3. It changes them
~~~~~~~~

The Grunt watched, unfazed by the loud screaming, as the boy shrank out of his clothes. His features disappeared, and his body turned pink. Soon, nothing remained of the boy except his clothes and a pink blob. The Ditto was now sleeping heavily, due to the overdose of anesthetic in its system.

The door on the other side of the room opened, and another Grunt came in, carrying a large plastic crate. The first Grunt put the new Ditto in the crate, along with the kid's clothes. "Cell A, he said to the second Grunt, who turned and left the room with the crate, slamming the door as a cue just as the Grunt inside undid the straps.

The first door opened again, and this time the Admin let through the other guy. He looked around, seemingly unsure of what to expect. "Where'd that other kid go?" he asked.

"He passed," the Grunt said simply. "Apparently he enjoyed the test a little too much. Now sit."

Within seconds of him sitting, the Grunt had him strapped as well and was sticking the first needle in again. The guy just sat there, prepared for anything, as the anesthetic slowly numbed his system. The second needle was inserted, and for the longest time the guy tried to hold it in, but eventually he gave way to screaming his lungs out too. His limbs, body, and head all melded into another pink mass, covered by the leftover clothes.

A female Grunt opened the far door this time, also carrying a plastic crate. "Cell B," the first Grunt said, dropping the Ditto and clothes in. She left, slamming the door as well. This time a girl with long blond hair came in. She looked warily at the mostly empty room.

"Do I sit?" she asked hesitantly. The Grunt only nodded. Cautiously the girl got in the chair, careful to keep her hair out of the way. When she was strapped in, she started pushing against the restraints, her mind changed about the idea of joining.

But as the first needle punctured her, her resistance slowed. And when the second needle was inserted, her eyes clenched shut and she screamed louder than the guys had. The Ditto that she became was piled into a crate carried again by the first crate-bearing Grunt, headed for "Cell C."

The last girl was let in after the Grunt had left. She was looking around excitedly, hoping to see what was so thrilling. Her smile drooped slightly as she only saw the plain chair and the man next to it. "Do I sit?" she asked the man as the Admin closed the door. This time, however, the Admin was inside the room.

"Yes," the Grunt said, and the girl practically jumped into the seat.

"Ooh, cool," she said, as the Grunt strapped her in as well. She took the anesthetic well too. But the DNA needle was too much for her, and she screamed as well. But eventually she too became nothing more than a pink blob.

The female Grunt came back with another plastic crate, and the Grunt piled the Ditto and clothes into it, saying, "Cell D."

The Admin pulled out his walkie-talkie. "Have all the posters been removed?"

"Yes, we took them down at one o'clock, like you said," came the reply.

"Good, burn them all. Leave no trace." He then walked over to the Grunt, rubbing inside his ear.

"Tell me," he said. "How can you stand the screaming?" Rather than say anything, the Grunt pulled out two earplugs that had been in his ears. The Admin smirked, "You're a smart one. Have you ever thought of being an Executive?" he continued, as the two of them left the room via the far door.

~~~~~~~~

"So we hafta guard em," the Grunt who had taken the first and third Ditto said. He and the female Grunt who had taken the other Ditto were in a room off of the main hallway a few doors down from The Room.' Along the far wall were about twenty plastic cells, which were basically like the crates the Ditto were carried in, except they were five feet wide and twelve feet tall, and they had a door in the front.

"I dun' see why, though" he continued, looking through the clear plastic at the Ditto that lay there. "Dey look harmless. An' beside, dun' dey on'y, err, change when dey see udder Pokeymun?"

"That's the way normal Ditto are, Jon," the female replied, annoyed. She was piling the clothes that remained in the corner of the room. "But you see, these aren't normal Ditto. We really don't know what they can do. For all we know, they could suddenly Transform into Steelix and destroy the whole complex."

"Oh," Jon said. He sat down in a chair and watched the Ditto move around a little bit for a couple minutes. "Uh, Cassie," he said, suddenly panicked, "do Ditto have arms?"

"Of course not, you big oaf," Cassie said, looking up from her sorting of clothes. "Whatever gave you that ide-yeow!" Cassie jumped back, because she had just noticed the changing as well. The Ditto in Cell A was growing arms, legs, and many other features. Long, golden-blond hair spewed from where a head was forming, slender fingers appeared on the stiffening hands, feet and toes grew out of stumps. Jon looked away as a pair of breasts suddenly popped out of its chest.

"Uh, dey be doin' it in de udder cells, too," he said, noticing the Ditto in Cell B sprout short, silvery hair out of a newly protruding head.

"We've gotta tell the Admin about this," Cassie said, grabbing her walkie-talkie. "Sir!" she screamed into it.

"What is it?" came the annoyed reply.

"It's the Dittothey aren't staying Ditto."

"WHAT?!?" the Admin screamed.

"Well, they're growing arms and legs andKYAA!" Cassie shrieked as the Ditto in Cell B grew more guy features.' "Bring some more clothes, too. I don't think what we have is going to suffice." By now the Ditto in Cell C was also changing to human. Short brown hair had sprouted from the fully formed head.

"Dis is not good," Jon said, as the Ditto in Cell D grew a very defining chest while flaming red hair was spewing out the top of its head. Soon, four fully naked humans were squished in the A through D cells, still knocked out by the anesthetic.

~~~~~~~~

"Okay, what the Hell went wrong?!?" the Admin screamed at the scientist.

"Uhh, it was, err, the fact that the anesthetic mixed in with the, uhh, DNA while in the blood, and it, err, messed up" Seymour was white as the lab coat he was trembling in, ""

The Executive screamed with anger. "We need that anesthetic now though! We've gotta knock them out before injecting them since they know not to trust us!"

Seymour fiddled with an idea in his head, "Um, perhaps if we deliver the anesthetic, err, through their lungs it won't, ah, interfere with the DNA assertion proce"

"Try it!" the Admin was in Seymour's face, "Or heads will roll!" With that the Admin left, slamming the lab door on the way out. The bottles in the wall cases rattled slightly. Seymour walked around the lab quickly, his mind in a state somewhere between relief that he wasn't dead yet and panic of making sure he stayed that way.

See, he hadn't known about the kids. He thought that the Admin would find other adults to use. Seymour was apalled that kids were used. But he didn't say anything for fear of being exterminated. Now the kids were trapped and, by the sounds of it, not who they were before. Seymour felt he needed to get them out of there.

He looked at the sealed beakers of pure Ditto DNA that were sitting on the nearby lab table. A quick plan formed in his head. He immediately started to whip up a batch of a new formula that would work how he planned.

~~~~~~~~

The four kids, now fully dressed, were dragged along the hall. The four Grunts took them into a side hall that had many barred cells on one side. A fifth Grunt lifted the bars on one with a remote, and the kids were practically dropped in the cell.

The bars were dropped again, and the Grunts looked briefly at the camera that was fixed across the hall before heading back to the main part of the complex. The camera was pointing into the cell, so that the two boys and two girls who now lay crumpled up in the cell could be watched constantly.