Chapter 4:
"Cheesing in South Park has gone down Mary." Barbrady announced over dinner. "Hardly anyone does it anymore."
She was surprised. "How?"
"It must be the Kittycam collars I put on all the cats in town." She had a large plate of pot roasted beef in front of her. She loved staying with the Mayor and her family because she never went hungry and she was never cold. They always gave her extra blankets when she asked for them. She was from Sydney and it just didn't get this cold. She'd never seen snow before she moved to South Park. "I still don't know if they work, but people will still try and cheese from the poor cats."
Barbrady started laughing. And everyone looked at him like he had two heads.
"What's so funny George?" McDaniels asked curiously. She cocked her brow at him. Barbrady showed her a video on his phone that depicted a man in the street getting shocked when he tried to cheese from a cat. The cat was wearing one of her handmade collars. McDaniels started laughing hysterically. No one had heard her laugh like that since the election run with Mitch Conner and Cartman's plan was exposed to the town.
"I guess my prototype works." She shrugged and took extra helpings of roast beef and vegetables.
"You found a way to stop people from cheesing?" Pete seemed surprised and impressed.
"I hate cheesing. I had to find a way to stop it. The cats don't like it. They feel violated when people do that to them." She explained her prototype in detail.
"How do you know the cats don't like people cheesing from them?" Pete asked incredulously. She realised she hadn't explained her powers to them.
"I can talk to cats. It's one of my powers." She explained. "My parents think I'm insane." She left most of the details out. The reason why she didn't want her parents to know about her powers.
She was young when she first noticed her abilities and realised she wasn't like the other children. She didn't make friends at school and she spent most of her time with stray cats. The three cats she had were strays she picked up off the streets of Blacktown. Her mother stumbled across her talking to cats and called her a witch. She didn't want people to see her kid talking to animals like they were people. In response to this the Holloways sent her to a psych ward where doctors conducted a series of humiliating tests and experiments on her in a bid to find the source of her power and suppress her powers so she couldn't use them. She was admitted to the psych ward when she was five and didn't leave until she was seven. It was a time in her life she didn't like talking about.
"Any information on the crime gangs you get from the cats would be useful for the police department." Barbrady said as he sipped on a glass of beer. "You're already a junior detective."
"Y-you guys don't think I'm insane?" She asked surprised. She'd just told them she can talk to cats and that she was cat-like in personality and mannerisms and they weren't phased to hear it. In fact, they acted like it was normal.
Barbrady shook his head. "No. You're with the Freedom Pals aren't you?"
"Not really." She hadn't decided if she wanted to join The Freedom Pals, but she did work with them sometimes. "I work with them, but I haven't joined yet."
"Those kids have superpowers too you know." Barbrady shrugged. "Besides, weird is normal here."
"I've never had friends before." She explained. "I'm still deciding if I want to join."
XXXX
"Assholes!" He grumbled when he made it to the privacy of his squad car. He couldn't trust his colleagues since they betrayed his mother and their racist cult were exposed. "Argh!" He screamed and jumped out of his skin. He didn't think there was anyone else in his squad car. "Goddamnit Kitty! You scared the shit out of me!"
"Sorry." He could tell she'd been hiding in the backseat for a while.
"What is it?" He worried about the kid especially since the last callout to her place and she and her mother were at each other's throats.
"Someone is going for your mum's old position at City Hall." She looked as though she'd seen the end of the world.
"Mitch Conner?" He asked apprehensively. Eric Cartman better not be planning to take over the town again.
Kitty shook her head. "No, it's not someone we know. Just someone we don't want in that position of power. The Devil hides behind a familiar face."
"You don't know who? If it's not the fat kid then who?" He wanted to know. He wanted straight answers. Why did she have to speak in riddles?
"It's not Fat Ass because we sent him away." She explained.
"Sent him away?" He cocked his brow. "Where?"
"Saginaw, Michigan. Dovahkiin's friends are teaching him a lesson." She giggled.
"Now we just need to send Randy Marsh away." He grumbled with hostility. He still resented Randy for destroying the town, firing him and hurting his mother. He wanted him banished.
Kitty Litter dropped a phone in his lap. The cover was her trademark symbol adorned with red sequins. "What's this?" He asked as he looked through the phone. It was unlocked so he could set his own password and apps had already been downloaded for him to use. The only number on it was the number for the phone she used in her superhero work. It wasn't her personal one.
"It's not over yet." She warned him. "Be careful who you trust and watch your back McDaniels." She disappeared in a puff of smoke before he could ask her anything else.
"Dude!" Her cryptic riddles hurt his brain.
XXXX
"Where does Kitty get her Intel from?" Butters wondered out loud as they lay around Starks Pond. Kenny, Stan, Kyle, Scott, Dovahkiin, Token, Craig, Tweek, Wendy and Clyde were sitting on rocks fishing, reading and dipping their toes into the cool water. Jimmy played his flute and Timmy sat next to Kyle with his wheel chair behind him. Usually when they were together it was for Freedom Pals Business, so it was nice to be out of costume and in normal clothes. They all enjoyed the normalcy of lying around the pond doing nothing.
"Timmy!" Timmy interjected loudly.
"At least there aren't any gay wad bikers to ruin our nice time." Kyle smiled and watched the dragonfly hovering above his face.
"I wondered that too." Token was skipping rocks along the pond. It was a lazy Saturday afternoon. "Where does Kitty get her Intel from? She's always two steps ahead of us."
"Kenny?" He looked at Kenny who wasn't wearing his orange parker. He'd taken it off and was using it as a cushion while he sat on a rock nearby concentrating on catching dinner for his family. He wore an orange shirt and brown shorts. His mop of blonde hair had grown since he'd seen it last.
"I don't think she'd like it if I told you." He knew Kenny was holding something back and he was determined to find out what.
"My cats tell me everything I need to know." Kat answered his question before he could get the answer out of Kenny. She giggled when she scared them. They didn't know she was watching them.
"Goddamnit Kitty! You scared the shit out of me!" He grumbled. He jumped out of his skin when he heard her voice.
"Sorry." He wished he could teleport because she was beside him and sat between him and Kenny when she reappeared.
"What do you mean the cats tell you?" Clyde asked curiously. They were all interested.
He wanted to know too. He still didn't know the full extent of Kat's abilities and he didn't think Kenny did either and Kat was his girlfriend.
"It's one of my powers." She changed out of costume and he noticed her civilian clothes were tattered and torn. Even Kenny's clothes were newer than what she had on.
"What?" She noticed him staring at her and she wasn't impressed. He scooted away from her when she scowled at him. It reminded him of Mayor McDaniels whenever they got in trouble from her. She scared him.
"I've got some old coats, jeans, shirts and cute dresses you can have if you want them Kat." Wendy interjected.
"Okay." Kenny gave Kat his parker as soon as she started shivering. "God! How can you stand the cold?!"
He shrugged. "It's Colorado dude, w-we're used to it."
"I-it doesn't snow in Sydney Kat?" Butters asked curiously. None of the guys seemed to know much about Australia.
"Not Sydney." She shook her head. "I've never seen snow before I moved here."
"Your kitty powers?" Butters changed the subject again. "Can you talk to other animals? W-would you be able to know what my minions are saying?"
"No." She shook her head. "It only works on cats; I don't hear anything from other animals. I tried talking to dogs once and it didn't work."
"Whoa dude! You are a cat." He noticed her eying the fish in the pond like a hungry cat. She was on her hands and knees about to pounce.
"Dude! You splashed me!" Kyle whined when she dove into the pond. When she emerged she held two fish in each hand.
"Don't be such a baby!" She filled his hat with cold water and dumped it on Kyle's head. He wasn't the only one who found it funny when Kyle squealed like a girl.
"My mom's gonna be pissed at me now!" She ignored Kyle and dropped the fish she caught into the bucket of water he provided.
He was stunned because he'd been at the pond for an hour and hadn't caught anything. "How do you do that dude?"
"I'm a cat." She shrugged and wrapped her arms around Kenny.
"Why didn't you tell me you were going out with her dude?" He changed the subject. He only found out about them when he was helping the mayor look for her.
"Since I helped Kenny's sister at Casa Bonita." She had Kenny's parker wrapped around her to keep warm.
"We told you not to eat the burrito dude." Dovahkiin reeled in a big fish and added it to another bucket of water.
She plucked another fish from the pond and dropped into the bucket next to him. He was stunned because she didn't need a rod or bait. She stalked her prey and grabbed them out of the water when they weren't expecting it with her bare hands.
"I thought you were a boy when you first moved here Kat." Clyde and everyone else in town thought she was a boy. She had short hair and wore boy's clothes. No one knew she was a girl until she grew her hair out and started wearing pink to school.
"Yeah." Token giggled. "You sure had Fat Ass fooled." They roared with hysterical laughter.
"That was so funny." Dovahkiin laughed hysterically. "Especially since Stick of Truth was a boy's only game."
"I always thought you had big raisins for a boy Kat." They're laughter died down when she scowled at Clyde and her hands curled into fists. "What?"
"My parents made me cut my hair and wear boy's clothes so they wouldn't find me." She told them the details of how she wound up moving to South Park.
"When you say "they?" You mean like the government?" Dovahkiin asked.
"No." She shook her head. "I beat up the Comancheros in Sydney and tipped the cops off about a large shipment of drugs coming into Sydney Harbour."
"Fellas? What's a Comanchero?" Butters asked and Token shrugged.
"They're just a stupid biker gang." Kat explained. "I didn't have my Kitty costume or a mask so they have me on CCTV and they know who I am."
"You don't think they'll find you do you?" Kenny asked nervously.
"I don't know." She shrugged. "I hope not. I like this town."
"Y-y-y-you l-l-li-i-ke this town?" Jimmy asked surprised.
"Beats Blacktown." She plucked another large fish from the pond and dropped it into his bucket. "I like the snow even though it's cold."
"What's wrong dude?" Kyle asked as he was trying to dry his hat. They all noticed she was worried.
"S-something's coming." She looked at the sky with a sense of dread. "Something bad."
"What's coming?" Craig asked as he looked at the sky.
They were all feeling it. The same looming sense of dread hung in the air. There was no way they could ever be prepared for it. All they could do was work as the Freedom Pals when they needed to and just hang out and be kids in their down time when they weren't at school. Craig brought a propane stove and Kat and Kenny made a tray of baked fish for lunch.
"The beast from the sky."
