Welcome to Gaia! ::

As the two animal controller workers sauntered off to capture other unsuspecting city critters, a delighted laugh echoed through the chilly Destiny City night behind them. They seemed unconcerned - animals didn't laugh, after all, and animals were their game.

Another large, fluffy Maine Coon appeared from where she was tucked in the corner of a nearby fire escape. The little skull earring in her ear rocked like a pendulum as she leaped over the railing and landed gracefully on the dumpster lid nearby. It put her almost eye level with the chaos kitty, locked where he was behind bars.

"A little cage for a little villainnnn?" The last consonant trailed out as she stretched out to her full length, arching her back and working a bit of stiffness from her hind legs. It was a good demonstration of just how much room she had not locked in a box. That same mocking laugh followed her words again and ended in a contented purr as she sat, perched on the edge of the dumpster, with unblinking jade eyes focused on her brighter, oranger counterpart.

"That seems unfortunate."

Invidia raised a paw delicately to inspect as she listened to his rather weak proposal, letting the tip of her poofy tail flick where it hung just over the lip of the dumpster - back and forth, back and forth. She turned her paw over to look at the pad and then, silently, let her jade gaze stare at him above it.

"That seems like a good way to get my paws dirty, my friendly traitor."

Her paw dropped back to perch next to its partner while she leaned forward just a little, staring at his eyes between the gaps in the iron gate that held him captive. It was easy for an enemy to seem friendly when it needed help, what would he be like when she let him out? Invidia rather liked her odds with him trapped like a rat. The smile remained on her maw, making her seem all too pleased with his predicament.

"The only downside is that they'll probably just euthanize you. No saving you at all, just a little injection and poof, no more tomcat."

It made her laugh again as she stood and walked the length of the dumpster, so she could inspect the lock that held him. Maybe she was taunting him, or maybe she couldn't bear the thought of a Mauvian being killed by something so mundane as this society's solution to over population. Whatever the reason, she fell quiet as she stared at it. She didn't think she could reach it from where she was.

"Do you think a good old fashioned head zap would do it?"

"Deal."

Invidia nodded her head and squinted her eyes at the target - the shiny, more fragile mechanism that made the lock work. There was a buzz in the air around her as she channeled her strength to the center of her forehead and there were even the faintest of glimmers before the star went dim at a sudden, bellowing laugh just around the corner. Invidia's eyes widened as she recognized the sound of Joey's voice, flicking her attention quickly to the corner, back to bob, and then the corner again.

"I'm sorry, tomcat, I come first."

Without another word she leaped back up to the platform she had descended from and continued up the fire escape, moving faster and quieter than any giant, fluffy cat should've been able to get away with. By the time she was at the top platform and looking down, she could see the top of the duo's heads and two pairs of hands working together to shove a timid labradoodle into a cage next to the other Mauvian.

Content with their catches, they took a moment to slap one another's shoulders (because that labradoodle was a hard wrastle), and then her pale, jade eyes watched them climb into the truck and pull slowly around the corner. Right, so probably the pound? Invidia wasted no time in crossing the roof and leaping her way down the spine of Destiny City - she couldn't get him out at the truck but the building should've been relatively easy to get into. She was sure these humans couldn't defend a post if their lives depended on it, especially not from a Mauvian.

Invidia managed to reach the old, grey building just before the truck came chugging back into view. From the lettered sign announcing that they were closed on Christmas Day (in February) to the chipped gold of the faux gild on the front door, nothing about the building made her feel very inspired to come adopt helpless street urchins. It just looked drab and lifeless which, honestly, spoke volumes about what was really happening behind the scenes - to poor, stupid mauvian traitors, no less.

The proud order kitty took a moment to gloat over the tomcat’s misfortune only after she crawled under a nearby van. From her low-down vantage point she was hidden from the two lugs while still perfectly capable of watching the back of the truck.

“You get the aristocat, Joey, I’m gonna go find Ms. Sarah to see if-” Grabby hands was cut off with a quick grunt of confusion from Joey. “You know, Aristocats, the movie with the cats that play pianos and dance and s**t?”

Joey was a blank, confused stare that broke into snickering over what Invidia could only assume was mockery and his coworker immediately prickled beneath his poor sense of humor.

“Just get the cat, Joey.”

Grabby hands walked away with red in his cheeks and a storm on his shoulder but Joey seemed right at home, laughing to himself as he undid the latch and caught her poor, foolish brethren by his nape without a second thought. In no time, Invidia was in hot pursuit of both human and cat, winding beneath the line of company trucks parked outside the back entrance. The door opened and she slid in behind them, careful to immediately take refuge behind an old tin bucket apparently meant to hold wet umbrellas. An old, faded paper notice with curling corners showed a yellow cookie-cutter person slipping on wet ground. How convenient.

Joey walked past the entry hall and into a room on Invy’s left with a swinging, metal door - perfect for the grunt worker carrying something with both arms. As it swung wide to let him in, it gave Invidia just enough of a glimpse to see the cages on the other side - a wall of them, though mostly empty, right next to a rudimentary exam table. Intake exams, perhaps? Invidia smirked to herself as she hunkered down behind the umbrella holder and waited for Joey to leave, wondering if she should let him get a full exam before she helped him out. She doubted it. As amusing as it sounded, this was probably her best and last shot at getting him out of this place undetected.

Dimly, from her side of the door, she could hear Joey trying to give the orange cat some reassurance - at least until he turned his back on him and sauntered back through the swinging door. He paused to run his hands up through his hair, slicking back the borderline greasy locks as he appeared to contemplate what to do next. It made her shrink down upon herself further and both front paws clamped around her tail, holding it down like she didn’t trust it to obey her. When he finally moved on in a different direction, she nearly sighed with relief.

In a quick second, the big feline pushed the door open with her shoulder and found herself in a room that smelled much, much too sterile. Even with more intelligence than instinct, it made her muscles tense and her stomach churn.

She’d made a deal, though.

The bottom row of cages were all empty and the second row only had a timid dachshund curled up at the back of his cage. Luckily, these were only the push up and slide variety of mechanisms, simple enough even for cat paws. The big ball of fur approached the cages and pulled herself up to peer into the third row.

“Hey kitty, kitty? Where are you?”

Invidia made a soft 'tut' noise under her breath at his cat call and dropped down from the cage she was examining, turning in his direction instead. She could just make him out, smushing his face against the bars of his cage overhead to her right. If she hadn't been fretting over Joey or some other menial working walking back into the room, she might've even taken the time to taunt him about his predicament.

As it were, she just hopped quickly over to him and stretched her long body upward to peek in at him, jade eyes meeting his own.

"You owe me big time, y'know."

With an easy leap, she swatted at the cage lock, budging halfway along the slide with a well placed paw. It had a bit more friction than she had expected, honestly, but it only took one more hop for her to push it clean open. The door swung a few inches out once the pressure released and Invidia settled back on her haunches to wait for him, listening nervously for any sounds from the hallway.

"It better be a great lunch."

Invidia watched the tomcat as he dropped down to the floor with a grace only earned so easily by felines, content to let him make his assessment of the awful, sterile room that honestly had her a little on edge. She was no happier to be here than the mutts and fleabags contained behind the bars around them, instinct was instinct, and maybe that was the entire reason why she decided to give in to his plan despite the wording.

“Chaos?”

She sighed the word at him first and gave him her best, disapproving look before she swept her eyes up to the critters positively oozing panic now that they saw a chance for freedom.

Instinct.

Her front claws tapped against the ground, counting out the seconds they were wasting for their escape. With her attention drawn to just how hopeless they were, she couldn’t find it in her to doom them to their fate. Sure, unseen, the collection of strays was a completely understandable program - but here, seeing their faces and knowing that at least one of them would be doomed to death for no other reason than overpopulation, she couldn’t let that sit on her conscience.

He might call it chaos but in her heart, she knew why she had to give in. If it caused a commotion and earned them a distraction, though, even better.

“We’ll have to be fast,” she mumbled, already turned to head to the far side of the room. “You start on that side and we’ll work our way to the middle, got it?”

Without waiting for him to agree, she stretched her long paws up and reached to unhook the latch on a chihuahua’s cage. The door swung wide and the timid creature looked down at the floor, at her, then back again. She was already working on the latch for a cat with matted, calico fur when it finally decided it was safe enough to jump.

“I wish we’d get to see Joey’s face when he figures it out. I bet they don’t have jailbreaks very often.”

Invidia had the time to roll a pair of large, jade eyes at the tomcat as he waggled his eyebrows but her lips were curled suspiciously into a smile for someone so annoyed. He was charming, chaos or not.

The fluffy maine coon let herself blend into the small crowd of stampeding street dwellers and followed the sight of him easily, keeping her eyes glued to the bright orange ball of fur and her head down. The sound of the woman screaming made her laugh despite her attempt at blending in and melting into the crowd, though she supposed the one saving grace was that it was drowned among the mewls and howls of her furry brethren. Earth animals really were quite prehistoric things.

As they neared the back door, Invidia saw the shining line of light down the center that said it hadn’t shut quite all the way. She managed to spare one quick glance over her shoulder at the woman still wobbling unsteadily on her feet. Good. Still distracted.

“Do you think we can shove this open?” She asked him, hurriedly. Whatever calm she had maintained prior to drawing attention to this particular part of the establishment, it seemed to be failing her in the wake of her adrenaline pumping. Somewhere behind them, Joey’s voice was grumbling incoherently from down the hall. Suddenly spurred to action, Invidia darted forward and pressed one thick shoulder against the kickplate, hoping it would swing open before Joey saw the tomcat and his cute little hat escaping with her.