All Business (Kinetix,)(O)

[Battle Cat]

A girl dressed as a yellow cat walking down the street holding a cardboard box filled with stripped cats meowing as they occasionally bobbed there heads out of the box and cling to the sides. Though closer attention would reveal the girl as more than dressed up. Her tail moving as she walked, slight side to side motions that seem to run all the way up the tail. The covered ears on her head also appeared to twitch variously. The final give away may have been the claws on her hands that dug slightly into the box, despite still wearing the yellow, short, outfit her gloves where currently absent.

The side of the box was all scratched up where it had previously said 5$ in bright red marker. Now it was hardly legible. Jill had harassed the seller into giving her the entire box of cats. Normally she wouldn't try to pick up cats that where set up to be going to a home. But this was the third day she had seen them being sold. No buyers so far and they where beginning to look starved. When she questioned the seller he had no interest in talking about the cats and there wellbeing. His response was something along the lines of 'Look freak, if you ain't going to buy a cat then its none of your damn business.' It had been the 'freak' comment that took her to showing just how big of a freak she really was. Extending her claws slightly she scratched across the side of the box and held then held them in his face. After a short amount of "negotiating"Jill was walking away with all the cats while the man had a half shredded shirt. The Neko found that she could be an excellent negotiator.

Jill stopped for a moment and stuck her entire head into the box. Upon pulling it out there where several slight scratches on her face which where gone before any one would really notice. Despite the slight amount of pain it had caused there was still a smile on her face, flashing a glint of her canines.

"Its ok little Kindle, your going to be happy living at my house. Nothing like that sad street corner where you weren't getting any food. Though you will need to learn to potty outside. And eventually hunt for yourselves. But thats all instinct, you'll figure that out nice and quick."

She had continued walking while rambling on to the cats. eventually turning the corner and heading down a darker alley that would be a quick shortcut home. It was dark but the area was also familiar. Despite all the different scents in the ally she picked up the markings of one of her favored cats. Though he clearly wasn't around right now. His scent not quite strong enough.

[Kinetix]

Above the alleyway, at least one hundred feet in the air, stood the Division leader, Michael stood upon the air. The cool air washed over him. Far below walked a rather feline young girl with a box of what seemed like kittens. Michael had never had a pet. His mother worried that a young child with nearly unlimited control of kinetic forces shouldn't be trusted with a small animal.

Regardless, he had a job to do. This was a mutant and, more importantly, an unregistered one. That was the issue. Not a big one, mind you. From what he could see she was a beastial. Probably Epsilon level if he had to guess. Hardly any concern for him, but the Division was short on manpower, so everyone had to do this kind of work.

Sighing in slightly regretted necessity, Michael descended, allowing the natural gravity to take him. along with some augmented acceleration. He closed the vertical distance in a mere two seconds and came to a perfectly silent and immediate stop. He didn't even feel any pressure or pain .

Then he just waited. If the girl was really a bestial then she would notice him momentarily. Probably on scent. Now he would just wait until the girl turned around to see the tall man in the dark alleyway who had appeared without a sound out of nowhere.

He allowed himself a grin. It's the little things that make this job so much fun.

[Battle Cat]

The scent of a human entered the ally. It got stronger slowly allowing Jill to track where it was coming from. Above? That couldn't be correct. The hairier parts of her body began to stand on end. Tail shooting directly up. Did they want her kittens? No. That was silly, no one would sneak in from above just for that. But the feeling stayed, the Kindle was under her protection now and like a mother cat she was feeling protective. The logic human side pushed the instinctive cat aside. She had heard some time ago that there where mutants who hunted other mutants. The kind like her who weren't correctly registered with the state or the kind unlike her who did very bad things. But what had she been told to do if they came for her? Run? Or co-operate in order to get away unharmed? At the time she had found the information useless and drifted off into a half sleep. Where she didn't really need to pay full attention. Jill's tail began rigidly moving from side to side. A sign of indecision for all felines.

The feline instinct was pushing its way to the top again. It said to protect the kittens which agreed with half of her logic. So running was the correct choice, tail returning back to going straight up with the indecision gone. But no cat ever just ran away, she would carry on walking as she was before as if nothing was different and if the stranger got to close for comfort she would bolt. For now the stranger seemed to be simply standing in the ally. Like a predator he was watching his prey, waiting to pounce at just the right moment. But this cat was no prey. Not tonight. Jill grew more satisfied with her decision, doing nothing gave the predator anything new to act on. A hardly audible and short purr vibrated from her throat. She was happy with her decision.

[Kinetix]

Playing possum, huh? Or lazy cat...either way, the girl wasn't doing much. Michael took a quick glance at his watch, only to remember that it had stopped working yesterday when he had brought in that electrokinetic.

He shook himself back to the present and reached out with his hand. His mutation revved up, surrounding the girl with his telekinetic field. The girl suddenly floated into the air, feet treading unwittingly before she realized she was floating. Michael always enjoyed the expression people had right before realization set in. On that thought, he swing her around with the flick of his wrist.

"Jill..." Damn, he had forgotten her last name. He quickly checked the file on his phone. Damn, no last name and the moment had passed for a clever quip. He pulled out his Division badge, hoping the shiny official regalia would balance out some of the lameness. "Michael Rush, I'm with the Division. Do you have your mutant registration card on you?"

While not technically necessary in this situation, the question was standard when time and situation permitted. Last thing he needed was Internal Affairs barking at him for improper procedures. He waited patiently for the mutant to respond.

[Battle Cat]

Jill's attention was completely focused on listening for noise from behind her and trying to look like she wasn't doing anything odd. So of course her eyes where locked on the kittens in the box, where they had been before the stranger had arrived. Then it was as if she was being gripped from all angles. The surprise nearly caused her to drop the box but by force of will, puncturing the sides of the box with her suddenly growing claws hiding them from view, and her instinct to protect the Kindle. Hissing, and spitting a little, as the Neko was rotated mid-air to face the stranger.

The stranger introduced himself, changing him from stranger to Michael, and requested to see her registration. Though thrown off by the fact that he knew her name, and feeling as though he was a bit rude for checking his phone in the middle of talking, Jill nodded that she did indeed have her registration.

"Yep I've got it somewhere I think...."

Clearly she wasn't going to try to get it while suspended mid air clutching a box of kittens. Not to mention she was feeling somewhat embarrassed cause her rather short dress was giving her attacker quite a view. If she remembered correctly she had indeed put panties on today. That was quite a relief.

[Kinetix]

Michael nodded at the girl's reply. It always went this way. He'd catch them and then they'd pretend to have their registration on them. A lot of time wasted and an extra few lines he'd have to write in the report. That would mean he'd have to stay late at the office which would lead to him getting home late, which would wake up his son and force him to stay up all night trying to rock him back to sleep.

The sheer terror that train of thought invoked was like a splash of cold water to the face. Michael blinked, returning to reality. He lowered the girl to the ground and gave her a stern look. "I know you don't have a registration. That's against the law. You'll have to come with me to the station so you can be registered."

He paused when he noticed the kittens mewling softly. Most were attempting to scale the sides of the box with limited success. He lifted one with levitation and floated it to his hand where the little guy promptly latched itself to his sleeve. Well, that was a stupid thing to do. "Let's drop these guys off first. Take me to your house. And no funny business."

[Battle Cat]

Upon being set down Jill moved the box from her hands up to her mouth so that she could begin searching herself. She did have a registration on her though, somewhere. While undoing the zipper on her coat she froze up. A growl escaping her throat. One of her kittens was being floated out of the box. Once it was on his sleeve and she could see he meant no harm Jill finished unzipping her coat. She wasn't wearing anything underneath so she was exposing herself but didn't seem to mind all that much. After a few more seconds of searching she puled out a several papers all in a zip lock bag.

Unable to talk with a box in her mouth the Neko held out the papers. When Michael reached for them she pulled them back and stuck out the other hand. Motioning towards the kitten, wanting a trade. Jill really wanted her kitten back and away from the clearly dangerous man.

[Kinetix]

The girl started to unzip her jacket, revealing glimpses of her young slender body. Michael quickly averted his eyes until she held out a couple of papers. The girl carried around the original registration documents? Well, he'd heard of stranger things. He reached out to grab them, but then Jill pulled them away, nodding towards the kitten clinging desperately to his sleeve.

"Sorry little guy," said Michael. He held the cat over the box and shook his arm vigorously. In the end he had to pull the feline off with his telekinesis and drop him into the box with the rest of his kin. Then, he quickly snatched up the documents and started perusing.

They looked authentic. He revised his thought: They looked authentic. Anyone could forge documents these days. Hell, there were mutants in the accounting department of Division who could forge your entire identity with a thought. Better to double check. He pulled out his phone to check the registration number. It came back false. Michael sighed. "I'm sorry, but you're going to have to come with me. We'll drop off your cats first. The Division isn't very fond of pets."

With a thought he removed all of his telekinesis and gestured for her to continue.

[Battle Cat]

Waiting impatiently as her kittens was returned to the box Jill began feeling nervous about weather or not the paperwork would pass as official. It was something she had picked up from another mutant. It had cost quite a few picked pockets to. This would prove it it was worth it. Then of course it didn't work. Michael pulled out his phone and copied some numbers off of the paper then broke the news to her. Though the problem now was....that he wanted to take the cats back to her house. But that would bring up a whole new mess of problems. What with her living there illegally with the official owner buried in the back yard. By his statement there was no way he was letting her bring the cats to Division Headquarters. But there was also no way she was letting him see where she lived.

"I live on the streets, so I'm pretty much home already."

Though of course where had she planned on keeping the cats then?

"Isn't there some kind of way we can do this from here? There is no reason to draw a crowd with you dragging me all the way back to your H.Q. is there?"

Her appearance always drew a crowd when going out though public places. Let alone if she was following someone around like she was some kind of lost kitten. Which of course was ridiculous anyways considering cats never got lost. But it wold look that way all the same.
If he was identified as a member of division it might result in various things being hurled in her direction.

[Kinetix]

So she didn't want him to know where she lived. Probably somewhere illegal. Michael knew the situation. Epsilon mutants didn't have many options in either jobs or living space. It wasn't right how mutants were treated. Hopefully in the future things would change. But for now he had a job to do. He scratched his chin and thought about forcing the issue. Sighing, he said, "I guess we'll have to bring the cats along with us. And no, we can't do it from here. Shouldn't be a problem. We have a helipad."

Michael's legs shifted into a horse stance and his arms shot out to the sides. Tensing for a moment, he raised them up. Both he and the girl, cats included, rose into the sky about a hundred feet. Once altitude was achieved, he resumed a relaxed position. "Don't worry, you won't fall. I just reversed the downward force of gravity and then neutralized it. We won't fall."

The Division motioned before the girl could complain. They both shot forward with admirable, yet terrifying speed. Too fast for any onlookers to complain, Michael could feel his eyes watering. Usually he flew on his belly, if only to fulfill the Superman fantasy, and usually with some goggles. Unfortunately he did not have them and was not going to lie down with company present.

It took a few minutes to cross the city, but they arrived quickly. Michael lowered them slowly and they landed softly on the giant 'H' that marked the helipad. The roof guards relaxed when they saw it was Michael. Just out of curiosity's sake, he checked on the kittens. They all looked like tiny fluff balls. He chuckled to himself and led the way inside.

[Battle Cat]

It was horrible! Cats where completely not meant to fly and Jill certainty had not enjoyed any second of it. She had even been unable to scream with air blasting into her mouth. During attempts to do so she was pretty certain she had swallowed a bug. Though that wasn't so bad, seeing other cats eat bugs had lead the Neko to try it out a couple times. They certainty didn't taste good but they where always fun to catch. Upon landing she was finally able to get around to screaming once she caught her breath. Followed by a short outburst.

"What are you thinking! I could have been killed! I would rather have walked through a mob of angry humans than subjected myself to that!"

Michael seemed unbothered by the whole thing though, he even found the fluffed up cats funny. Though Jill found it looked cute she was also rather upset that they had been agitated and fluffed up, her tail too had become rather puffy. Rather than follow Michael, Jill proceeded to sit down in front of the box and began licking down the fur of the kittens to groom them. Careful not to lick to hard because of how much more rough her tongue was compared to normal cats. No self respecting Queen would allow a Kindle in her care to go un-groomed after such an ordeal. Once she was done with the kittens she would need to maneuver herself to get to her own tail to get the puffiness out. Then her ears, which since she clearly couldn't lick would need to be slicked down a bit with her saliva.

[Kinetix]

Michael shrugged at the girl's complaint. Epsilon mutants, and most people in general, didn't like to fly, unless their animal half flew. Regardless, moving faster than most cars through cold air didn't help. Next time he'd put up a telekinetic windshield. "It wasn't that bad."

The girl started to clean the kittens. Michael sighed. It was curious. Did some epsilon mutants give in to their animal sides or was it just that their mutation cause them to involuntarily act more animalistic. Studies would have to be done. No, no. That was no good.

He pulled out a cigarette and put it to his lips. For a second he thought about lighting it, but sighed again as he remembered his promise to his wife. Now that he was a dad he couldn't smoke.

After a few minutes of thinning patience, Michael decided enough was enough. He grabbed the girl by the collar and began to pull her along. "We're not here on your time. It's my time."

He was the leader after all. He should be able to call (most of) the shots around here. The two entered the building. He let her go as they descended the stairs, went through another door, down the hall, and into the elevator. Michael telekinetically pressed the second floor button and waited for the doors to close.