I got the idea for this story a while back when I heard about an experiment done with lab rats. watch?v=WzE0liAzr-8 It proved that rats can show empathy for one another, and I thought it was really interesting! Plus I immediately thought of Pinky and the Brain...so I decided to put them in the same situation. Enjoy!
"We all know that rodents, while many people think of them as pests, are very intelligent creatures. However, a recent experiment proves that these creatures are not only intelligent, they can feel emotions like humans such as empathy, or the desire to help one of their own kind in need. A group of scientists conducted an elaborate array of tests on lab mice in Acme Labs just a few days ago to prove this…"
I flicked off the TV before the news anchor could finish reporting her story, and shuddered at the memory. While humans find some sort of sick amusement in tormenting innocent lab mice just to prove a point, I found it unnecessary and degrading. This story was especially sickening to me, mostly because I had experienced it first hand, and while humans may find it intriguing, it was absolute torture for me.
Like the news woman was going on about, the experiment's main purpose was to test a mouse's intelligence, particularly if it could feel empathy towards its fellow mice. However, I had no prior knowledge of this experiment going on, so the day the scientists rounded up their tests subjects, I was caught completely off guard.
I remembered it all too clearly. Pinky and I were in our cage, minding our own business. He was running on his wheel happily while I was putting the finishing touches on my latest plans to take over the world. I recall having the blue prints all laid out in front of me, and as I was tweaking one of my quadratic equations I heard footsteps behind me. Instinctively, I rolled up the blueprints and kicked them off to the side, trying to seem like an innocent mouse to whoever was nearby. There was a group of scientists standing outside of our cage, staring at Pinky and I inquisitively. I found it extremely strange that they would suddenly take any interest in us, since project B.R.A.I.N. had been a failure, and they hadn't had any use for us since, besides putting us through a maze every so often.
When they opened the cage and plucked us both out, I wasn't really worried, since I figured that they would only put us through a few typical everyday tests and then put us back by the end of the day. Truthfully, my mind was focused on my plans for global domination more than anything else, so I chose to ignore the bad feeling I had in the pit of my stomach.
The point where I really started getting worried was when I was placed in an isolated metal chamber on the other side of the lab. That didn't concern me in itself, but the fact that I was put in there alone did. I had one last glimpse of the other scientist carrying Pinky away before the door to my tiny metal prison was shut and locked, and I no longer had any contact with the outside world—or Pinky. Usually when they ran experiments on us, we were always kept together, never separated, so this was the first time I had been forcefully taken away from Pinky.
I remember the first thought that ran through my head as I paced the small chamber. This is just like the time I was separated from Snowball. Back before the gene splicing, and before I had even met Pinky, Snowball was my closest friend. That was back when I was carefree, like any other mouse, and had no desire to take over the world. The only thing I had to keep myself from being lonely and bored all day in that cage was Snowball, and it was constantly entertaining and comforting to me to know that I had a friend that I could trust and play with all day.
However, just as quickly as I had gained my hamster friend and a happy, carefree life, those scientists took it all away from me. The day Snowball and I were separated was the scariest day of my life, at least that I could clearly remember. Before that I could still very vaguely recall the day I was taken from my parents, but this memory was much clearer, and just by thinking about it I could feel the fear coursing through my veins. It was truly terrifying to be just a little mouse, not even a year old, and be suddenly plucked out of your cage by a pair of unfamiliar hands, slowly being carried away from your best friend without knowing if you'll ever see him again. I had tried biting and clawing at the man's hand with all my might, because in my mind wherever he was taking me, he was never going to bring me back, and I needed Snowball in my life. Without him I had nobody. Despite my efforts to break free though, I was carried away from him nonetheless, and placed into a solitary chamber just like this one for a while. I wasn't put into the gene splicer until a few days later, and afterwards I had eventually learned that Snowball had been put through the same machine, and it was then that our common obsession of taking over the world got in the way of our friendship. I met Pinky shortly after when I was transferred to Acme Labs.
This chamber of solitude brought back so many memories of when I had been taken away from my only friend so long ago, and I found that the same childish feelings were beginning to compel me again as they had in that same situation. Maybe this was it, maybe I would never see Pinky again either!
How long had I been in there? Time seemed like a blur when you were left alone without being able to see or hear anything around you. My guess was a day, maybe a few days that I sat in the dark corner of that chamber, my intelligence slowly slipping away from me as my primitive instincts returned. I began to miss Pinky more and more, even though I had never expected to feel such strong emotions for him. Maybe I just didn't want to be alone in there anymore, or maybe it was because I was concerned for his safety, but I did miss him a lot. Enough to forget the need to take over the world for a while.
Finally, after what felt like forever being cooped up in there, the door was opened again and the four dark walls were flooded with a blinding light. I shielded my eyes and tried to make out who or what had opened the door, but before I knew it someone had already grabbed me and carried me away. From there, I was dropped into another cage, which I presumed to be my own cage at first, until my eyes adjusted and I realized that my surroundings were anything but familiar. The cage was nearly empty, besides a glass box in the center, and there was still no sign of Pinky, which concerned me more than anything. I looked straight up to see if there were any means of escaping, but the only thing above me was the top of the cage, and a camera. I realized that this must be another experiment if I was being filmed.
Another thing that I noticed almost immediately was that I wasn't alone. Whether I had sensed another presence in the cage, or just noticed the glass box in the center twitch, I realized that there was another living being trapped inside it.
"Hello?" I said aloud, cautiously making my way to the center and peering inside the glass. The box twitched again, and through the transparent glass I could tell that it was another white lab mouse. It didn't respond to me, however, and its eyes were dull and lifeless, so I figured it hadn't been genetically altered like me.
The mouse seemed uncomfortably cramped up in there, and it sniffed and clawed at the glass frantically, eager to break out and roam around. On the side of the tiny glass chamber there was a door that could only be opened from the outside, which looked extremely simple to use, and I realized I could free the other mouse with little effort. I decided not to though. Even though it seems like it would be the right thing to do to free my fellow mouse from its human captives, I had more important things on my mind, and if I freed the mouse I knew it would just be a distraction. Since it wasn't intellectually superior like me, it would only be a nuisance, and I needed complete concentration to figure out how to break free of this cage and find Pinky.
Ignoring the insistent whines of the trapped rodent, I began searching along the sides of the cage for a door, but from what I could tell the only opening was on the ceiling, and it was heavily locked. The cage bars were too closely compacted to squeeze through, and too thick to break through or bend, so getting out through the sides of the cage was obviously not going to work. To test how strong the lock was at the top of the cage and if I could pick it or not, I climbed up to the ceiling and inspected it. I tried using my tail as a key, but it was apparently much sturdier and more secure than the lock on our cage, and picking it just wasn't going to work. I carefully climbed back down and tried to find something outside of the cage that could help me escape.
Looking between the bars, I could tell that we were in a separate room than the rest of the lab, and it was completely vacant of any scientists. I scratched my head, wondering why no one was in here taking notes, but recalled the camera I spotted above the cage, and figured they must be watching us from another room. The room we were in, however, was completely void of any means to get out of here. I could see the door but there was no way to get to it if I was stuck in here. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything inside the cage I could use either, it was empty besides the imprisoned mouse in the center. Finally, I was beginning to realize that there wasn't going to be a way out of here, so I slumped into the corner, deciding to just wait for the experiment to be over. There was no food or water in here, so that meant they could only keep us in here for so long. I still refused to let the other mouse out, mostly because I knew that's what the scientists wanted. I would much rather have their little experiment be a failure, just so that they didn't get the satisfaction—and perhaps it was my way of punishing them for separating me and Pinky.
Just as I had anticipated, the door to the small room opened several hours later, and a group of scientists walked in, seeming disappointed. A smug smile wormed its way across my face at their dissatisfaction with their results, and I was glad that I had sat here and done absolutely nothing the whole time just to throw them off.
One of the men opened the top of the cage, and took the glass chamber out. I waited for them to pick me out too, but to my dismay, they closed the cage and left the room, without taking me with them. Why had they taken the other mouse out but not me? Suddenly I was fret with worry and the feeling of loneliness again. Though it was only a mindless, unintelligent creature, the presence of the other mouse had given me some comfort while it was here, but now that I was in solitude again my thoughts were racing and the feeling of fear was trickling back. Why hadn't they taken me? Perhaps this was my punishment for not cooperating in their little experiment. Now they were going to leave me here and let my incessant thoughts trouble me until I went completely mad!
More than anything, my thoughts kept rushing back to Pinky, and I began missing him again. If he was here with me, he'd positively be doing everything he could to unintentionally drive me insane—and I actually wanted that. With him distracting me, I wouldn't have time to think about whether I'd make it out of this experiment alive or not, and in a way he'd actually comfort me. Even more than that, I didn't just need Pinky for the comfort and sanity control, I needed him because he was my best friend, and though I hated to admit it, I actually cared about him, a lot. Yes, me, the mouse bent on ruling the world with an iron paw, actually cares deeply about a being besides himself, and was missing him insanely right now.
"Please, just wherever you are, please stay safe." I said aloud, slumping back down in the far corner of the cage and hugging my knees to my chest. As I curled up into myself and tried to block out the worrying thoughts that were troubling me, I felt warm tears run down my cheeks—a feeling unfamiliar to me. I very rarely cried over anything, but I had already been without Pinky for what…a few days? Maybe more? The longer I was away from him, it seemed the more of my sanity and rational thinking I lost, until I was just a broken down mouse, trapped in a cage of my own solitude.
I didn't even remember falling asleep, but some time later I was jolted awake by a noise in the room. I uncurled myself and crawled out of the corner, peeking through the bars of the cage to see what was going on. The scientists were back, and I pleaded silently that they were here to finally take me out of this cage, but once again they didn't even touch me. A hand slipped through the opening on the top, and they placed another glass chamber in the center of the cage, then locked it and left the room again. Great, I thought. I failed one experiment on purpose, so they're going to place another mouse in here to try it on me again. When will this ever end?
Out of pure curiosity, I walked over to the glass box to examine the mouse they had placed in here with me this time. However, I stopped in my tracks when I heard a small noise.
"Narf!"
Was that? No…it couldn't be. I shook my head, automatically denying that I had really heard it. My brain was just playing tricks on me after being cooped up in here for so long.
But then, I heard it again.
"Narf!"
Did it come from the box? I couldn't tell, so I shakily made my way over to the glass chamber and peered inside, expecting to find another typical white lab mouse with dull eyes and an expressionless face. What I ended up finding, however, was the pair of bright blue energetic eyes of the genetically altered mouse I had been thinking about this entire time.
"Brain!" he shouted upon noticing me, rocking the glass chamber back and forth eagerly. "Oh I was beginning to think I'd never see you again!"
"Pinky!" I said cheerfully, finding that my face had contorted into a wide, genuine smile for the first time in a long, long while. I was so overcome with relief to see my friend alive again that I almost burst out crying!
"Um, can you maybe get me out of here? It's a bit cramped…" Pinky asked, struggling to move even an inch in the tight glass box. Without hesitating for a second, I unlatched the door and set him free, and before I knew it I was being squeezed in a tight hug.
"I missed you so much Brain!" he said, lifting me up and hugging me to his chest. Usually I would try to break free of his tight grip and scold him for getting this close to me, but after being away from my friend for so long the embrace was actually comforting, and I wrapped my arms around his neck, nuzzling into him happily.
When Pinky set me down, he got on all fours and started darting around the cage. "Come on Brain, chase me!" he said as he passed by. I grunted, not at all interested in his childish game. However, I was quite relieved to have him back after this long, and he was only trying to celebrate our reunion, so I reluctantly decided to humor him. I started running after Pinky, but realized how much slower I was on my hind legs, and hopped down on all fours as well. I had to admit, though it felt degrading and embarrassing to resort to such a childish, primitive game of chase, it felt good to let the energy out, though Pinky was wearing me down. I gave it one last thrust of energy, and finally caught up with him, tackling the taller mouse to the ground. We paused in that position for a moment to catch our breath, with Pinky on his back and me sitting on top of him.
"That was fun, wasn't it Brain?" Pinky asked with a laugh.
"Yeah, I guess so." I said, smirking a little. I usually wasn't prone to such emotions, but this was the happiest I had been in a while, just the feeling of being reunited with my friend after days of worrying about his whereabouts. I made a mental note that whenever the scientists take us out of our cage for experimenting again, I would do whatever I could to make sure Pinky never strayed from my sight, and if they tried to take him away from me I would anything in my power to prevent them from doing so before it was too late.
It had been a few days since all of that happened, and I've been trying to suppress the memory of it all. Not only did I never want to remember the feeling of being tormented in solitude, I never wanted to remember those few moments after finding Pinky again when I'd been so affectionate towards my cagemate. If anything like this ever happened again, I would make sure to have more control over my emotions next time to avoid being so childish.
I looked back at the TV that I had turned off, since I wasn't interested in hearing about it all again, but suddenly out of curiosity I decided to turn it back on. I wanted to know how the experiment turned out in the eyes of the Acme scientists. Was it a success? A failure? Had I thrown them off, or proven their theory?
"…and if you don't believe us, here it is straight from the scientists that conducted the tests." the news anchor was saying before the screen flashed to a scientist from Acme Labs.
"The purpose of this whole experiment was to see if mice could feel empathy for their fellow mice companions. To test this out, we locked two mice inside a cage, one we let roam freely, and the other we locked in a glass chamber to restrict its movement." A video was shown of exact cage I was locked in. I was sitting in the corner, staring out the bars of the cage, most likely plotting my escape, while the other mouse whined and squeaked in the chamber it was trapped in. "Surprisingly," the man continued. "In our first experiment, the mice involved proved our hypothesis completely wrong! Instead of even acknowledging the other mouse, or feeling empathy for it, the free mouse ignored its presence entirely and worked on getting out of the cage rather than opening the glass box."
I laughed, pleased with myself for throwing them off.
"However," the man said. "We tried the experiment a second time, this time with the same mouse, but instead of using a random subject, we locked his normal cagemate inside of the glass." The screen cut to the footage of Pinky inside the box, and of me opening it immediately. Then it showed us hugging and nuzzling each other happily as we were reunited, and running around the cage in a game of chase. I found myself blushing uncontrollably, embarrassed to be seen in such a state of ignorance.
"As you can see, we got entirely different results when we used his cagemate. The mouse not only freed his fellow mouse, but also seemed to be extremely happy to see him again." the scientist explained. "So even though our first hypothesis was proven wrong, and mice do not show empathy for other mice that they don't know, we've made another extremely important discovery here! The mice that have lived in the same cage for nearly two years actually recognized each other after being separated for days!"
I sighed and turned my attention away from the TV as it cut back to the news woman talking about another topic. Humans could be so ignorant sometimes. They really needed to run an entire test to discover that I would recognize my own best friend after a few days? What a pointless experiment.
"Brain! Chase me! Narf!" I turned around to see Pinky running around the lab on all fours, laughing as he expected me to follow suit.
I remembered my promise to myself to never partake in such an ignorant, pointless game ever again, no matter what the circumstances. However, some strange, hidden instinct inside of me forced me to consider it anyways, and despite my intolerance for such foolishness, I found myself getting down on all fours and chasing Pinky around anyways. Well, at least there were no video cameras this time.