In the morning you wake up and head over to Asriel to wake him up, but something is wrong. He's sweating, breathing heavy, and looks to be in pain. You put your hand to his forehead and he was burning up. “This isn't normal was it because of me taking back my rune stone? Is it some kind of side effect?” You run to the bathroom and grab a washcloth. Running it under cold water you wring it out a bit and head back to the room to put it on Asriel's head.
You head to the kitchen to tell Toriel about Asriel, but she wasn't there. “Is she still asleep? That's odd she normally the first one up.” You head to her room and find she still in bed. As you get closer she also looks to be sweating, breathing heavy and looks to be in pain. You reach up a hand and she is also burning up. You were panicking a bit you head to the bathroom and get a cold washcloth for Toriel.
Standing there you work to collect yourself, “Okay so it can't be the rune stone since both Azzy and mom are showing the same symptoms. Though I rarely seen them sick and never this bad. I should call dad, I need him to know, but he should stay away until this passes.” You grab your cell phone which was finished by Gaster only recently. He forgotten about the project given to him when a new research project distracted him.
You call Asgore and explain the situation, “Is there anything I can do to help? Can I bring anything and leave it on the porch?” You think to yourself for a second before responding, “I could use something to take blood samples, then have Gaster and Sans run some test on both of the blood samples. This isn't...” Your interrupted as Asriel screams a bit, gripping the blanket and writhing in pain, “Dad I got to go. Just get me what I need as soon as possible.”
You rush to Asriel side as you hear from down the hall Toriel scream as well. You decide to try something on Asriel, raising your hands you activate your healing magic and hold it to his chest. You learned how to spread it throughout someone instead of localizing it to a single location. He's still breathing heavy, still burning up, but it seems like it helped a bit with the pain.
You make your way to Toriel and do the same. You hear a knock at the door and you head to it. “Dad that you?” you ask. “Yes my son and I got the items you requested. I'll move away from the door and stay some distance away, but still be close enough just in case you need anything else. When your done taking the blood samples just put them back on the porch and I will run it to Gaster.” You hear him moves off and open the door slowly reaching for the container.
You close the door and head back to the room opening the container. Inside were two empty vials and needles. You give a shudder at seeing this giving you flash backs of the lab. You shake your head and use the rubber strap in the box wrap it around Asriel arm. You learned how to draw blood from yourself when Gaster was running test on you some time ago.
You look for his vein and then slowly insert the needle then attach the vial to the area above the needle as it fills up. Once you had enough blood you label the vial and discard the needle. Using just a little healing magic to heal the spot you inserted the needle. You repeat this for Toriel and package the vials back in the little box. You set it back on the porch waving at Asgore in the distance.
Day's went by and they were getting worse. Both of their breathing was labored and the fever they had was burning to the touch. You sat on you bed, having done all you could do at this point, and you haven't slept since this began. Your phone suddenly ring and startles you. You reach in your pocket and pull it out seeing it was from Asgore, “Dad, please tell me some good news. Things are looking really bad here, I d-don't k-know...”
Emotions catching up to you and lack of sleep is not helping, “Hey kid” you hear Sans on the phone now, “I think we manage to find a cure, but this was odd. Its seem to be attacking... well everything. Like it trying to purge everything that it sees as a threat, but its not a virus it like the defense mechanism of their body has been rewritten.”
It went quite on the other end, “S-Sans what wrong, everything going to be okay right? You said you found a cure. So why the silent treatment?” You heard shuffling of the phone then Sans voice was eerily low and serious, “I don't know how to make this any easier to say. We found and isolated what was causing this problem to their body. It was a marker sequence that matches your DNA which caused a mutation, but were still running...”
You cut Sans off in a low distant sounding voice, “Sans, is the cure ready?” “Yeah, it is” he reply's. You look up at the ceiling, “Then taking precautions I want you to bring it here and work on making the house safe to be in. I won't be here when you arrive.” You hear Sans voice briefly before hanging up. You grab a bag and shove some clothes in it. Grabbing the money you had left and then head over to Asriel.
“I'm sorry Azzy, but I keep hurting everyone I love. Even when it not intentional I'm still hurting my family. I need to find someone and I need to nip this in the bud one way or another. I hope I'll see everyone again, but this maybe it.” You pet your hand through his head fur as tear streak down you face. You walk out through the front door. Sans is standing out front of the house about ten feet, but before he has a chance to say anything you activate you swift-step and are gone.
You run out of the barrier and begin to look for information about a man named, “Jim Baldric” that you acquired in the laboratory. That if anyone had a clue what just happened he would know or at least he might know who does. You track down a home address and spend a better part of two months watching over the house.
The only ones you seen so far were a women and child, but no others come or went. You waited and checked the house one day that they were gone. You found a photo of a man with slim glasses, black hair the was greased back, scruffy beard, and lean body physique. He was holding the child in one hand and arm around his wife. You see rings on their fingers in the photo, but this seem to be an older photo since the child is much younger then how he is now.
This didn't reassure you well, for all you knew this man could have been dead, but being the lead researcher in the project you were sure they'd want keep him around. It was night, going on to another week and you were ready to start looking for new leads. Though a van pulls up to the house, several people get out of the van, one seeming very familiar, but from this distance if was difficult to make out.
Moving quickly you make your way to the house looking into a window. You see men in suits and one other in a trench coat. His hair was gray, but he only looks to be in his forties or so. You watch him kneel down as the boy runs up and gives him a hug. “Bingo” You thought to yourself. Now you just have to follow this van back to the location it came from. You hide in some very dense bushes while you waited patiently for you chance to come.
You start to nod off for after a while, but then here the start of an engine. You come alert as you see the van pull out and you followed behind using the night alone with burst of your swift-step to keep up while staying out of sight. You saw it enter a compound and you easily hopped over the fence to follow. Only the man in the trench coat got out and entered a building. The van then headed back to the gate entrance.
You snuck around the base while knocking out people on the way. You seem to have accounted for everyone on the outside and you went to the building were your target is. There was an electronic lock and you started looking through all the id key cards you acquired off the guards. Finding the highest ranking one you try the key card as the light dings to green.
You enter being very cautious of anyone, but it seems like every room was empty. Hell the building in general was empty, “Where are all the other scientist at?” You ponder this as you keep looking around. One door stood out from all the others and you approach the door as it slides open. The room is barely lit with most of the light coming from computer monitors on a few desks, papers thrown about and a man sitting at a desk looking annoyed.
“Clyde don't just stand there letting the light in. You know these experiments are sensitive to much light.” He turns his chair around and he looks on seeing a teenage boy standing five foot tall, gray hoodie, gray sweatpants, as they both look at each other. The man spoke up first, “Who the hell are you and how did you...” the man is stunned when you pull back your hood, your cat ears twitch, and you tail now freed from there confines of your jacket.
You start to speak, but then the man puts a hand on his face as he starts laughing. The room echos with the laughter and you look around worried someone may come despite not seeing anyone. He starts calming down, gets up from his chair, and starts heading towards you. You back up as each step he takes forward and extend you claws.
He stops with a smile on his face, “So the rumors are true and subject zero-zero-one is alive. I thought everyone went insane or something, but seeing you here now confirms those rumors.” he goes back to his chair and sits down a waves you in as he does so. You hesitantly walk in slowly as you enter enough the doors close behind you shut.
“Are you Jim Baldric?” You ask as he keeps looking at you, “I am, and your zero-zero-one or I should call you by your real name Broderick. I'm surprised to see you here and you were able to learn where to find me. Tell me how did you track me and the location of this base down?” You explain how you tailed a van that you saw in front of his house.
“Pfftt, hahaha, Well I guess those people I was with aren't so good at their jobs after all. They always did talk high and mighty about how no one could sneak up on them. Good show Brod my boy. Is it okay if I call you Brod for short?” Your confused he's acting chummy and not freaked out in the least that your in front of him. That you could tare him apart at any moment.
He see's the look of confusion on your face, “You seem confused about something. Do you mind if I ask what it is that's bothering you?” You lift a hand and point at him, “Your just not what I expected for the lead researcher behind the hybrid and RS experiments.” He just laughs again, “Hahaha, Yeah I get that a lot. I don't really take situations as serious as I should. Though when it comes to my work I care for it greatly.”
He pauses for a moment and sighs, “When I first heard that they scrapped the first project after a year I was angry. I looked over the data they sent me and thought it was such a waste. Instead of fixing the problem they move to the next, wasting resources and time on what they already were looking for.”
You blink, “What do you mean? I was flawed and they terminated the project. I saw the data...” He intervenes, “Flawed? Ha, only to the eyes of those amateurs. I saw the problems and they could have been corrected it with time. They needed to show some results though otherwise the budget for the project was going to be cut. You basically kept the project alive for the next specimen. Which was such a mess compared to you.”
You relax a bit as you claws retracted, “If I'm not flawed then why was I missing magic needed to bring out the potential of my rune stone? Why was my DNA found in their body making them attack themselves?” This last question intrigues him, “Your saying they physically were lashing out at themselves?”
You shake your head, “No, their defense system to fight off infection was compromised by a marker that match my DNA. I watched as they got worse and feared that they were going to die because of me. After some friends of mine found a cure to reverse the damage I decided to leave, because I didn't want to hurt anyone else I cared about.” His face is sullen as he hear this, “I see, which explains why your here now and not before. If your okay with it may I take a sample of blood to run a quick test?”
You hesitate about letting him do so and he stands up walking towards you. You move back, but trip over something on the ground. As you attempt to recover, he's in front of you, knelled down and puts his arms around you. Your are reluctant at the sudden embrace and try to get away, but he holds you tight. “I'm sorry you had to watch your family suffer and you think it was you fault, but I disagree. If your willing to let me help I feel that you can return to those you love.”
You stop your struggle as your emotion catch up with you and begin crying. “You've gone through so much. I couldn't even fathom how it's emotionally been for you. That your able to still move forward with those battles you gone through.” He puts a hand behind your head and strokes up and down. You just keep letting the recent turmoil of emotion out, crying your heart out, and continue letting a person who you just met comfort you all the while.
Jim takes the hand on your head and reaches into his coat pocket to retrieve something. Still comforting you with his other arm wrapped around you as you feel a prick on your neck, you pull back and look up, but everything goes blurry as you slump forward against him. “Sleep tight Brod, you need the rest from the sound of it, and I'll figure out what's going on with your body in the mean time.” He picks you up and takes you into another room to a fixed examination bed placing you down on it.
Later you come to as you try to figure out what happened and remember something pricking your neck. You reach back rubbing the area and you notice your in a room you haven't seen before. A lot of different mechanical arms above you with a giant light in the middle. You feel somewhat angry that he took advantage of your moment of weakness. Your getting ready to hop down off the bed when Jim walks in, “Morning, I see your finally awake. Are you hungry? I don't have much, but I brought you a cup of noodles.”
He holds it out to you and you give him an glowering look, “Okay I understand that your a bit mad at what I did, but you really looked bushed. So I just gave you something to help you get a goodnight sleep and I used the time to get some test ran. So do you want the noodles or not?” You look at them, “How do I know you didn't do something to them? Why should I trust you after you took advantage of me.”
Jim sighs and eat some of the noodle from the cup, “Well if I did do something to the food I'm offering then I should be on the ground here soon.” After a few awkward moments he offers you the noodles again. You take them and start downing it, “Easy, if you eat it to quickly your going to choke on them.” You look up from the cup noodle some hanging from your mouth give an angry glare and slurp in the noodles the rest of the way.
“Give me a reason not to deck you for what you did?” He just chuckles, “Well then you wouldn't know the test results and hear the information I'm going to share with you.” You set down the empty cup of noodle and give your full attention to him, “Okay, but you better start talking before I change my mind” you give him a toothy grin.
Jim grabs a chair and sits down in from of you, “So the problem that I found is the a bunch of you DNA sequences are either off or incomplete. In fact I'm not even sure how you went so long without experiencing more problems. I'm angry at how they let my research go to waste and how sloppy of a job they did. Its no wonder they didn't get half the results they wanted. Brod your a mess, but I can most likely fix it.”
You raise an eyebrow, “Most likely? It doesn't sound like your fully confident in able to do so. I'm definitely not going to let you start rearranging things in my body on a maybe.” Jim just laughs, “Well if you saw what I have you'd understand. It not going to be simple and your right I'm not a hundred percent sure if I can fix this. Not because I don't know how, but wither or not I can reverse the damage.”
You shift uncomfortably, “So how bad is it? If things are left as is what going to happen?” Jim's looks down a glare on his glasses making it so you couldn't see his eyes, “Brod... you've got at current about a year at best before your body shuts down on itself. I'm not kidding about the damage that needs to be fixed. I want to start now, but only if your willing. If your not okay with it I'll let you leave and you can live out the last year of your life as you want.”
Your trembling as you wrap your arms around you chest. You feel scared at the realization that you may not see your family or friends again. “How long will it take? Do I even have enough time to undergo what needs to be done?” Jim looks up his face more hopeful as he smiles, “I need about six months to calibrate the tools and prep the procedure. The time it will take to complete is about a week. In which time you'll need to be kept unconscious and strapped to the table. It very delicate and a slight miscalculation could kill you.”
Your face went pale at the fact that in either case you could die. One of which you could die while you were out so you wouldn't even be aware of it, but the only other option was die a slow death over a year. Jim stood up and walked over to you and wrapped his arms around you, “Don't worry I'm not going to drug you.” He lets you go with his hands still resting on you shoulders.
“Look Brod, I see your frightened about your options, but if there's a chance for this to work you should take it. You should be able to return to your family and friends. Let them know that your going to be alright and live a happy life, but your need to be the one who wants this. I want to at least make up for some of my sins that my research was used so wrongfully for. Let me make it up to you at least.”
You see tears in his eye and any anger you still felt were gone, “Is there anything I can do to help? I've worked in a laboratory for a while and know a few things. I want to see the people I care about again.” Jim just smiles weakly still a few tear rolling down his face, “I'd be happy to have some extra help and since we'll be stuck with each other for the next six month we can get to know each other more.”
So three month flew by and both of you enjoy each others company as you develop a bond in the short amount of time. Jim was the first human you've come to appreciate and felt like a father figure you never had before Asgore. Though why was he working for Dualality an organization developing hybrids. He was to kind to want to make a living weapon, “Jim can I ask you something?”
He looks back over his shoulder in your direction, “Sure what's up Brod?” You turn your chair around looking at him from the desk across the room, “Why are you working for Dualality? Its just doesn't seem like something you'd do. From what I've learned about you so far creating something to hurt others isn't what you would want.” He slowly turns his chair around with a sullen expression on his face.
“I can't tell go into details, but to be blunt I was younger and made a stupid decision. If I could go back and have a second chance I would do everything in my power to not be here. Though now all I can do is believe my work will make a difference at some point. That's enough depressing thoughts of the past. Let's get back to work.”
You felt bad about asking, but you were right that he didn't want to be here. “Jim, I have another question. Why is there no one else here in this lab? You did mention a Clyde when I first show up, but I haven't even seen him once.” Jim just gave a chuckle, “Okay this I can give you an answer about and it's really simple. I basically work better alone, but Duality wouldn't let me. So I agreed to one other person to be a partner with and he's just been busy on other projects. He's been in here a few time when you sleeping, but he's not really a social person.”
You couldn't believe over the last three month that you never seen him come in and he was able to choose the exact moments when you were asleep to do so, “So where is he at the moment? Can I meet him?” Jim just shrugs, “It's hard to keep track where he currently is. This place is much bigger then it seems like a maze, even I don't know every nook and cranny, but Clyde he's been here way longer then I have. He was mad at first when I took over as lead R&D, but when he saw my work I gained his respect.”
It was nice to see Jim mood improving since you ask why he was working for Dualality. “So how well do you both get along? Since he's not around most of the time it seems you both must hate dealing with each other.” Jim nearly fell out of his chair laughing, “Hahaha, No, no, we're like brothers. We hit it off well and over the years we felt like family more then friends. It's just we get into our work so much and this place is so big we rarely bump into each other.”
Your surprised that consider how close they sound that they wouldn't want to work more closely. Also you have explored around this facility and it didn't seem that big. There wasn't any underground section like the other laboratory, but Jim was saying otherwise. “You said this place was big, but I did have a look around. Other then the building on top I didn't find any entrance to underground location.”
Jim just nod, “It's true that it seems like there isn't anything else except what is on the surface, but that's how well hidden everything is. Even I don't know all the different locations like I said and Clyde won't tell me either. Says, “Its off-limits to you.” so I'm sure it's projects the organization doesn't want me to know about. Though I probably don't want to see what horrors are hidden away.”
That had you curious, but Jim saw that look on your face and gave you a stern look, “Brod just let it be. If I'm not allowed down there then someone like you shouldn't go either. Probably make it so you could never sleep another night in your life and you seen some pretty nasty things. Let's get back to work, we still got a lot to do, and we are working with a time limit.” You just nod and decide that at least for now it would be best to focus on the task at hand.
What you learned over the last six month was amazing, Jim was like a teacher in Toriel stead, and you wanted to show her what you learned once you got back. Your birthday was a few days ago and you really wish you could have spent it with your family. Though today was the day you dreaded as Jim was inputting the last bit of information into the computer. He stood up and walked over to you, “Are you Ready? Well your probably never going to be a hundred percent ready, but that's understandable.”
You slowly stand up and gave a slow nod, “I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit scared. Knowing that I may not wake up from this, but I know it's necessary.”
You walk to the side room and lay on the examination bed. Jim walks over with a syringe in his hand and smiles, “Last chance to back out.” You shake your head, “Your not making this easier you know.” you give him a grin.
He takes your arm and wipes the area around it clean and then you feel the needle enter your arm. You feel warm and you eyes feel heavy, “I'm going to make sure you wake up from this.” you hear Jim say before darkness of sleep takes you away. Jim works frantically over the week, the mechanical arms working around the clock and many cups of coffee were consumed.
You wake up and stretch out only to feel something was off, things felt smaller, and you look at where your hands should be and see a paws. You look and see a body of a cat and you start panicking at what happen to you, “Did Jim mess up something? Did something go wrong? WHY AM I A CAT?!?” Just then the door opens up as Jim walked in with what else a cup of noodles.
“Morning Brod, you are either really confused, freaked out, or both.” You motion to yourself with a paw and then point at him, “Meow meow meow...” You blink, “WHAT THE HELL I CAN'T TALK EITHER?!?” Jim nearly choked on his noodles as he starts laughing. You gave him an angry glare that said, “This is not funny.” Jim still coughing a little and trying to compose himself.
“Sorry Brod, your reacting is just to priceless. Aw man I wish I didn't have to rig the security cameras to delete evidence of time you spent here. I would love to show it to you, but I see your peeved at the delay of me explaining of why your a cat. Well truth be told this is suppose to be normal, but since things were so messed up the DNA markers that controls this function wasn't incorporated properly.”
You went to ask questions, but all that came out was meow's. “So to further answer what it all means, in this form you regain magic quicker and consume less if healing from injuries. Though since you heal quickly most of the downtime is just magic recharge. You can over-rid this with some practice and keep yourself from reverting if you want otherwise each time you go to sleep you'll become as you are now.”
You just look really stunned and this was definitely going to take some time to get use to. “Meow...GOD DAMN IT!!” you scream internally. “At any rate your probably now at the point of, “Am I stuck like this” which the answer to that is no. You can change back anytime you like. You just got to focus on doing so and you should change back, but before you do let me get you your clothes. As soon as you change back you going to be naked.” You blush at hearing this.
Jim comes back with you clothes and something you never seen before. He picks it up, “This is a special suit I have been working on and it uses a special material that changes with the user. So it more combination of stuff, nanomachines alter it to make it fit as you grow, and magic to deal with you form change. Though the magic in the suit will run off you own. I would advice you to wear this around the clock with the exception of using the bathroom for various things.”
You keep looking at the shiny purple-silver one piece outfit. Jim sets it back down on the bed, “I'll give you some privacy to get dressed, but if you need any help I'll be next door.” He chuckle as you swipe your paw in the air then give that a “Shooing” motion to him with you paw. You spend about thirty minutes trying to shift back to yourself and your body glows as energy surrounded you.
You now sit there blinking at how weird that felt, “This is definitely going to take a while to get use to.” You decide to see if the reverse is true and can turn into a cat any other time instead of when you sleep. This also takes sometime to get use to, but you manage to switch back to a cat. You spent the betterment of two hours practicing at this til it felt more natural and less forced.
You grab the outfit Jim made and open the single zipper sliding your feet and legs into the bottom half. You stand up and work your arms into the selves. You carefully zip up the front making sure not to catch you fur in the zipper. It felt like it wasn't there and if you weren't looking at it you swear you felt as though you still weren't wearing anything.
You take your clothes and put the on over the outfit and then walk through the door to the lab room. As you walk in Jim just smiles at you, “I thought women took a long time to get ready. I was ready to check up on you to see if you needed my help after all, but it seems you've manage all by yourself.” You smirk, walk over and jab him playfully in the arm, “Smart ass, I was practicing change back and forth between forms. Can't have it take me thirty minutes every time I want to change.”
You then take a seat and Jim hands you a cup of cold noodle which you begin eating anyway, “So what else should I know about?” Jim then pulls up a screen, “Well we never got around to talking about what happen with your family. Us getting side tracked and all. So basically the portion which controls your white blood cells went on the fritz and that's what caused the alteration that were found in your family members.”
He brings up more information, “It was mistaking basically things you had the longest contact with as a threat. It went airborne and from what you told me turn their own bodies against them. Though this won't be a problem now since I fixed that from ever happening again. Next you told me about you ability to shift to a more feral humanoid form. Well it should be easier to do so and your response time should be drastically improved.”
He turns his attention back to you, “This is like a combat form, not something that was in my original design, but since its would be difficult to remove so I stabilized it instead. Though in doing so there's seems to be a second form to this. From the looks of it, it would give you greater strength, but mentally you'd probably have a hard time telling friend from foe. I made it so after about ten minutes you'd revert to the first combat form. I'd recommend only using this as a last resort.”
“So is that about it or is there more surprises I should know about?” He grins, “Well you should have an easier time to cast spells unlike before. Casting certain spells will still be taxing since your more in tune with elemental magic or attack magic to make simpler, but that doesn't mean you can't cast other magic as I'm sure you figured out. Other then that your a perfectly health kid of fourteen year old. Sorry we didn't have a chance to celebrate with the doom and gloom of the situation.”
You shake you head, “Don't worry about it. I wouldn't be celebrating anymore birthdays if you hadn't done what you have. It's going to hard leaving you after all the time we spent together...” Jim interrupts, “Hey you can come back anytime and I got you some gifts to take with you. First is a cell phone that is a direct line to me. Anytime you need to talk feel free to call me and the other is a untraceable Id card to enter the lab if your in the neighborhood. Just give me a little heads up before you drop in.”
You both stand up giving each other a hug, “I'll do my best to keep in touch and take care of yourself. Eating ramen all the time isn't the healthiest food.” Jim chuckle at this, “What, are you my mom now? I can take care of myself. Though I want you to take care of yourself and if you have any issue you can't explain or need some answers my door is open. You shouldn't worry your family any longer. For all you know they may have wrote you off by now.”
You both were trying to let go, but both of you were finding it difficult hard to do so with tears streaming down both of your faces, “Ha ha, look at us. We talk about visiting and keeping in touch yet we can't seem to part from each other to make that even happen.” You bury your face into Jim, “I keep leaving people I care about. I wasn't expecting to come here to find another father figure. In fact I wasn't expecting to find the help I need at all.”
Jim pats you on the head and scratches behind one of your ears. You begin to purr as he chuckles and your face is flushed with embarrassment. “Well I feel the same. I feel I found a long lost son I didn't know I had and I was glad I was able to help you.” Jim manages to separate from the hug you both shared and kneels down. “You should get going, its just going to get harder to let go the longer we delay it, and we'll keep in touch.”
You nod and despite not wanting to you grab the bag you brought with you and head out the door. Looking back one last time before the door shuts and you begin your short trek home. Out of the shadows a man steps out, “So there he goes. You know if they find out its going to cause problem for you and your family. Why are you risking so much for someone you only knew for such a short amount of time?”
Jim turns around, “Well Clyde, I think he's the key to putting an end to all of this, and I know I'm risking a lot. I know they're going to come after him and he needs all the help he can get. Those who inhabit Mt. Ebott would still be in risk wither he was around or not. At least this way they have a chance to survive. So our two races will finally have a chance to reunite after a thousand years.”
Clyde shakes his head, “Always the optimist, this organization has been around for so long and you think some kid going to be able to stop them?” Jim looks up with a grin, “Yeah, but I got more work to do to make sure he'll be ready for anything they throw at him. Drysi isn't going to be enough. She's been through to much and won't be able to handle the strain he's going to put on her. Hopeful the two of them get to meet, but if anything happens I'll need you to make sure she gets to him.”
Clyde sigh, “Always leaving me to clean up after you. Did you at least complete the suit?” Jim just scratches the side of his face with his index finger, “Um, well maybe it won't be a problem.” Clyde just face palms, “Really? It wasn't that difficult to integrate and do they even have dry cleaning in Mt. Ebott? Jim shrugs, “He's a smart kid, I'm sure he'll figure it out.” They just laugh and look over data together.
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Note: I really like doing this chapter since the introduction of Jim was fun and the interaction between him and Broderick just felt great to write and i didn't feel like i had to force anything.
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