Mihoshi and Kiyone

[CyMage]

Kiyone took hold of Mihoshi's hand.  "Come on, partner.  We did want to talk to her."

With that she turned back to Tenchi.  "Lead on, Tenchi-san."

[Bean Bandit]

Tenchi smiled and nodded, leading the way from the dining room, out into the hall as Katsuhito followed. He stopped in from of the hall closet door, knocking once.

The door swung open, the interior filled with inky blackness. He took a deep breath and stepped inside, followed by Katsuhito...

[CyMage]

Kiyone lightly pulled Mihoshi along as she followed the boy.  Her eyes roamed over his form as a small blush made it onto her cheeks again.

She kept quiet as they arrived at the closet door and Tenchi knocked.  

After the two men entered, she took a deep breath of her own, bit her lip and stepped into the darkness, pulling her partner behind her.

[Bean Bandit]

As they all stepped inside, the darkness arbruptly receded, and they were standing in a brightly lit, spacious solarium, surrounded by cultivated trees, with a holographic workstation here and there.

This particular area had a cheery, welcoming atmosphere...along with FAR more space than should have been possible inside the tiny utility closet.

Tenchi looked around, but the area they'd enetered was empty.

Behind them, the door slowly clicked shut...and vanished into nothingness...

[calendar]

Mihoshi blinked, and took a closer look at the trees.  Trees?

[CyMage]

Cy managed not to gawk due to the fact that he expected as much.  Supressing most of his curiosity, Cy idly looked around.

"Now where could Washu-san be?"

[Bean Bandit]

The trees themselves weren't planted in the ground, but were imbedded inside an upraised platform, which, combined with the white and yellow plasticrete(TM) construction of the walls and the tree's platform, along with the holographic workstations, gave the area a rather techno-organic look.

Tenchi blinked at Kiyone's question. "Um, If she's not here, then she might be in her research lab," he suggested. "It's down this way, by the specimen tanks."
He started to lead the way, then commented over his shoulder.

"You'd better not let her hear you call her that, Kiyone-san." the boy warned. "Last time Ayeka slipped up....well, it wasn't pretty."

Katsuhito chuckled dryly as he followed Tenchi, but made no further comment.

[calendar]

This time, Mihoshi grabbed Kiyone's arm and pulled her.

[Bean Bandit]

Tenchi led the other three through a lengthy walk into a fairly distant part of the lab.

The walked past specimen tanks of all shapes and sizes, containing a numer of creatures easily recognized as non-indigenous to earth.

From the hideous, like the creature that seemed to resemble a skull with tentacles, to the unbearably cute, like the small yellow rat with brown stripes and an oddly jagged tail, all were obviously subject of experimentation...

Finally, they came to machine intensive section. From wall to ceiling was filled with computers, holographic interfaces and testing machines of all types.

Under one particularly large one, a pair of small legs was sticking out, surrounded by tools...

A high pitched, nasal voice issued from under the machine. "Who is it? Come back later, I'm busy now!"

[calendar]

Mihoshi let go of Kiyone's arm and took a step back.

[CyMage]

Kiyone bent over the legs and looked under.  A small smirk made it's way onto her face as she spoke.  "We come bearing gifts."

[Bean Bandit]

"I told you, I- Kiyone?" The voice from under the machine sounded disturbed now.

A young girl, with wide green eyes and wild crimson hair, held in place by a violet headband shot oud from under the machine and stared up at Mihoshi in horror.

"AAUGH!"

[calendar]

Calendar sweatdropped.  Yes, this is what she had been afraid of.  "Err... Hi, Washu-chan."

[Bean Bandit]

Washu leapt to her feet, and began waving her arms in warding gestures.
"How do you keep getting in here?" she asked in exasperation. "I'm POSITIVE I armed those traps..."

As if on cue, a distant explosion sounded, and a red alert klaxxon began to pulse.

The diminutive read-head sighed. "The Mihoshi effect strikes again..."

[calendar]

Mihoshi sweatdropped some more.  "Um... Wow.  Mihoshi really isn't doing on purpose all th---Ahahaha!  I mean... um."  With that, she tried her best to look like an airhead.  Maybe they'd just think she was being... well, Mihoshi.