the firebird experiment

December 15th 2041

Everyone knows about Igor Stravinsky's "Firebird Suite", but I bet you've never heard of "The Firebird Experiment". Yes, there has been such a thing. I was there.

It was 9:00 AM, and my sister and I were taking a tour of Houston University. I seemed to have this sort of knack of identifying parallels in almost everything, and my sister, Jessica, was a practical "Pokémon master". So, I had an idea to create a hybrid of two Pokémon at a lab in this university.

-----

We had met with two scientists well-trained in the backgrounds of genetic and biological sciences: Dr. Fredrick Leeroy and Professor Carl Jenkins. They also knew a little about Pokémon, having colleagues in certain parts of where Pokémon reside.

Thankfully, my sister had one of the two needed creatures already in her pouch – Groudon, which would be the experiment's DNA donor.

Professor Jenkins called up another scientist using a videophone connected to a small teleporter device. The person on the other end of the line was a colleague named Professor Ebony, who was just now searching for a cure for several mutated Pokémon he had discovered just that week.

"Yes, Professor, I'll gladly send the egg you need. I've been searching all this time for a cure for the mutants here with me, but now since you want to create one, I'd certainly like to see the results when the experiment's done."

"Thanks, Dr. Ebony, I'll call you back when we're done. Goodbye."

-----

After hanging up the phone, the teleporter instantly zapped in a small egg with orange speckles on it.

"Excellent! We now have everything needed to create the first Pokémon Hybrid!" The professor cheered.

"Why, this should be brought up in the news if it goes well!" Dr. Leeroy added.

"But if it does not, are you two willing to return the money I paid you?" I asked quite seriously.

"Y...Yes, Sir." Jenkins timidly answered.

"Well, why don't we cut the chatter, and see if this thing works or not?" Dr. Leeroy shouted, holding out both arms.

"My thoughts exactly, Doc!" Jessica smiled.

-----

Everyone ran to their stations:
• Jessica pushed the right arm of her rather bulky Groudon into a Plexiglas booth used for sampling,
• The professor attached the egg to a small stand in the other booth,
• Dr. Leeroy anxiously waited by the main control panel, hands wrapped around a large "ON/OFF" switch,
• I drank my mug of tea, then inserted a chemical beaker into the mixing device between both booths.

"All right, that looks like everything! Would you be so kind as to throw the main power switch, Dr. Leeroy?" Professor Jenkins exclaimed.

The man nodded, and with a whining strain, the arm-length, red-handled lever gave way and moved down. Professor Jenkins dimmed the lights, a 4 x 4 x 5 power generator the whole lab was hooked into started humming like an old air conditioner, and Jessica instantly began to do her part in the experiment:

By the booth where Groudon's arm was wedged into, my sister took a syringe from a nearby shelf, stuck into a groove in his arm, pulled out a sample of blood, then retracted. She patted Groudon on the head and whispered, "It's okay, you'll be all right."

Next, the syringe was injected into a mixing device just above the flask I inserted, which spun round and round until a pale red substance was extracted from the blood – the DNA we wanted.

-----

"So, you really wanted this?" I asked Jessica.

"Yeah, I never really got a Moltres, but a hybrid of two Pokémon should be better than that. But it was your idea, not mine. I never really liked those 'crossovers' of yours on the Internet." She replied as the darkened room filled with a strange glow.

"What's the status on this experiment, Dr. Leeroy?" Jenkins asked his assistant.

"I'm not sure, exactly. I'm seeing a strange discrepancy here in the DNA pattern," He answered while facing the computer screen.

"What do you mean 'discrepancy', Doc?" I inquired.

"I mean that for some reason, the amino acids here in the two Pokémon' DNA streams aren't exactly able to line up completely; Looks like something's wrong with the RNA in changing the protein codes."

"What?! Is there any way to fix that?" I cried.

"Well, it's risky, but I could try and introduce a separate RNA sample to the codon stream and attempt even out the recoding."

"No, no, that won't be necessary. I'm sure it's normal, since they're two different Pokémon types." Jessica interrupted.

"Very well, madam." Dr. Leeroy nodded rather bashfully.

-----

Jessica sucked the sample into a clean syringe, and pressed it against the moltres egg, carefully penetrating the shell without cracking it too badly.

When the syringe was empty, Jessica sucked her Groudon back into its Pokéball, the egg deposited into another one by Professor Jenkins, then the egg's booth sealed like a prison cell door.

"Now, we wait one hour before the egg hatches into our awaited hybrid." Professor Jenkins declared. Let me just start the incubation cycle.

-----

The Professor moved to Dr. Leeroy's computer, and pushed a rather out-of-place green button. Doing so caused the booths to glow with a soft green light, and hum faintly. The computer showed some text and read it aloud in a female monotone: "Incubation cycle initiated. Time for completion: One hour, 6 minutes."

I decided it would be best for Jessica and me to leave. It was Saturday, and we had our own things to do for the day.

I myself returned home for my daily afternoon workout, and finished right when the scientists said the experiment would be complete. When I was about to return to the university, the telephone rang in my study.

"Hello?" I began into the mic.

It was Dr. Leeroy on the line, in a panic, "Mr. Marshall! You're not going to believe what's happened at the lab just now!"

"I was just about to head over there, what's wrong?"

"It's the hybrid you and your sister wanted to make, the thing's gone savage!"

"Savage? What are you talking about?"

"A big disaster, that's what."

"Okay Doc, you got my attention. What happened?"

"I really don't know. We were just about to open the booth after the egg hatched, but now the bird's escaped! The Pokéball we put the thing in exploded, and the whole lab's in flames! I think the bird's left the whole building, it left glowing holes through several levels on its way out."

"Oh crap! It's gotten loose? I'd better call my sister!"

"Wait! Don't-" But I had already hung up to call Jessica.

-----

When attempting to dial my sister's cell phone, she wouldn't pick up. That made me sick to my stomach, as the only thing I could do now was try to follow the bird and catch it somehow.

Rushing out the front door of my apartment with a fire extinguisher in hand, I hopped on my bike and tried to follow the Frankenstein's-monster those scientists had created.

The first 5 streets I covered gave me no luck, but when turning onto Tucker Avenue, the road that led to GMXT Industries, my big company, and my target was in sight:

An orange-hot-looking, phoenix-like creature was flapping over part of the small city my company was across from, setting fires to buildings and cars via outright BEAMS of flame sprayed from its beak.

Right when Tucker Avenue intersected Donald Drive, I was almost totally underneath the creature. Pulling the pin from that fire extinguisher, I aimed the hose at the thing's neck, and yelled, "Hey, turkey-brain! Have some CO2!

Crunching the trigger in my right hand, holding up the hose with my left, a stream of extremely cold gas spewed from the extinguisher's nozzle, almost to the point where I couldn't hold it straight. Nonetheless, it did hit the bird's head, although I realized that I shouldn't have to begin with:

-----

The hybrid looked down at me, but to my surprise, it just stayed there. I noticed a strange look of fear in its eyes, as if to say, "I don't want to hurt you!"

Then the creature seemed to freeze, with a blue glowing outline around it.

When I backed out to discover what happened, it seemed that this bird was frozen by telekinesis from somewhere.

I got a text on my phone from Jessica, saying "Meet me at the gym on Simmons Street."

-----

Having no choice but to follow that address, I drove on, with the still-frozen bird seeming to move along with me, as if I was a fish following bait on a hook.

As soon as the street-sign came into view, the stream of office buildings gave way to a group of houses, and among them was a recreation center, near which was a slightly larger building marked "Houston Pokémon Gym".

Parking my bike at the building's public bike rack, I watched the bird disappear behind the top of this gym, presumably being taken inside.

When I entered, Jessica was at the far end of the court, with three Pokémon at either side: Two Pokémon called Latias and Latios were on the left, generating two semi-transparent beams of energy, about ready to place the bird on the court floor.

Right after the beams disappeared, another Pokémon appeared on Jessica's right side: A strange, blue Pokémon with a shell on its back, and bearing swords on its front legs.

Although I couldn't hear Jessica's words from across the room, I could tell that this Pokémon was using the move "Hydro-Pump", no doubt overpowering the bird.

While the first water blast was an offensive move to keep this hybrid down, a second move surprised me: A lighter stream of water sprayed from the creature, then Jessica's Latias and Latios again used their psychic abilities, to somehow heal this hybrid by psychically manipulating water on the creature's back.

-----

I decided to talk to Jessica directly, and when I made my way to the other end of the gym, my voice asked, "What are you doing?"

"I'm soothing this hybrid. While it was in the air, I noticed that the bird was in pain. I'm sure that this procedure and a few of my special berries should fix that 'magma-bird's' problem, mentally and physically." She smiled.

"Then...what are you going to do with the thing? I didn't even know if it was a boy or a girl."

"It's a girl – I checked. I'm thinking that with this being a combination of two Legendary Pokémon, it would be best if we set her free where she chooses."

"I see. Not sure how this will go, but I'm glad things are settled. Thanks for helping me with this idea, Jessica."

"You're welcome, but please don't take any drastic measures next time you do something like this, let alone pay scientists to. I already had to tell the cops that I had everything under control. Let me tell you: NOT FUN."

"All right, I'm sorry. I just was so determined to have a project like this done, you know, to make a real, live 'Firebird'. I'm glad that you helped"

"Well, if you want to give this thing sisters like an 'Ice Falcon' or 'Cloud Eagle', let the people who own the stuff do it their way. Your-"

"Yeah, yeah, my way isn't always the right way. I've heard it before."

-----

A little upset, I walked out. The bird turned her head to look at me, and almost seemed to smile.

Riding back to my apartment, I instantly lay down on the bed, and slept. The dream seemed to briefly consist of 3 birds in harmonious flight, each embodying the elements of fire, ice, and wind (see: Cyber-Knight Squadron)