Thread: Necessary Research (Hahvoc Requiem & Mr. Master)

Serai awoke slowly, but she did not open her eyes and look where she was first. She used all her other senses first in case of an attack. She smelled metal, wood, chemicals that lightly singed her nose. She heard beeps that were definitely odd to her ears. She wasn't uneducated when it came to equipment, but it had been quite a long time since she had spent the last period of her life with humans. There was a certain charge in the air as she listened for movement, footsteps. She examined where she was without moving, feeling metal beneath her nude body. She felt herself swallow praying what she felt wasn't the floor of a cage. Slowly, her eyes opened, pupils slitted like a cat's, irises the same color as they had been in her cat form. Her heart sank as she noticed the bars, made of some heavy metal. Even with her added strength as a shifter, she could never pry the bars apart to get out. She turned her eyes to the door, to the padlock and felt herself getting worked into a frenzy of anger, rage, fear, and despair. She could not stay here. She wouldn't stay here. Even as she thought this conviction, her mind-process was still sluggish like the rest of her body that didn't cooperate completely with what she wanted. She sat up slowly, feeling stinging pain from the lights whenever they hit her eyes. She blinked a few times until the pain went away a little. She tried to call on her ability to shift, felt the tingling in her limbs that usually started at the beginning of her change, but then it went away. Nothing happened. Her eyes opened and looked down at her human hands, her nude human body. She wasn't disgusted with her human form, it was a piece of what she was, but she wasn't as strong this way, not defenseless, but close. She made herself stand up slowly, pushing against the floor until she was to her knees and then up on her feet-well, she would have made it to her feet if she didn't smack her head against the ceiling of the cage. She hissed and rubbed the aching pain that added to her sluggish thoughts. Her lips curled back, revealing her sharp and deadly canines that were longer than the average human's and could cut much deeper. But the sneer was due to what she knew herself to be in. She was in a lab. How could she have been so stupid? Okay, she wasn't stupid, these men or women, or whatever, had been planning this for awhile and had been waiting for someone like her to wander into their trap. She sighed internally as she uncurled her lip. Without being able to change forms, she would be at their mercy unless she could find an opportunity out of this place, wherever it was. That was another thing. She had no idea if they were still in the jungle until she noticed the dirt floor. It smelled earthy and had that jungle scent to it. She hoped she wasn't far from her den, or at least would be able to navigate back to it. She pressed her forehead against the bars a moment as she tried to think of a way out. She pulled at the bars, but as soon as she did, she gave up. Her body was still not up to what she wanted and she was her arms were already tired from the sudden effort. She moved back a moment and closed her eyes, just breathing for a moment. She had to think, even if her mind was still a little slow. The more she breathed, the more she calmed, but whatever was in her system needed to be removed. She only hoped it would leave soon.