Scene #5250: The Doghouse

Owner	Pose
Pippi	New York City -- West End -- Clinton. Better known as Hell's Kitchen. Past the Javits convention center, into a warehouse district that's been sluggish on the gentrifications of its neighbors, resistant to change. Here the criminal element plays easily, and in a few warehouses, strangers are certainly not welcome. Warehouse L's only identifier is a sort of curly, upside-down looking "Y" symbol placed in paper beneath one sputtering utility light. A white van comes careening out of the darkness, screeching to a halt in front of the building. A few rough looking guys in gray overalls come out, opening the side, and pull out a gray, plastic dog carrier, the animal inside obviously frightened and whining. They disappear inside, through the door with the upside-down, curly Y. Welcome to The Doghouse. Rooftop access is available though an antiquidated vent system, and a sole, slightly broken skylight that might warrant some investigation. Vantage points include atop another warehouse, a number of street lights, and a tall, 1980's era apartment block that appears to largely be abandoned.
Alopex	With the information she received the night before, finding this particular warehouse was simply a matter of time. With the Purple Dragons shuttling pet after pet to the same location, Alopex just had to keep her ears open. Wait for breaking news of a pet being taken, and then follow the petnappers. She wasn't completely cold hearted, she knew that actions would have to be taken quickly once something was taken into this place. She had suspicions of just who could be running this place. Two groups, with one more likely than the other. Or so she hoped. As the van pulls up and the thieves vanish inside, the ninja-fox gives a 'go' hand motion to anyone near by. She was going to go in via the roof, while the others entered in whatever way they saw fit.
Corona Arclite	Travelling via rooftop is nothing new to someone that spends much of her time scaling the ramparts of a fortified frontier town. Though Corona still had to marvel at how utterly huge the buildings around here were. But there would be time for sightseeing later. Right now there was work to do, apparently. "Ah've heard of rustlin' cows, even sheep, but dogs? That's just plum weird," mutters the grey vixen in a drawl as she crouchs at the end of a rooftop, watching the men slink off with their 'package' from the van to the warehouse. Once they're inside she uses a grappler to lower herself to street level and creep closer. No sense in all of them going in the same way, that'd just be walkin' into trouble.
Rebound	"I suppose it depends what they're doing with the dogs." Rebound says to Corona, before she follows them down into the street level. She just jumps though, not bothing with a grapling hook or anything like that. Getting down faster is more important to her right now, "So c'mon, are we gonna blow the door down and go in shooting or what?"
Kakashi Hatake	The disappearance of canines has not gone unnoticed by the authorities. Though perhaps it has not been the biggest priority compared to other forms of crime, if it is even being addressed. However, some agencies have the ability to investigate issues within the law that might fall by the way side or be too much for normal law enforcement. Investigating missing dogs is probably more of the former than the latter, though the lack of evidence may qualify it for 'too unusual for mundane cops' as well. Dognapped pets can have a number of potential gruesome fates from being trained for dog-fighting competitions to becoming test animals to being re-sold to new owners. None of them sit particularly well with Kakashi Hatake, nor his ninken. So, after Pakkun the nin-pug has tracked the scent of one of the missing dogs to this warehouse, Kakashi observes from where he is crouched in the darkness, Pakkun on one shoulder. His uncovered eye observes the van pulling up haphazardly with a deceptively lazy appearance. But he is paying keen attention to the surroundings, as well as to the ninja dog that brought him here. "Pakkun, how many more than just those two men?" he inquires. It doesn't seem likely that this is a two-man job. They'd have more security than the drivers who only just arrived. The pug wearing a forehead protector with the symbol of the Hidden Leaf strapped to his head, a blue pug-sized coat with some kind of symbol on the back about his wrinkled body, and bandages around his right front leg more for the sake of appearances than anything else, sniffs several times. "There's a lotta' strong odors around here. Lots of dogs. Especially inside. 'S makin' it hard to pin down an exact number on the humans." He sniffs a couple times more. "I also smell somethin' weird. There's two foxes... And... I don't know what that last smell is." The pug then turns with a gleam in his eye and says dramatically, "But it's //not human//!" Kakashi looks blandly back at the pug, then back to the warehouse. Then... WHOOSH From Kakashi's perspective two people just jumped into the air from somewhere above or behind him, and then 'fell' horizontally towards the warehouse. The perspective issue is resolved by the fact that Kakashi is crouched on the side of the building, feet stuck to the wall as though it were the ground. "It seems we're not the only ones interested in this warehouse." Kakashi then stands up and drops down from the building, landing lightly with the near-silence of one of the most skilled ninja around. Then he asks quietly. "Pakkun, would you mind going in through the front doors?" Pakkun looks dubiously at his contractor. "You're not gonna' wait and see what they do?" "They might not have the best interests of the dogs inside at heart. We are here to secure them and bring the culprits to justice. We don't know the objectives of the new comers. Can you do it?" Pakkun blanches. "What, alone? Why would you send me into danger like that? You know they're kidnapping dogs! Wouldn't that make me an ideal target oh I get it." Pakkun heaves a sigh. "Sorry, Pakkun. I'll be right behind you. I just want anyone at the front doors distracted for a moment." "Right, right. You owe me one." Moments later, there is a strangely-dressed pug tic-tic-ticking his toenails across the ground as he wanders towards the warehouse, seemingly seeking a warm place to bed down for the night.
Pippi	"Good luck!" Pippi had whispered to Corona and Rebound before she had pulled her hoodie up over her head, and made sure to follow Alopex in through the roof. Hey, ninja training has to be done sometime, right? The young ninja-in-training bearing a crowbar easily jumps after Alopex to make it over to the rooftop, not willing to let the white fox out of her sight. Labs tended to be very nervewracking places for Pippi. The ground floor crew are presented with the person-sized door under the upside-down Y looking thing, a steel rolling door for larger trucks, the still-running white truck with its door open (presumably they'd be back out in a moment or two to take care of it). No one's seemed to take much notice in a man standing on a wall... hey, they got weirder things going on. Have you heard about the four green /aliens/ who beat up a bunch of purple dragons back in the day? Nor have they taken notice of the tic-ticking of what can only be a watch pug (what other dog ticks?) making its way across the street, at least not from the inside.
Alopex	Once on the roof, the nin-fox slips along the roof, ears out and eyes open as she looks for a good spot to enter. Spotting a roof-hatch with a lock, Alopex waves Pippi over to let her deal with the lock. Sure, the fox could probably pick it or something else, but for a ninja-in-training, feeling useful is important. While Pippi handles the lock, the fox heads for the edge of the roof over the entrance, peering down at the two she knows and the ... pug she doesn't? "...A stray? Are you kidding?"
Corona Arclite	"Well, not blow, per say," Corona replies as she reachs over her shoulder to grab the handle sticking up from her back and tugging the hammer free. Once she's got it in front of her tightly in both hands she gives the grip made out of an old brake handle a squeeze, and the Breaker extends to it's full sledgehammer length as the head starts to glow with green and blue krackle. "Or the front door. Too obvious. Just get ready to start whompin'." The vixen winds back with the hammer nearly as big as she is, and swings the energized smasher into the garage door. "KNOCK KNOCK, AVON CALLIN'!" And starts snickering afterwards. "Always wanted to say that... whatever an Avon is."
Kakashi Hatake	LOUD NOISES. So much for stealth. Some are still going for the quiet approach, it seems, but whoever is taking a hammer to a garage door isn't. Then again... It's similar in principle to Kakashi's 'distract then take down' idea. Just... Louder. It's likely that individual is covering for the others. The difference being that they seem to be looking for a fight, whereas the jounin was looking for a quiet take-down if possible. Well, plans change. As Pakkun slips through the front doors, if unopposed, he gets the opportunity to scout ahead. He also mutters into a pug-sized wireless radio under his head protector of his findings so that Kakashi can be apprised. "Someone's makin' a real racket. Might be able to use their distraction in place of our own. Meanin' maybe I don't need to be here after all." "Pakkun, see if you can identify what the others are after, and the arrangement of guard posts inside. Do you see any security cameras? Some seemed to be aiming to enter through the roof. Can you see them from there?" "Jus' gonna' ignore me, huh..." Pakkun grumbles. Then he starts directing his bug-eyed pug-eyes to scouting the interior, with attention paid to anything that could be used by the dognappers to see people sneaking in, as well as anyone placed in a position to snipe or otherwise attack a ninja as soon as they enter. If there's any alarms or traps on the skylight visible from the inside, he's searching for those too. Despite his complaining, he's doing everything Kakashi asked of him and then some. He knows the human ninja wouldn never abandon him. And if Pakkun really has to, he can always 'return home' by ending the summoning.
Rebound	With the door being busted down by her partner in crime, Rebound is quick to jump inside, moving into the warehouse through the battered open door and hopping up onto the van they had watched come inside. It should give her a tactical advantage to be above the battlefield for a moment, so she can pick her target. Once she has an idea of who she's going to go after, she'll take advantage of it. Leaping through the air, off of one of the walls, before propelling herself down through the air onto the first target. Once she has him down, she'll pick another target and move between them.
Pippi	Pippi is more than happy to take care of the lock! The canine makes her way over to the lock, and turns it over in her hands for a moment, before grasping the shackle, crasping the body, and giving a pull and twist. .. and the shackle pops out of the lock body, which is then in three or four peices. "Hee... shoulda used a stronger lock!" the canine gives a grin, and she flips open the top vent, and gives a pause. She sniffs the air coming out of it, and raises an ear -- only to physically JUMP when Corona's smashing entrance really hammers it home that there's visitors outside! The door bends, buckles, and busts at the blow, screeching off its tracks as two guys are trying to wrestle a positively terrified bearded collie out of the cage and onto a table, where there's a bunch of needles, some surgical equipment, and a lot of dead microchips and tags in an old pickle bucket. The two in the jumpsuits look at Corona and Rebound, and then to the little pug. He blinks a moment, the first thought coming to him being 'that's too little for what we're doing, how did that mutt get there?' The second thought was 'AH @(#&$ IT'S GOT ME!' as he yelps when Rebound dives into him, kn ocking him to the ground. And then knocking the other gray-suit wearing guy to the ground. The collie is freed! It yips, barking nervously, backing into a corner with a slight whine. "WHAT THE HELL IS ALL THAT RACKET?!" comes a voice from an area marked 'PRIVATE - NO ENTRY'. THe door opens, and Pakkun might notice the smell of A WHOLE LOT OF DOGS coming from within. A bespeckticaled, short, round man with a puff of reddish graying hair in a crown about his ears comes out, looks at Corona and Rebound, and gives a cry "NO! NO NO! WE ONLY HAD THE ONE!" he helps, and goes back in side, slamming the door shut behind him! There's a panicked klaxon going WAAAAUGH! -- and then a whole lot of howling, barking sounds echoing it!
Alopex	Someone drops the hammer, Alopex dashes back for the vent, shooting a smile toard Pippi. "Sounds like they party got started, lets get in there and get these pets back home," she suggests before diving into the vents. While the others deal with the guards up front, Alopex is going to try and navigate the ductwork to where the scent of far-too-many pets are coming from. Passing a vent, the nin-fox spies the table and all the needles, grimacing. This was too much like her own past. This was probably too much like Pippi's past. Bluh. She wasn't going to let what she went through happen to those pets. She just wonders how Pippi will react. A shake of her head, then she starts rushing through the vents again.. "Where are they..?"
Corona Arclite	Corona Arclite retracts the Corona Breaker and slings it across her back again. Her face scrunches up in a mix of confusion and disgust at the sight. Fortunately Rebound is there to quickly put down the two blokes and get the collie free. Followed by some weird little man that's presumably their boss coming out, only to scream at them and run back into his room. "Y'all go get that scumball outta his hidey hole." She grabs her goggles and pulls them down over her eyes, tail giving an aggitated twitch as she walks over to what she can only presume is some kind of operating table. A glance in the bucket is all she needs to confirm what she was starting to expect: they were removing methods of ID. Kind of like how rustlers will try to cover a brand with a different brand on stolen cattle. But why? What else where they planning to do with these critters? Still it's infuriating. Corona clenches a gloved fist and a plasma cutting torch ignites from the device strapped to it. "Ah'm gonna make sure they can't keep doin' this sick shit." By wrecking their equipment. Because she's just as good at breaking things as she is fixing them.
Rebound	Rebound punches the guy she pounced on in the face a couple of times, and then hauls him up into the air with her left hand, "Alright asshole, what's going on in here?!" She hits him again, this time in the gut, before he can even spit out a response. Her punches are being pulled a bit, because she doesn't want to outright knock him out, but if she does, well he has a buddy over there that should be easier to motivate with his friend's face skin on her knuckles.
Kakashi Hatake	Computer chips. Needles. The smell of blood. Some bad things were being done here. Pakkun stares wide-eyed as the non-human scent he detected comes bounding in, following the inwards collapse of the garage doors. Despite his wide and varied experience with other animal folk, he has yet to run into a kangaroo. A mutant kangaroo even less so. But she seems to be effective at tromping on people, and she has pulled attention off of Pakkun when she started squashing guards, so the pug is at least grateful she doesn't seem to be an enemy. With the collie afraid and backing into a corner, Pakkun trots over and tries to calm the canine companion down with a combination of scent signals and body language. Made potentially harder by the sudden production of hand-held fire by the fox lady. Nin-dogs are familiar with portable fire, given its frequency of use among their contractors. A normal dog probably isn't. "It's okay. We'll get you home. We've come to rescue you and the others! I have a human friend outside who will look after you! Run to him!" It's hard to say how much of the words make sense, since this doesn't seem to be a talking dog, but dogs have a way with other dogs. Then some guy comes out, and spots what's going on. From the panicked expression on the man's face, the pug can just tell he's going to run. Pakkun, on instinct, takes off running as well with superhuman (and super canine) ninja speed, trying to dart through the narrow window of opportunity to make it inside with the guy, moments before the door is closed. Pakkun has a few precious seconds to look around before alarms start going off and the other dogs in the area start mimicking it. Pakkun tries to cover his ears with his paws as he peers around the new environment he finds himself in. So, one of the foxes he detected was the one who hammered the door down. Then there was the jumping... ...Were-jumper or whatever that was. But there's still another fox in the area, possibly more humans, and a whole bunch of dogs. He was just supposed to be scouting for Kakashi, but now here he is playing hero. "Dog years pass fast enough. I dunno' why I'm rushing to make them end faster." he mutters under his breath as he stands, shakes his head fiercely, and starts looking for some way to thwart what is obviously the Super Big Bad Final Boss because there's no way the fiend that Pakkun is preparing to face down could be a lackey of a Bigger Bad. Surely not. "Kakashi, I hope you've got a plan other than 'send in the pugs'. My ultra-soft and delicate paws weren't made for this!" Meanwhile, outside, Kakashi hears the sound of sirens going off and heaves a sigh as he slumps forward exasperatedly. "What do they think they're doing in there?" He draws a kunai and then uses it to cuts his own finger. He then spreads the blood across a scroll he withdraws from his belt, and then begins forming hand signs, in preparation for some kind of jutsu.
Pippi	Fox and Hound... well. Sporting breed mix are wandering their way through the vents. Pippi had decided shedidn't want to see what gave the fox pause, and was quickly following behind, until the smell of a lot of dogs is very, very strong, coming from several vents. The air system kicks on, and it's pretty clear that this is an exhaust for a holding room. The guy in the gray jump suit looks like he got into a fight with a kangaroo and lost pretty badly. He cries out "FIRST THE BURGER JOINT AND NOW THIS!" he wails, and raises his hands to cover his mug. "LoOK man, it's just business! We got told to bring in dogs, we bring in dogs! The doc does all the rest! It's none a' my business to know!" he replies, holding up his hands. Pakkun might not be able to calm down the Lassie look-alike, but it does take off barking into the night! With his small size and compact nature, the pug is able to slip in behind Dr. McMeanface, and see that this office has a computer system, several very high tech items, something that's spinning vials of blood mixed with some compound around. It looks like something out of a CSI episode. The glasses-wearing scientist man grabs a lock box, and tkaes off through a back door. The smell of A LOT of dogs gets much stronger now!
Alopex	Burger joint.... Burger joint?! If Pippi looks up, she could see a lot of evidence that Alopex is now -pissed-. To quote the man, first the Burger joint, now this? "Oh hell no," she snarls, not even caring about if there's an access point where she's at. Somehow, in the confined space, the fox's blade is drawn, jammed into the sheet metal of the duct, and then a very upset arctic fox, in ninja gear, drops from the roof, "YOU DON'T LEARN DO YOU?!" She's gonna lunge. YEP! There she goes! No sword, just claws. Lots of sharp, pointy, claws.
Rebound	The kangaroo frowns a bit when the guy can't give her any information, "Then you are of no use to me." She says, as she shifts him into her right hand, hauls him up through the air, and slams him down through the opperating table, shattering it. She turns to his buddy, "Hey brother. You wanna be a little more helpful? I'm sure I can find another table around here if not.."
Corona Arclite	Corona Arclite pauses in dismantling the operation rig, ears laying all the way back beneath the brim of her stetson at the man's ranting from Rebound's, ah, interrogation. "Rawht. 'Just business'." She walks over, pulls a very retro yet dangerously modified revolver out of one of her belts and points it at the other man's forehead while making a very obvious motion of pulling back the hammer with one thumb. "Ah can put a round straight through that thick skull of yers, and it'd be 'just business' cuz Ah was hired to put an end to this fiasco by any means." Which may be a slight exaggeration, but he doesn't know that. Corona lets him sweat a moment, not moving the gun. "So less yer feelin' lucky punk ya might wanna spill yer guys 'bout who this 'doc' is. Or it's gonna be yer brains spilled instead."
Kakashi Hatake	Science stuff. Medical science stuff. It's the sort of thing one would expect to find in one of Orochimaru's laboratories, as far as Pakkun can tell. Though obviously a bit more advanced, it's the same general feel. Before Pakkun can take stock of the situation and sort out what he can do to help, Dr. Gesundheit is picking up a lockbox (A LOCKBOX. THE FIEND!) and rushing out a back door! It seems like Pakkun is stuck racing from one room to the next as he chases after the man again! This isn't his modus operandi! This isn't even his puggicus maximus! But a guy is running, and he's a dog, so he chases him! Truly, if the doc looks over his shoulder at the sound of toenails clicking on the floor, there is no more fearsome sight he could find than a pug in a heaband and a little coat chasing him with a flat face full of DETERMINATION. "Hey, you! You better stop running! Or else I'll keep chasing you!" Pakkun calls out. The most dire of threats. Meanwhile, as Kakashi stands up following being crouched down with his hand on the ground. Whatever he was doing will remain a mystery for now, as he watches a collie go yipping and yelping off into the night. "...." That's the dog he was they were trying to find, wasn't it. Pakkun is inside facing who knows what with a bunch of loose cannons who probably aren't local law enforcement running wild. The target of this mission is escaping. He's basically being asked to chase down the dognapping victim and subdue it nonlethally (easily possibly with Genjutsu) or stop the bad guys before they get away or important information is lost to potentially non-standard interrogation procedures. In essence, he is being asked to look to the left while he's looking to the right. "...Ah." Kakashi lets out as he remembers something. A puff of smoke later, and there's a Kakashi chasing down the frightened collie, and a second Kakashi heading for the warehouse. Hopefully nothing bad happens in the meanwhile. It would really suck if the bad guys did something crazy like trigger a self-destruct to destroy the evidence. Yes, Kakashi has faced enough situations like this to actually expect people to pull that kind of thing.
Pippi	GYAAH! "ALOPEX!" Pippi protests as Alopex slices through the ductwork into the office and CEILING FOX WOULD LIKE A WORD WITH YOU ABOUT NOT INTERRUPTING LOCAL ARTISAN BURGER BUSINESSES! The man who has not been slammed through an operating table promptly passes out. Pippi reaches out, and then decides it might be better to let ALopex work this one out on her own, squeezes by the angry fox, and continues down the vent line where the smell is the strongest. There's one unfortunate soul who's been slammed through a table by a giant kangaroo. There's another man who's passed out of fright because of ceiling fox. Nice going Alopex, the interrogation might be over. Meanwhile, Doctor Mack was just another day at the office, working on trying to figure out precisely what this strain of 'Canine Lambda-14' wasn't working in his subjects. There were anomolies reported in the original specimin, but none elsewhere and it was all very, very confusing. Which is why he had to try to test some one hundred dogs that his goons had brought in in a short time. And he was about to leave through the side door, to make a fast track out into the night when he was faced with something surprising. "... did... you just talk?" Dr. MAck asks the pug, blinking through his thick glasses.
Corona Arclite	Corona Arclite lowers her revolver, and gives the man now crumpled on the floor a kick in the side. "Hey, passin' out wasn't an option! Goddamit, no one cooperates these days." She reholsters the gun, grabs some steel cable out of a belt pouch, and crouchs down. "But this just means ya can still pay up fer yer crimes against innocent critters." In a few moments and winds of cable Corona will have him all nicely hogtied. Puts one boot on top of him an rests against her knee, adjusting her hat a bit. "Reckon the authorities will appreciate a bit of gift wrappin'."
Alopex	The guy passes out, Alopex goes sailing over where he was, and skids along the floor once she hits it. "Ngh.." Once she rises, she tromps over to him, lifts him by the collar, "I got all night," she snarls before glancing to the others, then points with her free hand. "Scientist, many dogs, that way," Point. Go get'em.
Rebound	"Son of a bitch." The kangaroo says, as she glares at the second unconcious guy." She frowns and looks over at Alopex, "So what the hell are we going to do with all these dogs? I Doubt I can just take one home, they won't let me keep it."
Kakashi Hatake	Pakkun is surprised by the doctor actually pausing long enough to respond to him, but just plays it off like a tough guy (pug). "Yeah, and I can sing and dance too, but this ain't the time to show you all my talents! I doubt you were doin' any ethical experiments here considerin' you were kidnappin' dogs. So what's the story, doc!? And am I bringin' you in the nice way, or do I have to get //ruff//?" Pakkun puts on his best intimidating face, which doesn't look noticeably different from his normal face, except maybe he seems a bit constipated. Possibly his nervousness is affecting him. HE USUALLY ISN'T THE ONE MAKING THREATS AGAINST THE BAD GUYS, OKAY. Then one of Pakkun's ears twitches and he glances down. 'Hmm?' he thinks. He raises a paw as though to avoid standing on something unpleasant he can feel. Then he smirks, and the constipated aspect of his expression vanishes behind an oh-so-serious pug mask. The daring dog leaps into the air, doing a fancy flip like he's going to produce a Magical Girl Diguise Pen or something. But what he (seemingly) produces instead is a bit more fearsome. The floor cracks. Then it heaves upwards as a gray-haired man with a glowing red left eye, and seven more dogs of various breeds and sizes, some quite large, erupt from the floor they were tunneling under, practically oozing menace. Pakkun lands nimbly on Kakashi's back. Then he grins from his perch, the passage now full of a nearly demonic-looking cast who moght have little issue chasing down an old man on foot if he runs again. Pakkun tilts his head forward so that his face falls into partial shadow. "I don't think you want us to get ruff."
Corona Arclite	"Round 'em up so they can be returned home, duh." Corona's ears twitch, and she starts for the room all the barking is coming from. Really she's more worried about the critters at the moment, and the folks likely worried sick about their missing furry friends. "Or iffen they ain't owned, Ah know a few ranchers that pro'ly won't mind another herd dog or two. Point is they ain't bein' experimented on no more."
Pippi	THe vent above Pakkun and the erruption of Kakashi and SEVERAL other ninken giggles "I get it! -- oops." Dr. Mack blinks, and then pulls himself back a bit as the dog leaps up into the air and twirls. OKay. So a talking dog that dances. Surprising, but he doesn't have /time/ to waste here -- so instead, he has a hand over a button. "You want to save the dogs? That's fine. That used to be a massive server room. There's a compound in a tank above it that if it gets released will smother out all the oxygen in that room, and every single mutt in there's toast." He's nervous, he's scared, but is he lying? HArd to tell. He's sweating pretty badly though, and above Kakashi, there's the sound of someone banging through the vents on their way past. Dr. Mack doesn't seem to notice. "You go back into the Earth where you came from and I won't pusht hebutton. You or any of your mutts come any closer, and you'll be explaining to Timmy why /Lassie/ never came home! Pippi, meanwhile, can't tell if the threat was real, or not, she's hurrying to get into the room with all the dogs, drawing down, kicking out the vent (which goes flying out to the side, cracks against the wall, and falls out, leaving an imprint) before she drops down into a room full of some very bad memories. "... oh no." she whispers, looking over the sea of too-small cages, cramped confines, and big, empty, person-sized cells at the far end of the room, each marked with that curly upside-down Y -- the symbol for Lambda, just like the one tattooed in her ear. "...this is bad." The unconcious guy stays unconscious in Alopex's caring arms. Or he fakes it really well.
Alopex	Seriously. She has all night, and her grip is only going to sllllloooooowwwwwwllllyyyy get tighter. She's not in the mood, nope, not tonight. Clearly she's happy to let the others go get'm right now. "I'm pretty sure Pippi will need some help back there."
Rebound	The kangaroo isn't going to just leave Pippi to her fate, as she moves into the room right behind Corona. She looks between Pippi and Corona, "So what's the play, want me to just break him in half?" She asks, as she tenses her legs, tempted to leap right on top of the guy. She wonders if she can hit him before he hits the button.
Kakashi Hatake	Kakashi is many things. He has BEEN many things. Someone who believed that those who do not obey the rules are scum. Someone who almost abandoned his friends and became worse than scum. Someone who has been an assassin. Someone who has failed to save people, who has had to kill friends for the greater good. While he tries to live up to certain ideals, he is a very flawed human being. Even so, he would not sacrifice all those lives. It isn't just about that violating the rules, and that being against Paladin operating procedure. Even if Kakashi is part of a more loosely-bound group that can get up to sketchy things, intentionally sacrificing innocent living beings is a bit over the line. But it isn't even about that. It's about who he is at his core. Sacrifice is easy to speak of when it's someone else doing the dying. And he won't 'sacrifice' out of hand to stop someone he has so many other methods of dealing with. Kakashi's left eye, a scar running over his face above and below it, but not touching the glowing red orb inbetween the two long-healed gouges, is affixed onto Dr. Mack's own. The three comma-shaped markings within it, the 'tomoe', read his every movement. They see every muscle twitch, every drop of sweat, and extrapolate movement from such. Kakashi has little doubt he could take down this man, even remove his arm before it could be used to press the button. But it's still not something to do carelessly. There are laws to abide by here. And too often, those laws favor human life over non-human life. Removing an arm might be seen as undue force. It would be truly criminal if the actual criminal got away or faced lesser charges because of the method used to apprehend him. And then, even if he was willing to make that decision, there is the further complication of the sound of the person that was in the air ducts dropping out somewhere behind him, meaning there's now a person in the same room. Kakashi tries to hide his non-plussed expression, so as not to infer the doctor has any additional leverage. So he tries diplomacy first, trying to keep the doctor's attention as he slowly attempts to work Genjutsu upon the man. To slow his reaction, and hopefully make him perceive the button as being just a few inches to the right. Slowly migrating there, so that if he does try to push it, his hand will hit wall. "Let's say that you push the button," Kakashi says with a deadly calm. His eyes are focused, emotionless. The gaze of a killer. "And let's say it does what you say it will." The ninja dogs around him are growling in a dissonant chorus that makes the air practically vibrate with their hostility. They are not happy about what this man has been doing, no sir. Kakashi finishes with, "What do you think will keep me from letting my friends here to tear you apart when you no longer have any hostages?" A dog wearing sunglasses snaps his jaws a bit. WATCH OUT, MAN. DOGS WHO WEAR SUNGLASSES ARE SERIOUS BUSINESS.
Corona Arclite	Corona Arclite skids into the room, catching the end of the threats. This has mad scientist written all over it. And in her experience, mad scientists tend to leave ways of disposing of their dirty work, so he's probably not bluffing. Corona pulls her analyzer out of her belt and flips it open, working the controls with a determined frevor. She has a more technical solution to the problem. While the ninja (there's a lot of ninjas tonight) and his dogs (Nindogs? Dogjas?) have the doctor cornered and distracted, Corona keeps fiddling with her C-PAD. If she can patch in she can disable the controls to the system before he has a chance to set anything off. Take away the only treat he has to hold them back with and all that.
Pippi	Dr. Mack looks at Kakashi, and his dogs... especially the one with sunglasses. Serious business. He puts his hand down, looks at Kakashi and states: "I would like to speak to my lawyer," giving a quick surrender. Not as mad as he appears, he sets his lips in a very grim line, and then jerks a thumb at Corona. "Especially if there's funny animals involved. I'm going to need some paperwork filed." The system does not go off, but it's antiquated and largely analog, the button would have released a lever, which in theory would have activated a fire control system -- if it didn't just not work in the first place. Not much about the building seems to indicate it would. Pippi, in the room beyond, looks aorund at all these dogs, all these people were missing their pets, hearing them whine, and bark, and she brings her hands to her earrs, pressing in very, very gently to block them as she backs away from the cages, taking a few deep breaths. There's clipboards on a lot of the cages, most with big red stamps.
Corona Arclite	Corona Arclite doesn't give Mack the gratification of even responding to that 'funny animals' remark. She does look to Rebound and Alopex for a moment. "It's yer guys world, ya figger out what to do with this chump. I'll go help round up those critters so they can be gotten back home."
Kakashi Hatake	Animal people? Or just animals? Kakashi has seen a lot of unusual individuals since joining the Multiverse. He was part of the Union for three years before filing an introduction report notifying people he was part of the Union. During that time, he was attending to Union business in other parts of the Multiverse, and meeting a lot of people. He no longer assumes people with animal features are possessed of some kind of genetic ninja power or a cursed seal or literally possessed by a Chakra Monster. And if experimenting on animals is a thing around here, with animal people/talking animals also a thing, it seems likely that they are an element of this world. Locals. He'll want to question them as well, if they don't vamoose before he can do so and start taking stock of the kidnapped animals/call the authorities to do so, but first thing's first. Kakashi Hatake is many things. A police officer is not one of them. But he had to study up on a lot of procedures for his job with the Paladins. He reaches a hand up and pulls his forehead protector down over his Sharingan. "You are under arrest." He states the crimes the doctor is being charged with, reads him his rights, and proceeds to bind his hands in a way that will not produce any marks or be able to be used as material for sueing for police brutality or some nonsense of that kind. Pakkun, looking satisfied with himself on his first heroic rescue mission, nonetheless hops down and takes a sniff of the people back in the room with all the dogs. He'll remember them. If he runs into them again, he'll know exactly who he's detecting. Then, in a series of smoke cloud poofs, the other nin-ken vanish from whence they came. Not just talking dogs. MAGIC talking dogs. ...There is probably weirder in this world.