"That would be a rather...interesting invention, coming from such tight laced labcoats, hmm?" A calm, if not naturally sultry voice would greet the men, it's owner that of a beautiful asian woman with a veil of rich black waves rolling down to her upper back, a black denim jacket, grey halter top, and pair of equally morose black jeans. Upon her neck, complimenting her fairly toned skin is a metal sheen tightly clapsed ornate amulet, it's face that or a striking and rather chilling cobra.

It's eyes appear to be a dimly gliding pair of piercing emerald gems, the woman's eyes a similar pallor, sans the luminescent qualities. Focusing on her face, they would spy that her pupils are in fact....serpentine themselves?

Standing before them is the mysterious assassin only known as Lady Krait, who's scant detectable connections include a possible high ranking membership within the Taiwanese branch of the Triad within the Eastern Hemisphere. Sauntering towards them in a pair of fashionable black pumps, she speaks again, this time trailing her previously hidden claws against the bar's edge, infamous for secreting deadly toxins of her own design at a whim...

"I hope you'll forgive the interruption? It's been a rather dull evening on my end."

Lady Krait smirks at Theo, simply offering a grin that reads she knows what he is up to before speaking...

"I don't poison my body with such substances, but I am rather.....flattered by your sale's pitch." Her tone implies that she had another few words in mind before adding with a sinister smile...

"I prefer to make such substances myself, mind you with much more...deprimental after effects."

[i]Not a telepath... Oh how they compensate...[/i] He glanced down, holding back the his initial snark, "It's not for sale and that's not my trade. Besides, I wouldn't take you as one interested, given your own...blessings," He meant the hesitation and the wording to be a compliment. "I assume such substance comes from within?"

He took his drink and moved back to the chair, conspicuously leaving the vial resting on the bar. "I wouldn't trust putting anything in my body that came from EdenTech, but even I must admit this one is different."

Reuther had entered almost perfectly timed with his thoughts changing course and topic. Theo cautiously shook the man's hands, keeping active what mental defenses he felt necessary. He set the drink down and promptly flicked his hand to bring the vial off the bar and flying into his hand. Uncaring who saw his display, he pocketed the vial back into his hoodie and sat down. "I can't say I've heard of you, so you're either very good or very new to the trade."

Reuther directs CP to take the vile. "I piratically wrote the book on modern chemistry, you should have seen the crazy stuff I made during the war. Though I am a bit rusty after I started moving towards robotics a simply anti-aging subtance shouldn't be too much trouble. This liquid light however, what makes you so interested in it?"

Reuther paused for a moment before pointing to his mask "You see this? During a blitzkrieg I suffered a horrible accident in my lab, this accident fused my mask to my skin and made me like this. All my attempts to find a solvent that can undo the process has failed and over time I've grown accustom to my new life. Still though I try to find a solution to it, this anti-aging vile probably won't help me but if this Liquid Light can I want to know about it. So know that I've told you a little piece of information I've been sitting on all I ask is for you to tell me what liquid light is." He clearly was hiding something behind his motives but what he has said is at least the truth, he's just hoping he can find a way to get information on liquid light without paying for it.

"Well it's not alot to go on, but let's get started shall we? CP get that vile ready I want to run some tests. You can come with me to my lab if you want or we can go into the field and see the effect in action if that's more your taste."

"I've already seen the effects firsthand. I suspect EdenTech has done most of the legwork on the scientific side. I'm interested in door number 3." Theo said, sitting up. He adjusted himself slightly only for the basic modesty purposes ingrained from wearing kilts most of his adulthood. "I didn't get much out of the guy that had these on him obviously. At first I suspected a bioluminescent bacteria but not after the way it reacted to the whore."

Theo appeared genuinely eager to discover more about his new discovery. He was surprised at himself for not reading anyone's mind yet. Now it seemed he was too invested to bother with motives. "Oh she was barely twenty but looked like she'd been exposed to that trade for quite a few years. The only real noticeable impact was her vitality. She got...happy. Had a glow about her like she had received the best news." He shuddered. "Disgusting. Visibly I only observed the lifting of spirits and the fading of drug-wrath. ..Y'now, a general ...vitality. Like she wanted to live again."

He followed Joshua to the elevator, having slammed his drink like a pro. "Anyone have a dead plant in their apartment? I haven't bothered with any."

Theo smirks back at her knowingly. [i]DUHH[/i]

"You two know each other? Makes sense that you both popped up about the same time." Theo mused aloud. He fought his urge to scan their brains, not wishing to play that card too early.

Reuther lingers on the mystery door for a second thinking [i] Funny almost reminds me of what I had to keep him in [/i] . He then gets to work getting familiar with the lab environment. He eagerly looks around and takes off his normal coat to put on a hanging lab coat, he jumps from device to device making precise mental notes of whats around "I say this equipment is extraordinary! Is this a mark 5 laser image-scope, I've only got a chance to work with the mark 2, and what about this? Oh and a re-atomizer, funny I've never seen this model, it this custom made? Oh that alchemy table reminds me of the one Newton himself used. My my I feel like I'm 40 again, forgive my giddiness.

"I'm sure if I'd been more open minded to possibilities she'd still be alive...in some definition. She was just...too happy for me to stomach. Either she had to go or my lunch did." He trailed Krait in the tour around the room, often catching things she seemed to linger on that he would have otherwise overlooked in haste. The blunt tone of his voice implied a relaxation into some shell or bubble of safety. He had locked down his mind and stopped thinking so loudly. He was certain no one was really listening or even pretending to hide reactions. He didn't trust the magical devices wouldn't provide such talents and kept his guards at highest resistance.

[i]If things go well, this could be quite a lucrative venture...[/i]

CP enters the flat while the others are busy talking, he just walks in, places the rat cages on the table and stands aside. There are roughly seven specimens he managed to capture, a frail old one suffering a broken leg that's barely alive, a much younger female rodent with a frail form from mail nutrition, another two of them seem to be from the same litter and are pure white instead of the same grey the other strays are...perhaps they used to be pets, another brown one is curled in the corner of the cage coughing perhaps having a cold of some kind, there's a young male with a clipped ear who other then being a little too fat is in perfect health, the last one seems to be heavily pregnant and perhaps would even birth a litter within a day...if she has that long that is. Reuther was too busy going on about his favorite alchemists and talk of his own quite embarrassing failures to recreate the philosopher stone to realize that CP had even entered until CP clears his voice. "Hm? Oh the specimens! Good job my boy," He pulls out a pair of rubber gloves he stretches over his hands "well then, let's start the science."

"Oh, I convinced her to self medicate with a needle." Theo said with a hint of nihilism.

He walked over to the rats and picked up a gray one sitting slightly separated from the main group. "This one. He's got some brains and he's sick.." He looked at the many options and realized something grander, "I -er...we- may need to get more samples..."

Eyeing the various artifices about them, Lady Krait remarks as her eyes glow briefly as she examines the vial of Liquid Light...

"Distilled with a base of water at the very least, all I can tell for now regarding it's contents." She then turns to Reuther, reaching to pull on a available pair of latex gloves if they are offered, methodically. With that done she inquires to Reuther...

"Now, require anything of me?"

Theo shrugs and looks over the rats, still manipulating the gray one in his hands, " Use what you want, but we do have a limited supply for now. Do we have the stuff to produce more here while I go acquire more off the back of a truck?"

Lady Krait nods to Reuther, and quickly but gently takes the pair of rats in her hands and injects them with the proper amount, brushing them towards CP as she muses...

"Done, we should see a metabolic change first if I'm correct?"

The two white rats, already healthy, showed minimal improvements. Both displayed a delayed reactions at the same speed, however the intensity was clearly different. The rat with only half the dose showed only moderate changes in activity levels and shine on the coat. The full dose rat showed intense changes that elevated this wild vermin to the healthy status levels expected in a suburban pet rat. It was practically adorable.

The behavior of the half dosed rat seemed only curious in its surroundings and was otherwise dismissed of interesting behavior. The full dosed rat was visibly aware of the individuals and attempted to climb out to explore the observers better. It pawed at the glass walls; pining for more connection. It grew quickly frustrated it could not connect and started to cry out for contact. Upon full anguish it fell back into the box and wallowed, still looking into their eyes and reaching out for contact.

The full-dosed rat immediately reacted positively. At first it merely sniffed and explored the new hand but quickly threw its caution to the wind and grabbed the fingers to nuzzle them. If the hand lingered too long the rat would begin climbing up the arm.

Theo began to realize some of the deeper effects of the drug he boosted earlier explained why he actually thought the sight was adorable. He did well to maintain his deeper rooted disgust, outwardly conflicted with a mild adoration. "Pretty sure this means a full ml is too much."

The half-dosed rat seemed to behave as a regular lab rat; docile and resting in its high.

Meanwhile, Theo returned his attention to the vermin in his hands, now starting to squirm and struggle. He loosened his grip and the creature proceeded to scurry in his hand and climb up to his shoulder. In close proximity, Theo felt the sentience of the rat and attempted to imprint his dominance onto the creature. His efforts felt inhibited slightly, especially trying to keep the attempts from prompting anyone or any artifact from the power spike.

"You know I was just thinking the same thing!...about how this can improve my gas grenades i mean, not the mouse's name."

Theo smiled with the satisfaction everyone had a mild soft spot for the great results. He approached the autopsy table as Joshua began cutting open the barely cooling rat, turning his eyes to Rheuter. "That could work. I know the site I pulled it from but there's not much else to use from that place, but at least we can rule that out if it crops up as the location..."

"Not a problem," he signals to CP who puts his hand in to pick up the old rat, in the process the young male with the clipped ear managed to scratch and bite at CP's hand as he pulled the old one out, however CP doesn't even notice and the rodent leaves no marks on him. He takes a small sample of blood from the old one then injects the crippled rat before placing him in another glass case.

The old one showed a delay in outward changes, and seemed unphased. The rat suddenly seized and convulsed, foaming and screeching in pure agony. The rodent fell unconscious as the serum saturated to the surface. The old mottled fur restored to a satin finish, but the bare patches remained bare. The broken leg was repaired, but it had poorly set. The rat diminished into short rapid breaths before it eventually slowed.

Theo knew firsthand what had happened and showed no surprise on his face. He moved to put the rat back in the cages to confirm he could at minimum "I'm not doing much here, so I'm gonna head out and try to get some leads. Here's the number to my newest burner. Let me know if you have any contacts I can meet, any leads I can check out."

Lady Krait nods to Theo, simply remarking...

"I'll find you if we have need of you." With that terse statement, she goes back to examining the rat with serpentine, microscopic vision.

"Sure, as long as he doesn't get in my way," Theo said, offering a smile that betrayed his crazy went a bit deeper under the surface. He nodded to Joshua as he plugged the number into his phone under a random code for the contact. As he left with CP following behind, he winked to Lady Krait, "It's truly a pleasure to meet you all under our shared interest. I'll be in touch."

Downstairs, Theo loosened his control on his crazy a little bit. With a slightly wild eye he turned to CP. "So! I have an idea where we should go to start, but that scryer will be helpful for a lead past that. Do you or your...whatever-he-is-to-you have a car or something? Seeing a guy fly in to this site might get some attention we don't want just yet. I don't think I've heard you talk. Do you talk?"

Theo was a not entirely surprised when CP started talking, but glad to think the conversation on this trip wouldn't be one-sided.
"Head to the Northeastern Research District," Theo stated as he got comfortable in the vintage model. "The lab was offsite from the BioCampus. I expect the place is swarming with security if there's anything left."

"Eh, sneak through or fight through either way. I got past them once so I bet they'd be pissed if we got through that way again." Theo joked while watching the concrete jungle pass by. "There may be another way in though, depends how much is blocked off."

Theo almost looked embarrassed to admit it, "I uh, sweet-talked a scientist to bring me in after hours to show off what she was working on. We could probably lift a few badges and coats from any off-duty tech or guard though."

"Stop here. The lab is 2 blocks away in that direction," Theo pointed, exhuding a hint of excitement. "So...Fair warning bud, I get inside people's minds. Now I'll try not to go peeking around in yours, but if you got any psychic blockers... I'd recommend them if you wanna maintain some privacy or status quo we got going here. So, Take my saying this as a gesture I'm not trying to cross ya. You're useful, and I'd hate to lose your boss' knowledge and skills on this project over a misunderstanding."

He nodded the question [i]you follow me?[/i] to CP expecting little response if any. He turned to look out into the streets to see who was walking along. One of them had to know today's password and have their guards down. Then again maybe he was sloppy and they'd be on their guard with their own tin-foil hats as required attire today.

----

The gray rat that had spent time on Theo's shoulder scurried about in the cages, keeping to his personal corner. There was a building tension among the rats as they attempted to escape or assert dominance, protection, and isolation of their own kind for the animalistic order.

CP nods back but makes a note on the telepathy "I can talk to machines, and that's because I think like a machine. This mind is not one that can be read, at least not by someone who doesn't know my language."

"I'll see what I can do." CP reached into his jacket to pull out a tablet, he placed his hand on the surface as his eyes glowed a slight green as ones and zeros zoomed past his cornea, the screen on the tablet shuffled through window after window of techno-babel, it stopped once it opened onto a screen with an encrypted window as the tablet kept going through different frequencies on it until it found the frequency for the radios they had on them. He then spoke into the tablet as a voice manipulation software made his voice going through the radio sound stronger and more authoritative "Attention all staff, you are all invited to join us in the lab rec center as we have a very special birthday we'd like to celebrate today."

After amount the first guard turned to the second "Another meeting, can you believe this?" he second guard turned to him and replied "I know...I can't believe the boss remembered my birthday!" The second guard dashed inside with the first waiting a bit a little confused before going in after him "Hey wait for me."

CP put the collapsible tablet back into his jacket "You can be pretty surprised at what gets the job done sometimes."

"The message had to be broadcast on their radio system, anyone with a walkies-talkie would have gotten the memo."

CP walked through after him "I hope you have a plan."

CP takes a second to look around, making sure no one was near by and waits for the security camera to turn away. "Did I stutter?" The guard moves in closer "I said-" in a brisk moment CP swings his leg around to trip him, he catches him on the shirt so he doesn't crash into the floor. The guard reached for his taser as CP grabbed his hand as it reaches the taser, he turned it toward his leg and tased him knocking him out.

CP hoists the unconscious guard onto his shoulder and opens the janitor closest "I assume you can wipe his mind if I take care of the implant?"

CP removes his head gear and places both his hands across his skull, CP nods letting him no that the implant is offline "I may need his suite, some of these security systems have all the recorded information burnt onto discs. I'm going to have to find the monitor room and destroy the discs if you want me to be completely thorough."