Mars landed on the Oak’s lowest-lying branch. “If you think that key will let us in the house, you’re mistaken. It’s about ten times the size of a normal key.”
“Shut up, Mars.”
“And it’s plastic.”
“Like I said, shut your beak, Mars.”
“Give me my payment,” barked Sammy.
“What was your payment?” I lowered and made my way toward him—crouching-cat, hidden-dragon-style.
Sammy took a step backward. “I hear you coming. I hear everything.”
“You hear nothing.” One paw in front of the other, each placement was like a lion on the hunt. Soft and deadly.
Sammy took another step away from me. “I just heard you talk.”
“You hear nothing,” I repeated. Eventually, my magic hypnotic voice would convince the dog that he couldn’t hear me.
Mars swooped down in front of me. “Leave him alone. That plastic key won’t do anything to help us. It’s too big for a keyhole. And right now, the sound of your voice is just weird, man.”
“Out of my way.” I pounced forward, my shoulder brushing against Mars’s feathers.
“Get Sammy,” yowled Twinkles.
Claws unsheathed, and in the air, my target was dead in my sights. Like a hammer against the muscle-bound warrior that I was, Sammy turned and his butt slapped me across the side of the head.
A momentary blackness took over my mind as I tumbled on the lawn.
Mars flew. “I got the item, Butters. I got it.”
I leaped to my feet with a sharp inhale. “Everyone, go.” The rest of the Hellkatz and I scattered to the fence.
“What are you doing? Get back here,” hollered Sammy.
Climbing the fence, I heard Sammy’s teeth chomping after me. But it didn’t matter. We were too fast and trained for situations like this. One by one, the Hellkatz jumped down from the fence to the sidewalk. My chest heaved in and out and I rested on my haunches with my tail around my forepaws to catch a much needed breath.
Sammy barked and barked, and clawed at the fence. “Get over here, you little punks.”
“You did a good thing, Sammy.”
“Screw you, and give me my reward.”
I licked my paw and wiped my face. “I left it in the dog house.”
The barking stopped. “Really?” asked Sammy.
I grinned. “Yes. It’s hidden well. Go find it.”
His thick paws pounded on the lawn as he dashed away.
“You know, one of these days, Sammy won’t do you any more favors,” said Mars.
“He’s old. He can’t remember his right foot from his left,” said Twinkles.
Jaw hanging low, I pointed a paw at a dog leash that Mars held in his beak. “What is that?”
“It’s better than the plastic key.”
“The key was filled with my ancestor’s magic. That, my feather-headed-friend, is not the key. How are we going to open Don Vito’s two-legger’s front door?”
Shrugging, Mars set the leash on the ground. “I’m not going to go over how a plastic key won’t open a door. Plus, you said we could improvise, so I improvised. ”
I bared my teeth. “That’s not magic. That’s a leash.” The growling of a four-wheel creature came down the road. I screamed my alarm as my insides about jumped out of my throat. “Duck for cover.” Eyes like saucers, I dove and hunkered next to the fence
The sidewalk vibrated. With my paws covering my eyes, I squeezed into a ball as tight as I could. Twinkle’s body trembled against mine, and I lay my tail over her’s. She relaxed for an instant, until the creature whined to a stop in front of us. We froze. Not needing to look, I knew the creature halted at the hexagonal red sign that was attached to a metal pole—like they always did. For a momentary worship? Or in search of stupid cats that didn’t hide their face to make themselves invisible? We didn’t know.
Two eternal seconds later, the monster roared away.
Those creatures were as much of an anomaly to us as their daily stopping ritual. But something deep inside me told me that it was looking for me. Always looking.
I watched the four-wheel move down the street and pass my two-legger’s house until I couldn’t see the evil creature any longer. “That was close.”
Twinkles let out a low mew, “Again, we foiled its hunt.”
“It’s not going to harm you unless you step in front of it. It’s carrying humans, for birds-sake. And, for the millionth time, it’s not hunting…anyone,” said Mars.
Louie snorted. “Yeah, right. Nice imagination there, buddy.” He circled his paw around his ear as he smirked. “That’s why birds have smaller brains than cats.”
“All right, brainiacs, shall we get going or stay here all day?” The leash hung from Mars’s talons as he went into the air, wings flapping.
“We ride.” I lurched forward, and we hung a left toward Don Vito’s house.
They never saw us climb onto Don Vito’s two-legger’s roof.
“I see you up there.”
I peered over the roof, and there they were, Don Vito and Sonny, eyes on me from the driveway. I gave him my death stare. “We’ve been found.”
“They watched you all climb up here,” chirped Mars. “We were the opposite of stealth. I told you we should have—”
“Shut it,” I said. “Twinkles and Louie. Plan A.2 is in effect.”
Twinkles and Louie split, one to the left and one to the right. The wood groaned as their claws pushed into the sides of the house when they descended toward the driveway.
Mars spread his wings. “What are you doing?”
“It had to be done.”
“Four against two?”
“Two against two.”
“You think Don Vito won’t call Barbed-wire and Pep for help?”
I shook my head. “Louie and Twinkles are too stealthy for that. Don Vito won’t know what’s about to hit him.”
“Barbed-wire. Pep. Get down here, pronto,” yelled Don Vito.
Cringing, my brow creased. The two henchmen, both with brown fur coats, emerged through the cat door at the two-legger’s entrance. Pep had a bounce in his step and Barbed-wire crept low, eyes on his targets; Louie and Twinkles.
I stiffened. “They’re surrounding our friends.”
“I’m going down to help,” Mars said with a determined look.
I swatted him with my tail. “No. Lower me down.”
“But our frie—”
“It’s collateral damage. They knew the sacrifice they signed up for.”
Beak agape, Mars thrust his wing toward Louie and Twinkles. “They’ll get murdered down there.”
Don Vito and his Clawmousers slowly circled Louie and Twinkles. Two cages without bottoms hung by ropes from the house’s eves. Odd. I’d never seen cages as decorations like this before. I paid it no mind and took notice of the bin the two-leggers liked to throw junk in. It sat on the driveway and hugged a fence. Twinkles and Louie could lure the Clawmousers there and kick the bin over and on top of the evil gang.
I changed focus to a red four-wheel monster that slept on the driveway, oblivious of the tasty felines in front of it. Or it was injured? It never moved, and two-leggers never stepped inside. Or, was it dead?
Didn’t matter. I scanned the terrain more. Two maples grew on either side of the driveway. I pointed my nose toward the trees. “Run to the maples, and climb, climb.”
My tactical abilities were priceless.
A hiss and Twinkles lunged forward, claws extended. She clearly didn’t hear me.
Sonny jerked away in defense, but the rest of the Clawmousers didn’t wince and sent low growls instead.
I hated leaving my friends to fend for themselves, but the fate of all cats hung in the balance.
“Lower me.”
Mars tilted his head. “Lower you?”
“You heard me.”
“Lower you to where?”
“To the window. I’ll break in and snag Squeakers from the
windowsill.”
“Let’s go through the front door’s cat door and get Squeakers and the Way Crystal and save the world like you wanted. I can then get back home and practice my opera.”
“I already thought of the front door.” I lied. “But it wouldn’t work. They wouldn’t leave it open like that without a trap.” I patted the side of my head. “I’m always thinking.”
Mars rolled his eyes as I grabbed onto one end of the leash, claws poking through. “Do it.”
“But your friends need help.”
“Do it. Or we all die, not just them.” I motioned toward Louie and Twinkle as the Clawmousers herded them more toward the side of Don Vito’s two-legger’s home.
“Fine. Fine.” Mars took the other end of the leash with his beak and I clung with every ounce of my muscle-packed legs as he lowered me to the window where my friend, Squeakers—greatest buddy ever to grace this planet—sat in fear, the Way Crystal hidden on him.
“Here I come, good buddy.” My feet dangled at the top of the window frame. “Lower me more.”
“Easy for you to say,” mumbled Mars through his clenched beak.
Mars leaned over the edge of the roof, and strained with everything he had. His neck quavered from my heavy, muscular weight.
“Hey,” shouted Louie. “Let us go.”
Craning my neck, my eyes bulged. “How the heck?”
Near to the side of the house and on the inner edge of the driveway, Twinkles and Louie were both trapped inside a rusty cage. A rope was tied to the eve and Don Vito had the other end of the rope in his mouth. He let the rope fall and kicked it to the side.
Pep sat on the cage, snickering at my two Hellkatz members. But it was okay. All for the cause, for the sake of all cat-kind. I swallowed excessive fear vomit. “Lower me more.”
Mars did and my feet met with the cold window pane. A knot rose to my throat when I saw Squeaker’s eyes. “I’m going to get you. Don’t worry.”
“Get on the nozzle,” yelled Don Vito.
“Nozzle?” I craned my neck again. Sonny held a hose pointed at my friends. Barbed-wire walked toward the metal spinning-thing that turned the water on, and no doubt, he’d turn it to full blast.
Like all cats, I knew that water that squirted out of things, even a hose, was equivalent to death. And that’s why we run when we see such horrible devices, but Louie and Twinkles couldn’t run. They were trapped. They were done for.
But I had a mission. I had a plan. I couldn’t deviate. If I did, Don Vito would devour the Way Crystal the moment the glowing light bulb in the sky dropped below the horizon. And with it, Squeakers would die. And so would the world.
One quick look at the shining light in the sky, and I gasped. Its butt dipped below the horizon. We were almost out of time.
The water turned on. Screams. And then deathly, terrible moans. I’ve heard of torture, but never in my nine-lives did I ever imagine it would come within miles of me. And here it was, the sounds encapsulating my ears, drowning into my heart like lead balloons, splintering my very soul.
I pushed off the window, a tear welling in my eyes, the knot in my throat growing so big I could barely breathe. But the mission. It was about the mission. Not my friends. The mission.
I repeated the mantra in my head as I swung away from the window. Mars grunted with his hold on the leash.
Swinging back, my hind paws slammed into the window. The glass jostled, but didn’t break. “Again,” I yelled as I pushed off. My feet pounded against the window on my return swing. But the window didn’t give.
And there Squeakers was, mouth closed tight, eyes wide like black, dried cat food but shiny. More yowls reverberated off the house. I looked down to see my two friends drenched, and the water wasn’t letting up.
Glaring back at Squeakers, my heart broke in two. I had to get him. I had to save the world.
“Help,” meowed Louie. “Someone, help us.”
Twinkles looked up at me as she curled into a ball, her lower lip shivering, her fur matted against her skin like wet grass on the lawn. “Butters, get us out of here. Please. We need you.” She braced as more water sprayed in her direction.
I mouthed, “I’m sorry.” I pressed my feet against the window. Pushing off, I came back with a fast swing. The window shuddered when my hind paws made contact, but nothing more.
Clawmousers’ laughter echoed across the breeze. I shoved down any sense that my friends were below, doing my best to forget them, knowing they were taking one for the team, for the sake of the Universe.
Another swing and the window cracked. I grinned. It was working. My brilliance on display, I looked up at Mars to catch his gleeful response.
Mars’s eyes were closed. His muscles twitched as he struggled to hold me, his beak and neck trembling from my weight.
My friends were dying below, and Mars didn’t have much left in him.
I attempted to push away any thoughts that Louie and Twinkles would die down there. But the thoughts wouldn’t leave. I flinched and winced at every yowl they yelled and every horrific, tortured mew they meowed.
Everything in me screamed to help out my two friends. Most Way Keepers would just get the job done and save the crystal.
I’m not most Way Keepers.
My heart sank as I gazed into Squeaker’s eyes. This time, I mouthed to him, “I’m sorry.” Sheathing my claws, I let go of the leash and flipped in the air. Like I said before, ain’t no Clawmouser with the guts to perform a stunt like this.
I aimed for Barbed-wire, the one who manned the hose turner-onner-thingy. I believe Don Vito called it a nozzle. What an idiot.
Claws unsheathed, I pointed my legs at Barbed-wire. The wind rushed against my body as I fell like a falcon in downward flight.
My legs buckled when I came down hard, my claws pressed into Barbed-wire’s back. A sharp pain ran up my legs and into my spine, and I mewed to high cat heaven in agony.
Barbed-wire screeched and flattened on the driveway from my heavy, muscle-bound impact. I bounced off him and smacked hard against the side of the house.
Barbed-wire twisted to his feet, and ran down the driveway and to the street like a streak of the zig-zag light when the black clouds thundered.
One down, three to go.
I shook off the dizziness that tried to take me, and went to my feet. My back spasmed and I cringed against the pain when I turned the water off.
Sonny walked toward me like a tiger with its prey in sight. My hackles up, I arched my back, my body’s agony almost too much to handle. No doubt my death stare was nearly too much for him to handle as well, yet he continued to pad my way regardless.
A clatter surrounded me and I drew my breath in sharply. Instinctively I jumped, hitting my head while discovering another cage atop me. I landed awkwardly, my legs nearly splayed.
Sitting on top of the cage, Don Vito scowled at me, his yellow eyes penetrating my soul like the devil. “Look what you walked into?” A rope dropped from his mouth, I didn’t know if this cage had been trip-wire activated or Don Vito let it loose the moment I walked under it.
Didn’t matter. Like Twinkles and Louie, I was trapped.
“I hope you learned your lesson, furball. Whatever I take, remains mine. Got it?” Don Vito thrust his paw on top of the cage, rattling it.
I dashed into the cage’s side. With Don Vito’s flabby body weighing the cage down, it barely budged.
I eyed a soaked Twinkles and Louie from across the way, and there on top of the cage sat Pep with his claws extended. And above them and across the horizon, a sunset began its pink and orange display as the bright light in the sky lowered its butt further behind the scattering hills in the distance.
Don Vito took a deep sniff. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it? I’ll have that crystal in me soon.”
“Over my dead body.”
Don Vito huffed. “That can be arranged.”
Water dripped off my friends, but their eyes said it all. And so did Twinkles when she
muttered, “Do not let him swallow the Way Crystal.”
A hiss, and Don Vito flung off the top of the cage, and tumbled onto the driveway. The parrot, my most highly ranked Hellkatz member, had flown from the roof and smacked into Don Vito. At a moment’s notice, I’ll give Mars a fourth job; my security detail. He deserved it after this stunt.
Mars had Don Vito’s tail in his talons before Don Vito swiped Mars away. But it didn’t stop my newly appointed bodyguard as the bird continued his trajectory and flew toward Pep.
Pep jumped and scurried through the yard, and up a tree. The scaredy-cat was completely out of view, hiding.
Mars changed direction and headed for Twinkles and Louie. In one swoop, Mars grabbed the top of their cage and tossed it to the side.
The orange circle in the sky lowered more. “Oh, no.” We were out of time. With all the strength I had, I tossed the cage off of me.
“To the Way Crystal,” growled Don Vito.
Sonny and Don Vito dashed toward the front of the house and hurried through the cat door at the house’s main entrance. I could hear the click when they locked it.
I ran after them, and butted my nose against the cat door. It confirmed my incredible bionic ears. They did lock it, and locked it well.
Turning, a ruffled-feathered Mars and waterlogged Twinkles and Louie approached.
Louie’s ears rolled forward. “What now?” He shook the water off of him.
Looking at the house, I padded to the side. And then ran around the front and to the other side of the house. Out of ideas, I made my way back to Don Vito’s wood porch, my head down. “I failed you. I failed the world.”
Louie hunched forward, his head in his paws. “We all die, don’t we?”
I nodded. “I’m sorry.” I closed my eyes. “We weren’t worthy.”
“Excuse me?”
“What?” I lifted my head, my face slack.
Twinkles stood in front of me with her back paw tapping on the porch. “You give up just like that? And after we risked our lives for you, and for the sake of all cat-kind?” She threw her front leg toward the big, bright ball in the sky. “We have some time still.”
“And we can use those ropes on the eves that held the cages,” said Mars. “I can peck on the window right on that crack you created, and the glass will break. I’m sure of it. You all climb up the rope closest to the window and jump inside, grab Squeakers, and save the world. Or I could just grab him since he’ll be right there for the taking.”
Hellcats: Anthology Page 112