Welcome to Gaia! ::

"S'open," a distracted tenor voice called, and indeed the door was half-cracked. When Star pushed it open he'd find himself in a brightly-lit office about the same size as a grunt room, but far less crowded. It was in a state of casual disarray; a pair of bookshelves along the walls were half-filled with technical-looking volumes, binders and textbooks alongside Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction and a plush AT-AT. The center was occupied by a sleek desk supporting a shallow tray of tiny multicolored blocks, and a brace of plastic robots, one of which hung over a computer monitor. They were rather incongruous with the very complicated, official-looking flowchart their owner had been studying just before Star knocked.

"Hey; c'mon in." The young blond man behind the desk pushed up his glasses and flashed the department's newest addition a pleasant smile. "Ian, right?"

There was also a bright red and blue plastic gun with 'Marshmallow Blaster' printed on it propped against the desk.

"Okay," the blond laughed - not unkindly - after a blink, either at the name or the voice. He vaguely remembered it from.. back then, but it was just as strange to hear it a second time. "Well, either way - grab a chair, I'm just gonna pull up your assessment 'n figure out where we're gonna put you. Want to tell me 'bout yourself?" He shifted the multi-page flowchart off to the side a bit and put a hand on his mouse, clicking through various screens that reflected off his lenses with a mumbled 'Nice, they got it up already.'

Hayes failed to fold his hands on the desk and give Star his rapt attention; it was split half-and-half between the spiderlike man sprawled in, over (and it was hard to tell, but possibly through) the chair and the assessment on his screen, which earned a considering brow lift.

"Looks like it," he replied in an absent but positive way when he got to the drawings of the motors, then closed the document out and sat back in his chair, listening. Something flickered across his look of polite interest at mention of the cell. "Yeah," was all he said before his smile quickly healed.

"Well, great." The elite pushed himself out of his chair and stood. "Hope you can do some good work for us; I'll show you around now. Have you had a look at the Yanmega jet?" As he crossed to Star's side of the desk and headed for the door, a pale blue Glaceon emerged from beneath it and gave the ex-Galactic a considering, slit-eyed look.

"So you've got a handle on the power source?" Hayes paused to shut his door; the Glaceon swirled around his ankles. "That's what we really want to figure out."

"Hey." A bearded agent at one of the consoles in the outer room leaned back in his chair with a casual two-fingered salute. "Tuesday?"

The elite grinned back. "On it. Who brought the ammo?"

"Duncan's turn this week." The agent cast an appraising look over Star. Like Hayes, he had his gloves off, and there was a can of soda by his desk. "He got single round and scattershot. Regular and fruit-flavored."

"Sweet. Module?"

"Compiling."

"Cool. By the way - Roger, Ian; Ian, Roger." Hayes nodded in Star's direction. "He's gonna be joining robotics."

"I heard." The agent gave Star an acknowledging, no-more-than-civil nod.

That didn't seem to be what the elite wanted to hear; the corner of his mouth twitched back in a rueful smile and he shrugged - oh well, his behavior seemed to say, with the same level of rancor as finding out one location of a national chain had closed. He didn't press the issue further.

"Yup," the bearded Rocket quipped, completely straight-faced. "Fat-free, made by Stay-Puft Ammo." His console beeped and he nodded in a by-your-leave sort of fashion.

"Marshmallows," Hayes explained and stepped into the hall, which left Roger to his work. "Good way to blow off steam.. anyway, Robotics is down here. Rest of the hallway's Surveillance, Weapons, other departments." He pulled a keycard from his pocket and swiped it through the reader beside a sleek set of double doors, which hissed open.

While not as vast or high-ceilinged as Galactic's, Team Rocket's robotics lab was still an impressive sight, done up in brushed metal and tile like most of the base. Larger projects - including the Yanmega jet - were seen to in a large open area in toward the back, surrounded by scaffolding and Rockets. Closer to the door were spaced individual workstations, giving the feeling of an industrial workfloor mixed with an office. The elite glanced around, taking stock of who was where, then changed direction for a workstation belonging to a female agent with dark blonde hair.

"Uh-" The question caused a slight interruption in Hayes' easy stride; a faint furrow appeared in his brow. "Y'know t'be honest, I haven't thought that far ahead," he confessed, ending on a laugh. "Kinda like to ease people in and get them used to the place before we up the responsibility."

Said blond agent was deeply engrossed in the project she was working on, gloves off to allow her better control of the tools, as trained steady hands tinkered away at a tiny little robot beneath a lighter magnifier.

Somewhere out in the real world a voice pricked her back to the surrounding lab.
arching her eyebrows Faleen leaned up from her work and turned in time to see Hayes and... Star coming over.

She was pleased to see Hayes, but her eyes lingered on Star with a curious look.
"Ah, Hello." She greeted formally, pushing herself to her feet.