Welcome to Gaia! ::

A moment later, there was a very audible explosion from the other side of the door. The large metal door itself did not move, but streams of smoke flowed out through whatever cracks the explosion had made. After small, very silent moment, the door began to creak. Then the top began tilting towards the hallway. And soon the entire metal slab that was once a door fell over and slammed into the floor of the hallway. Large circular black scorch marks where the explosives had been placed around the edges of the door were still smoking. The rest of the door was charred and burned, as well as the hallway it had been facing. Smoke still barreled about, gently flowing into the clean air of the hallway that the Count was in.

In the center of the smoke, slowly walking out into the clean hallway, was a coughing little girl.


Meanwhile, the footsteps that had been calmly walking down the hallway had grown quiet after the explosion. After a few moments, the echo returned. This time, there was a sense of urgency to their pace.

The child coughed out a reply as she tried to wave the smoke out of her face. "Thanks... I *cough* couldn't get the bombs up very *cough* high. Just put them all over the *cough* edges..." she said. Finally she heard the footsteps stomping down the hallway towards them. She took a quick glance down the hall, then turned and began running down the smoke filled hallway.

She led the Count down the hall and up to another large set of doors. This set wasn't anywhere near as intimidating as the one she had blown up, but it was definitely a room that the people here wanted to keep people out of. The child hurried through the door and phased her way into the room. A moment or two later, the door opened. The child was standing ontop of a chair, pressing a security card against a machine just next to the door.

Rosie 1.0 was still busy scanning through the pill bottles. She had several bottles set out to the side. Each filled with round pink tablets that were different sizes. Some with a stripe, some not. The child couldn't remember exactly what her medicine was called, or what it looked like.

Rosie 1.0 sighed slightly and continued to go through whatever pink pills she could find. "We all are until our new powers settle in. If they ever do..." she said. "There's also a liquid form that lasts a lot longer and acts a lot quicker, but I hate needles. I don't know what liquid it would be."

"That's in another room anyway." Rosie 2.0 said. Then she paused for a moment in thought. "Rubies are nice... Sapphires would go pretty with my coloring too. Silver is better than gold..." she mused.

Then there was a deafening SLAM from the hallway the Count had been in moments ago. As though the metal door that had been broken off of the wall had been forcefully tossed into the side of the wall.

Both children stopped what they were doing and stared towards the doorway. Rosie 2.0 paused for a moment longer, then hurried over to her double to try and help her with the pills. She pulled a spare duffel bag out from a bottom cabinet and began dumping the pill bottles into the bag. She then moved to the other side of her twin and just started tossing in every bottle with pink pills she could grab into the bag. "So yeah... if you make it out of here... red or blue jewels would be nice. Maybe even diamonds on silver. Something pretty and sparkly. The more it glitters, the more I'll like it." the child continued quietly. Trying to keep the mood light despite the fact they had NO idea what was going to be roaming the halls now. It should take them a while to get to the room anyway, so they still had a little bit of time.

"A necklace would be better. I'll outgrow rings." the child replied, stuffing more pill bottles into her bag.

The other little girl glanced back at him with a frown. "I... I don't know of any other way. We only went in and out that door the one time the doctor took me back here. No one's really allowed back here." she replied.

"I could go look for one." Rosie 2.0 offered.

The footsteps again began echoing through the hall. Once again calm and unrushed. Likely the unseen figure knew that there wasn't many other places to run in this hallway. And if they had found the only other door, then they were making their way through the other half of the building.

Doors could be heard opening and closing. Likely allowing whoever it was to check the rooms to make sure they were empty.

"I.... maybe..." Rosie 1.0 replied. "There should be a list somewhere around here about what all is needed to make the medicine. This stuff won't last me too long I don't think." she said, then glanced back at him. "It should be in one of these drawers."

The footsteps and opening doors grew closer. Soon a shadow stretched across the floor as whoever it was approached closer to the room. The shape of the shadow looked innocent enough... no claws, blades, over muscular form... anything that would give much of a fret.

The two girls exchanged nervous glances. "Think you can find Grandma before your medicine runs out?" Rosie 2.0 asked quietly.

Rosie 1.0 hesitated and looked at the now rather heavy looking bag of bottles beside her. "....worth a shot..." she replied. They did need to get out of here as soon as they could. Searching for the paper would probably take too long.


Soon the source of the footsteps finally came into view. A man wearing simple slacks and a dark top under a white lab coat carefully walked up to another set of doors. He had short brown hair and wore dark sunglasses that covered a terrible series of scars. He stopped at the door, unaware that he was only a short distance from the Count or the two children. and opened it. Once opened, he stepped into the doorway and carefully looked around the room. Satisfied that it was empty, he stepped back into the hallway and closed the door.



Ultimate Doctor Octopus Reference

Rosie 1.0 quickly grabbed the dufflebag and shoved it onto the floor behind the table in the middle of the room. Morphing into her inky state, she melted into a puddle and tried to hide herself as a shadow under the bag. The girls double glanced back at the door, then phased through the counter she was standing on, hiding inside the cabinets.

A few moments later the man approached the room the group was hiding in. The door opened with a metallic click, and the man calmly stepped inside. As the Count had guessed, the man didn't look up. Had he been informed that the intruder had any sort of power other than "he uses arrows".... he would have looked up though. This man was far more used to dealing with people who hid on the ceilings to not look for that sort of thing. Right now he was simply looking for a child and a man shooting arrows.

Unfortunately for the Count though, the man was lingering in the doorway longer than he had for the other rooms. This was one of the chemical and medical supply rooms. This was one of the locations the child had likely been looking for. He'd need to take the time to look around the room to make sure no one was hiding in the room. He couldn't walk inside though... that could give someone the chance to sneak past him.

...Not that it would matter. He had "fixed" the main door on his way into this hall. He'd run into them eventually unless they had already escaped through the secondary exit.