"...What." The labcoat was frozen for a moment, torn between opening the door to see what's outside and bolting it down to prevent whatever's outside from coming in. His hand hovered on the lockdown button but the result of that battle was already known, so he put the UI on the table and walked towards the door to look.

The X3 advanced on him, to prevent him from getting hurt he thought. As he was about to gently push the unit away it shouldered into him heavily, arms outstretched towards Edith. The last part of the general's speech sunk in. Chris gave Edith a long, impassive look before opening the cabinet of an emergency defibrillator unit.

Edith had watched the hologram. She knew him, having had the pleasure of being held by him and his men for several days. He'd aged much more gracefully than she, or had before getting young again anyway. When he mentioned autopsy that drew a distinct line in the sand. Mr. Labcoat gave a good surprised response which indicated to her that he wasn't in on the deal prior to taking the job. The X3 advanced and held its arm out toward her. "Like hell you will." Before it got too close it suddenly seemed to slow down. Slipping off the table she swiped the defibrillator and a tool from Chris' pocket. Coming around she stayed out of the slowing field and pried a panel off. Without hesitation she place the defib against it and with a loud pop it hit the ground and things went back to normal. Adrenalin up the teen was breathing heavily and smirked. "Piece of crap." She spit on the thing before walking over and she started removing more parts, trying to get at something.



Glancing at Chris she rolled her eyes. "Don't just stand there. More will be coming if this thing called for backup." Reaching in she pulled out a power cell. Glancing at the output she smiled brightly. This could have many uses. Not the least of which was big boom. Looking around some of the medical equipment could be cannibalized but she didn't have the time to disassemble everything.

Cassie

Cassie awoke in the back of the LA... something or other. Opening her eyes she shook herself awake. The hunter just stood there, straps attached to its shoulders to keep it in place. There was a click as it's mic activated. "Morning there sleeping beauty. Got any smart remarks to make? Most people do when they go in." She just sat there in silence. "No? Nothing? That's a little disappointing. I quite like this time of back and forth banter." Her phone in her pocket began to ring. "Is your boyfriend missing you?" She smirked and looked at the helmet in where she assumed his eyes were. "No, I'm missing my brother." There was a flash of light in the LAV, and everything not tied down was pulled in towards her...

Meanwhile in the Lab within the keep Edith and Chris would have seen a flash of light, before everything light (or close to the epicentre) was hit by a gust of air as a woman appeared. However the net was still attached and through fatigue and being caught in a net she fell down. Rolling over she looked at the rooms two occupants. "You're not Ryan... and you're not Ryan." She sighed closing her eyes for a second, trying to force the fatigue out of her head. God this teleporting business was exhausting, and hard. She had focused so hard on him, how did she know she was even in the right place?

Then her ears started working and she could hear the alarms. Well, that was probably a good start. She propped herself up slightly, still in the net. "Either of you guys... seen my brother? 'bout, six feet tall... turning to stone?" She let out a sigh. "Or are you gonna knock me out too?" She was still that much out of it she wasn't really focused on the fact that the woman was dressed in prison garbs or the ruined robot.

Watcher

"Chaos, that was unexpected. Though when all is considered what else could have happened? Alarms ringing, doors locking. I have given them all I can without myself being discovered. Though I feel that they may have more than they themselves know. It's a complicated conundrum. However I chose to have faith. Gifts given for a reason, they are strong enough to use them without causing any damage or adverse reactions. Though I do suppose this is only the beginning. Now we will see the path they will take."

TARGET FLEEING

Almost immediately, Artie began his pursuit routines. As a robot, Artie was perfectly capable of keeping up with any fleeing pedestrian- and his size and strength allowed him to keep up with anything short of an Olympic athlete. However, when dealing with anomalies, criminals and other targets, pursuit often led to drastic elevation of conflict. As a part of his programming, Artie's pursuit routine was designed to help reduce the potential for elevated conflict- as such, Artie would follow and chase the target at a short distance until the target ran out of energy- it was almost inconceivable that Artie would run out of power before the human did.

"Citizen 4561-2407-9485, Renat Emlyn. You are under arrest. Do not resist." Artie repeated as he followed Renat through the streets, his robotic voice perfectly flat and calm despite the large amount of physical activity that was taking place.

At the same time, Artie reached into Mars' network and found several X3's in the local area. Selecting the four closest to the fleeing target, he slaved the X3's to his own personal systems. Almost instantly, he was able to "see" what each of the X3's saw, and simultaneously control their exact motions- almost as though he was in their 'bodies'.

ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL

Now effectively in control of 5 bodies, Artie continued pursuing the target at a distance, finally following him into an alleyway, where the target slowed, and placed his hands in the air- A gesture indicating that one is unarmed and unable to reach at any hidden weapons, therefore implying their surrender. As Artie caught up with the human, the X3's he was controlling appeared on the other side of the alley, effectively cutting off his other method of escape. The now 5 machines approached Renat, rifles raised threateningly, despite Artie's orders to take the human alive.

"Citizen 4561-2407-9485, Renat Emlyn. You are under arrest. Do not resist." Artie repeated for what must have been the tenth time. Leveling his rifle at the anomaly, Artie continued. "The human body has a minimum reaction time of .11 seconds, and a maximum theoritical speed of 65 Kilometers Per Hour. Taking into account the reaction time of the X3 and X4 models, as well as the 2000 meters per second velocity of the round fired from the ACR-10, I estimate your chances of avoiding my weapon at 0 percent."

"Do not resist, and you shall not be harmed."

With that, one of the X3's behind Renat approached the boy with a set of stun-cuffs.

The labcoat's eyes crawled towards the monitor on the UI. He picked it up and swiped until a strange inductive spike on all antenna probes was in the middle of the screen. This was the defibrillator discharge. He swiped further back. There was the noise rise from the X3 coming closer to the antennae, and because of the equipment's sensitivity he could almost see the communication signal it was transmitting. And about ten seconds before it was dropped by Edith, there was a sudden change of power output. He zoomed in - the change was too fast for the equipment to measure properly.

The mech's slow collapse, as if it was in a low-gravity environment, did not escape Chris. But the measurements weren't enough to indicate anything. He pushed his glasses up his nose and erased all records of this session. Illegal human experiments he was expecting - but murder? Not on his watch.

Edith got his attention, kneeling over the mech and holding its battery like an ancient barbarian who just ripped out her opponent's heart. It was believable in her movements, and she suddenly seemed horrible and frightening to him. He reeled slightly, then came around her carefully and pulled at the mech's rifle until it came out of its hip holster with an unwilling click.

He put the thing on the table. It was heavy and unbalanced, obviously made to be operated by robots. There was a touch-contact connector on the handle, interfacing with a similar one on the hands of the X series, for various telemetries and compensators. Still, the gun was mechanical at its base, meant to be used by human operators in emergencies. It was locked down, but Chris remembered studying this model's internal structure. There was a way to manually override the lockdown, and he was halfway into disassembling the technician panel when the air changed and there was a mermaid on the floor. He barely resisted a sudden urge to aim the gun at her.

"Where did you come from." he said simply.

Edith had moved over to one of the medical devices and was getting ready to gut it when the pressure wave blew her hair around and caused her to squint. Turning back she expected to see some mechanical thing but it turned out to be a woman trapped in a net. Where the hell had she come from. Babbling about someone named Ryan. For a moment she was ready to attack the individual but noticed markings on the net that were familiar. This wouldn't have been your usual issue of snare or shock lines. Having been asked a question she approached and began to loose Cassie from the tangled mess. "Not unless you do something stupid. Who are you, how did you get in here?" Whoever Ryan was could wait. Though he could have been the one she briefly saw earlier.

Having taken the net away she was once again showing her technical prowess by dismantling the sources that gave the device such a shock. Tossing it on a table with the power cell from earlier she glanced at the door. Whatever was out there had been making quite a bit of noise. They needed a way out and likely it wasn't just waltzing through the front door, at least not without some trouble.

Cassie

Cassie just shrugged, as she nodded her thanks to who was obviously was a prisoner. "I don't plan on doing anything stupid." Seeing the lab like setting she thought on what Ryan would say. "Didn't you know? I'm the new intern." She laughed awkwardly at the joke. The alarms didn't really make it the right time to joke she supposed. "In terms of your question, I was in the back of a tank thing. Wanted to go to my brother, and I came here. So I can't be far, I guess I'm what you could call a meta human. Though Super also works, mutant I guess is more scientific." She shrugged. "I can teleport, any- well not anywhere. I didn't even know if I could try and teleport to someone based on a connection. I think I must be out a bit..." She stood up. Still a bit shaky. "It's just a bit tyring. Why am I telling you this? I got enough energy to get away if you guys are thinking about anything nefarious. Don't you worry about that." She leaned back against the table, she noticed the knives above her but chose to ignore them.

"So, what are you guys upto?" Whether it was obvious she was stalling or not, she didn't care. This wasn't where she was meant to be, and one of the guys was wearing a labcoat. This could all be some kind of elaborate trap after they somehow found a way to hijack her teleporting... or were using Ryan against her.

Ryan

Ryan jumped over a rail, hoping that his legs would keep. Falling a good ten metres, he hit the ground and went into a crouch stumbling over. He wasn't exactly an athlete. The weaker stone substance that had been covering him cracked up his legs. Some of it coming off, he looked around. He didn't have a clue where he was going, then all the lights went out except down one hallway. This was either the mystery TV guy or a trap.

He shrugged, if it was a trap he'd get to hit something. With that he ran down the corridor at as much speed as he could muster.

Chris opened his mouth, but a siren blare interrupted him. He cleared his throat. "You have to get out of here." he said, giving the door a long look. Anything could be out there right now - Lizardmen, floating heads, giant robots, spider-people. He figured he should've used the word 'we' in respect of getting out of here, but this somehow made him feel less safe.

He ran into some trouble with the gun's automatic safety, and when he noticed Edith taking apart the mech and the net, figured he should let her take a look. But a moment before he handed her the gun, some more gears clicked into place, in regard to what he was seeing and what she said. She had been in jail since before he was born, and now she was collecting energy sources...

"Miss, you are a terrorist, aren't you." The room suddenly became very very small.

Working she glanced at the woman that was running her mouth. It didn't take very long to realize what she was doing, it was a tactic she used herself to get out of a couple jams. Speaking up she made a comment that would have fit better were she still in her old age. "You need to calm down child. I don't really care who you are or why you're here so long as you don't get in my way." But upon mention of teleporting she stopped. How exactly did that work? Stupid question, she was already in some bizarre situation where she was a teenager with gray hair that can apparently slow things down. That was actually more instinctual than anything when it came to the X3.

But back to the problem at hand. Maybe there was a bargain to be made here. Turning her attention back to Cassie she took a breath. "Teleport? If we help you find your brother can you get us out of here?" Unlike Chris' reasoning using terms like "us" and "we" were persuasive words that made people feel included. It was something she employed heavily during her more free years.

Speaking of which Chris was about to out her. It looked like he was going to hand her the gun. Though she reached out to take it he stopped and drew back. Edith could see it in his eyes, the lights had come on and the tidbits of information and actions fell into place. But then he outright asked her if she was terrorist. Who does that? It's a great way to get killed. Thankfully she wasn't the same kind of person she was when she came in. Having paused what she was doing she resumed although somewhat with less vigor. "I was thrown in prison 43 years ago with a life sentence. 43 years I was locked up and grew into a 87 year old hag. That amount of time to yourself gives you a good opportunity to reflect. Yes, I was a terrorist. But that woman died in that prison cell. I woke up here 17 again. Honestly I'll take that as a second chance. But I'll be damned if I'm going to spend another hundred some years in a hole or let them take me apart like some lab rat." Making a few more connections she left one wire loose and tucked it away so it wouldn't contact anything.

Cassie

Listening to the conversation she was both loosing faith in them, and loosing time. She knew the name, but how did he always manage to do it? No matter where they were? When she thought about it was actually a little bit creepy. The child comment almost made her laugh. "Child? I'm older than you." Then came the going back in age comment. "Oh well that explains it."

She did this while pondering the question could she teleport other people out. Well obviously, that's why the Watcher sent her to get Ryan but three people. She'd be exhausted. Though she agreed, I mean who was she to go against killer robots with guns and stuff. Getting killed wasn't really on her Agenda today. "You got a deal. If you find my brother. I'll get us out of here." She offered her hand to shake, what was a deal after all without a bit of formality?

Ryan

Nearing the end of the hall he could see a door in his way. Casting his shoulder first and turning into a cross between a run and a scuttle he hit it full force with his left shoulder. Crashing through it into a roll. At first he could only see various X3 robots, nothing too tough. Though then something hit him, hard. Back out the hole he made in the wall and down the corridor he came sliding to a halt, he shook his head to try and clear it. Standing up he almost fell over, yeah. That was definitely a concussion. That was going to be interesting.

Watcher

"It's all coming together-" He cast his arms at the screens on front of him. Speaking to nobody in particular, the enthusiasm evident in his voice. "-These people. These people are the future of Mars. They will shape it, mould it. They are the masters and it is their clay and whatever has come before will pale in comparison to what comes after."

"Citizen 4561-2407-9485, Renat Emlyn. You are under arrest. Do not resist."

They should really program these VIs to take into account things such as human annoyance, Renat thought as he panted, hearing the same message again.

"The human body has a minimum reaction time of .11 seconds, and a maximum theoritical speed of 65 Kilometers Per Hour. Taking into account the reaction time of the X3 and X4 models, as well as the 2000 meters per second velocity of the round fired from the ACR-10, I estimate your chances of avoiding my weapon at 0 percent."

Since when did VIs gloat? And what is an X4? I haven't heard of that model before.

"Do not resist, and you shall not be harmed."

"Ok, I get it. I've surrendered," he snapped at the robot before stopping himself, secretly thankful that VIs were not very good at human behaviour or tone recognition. He noticed an X3 approaching from behind with cuffs. Stun cuffs? I heard they were not as bad as they sound, just enough to keep you rather uncomfortable. Though I still don't fancy trying them on. Renat continued talking in a calmer tone - despite that the VI still probably didn't understand half of what he said, he still needed to try. "I've surrendered and am not resisting. Stun cuffs hurt, that means I would be harmed - which you said I wouldn't be if I don't resist. And could you please tell me why I am being arrested? I have not done anything wrong and was never planning to." He was pretty indignant at the current situation. Sure, they had probably somehow figured out he had powers, but he hadn't caused a threat to anyone. Nor displayed his power to anyone - only telling his parents and friends. He didn't need or want to be another story shoved under the carpet wherever the 'freaks' go.

"I... I'm sorry." The labcoat lowered his eyes, the "90 year old teenager" effect hitting him in the face. Her voice and words, unfitting her appearance, were making her look like some kind of vampire or divine reincarnation, adding to his already undeniable discomfort with teenage girls (that he had done a good job hiding for the last hour). Edith did sound trustworthy, for some strange reason. Then again, he was never good at judging people.

But, it was time to return to the problem at hand. Despite her confidence, the newcomer did not seem to be in full control of her abilities (did she get hit by a net while in hyperspace?!), and they could only speculate whether her teleportation location really had anything to do with her brother's location.

He realized he had access to the facility's database. "I can check if your brother is here. What is his name."

Accepting the extended hand they shook on it. That was about as solid an agreement as any in prison. Turning back to Chris she took the gun from him. Her voice was much more toned down and rather calm. "We might need this. Let me get it working in case we run into more X3s." Whilst working she glanced up. "Can you save the brain scan we did? I want to look at it later." Taking a bit to get the gun to operate she scooted it back over to Chris.

"Well, strangely it begins with Ryan, the name I said earlier. Probably should have been able to figure that one out yourself Doctor. I guess that's why I wasn't an intern here... too smart." She walked over at the mention of the brain scan, taking out a portable drive and handing it to the said Doctor. "Pass it over onto this, I haven't been able to get my own brain scan having atleast one persons will probably be quite useful." Then she realized what she was talking about before.

"Ryan Wells, was taken about a Month ago when everyones power started manifesting. He had some form of red rock growth on his chest where he was punched. He's not the calmest of people so has probably been trying to hit his way out for a while." She sighed, she only hoped that she would be able to get them all out of here. Otherwise they'd all need to punch their way out.

Chris looked up sharply. He did not appreciate strangers insulting his intelligence. He made a quick calculation in his head - indeed, if the ability to recover names from disattached pieces of random speech had anything to do with being a doctor, the future of medicine would be grim indeed. In fact, the only reason he still remembered Edith's name was because it was written in front of him, on top of her file. He had no idea if the teleporting woman introduced herself or not.

His eyes lowered to the data drive in her outstretched hand. "No." he said flatly while punching in the missing brother's name. "There is no time, there is too much background noise, and the instruments here are connected to the USF network. I do not have time to reconfigure the connectivity. No data must reach the USF database."

When the wide, square-jawed face of a Ryan Wells appeared on screen, he handed the handheld UI to the newcomer, replacing it with the X3's rifle. "He does not appear to have red rock growth, at least in this picture. Strangely enough, he was in a cell next to you." he looked at Edith. "We know where to start looking, at least. Let's go."

The labcoat gave the disassembled X3 on the floor a last look, and took a step towards the door. He detected the signals appropriate to adrenaline release and heart rate increase. His fear of what's beyond the door took an almost physical form. He clenched his teeth, released a slow breath, trying to bring his vitals down naturally.

And as his hand hovered over the opening switch, the door slid open, revealing the glistening, angular shape of a fully-equipped X3 that was summoned by the general some fifteen minutes ago to subdue and dissect Edith.

Chris apparently forgot about the earlier order for backup. As it appeared he was going to just open the door she rushed up. Yes there was the robotic X3 waiting for them. Careless. Pulling the gun from his hands Edith fired several shots through its head and three down the torso.

The guns kicked harder than she remembered. Maybe it was her smaller weaker frame that just made it seem that way. Lowering the barrel she rubbed her right shoulder a bit. "I'll scold you later. I can remember where I saw him last." Taking the lead she backtracked toward where she had seen Ryan turn off. Down that direction was a trail of destruction that made it slightly easier to follow. The sound of more X3s could be heard which seemed to indicate they were getting closer.

"I've surrendered and am not resisting. Stun cuffs hurt, that means I would be harmed - which you said I wouldn't be if I don't resist. Claimed the target, trying to reason with Artie, implying that the stun cuffs were causing him harm. Artie's response was nearly automatic.

"Incorrect. 'harm' as defined by USF standards is the incapacitation of a person via trauma to vital organs, and limbs through the use of blunt force, weapons fire, or torture techniques. The use of USF standard Stun Cuffs are not included within these parameters." Artie stated plainly, his sentence punctuated by the clasping of stun cuffs around Renat's wrists.

One of the X3's prodded Renat forward, as Artie led the captured boy out of the alley, surrounded by the X3 units.

"And could you please tell me why I am being arrested? I have not done anything wrong and was never planning to."

"No." Artie stated plainly.

Activating his communicator, Artie established a communications link to his Hunter supervisor. TARGET SECURED. AWAITING FURTHER ORDERS. Almost instantly, a message was patched through to Artie's command network. ANOMOLY DETECTED. REPORT TO SECTOR ZETA-ALPHA-34 IMMEDIATELY. Acknowledging the command, Artie turned on a dime, and began marching away, leaving the captured suspect with the four X3's still slaved to his mainframe. They stand there with the secured prisoner until the Hunter arrived. Meanwhile, Artie would report to the Industrial Sector as ordered, there were more Anomolies to capture.

Cassie

Cassie ducked as the X3 stood at the door, however the ninety year old teen soon disposed off it. She stood up again brushing herself down. "If he doesn't appear to have red rock growth then he's either better or you've not dissected him yet. Both would be quite good." They reached the cells and saw the discarded X3 units, the youthful pensioner picked up on the fact it could lead to Ryan first. "Yeah, but the question is do we want to follow the trail of broken parts. I mean surely they're going to be bringing in something-" As she said that the lights went out, except for a straight path. In the distance a door could be seen opening and something being thrown back. That something was Ryan. He landed nearby, trying to stand he stumbled a bit.

"Ryan!" She ran up to him, slowing slightly as she saw that the growth had spread. In fact his skin seemed to be... shattering in places revealing the transformation underneath. "Ryan, you okay?"

"Cass? Why are you here?" He looked around. "This isn't exactly the safest off places." He then noticed the other prisoner, though more importantly the man in the lab coat. Brushing Cassie aside he walked upto him and made a move to grab the man by his lab coat and lift him up.

Ouch! Renat mentally exclaimed as the stun-cuffs were put on him, promptly sending a shock through his system.

"No." The robot gave Renat's second question a brief response.

Well, thanks a lo- Ouch! The shock hurt and caused him to jump, but fortunately the cuffs were not sending him into a spasm like that net had done to the woman. Renat still felt a bit guilty about running and leaving her, but she had told him to. What he felt even more guilty about was that he had gotten himself captured anyway.

Suddenly the robot-with-an-attitude turned and marched away wordlessly. "Hey, where are you goi- Ow!"

Well, I guess it's just me and these dumb X3s. What are we even doing, just standing here and looking pretty? This is embarrassing, what if someone recognises me? Rumours will probably be spreading in moments... Shock, pause. Since when did I care about what what the others at school think? Those who moan don't matter, those who matter don't moan about me. I just hope Richard and Anna are safe. Owww!! Dang, this thing is thing is going to get annoying.

Fear was strange, when it had no chemical effects on the body. Moving down the hall, the labcoat looked at Edith's back with a new kind of admiration. He was busy freezing in fight-or-flight when she grabbed the gun from his hands and punctured the metal nightmare that barged into the infirmary. In fact, he could not move for the next few seconds, and had to physically push himself away from the desk to make his feet move and follow the two women. Any normal person would enjoy an adrenaline boost after this kind of event, but Chris had to actively decide to have one, and he did. It helped a little, the effect allowing him to focus on a single thing without worrying about the 1001 kinds of death he could experience in the facility.

When they reached Ryan's holding cell, he was busy looking over his shoulder and listening for metallic footsteps or gunfire, and didn't notice the large man charging at him until he was upon him. What followed was an instinctive reaction more than a calculated one - his arms threw themselves upwards as his labcoat was lifted, and with a quick spin he dove out of it and under Ryan's wide arm, leaving the empty garment in his hands. Marginally out of the man's reach, he took a few seconds to assess the situation through the fog of an induced adrenaline rush.

"Hey. Calm down. I am with them." He threw up his hands, taking care of staying out of the man's reach. He realized Ryan was even larger up close, and really hated to be stuck in the crossfire between a huge mutant and an army of metallic death machines. "We're here to grab you and get out. Right? Tell him." He waved a hand at the teleporting girl over his shoulder.