It had only been a few days since he had scoped out the registration building, but Kaz was becoming unsettled. For whatever reason, he wasn't able to get a hold of Nicki. Sure he could have gone to the mansion....if he wanted to take all the Xmen on by himself. For all his confidence, he knew he wouldn't survive if he did that. He had passed by the mansion a few times, in a different car or truck each time, hoping to see Nicki outside, but no luck. He would have to wait and hope she was alright.

Kaz had gone back to his warehouse after dropping off the binoculars at Mondragon Labs. Besides his little outings, he hadn't left once. While in the warehouse he was keeping himself busy by getting a few toys together. A delivery from Atlas Munitions had arrived. Unlike his usual choice of weaponry, except for a few special items, inside these crates were an array of guns. The two that he was most interested in were the highly modified Desert Eagles, at least that's he figured they were. He was never good with the name of a gun. Big, heavy, 50 caliber guns, with built in silencers, which also had semi and full auto options. Twelve rounds per clip or 36 rounds with the extended clip, which could be emptied in under a second on full auto. Hollow and cross-tipped, armor piercing, thermal rounds able to pierce over a foot thick titanium plating, along with actual exploding heads. Effective lethal range was over 100 yards for normal ammo, over 200 for the armor piercing thermal rounds and with the advanced recoil reduction there would be very little kickback felt by even a normal human. He didn't know or care to know that it was Dr.Jackson that had designed these specific weapons and ammo before she had left Atlas, which hadn't been released to the military or documented that they existed at all. While blades worked well, and he preferred them, he also knew that you sometimes need something with a bit more bite to it.

Five inches long, three and a half inches wide just below half way, and less than a centimeter thick at the center. The blade was in the shape of an elongated diamond with curving sides, connected to a cylindrical hand grip by a thin, flexible adamantium wire. The blade and the grip were also made of adamantium. When moved in a slight arc with enough force and speed, the wire would uncoil from inside the grip, allowing the blade to extend nearly 10ft, and then return to the grip when the motion was stopped. Beyond the blade being very sharp, and the grip able to double as a pummeling weapon, it could be used as a normal dagger, when extended, the wire is thin enough that while moving with enough speed, is capable of severing flesh and bone. Kaz couldn't take credit for designing this particular piece, he had seen it in a movie some years ago and liked the idea.

Kaz was practicing with the blade when he heard the buzzing from the front door. A screen dropped down from the ceiling, rotating to face him and showed a picture of Hunter waiting at the door. "Huh?" Shrugging, "Open the door." Downstairs the front door unlocked and swung open. "Come on up, you'll see the stairs after you leave the entrance hallway." His words came out through the intercom next to Hunter.

Hunter had come to see Kaz for two reasons. First he had some to warn him of the mansion attack, but let him know that Nicki was ok, Sergeant Hicks’s team had told him so minutes before. His second reason was a lot more personal. He needed to talk to Kaz about his daughter.

Hunter followed the instructions without thinking, instead going over in his head what he would say to Kaz. When he saw the silver haired youth all thoughts of talk vanished from his mind. He didn’t see Kaz, he only saw a man who had kidnapped his daughter and experimented on her, ruining his attempt to give her power with control.

Unable to keep his rage in check Hunter practically flew across the room and swung for Kaz as hard as he could.

As soon as Hunter left the entrance area the screen went back into the ceiling as Kaz went to put his new toys away. As soon as Hunter reached the floor he was on Kaz knew something was amiss. Hunter didn't say anything. Kaz turned around to say something and was promptly punched in the jaw. In the split second before the force of the blow sent him flying, his eyes locked onto Hunter's silver orbs, a look of surprise and hate crossed Kaz's face, his eyes filled with rage. The force of Hunter's punch sent Kaz across the room, gravity finally catching him, he went down towards the ground, hit his shoulder in a half twist, pushed off the ground with his other hand and landed on his feet facing Hunter.

Kaz ran his tongue around his mouth, feeling where his teeth had cut his cheek from the blow. He collected the pooled blood in his mouth and spit it onto the floor away from him. He stared directly at Hunter, muscles tense and ready to attack. "You have three second to explain yourself before I begin to remove your limbs."

“You experimented on my daughter!” Hunter roared across the room at Kaz. His fists trembled at his sides as he resisted the urge to follow up the attack. He knew that he had let his temper get the better of him, and was trying to wrestle it back under control.

Breathing heavily he slowly suppressed his rage to below murderous levels. Finally satisfied that he could refrain from killing Kaz he explained. “You kidnapped a woman named Rayne Belamount, Iris. You experimented on her with a substance that had a sever effect on mutants. That woman was my daughter.”

When Hunter had caught up with Dr Ingram only the doctor’s quick explanation had saved his life. The first thing he said when he saw Hunter was “don’t let Paragon use the new gem”. He’d found something in her system that would alter the gem. Something that Kaz and Syn had given her. Haywire.

When Hunter yelled his reason for attacking, Kaz straightened up and looked at him curiously. He watched as Hunter visibly calmed, which seemed to take a great deal of effort. "Daughter?" This was quite surprising to Kaz and it showed on his face. "Iris." He spoke her name under his breath as his mind went back to the park and KP. "First of all, I NEVER experimented on anyone with anything. Secondly,." Kaz began to twirl his wrist, letting the blade pick up speed and begin to extend. "Any experimenting was done by Syn. I don't even know WHAT Syn did exactly, I wasn't there. It involves Haywire somehow."

Kaz narrowed his eyes at Hunter. "If she's your daughter and you care so much about her, you wouldn't have let her be caught, and if she somehow was, you would have gotten her out." Shrugging, "But since you didn't...." Kaz let the sentence drop, leaving Hunter to get the unsaid message.

Hunter was trying to remain calm and Kaz’s jibes were not helping. Focusing he replied, “I have always done what I thought was right for her. She was meant to be in an orphanage away from me and without her powers. Someone had failed me, and when I find out who I will reek blood vengeance upon them.”

“I know you were involved in this, tell me how.” Once Kaz had told him his side of the story Hunter might be able to see things a little clearer. He had not missed Kaz whirling his latest toy, and had more than enough adrenaline pumping through his system right now to b ready for anything the boy tried.

Kaz huffed at Hunter's reply. "Then you failed as a father. If you cared so much, you would have checked to make sure she didn't have her powers. Beyond that, you failed because you didn't take responsibility for her, raise her or even check up on her. From what you said I can only guess you basically had planned to have her dumped somewhere and you forgot about her until now, for whatever reason. For being the smart, organized guy you seem to be, this is rather disappointing." Kaz spit the last bit of blood from his mouth. "In light of your failures you piss me off by coming her, assaulting me and acting as if you're a good parent." His words were laced with poison, showing Hunter how annoyed, aggravated and disappointed at the man.

“I know you were involved in this, tell me how.”

"In essence, I was the warden. While she and the others were in the cells, I made sure they didn't escape. I was also the only one who gave them food and drink so they wouldn't die. With Iris, I was the one who had captured her. She put up a good fight and didn't back down and cower like some spineless human. I respect her for that. I also saw she had potential beyond what she was showing. While she was held by us, I pushed her, to rise beyond what she was. And she did, she broke the cell and got another mutant out of theirs." Kaz shrugged and stopped spinning his blade, "As I said I was basically the warden. I didn't experiment on anyone and have no idea what was done to any of them."

Hunter didn’t rise to Kaz’s bait, largely as he knew the boy was right. He’d always done what he’d thought was right, but he had failed as a father and he knew it. If this was any other issue Hunter would have put Kaz down for saying that, but in this instance, it truly didn’t seem to matter. He should have check, he should have monitored. But he knew that if he had, he may well have taken her back, and that would have been worse than the life he thought she had. In truth it would have been better than the life she had actually had, but he hadn’t known that.

Instead eh focused on what Kaz had done during Paragon’s imprisonment. Warden. He’d only kept her there, and ensured that she had gotten food and water. He hadn’t used them for experiments, he’d even tried to help her by training. This was not his fault. It was Syn’s.

“I apologise Kaz,” Hunter said finally, “I acted rashly and out of anger. This is Syn’s fault,” and mine, “not yours. She’s the one who has to pay for it. However, my daughter was not the main reason that I came here. The government has raided the mansion. They moved in before I could respond or send warning, but I do have men out there now. Nicki made it out and is with one of my teams.”

Reaching into his jacket pocket he pulled out a GPS and tossed it to Kaz. “That will guide you to Sergeant Hicks’s team. Nicki is with them, as is Sentinel, another mutant who was imprisoned with Iris. Go to Nicki, but try not to start anything with Sentinel. The Sergeant was going to bring them to the lab. It’s been fortified and could withstand heavy assault. Nicki will be safest there. Make sure she and Sentinel get there unharmed.”

It was Kaz's turn to be pissed off as he listened to Hunter talk about the mansion raid and Nicki. To Kaz, Nicki was more important than some long forgotten daughter. Kaz's upper lip and left eyebrow began to tremble. He felt that familiar rage well up inside of him. He cought the GPS tracker in his right hand. "Hunter....first you come in here and assault me, then yell at me, AND you don't tell me about Nicki until AFTER this bull sh it!" Kaz rushed Hunter at incredible speeds. His left hand shot up at the man as a low growl escaped his lips.

In that single instant, his left arm had shifted, his huge hand larger than Hunter's chest and his thumb, index and middle fingers wrapped around the man's neck. As Kaz spoke it was obvious it wasn't just his arm that had shifted, but his teeth and jaw as well. More prominent was his jaw line and his face elongated just slightly to allow room for the slightly over sized, razor sharp teeth filling his maw. "Don't you ever wait to tell me something like this again!" He moved his head closer to Hunter's. "This is your first warning Hunter, trust when I say this. You won't get a third."

Pushing the man away he grabbed his weapons and moved to the lift area, "GET OUT!" With those words he dropped over 30ft to the ground floor where the vehicles were kept. He didn't wait to see if Hunter left, he didn't have to. With his words, from multiple angles slits opened in the ceilings and walls from which a multitude of weaponry descended, all trained on Hunter. An automated voice began to speak, "You have five second to begin moving towards the stairs, any other direction and you will be shot."

Kaz hopped into a modified Hummer, armor plating and bullet proof glass were just the beginning of it's list of special features. Pressing his hand to the dash the car came to life and the door opened up. The wheels squealed as he pressed the gas down and exited the building.

Hunter could see rage boiling inside Kaz. He saw the twitch the indicated a coming attack, but made no effort to move or defend himself. Instead he just stood there as the boy reached out with his morphed hand and grabbed him, before shouting his anger. Hunter made no effort to resist, but was mildly humoured by Kaz’s hypocrisy. Nicki was already with the safety of one of his teams before he had arrived here, waiting to inform Kaz of this did not put her in any greater danger. Kaz’s outburst was no different from his own.

When the boy left Hunter turned and headed towards the lift, ignoring Kaz’s security measures. Once outside he headed towards his car. He’d driven himself here, using the distraction of driving to try and clear his head. Reaching the car he paused before looking off at the swiftly vanishing form of Kaz’s vehicle.

He wondered if the boy could do for Nicki what he had for Paragon. Could Kaz leave Nicki so she could have a better life, even if she begged for him to stay? Hunter doubted it. He doubted he could have if he hadn’t gone through the loss of Katherine. Losing her had helped him gain perspective, that everything withered with time. That certainty had given him the strength to break away for his daughter. Now he had been reunited with her he knew he couldn’t bring himself to do it again. For better or worse he was now intrinsically involved in Paragon’s life, whether she wanted him to be or not.