Xiin slowly opened his eyes, his senses slowly returning to him. To his surprise he had been unchained and the nuzzle was gone. He tried to push himself up, but he was still too weak. He was laying on a large rock in the middle of an enclosure that one would find in a reptilian house at the local zoo. He hissed softly, flicking his tongue out weakly to taste the air. Xiin let out a small whimper after doing so. He didn’t recognize any of the smells. He didn’t know where he was. He was scared. He lay there for several more hours before one of the crew walked by the enclosure and pounded on the glass.

“Hey mutie! You’re not so tough now, huh? Mr. Antonescu paid us very well to bring you here lizard. If he hadn’t, I would have killed you myself!”

The man cursed at the lizard and walked off quickly without saying anything else. Xiin felt the drugs wear off and he pushed himself up off the rock, using his tail to balance his movements. He looked about the large enclosure, covered by artificial plants and grass. There was even a small puddle at the edge of the pin to drink from.

Xiin brought up a heavy hand to rub his neck as he whispered to himself,

“Where am I? Who isss Atonessscu?”

The limo pulled up outside and Hunter stepped out. Walking inside he was greeted by Dr James Ingram, the facility’s top scientist. “James, I’ve got someone here for you to meet. Calley, this is Dr Ingram.”

“Pleasure to meet you,” said Dr Ingram in a bored manner.

“Calley managed to dislocate his shoulder, see to it that he has it fixed.”

“This way,” Dr Ingram spun on his heel and headed deeper into the facility. Once they were out of earshot Hunter turned to the guard.

“I want the exit and all air vents, no matter how small, covered by men with orders to shoot any animal that tries to leave the facility by any means. Failure to do so will be dealt by me personally, is that clear?”

The guard nodded and set about making the arrangements. Turning to follow Calley he was met by one of the facility’s staff. “Sir, the team has returned from South America with the prize.”

“Good, go and tell Calley I’ll be with him shortly.” He went straight to the custom built enclosure where he saw the lizardman. “Remarkable.”

“The bloody thing killed one of my men!” fumed the team leader.

“Then that’s more pay for you then isn’t it?” Hunter approached the enclosure. “Can you understand what I’m saying?” He repeated the question in several languages, hoping that this creature had more than just an animal level intelligence.

It was a most impressive specimen, the closest thing he’d seen to it was the werewolf he’d battled centuries ago. But he hadn’t flown this creature thousands of miles to kill it. It had the potential to be an excellent shock troop, providing it could be controlled. Training would be unnecessary, merely teach it to distinguish friend from foe and unleash it.

While unsuited to many of the subtler operations that people like Calley would be sent on, there were times when subtly went out the window and you employed maximum force, which was exactly what this creature was for. Now all he needed was something to test it on.

((ooc: Continued from "Hunter's Apartment".))

Calley was thrilled that a James had finally appeared. He’d known there’d be one lurking around the rich scary man’s payroll somewhere. Now he just needed to find a Charles...

“Pleasure to meet you.”

...And speaking of James there, Calley wasn’t thrilled with that bored I’ve-a-million-better-things-to-do look on the man’s face. “The pleasure’s all mine,” Calley replied dryly. His dislocated shoulder was anything but boring, thank you. And this guy was going to fix him up? Calley suddenly reconsidered bolting. But the guard standing right there, his new scary boss man watching, and the thought that his shoulder probably wouldn’t heal itself miraculously when he shifted—it certainly hadn’t before—made him decide that he was officially in too deep.

He tried to cheer himself up with the thought of official espionage training from the scary man. But it was hard to be cheerful when the doctor you were following down the hall had just—yes, he had!—he’d stifled a yawn. Great. Calley cradled his arm, and nursed hopes that the man would miraculously develop a bedside manner when they got to the infirmary.

Not surprisingly, his hopes were crushed rather swiftly.

“Sit,” the man said, pointing to a hard plastic bed with a clean white sheet. Calley sat. The guy looked his shoulder over—moving it entirely more than Calley thought was necessary—and then announced, “I’m going to relocate your shoulder now,” in a tone that made Calley think his mind was on more interesting subjects than the injured boy before him. Calley stared at the man incredulously.

“Don’t I get painkillers, or someth—Fu—!”

He couldn’t even finish swearing. He was too busy grinding his teeth together. Shoulders were never meant to make that noise.

“Rotate it.” The kind doctor instructed, with a great air of disinterest. Calley was planning on just glaring at the guy, but the guy wasn’t a very fun person to glare at. He wasn’t even looking at Calley’s face. He was looking at Calley’s arm, which he was taking the liberty of moving in a slow circle. “Good,” the overly sympathetic man announced. Calley had to admit that his shoulder didn’t feel half as bad now. And it did move. But that wasn’t the point. He kept glaring.

He kept glaring even as a guard came in and addressed him: “Mister Hunter will be with you shortly.”

He kept glaring as he waited.

He definitely kept glaring as the man went across the room, and returned with a bottle of aspirin that he handed to Calley with a thin smile. Calley swallowed two without water. The dear doctor put his arm in a sling, and then wandered off to do paperwork.

Calley laid down, and glared at the ceiling for the minute or so it took his body to remember that, underneath all the adrenaline and scary-man-induced excitement, and despite the fact he could shift again, it was still dead tired. He'd shifted, what--cat to human, human to cat, cat to monkey, monkey to cat, cat to human--five times today? And two of them right in a row. He'd never shifted more than twice in a day, and he'd always had a good space of time between. And, to be honest, today was the first day in two years that he'd shifted at all.

He curled up on his side, and dreamed dreams of mice in doctors' coats until Hunter came to get him.

Xiin stood frozen in place on the smooth rock, his amber eyes locked on the man in front of him. He listened to the man for several minutes without a response other than letting his tongue roll lazily out of his mouth and taste the scent of the newcomer. He flinched slightly as he took in the scent; he smelled rather foul to the beast.

He watched the man’s eyes gaze over him after growing silent. Xiin hissed quietly before speaking.

“Greetingsss… Now tell me… sssss Where am I?”

Xiin folded his tired arms about his thin, muscular frame. He grew more agitated and less afraid of his surroundings. His stomach growled ferociously inside him, to the point where he visibly winced at the pain. He was not a fan of human flesh, but he found himself longing to taste human blood: If for not for vengeance, then to satisfy his rabid hunger.

“We want extra,” the strike team leader explained, “to cover for the loss.”

Hunter remained facing the enclosure. “You want extra do you,” he said, seemingly to himself, “My staff report that you verbally assaulted my new guest, as well as handling him exceptionally roughly, when my orders explicitly stated that he was to be brought in as gently as possible. So, after much consideration, this is my response to your request for extra.”

His hand shot out and grabbed the neck of one of the men, snapping it with a flick of his wrist. Hurling the corpse into the leader he kicked another man, breaking his knee and causing him to drop to the floor. Grabbing the final man’s rifle he slammed it up into his face before tossing it aside and extending his fangs.

Pinning his arms to his side Hunter sank his teeth into the side of the man’s neck, savouring the taste of blood, more exquisite than anything he’d eaten in the restaurant earlier that day. Having drained the man he simply let him fall before turning to the leader who had just extracted himself form underneath his friend’s corpse. Grabbing him by the throat he hauled him into the air with his feet off the ground.

“Tell me,” Hunter asked the lizardman, “would you like this one?” Rather than wait for an answer Hunter moved to the enclosure door and threw the man inside. Let’s see how this thing fights.

(OOC: Let me know if I need to move this somewhere else.)

At one o’clock in the morning a vibrating alarm went off in Iris’s phone. Ebony heard the movement, and jumped up onto the desk to investigate. She hadn’t been fed yet, and wondered if the movement was an edible creature. When the hologram Crystal shimmered into existence, she shot off of the desk and under the bed. The creature looked like her ‘Mom’, but didn’t smell like her. In fact, she didn’t smell like anything.

Crystal glanced around the room, scanning it. The bed was still made and unused, and boxes were still halfway unpacked in one corner of the room. It was the second night in a row that the room was unused. Crystal frowned slightly, and stored the information away. She would deal with this issue after she handled her main priority.

As she had done several times before, she accessed the cellphone’s weblink, and began snooping around the vastness of cyberspace. This time, she had a more specific target in mind; The Bogden Clinic, a non-profit fertility clinic claiming to screen for the x-gene, and the center of many a controversy, was destroyed the year Iris was adopted, only a few miles from where her guardians found her shivering in the rain. The media claimed it to be arson, and the Church of Humanity had taken credit for the destruction, claiming that the clinic was a ‘breeding bed of evil.’ A little digging into the police reports showed that nearly all of the clinic’s employees were killed in the fire, the doors having been barred and chained from the outside. Most felt the attack to be unusually heartless and cruel, even for the Church of Humanity. Needless to say there had been a storm of lawsuits, demonstrations, etc. for years to come afterwards.

Among the names of the donors and share holders was one Mr. Antonescu. Amazingly, he had completely avoided any financial backlash from the event. Even more amazing, a brief search revealed he was still in the financial scene and still in business, holding shares in various other companies similar to Bogden Clinic. Apparently Mr. Antonescu was known to be pro-mutant, and several of the companies he was associated with specialized in mutant-related research. Crystal decided to check into a couple of the companies, just to see what this man had been up to in the last twenty years. She picked a random name in the list; Mondragon Labs.

She found the Mondragon Labs website, and set about trying to hack her way inside. Oddly enough, she found her way blocked by way more security programs then seemed necessary; serious overkill in her thoughts. Immediately suspicious, she began chipping away at the firewalls, hiding her presence behind a cloaking program.

Nearly five hours later, she was barely past the initial firewalls, and well away from where she needed to be. The system was beyond her capabilities. Perhaps she should talk to Chip, and see if he could help.

She backed carefully out of the system, trying to cover her tracks. She could have hid from most tracebacks, but a skilled hacker would be able to trace the signal back to Rayne Belamount. However, Crystal was confident that she was in the clear.

(OOC: Here’s fine)

Chris had been alerted the moment someone had tried to break the first firewall. Whoever it was they were good at hiding their tracks, but not as good as Chris was at finding them. It was a virtual game of cat and mouse as the intruder slowly worked their way into the system and Chris slowly worked to unveil them.

After four hours the intruder had only breached three of the thirty walls in place around the main system, let alone the further security around parts Mr Antonescu deemed top secret. He hadn’t bothered to actively prevent them, and wouldn’t until they got to at least the fifteenth wall.

Instead he had spent the time peeling away the layers of cloak programs that were around the intruder, without letting them know he was doing it. Finally, four hours and seventeen minutes after he’d first been alerted, he’d broken through. He immediately began tracing her location, knowing that to his boss who they were was less important than where they were.

Whoever this person was they had bounced their signal across the globe, but he eventually tracked it to a mobile phone in New York City. A quick GPS cross-reference revealed that it was located at the Xavier Institute. He could narrow it down to the exact room.

The Xavier Institute. He’d heard talk of Mr Antonescu’s interest in the place, and wondered if this was related. However, he couldn’t just dash off, he had to keep an eye on the intruder. They’d breached the fourth firewall. If possible he wanted to leave them to get bored and give up, thereby leaving them thinking that they were undetected and giving any real world response that Mr Antonescu chose to make the element of surprise.

Almost five hours after the assault began it stopped and the intruder left, covering their tracks. But it was too late, they had already been located. Chris told his staff to monitor for any further activity and inform him the moment anyone tried to breach their security. Leaving the computer security room Chris went in search of Mr Antonescu, he’d want to know about this.

Xiin watched in silence as the seemingly impatient and powerful man killed the crew of hunters. He only showed slight interest when Antonescu bit the man’s neck and drained him of his blood. Ignoring the question posed to him, the lizard hissed quietly when the man was thrown in the cage. Xiin slowly turned himself to face the now trembling man. He flexed his neck muscles and lowered his body to the rock before beginning to slither toward the man. Xiin flicked his tongue deviously at the man before speaking.

“Hello there… ssss … Long time, no sssee…”

Xiin then came to the edge of the rock and looked down at the man, flashing bright white teeth while he hissed angrily.

“ssssssss….. You know…. I am rather…. hungry…..”

With that, the lizard jumped upon the man as he tried to scurry away unsuccessfully. Xiin tore into his clammy flesh with his razor-sharp teeth and claws, mercilessly ignoring the man’s scream for help. He then sunk his teeth into the man’s neck and swallowed a large chunk of flesh, letting his prey then bleed to death.

Xiin lapped up some of the blood before he raised his head to look back over his shoulder at the man who stood there watching silently. Xiin then replied rather gruffly, not wanting to sound too grateful for his ‘meal.’

“Thanksss…”

“My apologies for the rough handling”, said Hunter wiping the blood from his chin with a handkerchief, “Let me explain why I had you brought here. I am assembling a team of mutants to perform tasks that only they, with their unique talents, can perform. When I heard tale of a monster in the Amazon I sent men to investigate.”

“You would make an excellent soldier, you’re strong, fast, and have natural weapons and armour as well as a killer’s instinct. If you agree to join I will supply you with a home tailor made to suit your needs, and help you achieve any goals that you have.”

“So, if you want to join the team I’m going to open the door and let you out of this enclosure. But be warned, if you attack anyone without my express permission there will be serious consequences. Make your choice.”

An Escalade stretch-limo approached Mondragon Labs. It stopped outside the front door and a man came out of the front seat. He was wearing a long black coat and white clothing underneath. He went to the door and opened it. Out came a 6foot5, blonde haired man that appeared to be in his twenties. He wore expensive clothing and had an expensive watch on as well as sunglasses. He was accompanied by two 7 foot tall, very buff body-guards. If someone had the right ability, they would know that these men were mutants.

The man and his two body-guards approached the door. There were a few armed men and a security booth there. They got to the booth. "Mr. Dakota Crane." one of the body-guards simply said. The guards then opened up the door without hesitation. The man was expected.

Once inside Dakota looked around. It looked like any other lab. Although the security measures were heavy. "The walls cannot be seen through sir." One of the body-guards declared. Dakota wasn't surprised. From all the times he had met Hunter in the past with his father he had seemed like a very secure, secretive man.

Dakota and his body-guards approached the nearest guard. "Where is Mr. Antonescu?" one of the body-guards questioned. "What business do you have with him?" the guard asked. Dakota didn't like disrespect. He held out his hand to shake the guards' hand and the guard accepted. Neither of them had anything on their hands and when they connected, the guard fell unconcious. Dakota snapped his fingers. One of the body-guards picked up the phone on the wall that was actually the reciever to a huge system.

"Mr.Antonescu. Please come to the front hall"

Hunter was not about to be interrupted, hitting a secure channel he simply said “Code Epsilon.” Seconds later the corridor in which Dakota was filled with armed men. These were not simple security guards, but trained soldiers.

“Mr Antonescu asks that Dakota Crane come to the infirmary. Your bodyguards will be detained until further notice. We are authorised to meet any resistance with lethal force. Mr Antonescu is currently busy, and finds your interruption disrespectful. Once he has concluded his current business he will be with you.”

Twenty men were tasked with accompanying Dakota Crane with the other thirty would detain the bodyguards and escort them to the cells.

Dakota chucled. How obvious of Hunter Dakota thought. He told his body-guards to go quietly. He went to the Infirmary to see Hunter. As he was walking down the halls one of the guards pushed him. "If you value your job, family, and life, you will not touch me again" Dakota said in a cold, commaanding voice. The guard shrunk back into the back of the procession. Dakota, the whole time, was looking through the labs windows into the rooms. Lots of stuff was goin on.

"Sir. We are here." One of the guards respectfully said. Dakota made a mental note of his badge number. He liked this man. HE then turned his attention to the door. He opened it and entered.

Having left sanctuary at a casual pace Zephyr had quickly found his suspicious good evaporating, replacing it instead with a moderate level of anxiety. He wasn't use to be contacted out of the blue like this, normally he was the one to approach an employer and when it was the other way round Simon usually specified the meeting point. This time though events had been left completely out of his control, and this caused the elemental to be somewhat more cautious than usual when he entered the peculiarly named "Bite 2 Eat".

The place had seemed ordinary enough at first glance, the patrons for the most were human, for Zephyr had yet to see am obese mutant who wasn't big enough to tackle a tank. There seemed to be something about the x gene that kept those possessing it in surprisingly good form no matter what their diet. Still dispersed among the largely human crowd Simon was able to pick out a few tell tale sings of mutant guests, it was nothing obvious, things only an experienced observer would notice, but Simon had been fighting for his life for over a year and so he noted those who were exceptionally confident or skittish and noted that they possessed something unique, whether it be coloured lenses, exceptionally baggy clothes or extendable tongues.

It was not these ordinary mutants who worried the mercenary though, if a fight broke they would represent no great threat to him; for Simon could easily level the building if he chose. What truly bothered the elemental was the staff of the fast food joint; their movements were too precise, their behavior too polite and the quiet way they took almost any abuse thrown at them set off an alarm in Simon head. The fact that nearly all of them were 6ft and built like commandos did not ease the situation. This was far more than the burger joint and at this point in time Simon had no interest in uncovering whatever ulterior motive was hidden.

Still he was supposed to encounter his contact here and after abandoning Sanctuary he couldn't easily afford to turn back now. so he had silently joined the steadily moving line and when it came his turn to order he used the corny pass phrase that had been given to him and ordered the "burger with extra bite". The man behind the counter had shown no reaction to Simon's words and calmly retrieved his order like he had with previous untold customers he had dealt with that day, serving the elemental a surprisingly small burger on a tray with a large soda. Thinking that he was still waiting for his contact Simon had taken his tray and chosen a seat at the back corner of the establishment so that he would have a clear view of anyone who approached him, yet no one did..

It will not be stated how long it took Simon to glance back down at his tray and realize that the normal paper mat provided was in fact a map. Let us merely say that he was quite glad his contact wasn't present to notice it. After quickly scanning and absorbing the route detailed on the cartoonish map Simon left Bite 2 Eat at a swift pace and quickly ascended to the nearest roof and from there called upon the element that was under to his command to lift him into the sky and carry him to his destination at a breakneck speed.

The destination marked on the map was no small complex, it was easily the size of a military base, and probably had most of the same safeguards. After observing the structure a fair distance away from the air Zephyr decided it would be more prudent to approach on foot and clearly allow them to see him coming so that he would not be mistaken for some type of missile. Landing a mile away from the facility the elemental brushed off his clothes and headed towards the lab at a causal pace, he still twenty minutes of his two hour deadline left and he figured he may as well use them.

Roughly twenty minutes later Simon finally approached the Mondragon facility. As he attempted to enter his path was blocked by two security guards with roughly the same build as the staff of Bite 2 Eat.

"We'll need to see some authorization"[/color]

Giving the man a dry look Simon noted the many surveillances cameras and decided not to antagonize the man "Tell who ever is responsible that Zephyr has arrived"

On hearing the name Zephyr the guard hit the radio and said “Sabrina’s choice is here.” Seconds later half a dozen soldiers arrived. “You’re to come with us sir.” They formed up around him.

While only six men had been sent to greet him, plenty more were on standby should any violence occur. However, they had been told that so long as they were respectful violence was unlikely.

Xiin watched the man carefully as he spoke. This man thinks I care about a suit? Honestly?! However, I don’t want to be stuck in this cage… Xiin stepped right up next to the glass of the large enclosure and pressed his snout softly against it. His voice was stern and hushed as he spoke to the man.

“Sssuits mean nothing to me… But if you let me out of this… cage… I’ll behave… until I sssee it in my bessst interessst to ssslice you open and feassst on your entrailsss…. deal?”

The lizard slowly brought his arms about his muscular frame and waited a few moments before hissing angrily.

“Let me out… sssss….”