A/N: UPDATED: Yep, another QA update. In fact, any chapter before 9 is due for one… Well, anyway, I tweaked up some dialogue, some minor edits, fixed grammar and spelling, and so on and so forth…

Without any further ado, read and review…

Friday, June 11 - Living Quarters SUB - PokéGene Inc.
Subject 006 / Name: Maxwell

It was strangely quiet this morning.

Why was it strange? Well, for one, earlier this morning—WAY earlier—I was woken up by a lot of noises coming from another room, outside of our living quarters. The noises mainly consisted of banging, crashing, some voices, then silence, then more voices, and then…I can't remember much after that. I must've fallen back asleep at that point.

So, when I got out of bed (putting on my shell and hat, both of which I removed before going to bed last night), and walked into the living room area, it was unnaturally silent. Had I woken up too early? I glanced at the clock, but it was a fairly late time—10:23 AM—and Brian, Frank, or someone else is always up at this time. I knew this too well, since their shuffling feet outside in the halls and conversations from more than a room away were always at least somewhat audible. Did something happen?

I was contemplating what the reason for this odd occurrence might be, when I was interrupted by a familiar noise: my stomach.

"Oh, heheh," I said to myself quietly, half-heartedly chuckling. "I guess it's breakfast time again."

Not wasting another second, I waddled back into the kitchen area and opened the fridge as quietly as I could, then started rummaging around for any food leftovers.

Curiously, over the past couple of days, I had begun to notice that my senses (taste, smell, sight, hearing…) seemed to be getting better. At first (the day I became a Pokémon), they felt…"dulled", as if I had just come out of a cold or something. But today, my senses seemed to be tons better than I could ever remember them being when I was human. The only significant improvement though, would have to be my sense of smell.

It was because of this that finding the food in the fridge became oodles easier. Of course, my smaller size made it tricky to dig around the fridge properly without climbing inside and knocking a random food item loose. Fortunately for me, there was some of the pizza that Brian ordered yesterday (for our 'celebration' of sorts, which I've elaborated on earlier) leftover inside it, and it still seemed pretty eatable.

I'm not really that picky, so I grabbed a slice of the stuff and brought it back to the living room dining table, and took a seat at it. Okay, I know pizza may not seem like a conventional "breakfast," but let me tell you, I was pretty hungry. I may have just as easily eaten cardboard (which tastes not dissimilarly from school food). Plus, we didn't have any cereal…

Chewing on the pizza, which (although a bit stiff) was still pretty tasteful, I looked up across the room and saw that Warren and Mary had gotten up by now and were walking into the room. I waved to them and said hi, my mouth still having a chunk of cold pizza in it, and they cheerfully greeted me in response.

The two of them sat down at the table next to myself, and it surprised me that neither of them had any food with them. Swallowing down what food I had in my mouth, I asked, "What's up? Are you two not hungry or something?"

Warren just casually shrugged. "Nah, not really. I had enuff ta eat last night, thanks."

"Yeah, I'm good too," Mary said to me. "But anyway, how's your morning? Oh, and did you happen to have…any dreams last night…?"

What an odd question to ask. Well, I asked that question yesterday too, but today it seemed a little off-topic. I never did have that dream again, or even dream anything as a matter of fact. I shook my head, and asked the same question back to both her and Warren.

Mary shook her head as well, and shrugged. "Not me," she replied softly. "…Well, not today anyway…"

"Eh, nothin' fer me dream-wise. T'was a silent night, and boy howdy am I glad fer that!" Warren said, smirking a bit, and winked at me.

I raised an eyebrow at him, disbelieving.

"…Cum on! Ah'm serious! Only noise I ever heard came frum outside the room, 'round 2 er 3 inda mornin'…"

Suddenly my interest was attained. "Wait…you heard that too?"

He nodded. "'Course I did! Made a heckuva racket, so it woke me right up o' course."

"Then…do you know what it was?"

"Erm, well, I…can't say that I do… But…ah'm purty sure them voices belonged ta Brian an'…someone else."

"Brian? Really…" I put a paw my mouth and thought for a moment. "Do…do you know what they were talking about?"

Warren shrugged. "Heck if I know. Sounded like they were yammerin' 'bout sum kinda discovery or whatnot…"

I sighed. "…That's all you heard?"

"That's it. Sorry that I dunno anymore than that…"

"Don't worry about it, Warren. It's not that big of a deal anyway." Darn it! I was hoping he knew something more about what Brian and some that "other" guy were discussing. Somehow, I thought that their discussion had to be about us—me specifically.

Why do I think that? The man was telling me just the other day of how I had this "anomaly", how that CPT stuff fixed it up, and how it was "exactly the result he'd hoped for". And on top of that, he said he was expecting the full results in another day or two. And today was two days later, so it should be obvious that those results are due.

I continued eating my pizza slice, chatting loosely with both Warren and Mary, until the rest of the group—Steve, Samantha, and Matthew—all came out of the bedroom and joined us at the table. Matt was the only one of those three to have grabbed a piece of food—pizza, like me—and eat it. We greeted each other with a cordial "Good morning," and they sat down.

Matthew obviously had a lot to say, judging by the conversation he started. "So, you all had a good night I'm assuming? Wonderful, wonderful…not that I care about that, but eh… Anyway, is anyone else feeling a bit…confined? Having a need to get outside for a spell?"

This struck me as odd. I had never really considered the fact that we were kept indoors all the time, so this came as a bit of a wake-up-call for me. I guess it would be a nice idea for some…fresh air, or something… "I suppose so. Hey, why don't we ask Brian if we could go outside for a bit? It's been pretty nice lately, if the view from the window can be believed."

The Snivy shook his head. "That's where we have problems. Just think about it; we all became Pokémon, right? We look like 'em, walk like 'em, talk like 'em… It's darn near impossible for people to tell us apart from real ones!"

"But," I interjected, tugging at my cap, "we have these to wear. We can just put on some clothing or accessories, that'll distinguish us apart."

"Buzz! Wrong answer. A lot of people dress up their Pokémon with stuff like that. At best it'll point out we're not wild. Even then, without Brian or Frank practically keeping us on a leash, others will think we're strays. Some people might try to steal us! And believe me, I know!"

"Wha… S-steal us? Who'd do that?"

"Criminals, for one," Matthew practically spat, his tone very condescending. "Then there are shifty guys, trappers, poachers, ecetera ecetera you get what I mean. There are countless guys like that in the world, they never stop, y'know?"

I tried to argue against this more but could not, and fell silent. Matthew had a point; there are lots of bad people who'd do anything to make a buck. Who's not to say we may get kidnapped even, if we went to explore outside? The thought chilled me to the bones.

Matthew seemed to wait for a response, but I produced none, so he continued. "The point is, any dreams of frolicking in the fields, roaming far and free, and yadda yadda yadda…won't be happenin' anytime soon." He shook his head and shrugged. "It's just as well, I hate it out there… Too many bad memories…"

Things were quite silent for a while after that, aside from the noise that both me and Matt made while eating the cold pizza. I asked Samantha about her past at one point, since I was curious, but she didn't seem quite willing to tell me just yet. Ah well, it's none of my business anyway…

We chatted with each other loosely about random topics, until I could hear a distinct sound of footsteps in the halls outside. Just as I was wondering what or who it could be, the door to the room slid open with its typical mechanical whir. In comes none other than Brian and Frank, each carrying a stack of papers.

"Ah! You're all awake already! Great, this is pretty important," Brian said rather loudly, which startled me a bit as it caught me off-guard. Unfortunately, that was while I had a piece of food in my mouth.

As can be expected, that same piece of food slipped into the back of my throat, and promptly got stuck. Before I knew it, I was coughing and hacking and couldn't breath at all, and then I instantly realized I was choking. Not some cheap or 'light' choke, but that chunk of food was lodged pretty darn well, and no amount of coughing could relieve it. Now believe me, it was not pleasant. Brian saw what was happening and hurried over to me, and Frank started to do the same while everyone else started freaking out.

I couldn't wait for help though, so I tried slapping my arm across my chest to help knock that blockage loose, but I ended up accidentally hitting the shell that was there in the way. Though it sure as heck hurt, I quickly realized an alternative to my original plan. I took the shell from my stomach with my unhurt paw, and then started bashing it against my chest. After a few good hits, I felt something in my throat loosen and I could breathe again. From there, my gag reflex took over, so I ended up…coughing up the pizza chunk onto the table (and needless to say, it made the others turn away with a rather disgusted look, so I used my shell to cover it up. I mean, come on; who really wants to have to look at…that?). Um…yuck.

Brian groaned a little bit in disgust, then shook his head and continued with what he had to say. "So sorry about…that happening, but me and Frank have something to tell you all."

I—along with everyone else at the table—looked up at both of the scientists curiously. Somehow, I figured out already what this was about, and what they had to say proved my suspicions true.

"Ahem," Frank said, drawing our attention to him, and I first noticed that he had set up a slide projector in the room, using the light-blue walls as a backdrop for it. Turning on the projector, the old scientist cleared his throat again, and then started to speak. "Now then, if I may explain things from here, Brian?"

Brian nodded. "Go ahead, I'll just comment whenever necessary to make things clear for the kids here."

"Very well. We wish to say we have figured out the issue with the DNA "anomaly" Brian mentioned earlier to you, Maxwell."

I knew it. This is EXACTLY what they were gonna say… Not surprising to me really, since I was forewarned of this occurrence. The others probably had no idea—as they all flashed me a weirded-out look—so this should all be news to them.

"But…before we do, you all should know exactly how the CPT formula really works, so you may understand our findings better. Not that we were lying to you before, please don't think of it that way, we were merely trying to make it as simple a concept as possible for you to understand. But now, things have changed."

Okay, this I wasn't expecting. There's more to this CPT stuff? What more could we possibly need to know, all it does is turn people into Pokémon! Isn't that good enough? …Apparently not, since they were here, explaining everything.

"First of all, the CPT—which is an acronym for Complete Physical Transformation—formula is not just a simple chemical complex. It's much more than that. You see, there exists no compound in the world that can change genetic material and molecular structure in a controlled fashion. Sure, some particular chemicals may alter it in some way, but almost always in bad ways—of which I won't go into. Truthfully…the formula is actually a genetically modified prokaryote. A bacteria."

Am I hearing this guy right? They injected me with germs? That made me into this? How the crap do you do that! Everyone else seemed to share my shocked expression, and Brian interjected at this point.

"Basically," he explained, "I came up with the concept of changing the composition of bacterial chromosomes by artificial means. The same thing's been done before in medical history, but not for something like this. Reason I chose bacteria over a virus is just because I was too impatient to fiddle with things that small and complex. They technically aren't living either, so viruses won't respond to 'command' prompts that made CPT work. Bacteria on the other hand, are a lot easier to work with. Curious as to how I made it work?"

Ooh, he HAD to pull the curiosity card on us. Of course I was curious, so I quickly cried out in agreement. Everyone else did too, though with a little hesitation.

"Okay then, it was simple really. First, I programmed the bacterium to produce "packets" of stuff called RNA—it's kind of like DNA, but different—and it sends those packets inside little copies of itself. So, a single bacterium can produces hundreds if not thousands of mini-copies, each loaded with RNA and DNA—the DNA of the Pokémon you chose. The tiny copies (I like to call them "missiles," since they're kinda the same concept) each target a cell in your body, and penetrate it via cellular diffusion. Once inside, the missile heads for the cell nucleus and injects both DNA and RNA into it. The RNA tells the cell to produce more of the new DNA and RNA missiles, and then spreads these out into cells around it, passing along the "infection." This process happens extremely rapidly. Once fully incubated, the bacteria infiltrates the nervous center, temporarily 'hijacks' the brain, and sends a special command to every cell, which then begins the actual transformation process in a proscribed fashion. From there, once the change is complete—which usually takes anywhere from a few minutes to an hour at most after it starts—everything settles back down and the bacteria soon either dies or exits the body, since it's no longer needed. Are you with me so far?"

Honestly, I started dozing right around "cellular diffusion." Matthew was completely out, as was Warren, but Samantha, Mary, and Steve listened intently.

"Brian…" Frank interrupted, "Wasn't I the one supposed to be explaining this…?"

"Eh? Oh! Of course, sorry about that. Continue."

"Very well then… Now that you have an idea how CPT works, I can explain our findings. You see, we scanned Maxwell's stored human DNA, and found out something unsettling…but still very intriguing." Frank turned to me, put on a 'dead serious' look, and then continued. "Maxwell… Your entire life, you've had a very serious problem. Granted, it only truly manifests in your young adult years, but in the grand scheme of things it wouldn't have been very long at all."

"…Wh… What is it?" I asked, even though I was afraid to. And apparently I was afraid enough to forget that he wouldn't even understand the question regardless…

Frank sighed, and clicked a switch on the projector, showing a slide with some kind of DNA analysis sheet. "We've gotten a positive ID on a rare but very serious genetic disease. CDS, or Chromosome Deficiency Syndrome. It's unique, because the genetic structure of affected persons is naturally unstable. As you age, it grows worse, and serious health effects can develop very early. Diabetes, leprosy, and cancer even…the list goes on. Gradually, the code falls apart bit by bit, until you start to suffer organ failures, and eventual and premature death. Here, is a normal cell…" He clicked the switch again, and a new slide appeared with an ordinary-looking cell (the kind I studied in my Biology class). "…And this…is a cell with advanced CDS." Another click, and a new slide came into view. This cell looked horrible… The membrane was jagged, not smooth like the last one, the nucleus looked almost broken up in several pieces, and many of the "organelles" were either missing or disfigured.

My heart stopped. The room became unnaturally silent. Never had I… How could that… I can't believe…

"There would have been little hope for survival, even with intense gene therapy. Curiously enough, there wasn't a peep of anything like this in your medical records… They never bothered to give you a full check-up?"

Did they? I couldn't remember, so I shook my head. Frank sighed heavily and murmured something under his breath.

"Well," Brian cut in, "it is a rare condition… Perhaps it was just oversight?"

"There's no excuse. It is everyone's right to be aware of their own condition - healthy or not," Frank shot back. "Besides, even early-stage CDS isn't that hard to detect, any proper physical exam or blood test would've caught early signs of cell degeneration…"

Brian fell silent, and cast a sympathetic glance at me, but then suddenly brightened up. "Now…for some good news! I'll let you handle that, Franky."

"…Yes… Thank you… Ahem, moving on. As I know you are aware, this condition was present in your DNA before CPT…" He showed a slide that was labeled 'Maxwell Cell Sample', and it looked rather unhealthy (the membrane was cragged and the nucleus looked like a broken egg yolk), but not nearly as severe as the example of Advanced CDS showed. "…But completely gone after it was used." Another slide, showing a similar looking cell labeled 'Maxwell Post-CPT Sample' (only tinted blue, since I'm an Oshawott now), but looked totally clean and healthy. "We're not sure exactly how it happened…well, we're still not quite a hundred percent sure…but we do have a theory. It seems quite sensible, almost obvious, so it makes me wonder why we never saw it before…"

"…Is it because we were never trying to find something like that at first?" Brian supposed, almost matter-of-factly.

Frank sighed yet again. "True, true… But you'd think we would notice something like that… Let's move on. Ahem, during the transformation process, the DNA of cells is normally "overwritten," so as to allow certain genetic quirks to survive. It was useful…to a point. But CPT-019 is different. It was more-or-less an experiment, to test a new method of DNA replacement. That "new method" involved not just changing the already-present DNA, but actually destroying that DNA code and replacing it completely with the new Pokémon DNA. Of course, we had to re-work the issue of preserving memories and blocking-out the primal Pokémon nature, which was mostly accomplished by programming an 'exception' if you will into the CPT to allow data within the hippocampus (the memory center) to carry over, with a 95% success rate. It was at that point when we figured out this new process that we were actively pursuing a potential use for CPT itself or components of it to be used for medical research. What we now found is quite intriguing… Using this process removes any genetic impurities completely, such as Maxwell's CDS. An astonishing find, really."

Wow. Just, wow. This was a little too much information, but at least now I partially understand it. I was curious, so I asked, "Um, how it this stuff supposed to be used for medicine, if all it's really useful for is turning people into Pokémon or whatever?" The moment I realized what I said, I felt like slapping my forehead. Max, you idiot, way to forget that you can't speak English!

Understandably, Brian or Frank had little to no idea what I was talking about. "Well… I'm not quite sure exactly what that meant, but…" Frank scratched the side of his neck and shrugged. "I'll take a wild guess… Are you worried about what the new process might do?"

Eh, technically I was worried, but…that wasn't what I wanted to ask, so I shook my head for a no.

"Alright, that's good then, I suppose. Nothing to be worried about at all actually… Are you wondering exactly how that CDS of yours was disposed of?"

Again, I was somewhat curious about that, but it wasn't my question. I shook my head.

He attempted about eight times more, which were all wrong, until, "Erm…is it about how the CPT could possibly be medically-useful?"

Yes! Finally, he gets it! I hastily nodded, and Frank smiled at having finally hit the nail on the head. "Phew, that's all you wanted to know? Well, we're still thinking it all through, but perhaps someday CPT can be properly synthesized into a cure of some kind. Perhaps the process used in CPT could be re-engineered in a special vaccine, which could erase genetic problems as if they never existed. Until we do that, then we've little other choice but the CPT process itself…"

"And Frank and I really don't want to have to do that unnecessarily," Brian interjected once again, "so that's why Carter's in the R&D area working on that right now. Of course, he's working on a little "extra" something for you guys as well, which is a bit of a priority right now. A priority since it makes communication easier and what-have-you. …Oops, did I give away too many hints?" Brian laughed, which left me a little confused. Something "extra"? Like what? Urgh, what I wouldn't give just to know what was in store for us…

Frank shook his head and smirked. "Maybe you did, maybe you didn't, Brian. Heheh, oh well," he said, and then seemed to realize something, "Oh! Right! Uh, Samantha?"

Samantha suddenly perked up, and let out a tiny "Quil?" in response.

"Just wanted to let you know, about that…'thing' of yours…"

My "sister" seemed to try and remember what Frank was talking about, then suddenly did, and asked, "What about it?" …Of course, this was audible to Brian and Frank as, "Cyndaquil?

"Hm, well… I'll talk with you about it in private. It's no big deal, really."

Samantha, obviously worried for some reason, nodded, then walked out with Frank into the hall, and Brian started to follow. Before the latter could leave though, a thought crossed my mind, and I called out for him.

"Eh?" Brian said, and looked back at me, "What's the matter, Max?"

I made some "Oshawott!" noises while pointing at the slide projector, which Frank set up earlier and was using to show us those slides. I only brought it up, since it seemed like they forgot to take it with them.

"Oh, right! Completely forgot! Eheheh…"

Brian walked back over to the projector, and started loading some new slides into it, removing the old ones. "You see, when we were done with the explanation thing we were going to set this up in here as a form of entertainment for you guys, since the TV's busted and all," he said, still fiddling with the projector. "All we have are some 'Eye See' or 'Spot the Difference' games, but…at least it's better than nothing, eh?"

At last, the machine started to work, and projected an image of a typical Eye See picture, with the incalculable amount of random items and the little list of ones you need to find. Honestly, I never liked this game, since the multitude of objects to find was more than a little disorienting…but I can adapt…

Seeing his work was done, Brian nodded to himself, and said, "Right then, its working great. I'll leave the controller for the projector here in case any of you need it. See you later guys!" Brian made a small wave of goodbye to us, and then left out the door into the hall.

We were all silent for a minute. I wasn't quite sure whether or not I really wanted to play Eye See, since I sucked horribly at that game…but, whatever.

I looked back at the rest of the group, and noticed for the first time that they were giving me weird stares, as if I grew an extra head or something. Who could blame them? Finally they know that I was sick was a deadly genetic disease for my human life, that was in turn magically fixed by my becoming of a Pokémon. "Um… You guys?" I asked, shifting nervously, "Why… are you all… looking at me… like that?"

None of them responded. Warren's ears were tilted at a strange angle, his eyes transfixed on me. Matthew seemed to avoid looking at me directly; he mostly had his head to the side. Mary seemed to be expressing a rather confusing mixture of bewildered, shocked, and awkward looks. I couldn't see what Steve's eyes was looking at, or his expression, seeing as how they were hidden behind his green…hair? (I'm assuming its hair, but I'm not really sure what it is really.)

"…Come on, I know it must be SO shocking," I said, feeling a bit on the sarcastic side. "But what does it matter now? Let's just…play some 'Eye See' or something, I dunno…"

It didn't surprise me that no one answered again, but at least they quit with their stares. Shaking my head, I turned around towards the projector machine—mounted on a wheeled cart, to ease its transportation—and approached it, searching for the remote Brian left for us. The others seemed to get over the triple-whammy shock of today's reveal, and they diverged across the room to seek their own amusements.

Warren in particular seemed like a mon on a mission (forgive the pun), so I snuck a peek over to see what he was doing. Funnily enough, he seemed to be examining the apparently broken television with interest.

"…Heh. 'Broken' he says," I heard Warren say, and I swear I caught a familiar glint in his eye. No sooner was that said, Warren walked behind the television and noises of something being dismantled and sparks could be heard clearly. This may have attracted more than just my attention, as I noticed everyone turn to look at the source of the noise.

I tried not to pay too much attention to Warren's antics, and continued searching for the projector remote. Ugh, would it have killed Brian to leave it in an easy-to-find location? Finally, after a good minute or two of searching, I found it…just out of reach. I was seriously 2 dilatometers from reaching it, and when I jumped a bit to try and knock it down, it slid even further out of my reach. "Aww, fudge! Why must life be so cruel?" I whined, cursing my luck. Even though I tried several different methods - I even used my shell to extend my reach - it was all hopeless. I must've looked pretty silly trying to fruitlessly grab for the remote, since I myself attracted attention. And it was pretty unexpected, too.

"Well, well, well," Matthew said, having just slinked up beside me, "looks like our little otter-boy is having a bit of trouble."

I sighed. "Matthew, I know you apparently have a schedule to cause me misery, but can it wait? I'm having a problem, as you can clearly see…"

"Hmm. Well, I was going to offer you some help, but if you don't need any then I suppose I'll just be going—"

Say what now? "W-wait! I do need help! Sorry for shaking you off, but I thought you would…you know…"

"Heheheh…" He bemusedly shook his head. "I was kidding! Can't ya take a joke, Max?"

I rolled my eyes. Just like Matthew to joke like that… "Bleh. Okay, can you please help me?"

"Mmm, I dunno if I really want to anymore…"

"Aw, come on!"

"…Kidding again! I'll help, if that'll suit you. It's that remote up there, right?" He pointed at the remote up on the cart.

I nodded. "That's the one. It'd be a big help…"

"Eh. Nothing to it." He flashed me a coy smirk. "…Of course, I can't reach up there any better than you can with my arms—if anything it's worse—but I can do this."

Before I could wonder how Matthew could ever reach up that high, a pair of spindly green vines began extending from a little 'crest' around his neck. These vines shot into the air, with expert precision, and wrapped themselves around the remote before lowering it down to my level. "For you, I presume?" he said smugly, obviously proud of this ability.

My mouth hanging open, I involuntarily took the remote from the vines' grip, and they were retracted back to whence they came. "…When did you learn to do that?" I asked, simple dying to know.

"Hmhmhm. If you were watching me yesterday, you would know."

"Huh? But, you were just lying around doing nothing!"

"I prefer to call it, 'discovering oneself.'"

"…Joy. Maybe I should try that sometime." Sarcasm alert.

"You should, it's very enlightening." Matthew flashed me a mischievous look, like he seemed to hiding something. I asked if he could elaborate on details, and he shrugged. "Why not, since we're—airquote—'family' now. It's pretty interesting actually…and simple too… You just sit and think long enough—get in touch with your new self—and it seems like those abilities just…come to you. Heh. All there is to it."

"I never thought of it that way… Sounds pretty cool!"

"You're welcome in advance. Consider yourself lucky, bud, I just gave you two little favors. Now you owe me."

"Er…what?"

"You owe me favors now, dude. Don't sweat it, I'll think of something for you to do to make up for it." Matthew grinned with a distinct sense of arrogance, and I wearily shook my head in exasperation. This guy…is he for real?

"Hey, ya'll! Check it out! Tele's fixed!" a voice suddenly called out. It was Warren. He stepped out from behind the television set he was working on apparently, and waved to us. To my surprise, the TV was on and fully-operating! "Anyone up fer some good quality entertainin'?"

Matthew was first to respond of course. "About time, I thought I'd bore to death!" he said, and then looked at me and remarked, "Have fun with your 'Eye See,' otter boy. Don't shell yourself short." And with that, he took off towards the now-functional television, leaving me alone at the projector. Pretty soon, all the others went to the thing as well.

Apparently it was decided they'd watch cartoons, as the noises and music from those programs were always so loud and flashy. Cartoons never really appealed to me, mainly because I never started watching them in the first place. Television wasn't a necessity at the orphanage, so we hardly ever watched anything unless there was some interesting documentary the staff would think we'd learn from. So explaineth how my interest in science and anthropology came to be.

Seeing as how everybody else seemed to be watching the "boob tube" (as I believe the common slang for it is), I set down the projector remote with the intention of joining them, until a sudden voice briefly startled me. "Um, hey…Max. What are you doing?"

"Huh?" I turned around to see who was talking to me, and saw it was Samantha. Silly me, I nearly forgot she was out in the hall talking with Frank until recently. "Oh, it's you… Well, not much…how 'bout you?"

Friday, June 11 - Hallway 15 - PokéGene Inc.
Subject 002 / Name: Samantha

When…Frank told me about that…"thing" I have… It got me feeling really nervous. Days ago, right after I became a Cyndaquil…they…told me that they found something weird about this one part of their test results… That it was something, I dunno…psychological…? I have no idea how that happened, or what the problem was and is, so I felt a little sick to my stomach. Being on four legs and where your head is pretty close to the ground doesn't help that feeling much…

He led me out into the hallway, and we walked down it a bit until he was sure we weren't heard by the other guys. Frank took a deep breath, and then started to explain. "Like we've done with Maxwell's tests, we've been looking at your results as well. What we found is a bit on the…not great side, but totally normal and fairly contained actually."

I looked at him curiously, still having that bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. Right about then, Brian came walking out of the room and passed us, so I smiled a bit at him and he smiled back before moving on. I returned my attention to Frank, and he continued his explanation.

"It's psychological you see; a part of the cerebrum that dictates conscious, memories, and instincts. We found out that part is a bit…how should I say…messed up. It was a bit concerning to us at first, but after some extensive testing it turns out it isn't nearly as bad as we thought."

Sighing a little with relief, I made a little "Quil?" noise, hoping to hear a little more.

Frank chuckled a tiny bit, and then frowned. "It isn't bad, but it can potentially be, all's depending."

"Cynda?"

"You see, it ties in with a Fire-type Pokémon's natural power. Since they have a lot of it, it can cause them to act irrationally sometimes; most notably during moments of anger or stress. What we found about you is that you now have the very same trait those Pokémon have, for better or worse. We originally believed that, since it's a psychological aspect, and CPT eliminates those in most cases, then you shouldn't have had that trait to begin with… But like we said earlier, the new process of CPT isn't perfect. There is still a 5% margin for error, and…you might inhabit that little problem area, unfortunately."

…Oh my, that seems…very…umm, I don't know what to think about that…besides knowing that it's bad of course…

"Fortunately, it should only really be a problem during periods of stress—like I mentioned before—and being the calm girl we know you are, it shouldn't be a problem at all. But it should still be kept in mind. If it isn't controlled…it's possible you may 'lose yourself' for a bit and behave more aggressively than usual. B-but more likely it'll be a minor thing such as a simple mood swing, which shouldn't last a long time. But in either case you shouldn't worry too much about it at all. I'm merely telling you this to make sure you can be prepared for anything. Forewarned is forearmed! Do you understand what I'm saying?"

I nodded, feeling a bit better. Sure, it's pretty…unsettling to know something like that could happen to me, but at least it doesn't seem likely… That's okay, right?

Frank smiled at me, and nodded back. "Great! Glad we understand each other. Well, mostly. Heheheh… Anyway, you can return to the living quarters and see your friends, if you want. See you soon." He walked down the hallway, off to who-know- where, so I walked slowly back to the room while thinking about what Frank said.

If you were ever told that you had some problem with your mind, which would perhaps make you behave like an animal, would you be worried? I sure as guppy am. Sure, Frank said it likely wouldn't happen, but he didn't say it won't! What would I do if that were to happen? …Now I went and scared myself. I got to act right-minded about this…like…forget about it! That's it! I'll push it from my mind, and that'll be the end of it.

It seemed like forever, but I finally reached the door to the…my…our room. The door slid open with its usual whirry noise, but no one seemed to notice me walk in. Warren, Matt, Mary, and Steve were all watching some show on the TV—wait, the television is fixed? …Never mind that. And then I saw Maxwell, standing around that projector thing doing…something. He looked kind of lonely, so I thought it would be a nice idea to go and see what he was doing. "Um, hey…Max. What are you doing?" I asked as I approached.

Maxwell seemed briefly startled, and then caught sight of me. "Huh? Oh, it's you… Well, not much…how 'bout you?"

"Me?" I said, "Nothing at the moment…um… What were you thinking of doing? You're right here next to the projector, standing around, so…"

"…Eh-heh, I was going to play some Eye See on the projector—"

"Oh! Really? That's my favorite game!" It actually is. I've always loved playing these, since they present a good mental challenge. Once you play it though, they tend to lose meaning. Specifically, if you play and beat one puzzle, the answers are glued into your mind for a long time. This time was a little different, as the game was on a projector, so that was bound to be something interesting.

He seemed surprised by this (I couldn't really blame him) and began acting a bit conflicted. "It…is? Ooookay, well…um…"

"Is something the matter?"

"N-no! Nothing! It's just that, I was…going to…"

I looked at him wonderingly, curious why he was acting this way.

Maxwell seemed to be contemplating something for a moment, sighed, and then he suddenly smiled. "I was going…to ask you if…you wanted to hold the remote?" He held out the projector remote towards me, grinning.

I giggled. Though I'm pretty sure it isn't what he really wanted to say, it was a fair enough response… Hey, I don't know many people who are willing to play mind games with me, so I suppose I'll…have to make do with him. I reached out with my forelegs to take the remote, but fumbled with it and dropped the remote to the floor.

Max quietly chuckled, then suggested, "Maybe we should just leave it on the floor? That way neither of us has to pick it up, and you can just push the buttons easier."

"Sure, that would probably work better," I replied, nodding, and he set the remote in a position in front of us. Looking up at the screen, the picture showed tons of cluttered items strewn about, a typical pattern with these Eye See games. Reading from the list of things to find, I said, "I see a…Pokédollar sign? Can you see it, Max?"

"Uh…. No… no… no… yes! …I mean no… Wait… No… no… Ooh! I see it!"

"Where? I don't see where—oh, there it is!"

"One down. That was kinda tricky… What's next?"

"Uh…it's…a toy train!"

"Hey, I think I saw that already! It's over here… Wait…where was it?"

"Oh, there it is!"

"Aww! I knew where it was, too…"

This went on for the longest while, and neither of us seemed to get bored of it. Wasn't until all the slides were used up that we stopped playing and decided to join the others in watching television. Max and I sat next to each other as we watched, and from what I can tell of his demeanor he really does want to be a good "brother" to me. I can say all too well that he succeeded! I could never provide anything for anyone, but Max, Warren, Matt, Steve, and Mary provide me with friendship and ask for nothing in return (except for Matthew, but he was more-or-less joking…I think). That's so touching…

I think this was the moment where, as we all sat on the rug watching TV like a bunch of regular kids—brothers and sisters—we finally bonded as a family at last. Max's…"condition" seemed lost in everyone's mind already, and that was pretty good. My condition on the other hand… Well, no one knows about it but me, Frank and Brian, and it should probably stay that way. Still…I'm pretty afraid of what could happen…

Feeling scared and nervous, I took a small hold of the silver teardrop-shaped amulet that Maxwell gave me, and held it close to me. The little accessory was all that was needed to help ease my tension, and I smiled. There was something eerily familiar about this amulet… I couldn't put my paw on it though. Regardless, I was grateful for having it with me. Still miss my old amulet though…

I looked over at Max, still watching the TV, and silently thanked him again for giving it to me—even when I had repeatedly turned it down. I could not have been feeling any better than at that moment, and I silently thanked God as well, for bringing us all together. In the end, isn't that what family is all about? Being together?

Whish!

At that moment, the door slid open and Brian came rushing in, panting heavily but looking very excited. "Didn't think it would be finished so soon, but…huff…we finished working on that…phew…"extra" bit I was talking about! Carter finished it up just minutes ago… Hoof…"

Huh? What? I spun around on the spot, turning to look at Brian, and so did everyone else. "What is it?" Max asked out loud, (which came out as "Osha?") and Brian spent a moment to catch his breath before continuing.

"The new plug-in…for the formula! It's finished!"

A/N: UPDATED: So yeah, there you have it. To any old readers, hope you might like the small little polishes I done this chapter. To new readers, I hope you're enjoying the story as a whole so far! As for what was changed…eh, not much really. (Though, I would like to point out to prior readers that I renamed the original 'I See', to 'Eye See'. It's a much less subtle pun, plus it's slightly more distinct than the 'I Spy' it was ripped off of—I MEAN BORROWED from.) But all aside, I hope this chapter was fairly decent. :P

Review where it's due, osha! Until next update, fare thee well!

-TheAuthorGl1m0