A.N. ~ Hey guys, I know I said that I would update I couple days ago, but I forgot that I had a skiing trip. But never fear, I'm here with another update. This chapter will finish up all the cats, just so I can move on further in the story. Each cat's section might be a little short because frankly, I'm getting sick of writing about their problems. I want to move on in the story! Also, if you don't like gory descriptions, heads up for the first part of this chapter. This chapter is more drama than comedy. So here ya go!
Disclaimer: *says something that makes you laugh really hard* I don't own Cats. Or my Sweeney Todd reference, about the precious rubies.
Munkustrap looked down at his list. Ugh. Just what he needed. Etcetera. The kitten could almost surely give Munkustrap a migraine painful enough to make him want to take her and chuck her into the nearest hard object. But each time he had to resist the urge.
He was about to go looking for her, when she found him.
"Munkustrap!" she bawled as she ran up to him, "I-it h-h-hurts! Make it st-s-stop!" She was crying hard enough to make her shoulders heave up and down with each ragged breath that she took.
"What hurts, Etcetera?" Munkustrap had to strain not to panic, or show the fear in his eyes. Kits looked up to the protector, and with him they felt safe, and invulnerable. If they saw fear written on his face, they too would become frightened and make matters worse. But Munkustrap knew how to handle these kinds of situations. Over the years he's had many young kits run up to him, bawling their eyes out, because of something foolish they did. Many of them were young enough to think that Munkustrap would be able to fix anything, so they ran to him, instead of Jellylorum or Jennyanydots, some of the queens who could take care of them.
"OK, Munkustrap," he thought to himself as Etcetera started to go into a coughing fit that left her unable to answer, "just stay calm, and try to keep her mind off of the pain."
He was about to ask her the same question again, when he saw it. The blood. The precious rubies slowly fell from the wound. It had soaked her fur, and was staining the ground beneath her. Etcetera's arm was broken. Severely. It was hanging at her side broken and useless. Munkustrap doubted that she could even raise it, its condition was that bad. It had been broken in several spots, and in many places, the bone had protruded to the point where it had ripped through the skin and was sticking out, a pale and bloody protrusion from such an undeserving cat.
True, there had been many times where Munkustrap had hid the fact that he wanted to hurt the small kitten, but he didn't think she deserved this. Her arm was being held together by just the flesh around the bone, threatening to fall off and never come back on. Torn veins and arteries were spurting a seemingly never ending spout of the kitten's warm red blood. Her white fur looked out of place, as most of her body was covered in blood. He was surprised that she was still conscious after her huge blood loss.
All of this registered in Munkustrap's mind in about a second. When he saw Etcetera begin to sway, he knew there wasn't much time. Without a second thought, he picked her up bridal style, which made her scream in pain. The sound of pure agony made Munkustrap wince. No one deserved this. When he had her safely in his arms, he ran as fast as he could to Jennyanydot's den. Each time one of his feet pounded on the ground, blood made its way onto him. By the time he got to Jenny's den, he was almost unrecognizable.
"Jenny!" He called out. "Oh god let her be here please be here oh god help" kept racing through his mind. When Jenny came out from the back, she took one look at the situation, and jumped into action.
Three hours later, Etcetera was passed out with her arm in a splint.
"It was the best I could do, under the circumstances," she explained, when the silver tabby asked, "Anything else and she might've lost an arm. She's lucky she found you when she did." She could tell that he was shaken. It wasn't often that she could see what he was thinking, but one look into his eyes, and she knew all she needed to. Fear. Pure, cold-blooded fear. It wasn't comforting to see the Protector in such a state, even if she knew the reason.
There was a terrible, high strung tension that filled the room, making it feel that you were breathing through a tiny straw in a room that had no air left in it.
"Why don't we get washed up, dear?" She said, hoping her words would cut through the tension. It helped a little. Munkustrap got all of the dried blood and sweat out of his matted fur, and felt better. He stood up to stretch, and in doing so, he knocked Jenny's collar, which was set down carelessly on the edge of the table, onto the ground. Jenny saw it too. She hurried over to pick it up. The thing was though, Munkustrap had the same idea. THWOCK! Two heads collided.
"Ow, that hurt. Sorry Jenny." Munkustrap apologized, but she wasn't paying attention. She was on the ground with a dazed expression on her face. When Munkustrap neared her, her head snapped up. A look of confusion crossed her face.
"Who are you?" She asked. Now it was Munkustrap's turn to be confused. Was she playing a game?
"Umm, it's me, Munkustrap." He said slowly. He started to get really nervous when the confusion on her face didn't go away.
"Munkustrap? Who's he? And more importantly, who in the Heavyside Layer am I?"
Munkustrap could tell she wasn't fooling. This was serious. He needed to figure out how to get her memory back. He remembered something he had heard a few weeks ago, and a few seconds later... THWOCK!
"Owwww! Whaddya do that for?" Jelly screeched.
"Sorry! I thought I could hit your memory back in. I guess it didn't work..."
Munkustrap sighed. He looked out at the Junkyard to see that it was getting darker, and more and more shadows were appearing. It was getting late. He didn't have time for this! There was only one thing to do in a situation like this...
FIVE MINUTES LATER
Munkustrap hummed a little tune as he chucked Jennyanydots into the closet, bound and gagged.
"I'll let you out when I can help you. In the meantime though, you have to stay in there."
Munkustrap hurried out, and avoided looking at Etcetera's limp form on the table, barely breathing. He fumbled for the list to get his mind off of things. Next, the infamous cat burglars.
As he neared the den, Munkustrap was surprised to find no noise coming from within.
"That's a shock," he thought to himself. He was about to knock on the door when Mungojerrie whipped it open and pulled him inside. Munkustrap was about to yell his protest, but Mungojerrie held a paw to his lips.
"Shhh, act no'mal. Doin't do anythoing suspoiscious."
He made Munkustrap sit on the couch with him, and proceeded to make small talk with him, when Rumpleteazer burst into the room.
"Wher' are thoiy? Thoiy gone! Oi can't foind dem anywheres!"
Munkustrap was about to ask what she lost, when he noticed Mungojerrie trying to hold back laughter without much success. Rumpleteazer saw it too.
"You tooks thems, doidn't you! Give thems backs!"
Mungojerrie took out a string of pearls out from behind his back and swung them around his paw, which was over his head. Rumpleteazer lunged for them, and missed. And missed again. And again. And again. Mungojerrie was laughing the whole time. Rumple, however, did not think it funny.
"Give thems back roight naow! Roight naow! I means it! Give 'em! NAOW! GIVE THEMS BACK! THEYS NOT YOURS! GIVE 'EM!"
Munkustrap got confused. What was happening to Rumple? She never got this aggressive with her partner in crime. Mungojerrie must have got confused too, for he stopped waving the pearls around, and gave them to Rumple. But it didn't end there.
"THEYS BE MOINE JERRY! MOINE! ONE DAY OI'S GONNA BE THE RULER OF ALL OF YOUSE! THOINE YOU'LL REGROIT IT! YOU WILL! BWOI HAOI HAOI HAOI! BWOI HAOI HAOI HAOI HAOI HAOI!"
Mungojerrie was confused. Was Rumple going crazy? At the current moment she was running into walls and screaming things like "Hows youse loike thaoit, Jerrys?"
Munkustrap decided to slowly back out of the den, until he was a safe distant away. He really wasn't sure what just happened. He was about to run away when he heard Mungojerrie screaming, "Help Munkustrap! I can't control her!"
"Oh, fine," Munkustrap grumbled as he trudged back to the den.
FIVE MINUTES LATER
THUMP! Rumpleteazer let out an inaudible squeak as her body hit the floor of the closet that Munkustrap had just chucked her in.
"It's for your own good. When you're sane you can be untied." She heard Munkustrap say as he closed the doors and shoved darkness upon her.
"Well, who's next on my list, ummm, oh, Pouncival. Great. Someone accident prone."
Getting closer to Pouncival den, he realized that he really wanted the day to be over. He only had around three more cats to go. He decided that he would get them over as fast as possible. When he knocked on the door, Pouncival almost immediately opened it.
"We need to talk. I want a different part."
I'll see what I can do. Bye!" Munkustrap replied, running away as fast as he could. He did the same with Tumblebrutus, who had something wrong with his back, he didn't stay long enough to find out. He did it again with Exotica, who wanted more stage time, or something. When he went to Jellylorum's den, she just got angry at him. Apparently, Gus had been taking most of his anger out on her.
When he got to his den, he didn't even bother going over what happened that day. He went straight to bed, not giving a second's thought to the big tribe meeting that was going to happen tomorrow.
I hope you liked it! Thanks to r1y2r3e4s and FantabulousMe for the ideas for Mungo and Teazer and Jellylorum and Jennyanydots! Like I said, I spent a lot less time on each cat, except for Etcetera, just because I got sick of writing about them. But they'll be in the story more in later chapters. Sorry if you wanted Pouncival, Tumblebrutus, and Exotica to be longer. In a few days I should have another chapter up! If I missed anyone please tell me! Until then!