Mondragon Labs

((ooc: Continued from "Hunter's Apartment".))

Calley was thrilled that a James had finally appeared. He’d known there’d be one lurking around the rich scary man’s payroll somewhere. Now he just needed to find a Charles...

“Pleasure to meet you.”

...And speaking of James there, Calley wasn’t thrilled with that bored I’ve-a-million-better-things-to-do look on the man’s face. “The pleasure’s all mine,” Calley replied dryly. His dislocated shoulder was anything but boring, thank you. And this guy was going to fix him up? Calley suddenly reconsidered bolting. But the guard standing right there, his new scary boss man watching, and the thought that his shoulder probably wouldn’t heal itself miraculously when he shifted—it certainly hadn’t before—made him decide that he was officially in too deep.

He tried to cheer himself up with the thought of official espionage training from the scary man. But it was hard to be cheerful when the doctor you were following down the hall had just—yes, he had!—he’d stifled a yawn. Great. Calley cradled his arm, and nursed hopes that the man would miraculously develop a bedside manner when they got to the infirmary.

Not surprisingly, his hopes were crushed rather swiftly.

“Sit,” the man said, pointing to a hard plastic bed with a clean white sheet. Calley sat. The guy looked his shoulder over—moving it entirely more than Calley thought was necessary—and then announced, “I’m going to relocate your shoulder now,” in a tone that made Calley think his mind was on more interesting subjects than the injured boy before him. Calley stared at the man incredulously.

“Don’t I get painkillers, or someth—Fu—!”

He couldn’t even finish swearing. He was too busy grinding his teeth together. Shoulders were never meant to make that noise.

“Rotate it.” The kind doctor instructed, with a great air of disinterest. Calley was planning on just glaring at the guy, but the guy wasn’t a very fun person to glare at. He wasn’t even looking at Calley’s face. He was looking at Calley’s arm, which he was taking the liberty of moving in a slow circle. “Good,” the overly sympathetic man announced. Calley had to admit that his shoulder didn’t feel half as bad now. And it did move. But that wasn’t the point. He kept glaring.

He kept glaring even as a guard came in and addressed him: “Mister Hunter will be with you shortly.”

He kept glaring as he waited.

He definitely kept glaring as the man went across the room, and returned with a bottle of aspirin that he handed to Calley with a thin smile. Calley swallowed two without water. The dear doctor put his arm in a sling, and then wandered off to do paperwork.

Calley laid down, and glared at the ceiling for the minute or so it took his body to remember that, underneath all the adrenaline and scary-man-induced excitement, and despite the fact he could shift again, it was still dead tired. He'd shifted, what--cat to human, human to cat, cat to monkey, monkey to cat, cat to human--five times today? And two of them right in a row. He'd never shifted more than twice in a day, and he'd always had a good space of time between. And, to be honest, today was the first day in two years that he'd shifted at all.

He curled up on his side, and dreamed dreams of mice in doctors' coats until Hunter came to get him.

“We want extra,” the strike team leader explained, “to cover for the loss.”

Hunter remained facing the enclosure. “You want extra do you,” he said, seemingly to himself, “My staff report that you verbally assaulted my new guest, as well as handling him exceptionally roughly, when my orders explicitly stated that he was to be brought in as gently as possible. So, after much consideration, this is my response to your request for extra.”

His hand shot out and grabbed the neck of one of the men, snapping it with a flick of his wrist. Hurling the corpse into the leader he kicked another man, breaking his knee and causing him to drop to the floor. Grabbing the final man’s rifle he slammed it up into his face before tossing it aside and extending his fangs.

Pinning his arms to his side Hunter sank his teeth into the side of the man’s neck, savouring the taste of blood, more exquisite than anything he’d eaten in the restaurant earlier that day. Having drained the man he simply let him fall before turning to the leader who had just extracted himself form underneath his friend’s corpse. Grabbing him by the throat he hauled him into the air with his feet off the ground.

“Tell me,” Hunter asked the lizardman, “would you like this one?” Rather than wait for an answer Hunter moved to the enclosure door and threw the man inside. Let’s see how this thing fights.

(OOC: Here’s fine)

Chris had been alerted the moment someone had tried to break the first firewall. Whoever it was they were good at hiding their tracks, but not as good as Chris was at finding them. It was a virtual game of cat and mouse as the intruder slowly worked their way into the system and Chris slowly worked to unveil them.

After four hours the intruder had only breached three of the thirty walls in place around the main system, let alone the further security around parts Mr Antonescu deemed top secret. He hadn’t bothered to actively prevent them, and wouldn’t until they got to at least the fifteenth wall.

Instead he had spent the time peeling away the layers of cloak programs that were around the intruder, without letting them know he was doing it. Finally, four hours and seventeen minutes after he’d first been alerted, he’d broken through. He immediately began tracing her location, knowing that to his boss who they were was less important than where they were.

Whoever this person was they had bounced their signal across the globe, but he eventually tracked it to a mobile phone in New York City. A quick GPS cross-reference revealed that it was located at the Xavier Institute. He could narrow it down to the exact room.

The Xavier Institute. He’d heard talk of Mr Antonescu’s interest in the place, and wondered if this was related. However, he couldn’t just dash off, he had to keep an eye on the intruder. They’d breached the fourth firewall. If possible he wanted to leave them to get bored and give up, thereby leaving them thinking that they were undetected and giving any real world response that Mr Antonescu chose to make the element of surprise.

Almost five hours after the assault began it stopped and the intruder left, covering their tracks. But it was too late, they had already been located. Chris told his staff to monitor for any further activity and inform him the moment anyone tried to breach their security. Leaving the computer security room Chris went in search of Mr Antonescu, he’d want to know about this.

“My apologies for the rough handling”, said Hunter wiping the blood from his chin with a handkerchief, “Let me explain why I had you brought here. I am assembling a team of mutants to perform tasks that only they, with their unique talents, can perform. When I heard tale of a monster in the Amazon I sent men to investigate.”

“You would make an excellent soldier, you’re strong, fast, and have natural weapons and armour as well as a killer’s instinct. If you agree to join I will supply you with a home tailor made to suit your needs, and help you achieve any goals that you have.”

“So, if you want to join the team I’m going to open the door and let you out of this enclosure. But be warned, if you attack anyone without my express permission there will be serious consequences. Make your choice.”

Hunter was not about to be interrupted, hitting a secure channel he simply said “Code Epsilon.” Seconds later the corridor in which Dakota was filled with armed men. These were not simple security guards, but trained soldiers.

“Mr Antonescu asks that Dakota Crane come to the infirmary. Your bodyguards will be detained until further notice. We are authorised to meet any resistance with lethal force. Mr Antonescu is currently busy, and finds your interruption disrespectful. Once he has concluded his current business he will be with you.”

Twenty men were tasked with accompanying Dakota Crane with the other thirty would detain the bodyguards and escort them to the cells.

Having left sanctuary at a casual pace Zephyr had quickly found his suspicious good evaporating, replacing it instead with a moderate level of anxiety. He wasn't use to be contacted out of the blue like this, normally he was the one to approach an employer and when it was the other way round Simon usually specified the meeting point. This time though events had been left completely out of his control, and this caused the elemental to be somewhat more cautious than usual when he entered the peculiarly named "Bite 2 Eat".

The place had seemed ordinary enough at first glance, the patrons for the most were human, for Zephyr had yet to see am obese mutant who wasn't big enough to tackle a tank. There seemed to be something about the x gene that kept those possessing it in surprisingly good form no matter what their diet. Still dispersed among the largely human crowd Simon was able to pick out a few tell tale sings of mutant guests, it was nothing obvious, things only an experienced observer would notice, but Simon had been fighting for his life for over a year and so he noted those who were exceptionally confident or skittish and noted that they possessed something unique, whether it be coloured lenses, exceptionally baggy clothes or extendable tongues.

It was not these ordinary mutants who worried the mercenary though, if a fight broke they would represent no great threat to him; for Simon could easily level the building if he chose. What truly bothered the elemental was the staff of the fast food joint; their movements were too precise, their behavior too polite and the quiet way they took almost any abuse thrown at them set off an alarm in Simon head. The fact that nearly all of them were 6ft and built like commandos did not ease the situation. This was far more than the burger joint and at this point in time Simon had no interest in uncovering whatever ulterior motive was hidden.

Still he was supposed to encounter his contact here and after abandoning Sanctuary he couldn't easily afford to turn back now. so he had silently joined the steadily moving line and when it came his turn to order he used the corny pass phrase that had been given to him and ordered the "burger with extra bite". The man behind the counter had shown no reaction to Simon's words and calmly retrieved his order like he had with previous untold customers he had dealt with that day, serving the elemental a surprisingly small burger on a tray with a large soda. Thinking that he was still waiting for his contact Simon had taken his tray and chosen a seat at the back corner of the establishment so that he would have a clear view of anyone who approached him, yet no one did..

It will not be stated how long it took Simon to glance back down at his tray and realize that the normal paper mat provided was in fact a map. Let us merely say that he was quite glad his contact wasn't present to notice it. After quickly scanning and absorbing the route detailed on the cartoonish map Simon left Bite 2 Eat at a swift pace and quickly ascended to the nearest roof and from there called upon the element that was under to his command to lift him into the sky and carry him to his destination at a breakneck speed.

The destination marked on the map was no small complex, it was easily the size of a military base, and probably had most of the same safeguards. After observing the structure a fair distance away from the air Zephyr decided it would be more prudent to approach on foot and clearly allow them to see him coming so that he would not be mistaken for some type of missile. Landing a mile away from the facility the elemental brushed off his clothes and headed towards the lab at a causal pace, he still twenty minutes of his two hour deadline left and he figured he may as well use them.

Roughly twenty minutes later Simon finally approached the Mondragon facility. As he attempted to enter his path was blocked by two security guards with roughly the same build as the staff of Bite 2 Eat.

"We'll need to see some authorization"[/color]

Giving the man a dry look Simon noted the many surveillances cameras and decided not to antagonize the man "Tell who ever is responsible that Zephyr has arrived"