((Twyla said she's out now, so now it's Calley's turn. ))

The man had offered his arm to Henrietta. She glanced at it and raised an eyebrow before crawling past it. Mumbling, she said, "Thank you, but I'm fine." He seemed like he was trying to be polite, but this only made the girl more nervous. She wasn't sure why, but it just felt odd that a kidnapper would offer an arm to help the person they were kidnapping. None of it was making sense to her and she just wanted to kick him between the legs and run. Being the smart girl that she is though, she knew that he might be able to hurt her back. Hurt her back a lot worse.

After a few minutes of being led through some corridor-type hall things, they came to an entrance of what appeared to be a cell. She blinked and then turned to look at her kidnappers. "Are you kidding me? How scary do I look? I'm pretty sure sitting on a chair somewhere would suffice, don't you think?" Why are you arguing with them, stupid? They could probably kill you no problem if they wanted. Her mind knew when to stop, but unfortunately, her mouth didn't. "I really need to know what this is about." Henri's fear seemed to disperse all of a sudden. Now her anger and frustration was becoming visible. The teen glanced inside the cell again and shook her head angrily.

Henri narrowed her eyes a little before stepping into the cell and giving them a glare. She didn't know any fighting skills and her hair wasn't of much help. It didn't really matter how fast she could run, because she had a feeling they could both run fast themselves.

The girl was unexpectedly cute when angry. The panther man’s whiskers twitched by his cheeks. He reached one finger up, and re-adjusted his square frame glasses.

“I assure you, you are one of the most terrifying creatures I’ve encountered. It would be paying you an insult to restrain you with anything less than this.”

The hall was a dead end, unless you had the pass code for the elevator. He and Lenna blocked the hall in the other direction. The panther man, therefore, saw no need for uncouth behavior just yet. Perhaps she’d be a good girl, and—

—Go into the cell all on her own. Good, good girl. The black panther lightly shut the door behind her. The lock gave an understated click as it sealed.

“As to what this is about... Please understand. The less of that you know, the more likely it is we’ll be able to release you unharmed afterwards.” His thick tail swished around his ankles. He pushed his glasses up again. “Would you like anything to drink? A soda, perhaps?”

She was now under the hospitality of Faust Pharmaceuticals, after all.

The intercom across the room crackled to life. "A hair manipulator waiting for you in the lower levels." The voice sounded skeptical. Lori had been skeptical too. Who had ever heard of a mutant with prehensile hair?

And that was exactly why they wanted a sample. Diverse genetics. Super strength was a dime a dozen. It was the most unique ones that Lori wanted.

Under normal circumstances, Lori would take the stairs. She did not, however, want to keep her charge waiting. She closed her eyes, squeezed down her power and risked the elevator all the way down.

Ding.

Lenna and the pantherman, Calley's favorite form for nefarious deeds, stood guard. The sample tray was right where she had left it. Lori put on a lab coat over her long skirt and washed her hands with a fresh sponge, the smell giving away her actions. She put on a surgeon's mask and pulled a fresh vial, needle, gloves, gauze, bandaid. All were arranged meticulously on the tray before she picked it up and walked past some of her favorite Orderlings.

"Step away from the door, please? There's a good girl."

Things were always tense when she went in alone. Mutants were dangerous, especially when caged. Lori was pretty good at holding her own though.

"Would you like to take a seat?" Lori smiled sweetly to the girl and motioned her head to the ledge at the back of the cell. Honey caught more flies than vinegar. The slight ledge was good for sleeping (if you didn't move) or sitting not good for reaching the ceiling or trying to escape. They had engineered this place better than that. "We should only be a moment, then you'll be returned as good as new."

A new woman entered the area outside of Henri’s cell. She blinked as she watched the woman put on a lab coat, gloves, and a mask. She also did some other things. Those things freaked the brunette out a bit, probably because one of them involved taking blood. The girl shuddered at the sight of the needle. The woman in the lab coat asked Henrietta to step away from the door, so she did so. She didn’t want to get her blood taken, but something about this new woman told her not to play any games.

Though the lady in the lab coat smiled at her, Henri felt her stomach turn. Oh no, not blood. The teen backed up until she was on the bench without realizing it. Her brain screamed at her to run, but there was nowhere to go. Henrietta’s hair reacted by twitching slightly at the tips. “Why do you need my blood? I don’t understand.” The woman said she’d be returned, but that didn’t mean she wanted someone to take her blood, especially by people who seemed pretty shady. Not to mention, just blood in general was pretty good at making Henrietta either faint, stop moving, or cry.

Henrietta had started asking stupid questions.

Already?

Lenna held back, and said nothing, arms crossed. She let Mr. Miles handle all that nonsense. When kidnapping people, it was best for all parties the victim not know their location, or their kidnapper's true identities. It just made sense. The less they knew, the less they could repeat. And, as Miles had so easily put it, the more likely they'd live.

Lenna really hoped the hair-manipulator would be allowed to live. Honestly, it'd leave a bad taste in her mouth if she had to detail that when she alerted Slate to the entire situation in her report.

As for what else she'd tell him... maybe she'd do best to wait until she had a bit more to offer than a single kidnapping. Hopefully, the boss-woman ordered her out on another mission. That way, it'd be one in a long stream...

Speaking of...

Lenna watched the woman in Charge do her job. Complacently, from a distance, separating herself professionally from the entire ordeal.

The Order’s leader was blonde and petite. Even at the panther’s unimpressive 5’8” or so inches, it still looked like he could pick her up like a child. A child whose actions and words were both bluntly focused. To anyone who liked their messages a bit more subtle: She had a needle and a band aid. So what, then, was the gauze for?

>> “Step away from the door, please? There’s a good girl.”

The panther man’s hind paws nimbly cleared the way before her. Belatedly, he realized that command hadn’t exactly been for him. Well. No harm done. Besides, he’d already added a little tail swish and a half-bow: combined with a whisker twitch, that amply covered the movement.

As Henrietta paled before Lori’s nice face, Calley observed Lenna out of the corner of his glasses. After a moment, he tried to mime her stoic professional pose: still, alert, arms crossed. His tail tip, however, was swishing in time with Henrietta’s hair.

So. Now he got to see how the Boss Lady handled things.

Lori handled things gently and professionally. She didn't want to be any more memorable than the dirt beneath this girl's nails. The tray of utensils went next to Lori who sat next to Henri on the tiny, uncomfortable ledge.

She chose not to answer Henri's question at first, but instead opened the alcohol packet to swab a spot on the girl's arm. They always wanted to know why. Why them. Why now. But they never really wanted to know the truth. She had to encompass a pretty enough lie framed on top of truth so that it would hold for a while.

"Oh gosh they don't tell me everything, but I hear you're special." Of course not every minion told her everything. She was the boss. They had to have their secrets. She would be stupid to think she had them all beneath her thumb. "It might be your blood that will help us devise a vaccine to help mutants who can't help themselves. Is that alright, ma'am? Can I swab your arm now?"

Lori moved the swab closer and moved very slowly so as not to alarm. If Henri consented, then she would get a quick swab a feeling like a pinch. It really wouldn't take long unless the girl chose for it to take long.

The woman took out an alcohol swab and answered Henri’s question. She wasn’t sure how much of it she believed, but if she had been lying at least she making an effort to answer her. The brunette glanced at the woman and held her arm out. It wasn’t what she said that made her do it, but the fact that there were three of them and one of her. Henrietta’s hair could only do so much and it wasn’t long enough to reach three people at one time. Currently, the only smart thing she could do would be to give in.

If I can cooperate long enough to get through this, maybe they’ll let me go home. If all they want is my blood, they don’t have to keep me here, right? Henri’s self-questioning didn’t produce any answers. Not positive or negative ones. If someone didn’t know what they were asking themselves about, it only made sense that the answer would still go unknown. It was more for a source of comfort in Henrietta’s mind. The girl turned her head away, waiting to feel the needle enter her arm.

Lenna was thankful. Henrietta had made the smart choice. Not everyone in her same situation would have done that. She'd known many that would go out fighting... pointlessly. So many pointless and avoidable demises... she bowed her head and waited.

It'd all be over soon enough for Henrietta. She just had to keep doing what the nice and not-so-nice people told her to.

She'd give her blood, then hopefully... hopefully, they'd set her free. Maybe some time soon, Lenna would take Henrietta out for coffee to make up for this, and maybe the kidnapping misadventures would come up. Maybe she'd want to get a jump start on that physical training Lenna had promised her?

That would probably be good.

Calley’s favorite part: the word ‘gosh,’ falling from his new leader’s lips. Wow. That was... wow. And gosh, even. His whiskers twitched in appreciation of the blonde woman’s efforts.

Henrietta was still being a good little kidnapping victim. That was worthy of a whisker twitch, too. Should it be this easy, to just steal someone off the street? To put them in a room, and do whatever you wanted with them?

Should they be so cooperative, when you did?

His tail twitched an uneasy dance. It would be over soon; then he could stop thinking about it.

The skin pinched up between Lori's fingers. That helped with the pain of the needle, supposedly, but it also helped her get a good bead on the vein she was stabbing. There. The needle was in. The line attached down to the bag. Everything was pumping where it should. Now all they had to do was wait. Lori reverted to something mildly friendly looking and intelligent looking as a potato.

It wasn't even too long a wait. Henri's heart must have been pumping faster because of the stress of the situation. The bag was crimped, needle removed, gauze pressed against the tiniest of injuries.

"Miss?" Lori grabbed the molasses cookies from her tray and handed them over to Henri. "Eat these so you won't get woozy." While Henri was doing that Lori lessened the pressure of the gauze and checked to be sure that the bleeding slowed. New gauze applied and then band-aided in place. "Good as new." Lori lightly pinched Henri's arm and then re-packed her tray.

The sack of warm blood jiggled as Lori stood. She winked to the cat-man hybrid as she waited for them to get the door for her. Once she was out it would be time to return the girl to wherever they had found her.

"Ya'll be careful now." Snerk.

As Henri’s blood flowed through the needle, tube, and into the bag, the girl felt herself get light-headed. What am I doing? Who knows what they’ll use my blood for? Did I make this too easy or am I preventing myself from getting hurt? What am I doing? Henrietta winced as the needle was removed from her arm. The blond placed a band-aid on the puncture mark and then handed her a plate of cookies.

The brunette glanced wearily at the cookies before grabbing one and nibbling on it. She heard the woman say. “Ya’ll be careful now.” Henri backed into the corner of her cell and sat with her knees straight up and close together. She lied her head down on the tops of her knees and took another bite off of the cookie. Part of the girl felt like crying, but it wouldn’t do any good. Last time she had been threatened. She just wanted to go home.

Now came the part where they took her home, yes? Lenna nodded to the panther man, and turned to face down the hallway. She started walking, left the rest to him.

Meet you in the van, She thought.

Things had gone smoothly. Smoothly enough they could set Henrietta free. She sat down in the driver's seat, and waited. When the time came, she drove them off to the drop point.

This had been a long day. It'd be an even longer night.

((OOC: Whoever wants to can describe the drop. Feel free to godmode the candy van where ever you'd like.))

So they really weren’t going to hurt the girl, mental trauma aside. That was nice. Calley honestly hadn’t been sure about that part. His whiskers returned Lori’s wink with an amused twitch; he stepped forward, catching the cell door as it swung closed, and bowed politely over one arm.

“Thus ends your kidnapping, Miss Henrietta. We’ve been delighted to have you as our guest. If you would proceed back to the vehicle bay, it would be our pleasure to drop you off at a random street corner.”

The panther man flashed a toothy grin. “Please remember, causing trouble is still most unwise. Last minute accidents would be unfortunate, for all parties concerned.”

((ooc: Feel free to get us in the van and do the drop off, Henri!))

The blond left and so did the other woman. The panther man opened her cell door and explained to her how this would work out. Part of the girl wanted to cause trouble, but the majority of her just wanted to go home. Henrietta didn’t return the smile, but walked straight past him towards the vehicle bay.

After riding in the van for what seemed like an hour (it was actually 15 minutes), the door opened and she climbed out. The brunette turned and looked as the man shut the door. The van pulled away. Turning around, she was in front of a building she didn’t recognize. Henri plopped onto the curb and let out a sob.

Eventually she would begin her journey home, but for now she just needed a minute.

((All done!))