Phineas Braun

In most timelines, the late Dr. Phineas Braun was once a Pokefutures scientist. He was a polymath mechanical engineer and geneticist who pioneered the creation of the FutureSeries line of cyborgs. At least three versions of Braun have appeared thus far. The first of the Brauns to appear was the version endemic to the main timeline who has since passed on. In at least two of these instances, one of Braun's research partners, Liz Tonio, was responsible for his demise.

The personality of one of the Phineas Brauns in the original timeline is vastly different from that of the others.

Common Threads

Dr. Phineas Braun originally came from Eddisburg in what is now [Germany]. He eventually became a genetic researcher under the employ of Pokefutures. Toward the end of his life, he worked on the FutureSeries Project, which brought him to a facility in the deserts of Orre. In at least two timelines, he attempted and succeeded in cloning Zapdos tissue retrieved from a mysterious codex. This would've been the first of the FutureSeries Legendaries, which he dubbed the Adonis Project. The outcomes of this experiment varied, but they all came to head the same way. His co-researcher, Dr. Tonio, did not believe that a cloned legendary could be controlled. She intervened and acted to stop Phineas through a murder attempt. From there, the story varies.

In the Original Timeline

The Dr. Phineas Braun of the original timeline managed to clone Zapdos tissue. His process built upon the work Dr. Fuji made in the creation of Mewtwo, which avoided the dreaded reality-warping aberrations that resulted from cloning legendaries in the past. Soon, enough tissue was made, which his team grafted into a FutureSeries android he dubbed the Adonis. Tonio made an attempt on his life that only managed to trap his consciousness in the computer systems. She later abandoned the still-active site and left it to decay with Braun still in it. While his physical body withered away in a permanent coma, he was stuck in the decaying systems of his facility. One of his only means of escape was the still-intact Adonis project, which needed only an operating system to be functional, but it was just out of reach. Over the years, Braun became obsessed with his god-machine and wanted to be united with it.

His impossible dream nearly became reality upon the arrival of the Aurabolts, who were investigating the abandoned Pokefutures site. The group had detected him and his project when they found life signs that weren't analogous to either a living or dead Pokémon. He at first tried negotiating with the group to let him possess the Adonis, but the group felt him untrustworthy and were disgusted by his beliefs. They flipped the kill switch on the Adonis, preventing it from ever becoming active. In his fury, Braun attacked the invaders and, later, fled to another FutureSeries legendary in storage in the facility, one based on Palkia. He would also attempt to possess one of the intruders. Upon his defeat, however, the Aurabolts captured his consciousness and decided to terminate him altogether, having decided that he was already dead.

Afterward, his shriveled human corpse was dumped into a natron pit near the collapsed facility, now under PEFE management. It along with the other FutureSeries units, including the Adonis, mummified in the dry desert air.

Personality

Little is known of Braun's personality in the original timeline. What is known paints an unflattering picture of him. He was a humanocentric mad scientist obsessed with creating "a better pokémon." In his dying moments, he showed himself as arrogant and unrepentant. Years of isolation have made him a megalomaniac, unrelenting in his quest to become a deity. His ideology is common among Pokefutures scientists.

In the Second Pokefutures Timeline

While he worked in the same site as his OU counterpart, Phineas Braun's life and work took a very different direction, as was the result of his version of the FutureSeries. His initial prototypes retained their central nervous systems and developed unique personalities. Phineas spent a lot of time with them alongside one of his partners, a Pokémon behaviorist of native Orren descent, who he later fell in love with. He did not have the same advantage presented by Dr. Fuji's work in this timeline, so he and his colleagues decide to clone individual Zapdos cells into a matrix formed from a human blastula to stabilize them. The blastulae he used were formed from his own cells and that of his partner.

At least one of their charges, a roboticized zoroark, broke the communication barrier. Phineas thought that this one Zoroark far surpassed average human intelligence and matches his. Over time, both him and his partner eventually came to sympathize with their charges, though they kept this hidden from their colleagues. Over time, they gradually became disillusioned with the company's goals and methods.

His later experiment with what he dubbed the Adonis project yielded an entire Zapdos cellular line that was kept under control through human tissue. He and his partner were later allowed to see one develop further, which became a being in the shape of a human child.

Sadly, Phineas' lover was murdered, an act that made him very suspicious of the company and its motives. As with the OU, Tonio came to see the project as a fruitless, dangerous endeavor for Pokefutures, which was consolidating its grip on the planet, and moved to Phineas and his then-girlfriend terminated. She found that Phineas had not only pushed through with the project but created a potentially dangerous chimera. Unlike in the OU, Tonio's attempts at ending his life were successful; this, however, proved to be advantageous as Phineas would later reappear as a rotom. He would then sabotage the facility and, in the ensuing chaos, smuggle out both the chimera and a group of FutureSeries prototypes. They would later join the resistance against Pokefutures, though their freedom fighter attempts would be cut short when they fell into the OU due to Dr. Multiman's actions. The chimera, posing as his trainer Upton, now works for the Geographic Society.

Personality

This version of Dr. Phineas Braun had a much different personality from his counterpart, at least later in life. Based on his own account, Phineas saw his younger self as hubristically arrogant and morally repugnant, indicating that he was very much like the OU Braun at one point. His partner's positive influence may have helped him change for the better, and he still remembers her fondly. He still has shades of the arrogant mad scientist in him and loves pointing out how intelligent he is. Years of introspection and acting as a parental figure have helped shape his conscience, and he today treats his former employers with open contempt.