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A Rat in the Cat's House

Chapter 1

By Draconicon

There was only one 'beep' in the dark office before a white glove touched the phone. The alarm shut off before it could create echoes, the screen holding the soft light of a just-woken phone before fading back to black. Only when the display went dark did the owner of the white glove pull his hand back.

It settled over another white glove, one just barely visible in the pre-dawn gloom, and the owner of both slowly lifted his head from them. Pop-crack-pop went his neck as he sat up straight, and his spine, hips, and legs followed suit as he uncurled himself from the chair. Eventually, he sat up with his head against the high back-rest of the leather seat, his hands sliding off the desk before him in languid fashion before resting on his lap. The faintest touch of the rising sun invaded his windows as only it could, and the snow leopard turned as hints of orange and purple tainted his white suit.

"..."

He stood up without a word, a fainter echo of the earlier pops filling the room as he walked to the wall-sized window that looked out from his office to the world below. Dark shoes tapped out a rhythm that would not have been out of place in a brisk office, but in the silent room, it sounded more menacing than it should. Purposeful. Intentional.

The snow leopard stopped at the window, looking down at the world below. Kusan City spread out for miles before coming to a sudden stop at the edge of the jungle, where regulations that he'd put in place stopped the construction of roads, houses, and more from intruding beneath their eaves. A mountain range stood tall in the distance, like sentinels watching his city. Perhaps some still stood within their rocky halls, he mused, but they did not stretch their influence so far as here.

At least, not in any way that he could see. And he could see much.

He brought his gaze back to the city proper. In the Great Squares that surrounded this skyscraper, he could see markets assembling. A Food Market, a Craft Market, a Service Market, and a...Meat Market, as some of his employees had once jokingly called it. They were no longer his employees. Perhaps they were part of the market themselves, now that they were no longer employable.

The snow leopard turned from the glass as more people began to make their way down to the streets below. Many of them were in cars marked with the symbol of his company: a white feline face on a black circle background. The ones that weren't nevertheless indulged in the technology that was on offer; they fed their cars with his fuel, or powered them with electricity supplied from the steam plants on the river. He knew that, and they knew that, but most would prefer to pretend that he was not so present in their every-day life.

As he turned, he felt a twinge in his eye. The snow leopard paused, closing them both. The twinge faded, but the memory did not.

"Computer."

A series of beeps answered him. The warmth of a holographic display glowed against his cheeks.

"Ocular scan. Damage report."

He opened his eyes, and a white-blue light plunged into his vision. Forcing himself to keep his eyes open, he endured the blinding light for a few seconds, and then blinked away the after-images. The hologram in front of him faded, then refreshed.

The damage had continued. Spiral lines had been etched into his eyeball, slowly coming closer and closer to the cornea, as well as threatening the iris and the pupil. The hologram tracked his eye position, moving as he scanned down towards the bottom of the report to give him the numbers.

If he continued as he was, then he would be blind in ten years. Not just legally blind, but completely blind, with nothing to see but the dark. Legally blind would be a status that he had perhaps five years left to look forward to.

But...that was if he continued as he had been. Use of that ability had, thankfully, tapered in the last six months. That average likely was not reflected in the current numbers, but it was something to keep in mind.

He nodded, and the hologram disappeared. His phone rang.

The snow leopard walked back to his desk and tapped the screen. It opened the call immediately.

"Yes?"

"Pardon me, Mr. Lee, but we have a situation."

"When do we not?" he muttered.

"Someone was spotted fleeing the building."

"And?"

"He managed to elude our security forces."

"...I see. Direction?"

"Jungle, Mr. Lee. Northern edge."

"Send out an evacuation notice. You have three minutes."

"Standard reparations contract?"

"Triple rate."

After all, they were forcing him into work before office hours. This was likely going to be expensive.

#

As he fell from the helicopter, the snow leopard that most only knew as Mr. Lee contemplated his life. He had staff for this now. There was little reason to be dropping in to take care of a situation.

Save for the fact that they failed to deal with it themselves, he mused as he toppled head over heels, quite willingly. His body did a great deal to catch the wind and slow down the worst of his momentum. If I could leave it to them, there would be no need for this.

So, here he was. Again. Taking care of things. Again.

The snow leopard rolled himself around so that he was facing down. The streets were empty. Cars were piled up on the main road heading back towards the city center and away from the jungle border. The streets came to a sharp stop at the river that marked the border between them and the jungle. While the river itself was crossed by a multitude of bridges, there was only one road that led into the jungle and away from Kusan City.

More importantly, there was only one vehicle heading for it, and doing so at a breakneck pace. The snow leopard watched the yellow BMW racing down the middle of the road, and idly imagined the Flight of the Bumblebee playing behind it. The thought seemed fitting.

Then it was time to act.

He pulled off his gloves when he was still well above the streets, allowing the white cloth to flap away in the wind streaking by. Tattoos of black and crimson formed interlocking circles over his palms, along his fingers, and over the fingerprints themselves. He threw one arm out, catching a flag-pole on the way down, and they burst into brilliant light, like the flag-pole itself had caught fire in that second.

He spun around it, the pole snapping as it transformed. It lengthened even as it slimmed down, growing narrower and narrower as it became longer and longer. Mr. Lee swung it up and over, the metal pole no longer so wide, shaved down to a size less than the width of a strand of hair, and yet, sharper than anything on the market.

As he stabbed it into the street, the car hit it, and the nearly-invisible metal pole sheared straight through the middle of the car. The two halves spun out of control, one slamming into the just-evacuated embassy, and the other - the half with the driver - slammed into a small dome on the side of the street. The turtle-hydrant let out a long, low complaint as the car bumper slammed into it, but the creature was otherwise unharmed.

The impact hadn't left the pole unharmed, of course. It had been sharpened, but there was only so much one could do with standard steel. The bent length of steel had carried him to the ground, and the spotted feline shook his head as he dropped from it, pulling at his sleeves and dragging them up to his elbows. He doubted that this was done just yet.

As a car door was kicked free, his suspicions were confirmed. The snow leopard sighed.

"Events such as these should be restricted to Mondays," he muttered.

Even as he approached, a smoke-stained panther dragged himself out of the vehicle, gasping for breath as the engine thumped. Smoke and fire rose from under the severed hood, leaving it increasingly likely that the engine was going to explode in short order. Mr. Lee approached slower.

"I believe you have something of mine. If it is in the other half of your car, I suggest you leave. This is your only -"

There was a split second of fear, and he knew what was coming next. The snow leopard sighed; it was going to be one of those days.

The panther lunged for the shattered car door and spun around. Time slowed for a moment as the snow leopard took in all the details. Sudden flex in the other feline's arms, a burst of size in the biceps that ripped the sleeves of the cheap suit he wore, followed by a dip in size as soon as he let go of the solid-metal door. A booster, then. And more importantly, one of Mr. Lee's technologies.

The thrown door nearly clipped him, and only the awareness that it was coming had stopped it. As the snow leopard tilted himself to the left, the door hit the still-embedded sharp metal behind him. It was ripped right in half, the two chunks flying off to shatter windows and dent walls.

"You are costing me money at this point," Mr. Lee mentioned.

The panther didn't respond. Instead, he was already running, throwing himself towards the other half of the car. Mr. Lee watched him go, shaking his head as he followed, his hands pulled behind his back as he kept up a brisk pace.

As the panther rooted through the back seat, pulling out a briefcase, the snow leopard put himself between the enhanced feline and the jungle bridge. He reached into his pockets, pulling out a pair of black gloves. These ones had the palms and fingertips cut out, with claws attached to the end. He slowly dragged them on, flexing his fingers as the panther dragged himself free of the smoking half-vehicle. It was only when the panther started running again, trying to get to the bridge, that he realized that the snow leopard was between him and freedom.

"Out of the way," the panther growled.

"I'm afraid that is out of the question. What did you happen to steal?"

"I'm not telling you that..."

For a minion sent in to steal things, it was remarkable just how ill-trained this one was. The panther's eyes were obviously flicking from escape route to escape route, whether that was to leap in the river and try his luck with the raging waters just around the bend, to run for one of the other bridges and see if he could keep ahead of the snow leopard, or even to try another throw, they were all clearly plotted out and easy to guess from watching him.

Mr. Lee had no patience for that. The day should have started three hours from now, and he would prefer to salvage what was left of his morning with something more useful than a brawl.

"I will ask you again. What did you steal?"

"Ain't none of your business!"

And with that, the panther decided on the dumbest option possible. He ran for the water.

Though he was tempted to allow the panther to drown himself for his idiotic choice, he knew better than to risk things. The possibility that someone might die was not the same as saying that they would. The possibility that his goods could be retrieved was not the same as saying that they would.

And the possibilities of being able to figure out where this stranger had come from, and how he had gotten his hands on K.L. Inc. biotech, were not likely enough for him to risk it.

So, he brought his hand down on the bridge as the panther leaped into mid-air. Once more, it seemed as if time was in slow motion. The black-furred feline started to grin, his face split in an expression of triumph -

And then, the bridge rippled with the same fiery light as had consumed the flag-pole. One of the support struts thinned dramatically, and the rocks that made it up exploded outwards, stabbing sideways and snagging the panther between six different stone fingers. They slid between his limbs, forcing them apart, the briefcase of the snow leopard's goods still held overhead.

Mr. Lee approached the edge of the bridge, dragging himself onto the railing. He crossed his arms behind his back, looking down at the panther. The wailing sounds of approaching sirens filled the air, and the panther looked back towards the city.

"You bastard..."

"I think that would be my line, if I were to feel anything. Now..."

He hopped down on the extended stone rods that had burst from the bridge, balancing on them as only a cat could. The roaring sound of the water under the bridge was nearly enough to drown out the sirens. Nearly, but not quite.

Kneeling down on the rod that pinned the panther's arms overhead, he cocked his head to the side.

"You are going to tell me what you did, how you did it, and who hired you."

"Like hell I am."

"It might be hell, for one of us."

He leaned in, and as ever when he did this, his eyes began to spin. Or rather, one particular part of them did, a little lit-up spot off in the upper right corner of each eye, slowly cycling up and spinning in a hypnotic circle that never failed to pull someone else down.

The panther stared at him, eyes going wider in shock. He tried and failed to look away, tried to put his attention somewhere else, but Mr. Lee held him by the chin and made him stare.

"Lose your will...and obey..."

The panther grimaced, biting his tongue, trying and failing to turn away. His struggles grew weaker and weaker until -

"Nngh..."

The pain from earlier that morning returned, a twinge that was a little more than that. Not quite the needle to the eye feeling that he regularly worried about, but enough to shatter his focus. And enough to stop the hypnosis this time around. He pulled back, standing up as the panther gasped for breath.

"Hmm. I suppose it will be your lucky day..."

He returned to the bridge, stepping down as the various reporters and law enforcement officers appeared. Questions were born and died in the same breath as he fixed the reporters with a quick stare, and then turned to the officers.

"Take him to my headquarters. I'll see to him there."

"Yes, Mr. Lee," the lioness in charge said.

It was always 'Yes, Mr. Lee.' Until it wasn't.

#

It was a pity that he didn't have Darren on duty this month. The human had been a useful employee since his acquisition, but he had been given a vacation, so he had to deal with newly promoted individuals in the human's absence. Mr. Lee had dismissed them to give himself space to think, and his office was rather empty as a result.

Then again, it always felt empty. It consisted of two long glass walls that stretched for more than forty feet long, and then up to twenty feet high. The wall behind his desk was also glass, though reinforced, and was twenty feet long. The only way up to his office for normal folk, via elevator, was at the far end of the room, and one was flanked by stasis tubes on either side when one stepped out of it.

In short, the office was open, very open, and the dark-steel pillars that supported the whole thing kept it feeling like a large cage, where one was all but trapped with the snow leopard that ran the place.

Kai Lee, owner of K.L. Inc., creator of Kusan City, and both the most feared and loved employer in his corner of the world. And someone had just tried to steal from him, and had nearly gotten away with it.

"He's not saying anything?" Kai Lee asked.

"Not saying a thing, sir," Malo, his jaguar security chief, said. "We've locked him down so he's not going to cause any more trouble, but he's been silent as the grave since we brought him in. And uh, we checked. He's not dead; just quiet as a corpse."

"Keep an eye on him."

"We already checked for suicide devices. Nothing on him; no hollow teeth, no capsules in the body waiting to be broken."

"Good. Anything besides the rapid-onset steroid boosters in his arms?"

"Similar in the legs. Some trauma-reducers in the rib cage."

"Someone wanted to make sure that he got out alive."

Which meant that someone didn't want their rat offing themselves. And that, in turn, meant that they were valuable...

Valuable enough for a second job, perhaps. And not a lot of reasons for that. The snow leopard tapped a request into his computer, defining a few parameters and leaving the rest blank for the moment.

All the while, Malo continued. The jaguar looked rather annoyed on-screen, but not at the snow leopard.

"Other problem is, he's sealed the briefcase. We'll need to cut it open."

"Steel?"

"Not sure. Something hard, at least."

"A moment."

"Whatcha thinking, boss?"

"That I need a moment."

The jaguar nodded in apology, giving the snow leopard a moment to watch the screen. A thought had occurred, and if he was right -

Ping.

The search finished. After putting in species, height, and potential department, he had sent a search through the database of the employees at his company. It had come up with precisely one answer.

"Daru Takami," Kai Lee said.

"You know him? Why didn't you say something?"

"Because I do not know him. But he does work for me...or so the system says."

A couple of taps later, he knew that the panther didn't, but the files said that he did. Which meant that there was someone in the company that had taken the trouble to stab him in the back and then cover their tracks. He leaned back in his chair, cocking his head to the side.

"Got something I need to know, boss?" Malo asked.

"...Not yet. For now, see what you can do in securing Mr. Takami. I want to ensure that he stays with us for some time."

"You got it."

"And then find all security recordings and send them to me. I'll want to review where things went wrong. In all departments."

"...Right, boss."

The call ended, and Kai Lee folded his fingers together, turning to look out the window. The city fell away before him, the smoke from the explosion that the cars had made long since cleared, but the construction crews were still hard at work fixing the damage. The evacuation had been largely unnecessary, but there had been times in the past where someone had been more...enhanced...than they had appeared, and it was better to have the area as cleared as possible before he let loose.

Thankfully, this time he had been able to take it easy. Save for...that.

He started to reach for his eye, then stopped himself. Instead, he opened his desk, pulling out a small jar of ointment. A simple cream, though one that he didn't like using. He unscrewed it and delicately applied it to his eye.

The stinging stopped quickly. It did not repair the damage, but it stopped the discomfort. It would leave it somewhat numb for the rest of the day, able to function, even allowing him to use that hypnotic technique if he needed to, but it would mean that he was not going to be aware of what damage it was doing.

He sighed, rubbing his forehead. This was complicated.

As he put the ointment aside, he sat there, looking out the window, his hands folded in his lap as he built his priority list. The first thing that he would need to do was clear Malo and the other security officers of any complicit behavior in this. That would grant him more hands to work on this. That would be easy enough; he could go through the system and find out when Mr. Takami had been entered in the system, and then see who had been on-shift that day. It wouldn't be a full-clearance, but it would allow him to start working from there to clear the rest of them.

After that, he would need to take time to break Mr. Takami's silence. Whether the panther knew anything or not, he would have some idea of who hired him, and for how much. That, in turn, would allow him to guess at what price had been paid to turn someone in his own house...

Kai Lee cocked his head to the side, tapping his chin for a moment.

"...That is irritating..."

Emotions were...tricky things, at the best of times, but he kept them at a distance. They were casual neighbors, able to communicate what he should be feeling without actually feeling it too strongly most of the time. This was not one of those times, and the feeling that lingered in his stomach and chest was a sensation of tightness. A little sickness, too, with a clenching that was trying to go up his throat and down his arms. He held his hand up, studying the muscles tightening, even spasming slightly, and shook his head.

Anger, he eventually decided. This was probably anger, combined with a sickening feeling of betrayal. All because someone had decided that they were getting a better offer from someone else.

A pity, really. He was not unreasonable; a good offer deserved a counter-offer.

Shaking his head, he gave up on doing much more beyond prioritizing what he'd need to do next. Clear Malo, clear security, and then work on back-tracking what Mr. Takami knew. From there, he could expand that list and work on building up more information.

The snow leopard, having freed himself from other obligations, tapped his intercom. It went to the floor below, where his current secretary - a bull shark that had been hired two weeks past, whose name was, yes, Bruce - answered.

"Mr. Lee, sir."

"It is currently 9 minutes until the end of office hours. When office hours are over, report to my office."

"Tea, dinner, or distraction, sir?"

"Distraction."

"You got it, sir. Anything else?"

"No."

"No problem, sir. Thanks for calling for me, sir."

The call ended, and Kai Lee wondered if Liam was thankful for the bonus that he'd be getting for serving as a 'distraction' for the boss, or genuinely wanting to put himself at the snow leopard's service. He honestly was never sure with his employees, or the slaves at the Market that he bought and turned into employees. They were always there, always happy to take the money, but they were also surprisingly pleased to be in his company.

It might have been something that those neighboring emotions could have informed him of, he supposed. He was aware that they often had more understanding and information than they appeared, though they only seemed to share it with experience.

For now, he would keep those at bay. The snow leopard pulled his jacket and vest off, leaving him in just the shirt beneath, his slacks, and his shoes and socks.

And no, there was not an item missing in that description.

The End

Summary: Welcome to an introduction to Kai Lee proper. Future chapters will show more of the bio-tech going on here, but this is our main character, and his city.

Tags: M/solo, Fighting, Powers, Snow Leopard, Kusan City, Kai Lee, Panther, Detached, Hypnosis, Odd Man, Series, Patreon, Inappropriate Workplace, Slavery,