Dammit. She'd thought they'd have more time. Or rather she had hoped they would anyhow. Yet, it could be noted that despite the circumstances the good Doctor's face was oddly devoid of any surprise or confusion as she continued to move about snagging objects of use. Ives, bless his mechanical soul, had activated the inner doors and as they slid shut, Charlotte coughed. The haze in the air was noticeable to her and she could indeed feel the rising temperature that indicated The Authority had not come to talk at all.<br/><br/>The Authority wielded numerous models of mechanical droids designed to do the work of men. The original prototypes for these replacements had been developed by her father's predecessor as a temporary measure but as the war carried on and fewer men walked Britain's streets the need for a more permanent initiative had grown. As a result the subsequent upgrades and models were children of the great mind of Dr. Charles DuPont, and by extension, his daughter.<br/><br/>The bots and hounds that waited just outside the doors of Charlotte's lab, and probably in key spots along the building in order to prevent escape, were not the repetitive automatons that the originals had been. No, the current models were capable of analyzing data and making adjustments, effectively allowing them to become smarter and more competent as time went on. Of course, given that they did not think the way that a human did and that emotions and mercy were foreign concepts to them, these new adjustments in course of action tended to become more severe. The particular group that had been dispatched to handle Charlotte and her poor assistant had determined from their masters' attitudes regarding the women that the two were expendable and thus had set the fire to either kill them or flush them straight out into their waiting clamps. They weren't terribly picky over which. What they had forgotten to take into account was that Charlotte would very much mind being confined to only two options that spelled her certain doom.<br/><br/>Charlotte's hands were all business as she opened the chamber and released the subject. Guilt threatened to rear its ugly little head as she noted the adverse effects of their impending destruction on Prue and while something inside her screamed for them to go, she knew such panicked reactions would cost her far more than just a few lungfull's of smoke. So her movements were guided by that knowledge, her hands steady as she helped to move Justine's prone form to the exam table.<br/><br/>Prue was then taken by coughing fit and Charlotte found breath had become difficult to manage herself. Still she pressed on with checking the subject's vitals as she roused but that damned guilt ate at her.<em>"Madam Doctor. Dr. DuPont, good heavens! I believe there is a fire!"</em><br/><br/>"I do believe you are correct, Prudence, darling." Charlotte finally looked up, her big green eyes filled with a mix of combating emotions as she simply nodded. "Which means it is time for us to go." Her words, or rather the tone, would seem to exude a certain amount of calm one might consider disproportionate to the situation given the smoke and heat pressing in. The outer walls were a bit resistant to giving way under the elemental assault but Charlotte could already see spots where the fire had won its war and was creeping ever inward while the heat and pressure did a number on the pipes and structure. "I am sorry dear. I will explain later, I promise. But for now we must get the subject somewhere safe."<br/><br/>Pulling off her lab coat, the good doctor called out, "Ives...," she suffered her own coughing fit then and moved the coat over her mouth and nose for a second before finishing,"execute exit protocol X." There was a delayed beep letting her know her command had been heard and then a series of clicks and whirrs that were like music to her ears. Looking up she saw that Prue had gone for the mask and after taking a few breaths herself had put it over the subject's face.<br/><br/>"Now darling, we cannot go out the front and I suspect the windows are a lost cause as well so..." Charlotte snagged up a bag and dropped the strap over her head and shoulders. "Since we cannot go out or up, we must go down." She pointed to a section of the flooring that Ives had taken up to reveal a rather crude looking hatch in the ground. That was the good news. The bad news, which they would discover shortly after Charlotte wrapped a fresh lab coat around the subject and slipped an arm around her to help the not altogether awake and functioning woman up, was that the stifling heat had already beat them there and the hinges to the cover were melted. To top it off, a huge thud sounded at the door once, and then again. The eerie baying of mechanical hounds sounded and Charlotte actually shuddered. It seemed The Authority really had issues with patience.