Chapter 04
MegaKat City Slums: 11:45 AM
Numerous eyes helplessly follows her around, watching every step she makes as her high heels of reddish rogue color clattered over the sidewalk filled with the numerous steps leading to the front door of each apartment building. She wore a plain trench coat of tan color that covered most of her body, yet failed to conceal an athletic figure as each wrinkle folds deeper as she walked was filled with vigor. The wide brim of her red straw hat covered much of her face as well as the sunglasses over her eyes, looking no less than a cliché of a secret informant. She sets her sights fixedly towards her destination and paying not even a damn's worth of attention to her surroundings. She ignores the holler of wolf calls coming from the young male bystanders sitting around over the steps for cheap thrills, as she crosses a one-way street. Before she could safely cross the other half of the street, a deep and piercing blast from a dump truck at full speed catches her attention as she shifts her head towards the left. As the speeding truck continues to run to make quick work of her, she jumps, clearing the other half of the street with perfect ability. Stopping for a moment to regain her composure, the dump truck screeched to a halt and the pressure from the airbrakes released some of its trapped air. A husky voice calls upon her from the window.
"Hey, toots!" The smaller he-kat with a square jaw shouted. "If yer lookin' for sum attention, it'd be easier if you just stop right in the middle of d' road! We'd gladly takes yuh fer a good time!"
His burly companion with a woolen ski mask covering his eyes chortled. "Yah! Youse be lookin' for a good time now, ain't cha?"
The two waited for anything that resembled a response as they leered at her. The she-kat slowly turned her head and spoke over her left padded shoulder under her trench coat.
"Sorry, boys." Her voice purred. "You're just too butt-ugly to be with. Find yourselves another floozy to scratch you up good."
She strides away as if nothing happened, leaving the two men in the truck laughing boisterously as they rumbled off.
She heads on, taking a left turn to the next intersection and down the road where more row houses sat. After walking a couple dozen feet of sidewalk, she arrives at the steps of an old abandoned building. Checking to make sure no one notices her, she scans her surroundings before entering through the door as the hinges squeaked from the rust. Inside, cobwebs and all kinds of litter adorn the already rotted features of most of the wooden parts of the small entryway. The rays of sunlight mixed with the thin fog of dust created vertical columns that illuminate some of the darker corners like a snow globe. Making sure that everything was clear and undisturbed she stood silently, straining her ears to catch even the faintest sound that might come from inside or anywhere near the building. Once contented enough she began her flight up the stairs. For every step she makes, the friction of the wood and the loose nails filled the staircase as if she was trampling on a living creature squealing in agony. She got off on the first floor and turned to the long corridor towards the left where she passed several locked doors. Stopping at the door with a missing room number at the end of the hallway, she pulls out a short metal rod from her purse about the size of a lipstick and places it near the doorknob. It began to hum with short electronic beeps, followed by the shaking on the wooden floor. The muffled sound of mechanical noises and hydraulic pressure began to churn behind the closed door. After a minute of standing in front of the numberless door, the noises inside the room ceased and the door slid open with a click and she enters.
It was a huge difference between the room inside and the apartment outside. Royal blue carpeting covered much of the floor as the numerous side tables topped with an assortment of glass and gold figurines and statues gave a touch of luxury to the windowless room. The walls, too, weren't left out as huge paintings made by the old masters as well as the new gave life to the white stucco of a zigzag pattern. Every valuable item in the room had its own overhead fluorescent lamp, illuminating each item as well as staving away the darkness. The overhead chandeliers let off an illusion of warmth from the cold atmosphere as she passes through them. Thirty feet away from the small gallery is a door near the fireplace as she approached it, gripping her hand over the knob and gives it a turn to the right.
She enters into a bedroom and began stripping herself from the clothes covering her almost completely, first removing the trench coat, then the business dress suit as she tossed each item over the bed. After a few minutes, her body now exposed leaving only her undergarments, she began the tedious task of peeling off the fur with ease as the flakes of dried sticky emulsion fell to the floor. It was almost like peeling off a skin of an orange, as long strips of fur began to accumulate all around her. She became a different being; her skin glowed with the color of tanned ivory coming from the night lamp. Looking at herself in front of the mirror, she removes the straw hat along with the brown wig and the glasses over her eyes.
With the transformation now complete, she walks towards the computer and turns on the power switch. It hummed and beeped to life and in a few seconds the password program appeared in the monitor. Her fingers pecked away at the keyboard, typing in a six-letter password and immediately the operating system starts and program menu bar appears. She pulls out an optical disk tucked between the laces of her underwear and inserts in into the disk drive. She punched in the commands and the computer began reading the contents of the disk with a slight whir, displaying numerous pages of schematic reports, designs and schedules of its final testing of an upcoming launch in MASA.
"Nothing escapes me once I set my eyes at it." She murmurs to herself. The computer continues to show document after document as her eyes follow along the lines of text. She grins, watching her own reflection on the surface of the screen as she watches her left eye glow in a bloody red and drunk with satisfaction.
MegaKat City Salvage Yard: 12:34 PM
"Will you hurry up, young man? I'm running late for my weekly Bridge Club meeting." An elderly she-kat fussed as she sat on the couch provided for his customers in the garage.
"A few more minutes, ma'am." Jake replied as he stood under the car above his head, lifted by the hydraulic platform as he watches the oil spilling from the plug under the engine and into the drum.
"You know, it'll be a lot easier and faster if you had your big friend around to help you with fixing my car." She grumbles.
Jake frowned when the old she-kat mentioned about his 'friend' as he watches mindlessly at the flowing mud-colored oil.
"We all have to go on with our lives, ma'am." Jake answers half-heartedly; the words 'I respect my friend's decision' nearly escaped his lips.
Jake's work was interrupted when his ears caught the sound of a familiar horn from a dump truck as it lumbered across the road. Jake leaves his work as he watches the dump truck skidded to a halt as the occupants exit from it.
"Well, well, well." Jake breathes through his teeth. "Burke and Murray, the 'Dumbling Brothers'."
The smaller Burke was the first to approach Jake, carrying with him a clipboard of papers to sign. "This 'ere the scrap that Puma-Dyne wants dumped."
Jake stares at Burke for a minute and shifts his eyes towards the bigger Murray standing behind his brother. He reads the papers inserted in the clipboard.
"It says here that there's more of the wreckage than the truck could carry." Jake points out as he lifts his left wrist to check on his watch. "And you're almost behind schedule."
"Yeah, well we can't keep 'dis up any faster'n the two of us could handle." Burke grumbles.
"I don't care." Jake snaps. "Contractors will come flying in at Puma-Dyne within four hours and they need all their crud shipped out. I suggest that you dump your load right now and get your ass back there. Time's wasting if you stand around here."
Burke glowers at Jake as his bigger companion began cracking the knuckles in his paws. "Look 'ere, hotshot, if it weren't fer us you dun' get any work 'ere in da first place!"
Jake cuts Burke off with his index finger shaking at him. "Look here, you little dirt bag," Jake yells over Burke, "I OWN this scrap yard now and if you wanna slug it out you can do so AFTER business hours!"
Burke and Murray froze under their feet as they saw Jake's pupils narrow and his fists shaking. After knowing of Jake's past and what he's capable of, the brothers retreated back to their dump truck swearing under their teeth. Jake stares coldly at them as the dump truck rolled away.
Upon returning to the garage, the music from the radio sitting on top of the tool cabinet two feet away from him ended and the radio newsbreak came next, as Jake shifts his left ear towards it. Reporter Ann Gora's voice came out from the speaker.
"In the events of the accident that happened almost around three AM this morning, five Enforcers on patrol within Sector 31 lost their lives from an explosion that shook part of the weapons and technology district of Puma-Dyne out of their beds. The cause of the explosion was still pretty much unknown, according to Sector 31 director Professor Charles Clayton. Commander Ulysses Feral of the Enforcers has no comment for the time being while preliminary investigations are still on going. Estimated cost of damage done to the Sector 31-C or the Testing Facility would reach roughly around one-hundred-point-five million dollars. The five Enforcers who died in the mishap while patrolling the area were Pvt. Dean Jacobs, Pvt. Burt Dobson, Pvt. Joe Higgins, PFC. Sarah Conneley, and Pvt. Harry Conway. Mayor Calico Briggs will hold a funeral for the names listed along with their families, friends, loved ones, and the members of their Enforcers patrol squad will be held at…"
Before Ann Gora could name the place for the funeral, Jake places his paw on the switch and turns the power off. The garage sat in silence as Jake stares blankly at the radio. Somehow, the dream that he has been having for the last six months flashed sharply across his mind as his chest began to swell up with the same heavy feeling that continues to torture him.
