A/N I don't own this story or characters; I only own Sophia.

Mirage1234: Thank you :)

Sophia continued on her nightly walk, finding herself at Francis's house. Her paws took her inside, pausing at the staircase. She saw Francis exit the bedroom to the left of the staircase. She trotted up to him, waving her tail in greeting. "Oh, good evening, Sophia." He nodded. "Couldn't sleep?"

She shook her head. "Me neither. I just woke up from a horrific nightmare."

She sat down and cocked her head in curiosity. "Well, I was in a field that was literally made of dead cats, as far as the eye could see." Francis began explaining, sitting as well. "Then, a giant can opener rose out of the field, talking about Felidae being the answer to the puzzle, hybrid plant experiments, and some things Pascal said. I'm sure I recognize the man…well, never mind. It was a simple nightmare." He stood up and nudged open a door that was across the bedroom he had just exited. "Whenever my mind is full and racing, I usually go hunting to calm the nerves. Care to join me?"

Sophia nodded with a smile and followed the tom down to the basement. It was full of old furniture, papers, and random junk. In a small clearing, illuminated by lightning through a small window near the ceiling, were about half a dozen rats, grooming themselves and chewing on random pieces of garbage.

Francis slowly circled the group, while Sophia snuck in straight on. Then, they pounced. Squeaking, the rats ran for cover. One climbed up a stack of books and onto a table. Sophia and Francis ran after it. Francis bumped a VCR, causing a small television to come alive. Sophia skidded to a stop and looked at it curiously. As Francis caught and killed the rat on the floor, she twisted a knob on the VCR, eliminating the fuzziness some. "…funding for a year." An elderly voice said as a scene of a laboratory appeared on the television screen. The date in the upper right corner said Jan 24th,1980.

"This lab is my dream. Pharmarox has spared no expense. My assistants are Zeibold and Grey." Two young men appeared on the screen, both wearing doctor smocks and facial masks, and latex gloves. One had white skin and red hair, while the other had darker skin and black hair. The red-head was adjusting some knobs on a machine, while the darker-skinned man held a test tube of butter-colored, steaming solution.

An elderly man in a lab coat set a dark-gray cat on a table and petted its back, seemingly calming it. "I know that my tissue bonding adhesive will revolutionize medical science." The elderly man rolled the cat onto its side and pinned it to the table with metal rings, similar to large handcuffs. As it struggled and screeched, the red-head took out a scalpel and made a small incision in the back of the cat's head. The black man took out some of the solution with a dropper and put a drop on the wound on the cat's head. It immediately began bubbling, making the wound bigger, and the cat writhed in pain before slowly dying.

"The first experiment has failed," The elderly man said. "Instead of bonding the edges of the wound together, the mixture edged its way through the skull and into the brain. I can only conclude that the solution needs to be diluted further." The man drank from an alcoholic bottle, sighing.

The video cut forward to Apr 25th, 1980. Two cats were pinned to the table this time. A patch of fur was removed from the back of one of the cats' head, the skin was sliced, and the mixture was dripped on. Again, the skull was melted away, and the brain exposed. As the cat died, the elderly man drank again, groaning, "It simply defies logic!"

The video cut to a day later, showing the red-head setting a young, familiar-looking Havana Brown cat on the floor. "This morning, a strapping young stray found its way to the lab." The elderly man said as the cat explored the room very curiously. "We have decided to make him our mascot."

The video cut again to the first of May in the same year. "So many experiments gone wrong," The elderly man sighed as the Havana Brown was strapped to the table, like the other cats before him. "Now we only have our nameless mascot as a test subject."

The cat's shoulder was sliced, and the solution dripped on. Expecting another failure, the elderly man grabbed his bottle, went to take a sip, and dropped it in shock. "A miracle! I applied the mixture, and the wound was healed perfectly!"

The man took the groggy cat to a cage, saying proudly, "This young stray has proven to be an invaluable service to science." He shut the door and hung up a wooden sign. "I have named him Claudandus," Sophia and Francis's ears perked up in surprise. "And he will go down in medical his—"

The video suddenly cut ahead to Jun 19th, 1980. Claudandus was laying on a table, being injected with anesthesia. "We had to perform a dissection on Claudandus," The elderly man sighed. "Something in his genetic makeup enables him, unlike the other subjects, to absorb the healing mixture without any side effects. He must be a mutant."

Sophia cringed downward as they drilled into his head and slit his belly open. Francis patted her back as the video, now saying Aug 28th, 1980, showed the elderly man shaking a bottle while drunkenly slurring that their funding had been cut. "But I am Professor Preterius! A shortage of test subjects? No problem."

Now it was the eleventh of October, and Zeibold had apparently left the laboratory. Preterius let him leave, saying he would continue on his own. "Sacrifices must be made!"

Now the twentieth of November, Preterius said that thanks to his breeding program, and Claudandus, he had kittens to experiment on. He banged on Claudandus's cage, shouting about a new super race of cats.

The next clip had no date, and showed the front of Claudandus's cage. "Yes, Claudandus talked to me!" He giggled, almost sounding drunk. "How fascinating! The animal…has no sense of humor."

Out of the shadows of the cage appeared the angry face of Claudandus, now older, and more familiar-looking.

The video became to gray and fuzzy to be able to make out anything, though both cats could hear Preterius talking about letting Claudandus out of his cage and accepting a fight challenge. Sophia twisted the knob on the VCR, but the video quality wouldn't change. "I think that's it," Francis said. "There's no more. And quite frankly…I don't wish to see any more."

Sophia nodded in agreement, pressing the stop button on the VCR. No wonder the sect worships Claudandus. To have survived those tortures for that long…I couldn't imagine. But why does he look so familiar?

Suddenly, the peace was shattered when a familiar yell sounded. Whipping around, Sophia and Francis saw Kong jump down through the window and onto the floor. Crushing the rat Francis had caught and left, he snarled, "I did say that you and I would have a chat in the not-too-distant future, didn't I?"

"I would love to have a chat, but I have more important things to do." Francis said politely, jumping down to the floor and circling away from Kong.

"Well, you're gonna have to squeeze me in." The larger cat said.

"Kong, don't you think we should at least talk about more important things?"

"Sure, sure," He actually nodded. "I'm listening."

"I need your help," Sophia drew her head back in surprise, though neither cat noticed. "To find the crazy who's killing all of our brothers."

"You're looking right in his face." Kong said.

What?!

"You?!" Francis echoed Sophia's surprise. "But Kong, why you?"

"Why me? Well, like you, they didn't show me respect."

Sophia glanced at Francis as she shook her head. She didn't like Kong, but she didn't believe that he would kill anyone. "I agree with Sophia," Francis said. "There's no denying you're a tough guy, but I'm not convinced the blood is on your paws."

"Well then, let's see if I can convince you." Kong laughed.

Behind Sophia and Francis were two snickers. Glancing back, they saw the Hermans standing on a tall stack of books and junk. "Three against two?" Francis frowned. "Is this fair?"

"Fair? Aw, hell no." Even Kong shook his head, though he didn't do anything to call the Hermans off.

Dodging the larger cat, Francis and Sophia scurried up another stack of books and through a bookshelf, only to find the window was boarded up. Turning around, they saw they were cornered. "Leave him to me," Kong snarled. "You two can have the ugly rat."

Sophia hissed at the three cats, lashing her thin tail. When the twins leapt, she and Francis jumped away as well, slicing both cats as they went. When they landed, before they could move, Kong grabbed Francis by the scruff and began shaking him about. Growling, Sophia leapt onto Kong's back and sunk her claws and teeth into the large hump. Let go of my friend, you big ugly brute!

While Kong was distracted, Francis sliced Kong's lip, making him drop the smaller tom and yell in pain. As he leapt away, Sophia jumped down as well and ran, though not before kicking some dust in his face. "You ugly bitch!" Kong screamed. "Get back here!"

Francis and Sophia managed to leap out of the window and take off, even though it was raining heavily. They ran out of the yard, only to find Kong and the Hermans climbing over the fence after them. They ran through yards and over small buildings, even falling into a fountain once.

As they slowed to a stop, panting, Sophia could smell something. Something that smelled like copper and death. And it was right under their feet.

Francis gasped in horror at what he saw, and muttered, "Oh no! Not this!"

Sophia looked as well; at the cats' feet was a dead she-cat laying on her side, eyes wide open. Only this time, it was worse: her belly had been sliced open, and several underdeveloped kittens laid by her in the grass and blood.

A loud, horrified scream sounded into the stormy night.

A/N With this story, I have to watch the Felidae movie (which is on YouTube, luckily) to get English dialogue and see what certain characters are doing and where they are. The only script I've found is the German-to-English dialogue translation, with no actions described (like "Francis jumps onto stack of books" for example) But since I enjoy the movie, I don't mind having to watch it. Another good thing is the movie's divided into ten-twenty parts, making it easier to find a certain spot.

I never really noticed the video had a date in the corner until I watched that part of the movie for this chapter. That video took place in almost the whole year of 1980, and was probably several years prior. So Felidae more than likely takes place in the 1990s-late 90s, which is just over twenty years shy of present day. I always like knowing time-periods of movies/books, and always find it interesting and kinda funny when movies take place in the present, especially the same year they were published.

During the film, I always cringed when the cat's head was drilled into X( No wonder he was so angry at the end of the tape.

Now we've found one of the most infamous Felidae deaths just after Felicity's: a mother cat and her unborn kittens.