The two week Peace Conference started well enough. A general press conference to properly introduce Titanica and attached kingdoms to the surface world. Sam Shore of WASP gave a short speech, as did Colonel White of SPECTRUM, both well received.

Then the World President, well, Surface World President began his speech.

A large, beautiful black cat sauntered in from apparently nowhere, lightly leapt onto the podium, on top of the World Pres…Surface World President's notes, and began cleaning itself. This initially garnered some chuckles from the press corps and other attendees, until the Surface World President attempted to remove the cat with a "Nice Kitty…owwww oh *BLEEP*!" and the cat turned to a hissing, spitting ball of claws and fangs. (When the video of the even was reviewed later, a sharp-eyed analyst noted that Titan actually twitched slightly at the sight of the cat, and absently rubbed his right forearm.)

Two the Surface World President's bodyguards moved in, one with her firearm drawn and the other having pulled down a banner to try and wrap the cat in.

"NO ONE MAY TOUCH THE BEAST OF LEMOY, FAVORED BY THE MIGHTY GOD TEUFEL, WITHOUT HIS PERMISSION!" Rang from Titan's lips as he surged to his feet, bringing his ceremonial spear down with a crash.

Everyone froze, except the cat who resumed cleaning himself, sticking his hind leg high in the air.

Titan looked to surface agent X-20, who nodded meekly and approached the podium. The cat upon noticing X-20 there, rolled over, squirmed for a moment (making an even bigger mess of the Surface World President's notes) then went boneless as he deigned to be picked up by X-20, emitting a loud purr that sounded like crossed between mufflerless race car and a jet engine. In the background a number of functionaries were heard grumbling that there had been nothing about 'the beast of lemoy' in any of the briefings they had received.

After the Surface World President's scratches were attended to, the press conference continued, the Beast curling itself around X-20's shoulders.

The rest of the day was uneventful, even if the world's news and media was more dominated by 'the Beast' than the actual Peace Conference.


The next day was also uneventful, although the press did get another sighting of 'the Beast' sunning himself in a window, and even allowing an Angel's there as one of the bodyguards for Colonel White to scritch him between his ears. He then hopped up on to the shoulders of the Aquaphibian the surface world was coming to know as X-20.

A few high-ranking officials were being allowed to stay in the House during the proceedings, Colonel White among them. They were forbidden from entering the lower levels and one locked bedroom on the second floor that their host, surface agent X-20, insisted contained his personal affects.


The day after that however….

"That damn cat got into my room somehow and used my shoes as its litterbox!" fumed North American General Ward in his stocking feet storming into the dining room at breakfast, unaware of the two global new reporters present, "and shredded my briefcase!"

(Point in fact, the briefcase itself was not shredded, only the leather exterior.)

"You did attempt to kick him last night," Troy Tempest, there at Titan's request, said, unable to resist needling the arrogant general.

"That creature should be removed from the premises!"

"He was here before you were, sir."

"Mrrrrmawrrr," the cat in question vocalized from under a table, causing the General to jump, then freeze as the cat slinked over to sniffed the General's socks and with great aplomb piddled on his feet.

The media had a minor field day.


After that the daily news from the Peace Conference always included a small segment on 'the Beast' and how he was doing, what he was doing, and speculation on exactly what kind of cat he was anyway as experts could not recall a domestic cat having that color eyes and he clearly had a higher level of intelligence that most cats.

And was heralded as a hero on the day he sat in front of the door to the main conference room and would not be moved even by X-20. There was no other way in. That was the day the small bomb planted in the main projector by an agent of the rogue nation of Bereznik went off. The damage to room was great, and the potential death toll of collected world leaders even greater, and definitely would have destroyed any hope of peace between Titanica and the surface world.


The second to last night of the Conference Colonel White woke from a sound sleep by the sensation that someone was staring at him, and found the cat on his bed. The cat was indeed staring at him at with those weirdly colored eyes, luminous in the moonlight streaming into from the window. Colonel White was certain he had closed the curtains, and was equally certain he had locked the door. Spectrum Agents had gone over the room thoroughly on the first day to ensure there was no other way into it. The cat having gotten his attention, flipped over its side and squirmed against him, making the thunderous purr 'the Beast' was now famous for.

'So it's not just X-20 and my Angels you'll behave for,' the Colonel thought sleepily as he reached to scratch the cat's chin. The rumble increased in volume, and the cat grabbed the sleeve of the Colonel's pajamas in his teeth and started to pull.

"Now just a moment," the Colonel squawked as he was pulled out of bed by a cat could not have weighed more than seven kilograms.

Once he was out of bed the cat let go, head-butted his elbow, and started toward the door, the still closed door. The cat looked back expectantly.

"All right, just a moment," White grumbled, and put his slippers on, then watched in amazement as the cat walked through the closed door. A moment later the cat's head came through the door again with a look on his face as if to say "stop gawking and get a move on it!" Before disappearing again.

Colonel White didn't quite know how to feel that he just had confirmation of what many of the surface dwelling attendees had been seriously doubting – the Beast was something other than just an ordinary cat.

He followed the cat.


Aquaphibians don't require as much sleep as humans do, so X-20 was making his nightly rounds. Having so many surface dwellers in his house made his skin crawl, made worse because so many of them were the ones who had condemned his friend. So he was horrified when he saw a wedge of light in the dark hallway coming from the slightly open door of Conrad's bedroom.

"Put that down," he ordered once he saw Colonel White standing there, holding the memorial plaque that normally rested on the dresser.

White turned to look at him, and X-20 was slightly taken aback to see the grief on the human's face. He was certain the man hadn't really care one way or the other about Conrad. Unaccustomed fury flared up again at notion that only now did the man care.

"You were the one who abducted him," that made as much sense as anything in the small hours of the morning to Colonel White.

"I rescued him," X-20 snapped back, made bold by his anger.

That sharpened White's gaze.

"Rescued?"

"He was my friend," X-20 looked about the room and saw the cat curled up asleep on the bed, purring softly, "I wasn't going to let him be executed just to satisfy surface dweller bloodlust."

White studied X-20 for a long moment, before setting the plaque gently back down where he found it. There were a great many question going through his mind, so he started with the simplest.

"How did he die?"

"Why do you want to know?" X-20 challenged, "want to be certain it was suitable painful? I'm afraid you will be disappointed. I may not have been able to treat his illness, but I made sure he felt no pain."

"Good," White said forcefully, "all evidence pointed to Brezenik, I've had nightmares about them vivisecting him."

"No, you just wanted to butcher him after he died," X-20 sneered.

"I wouldn't have had the authority stop that!"

"Murrrrrrr!"

They both stopped and looked at bed. The cat was awake and distressed. X-20 went over and started to fuss over him, picking him up and cuddling him. The cat settled down.

"Does the...cat have a real name or it is just 'The Beast'?"

"Conrad."

White paused and considered that.

"He does...he does resemble Conrad, somewhat."

"He is Conrad," X-20 shrugged, then explained further not allowing White to protest, "he was terribly upset about dying on me, and said he would make it right. I returned one day to a cat where no cat should be. There has been other evidence."

"Conrad was the reason you in particular did so well against my officers," White decided he would examine the idea that the Cat was the lost Captain Black at a later time.

"Conrad was the reason none of them died," X-20 replied, his attention on the cat, "even under the Mysteron's control he did whatever he could curb their plans. He kept them from going after Spectrum families. He did his best to keep your people alive, even if you didn't know that. It seemed unkind to do what he worked so hard not to do. The Mysterons were not kind."

Again White knew he would need time to process that, and so asked:

"What did Titan mean 'Favored by Teufel?'"

X-20 had to smile widely at that question.

"It means Conrad, when I was commanded to bring the 'land-dwelling furball' down to be judged by our mighty god," he scratched between the cat's ears, "got into mighty Teufel's Sanctuary, fought him, and torn off a fin. Then he sat in the middle of Titan's court, staring at Titan the entire time, and ate it."

White snorted, and eyed the cat.

"What is a god to an atheist, eh Conrad?"

The cat looked up at him and looked incredibly please with himself.

"I suspect Titan also remember the time Conrad threatened to scale him," X-20 chuckled.

"He did what?"

"Titan was upset with a failure of mine, and threatened to strike me," X-20 shuddered, remembering Titan's fury, "so Conrad, in turn, threatened to scale him his with a Bowie knife he had on him at the time. I don't think Titan has ever forgotten his grip on his arm."

"This was before he died?" White sought confirmation.

"It was from the first time Conrad spent time on my island," X-20 set Conrad the cat back down on his bed, "apparently the Mysterons thought it was deserted; we became friends."

Conrad hopped off the bed and winded his way around and through and around again White's ankles, purring. White felt he had no choice but to pick him up, getting his pale blue pajamas thoroughly coated in black cat hair.

"He defended you and your actions and inaction," X-20 accused but there was no rancor in his voice now, only fondness for his friend regardless of his form, "to his dying breath. He was, is a loyal friend."

Colonel White had no response to that, only the happily purring cat in his arms.