What happened next is all fuzzy... but I do remember that movie night was a tradition that we did every Friday night... and that I usually eat my favorite kind of food, which is hot dogs and potato chips or even popcorn, during that event.


I stared at Michael, it was thanks to him that I remembered my own name... my real name in fact, I don't have to call myself Puro anymore!

"Michael... I..." I said in a voice that failed with gratitude.

"Thank you. Thank you so much! Wow, my original name! The sound of it just feels right! I'm going to promise myself to never forget that name ever again! Thank you, Michael!" I said and while my tail was waging like an excited puppy and my eyes making tears of joy!

Michael took a few steps back and I realized that I was making him feel awkward with my joyful behavior. I immediately calmed down and said.

"Sorry... it's just... I never truly had a proper conversation in a very long time or even figured out what my real name was.

The only thing I could remember was that it started with a capitalized A...

You have no idea what it feels like to not know your own name, it gave me lots of despair and anxiety... but now it's gone, thanks to you!"

Michael seemed to be a little bit annoyed. I guess, I was talking too much that I didn't let him have a chance to say his thoughts on the matter... whoops.

"How long have you been like this?" He said with a slightly concerned voice.

"Four months that felt like four years..." I answered.

He then asked another question. "Do you know how long I was sleeping in that, weird tube... can... thingy?"

I don't know what it means by that... but I think he might be asking about how long has it been before we woke up from the cryogenic sleep chambers. "no. don't know how long it has been ever since we woke up from the cryogenic sleep chambers." I answered in a sorry-sounding voice.

Michael was going to say another question, but then, he was interrupted by a latex creature that was running around in the ventilation system somewhere making a metallic click-clack sound with its tiny feet.

Based on its smell... it must be another one of those extremely hostile latex creatures. Because it had a similar sense to that mutant yellow jacket, unfortunately, since it was running in the ventilation system, its smell was coming from all over the place, so I have no idea where it's exact location.

Michael seemed to be a little bit frightened when he heard heard the noise is coming from the vents.

"I think it's a good idea to go into my den, we both know that this place is filled to the brim with very... odd-looking parasites, who don't have the best intentions."

I said with a reassuring sounding voice to calm down Michael. I guided him towards one of the automatic opening doors made of glass that was located to my left, I kinda of had an urge to hold Michael's hand while walking towards my den, but I knew if I even touched him things would not end well... I don't want "that thing" happening again.

"Stay close to me Michael." I said with an informative voice.

"Some of these latex creatures can disguise themselves as harmless items, luckily for you, my enhanced sense of smell can sniff out the fakes." I said to him with reassuring confidence.

Michael seemed to be unsettled with the information that I told him, at least I'm here to protect him.

As we enter the ventilation shaft, I was looking forward to showing in my little brother all the things I have... even though it's not much...

We walked around the metallic hallways that were made for temperature regulation throughout the building, until we reach my den.

"Here we are, it's not much, but, it's the closest thing I have to home nowadays." I said to him, In a very polite sounding voice.

He looked around at the small place I have, he looked at the orange-powered radio receiver that I made.

After he was done looking around we decided to sit on in the bean bag that I have, Michael of course, kept his distance but then... he said a question that I fear the most.

"This is quite a cramped place... but, do you know what happened to our parents and the rest of our family?" He said in a concerned voice.

"Other than you, I don't know... I'm pretty sure that they're alive, especially our mom... or at least I hope so." I lied... what am I supposed to say to him?! "Hello I'm your long lost big brother that accidentally murdered our beloved mother." he'll never forgive me for that if I told him... and I really need him.

He then asked another question. "Where am I exactly?" He said in a curious voice.

"You're somewhere in Denver in the state of Colorado, in a building called Thunder Science, it's a research facility that studies generic manipulation and robotics." I replied.

I wanted to say something else, Michael seems to be still uncomfortable with my appearance... and I'm also uncomfortable with it too, to be honest.

Then I said. "I know this is hard to take all of this in, I'm still having a hard time taking it in myself."

I paused and looked at Michael, he seemed to have eye contact with me, and he was paying attention to what I was saying. "Every day waking up in this odd body of mine just... feels.... wrong... every part of me feels wrong... I don't even know what part of me is me.

All this happened because I was way over my head... and, I had to pay a price that was too big to for me, and ever since then I no longer have of the courage to venture forward due to my fear of the unknown... what if I might encounter something that would make me experience something much worse than this. started to cry again... I didn't want to but, I had very little control over when it happened.

Then I said "Seeing you sit right beside me... makes me feel very comfortable in some way. I wish, was able to hug you without the fear of... you know what...

Everything still hurts though, this place is absolute hell for me, I would love to escape... and think you want to do the same... I will help you whatever I can and make sure that you won't suffer the same fate that I did." I was trying to be as honest as I possibly can to him, of course i don't want to be completely honest... then things will turn for the worst for me... but the look on his face tells me that we both want the same thing, and that is to find our family... or what's left of it, and get out of this place.

"Wow, talking about how you feel to someone can really make a weird creature like me thirsty.. I'll go get some water you could come if you want, thank you for listening for what I have to say." I said in a grateful tone of voice to Michael.

As I got up to go get some water from the ventilation room next door where a survivor used to live in, I noticed that Michael was following me.

We walked around through a hall That had lots of boxes, I had to push some of them just to make the path forward clear, while my feet made a metallic clacking sound with every step I took thanks to the canine-like claws on my feet.

Of course, as soon as we got near the box that had that small latex snow leopard, they tried to come out, so obviously, I had to close the box before it was able to touch a single hair on Michael's head.

We enter through a fake metal wall that's actually a cleverly designed curtain that was used to camouflage the location of a survivor, unfortunately, they are long gone now, I hope they're ok and not... tainted by the parasites.

"Be careful of those pink shorts Michael." I said with an informative-sounding voice.

"They may look fashionably cute, but it's a parasite in disguise... these things are absolutely unhinged in disguises themselves as things aren't they?"

That wasn't the only thing that was disguising themselves in this room, there was a fake eye scanner device on the wall of this room.

Speaking of this room, It has many soggy newspapers on the floor along with those infamous pink "shorts" and two big gasoline containers filled with a gallon of water...

I have to refill the gasoline containers by using a small cup or any other thing that can contain water every time I need to refill them, but it's quite convenient at the end of the day once the work is done... it reminds me, of all of the farm work I used to do before we had to move to someplace else, but I don't remember where or why we even moved.

Then again, it's something that happened in the past, maybe we moved to someplace in Colorado... but this is just me shooting in the dark.

l grabbed a nearby coned-shaped beaker and poured some cold water in it, it was quite refreshing... even though I have to misuse a piece of scientific equipment used to make complex chemical mixtures among other things that I don't need to mention.

When I was done having a nice drink of water, I saw Michael looking at another vent door.

"Where does this lead to?" He asked out of curiosity.

I don't know, but based off of what I have seen from this place, it probably leads to the rest of the building through the large parts of this ventilation system... and has more parasites to encounter." I answered.

Michael continued to stare at the vent door... and I knew exactly what he was thinking, he wanted to go through that door to find a path to escape this building.

"If you truly want to go through there... I'm not gonna stop you Michael, but I would appreciate it if you'll let me prepare for the journey ahead. Michael took a small deep breath and said.

"ok"

We headed back to my den. Michael gave me an odd uncomfortable look while I was gathering my things.

"Why are you taking sooo loooong!" Michael complained while I was grabbing a bag of oranges.

I didn't want hear him complaining while I was grabbing my things, so I decided to start a conversation with him to keep him distracted and stimulate too

"Do you have any thoughts on the pieces of art that I made?"

"..." He hesitated. "They all seem to be very sad..." He said.

"Indeed. trying to use drawing as a coping mechanism." I said after taking a small breath.

"What's a coping mechanism?" He asked.

I would love to answer his question, but I couldn't seem to find the words on how to explain it.

So I simply said. "I... uhh... don't know how to exactly explain what that word means."

"..." Michael seemed kinda disappointed that I could answer his question, but I noticed that he's holding some pictures in his hand, I use this as an opportunity to change the topic...

"So what about those pictures you're holding your hand?" I asked.

"What...? Oh, these, I found them." He answered.

"May, I please see them?" I asked.

"I guess so..." He answered.

There are four pictures, each one is a picture of the same creature who called himself Puro...

The first picture was titled Puro 1, Puro, who was attempting to take a selfie, with a camera probably, but his arms were very blurry in the photo, the only thing that came out clearly was his mask and he appeared to be winking at the camera, I guess he was too excited when he was. doing it.

The second picture was titled Puro 2, this must be Puro's second attempt at properly using a camera, unfortunately, he failed again

But there was some improvement, there were no blurry limbs or anything, but, it was just simply out of focus the only thing that was in focus was his tail the rest of his body was a little bit fuzzy...

The third picture was titled Puro 3, he made significant progress with this one but unfortunately, we are not able to see his full body, he appears to be looking down at the camera when he took this shot.

The final picture was titled Puro 4, in my personal opinion, this is the funniest one of them all, this picture is an extreme close-up of Puro's mask with his mouth slightly opened mimicking a smile-like appearance.

Unfortunately, this is all based on memory since we didn't take the photos with us, I'm sorry if the order of the pictures does not exactly match the order of the numbers.

We both had fun laughing at the silly failed photos that Puro made, the third photo made Michael laugh the most.

"It just looks like his head was a little bit squished when he took this photo haha," He said with a grin.

"Meanwhile this close-up photo is absolutely priceless, it was like he's doing the "hey! got games on your phone?" thing hehehe..." I said with a laugh that sounded like a weird hyena.

I picked up the last few things that I needed, I gave Michael a broken chair leg to use as a weapon for self-defense.

With everything prepared we started to go walk back to that other room that has the gallon in gasoline tanks that were filled with water.

Then we went into the next room, It wasn't much of a sight, it appears to be some kind of big hallway.

Based off of the large amounts of smells in here, there's appears to be lots of hiding places for latex creatures here.

They're probably waiting for the right moment to strike, when we least suspect it so they can-.

"Andrew are you ok?" Michael asked.

"Not exactly, but I'm mostly ok right now since I'm with you um... why are you asking that? I said.

"You are looking a little bit angry while staring off into a distance like there's some big thing is. going on behind the walls." he answered.

"Ohh... that... my enhanced sense of smell is telling me that there's lots of latex beasts nearby." I said.

Michael then paused for a moment when he heard that, I think he kinda needed to digest what I just told him.

"You knew all of that, by... smelling??? Wow...." He said in astonishment.

"I quess over the last four months. I kinda gotten used to it, to the point that kind of feels natural... which is kind of scary and interesting at the same time." I said.

As we walk towards the other side of the room, I pointed out all the hazards that my nose can sniff out, it was kind of embarrassing to do that in front of Michael though... I felt like I'm some kind of weird dog that standing on two legs.

We have encountered new latex creatures along the way. I pointed out that some kind of humanoid red pandas who were hiding in small gaps of metal between the walls.

Some of them were reaching out a gap trying to pull Michael in fortunately, he was just out of reach for them... but it was quite the scary concept, imagine walking down near the wall minding your own business... and then suddenly these parasites start dragging you in to a gap of the wall with an extremely tight grip, giving you no chance to escape.

There were other hallways that were connected to this room, one of them had a suspicious gray rubber shorts on the floor, the other hallway had very weird looking foxes, and a syringe containing some kind of fluid.

The foxes were very, very... oval shaped, I don't know where their body starts and where their head begins, just looking at them makes my head spin... one of them was purple among their more orange-ish red relatives... weird.

Some of them were reaching out a gap trying to pull Michael in fortunately, he was just out of reach for them... but it was quite the scary concept, imagine walking down near the wall minding your own business... and then suddenly these parasites start dragging you in to a gap of the wall with an extremely tight grip, giving you no chance to escape.

There were other hallways that were connected to this room, one of them had a suspicious gray rubber shorts on the floor, the other hallway had very weird looking foxes, and a syringe containing some kind of fluid.

The foxes were very, very... oval shaped, I don't know where their body starts and where their head begins, just looking at them makes my head spin... one of them was purple among their more orange-ish red relatives... weird.

We found a few pictures of a scientist turning into a purple humanoid latex fox during a lab accident.

Michael looked a little bit uneasy after we looked at those pictures, I wish, I could comfort him in some way other then talking to him.

"Don't worry Michael, I'm gonna make sure that doesn't happen to you." I said to him with a reassuring sounding voice.

Michael gave me a fearful look, and said "Why are they doing this to people?"

"I don't know, but for whatever reason, they're trying to make people look like furries by using the latex creatures as some kind of advanced form of genetic modification but, they also want to keep the human mind intact post transformation." I answered.

"But why aren't there any scientists trying to continue their evil experiments on people?" He asked.

"The closest answer I can give you is that there was some extreme violence near this place. which caused some of their experiments to escape, and based off of those pictures that we've seen of that one scientist in particular, I think we can easily fill in the gaps on what happened to them... at least they got what they deserved."

"Indeed." Michael said with agreement.

After we were done and having that conversation, we went into the next room, and I have to say it was quite the surprise, it was so dark that I can't even see anything, and my nose was. overwhelmed with the large amount of smells coming from the variety of latex creatures In this room.

We tried to move forward, but I keep finding myself bumping my head against a wall, and it didn't help that this place was like some kind of labyrinth, Michael somehow was able to navigate the room as if it was partially lit. I tried using my flashlight but unfortunately, the batteries were dead.

Fortunately my excellent hearing may be able to partially navigate this place and stay in close proximity to Michael, but it didn't stop me from bumping into walls on every turn... At least the metal click-clack sounds that I made with every step I take in place, gives me some kind of echolocation-like feedback.

While navigating this labyrinth of ventilated darkness, we encountered many latex beasts along the way, unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a good look at them since I was practically blind in this place, but I can hear and smell them.

I'm going to describe them to the best of my ability, so please keep in mind that the description of these creatures are going to be very vague.

Near the entrance, we encountered some kind of creature that climbs on the walls and ceilings, their scent makes me think that they're some kind of weird humanoid hybrid between a spider and a dog... I'm glad I wasn't able to see them, I bet they looked very ugly.

The latex spider dogs don't seem to have any particular interest in Michael but, they do seem to want to cause some mischief when we're nearby by blocking our paths with metal boxes, which was vary annoying.

We had frequent encounters with the most basic among the latex beasts, which were the white blobs, they where quite easy to take care of and avoid thanks to Psychic Paralysis but, I do have to ask Michael to go behind me to prevent me from using it on him.

Walking around in this ventilation system felt like an endless maze, sometimes I here something slithering on the metal floor, like some kind of snake.

We found a working light bulb once, but I heard some kind of small flapping nearby, it was a moth but, based off of its smell it was a latex creature mimicking one, sadly we no choice but to move on in order to avoid it, which was kind of disappointing, because I really would like to see you where I'm going.

I'm surprised that we're not even going into dead ends, you'll think that eventually will hit one but, no, it's like something was helping Michael on which direction to take weird.

"Michael!?" I said after stubbing my foot on a metal box on a wall.

"Yes?" He asked.

"How do you know where to go when it's so dark that you can't see a thing?" I asked.

"They are these weird pieces of paper that have glowing arrows on them, are they your doing?" He asked.

"No, but at least someone is trying to help us" I answered.

Who?" Michael asked.

End of part 3