Marco opened the door for them, since he was closer than Slade, and the four of them piled out of the room. They ran full-tilt through the halls, Slade's armored footfalls almost drowning out the sounds of their various animal morphs as they pelted around a corner and into the bedroom that Tobias had described to them. The door had been closed, but Slade's armored bulk hitting it at a full-run had bulldozed it right out of the way; the door itself was now jagged splinters on the floor, some of them crushed to powder where Slade's armored feet had come down on them.
At the far end of the room, still about thirty feet ahead of them, now, were a pair of guards stationed outside the door that Tobias had pointed out to them. Both guards were carrying weapons: the one on the right carried a shotgun, and his partner on the left carried a submachine gun. Both of them looked scared, though they hadn't broke and ran just yet.
Jake knew that his tiger morph could cover the remaining thirty feet between them in two seconds; however, he also knew that the man with the submachine gun could fire ten rounds. There was a chance that he would be killed, the rounds from the gun ripping through his tiger body like tissue paper. But, he knew that, if something like that were to happen, no force on Earth would be able to stop Slade from butchering everyone else in the house.
Besides, if the man with the submachine gun didn't kill him, the sheer power of his tiger body, combined with his need to defend himself in this situation, would be the death of both men as surely as Slade himself would.
It was time for a new tactic; something of a gamble, really: (Look, you two, you really don't want to do this.)
The two men looked like they thought they were going insane. He didn't blame them, not really; talking animals weren't rally something that your average person was really equipped to deal with, mentally.
(Yes, it's me; the tiger. Don't worry about how or why. Here's all you need to know: I don't want to hurt you, but I have to get past you. Now, you may shoot me, but you won't kill me fast enough to keep me from taking you down. And, even if you did kill me, you see this guy here?) To Slade, privately: (Slade, take two steps towards me.) The heavy sound of Slade's footfalls was all the confirmation he needed. (He's bulletproof,) he continued, broadcasting his thoughts to the two men in his way. (No matter what kind of damage you could do to me, or any of the other animals behind me, you wouldn't be able to scratch him. He'd kill you, and then he'd kill everyone else in this building, after I was dead. Now, I don't know what your boss is paying you for this job, but-)
"Not enough," the man on the left said, letting his submachine gun point to the floor. "Not nearly enough. I can't believe I'm actually talking to animals here, but that tiger makes a lot of sense."
"Yeah, we ain't getting paid nearly enough to lay down our lives for that guy," the other man said, slinging his shotgun over his back. "We'll just take our guns and go away now, right Mr. tiger? And you don't sic that big, bulletproof, armored guy on us, all right?"
(Agreed,) he said, then to Cassie: (Keep an eye on them.)
(I will,) she said, and he relaxed slightly.
If either of those two had tried something tricky, after this, Cassie would know about it almost before they did.
(All right, Slade, I'm going to need you to open this door, now,) he said. Slade drew his lance back, obviously preparing to slice open that door just like he'd done with the other ones that they had encountered. (Slade? There's a knob.)
(Right.)
Armored fingers closed around the knob, turning it; Jake leaped through once Slade had pulled it open.
