A day later, the Dopplers made their way down to the Benbow Inn. It seemed that everywhere she went, Amelia felt as if someone was constantly watching her. Once inside the Benbow Inn, Sarah and Jim came over to greet them, and sat down with the Dopplers.
"Have any of you ever heard of a Kitty Petro?" Amelia asked, trying hard to hide her growing sense of nervousness.
"Well, we've heard about her in school," Jim answered after a moment. "And I can´t say that like what I been told about her. My teacher told us that it's rumored that when she's training someone, and they complain or protest, she can make that person's worst nigthmare come true."
Amelia sighed. "So… if she were to send someone a letter and tell them that they are going to be picked up, they really just can´t escape then?" Amelia asked.
Jim shook his head, and looked back to Amelia. "I don´t think so, Captain. Why are you asking?"
"Because, Jim my boy, she received such a letter from this mysterious Kitty Petro just yesterday," Delbert informed him. Jim and Sarah looked at Amelia, who now had the same look she had shown the day Scroop had told her of Arrow's death.
"Run away, Captain," Jim suggested, genuinely concerned for Amelia.
"I'm quite afraid that I simply cannot, Jim," Amelia replied glumly. "If I were to even try, she has told me that she will somehow revert me back to how I was when I was but three months old. In addition, she has also informed me that my primary caregiver would be none other than that rogue, Silver." Amelia repressed a shiver.
"Oh Amelia, you poor dear," Sarah said and gently hugged Amelia to her. Just then, a teenage girl made her way inside the Inn.
"A purp juice, if you please," she requested kindly.
"So, Captain… ma'am, are you going to just go with this Kitty Petro?" Jim said and looked to Amelia.
Amelia sighed once more, and nodded her proud head sadly.
"I don´t know who I feel the most sorry for," Jim began, a small smile appearing on his handsome face. "Amelia, who has to go with Kitty… or this Kitty, who´s probably getting the most stubborn women ---in this galaxy at least---to train."
Amelia blinked, then softly giggled, despite the seriousness of the situation.
"Oh, believe you me, Kitty has had far worse people in her life to train than her," the teenage girl told them as she took a sip of her purp juice.
"Oh? And how would you know, Miss…?" Amelia asked and looked over at the teen.
"Oh, come now, Captain. You're a bright girl… use that brain of yours and figure it out," the teen said sweetly.
Amelia put two and two together and…
"Dear Lord," she gasped quietly.
The teen smiled and said politely, "Kitty Petro, at your service. It's quite nice to meet you all." The purp juice she had been drinking was now gone. Kitty looked down at the empty glass, snapped her fingers, and a moment later the glass was again full with purp juice.
"Am I mistaken? I had thought I still had a week before I had to leave?" Amelia said, her expression grave.
"Oh, you do. You do," Kitty reassured her. "But, as my letter said, 'My people and I are watching you day and night'."
"You don´t look all that dangerous to me," Jim said, with just a hint of bravado.
Kitty smiled benignly, and sauntered over toward them. Once she was beside Jim, she grabbed him by the back of his collar, and lifted him handily into the air with one hand behind her back. She then unceremoniously threw him across the room into the arms of some shadowy figure, who made certain he wasn't harmed.
"Thanks, friend," Jim said, a bit breathlessly, without looking back to who had saved just him.
"Think nothing of it, James," the voice of Future Amelia said, and quickly placed him on his own feet once more. She then made her way next to Kitty.
"Good morning, Amelia. How are you?" Kitty asked.
"Not bad, my friend," Amelia answered. "Oh, I just thought I'd inform you of a new development. It seems that Silver lost his bet with regards to who was the fastest… so now he owes me a full pedicure and manicure every single week. Oh, and Arrow and Victoria will be supervising my children for the day, so that my Delbert and I can spend the whole day together."
Kitty laughed, "You never get bored, do you?"
"Oh, no! Not I, ever," Amelia said and produced a small harmonica from her uniform, and began to play "I Just Can't wait to be King". Before long, her four children made their appearance, and her son, Benjamin began to sing:
I'm gonna be a mighty king
So enemies beware
Then the red-haired Amanda began to sing as Zazu, the king's major-domo:
Well, I've never seen a king of beasts
With quite so little hair
Benjamin continued his singing, with a mock scowl on his face to his sister:
I'm gonna be the mane event
Like no king was before
I'm brushing up on looking down
I'm working on my roar
His sister continued to sing and to act the more adult Zasu:
Thus far, a rather inspiring thing
Oh, I just can't wait to be king!
Then Kitty joined in, and began to sing the part of Nala:
No one saying do this,
No one saying be there,
No one saying stop that,
No one saying see here.
Free to run around all day,
Free to do it all my way.
Amanda, still as Zasu, stood tall, acting much like her mother had when she first had met Delbert. She began to sing once more:
I think it's time that you and I
Arranged a heart to heart…
Benjamin looked bored and said in reply:
Kings don't need advice
From little hornbills for a start
He playfully pushed his sister, who continued to sing even more loudly:
If this is where the monarchy's headed,
Then you can count me out,
Out of service,
Out of Africa,
I wouldn't hang about!
This child is getting wildly out of wing
Then everybody saw that more of Kitty's people now clustered around as Benjamin started to sing again:
Oh, I just can't wait to be king!
Everybody look left
Everybody look right
Everywhere you look I'm...
Standing in the spotlight
Then they all sang in chorus:
Let everybody go for broke and sing
Let's hear it in the herd and on the wing
It's gonna be King Simba's finest fling
And then Benjamin ended everything by jumping up to his mother (who was sitting on a ceiling girder) and almost yelled out the last few lines:
Oh, I just can't wait to be king!
Oh, I just can't wait to be king!
Oh, I just can't wait to be king!
Amelia lowered the harmonica from her lips and looked down at Benjamin. "You are doing better and better, each and every day, Benjamin," she said and ruffled his hair.
"Gee thanks, Mom," Benjamin said proudly.
Then Jim offered, "I have always heard that Kitty could bring people through time, but I've never believed it before now."
Amelia looked around at everyone around her. "I have heard that you can bring people back who were once dead," she said, just a bit hesitantly. "Is this true?"
Kitty smiled and whistled sharply. Soon, two people moved over and stood beside her. One was a felinid woman and a large Cragorian man.
"Good morning, sister mine," the feline woman said sweetly, smiling broadly.
"Victoria?" Amelia asked, not wanting to believe her ears, which were swiveled back and flat against her skull.
"Amelia. It's rather nice to see you, Captain," the rock-skinned man observed with a grin.
"Arrow?" Amelia gasped, her hand coming up to cover her mouth. She looked as if she had seen a ghost.
"So, Captain… does that answer your question?" Kitty asked, just a hint of a smile on her face.
Amelia nodded, unable to say anything; do anything. She simply stared wide-eyed at the two figures beside Kitty.
"Well, good," Kitty said. Then she snapped her fingers and said aloud, "All right! Everyone out!" Everyone did as she instructed. "We will see you in a few days," Kitty added. "And… before I go, just in case you're thinking of doing anything rash…"
She snapped her fingers again, and a three-dimensional holographic image of Amelia appeared from out of nowhere. Kitty looked at the image, then held her hand out flat, and lowered it down as if she wanted to reduce the volume, and while she did this the picture of Amelia became younger and younger until she looked like an infant. The image of Amelia tried to stand, but tripped and fell to the ground. Silver then appeared, and scooped baby Amelia up into his arms with a laugh. Infant Amelia tried to squirm away from his arms, but was unsucsessful.
Silver held the struggling youngster firmly in his arms, cooing at her, and kissed her on the cheek.
"Try anything funny, and that's what you've got to look forward to. Just so you understand," Kitty said. "Now… if you´ll excuse me, I have some preparations to make." And with that, she made her way to the front door.
"Oh yes, one last thing," she said and retrieved something from from her pocket. "Here are a couple of crontars for the purp juice," she explained and laid them on a table before she left.
Without really meaning to, everyone's eyes went to poor Amelia. "I am so dead," Amelia said softly, shaking her head.
"For once, Captain… I actually believe that we agree," Jim told her, his expression sympathetic.