Project: PLANTIGORE

Chapter: 1

Containment Breach

Somewhere in a top secret military facility there are many amazing creatures that come from the far stretches of our universe. A large man clad in a military uniform wearing a pin labeled “U.S.P.S.” with the words “Unknown. Security. Protocol. System” underneath it is also clad with other medals including a commanders pin. The Commander’s boots clack on the hard cement floor as he steps past the many containment units, his many military pins and medals clink with his every step. The clacking of his boots stops as he turns to face the containment unit labeled “PAN:K0”.

“How has our guest been behaving?” The Commander asks one of the scientists next to him. “T-The specimen is behaving quite well as recent tests show that-“ He is cut off abruptly by The Commander snapping “I don’t care about the tests, I want to know if is dangerous or not!” he pulls the viewing hatch to the side and peers in showing a dark room. “Y-Yes of course... i-it has been noted to not be aggressive unless severely provoked and backed into a corner. It behaves much like a wild animal does when cornered but it seems intelligent enough to be learning from us.”

The small scientist states pulling the light switch revealing a large creature sleeping in the center of the cell. The creature is green with blue tribal swirls circling his body. He also has a large white spot starting at his chest and going down to his thighs and underside of his tail. His body is covered in feather like leaves. “What do you mean by learning?” The Commander asks. “U-Um it seems to be learning our behaviors and when alone in the unit it mimics them to perfect sync, even seeming to mimic our speech to some degree.” The Commander grabs the scientist by the collar and lifts him up the wall getting real close to him. “I-It can talk!?” The Commander snaps “Y-Y-Yes b-but more like a baby learning it’s first words.” The scientist adjusts his glasses and wearily speaks. “It seems to have high intelligence to social constructs as when we have given it food and small testing spheres, it has neatly figured them out like it has some knowledge of manners.” The scientist chuckles “We even gave it a Rubik’s cube and it solved it fairly quickly.”

The Commander drops the scientist and he slumps to the floor. “Keep an eye on subject PAN:K0 and for god’s sake don’t make some stupid nickname for him like you did with the other subjects!” The Commander closes the viewing hatch and briskly walks away, his boots and medals beginning to clink again. The scientist picks himself up and dusts himself off. “Gosh Panko, I wish you could go free... you don’t deserve this punishment.” Panko lifts his head and looks at the door sadly.

A while later off in the distance a group of teenagers are hanging around the power supply center and one of them gets the dumb idea to climb it and swing from one of the wires. When the teen tries to swing from the wire he yanks it loose causing power grid failure all over the area it also removing the power to the test facility. By undoing the power supply it unlocks all of the doors in the facility and the emergency lights in the facility turn on waking up Panko and the other captives. Panko gets up and is wondering what is happening as he hears shouting from the halls outside from employees as other subjects escape.

The door is suddenly yanked open by the small scientist who upon opening the unit he adjusts his glasses. “Well?” He says, Panko getting up realizing what the scientist means and heads out the door with him. The duo rush down the halls as sirens go off and the area is only lit by the blinking red emergency lights. As they head down the corridor suddenly one of the doors is blown off its hinges as a tall muscular eagle-like creature steps out of the cell. He is clad in a orange prison jumpsuit with the tag name “E4:GL” “R-Run!” The scientist squeals grabbing Panko’s hand and running down another corridor only to see a smashed in door that is sealed shut.

The duo now realizing that they are trapped try to prepare themselves for their impending demise, when out of no where a large panther creature also clad in a orange jumpsuit crashes through the wall near the bird and they proceed to lock fists and start fighting. Now that the duo have a clear escape they rush through the broken wall and make their way towards the elevator. Once they reach the elevator the scientist pushes Panko into it closing the gate. Panko looks at scientists saying “Friend come?” to which the scientist hurriedly says “Sorry Panko but I cannot come with you... I have to stay here or the government will track me down and kill me!” Panko tries to reason with him but with the press of a button the elevator rises and the scientist slowly fades out of view.



Chapter: 2

Brand New World

As the elevator continues to rise Panko is filled with the feelings of sadness and anger as he thinks more and more about the scientist who just saved his life. Panko’s sadness and rage are quickly replaced with fear and curiosity as the elevator reaches the top and Panko sees the outside world for the first time. He takes a deep breath and starts coughing as the city air is much thicker and dirtier then the recycled air in the facility. He chokes on his breath as his body slowly adapts to the sudden change in air quality. His eyes also quickly adjust to the natural darkness of the night and Panko stares at the bright full moon wondering what exactly he’s looking at as he turns his head and wonders.

He is cut short on wondering as he is surprised by the sound of coyotes howling in the distance and he drops to the ground on all fours on high alert. Looking further out while remaining crouched on all fours Panko gets his first look at a human city. Panko has seen cities before on his planet but human cities look different in one major difference, his civilization is much more advanced then the humans. Panko’s civilization far surpasses the humans in terms of technology but that caused major problems for their environment, causing them to be forced to evolve into the way they are now.

The coyote howls get closer and this is a clear sign that Panko should probably leave. Quickly making his way down the hill Panko makes sure to keep an ear out for the band of coyotes. The further down he goes the further away the howls are and soon enough they disappear completely. Quickly and quietly Panko makes his way to the edge of a residential area and slowly peeks through people’s windows to try to find help but after a long and tiring search there is nothing.

Keeping to the shadows he suddenly hears the startup of a generator and a shadowy figure cursing at said generator. Silently Panko makes his way over to the house that this figure came from and when peeking through he sees a animalistic figure sitting at a computer talking fluent English. Panko is stunned as he’s never heard any of the prisoners speak good English and also the fact that this prisoner has a home and supplies when it has been only a few hours since the escape.

Slowly he opens the window he’s at and crawls inside, slowly pulling the window down once inside. Sticking to the shadows he slowly crawls towards the creature and he gets closer he notices something, on the monitor is a game and clearly this is a gaming setup. Suddenly the being speaks “Anyways guys that’s the end of the stream and thanks everyone for coming out! Have a great night!” and with a press of a button the stream ends. It then takes off his head surprising Panko to reveal a smaller human head and then he realizes this must be a costume and so now being a bit scared of the human he backs away knocking over a plant pot startling both Panko and the Human.

Being frightened he stays completely still and the person turns around abruptly saying “Who’s there!” and turning on the light showing off the creature slightly covered in dirt from the pot. The person backs up saying “Who are you? How did you get in my house?!” While grabbing a spray bottle. Panko responds by putting up his hands and covering shaking from fear of the unknown and assumes this person has a weapon.