The Brain scribbled furiously on the notepad in front of him, stopping only to hastily type an equation into the calculator beside him. "Yes!" he scratched a final mark on his plan, possibly more for theatrics than practicality, and triumphantly ripped the scheme from the rest of the notepad. He folded it neatly and stashed it in his hammerspace before picking up his pencil again and jotting down all the materials he would need. "If my estimates are correct," he said as he laid the last few pencil-strokes on the paper, "all I will need to take over the world is… two-point-five… million dollars…" He rubbed the space between his brows and sighed. His exasperation was interrupted by the sound of an opening door. "Drat. Shouldn't you all have gone home by now?" he mumbled annoyed as he quickly shoved his things under the bed.

"We're going to run out of subjects soon."

"It can't turn them all away."

Brain rolled his eyes, stepping over to stand by the cage door and wait for his latest sutor. The door opened and a shorter, portly mouse was shoved inside. Brain watched the door be closed but not locked again before turning to the mouse in front of him. They stood up and brushed themself off, looking tentatively around the cage. They turned their attention to the Brain and smiled. "Hi there, I'm Adri. It's nice to meet you," they held their hand out invitingly.

"Do not get your hopes up," Brain responded curtly as he took their hand, letting them linger like that for a moment. No soulbound occurred and no soulmark appeared. Brain dropped their hands and motioned to the cage door, "You may go now." He ignored the disappointment on Adri's face and walked to the other side of the cage, cutting off any potential protests. He waited for the sound off the door opening and closing and the scientists taking Adri away. They left with frustrated grumbles about Brain ruining their "hard work."

Brain shook his head and rattled the cage door, in the half-hearted hope that it would be unlocked. It didn't budge. He returned to his sponge bed and started mulling over his plan, refining every detail. He engrossed himself in his work, barely registering the crash sounding in the next room.

The door opened again and the sharp click of high heels on the linoleum floor startled the Brain from his trance as he hurriedly hid his materials away again. He glared at the form outside his cage, "Oh, don't you people have better things to do with yourselves?"

"-destroys everything it touches."

"Exactly."

Brain froze, listening intently to the ominous talk of the humans, "We gave it a fake soulmark, so Three-alpha won't reject it as quickly. We put them in a cage together and one way or another, at least one of our problems gets solved. I highly doubt there will be a soulbound since this one is from the makeup department, but it is very likely that Seven-delta will kill Three-alpha."

There was a pause, "Has it done something like this before?"

"Nearly. The subject would have died if we hadn't separated them."

There was a hum of approval and the clicking of heels sounded again. Brain dashed to the back of the cage and pressed against the bars, waiting for whatever abomination of a mouse was about to be unleashed upon him. The cage door opened and Brain screwed his eyes shut and wished for a moment that he believed in a god. He'd thought he had time before the humans gave up, but now, he was going to die without ever even getting out of his cage. He held his breath. The door closed, the heels clicked down the hall, and nothing happened.

The Brain listened for a few moments, hearing only the ambient sounds of the lab and the faintest sound of something breathing. He gingerly opened his eyes and yelped when they were met with a pair of sky blue ones. "Narf! Hello there," the eyes said in a cheery cockney accent. The tall mouse backed away, revealing the less than intimidating body attached to those eyes.

Brain blinked at the lanky figure, "I- who are you?"

The mouse straightened up, "Oh right, yes, yes- Poit- ahem: Hello. I am Pinky. I am a fellow lab mouse who is not looking for a soulmate, because I already have one," he paused his wooden pantomime to gesture to a smudged drawing of a soulmark on his thigh, "I am here due to downsizing; there was no room in the budget for my cage anymore. It is good to meet you; do you mind telling me your name- Troz!" Brain stared at him as an uncomfortable silence filled the room.

"Is that all?"

Pinky nodded ashamedly, "This wasn't my idea! Honest!"

Brain rubbed his brow, "I can tell. Just... keep quiet."

"Right-o!" the mouse immediately started running on the exercise wheel, its cheap mechanisms screeching in protest. Brain clapped a palm over his forehead but returned to his now severely wrinkled plan, doing his best tune out the squeaking wheel. After a few minutes, it seemed to have worked, until he saw Pinky's shadow looming over him.

"What do you want?" he groaned.

The taller walked around front of him and studied his plan. "Zort. What're you doing with all these squiggly lines and numbers?"

"The same thing I do every night, Pinky," he sighed, "I'm trying to take over the world!"

"Naarf. Can I help?"

"What? No you can't-" he broke off, scanning the form of the mouse in front of him. Pinky didn't cut a particularly threatening figure, but he was big. Bigger than Brain, at least. Which meant he was stronger than Brain, and brute strength did seem to be one of the constant hindrances to the Brain's rise to power. He watched Pinky for a moment, searching his face for any sign of deceit or ill-will. The lab-mouse just watched him back with a hopeful gleam in his eyes. Brain let out a breath, "Fine. You may assist me, but you must do exactly what I tell you. Understood?"

He was swept up into a lung-crushing hug. "Narf! Oh thank you, eh..." Pinky set him down suddenly and tapped his chin thoughtfully, "I'm sorry, I still don't know your name."

Brain took a moment to catch his breath, "I am called, the Brain."

"Thank you, Brain."

Brain cleared his throat and spun around, trying to ignore the overly-adoring look in his new cagemate's eyes. He looked his plan over a final time before searching the outside of their cage for something to unlock the door. "Yes!" he turned to his partner, "Pinky, do you think you can reach that paperclip over there?"

"Sure, Brain." The mouse went to retrieve the paperclip and Brain smiled to himself, mentaly marking this as the night he would finally take over the world!