Too Much Time in the Lab

It was late in the afternoon when Sarah had finished her latest prototype weapon. It was a personal project she started when she hadn't been working on something for a while. It was an energy rifle using a scaled-down version of the Nyx reactor she had used in making Belladonna.

The energy rifle looked just as sci-fi as it sounded. It had a metallic casing, unpolished and still with some markings all over it. Everything was plugged in where it needed to be, and the Nyx was operational, supplying the needed amount of power during the tests, but Sarah hadn't yet tested it out. She had used the data from Belladonna's laser weaponry to calculate how much 'juice' the weapon should be fed with to make it usable for its purposes without having it explode in her hands. Now was the time to make the first firing test.

She headed out the lab underneath the mansion and to her front lawn. There was plenty of space here. She had installed a retractable wall in the lawn for when she needed to test something that wasn't safe to test indoors. It rose up from the ground, along with a little platform at the front where the device or a target would be placed. Sarah put a cheap clay vase there.

About 15 meters away was a blast shield with a window for her to shoot out from. She took refuge here and powered up the rifle. She set it to the lowest setting and fired a few shots. They hardly made any sound and only left scorch marks on the vase and the wall behind it. She was a scientist, not a marksman.

She gradually ramped up the power and the sound of the rifle firing began to increase in volume. "Minimal recoil. Temperatures remaining low. Charger rate... adequate." Take her taking to herself, the lab attire she was wearing and the fact that her eyes looked like she hadn't slept for three days straight, and people can be forgiven for thinking that she was a mad scientist.

She placed another vase, possibly the 5th one today. She set the weapon into a 'charge' mode to build up power for one big shot. As the reactor whirred, the crackling at the barrel of the gun sounded. As Sarah pulled the trigger, a loud and odd noise sounded, something that could have been mistaken for a synthesized sound. What didn't sound like a synthesized sound byte was the explosion that followed, utterly vaporizing the vase. It was a good thing Sarah positioned this range to face the mansion. If she missed, at least she would only have damaged her own property.

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Zoe and Rosetta had arranged a little trek around the city to familiarize themselves with the layout, and of course see the sights in all its glory. Rosetta had invited her sister to come along, but she passed. So it was just the two of them now. They had a rocky first meeting, but Rosetta and Zoe had gotten along after bumping into each other in the same apartment complex. What were the odds of that happening?

They were passing through the wealthier side of the residential area to look at all the mansions. "It must be really nice to have a home that big," she commented on one of the first ones they came across. Although some gates basically barred any vision past them, the ones that allowed a peek showed a vision of power and wealth of those residents.

The mansions were very far apart compared to the rest of the houses, which made sense. Rich people often like having big places to play around in, and sometimes aren't the most social when it came to interacting with others who aren't on their financial level.

A loud explosion ahead of them caught her off guard, but she was a bit weirded out by the strange noise that came before it. "What was that? Did a power transformer overload?" that was the first thing that came to mind. She looked to Zoe, wondering if she'd want to investigate that boom.

@Kaya

Investigating it was then! Rosetta followed along, keeping in mind where the cloud appeared so their search wasn't too hard. They found the property quite easily. There was a woman in a lab coat walking towards them after spotting them at the gate. The sleeves were rolled up to the elbow, exposing what looked to be prosthetic limbs.

They looked highly advanced. She had a strange weapon with her, which was pointed down. Looked a little unfinished, but judging from the steady stream of steam from its barrel, this might have been the cause of that explosion.

"I'm sorry if I startled both of you," she said calmly as if they were talking during a calm Sunday afternoon. "I was just testing out a personal project. No one got hurt, if that was your concern."

Rosetta looked behind the older woman and stared at the reinforced wall. It definitely looked like it suffered a couple of abuses before that plasma blast. "Personal project?" She looked at the gun, and almost couldn't believe her eyes. It didn't look like any personal projects she had run into before.

"That's what I said, yes."

Sarah raised an eyebrow as one of her visitors had described the projectile that caused the devastation of the fragile clay pot. Intriguing, someone versed in such things couldn't be human unless they too were a scientist with similar caliber to herself. Or someone who could make whatever they wanted because of their gifts. What was more interesting was that this person guessed that the power source was a scaled-down custom generator. Either this person got around, or Sarah was being spied on. It wouldn't be the first time. "I do have permits to conduct dangerous tests, so long as it remains contained in my own property and poses no danger to anyone else."

She wasn't the one who procured said permits. The entity that sent her here did. While she was convinced that her old company wasn't the one pulling the strings, she was quite unsure who exactly was.

Sarah allowed the person to talk, but at the same time, she noticed that her companion was giving her a suspicious look, which Sarah then ignored. The more interesting one of the two showed that there was a port at the back of her head. Implants? A charging or data port perhaps. There seemed to be some lights running down her spine as well. Must either be a cyborg or an android.

"This--" she began, lifting the rifle slightly as a gesture to it, "--is for myself. However, I might still be able to help you with what you need." Sarah walked towards the gate controls which popped out as soon as she was close enough. She pressed a button and the gates opened. "Come in. We'll talk more in the parlor."

"Wait. We don't even know who you are." Sarah already had her back turned and she walked to the door to her mansion.

Not even bothering to look back or slow her pace, she replied, "Sarah Evita. Just a scientist with too much free time. And you two?"

Rosetta started walking behind the older woman. "Rosetta Ryley. Just... a new girl in town, I suppose." Rosetta didn't feel any bad omens coming from this woman, so perhaps she wasn't a bad person. Or at the very least, she didn't have any intentions of doing harm to either of them.

Terminus Corporation. That sounded shady. Those people didn't even try. This Zoe was, as Sarah guessed, was an android, which would make things much simpler in Sarah's mind. She was better with machines than people after all.

She walked to the front door and lead her guests to the right to the parlor. The drapes opened as soon as they walked in, allowing some sunlight to enter and light up the room naturally. She took a seat on one of the chairs that surrounded a coffee table, setting the rifle on the side, powered-down of course. She gestured for the guests to take a seat. There was a couch to her left and three singles taking up the other sides of the table.

Rosetta went to the couch, sitting on the farthest side from their host. The way she figured it was that Zoe could either sit closer or sit directly opposite to Sarah since she was the one the scientist wanted to talk to. "I like your home. It's big and fancy." A little quiet though and... empty? She didn't think there was another soul in here to be honest.

"Thank you." Sarah simply said before turning to Zoe. "The information I need revolves around your architecture. I can provide you with devices that only need manual operation, however if you want something that needs to be integrated or at least connect to your systems, then I will need to know more about your inner workings. But first, I will need to know who I'm dealing with. What is your specialty? And more importantly, what do you need?"

Rosetta nodded understandingly. While this wasn't what she had expected to happen today, it would at least be an adventure. Sarah didn't seem to have a lot of security in this house, at least not where she could see. Perhaps she could use a security guard roaming around here. She wouldn't mind guarding such a fine-looking place as this.

Sarah took a second glance at Zoe. An assassination android. Great. That was just perfect. Nothing like a literal killing machine lounging in your own home. "Non-lethal equipment? That won't be a problem. I've created a few devices for that very purpose although they were designed to be used on humans. It won't be hard to modify them for the... climate." The scientist let out a yawn and then sighed.

"You seem tired. You don't look all that well-rested."

"That's nothing to worry about. I've been in worse states." She turned back to Zoe. "Is there anything else you would like to add?"