T.A.L.O.N Mission: Operation Wild Cat (Izzy)

Brian sat in the helicopter as it flew over a building. Currently Brian and his partner for the mission Blake were over Nevada 50 miles away from California. Brian sighed, he wasn't exactly sure why he was assigned to this mission or at least why he needed a partner. A cat girl no less!?! Brian sighed, he never did report his little problem to the boss, if he did he sure enough would get less mission. So for now Brian would have to suck it up.

Across from him sat Blake. The cat girl assigned with him on the mission. To most people she would look like an attractive young female. Though in the eyes of Brian she looked more akin to some hybrid monster ready to tear his limbs out at the wrong mistake. It didn't help that he was essentially given very info on her other than that she was that she specialized in covert assaults. A direct opposite to Brian who specialized in brute force. Maybe it was some sort of way for him to get more experience so he could go on more missions. Lord knows Kyte hadn't been calling him up enough for missions.

"So..." Before Brian could really say anything a screen would come down from the interior roof of the helicopter. The T.A.L.O.N logo would appear before a voice would begin speaking.

"Greetings Wild Card and Blake. Just like the folder you received earlier said, your mission is quite simple, you are to retrieve a vial and a flash drive. The vial contains a prototype for a serum to create super soldiers. The flash drive however contains plans to create a weapon, this weapon seems to be specifically designed to drain metahumans of their abilities. With this information it is imperative that both objects are secured. You are also being assigned a separate flash drive, If possible you are to fill it with info pertaining to the vial before wiping the computers and destroying the facility. Wild Card has been specifically brought on to the project to make the latter possible. Not a single scientist is to be left alive, and all parts of the facility must be destroyed. Failure is not an option."

With that the voice disappeared. The pilot looked back at Brian and Blake. "2 minutes till drop."

Brian sighed. "Wait we got a folder?" Brian asked slightly dumbfounded. The pilot looked back and threw a folder at Brian. "Wait you had this the whole time?" Brian growled. Knowing this wasn't the time to be angry he quickly scanned through the entire document.

This had to be the most awkward helicopter ride of Blake's entire life. Brian kept giving her these weird looks and...well to be honest they weren't giving her an amazing first opinion of him. Spending most of the ride munching on candy from a little box she'd brought, she avoided eye contact with him. It just made her feel uncomfortable.

She sat on the very edge of her seat, looking down at the ground they passed over, nibbling her candy. When Brian spoke up she looked up quickly, holding out the box. "Want one?" Now that he could see the box, she'd been munching on nerds this entire time.

Blake sat quietly through the briefing, speaking only when Brian was hit with his folder. "Well yeah, Kyte gave me mine. There's something in each of ours that outlines our jobs in the operation." The pilot turned and bonked Blake on the head with a blunt arrow, drawing a very irritated hiss from her as she snatched it. This was a special one made for this job. All Blake had to do was hit one of the cameras with it and the feed would loop for the next few hours. Should make things much easier.

She grabbed her bow and knelt at the door of the helicopter, drawing it back in her bow. After a minute or so of aiming, she let go and it nailed one of the cameras to the facility, drawing a spark from the malfunction. "There, that should buy us some time." She gestured to the door and smiled. "Whenever you're ready, let me know. I'll set up a zipline for us."

Brian flinched everytime Blake spoke up. Why wouldn't he? She was a combinations of the two things Brian feared most. Woman and cats. How dare god make such an evil combination, the epitome of unholiness. Though if Brian wanted to go on anymore missions, and make the money he desperately needed he was going to have to suck it up. After getting hit with his folder he heard Blake say something about Kyte personally giving her, her folder.

"Are you serious? All I got was a recording telling me to show up at the meeting point." Brian replied. Well, guess now he knows who the favorite is.

Brian after he finished skimming the instructions he got up and touched the metal sides of the helicopter. His armor encased around him. His armor was made of steel just like the side of the helicopter. He thickened the armor around his face so that it would impossible for either the enemy to identify it or for him to be shot in the face by a sniper bullet. Not only that it provided a skin buffer from Blake in case they would have to be in close proximity. So for Brian it was a triple.

"Alright.... I'm ready!" Brian said looking over at the terrifying agent known as Blake. Once she set up the zip line, Brian would come down like a metal tank.

Blake was so confused by Brian's reactions to her. Was she doing something wrong? She was trying to learn how to communicate with normal people and, evidently, it wasn't doing anything at all! "Well I mean...I live with Kyte." She said, laughing awkwardly. At least there wasn't as much favoritism as he seemed to think.

After Blake finished her box of candy, Brian prepared to jump in. "Slow your role there." She said with a nervous smile, trying to talk like Yang. "The thing is, if we jump in now and let them know we're here, then there's no point to this operation. They'll back up everything they have on that serum offsite, we'll be down a vial that will likely get destroyed, and there will be nothing there for us to acquire for our mission." She licked her lips and fired her grapple shot into a tower of the compound. "Follow me, and keep your head down, okay?" She dropped onto the line, using her bow to slide down it silently, landing above the well guarded facility. From there it was just a locked hatch keeping them out. "Gimme like...2 minutes." She said, picking the lock as her tail flipped about behind her.

Brian would follow behind down the zip line. Brian was more so used to running and dealing with threats as they came. He wasn't the sneaky type. His heavy metal armor was proof enough that he was more used to gun fire than creeping silently. Due to this not being his expertise he decided that he was going to follow Blake's orders, no matter how much she terrified him they had a mission that needed to be done.

While she picked the lock Brian's head went to all the wrong places. She said something about living with Kyte. Was she like his girlfriend or something? Was she his friend with benefit? Or.... was she his housecat? Brian couldn't decide. Either way he would remain behind her until she unlocked the door. He made sure to stay far enough so that the evil tail of death wouldn't touch Brian's armor.

From his memory, the outside of the compound had an alarm system. This was one of the few doors that didn't have the lock but the next one would. It would require both a keypad and fingerprint to get inside. Brian tried to remember the schematic, while Blake opened the door.

Blake finished the hatch off and poked her head in. Some guy coming out for a smoke noticed her and they looked at each other face to face. "Oh. Hi." She pressed a button on her bow and her quiver spat out one of her titanium tipped arrows, falling down and into the top of the man's skull, killing him instantly. "So that happened." She said, hopping into the little room and pulling her gambol shroud.

"K, Imma need this..." She said, making a swift chop to the former merc's hand, effectively giving her a set of keys to the doors in the facility. Well isn't that just nifty. She walked to the keypad and put the dismembered hand on fingerprint scanner. That much was easy, then she pulled a little note from a compartment in her bow. "1 3 5 9 2..." She said quietly, typing it in and causing the door to click open. She turned back to Brian with a proud look on her face. If she weren't coated in blood and a terrifying cat, she would be adorable right now.

Brian watched as Blake opened the door. She then effectively took down the guard with little to no effort. She even took the guy's hand. Brian didn't know whether to be impressed or terrified after seeing Blake's display. He more-so was on the terrified route seeing Blake covered in blood and holding a disembodied hand. Yep definitely on the terrified route.

Brian walked up to the now dead body and began to search it. It was standard practice on the street to check the body and take anything that could be useful. Not like Brian was going to get in trouble for taking anything. On the body he found a keycard. At least now Brian would have little problem moving around the facility. It would have been better if the clothes weren't covered with blood. Brian could have used his powers to mimic the guard's appearance. Standing up he would walk passed Blake after saying, "Nice, though next time lets try for a little less blood. I could have used his clothes."

Taking a few steps through the door he entered the facility. From Brian's memory of the floor plan, the vial would be hidden on the 3rd Ground floor. Currently they were on the second, that meant they had two choices. The elevator or the stairs. The elevator would take them straight down but was out in the open with regular guard. The stairs was more obscure but would only go to the first floor and they would have to take another set of stairs to the 3rd ground floor. Brian remembering Blake's words from earlier about stealth would look back. "Let's take the stairs...."

Brian would then begin to move quickly towards the stairs. Swiping the keycard he took from the guard he would hold the door to the stairway open so the cat could go first. She seemed to know all about the stealthy stuff.

Blake was significantly faster than Brian as they moved, but she kept back to watch behind them, bow drawn. Once they were into the stairwell, she checked over the railing. Nothing, awesome. As she prepared to walk down she heard a door open quietly with her enhanced senses. She motioned for Brian to stop moving, then hopped over the edge. A muffled scream was heard by Brian as she landed, crushing his windpipe. She grabbed his badge, just in case she needed one of her own. Those double button doors always seem to come up at some point.

She started dragging him back up the stairs, groaning and hissing as she went. "Help me out here!" She whispered up at him, trying to drag him up the stairs. Unfortunately for Blake, this guy was huge. The little catgirl's stature wasn't making carrying him that much easier. "I tried to keep the blood to a minimum like you asked." She said, pointing at the merc's collapsed throat and neck.

Brian never heard the door open. Though luckily Blake did, he froze at her motion. Though that was less so because of her telling him to hold on. It was more so due to the fact he was scared that the cat lady would touch him. In fact he almost screamed out a 'don't touch me' but he still have enough control over his mouth to keep it shut. Though he did hear a different muffled scream one from an orifice that didn't belong to Brian. His head snapped toward the direction of the source of the sound.

Sure enough the little black cat was dragging another dead body. Brian sighed, he should have guessed that was going to happen. Reluctantly at her command he went to the dead body looked down at it. He studied the face for a moment. He looked to be an young man, mid-twenties. Brian guessed the man was military probably gone to the front-lines of some war when California was taken over. Brian sighed, it sucked to do what Brian was going to, but it would make the mission a lot easier.

Brian placed his hand on the guard's face. "Blake, whatever you do do not touch me!" Brian closed his eyes as he concentrated. He was directly manipulating his body to mimic the appearance of the man. Going from changing the pigment of his hair, the color of his eyes, his facial structure, and even forcing the follicles on his lip to grow hair to form a mustache. His body would widen slightly to mimic the man's body type as well. Brian's healing factor along with it nearly negated any problems his body would have faced during the trouble otherwise. Once he was done he would open the palm of the man and pressed his fingers against his. Brian now had finger prints identical to the man. Brian was now, at least appearance-wise the dead guard.

"Keep look out while i get changed." Brian said now looking like the officer. Once he had dressed himself in the garb of the guard, he held the body of the guard over his shoulder as he climbed the stairs with ease. "Now I can easily get through those well guarded places with ease. I guess until we dump the body somewhere, you'll definitely have to look out. We could leave the body on the stairs, but if it gets found we will be in lock down city." Brian shrugged. "Your choice."

Blake's ears perked up as she got an idea. "Leave it to me!" She grabbed the body by the legs and dragged it from Brian's shoulder, taking it all the way back down the hallway. This way was much easier than it was on the stairs. She dragged him silently all the way back to the room where the two had come in, leaving her with the first body. She figured this way it was less likely for the bodies to be found, and if they were found...well the first one was already there so who cares?

She came back quickly with handcuffs, smiling. "I found these on the guard, if we cuff me and have you lead me around, then we can sneak past most of the security without even trying to hide!" Her tail flicked back and forth and she held out a key and the handcuffs they belonged to.

Brian watched as Blake would take the body from him. He easily let her take it, more so due to the fact he didn't want to touch her. Could you imagine? It would ruin his disguise completely. What a waste of time would his transformation been. Brian just hoped it wouldn't be somewhere it could be easily found. If they went on lock down, this would probably put the mission rather complicated. Brian shrugged though. There was no way that this was going to be all easy though.

Once Blake came back she offered up a pair of handcuffs to use to contain her and lead her around the facility. While the prospect of handcuffing Blake and leaving her while Brian completed the mission alone was promising, Brian shook his head. "That is a bad idea, one because the point of donning the disguise is to avoid draw attention. More attention means, questions... questions I'm not sure I can answer. No offense but you aren't the type of prisoner many would keep silent about." Brian said. "Well lets do this, I'll scout out the area ahead and help us pick a route. You do your kungfu-cat sleeping dragon crap if you have to and we keep it going until we reach the security center. Once we get the alarms turned off we can more or less just go crazy and get the vials and the plans." The real reason Brian didn't want to handcuff blake was more so because she hadn't shown up with a lease. Leading her would require him in being within close proximity of her which could have compromised his disguise. He definitely didn't want that.

Blake blinked and her ears flattened. Most people in this facility didn't know who she was but...she supposed he might have a bit of a point. "Kyte woulda done it..." She mumbled, pouting like a cat as she walked past him. To be fair, Kyte probably would have...mostly because he'd find it incredibly fun to try and answer the questions he was posed with...and then immediately beat the hell out of them when he failed to answer. Oh well, she'd have to get used to other mission partners anyway.

"If you need me, I'll be in the vents. Just say like... She climbed onto the nearby wall, the was the grate for a ventilation shaft on it. "Grapefruit...cat attack...I dunno, use your imagination. I'll be listening." With that she slammed the grate shut and began to follow Brian through the facility, keeping tabs on him with her super kitty cat senses.

Brian nodded, trying not to ignore what the leader would have done. Brian was told from the beginning not to cause any alarms to go off by Blake herself. So it was up to Brian to do that, so with that they would have to make their destination to the security office. That in itself should be easy enough, along with Blake being in the vents she would be able to move freely through the building. So long as no one turned on the heat or cold at least.

Walking through the first room, Brian noticed that there wasn't any guards. In fact except for the two that he saw he noticed that there were no guards anywhere. Well, other than the security room. Reaching one the front desk, he would pass the male receptionist into the room next to them. It was the guard room, on the inside there were 6 men sitting at computers typing away. One looked up. "Mike what the hell are yo-" The man didn't finished as Brian quickly struck the man with a quick strike. The amount of force fired from his fist to the man's nose was enough to shatter it instantly causing him to be knocked unconscious. The guards were shocked at Brian's attack. Brian smiles as he cracks his knuckles "This is gonna be fun." Two of the guards began to break away and run towards the alarm button right under the vent. The other 3 began charging at Brian pulling batons from their waists.

Blake heard the confrontation and sighed. Yep, this was going about the way she expected. She pulled gambol shroud and slashed her way through the vent, landing directly between the guards and the alarm button. She clicked her tongue and swiped her weapons, decapitating the both of them in a single, beautiful strike. From there she sliced the wiring that worked the alarm, making sure no one would hit it in the confusion.

She stepped forward and skewered one of the guards that was attacking Brian, smiling over his shoulder. "And somehow I knew a disguise would do literally nothing for you, Wildcard..." She said with a giggle.

Brian shrugged, he had gotten used to how Blake did things at this point. Though her giggle did give him goosebumps, and not in the good way. Deciding to discard that whole passive thing right out the door he easily dispatched the other two guards, using his strength he shot himself at one of the guards. The force propelled him like a bullet at the guards. With a mighty a strike he knocked the 200lb man into the opposite wall, right on the now cut alarm. The other one he grabbed the man's baton arm mid swing and threw one of his punches at the man's jaw. The force behind the blow easily shattered the man's jaw before brian let go so he could hit the ground.

"Hey the disguise worked. . . Do you hear any alarms going off... now time to turn off the alarm system." Brian said walking to the console. He began looking at the buttons before turning to blake. "You wouldn't know how to turn off all the security alarms do you?"