Note: Sorry for the wait. I've been busy on my other fanfics. I don't know why, but it seems like I spend some time working on one fanfic, then I work on another one, and then I work on a third one, etc. I'm sure some of you know what that's like.
The next morning, a very interesting article made the front page of the newspapers of London. The article was a story of an ominous-looking cat that had prevented a battle between two local tribes of dogs. That had happened just the previous night. The few witnesses had reported what they had seen, but even the most thorough of their descriptions were vague at best.
Not a single human being knew what to make of the matter. The idea of such a thing happening seemed very absurd to them. However, cats all over the city were gossiping about it. The matter had attracted the attention of all the housecats, the alley cats, and even the strays.
The reasoning is simple: news of this sort travels much more swiftly and evenly with cats. Even if they do not show it, they are very attentive of what happens around them, especially when what happens around them is unprecedented.
The Jellicles had been among the first ones to know of this strange affair. The adult cats did not gossip much about the matter, but the kittens – being innately curious – talking on and on about it.
"It really was amazing," Pouncival recounted, "I never saw anything like it in my life."
"Do you remember everything that happened?" asked Victoria.
"Yes, but you actually had to be there to believe it was real," replied Tumblebrutus.
"Well, if anything, I guess I was wrong," Admetus admitted to Pounce and Tumble, "That cat must have been real. I mean, the two of you, Alonzo, and the London Press can't all be wrong."
"Hey, no hard feelings, Addie," smiled Pouncival, "We can't blame you for doubting us."
"We probably would have been just as skeptical if our positions were reversed," said Tumblebrutus.
Admetus shrugged as Quaxo said "This can only leave us wondering about the future."
"How do you mean?" Victoria asked him.
"For all we know, this might have only been the Rumpus Cat's first appearance," clarified Quaxo.
None of the other kittens had considered this possibility yet. Except for one, of course. And this particular tom knew the Rumpus Cat would turn up again.
A few days later, in an anonymous street in London, a family of stray cats was running very quickly down the block. An Animal Control van was parked further down the street. Two of the men from that truck were following the family of strays close behind. Both of them had long nets in both hands, and to any cat, they looked more like hunters than Animal Control employees.
The family of strays was composed of an adult tom, an adult queen, and four kittens. All of them were running as fast as they could away from the Animal Control employee.
One of the kittens was running at the very back of the group. She accidently tripped and landed flat on her stomach. In her fall, she injured one of her paws.
One of her siblings heard the commotion and turned around. He saw his sister on the ground, struggling to get up. Then he saw the Animal Control agents. He ran over to his sister and tried to get her back on her feet, saying "Come on! We've got to get out of here!"
"I'm trying!" she shouted, "My paw hurts too much!"
"Well, you've got to try!" her brother tried to incite her to get up. But by the time he had succeeded, the Animal Control agents were upon them. One of them brought his net down on the two kittens. They tried to get free, but they were trapped.
The mother cat looked over her shoulder and saw that two of her children had been nabbed by the Animal Control workers. She started to run back to them to help them, but her mate stopped her, saying "No! They'll catch you, too!"
"I'll put these two in a kennel," the man that had caught them said to his colleague, "You get the rest of them."
"I'm on it," said the other man, going after the other strays.
By then, the kittens' mother reluctantly ran in the opposite direction with her mate and their two other kittens. Soon, they were chased into an alley. But to their extreme misfortune, the alley was blocked by a dumpster.
The four strays turned around and saw the other Animal Control agent slowly walking toward them with his net raised. To them, it was an extremely horrifying sight.
The man smirked and said very disturbingly "Here, kitty, kitty, kitty…"
Soon, he was standing right in front of the strays. He was about to bring his net down on all of them, but then he heard a heavy metallic sound resonate in front of him.
The man looked up and saw a very small figure standing on top of the lid to the dumpster. He looked a little closer, and he saw that it was the silhouette of a black and cream cat with abnormally smooth fur.
After a moment of silence, the cat brought one of his front paws up to his face and pressed it against the side of what appeared to be his eye. Suddenly, the cat's eyes started flashing bright red.
"What the hell is that?" said the man.
After an eerie silence, the cat jumped off the dumpster and lunged at the man. He flew directly into his chest, knocking him off his feet.
The four strays in that alley just watched as the man fell onto his back. The black and cream cat landed on the man's chest. He looked nervously at the feline as it stared back at him through its flashing red eyes. After a moment, the cat jumped off the man and landed in front of the other strays. He gestured to them to run.
The strays promptly took his advice. The other cat ran out of the alley with them and upon emerging from the alley, he saw the other Animal Control employee with the two kittens in his net.
The black and cream cat ran up behind the second man and dove right in front of him. The man stopped in his tracks and stared at the ground ahead of him. Then, with stupendous alacrity, the black and cream cat lunged forward so that he was directly underneath the net. He swiped one of his paws at the bottom of the net, severing the thick cords of the net with his sharpened claws. The two kittens dropped out of the net, and just before they hit the ground, their liberator caught them.
"What the-" said the man, still shocked at what had just happened.
By the time he realized it all, the new cat had run off with the two kittens.
He saw that they were still scared, so he told them in a deep voice "Do not be afraid. You are almost out of harm's way."
This cat caught up with the other strays and handed the two kittens over to their parents.
"Oh, thank you, thank you," the mother said over and over.
"Get them to safety," he stated in his deep voice, "I will create a diversion."
The other cats did not say a word. They simply complied with his orders.
The cat ran back over to the Animal Control van and went inside it via the door at the driver's seat. The keys were still in the ignition, but the car was in park. The cat took a short metal rod from the floor at the passenger's seat and forced it down on the brake. At the same time, he took the gear on the steering wheel and switched it from Parking mode to Driving mode.
A moment later, the cat removed the pipe from the brake. The van slowly started inching forward. After about a foot, the cat jumped out of the van and landed on his feet.
The first Animal Control employee had come out of the alley by then. He noticed the van was moving and pointed it out to his coworker. The two of them turned their attention away from the strays and focused their attention on the van.
The street went slightly downhill, which caused the van to gradually accelerate. Before it got out of control, one of the men managed to get to the door at the driver's side and jump in it. He gradually put pressure on the brake until the van had come to a full stop. Then he put the van in park just before it could run into the curb.
By that time, the strays and the black and cream cat had gotten away.
They were already an entire block away from the Animal Control van. Once they were sure that they were safe, the strays repeatedly thanked the black and cream cat for helping them escape.
"It is my pleasure to help others," he spoke in that same deep voice, "But I would recommend that you be more careful and avoid encountering Animal Control again."
"Yes, of course," agreed the adult tom, "But before you go, may we know your name?"
Their rescuer just gazed at them for a few moments, and he replied "You can call me… The Great Rumpus Cat."
Then he disappeared into the shadows.
A few more nights later, three men were being pursued by members of Scotland Yard in the streets. They were wanted felons who had just robbed a local bank a few minutes earlier. Each of them was armed with at least one gun.
At one point in their run, they came to a deserted four-way intersection in the streets. There, the robbers decided to split up. They each went down one different road.
One of the robbers ducked into an alleyway right before a few of the policemen ran onto his street. After about fifteen seconds, two police officers ran right past his alley. After another thirty seconds, the robber peered out to make certain that the coast was clear. Once he had, he ran in the opposite direction of the street.
But before he could take three steps, something ran directly in front of him in a split-second. The next thing the robber knew, he was falling to the ground and shouting in pain.
These sounds alerted the policemen. They returned to the street and found the robber on the ground, holding his foot. The police ran over to him to apprehend him. When they did, they discovered that there four small tears in his left pant leg located just above his foot. Each of those tears revealed a deep cut in the man's skin.
A minute later, another of the robbers had come to a different alleyway. He found a ladder that led to the roof. He put his bag of loot over his shoulder and started climbing up.
But before he could get very far, something zoomed past his right arm. The robber let go of the ladder and collapsed onto the ground, also shouting in pain.
The policemen who were chasing him found him with four tears in his shirt, along with four deep cuts in his arm underneath those tears.
The last of the robbers had managed to avoid getting caught so far. But before long, he was cornered at a bridge. Over his shoulder, he heard the policemen shout "Give up! You're surrounded!"
"Never," he whispered under his breath. He reached for his gun in his pocket, grabbed it, and speedily turned around.
Before anyone could fire a single shot, something rushed directly behind the robber. He shouted and dropped onto his stomach.
The policemen moved in to arrest him. When they got close enough, they saw that the felon had four tears in the back of both his shirt and jacket, with a deep cut in his skin underneath each of them.
"What could have done that?" said one of the officers.
Another of them noticed a black and cream cat standing close by. The cat had flashing red eyes and extremely sharp claws.
"Maybe that cat did it," he said apprehensively as he turned to the other policemen.
"What cat?" inquired one of his coworkers.
"That…" began the cop that had noticed the cat. But when he turned back around, the cat had disappeared. He finished "… cat."
The other policeman looked at him strangely; he just said "I know he was there!"
"Actually, I think he's right," said one of the others, who was kneeling next to the robber, "These cuts on this man's back are fresh, and they are consistent with the mark a cat would leave."
A few more nights after this took place, one of those same policemen was walking down a street. He was off-duty at the time. On his walk, the same cat with the flashing lights jumped in front of him and stood up straight on the ground. The policeman watched as the cat made a few gestures to him, and pointed out a door on the block. The policeman almost felt as if the cat was trying to tell him something.
He went up to the door and – after a moment's hesitation – knocked a few times. A moment later, the door was answered. The policeman could not believe his eyes. The person was the leader of a gang that Scotland Yard had been hunting for nine years. This must have been the gang's headquarters!
Fortunately, because the police officer was off duty, he did not have his uniform on at that time. Otherwise the gang leader would have recognized him.
"May I help you?" asked the gang leader.
The officer knew he could not take the gang leader thought quickly and answered "Umm… no, I'm sorry. I thought this was my friend's house, but I just remembered that he lives next door."
"Well, next time, remember first, then knock," grumbled the gang leader. Then he slammed the door in the police officer's face.
The police officer turned around and looked for the cat, but he was nowhere in sight. Within an hour, he reported what he had just learned to his fellow officers at Scotland Yard. Not long after, the gang leader and his accomplices were arrested.
All three of these events had made the front page of all the London newspapers the day after they took place. Many people noted that each of them had involved a cat. It did not take long for people to conclude that the cat was the same one in all three scenarios. Soon after, people realized that it was the same cat that had stopped the fight between the Pekes and the Pollicles.
The Great Rumpus Cat's popularity was growing steadily throughout London. Humans were left wondering about him, but the city's cat population was filled with curiosity.
In the Jellicle Tribe, this curiosity was shared. Each of the kittens in the Tribe had developed a different idea about the "Great Rumpus Cat" and his motivations.
Plato suggested that he was a thug that saw some sort of personal benefit in doing what he was doing, such as manipulating the minds of both people and cats. The others quickly dismissed this idea; based upon his actions, the cat could have been anything but a thug.
Jemima theorized that he was a blessing from the Mystical Divinity of Unashamed Felinity that had come to restore order on the streets of London. The others praised Jemima for her reasoning and her innocence, but they dismissed her theory as well; it just did not seem like it could be authentic.
Quaxo hypothesized that he was another magical cat that did good deeds. The others decided that this hypothesis was not very likely; there were only two cats alive that were known to have magical powers: Quaxo himself and his father Macavity.
Electra proposed that he was a public servant that operated under a secret identity. This seemed to be the most reasonable assumption so far, but The Rumpus Cat did not seem to be a servant. If anything, he seemed to do what he did on his own accord.
Pouncival posited that he was simply some lunatic that behaved very impulsively yet genially to others. Naturally, his assumption did not have a lot of merit to it; The Rumpus Cat did not appear to be insane.
Victoria postulated that he was some type of professional dancer that utilized his various moves to moonlight as a do-gooder. The other kittens quickly rejected this absurd idea, as they knew that Victoria could sometimes be a little obsessed with dancing.
Tumblebrutus speculated that he was an undercover member of a covert group that was committing acts of charity to gain publicity for his association in time. To the kittens, the very idea of even a human doing that seemed somewhat ludicrous.
Then, it was Etcetera's turn to state what she thought about the Rumpus Cat. She told them that she simply believed that he was just an ordinary cat that felt a certain obligation to better the environment around him. So far, her opinion was the only one that everybody found to be reasonably authentic.
Finally, they got to Admetus. The others asked him what he believed the Rumpus Cat's motivation was. He had chosen his answer carefully. He told them "He's obviously a superhero that's come to obliterate all crime from the face of London."
Admetus wanted to give the others an outrageous answer to further draw suspicion away from him. To his immense satisfaction, he knew his little plan had worked when the other kittens burst out laughing at his supposition.
"That's got to be the best one yet!" declared Pouncival.
"You think he's a freaking SUPERHERO?" exclaimed Electra.
"I'm sorry, but that is one dumb supposition!" commented Plato.
Only Etcetera did not laugh. She spoke up and said to the others "At least Admetus' hypothesis is more rational than most of yours!"
The other kittens quickly stopped laughing. Etcetera seemed to be angry with the others for mocking Admetus. Normally, she never got angry, but such a thing was possible.
The others quickly apologized to Admetus for ridiculing his theory. He forgave them.
"Whoever the Great Rumpus Cat is, I hope I can meet him someday," Etcetera privately told Admetus later on.
Admetus smiled at her and said "Who knows, Cetty? Anything is possible."
Note: I uploaded this chapter in June, but this is me speaking to you in December, now that I've finally returned to this story. Starting in the next chapter, this story will become darker. It won't get too dark, though. For a while, at least...
Review, please!
