Hortence woke up with a splitting headache. She opening her eyes to the blinding light of the white hospital room, she tried to get up and realised her hands were tied down, "how rude.. treating me like a common criminal..." she looked around to make sure she was alone, checking the area for things she could use, and trying to figure out what, if any, of her equipment she still had on her.<br/><br/>The bastards... or perhaps bitch, singular, was more accurate, had been quite maticulious in finding her hidden weapons and removing her gear, curiously she still had her ring though. Her hands were tied with a long piece of cloth which ran under the bed and connected to the other side, as well as anchored to the bottom of the bed. She had more freedom of movement than needed to move around, what to do though... wait.. these hospitals re suddenly pretty into the whole, cleanliness thing, this one just put in one of those remodelled steamcleaners to keep the knives and such available and sterile. If she could just...<br/><br/>Hortence bend her leg in such a way as to get her foot aligned with her right hand, then carefully removed the ring from the finger onto one of her toes, it didn't quite fit but whatever. then came the awkward part... She rolled with her confines, getting to lie on her stomach rather than her back, then stretched her leg with the ring towards the control panel for what she needed. It was, unsurprisingly out of reach of the patients bed, anything else would be irresponsible, and it also seemed to be locked, but no matter.<br/>Hortence concentrated, looking intently at the square control panel and then closing her eyes, imagining it, picking it apart in her mind, looking in her minds eye at the schematics for the little machine which she knew in and out, and let the machine itself fill in the blanks for her. It was like it was talking to her, divulging it's secrets and showing the last details of it's customised design before it's mistress.<br/><br/>Hortence took a deep breath before finding the part of the machine which needed to loosen for the mechanism to do what she wanted, she didn't need the code, just the last part of the machine which was activated once the keys were in place, the steps to get there were redundant here.<br/>She heard the sound of the machine turning on and steam escaped from the ceiling as a newly steambathed set of medical tools were lowered down to her, just within reach of her foot.<br/>Hortence managed to pick up a scalpel with her toes and return it to her hand. She made short work of the cloth once she had it.<br/><br/>Hortence sat up, panting a bit, she realised how much she had actually strained her damaged body, her head hadn't been quite ripe for remote manipulation either.. and the world around her was swimming a bit... She took a few moments to gather herself, breathing deeply and stretching out in spite of her headache. after a few minutes she felt better, still not great, but good enough.<br/><br/>She examined the medical equipment, a few things that she could use.. but no pockets.. She went back to her bed to free the cloth from the bed which had been tying her down before. She tied it around her shoulder, creating a makeshift shoulderbag, she quickly started putting a few tools into it, she didn't know how much time she had, but rushing these things would only land her in trouble again.<br/>She looked to the steambath itself, a large ovenlike contraption connected to the ceiling, it proudly displayed the tools it had cleaned upon being brought down for easy access. Once up in it's confines in the ceiling it washed the supplies with steam at around 200 degrees C, it was big, clunky and honestly redundant, but much of the tech that the rich make tend to be this way... They could have used the money they spend on these to build a small clinic closer to the people that actually needed it... But of course a bit of flare for the patients... a much better use for that money.<br/>Hortence was thinking this as she absentmindedly took the machine apart, putting it back together in form of a make-shift steamcannon, might come in handy, but a bit heavier than she prefered. Still, a more dangerious weapon than a scalpel. She connected the cannon with her ring, making many of the heating implements redundant and allowing stealth even while carrying a glorified waterheater.<br/>She began going through the hospital, there weren't that many people, it occured to Hortence that she had no idea what time it was, the place seemed utterly devoid of windows and natural lights, the only things lighting the many coridors being the glowstones so popular with those who could afford it. Their light was a brilliant, sickening white which aggresively robbed the surroundings of their natural color. They also made dirt much more appearent, which may be why they were a show of prestige, it had meant more work for many houseslaves to have the glowstones implemented to be sure... Their masters running around looking for a smidge of dirt...<br/><br/>Hortence went unheard and unseen through the hospital, growing progressively gloomier, the building reminded her of everything she despised about the upperclass...<br/>Finally she found what she was looking for, a room which had a collection of lockers lining the walls. This was where Raffey had stashed her gear, she could feel it. There was a guy in there though... might be one of hers... might just be someone working for the hospital... regardless he was a problem.<br/>Fortunatly he didn't seem that sharp, half heartedly looking around, just sitting on a bench, he was clearly meant to guard the room, but he was doing a poor job. It was easy for Hortence to crawl in behind him and place a scalpel to his throat.<br/>"quiet, or I cut your throat.." Hortence whispered, sending a shock through the man, freezing him in place.<br/>"good... now tell me where my stuff is and I won't kill you". The man whimpered and pointed towards one of the many lockers.<br/>"very good" Hortence got up, putting away her scalpel and walking towards the locker.<br/>"um wait..! halt I..GAGH!" the man was stopped short by a kick to the neck, sending him toppling to the floor unconcious "told you to be quiet" Hortence smirked to herself before opening the locker, didn't even have a trap on it or anything, how dissapointing.<br/>Hortence felt a lot better once she donned her suit, it was still missing the chestpiece, but whatever. Now with her suit she was able to do a real field test of the cloaking device, she activated her ring into the glove and the whiring machine flared up for a few seconds before she started essentially turning invisible.<br/>She looked herself over, quite happy with the result... though she found that the glowstones emitted enough light that her shadow became fairly obvious... it was a bit unfortunate, but it would have to do for now.<br/>Hortence made her way towards the exit, passing by a room she happened to hear a familiar voice, she decided to postpone her escape to eavesdrop on Raffy, she was talking to that portalgirl, and Hortence was too curious to not take this chance to get to know a bit about her.