“That is a lot of fluffy kitties…”
Elkay gave Kuta a funny look as the Shadow and the Spiritdrainer slipped through the darkness, pulling themselves through shadows as they made their way across what looked like a basic warehouse district in Sec-404, in the northern territories of Torr 9-6. They came to a half outside a particularly large warehouse that would have blended in no problem had there not been so many cats around, as well as patrolling armed guards.
“They are called cats, Kuta.”
“No, they are fluffy kitties.”
“They are adult cats.”
“Yes. Fluffy kitties.”
“Kuta, a baby cat is a kitten. Those are all adults.”
“They are fluffy kitties!” Kuta repeated themselves. “Cats are big. Those are small.”
Elkay inspected the cats some more. They were normal-sized to Elkay. But Kuta, despite being somewhat short for a Rethan, was 2.4m tall, so the cats probably did seem like kittens to them. “Alright, question for you, Kuta. How big does a feline animal have to be for you to call it a cat and not a fluffy kitty?”
Kuta thought for a moment, then held out their hand at about a meter high. “That tall.”
“Felines that big are not cats. Those are panthers, lions and cheetahs…” Elkay gave up on the argument and altered the conversation somewhat. “Although I was pretty sure using cats for protection was more of a Ksithan thing than a Torr thing? Seems weird that there are so many cats around here.”
“These Torr are experimenting on Rethans. Fluffy kitties make us tame, as long as we do not see the fluffy kitties get hurt. They probably are using these cats because they knew us Rethavok would retaliate.”
“But you are not concerned?”
“I am more accustomed to them. But… well… I would recommend you not hurting the fluffy kitties, because it could… trigger me.”
“Noted.” Elkay fell silent, then inspected their surroundings. There were more guards in the two alleys on either side of the warehouse than there were on the roof, and more cats too. “Hm. Might be better to get in via the roof. Schematics show that the labs are quite deep underground beneath the warehouses, but roof access will be easier to break into, and we can get there via the other nearby rooftops.”
“Understood…” Kuta closed their eyes and quickly scanned for nearby intelligent life. They quickly determined that the building to the left of the warehouse was emptier than the building on the right, and that the roof was completely clear. The problem was, the roofs were somewhat well-lit, meaning a single shadowjump was not possible. Kuta communicated this to Elkay, who frowned.
“So… how do we get up there?”
“I could telekinetically lift us up onto the roof via the alley, but we do risk being seen, unless you can disguise us in shadows or something.”
“I can do that!” Elkay smiled. “Is there anyone in the alley before we jump there?”
“One being. Torr. Armed. Looking out into the road ahead of us, at a fluffy kitty.”
“Good boy.” Elkay patted Kuta on the side, then pulled them both through the shadow and into the alleyway. As Kuta had suggested, the Torr wasn’t paying attention. The fluffy kitty glanced at Elkay and Kuta, but, weirdly, it decided to edge closer to the Torr guard, nuzzling up against the Torr as a distraction. Kuta immediately took this as an opportunity to get moving. They wrapped one arm around Elkay, then muttered something under their breath and waved their free arm. They quickly scaled the building, avoiding any windows on the way.
Once they were on roof level, Elkay wriggled free from Kuta’s grip and reached for the tranquillizer gun on his hip, which he fired at the guard on the building opposite. The Torr stumbled briefly, until Kuta telepathically knocked them out.
“That is way, way better than this tranq gun…” Elkay tutted. “Would be so much easier if we just killed everyone.”
Kuta glanced at Elkay. “You are… more violent than I remember.”
“Kid, I am the Shadow, literally the left claw of the Thantophor. If no one dies today, I will be sad.”
“Arkay does not like death though.”
“Oh, he does, if it involves evildoers.”
Kuta frowned, then shrugged and relented, not really having a counterargument. Luckily, the roof they were on was clear, and the roof opposite that they needed to get to only had seven guards on it. One was guarding an entrance to a stairwell, but there was one guard on each corner of the building and two more pacing back and forth. There were also a couple of cats wandering around, and they seemed to be annoying the guard at the entrance.
“So, what now?” Kuta switched to telepathic communications while they and Elkay hid in the lone shadow on the roof. “I would just telepathically knock them out, but the corner guards may fall off the roof and trigger the guards below.”
“Can you telepathically control cats?” Elkay asked.
“Uh… No. As far as I have tested, I cannot really control sentient but non-sapient beings. I can only make suggestions.”
Kuta suddenly stopped paying attention, their eyes focused on the fluffy kitties. The Torr guard snarled at them then kicked the fluffy kitty that got too close. Any desire Kuta had to be just or gentle quickly vanished. Using a telepathic suggestion, Kuta told the guards on the corners of the building to all look away and the two roaming guards turned their attention to the guard by the entrance.
“Oi, prick, did ya just kick that fuckin’ cat?” one of the roaming guards shouted, catching the entrance guard by surprise.
“Uh, yeah, kinda.”
“What the fuck did ya do that for?”
“Uh…”
The two roaming guards both charged at the entrance guard and dragged them away from the door, before pulling out some batons and starting to beat the crap out of the entrance guard.
With everyone distracted, Kuta and Elkay leaped across the buildings, dipped behind some vents and managed to sneak into the doorway and into the stairwell without being detected. Once they were inside though, Elkay noticed a new problem. Everything was very, very well lit.
“Well, uh, there goes our stealth opportunities…” Elkay tutted. “Can you, like, telepathically hide us or something?”
“It does not matter. They know we are here.”
“Oh. We should leave then. Maybe completely, if we can’t find a new angle of attack. Sure, mission failed, but if they know we are here, there is nothing we can do and we can’t risk capture.”
Kuta though, again, was not paying attention. They started making their way down the stairs, and quickly discovered that everything was… weirdly open. The Torr weren’t hiding anything. Their collection of telepathic Rethan clones was all openly on display, with a single, much, much larger Rethan chained in the middle of the room, and Torr guards blatantly wandering around, occasionally disappearing into a couple of offices at the back.
However, there were also ten of the clones who were also on patrol. And all of them were looking at Kuta as they headed deeper into the room.
“Kutiir!” Elkay hissed. “What are you doing?”
“The right thing, I hope…”