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It was a quiet evening at HyTech...a little too quiet. So Philomena, local partially Turkish Angora young woman, was working to rectify that problem.

In one hand was a piece of expanded polystyrene foam, and in the other a neon bule that mildly resembled a tiny dog bone in shape. She was merrily rubbing the bule against the foam until the static electricity built up enough for the neon in the bule to cause the object to start glowing. "Oooh~" she said happily as she basked in the soft greenish light, but, almost immediately, the lights went out. A couple of flickers and those babies were toast.

"I didn't do it!" 'Mena said immediately, in case there was anyone with authority around. And really, this time it wasn't her fault! She held the glowing bule away from her face to let her eyes adjust to the darkness, and stood up to scan the room more carefully.

((You did fine :3 ))

'Mena's ears pricked forward at the sound of the whooshing sliding glass doors. There was a person--a woman, she decided based on what she could both smell and see--carrying something. A Gingerbyte? She recalled her mother's Byte, who spent most of his time glaring at 'Mena from his perch atop Shimy's computer monitor, and shuddered. They were kind of creepy.

"Hello~" 'Mena called out, waving the glowing bule to catch the human's attention. "Um. I'm not sure why the lights went out, but if we lost the power, I'm not sure the doors will work properly." Being electrically powered and all. "Oh. I'm 'Mena. I think I've seen you around here before, but I don't recall your name," she added apologetically.

'Mena moved over closer to Kiara, peering at the jar and the Gingerbyte inside. "Yeah, it could be worse," she said encouragingly. "I'm sure one of the shop Hytes will come out of their rooms or something soon enough. I mean, I'm pretty sure the labs upstairs have backup generators, but I wonder why the power would go off like that..." She leaned down and tapped lightly on the jar with a bemused smile. "These Gingerbytes are kinda creepy, huh? I like the Stocking Stuffer ones. The way they look at you sort of reminds me of Demi's death glare."

The odds of the HyTech frontdesk being unmanned - particularly when the only Hytes in residence were Maxwell and the dangerously-experimentative Philomena - during a sudden blackout with a customer come calling were approximately 135845 to 1. But that was invariably the way all good B-Grade horror movies [and RP threads] started. Up in the labs, conducting the regular check on the newly formulated protoform cylinders as she was meant to do in Jun and Maxx's absence, Demi was almost taken aback when the lights flickered off. Of course, the soft whir of the lab's own back-up generators started up in mere seconds - the protoforms would be safe.

There were no emergency lights in the lab in spite of its dedicated circuits - the generators served only to power the essential, such as the storage freezers for the vast collection of genetic samples…and the mainframe that now cast a soft glow in the cool darkness. She slid into the seat before it - the generators powered too the network of security cameras that she now called upon the feeds of.

"Maybe we should look around for somebody...?" filtered tinnily through the speakers. Philomena…a customer bearing a Gingerbyte in a jar…for a moment, she considered exiting the lab and setting straight the situation below…but wasn't it much better to watch the drama unfold?

Settling back into the chair, she idly wondered just where Belle - and, indeed, Charon - was, anyway.

The lights went out. Just...*poof* gone, and all Savvy could do was sigh. Perfect... She smacked her forehead with her hand, both the forehead and hand being minorly bandaged. A small little ginger byte in yellow dressings sat upon her shoulder, doing nothing but staring.

With her big, heavy duty, flashlight in hand, the kind that required the large square 6-volt batteries, she started walking down the halls, sweeping back and forth, looking for her little polar bear, who would be in a lot of trouble once she found him.

---

From behind 'Mena and Kiara came some rather loud, but muffled grunting noises. In the darkness a shape loomed, almost appearing like it was glowing from the whiteness of it. Things like tentacles wriggled from its mouth, which would scare any young Japanese schoolgirl. Glowing silver eyes glared at the young women. From behind the nearly-glowing-tentacle mouthed-shape figure, a light started shining, only enhancing the doomly aura that emanated from it. A deep growling came from creature as it got ever closer to the two girls.


Then, from behind the creature, an exasperated voice cried out, "Tio!"
The light from behind the creature finally came close enough to illuminate the figure, which, was now obviously not a glowing tentacle monster, but a small, angry, polar bear cub with thick, torn cords in his mouth.

Tio glanced quickly behind him, growling even louder at this new intruder. "Tio, what have I told you about going off and wandering on your own?" She berated him, waging a finger at him to more prove her point.

It was at this time that she noticed the two young women headed for the Staff Lounge. "Oh, hello there!", she said, decidedly more excited than she'd been a moment ago.

"Ah, yes! Sorry the late introductions. I'm Savvy, and this is Tio." She turned to her little polar bear, "Say 'Hello' Tio~"

"Grrrrrrrr" Tio gnawed on the cords in his mouth, staring back at the frightened cat-girl and her "wall".

"Tio!" Savvy got irate and picked up her little polar bear with her free arm. Before Tio had been 'born' Savvy hadn't been that strong, but after wrestling with a polar bear and attempting to carry him places, she'd put on a decent amount of muscle to be able to perform such a feat.

Normally, one wouldn't think it possible for the little polar bear to be angrier than he already was, however, he snarled at Savvy, and once propped up properly in her arm, he savagely started clawing at her, although the power cords still in his mouth were a little in the way.

The motion caused Savvy to loose her balance, and her flashlight, which stopped shining the minute it landed on the hard floor. So from the pitch darkness one could merely hear sounds such as, but not limited to, "Ow!" *rawr* "Ah!" "Pain!" *snarl* "Agh!" *growl* "Eee!" "Ack!"

By the time the flashlight flickered back into existence, only having been temporarily put out, one could see Savvy's now-frazzled and new cuts and bumps, in addition to her current multitude of bandages. She had Tio on the ground in a Full Nelson hold, restraining the growling polar bear, her teeth gritted.

Realizing she had become a spectacle, she turned towards the woman, and gave a half-hearted laugh. "Haha...uh...I just have to show him I'm the alpha and he'll calm down a bit." She laughed a little more weakly after that.

"I watch lots of wrestling!" Savvy got some stars in her eyes, 'cause it was a thing she was particularly proud of. At her distraction, Tio attempted to move to wriggle out of the hold, but Savvy just used her elbow to bash his head a bit and beat him into submission.

Once Savvy felt Tio go limp and stop resisting, she knew he had submitted to her, so she let him go and got up to dust herself off. Tio sauntered up onto his hind legs as well, but with visibly less anger than before. "Besides, he has a cute side to, like when....uh...." Although happy to recall memories, she was having a hard time putting her finger on a "cute" Tio moment. "Well there was that one time, he...er...." Her argument failing, she reached for the only conrete one that came to mind. "Oh I remember when he was still in his tube, I just thought he was the most adorable thing....wiggling around...and...every...thing"

Savvy felt defeated...she couldn't remember a single moment with Tio not being wild and malicious...at least...not while he was awake...