Hunger Games

Fish-Cats and Canaries

Disclaimer: I Own Nothing.

Summary: Pearl introduces her brother to her latest experiment. Jay is less than impressed, to say the least.

"Science has gone too far."

That was the first thing Jay said to his sister when she showed him the results of her latest experiment, to which she only chuckled. It was a cat…with fish scales and fins. It was bright orange with curious green eyes and a little pink nose. It had whiskers, eyes, and a face like a cat, the body and claws of a cat. But a scaly body and a tail as big as an otter's with yellow fins attached. Yellows fins also extended from its cat-like ears and were attached to its cat-like legs. It had no gills, according to Pearl, but could stay under water for quite a long time Jay observed as he watched it merrily swim and play in the water tank before him. It was cute, but also the most disturbing thing Jay had ever laid eyes on.

"Please tell me you are not directly responsible for this…thing's existence." He pleaded as he watched the cat-fish play swat at the fish in the tank with it. Pearl looked insulted. "That thing, I'll have you know, is my new pet. And yes, I did make it." She said. Jay knew he was going to regret asking, but curiosity won over all. "Why on earth would you make it? And why would you want it as a pet?" He asked. Pearl shrugged.

"I'm being paid to experiment in mixing DNA of animals from totally separate geneses to create super hybrids. And I love both cats and fish quite a bit. This was going to happen one way or the other." She stated matter-of-factly, referring to the Board of Scientific and Medical Research's funding of her lab's work. "I thought they already knew how to create hybrids." Jay said with confusion. "Yes, but not very efficiently. Back in the old days it took hundreds of trials and errors, countless animals abused and discarded, all just to create a few successful hybrids. Even then, most hybrids had defects or something wrong with them that either made their life a living Hell, dramatically shortened or fragile, or all of they above. My lab and I are working to create animal hybrids easily and humanely. Sea Star here is our first success; a perfect, happy, healthy fish-cat."

She said it as if it were a good thing that she had gene-spliced a mutant fish-cat into existence. But that was just Pearl. As serious and practical as their mother could be, Pearl was the exact opposite. You couldn't even say she was like their father, either, since Pearl had made it a point since the day she was born to stand out in her own unique way.

That unique way happened to be eccentricity and absolute genius at biological sciences.

"Why do they still even need to make hybrids? Mom said the Capital used to use them in the Hunger Games and to control the districts." Jay asked, eyeing the fish-cat (or Sea Star, as Pearl dubbed it) warily. Pearl rolled her eyes at him. "Animals have been used since the dawn of civilization for purposes other than gladiator duels to the death. Sea Star here could be used in aquaculture in District 4 to root out the fish too small for us and maybe protect the fish from predatory sea life. And not just fish-cats. We have plans to create hybrids of dogs, cows, chickens, birds, and even insects, if possible. There's a whole world of possibilities out there, Jay." She explained with the same giddiness she used as a little girl when talking about how the first day of school went and all the new friends she made.

Jay remained unconvinced by his sister's argument. Maybe he was just being a stubborn sixteen year old—or maybe she was being a mad twenty year old scientist—but Jay didn't really like the concept of experimenting on anything, animals or humans. He didn't like messing with the insides of people unless he was elbow deep in vital surgery.

As if reading his mind, Pearl sent him a scowl from her rolling chair. The green eyeliner she wore served to make her blue gaze fiercer. However, it did nothing to make her ridiculously elaborately braided hair look any less outlandish. Or her long, silky, sea green dress with golden heels look any less out of place in her multi-billion dollar genetic laboratory. High fashion and hi-tech did not mix in Jay's opinion.

Capital fashion hadn't changed much in thirty six years, aside from becoming far less expensive and gaudy, but people still liked to stand out with bright colors and eccentric accessories and hairstyles. Surprisingly, it had spread through out Panem now that people in the districts could afford nice things too. Jay remembered going school shopping with his mom and the barrage of colors and odd patterns on every clothing rack. One shirt could come in ten different colors, and each of those colors in a different shade, and coats and shoes in a million different materials.

In middle school, he remembered a girl who had brown hair the year before, but came back to school with blond hair with purple tips. She also wore a lot of black.

Jay himself and even his dower mother were guilty of eccentricity.

Jay had hair that was obviously longer than usual for a guy, and he kept it in a ponytail and sometimes a braid. He told people he was simply too busy to go out and get a haircut, but in truth he just liked it better that way and standing out among the short-haired men he worked with.

Mom liked fashion more than she would ever own up to. She liked looking nice, though occasions to get all dolled up were few and far apart in District 12. However, when she did get dressed up, she dressed to the nines and always stood out in a crowd.

"Don't look at me like that," Pearl snapped.

"Like what?" Jay asked, confused. She shook her head exasperatedly.

"Like I'm unbelievable. As if you don't do crazy things over at the hospital as well for the sake of furthering science." Pearl replied, scathingly. Jay was taken aback. "We don't do anything half as messed up as you and your mad scientists." He protested angrily. Pearl scoffed. "I bet that's what you tell everyone, Mr. Head of Medicine." She knew how much he hated that title. Pearl always had known how to push his buttons.

It was all her fault in the first place he even had that title.

He should have never written her all those years ago.

He had been twelve and by then Pearl had lived in the Capital, working as a student-intern at the top biological research center in the country for two years, and he was spending the summer in District 4 with grandma, helping her out at the hospital.

Grandma had taught him a lot about being a healer during those few months. She taught him both medicinal and more modern medical techniques, she taught him good bedside manner and how to be fearless even in the face of a dying man (or a naked one), and Jay loved it. He loved helping people, and he realized what he wanted to do with his life.

He had said so in his letter to Pearl in the Capital a week before he was due back home in District 12.

When he arrived back home, to their family's house in Victor's Village, two letters were waiting for him. The first was from Pearl, stating she had gotten his letter and was happy to hear that he wanted to be a doctor when he grew up. The second was from the Capital, and it said he didn't have to wait until he grew up to be a doctor.

Mother had fought tooth and nail to convince him to stay in District 12, be a normal kid, and wait until he was grown to pursue his dream. Father did the same. But at the time, all Jay wanted was the opportunity described to him in the letter. Due to his talent and skills, both already developed so young, an institution in the Capital was willing to put him up in a dorm with several other gifted children, apprentice him to a general practitioner at Primrose's Sanctuary for the Ill and Dying, and help him become a doctor. In exchange for his services after his training was complete, of course.

Jay agreed. Much to his mother's disdain and father's disappointment. Mother had remarked on the platform as they waited for his train to arrive and take him to the Capital, "My worst fears have come true. Even with the Hunger Games gone, the Capital has taken my children from me." Jay had looked at her and replied, "No one's taking anything. Your little baby mockingjays are simply leaving the nest."

Mother hadn't replied, but she did manage a smile for him as he boarded the train, she wished him luck and told him to write home as soon as he arrived in the Capital, and to berate Pearl for not writing home more often as well.

Three years later, Jay Mellark had somehow climbed the ranks to Head of Medicine in only three years. It wasn't unheard of for teens to gain so much success in so little time—the fact the Capital had once thought twelve was a decent age to start putting kids in 24-way death matches proved they had no right in saying that twelve wasn't a decent age to become a doctor or scientist. However, Jay knew most of his and his sister's success came from who their parents were. Their talent alone in their individual fields merited nothing more than a low rank in which they had room to grow and chance of promotion later down the line. Their parentage merited them titles such as Head of Medicine and Head Researcher of the Hybrid Project.

Jay hated his job for that reason. He sometimes felt like he was nothing more than a figurehead. He could no longer do what he loved, being cooped up in an office all day signing endless piles of paperwork and responding to letters and emails, and few respected his authority, seeing him merely as a child. Even President Paylor, who worked directly with Primrose's board of directors, and her Head of Health, Flora Knight didn't take him seriously, and they were the ones who pulled the strings to get him into the mentor-ship program in the first place.

Jay wondered if Pearl experienced the same problems she did in her own line of work.

"Does it ever bother you how people see us?" He asked her. She shrugged, understanding his cryptic question without effort. Growing up in a house full of mysterious explanations and trailed off, wistful-sounding sentences, they had learned to pick up on what others really meant rather adeptly. Any other person would have confusedly asked what he meant or who was talking trash about them behind their backs.

"I try not to. In fact, I try to prove them wrong. Everyday for the past five years." She answered. "And you know what, if this project succeeds, I may finally shut their mouths once and for all." She added with a grin. "I won't just be the Girl on Fire's daughter anymore. Maybe I'll be the Girl Who Made Fish-Cats!" She laughed, and Jay couldn't help but join her. They laughed until they were breathless, and then looked at Sea Star in her tank and laughed some more.

When their ribs hurt and they were done, Pearl panted out with a smile, "And maybe someday you can stop being the Mockingjay's son and be your own man." Jay felt himself flush at the statement. It was so weird to think of himself like a grown man almost when he still felt like a kid—a kid with an adult job and rank, but still a kid—but at the same time, he sounded way more appealing than having his subordinates have the gull to look down their noses at him.

"Maybe I will." He said aloud, to no one really but himself.

He thought of all the possibilities out there for him still. Of all he could do, since he was still a kid and all. He thought and he thought, in a rushed blur of thinking until a splash of cold water gave him a rude awakening from his day dream about being awarded a medal of honor for curing a deadly disease.

Sea Star, the mutant fist-cat abomination, had splashed him with her thick, scaly tail and was giving a feline look of contempt from her tank. Jay sent the wretched little sea urchin a glare that might as well have been a barrage of arrows darting from his eyes. Sensing the teen's murderous intent, the creature swam to the bottom of her tank to hide.

"Are you really going to keep that thing as a pet?" Jay asked angrily as he wiped his face dry with his sleeve. Pearl laughed and nodded her head. "Of course! Sea Star is my baby!" She exclaimed and then proceeded to coo over the miserable little beast like it really was her child. Jay sighed in aggravation.

"Of course your pet would be a combination of my two least favorite animals of the planet." He grumbled. Pearl grinned mischievously, as if that had been the plan all along. No doubt, it probably had been.

"What's you most favorite animal then?" She asked as she reached down into the tank to pet Sea Star, who eagerly pressed her head into her creator's hand.

Jay smiled, thinking of what waited for him at home in a gilded cage with a door that was always open, that sang the prettiest tunes along with him, and was as yellow as the sun and his hair.

"Easy, canaries!"

A/N: Well, what do you think?

Please review and I hope you enjoyed the story!