Author’s Note-Okay, so I know that this story has a bit of a weaker story, I will admit that. But I still think that it has an interesting concept that I’d like to revisit it later on.

The seal hissed as the pod depressurized. As the steam vented out from the air ducts, door, and any space no matter how small, the scientists waited eagerly to see if all of their hard work was for not. The monitors displayed positive results about their works health and vitals; but until the steam cleared, they had no idea how their work came out looking. Granted, it was just a prototype, but it should have looked normal.

After several tense minutes, the steam cleared, and the scientists were able to see their creation. They watched in awe as their creation cautiously poked out of the pod and looked around the room. It carefully stepped out onto the floor of the lab, but quickly pulled itself back inside the pod.

“What's wrong with it?” one scientist asked.

“Why won't it come out?” asked another.

Their creation crouched down in the pod, shivering as it tried to make sense of everything. One young assistant, the only woman assigned to the project, opened the door to the lab and quickly walked over to the pod carrying a blanket. She held out the blanket to the pod welcomingly, a bright smile on her face. Their creation responded by pressing itself against the back of the pod, shivering from both the cold and the fear it felt.

“It's okay, honey, I'm not going to hurt you,” she said soothingly. “I'm sorry it's so cold in here. Here, take this,” she said as she held the blanket out to their creation. “My name is Emily.”

Their creation slowly reached out to Emily, feeling the soft, warm fabric of the blanket. Emily knelt down. Still unsure of her motivation, the creature jumped back into the pod. “Oh, I didn't meant to scare you!” she apologized. The creature still would not approach her, so Emily slowly moved her hand out.

The creature cautiously inspected her hand before carefully reached out to touch her. Her skin was warm. Her skin was not as soft as the blanket, but it had an atmosphere of friendliness that the creature could not sense from the blanket. The creature knew very little information, but it knew that she was an ally. That it was sure of.

The creature slowly moved out of the pod, where it allowed Emily to gently wrap it in the blanket. Surrounded by the warmth of the blanket and friendliness of Emily, the creature reverted to its sleep state.

Emily carried the creature out of the lab, where the scientists looked at her in confusion. “How did you gain its trust so quickly?” one asked.

“It's simple, really,” Emily answered. “Treat him like a living person instead of some lab rat, and he'll trust you.”

“Don't get attached to it,” one scientist, Hewitt, snapped. “We're here to do a job, not make glorified kids for you.”

“Jeffrey, you can't make a living creature without giving it the necessities like affection,” the oldest scientist, Kane, responded.

With that, the group entered another one of their frequent arguments. The fighting disrupted the creature's rest, causing it to wake and release a high pitched whistle. “Now look what you've done, Hewitt! You woke him up!” Emily said angrily. She looked down to the creature in her arms and walked out of the room. “I'm sorry mean ol' Hewitt woke you up. We'll go somewhere else for you to sleep.”

Hewitt followed her out of the room. “Get back here!” he ordered. “We have tests to run!”

Hewitt run up to Emily and snatched the creature from her arms. It began squirming in a vain attempt to escape his grip. Hewitt walked into the lab, dropped the creature onto a table, a ripped the blanket out from under it. The creature attempted to crawl off of the table, but Hewitt put a heavy glass dome on the table, leaving the creature trapped underneath.

“You can't just experiment on him!” Emily called from the other side of the door, having been locked outside the lab.

“On the contrary,” Hewitt said, “I can do whatever I damn well please with this thing. It was supposed to come out as the prototype for the perfect soldier, not some dumb blob!”

Over the next few months, the scientists conducted countless tests on the creature that they had created. Instead of attempting to change its genetic structure to create a human, they instead focused on the applications that a gelatinous creature could have for the military. All the while, Emily was powerless to stop Hewitt and the other scientists from running tests on the creature. Emily and Kane did, however, convince Hewitt to allow Emily to have access to the creature when it was not in the lab. During her time with the creature, Emily treated it the same as the child she knew she could never conceive.

Over time, the creature learned how to change its physical form from that of a gelatinous mass to anything it desired. It could maintain a human form for several hours, or it could also take on the form of animal or item. It even learned to take on the form of things such as water, fire, even fog. The processes the creature was put through to learn these forms was quite inhumane. For water, it would be locked inside a room that would slowly fill with water. The creature would not be allowed to leave the room, no matter how much water there was. The creature nearly drowned several times. It was not until the creature could take on and maintain the form of water that this test was ended. Learning to take on the form of fire was similar. It learned to take on the form of fog, however, during its time with Emily. Her gentle encouragement proved to be far superior than the sadistic experiments conducted by Hewitt.

Emily also taught the creature how to speak, read, write, and provided him with information on a number of subjects. But perhaps her greatest contribution to the creature's life was giving him a name. Emily had named the creature Michael, and Michael considered Emily to be his mother.

Eventually, Hewitt's experiments became more and more sadistic and ruthless. To Hewitt, Michael was not a person; he was simply a weapon that could be utilized for mass destruction. One day, Hewitt began an experiment that involved nearly killing Michael by electrocuting him. From what Emily could see, this experiment provided no beneficial information other than to satisfy the increasing thirst for blood Hewitt had developed.

“Stop this madness now!” Emily screamed as she attempted to shut down the devices used to electrocute Michael.

“Get away from there!” Hewitt yelled as he hit Emily out of the way. He then shoved her back, causing Emily to hit her forehead against the corner of a table. As soon as she hit the table, Emily's body went limp, and she fell to the ground.

Enraged, Michael threw himself against the glass that held him on the table. “Emily!” he screamed as the glass began to crack. Within seconds, he broke through the glass. He quickly jumped from the table, changing his form into that of a human and ran to where Emily lay. He cradled her in his arms. He looked desperately into her eyes, but the life had already left them. Michael slowly closed her eyes before gently lowering her lifeless body to the ground.

Michael then rose to his feet, but still did not face Hewitt. As he stood, his body began changing form from the normal human to that of a monstrosity. “Well, Hewitt,” Michael said, his voice changing from the soft spoken gentlemen Hewitt had known and becoming more like the growl of an enraged animal, “you wanted a weapon of war. Now you have it!”