Two months after the ball, and not many things have happened. Macavity moved into his own den and has started looking for a mate and a human family to own him, and such hasn't been in the yard very much. Jenny and Jelly gave birth to two toms, Jelly naming hers Pouncival and Jenny naming hers Plato. The kittens are already beast friends, and they warm the hearts of all the cats in the yard. Munkustrap and Alonzo have been put through training since the day after the ball, in order to become strong toms and protectors. They've grown quite large, but not as large as Titus or Bismuth yet.
Coricopat's and Tantomile's powers have also increased an exponential degree in these past two months, so much so they have begun to undergo Spartan like training. Today, three hours before the sun is even in the sky, Cori and Tanto send electrical pulses to each other and wake up. They silently sneak out of the den, and begin their trek to the other side of the junkyard.
It takes twenty minutes of walking, leaning on each other and countless yawns for the twins to reach their destination, a broken snare drum with the top ripped slightly, enough for the two to wiggle into the hollow inside. They sit across from each other and lock eyes, no words spoken, just fiercely concentrating on each other.
After five minutes of staring, their perception begins to expand, first to immediately outside the snare, then to the stretches of the piles five feet around them, until the entire junkyard echoes through their minds.
They take large breaths and concentrate to not lose the picture. Soon small yellow dots appear in their minds eyes, small pulsing dots, which are actually the heartbeats of the large family. First Deuteronomy's, then Cho's, then Exotica's until the whole of the main yard is alight with the small pulsing yellow lights.
The twins count and smile, no one has passed in their sleep. Soon, two large red and heavily pulsating dots appear in their minds eye. The two Peke's of the junkyard, sleeping soundly next to the main human entrance. The twins sigh at the fat they aren't awake and trying to fight the jellicle home because on more than once occasion it has occurred that they wander into the yard and try to attack the playing kittens, or sunbathing cats.
Suddenly, two rapidly beating yellow blips make their way into the twin's mind's eye, which shocks them. The blips look to be running around the edges of the junkyard, closer and closer to the red blips until…even the twins have no time to react as the two red hearts of the Peke's roar to life, along with a loud growl that shakes the metal beads under the twins.
They can't lose focus. The hearts of the two mystery cat's pound so hard in the twin's heads that it starts to give them a headache, but they can't lose their focus. The follow until the two cats suddenly stop, cornered by one of the red hearts. The twin's hearts race themselves and they nod quickly to each other, and close their eyes, emitting their brain waves to the main yard. Their minds connect with Munkustrap, Alonzo and their father.
'There is an emergency.' Tanto says into the dreams of the sleeping cats.
'Two mystery cats are being attacked by a Peke.' Cori seems to finish.
'We will guide you to them, but you must move now.' Tanto says with urgency.
Within ten seconds, the heart blips of the three roar to life, and they begin sprinting into the yard. The three stop in the middle of the yard, and Tanto and Cori's eyes open suddenly, to show glowing Hazel eyes.
'Where?' Munku thinks.
'To your right, near the edge of the yard.' Cori respond quickly, and the three take off.
Cori and Tanto give them split second directions which lead them quickly to the sigh of the mystery. When the three arrive, they see the cause for panic. A large brown Peke stands in front of a broken oven, barking loudly with teeth ready to rip what's inside apart. Small squeals are heard by both Alonzo and Munkustrap, who look to each other and nod, jumping off the junk pile they were on and engaging the Peke in battle.
'He knows your there. ´ Cori thinks quickly, prying into the beast's mind along with Tanto.
'Quick, attack his right, he thinks you'll be to his left' Tanto thinks quickly.
Alonzo quickly jumps to the Peke's right and kicks as hard as he can, knocking the Peke on it's side with a small yelp. Munku pounces onto it's back and begins to claw at the Peke's neck, while Alonzo claws the stomach.
'He's going to jump up and snap, Al' Tanto thinks quickly.
'Jump over him and slice his ear, it's a weak spot' Cori thinks.
'Munk, jump with Al and do double damage' Tanto adds.
The toms do as the twins instruct, and sure enough, the Peke's ear takes severe damage. The Peke glares at the toms, but quickly turns tail and sprints away, yelping hopelessly, leaving a small trail of blood from its ear.
When the Peke runs ten feet away, the twins are pulled from his mind, and are thrown back, taking damage from the sudden rejection. Their strength is almost gone and depleted, as their eyes begin to dull down, they look to each other and smile, before falling forwards and smacking into the bottom of the drum, letting out a muffled rattle.
"G…great job, brother." Tantomile says with a smile and she crawls towards the middle of the drum.
"You too, sister." Cori pants as he mimics his sister's actions.
They meet in the middle and sit up to rest against each other's backs, when a sudden rumble underneath them causes them confusion. The small metal beads rattle slowly but increasing as a loud thud is heard outside the snare.
Suddenly both twins realize the same fact at the same time, both Peke's woke up. Al and Munk fought one, but where was the other? Why hadn't they thought about that a few second ago?
A low growl puts the two on edge, and they lock their paws together. Suddenly, a large paw smashes the top of the snare, ripping the leather completely in half and barely missing the two. A large black, one-eyed Peke stands, almost foaming at the mouth, staring down at the two.
They squeeze each other's paws and make their eyes glow. They let out a large screech, and a bolt of blinding white lightning strike the Peke in the nose, but the thunder was an even more terrifying noise. The loud bang sends the Peke yipping away in seconds, while the twins, who used the last of their energy in the flashy attack (a/n: hehe, see what I did there, flashy…), fall to the ground and rattle the snare drum into the now still silence.
Once the Peke runs, Munk and Al look to each other with wide smiles. They high paw and give off a loud laugh, until they hear whispers coming from the oven. They quickly turn and begin to approach carefully, all while Cho carefully comes up behind them.
"Is anyone there?" Al asks loudly as they stop in front of the oven. A quick burst of whispering is heard.
"No one's 'ere!" A male's voice yells, startling the toms.
"Nice one, Jer." A female's voice says with happiness.
"Well, obviously someone has to be there for someone to say no one's there." Alonzo sighs.
"Crap." The male voice says quietly followed by more whispering.
"We're ghossstttttsssss, oooooohhhhhhh." The female says.
Al and Munku look to each other and nod, jumping up and grabbing the oven handle and forcing the door down. Inside are two orange tiger striped cats, a tom and queen both yelling 'ooohhhh' and waving their arms about. Both their eyes open to show brown eyes, and they blink together before putting their paws behind their backs.
"'Ello." The toms say with a shy smile.
"Hello." Munk and Al say together, crossing their arms.
"Lovely night." The queen says as the two shuffle back awkwardly.
The two make it to the back of the oven and crouch down only to spring back up, with some large sacks poking out from behind their thin frames. They smile widely as they shuffle forwards.
"Well, thanks for savin us." The tom says.
"You're real upstanding citizens." The queen says with a smile.
"Outstanding." The tom corrects,
"Yes, outstanding." The queen says as she attempts to shuffle past the two, but is stopped by Munkustrap's arm.
A loud burst of thunder suddenly rings out throughout the junkyard, startling all the cats in the area. Munk and Al look to Cho, who looks worriedly to the other side of the yard. He looks down to the two toms and nods, telling them they're in charge in their minds before he sprints off. The two turn to see the two orange cats creeping out the side of the oven.
"Hold on." Munk says with a sigh," You were just attacked by a Peke. The best course of action is to get you to our Gumby cat and make sure you don't have any injuries."
"We don't have any injuries!" The queen says quickly.
"We're right as rain!" The tom says outstretching his arms and showing the large white sack in his hand.
"Jer!" The queen says glaring at the tom.
The tom shoots the queen a confused look before looking at his hand and shoving it back behind his back and trying to play it off with a fake smile. Munk and Al just sigh as they both grab ahold of the cats. Munk restrains the queen on the ground, and Al make's sure the tom can't move.
"We should just carry them to Jenny." Al says with a laugh," They're lighter than the training weights we practice with."
"But they'll squirm." Munk says with a smile," We haven't even practiced with, ouf!"
Suddenly the foot of queen reaches Munku's face, with enough force to knock him off of her. When he loosens his pressure, she easily gets back onto her feet and flips backwards landing into a large bow. She snickers, as does the tom, who repeats the actions of the queen.
Munku and Al get their composure back, and try to catch the two again, but are easily avoided through the cats unnatural bending and twisting. After ten minutes, the two protectors-in-training stand in front of the oven, while the orange tom has his hands on his knees, panting, while the queen rests her arms on his back.
"Jer, these guys are really something." The queen says with a smile," they're really keeping pace."
"Well, Teaze, they did fight off that dog." The tom says," Of course they've got a bit of stamina."
The two toms want to respond when suddenly their faces are full of shock. From the shadows of the oven, two large grey paws emerge and take the two orange cats heads then bang them together, instantly knocking them out. Soon Bismuth walks out of the shadows with a large grin as he picks up the two cats and tosses them to the toms, who catch them carefully.
"Dad?" Al asks in shock," Since when?"
"You're very noisy when you wake up, Al." Bismuth laughs," I had to see where you had gotten to. I must say, I'm impressed that you two took such good care of that Peke. It's like you knew what his movements were going to be a second before he sprang into action."
"Cori an Tanto woke us and bore into the Peke's mind, and guided us to beat it." Munku says with a smile," They're really impressive, aren't they?"
"Hah, well I'm going to have to tell Cho that his kittens are certainly something praiseworthy." Bismuth laughs," I bet they'll be some of the best jellicles to come out of our tribe."
The three toms laugh, and begin to walk back to the main yard. Halfway there, they run into Cho who's carefully carrying the twins with a large smile on his face. The four walk back slowly, talking about how busy the day's going to be once it actually starts.
It takes about five minutes to walk all the way back to the yard and quietly make their way to Jenny's den. The slowly enter, and are surprised to see Jenny awake and about. She sees them and quietly motions them in. She sees the passed out kittens and looks horrified up to the toms.
"Cori and Tanto used all their energy, while the two orange cats were knocked out so you could look them over. They were in a Peke attack." Cho explains quickly.
Jenny nods and motions to the table. They set all the kittens down side by side. From left to right is the mystery tom, then the mystery queen, Coricopat and finally Tanto pleasantly hanging off the side of the table. Jenny soon enters her serious mode and does a quick check on the twins, sighing and nodding that they're fins only exhausted.
She takes her time on the orange kittens. Checking all over to make sure there aren't any broken bones, or hurt muscles. She sighs with relief when nothing feels out of place, but she also looks sadly to the two. Both have a large amount of bruises and very small cuts already covered with scars. She turns to the group of four toms and smiles.
"They're a bit malnourished, in need of a bath and rough around the edges, but they'll be fine if we give them a steady diet for a while." Jenny says with a smile.
"I'll go get my father." Munkustrap says with a smile," He'll get them a place to stay. I bet we could even make jellicles of them."
Everyone nods and soon Munku is out the door, running to his den. As soon as Munku leaves the den, the orange queen begins to stir and moan. She tosses about turning onto her left side. Her eyes slowly open, only to get greeted by the unfamiliar face of Coricopat. She gasps slightly before looking in confusion and gently touching his face.
"An angel?" she says out loud.
"Angel?" the tom says sitting up with his eyes still closed," We're dead? I only see black!"
The queen sighs and sits up, smacking the back of the tom's head, opening his eyes. He rubs his head and gives a dirty look to the queen. Slowly they observe the room around them and meet eyes with the three large toms looking at them.
"We're going to die, but we're not dead already." The queen says in a quiet voice," They're gonna eat us."
"Oh god, Teaze." The tom says looking to the queen," I just want to let you know, you're a pretty alright sister. I wouldn't want anyone else as my twin."
"Wish I could say the same." She sighs.
"Alright you two, eat up!" Jenny says, coming from the storage area, holding two small bowls filled with cream and hunks of meat.
"W…what's this?" They ask in unison.
"It's the Gumby brew to solve malnutrition." Jenny says with a large smile," You're going to be eating it for a week. We need to get some meat on those bones if you're to be hunting or even playing with the jellicles."
"The what?" the queen asks with a dumbfounded look.
"The jellicles." Al says with a beaming smile," We're a large family. And you have the option to join it."
"A family?" The tom asks in pure confusion.
"You know…" Bismuth sighs," There's always people there to help you when you're down, or you never feel alone."
"Oh enough talking, you two need to eat." Jenny sighs, tapping the orange cat's heads.
The two exchange glances and eye the soup suspiciously.
"Did they poison it?" the queen asks.
"Probably." The tom says.
"No one poisoned anything." Jenny says angrily," Now eat or face the wrath of the Gumby cat."
"You might want to eat, she's terrifying when she's angry." Al says with a smirk.
The cats once again exchange glances and nod. They shove their faces on the food and begin eating very sloppily. They only raise their heads when there's nothing left inside the bowl. They smile widely, faces covered in the white cream. They raise their bowls to Jenny, eyes full of want for more of the delicious food.
"Okay, okay." Jenny laughs," But only if you tell us your names."
"Well, we thought it might be obvious who we are." The tom says with a bit of confusion," We're notorious cats. Haven't you heard of us?"
"You know, tightrope walkers and acrobats." The queen says, quickly standing and standing on her paws.
"Sorry, but I don't know anything about acrobatic tabby's." Al says with a small snort.
"Well then." The queen says, jumping back onto her feet," Guess we aren't as famous as we could be."
"I'm Mungojerrie." The tom says with a large smile standing up quickly.
"And Rumpleteazer." The queen says jumping into the tom's open arms.
"We're the notorious cat burglars of London." They say in unison.
"Is this really something you should be admitting?" Cho asks with a smile.
"Oh, well, no." Rumpleteazer says shyly," But I thought you said we could trust you and be a part of your Cramelie."
"Family." Mungojerrie corrects.
"Family." She repeats.
"You're right." Bismuth laughs.
"I heard we might have a couple of new members to our family." Deuteronomy says as he enters the den, Teazer and Jerrie look shocked at the large brown tom," Are these two?"
"Meet Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer." Bismuth says with a smile," They want to join the family. We could make shining jellicles of them. They're entertaining to say the least."
As if on cue, the two cats begin standing on their paws, lifting them to play patty cake with each other. They then roll down and sit in front of the brown tom and put their paws together and look up to him with large smiles. They quickly wipe their faces and reassume the position.
"Well, I can't say no to that." Deuteronomy laughs," I just need you two to follow me, so that I can find you a den. I'll leave it to Munkustrap and Alonzo to introduce you to the yard, once the sun is up."
"I just 'ave a quick question." Teazer says raising her paw.
"Yes, my dear?" Deuteronomy asks with a smile.
"Is that tom dead?" She asks pointing to Coricopat, still sleeping soundly on the table.
"No, he's just sleeping." Cho answers.
"Then can I 'ave 'im?" She asks with a serious face.
"W…what?" all the cats ask at the same time.
She quickly springs to her feet and jumps on the table, and carefully touching his face with her paw, smiling widely.
"It's love at first sight." She sighs looking to the dumb-founded cats," So can I 'ave 'him?"
"What are you talking about Teaze." Jerrie laughs," You know well, we don't ask, we take."
The two laugh, leaving the others dumbfounded. Deuteronomy soon leaves the den, followed eagerly by the two new jellicles.
It's just a feeling in their gut, but Al and Munku look to each other with smiles, knowing that life id going to get a bit more interesting.