A/N: Hello peoples. I made it to Chapter 10 in this very long story. I'm sorry to say that this story may end up being 30 chapters long. Take heart, for I will try my best to lengthen chapters and update in a timely fashion. If anyone is willing to read this incredibly cliche and long story, I will be eternally grateful. Eternally.
To my super, fantastic, decreasing number of reviewers:
To DNDK 38: Thank you! I haven't watched 300, but I watched the trailer. That line just stuck. Hope you like this chapter!
To AdrenalineRush16: Yes, I love Victoria and I couldn't bear to bash her for too long. Thanks for reading and reviewing! I hope this clears up the confusion a bit...Enjoy!
To Roselna: I don't know if you have read this far yet, but if you have I would like to thank you for your amazingly heartwarming review. It really made my day! Thank you for liking my story and reviewing! I hope you enjoy this chapter as well.
Note: If you still don't get what happened, I explain in detail at the bottom. And forgive the choppiness of some parts.
"talk" - regular speech
"talk" - Draconis speech or thoughts
"talk" - Both Victoria and Electra speaking
"I should have known it was Macavity suppressing me", Quaxo berated himself as they were now at the mercy of the Hidden Paw.
The Napoleon of Crime stood up from his throne and said, "I will give you two options at this point."
At a wave of his paw, the entrance from which they came from was sealed closed by a large rock. The four of the rescue squad turned in surprise and horror at their entrapment.
"The first option is to surrender and come quietly to the dungeons with my Henchrats", the ginger tom raised an eyebrow, "The second option is to swear a binding oath of loyalty to serve me."
"I see", Victoria replied calmly, "But there is one thing I'd like to say."
"Yes?"
Electra's eyes widened and she said, "Rumpleteazer?"
"Yes", Draconis pulled a mocking face of sympathy and said, "You didn't really believe that she would be able to resist bribery, did you?"
"Actually I kind of expected her to resist", the dark tabby replied almost conversationally as she examined the rice paper covering the cells. Maybe she'd be able to barge out, since the paper was weak.
"Don't try", the silken voice told her. On closer examination, the rice paper was actually some sort of spider web, silken threads or something.
"They're poisonous. The moment they make contact with your fur or skin, you're as good as dead", Draconis focused his slit-like eyes on her carefully.
Electra backed away from the poisonous threads slowly, "Dangerous, huh?"
"Of course."
"Well then", the dark tabby pondered, "It's a good thing I like danger, isn't it?"
"I believe you've left the most obvious option out", Victoria stated as if she was commenting on the weather.
"Even if you like danger, I know you wouldn't be so reckless as to crash into the poison threads", Draconis laughed a little, his lips twisting into a smirk and even though he rarely smiled, it seemed that the young queen in front of him was quite entertaining.
"What have I left out?", Macavity asked a little tiny part of him interested in what this young white queen had to say.
"Then I have no choice", Electra muttered quietly, almost to herself.
"No choice, but to what?"
"To resist!"
Macavity raised an eyebrow and started laughing at her outright, "What could you possibly do?"
"Initiate", Victoria muttered to Quaxo and Coricopat.
"Seriously?"
Electra quickly darted to the door and opened it with ease, much to Draconis' surprise.
"What? How did you unlock the mechanism?"
Coricopat suddenly lashed out to his right and knocked Rumpleteazer unconscious with one blow as Quaxo turned to the stone blocking the entrance/exit. The mystical tom ran up to Macavity and the two began to wrestle and fight. Victoria waited for the Henchrats to appear and as they did, she knocked them out with ease one by one since, after all, she did have the upper hand, the element of surprise was on her side.
The dark tabby had already darted towards the exit that Alonzo and Cassandra were supposedly by and ignored Draconis' demands. The silver tom had tried to follow her, but the maze was a double-edged sword and the moment she closed the door, he could not follow. Once she reached the exit she called back to the middle, "I didn't completely close the door because I felt the mechanism under my paw and that was mere child's play. So now when I close it, the doors are now locked."
She dodged out of the way and the sleek-furred tom was left in the middle of the pavilion. Draconis wondered aloud to himself, "That was a clever move."
Quaxo focused his inner energy on the rock and tried to shift it aside with his mental powers, but it wasn't working at all. Old Deuteronomy had explained the magical powers that he possessed, but the concept was a little out of reach for him.
Flashback
"Every being has a certain amount of inner energy", Old Deuteronomy explained to him slowly and deliberately, "Some beings are able to focus the energy and thus create magic or illusions. You are unconsciously leaking inner energy to your brain and thus you are able to look into other's mind without meaning to."
"Can I only read minds?" Quaxo wanted to know about his powers and the extent of them.
"If you are able to focus it in your mind, you could probably do telekinetic things, too."
Flashback End
"Focus the inner energy in my mind", Quaxo whispered nervously to himself and couldn't stop, "Everyone is counting on me, I've got to do this right."
He felt something pushing at the edges of his mind and suddenly the ground rumbled a bit. Was it his wild imagination or had the immovable boulder actually shifted a little to the right?
Coricopat was locked in combat with the Hidden Paw and both struggled to throw the other off balance and both were failing to do so.
"You shall pay dearly", Coricopat gritted out as he pushed harder against the ginger tom.
"Still pining after your twin sister?"
"Argh!" Suddenly, the mystical tom shifted his weight to the side and let Macavity fall through the air, still pushing at a now nonexistent force. Then Coricopat kicked the Napoleon of Crime in the stomach hard and the air was beaten out of the ginger tom.
Electra stepped into the sunlight again, thankful for its warm, but currently dulling rays against her fur and looked around her for Alonzo and Cassandra. The dark tabby hadn't really believed Draconis when he had said that this was the exit, but there were no other ways of rescuing Alonzo at this point.
Electra ran down the alley until she came to a dead end and curiously, neither Alonzo nor Cassandra was in sight.
"It looks like we meet again."
Victoria chopped the back of a Henchrat's head for the umpteenth time and briefly wondered whether she should help Coricopat or not. The mystical tom was holding his own, but the moment Macavity used any of his powers, it would be over. Quaxo needed to hurry and get the stone out of the way and hopefully Electra had already successfully saved Alonzo.
"Draconis", Electra muttered, "Mind telling me where Alonzo and Cassandra are?"
"Cassandra", the silver tom whispered, "Is currently out of action and her dear mate, Alonzo, is…"
The dark tabby feared the worst for a moment, but fear never got anyone anywhere and so she beat it down and faced the silver tom.
"Draconis, what is the purpose of trapping me?"
"We, meaning the Four Lords of Crime, have decided to present to you a generous offer", Draconis looked at her with his piercing red eyes.
"The Four Lords of Crime?"
"Yes, would you like to hear the proposition?"
"Let's hear it", Electra managed finally, weighing her options in her mind.
The tall ginger tom lashed out with a certain amount of inner energy concentrated around his hand and converted it into outer energy. The result was Coricopat went flying across the room and crashing into the opposite stone wall none too gently.
"Quaxo, hurry!"
Quaxo felt a few beads of sweat roll down his forehead and off his chin, but concentrated as hard as he could. Then he thought of an idea, that maybe converting his inner energy to outer energy would enable to move the rock to the side.
The white queen launched herself at Macavity with viciousness in order to buy the tuxedo tom some time and hopefully distract the ginger tom long enough. But Macavity grabbed her paw and swung her around into a slight headlock.
"Why don't you think about the offer I made you?"
Victoria gasped and tried to wriggle out from the demon's grasp, but to no avail.
"Why are you asking me to join you?"
Macavity looked at her slowly, "You anticipated to some degree that Rumpleteazer was going to tell us your plan, so you told Coricopat a back-up plan and I must admit that was pretty quick."
"What has that got to do with anything?" Victoria seriously wished the ginger tom would stop playing with them so maliciously.
Macavity leaned down and his long mane brushed against her ear as he whispered, "We need someone of your intelligence on our side. You must know that you are one of the Junkyard's future defenses."
"Swear the oath of loyalty to us and become my future successor", Draconis whispered quietly, but it sounded deadly.
"You want me to join forces with the Four Lords of Crime?"
"Well, basically, yes."
"Why do you want me to join?" Electra was suspicious enough, but this offer of joining was pushing it a little too far.
"You must know, that you are one of the Junkyard's future defenses."
"You must be lying."
"What would I benefit from lying to you now? Saying that only makes you even more pitted against us and I'm telling you only because it is the truth."
Electra looked at Draconis in disbelief, "From the beginning, kidnapping Alonzo had nothing to do with an attack on the Junkyard."
"Precisely."
"I don't lie to as pretty queens as you", Macavity breathed deliberately into her ear watching her shudder underneath his hot breath. The white queen mumbled some incoherent words of protest as he tilted her mouth up to his slowly.
"This was a plan of weakening the Junkyard to the point of no return", Electra slowly realized their plan from the beginning.
"Yes."
"You kidnapped Alonzo because then Munkustrap would be announced as Jellicle Protector instead of Alonzo. They're equally strong, but Munkustrap is ruled by emotions, not duty."
"Essentially, yes."
"The Four Lords anticipated that a highly capable, if I do say so myself, squad of Jellicles would come rescue Alonzo. You wanted to take away the masterminds behind any planning so that the future generation of Jellicles would not have more brilliant thinkers than you."
"Congratulations, you figured it out", Draconis nodded, but his tone was devoid of any happiness, it was just plain passive.
"But why would I join you?"
Macavity's lips almost touched Victoria's, but at the last moment, the ginger tom was ripped away by a forceful pull. Coricopat's face was pulled back into a ferocious snarl as he growled, "I believe this is when I step in."
The mystical tom slammed his head against the Hidden Paw's and Macavity could've sworn that he saw stars.
"How are you still standing?"
Coricopat lunged forward, "Because I swore that I would kill you!"
"Because it is the sensible thing to do", Draconis stated and suddenly shot at her with startlingly speed and she was held against the ground.
"What are you doing?"
"Listen to me", the silver tom shook her a little, "I know that you won't fall for things as insignificant as money, but know that with a position that I am offering you, you could become more powerful than Old Deuteronomy."
"Why would I want that?"
"All creatures bow down to power and that is the rule of life. You aren't dumb, so think carefully about what I'm saying. Do you want to live as a happy, jolly Jellicle forever? The most you'll ever be is a caretaker for kittens and if you're lucky, your father will have you become a Railway Cat."
"How do you know about my father?" Electra looked at him, trying to focus on that question, rather than the ideas he was injecting into her head like venom.
"You will be trapped for the rest of your life and no one will look at you and think that you are someone of depth and intelligence", Draconis continued, totally ignoring her question, "Is that what you want?"
Of course it wasn't what she wanted, but he was telling lies so that she would be blinded by them and join his stupid organization of crime.
"You want to be in that cage and rot away until you are nothing?"
Coricopat charged, not letting the ginger tom have a moment to gather energy in his paw. Quaxo pushed at the stone harder at felt it shift ever so slightly under his paws until finally it rolled to the side.
"Let's go!"
Victoria turned to Quaxo and was glad that the entrance/exit was now unblocked, but Coricopat was still locked in combat.
"Quaxo, can you help Coricopat?"
"I can try", he replied, but in truth his strength and magic was depleted greatly. The tuxedo tom focused his remaining inner energy on breaking off the signals in Macavity's brain, but as his energy approached the ginger tom's, he felt a strong push backwards.
"I can't, he's deflecting my attack", Quaxo panted to the white queen beside him who had started thinking again.
"Just keep on trying, it must take a lot for him to deflect it, so he'll be distracted at the very least."
Quaxo started to focus again, but Victoria laid a hand on his shoulder, "Thank you."
He nodded and continued with the telepathic assault upon the Hidden Paw with renewed vigor.
"Draconis, you know nothing about how I feel", Electra whispered in a lethal tone that allowed no argument even from an enemy.
"Well then, I'm sorry to say that you won't be allowed to leave", the silver tom hissed to her.
"Leave", Coricopat grinded out and shouted, "He wants to use you, Victoria, but if you get away his plan won't succeed."
"Don't be foolish", the white queen snapped back, "I'm not someone who turns her back on friends in trouble."
"You'll lose too much", the mystical tom said as he furrowed his brow in concentration.
"Victoria, weigh the options carefully", Quaxo whispered to her and laid a comforting paw on her shoulder. Victoria furrowed her brow and sighed.
"What are we waiting for, then?"
The tuxedo tom and white queen raced towards the exit leaving Coricopat grappling with Macavity behind.
Electra closed her eyes for a second, then flipped Draconis backwards, an easy feat for someone who had wrestled with Pouncival for so long. The sliver tom was completely unprepared and upon landing on his back, cracked his head, knocking him out. The tabby clambered onto her feet and ripped off Draconis' long cape with one flowing motion. Then she raced back to the prison maze as quickly as she dared to her paw with the cape, Electra reached out and tore open a large hole in the side of a cell so she could pass through safely. Then she carefully swung the cape around her so that her body was completely covered and walked through the hole carefully. She proceeded to repeat the process until she reached the exit safe and not the least bit poisoned.
Draconis hadn't seemed the type to care about his looks, so the cape had to be something of significance and the only logical explanation for the full body cape was protection against the poison threads. The only flaw in that was the what-if situation of someone stealing the cape from the silver-furred tom, as Electra had used it to escape. The dark tabby supposed she had to be grateful to the smooth-speaking tom for unintentionally offering her an escape route.
The cape was covered in the poison threads and Electra had to cautiously remove it and leave it on the ground of the prison-maze. It was a rather attractive looking cape now that she thought about.
As the dark tabby met up with Quaxo and Victoria they ran through the hallway towards the exit without any questions asked. Then as the exit neared the white queen panted, "We were outmaneuvered and I can see that so were you."
"Rumpleteazer was expendable, but where is Coricopat?"
"I had-"
"Guys, wait until we're safe to discuss this", Quaxo interjected and the two queens nodded in agreement.
The three of them reached a past rest point and set up camp silently, but Quaxo tried to start up a lively conversation among them.
"Where is Cassandra?"
"You can read my mind, so you have no need to ask", Electra snapped and then held her head, "I'm sorry, I don't know why I said that."
"It's fine", Quaxo smiled, "You're just tired and we all are."
"We were trapped in a prison-like maze and I sent Cassandra through because this tom said Alonzo was at the other side. When I reached the other side, neither Cassandra nor Alonzo was there", Electra buried her face into her paws and groaned in despair.
"Coricopat took on Macavity while we left, but it seems that the Hidden Paw's plans were different from what we expected", Victoria shuddered remembering Macavity's offer.
"I expect Macavity made you an offer of joining him", Electra sighed and continued, "The tom I faced, a sleek silver cat, offered me that too."
"Really?"
"Yes, I found out their original plan from the beginning", the dark tabby looked grim for a moment before going on, "It was never to attack the Junkyard, they're still in the process of weakening the Junkyard to the point of no return."
"But this was a golden opportunity", Victoria argued with passion, "Munkustrap is like the only thing standing in their way at this point."
"Yes, but I think they anticipated that we would take defensive measures and shield the Junkyard from harm somehow", Electra answered wearily, "They were right and decided that weakening was still the main point."
"So you're saying that right now the things standing in their way are Munkustrap, you and me", Victoria listed out with a worried glance towards Quaxo who seemed half-asleep.
"They think that", Electra replied, "But in truth they have overlooked Quaxo, Admetus, Tumblebrutus, Tantomile and Plato."
"Quaxo for his magical thing", Victoria tried to explain Electra's logic to herself. At mention of Quaxo, he sat up looking mildly insulted at what she called his use of inner energy.
"Admetus and Tumblebrutus for their strength", the white queen thought aloud, "Tantomile for also having that magical stuff and Plato for his…um…"
"Psychological assessment of others and manipulation", Electra answered, "Not that those are bad things."
"I see", Victoria thought for a moment, "I guess I never really looked beyond the surface while I was dating him. No wonder he wanted to be with you."
"Victoria", Electra sighed, "He was just playing with both of us so that we would get angry at each other and…"
The two queens suddenly looked at each other with wide eyes as they realized the truth of the situation, but Quaxo was perplexed.
"What?"
"There is a 67 percent chance that Plato is on Macavity's side and tried to make safe an attack on the Junkyard", Electra stated slowly, "Because he knew that the two of us together would be more effective than alone."
"So the original plan for the Four Lords of Crime was to actually attack the Junkyard this time around, but when Plato failed to separate us, they changed it", Victoria gasped and shook her head, "But that would mean Plato went into contact with Macavity before we started going out."
"I thought you two thought it was 67 percent", Quaxo questioned.
"Quaxo, it's only 67 percent because you didn't suspect him", Electra whispered, "You can read minds and if Plato didn't know about that…how?"
"Well, you see", Quaxo coughed, "I try to block out thoughts, especially Plato's, because they scare me a little."
"So is it possible that between New Years' and the day we left, you didn't hear any Plato's thoughts?"
The tuxedo tom thought for a moment, "Very, since I usually stay away from him anyway. Now that I think about it, we were probably both avoiding each other for awhile."
"That raises the suspicion to about 95 percent", Electra deemed, "But we still need evidence to make it 100 percent sure."
"Isn't 95 percent enough?"
"No, Quaxo", Victoria playfully whapped his head and said, "There is still a small chance that Plato was sincere about liking the two of us and having no alternative motive."
"But the chances are small?"
"Well, knowing Plato, it seems like something he would do", Electra concluded with a shred of disappointment in her heart.
"Then why won't Macavity attack the Junkyard right now?"
"Is this like 20 questions or something? Well, anyway, to answer your question", Victoria sighed a little, "I think the Four Lords of Crime are making sure that everything goes perfectly. Plato must be their trump card, the last card shown."
"But remember, Macavity cheats at cards", Electra smiled as they remembered the song that Demeter and Bombalurina had wanted to write about the Hidden Paw.
In the darkness of the night, with only the pale moon guiding the way, a hooded tom made his way through the alleys with practiced ease. Suddenly he heard a rustle and dodged to the side quickly with a fluid grace. After a second of so, a rabbit hopped out of a nearby bush, steadying the hooded tom's fears for the moment.
The hooded figure darted out again and ran down the alley with quiet and almost silent steps. Under the pale light of the hanging moon, one could only see a shadow flitting across the alley walls so quickly that he was gone in a blink of an eye.
But as the tom neared his destination, he felt uneasy, for the night was eerily quiet. Two steps later and he knew why he had been careful.
Three dark shapes lunged from a corner alley and attacked him so suddenly and viciously that he could only bow down in defeat. When the three stepped into the moonlight, he gasped.
"Surprised, Plato?"
Eh? I know right? Please review? This was sort of confusing, too, despite my best efforts. I hope you liked this chapter, anyway. Please review so I know how to improve, etc.
So to clear up the confusion:
1. Plato joined Macavity before he started going out with Victoria. He meant to separate Victoria and Electra because he knew that they would be formidable together. When that didn't work, he told Macavity that they needed a different plan and that attacking the Junkyard would have to wait. So Macavity decided that the alternative plan would be to capture the two queens because then the Junkyard would have less defense.
2. Victoria and Electra thought that Macavity had kidnapped Alonzo so that he could attack the Junkyard.
3. Victoria suspected Rumpleteazer to some degree and made a back-up plan with Coricopat and Quaxo. She did not however expect that Macavity was still at the Hideout place and that the attack on the Junkyard was fake.
4. Electra made sure that the doors did not lock behind her, but knew that Cassandra had to go on without knowing of the mechanisms. If Electra had told Cassandra, it would have been too obvious and thus ruin her plan.
5. The rescue failed because Macavity had thought ahead of them. But Victoria and Electra managed to escape because Coricopat sacrificed himself and Draconis underestimated Electra's flexibility.
Does that help a little? Anyway, review?