Satin crept nervously through the darkened hallways of the abandoned laboratory. Her flashlight would certainly help her see, but she absolutely didn't want to attract the attention of any of the experiments here... The pistol by her side, the only bit of protection they bothered handing her, wouldn't be much help seeing as she'd only ever shot a gun once at scout camp 13 years ago. She was seriously regretting agreeing to accompany this team, and especially regretting agreeing to split up. But it's not like she had much of a choice, anyway. Supplies were hard to come by nowadays, and she was 'lucky' enough to have proven herself to one of the few raider groups that still cared about trying to do more than just survive. But just because she was a scientist didn't mean she wanted to be down in a creepy abandoned lab like this! In fact, given the glimpses she'd seen of the chemicals they used and the scattered log reports left around, all that meant was she was smart enough to know how truly boned they were if something-

A high pitched squeak echoed from down a dark hallway, and she instinctively screamed. She quickly ducked behind a broken table. The squeaking sounded small... Cute even... But she'd read enough about Alpha Mutagens to know even a "harmless" animal could be turned into a savage monster capable, and fully willing, to tear someone limb from limb. The squeak sounded again, closer this time. Trying not to panic, she assessed her options. A single bullet almost certainly wouldn't kill one of these things, especially not fired by her. She'd just startle the thing, which might scare it away, or make it even angrier, and she doubted anything capable of surviving down here this long was the cowardly type. Running wouldn't work. She was pretty slow, and even if she tried to stun them with her flashlight, they'd definitely catch her eventually. She could try hiding? That might work... Although whatever this was definitely had enhanced senses, so even that wasn't likely to work... Another squeak sounded, it was getting closer! Think, think, what could she do?! Maybe... she could reason with it? Placate it? She had some rations in her bag... Bland, but maybe they taste better than human? And some of them were intelligent... And hopefully not the 'sadistic' form of intelligence... Y-Yeah... That might be her best chance... She nervously stood up and peered down the hallway, flashlight in hand. At the end of the hallway was a soft, glowing light, and she... Stared.

Satin swayed softly, feeling calm and relaxed... There was nothing to worry about... All was fine... There was no need to fight the beautiful light... The light was getting closer... Why would she try and run from the beautiful light...? It looked like a giant eye, staring deep into her soul... No, there were two eyes... No, four... Swaying gently, just like her... Up and down... Up and down... She shouldn't hide from it... It wanted to see her... She walked forward, arms limp and eyes wide. She dropped her flashlight, but that didn't matter... The eyes were so bright... Such pretty eyes... Such pretty wings... She tripped and landed in a soft, fluffy body... Like a nice, warm bed... The lights had made her so sleepy... She felt the wings closing in around her, like a nice comfy cocoon... Her body felt so warm and fuzzy now... She felt so... Melty... Like the pretty light was melting her brain... Melting her brain and making her all dumb and sleepy and silly... And her body felt so melty too... Like she was being poured into a soft, fluffy embrace... She heard a soothing squeaking that resonated through her core. "Mmmmm... nini time..." she responded, hardly able to muster the energy to speak. Not that it mattered... She was a sleepy little caterpillar, and caterpillars needed to sleep...