((ooc: Continued from Summer's End.))

Lisa had left a message on his answering machine, at his apartment. Lori had a job for him. Guarding someone or another. Real guarding or quote-unquote, he hadn’t asked, by virtue of not calling back. He’d left his clothes on the floor and gone out the cracked window, black-tipped tail flashing behind him. He had to find Ghost.

Back in the apartment, in a spacious wire cage, a certain little white bookstore cat with black spots here and there mewed into the silence of the empty apartment.

The bookstore. He started there, because those people were always talking about his Ghosty. He claimed a spot on the counter, legs neatly tucked under himself, eyes half-lidded as various customers and employees assailed his fur.

The timeline:

Jude ran away, a little under a month ago—July. He went to the little Oracle’s shop, where they were convinced the unicorn was going to start the apocalypse. The Oracle was the real deal. Kat was on his side. So he was in the right. Right?

Then Ghost had disappeared. The unicorn was spotted at the apartment, covered in blood, suitcase packed—or so the employees were saying. He really needed to get to those police files. Ghost wasn’t dead, and the files would tell him that. His First Retainer was not allowed to die without his permission.

Tonight, maybe? If he went in as a mouse... That should work, well enough. His ear flicked as the bell over the door rang; the hand petting his head tensed.

Baby blue eyes slid open.

He needed clothes. Being only a bedroom, Noel's place didn't exactly have easy access to water to wash the ones he had, and, having only one set, it was rather difficult to wash them without risk of indecency. He had tried it once, in the men's locker room sink. He'd borrowed a teenage girl sized t-shirt that proclaimed he was the “New Kids on the Block, No. 1 fan! <3” and a pair of pants that weren't meant to accommodate a tail, so ended up being accidental low riders. His midriff had never felt so exposed as it was in front of champion boxers as they showered.

He was not going to repeat that experience ever again.

So, he went shopping. He had a wallet, and in the wallet a card with numbers on it. This card he had seen other people use at stores in place of payment, so he thought he'd try it out.

Using a credit card was even easier than stealing.

He purchased several shirts, ties, three suit jackets, and a long black coat that the clerk insisted looked “fabulous” on him. Whether is was fabulous or not, it was keeping him warm as he finished his errands. It had gotten chilly outside in recent days.

He made a stop at his favorite fabric outlet to pick up enough supplies to at very least tailor his clothes to fit his unique shape. The fabric outlet happened to be next to a bookstore. Sebastian had never been in it before, but for some reason, tucking his tail under his arm so it wouldn't get caught in the revolving door seemed very familiar.

Heads turned toward him as he entered. Employees elbowed each other.

Apparently this was the kind of store that had prejudiced employees. One obvious mutant walks in and they all had to watch him the whole time he was shopping to make sure he didn't steal.

The unicorn man ignored them as he browsed through the medical section, then the religion section. There was nothing new and exciting happening in medicine, at least, nothing that was being published. In religion, he picked up a copy of the Bhagavad Gita, which he hadn't read in quite a long time, as well as a copy of the Qaran, which he had never read at all. Finally, under the watchful eyes of the employees, he made his way to the cash register and handed over his credit card.

Suckers. Like he would pay with real money.

There was a cat on the counter, with a familiar-for-some-reason pattern of black spots here and there. Sebastian reached over to scritch him under the chin as the clerk rang up his “purchase”.

The cat obligingly raised its chin. A quiet, honey-sweet purr tickled against the unicorn’s hand as its baby blue eyes seemed to meet his. As much as a cat ever met anyone’s eyes.

He looked different. The harmless old tweed suits, with their quaint vintage air, were gone. Here now was a black coat, flowing down past his waist; there was the end of a lion’s tail, curling out from under it like a languid predator. A long sword hung at the belt, to compliment the sharp spiral affixed to his forehead.

The employee didn’t say a word as he moved the unicorn’s books under the scanner; the boops as they rang up sounded unnaturally loud. The clerk swallowed. “That will be $23.47, Mr.—” He almost said Csendes. Calley could feel it in the air as the man hurried swiped the unicorn’s card, returned it; bagged the unicorn’s books, and set them on the counter. His hand retreated. A few feet away, behind the coffee machine, the barista looked like she wanted to say something, but she didn’t.

He was buying books on religion. Something weighing on your immortal soul, oh Venerable One? He sure didn't act like it. His wife was missing, and he stepped foot in her store like it meant nothing.

The little cat mrrked a protest as the man’s hand left, and hastened to twine its way out the door behind him.

The unicorn man didn't realize the cat had followed him home until he was already in the gym, letting himself into the pink frilly bedroom he shared with Noel.

“You didn't like the book store, Sir Cat? Please feel free to come in. You are always welcome here.” He had lived in too many times and places where cats were considered sacred to ever get used to treating one with anything other than the utmost respect.

Noel was home a little early today, taking a well earned nap. Their sparring match the night before had run long, neither of them wanting to yield to the other, until the wee hours in the morning when they had been forced to call it a draw so she could get at least a little sleep before work.

She stirred slightly on the bed when he came in, but didn't wake up.

Sebastian set his shopping bags quietly on the top of the dresser, then gently repositioned the covers around his apprentice's sleeping form. She was going to catch a cold sleeping like that if she wasn't careful.

He left a note on her pillow, explaining where he'd be until dinner time and hinting that she should think about where she'd like to go for dinner. After all, he had new clothes to try out, and what better place to break them in than a dinner date?

To Sir Cat, he asked, “Are you coming or staying?”

Coming, apparently. When he closed the door once again, the white cat with black spots here and there was on his side, still watching him. Cats were very intelligent creatures, hailed as messengers of the gods in some times and places, and perfectly worthy of being immortal.

Sebastian bent down to address him, “Sir Cat, have you ever considered what it would be like to live forever? Would you like to try?”

He had an appointment with Doctor Ingram this afternoon. Perhaps they could finally test out the theory they had been working on.

Sebastian should have known him. He should have known this form, either as Caylee the bookstore cat, or Calley the frequent apartment visitor. If the guy knew, he didn’t show it. He wasn’t cold—in fact, his tone carried the proper dosing of respect, as much as the little white cat swiveled his ears to catch mockery in the words. It was just like... like he didn’t care. Didn’t care that the cat who might be a mutant and might be ticked about Ghost’s disappearance had followed him home. Didn’t care about Ghost, period.

Or didn’t remember.

The place the unicorn brought him to smelled. It smelled like sweaty men, soaked into mats, faded with age. It smelled like old walls and old ceilings, cracked plaster and water stains. It smelled like a woman who kicked people while they were down and took away the past without asking for permission.

Calley recognized her smell before the unicorn had opened the door on her sleeping form. So peaceful. So content. And oh how tenderly he treated her.

The cat followed after the black coat and the lion tail as it left once again, not hearing the man’s words. He was too busy watching the pieces fall into place in front of his eyes.

Sebastian hadn’t killed Ghost. Noel had. And then she’d made him forget about his wife, so she could have him all to herself in her lonely, dingy, pathetic little world, where she didn’t even have her own bathroom and she had to threaten kittens to get her way.

It all fit. Except the parts that didn’t. Like the apocalypse, and the fact that his Ghost was definitely still alive somewhere.

And their destination: Mondragon Labs. The taxi pulled away from the curb, with unicorn and cat both tucked inside.

“Here we are, Sir Cat,” Sebastian opened the door for his four footed companion, “Mondragon Labs.”

The unicorn held the door for his companion, then greeted Noin with a gentlemanly incline of his horned head.

“Ms. Mortman,” he smiled, “I have an appointment. I know the way, thank you. Have a pleasant day.”

He stepped into the labyrinthine hallways, turning this way and that, each step leading them closer and closer to the medical labs where Doctor Ingram had his offices.

Noin was looking good. She smiled as Sebastian came in, and gave the little white cat that followed him the briefest of glances. Said cat did not seem to notice; it was far to concerned with stalking the unicorn man's tail from the side of a potted plant near the entrance. Its lithe body matched the pot's arc, seemlessly blending with the not-so-dark shadow at its base until it was an immobile, entirely invisible predator of

--POUNCE!

...But tail and unicorn had already slipped through the inner door. If the unicorn happened to hold this door open an extra bit longer for his short statured follower, the cat noticed it as little as the presence of the secretary--he simply slid through the opening, and continued his hunt, now from the fringes of the man's trailing coat.

Every step brought them closer to Doc Jimmy's House of Fun. This the little cat did not notice either, because little cats are not wont to know the layouts of extensive medical research compounds. Even if, in a security room somewhere not so far away, a techie looks a little more closely at certain security footage of a man and his cat--more at the cat than the man--and smirks, and rings up a secretary.

"I saw him," the secretary may answer, perchance.

"He does know his brother isn't in charge anymore, right?" The techie might inquire.

"That depends on how good Slate is at communication."

Such a conversation, should it take place, would likely go unreported to any higher authority. After all, Mondragon Labs has always had its fair share of felines wandering about, with no harm done except to rats.

Blood. There was a faint, unmistakeable, slight, distinct, background odor of thoroughly clinical blood on Doc Jimmy's doorstep. A carefully controlled, contained, sanitized specimen of a smell. The little white cat did not know it was a bad idea to chase the immortal's tail in through that door as it was pushed open.

But he did anyway, for curiosity's sake.

The doctor barely even acknowledged the arrival of the unicorn man. He was expected, yes, but James Ingram was not finished with his sketch, and that clearly took precedence over any appointments he may or may not have. The sketch, drawn very mechanically on gridded paper, may or may not have looked like the highly complicated innards of a very powerful weapon that he would probably never again have the budget to develop. It also could have been just a design of circles and lines.

The door clicked closed behind the unicorn and the cat.

Sebastian cleared his throat. While Ingram may not feel inclined to keep up with his own appointments, the unicorn man had many things to get done that day and watching a scientist draw lines and circles, squiggles and squares was not high on his to do list.

“I had a bit of luck today. A cat followed me,” Sebastian started conversationally.

Ingram frowned at his drawing. Now, where was he going to put the...

“If we want to test our theory, it seems we have a perfectly willing subject here,” the unicorn man continued.

The red headed scientist closed his sketchbook with a definitive snap as he turned to glare at the man who had so rudely intruded upon his happy drawing time. He turned and looked. Then looked again. That cat. He knew that cat so well.

“This ought to be fun,” the scientist murmured, as a curiously crooked smile spread across his face.

Perfectly willing perfectly described the scene that followed. Perfectly.

The subject deadpanned a baby blue stare back at Ingram’s crooked smile. Ingram’s right hand gave the smallest, most minuscule of intended twitches—

The cat turned and ran. The cat turned and ran so fast, he failed to notice that the door had already shut behind them. The resultant crash was, in a word, resonant.

“...old him for a moment,” the good doctor was saying, when the cat could process sound again. There was a needle in his hand. This, the cat vaguely noted, indicated a time lapse. The white bundle of fur with black spots wobbled, and said eff no with the whole of its being.

The whole of its being wobbled a step back towards the corner, but found that it didn’t fit under the table quite as well as it had been planning. But then, it hadn’t planned on suddenly being in tiger form, either.

This was okay by him.

“I will kill you, Jimmy,” the tiger said, baby blue eyes flashing between Doc and unicorn, “if you even think in my direction.”

The little white cat with black spots here and there that had been chasing a unicorn tail as if it was his own personal cat toy, quite suddenly was something else altogether: a much larger orange cat, with black stripes here and there threatening death to the doctor who held the syringe.

Sebastian was more than a little surprised.

To the cat, “You're a mutant?” To the doctor, “You know him?”

Ingram was reaching for ray guns that didn't exist. The cat-tiger was showing teeth more than capable of ripping someone's throat out.

“Clearly there has been a misunderstanding. No one is going to die today. That was never the intention, even when you were a cat.”

Ingram was keeping a table in between him and the tiger. A wheeled table, which he looked perfectly willing to shove into the tiger's face if he thought he needed to.

“Let's all just calm down for a moment,” the unicorn suggested as calmly as he could.

>> “You know him?”

“And you don’t?” The tiger accused, as its paws worked hard to scoot its stripped bulk backwards. Claws left nicks in the polished floor; equipment rattled and shifted above his head. He would fit under this table, no matter the maximum height clearance.

“That’s valuable equipment, you flea bitten—” good Doctor snapped, straightening up behind his own table.

With a snarl and a clatter, the tiger succeeded in retreating to its cave. Its tail dusted the floor as large blue eyes glared out.

“You don’t remember me?” It asked again, feeling secure enough to shift its gaze to the unicorn for a moment. “The cat who was always in your wife’s lap? Stealing your son’s breakfast eggs off his fork? I know you weren’t exactly a model husband, oh noble unicorn, but come on. No bells?”

No bells would cinch it: Noel really was behind all of this.

The tiger jostled the table, edging them both further into the corner. “Alright, so let me hear it—what fine and healthful plans did you have in store for a naive little kitty-cat?”

Sebastian was truly confused now. He was supposed to know this cat-tiger-shifter?

“Of course I don't remember you, and I don't know what you're talking about. I don't have a family, never have. I'm not exactly the marrying type.” Except for when it got him a visa, but that was only for convenience, some girl he'd made an arrangement with then never seen again. At least, that's what he thought had happened, it hadn't been a very memorable affair.

Ingram was still looking for something he could use as a weapon or at very least a tranquilizer. There was a hostile tiger between him and the door; one that had a years old grudge.

“Just sit down, would you?” Sebastian barked at him. If Ingram kept that up, this could still get messy.

To the kitty-tiger he responded, “We were going to give you a transfusion of my blood to make you immortal. A cat seemed like a perfectly noble first subject, though if you'd like to volunteer yourself now or in the future, you are perfectly welcome.”

Sporfle. It was a sound he hadn’t made in a long time; a sound he’d learned from a friend who’d used to live in his apartment, but had walked out on him one day.

Sporfle: the sound of utter amusement. Disbelief optional.

“Right. So the kind and ethical Doc Jimmy has expanded his humanitarian efforts into the fine field of making cute kittens live forever. That’s precious. Highly believable and precious.” A sporfle really summed it up, and tigers did them ever so well.

“So I’ll, ah, keep that generous offer of yours in mind.” Ear flick. “And you’ll—you’ll be opening that door for me. Right?” He tried to put on his most convincing tiger smile; one that showed his nice straight teeth. The tiger crouched down under its table, ready to spring out the door the moment it was opened. If it was opened. If it wasn’t... well, then he’d have to... do something. Something else. Something that hopefully didn’t involve turning into a weak human boy in front of Doctor James Ingram, Ph.D.

Noel had well and truly wiped Sebastian. That was great to know; he’d take that information in a doggy bag, thanks, and just... head on home. Now. Before... before a unicorn had his blood sucked out, apparently.

Opening the door: such a clean and elegant solution to this little stand off. Sebastian's pet mad scientist wouldn't meet a horribly messy demise and one tiger-cat-shifter would, well, live another day. He had an interesting mutation at the very least and it would be a shame to waste that.

“Let me know if you change your mind,” Sebastian intoned as he reached for the door handle, “You saw where I live, so you know where to find me.”

He held the door open, and made sure that in the process he stood between the big cat and the good doctor, just in case.

((ooc: Continued for Calley in Wake Up.))