(Author's note: This chapter will just be written as if you were there on February 1st, 1982. On another note, I'm sorry it's taken me awhile to get this chapter up, but I'm a fourteen-year-old girl, so that basically means that I'm very busy. I'm involved in school, band, piano lessons, church handbell and singing choir, Job's Daughters, and tons and tons of homework. Also the recent hijacked planes deal hasn't got me in the best of moods. So I write whenever I can. Oh well, the story must go on. Sorry for me blabbing.)

"Today's the day."

A young man named Steve jerked up from his chair and looked at Victor, the speaker. "Huh? What day?" asked Steve.

Victor sighed. "You know, how Clarence has been going on and on about his new intelligent species that he wants to create?"

"Oh! That day." Steve gave Victor a purely curious look. "So how many does he plan to make?"

"He was telling me three, all two years and one month apart. But that's not important know." Victor looked pale. "What is important is what he plans to do with these creatures."

Steve looked skeptical. "What's that?"

"He's going to make money off of them. He'll start when the oldest is six years old. He'll say, 'Look at this creature I've created!' He'll sell tickets for people to see it. And he's going to do testing on it, too."

"What about before they are six?" asked Steve.

Victor sighed. "That might be the worse part of all. Clarence calls it 'Preparation for stardom'. I call it abuse. He's going to, basically, treat them like punching bags."

"You're kidding!" cried Steve, now looking completely horrified. "We have to do something!"

"I already have," said Victor. "And I hope that it's at least something. You see, he was telling me about his powders. You know about the powders, right?"

"Yeah, all of those different personality trait ones?"

"Yeah, those. Anyway, he told me that he would put in obedience powder, so they will obey him; seriousness powder, so they will not be jumping off the walls; and intelligence. So what I did last night was I put free spirit powder into the obedience powder. I mean, there's still obedience powder in there, so it'll be at least willing to listen. But I hope that the free spirit will cause it to resist Clarence."

"What about the seriousness?" asked Steve.

"I dumped quite a bit of it out, and then filled it up again with silliness. I mean, I don't want these creatures to be downright crazy, but I think that if they're at least a little wacky, it'll drive Clarence nuts. Those two traits, along with the intelligence, which I didn't mess with, will make a very interesting creature indeed."

"Victor! Steve! Come in and witness a miracle!" Clarence suddenly shrieked from his lab. His two assistants sighed and walked into the lab.

The only reason, really, that Victor and Steve stayed with this crazy guy was because they felt that they had to. They had messed with his experiments that could have caused great harm, thus probably saving many lives. Don't get me wrong, they hated the job, but they had to do something.

Clarence had that mad, evil look in his eyes that Victor and Steve were so accustomed to. He turned on the machine and dumped in what he thought was seriousness powder, and then he dumped in what he thought was obedience powder. Finally, the intelligence, since he wanted to be known for making intelligent species.

The machine jumped and jolted violently. Then, out of a small hole in the side, a little body tumbled out.

He had completely black fur, except for his feet and face, which were white. He also had large black eyes, a red nose, two long, floppy ears, and a long black tail. The little baby looked around at his new surroundings. "It's alive, it's alive, it's ALIVE!" cried Clarence, in his best Dr. Frankenstein imitation.

The baby then opened his mouth.

"Wevu nug miku laq zunt gu?" he asked.

"That's amazing," marveled Victor. "Most babies don't learn how to make sounds until about six months old, much less talk gibberish."

Clarence was obviously also marveled, but not because the child was talking. He couldn't care less, in fact. He picked up the baby and looked him over. The baby, in obvious objection to being held by the mad scientist, cried out, "Quaz bip ger yur ghte!"

Clarence scowled. "I can tell that we're going to have trouble keeping your mouth shut," he snarled. He tossed the baby carelessly to Steve. Steve made a dive and caught the baby without hurting him. "Take him to the back room and feed him a little. And—" Clarence's voice suddenly got low and dangerous, "—don't you dare treat him special, or buy him disgusting little toys, or name him. We don't want him to feel that people are going to take care of him. He's a science experiment, not the child you never had, or whatever."

Steve and Victor nodded, even though they both knew that they sure as hell wouldn't abide to those rules. Once they left the lab, carrying the baby, Steve asked, "We're not really going to neglect him, are we?"

"Of course not," said Victor. "I'll try to raise his as normally as I can. I don't care what Clarence says, he's like our child now. And we're going to give him the happiest upbringing that we possibly can."

"Bix run yaf lki," said the baby solemnly.

"Be quiet, you little yakker," said Victor teasingly. "That mouth of yours almost got you into trouble."

"Neetee puim cuafoo."

"I'm telling you, Yakko, you're going to get in a lot of trouble if you do that in front of Clarence."

"Uy mug hyhyre io."

By now the three had reached the back room. "Here, Yakko, you take this bottle and drink out of it," said Victor. He set the baby down on a table. "I'll get a cradle for you sometime."

"That's not really what you're going to call him, is it?" Steve said suddenly.

Victor turned around, surprised. "What?"

"We're not really going to call him Yakko, are we?"

"Of course not. I'm just calling him Yakko because that's what he is. We'll give him a more normal name than Yakko."

"Too late," muttered Steve.

"What do you mean?" asked Victor.

Steve said nothing. Instead, he walked over to the table and picked the baby up. "Say that word," he commanded. "Say that word that you don't want this baby to be called."

"What? Yakko?" asked Victor.

The baby turned his head towards him.

Steve laughed. "He thinks that's his name."

"Well, I'll think of another one. Trust me."

…………

But as you can guess, the name Yakko stuck, since Victor was having a hard time coming up with names and it was just customary to call the little chatterbox Yakko. And so he was named.

Steve and Victor bought toys and other things for Yakko, which he relished. They took very good care of him, in between Clarence's daily "Preparation for stardom".

Yakko said his first real word when he was only three months old. He was still too young to even sit up by himself yet. But as he lay in his cradle, the meaning of that word just suddenly came to him. Oh, how pleased Victor and Steve would be if he actually talked the same way they did! "Cradle!" said Yakko proudly.

Victor and Steve were eating lunch at the time, and when they heard Yakko's word they turned around in shock. "What did you say?" asked Steve in shock.

"Cradle," repeated Yakko, a huge grin on his face.

"It's his first real word, Victor! His first real word!" cried Steve. Victor ran up to the cradle and picked up Yakko.

"You're such a smart little boy, Yakko!" he said. Yakko beamed with pride.

…………

By the time Yakko was six months old, before he could really crawl well, he knew fluent English. Victor and Steve had told him not to talk in front of Clarence, since that would get him into really big trouble.

"But I wanna talk in front of him," said Yakko, in perfectly understandably English. He sounded more like a six-year-old than a six-month-old. "Somebody should tell him that he shouldn't beat me up like that!"

Victor took a deep breath. "You know, you're right, Yakko. So tomorrow, talk to him. Say whatever you want to."

The next day, when Yakko sat in front of Clarence, awaiting his daily beating, Clarence said to him, "You know, at first I thought you weren't going to work out. I mean, you never knew how to keep your mouth shut. But for the past three months, you haven't said a word! I think that you just might be able to keep that trap of yours shut."

"Think again, dummy," muttered Yakko.

"WHAT?" cried Clarence, enraged. "What did you just call me!"

"I called you a dummy," said Yakko. "And I'll do it again: You're a dummy!"

Furiously, Clarence grabbed for Yakko's tail. Yakko tried to get away, but since he was only six months old, he couldn't crawl very well yet. Clarence grabbed Yakko's tail, held him up in the air, and slapped his face a couple of times. "Now get!" he cried, literally throwing Yakko out of the door.

Hearing the thud, Steve and Victor raced to the door of the lab. Yakko lay crumpled in a heap. "It didn't work," he whispered, a large tear running down his face.

…………

It was March 1st, 1984.

"Why are you so excited, Victor?" asked Yakko. Now, at the age of two years and one month old, he could walk and do most things by himself, making him nearly self-sufficient.

Victor turned and looked Yakko in the eyes. "You're going to have a baby brother," he said.

Yakko knew what a brother was. Steve had explained the mother, father, sister, brother concept to him when he was little. "How do you know it'll be a boy and not a girl?" he demanded.

"Because Clarence wants all three of you to be boys," said Victor. "In another two years, you'll get another baby brother, and then Steve and I'll get you out of here."

"Why not now?" asked Yakko.

"We want you and your brothers to be together," said Victor. "I'd better go and get your brother…"

Steve was already waiting for him in the lab. "Where's Clarence?" asked Victor.

"I don't know, I haven't—"

"I'VE GOT IT!" Clarence suddenly cried as he burst into the lab, causing his assistants to jump about two feet in the air. "I must not've put enough seriousness powder in the first one, that worthless chatterbox!" Clarence dumped a ton of the powder into the machine.

"Uh oh," whispered Victor.

"What?" Steve whispered back.

"Most of the stuff in that one is silliness powder. I think that Yakko probably got most of the seriousness."

"Oh!" whispered Steve in shock. "This kid's going to be insane."

Clarence added the other powders. The machine rattled and roared. And out from the hole in the side came another creature. He looked quite a bit like Yakko, in fact, but was slightly different. The baby, just as Yakko had, looked around at his surroundings. He eyed a bottle that Steve had brought in to feed the new baby with. The baby propped up on his hands and knees and crawled over to the bottle.

"Amazing!" cried Victor. "He can already crawl! He'll be walking in no time!"

The baby suckled from the bottle, and looked to be very content. That was when Clarence had to pick him up. The baby gave him a look of utter disgust, situated the bottle in his tiny hands, and squirted him.

"AAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!" cried Clarence, dropping the baby in shock. Instead of crying, the baby gave a light chuckle. It was the first sound that the otherwise silent baby had made.

"THIS KID IS WACKO!" cried Clarence, furiously wiping the milk out of his eyes. "GET HIM OUT OF MY SIGHT!"

Steve grabbed the baby and ran with Victor into the back room before Clarence's wrath was unleashed.

Yakko, whose ear was pressed against the laboratory door, was grinning. "I heard it all. It seemed to have gone well."

"Yes, your brother certainly left an impression," said Steve quietly. "Now what should we name him?"

"But I thought he was named already!" cried Yakko. "Didn't Clarence name him?"

"Yakko," said Victor patiently, "you know that Clarence didn't name you. He doesn't even want you two to have names."

"But I heard him!" cried Yakko. "He said, 'This kid is wacko!'"

"Yakko, 'wacko' is an adjective that means crazy," said Steve. "He was describing him, not naming him."

"Hmm," said Victor, "Yakko and Wakko. I kinda like that."

"You can't be serious," said Steve, blinking.

But Yakko was already tugging at his arms, wanting to get his first look at his baby brother. "Let me see him!" cried Yakko.

Steve lowered his arm. The little baby Wakko was snuggled up in his arms, and was asleep. Actually, he looked rather dead. But he confirmed himself to be alive when he opened his eyes and turned his head to look at his big brother.

"May I hold him?" asked Yakko gently. Steve looked a little hesitant, but obeyed.

Yakko held Wakko in his arms. "Hey, Wakko," he said quietly, "it's nice to meet you. I'm your big brother Yakko. I'm going to take real good care of you."

Wakko made no noise, but smiled.

…………

Just as Victor predicted, Wakko was a very early walker. In fact, he was walking by the age of three months. He followed Yakko everywhere, causing Victor to remark that Wakko was like Yakko's second shadow. However, very much unlike Yakko, his two shadows were silent. The only time Wakko even made sounds was when he laughed, and it was a very quiet laugh. Even when he cried, all that happened was that his eyes quietly filled with tears and they slowly and silently rolled down his cheeks.

Of course, now Clarence had two "Preparations for stardom" to deal with. Yakko, already the protective big brother, asked Victor and Steve if Wakko was going to go through what he did.

"No," Victor said gently, "we'll make sure that he leaves both you and your brother alone."

But Yakko found out the truth when Wakko was six months old.

Yakko was bouncing a ball against the wall one day when it bounced out the door and towards the lab. He sighed and went chasing after it. When he ran by the lab, thought, he could hear Clarence saying, "—and I'll rip you to shreds, you little reject—"

Yakko stopped suddenly and stuck his head in the door. Clarence was tall and menacing over Wakko, who looked meek and helpless like a schoolboy who had just gotten into trouble. He grabbed Wakko's wrist roughly and stuck his face.

"Hey!" screamed Yakko, very angrily. "You leave my brother alone!"

Clarence and Wakko turned around and saw Yakko with a huge scowl on his face. "First and foremost, he is not your brother. He is no more your brother than these powders. I created the powders, and I created this reject here. And secondly, no, I will not leave him alone."

"I said," cried Yakko, "leave him alone!"

"Listen, you worthless chatterbox, if you don't shut your yap I'll hafta beat you senseless, you hear? This is your last chance: GET OUTTA HERE!"

"Not unless he comes with me," said Yakko.

Clarence grabbed Yakko by the neck and snarled, "I'm getting real tired of that tongue of yours. Lemme put it this way, who would you rather I pulverize, you or the reject here?"

"Me," said Yakko without hesitation.

At that, Clarence roughly threw Yakko on the ground. As Yakko lifted his face, trying to blink away the tears, his eyes caught Wakko's.

And then… Yakko blinked in confusion. Wakko hadn't said anything, and yet Yakko could somehow "hear" deep inside of him, Just leave, Yakko. I can take care of myself.

"No you can't," said Yakko without thinking.

Clarence looked confused. "I can't what?" he hollered.

Still silent to all but his brother, Wakko's eyes grew wide as he shot another thought to Yakko. Really, Yakko, it isn't that bad. I can get outta here fine. Don't get yourself hurt because of me!

"But you're only a baby…"

"What the hell is going on here?" cried Clarence. He grabbed Yakko and threw him against the wall. "Now both of you get outta here. I don't wanna see your faces for a real long time." He shoved Yakko out of the door. Wakko scrambled to follow.

Why did he let us go…? Wakko looked behind him in confusion.

"I don't know, but we were real lucky…" Yakko suddenly grabbed Wakko and hugged him tightly. "Are you okay?"

Yeah… I'll be okay. Let's go find Victor and Steve.

Their two guardians were talking in the back room when Yakko stumbled in, looking defeated. "Oh, Yakko, what happened?" asked Victor in sympathy.

"I'm just tryin' to be a good big brother," said Yakko, finally letting his tears break through. His voice was constantly interrupted by big, gasping sobs. "I don't want him to treat Wakko like that. I don't mind so much with me, but Wakko doesn't deserve it."

Victor was touched by what Yakko had said. "You are a good big brother," he said to Yakko. Yakko sniffled and looked at Wakko.

Yeah, you are, but you're gonna get yourself killed, thought Wakko.

"Me? I'm gonna get myself killed? Why don't you think about yourself! You're only six months old!"

Oh, just shut up, thought Wakko, chuckling slightly.

"It's not funny," said Yakko. Steve and Victor looked at him in amazement, realizing that he could read Wakko's thoughts.

…………

It was April 1st, 1986.

"Hey, guess what, Wakko?"

What?

"We're gonna get a baby brother."

Really? thought Wakko. He grinned at his older brother. Does that mean I get to be a big brother, just like you?

Yakko smiled and nodded. "Victor, when's he gonna be born?" he asked, turning to his guardian.

"Very soon," said Victor, who was only half listening.

Why doesn't he want to make a girl? asked Wakko.

"Hmm, I don't know… hey Victor, why doesn't Clarence want a little girl?"

"Huh?" said Victor, jumping a little in shock. "Oh. I don't know. He's crazy, he's a drunk, I think that he had an unpleasant childhood, who knows why he thinks the way he does? Maybe he's sexist."

"What does sexist mean?" asked Yakko.

"It means not treating boys and girls the same. You know, as though boys are better than girls."

"Oh," said Yakko. "That's silly. I'd like a sister. But oh well, let's get my new brother born so I can meet him!"

Victor chuckled, in spite of himself, and left the room. Very soon I will have to give them up, he thought sadly. Once the last one is born… they need to get out of here.

He almost ran into Clarence. "Oh, hello, sir," said Victor.

"Yeah, hi, blah, blah, blah. I found the answer to our problem!"

"What problem?"

"The creatures! The first one is a worthless chatterbox, and the second one's a reject, too stupid to even talk. I don't know what's better, not talking at all, or not knowing when to keep your mouth shut. Neither of them will obey me! But I came up with the solution. I'll put 'no free will' powder in this one! Once I go to the bathroom, I will be ready!" Then he turned the corner.

Victor knew what he had to do, and that he had to do it fast. He raced to the lab and grabbed the 'no free will' powder. He quickly unscrewed the lid and dumped out the ingredients. Then he frantically scanned the other powders to see what he could add. Finally he found two that he added. The first, and the one that he put the most in, was cuteness. He figured that if a cute baby was made, then it wouldn't be too much of a hassle. But this child also needed some defense mechanism. So Victor added in a couple pinches of aggressiveness. He hoped that that would kick in whenever the child was abused.

He quickly set everything back up, and not a moment too soon, for just then Clarence came in, followed by Steve. Clarence didn't talk, and his eyes had that wild, dangerous look to them as he furiously added the ingredients to the machine. The machine then jumped up and down frantically in all directions, and for the third time in four years, a baby creature came out of the hole in the side.

You could plainly see that the cuteness potion had done its job well. In fact, to perfect the cute job, the baby was by far the smallest of the three. "Ohhh, what a cute little dot!" cooed Steve.

But Clarence was fuming. His face was literally turning red. Taking large, gasping breaths between each word, he yelled, "IT…IS…A…GIRL!"

"Are you sure? How could it be—" Victor stopped and looked at the baby. He, she, was definitely missing that distinguishing characteristic of males, if you know what I mean.

Enraged—that is an understatement, I don't know if there are words in the English language to describe Clarence at the moment—Clarence grabbed the baby. The baby, obviously upset to being picked up by such a vile man, clamped her two teeth down on his hand. Clarence cried out in pain, and drop kicked her right into one of the shelves. The shelf came crashing down, and the baby girl and many powders came crashing down with it.

The little girl's lip trembled for a moment, then she wailed. "WAAAAAHHHHHH!"

"Kill her," Clarence hissed. "I don't ever wanna see her again. Oooh, I need a drink." And with that Clarence stormed out of the room.

Once Clarence was gone, Steve picked up the crying baby and whispered to Victor, "What did you put in her that made her be a girl?"

"Well, I had to do something! I couldn't let her have no free will! So I added a mixture of cuteness and aggressiveness. But why would those make a little girl?"

"Well," said Steve, "girls are often cuter than boys, and they also are often more aggressive."

"Was Clarence even controlling the sex of the babies? I mean, there are a few more boys born than girls born, so statistically, if three children are born two are boys and one is a girl. Maybe because today is April Fool's Day. How would I know?"

By that time they had reached the back room. Yakko was standing by the door. "What happened?" he demanded. "What happened to my brother?"

"It's not your brother, Yakko, it's your sister," said Steve.

"Sister?" asked Yakko, in quiet shock.

"Yes, there was some sort of mistake."

Yakko and Wakko were silent for awhile. So were Steve and Victor. Finally Yakko asked, "So what's her name?"

"If we don't do something with her soon, she'll be dead before she gets a name. What did you call her, Steve? A dot?"

"Yeah," said Steve. "So let's name her Dot."

"Steve, I have to talk with you," said Victor. He placed Dot, who had quieted down, into the cradle and led Steve to a corner of the room. "We have to get them out of here today."

"I know, I know, and I hate to lose them. But what will we do with them? Should we raise them in our own houses?"

"No, no," said Victor, shaking his head sadly. "Clarence would suspect that. And nobody would want to adopt three intelligent… puppy-dog like things. I think…they're just going to have to take care of themselves."

"Are you joking?" cried Steve, then quieted down a bit. "The oldest one if four years old. Four years old! There is no possible way for a four-year-old to take care of himself, much less a two-year-old and a newborn baby!"

At that point Dot started to cry again.

"Somebody'd better go feed her," muttered Steve.

"Somebody is," said Victor.

Victor looked out the door. Yakko had grabbed the bottle and was now giving it to Dot. "Here you go," he said softly and gently. "This is what you wanted, isn't it? I haven't introduced myself yet, I guess. I'm Yakko, and I'm one of your big brothers. And this is Wakko," he said, as Wakko walked up to get a look at his baby sister. "He's your other big brother. He can't talk, though. And we're both gonna take real good care of you." He picked Dot up and gently rocked and cradled her. Soon Dot was asleep.

Victor turned back to Steve. "I know that Yakko doesn't deserve that burden, but I know that he can do it. Besides, it's the only way. They have to go tonight."

"Yeah," said Steve, looking shaken. "Tonight."

…………

Who knows how the fire started. The important thing is that it started. Parts of the lab were burning to the ground. And Steve and Victor saw their chance to get the children out of there. It could very well look that they had been killed or lost in the fire. Once they were all safely outside, Victor motioned for Yakko to follow him. So Yakko, holding Dot in one arm and holding Wakko's hand with the other, obeyed.

Once outside, Victor took a deep breath and said, "You have to run away, Yakko."

"Why?" asked Yakko, his eyes growing wide.

"Because," said Victor, "he's going to kill Dot, and probably you and Wakko too. You take good care of your brother and sister, you hear me?"

Yakko nodded, slightly dumbfounded. "Come on, sibs," he whispered.

And Yakko, Wakko, and Dot vanished into the night.

Steve stood by Victor, silhouetted by the flames. "I hope they'll be alright," he whispered.

"I know they'll be alright," said Victor.