It's The Perfect Crime (Prodigy Recruitment)

"Hey be careful with those." A man as stern as he was slender twirled at his micro pencil mustache as the local zoo staff began placing mannequins around the gift shop. "You're dealing with fragile cargo, not your sultry trophy of the night." He tossed his scarf around his shoulder and made to place a pendant around the neck of each display. "Now take your petty grievances and leave me."

"We work on hourly wage."

"Well aren't you a shining pinnacle of your kind. Go work for your hours." No one felt intimidated to leave the gift shop, but giving the opportunity to remove themselves from his presence did just the trick. The water cooler gossip would go rancid with recurring the details of this man and his peculiar fascination with the mannequins. "Night comes."

Danny came to the zoo on behalf of an article she needed to write for her school paper. Her editor told her he scheduled a meeting with the curator of a traveling African exhibit the zoo found a way to host. If she could just find her way through the traffic of this bustling zoo, she could manage to get their just early enough to not look like an impractical kid. Unfortunately, the sprawling complex did her little good on finding her way in a timely fashion.

"Sorry I'm late." Danny walked in with an assistant who shut the door behind Danny.

"Oh, so you get to tell me what I should think of your tardiness." Standing in the bright light of a window stretching from the ground to the ceiling, the curator tossed his scarf around his shoulder and walked back towards Danny.

"I just 'I'm sorry'."

"Shouldn't you be asking me questions, or do they not educate the youth in this country."

Danny stood in confusion, mainly from the fact his accent did not sound foreign. "Yes, you're right, Mr..."

"Dr. Carcose. One day you will marry a Mr and he will spend his life waiting on you to show up late and excuse everything in sorrow and confusion of importance, but until that day, you will call me Dr. Carcose."

"Dr. Carcose, what is the..."

"You're asking the question wrong. 'What is' might be the most boring thing you've said all day. 'Dr. Carcose, you've put together such a wonderful track record of discovery, why share it with such uncouth simians'? You see how much better my question is? And to answer it. I feel the people of this undereducated society need me to explain such intricacies to them to get them away from their Swift Taylors and television programmings. Did you get that."

"Every word." Danny rested her hands on top of her unopened notebook.

"Well, ask your next question. Unlike you, my time is valuable." Before Danny gave her next response, Dr. Carcose pulled out a jewel case and looked over his jewels. A sapphire, an amethyst, an emerald, a ruby. All beautiful in craftsmanship. All hanging from chains.

"Do you mind if I step outside right quick?" Danny slid her pen into the spiral of the notebook and placed it under her arm.

Dr. Carcose stayed entranced by his jewels. "Don't bother returning if you do."

"I won't."

Danny walked from the administrative offices towards the exit of the zoo. One quote wouldn't make the story though, so at least she should check out this exhibit. If nothing else take a picture write about an item and edit the quote to fit. Done and looks good on a college application.

Inside the exhibit Danny noticed a few of the pictures from some of the digs her parents worked. Maybe she could fill the story with a quote from her dad. Probably wouldn't get a call back in time, but couldn't hurt to try. A few artifacts from an Incan mummy and some skins from the royal chamber of a long lost African kingdom all looked interesting, but she couldn't pull herself away from the lone figures standing in the distance of each excavation picture. Maybe her parents took the pictures, or could they be in the back ground. She stood enthralled, causing a few older patrons to stop and say how good it was to see a young person so interested in history.

Danny pulled herself away and circled the hall. What do I write about? The question popped up and then she heard the annoying voice of Dr. Carcose correcting her on how she asked it. Pompous ass and his jewels. They were pretty, but you could find them anywhere; you could even find them on a quartet of mannequins flanking the exit.

One such a rainy day one would ask what there was to do, and Ryan found himself asking the same question as he walked along. It was what one would call a better day for him, and that was reflected by the light drizzle that was falling down upon the city, pattering softly against the people and the street. However Ryan found himself wishing for snow, something nice and silent, perhaps a little less wet. Then he remember that it would be just as wet once it touched something warm, and people were pretty warm as far as he remembered. Adjusting his hood, the male sighed and took notice of the small translucent cloud that came from his mouth as a result, fading away into the air as soon as it took shape. It was days like this that he was reminded why he hated rain, always falling and falling around him.

A car horn sounded off, and turning towards it he would find himself being splashed by a puddle of water. In particular he found his face being assaulted by the water, a few droplets running down his cheeks, a few droplets freezing against his flesh as soon as it hit. Letting out an exasperated sigh, he ran a finger along his cheek and forcefully removed the small bits of ice as they fell soundlessly against the concrete sidewalk. Forcing the zipper all of the way back up, and grumbling softly to himself, before returning to the whole walking stchik. Hands buried into his jacket pockets, eyes narrowed as he continued walking along, ducking and weaving around the people walking around him. Any unnecessary contact tended to end up with trouble he was not really willing to deal with, and so he would not deal with it.

However soon enough he found himself walking past something that interested him, Ryan pausing as he would step back a few steps to look back at what he was looking at, though it was past a large parking lost and narrowing his eyes. The gears of his mind would begin to churn, and it only took a few moments to remind him what this place looked like. It was a zoo, or so he was aware from times in his youth when his mother used to take him to. Mostly he found himself thinking fondly of watching bears, though they had mostly lounged around and occasionally moved. Either way the name of the place stuck within his mind, and it took a few moments to actually recall what is was called, so he would hum softly to himself until a recollection occurred to hi and he found himself making a small “aha” to himself.

So stepping out of the public view, he would search for something that would serve as a portal, anything that would bridge him from point A to point B. It did not take too long, as he found himself standing before a puddle of respectable size, though it would not have supported his solid form, luckily however it was not going to do that. Placing one foot into the puddle, Ryan would close his eyes and concentrate as his eyes narrowed, brows scrunching up and knitting somewhat, and within an instant his body, as well as his clothing seemed to rapidly chance. One minute he was solid and the next he was changing into transparent water, flowing into the puddle at a rapid pace, leaving almost nothing there as the water seemed to have faded into the puddle too small to have taken in all of the substance.

Within moments however he found himself coming out of something, a faucet in a bathroom, empty as it was. The male would reform upon his feet, shaking his head and sending out a few droplets that would cascade onto the floor. Lucky enough that he had found more ways to keep himself clean, or he would have probably stuck out in a public place like this, or once he left the bathroom anyway. Staring into the mirror, he would use some of the pump soap to apply it to his palms and lather it under the water, washing away any small amount of dirt before stepping out of the bathroom to go and enjoy the whole zoo experience. So with that done he would begin his tour of the zoo, looking over all of the animals with a certain wide eyed wonder despite what many would call a rather disinterested appearance that the others would put off.

Perhaps Ryan could never understand why people acted so unimpressed by everything as they grew older, but he could not really get that/ Either way once he was done looking over the animals that caught his interest, he would continue to walk around the zoo rather bored,, not really having any sort of destination from this point onwards. Eventually he found himself looking over exhibits, licking his lips softly as he thought over otherwise unimportant details.

I am a lion.

With a smooth jump and curve of the spine, Chimera leapt onto a rock within the enclosure and took a mighty king like gaze over his kingdom. His large canines were visible through his closed lips and his mane was blowing in a rather rain speckled breeze.

The king of the jungle.

He leapt from the rock and began to walk along the grass, carrying himself like royalty. The other lions watched, rather suspicious - this strange Lion had just appeared last night, and they weren't the only ones who were suspicious. Two zoo workers were stood beside a dwindling group of tourists, staring at the unaccounted arrival through the glass.

"How'd it even get here?"
"Maybe they shipped it in over night."
"Wouldn't they have told us?"
"Probably."

Chimera's regal form stood proud in the less than impressive weather. His lion's form was very imposing, while he prowled around for all to see.

Everything the light touches is my kingdom.

He reared his head back and let out a vicious roar, much to the pleasure of the tourists who were watching him - enjoying the fact that atleast one of the animals were being lively and putting on a show on a less than exciting visit to the zoo. They were all watching him intently and he was loving it. Bending his hind legs and leaping onto the top of the rock once more, he circled on the spot like a dog after forgetting whether or not lions do that, and lay down; eyes scanning the crowd.

I like being a lion. I think tomorrow though... I will be a Panda.

You see, Chimera had been at this for atleast three weeks now. For a day or two, he would pretend to be a different animal just to experience their food and to also have a place to live. He wasn't stupid though, he could tell that some of the smarter staff members were starting to notice the shifting numbers of animals. It wasn't so bad when he was a penguin, because there were atleast 30 penguins and no-one noticed an extra one waddling around. Falling over. Forgetting how to swim. But with the lions, there were only four - so he wasn't surprised that there were atleast two members of staff watching him at all times. An extra lion is a very big deal, but none of them appeared to be brave enough to do anything about it. He was a flipping Lion after all. They're scary as hell.

Chimera lay his chin on his paws and yawned. Even such a gentle gesture looked freaking badass as a Lion. But he noticed that his spectators were beginning to dwindle. Standing from his sprawled position, he was able to see where the vast majority of them appeared to be walking towards. A large building near the centre of the zoo that he was able to see quite clearly a few days ago in the sloth enclosure. When he visited the zoo in his human form, he saw that it was just a display hall of some sort. He saw the words museum, Africa and exhibition and immediately thought of the word nerd so generally avoided looking at it for long durations of time, but whatever was going on in there was apparently cooler than a gigantic death cat so maybe it wasn't as lame as he'd originally thought. But how to get there...

"What if it's aliens that put it there?"
"Are you actually suggesting aliens put a lion in a lion enclosure."
"... No."
"Yes you were."
"Shut up."
"Spaz."

Using his super hearing, Chimera was able to over hear the pair and worked his lion mouth into as best a smirk he could manage. No-one would believe these two if he were to just straight up transform into a different animal and fly away. Stepping in large strides, he walked off his rock and behind a particularly large bramble patch. Immediately, he shifted his mass and form, his fore arms became wings, his hind legs shrunk dramatically and became black bird feet. His beauitful golden fur and mane shedded into nothing and in it's place grew multi-coloured feathers. A lion went into the bush at one end, and from the other - flew a parrot. He soared over the enclosure's walls while the two guards continued to bicker.

One of the window's on the roof of the moderately large hall were left open, so he allowed himself to fly in and perch on the window sill, flapping his wings to get them into a more comfortable position. His beady parrot eyes scanned the scene, trying to make out what the hell it actually was.

"Squaawck, I'm a parrot."

Current grid:

Those gems meant something to someone. Unfortunately, Danny knew the someone. Danny pulled out her phone and took a picture of each of the gems before taking towards the administration building. Each one of the gems glowed on the screen of her phone and slowly images grew on the mannequins. Ancient, worn features carved the cheeks and chins of the faces. Their arms grew into chiseled limbs full of power.

"Can I help you?" A voice failed to grab Danny's attention. "Miss? Miss?"

Danny lowered her phone and looked up with a look of bewilderment. "Oh, Dr. Carcose. Can I see..."

"No, he's in a meeting. Do you have an appointment."

"Well, had. I finished and he..."

"You'll need to schedule another appointment. So, call during our office hours and..."

"Can I just make an appointment with you. I need to talk about these gems."

"Miss, you need to leave and call back tomorrow."

Danny felt a cold chill course through her vest as she turned to walk out of the building. Two halls arched out to circle the entire building, one of those must take her where she wanted to go. The receptionist went back to the small waiting area, just outside of the eyesight of the door. To throw off the attention of the receptionist, Danny opened the door and let it slam, while Danny turned and headed down the corridor to her right.

Danny never crawled through an air duct before, but this felt oddly right. Getting into the higher ducts would cause the support to break, so she stuck to the lower alcoves to listen in to the meeting room. She could peer through to grating. The arrogant air of Dr. Carcose seeped into the air, but another woman's voice kept him company.

"I don't think it's an animal."

"Please say 'it is'. Contraction are for the ignorant."

"I believe it to be a human. A meta."

"I think you read too many of those picture books for children. Does this animal bend steel bars and race planes?"

"I have a plan to route it out. During the night, I will put something in the water all the animals drink to knock them out. If the creature is a meta human, it will most likely lose powers when it goes to sleep."

"I might feel bad if I skin this beast and it is a person, but if it is truly a human taking warg skin, maybe I can teach it to do tricks."

Echoes rang out through the vents. Off in the distance, a fan started to swirl air through the ducts, blowing a large amount of against Danny. It felt nice in the heat of summer, but she knew it would throw off the condition of the room she spied on. Danny tried to peak out to see what this woman looked like, but could only make out a pair of black heels and a leopard skin skirt.

"I'm going to get the workers to distribute the chemical. I'll tell them it's antibiotic."

"'It is. It is'. I do not want complications coming from your plan like your grammar, and why the Dickens is it so hot in here?" Dr. Carcose got up from his seat and walked towards the air duct. He kicked the grate a few times and felt a blow of air come out. "Well that worked. Much better, but don't..." When Carcose turned around, his mystery woman had gone. He left the empty air duct behind and went back to his jewels.

Danny skittered away from the administration building. In her haste she ran into a well dressed woman wearing a leopard print skin. Before an apology could come out, Danny just looked at the skirt.

"Well, excuse me." The jet black haired woman hid her eyes behind a pair of dark sunglasses. A stylish blazer with a gentle cloth scarf tucking out from the lapel concluded her garb, and her cold departure concluded the first meeting she would take with Danny.

"Water supply." Danny began to look around for where the water going into each exhibit came from.

Ryan found himself enrapt by a mannequin, its facial features carved into material seeming to hold the males attention for a moment as he considered them. It might have been a short attention span or something else, yet as soon as he was looking at them he found that his attention would snap to somewhere else. Actually that was just how he worked, always moving around and never keeping in one place for too long, his attention seemed to follow that pattern as well. His hand would absently dig through his pockets, and feel over the remains of a half eaten snack cake, feeling some of it crumble within his hand in its wrapper from the small amount of pressure.

Ryan grumbled softly to himself, removing the hand and finding himself with a small amount of crumbs, as well as cream filling sticking to his finger tips. Sucking gingerly on the digits, he cleaned them off and would continue his walk about the exhibits. What else was there to interest the otherwise bored hydrokinetic in this place? While it was full of something that would have interested the more intellectually inclined, he was not one of those and so it would have not interested him. So he was considering leaving the place, but then again he would have been missing something that he probably was not looking for hard enough. There was always something out there, all he needed to do was find it.

However one thing that did catch his interest, or latched onto an attention that was moving like some form of spastic that had consumed far too much red Bull was a pair of legs crawling through an air vent, and realizing that he had no idea where he was going. Blinking a couple of times, Ryan looked back over there to be sure he was seeing things right, but the limbs were already gone by the time that he had looked in that direction. He could have followed, but then again he was unsure how he would do so, and with a small amount of thought his mind finally clicked as to how he would do so. A small smirk would form upon his lips, as he looked around in a display of secrecy that only really showed up when one thing was in mind and that was his metahuman capabilities.

Pressing against the wall with the vent, he looked around and then took on a liquid form, clothes seeming to go along with everything else as he would slosh to the ground wetly. With his now free form, he would allow himself to slink along inside the ventilation system, nearly silent as he followed behind the female with a certain silence that made him feel almost like some kind of water puddle ninja. All he was missing was the black pajamas, and he would have been set as far as that was concerned. However he found himself with more than just a female that he was following, and that came in the form of...interesting information. Well.. partially interesting to him, but not oo terribly interesting.

Someone was speaking to a woman about animals, or rather an animal, and how it might not be one at all. If that were the case, then they were likely dealing with a metahuman, which the female was quick to point out and the male was quick to nitpick something about. The puddle which should have been unable to hear due to lack of ears continued to listen, having ducked off another direction perhaps to avoid having the female take notice of the random water puddle floating behind her. One of the more interesting tidbits was about putting something in the water, and that was... something he was worried about. Well mostly it was then drugging the animals or something like that, but it originated around there somewhere.

Either way with all of that considered, he would leave from the vent, choosing a well removed area and then returning to a physical form. Popping his neck lowly, he would look around to make sure no one had seen that and walked along with the thoughts of someone poisoning the water, and with a mind that wanted to stop it. First however he would have to find where they would put the poison, unless they were poisoning the waters individually, then...he was no good at this planning stuff. Frowning softly, he would walk along anyway, scratching the back of his head as he walked past a woman in a leopard skirt.

The small, green feathered bird spread out it's wings and looked around as all the damp tourists scuttled from one glass cube to the other. Swooping down from his window perch, Chimera resumed the position ontop of one of the exhibits. Some people looked and smiled at the sight of the parrot.

Aha, look at how they gaze! Wow. Parrots are prett-
"Honey, say something and see if it says it back!"
y.... neat.
"Um... Polly want a cracker?"
"Sqquaaawck, No?"

The couple laughed at the feathered creature's response, but if one weren't talking to a parrot, they'd be able to hear the confusion and disappointment in the bird's voice. Confused as to what just happened and dissapointed that the man couldn't come up with something a little more original. His bird feet shuffled on the spot, and he fluttered his wings rapidly. Some other people took pictures of him, assuming that the Parrot was in here because... parrots are probably from Africa? People didn't really ask questions. But the dull-witted duo had noticed his transformation and persued him in a mixture of shock and duty-bound honour.

"Sqquaawck, Afffrica, Afffrica" A master of stealth, Chimera did his best to fit in. However, when the staff got over to him, he saw that they'd brought nets! Flapping his wings and taking off, Chimera unsteadily flew through the air. The two nets were swung at him, near-missing him several times. Feathers were flicking through the air while he comicly tried to aviate. Many people watched, some laughed and others left the building. After taking a brief second to collect himself, he started to flap his wings in rhymne and gain altitude. He was soaring towards the window, towards freedom! That was clo- Click!

Someone with a hook on a pole had reached up and closed the window before he could escape. With the new sudden obstacle, Chimera made a hard left but failed. He hit his right wing against the window and in a dizzied mindset, lost his altitude. It didn't take long before a net was cast over him and he was trapped. They placed the net on the floor and detached it from the pole before picking it up.

"You have the right to remain silent."
"It's a parrot Derrek."

Chimera was caught, and being hauled off.
"Sqqqquawwwck!"

What the hell could he do. He could play dumb and pretend to just be a parrot if they took him to anyone important. No-one would believe these two. Or he could revert back to a human form and just make a run for it... He took a brief moment to weigh out his options. Pretending to be an ordinary parrot has a higher chance of me getting away. I'll be a parrot. Just... repeat everything people say.

"What're we gonna do with a runaway lion parrot?"
"I 'fink we should release it into the wild."
"... Seriously?"
"No I'm just... 'lion'"
"..."
"Did you get it?"
"Did you?"
"Did I get what?"
"Dropped on your head as a child."

The pair bickered and argued while Chimera merely sighed and blew a puff of air into his face in frustration. He triedd flapping his wings once or twice but the net made any attempts of escape futile. He was actually getting kind of worried. What if they found out the truth and arrested him or something? He flapped once more before deciding to try and stick with this parrot thing.

"Right, you take the Parrot to the bird cages while I go and find someone important to tell about the fact that it used to be a lion."
"Okay."
"Good. Don't mess it up."
"I won't!"
"... Good."

The pair parted ways, the dumber of the duo bringing the net towards the bird cages, opening the door and releasing Chimera into them. He flapped around and tried to do a U turn in the air and fly straight back out but the bald headed man closed the door and tutted.

"Ah, ah, aaaaah Birdy!"

Trying to look unimpressed as a parrot was hard, but Chimera gave it his best shot.

"Now...' he looked at the digital keypad lock on the cage 'What's the password again... Oh yeah. One Nine Six Three, Nine One three!" the idiot chirped the password alloud while he entered the digits and the light above the door turned red, signalling that the cage was now sealed. Chimera flew to a perch, and then slumped down on the branch, exhaling through his beak.

Damn.

For the better part of half an hour, Danny traced where the watering system of the zoo would come from. While every spectator gave 'awes' over the lively habitats before them, Danny looked to see if the water trays were conjoined or on a centralized system. She stretched over the guard rail to spy the tray feeding in from a filtration system. She began chasing the origin point with her eyes when she felt a hand on her shoulder. "Off the rails miss. We don't need negligent lawsuits." The severe woman in the leopard skirt peered down through her sunglasses with her stern English accent tethering Danny to the ground.

At least she got what she wanted. Danny could still feel her heart beating from the anxiety of being detected, but she hopped down from the step and started to make her way towards the feeding area behind the pins. Slits in the gates showed the water distilleries still winding down in their reserves, but new jugs of water pulled up in a zoo cart. Two men hopped down and started unloading the jugs. Whether or not the poison made its way into those containers still needed a little investigation. Danny pulled out her phone for a time check and to pass along a message to her guardian about her whereabouts and presumed time of arrival home. Once her phone went back into her jeans pocket, she never checked it for a response. Whenever they wanted her back, she would most likely fail to make.

Time edged nearer to the closing time for the zoo. Danny came up with a plan for her way of hiding away until then. Nothing inspired, or overly creative, just simply hiding in the bathroom like when the sophomore class planned on toilet papering the main hall of the school last year, except completely different. Maybe, I should think of something else. She put her time waiting in the stall to that decision, but once the final closing call came, she felt vindicated in her resolve when the lights in the bathroom shut off.

Danny jumped down off the stall and started to make her way out of the building. The sounds of workers in the distance didn't carry any nefarious plans in their voices, but showed a great interest in getting out of the complex and get home. Danny held onto the small wall and watched as the pins started to empty as the handlers brought the animals into the interior habitats. The walkways remained empty as Danny ran towards the handling area. Her feet traveled more heavily than she would wish and soon her shoes were no longer the only sound. "Anyone out there?" Danny jumped over the rail and into an empty enclosure. "Frank? That you." The voice continued calling as Danny pushed herself against the wall to get under the sun lip. "Guess not."

Water supply. The only thing that popped to her mind. The wall curved, giving her an easy way to get to the door leading into the interior habitat. The doors remained locked to keep the animals from escaping while the zoo stayed lightly watched, keeping Danny on the wrong side. Climbing out of the pin was risky if someone happened to walk by, but she couldn't slide under the door quite so easily.

Water, that was what he was supposed to be looking for, and yet he found himself wondering where this water was. His mind took a little while to click, running over and over everywhere that he would find this water that could be poisoned, and with such intense thinking he had to stop for a moment and rub his chin. He was supposed to be looking for where they would be poisoning something, and then it came to him that it had something to do with animals and so he would have to find where said animals. Animals were supposed to be in the zoo portion of this zoo, so that was something he could work off of, and so he would have to start from there.Shaking his head, the male walked along before then noticing a small scene happening, in the form of two people with nets trying to catch what looked like a parrot.

While he would have normally felt inclined to help an animal in need, he remembered that there were animals being poisoned, and that was kinda bad. Granted Ryan was forgetting they were no planning to kill them with the poison, but then again he was not known for his excellent memory. Okay, so his plan was save the animals or something like that, since the animals were likely not able to figure out the fact that they were being drugged, or poisoned or whatever. Rubbing his chin softly, he looked around with half narrowed eyes for a moment and hummed softly to himself. To this end he was standing before one of the animal enclosures, leaning forward long enough to look over, and glaring at the water containers as if that would somehow divulge the truth of the water being poisoned.

Little did he know that one could not ascertain something being poisoned by staring at it, so that went nowhere quickly. With him being able to do nothing at his current position, he would have to move closer to where the water came from, and something was said about water stuff or whatever, so he would have to find where the water came from before being where animals drank it. Still, that would require knowledge that he did not have, so he would have to do a little guess work and likely that would lead him with nothing. However if he wanted to do any sort of investigation, there was waiting until there were less people around to do this, and that meant......closing time. So Ryan would have to duck into a hiding place until the time came, and so he went to a place that he could easily hide, which was....well a bathroom.

Being able to turn into a liquid form had its perks, and he used it to keep hidden, and when the time came, lights flickering off he would begin his little investigation. The endeavor to save the animals from poison began, and so he would have to go along with this whole thing. Deciding against a physical form, he would slink along as a puddle underneath a door and moving along as best as possible, though keeping like this could get annoying really when he tried for more than a few minutes. Eventually he found himself slipping into one of the pins as one of the handlers were moving one of the animals into an interior habitat, keeping as out of sight as a large moving puddle of water could.With the place empty, he quickly took on a physical form and pressed against a wall in the hopes it would hide him, and for the most part it did. Yet now he found himself in a precarious position.

Of course he didn't think ahead on this.

Clutching onto the gate with his black bird feet, Chimera tried to squeeze his claws through the gate in order to tap on the keypad, but all he did was scratch around it's edge.

Wow. Parrots suck. What the heck am I meant to do with these little stubby toes.

Internally, he let out a large sigh of frustration, but externally, he was silent, because parrots can't sigh. He allowed himself to dangle idly like a bat from the cage's door and put his wings into a sort of folded position. Pulling himself back up, he had a sudden brain wave. Pushing one of his feathered wings against the metallic mesh, the end of one of the feathers grew thicker and extended, growing scales and weaving through the air. His new snake finger curled and looked at the keypad.

Tapping into the primal power of the parrot, Chimera's beady bird eyes widened as his brain spanned the recent past. His beak parted, and while he spoke the words, the snake's head pushed each of the buttons. His tone sounded as if he were hypnotised.

"Sqqquaawccck, One Nine Six Three, Nine One three!" He took it back, Parrots rock. There was an almost retro 'beep boop' and the light above the door flickered from red to green and the door swung open. Squacking once more, he began to fly away.

"The lion that became a bird is right over here Miss... um....'
"Vixen. Victoria Vixen."

The pair looked at the open cage door, the Parrot flying away and then the bald headed dopey one, reading one of the tourist information flyers and smiling. Probably at the cute pictures of the rabbits or something.

"Derrek!"
He looked up and quickly threw the leaflet away to pretend he wasn't reading it.
"uhh... yeah Bill?"
"... The bird."

Derrek looked to see it flying away and immediately appeared panicked.

Victoria sighed, and walked past the pair - heels clicking against the tarmac pathing of the zoo. Reaching into her blouse, she removed a Y shaped chain with three black orbs at each end. A Bolas. Rolling her neck, she lifted it above her head and began to spin it like a lasso. With a single grunt she threw it forward where it sliced through the air like a knife.

I'm home free! This was easier that I'SQUAWWWCK' Chimera got caught by the Bolas, his wings being wrapped up. He hit against the floor with a thud and tried to spread his wings out, but the chain was far too tight. Next he felt her hands wrap around her small feathered body and she tutted.

"Nice try."

She turned and began walking to Dr. Carcose's office, parrot in hand. The two workers appeared starstruck at the woman's hidden agility, weaponry and skill with aforementioned weaponry. Cautiously, they backed off.

Out of the corner of her eye, Danny spotted an unexpected, well, an unexpected puddle. But her fear did not come unrealized, with the speed the puddle moved with. "Stay back." Danny dug through her purse and pulled out a roll of lipstick. "Don't come any closer." Contrary to her statement, Danny took a step forward and began to smash the puddle with her foot.

"Someone down there?"

"This guy needs a vacation." Danny stomped her foot a few more times before putting the top back on her lipstick and trying to find somewhere out of eyesight to stash away. "Ew, I got stuff on my shoe." A light shined into the pin, chasing Danny back to the wall.

"Alright, just come out. We'll escort you out and we won't even call your parents."

If that door could open Danny would escape, but she stood back as her means of escape remained blocked off. Danny could hear the footsteps above as the guard began to stroll away to get a better vantage point to shine on Danny. She stayed moved just far enough back to keep herself hidden, but it would not last for long.

While Ryan's intentions were stealth, he was not expecting anyone else to be around and so he was not expecting his puddle form to be stomped on. It didn't hurt mind you, but it did surprise the male, causing the puddle to seem to jerk as it slunk away from the female that was stomping on it. It also felt kinda weird to have someone stomping on him, seeing as how this entire puddle thing was his body, so one could compare it to someone stomping around in them; without the pain of course. However when he could have turned into a solid form to tell her to stop that, a voice calling out stopped that as the male pressed up against the wall, and waited for said person to go away.

It seemed that whoever it was that had called out was probably moving to get a better view on the place, but he would simply not allow them to see the mysterious water puddle, as that would lead to more trouble than anyone was willing to deal with. Slinking up against a wall the puddle would attempt to move out of sight, yet he found it more difficult to keep up this shape and so eventually he was forced to come into a physical form, back now pressed against the wall. It was times like this that he would have enjoyed that thing lasting longer than it did, as this would likely lead to him getting in trouble or something along those lines.

There had to be something that he could do, but his mind however found it somewhat difficult to think of it with the panic setting in. His mind was racing for the most part, trying to think of a way he could get out of this situation. Okay, now his head hurt, and that was not good.

An office door was kicked open by the high-heeled foot of Victoria Vixen, otherwise known as The Cougar, an infamous animal hunter and poacher. She tossed the chained up parrot into a seat behind a desk and stood at the opposite side. She glared into Chimera's eyes, who simply gulped and tried to flap his wings again, the chains not budging. Her eyelids narrowed.

"No Ordinary parrot could have figured out how to open an enclosure's doors.
What are you?"

Gulp.

She slammed her hand onto the desk and the pupils of her eyes turned cat-like, moving from orbs into slits.
"Start talking, Parrot!"
"S-sqqquaawcckk...."


You are just a parrot. Doing parrot things. Juuuust a parrot.

The woman's slender hand reached to behind her thigh and up her skirt. With a swfit motion and the sound of sharp metal scraping through the air she stabbed a machete into the plastic desk and let out a fierce feline snarl. The beauty was becoming more of a beast with each passing moment.

Chimera's eyes widened.

When Ryan materialized next to her, a slew of emotions slopped through Danny's brain. "Wait, what. Where did you and what are you..." Finally Danny put her finger on the one thought she wanted to convey. "Why didn't you come out on the other side of the door!" This time her voice shot from a whisper to  an irritated yell. "Oh." Danny brought her hands over her mouth to try and steal back her words.

"Hey! I hear you down there now!" A light shot onto Danny's face, prompting her to block out the light with her hands.

"Um, go find the water source. They're going to poison the animals!" Danny jumped and grabbed the lip of the ledge and pulled herself up. She threw her foot over the rail and took off. For all she knew this kid she just face stomped could be some deranged superbeing bent on taking over through water or could be the poison himself, regardless, Danny ran off.

Outrunning the security guards took almost no effort from the high school athlete, a feat more telling of the ineptitude of the guard than the athleticism of the try-hard track athlete. Danny jumped into the museum exhibit she dug through earlier. Lights showed under the door of a room in the back of the hall. Danny started to make her way towards the hall when a hand grabbed her shoulder. Out of instinct, Danny flipped her arm to get better leverage, some of those ancient warrior tricks hung around she guessed. Not well enough, she thought as the arm contorted back and put Danny on her back. Starring to a blue sapphire, Danny realized she squared off against one of the mannequins. Another bright green emerald moved forward. Looks like trouble.

Danny easily rolled away from the fight and sprung to her feet. Jaguar. She stroked the brown gem on her wrist and felt herself go more agile. Springing with the ferocity of the jaguar warrior of the Aztec, Danny removed the jewel from the first mannequin and dodged a grapple from the second. Her hand sprung up and punched the rugged warrior in his jaw. To her surprise, the head of the mannequin flew off towards the back of the room. Feeling with his hands, the body continued to look for its missing member, while Danny slid around and pulled the gem off of his neck. Although only two of the warriors stayed to fight her. The other two must have made their way off towards the water treatment facility. "Easy enough."

But not quite. A bola wrapped around her arms. In her surprise, she knocked her bracelet off of her wrist and watched it fall to the ground. Danny turned around to see the business clad woman standing in the light of the door with a machete. Danny wiggled her way out of the grasp of the bola, but not before Cunningham took hold of her and threw her into the office. Outside of her bracelet, Danny noticed her feet felt significantly heavier. "You're not even dressed for a fight."

"Neither are you." Cunningham spun Danny's bracelet around her finger.

The female took notice of Ryan, and seemed to barrage him with questions about where he came from, and things like that. All of which he could explain, but not in this intense stealth situation, when whispering was not known to be his strong suit. Well a lot was not known at this moment, but that was semantics really in the scheme of things, especially when the female raised her voice to ask the final question that drew the attention fo the guard that was looking for them in the first place. Hazel eyes shot open wide in surprise as a light would flash upon the females face, revealing her more and putting him in danger of being revealed as well. At the shock, his powers for a moment went out of control as the wall his hand hugged began to ice over, cold frost seeming to proceed from his fingers along the wall.

This was what caused him to only freak out more, but this time his power did not go out of control as it usually did, only leading to a small sheet of ice adorning the wall behind him, but it was rather expansive when one thought about it. The female said soemthing about finding the water source, and within an instant there was a foot planting on his nose, drawing a small amount of pain as well as a grunt from the male as he found himself the springboard for the unknown female. Within a matter of seconds she was up there with guard in tow, and he was down there with a nose that now hurt, and a lip he had accidentally bitten during this whole incursion. He was not expecting it, but then again he did not let the small amount of blood trickling from his lips deter his self given mission.

He was supposed to be looking for a water source, and with the female seemingly giving that mission as an order, he would have it as a self given and a given mission. With that done, he would turn towards the supposed door with a cocked eyebrow before approaching it and placing a hand on it. Without even needing to think at the moment, ice would begin to spread along the surface, though with some concentration he would begun to freeze the very door itself with little trouble. With possible property damage aside, the male gave a thought and the door would begin to crack, having frozen throughout and within an instant the thing fell apart. With the room beyond it, Ryan would walk through into what he was to assume was thewater treatment facility, or somewhere like it.

Moderatly sized machines went about their duties, whatever they were, though Ryan personally was unsure what that was. Yet he was more than aware of what that sound was, as he heard footsteps behind him, turning to see what appeared to be the mannequins but they were walking. ”No.....thats not right.” The male muttered with eyes widening slightly as he considered the situation and chose to run. Look for who as going to poison the water, while running from pursuing things, this was not his day.

Spinning the sharp blade from the table, the woman held it near the Parrot's face, who was rather humanly trying to push himself back from it on a seat. He was trying to break a scared sweat but unfortunately birds can't, so he resorted to jerking his head from left to right.

"You are far too intelligent to be a mere animal...'

The Cougar walked around the table, and stared straight into Chimera's eyes.

'Tell me, before I make you; What are you."

This isn't worth it Colin. Either she skins you now and wears you as a feather boa or you just reveal yourself as a meta-human and face the consequences. Well. Pretend you're gonna face the consequences and then run away from your responsibilities.

The woman's iron stare held, and slowly Chimera sat up. But just as he was about to change his shape and reveal his true nature, there was a large crash from outside. Cougar turned and snarled, narrowing her eyes and marched to the door. With a flexible twist she opened the door and span outwards, flinging a bolas at the girl engaged in combat with some of the magnificent Dr. Carcose's ensorceled robot mannequins. After a successful scuffle, she began to approach the now unarmed Danny, her machete's blade shimmering in the light.

"It's not very nice to snoop around after closing time. Illegal even." A sharp smile grew across her face, and suddenly the she-cat dashed forward and span on the spot, lifting her leg into a 180 degree ankle before using the momentum to try and stomp on the girl with her heels.


Meanwhile, inside the small office, Chimera struggled once again, trying to flap his wings and wiggle his tiny feet.

Great, she left before she could free you. Well, what are you gonna do now? You're just a parrot. Squawck, Squawck. It's not as if you can transform into every animal known to the biosphere now is it? Oh wait it's totally as if you can do that!

With a singular grunt, the small parrot's body began to grow. The legs of the chair he was sitting on began to bend and the thin metal bindings of the bolas were stretched to their peak, snapingg and freeing the bird from their clutches. His wings shrunk and became covered in light brunette hair. His small black parrot feet swelled in size, and became far more akin to a mammals. His torso grew in size and when he hopped the chair he stood slightly shorter than your average man. His new Kangaroo form was ready for battle!

Bouncing from the office, he intercepted The Cougar's attempted kick to the girl's face with a kick of his own, right in her hip. She snarled and span around again, spinning the machete in her fingers.

Awww yeah, you're fearsome as hell. Gotta intimidate her now!
Roar or something!
.... What noise do Kangaroo's make?
...............
Um....

He simply opted for another quick jump attack, knocking the bracelet from The Cougar's wrist and onto the floor once again. He curled his relatively tiny hands into fists and beared his, hopefully,  fearsome kangaroo teeth.

New Grid: