As he made it himself to the top floor, Kat began to ponder upon what method of elimination he should use on his longtime enemy. Decapitation? Burning? Pummeling? Even he was a little scared at how morbidly horrific his own thoughts were…

As he approached Coop's room, he slowly turned the knob with ultimately sharpened claws…

"Mr. Kat! There you are!" Kat jumped from shock straight into Coop's barely intact door, crashing his face through it. His head smashed the whole way through. To make matters worse, the door flew open from the kinetic energy of the jump, forcing his face into the wall the door was not supposed to collide with.

This house needed more doorstoppers…

The rebound allowed Kat to take a good look around the room, revealing it was nothing like it was this morning. As the pasty imp had expected, the son of the Burtonburger family was lying in his bed, but the destroyed legs of the bottom bunkless bunk bed had been removed in his absence, most likely for reconstruction, making the boy near eye level. Yet, upon looking around the room once more, all of the space in the room was now ultimately apparent with nearly everything destroyed in the one-sided battle that morning, including most of the usual toys and furniture.

What was disturbing was that this new look oddly reflected its owner's current facade.

And then, to further to disturb Kat, Coop was up in bed, sadly staring at him. The poor lighting made his face slightly unclear. He asked a question:

"Are you all right?"

Mr. Kat uttered a small, high-pitched "Mow?" in surprise.

"Mr. Kat, be more careful! You shouldn't be so jumpy around me!"

Millie was in yet another stunning dress, this one only slightly less glamorous than the one before it. It was the same, just less of everything. Less jewelry, less shine, less silk, etcetera.

"This was my backup dress for the pageant from this morning. Don't I look great? I'm wearing this to prove that none of the other girls ever stood a chance!"

Kat groaned with impatience in conjunction to a pleased face, barely making an effort in passing himself off as happy to see her.

The Greeny Girl grabbed the kitty in her usual, painful hug and entered her brother's room.

"Coooooop! You've been boring and sad all day. It's probably some dumb boy thing you're going through, so why don't you have Mr. Kat stay with you to help you through the night? He might think of something! I mean, I'd take him to the sleepover, but there aren't supposed to be any cats!"

Why did she even bother asking? She should have known it would never work.

"… Sure. Why not."

Kat was surprised, letting out another small "Mow?" in response.

"Okay! Just remember to hold Kat tight so he doesn't get away! Also, make sure to WHAAAAAAAAT?"

Millie almost took a spit take. Except she had no water to spit out, the result instead being some annoying droplets of spit. Most of them landed on Kat's head.

"Millie, are you coming? You're going to be late for your sleepover!" Burt was calling her from downstairs, by the front door.

"(I just want to get this over with…)" Burt cried a bit under his breath, making sure his daughter couldn't hear him.

"Gee Coop, you must have broken your brain earlier when torturing Mr. Kat! Oh well, can't be helped, take him and make sure he doesn't ESCAPE."

She threw Kat at Coop's body, making both of them wince upon impact. She frolicked down the stairs and zoomed out the front door to get into the car.

"Pumpkin, wait for me! NO! You can't drive, you don't have a license!..."

The car slammed shut, zoomed out of the driveway, and sped off, the screeching of the wheels slowly integrating with pounding of the rain on the roof. A lone "STOP, MILLIE!" was the only noise indicating life outside the house.

Kat giggled evilly to himself. He finally had his nemesis exactly where he wanted him. He was sure he could overcome whatever his mortal enemy had in store for him! He would undoubtedly finally win.

That was why Kat was bewildered when Coop extended his arms around his middle. It was something like how an innocent child would hold a teddy bear, even though Kat was specifically facing away from the boy. The grasp was gentle and caring, as though it were holding something fragile and alive, completely unlike Coop's earlier attitude towards Kat. This strange move further confused him.

Oh, yet, the irony! He was holding something far more dangerous than he ever had before. He may as well have been holding a bomb!

"You know, earlier… when you were fighting me… you stopped when I gave up."

Kat was wondering what his rival was up to. It would not sway Kat, and it could not save him from the his wrath. After all, Kat's display was just a ploy One that was working!

"And it got me thinking… maybe you'd listen to me. Maybe you would get everything. Maybe you'd understand… somehow."

Kat wondered when he was finally going to be done with this charade.

"Practically everyone I know in this city is stupid. Sometime even Dennis. Sometimes, even me. It's like it's some cycle that's just meant to entertain someone… It's like a cartoon."

Kat laughed a little. In all fairness, he himself had noticed how humorously idiotic everyone in Bootsville had been ever since his arrival.

But was this going to be some sort of honeyed up apology? Kat frowned again and rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"Everyone just goes about their lives here. But they do it ridiculously. Like, if something out of the ordinary occurs, they just go back to what they were doing. Is that natural? Is that even really human… at all?..."

Kat moaned with boredom. What was he getting at? Was he going to ask for something? Kat sneered a bit at what he was trying to do. It didn't matter anyway.

Perhaps he should destroy him at the end of whatever he was doing. It would supply him much pleasure to see the fear in Coop's eyes at his closing.

"Suppose something actually happened. Something that they would have no choice but to take seriously? Something that would affect them for the rest of their lives?"

"Mrow?..."

It seemed as though he was actually getting to what he had been hiding so desperately earlier. Perhaps he could use this to his advantage later? Maybe he should wait until morning, and find that black envelope! Maybe Burt would be angry at Coop for whatever he had hidden, and send him to his room, like so many times before! Where he would be waiting… to finish him off.

Kat had been happily waiting for more while he had been fantasizing about future plans in his future victim's embrace. The feeling fleeted a bit while the confessor seemed to prepare for what he would say next.

"I always wanted to meet my mother, you know..."

At first, Kat was baffled by what Coop had just said. What was he talking about? What about his...?

Kat's eyes widened.

"She left when Millie and I were really little. I remember being told that she left my dad because he was too 'happy.' He didn't notice some things he should have. To her, everyone in Bootsville was like that. Nothing ever really changed...

Kat began to shift his eyes around nervously. Why did Coop want him to listen to this pity party? He sort of wished to leave. The damage was done, no harm, no foul, he started something at a bad time. His eyes darted to and forth, looking for an opportunity to escape.

Yet something kept him from leaving. To see him break down? No, that wasn't it…

"She left Bootsville, and I now know why. When I thought about it, I noticed that when people in this town see something different here that isn't convenient, they look away and expect the boring things in life. I can't tell Dad and Millie about it… they'll just panic. Millie would just wail. There won't be a single moment of silence to mom's name.

"But that's not all. They don't look for anything they don't expect out of the ordinary. It's like they've forgotten how to see."

How negative.

Kat himself had shown such ignorance in his life, he guessed, but that was natural to any sentient species, including his own. Negative, but ultimately truthful.

"That's why that, really… you're actually the best thing that's ever happened to me."

Kat's eyes widened even further than he thought possible. What was he leading to?... It certainly seemed heartfelt…

"You make life exciting. Do you know how much 'catch' we played before you got here? … I don't even remember, but it was a lot more. I spend more time with you than anybody else. Even if we do fight…"

He couldn't really be thinking this, Kat thought. Sure, this was a tender phase in his life, but why was Coop now appealing to him? Kat now shifted uncomfortably at the praise he was now receiving from the mouth that would normally spew angry nothings at him. It was almost as if he wanted the old, abrasive Coop back now.

"You're not really stupid. You're always thinking. You're different. Even if you do act a bit evil."

To Kat, it just seemed like Coop was breaking down. These were words of amiable kindness, but they had a hidden sadness to them as well. Kat then realized he was now trying to avoid the subject of sadness he began with...

"But I do see you when you're good. Like when you've saved Millie. You care about her, don't you? You can care, and you do. That's nice…

"It's just that, sometimes, when you act so friendly to her, but then hiss at me behind her back... I just realized today that I'm jealous, you know? I just really wish that you were my friend too, sometimes…"

This brought up something new and previously impossible to Kat. Such a thought had never occurred to him, having someone around that wouldn't only consider him a household pet. On the rare occasion they teamed up, they worked well together… Coop was resourceful, and a good ally, one honoring his word.

"I'm sorry about what I've done to you. I hurt you when I shouldn't and I should've been the one to stop our fighting. And I'm really sorry about what I did today. I really hurt you. I just struck you to make you hurt. I didn't even think that I could really actually hurt you."

It wasn't entirely his fault, Kat thought. He was informed of something scarring. He was angry and confused and sad, feeling many feeling at once. Kat began to feel a bit of shame for wanting to destroy him after what he had gone through.

"I'm sorry for what I've done."

Kat realized that he had to do something.

At this point he wriggled out of Coop's arms and walked toward the door. He turned around. The human, with some bandages on his face, simply stared sadly at the alien for a few seconds. The alien displayed a sort of nondescript expression. Something was about to happen.

"Go ahead and laugh if you want..."

The altered collar glowed a strange green upon a button press. Kat's body shook uncontrollably. Veins popped out from many places on his body. Muscles became more apparent and defined. His eyes let out a freakish glow.

"This… wha-…"

Coop recalled that very morning when Kat had transformed in the exact same manner and chased after him throughout the house like a mouse, and, eventually, pinned Coop into a near fatal grasp in the kitchen just as Millie and their father burst into the house. He watched in horror, frozen, as he had that morning as well.

As soon as the new mass seemed like it would overtake Kat's body, his frame began to grow to compensate. He dropped onto his fours from the gain of mass in his chest. His framework became accustomed to a more savage configuration. His tail deviated from its usual swirl and grew to incorporate more flow, and his ears became less acute, lowering.

Kat's slender anatomy rounded out to become more primitive. The darker purple splotches began to take up more of the square area on his body, and several more appeared, most noticeably the three on his growing forehead.

His face also reconfigured. His head became more round, and drooped. Two large saber-toothed maxillary canines grew out of his mouth, which became wider to accommodate. Slight, black lines, becoming less slight now, appeared on his mouth, making it apparent that they were his lips.

His eyes reshaped themselves, becoming less effeminate and slanted like the eyes of a household cat, and becoming more like those of one of the larger beings from a feline's ancient family tree.

Finally, it just continued to grow. Part of what was left of the carpet in his room stretched and ripped from the spreading of Kat's paws.

Kat's body shook a bit as it finally finished its de-evolution and growth, being larger than any of his more recent mutations. It's eyes lost their green glow in an electric discharge. It sat up, in a sort of high and mighty position, and simply stared at Coop.

"Why?..."

The hulking form then lumbered towards Coop on all fours, over the bed's wooden boundary and onto the mattress, the walk uncannily similar to that of a lion. It barely fit in its parameters, much less with Coop inside them. The little human crabwalked backwards in a futile attempt to create distance before hitting the bed's boundary himself.

The shape stood above Coop, its form and stare making it appear the solemn predator it really was. A feeling of dread took over the smaller being.

However, even if Kat didn't care even the slightest bit about what he had said, he didn't want to back down.

"I meant everything I said."

The behemoth then placed his superior arm on him. "This is it!" Coop thought.

It lay down in front of Coop and held him close. It held his head with the other paw, as if he were claiming him as one of its own. It then arranged its head to be above Coop's, nuzzling his forehead, almost in an adoring manner.

Confusion swept over Coops' mind. At first, he didn't understand why Kat had not crushed or mauled him. Half of his mind started to stir only when he realized neither event had occured.

Kat's devolved, titannic form should have terrified him more than anything. Although he still partially felt so, he felt... calm. It was strange, but in some way, perhaps it was because they were enemies most of the time. It was confusing -and extremely difficult- to explain.

Looking down Kat's now elephantine body from his perspective, he thought it could be some familiar mechanism or instinct that drove him to do this.

In truth, it was a comfort. His father had ignored and disbelieved him this whole time, yet Kat was now the one answering his call for help. Like family...

"I don't know what to do from here, Kat. I-… I just don't."

Coop grabbed onto Kat's embracing arm. It reacted by holding him tighter. It felt warm and comforting. Almost human, despite its mass.

Kat made a soft, non-threating coo that vibrated throughout Coop's head.

He felt protected from the lightning that boomed throughout the whole of the sky outside of the house. He felt like the worries of the world were stopped by his guardian's defenses. He still felt isolated in the world now, but he certainly didn't feel alone.

"Thank you."