangular glasses and the labcoat had broken in through the broken meeting room window that nobody bothered to fix.

He walked down the halls, hands in his pockets until he reached the basement. He looked around, passed by the Matter Transporter and eventually stumbled upon Holo-Bud dusting off the Grand Database.

"Holo-Bud, override vocal block key 4."

"KEY 4 OVERRIDEN..NEW USER DESIGNATION?"

"AG4."

"Good evening, AG4! My name is Holo-Bud, your personal digital assistant. How may I assist you today?"

"Broadcast the following on the 36.5 frequence. Good evening, James Reginald Falcone. My name is Thomas Gardner. I would like to assist in your goal of taking out the Ministry of Civilian Protection. Please meet me in the following coordinates."

Tomas proceeded to read out the coordinates of his hideout.

"Holo-Bud, download all data to this device." He said, and plugged in his digital watch.

"Of course." Holo-Bud said. After he was done, Tomas spoke once more.

"Clear memory of everything I said."

After that was done, Tomas left the castle, and returned to his hideout.