[GrayGriffin]

[Prompt 3 begins - Straight ahead]

Slowly, Codex managed to get to her feet, staying at her usual Kuhna size for now. After all, their goal door was right in front of them, scanner blinking and still ready to be used. Error beeped and whirred a bit as a compartment opened up, revealing the keycard they had been given. He hopped forward, Vane lowering her head to allow him to hop up and scan the card through the reader. With a hiss, the door slid open, and they stepped forward to explore.

There didn't seem to be much to find in this room, simply evidence that yes, there had been people there before, and they'd apparently left in a hurry for some reason. Still, they weren't here to investigate the mystery. The trio glanced around at the other doors, before stepping forward and selecting the door that led straight ahead. It looked like it'd be the least trouble, and it would probably be the best way to get deeper into the lab where they needed to go, after all.

[GrayGriffin]

They had to wait a moment for the decontamination process to run, surprisingly smoothly for a place that seemed as abandoned as this one. It was another little piece of the puzzle that they didn't really care about solving, only notable as something to maybe think about in their spare time, back at their own home base.

Soon enough, the next doors slid open, and they continued on.

"L---ike we---de the ri----ce," noted Codex, looking around at the rather normal equipment and screens scattered around the room. Indeed, it seemed like there was nothing to bother them, unlike the other two possible paths.

[GrayGriffin]

Error nodded. "We mad---the righ---choice," he agreed, continuing onwards, his metallic claws clacking against the floor. Codex padded after him, then stopped, ears flattening against her head as she spun to glare at the shadow that had popped up in one of the corners.

"Wh----at?" she hissed. Vane and Error spun around as well, both blinking curiously.

"I see noth---ng," noted Error. Vane shrugged as well.

"Yeah," she agreed, moving closer to get a better look at Codex, a worried expression on her face. "Ar---ou su-----re okay?" Codex nodded.

"Yeah!" she snarled. "I---ine!" Her two companions glanced at each other with worry in their eyes, but accepted this for now.

[GrayGriffin]

Error continued onwards, his sensors registering a strange scent in the air. It seemed oddly out of place in a lab like this, but who was he to assume what a lab should smell like? Codex still seemed on edge, still darting and snarling at shadows on occasion, but being near Vane seemed to sooth her...

...until Vane also started snarling at shadows. In fact, it looked like she was focused on different ones than Codex was. And from the sounds of it, neither of them could see what the other was seeing. This was definitely worrying. Error stopped and hurried back, grabbing Codex's paws.

"...shrink?" he asked her. She stared at him for a long while, not even seeming to see him.

[GrayGriffin]

Codex could barely hear Error's question to her, or feel Vane clamp onto her nape to start dragging her towards the exit. Part of her, perhaps some subconscious part, did hear the request and begin shrinking to fulfill it, but meanwhile most of her mind and ears were caught up in shadows of the past. Sneers and accusations of monstrosity, from the first moment she'd shown her abilities.

"You're not our daughter!" yelled in her ear as she was chased out of the only home she'd known. Blood bubbling up from her sliced throat. The desperate whirring of mechanics as someone struggled to save her and provide her with a voice. Her sobbing and crying out, clawing at her own throat as she could feel every inch of the foreign metal in her body.