A/N: All right. For the sake of Jemima-luvah's immortal soul (gosh she's creeping me out...), here's the next update. And I was drooling over Macavity in this one, so I have no doubts as to how Jemi will feel...anyways, enjoy!
Meanwhile, Mistoffelees and Victoria were still having the night of their young lives upon the roof of Victoria's mansion. Eventually, however, they tired of gazing at stars and fireworks and settled down on the roof for a good night's (okay, so it was almost morning) sleep. She leaned over to nuzzle his nose and whisper, "Good night," but it was too late. Mistoffelees was dead asleep. She giggled to herself; Misto had been falling asleep ever so easily lately. He used to complain that he could never sleep. Oh, well, she sighed to herself. Must be another magic thing.
In Mistoffelees' dream, he was in the junkyard, in the central clearing where all the important meetings took place. He was surrounded by a semi-circle of kittens, who were enjoying gazing on as he put on a spectacular magic show for them, complete with lightning and fireworks. They laughed when he produced glitter that rained over them, and oo-ed and aww-ed as he danced the best he ever had, even jazzing up the leaps with bursts of flight. For the grand finale, Mistoffelees teleported up to the tip top of the highest junkpile around, blew a kiss to the kittens, and leapt off in a neat swan dive, falling ever closer to the inevitable splat! Splat, however, he did not, for as soon as his nose was an inch away from the junk below him, he tapped his power and teleported far away from any danger.
As soon as the smoke around him cleared and he was able to see again, Mistoffelees opened his eyes and prepared to receive the applause of the kittens he had been entertaining. However, he was astonished to find himself not only un-surrounded by clapping kittens, but not even in the junkyard at all. Oh, wait, I take that back. He was still in the junkyard, or rather, underneath it. He was sitting on the ground in the same little dimly lit miner's tunnel that he had fallen into the last time he met...well, you know who.
Speaking of you know who....
"Macavity!" Mistoffelees called out as soon as he laid his eyes on the red and black mass of fur. Macavity was here! He had to....wait a minute. Macavity was here, but he wasn't really doing anything. He was simply sitting in a conveniently cat-sized chair, staring at Mistoffelees, and seemingly musing over...something Mistoffelees had no idea about. True, Macavity was here, but he really wasn't as scary as Mistoffelees usually found him to be.
"What do you want?" Mistoffelees cautiously asked the Napoleon of Crime, even though he didn't look it at the moment; he really looked quite harmless. Still, Macavity...
Macavity looked him straight in the eye, stood up, put on an expression of innocence, and responded, "What do I want? Who said I wanted anything?"
This was getting weirder by the minute...
"Uh..." Mistoffelees stuttered, "You...you must want something...I mean...this is the second time you've been in one of my dreams."
Macavity smiled, treaded over to our black and white hero, and sat on the ground a few feet away from him. "Well, yes, it is. But I never said I wanted anything. Actually, I'm here to see if you want anything," he said suavely with that same innocent smile. Mistoffelees only stared back. Macavity went on: "I just came to see if you needed anything. Help, maybe? Or advice?"
An idea popped up in Mistoffelees' mind. The last time he'd met this (presumably) evil cat in a dream, he'd learnt a secret to unlocking a further potential of his powers. Maybe Macavity could...no, think, Misto! This was Macavity! The evil cat who...well, he really didn't seem evil right now. There wouldn't be any harm in asking...but this was Macavity! The red and black jagged stripes alone were...but he'd been so helpful before! He really should have thanked him for...WHAT! Thanked him!? This was MACAVITY!
This internal argument raged for an entire minute, with Mistoffelees staring blankly at the wall the entire time. Macavity did nothing, only waited patiently (man, that was out of character for him...). Mistoffelees had a strong urge to forget about the whole thing and try to wake up from this nightmare, but in the end, the offer proved too tempting to resist.
"Macavity?" Mistoffelees squeaked when he finally came out of his trance. "What...what else...can I do? With my powers?"
Macavity grinned as if to say, I thought you'd never ask. He didn't really say anything for a moment, though, only stood up and sauntered closer to Mistoffelees. In alarm, Mistoffelees sprang to his feet, but there was no reason to. Macavity made no threatening moves. He only circled around him once, stopped behind his left shoulder, and whispered slowly in his ear, "You can do anything."
Anything?
Mistoffelees drew his breathly quickly in surprise, but just as quickly regained his composure. With more confidence now, he slowly turned his head to look Macavity in the eye, and asked, "Anything?"
Macavity nodded, looking more fatherly than Mistoffelees had ever imagined he could.
Shock did not even begin to describe the emotion that Mistoffelees felt just then. He could do anything? The thought had never even occurred to him! The idea that with his magic alone he had the power to do anything he wanted simply overwelmed the poor tom. He stood there in wonder for a moment, in another one of his trances that Alonzo was always chiding him about, when another thought penetrated his head. There was just one minor little detail...
"Uhm...How?" (After all, if he was really able to do anything, he'd better find out how before he woke up.)
Now Macavity appeared genuinely shocked. He circled around Mistoffelees to stand in front of him, looked him straight in the eye, and asked, "You really don't know how?" Mistoffelees shook his head. He really didn't know how. Still appearing to be innocently shocked, Macavity asked, "Well, haven't you ever experimented with your power? I mean, how else do you expect to discover what you can do?"
Ouch. That opened old wounds. Of course, the reason Mistoffelees had never experimented much was because Munkustrap had restricted the use of his power from the day they discovered that he had it. When your father is practically breathing down your shoulder, it's kind of hard to experiment with powers beyond the comprehension of any mere mortal cat without being discovered and promptly punished. Mistoffelees had always wanted to experiment! He'd just never really gotten the chance...
That would be difficult to explain to the red and black cat who was now staring at him, waiting for an answer to his question. For lack of a better answer, Mistoffelees muttered, "It's just...well...I never really got around to it."
"Never got around to it?" Macavity said with an amused grin, as if he found the idea funny. "You must be joking. You must be! What reason could there possibly be for you to not want to experiment?" he said, almost giggling.
Mistoffelees sighed, in stark contrast to the amused cat next to him. He might have to explain after all. "Well...it's just...my father...you know...doesn't really like it when I...you know...mess around," he said, and looked at Macavity pleadingly, almost begging him to understand.
All hint of humor vanished from Macavity's face, and he stared at Mistoffelees in surprise. "He doesn't let you use your power?" he asked in shock. Mistoffelees only looked at the ground and nodded a little bit. "Well, I never! What an awful thing to do!" he went on, shaking his head, turning his back on the little black and white tom. "I would never do something like that to my tomkit."
Mistoffelees' head shot up in surprise, but Macavity didn't notice. He only said, "Well, then I can see why you would ask, 'How?' But don't worry!" He turned to smile at Mistoffelees. "We can make up for lost time."
Mistoffelees grinned back.
After what seemed like hours later, Mistoffelees opened his real eyes, only to find himself on some roof top somewhere. What in the world? he thought to himself. How did I get here? Well, no matter. It just gives me the chance to try something new.
With that, Mistoffelees blinked, and was instantly swept away to his little box bed back in the junkyard.
"Ooh, Mistoffelees..." Victoria sighed as she rolled over to put her arm around the neck of the tom she'd fallen head over tail in love with in the past couple of days. But to her surprise, her paw only hit the roof. Now confused, she opened her eyes all the way and looked around, hoping that Mistoffelees was just somewhere else on the roof of her mansion, probably just gazing up at the last few stars that twinkled in the early morning sky. "Misto?" she called out, hoping that if he was on the other side of the roof, he would hear her and call back. But she heard no response. To her horror, she found that she was all alone on that high roof top.
She muttered to no one but herself: "How am I going to get down?"
A/N: I knew you'd like it! ::squeal!:: We're actually getting up to the chapters that I've written fairly recently, so it should be getting better and better. And just to encourage reviewing, here are review ?'s answered!
Jemima-luvah: Yeah, I thought most people knew that, but scrying is the magical term for looking into an object of some kind (crystal ball, bowl of water, mirror, etc.) and trying to see something. Sorry that confused you! And no worries about not finishing now, because I've finally got an outline written, my beta approves, so I hope I can finish soon!
Lozzypop: Thankies! Your review made my day! (I always love being called brilliant... :D)
Chimalmaht: Privacy?! Nah...
Krissy4: Yeah, Mouse is an idiot. Thanx for reviewing such a short chapter!