Chapter Three

He Realizes He's Got Him Halfway To Hell

It was two hundred years ago when they first brought him to the Facility to be trained.

The young cat struggled desperately in the cage. Although he was strong and able, the wire bars were stronger and cut into his golden fur. The cramped conditions made it impossible for him to shift, and he let out stressed meows. He'd only been suddenly uprooted from his family that morning, and the circumstances around it were still unknown. They'd taken him that morning and tranquilized him, before they'd put him in this tiny cage. Now he was bumping along a dirt road in the back of a carriage, on his way to the Facility he'd heard his parents speak of.

Eventually the carriage stopped, and two men got out to pick up his cage. Although he was only ten human years old at the time (two in cat years), he was already half-grown and weighed more than them. They carried him in through the gates and into a concrete pen, where they set his cage down and opened it. After he was out, the two men removed the cage and shut the door to the pen. As they were walking away, one man hesitated and returned to the door and grinned at Arthur through the bars.

"Welcome to hell."

(Meanwhile, in the present...)

"Alright," Arthur started to say as he led Alfred to a different section of the city. This section was filled with large cement buildings, similar to the one Hercales had himself locked in. There were also large cement mazes, which he'd been told were test runs. The whole place was a training center for the new cats; it was halfly a shooting range and halfly a military training course. "This is where your training will begin. Normally, you'd train with the person you bond with but since there aren't any unbonded cats, you'll just train with me."

"What do you mean bonded?" Alfred asked curiously as he walked into one of the buildings with Arthur.

"Every cat in the group bonds to another cat," Arthur explained. "The cat they bond with is their partner for life." Looking down, Arthur pinned his ears back. "I never bonded with another cat."

"Oh." For a moment, Alfred fell silent. "How long does it take? The bonding process?"

"Sometimes it only takes days, sometimes months. I know for one of our pairs it took a whole year." Eventually they arrived at a back room, and Arthur's ears perked back up. "Ah. Here we are. This is where you'll get your collar and bandanna, the markings of the Cats." In the middle of the room stood a single lone column, and on top of that column rested a silver box. "Every time a new cat joins the Cats or comes of age, one of these appears. Each collar is made especially for that specific cat. No one else is allowed to wear the collar or the bandanna." Walking over to it, Arthur picked up the box and handed it to Alfred. "You can keep the box if you want, but you don't need it." Alfred carefully took the box and studied it for a second, before deciding to open it. Inside was a silver collar with a gold tag attached, reading "ALFRED F. JONES, CAT IN TRAINING." Behind it rested a green bandanna, and Alfred rested the box back on the column as he first clipped on the collar, then tied on the bandanna. They rested easily on his neck and didn't feel the least bit awkward, like he'd expected it to.

"Will I have to change the tag when my rank changes?" Alfred asked, looking down at the tag that was half-hidden by his new accessory.

"No, it'll change itself," Arthur replied.

"How does it do that?" Alfred asked, looking curiously at the other blonde. Arthur just shrugged.

"Don't know. It just...happens. Anyway, it's time for you to get your gun. Follow me." Again Arthur took off down the hallway, and Alfred followed, curiously awaiting whatever was ahead of him. Eventually they came to another large room, where there were a multitude of guns lying in glass cases with the tops open, some lying against the wall, and some were actually up on the wall, supported by shelves and hooks. As he looked around with wide eyes, one of the guns began to shake. For a moment, Alfred froze with fear, wondering what could be causing such a thing to happen, before the gun flew off of its place on the shelf and landed in Alfred's hands.

"Was that magic too?" Alfred asked, carefully studying the gun that he held in his hands. Judging from what the tag wrapped around the end said, it was a Daewoo USAS-12, and it seemed to be fairly new and in good condition. He'd never used a gun before, and his hands shook a little as he held onto it. "Will it fire?"

"No, number one, it's on safety, number two, it won't fire unless you put your finger on the trigger and pull, and number three, it's not loaded," Arthur told him. "Have you never used a gun before?"

"Was it that obvious?" Alfred half-chuckled as his tight grip loosened on the shotgun in his hands. "No, I've never used one. Mattie and I's foster mom didn't believe in using guns to solve problems."

"That's the silliest idea that I've ever heard, but I guess if it worked for her..." Turning, Arthur started to walk out. "Come with me. It's time to start your training."

Alfred was led into one of the sections of the training facility, and it was a shooting range. He immediately flinched at the sounds of guns being fired, and Arthur nudged him out of his crouching position.

"If you want to live with us, you'll have to get used to hearing gunshots," Arthur told him, and Alfred nodded and followed him. Every once and a while, he flinched at a particularly loud shot. Finally they came to a large clearing-like area with targets set up on a hill. After giving him a pair of protective goggles, earmuffs, and plenty of bullets, Arthur showed him how to hold the gun and aim at the target.

"Don't put your finger on the trigger until you're ready to fire," he told him, and Alfred nodded, staring at the target over the top of the gun. Eventually, he pulled the trigger and fired a shot. It missed where he was aiming by a lot, and the blonde frowned at his failed attempt.

"It's alright, a lot of people miss on the first shot. Don't get discouraged," Arthur told him. "We'll stay here until you can hit the center target consistently." Biting his lip, Alfred crouched and re-aimed at the target. He was determined to get it right, no matter how many times he had to try.

Since there was no sun, Alfred had no idea how long he'd been training, but from a quick glance at his watch he could tell that it had been a long time. He'd left his house at ten o' clock the day before, and now it was ten o' clock. It had been at least two days since he'd slept, and he hadn't eaten anything all day. The shifter was exhausted, but he was finally able to shoot the target consistently; well, almost consistently. He still missed a few times, but he was doing better than he was at the beginning.

"Alright, I think it's about time we went home," Arthur suggested, noticing how exhausted the other shifter was. "You've done well enough today. We'll train some more tomorrow." Alfred returned the goggles and earmuffs to Arthur before following him out of the building, eyes glazed with fatigue and hunger.

Once they'd made it back to the city, and Arthur had realized just how hungry Alfred was, he offered him something to eat before he took him to where he'd be staying. He'd given him a small thing that looked like a biscuit, but by smelling it Alfred knew it wasn't the same thing.

"What is it?" He asked, looking at the thing in his hand.

"It's a scone," Arthur replied, and Alfred's ears twitched. He'd never heard of such a thing, so he decided to try it. Cautiously, Alfred picked it up in his mouth, then devoured the whole thing with one bite. After it was gone, Alfred curled his lip in distaste. It hadn't tasted very good at all (rather bland, if you asked him), and it hadn't helped with his hunger in the slightest.

"I don't like it," the blonde muttered. "No offense but...it's nasty."

The smaller cat huffed and his ears did 180's as he closed his green eye. "I don't understand why nobody likes them. I like them." At his comment, a small grin flashed across Alfred's face, before disappearing as he waited for Arthur to show him to his home.

They walked on for a while before they reached streets of what looked like apartment buildings, but Arthur explained that they were more like college dorm rooms. Each building was made up of six sections, an A, B, C, D, E, and F section. In each section there were 6 rooms and a common room, which was like a living room, complete with a fridge, oven, microwave, T.V. and a place to set up a computer. Due to the fact the cats paired together, twelve cats could be living in one section at a time.

Alfred was told that he'd be staying at Building 1, Section A, room 6. He gave Arthur his goodbyes before going into the building and walking sleepily to Section A, which, luckily was on the bottom floor so he didn't have to go up any steps or anything. As soon as he opened the door, however, he found that it would most likely be very hard to get any sleep sometime soon.

"Give it back!" A rough, German voice commanded, and Alfred looked for the source of it. A blonde haired cat was busy chasing a white haired one around the common room. The white haired one had a bag of something in his arms, and whatever it was apparently belonged to the German.

"You'll have to catch me first," the second teased, pausing for just a moment before continuing to run around.

"You should settle down, Gilbert," a dark reddish-brown haired cat snapped from where he sat on the couch. "If you break another one of my vases, then so help me..." A brown-haired cat sat beside him, eyes half closed and smiling as he leaned against the smaller cat, who didn't appear to be enjoying his presence. Also beside him, in a big lazy chair sat a silver and white tiger, curled up and sleeping in the chair, head tucked under his foreleg, tail twitching every so often in his sleep. Alfred noticed his brother, Matthew, intently watching the chase between the two cats. Another blonde haired cat watched beside him as well, tail lashing back and forth eagerly. Obviously, they were both curious to see how this would turn out.

"Calm down you guys," a voice called from the stove, and Alfred could see a lighter reddish-brown haired cat standing there over a pot of boiling something, and the something smelled good. "The pasta is almost ready~" So that's what it was.

At the sound of his voice, the white-haired cat's head turned, distracting him for just a moment as he tripped over a fallen object, before landing flat on his face. The bag that he'd been holding fell out of his arms, and what appeared to be little rocks tumbled across the floor.

"My lava rocks*!" the blonde-haired cat exclaimed, moving to put them all back inside of the bag. He growled dangerously at the white-haired cat, who grinned sheepishly before backing up.

"Care to explain what's going on here?" Alfred yawned tiredly, sitting down in a chair and looking at his brother through half-closed sky blue eyes.

"Hello, Alfred," Matthew greeted, turning around from where he'd been sitting to look at his brother. "Gilbert stole Ludwig's lava rocks again." Alfred stared at him for a moment, before deciding not to ask and just sighing and shaking his head. For a moment, Matthew was silent as well, before his eyes brightened. "Oh, guys, I have to introduce you to my older brother, Alfred."

"Is this the brother you've been telling us about?" the second blonde who'd been sitting beside Matthew asked.

"Yes, it is." Sitting on the couch, Matthew curled his tail around his feet and grinned. "Alfred, this is Francis Bonnefoy, nickname Joker. He's my partner."

Partner... Alfred thought as he looked at the other cat. So my brother is already bonded. "Nice to meet you," Alfred greeted.

"The tiger sleeping in the chair over there is Ivan Braginski, nickname Wolf. He's Gilbert's partner; oh, and Gilbert is the white-haired one who was holding the bag. His full name is Gilbert Beilschmidt, nickname Dog. He's Ludwig's older brother. The blonde one is Ludwig Beilschmidt, nickname Shotgun. His partner is Feliciano. The one at the stove is Feliciano Vargas, nickname Wine, he's Lovino's younger brother. The dark reddish-brown haired one sitting on the couch is Lovino Vargas, nickname Stone. His partner is Antonio, the one sitting beside him. His full name is Antonio Fernandez Carriedo, nicknamed Sail." After Matthew had finally finished talking, he looked over at Alfred. "Got that?"

"I...I think so," he murmured. Alfred was really too tired to tell, but hopefully he'd remember their names in the morning. "Say, is that food ready yet? I'm starving."

"It just got finished!" Feliciano announced from where he stood. "You're in luck tonight!"

After he'd finally finished eating and was ready to turn in for the night, Alfred got up, stretched, and yawned mightily before trotting off to the room where he'd be staying. As he left, Matthew looked after him.

"Where are you going?" the younger blonde asked.

"To bed," Alfred replied, rubbing tiredly at his eyes. "I'll see you in the morning."

"Yeah, I'll see you too." For a moment, Matthew went silent, before getting up and running over to his older brother and hugging him tightly. Alfred just stood there a bit stunned, seeing how his brother had never given him such a display, before smiling and putting his arms around Matthew's shoulders. "I've really missed you."

"I've missed you too, little brother," Alfred smiled, gently stroking the top of his brother's head. The last few days had definitely gone better than he'd planned.

Meanwhile, somewhere somewhat far away...

"Did you hear the news?" a black haired professor asked a second, a dusky-brown haired one.

"No," he replied, looking up from the newspaper he'd been reading. "What happened?"

"Two new shifters joined the Hellcats in the last two months," the first muttered. "By the names of Alfred F. Jones and Matthew Williams. Supposedly, they're brothers, but I wouldn't know."

The dusky-brown haired professor just lifted the newspaper to his face. "That's interesting." He had nothing more to say on the topic.

Another man was not quite so passive about the news.

"WHAT?" an elder scientist asked, turning around. A similar-looking brunette stood next to him; the two looked nearly identical, except for that the other man had much lighter hair than the first, so light it was almost cinnamon brown.

"We've just confirmed that the two have, in fact joined the Hellcats, under rule by Arthur Kirkland." the young scientist who'd given them the news squeaked as the older brunette jumped forward and gripped his neck.

"Imbecile!" he snarled, tossing him to the ground and kicking the scientist's ribs. "You don't just run around like a chicken with its head cut off! Send someone down there to—"

"Don't worry about it, Victor," the other scientist told him, walking over to the older. He had a heavy Italian accent, another thing that separated himself and the first. "I can handle it."

Jones, the first, hesitated for a moment, before smiling and nodding. "Yes, please do Attilo. Just remember—bring at least one back alive. It would be even better if you brought both back with you, but if you need to make two trips that would be fine."

"I think one trip will be enough," Attilo replied, bowing his head. "I shall not fail you, my brother."

"You've never failed me before, Attilo. I don't doubt you." Jones looked out of the window at the still-dark sky. "Go now." The Italian nodded and walked out of the office, and Jones smiled as he watched him leave. "Even if Attilo fails to catch him now, I still know where the two are. They will be in my possession…make no doubt about that. And this time, there's nothing that man can do about it."

And, by that decree, there was an antagonist and a protagonist.

[*"My lava rocks!" – I don't normally do this but I think this needed an explanation. Sometimes, animals get compulsive behaviors just like humans. They need to do a certain thing to keep them calm. For Ludwig-cat, he chews on lava rocks. A lot of animals do this. It's not harmful, but it does make their teeth quite white and shiny. I would know, I know a dog who chews on them daily.]