"Ooh boy.. this is gonna sting.."

And it did.

An electrical force pulsed itself through the doctor's body, scorching his nervous system as he screamed from the pain. Then it seemed to drive itself inside of him. He screwed his eyes shut tight as he tried to cope with it.

The burning pain of hunger doubling as he stumbled back. He wanted to rip the thing off his head, but his fingers were numb as he pulled the straps undone. A loud shrieking noise made his ears want to bleed as he too, screamed. And then came a wave of heat, pouring over his entire body. Thick, stuffy, and killing.

His skin began to itch terribly, though it seemed small in comparison to the pain that throbbed through his head. His screams began to grow higher and higher pitched, hurting his throat all the while. He fell to his weak knees in agony of it all. Memories, pictures, thoughts, emotions poured over him, blurring together with his own.

The room swam in front of him and this migraine to end all migraines continued to hurt and make his growing hunger turn to nausea. It throbbed, harder and harder. Waves of green flooded what little vision he had now. He felt like his skull was going to break in two. Somehow, there was a high-pitched ringing. It swept over and deafened all other noises, no matter how hard he screamed, until everything went black.

'It'll do..', the first voice said, somewhat dismissively. 'A name.. Dr. Two-Brains. Yes.. That'll do for now...'

Slowly things began to come clear to him. He felt the cold hard floor and found himself breathing. He coughed, trying to rid of the dust that settled on his throat, but it hurt to do so. His breath was shallow. His body trembled. Everything felt cold to him. He curled up tighter, trying to keep warm. Something began to throb in his head, and his stomach growled hungrily.

He carefully opened his eyes but quickly shut them tight again as a sting seared through them.

"GAH!", he cried out.

That voice was unfamiliar. It was high-pitched, gruff, yet human. Was it his?

He kept his eyes covered as he opened them again, and slowly parted his hands to adjust to the light this time.

'Where..am I?', he wondered. 'Why is it so bright in here?'

He sat up. His head still throbbed painfully. There was a wave of darkness and dizziness; a head rush, before he came back to the throbbing headache and the broken up lab. He brought a hand to his head as it burned with the pain.

His hand touched something not-hair and it snapped back in fear.

"What was that?", he heard himself asking no one.

He looked around and saw a black screen. Anything for a reflection. He stood up, wobbled on his feet, and stumbled his way, clutching his head as the throbbing became worse. It was weird..walking. His knees couldn't fully support him, and his feet either landed too far in front or too far behind, making him wobble around back and forth. He had to steady himself on counters of the machine beside him to finally reach the cracked, black monitor. He clutched the console of the machine with the screen and looked up.

An albino man stared back at him. An unruly mane of white spiky hair circled around his long, rectangular face. Two piercing pink eyes and their red pupils dug deep into him. He gingerly raised a hand and felt it through the messy whiskers that protruded along the outer edges of his thin lips. His front teeth were thin, long, and sharp. What scared him the most was the protruding mass of pink flesh beneath his yellow goggles. It throbbed in time to his headaches and glowed with an eerie green light.

'...A second brain..', he thought to himself, tentatively running a finger over it.

A thin membrane covered over it, like a sheet of skin, keeping it protected. He stared down at nothing as he tried to grasp what was going on.

'Two-Brains... Yes... That's my name.. Doctor? Yes, I'm a doctor. Doctor Two-Brains..', he looked back at himself. 'Dr. Two-Brains..'

Before he could examine more, the smell of a dropped sandwich caught his attention. His stomach growled hungrily and he found it, still surprisingly on the plate and scarfed it down. As he ate, he suddenly made a face, rearranged the taste in his mouth, and then spat out all the meat, lettuce, tomatoes, and bread of the sandwich. All he could wanna taste was the cheese. Everything else tasted bland, disgusting. Like it was made of sand. The small bit of cheese that was on there only made his hunger grow.

"Yes!", a voice said sharply to him, making his headache grow worse. "We must put my plan to action! To steal all the city's cheese for our own! Never again to perform menial tests and experiments for a meager meal!"

Like a puppet, he felt as though strings pulled him up onto his feet again. For some reason, he just couldn't argue with himself. But as this master controlled him and made him walk outside, he couldn't help but ponder.

'Who's doing this?', he asked, somewhat innocently. He didn't know. He didn't know anything, really.

'Me..', the voice replied. 'Your second brain and second half of your genetic make-up. You are my puppet, to do my bidding and feed me!'

'WHY?', another voice suddenly cut through, making him halt in mid step down the stairs. 'I don't want a part of this! I don't want to steal cheese!'

'Who's that?', Two-Brains asked himself. It sounded so familiar...as if he should know it...

'You! The real you!', the voice said, sounding desperate. 'You're Steven Boxleitner! Don't listen to your second brain! Go back to the lab! Find the notes and undo this!'

'SILENCE! YOU are nothing!', the brain hissed at the other before addressing Two-Brains again. 'And YOU aren't Boxleitner, you're Two-Brains! And you will do as I say!'

Things suddenly darkened and that was that. He had a blurry understanding of his surroundings as he continued to walk through the streets, desperate to fill the hungry void in his stomach and satisfy his second brain.

The overpowering smell of cheese caught his attention, making things clear again. The knee-jerk reaction called all three personalities to find the source of food, a bag of "Cheese Thingies" across the street. The man simply couldn't resist, even though the Boxleitner in him pleaded not to steal it from the child who had it.

'It's not ours to take!', Boxleitner argued.

'I'm so hungry though..', Two-Brains defended, his stomach growling so loudly, he couldn't even hear the other kid he pushed aside to get to it.

"Hey! Watch it!", the young boy grumbled.

"Whoo. He seems distracted..", said the little girl who stood next to him.

The kid with the bag looked up and became paralyzed in terror by Two-Brains, leaving the mad doctor no trouble at all to snatch up the bag with a smirk.

"Thank, you!", he said with more of an air of smug than he intended before proceeding to devour the bag.

It was like a wave of relief overcame him, calming the burn of his headache as he continued to eat. Then a small voice approached him from behind and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Excuse me, Sir?", the girl gasped as he glowered at her over his shoulder. "Dr. Boxleitner?!"

"Oh.. Hi kids..", Two-Brains said, a little happily numbed from feeling better with the cheese in his stomach. He suddenly became scared as he thought of how the mouse brain reacted to Boxleitner's name. "Dr. Boxleitner is no more... I am now.. DR. TWO-BRAINS!"

"O...kaaayyyy..", said the boy he pushed aside.

For some odd reason, Two-Brains didn't know why he was bothering to explain this to a ten year-old girl. But he did feel as though he should know her..

'More!', Squeaky ordered fiercely. 'More cheese NOW!'

"Yes.. Yes! More cheese! Good idea, second brain!", he said, unaware that he hadn't really made a separation between what he thought and what he talked so that he was talking his mind in public. "Ha ha! Cheese! Cheese! CHEESE! HA HA HA!"

He hurried off to find more as the kids stared after him in confusion. Unaware that the girl who approached him was more than just a face he recognized.

Unaware that the girl was really his best friend, and scared of what had happened to him.

And had to soon face the fact that her best friend would never come back..

And then she would grow to hate him and will become his greatest enemy ever...

And forever after that one moment...

...still...

...hurt for him.


Laura: Just a little idea. Hope you liked it. Please review!