Eccentric Taste

The creature opened its eyes, but only a pair of blank black orbs were behind the lids. It seemed to look at Matt, and then close its eyes again. The branches shook once and the vine in the back of its head withered and snapped off. The creature reached up its paws to Matt before loosing strength and falling limp. He could see the branches begin to wither. Without thinking, he scooped up the whole nucleus pod with the creature inside and shoved it into his bag.

The nucleus was rather large, about three feet in diameter. However, it had ruptured and opened so it was very flexible. Fortunately, he had the habit of carrying around a large, flexible bag for other purposes. He zipped it up and ran out of the lab. His destination was the far end of the ship. The only place Martha would be hidden and safe was with Nilsson. Matt wasn't sure why he felt the need to protect this little creature, but at the very least, Martha put its trust in Matt.

Once he was a considerable distance from the lab, Matt came to a normal pace again. Anyone that he went passed received a quick hypnosis to distract them. Luckily, he encountered enough people in the halls to raise his hypnosis to one-hundred proficiency. Matt avoided the lifts and used the emergency stairs. There weren't any cameras in the emergency stairwell so he felt more comfortable. The stairs also led directly to the part of the ship that Nilsson settled in.

[Weak Hypnosis Lv. 2: Whenever you make eye contact with someone, they will be more inclined toward whatever you say and believe your words to hold more weight than others. The influence of those words lasts even after eye contact has been broken.

>Hypnosis: Intermediate]

[Hypnosis

Activation: Eye contact

Duration: Special

Proficiency: Intermediate (0/100)]

Matt didn't feel anything different but he wouldn't know the effects until he used it on someone. When he exited the staircase, the sight was surprising. This part of the ship was very rarely used. The hallways were not kept and there was a lot of dust. The emergency lights were on since the main power was seemingly cut off. It looked very creepy and Matt felt like he was suddenly in a horror film. He carefully walked forward and approached the operations room.

There were a pair of black boxes on the ground that Matt initially didn't notice because of the lighting and the atmosphere, but once he reached the door, he heard the sound of metal moving. The boxes opened up and turrets pointed at Matt with a laser sight. Matt raised his hands up and started regretting his choice. When the sound of a rough voice came from the security pad on the door he gulped.

"You have ten seconds to tell me why you are here. 9… 8…"

"I need your help Willard Nilsson! My name is Matthew O'Connely. I'm being targeted by Shephard. Don't shoot!"

The sound of air being sucked into the barrel of the guns was heard and a high pitch sound rang out. However, just when Matt expected to be gunned down, the turrets powered down and returned to their box shape. The door swished open as if beckoning him inside. Matt was scared but he looked down at the bag and felt that he needed to do this. Matt entered and expected the worst.

However, what he saw was a very nicely decorated space. It reminded him of a renaissance era living space. On a brown recliner wearing robes was a bald, lanky man wearing bath robes. This was a very strange situation, so Matt just stood there without saying anything. After Willard finished smoking his pipe, he got up walked toward Matt. Once he was able to get a good look at Willard, Matt thought he looked oddly familiar.

"So, you're the good doctor that is stirring things up?"

"Stirring? What am I stirring? I haven't done anything special…"

"It seems you aren't aware of it yourself. That's fine, you'll realize soon enough."

"Wait, now I know. How are you related to Scorch?" Matt was finally able to put the connection together. Although their builds were completely different, their voice, way of speaking, and facial features were very similar.

"Half-brothers. Anyway, what exactly do you want from me? I can't protect you from Shephard. No one has more power on this ship. I can only hide you, but that's only a temporary solution. Besides, I have no reason to help you."

[Hypnotism Activated.]

"I need you to block the AI's ability to see what is happening in my lab."

Matt's eyes glowed and Willard seemed to be processing the order. The main thing Matt was afraid of was his level of intelligence would be able to create enough road blocks to the hypnosis ability. While Matt wasn't completely sure how it worked, he knew that smarter, more obstinate people were harder to hypnotize. This was mainly because of their emotional distance from others who they perceived as lesser than them.

"Haha, alright. That sounds like it would be a lot of fun. If you get caught, you'll take all the blame. When you return to your office, it will be clear."

Matt was shocked since his proficiency went up by three. It seemed that he must have been really lucky this time. He wondered if there was some omnipotent being giving him favor. The idea of a greater power was not something Matt believed in his previous life, but how else would he explain his current situation. It seemed that Willard didn't care to talk anymore and walked back to his recliner. Matt didn't wish to push it any further and left.

While Matt was on his way to his lab, he felt some movement in the bag. He sent a whisper down to Martha to hang in there for a bit longer. He had to carefully dodge the hazmat teams and locked down hallways but eventually made it. He watched the entrance for several minutes to make sure no one was waiting around after noticing the changes. There didn't seem to be anyone waiting to arrest him so he approached his lab. After scanning his badge, he noticed that the screen was different than before.

It had a large "W" logo on it and the door swished open. Since he no longer had an animal to take care of and do tests on, he locked his lab. Once he entered, he locked it again behind him. He walked in carefully and turned off his personal device. He tried calling out to the AI, but there was no response. He heaved a sigh of relief and went over to the animal care area. He opened the bag and placed the large membrane on the artificial ground.

{You are safe now.}

Martha awkwardly stood up and fell over. It was extremely cute. Although she was medium sized cat-like creature, she was clumsy like a newborn. Matt understood since Martha was just a big plant until not that long ago. He was curious how the process happened. Since he had her here Matt could test her DNA and see what exactly was happening. However, when he thought about harming her, he felt a pang of guilt. Those black orbs for eyes stared into him, and when he looked back, he felt like he was staring into the void.

Matt reached out to touch the fur on Martha, but when he felt it, he realized that it was more like pine needles than fur. They were soft to the touch like fur, but they distinctly had the structure of a plant. Martha didn't seem to mind his examination so Matt continued. He picked up her paw, and saw that what seemed like soft fleshy pads were actually very rough. On closer inspection, they had small hairs which reminded him of roots.

He checked the back of her head where the vine was previously connected and didn't see anything abnormal. He carefully checked the inside of her mouth and saw a small row of teeth on both upper and lower jaws. Matt wasn't sure what the teeth were made of, but they were sharp and sturdy. They reminded him of thick cactus spines. The more he examined the more amazed he was. This was practically the perfect plant-chimera with a mammalian form.

Matt checked her genital area and it seemed to be structured like a flower's pistil. There were no other orifices. The nose was a solid structure with vine-like whiskers. They were short but Matt thought they would grow along with Martha over time. Her ears were the texture of a flower and the little hairs at the base of the ear seemed very sensitive. When Matt touched one, the flower-like ear closed and covered the sensitive part instinctively. Matt came to a conclusion after completely examining her.

"It is exactly as I predicted. You are incredibly cute."