Old Habits Die Hard (R)

"You want to run it, then?" Kas shrugged. "Ditto."
The surroundings were so familiar to Kelly, he felt as if he already knew where he was going.. like he was walking the halls of a place that no longer existed- except in most of his nightmares.

Kas scanned the hall and the men littering the hallway. He bent to grab a few things, one of them being a pepper spray. He set that on the elevator floor, beneath the keypad which decided the destination. He ejected one 9mm bullet from the pistol he'd been carrying and held onto it. Digging into the pocket of his denims, Kas pulled out a tiny vial and pulled the stopper out. Carefully, he put one little drop of the stuff on the single bullet. Then Kas quickly returned the vial and slid the bullet into the pistol clip, chambering it with a distinctive 'click-click'.
Setting the loaded gun across the elevator on the floor, he lined the barrel up with the spray canister.
"Here's a present!"
Leaning into the elevator, he touched the button to send the metal box back down to B-4.

"Stairs. This way." Kelly pointed out, by dashing off in the direction.

Loika watched Kas curiously. He really seemed to know what he was doing. It was cool and a little scary at the same time. Mental note to self. Never piss off Kas. She followed alongside him like a loyal dog to the stairs. She had to wait for him to open the door since wolves dont have thumbs.

She then bolted past him and down the stairs. She was sniffing for guards as she ran. None seemed to be nearby for the time being. Her leg was still bleeding a little bit and it dribbled blood as she ran down the stairs. That could be a problem later if anyone took the stairs later.

Skipping two or three stairs at a time, Kas kept a little distance between himself and Loika. She could scout and surprise anyone they ran across, and he could take them out while they were distracted.
The elevator opening on the fourth basement floor and the gun going off added plenty of distraction, to say the least. Kas snikkered as the sounds of screaming faintly echoed. Some idiot must have been in the elevator when the pepper spray exploded.

After Loika reached the last stairwell, the door swiftly opened, and three men ran out. These guys were fully outfitted with kevlar suits and armed to the teeth. Their guns didn't look as cheap, either.

Loika was halfway down the flight when the door opened. She growled, barked, and lept at the men. She landed on the chest of one of the men, knocking him backwards through the door. The man screamed in terror and shot off his gun wildly. The second man ran through the door to hopefully help his comrade. The 3rd was caught off guard by the sudden attack of the animal.

Once the screaming and gunfire started, Kas leapt down the last seven stairs, landing with a wince as one knee almost buckled under the strain.
He went straight into the fight, though, grabbing the arm of the second guy out of the door, and pulling him forward to meet an elbow in the face.

The man reeled from the hit, backing into the wall while holding hands over his face. Kas moved on to the third man while Loika was mauling the first. His gun was at ready, and Kas couldn't give him time to think about pulling the trigger. He blasted the guy back, and there was a nasty crunching sound as the soldier's head hit the wall. Kas couldn't have heard it, though. He hissed through clenched teeth as white light seemed to explode inside his skull.

Loika was trying so hard to sink her teeth into the Kevlar but it wasnt giving. It was cracking here and there. The guard had dropped his gun and he was struggling to pick it back up but it was proving difficult with a wolf on his chest. The armor was too strong. She had no choice but went for a last resort. She reared up on her hind legs and came down on the man's head head first. She headbutted him almost like a goat. The force was hard enough to know him out.

When she was sure he was out cold she trotted back to Kas and whined like a dog. He didnt look good at all. She nuzzled his hand and gave it a lick for reassurance.

Flinching at first from something unexpected and cold grazing againt his hand, Kas calmed down. He didn't hear anything for a moment, other than the drumming in his head. He pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to work past it.

"Gotta do something about this shit.." He muttered. Though he had no idea what -to do-. Likely, there weren't many options, other than pills he would not take.

When he could see clearer, Kas started to search the guys on the floor, looking for their clearence keys. Producing a suitable card, he stepped over the men and staggered slightly toward the door.

He stopped to lean on the frame of said door a moment, shaking his head. There was a reason he didn't want to do this kind of crap anymore.

Loika walked alongside Kas and kept looking up at Kas. She was really starting to worry. She did agree to help him because of a little blackmail but at the same time he was still a living being. She couldnt ignore that. She wanted to make sure they both got out of here alive. He was using up all of his energy to get in, she wondered if she was going to have to drag him out. " Hey, you okay Kas? you dont look so good."

Standing up straight and giving Loika a dimissive wave, he assured her "It's fine. Don't worry."
Now that they had the key to whatever door they came across, Kas felt mostly ready to make a run for it, and finally get what they'd come for.
Involving Loika wasn't at all what he'd wanted to do, but having someone around for those few seconds of incapability was the difference between dead and alive.
After the mission to Russia, he was sure working alone was a bad idea, as much as he preferred it. Loika wasn't making him regret it, at least.

"Not much further now." Kas commented, starting out down the hallway the door had opened to them. Down here, everything was eerily quiet. The obscuring fog wasn't reaching this level. The lights were flashing red, casting deceptive shadows as everything was on high alert.
Kas didn't like it, and a feeling told him not to go any further; but he couldn't turn back now, empty-handed.
Sparing a thought to recall the veiled threats dealt to him by the satin voice of a serpent in man's clothing, Kas clenched his jaw and started forward at a run.

Loika knew he wasnt alright but she wasnt going to argue with him. Men could be such stubborn asses sometimes. She would know, she was almost always surrounded by them. She was starting to daydream about the favorite man in her life when Kas took off. " Jesus Kas who lit a fire under your tail! Slow down im right behind you!"

Hearing the words echo behind him, Kas didn't slow down. Loika had four legs.. that was enough to keep up with two.
He ran on ahead, following a notion and the mental image of a city utility map he'd gotten a look at. He could also sense the fact there was a large portion of the space in this floor sealed off, airtight. Things like volitle chemicals and experimental solutions had to be kept in controlled environments.

The mindlessness of running gave his mind time to wander.. and Kelly's thoughts jumped to a certain voice
"Yeah I get it. It's fine"
He couldn't tear those dissapointed words and the conjured likeness of Eve's lovely features with a sullen look of defeat. She trusted him with her heart, and he'd broken it.

Telling himself it wasn't the time, Kas tried to pry his thoughts from it. At the same time, he heard a shout in the hallways ahead.

"Target!"

"Fuck.." Kas breathed, doubting whomever it was had been seized by an urge to go shopping..
Kas wasn't prepared for what came barreling down the hallway at him.

It was a girl.. couldn't have been any older than teenage. Though her skin was entirely covered with patterned black spots.. just like..
"Kitty-cat!" He chirped, arms outstretched as if to hug said leopard-girl, who was bounding toward him on fours, snarling like an animal.
wait.. wait for it..!

Just as the hunting cat leapt at his face with a throaty growl, Kas stepped to the side and pressed his back to the wall. The poor girl went flying and landed on her face.
"Don't mess with me, kid. Just get out of here while you still can."

Loika skidded to a stop. behind Kas when he stopped. She had gotten a wiff of the cat girl moments before. The feline had been clever at hiding her scent. She growled at the cat girl. She held her ground when the feline ran at them and even when Kas stepped aside. The cat girl landed at Loika's feet and she grinned. " I. hate cats." As soon as the cat girl lept to her feet Loika was on the attack.

The cat-girl jumped to her feet, narrowing her bright orange eyes at the black wolf. In animalistic fashion, she bared her teeth and hissed, and the fur-fight was on.
Kas was a little taken back. He wasn't sure what mode of attack to take, with two blurs tangled up together, clawing and biting at each other.
He didn't get much time to think on it.

A bolt of searing hot energy flew from down the hallway as another mutant closed distance. Kas spun to meet the new threat only to nearly have a fist strike him in the face.
Kas scowled beneath the black scarf keeping his face hidden, grabbing the arm of the much taller, built dark-skinned man and giving him a tug to keep his forward momentum going forward- straight past. With the other arm, Kas dealt a quick elbow to the back of the other's neck.
He flinched, drawing a breath in a hiss between clenched teeth as the surface he expected to hit was suddenly much harder than he wagered.

"The fuck is this?" Kas growled.
The man laughed at him, turning around.
"Obsidian."

Loika really did hate cats. They smelled, they were stuck up with no respect for anyone else, and they fought dirty. Cats had no sense of pack or loyalty. It was every cat for himself. The opposite of the Canine race. When the cat hissed at her she barked and growled back. Before the kitty had a chance to get in a shot she lunged for neck.

The cat-girl couldn't have weighed more than a hundred pounds, soaking wet. As Loika lunged, she toppled over onto her back, pinned to the cold floor. The girl hissed and screeched in anger, pulling her feet up underneath Loika to bunny-kick at her. No doubt, as the wolf had its jaws around her neck, she could also smell something was -wrong-
There was a chemical odor.. the same sort that had come from the wolf-shifter's own sister, not so very long ago, in the snow feilds of Russia.

"I don't want to fight you, man. We're just here for the TDX-3NZ1..."
Kas quickly circled the guy who was closing on him. This wasn't good. Whoever he was, he looked like 50-Cent, and he looked like he could easily tear Kas apart.
Kas marveled at the capability of the other man, seeing how he could change from the ink-black shiny rock and back in practically the blink of an eye."Obsidian.. if that's what I should call you.. we don't have to do this! Just get out of here! Why risk yourself for someone who is only trying to stop us? Don't you know what that stuff does? It stops more mutants from being born!"
He was trying to reason this out, he really was.. but Kas could see he wasn't reaching this guy.

"Haha! That's fukkin rich. You think I would'a been born a fukkin FREAK if I had a choice?!"
Obsidian-man rushed in, throwing a punch at Kas, which he ducked just in time to feel the air brush past.

"Okay.. if that's how it is..." Kas growled. He knew this was going to hurt..

Reversing the pressure of a human body was more of a chore than stopping bullets; because a person could always try to fight it.
Focusing his power on the man before him, Kas stole the breath out of his lungs, going even further until the guy doubled over, holding a hand to his mouth as he coughed blood.
At the same time, Kelly staggered, falling against the wall behind him and sinking to a sitting position on the floor as a headache like no other knocked every thought and sense from his mind. There was only the flash of white-hot pain like lightning.

Loika let out a yelp like an injured dog when the cat girl bunny kicked her. Loika in human form was maaaaybe 115lbs. She weighed slightly less as a wolf. The catgirl had some bulk on her.

When the catgirl kicked her she flew backwards and bounced off the wall. It smarted a little but it made her mad more than anything. She and the cat began to circle eachother like two predators. Their eyes were locked on eachother. neither dared to break eye contact.

Finally the cat made the first move. It clawed at Loika and loika jumped back out of the way and barely missed being sliced. She used her chance while the cat was off balance and jumped on her back. She was trying to end this fight quickly. Kas was in trouble. She caught the Cat by the neck this time and clamped down. She was cutting off the cat's oxygen. The cat struggled less and less and very shortly later was out like a light. Loika hated killing anything. She had knocked the cat out but it was 50/50 if it would make it. she had bitten a little too hard and actually broke skin.

She trotted over to kas and laid her head on him gently and in a comforting way. He was going to explain what was wrong later but for now she focused on getting him through this pain.

"Uuhhhg.."
Kas felt the warm furry body next to him, though for a moment, all he could do was stay as still as possible. If he moved, if he so much as breathed, it sent sparks off behind his eyes.
Slowly, the pain started to subside. He cracked one eye open, glancing at Loika.. or the blurry shadow he knew was her.

"Y-you.. go see if anyone else is.." Kas lifted a hand, pointing down the hall.
He reached into his back pocket to grab out his phone, and touched the screen. The time appeared, along with a picture of Central Park, blanketed in snow, with the city sparkling in the background.
What if he didn't make it out of here?
What if he never got to hear Eve's voice agian?

Kas stared into the dim glow of the phone, feeling his insides knotting up with a kind of anxiety and forboding he'd never had before.

Loika whined and pawed at him. She was really worried about Kas. He was getting worse. She nudged him gently with her head before she nodded and trotted off down the hall. She went back to the door the catgirl and the big guy had been guarding. She sat in front of the door and waited for it to open. Nothing seemed to be happening. She cocked her head to the side and pawed at the door. Nothing was happening. This wasnt good.

She went back to the catgirl. She had an odd collar on her neck. It almost looked like one of those collars you put on a dog when you had a doggie door. She took the collar off of the catgirl and went back to the door. Voila it opened like that. She walked right in and looked around. There were multiple labs all over. Which one had the cure in it?

The headache ebbed off, as it always did after a couple of minutes. Kas was aware of Loika's movement, and glanced up to see why she turned back. Kas nodded in approval at her quick thinking skills. As soon as the door was open, he got to his feet with the assistance of one hand on the wall, while tucking his phone away.

Kas rubbed his temples for another second, taking a deep breath and getting it together. Then he started off through the doors, and down the hall at a stiff, steady pace.
There were bound to be more people guarding the last stretch between them and the prototype solution to a mutant 'defect'. After having to fight two who obviously thought the existence of a unique, chaotic element in humanity's genetic ocean was rocking the boat; Kas was trying to expect the unexpected.

Loika was sniffing through the labs trying to find anything that would help. It was making her feel really uneasy. She hadnt found a single person anywhere. It was erie. She went from lab to lab with no luck. The last lab she went into provided the payload. A computer in the computer hummed and glowed. It showed a sucessful formula of the vacine. On the table next to it was files stacked up and a metal briefcase with climate controls and a biohazard sticker on it. This must be what they were here for.

She grabbed the handle to the case with her teeth and pulled it off of the counter. Too freaky. Where was everyone? She trotted towards the door with the case in her mouth. When she reached the door bars slid down, caging her in the lab. She let out a startled yelp and dropped the case. Loud alarms started to sound. " KAS! SHIT IS GOIN DOWN!" She yelled. She used her nose to push the case through the bars. At least he could get the case out of here.

She looked back in the room. There really wasnt another way out. Unless.... She went out the vent. She went to the vent and started to pull on it with her teeth to get it off.

He was keeping tabs on where Loika was, and staying alert to every direction at once. The fact no one had appeared to intercept them was unnerving him to no end, making paranoia rise.
As soon as the bars dropped and the alarms sounded, he flinched and bolted toward the door the black wolf had entered, hearing Loika's shouting a short distance away.

"If you can get out that way, then go for it. I'll take this thing and make enough of a distraction no one should bother you."
He grabbed the case, watching her tugging on the vent cover.
"Something goes wrong... just.. err.. howl, I guess!"

The vent was tearing up her face a little but she was making progress. " Alright! Meet you outside!" She gave the vent cover another hard tug and it gave way. She wiggled her little wolfy body into the vents and started to crawl through them. She was determined to make it out and see her little girl.

She crawled through the vents. It was hot, and cramped. She was trying not to panic. She had a thing about being in small spaces. It freaked her out. The vents were a maze and sooner or later someone was going to realize she was in there.

Outside, the place was camped by NYPD, SWAT, and being circled by a helicopter. MRD wouldn't be far behind. Kas glanced at the time again as he ran back toward the stairwell.
Turning a corner, he nearly ran into something he didn't expect.

The cat-girl was dragging herself across the floor, cupping a hand over her neck as she wheazed for a breath.. but she was still trying to move and fighting to the last.
Her hugely-dialated orange eyes looked up at Kas. She was going into shock. The girl would be dead soon. He didn't see any fear however.. just a will to keep going. She was determined to make it.

"Damn it all to hell.." Cursing, he knelt, tucking the small, insulated briefcase into the back of his shirt. It was uncomfortable, but he wouldn't chance dropping it.
Kas cautiously reached out to the petite brown-haired jaguar girl, and tried to put an arm around her shoulders. She hissed, then turned and bit down on his forearm.
"Fucking really?!" He growled, but proceeded to lift the girl off the floor, barely noticing the weight.
Her jaw slackened. Kas started to manipulate the air pressure as he was used to doing for himself, stopping the blood from leaking out through the wounds in her throat. The girl's eyes blinked as she took a few unlabored breaths.
"Go?" The kitty-girl asked, removing her hand, and reaching up to cling to Kelly's shirt imploringly.
"Yeah. We're going." He sighed. Kas didn't know what the repercussions of this choice would be, but he couldn't combat his conscience. Maybe it was the remorse of hanging up on Eve already having eaten down his defenses. Kas stood, and was back to running.
He found an adequate escape route before even entering the building. A small delivery/shipping area with a drop-down garage door. Even though the door was secured by locking two feet deep under the concrete, Kas had an easy way getting through.

A fairly nice SUV was parked inside the garage. He didn't know or care who it belonged to.
Kas smirked as all of the windows suddenly exploded in a shower of shards, falling around the vehicle and sliding down the hood. Enough pressure from the inside out made the windows pop like a paper bag.
Kas started to drive the smoky fog out of the building, mainly sending it billowing out the front doors so to fool people into thinking he was going out that way.

He stepped around carefully in the broken glass, reaching into the driver's window and putting the truck in neutral gear. It slowly began to inch back.
A blast of force sent the SUV speeding backward, and crashing into the steel-reinforced door.
It was enough to bow the door outward and punch one hole through it, where the rear bumper had impacted.
The hole was all he needed. Kas pushed the pressure more and more; and like a tear in a parachute, the hole expanded. Once it was sizable enough, he stepped out.
Five men leveled their guns on him, pointing flashlights in their eyes. The little cat-girl hissed and growled, sheilding her eyes.
Kas waited for the distinctive sound of triggers. As guns were going off, he was psuhing five bullets back, making them stick inside the barrels before the shot was actually fired.
As the guns malfunctioned, two of the five exploding in their weilder's hands, Kas dashed off into the dark, searching for the slightly higher temperature of Loika, so they could regroup and get the hell out of here.

((Completed, I'd say))

Loika loped up with the german shepherd from when they had first arrived. He seemed to be less of a threat now and was wagging his tail. He gave loika's cheek a lick and she snorted. " This is Toby. He doesnt like bein bad. I have a friend that will take him. lets go!" Both Loika and Toby wagged their tails and followed Kas into the dark.

OOC: Yup completed.