Chapter Four: Growth Spurt

Chapter 1

"Come on, Reggie! Give it up already." Doctors Gary and Larson, a stork and crane duo, had been hounding Reginald for weeks about his latest project. "Hand it over to us, we can actually make it profitable."

Speciest jerks -- the richest guy in the *world* was a duck like him (not like him). They didn't say it this time, but the two had made it clear what they thought of him and his ability to actually sell anything.

Reginald ignored them, slowly heating the chemicals he'd been working on. He wasn't in this for money, he was in this to change the world for the better. Imagine, a world where no one ever starved, where everyone could freely take advantage of the biggest source of energy available -- the sun!

So caught up in his thoughts, Reginald didn't notice the continued teasing of his colleagues. He as well didn't notice that he'd reached into the wrong container, sprinkling some of his home supplies into the vial rather than the Lab's, until it started bubbling and shaking.

Oops. Reginald took a calm step back, watching passively as yellow smoke billowed outwards, green and red sparks shooting out. A deep cackling came from the potion, deep echoes whispering in old languages, the wind briefly picking up. Of course, understanding the words perfectly (a blessing for successful brewing), Reginald wasn't scared in the slightest.

Gary and Larson, on the other hand, had pushed themselves into a far corner, staring in blatant shock and terror. Now this... I could have fun with this.

Reginald let a grin twist his beak in an ugly way, before dropping back into a frown. Rhoda hated it when he got revenge, and he wouldn't want to make her upset, so...

With an inward sigh, Reginald locked eyes with the other two, picking up the vial and dumping its contents onto the Venus Flytrap he'd been researching. He didn't blink once, smirking as they dusted themselves off and tried to act all haughty again, as if they hadn't just freaked out over an incomplete level two summoning. Normals.

Reginald rolled his eyes and went back to work, using a microscope to study the chlorophyll in leaf cuttings. He was almost there, he just needed a little more time...

Hours later, almost certainly past when he should've gone home, Reginald was completely ignorant of his surroundings. He wrote note after note, triple-checking his findings, going back to the microscope just to be sure -- yes, he'd done it! He had figured out how to give people the ability to photosynthesize, he was certain of it. Now he simply needed to start Hifar trials-

Something touched his shoulder, brushing his neck and sending a pulse of fear through him. He spun around with a hiss, fangs extended and ready to bite, before he registered the face in front of him. Rhoda pushed past him, looking at his findings.

"Dr Dendron, w-what are you doing here?" Reginald said through a slight lisp, fangs retracting and red eyes fading back to a calm blue. He looked around for a clock, knowing it had to be late.

"I was worried when I didn't see you leave, Reggie." Rhoda answered, putting her hands on his shoulders to look him in the eyes, concern etched onto her face. "Have you been getting enough sleep?"

"W-well, I-" Reginald cut himself when one of her hands rubbed against his neck feathers, sending him into a full-body flinch as he scrambled to get away from her. She was so forgetful! It was part of her charm, but still.... "Dr Dendron, you know- know I-I-I don't like my neck being t-touched."

What was it about the swan's presence that turned him into a stuttering mess? Her big soft eyes, the way she'd sometimes call him Reginald, how excited she got over his work? He sighed, outwardly this time, as he got lost in her beauty. Her looks were surpassed only by her intellect and heart, so caring and kind...

"Are you seriously still freaking over that?" Rhoda asked playfully, forgetting her strength and punching his arm a bit too hard. Her laugh was like soft bells. "Oh, Reggie! You have to get over that, you big hatchling."

"I know, I know." Reginald laughed along, rubbing the back of his head self-consciously. Trauma wasn't easy to 'get over', but he knew Rhoda was just trying to support him. He noticed her looking through his papers, immediately brightening up. "Oh! Dr Dendron, you'll love this. I finally figured it out, I just need to start live tests and then we can market it to the masses."

"Reginald, this could change the world!" Rhoda sighed sadly, sitting on the desk and twirling a strand of her hair around a finger. "Too bad it'll never get to testing."

Brain still shorted-out from being called 'Reginald', rarely getting to hear his name spoken outloud, it took a second for the words to register. He squawked "W-w-w-what?!"

"Dean Tightbill is cutting your funding." Rhoda looked so sad when she said that, Reginald's heart skipped a beat. No one had ever been upset on his behalf before he'd met her. "He wants you to assist Dr Gary and Dr Larson on their work instead. You have three days to clear everything from the Photosynthesis Project away, or you'll be fired."

"B-but he can't!" Reginald took a deep breath, not wanting to scare Rhoda by going full Monster. "Not when I'm this close, he just needs to see my findings. He'll change his mind, he has to."

"Reggie, don't be stupid." Rhoda rolled her eyes, and suddenly Reginald felt like a whining child. "Of course he won't change his mind, he won't understand a single thing about the science involved. Even if he somehow sees its value, he'll just lock it away and accept millions of dollars from food industries to make sure it never sees the light of day."

"He wouldn't do that." Reginald argued weakly. "Even he has to see that the benefits to the whole of civilization are more important than the profits."

"All he cares about is lining his own pockets, Reggie." Rhoda clicked her beak sympathetically. "He'd set off atom bombs on every populated island on the planet, if it would make him rich."

"B-but..." Reginald collapsed onto his desk chair, knowing she was right. Tightbill, Gary, Larson -- they were all the same. Monster or Normal, the ones he answered to always cared for money over all else. "So that's it? All these years, and my life's work is just going to be thrown out? I'll spend the rest of my career as a glorified lab assistant to those bumbling morons?!"

He was lisping and hissing, realizing dully that his fangs were back out. Rhoda looked at them with a sneer, and he covered his beak with his hands while he calmed down. He knew Rhoda was disturbed by his fangs, he should've been more careful with them. Just another failure to add to the long story of his life.

"Reggie..." Rhoda started slowly, hesitantly. "What if I told you that I might know another place where you can do your tests? A place the University doesn't own, so you could sell your results as you pleased?"

"I'd say it sounds great." His lisp was almost gone again. He thought for a second; great things almost never happened to him. "What's the catch?"

"It's not the safest environment." Rhoda shrugged, already gathering his papers. "And it's not the most, uh, legal place either."

"I-I don't want to be a-a-arrested." Reginald twisted his hands nervously. Just what sort of stuff was Rhoda talking about? "Maybe I should- should just try to talk to the Dean, but thank you anyways, Dr Dendr-"

"There you go being stupid again, Reggie." Rhoda sighed exasperatedly, ignoring the other's flinch. "Dumbest genius I've ever met. Do you want to change the world? Help people? Go down in history as the man who ended world hunger? Or do you want to be the guy that let the discovery be sealed away, the key thrown out while Dean Tightbill becomes richer than McDuck?"

Reginald tried to answer, but she didn't let him.

"I want to see you succeed, Reginald." Rhoda smiled softly, putting a hand on his cheek. "This is the only way to do it. Are you in or out? It's that simple."

Reginald swallowed. This was a really bad idea. "I-I... I'm in."