Ch. 1: The Experiment
"What are you doing?" Deuteronomy asked warily. A body sat on the table. It was a dead Jellicle, his father, but it had been altered. By magic. Someone must have spent a long time on getting it right because the fur might have been wild, but the patterning matched flawlessly. Another cat hovered over the body, his gray fur matted, shaggy and striped with black.
"Something glorious, brother," the other cat cackled.
Deuteronomy backed up slightly, "Why, Victor?"
"Progress, D, progress. This is everything I've worked for. Our father shouldn't have died, and now I will give him back life! The only thing needed now, is a spark of electricity." There was a crazy glint in his muddy green eyes.
"Why did you change him?" Deuteronomy asked.
"He will be given new life. He must have a different, youthful body to come back to."
"He's in the Heaviside Layer. There's nothing you can do!"
"I will call him back from it, to join us once again in life!"
"You're crazy! Don't do this!" D pleaded.
"Sanity is not my specialty," Victor replied, "miracles are. You might want to step out," Victor advised as he stretched his front paws towards the sky. D stood his ground; though the thought of what his brother was about to do sent shivers down his spine. "If you insist," Victor looked into the heavens, probably hoping their father's spirit would see this.
Then, a brilliant white light flashed from the gray tom's paws and hit the lifeless body. It convulsed, and Victor's face was lit up with light hitting every harsh angle. He looked like a malevolent spirit come to wreak havoc on the land. Deuteronomy shrunk back as his brother watched the convulsing body in rapture; his retina's burning from the light. When the flash was over, the night seemed ten times as dark as before. When D's eyes had adjusted to the dark, Victor let loose another bolt and D shut his eyes against the blinding light.
Suddenly, something changed. D saw an extra toe grow from the paw of the body. "Victor," D's voice shook with worry, "it's growing a sixth toe."
"What?" Victor's tone was that of surprise. He stopped the flow of lightning from his paws, but something unexpected was happening. The lifeless body seemed to draw the current out of Victor anyway, but instead of coming from his paws, the creature was drawing it from his chest.
Victor gasped as the creature sucked whatever it wanted from D's brother. Deuteronomy shivered fiercely at the sight. The once white light now had a blue tinge to it. Victor's eyes were wide with fear, and the light in them started to dim. "Victor!" Deuteronomy yowled over the howling wind.
"Deuteronomy!" Victor cried. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean for this to happen!" As the words left his mouth the crazed tom began to slump to the ground.
"Victor!" D shrieked. He watched as his brother's head hit the ground, and the light died. The light in Victor's eyes died also. D hurried over, paying no heed to the abomination lying on the table. "Please come back," he pleaded to his brother's body in a small voice. He gently nudged the greasy fur of his late brother in desperation. He may have been crazy, but he was Deuteronomy's brother nonetheless.
An imperceptible rustling sound interrupted D's mourning. He turned mechanically to look at the table. The ghastly creature had stood and was looking straight at D. It was horrible, and every hair on D's body stood up straight in terror. The abomination's eyes were a sickening yellow, and the fur was spiked up in every direction. The fur itself was striped shockingly with orange, red, black, and white. The face was a huge jumble of the same colors.
D's jaw moved up and down, but no sound came out. It was too horrific. Whatever his brother had wanted to do, he did it better than anyone could have thought possible.
"Who are you?" the frightening creature rasped.
D couldn't speak for a moment longer, and then somehow was able to string together a sentence of comprehensive words. "I'm Deuteronomy; leader of Jelly, er, Jellicle tribe."
The strange cat tilted its head, "Am I a part of it?"
"Yes?" D replied hesitantly.
"Are you my father?"
Tears pricked the back of D's eyes, "No, he is." He gestured to Victor, lying lifeless on the floor.
"Who am I?" the creature seemed perplexed at his current situation.
"You are my nephew," D was thinking quickly for such an unexpected circumstance. "Part of the Jellicle Tribe. This was my brother, your…father. You are welcome to live with me, because Victor has passed on to the Heaviside Layer," D gestured to lifeless gray body.
The creature seemed to ponder this a moment. "Do I have a name?" It was a simple question, but one with meaning for the new being. He seemed confused with everything around him, yet seemed to comprehend everything the Jellicle leader said.
Deuteronomy pondered this question for a moment. It was his father's body, but not his father. There was something strange and eerie about this being. Its eyes seemed to stare right into D's soul. This was no Maximilian. This was a monstrosity, a curse on nature itself. Victor had tried to mess with the laws of nature, and paid his life for it. Now his brother was to carry on the burden of this creature's existence, and D was horrified at the prospect of taking care of this…thing. He had two good kittens at home. Where would he find time for another, more horrifying cat around the yard?
The creature waited for an answer patiently. He had only been five minutes in this world. Finally, Old D gave him what he wanted. "Macavity," Deuteronomy said inexpressively, loathing the creature before him. "Your name is Macavity."