Welcome to Gaia! ::

Cetus flashed Lex a rather surprised face, enough to draw her to a stop. "No way, you're male?" she grinned through pants. "I never would've guessed."

She would've inquired more, but remembered they were both on a tight time limit, and continued her hustling again. She turned to a staircase and started taking two at a time, elongating her stride to touch each pair of steps. "I . . . don't really know, it's bothering the heck outta me- whoa!" There was a sudden rumble that quaked. The tremor was small, but caused the green-haired grunt to lose her footing a bit and slid down a stair. She nabbed her hand onto the handrail and steadily held herself as the building's shivers deceased.

"The hell?" Cetus gawked. "What was that? That was too big to be some kind of technological malfunction." Her hand shifted into her pocket, pulling out her communicator. "It's got to be on the western side of the build- Huh? My signal's jammed!" The communicator cackled with white noise, unable to pick up anything. "s**t. I don't know where we are."

"Skewed my damn ankle a bit, but I'll live. Gotten a bit worse than this," Cetus replied, wincing a tad as she hustled along. "Gotcha."

Admittedly, she was a tad bit worried about Shea, but knew Team Galactic couldn't care less about her Liepard's well-being. The prototype was their main concern. Another quake caused Cetus to clutch the wall, but she carried along until their desired floor's door came into view.

"Your ID, give it a swipe there," Cetus pointed to the panel. "Screw the docs, we can get the hacking team to obtain 'em."

"They're just a bunch o' lazy computer gits," Cetus harrumphed, blowing away the dark blue bang swinging about her gaze.

Her eyes scanned the area too and she picked out another door straight before them. Making a dash forward, she swiped her card through the mechanical slot and the panel shifted open. She pointed ahead. "The prototype's room is ahead. Hopefully your Cottonee knocked them out in time."

The room, dark and eerie, was only illuminated by the blaring white screen of a scientist behind a computer screen. He was typing away at will as their Galactics' desired -- the prototype -- was poked and prodded at by thin, mechanical arms. He perked his head up at the Grasswhistle, but was too late, and fell face first onto his keyboard in slumber, knocking and spilled his cup of java onto it. The computer cackled, sputtering with electricity, and halted the arms about the device.

"Not too big," Cetus affirmed as she entered the dark room, jerking her head to the right to see the Cottonee. "G'job," she muttered to it with a nod. Splaying her eyes on the suspended tech, she reached up and tried to pull it from its binding. "Sucker's on their tight," she wrenched as she tugged from the bottom.

More problems arise when something suddenly popped from the computer behind them. "Z-Z-Z-Zzzz," sputtered a Porygon-Z, clearly out of it. It's head rotated several directions before landing on Cetus. Unaware, it glided toward her as a terrifying speed, its eyes devoid of control.

Cetus blanched. "Crap!" she shouted, tugging harder. "Why won't this thing, ah!"

The Porygon-Z's eyes were suddenly clouded by an explosion of light balls of fluff. He halted mid-flight, shaking his senses of the countless cotton balls. A few flutters pushed the spores away and with his gaze now clear, he made arrowed trek straight for the Galactic grunt again. Suddenly, a shadowed slash, like a knife flash in the evening, interrupted the Porygon-Z's second aim of attack on Cetus. Shea landed a direct Night Slash on the computer Pokemon, sending it flying wildly to the perpendicular wall. Landing stealthily on her feet, the feline turned her head up to her trainer, and she granted her Pokemon a gracious grin.

"Thanks," Cetus smiled before putting her entire strength into one final tug. The prototype loosened from its bindings, stringing wires along, which finally snapped as the middle-aged woman ripped it from its womb. The tech was heavier than she imagined and weighed her down considerably within her grip.

"L-Let's go," she struggled. "I want to get out here ASAP."

"Le-mrrrow~" Shea purred to the compliment, striding up and taking a spot near Cetus's side.

Cetus quirked her head. "Are you sure?" she asked, but with the tremble of another unknown quake, she didn't question again. "Here you go," she said next, shifting the prototype into Lex's open hands.

A swarm of frothing Porygon-Z, haywire after the sudden security breach releasing, glided their way down the many hallways of the company towards the prototype room.

"Let's go," Cetus commanded, her anxiousness hustling her tone. "Something's coming and I'm not too eager to find out what it -- or they -- are."

"You're not the only one," Cetus agreed as, again, she was forced into running for her life. The door, which had closed before, was opened as she slid her key. Yet, the outside corridor was much more crowded then realized. There was far more Porygon-Z than just one. In actuality, there was at least twenty.

"Yeesh," Cetus gawked as the artificial Pokemon zipped and buzzed in her direction. "Shea, Night Slash, c'mon!" she cried.

The Liepard zipped into the fray, gliding under a dark streak, as she attacked the pink-blue Pokemon one by one to clear a path. The floor was only bare of maddened Pokemon for a few brave seconds each, but enough to have the duo make a dash away. Cetus did so, leaving her feline behind. Shea would make it out one way or another.