Welcome to Gaia! ::

( writing here with the permission of the good doctor)

Chubbs stood at the fence, shouting over it to get the attention of anyone in the compound. There had been no reply for minutes now, the labs looked dead quiet. Chubbs looked at the fence, looking at the sheer size of it, it was obvious the thing was electrified. The power was out across the island though and he thought the fences maybe down. Looking around, like out of jurassic park, he found a stick to throw at it. He really thought it wasn't a good way to know, figuring even a stick wouldn't give up a spark. Chubbs tossed the stick at the fence and it hit, and fell to the ground. No signs of sparking or electricity he could see. Chubbs drew closer to the fence and held out his hands. With a wince, he swatted at the fence and tried pulling his hand back. Nothing happened again, so he swatted at it some more, again his hand didn't fry off. Chubbs eventually grabbed onto it with bare hands and heaved his massive frame up the fence with a grunt.

It took several minutes before he fell down over the other side with an " oof!" and a thud. He crawled to his feet and dusted himself down, pulling his shorts up from falling down his backside a bit. Chubbs stormed right up to the door, peering inside he couldn't see a thing. He banged loudly on the door.

" Hey!, what the ******** going on?!"

There was no sound, the door barely rattled, again he thumped hard on the door with both fists, everytime they slammed against the door, he felt more and more angry. His hits became harder, pounding at the door.

" Where is Joliette?! WHERE IS SHE?!!!"

He started ramming the door like he had done to his own duplex, thud, thud, THUD. It took him several minutes before the pain numbed his arm, he blinked and stopped, realising he was going ballistic. Chubbs stopped and looked above the door, and around the front, and went jogging off around the side of the building.

He came back around the other way, nursing his arm and looking about frantically, he couldn't find a way in. The labs were like a small fortress, and the front door was unbreakable. Chubbs got worried, the thought of Joliette being kidnapped was bad, but he would know where she was if she was here. Chubbs decided to look elsewhere, maybe she was hiding, maybe he wasn't the only one to be dumped in the forest. Chubbs headed back to the fence, but that's when he saw it. A jeep, parked a little out of the way, if he could get that running his search could be done a lot quicker.

Chubbs started riflng through the jeep, trying to find a set of keys sitting there, surely they were cocky enough behind their fence to leave them there. He found none, not a key anywhere. He looked at the steering column, wishing he knew how to hotwire a car from all those movies he watched. The thought finally hit his head now. This was Sabin's jeep, the one Sabin brought Chubbs to his duplex on. Chubbs sneered and dropped to the ground, reaching under the jeep and feeling around. After a minute he found the tube he was looking for and ripped it cut with his claws. It was the brakeline to the jeep.

" Hope you crash and burn in hell a*****e"

Chubbs stood back up and headed to the fence in a hurry, he needed to found Joliette, to found out what was going on.

Meanwhile, Sabin was hard at work in his office. He had been up throughout the night and was still going strong - operating on sheer excitement and obsession.

His desk was littered with papers, full of scientific diagrams, anatomy charts of a slew of different animals, and sketches, drawings, blending the most unlikely of creatures. Dozens of naturalistic books were also open or bookmarked over his desk. Completing the image was a wide, manic grin on the pale man's face.

He was so close. He had whittled down the options to one subject - one perfect canidate who would soon be en-route. And he had his techs working all night on creating the serum with Moreau's designs. And he had finally perfected the animal list as well - it would work. It was perfect - bringing his dreams to living, breathing life.

As much as Sabin loathed to admit it, and as much of a wonderous experience it had been being in full control of the whole Island... and as much as Sabin fantasized about all of this being HIS.... Moreau's return had brought one single fact to stark contrast. Sabin couldn't do it without Moreau. Moreau's 'casual' presentation of the key chemical mechanisms to achieve what Sabin had had his lab techs working on for MONTHS showed Moreau to be the Genius that everyone said. Insane, sure - but who was he to call that kettle black? Ultimately, this Island was Moreau's brilliance brought to reality, and Sabin - even with his existing notes and research - couldn't continue it alone. Not if ANYTHING went wrong - and not if he EVER hoped to do anything new. And along that thought... there was NO possibility Moreau would work under someone else on this project. Sabin was very familiar with Control Freaks.....
Which only left the option of leaving Moreau to think he was in control, but hold aces up his sleeve - to ensure that Sabin could do what he wanted to.

The ring of the cell phone in his pocket snapped him out of his ferver, followed by a breathy growl at the interruption. Snapping it open he snapped a "what" into the receiver.

Aubrey. Aubrey had, in the course of Moreau's instructions, been labeled in Sabin's rapidly decending moral state, an 'ousider'. Moreau had been keeping his 'project' from her, and instructed Sabin to continue doing so on her return. Aubrey was Moreau's biggest weakness, in Sabin's mind, and the knowledge that it had been Moreau's orders to do this whole project was a proverbial Ace up Dr. Duvert's sleeve.

A predatory grin slid across his face. "Aubreyyy." He crooned. "Merely following orders. Moreau is elbow-deep in his experimentations. I suppose a two month hiatus from his life's work will do that to a man."

"Calm down, calm Down, My dear Dr. Lockheart." Sabin sighed with an eyeroll as he reluctantly set down his pen right after adding "hypomelanistic blood red corn snake" to the bottom of the list on fancy Feral Labs stationary and slapped the file closed.

"Everything is in perfect working order. I am well aware of the new subjects present... and they have been seen to. No need for hysterics. And our subjects are no more out of sort than they were when they arrived on this island."

A sigh was audible over the speaker. "Good lord, Aubrey. You're complaining about the smell? But being wrested away from their homes is fine." Sabin's sympathy levels were minimal at the moment - these were experiments - tools of creation and transformation.

"No one was hurt" too badly. "I monitered all of them constantly, and saw to it that none of them starved. They had an extended camping trip. And it taught us volumes about the psychological side effects of the serums. I have dozens of pages of writeups. I don't interfere with your job, Dr. Lockheart - this aspect of the experiments is my job."

Sabin's brows lifted, masked by the fact that only his voice was carried to the young woman. "Of course I did. I was left in charge during your absence. In case you weren't aware, Aubrey, this entire island is a test. An experiment. One enormous project. I know that you are focusing on the chemical and biological aspect yourself, and playing nicey-nice with the subjects, but I am a social scientist.... but we've been through this before." He said with a bored tone.

"Now.... unless you have more to say... I'm in the middle of something and don't have time to chat on the phone."

"I disobeyed no instructions, doctor. I followed everything I was told to do - I monitered each subject, saw to their injections, and saw to their health. You are overreacting, Aubrey. The small amount of discomfort they experienced is nothing compared to the volumes of invaluable data we collected during this period. If you actually intend on doing any publiations or make any use of this research, then you need to know the full capabilities and side-effects of your project."

Sabin tapped the side of the pencil on his desk, leaning back in the chair. She would not tell him what to do. Aubrey had much less control than she thought she did, and that thought brought a smile to Sabin's face. While she might have a higher position by name, in the trust Moreau had comparted him over these two months, and the insturctions to keep the truth from her and a promise of protection from her ire, Sabin in all honestly was more in command than she. Sabin was working his way up - slithering his way into the real position of power here. It just required a bit of subtlety.

"You had your vacation, and your 'friends' are safe. Now calm yourself, you're creating a scene."

Not even an inkling of fear permeated Duvert's voice at the scolding of Aubrey. But before he could even lend protest to her accuations, as rehearsed as they would have sound, he heard a click and a disconnection.

He shrugged, slipping the phone back into his pocket with a shrug. If anything, her disconnecting him saved him the time of talking with her further. He had things to do, and if she wasn't going to take the time to speak to him in person, then why bother. In his mind, Aubrey was no threat - amusing perhaps, and a vital key in the powerplay... but not a threat. But seeing her irate was entertaining, especially when it was Moreau who was really at fault. He took a breath, savoring the experience, and then, with a strange whistling tune, he opened the folder again and pored over his notes, giddy.