9 Lives and Counting

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Prologue

~27 years ago, Megakat City~

The cold rain poured down on the streets of Megakat City. It was late in the evening, and not many were out because of the drenching rain. A cloaked she-kat holding a bundle in her arms ran through the streets. The rain splattered and ran down the plastic fabric of her black raincoat as she made her way downtown. Her satin high heels were dirty and soaked with the mud and dirty rain. She ducked in an alley and paused a moment. A few small devilish shadows passed her by and continued down the street. She sighed and skittered down the alley, making a few sharp turns to make sure she lost them.

Finally, she had made it to her destination. She ran up the few steps to an old building and knelt by the door. The small roof of the porch kept the rain off her, and she held the bundle in her arms close. "Felony… " she whispered to the blanketed bundle. "I’m sorry I’ve done this to you."

She gently moved one of the blankets from the front of the bundle, revealing a small kitten with gray fur like her own and a bit of purple hair on the top. The kitten cooed and looked sleepily at the she-kat with her soft orange eyes.

"It’s for the best…" the she-kat stated, and carefully set the kitten, which was wrapped nicely in two small blankets, on the ground of the porch. "If I make it, I’ll come back for you, okay?" she said, tears filling her blue eyes. She pulled out an envelope from her inside pocket of her raincoat and laid it on the kitten. Leaning over, she kissed her kitten one last time. "I love you," she said and stood up slowly. She looked around and pressed the doorbell next to the door, and then leapt from the steps. Looking back once more, she continued down the street, trying to ignore the pain in her heart, and the stinging of the tears in her eyes.

A few moments later, the door to the building opened, and a short plump she-kat appeared. "Hello?" she asked and looked around, and then her eyes finally looked down to see the kitten. "What’s this?" she asked herself and lifted up the kitten in her arms.

"Well, who is it?" another she-kat asked, coming from behind the first.

"Seems we’ve got another one to take care of, Melissa," the first she-kat stated.

Melissa looked at the kitten, and the first handed her the envelope. "This came with the child?"

"Yes," the first replied and turned to head inside.

Melissa opened the envelope and shut the door behind her. Taking out a piece of paper, she squinted in the dimly lit hallway and read the note aloud. "To whom it may concern. Please take care of my daughter Felony Kat. I fear I can no longer take care of her or keep her safe. This was the only place I knew to which I could take her. I’ll try to come for her later if I’m able to."

"Hmmm…" the first she-kat thought it over as she stood with Felony in her arms.

"Well, should we prepare the proper paperwork in the morning, Sara?"

"Yes, I suppose we should. This is all mysterious."

Melissa nodded and went into an office type of room. Sara followed her out of the dimly lit hall with Felony. Melissa turned on the lights and went to a desk.

"Oh my, Melissa, come have a look!" Sara gasped, staring at Felony oddly.

"What is it?" Melissa asked as she walked over to them.

"I didn’t notice her features before in the dim hallway, but look at her. Notice anything odd?"

"Yes, I see it," Melissa mused. "Her hair… it looks… purple in shade. And her ears… they’re awfully long, aren’t they? What do you make of it?"

Sara shrugged a bit. "I don’t know really. Maybe it's just something that she’ll grow out of."

"Perhaps you’re right." Melissa said, and both went to make room for the new waif among the others in their orphanage.

***

Chapter One ~ Do You See It?

At a club called the Katatonic, many kats dance to the performance of a local band called 9 Lives and Counting. A trio of she-kats plays heavy rock and roll music on the stage. A dark brown tabby with light brown stripes plays lead guitar. Her white hair is clipped short in the back, and the sides remain long which drape over her shoulders or whip about as she plays enthusiastically. An orange she-kat with short ruffled golden hair with red on top pounds the beat with her drums. Finally, near the front of the stage, a gray furred she-kat with purple medium length hair clutches a microphone and sings.

They finish their song and the crowd cheers and claps excitedly for them. The gray furred singer grins, and they all bow. She then says into the microphone, "Thanks, thanks. We’re gonna take a break now, we’ll be back in a few." They then head off the stage.

A black furred tom-kat wearing a suit greets them as they go behind stage. "That was great ladies! They’re lovin’ it tonight."

"Of course they are, Stan," the tabby says to him. "They’re always our best crowd here at the Katatonic."

"You’re right, Charlotte," the orange furred she-kat says. "And right now, I’ve gotta go talk to one of our ‘fans’." She grins and hurries out to the main part of the club.

"Hey, I wanna see who this is," Charlotte says. "If you’ll excuse me, Stan, I’m gonna check out Kate’s ‘fan’. Coming with me, Felony?"

"Nah," the gray furred she-kat says. "I’m going to go to the dressing room."

"Okay," Charlotte says shrugging, and hurries after Kate.

"Everything alright, Felony?" Stan asks her.

"Yep," Felony says and turns to go to the dressing room provided for the performers.

Meanwhile, Kate makes her way over to the counter of the bar to a straw colored tom with brown stripes. "Chance!" she says smiling and opens out her arms for a hug from the tom. "You came!"

Chance chuckles and hugs her back. "Of course I came. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen ya. How are ya doin’, Kate?"

Kate smiles. "I’m doin’ alright. How are you and your friend Jake?"

"Oooh, who’s this? Is he single?" Charlotte asks from behind Kate just as Chance was about to answer.

Chance laughs a bit at Charlotte. "The name’s Chance. Chance Furlong. And yes, I am single." He smiles and offers his paw for a handshake.

"Geez, Charlotte, you have no tact whatsoever," Kate says to her, shaking her head.

Charlotte shakes Chance’s paw and smiles. "Yeah, that’s what Felony says."

"Can I buy you both a drink?" Chance asks them both.

Kate smiles. "That’s one of the perks of performing here. Drinks for the band are free."

"But, we can get you one," Charlotte grins.

***

In the band’s dressing room, Felony brushes her hair and looks at herself in a mirror at her vanity. Several minutes later she’s startled by a knock at the door to the small room and goes to answer it.

A guy with some purple orchids in a vase is on the other side. "Delivery, Miss Felony," the guy says and hands her the vase as well as an envelope.

She takes the flowers and sets them on the vanity, then signs for them. "Thanks."

"No problem," the guy says and then leaves.

Felony stares at the flowers and then looks at the envelope in her paws. "Oh crud… not this again."

Suddenly, the band’s manager, Stan, knocks on the door and opens it. "Felony, what are you doing?" he asks, sounding annoyed. "The other girls are back there already, and the crowd is waiting."

Sighing, Felony gets up and slams the door in his face. "I thought I told you to inform security that I didn’t want to receive anything from anyone anymore."

Stan opens the door again and glares at her. "I DID, Felony," he says, rubbing his nose.

"Oh? Then how did that flower delivery guy get in?" Felony says, nodding to the orchids.

"Hmmm… I don’t know. What’s the big deal? The club won’t let just anybody walk back here. Besides, you should be flattered someone sent you some flowers."

"Not this someone…"

"What’s that?"

"Nothing. What do you want anyway?"

"You need to hurry up. The break is over and it's time for your second set. The Katatonic Club isn’t paying you to sit in here." He then turns and leaves in a huff, shutting the door behind him.

"They’re barely paying us at all," Felony says, sitting back in her chair. "How does he expect us to make it anywhere in these clubs. ‘You’re going to be big!’ he says… yeah right. WHEN?  I want to make big cash and get out of this city." She remembers the envelope, which she’s still holding, and tears it in two before tossing it in the trash. "Stupid psychos…" She gets up and leaves, shutting the door behind her and heads back to the stage of the club.

***

"Guys, I’m headin’ out," Felony says to her band mates, "Are the instruments all packed in the van?"

"Yep, sure are. It's my turn to take the ‘ol red A-bomb back home with me to my house," Kate says, smiling as she finishes up packing her stage clothes.

"Fine. Just make sure you go there, and don’t make any stops along the way with that friend of yours," Felony says to her as she heads out the door.

"Chance isn’t going home with me. He’s leaving on his own. Geez, what’s your problem tonight?" Kate asks.

"It's nothing. I just don’t want our stuff messed with," Felony says flatly, then leaves.

"Phew. Boy, wonder what got her tail tied in a knot," Charlotte says quietly to Kate.

Kate shrugs. "Who knows." She picks up her bag. "See you tomorrow for practice?"

"You bet." Charlotte smiles.

"Alright. I’m going to talk with Chance before I head on home. Later."

"Bye."

***

Felony walks along through the parking lot towards her car. She pulls out her keys and gasps as she sees a few pinkish creatures come from around her car.

"No need to be frightened of my creeplings, child," a deep voice says, and a large kat steps out from behind the corner of a wall to the Katatonic’s building. "They won’t hurt you, unless you give them reason to."

"Who are you?" Felony asks, backing up.

The large kat grins, stopping short from her car. He looks Felony over and says, "I suppose you wouldn’t remember me; you were too young then."

"Remember you? Look, mister, just leave and I won’t scream, okay?" Felony says, gripping her keys, and glances at the creeplings for a moment.

Chance and Kate walk out to the red van the band uses for their equipment, which Kate adoringly calls the A-bomb. They stop and talk a bit before Chance looks over to the other side of the dark and near empty parking lot.

Seeing the top part of Felony behind her car, he pauses. "Hey, isn’t that Felony?" Chance asks, nodding in her direction.

Kate looks over and nods. "Yeah… sorry she didn’t come out to meet you. She’s just not the social type."

"Who’s that with her?" Chance asks.

Kate squints, but it’s hard for her to see in the dim lighting of the parking lot. "I don’t know… its not Stan, that’s for sure. This guy’s way too big."

Chance peers at the figure for a bit, and recognizing the familiar shadow, he quietly mumbles. "Dark Kat…?"

"What?" Kate asks, blinking once and looking at him curiously while opening the driver’s side door to step into the van.

"Nothing," Chance says quickly and turns to Kate.

Kate shakes her head and gets in the van. "Give me a call?" she asks him, smiling.

"Sure thing." Chance grins and waves to Kate as she pulls out of the parking lot. After Kate leaves, Chance makes his way around the building from the other side to get a closer look.

The large tom-kat chuckles in the shadows and his orange pupil-less eyes glow. "I know who you are and where you came from, Felony Kat."

"Uh yeah… that’s nice that you know my name or whatever, so good bye." Felony frowns, getting nervous, and takes a few steps backwards against her car as the creeplings begin to surround her.

"Know it?" The kat laughs. "I gave it to you!"

"What?" Felony looks at him oddly.

"I know who you are and your secrets. You tell kats that you dye your hair that way to make it purple. You tell them that you had your ears extended to look unique." The kat grins and walks slowly towards Felony, watching her. "You’ve always suspected you were different from the others, and you are."

"Who are you? How do you know these things?" Felony asks, growling.

"Look at me and yourself. The resemblance is there, my dear daughter."

"Daughter?" Felony gasps and looks in the car mirror, seeing her long ears are like his, her hair the same shade as his fur, her orange eyes almost as bright as his. Her eyes begin to water as questions run through her mind. "You're insane!"

Deciding now is the moment, Chance makes his move. He leaps out from behind the building and runs towards Felony at full speed. He kicks aside a couple of the creeplings and grabs her around the waist. Dark Kat growls and Felony yelps as Chance hurries off with her over his shoulder and out of the parking lot.

"Get her, my creeplings!" Dark Kat hollers, and the creeplings immediately rush after them as they make it to the street.

"Will you put me down already! I can run for myself you know," Felony says to Chance.

Chance grins and reaches the tow truck he used to get to the club. Setting Felony down, he shouts, "Get in now!"

Hesitantly, Felony opens the door and hops in as Chance gets in on the other side. He then revs up the engine and pushes it to full speed and zooms out onto the street, just before the creeplings catch up with them. They screech and scurry off in the opposite direction back to their master.

Felony leans out of the window, looking back behind them. "Well, we lost them." She pulls back inside the truck and looks at Chance. "Thanks…" she says softly.

"No problem. Where’s someplace safe I can take you?"

"You can take me to the next corner," she says in a huff.

"What? Listen, do you know who that was back there? You need to stay out of sight."

"I know who that was, I’m not stupid!" Felony shouts, glaring at Chance, who looks confused. "Just take me to my apartment."

"I don’t think you’ll be safe there-"

"Just do it, okay Superkat?"

"Eeesh, fine." Chance winces and takes her to where she directs him.

Chance pulls over on the side of the street next to Felony’s apartment building. "Y’know, maybe you should contact the Enforcers. That Dark Kat isn’t exactly a nice kat. Once he sets out to do something, he’ll stop at nothing to get it done."

Felony glares at him as she gets out of the truck. "Look, I’ll be fine. I think he just confused me for someone else. Don’t worry about it."

"I was just-"

"Don’t worry about it," Felony says through clenched teeth and slams the truck’s door shut.

"Alright. Be careful," Chance replies and drives off.

***

The clock on the wall of Felony’s bedroom clicks to 3am. The glow of a TV turned on shines off its face and all the furniture and walls of the room. Felony sleeps on the bed on top of the covers, still wearing her blue jean pants and black blouse she changed into after the performance.

A slight scratching comes from the front door of Felony’s apartment, but it's muffled by the television. The knob turns with a click, and the door opens slowly, letting in several small visitors, as well as one large one. Dark Kat shuts the door with a slight slam.

Felony bolts upright on the bed and reaches for a gun from under her pillow. A few creeplings quickly enter her bedroom. "What the-?!" Felony starts to yell and fires her gun at them. One of them is almost hit, and two more pounce and restrain her. One puts a paw over her mouth, holding her from behind. The other grabs the gun away, and holds her legs tightly.

Dark Kat walks and stands at the foot of her bed and grins, looking down at her. "Good job, my creeplings. Now, before we were so rudely interrupted," Dark Kat motions for the creepling to move its paw from her mouth and back away. "Relax. I’d like to explain things to you."

Felony growls at him. "You’re my father, huh? Is that what you’re saying?"

Dark Kat grins and turns off the television. "Why yes, my dear. Did you not see the resemblance before?"

"And I guess you’re the one who’s been sending me those messages with the orchids about wanting to talk?" She glares at him.

"That is correct. Did you not like them? You never met me at the locations I suggested, so I decided to meet you instead."

"How dare you… how DARE you wait until now to find me!" Felony shouts, pushing back her fear and letting the anger through. She kicks the creepling off of her feet and stands, holding a clenched fist near her chest. "Why did you wait so long to contact me?! Why did you make me stay in that orphanage?!"

"Because I had a problem locating you first. Your mother did a good job of hiding you from me," he says with a low growl in his voice. "She betrayed me and took you from me long ago. I didn’t recognize that you were my long lost girl until I spotted a few of your promotion posters."

"My mother took me?" She looks at him skeptically. "Why?"

"That is not important," he says in a soothing voice and motions for her to sit. "What is important is that she took you and left you alone, abandoned, without telling me anything. I didn’t even get to say good bye." He sits on the foot of the bed.

Felony sits at the head of her bed and pulls up her legs towards herself. "I’ve seen you before. On the news," she says quietly to him. "You’re that terrorist Dark Kat. If my mother left you, you must have done something to her, something to make her take me and hide me from you."

"She was a coward!" he growls out in his booming voice, causing Felony to jump a bit. "She was jealous of you."

"Jealous?"

"Yes," Dark Kat says and places his large paws on her shoulders. "You’ve seen what I’m capable of. You’ve seen how much power I have. You’ve seen the fear on every citizen of this city when my presence is near. I will someday have this city in my grasp." His eyes glow slightly like small flames. "Once I take it, it will be mine to rule, my Dark Kat City."

Felony shudders a bit and asks quietly, "And my mother was jealous, why?"

"Because I needed an heir," he says, lifting a paw off her shoulder, taking her chin partially in it and looking into her eyes. "I need someone capable to control this city, MY city when my days end." Felony turns her face from him. "YOU are that heir, Felony. Your mother didn’t like that. She was a deceitful she-kat who wanted to rule my empire herself. She took you from me and hid you away so that you wouldn’t take my place. She left you out in the cold and returned to me saying someone had kidnapped you." His eyes glow almost red now with fury. "But I learned of her deception by one of my faithful creeplings."

Felony looks back to him, and he removes his paw from her shoulder. "Then… why didn’t she just kill me?"

Dark Kat stands. "She didn’t have time to. She was discovered too quickly, and she knew I was suspicious of her and had been watching her every move."

Felony holds her head and shakes it. "This is all too much…" she then looks up to him. "So… now what? What do you want with me?"

Dark Kat grins. "I want you to come with me, to help me in my plans, to fulfill your legacy."

Felony smirks. "What, with your Dark Kat City? Listen, I want OUT of this horrid town, not to rule it."

"You need time to think about it I see."

"No, I just-"

Dark Kat cuts her off, and yells. "You’ll just think about it! " Then, softer, he says, his voice more persuading, "Imagine; no more singing in those clubs, no more dealing with the citizens, no more money troubles! Why you’d live like a princess, like a queen."

Felony quirks an eyebrow at his statement in consideration, especially the ‘no more money troubles’ part. "Alright… suppose I help you. WHAT am I supposed to do? I know nothing about bombs or politics or anything of that sort."

"Do not worry, my daughter," Dark Kat says with a grimace. "I will train you in these things. I have a plan for you; it will just take some time."

"Time? How much time?"

"You will just have to wait and see." He goes to the door, his creeplings follow him. "Now, get some rest." He tosses her a small metal necklace. It has the same shape as the metal chain and shield he has on his left shoulder, with the same red letter D engraved on its front. "I will come for you when I need you next."

Felony catches it and glances back at the door. "Wait!" she stands. "How am I supposed to contact you?"

Dark Kat turns a moment. "I’ll contact you. Do not worry." He then turns back and leaves, shutting the door behind him.

~ To be continued…