"Here, kitty, kitty, kitty."
Cait Sith eyed the Turk with a look of distaste only a cat could have perfected. As if there were any remote possibility of that actually happening.
He watched as Reno paced half stooped with his hands outstretched across the room, as if to be ready for the cat to leap out from under office furniture and into his waiting grasp.
In actuality, the doll lay comfortably perched on a shelf behind some kind of ornate paperweight, observing the Turk in silence as he searched the building for the errant toy. The Turk was good, but Cait was better; after all, Reno was a mere human. The feline was obviously superior based on race alone.
Reno cursed excessively when he bumped his knee into a jutting chair. Cait had cut the power to this section of the building, and while the human staggered about in the darkness in his hopeless search, the animated stuffed animal had evaded capture easily based on numerous environmental factors. One, he was a cat, and therefore of superior intellect to a human. Two, his eyesight was much better in the dark, moreso than a normal feline based on his robotic, night vision capable eyes. Three, he emitted very little heat, rendering infra red scanners useless. Four, he was smaller and more agile than either Turk, and could fit into places they couldn't even imagine existing in the building. Five, he didn't need to sleep, eat or drink while the humans tired easily in comparison. Six, as a robot he emitted no smell or noise, capable of staying even in awkward positions potentially forever. The list stretched on.
It had admittedly been a rough transition, from the dramatic escape from the guards to getting used to his new body while evading Reno and Elena, but Cait felt he had adjusted well into the mindset of a robotic stuffed toy, considering the circumstances.
He looked away in anxiety suddenly while Reno busied himself by grabbing a cushion from a chair and ripping it open below him. He was a cat. A robotic, stuffed animal. Panic gripped him, and not for the first time during the transition period. Hojo was in possession of his body. Nobody knew the truth, and moreover no one would believe him if he so much as spoke one word. How the hell was he going to get out of this one?
The door to the office creaked open. Elena poked her head into the room, weak, artificial light leaking in from emergency powered lights.
"How's it going?" she asked.
"How does it look like it's going, Elena," said Reno in distaste as he threw the cushion, mortally wounded, back onto the chair. "I'm tearing up office furniture thinking it' s in league with the toy. I'm going nuts. I don't know whether we're looking for a robot or a cat. It's probably in the air vents for all we know."
"Probably, but we need to search the building anyway."
Reno made a noise of contempt as he kicked a chair out of his way on the journey to the door. The emergency lights gave everything a red wash, undoubtedly adding to Reno's discomfort. So much the better for Cait.
"Why's it so important to them anyway?"
"Does it matter? If we asked the President, who knows what he'd do. You know he's been touchy when it comes to Reeve."
"Reeve," Reno snorted. "What's the big deal? Okay, he was less annoying than Scarlet or Hojo or Heidegger, but the President's going overboard here. Reeve's fine - two broken arms and two broken legs, but he'll live."
Cait smirked. At least, smirked as well as a cat could manage. The Mog had completed its task well. Then he frowned. He'd have four broken limbs if he got back into his body anytime soon. But in the mean time, that should keep Hojo out of trouble.
"Well, we've searched this wing. I'd forget about it and hope for the best if Rufus wasn't being so twitchy."
"Yes, but let's not annoy him, shall we?" Elena countered.
Reno threw a look at his subordinate. "That's the general idea. Come on, let's check the next floor. I don't see how it can still be here."
Elena shrugged and let Reno leave, then swept the room one last time before exiting and pulling the door shut behind her. Cait was left alone once again.
He considered his situation. He could very well travel along the air vents, but since Yuffie infiltrated the building they were being watched more closely than before. Plus, his paws didn't lend well to unscrewing bolted down vents with a screwdriver.
He could go to Rufus, but by the sounds of it he'd be dismantled four different ways before he could get a word out. The President thought that he was in the infirmary, and clearly blamed the errant toy for the suffering of 'Reeve.' If only he knew.
He could also go visit Hojo, but he doubted the productivity of such a meeting, and there was a high probability he'd be captured, again, before he could get a word out.
The toy raised onto his legs, coming up from his lying position behind the paperweight. His main objective remained to evade capture, and wait for an opportunity to present itself. That suited him partly; cats were very patient animals. He just worried in case Hojo accomplished what he aimed to do before he could switch their bodies back.
He jumped from the shelf, the floor thudding slightly from his impact. At the same time, the lights flared back on above his head and an alarm sounded.
Cait was a very resourceful individual. However, since inhabiting the body of a cat, he had noticeably picked up several traits of the feline; the air of superiority, as well as the physical augmentations. Unfortunately, he had also inherited the physical reactions of a cat; namely, when something unexpected happens, they freeze.
And that was exactly what Cait did. Froze on the spot while the alarm assaulted his ears and the lights his eyes. Froze an instant too long, and only the door slamming open to reveal Reno with fire in his eyes shook him from this momentary paralysis. He flew across the room, taking refuge under the furthest desk from the door. The Turk had him in his sights now, however; there would be no getting away from him as easily as last time.
The Turk barrelled across the office, throwing furniture out of his way on his mad pursuit. Cait, now with his wits about him, shot from beneath the desk and between the Turk's legs, Reno's momentum and the desire to follow the robotic cat conflicting and making him somersault into the side of the desk. Cait darted for the door, but Elena appeared with a small box; a cat box, Cait realised with distaste. It would not suit his newly acquired feline dignity to be unceremoniously dumped into such a container, and so veered off back towards his shelf from earlier on.
Reno was up, shouting expletives at the top of his lungs. Elena followed the bounding cat but wasn't a match for his speed. Cait leapt up and dug his claws into the wood of the shelving unit, dragging himself upwards towards his new goal; the open air vent, which was how he'd gained access to this room originally. Reno, however, had other ideas.
He launched himself at the shelves, tearing it away from the wall. Cait realised a moment too late what was happening, and just as he reached the top of the wooden structure it toppled away from the wall, destroying his chances of reaching the air vent. The shelves collapsed into the ground, the feline in turn throwing himself off and landing, naturally, on his feet.
The split second it took Elena to jump back from the explosion of pottery, wood and paper and Reno to roll onto the floor from the force of his own manoeuvre was all the distraction Cait needed to vanish; he disappeared under another desk, the Turks momentarily lost to his whereabouts. It was blindingly obvious where he had gone, but fortunately there were about fifteen desks he could have disappeared under, giving him adequate time to consider his next move.
The only remaining exit was the door, which Elena firmly planted herself in front of. Reno was actively displacing desks from their locations and checking their undersides for any trace of the fugitive animal. Cait obviously needed to get out of the door, but saw no way to distract Elena's attention. He decided to go with instinct, instead; the time for thinking had past.
As loudly as he could, he scrambled towards the back of the room, drawing Reno and Elena's attention. While the male Turk launched towards where the noise trail ended, Cait crept across the back wall, planning on going towards the other side of the room and surprising Elena, who expected movement from her other side.
It worked admirably well until it all fell apart in the pivotal final seconds.
He flew towards the gap between Elena's left leg and the door frame, only to have underestimated her reaction time. She swung the box around, ready to catch the cat and imprison him. This, obviously, would not have suited Cait at all. He bounded back towards the centre of the room, only to have lost track of Reno. He brushed the cat's back, he was now so close. Desperately, Cait looked for the most defensible position, ready to fight off Reno. The corner presented itself as the only option as he was chased into it.
Cait turned to face Reno and spat. Not the vulgar human way of spitting, of course, but the viciously elegant feline method. Reno looked less certain as Cait clawed the air in front of him as a warning. The Turk lunged. Nowhere left to run, Cait felt himself being grabbed by the chest and lifted into the air.
His first defensive reaction kicked in; the claws on his front paws extended fully, coming out through the fingers in his gloves, and gouged into the Turk's arm. A rewarding shout of pain bellowed from Reno's mouth, but he was slammed into the wall, allowing the Turk to reposition his hand so his front legs were pinned to his chest. So, the second defensive reaction kicked in.
Cait's boots, designed to allow his hind claws to unsheath, suddenly had a metal glint coming out the toe ends of them. Another bellow of pain as his back legs swept upwards, bringing their sharp passengers into flesh. Reno dropped the cat, and Cait, once again landing on his feet, could have sworn he heard Elena stifle a chuckle. He probably would have laughed himself, had he been watching on a video feed. He tried to run, but felt Reno's hand clamping onto the back of his neck and lifting him up by his scruff.
Feline instinct took over once again. Being lifted was fine, but by the scruff of the neck was another matter entirely; Cait felt his entire body stiffen in response to the maternal action. His paws stuck straight out, unable to attack the smug looking Turk.
Reno nodded to Elena, who brought forward the box. Cait was dumped inside, and with as much dignity as he could muster, knew when the game was up and allowed them to latch shut the door to the box. However, Reno then did something completely unexpected. He walked to the centre of the room and placed the cat box on a desk. He found a displaced chair, set it in front of the box, and sat down.
"So, do you want to tell me just what the hell is going on around here?"
Cait eyed the Turk speculatively. What the hell, he thought.
"Close the door," he said, and if Reno felt any surprise at hearing a cat talk, it didn't show in his face as he nodded to Elena, who complied instantly.
The door clicked shut, and Cait began to speak.
Author's Note:
This chapter was written entirely by Nisus, and was edited by me. I haven't been feeling well, so I asked him to do it for me. He was kind of enough to say yes. Next chapter should be up shortly.