Blonde hair began whipping around in the wind like a hydra. Liz glanced away from her flying human hammock to check up on Mr. Cervantes’ car. It seemed that they were doomed to follow so the least she could do was to try to memorize the route. With her head still turned, she listened to her travelling angel without comment. She wasn’t very happy with Carrick’s choice, but, hey, what could she do about it? Wasn’t like she had a parachute and could jump away.

“Most of the time,” she mumbled to herself. Liz was a pretty good girl and rarely disobeyed people. But even if she did, that was different than disobeying a police officer on his way to a crime scene, right? Whatever Carrick said after that was lost to her as he leaned closer, his warm breath tickling her ears. Despite her jacket, a slight chill went through her body.

Liz distracted herself with their progress. A corner of her lips turned up when she realized what Carrick was doing. Now there was a chimney between them and the car, then there was a tall tree, or an apartment building. kudos for at least being stealthy, she thought. Maybe, just maybe, it’d be alright if Mr. Cervantes never found out they were following him. If he couldn’t quite see them, he’d never know, right?

Elizabeth turned her head to meet Carrick’s dull-colored gaze. It always brought a smile to her, seeing the complete contrast between the grey and the blue. It was unique, like Carrick himself…. She blinked and began paying attention after the second or third word.

“….down when Jorge stops, somewhere safe…”

Elizabeth scanned Carrick’s face for a moment before nodding agreement. Yeah, she’d allow that, them both staying safely away whenever Jorge stopped. They’d just keep watch over him. Fine…. She turned her head slightly so she could keep track of Mr. Cervantes’ vehicle again.

The night sped by but Jorge paid no attention to it. Instead he was focused mainly on a single objective, he needed to get to the warehouse district. A young lady had been taken hostage by a trio of mutants who had robbed a jewelry store and there was no telling what they were going to do to her. Of course the MRC had to respond but he was the closest one to the scene. The rest of the squad would show up as soon as they could but apparently they were busy across town with another mutant problem.

Perfect he thought to himself as he drove.

Swerving and narrowly avoiding an on-coming car, only to be greeted by the riot of horn honks and screeching tires, Jorge attempted to focus on the task at hand. He was outnumbered in a place that was not his home turf, there was on hostage, and he was completely by himself. Again…he could only glace at himself in his rearview mirror and think…

Perfect.

It was an unfortunate fact that Jorge had to deal with these situations himself. The detective was experienced, tough, and could be pretty formidable when the situation called for it. So it was little wonder that he would be the first on the scene and the first to attempt to bring it to a peaceful resolution. His main focus would be to get the hostage to safety; second would be to nail those monsters for committing this crime in the first place. Life is always the highest on his list of priorities.

He prayed he would be affective this time. But, judging from the description of the of the culprits, all of them seemed to have some sort of animal mutation. At least none of them could shoot fire from their eyes or melt concrete with a single touch. Had to thank god for small favors.

Pulling into the warehouse district, Jorge immediately killed his headlights and drove slowly. The rumbling of his engine stalked the pathways as he kept his eyes peeled, looking for the van. As he peered around a corner though, he immediately spotted the van. It matched both the description and the partial license plate that had been written down. This had to definitely be the place.

As Jorge pulled his car off to the side, he turned off his engine and checked the gun in its holster. He was thankful he had remembered a full clip. Creeping out of his vehicle, he pulled his phone from his pocket and immediately contacted the precinct operator.

“This is Detective Cervantes responding to the kidnapping call,” he replied. “Going in to survey the scene, back up is the arrive as quietly as possible.”

With that he snapped his phone closed and headed for the warehouse closest to the van, gun held ready in his hands and a prayer falling from his lips.

The blonde in his arms mumbled something and he let it slide this time, his attention was shifted on the car below that was entering area that would be out of a old time gangster movie where the police finds the bad guys only to get shot a few dozen times. Something that Carrick was there to prevent. A thief he maybe but the winged mutant was a fierce and loyal friend, even if he’d never admit it to anyone.

Shaggy mop of brown hair shifted in the wind as Carrick’s tail of Jorge continued. His car was slowing now which meant they were near where ever Jorge was needed and by extension where ever he was needed. ”I think were ‘ere” Carrick said his voice revealing anticipation and excitement. ”Which means any of these buildings will do…” Carrick said flying directly over Jorge’s car and lowering onto the rooftop to the building next to the car.

Wings continued to lower him until his feet touched down on the concrete rooftop of an old warehouse where a white creepy windowless van could be seen below. It was the type of van Carrick was warned to avoid as a kid, a van with the false promises of a puppy or candy.

His nose scrunched up and he gripped Liz tighter and closer to him without realizing it. He didn’t want to set her down here just yet, he wanted to be sure that was the place where the bad guys were. If it wasn’t then he could for all he knew just be handing Liz over to the bad guys by leaving her on their hideout.

Tail twitching behind him anxiously his fingers twitched under Liz’s weight, ”Hold on…” Carrick said all playfulness out of his voice as his serious side set in. Eyes fixed on Jorge who was now stalking towards the white creepy van.

"Someone's out there." the lion noted, sniffing the air. He had been boosted by Sveta's powers for a good fifteen minutes now; he kept coming back for more. No wonder his sesnes were sharper than the others'.

"How do you know?" asked the gorilla, not even looking up.

"They f**ing stink." the lion groled, prowling around Sveta. The girl forced herself not to show any emotion. Was it the police? Or the X-men? Maya? Slate?... Was any of them strong enough to take on the thugs if they figured out her powers?

"I'll go take a look" the lion decided, nuzzling Sveta's neck for long moments before he turned and walked out, strong and swift and powerful.

The aerial spies kept a careful watch on their target, swooping silently through the skies. Liz tracked the car even as it turned into some sort of warehouse district. A grim grin flickered across her lips. Was there really something going on in a warehouse? That was just so cliché, no matter how serious and real it was. Like seriously, the bad guys couldn’t have even rented an evil apartment as a hideaway?

The humor vanished as they started descending. Liz nodded to show she’d heard Carrick. After all, he was the guy with the wings.

Upon landing, Elizabeth focused on the man she had just met begin stalking a generically-white, standard bad-guys white van. It even lacked markings! If there hadn’t been a possibility of real danger, Liz probably would’ve taken a picture of it.

A slight squeeze warranted a glance up at Carrick’s face. He looked tense. That was good for her. It meant that her angel would probably take the whole thing seriously and possibly be cautious. Caution was never bad. It also meant he held her close and that was fine by her. It, uh, made for a quicker getaway, right? Just in case, Liz leaned her head against Carrick’s strong shoulder and squeezed her arms just a bit tighter around his neck. If they were really going to stakeout Mr. Cervantes, she might as well be comfortable.

Then a lion appeared far below.

Liz blinked twice. “The plot thickens….” she stated mysteriously. It was an interesting twist. She was glad to see that their dinner date get-together hadn’t been ruined by a cheap copy of a B-rated cop show.

---

>>>" They f**ing stink."
”Hrr?” the pig-like mutant said, lifting his head up from a table covered with their ill-begotten booty. A pearl necklace draped off the end of his ugly snout. He snorted the air a few times. ”I don’t smell anything,” he whined, a little poutingly. He thought he had the best sense of smell of the three. It was one of the only good things he did for their group. He sniffed stuff out for them and he drove the van.

He glared at their hostage, silently blaming her everything. Then he turned back and stuck his nose back into the jewelry. It smelled so good. The shiny gems smelled of polish and money. It was a glorious smell. If he had been alone, he would’ve rolled in all the stuff. He’d never handled so much in his life!

He sneaked a quick look over to another table filled with more riches. The gorilla looked busy and probably wasn’t even paying attention to him. A gleeful smile split his face, showing off his two enormous tusks that protruded from his lower jaw. He carefully picked up an expensive diamond ring and slid it into the breast pocket of his coveralls. Then he slipped in another. Then one with a ruby on it. Then a sapphire. And on and on and on.

Jorge paused as he crept closer to the abandoned van. They had taken everything out so that meant that they were wandering the warehouses around. That was definitely going to make things much more difficult. If he was not careful, he was going to end up ambushed before his back-up got here. But he could not wait around for them to show up either. Every second he waited was another second that their young hostage was in danger. First and foremost he needed to secure her and get her to safety. And that meant he could not leave her with those fools for any longer.

Eyeing the empty van, Jorge turned, hefted his gun up and began to peer into the shadows. They could be absolutely anywhere in this maze of buildings, maybe even watching him from one of the windows. This was no good. He was too exposed and out in the open. If he just had a clue where one of them was…

Then he heard the shuffling of a footstep. Ears perked, Jorge scrambled, as quietly as he could to the nearest cover he could find. As he slid behind a large, fallen barrel, Jorge pressed his back to it as he carefully, ever so carefully, crept to the side and peeked out. His eyes strained through the darkness as he looked for something, anything that could show him what made that sound.

He quickly got his answer.

Ambling out into view was a mutant that looked half-human and half-lion. His large nose sniffed the air as his fangs glistened in the dark. Jorge knew already that that mutant was going to be trouble. What was startling was how pumped up he looked. He appeared as if he had down a few energy drinks before he walked out and one too many of them had set him. Those were not good odds. If the mutant was this pumped up, that only meant that he was that much more dangerous. If he could get the drop on him though…

Looking around, Jorge spied a discarded, heavy hammer that had obviously seen better days. He leaned over, gripped it in hand and steadily tested the weight against his grip. It ought to cause enough of a distraction, at least for him to enter the shadows where the Lion Man had stepped out of. That had to be the direction in which the rest of them were holed up.

Hefting up the hammer, Jorge peeked over and immediately cursed. The Lion Man was stalking towards him! How though? Jorge had made a sound! Had he…caught his scent somehow? Shaking his head, he needed the distraction now. Another glance and he waited until the mutant had turned his head and suddenly hurled the hammer with all his might as far away from his as he could.

The hammer twirled soundlessly through the air until…SMASH!![/b] it shattered a far off window, echoing loudly in the area. Jorge glance again.

“Come on,” he whispered forcefully to himself. “Take the bait, just take it…”

”Yeah…” Carrick said turning his body as his tail wrapped around his leg to reveal how he felt about the situation. Normally his heart would be racing from excitement but right now right after he saw the furred figure that looked like a giant human lion… yeah, he was afraid, not only for himself but from Jorge as well. Lowering his body and loosening his grip he lowered Liz down to the rooftop and set her down. There was a fire escape on the side of the building as well as one leading into the warehouse.

If this lion man were anything like Sara the human mountain lion the lion wouldn’t have a hard time locating and chasing down Jorge. ”I have to help him…” Carrick said as Jorge threw something off a ways in hopes to distract the pumped up beast. From his rooftop view it was clear that it wasn’t going to work. The lion man sniffed the air and turned his direction towards Jorge no doubt picking up on his trail. ”Stay here!” Carrick ordered his possibly more than a friend as he took to the air and flew closer towards Jorge and the lion figure.

Turning his wings Carrick adjusted his body and flew closer to the group, his tail releasing his leg so he could fly properly, In the air he wasn’t afraid, what he was afraid of was touching down long enough to grab the lion-mans attention no matter how intimidating he was. Carrick eyed the figure and watched as the lion-man turned to face the direction where Jorge. It was clear to Carrick what the predator was doing… he was stalking his prey. It was something he had done several times when in his shifted form.

Swooping in quickly Carrick tucked his wings and dove towards the lion figure his hands outstretched. The beast only saw Carrick when he landed the attack. A long golden brown tail covered with a bushy brown tail was grabbed and pulled and a loud roar echoed the surrounding area. After getting the beast off balance Carrick let go and continued to fly hoping his bait was more tempting to follow than Jorge’s. ”Oaf!” Carrick spat out as he opened his wings and twirled upright and looked down on the beast hoping it would instigate a chase.

(OOC: Feel free to write Carrick and the lion-humanoid out of the thread for a posting round or two, we will join back up shortly.)

Yup, something was definitely going on outside. Sveta watched as Piggy stole stuff from the loot; it was none of her business and she did not want to anger the two of them. One of them might hit her, and get boosted, and then hit her again. Nope. Piggi could take all the diamonds for all she cared.

There were noises outside; something crashing, and voices, and shouting, and a roar. Yup, someone had come to the rescue.

The gorilla looked up, and Piggy too; they seemed to be hesitating for a moment before they moved out to see what was going on. Sveta strained against the ropes they tied her with. They did not give way.

"I hope you all die" she muttered in Russian, and tried and tried, until she lost her balance and fell back with the chair.

Now I just feel silly.

Even as things began happening, mainly the stunning opening feint from Mr. Cervantes, Liz didn’t take her attention from Carrick. She felt him lower himself. Then she felt him let her go. Her feet scrabbled to the rooftop, automatically catching herself. Liz managed to stand up. “What are you doing, Carrick?” she whispered, not wanting to catch the attention of anyone down below. After all, they weren’t supposed to be there.

But then she got her answer. Before she could argue her, friend leaped off the roof with a lasting order. Futilely, Liz leaned forward to grasp him, but she wasn’t anywhere close enough. She wanted to yell at him, but that’d undermine their secrecy and attract attention, which was even worse than what Carrick was planning. “Arf, arf,” she muttered to herself, a frown etching itself on her face. What on Earth was that boy thinking?

She grudgingly obeyed Carrick’s order. She wasn’t born yesterday; she knew better than to just jump into a fight with a lion hybrid, especially when she wasn’t supposed to be there, and when a cop was there, and when she was absolutely worthless in a fight that didn’t involve her pacifying tiny bunnies. She crossed her arms and sat down on the roof, taking everything in and racking up a list of things to scold Carrick for afterwards.

Number one, never ever follow a police officer again. Number two, never leave her by herself after he’s followed a police officer. Number three, never join a fight with a freakin’ lion! Liz glared as Carrick grabbed the man’s tail and jerked on it. She was so tempted to tear a brick off the mini-wall surrounding the perimeter of the brick warehouse and chuck it at Carrick’s face. But no, the brick would probably shatter on his thick skull.

Nothing she could do but glare daggers.

Jorge could hear the loud purr and the crunching of gravel as it grew closer to him. He had made enough noise but the lion mutant had his scent. There was no way he was going to fall for it…and sure enough he didn’t. With each step, each shaky breath, Jorge cursed himself for not thinking of a better plan. The lion mutant had his scent so there was no way he was going to be able to hide or run away from him, and on top of all he was caught behind this barrel. Lifting his gun hand up, he knew he would have to peek out and take aim.

Normally Jorge did not care to shoot to kill, but judging from the fact that his opponent was a lion man, he doubted he was going to be able to talk the man into giving himself up. As a matter of fact, every time the lion sniffed the air, the detective could practically hear the salivating in his mouth. This was definitely not a good scenario for him.

But with the calmed breath of an experienced police officer, Jorge calmed himself down and readied to shoot to kill. He was a good marksman. He simply hoped that the lion was not close enough to ruin his shot.

Yet, even has Jorge prayed and slowly stood from his spot he found that he was going to receive some irritating, yet heavenly intervention.

>> ”Oaf!”

Carrey? Jorge though as he soft that flutter of soft brown wings followed by the attitude filled voice. The detective could only shake his head as he turned just in time to see that Carrick was guiding the lion man away from him. Obviously the creature had been insulted in some way was not going to seek retribution by taking it out of the young thief’s hide.

Jorge ground his teeth and shook his head. He wanted to scream out to Carrick that he was being a moron for doing this. That was he was going to nearly get himself killed…again! But judging by what was going he was going to need to stay focused. As that lion chased him down, leaping over pipes, bounding off the edge of the buildings, Jorge could only pray that he flew higher.

“Go, kid,” he said. He’d throttle him later. Right now, he needed to get to that hostage. Gun in hand, Jorge scrambled through the dark and made his way towards where he saw the lion come from. She had to be holed up there with the others, she had to be…

As Piggy and the gorilla left, and she was lying on her back, Sveta thought about... life, the Universe, and everything, but mainly, a way of getting out of the ropes and the chair before her captors returned... or, even worse, the person who was outside. It might be the police, she did not really care. She still felt bad, lying on the floor tied to a chair.

She thought about screaming, but that would probably startle the rescue team just as much as the thugs. She needed to be more specific than 'HEEELP'.

"DERE IS TWO OF DEM!" she yelled at the top of her lungs, trying to warn whoever was coming to the rescue "ONE PIG AND ONE MONKEY!"

There. That should do the trick.

So, yeah, Liz was bored. Her male kinda-sorta-possibly-more-than-a friend was flying off to lead the lion-man on a wild gryphon chase while Carrick’s patron police officer was walking into a warehouse where there was who knows what else in there? Not to mention her uncomfortable seat on top of a brick warehouse. Her uncomfortable perch of extreme isolation and surprising safety. She didn’t want to be there, but she didn’t want to not be there either, not with the mangy lion creep running around.

Besides, he probably had fleas.

And so, as interesting as all the excitement wasn’t, Liz stared off into space. Lion-O and her avenging angel were off playing Tag out of sight. The cop soon vanished form view as well. The woman’s scream she suddenly heard from the lion’s warehouse proved interesting, but it was like a TV’s monitor was broken and you could only get sound. Not very attention-grabbing. All in all, she had nothing to do.

So she stretched out on the hard roof and crossed her arms behind her head and gazed up at the clouds in the sky. Some were pretty. There was a flower to the left. A dragon flew past on her right. A herd of elephants took up center-sky. It was slightly entertaining, as entertaining as cloud-watching from the top of a brick warehouse in the middle of a fury fiasco could be.

---

Piggy kept his snout stuck in the air and snorted, trying to smell ahead of them. He stayed behind Bob the gorilla. That way he wouldn’t get hurt as quickly. And he could run away faster. He was fast on his feet, but nobody could outrun bullets. Then he caught a scent. It was Bob, Leo the lion, or their hostage. It wasn’t himself either. He’d chosen not to have a bean burrito for breakfast that morning. It didn’t smell too much better though.

It had to have been the trespasser. “I smell ‘em! I smell ‘em!” Piggy squealed, jumping up a few times in delight. He snorted the air again for good measure. “Yep, that’s him!” Ah, his nose was still working as good as normal! His glee at still being useful wasn’t ruined by the fact that Leo had smelled the invader several minutes earlier. By the way, where was Leo?

“Where’s Leo?” Piggy asked Bob. Piggy wasn’t the knife in the kitchen and words tended to cross his tongue before his mind. But a voice screeched from way behind them, telling everyone how many people were in the warehouse. “Uh-oh….” Piggy said mournfully. Their hostage had blown their cover. He should never had agreed to this. Where was Leo? He should’ve been back. And how’d the stranger get past him anyways? Something smelled funny and it wasn’t just the intruder.

”You sure you’re part lion and not part pussy-cat?” Carrick called back as he quickly changed angles and turned down another alleyway. He could hear a loud growl behind him as the golden furred man followed him with all the intent to catch him. He was pissed which meant Carrick did what he intended to keeping mister lion away from Jorge. Carrick liked the cop in one piece not in several which meant he had no problem in playing distraction for the cop who had let him get away with more than a dozen things.

”I’m gonna tear you apart kid!” Roared mister lion as he turned the corner leaning forward and using his front paws to keep up with Carrick’s flying, ”Get in line I’m sure after this there is a few people that want to take that offer, your furry arse is the least of my concerns Tabby!” Carrick quickly replied. Dodging a dumpster Carrick shifted his wings upward and he rolled to the side his tail scraping the top of the green garbage heap. Looking back he spotted mister lion jumping over it and quicken his pace his tail (similar to Carrick’s) waved about behind him the way Carrick’s did during a came of chase, which what exactly what was happening Carrick started to notice the Lion-man gaining on him quickly. It became less like a game of distraction and more of a game of Cat and Bird and right now Carrick was in a bad way.

Looking up at the rooftops Carrick could easily fly upwards however that meant that he would put Jorge back in danger and worse what if the lion man picked up on Liz’s scent. That was something Carrick didn’t’ want to happen so he was going to suck it up no matter how fast his heart was racing. Speaking of Liz he was pretty sure she was going to kill him if he made it out of this alive.

Carrick’s mismatched color eyes blinked and his gaze fixed on what was ahead and he realized what he was about to run into… ”Coddle!” cursed Carrick, as he was about to fly straight into a large chain link fence with barbed wires on the tip top of it. ”Got ya now kid!” roared the man behind Carrick as his the winged shifter realized he was coming in to fast to actually avoid the fence.

Instead of attempting to fly above the fence Carrick sped up and shifted his body turning his feet forward and reversing the direction he was going. The lion man not realizing what Carrick was doing was already in the air heading towards the fence. With a quick howl of annoyance the lion man landed on the other side the fence only to see Carrick flying away back the way he came after flip turning and pushing off of the fence.

It only lasted a few seconds but the ground Carrick gained shortly ended as he noticed a shadow gaining on him. Shifting his gaze Carrick looked up and saw the Mr. Lion running atop the rooftops hoping to pounce on Carrick. Not found of the idea Carrick turned his wings and his body started to rise hoping to eliminate the pounce all together. ”Getting tired yet?” Carrick asked his body now level with the rooftops hoping that the Lion’s attention was fixed on him instead of Liz who could most likely be seen, which meant Carrick needed to figure out how to get the lion man back to ground level.

It was a chance Carrick never got shifting his eyes back to the predator Carrick noticed the direction of the lion man’s head it was towards the direction where Liz was located. The lion man slowed to a stop and his body turned away from Carrick. The lion man stared for a moment and his tail similar to Carrick’s twitched like he just spotted a new toy.

”Over here Tabby!” Carrick called out turn around and rushing towards the lion man hoping he can get his attention again. It was Carrick’s goal, his need was to keep the lion man away from his friends especially Liz, which was why he was now charging a man twice his size and twice the cat which meant claws, sharp claws.

The predator turned just in time a grin now on his face revealing a dozen sharp teeth, teeth that in the wild would take down its prey. Carrick mentally screamed with fear and turned his body knowing he wasn’t going to get away from this one. “Got you now Runt!”

Mismatched colors eyes blinked and opened to the rooftops where the Lion man once stood his body now higher than Carrick was, what’s worse he had his claws extended ready to pounce. ”Shi!” the weight of the shifter added to his own forced Carrick down sharp claws entered the skin on his back and he lost control.

Falling was a feeling Carrick was familiar with, the feeling of no control during the fall that was something Carrick wasn’t used to. Unable to right himself with the weight of the shifter on him Carrick had no control to avoid neither the ground nor the ledge of the windowsill that brushed across the top of Carrick’s face. The last thing Carrick saw was red before the crash.

The Lion man landed on his feet a few inches away from the winged boy, ”That was fun kid, unfortantly the fall didn’t kill you… guess that means I’ll have some more fun with you after I take care of the cop. Who knows maybe I’ll even find that girl who was watching us. Don’t know what happened to me but I like it!” the lion man said as he reached down and grabbed the winged boy by one of his golden wings.

It only took the lion man a few minutes to get back to the warehouse even with the kid still in his grip, ”Looks like the party is still going, I’ll just leave you with the girl doubt you’ll wake anytime soon.” The Lion man bellowed lowly talking to himself more than to anyone else, not that anyone else was around to listen.

>> "DERE IS TWO OF DEM! ONE PIG AND ONE MONKEY!"

The words still rang in Jorge’s ears as he heard the squeal of one of the mutants as he came charging directly for him. The detective was quick though, able to slip to the side and drive his knee straight into Pig’s overly large and bulbous belly. As the air escaped from the smelly mutant’s open mouth, a second passed and it was followed by all the food he was slobbering over mere moments ago. Jorge had to step back as he watched the pig mutant vomit over the ground and then keel over completely winded from the attack.

It was definitely not a pretty sight and the smell was even worse. Whatever the case was, that was at least one of those mutants down and two more of them to go.

Leaning down, Jorge roughly handcuffed the gasping Pig to the best of his ability and stepped back. The second he had walked into the warehouse, he heard that familiar Russian voice scream out that there were two more of them inside. He had stuck to the shadows and was soon greet by the smelly sight of that Pig mutant as he sniffed around for him. Jorge had been lucky enough to make quick work of the pig, but he still had a “Monkey” to deal with. God only knew where that one wa-

THUDDD! CRASSSSH!![/b]

Jorge turned just in time to see a brick being hurled at him at high speed. Slipping of to the side, he started at the walkway that was a bit above his head and watched as the black furred mass that was a combination of Ape and Man bared his teeth and picked up another loose piece of debris. It was obvious that the mutant was not happy to see him here at all.

“AH! AHH! Damn cop! I’ll tear off your arms!!”[/i]

“I’m afraid you need to come down here if you want to do that, Curious George!”

“AH AH!!!”[/i]

The ape mutant screamed as he suddenly flung down his next piece of debris, flipped over the railing and swung his way down to the floor. Jorge watched, anticipating that he was making the mutant angry. Good, he needed him to be angry. If he did have the strength of a full grown ape, Jorge knew that he would be outmatched. The ape was a strong beast already, but mixing that with a human was definitely not a good move. It only made him more dangerous. So, slipping back, as he watched the ape swing down, Jorge reached out with his senses and immediately felt that there was a useable source of water nearby. A glance to the side and he spotted there that was a large bucket of dirty mop water. It was disgusting but definitely something that could aide him. And it was a damn good thing he spotted it too.

“You’re going to pay for what you did to Pig!! AH AHH!!” The mutant snarled and immediately charged.

Jorge merely watched and waited as the seconds agonizingly ticked down. It was only when he saw the red in the gorilla man’s eyes that Jorge lashed out with his free hand and sent a torrent of water from the bucket to encase the ape’s head. As it did, Jorge slipped back and forced the water into shape into a tight orb around the mutants head, covering each nostril and mouth, forcing the water to cut off that precious supply of oxygen. He held that swirling water in place until finally, as the ape-man attempt to flee could only find himself getting weaker and weaker. Another few seconds and finally Jorge watched the ape fall to his knees. It was only then that Jorge let the water drop.

Gun in hand, Jorge kept it aimed directly at Ape as he made his way towards him, watching him on his knees as he sucked in air greedily. When Jorge got close enough, he quickly drove the butt of his gun into the mutant’s skull and knocked him unconscious. He didn’t need the both of them coming after him as he rescued the girl.

“Two down,” he mumbled as he made his way deeper into the warehouse.

Making his way through the warehouse of debris and dust, Jorge eyed all the dark corners. There was still one of those mutant’s left, the Lion who went off chasing Carrey. Jorge prayed the winged thief was faring well and was not ripped to shreds by now. But as he walked deeper into the warehouse, a sudden shout ground him to a halt…

>> ”Looks like the party is still going, I’ll just leave you with the girl doubt you’ll wake anytime soon.”

He did his best to follow the echoing voice and crept up to a corner. As he peered around the edge, he immediately saw the tied up woman, as well as his worst fear, the crumpled body of Carrey being placed at her feet. Jorge ground his teeth and shook his head. He was definitely going to kill that kid later. Gun up, he eyed the Lion closely and knew that he needed to draw the mutant away from the incapacitated pair. So, taking a breath, Jorge shouted.

“Yo! Snagglepuss!” he screamed. “Your pals are already down and back up is coming. I think you should throw in the towel!”