Syoran was suprised by his words. How could he have forgotten something like that? How could he have forgotten about their child?
"Heh heh! Go you, Syoran! Okay, yer clear. Would ye' like to meet everyone else now?"
Doc unstrapped Syoran from the table.
"There are others?"
"Oh, yeah. I'm sorry I couldn't tell ye'. We had to take precautions. You never know when you could be one of them."
Again, Doc spoke of 'Them'.
"Who do you mean, Doc?" Syoran said, hopping off the table.
"You mean you... don't know?"
"Know what?"

Doc stared at Syoran in disbelief.
"When all... This started, the Flytrap Corporation took over and manufactured the plants."
"Flytrap?"
"Oh, yeah. The very same Government Corporation that funded yer' ship."

Syoran understood it now.
Flytrap.
That was why Doc had taken 'Precautions'...

"Lets go now." Doc said, walking over to a thick metal door and opened it.
Manmade light flooded out of the doorway. Syoran had'nt realized how dark this room really was.
"Come on." urged Doc "Though the door, and down the hallway and to the left."
Syoran stepped out the door. He heard it clunk; Doc had shut it behind Syoran.

Syoran sighed.
"Down the hallway and to the left..." he said to himself.

Syoran started down the hallway. He found it a bit creepy. The lights were flickering and there were no doors.
He turned the first left. Stairs. Dark stairs.

Syoran took a deep breath and began to ascend them.
Step by step the stairs just got darker until he could not see, but instead had to feel with his feet where the next step was.
After a four flights of stairs, Syoran started to get frustrated.
"WHY ARE THERE NO LIGHTS IN HERE?!?" he yelled to no one.
As he predicted, no one answered.
He kept on blindly climbing the stairs until finally there was a faint light.
"Almost!" he kept telling himself "Almost..."
Syoran finally reached the light. It was, to his best knowledge, coming out from under a door.
He grabbed for the door handle when the lights came on. Everything around him was in view now.
He could here mechanical sounds rising from the bottom floor.
He could see a box rising from there. He had to hide, but where? There was nowhere to hide himself. He decided that he would fight off whatever the rising box was.
It crawled up the wall to a platform where he was and opened it's hideous metal mouth.
Doc stepped out.

"You could have took the elevator." He said.
"That.. MONSTER?"
Doc erupted in laughter
"MONSTER?!?!? BAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"It's not a monster, is it?" said Syoran.
"No, It takes you from one floor to another!" he said, still laughing.
"Come on, Syoran. We need to meet with the Council."
"Council?"
"Yep. I want to keep you in The Compound, but they want you out. Because you weren't born here."
"So... We're going to a meeting?"
"Yeah." Doc said, his voice completely void of an accent.
"Hey Doc?"
"Yeah?"
"What happened to your voice?"
"Oh, that! I had to use a fake accent when talking to you. This is how I really talk."
"Oh. Okay. Your not dirty either."
"Geez, nothing gets past you, huh?" he said.
"Come on, we need to get to the meeting. They're right behind this door. But you have to open it."
"Ummm. Okay." Syoran said awkwardly, opening the door.

A little black box above the door flashed green and a robotic voice spoke.
"FINGERPRINT AQUIRRED. PLEASE PROCEED."
Syoran was not startled. The S.S. Flytrap's Courtroom required fingerprints also.
Doc stepped into the courtroom and Syoran followed.
Seven Men were seated behind a long desk at the front of the room, all looked very serious.
The first one cleared his throat.
"Doc, please have a seat. You too Syoran of the S.S. Flytrap."
Doc sat in the two chairs at 'our' desk and motioned for Syoran to do the same, so he did.

The Second one spoke this time.
"Doc. W understand that you want to keep this boy with us in this compound, and we have reviewed your case. In your report, you stated that Syoran has quite a few genetic differances from anyone else in the compound. May I see your files?"

"Yes sir." he said, pulling a disc out of his pocket.
"Here they are, sir."
Doc got up to give the disc to the second man. He snatched it out of Doc's hand and slid it into a slot in his desk.
A glow came up to his face.There mmust have been a display screen on the desk surface.
"Hmmmm.... I see..." He murmured, touching the screen occasionally.
The rest of the men had crowded around the second man's desk to look at Doc's 'files' also.
This made Syoran snicker.
They all looked at him. They quickly looked back down and started murmuring again

They all eventually sat in they're respective seats and the second man gave the disc back to Doc.

The fourth man spoke this time.
"All in Favor, please aise your hands."
Doc watched them intently. The third man was the only one who did not raise his hand.

The first man spoke again.
"It is decided. Syoran will be staying within The Compound. But he must stay with you, Doc."
Syoran looked over at Doc. He was grinning.
"Fine by me."
"You are dismissed." said the second man.

Doc stood up and bowed to the men.
"Syoran- you too." he whispered.
So Syoran bowed to the men.

"Thank you very much, Elders." Doc said, straigtening up and heading for the door.

"Come on Syoran. We're going to my house."

~

Doc's house was in another part of the Compound; about that Syoran was sure. But where? There had been no doors in the hallway.
Doc was walking fast, almost too fast for Syoran to keep up with. He could apparently hear Syoran panting becuse he slowed down.
"Bet'cha you don't know where we're going." he said.
"Nope, where?"
Doc and Syoran had reached the door to the labroratory and Doc opened it. Back to the room where he had been recovering from the Tree attack.
Doc walk to the other side of the lab and pulled a brick out of the wall. Doc poked something on the other side and the room began to rumble. The wall Doc was standing at started moving to the side, revealing another staircase.
This one wasn't dark, but fully illuminated.

"Come on, Syoran." he said, smiling "Everyone is right up here."
Doc and Syoran stepped up the stairs and the wall closed behind them.
"How many flights of stairs this time?" Syoran said, jokingly.
"Only two."
Syoran was eccstatic.

~

The stairs emerged into a Dome.
A huge one. It contained an entire town, bustling with people.
There were many things there. The street in front of them had merchants, selling various things.
Doc almost collapsed in laughter when he saw Syoran's eyes.
Syoran was shocked at the Dome-Town; he had never seen so many people in his life.
"My house is right over there." Doc said pointing down a street that had no merchants, just houses and children frolicing here and there.
He and Doc walked over to the house on the left side of the Non-Merchant street; Doc's.
"Well, here we are. Welcome to my house. I know it's small, but don't worry. It's just me, my wife, and my daughter. She's a nurse." He said, winking.
A woman ran out of the house and hugged Doc.
"Doc! You've been gone for days! Is This him?" she said, eying Syoran. Doc nodded.
"Welcome home." She said, scooping Syoran into a hug.

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