Over the course of a week and a half, you spent nearly all of your time with Hoolan. You spent time examining him and talking to him. He was by far one of the smartest and most unusual creatures you had ever seen in your life. Robert was right when he said that Hoolan was able to adapt to any area he was put in. In fact, the fastest you had seen him change was only a matter of seconds.

You had first seen this after you had decided to put some things in his tank to make it seem more like home. You asked Hubert to pick up some sand, rocks, and plants from the area he found Hoolan. You didn't want him to be stuck in a plain tank for who knows how long, you wanted him to be comfortable.

One of the first significant changes you had witnessed was when one of the small feeding fish he was given swam into a makeshift tunnel that he couldn't get his legs through. So he started to dig. However that's not what was significant about it, what made it astonishing was that his two front legs shaped themselves into little shovel like appendages and he dug from there. That was not the only thing that he had done either.

There seemed to be no end to the surprises that Hoolan held in his body. You had seen on multiple occasions his legs elongating, making him taller. His legs shaped into various forms to help him with whatever he was doing. He even broke through the glass on one occasion and had to be transferred to a tank made of reinforced glass.

The most bizarre thing that he had done so far, however, happened around the tenth day of him being at the base. You had entered the lab in the morning after having breakfast with Paul and Hubert only to find that your find of a lifetime was gone. You panicked at first looking at the tank from almost every angle possible to make sure that he wasn't just hiding.

To your relief, you found him still in the tank, but to your amazement, you found that he had changed in size. he was no longer the size of your hand, but the size of a quarter. the size change absolutely amazed you, but how drastic the change had been was stupendous. And again to your amazement the very next day he was back to regular size. The day after that he changed sizes again, but this time he was bigger than your hand, he was the size of a dinner plate.

One of the many benefits of having Hoolan around was that Robert treated you better than he did before, and Paul, Hubert, and Jack would come in every now and then to get a look at Hoolan. Maria thought that he was way too freaky, and often kept her distance which you were very grateful for.

Now among the many things you discovered about your new friend, some were actually genuinely scary. Granted it was all kind of scary, but some aspects more than others. For instance one day Robert was able to confiscate some of the feeding fish from Hoolan and discovered that Hoolen was paralyzing his prey with a strange sort of venom. He not only had venom, however, but three types of it that had been discovered so far. One venom was the paralysis venom, Another was one that melted the flesh of whatever was introduced to it, and a third was a venom that just outright killed his prey. You didn't know why, but that honestly scared the ever living crap out of you, and you knew that you had only scratched to surface on what Hoolan could do.

Now back on the present day. You had Jack design a toy for Hoolan because you were sure that for a creature as smart as he was, he was probably bored in his tank. The toy was a little container that held some feeding fish in it. You would hide it around the tank so Hoolan would have to search for it. Once he found it he would have to find a way to open it so he could have the fish inside.

you were sitting in the lab watching Hoolan try and figure out how to get his meal out of the container when Hubert walked into the lab with one of his hands behind his back. he had a shy grin on his face too, which was something you had never seen on him before.

" Hey Hubert, what's up?" you asked him, glancing at him before returning your gaze back to Hoolan, who by now had gotten the container opened and was munching on fish.

" Nothing much, I just wanted to stop by and see how you were doing, I'm kinda sad because I don't see you as much anymore, although I totally get why though." He replied, with a little bit of sorrow in his voice. You turned over to him to see him extending a flower in your direction.

" Where did you get this?" you asked him as you took it from him and examined it, it was red with small petal-like things.

" I stole it from Maria," he said, you widened your eyes at his words, but then furrowed them when he started laughing

" Not really, I picked it up from one of my missions," he replied looking down at you with a small smile.

" Oh, thank you, Hubert, it's beautiful," you said caressing its red petals.

" I... was wondering Y/N." his demeanor suddenly changed from playful to bashful. " If you wanted to hang out with me in the common room, Just you and me this evening." at that you snapped your attention back to him. he had his hand in his pockets and was looking shyly down at the ground. You didn't know what to think, you had never hung out with just Hubert before, plus you had to tend to Hoolan.

" Um. I dunno Hubert, I have to watch Hoolan," you said looking up at him. You could practically see him deflate, which made you want to say something to comfort him, but you didn't know what.

" Oh, ok, just let me know if you do want to, I will just be in the common room if you change your mind." and with that, he turned away, and you could hear him sigh before the door closed behind him. Gosh dang it! you didn't mean to hurt his feelings. You would like to hang with him, you really would, but you also wanted to stay with Hoolan.

You sighed yourself and turned back to Toolan's tank tracing your finger across the glass in deep thought. After a minute of doing this, you realized that Hoolan was copying you and had one of his legs tracing the glass in almost perfect sync with you. You smiled widely at that and dropped your finger to look at him.

He held his leg on the glass for a second afterward before turning and heading back deeper into his tank.

" What do you think Hoolan, Should I do it?" you asked the little creature. but he only payed attention to the little hole he was digging in the sand. You looked after him while thinking about what you should do, Hoolan would be fine for a few hours. He didn't need constant attention, he would be ok. At that, you smiled and jumped up from your seat and quickly making your way to the door.

" I'll be back in a bit Hoolan!" you called after him as you made your way out of the door, heading down the halls to your room to freshen up. As you left the room you didn't notice the little peculiar creature had stopped what he had been doing and stared after where you had been for a long while after you left.

_ _

You took in a deep breath standing in front of the door to the common room. You had taken a shower and changed out of your lab attire and was now about to enter the room to hang out with Hubert. After another deep breath, you finally summoned up the courage and walked through the doors into the common room. Hubert looked up from where he was sitting with a surprised look on his face that quickly turned into a big smile.

" Y/N you came!" he exclaimed, you smiled back at him.

" I figured Hoolan would be fine for a couple of hours, and besides, I missed seeing you as much too. a Slow blush came to his cheeks at your words and he himself seemed at a loss for them.

Spending those few hours in the common room was some of the best time of your life. You two literally did whatever came your way and all worries about Hoolan was banished from your mind. There wasn't a whole lot to do in the common room, but maybe that's why it was such a good time. Because it was so simple, yet so special to both of you. You two talked for hours on end and every now and then went to the cafeteria to get some drinks and snacks.

Hubert was quite the jokester but wasn't rude in any way. you wondered why no one else had walked in on you guys yet and figured that Hubert had asked them if they would vacate the common room for a few hours. you knew Jack and Paul would grant Hubert's wish but were surprised that Robert and Maria did too.

You two were just getting onto the topic of your family's when Paul burst through the door saying that Robert needed you in the lab Immediately. all the worries about Hoolan suddenly resurfaced. What happened? Did he get out? You jumped up grabbing Hubert's hand and pulling him with you as the three of you ran down the hall to the lab.

The three of you burst through the doors to find Robert, Jack, and Maria in the room. You looked over at the tank to see that... Hoolan was still in it. You inwardly breathed in a sigh of relief and leaned back into Hubert a little bit. He grabbed your shoulders to steady you and you started walking over to Robert. he had a big scowl on his face and you wondered what was going on.

" What's wrong?" you asked as you approached, with Hubert at your heels. Robert let out a deep breath before looking at you.

" The guys up top have been reading the reports on Hoolan, Tomorrow they're sending down a Submarine to pick him up to take him to a place where he can be... better studied." You felt despair at the thought of Hoolan being taken away from you, But the pause from Robert made you a little suspicious, he wasn't giving you all the details. You gave him a hard look.

" Robert, what aren't you telling me." the whole room was silent for a moment before he said six words that made your heart shatter.

" Y/n... They're going to dissect him.