Pain hit Artemis like the force of an explosion on demolition day, immediately dropping her to her knees and triggering the all to pointless stimulus response of grasping the source of her pain - her skull. Her vision subsequently was blinded by white and she did her best to swallow the involuntary cry of pain while holding on to her consciousness. It was like trying to grasp water, but moments before she faded into the void it dissipated with the same abruptness in which it came -- the entire episode lasting seconds.

She took a deep breath trying to cleanse herself of the psychological effects experiencing that much pain tends to leave in its wake. As her shakiness began to subside Artemis returned to her feet and immediately consulted her tech-pad, trying to get a location on the security guard that was coming her way. He seemed to still be minutes out, and if she was again subjected to a spell of pain with that much ferocity she was certain she wouldn't be able to hold on to her consciousness. Artemis needed medical attention and she needed it fast.

With the pace possibly equaling a tortoise she began to move out of the research lab and down the hallway toward the approaching patrol, one hand always on the wall keeping her steady just in case.

[i]Looks like I am coming to you, Mr. Security Guard. Don't shoot me, although the way things are going you might not need to.[/i]

[quote=Sadko] TRT wondered. He never knew what was his name, he had no friends to consult him about it. Playing around with the stun rod, he moved up the hallway. Good god, I hope no monster eats me up when I'm not looking, he thought. Why am I so afraid of the darkness? Is it good? Is it bad?

He looked around, seemingly void of any kind of attention towards the creature that creeped up on him. And then he saw it. A dark sillhoutte of a woman, crawling, coming towards him. Momentarily, he grabbed the stun rod and moved back, swiftly swinging it back and forth. "WHO ARE YOU" he said, cautiously jumping from one leg to another.

She looked fragile, but yet it added a sort of aura which brought even more terror. God damn you, be strong, TRT! A voice echoed around him. He asked again, moving closer to the woman. Yet he saw she needed help, and it brought him somberness. He stepped towards to examine what was wrong with her. "What's wrong?" [/quote]

Great. Mr. Security Guard was jumpy, and if he kept waving that stun baton around he might just hurt himself and her simultaneously. That would take some skill, but with the degree of anxiety he was displaying he might just pull it off. When he noticed that she was hurt, he seemed to calm down a bit. That was good. It didn't seem like she was in any immediate danger -- at least from him.

The fact that he didn't recognize her and was now concerned for her well being told her she wasn't considered a threat to C-9's security. The possibility of that being the case had nagged at her seeing as the disappearing corpse was security staff and decked out in full riot gear. The mysterious voice implying that she was the corpse's attacker also didn't help.

"My name is Artemis -- designation X-1." She paused considering how best to explain her injuries. "I was in one of the research labs that the power fluctuation effected. In my clumsiness, I seem to have given myself quite a bump on the head. Who are you?"

Okay, so maybe she wasn't being entirely truthful. What was she suppose to say? I woke up in a room with absolutely no memory of how I got there facing a corpse and hearing voices. Yeah, that wouldn't arouse any suspicion. Plus, she didn't know this guy, and a little white lie won't hurt anyone. Justifications abound.

[quote=Sadko] TRT stopped. How do they do it? Ehm. "My name is.." What was my name? I hardly remember it, nobody bothered to call me normally. There it is, finally remembered it. "My name is Tikhon, the designation.. TRT-377. I was sent on a patrol and now I found you." He spoke just like her, almost word in word, as if he needed to do so.

Sharing a moment of silence, he checked what was wrong, but knew he was dumb and knew nothing of how to help her.

He took a moment to look at Artemis, for him she wouldn't be called too beautiful, but he caught the sight of her eyes, which were enough to hypnotize for a second.

"We get back to Security Division, right? Right?"

He spoke a little dull, but spewed logical things, as anyone would see.[/quote]

"A pleasure to meet you Tikhon," replied Artemis while she consulted her tech-pad yet again. This time she surfed the network looking to access the maps of C-9 in order to pinpoint their location. She would prefer to avoid the security hub at least until she knew more about the circumstances of her awakening and memory loss. Plus, she would rather not experience another episode of pain like before.

After navigating rapidly through a few screens she had found a map of the second floor of the base. On it was a red pulsating dot located just off of the research labs. It seemed these tech-pads came equipped with their own base position system. Handy. She took note of that fact for later. The med-lab was just north of our position practically the same distance as this floor's security hub.

Artemis turned her attention back to Tikhon, "It seems the Security Hub and the Med Lab are about the same distance away. If you wouldn't mind I would prefer going directly to the med lab in order to get my head bandaged."

She pointed north of their current position, "It's that way, not too far. Would you be willing to lend me a hand there?"

[quote=Sadko] Tikhon smiled. Pleasure to meet me? He thought it was a fantastic day, barely concealing childish emotions under his questionably sane smile. Standing around idly, he took time to observe her, which would look quite terrifying, but he meant nothing bad and directly the opposite. Interesting tech-pad she has, indeed. A quick glance a little lower than her chin and then several steps back, somewhere into the darkness. Even by now, with atleast somebody at your side, it felt like he didn't have any kind of fear surging inside of him.

"I need to get back to the Security Hub, but." He clenched his arm so hard he gulped air. "Nobody can notice my absence, I'm not liked there." He spoke a little peculiar, but it just added up his weirdo aura to him.

"I would gladly help you to get to the Med Lab, Artemis."[/quote]

Tikhon and Artemis began traveling north making their way to the Med Lab, and within a few minutes of slow but steady progress their destination started to come into view ahead.