(OOC: I'm assuming they went ahead and shots were fired. Let me know if I need to change it.)

"Iris? Umm, I liked the black better. And short answer: escaped lab experiment guy who's threatening to eat Katrina and is maybe eating a receptionist behind us, so long answer: running now."

"Experiment eating wha-? Wha-wait! What are you talk-??" She accepted the hand and up and followed the young duo to the library.

"Umm, I usually keep some spare clothes over there, in the Natural Sciences. I'll, umm, be right back and decently clothed in just a sec. Try not to get eaten while I'm gone."

As the teen disappeared, Iris turned to Katrina. Her expression and tone reflected utter confusion.

"Katrina, what is going on?? Who was screaming? And what did Calley mean by someone trying to eat you?"

As if her were words were a cue for a bad movie, a growing rumble in the background turned into full-fledged, and intentionally started, bookshelf-quake. Iris felt her back tingle; one of the gems was threatening to activate.

"Think calming thoughts, think calming thoughts, think calming throughts," she muttered quietly to herself, backing away from the mess. She frowned at the figure emerging out of the debris. He looked..... really, really familiar..... And he looked normal enough. Though for some reason she had the overwhelming desire to say 'purple looked better'. But purple what??

And that wasn't purple on his clothes. That was red. As in.... blood....

“Hello there, I hope you didn’t find it too rude of me rescheduling our little luncheon.”

Iris gulped, and added quietly to Katrina, "Let me guess. Person-eating experiment?"

” I see you brought dessert along with you.”

Katrina had the right idea; 'backing away' equals 'very smart'. Though a bit of a faster retreat would have seemed slightly more effective.....

"Hehe.... never been much of a dessert person, myself...." Back tingling more, definitely not good. "Ac-actual-ly, w-would you mind if w-we take a rain che-GAAAHH!!"

The sharp sound of a gunshot pushed Iris's body over the edge, and her mutation forcibly took over. And wouldn't you know, the worst of the six option happened. Underneath the blond hair dye, streaks of shimmery grey showed through, and the grey of her eyes took on a more molten silver look. Her fearful expression turned to an odd mix of disappointment and confusion.

"Well.... this isn't going to end well...." She looked sideways, at the little girl behind her, then back at the blood-stained Zelek. "Tell you what? You stay here, we'll go get take-out, and be back later. 'kay?"

She smiled overly cheerfully, waved, snapped her fingers. A thin layer of ice appeared her feet, then expanded and shot forward, aiming to freeze the bloodied teen's feet to the ground.

"Much later....."

Calley was drowning in a sea of white and loud noises and--oww!--books hitting his poor, poor spine.

What did you do? Slate asked, ever the monotonously unconcerned voice-in-his head.

Nothing. Shut up. Go away. Annoyingly, Slate listened. That left Calley with an aching spine and a desire to claw himself out of whatever he was trapped in. There had been a few quiet creaking noises, then... a LOUD noise, with a loud-loud-loud-loud cascading effect coming towards him. Then there'd been the Mineralogy book hitting his head and the oww and the looking up and the--

Ah. The bookshelf had fallen on him. That rather explained a lot, after a manner of speaking.

There was a small white cat with black spots here and there, drowning in Doc Jimmy's suddenly oversized lab coat and a pair of guard's pants, feeling a little cramped but generally safe in the small triangular space where the Natural Sciences shelf had fallen to rest on the Mathematics shelf.

The little white cat with black spots here and there wiggled and squiggled and clawed, and finally--gasping--found the neck hole of the lab coat. Its head promptly hit against something hard and unforgiving. Its baby blue eyes narrowed with murderous warning at the expansive volume on Mineralogy, with its mocking toy sword pointing its hilt at the growing bump on his little kitty forehead.

I do not want to know, Slate said, after a brief moment of contemplation.

Fine. I don't want you to know. Shut up. Infuriatingly, Slate left it at that, and went back to his planning. It involved Greek mythology and a petting zoo. Because Slate was stupid like that, and didn't care that their body had just risked bookshelf crushing only to get insulted--to the face!--by a chunk of unfinished wood. Just 'cause someone could heal injuries didn't mean that some of them preferred to not have insult upon heart attack.

...Slate was very distinctly not listening.

...The sword and the book were in the way, and Calley had the bad feeling that someone might come and check on him soon, since some people cared about others. Shaking off the lab coat, the small white cat began to army-crawl its way forward, its black spots making a parody of camouflage in the darkened space. The sword and the book on stones were very, very distinctly in the way. Very. With a frustrated hiss, the little cat clamped its teeth on the sword hilt and used it to push the whole mess along in front of him. Finally, triumphantly, it emerged, blinking, into the light of the library. Free of the hideous bookshelf mess above it, safe at last!

...No one had come to check on it. Perhaps some people just did not care.

The cat's ears laid flat on its head, and its needle-like teeth sank deep into the hilt of the sword. Shove it.

~ “Nooooooo!”

ILL-ADVISED SHOTGUN BLAST TO DOORKNOB!

~ "GAAAHH!!"

The cat's ears sprang forwards. It tried to stand--oww oww oww!--and discovered, most unfortuitously, that its little needle-like teeth were stuck in that hilt. It half-lay, half-stood, its tail swishing the air. Well. Well, then.

...Heh.

--

Outside of the library, Percy Ferretly was looking thoroughly quizzical; an expression common to Paladins who have just done something extremely stupid in the pursuit of lawful good. "Huh," he advised his party; "the door is jammed."

"Hold this," Edward Song Hau Sepelu Sivrusky the IV said, handing off his wicked gnarled staff and his somewhat less impressive semi-automatic pistol to their Archer. Artemis Moonfeather accepted the items with stoic dignity, while in his mind he recited ancient elven curses of infertility known only to the last two surviving members of his clan: himself, and his tainted half-brother Nefarium Moonshadow. With an air of no-need-to-mention-it superiority, Edward Song Hau Sepelu Sivrusky the IV crouched down and slid out the metal pin that held the bottom door hinge together. He stood back up, and repeated the procedure with the top hinge. The door creaked and sagged. "Percy," he whistled. "Here boy." He pointed towards the crack between the door and its frame, and gave a meaningful look to the Paladin's sword.

"Ohhh," Percy Ferretly said. Intelligence +3!

The door was shortly pried open. Behind it was a trap in the guise of a bookshelf. Heavy tomes rained down upon the adventurers. Artemis Moonfeather nimbly dodged out of their way, and found Nigel Banks already standing a hair's breadth out of range, his hands clasped calmly behind his back as the book cascade trickled to a stop. "It looks like we'll need to muscle it out of the way," Nigel said simply.

All eyes turned to Percy Ferretly, currently on the floor. Grunt Labor +5!

--

Elsewhere, Noin Mortman was blinking her way back to waking. Her eyes focused first on the fuzzy white ceiling of the infirmary. Her head turned to the side. The nearer, sharper image of a wooden pencil on a bedside table came into focus.

"Don't worry, Ms. Mortman," the nurse soothed her, "you'll be just fine. We've put a bit of blood back in you. Just take it easy, for now, Ms.--Ms. Mortman?"

Noin Mortman sat up. She reached out, and curled her four fingers around her pencil before tucking it firmly in its place behind her ear. Noin Mortman was a member of the Mondragon Labs reception staff. Her honor had been trampled by that boy's surprise attack. She had to get back to work. How could she ever face Mr. Antonescu again if she didn't?

--

Melissa Rivers snapped her phone shut. "That was the security room. The library shelves are piled against the doors. The only ways in or out are the windows and the vents. Ten guesses how the experiment got in there."

Nicholas Williams smiled pleasantly. "I don't think I need ten." At Melissa's withering stare, Nicky compromised at keeping his smile but asking with all the proper seriousness: "What's the plan?"

"Katrina is in there," Melissa informed them. Nicolas and Charles winced in unison. "So is Iris." They winced again. "Calley, as well." Frank nodded. "We can't go through the doors, and you three aren't vent-sized. We're going for the windows. They're directly above the--"

"Parking garage roof," Frank Newton said unexpectedly, with a glance to his two companions that held an amount of unreadable meaning that left Melissa unsettled on a level she couldn't even name.

"Goodie," Charles Triggs said, his grin even wider than ol' Nicky's. "Can I pick something up while we're there?"

Melissa Rivers was struck with the inexplicable urge to say 'no'. Getting a grip on herself, she instead turned her steps towards the parking garage. "Come on," she said simply. "We don't have time to stand around talking."

"That's a 'yes'," Charles whispered over to Nicholas.

--

~ "Well.... this isn't going to end well.... Tell you what? You stay here, we'll go get take-out, and be back later. 'kay?"

As much as Calley really didn't particularly want to, it occurred to him that he might be bored in the future if two people who resembled friend-type individuals got eaten. With one last frustrated hiss, the little white cat with black spots here and there shifted to Bengal Tiger. The sword slid free of its parchment bindings, the book opening to its middle by the suddenness of the change.

Woodscalibur had been drawn from the book of stones.

With sword still in mouth, the tiger charged out of the bookcases and into the library proper. "Geff away fom them!" It growled, barring its teeth around the sword hilt as it stared at the boy, not particularly eager to get closer, but attempting to look eager to spring by striking a dramatic pose. Just then, light broke through the clouds outside, shinning heroically down onto the scene. The tiger blinked baby blue eyes over at the windows. The windows, with those nice collapsed shelves leading up to them like the stairs of giants...

The tiger bounded forward (giving the unknown teen a wide, circular berth), and crouched down in front of Iris and Katrina (after skidding a little on a stray patch of Springtime Indoor Ice). "Geff on!" It demanded. If the Ladies of the Library were willing, they were about to get a tiger-back ride right through those windows and onto the roof of the Mondragon Labs car garage.

The Library had taken enough damage, for now.

---

Noin’s blood had done wonders for his energy and stamina and wrecked disaster on his ability to quench his blood lust. The girl's scratch on her arm called to him like a unavoidable fate. if they insisted on running and running away, then eventually they would fall to exhaustion. The girl was quite properly fleeing, or getting ready to, and so he walked toward them.

Hehe.... never been much of a dessert person, myself...." Back tingling more, definitely not good. "Ac-actual-ly, w-would you mind if w-we take a rain che-GAAAHH!!"

“oh, come now, of course you are the dessert person type. And yes I do mind it seems I am the only on that seems to like to do things without delay here.” His eyes widened on the ending punctuation of the woman’s sentence of Gahhh!

~ "Well.... this isn't going to end well.... Tell you what? You stay here, we'll go get take-out, and be back later. 'kay?"

“Perhaps not for you, have you been listening?”

Momentarily distracted by the repeated idiotic practice of shooting doors, he returned his mind to the situation at hand, Zelek watched as the Ice came forth at him beckoning him to “freeze.” He had no intention of doing just that. He leapt to his right and closer to the doors and further from the window and then was just about to charge the pair but, a tiger with a wooden sword seemed to be talking to him.

~"Geff away fom them!" ~ The tiger very well might have been impressive, and he was, but his credibility as dangerous had been massively removed by the downgrade from laser hand cannon to wooden sword.

"Geff on!"

If the Ice was still chasing him he wasn’t staying still to find out. he bound quickly from shelf to shelf toward the girls and tiger. The simple fact that he hadn’t twisted his ankle was a miracle or would have been to a graceless human.

The tiger was being bothersome and for the second time trying to take his meal, he momentarily wondered what insanity took over his common sense. He scooped up a book and threw it at the dessert’s head and then promptly Yanked on the tiger’s tail as hard as his now improved strength could manage.

“Catch a tiger by its tail, and if it hollers make it pay.” He would instantly find out what this beast was all about. ‘Fight or flight, thus far flight had been the trio’s primary option. Kill the tiger, disable dessert and then drink of the cute little doll’s blood was what his single tracked mind beckoned him to do.

Have you ever attacked a tiger? if not allow me to tell you, that constantly somewhere in your head, it will tell you that it’s a bad idea. But what is unlife if not taking risks, rolling dice and drinking of the blood of those that can’t dun faster or fight harder.

Tabby Mono was having a rather difficult day. It had started out just fine, with a quiet lunch hour and happy sudoku puzzles. Then the tiger boy and the twelve-year-old had left their half eaten lunch messes for her to clean up, that hermit of a scientist scientist had given her a hard time because he thought there might be a hint of salt on his plain pasta noodles, and she had almost been run over by that rude overrated recruiter that Mr. Antonescue thought so highly of. And now, to top it all off, she was talking on the phone to the socially awkward scientist.

“I'm sorry Mr. Ingram. This is a canteen, not a delivery service. ... I understand the importance of your work.” That wasn't strictly true, she didn't understand, or care, what kinds of harebrained experiments the strange little man worked on from day to day. “I know that you already came down to the canteen once today.” How could she forget? “Don't you have lab assistants or something to run errands for you? ... Alright fine, yes I know the way to your lab. ... Yes, I'll make sure they are plain.”

Tabby hung up the phone. Unbelievable. She didn't even have any plain noodles made at the moment, and would have to make an entirely new batch just because the good doctor had gone and dumped his all over the floor. Honestly, that guy needed to eat more protein so he wouldn't have these blood sugar issues.

--

Percy Ferretly unceremoniously dumped the last of the books in a pile next to the door and wiped the sweat off of his brow. He thought to himself with remorse that the task would have been easier if he hadn't been wearing several pounds of plate metal. Edward Song Hau Sepelu Sivrusky the IV thought to himself with remorse that some of those ancient texts were probably damaged beyond repair now. Artemis Moonfeather was remorseful that the paper cut he had just received from an ancient history text on Queen Elizabeth was lined up exactly where the string of his bow would hit his fingers the next time he needed to use his mighty arrows to protect the innocent and vanquish evil.

If Nigel Banks was capable of such thoughts, he would be remorseful right at this moment that he had ever agreed to work for an employer that kept homicidal science projects in the same building as the only two girls in the world that he would hate to see killed, “This isn't a game, boys! Let's get this bookshelf out of the way!”

--

Noin Mortman returned to her desk with all the grace and haste her bruised body could muster. All those resistance fighters and camp inmates were going to be back soon, and she still had a lot of work to do before they arrived. Someone had to arrange for clean sheets, toothbrushes, and blankets for everyone, and it certainly wasn't going to be Kaz. A quick phone call to the canteen would ensure that there would be an extra large dinner prepared for the possible influx of residents later that evening. Noin picked up the phone and began dialing.

--

Dr. James Ingram's stomach rumbled. He looked up from his intricate fiddlings in the interior of the Fusion Blaster Prototype Version 2.3 to the clock on the wall. Where was that infuriatingly slow lunch lady? He had ordered his plain noodles at least thirty minutes age. Even pizza would have arrived faster than that.

30 more seconds passed before Ingram realized that he wasn't making any progress on the Fusion Blaster. That settled matters. He'd have to go down to the canteen and see what on earth was taking so long. And he'd have to take the Fusion Blasters with him. They weren't going to fix themselves here in the lab, he had wasted enough work time already that day, and the last thing he wanted to do was leave them lying around where any lowly being could find them.

--

Iris had gone silvery and was spreading ice across the floor. Calley had gone stripey and was standing in front of her offering a tiger back ride to freedom. Katrina was glad to see he had survived the avalanche of bookshelves for more than one reason.

"Geff on!" the tiger said through a mouthful of wooden sword. Katrina didn't need to be told twice. With a well practiced hop, she swung her leg over large feline's back.

>>>“Catch a tiger by its tail, and if it hollers make it pay.”
Well, that might seriously hamper their escape.

Another cloud passed, and a bright ray of light again illuminated the tiger. Katrina suddenly remembered another tiger-back ride and in a flash had an idea that might help them escape. Unfortunately with her short arms, she couldn't reach anything to help free Calley's tail. “Calley!” The tiger turned his head and the sword in his mouth disappeared, and one that looked just like reappeared in Katrina's hand.

“Take that!” she swatted at the teen-vampire's hand, putting all of her concentration into making that sword blow feel just like getting smacked on the back of the hand with a ruler. Hopefully it would startle him into letting go of Calley's tail.

The rest of the plan relied on this success of the first part. If the black-haired teenager let go, and they somehow made it through the window, Katrina would make the window look like it was a two feet farther to the left, which would make it difficult for anyone to follow through the same exit.

“oh, come now, of course you are the dessert person type. And yes I do mind it seems I am the only on that seems to like to do things without delay here. Perhaps not for you, have you been listening?”

Iris pouted childishly and crossed her arms. "Who can hear without all the racket out there?" she snipped. He jumped away from her Ice attacks, a motion which irritated her to no end for some reason, so she kept at it. A thought in the back of her mind reminded her that, if she could keep him on the defensive, they'd have time to find a way out. Hopefully.

But Calley's reappearance distracted her from any other attempt at strategy. Iris had forgotten what the skinny teen was capable of; the eruption of stripes from beneath the debris eloquently reminded her. He skidded slightly on the Ice, and she quickly pulled it away, so he wouldn't completely loose his footing.

Wait.... was he holding a sword? In his mouth?? She tilted her head curiously. Forgetting to keep up the Ice attacks.

"Geff away fom them! Geff on!"

Iris blinked. "Say wha?"

Katrina got the idea quickly and jumped aboard, and Iris made a silent 'Oooh!' gesture. When she moved to follow suit, she caught a motion out of the corner of her eye. There wasn't enough time to duck fully, and the book connected with her ear. The blow didn't do much more than leave a scratch, and eventually a bruise, but it HURT. Stubbing-your-pinkie-toe-on-the-corner-of-the-coffeetable kind of hurt. She staggered backwards, hissing in pain. Her emotions switched gears, moving into anger.

When she was able to focus again, Katrina was in the process of swinging that wooden sword at Zelek's tiger-tail-holding hand.

"Back off!" She pushed one hand forward, and a blast of sound shot forward at the boy, tossing up shredded paper and book covers as it went, and leaving an uncomfortable buzzing-slash-squeal in its wake. She followed right behind and hopped up behind Katrina, ducking the wooden blade.

"If you want to eat, go to the cafeteria like everyone e-else!" She shouted over her shoulder. Again her sentence ended on a high note as the trio charged the window, and out of it.

When they hit the ground, Iris dissolved into a slightly hysterical giggle fit.

"Can we do that again?"

The correct reaction to a cannibalistic mutant grabbing your tail was not to freeze. The correct reaction to a cannibalistic mutant grabbing your tail was not to freeze. The correct reaction to a cannibalistic mutant grabbing your tail was not to freeze. The correct reaction to a cannibalistic mutant grabbing your tail was not to freeze. But the last time Calley's tail had gotten grabbed that hard, it had been by a man about to rip it off, so excuse a large Bengal Tiger for a little bit of over-reactive panic.

It was Katrina's call to arms that finally snapped him out of it: "Calley!" He swung his large head around, and watched with bewilderment turning to understanding as Woodscalibur seemed to disappear, reappear, and go on the attack in the girl's hands. He could still feel it clamped between his teeth--cheap, unfinished pine had a very distinctive fuzzy-splinter taste. Kat was bringing her illusions into this. Good girl. Good Lady. Good... Tiger-Riding Lady Knight. With Iris on the attack as well, there was nothing a noble stripped steed could do but gather up his muscles under himself and give a mighty spring towards freedom. He bounded from fallen bookcase to fallen bookcase with even more ease and much more grace than the boy behind them, and made the window.

Instantly, said window seemed to take up a position two feet to the left. Go Kat! The tiger's feet touched down on the rooftop of the parking garage triumphantly.

~ "Can we do that again?"

The tiger's whiskers twitched with a smile as its baby blue eyes noted the single door headed downwards. "Oh, I can one-up that," Calley purred, gathering himself up again. "Lady Knights, if you would please switch to riding side-saddle and hold on tight..."

An interesting fact of the Mondragon Labs parking garage: it has two levels, when one is on the inside. Should one count its levels from the outside, the number would be far closer to five. Calley charged that rooftop door, turning on one paw at the last moment to put his full momentum and weight into shouldering it open; he tumble-leapt down the stairs, shouldered one last door open, and took one further leap before skidding to a bewildered halt, not really remembering that the sudden stop might send his passengers tumbling. The trio had entered the topmost of those concealed levels.

"What the...? I just... I mean... What?" The tiger stammered, hopelessly confused. "Why would he need this?"

--

Melissa Rivers was a light-skinned individual by nature. In the florescent lighting of the lowermost level of the parking garage, she was lighter still. This meant that when Charles Triggs pulled a rocket launcher out of the backseat of the Triforce's black jeep, no one could say whether she paled or not.

"No," she said. "No," she repeated again, even more firmly, as she noticed that those small round objects Frank Newton was slipping inside of his black suit jacket with professional ease were compact incendiary weapons. "No!" She barked, as Nicholas Williams reached over into the front seat.

"What?" He smiled, flipping a switch despite her intense stare. "We left our headlights on. Bad for the battery."

Melissa Rivers opened her mouth, but was cut off by the ringing of her phone. She flipped it open, giving Charles and Frank the stare of a mother who's on her final straw. "Yes? They escaped? Good. Where are they now? ...Bloody wonderful. Listen, would someone get Nigel a new phone? Heads are going to roll for this when Mister Antonescu gets back, and he's the one who should be in charge of this mess." She flipped the phone closed, her final straw creaking dangerously, somewhere on the metaphorical plane.

Nicholas Williams had overheard. He blinked in honest surprise: a rare expression on ol' Nicky's face. "Now why would he need one of those?"

"One of what?" Charles asked, his rocket launcher leaning carelessly against one shoulder, and his oversized green ammunition duffle slung over the other. Melissa stared at him. "What?" He asked, raising up his hands palms-up in a unfairly-persecuted shrug.

Frank Newton buttoned his suit jacket closed, and shrugged its inconspicuously increased weight to a more comfortable position on his exceptionally board shoulders.

--

Several minutes later, a panting guard reached the LARPers' position. "Mister Banks," he summoned, holding out a new cell phone. Nigel walked over, and accepted it. "I'm sorry, Mister Banks, but the video feeds are showing those doors completely barricaded; there's about six full shelves piled against them."

Percy Ferretly kept heaving against them for a moment more; Edward Song Hau Sepelu Sivrusky the IV gave him a light tap to his shoulder, and hooked a thumb towards the conversation-in-progress.

"Fortunately," the guard was continuing, "Iris, Katrina, and the other one have escaped through the windows. They're safe for the moment, but... they've entered the replica of Xavier's Sister School."

"Shimatta," Nigel cursed under his breath. "Iris, too? Since when is she with them?"

"A... replica of the Mansion?" Artemis Moonfeather repeated, one eyebrow arched high on his face in dignified disbelief.

"Are we talking a full replica? Life-sized? Bedrooms, Danger Room, kitchen, and all?" Edward Song Hau Sepelu Sivrusky the IV inquired. "Brilliant!"

"Why would Mister Antonescu need that?" Percy Ferretly reasonably asked.

Nigel the Ninja sighed. "There is no Mansion replica. You never heard of a Mansion replica. It is not classified information, because it does not exist. Are we clear?"

"Perfectly," Edward Song Hau Sepelu Sivrusky the IV grinned. "Now let's go to the Mansion replica."

--

Calley blinked into the hallway. He knew this hallway. From the lush green-lawned scenery outside of those really good holographic windows, to the broad old staircase leading down to the main level, to... urk. They had emerged through a hidden door on the wall at the end of a corridor; just in front of them was a room he definitely recognized. His first mission had been there. It was the room of one Rayne Belamount. And it even smelled like she'd been living there, a least for a while... her, and her little food-hogging Siamese, too.

The tiger and riders had entered Hunter's very own Mansion replica.

((ooc: For our newer members: "Now why would he need that?"))

---

Karzelek hadn’t a chance against Katrina’s illusions, one he hadn’t know to expect them two she was good, and three he was rather busy trying to get what he wanted off of the menu.

He gripped the tail harshly and leaned back a little and was rewarded with a very untigerly act, the tiger had froze, reminding him that, what he faced wasn’t a huge tiger; it was a boy playing dress up. But he couldn’t be too concerned with that; a little girl had a wooden sword,

“Oh no! what shall I ever..” Zelek began to say.

Simultaneously the females were on the offensive.” Back off!" “Take that!”

“Ouch! What the hell?!” The vampire exclaimed! Quickly, releasing his taming hold on the striped boy, he sent a glare the dolls way.. Either that little girl hit hard or he really didn’t like that sword. As he cursed the Girls The words were censored by a pure blast of sound, so much so that it left his ears ringing. The volume of it was enough to rock him back. He didn’t even bother wondering what snippy remarks the woman made to him. His ears felt as if they bled.

Two whelps rose on his hand, fortunately for him the attack was an illusion, still his subconscious knew that he didn’t like wood so much so, that even an illusion of one could cause it to protest.

“D*** Mutants!” He shouted at them as they leapt out the window. They would have all been dead right now if it wasn’t for those darn kids…wait, no. If it wasn’t for their x-genes. He began to chase but stopped before he made his leap, turning toward the door to see if any humans would insist on giving him a snack. He turned toward the door and as he got closer he could hear the scraping of the other’s on the opposite side. He heard the talking on the other side and called out cruelly to them. “ Go back to sleep, They will die before you reach them!” Zelek taunted several delusional men on the other side of the wall. He the turned lithely, Ran across the shelves up and out of the window, make that slammed into the wall next to the window at a leap. He slid down the wall unceremoniously and found a new talent for cursing, His eyes deceived him.

He felt around momentarily for the ledge and it was evenly spaced with the rest of the windows. One of them could make his eyes lie to him. That didn’t bode well. But he would quench his thirst and quench it well. Starting with the illusionist then the tiger and last the unstable one. He pulled himself up to the ledge and stood on it, He followed to the abused doorway, that much of their trail was obvious. Then he stood still for a moment and listened. Far away but he still could hear them.

~"What the...? I just... I mean... What. "Why would he need this?"~

In much the fashion that tiger ignored the steps and crashed down the stair ways so did the pale blood thirsty teen. The chase was back on and the time for talk was over.

Unbelievable; the sword-of-illusions-window-shift-to-the-left plan had actually worked! Katrina echoed Iris' giggle, relieved that their fanged foe was no longer literally on their tail.

Even more unbelievable was the fact that after a bounding ride down a stairwell, the trio had landed in front of a full scale model of Xavier's Sister School. It was missing the lush green lawn and the blue sky, except for the images in the technologically advanced windows. As with other holograms, Katrina could see both the illusion and the reality beyond the window of the dark parking garage.

Katrina had only ever spent one night at the mansion, but many nights dreaming about it. She still had nightmares about that first night, when her mother had dropped her off and only hours later Stalkers and cops had attacked, trying to round up unregistered mutants as captives for the mutant concentration camps. It had been sheer luck that Katrina hadn't been caught. She shuddered as they walked past the first room on the right at the top of the staircase, what had been her room for such a brief period of time. It was creepy seeing the school here, of all places, while she was yet again being chased by unknown enemies and her future was so uncertain. Maybe she wouldn't be so lucky this time around.

“This is kind of creepy. The last time I was in this school it was attacked. It didn't look nearly this nice.”

The mansion was not a place that she felt comfortable and safe. Not a place where she really wanted to live. Up until today, she would have preferred to stay at Mondragon Labs, but now her safe haven did not seem quite as safe as it used to be either. Was there no safe place for young mutants? If she didn't escape from the blood thirsty teen, it might not make much of a difference.

--

Tabby Mono hung up the phone. Her day just kept getting better and better. Dr. Ingram's batch of completely plain noodles had just finished boiling when Noin Mortman had called her with a request, or rather an order, to cook an entire feast for an undetermined number of people at an undetermined time, possibly in the evening. “Enough to feed an army, and then some,” had been the exact words. How was she supposed to do that when she had earlier in the day let the other staff members go home early? She had expected the evening to be just as quiet as lunch had been. She turned off the burner underneath Ingram's noodles, which were probably a little overcooked by now, and tucked her wooden spoon into the pocket of her apron. She glared at the noodles. If she started now, she might be able to make enough spaghetti to feed two armies worth of people. And half of them probably hadn't eaten anything better for a long time anyway. She'd have to check the loading dock in the garage to see how much dried pasta she had on stock.

--

Katrina wandered over to one of the windows and raised the glass, examining the double image of the hologram and reality. She put her hand through the window to see what happened, her hand still looked normal, as if she was reaching out a normal window. The hologram of the mansion grounds didn't change. Something was moving though. In the garage, in their reality. She couldn't tell what it was through the dual image, and she didn't want to stare at it to find out.

“Something's out there,” Katrina whispered, backing quickly away from the window.

"Lady Knights, if you would please switch to riding side-saddle and hold on tight..."

Still giggling, Iris quickly complied. Another amusement park-worthy yelp accompanied Calley's staircase rush and rough door-opening, followed by a third chorus of nearly hysterical laughing as she tumbled off of the tiger's back. She lay on her back, arm over her eyes.

"Now that was a trip. Remind me to take you two to Six Flags after this is over." Grinning, she turned over and pushed lightly to her feet.

And abruptly the grin disappeared, like a drop of water in a volcano. The door in front of them. She knew that door.

"What the...? I just... I mean... What? Why would he need this?"

“This is kind of creepy. The last time I was in this school it was attacked. It didn't look nearly this nice.”

Iris didn't hear them. Her expression remained blank as she reached out to open the door. The inside of the room was fairly bare; a bed, a desk, a door leading to the closet, and one leading to the bathroom. The room had been cleaned, giving no indication about the previous occupant. She walked over to the bathroom door. It swung open noiselessly. She looked around, at the mirror. A silver-and-blond woman stared back, with molten eyes. She turned around.

Six long scratches adorned the wall. Six scratches.... caused by six jewels, backed against the wall by a woman in the throes of a nervous breakdown.

Six. Her week had been going so well.... until that sixth gem....

“Something's out there.”

Iris turned her head, picking up the soft voice from a nearby room. She couldn't actually hear the words, but she knew someone was talking. She strode out of the room, quickly pulling away the moisture that had seemed to collect on her cheeks.

She followed Katrina's whimper to another room, where she was looking out a window.

"Is it Fangface again?" Unless she put her head through them, all she could see was holograms; no sign of their pale hunter. Her personality chose that moment to perform another 180, and instead she backed away from the window hesitantly.

"Ma-maybe we should g-get out of here. I *gulp* kn-know a way out. If it hasn't been f-fixed. But I th-think I c-can blow a way out. It w-worked before.... sort of...."

She looked out into the hall, toward the door they'd come through, then shuffled the opposite way, down the stairs. She was headed toward the faux Danger Room, where she'd made one explosive exit already. In her current frame of mind, another appearance by Zelek would have induced another explosive reaction, at whatever the nearest wall would be. Hopefully, if it did happen, Katrina and Calley would be out of harm's way.....

((ooc: Sorry for the delay, everyone! Busy + unmotivated + RAAAARRRR == baaad combination.))

~ "Now that was a trip. Remind me to take you two to Six Flags after this is over."

The large tiger purred quite merrily at that. Tiger-back rides: redefining the world of escaping in style. His ears perked and swiveled, one following the tween welder of the illusionary Woodscalibur, one following the oddly moody Iris as she went into that lovely room that he, being a simple teenage mutant of no repute, clearly could not know the significance of. Which was actually almost true. He had no clue why there was a Mansion here, or why it smelled vaguely of Iris. And her cat. And Hunter. It would be fun to play another round of question-for-question with her.

~ “Something's out there.”

~ "Is it Fangface again? ...Ma-maybe we should g-get out of here. I *gulp* kn-know a way out. If it hasn't been f-fixed. But I th-think I c-can blow a way out. It w-worked before.... sort of...."

...Maybe they should escape from the Bitey Boy, first. Though he would dearly, dearly like to know why she'd had to blow a way out of here 'before'. Calley took a curious glance out the window, but couldn't see past the holograms. Must be something to do with Kat's mutation. Otherwise, she was just seeing things on that idealistic nonexistent Mansion front lawn. The funny thing was that the real Mansion front lawn was probably looking like a hobo camp in a former bombing zone, right about now.

As Iris headed for the stairs, the tiger padded silently after, sword still in mouth.

It was about the time they'd hit the main floor and started heading towards the Danger Room that, well, the second floor exploded. Just a little.

--

Doctor Ingram had reached the Canteen.

The empty Canteen. Doctor Ingram narrowed his eyes, and adjusted his grip on both his tool case and the Fusion Blasters.

Doctor Ingram was... displeased.

--

Melissa Rivers was going to hurt someone. That 'someone' was Charles Triggs.

On the main parking garage level, there was a little-used and triple-locked set of stairs leading up. They'd gone up it, with the help of Melissa River's keys. Like Nigel Banks, she could get into just about any area of the Labs. Unlike Nigel Banks, she wasn't somewhere in the Labs doing camera-operators-knows-what while more responsible people were protecting Mister Antonescu's interests.

That staircase opened up onto an open space; across the open space stood... the Mansion replica. Melissa Rivers began striding towards it, Triforce in tow. Behind her, she heard a snerk out of Charles Triggs. What she hadn't heard was what had prompted it:

"Hypothetically speaking," Nicholas Williams had said airily, "Do you suppose that Mister Antonescu is done with whatever little charade he was putting on here? It looks awfully disused. Particularly given that large, unpatched hole in its side."

"Are you trying to say something, Nicky?" Charles Triggs had quietly asked back, shifting his rocket launcher to a more comfortable position on his shoulder. He was the stoutest of the three, but that didn't stop him from carrying the most unnecessarily large of their weapons, with a distinctly hopeful air.

"We really don't get out much," Nicholas had replied simply. Frank had stared straight ahead to their goal, listening or not listening exactly as much as he usually did. The Mansion windows, from the outside, were clear: he could see a young girl peering out of them briefly. Since they were all moving in the shadows of the dimly lit floor, her alarmed look before disappearing was not unexpected. A moment later, a tiger's stripped face briefly appeared, then disappeared. "Have you even gotten a chance to really use that toy of yours yet, Charlie? There are no good testing grounds at the Labs for it..."

"No," Charles lamented with a thoughtful gaze on the Mansion. "There aren't. Those little red and white targets just don't cut it, for my Baby-Angel here."

"Do you suppose that Mister Antonescu would really mind some additional collateral damage to his already abandoned project, in pursuit of saving those dear to him?" Nicholas contemplated like a regular philosopher. "Hypothetically speaking."

"Hypothetically speaking," Charles said, "I dare say that would be down-right noble. The... what you said. Hypothetically speaking."

Frank Newton watched the main floor windows as a woman, a child, and a jungle cat walked by. "Second floor is clear," he said in a tone that would have been professional if it hadn't been at a whisper.

It was then that Charles Triggs snerked. This, Melissa Rivers heard. Unfortunately, she made the mistake of walking onwards, instead of immediately turning to glare at the men behind her. The men who were trained professionals in unsubtle combat; the men who had been modestly described as possessing an arsenal superior to most small armies. The men who had been forced to sit on their hands playing endless games of poker for the better part of a year, placed on call as the support team for a scrawny teenager who didn't get into nearly as much trouble as he should.

Melissa Rivers didn't actually turn around until a white line of smoke streaked past her. She turned around, in fact, just in time to miss the explosion on the second floor. Charles Triggs was kneeling on the ground, the rocket launcher steadily braced over one shoulder.

"Our wards are confirmed on the first floor," he said, with complete confidence, "and there was some movement on the second floor." Hypothetical movement, real movement: oddly, it was just as satisfying to shoot at either. Boom! Heh.

Melissa Rivers was going to kill someone. That 'someone' was Charles Triggs. Nicholas Williams and Frank Newton were raising rapidly on her list, as well.

---

Karzelek didn't have a lot of other choices other then to follow advice from ole toucan Sam, and follow his nose. He turned his head and listened to a soft conversation and caught the scent of fear. He ran as fast as he could to catch the three, which he discovered was fast, but their lead was substantial enough to leave him one floor above them when a certain Insane measure was taken against him. He was luckily faster then whoever was attempting to blow him, or possibly them up. He briefly wondered if who ever had the explosive arms was willing to kill those he hunted right along with him, then why bother trying to stop him at all. He of course was wondering this as the smoke was clearing and slowly pushing the debris off of himself.

The explosion took place behind him but unfortunately cuaght him while he was still trying to make way from the top of the stair way to the bottom, they were with in reach, but that was when a rather large board decided to slam into him across his back. Followed by a lovely cloud of wood paneling and sheet rock. It was safe to say that he was officially and irrevocably angry.
It would be interesting to anyone who had a background in carpeting that the wood and wood paneling was not truly wood but a pretty convincing substitute.

He was now mentally committed to a killing spree of epic proportions...Everyone must die!
He lifted the last piece of wood off of his legs and flew. He was dirty,he was bleeding and he was throughly throughly infuriated.

Zelek Stood to his feet and tested his body out for damage, it wasn't as bad as he thought until the pain burst forth from his spine at his first step. It didn't matter he had blood to spill. He did his best to stretch when he chanced to look to his right and was captivated by what he saw. a half empty room with a picture of him and some one else...a small girl. In this picture he had silly purple hair and was standing in a hallway to a rubdown apartment building.. he walked into the room and snatched the picture putting it into his pocket. He noted a guitar and several other things that left a numb spot in his heart that spoke of days gone by of person he was no longer. He then took the picture out of his pocket and set it back on the desk. He didn't have time for memories past, did he really want to be that purple headed smiling person anymore? he doubted it, besides he had people to kill and blood to drink.

Zelek looked into the corner and smiled, He snatched up a small wicked looking obsidian knife. If he indeed could recollect,he would recall it was one of the first things he made when he originally discovered his now forgotten powers. He would see if that little girl decided that to swing a wooden blade at him again. He turned around abandoning this lapse into a counterfeit world that once was.

He ran down the stairs and then looked around, he could abandon his query once more and take up a fight with someone, who made things explode or he could stay on course. he took up the trail once more. He called out loudly " Come out come out where ever you are." Reminding those he chased that their lives were worth disposing of in a game like fashion.

Katrina was shaking as the trio made their way down the faux-mansion grand staircase and toward an area of the mansion she's never seen during her short stay at the real mansion. Something was outside, and she didn't want to find out what it was. Iris' stuttering reply,

>>>"Ma-maybe we should g-get out of here. I *gulp* kn-know a way out. If it hasn't been f-fixed. But I th-think I c-can blow a way out. It w-worked before.... sort of...."
didn't exactly inspire confidence.

“Wait, we're going to go out? That's where the vampire boy is!”

One floor above them, the wall of the mansion exploded inward with a loud crash and many clatters as glass broke and faux-mansion pieces rained down on the floor opposite the ceiling above their heads. The sound was startlingly similar to the sound Stalker robots made when they broke into real mansion schools.

At the all too familiar noise, Katrina instinctively clutched at Calley's tiger fur. Wide eyed with fear, she hesitantly looked up at the ceiling, afraid it was going to collapse down on them any moment. She remembered all to well the gaping holes between floors in the real mansion. Every time she walked into this building, it seemed to fall down around her ears.

“Never mind, let's get out of here,” she corrected her earlier statement.

As they continued down the hallway, a taunting call came from somewhere behind them,
>>>"Come out come out where ever you are."

Instantly, Katrina was invisible. A moment later, so were Iris and Calley. “Go,” she whispered softly, “as quietly as you can.” Katrina focused her adrenaline boosted energy into imagining how the hallway would look and sound without them in it. No hurried footsteps nor racing heartbeats would the vampire boy hear, no striped fur nor blond hair would he see. Just an empty hallway, nothing for you here, thank you, have a nice day, good bye.

--

Tabby Mono's day just kept going south, and it wasn't anything like Midwest kids traveling to Disney World for a vacation, either. She blamed the tiger. Since the striped harbinger of ill fortune had shown up in her canteen at the noon hour, nothing had gone right.

Most recently, she had been carrying enough packages of noodles to dam a small river when she had been mowed over by a tall, dark, and handsome knight in shining armor. Mowed over, not swept off her feet. True, a man with a wicked gnarled staff had helped her to her feet again, but he hadn't stuck around to help her clean up the noodles, which had decided that they would rather make a break for freedom underneath the shelves of the loading dock rather than be boiled to a tender al dente for an army and a half worth of soldiers and refugees who may or may not show up at some point that evening, hungry and crabby.

Why was her canteen and her loading dock the quickest route to the garage anyways? And why did four ridiculously dressed men have such an urgent need to use that stupid staircase that she had forgotten even existed because no one ever used it? Who had designed this ridiculous place? And what powers were there that had decided that her day should turn out so terribly?

Tabby Mono pondered these things as she picked up as many packages of noodles as she could and carried them the rest of the way to the canteen, where she immediately came face to face with an antisocial scientist wearing an angry scowl and toting two very large guns. Out of the two of them, it would have been difficult to say who was the most displeased.

In her own mind, Tabby Mono grumbled the ill fated words: Things cannot possibly get any worse.

Iris shrieked as the upper floor exploded above and behind them. In response to her fear a dome of ice shot up and over to protect her, Katrina and Calley from any debris that might have fallen on them. After a few seconds of silence, and nothing else major happening, Iris's legs sort of slid out from under her, and she sat on the floor. A small giggle escalated into a hysterical laughing fit, and she fell backwards onto her back.

"Come out come out where ever you are."

The unstable blond gasped and popped up like a cartoon character. She slapped one hand over her mouth, trying to stifle the giggle fit.

“Go,” Katrina whispered softly, “as quietly as you can.”

Iris nodded quickly. She closed her eyes briefly, and took a deep breath, attempting to bring out the calmer side of her personality shift, or at least the side that didn't involve humor. Opening her eyes, she got to her hands and knees, and started creeping after Katrina and Calley.

Technically, it wasn't the calmer part of her mind that next took control; it was the apathetic side. The explosion had shaken numerous items from their places in the hallway, and while Katrina's illusion kept Iris from seeing it, when her hand landed on a broken picture frame she felt it.

She hissed in pain, and scuttled backward and sideways a few paces. She held up her hand. Three gashes scarred the flesh, two fairly superficial but one considerably deeper. That one didn't bleed at first, the slice had been so sharp. Logic told her that she should wrap the wound quickly, since blood would draw in the blood-sucker. By the time her actions caught up with her brain, a thin red trickle had started. She pulled off her top shirt to wrap her hand, leaving the various jewels sparkling through a sleeveless one beneath.

Nearby lay a toppled wooden trinket table. At least, she thought it was nearby. With Katrina's illusion in place, it might not be. Only one way to find out. She reached for it with her good hand, logic claiming that, maybe, this blood-sucker had the same vulnerability to wood that Hunter possessed. Again, only one way to find out.

Her ears picked up a shuffle behind her. She twisted in time to catch a blur of movement, before something slammed into her, and knocked her into the wall. She didn't completely black out, but her body went limp and her mind blanked out for a short bit. When she did come to her senses, she got the distinct feeling of someone uncomfortably close.

Not just close.... it felt like someone was holding her.... and breathing in her ear....

<"Not good, notgood, notgoodnotgood!!"> her mind screamed.

A soft buzz in the air rapidly raised in volume and pitch, until it became a high-pitched, undulating roar.