"You know it's illegal to keep that poor animal as a pet right?"
"You know it's illegal to harass a minor right?" Chiro groaned as he was unable to get this annoying animal rights activist to leave him alone.
"I'm just saying kid-"
"Lady! Leave me the hell alone!"
"Watch your language young man! And I'm just trying to educate you. Monkeys are not meant to be pets."
Is this woman deaf or something?!
"You don't want to get arrested do you?" the lady asked
You're the one who's going to get arrested if you don't get lost.
"It's not nice to ignore people brat. I should just take that poor monkey from you right now."
Chiro immediately pulled Mandarin into his arms and whipped around to glare at the woman
"Try it! I dare you!"
And she did! This crazy lady actually tried to snatch Mandarin out of his arms!
But Chiro was quick to jump out of the way and ran into the nearest building, but that didn't stop the animal rights crazy from chasing him inside. The security guard was about to stop him until he screamed that the lady was trying to steal his monkey as he continued to run farther inside. The guard stepped in front to stop her only for the lady to start spouting nonsense about animal abuse and even pulling out her phone to record. When she managed to push past the guard Chiro jumped into the elevator and started hitting random buttons to close the door before she could grab him. Finally feeling safe he leaned against the wall to catch his breath.
"We finally got away from her Mandarin, I swear those people are some kind of mental. But now I basically just trespassed into someone's business…"
Chiro thought for a moment as he stroked Mandarin's fur.
"You think if I tell them what happened they'll let me stay here for a bit until the crazy lady's gone."
Mandarin cheaped an encouraging response.
"Heh, thanks bud."
Finally the door opened and Chiro stepped out and turned back to the elevator to see that he was on the fifth floor. He also noticed the long hallway with several doors on each side and a single one at the end.
"That's usually where the boss's office is. Guess we should start with them." and walked down to the end door, and knocked. The door opened but Chiro saw no one in front of him.
"Um hello?" Chiro stepped in and jumped a bit when a monkey dropped onto his shoulder.
"Oh! Hey there little guy, hehe you scared me a bit." With Mandarin still in his arms reached up one to scratch him under the chin and notice that he looked alot like Mandarin, Ninja, and Askua, except this one was blue, he was also wearing a red bow tie and tiny white lab coat.
"Huh, you guys must be the same breed, and I'll have to admit this little outfit is kinda cute. Think you can take me to your owner?"
The monkey cheaped and hopped off his shoulder scampering off further into the office, Chiro followed. Walking further into the room Chiro noticed some details that made him realize that this might not be a boss's office, because there was a lot of chemistry stuff around.
"I'm starting to think that this might be some kind of chemistry or science business." Chiro spoked softly as Mandarin cheaped in agreement.
"So Einstein who was at the door."
Chiro heard the voice of a man as he turned around to see a man who looked to be in his early 20s, shoulder length straight black hair tied in a ponytail with a single blue streak, blue shirt and tie, brown pants, blue sneakers, white lab coat, glasses.
"Oh hello young man, is there something I can do for you?"
"Um, I'm sorry to barge in like this but well…" he scratched his neck as he thought about how to phrase it.
"Well I had this crazy lady animal rights activist harassing me because I had Mandarin in a diaper and shirt. I kept telling her to leave me alone but she just wouldn't leave. Then she threatened to take Mandarin and started chasing me. So I ran in here trying to get away from her. I'm sorry I didn't mean to trespass but I didn't know what else to do to get away from her."
"Oh my God! Are you ok?!" He ran from behind his work table and knelt down in front of him.
"Did she hurt you?" he put a hand on his shoulder
"No. She just wouldn't leave me alone and tried to grab Mandarin...um what's that sound."
Suddenly they started to hear a commotion outside.
"Ugh! Not this again."
He groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose as he stood and walked over to the window, Einstein now on his shoulders, Chiro followed to see what the commotion was. He then went pale and held onto Mandarin tighter as there was not just the crazy lady but now over a dozen animal rights activists protesting outside.
Whimper…
The scientist noticed Chiro's fear and put a comforting hand on his shoulder and he looked up to see a soft smile on the man's face.
"As you can see I have to deal with the same thing." He turned Chiro away from the window and let him sit in his desk chair.
"Let me guess because you put clothes on your monkey."
"Sadly not even close...one moment." He was on his phone now
"Hello chief?...Yes it's Dr. Gibson...sigh Yes sadly it's happening again...Of course...Yes thank you...Oh and there's one more thing, before they showed up one of them, a woman was harassing a young man and chased him into the building while threatening to take his monkey...Yes the boy is in my lab with me right now...No I think he's too scared to leave…"
The man, now Dr. Gibson glanced over to Chiro for confirmation to where Chiro immediately started nodding with an obviously scared look on his face.
"Yes, he doesn't want to leave as long as the group is out there...No I don't mind him staying until someone arrives...Alright yes thank you for the help."
He hung up and turned back to Chiro.
"Alright the police are their way to clear away the crowd and you can stay here until they arrive to escort you back home."
He sat on the desk, crossing his legs as Einstein hopped onto his lap and he started stroking his fur under the mini lab coat.
"Thank you...Dr. Gibson right?"
"Oh my apologies, where are my manners? I never properly introduced myself!" He held out a hand to Chiro, he took it.
"Yes my name is Dr. Al Gibson. But everyone calls me Gibson. And you?"
"Nice to meet you Gibson, my name is Chiro." They let go and Gibson went back to stroking Einstein.
"And his is Einstein right?"
"That's right...And I'm guessing you named him Mandarin because of his fur color?"
Chiro chuckled a bit
"That and the fact that he loves mandarin oranges."
"Eheh, clever."
Mandarin started cheaping at the word 'oranges' and Chiro laughed a bit before reaching into his bag and pulling out the ziplock bag of said oranges. The sight of the treats got Einstein's attention as well and he immediately sat up staring at the bag.
"Is it ok if he has some?" Chiro asked, not yet opening the bag. Gibson chuckled before reaching into the desk drawer and pulling out a bag of blueberries.
"Only if you're ok with Mandarin sharing some of Einstein's blueberries?"
Mandarin answered the question by hopping on Chiro's lap. So Gibson set a paper towel on the desk and both monkey owners placed some of the treats on it before letting both hop on the desk eating the sweet treats.
"Is he ok to pet?" waiting before making a move.
"Um, no sorry Mandarin doesn't like strangers, he only lets me touch him."
"Mind if I ask why?" Gibson kept his arms crossed
"Mandarin was abused by his previous owner, I found him lying in a garbage bin near death, I took him home and my foster mom drove us to the vet. He freaked out when he woke up and only calmed down after the vet brought me in."
"Pst! Despicable."
"You said these people are constantly doing this?" Chiro pointed to the window as Gibson reached back into the drawer and grabbed some sodas and a couple granola bars offering some to Chiro.
"Unfortunately yes." Gibson sighed before taking a sip of his soda.
"You said it wasn't about you putting clothes on him...so what is it? If you don't mind me asking?" Taking a bite as Gibson explained
"I don't mind and sadly I wish it was something that ridiculous, but these people seem to think that just because I am a scientist with a pet monkey then that automatically means that I'm experimenting on him. Which I find extremely insulting because I am completely disgusted with animal experimentation." Gibson huffed before taking a moment to calm himself.
"That's actually how I ended up with Einstein in the first place, I found him after he managed to escape from an illegal testing facility. They were quickly busted when one of the idiots tried to sue me for 'stealing' his monkey and in court the pea brain let it slip that they had performed illegal experiments on him as well as other animals they've smuggled into the state. Now originally ENRD was going-"
"ENRD?" Chiro asked
"It stands for The Department of Justice's Environment and Natural Resources Division. They handle all illegal wildlife trafficking crimes." Gibson explained
At this point the monkeys had finished eating and decided they wanted more cuddles and jumped back into the laps of their respective owners.
"Anyway they had originally planned on taking Einstein back home...heh"
Einstein climbed up Gibson's shoulders and started playing with his hair.
"But the little guy had already decided that his new home was with me." Gibson scratched his belly as he chuckled at his little friend's playful antics.
"And since monkeys need a lot of attention I decided to bring him to work with me and he soon became my little assistant."
"So he helps you with your work? What exactly do you do?" Chiro asked stroking Mandarin as he clung to the boy's shirt.
"Well I'm mainly a chemist but I do dabble in tech from time to time, but dealing with chemicals is my specialty."
"Cool!" Chiro's eyes sparkled "Can I see some of your work?"
Gibson couldn't help but chuckle
"I don't see why not." He stood with Einstein still on his shoulders and led Chiro to his work table, Mandarin having moved down to Chiro's side, both watched in awe as Gibson showed them his latest work.
...some time later…
"Is that a drone?"
Chiro pointed to the window where 'yes' there was indeed a drone flying in front of the window filming them.
"Oh for God's Sake!"
Gibson stomped over to the window yanking the blinds closed.
"I'm pretty sure that's illegal!"
Chiro felt a bit uncomfortable that he was just recorded without permission, even more so that he was 'secretly' recorded because neither of them knows how long that thing was even watching them.
"For you at least, you're a minor and you did not give them permission. Also they didn't even tell us that they were recording so it's clear that they were trying to do this in secret without us knowing."
Gibson pinched the bridge of his nose before straightening up his glasses
"I'll have to inform the police once they get here."
Chiro walked over to the window and pulled up his goggles. As a way to pass the time Gibson had let Chiro help him out with the simplest part of his project, so all four including the monkeys had goggles on. Chiro pulled back the curtain slightly just enough so that he could see them but they can't see him.
"It looks like they're already here but are having a bit of trouble getting through."
Gibson peeked out as well to see that the activists were not letting the police through the door.
"Those idiots are just begging to be arrested." Gibson groaned before turning away.
"No worries from the way they're acting, they're all going to be arrested any minute now."
"But what if one of them tries to sneak in?" Chiro shook a bit and once again Gibson put a hand or his shoulder giving him another reassuring smile.
"Relax Chiro, these people may not have the proper brain cells needed to function normally in life…" Chiro stifle his laughter
"But they're not that stupid."
Bang!
"Then again I could be wrong." Gibson stood straight up and pulled Chiro behind him, before reaching into his bottom drawer and pulling out...a freakin taser gun!
"Um...why do you have that?" Chiro was clinging to his lab coat with both monkeys clinging to his back.
"To be honest something in the back of my head told me that one day these people would go too far." He raised the gun as the door violently flung open.
"And it looks like I was right."
"The police are here! So you better release those poor innocent monkeys that you have been illegally testing on."
The guy yelled at them, now this guy looked so normal that you wouldn't believe that he would break into someone's workplace and accuse them of animal abuse without proof and try to take that animal as well.
"Yeah I don't think so, now please leave." Gibson stated calmly
"What you're doing is illegal and now you have a gun threatening me and kidnapping a child!"
"Kidnapping!" Chiro shrieked "The only reason I'm here in the first place is because one of your crazy friends was chasing me!"
"That's because monkeys aren't meant to be pets! Brat! And experimenting on animals is illegal!"
"Screw Off Psycho!"
"Sir, the only one breaking the law is you. Now I'm giving you one last chance to leave before I hit you with 1000 volts of electricity." Again he was so freakin calm.
"I'm not going anywhere until I've saved these poor animals for their abusers!" the guy stood oddly proud of himself. Gibson raised an eyebrow before shrugging.
"Suit yourself." And pulled the trigger.
The guy shook a bit almost like in the cartoons before dropping to the ground moaning in pain.
"I gave you two warnings and you refused to listen, so I did what was necessary to protect me and the kid." Gibson pulled his glasses up before placing a protective hand on Chiro.
…
After that the police arrested every single activist there as they had all encouraged the man to do what he did. It was only after the last activist was loaded into a police cruiser and driven away that Chiro finally felt safe to leave Gibson's lab 'with' said scientist walking next to him.
"Thanks for helping me out today Gibson, even though you didn't have to." Chiro shook his hand
"It was nothing Chiro. I was happy to help and I enjoyed the company."
"I had fun helping you out with your projects...oh that reminds me I should give you these back."
Chiro took off the orange goggles and held them out, Mandarin had already removed his long ago since he did not like wearing them. But Gibson held up a hand, shaking his head.
"Keep them."
"Really?"
"Of course I have plenty."
"Wow thank you!"
"And if you like feel free to come back any time."
"For real?!"
"Yeah like I said I enjoy the company and I think Einstein and Mandarin had a lot of fun together, I'm sure they're going to be great friends."
"Wow t-that is awesome! Thank you!"
"Just be sure to ask your foster mom if it's ok first."
"I will, well bye Gibson I'll see ya later!" Chiro waved bye as he got in the passenger seat of the cop car.
"See you around Chiro." Gibson and Einstein waved back.
…
"Wow Chiro you have just been making all kinds of friends lately!" Ash chimed as the three sat at the dinner table.
"I know and it's all thanks to Mandarin!"
Victor growled but Chiro ignored it and continued on.
"So what do you say? Is it ok if I go to Gibson's lab sometimes."
"We'll see, I'll have to meet him first."
"Awesome! Thanks Ash! You're the best!"
Ash couldn't help but giggled
"Aww Chiro you're such a sweetheart."
It's not fair! First he gets such a cool pet! And now he's making friends left and right like it's a piece of cake!
Victor's lip trembled a bit as he tried to hold back tears and very rudely and quickly excused himself from the table stomping to his room and locking the door. Before dropping to the floor and hugging himself.
I wouldn't be surprised if he gets adopted before me...sob hic...after all no one wants to adopt a teenager!
Now alone he gave up and let the tears fall.
All people ever want are spoiled little brats like him!
Victor covered his mouth trying to mask his sobs, not wanting Ash let alone Chiro to hear him.
It's not fair! He's going to get a home!..*soft crying*...and I'm going to be stuck here forever! It's not fair! CHIRO'S GOING TO GET A FAMILY!...*sobbing*...
...and not me…