Stella watched Nick put on the mask. She was a little shocked when he did so. The mask had dark energy to it, no telling what it was exactly. Stella put her sketch pad back into her pack when Nick showed signs of wanting to take it off. She was nervous that the mask would stick to learn all it could about him and would have to help take it off. Stella sighed in relief when Nick managed to get the mask off but noticed the tears that managed to escape his eyes. 

When they reached the lava river, Stella raised her eyebrows. This wasn't right. The lava would be dark and crusted over from exposure to being underwater... Suddenly, everything disappeared, replaced by a white room. Stella gritted her teeth and cussed under her breath. 

[b]"Another fucking simulation. I should've known,"[/b] she muttered as she didn't like the way the drones were nearing them. Stella quickly grabbed #3 and pulled the girl behind her to protect the young girl.

Stella rolled her eyes as the lead researcher spoke over a loudspeaker. [b]"Well, this will be a fantastic time for target practice.[/b] She said as she pulled over her rifle from her pack, lined up her sight on her scope, and fired three shots at three drones. She hit each of her targets. The bullets went through the middle of the floating orbs of steel, where the memory bank and power source were. With a destroyed memory bank, nothing that was recorded by the drones would survive. 

[b]"These people are ridiculous. We need a plan, fast,"[/b] Stella said to Nick as she ejected the empty casings and reloaded new bullets before taking down three more drones. Then the tremor hit, and her eyes widened slightly as Nick was right. They needed to get out of here fast.

Stella looked at #3 and smiled reassuringly down at her. Although her eyes flickered to the white collar. [i][b]We need to get that off of her,[/b][/i] Stella thought as she spied the door. She quickly reloaded her rifle and shot at the hinges of the door.