"I'm telling you what, buddy..." King Louie replied with a frown. "I'm not liking this one bit. True, I'd love nothing more but to get my hands on some fire... but to tell you the truth, I'm not a bad guy. I'm just a fun-loving dude who wants to claim some similarities to his cousins, the humans. And your little monkey friends are creeping the heck out of me. So if you don't mind, I'm gonna go eat some bananas now..." And with these words, the agile orangutan disappeared in the leaves.
"Darn it..." Pete grumbled. "And here I thought finding an ally in a foreign world would be easy... Maleficent assured me that in every world, there has to be some scum that would love some easy power... but if it isn't this guy, then who...?"
He stopped in mid-sentence when he heard a strange, hissing voice coming from nearby.
"Trussst in meee... jusst in meee... close your eyes and... OUCH!"
Pete used the long arms of his new ape form to climb closer to the source of the voice. In no time, his eyes fell upon the owner of the voice: A long, green snake with yellow eyes and a big, swollen bump on the tip of its tails.
"Ooooooh, that hurts!" Kaa grimaced while blowing his tail. "Those little prankster monkeys have no senssse of humor... at least I don't think it's very funny when they drop a rock on my tail. All I want is some tasssty food...."
Pete grinned. "Now this one looks promising..."
Soun and Genma shuddered when the emotionless swordswoman entered the room, carrying a big bundle. She was the one who had ruthlessly attacked them an hour ago... and the main reason why they were crouching in the corner of the dojo, bound together by a thick rope.
Although, the mistress of the warrior was to blame as well...
Arlene smiled when her gaze fell upon the lifeless cat doll that was lying to her feet. "Well done, Celes... that's everything? He didn't move at all when you found him?"
"No, Mistress!" Celes replied, staring blankly into the air.
"Well, that means that the power supply of his doll must have run out... too bad this is just a puppet, I could have used it for my special potion..." She gestured towards the limp form of Cait Sith. "Put this one to the other specimens... maybe I can still use it as raw material..."
"Yes, Mistress... what about the two males?"
"Oh, them?" Arlene sauntered over to Genma and Soun and took a good look at them. Genma would have loved to tell her off, but that is never an easy thing to do when your mouth is covered with tape.
"Well, they are not female, so I won't be able to make some Soulmates out of them... but since they are pretty strong, maybe my beloved darling might have some use for them... turned into Heartless, of course..." She giggled.
With a simple gesture of her hand, two Soulmates appeared and dragged the two martial artists away. Celes, on the other hand, picked the body of Cait Sith up again and left the room as well.
Arlene looked down at the dojo's floor. "The Keyblade brat already sealed this Keyhole... well, no matter. This will be bad news for my darling, but what do I care about the Heart of all Worlds?"
She snickered. "Well, this little trip turned out to be better than I thought... first Kodachi, now these two guys... this world seems to be full of strong fighters... and most probably also many female ones. Oh yes, I will be able to create many, powerful Soulmates with such splendid raw material..."
She turned to leave. "Not to mention the unusual amount of sentient felines... they will serve well in my newest experiment..."
The lavender-furred cat rammed her small body against the wall of the metal box she was imprisoned in as strongly as she could. Like any cat, she was speaking in meows, but any cat would be able to translate these meows into the following words:
"Let Shampoo out of here! Shampoo no is normal cat... Shampoo is powerful amazon! You let Shampoo go, or else..."
"Will you give it a rest?" the other feline that was lying next to her sighed. "All you're going to accomplish is giving yourself a headache... and me as well, for that matter."
"Shampoo no need to talk to you," the cursed amazon hissed. "You is just common cat and can't understand that I'm not like you..."
"Obviously not," the black cat with the crescent moon on her forehead said. "Unlike me, you're not a Mau."
Shampoo stopped ramming the door with her cat body. "What... is a Mau?" she asked.
"Moon cat, advisor to the Sailor Senshi," Luna explained. "Normally, I wouldn't tell this anyone, but after all, you don't seem to be a normal cat either... or else they wouldn't have captured you."
"What you mean?" Shampoo frowned.
"You know, you should try to learn some Japanese," Luna told the Chinese kitty. "Even your meows have a Chinese accent. Also, didn't you hear what that woman has said? She's looking for 'sentient' cats... and unlike most of the cats living on Earth, you and me are both sentient, which means, capable of thought and speech. Understood?"
Shampoo scratched her head with her paw. "But Shampoo no can talk, only meow..."
Luna sighed. "Never mind... Well, your name is obviously Shampoo, isn't it? I am Luna. And since we are in this together, we should try to find a way out of here together. I don't think we can open this box with raw power."
Shampoo frowned. "But that's how Shampoo always solves her problems..."
"I'm surprised you managed to live this long..." Luna muttered. "Oh well... first, we have to find out where we are."
"We in metal box," Shampoo said, in case the black Mau had not noticed it.
Luna groaned. "Oh please, would you stop talking for a moment? You're worse than Usagi..." She peered out of the air holes in the wall of their prison. "Hmmmm, it looks like they are taking us somewhere..."
"But where?" Shampoo asked.
"How should I know, I'm a moon cat, not a psychic," Luna grumbled. "All I can see is that she has entering some sort of mansion and... HEY!"
She and Shampoo both yelped when the box suddenly got tilted, and they both were flung into one corner of the box.
"Take your paw out of my face, okay?"
"Then you take your tail away from Shampoo's nose!"
Suddenly, the box was opened, and the two cats fell down to the ground. Of course, they landed on their feet, like any cat would.
"Well, enjoy your new home!" the strange woman snickered, then she closed the door.
Luna looked around. They were in a bleak room, with almost no furniture. Only a few empty, wooden boxes and some dirty carpets were lying in the corner. "This looks like some sort of cellar..." she muttered. "And there's no other way out than this door."
The Chinese cat smirked. "Let Shampoo handle this!" She ran at the door, jumped into the air and turned around to hit the handle with a solid kick... but she yelped in pain when her foot connected with solid steel. "Ow! That was not supposed to happen..."
Luna groaned. "I told you, we won't solve this with brawns..."
"Hey, is she gone?" a high voice asked. And suddenly, several other cats were coming out of the boxes and from behind the stacked carpets.
Luna looked at the orange kitten that had spoken. "You... are not a Mau."
"Me? No, I don't think so... what's a Mau? My name's Oliver, and what's yours?"
"I'm Luna... and that barbarian brute that only thinks with her head is called Shampoo."
"Shampoo hear that..." the cat in question grumbled while nursing her injured paw.
"Well, looks like we got more company, folks," a grown tomcat, also colored orange, sighed. "You know how the old saying goes: Misery loves company!"
"Did you all get captured by... by that woman?" Luna asked while looking at all the cats that surrounded her.
"Yes, that mean old lady put me into a bag just while I was playing with Jenny..." Oliver said.
"And my pals and I were caught just when we were practicing our music," a more chubby, grey cat replied. And true enough, he and several other cats had cat-sized instruments with them, including a trumpet, a guitar and an accordion.
"What kind of cat plays the trumpet?" Luna frowned.
"A swinger cat, if you may, miss..." the chubby cat chuckled. "Pardon me, my name is Scatcat, this is my band, and this is my best friend named..."
"Abraham D'Lacey Giuseppe Casey Thomas O'Malley," the orange tomcat smiled while taking Luna's paw. "But you may call me Tom!" And he gently kissed her paw.
Oliver made a disgusted face.
Luna was visible flustered. She blushed underneath her fur and stuttered: "W-w-well, I... am happy to make your, um, acquaintance, Mr. O'Malley..."
"You stop the mushy stuff and help Shampoo find a way out of here, okay?" Shampoo grumbled.
"There is no exit," Oliver explained. "I already looked... this door is the only way out, and it's always locked... well, except for when she brings in some new cats."
"What does she want to do with us, anyways?" Luna wondered, trying not to look at the charming smile of Tom.
"All we know is that she needs us for some 'experiments'," Scatcat explained. "She's come in here several times, took one of us... and we never saw him or her ever again."
"Dang, if only Shampoo had some hot water... then she could easily smash stupid door," Shampoo hissed. "I hate being stuck in cat body..."
"Excuse me?" Scatcat blinked. "Did I just hear that? A cat who doesn't want to be a cat?" He then smiled. "But everyone wants to be a cat! Don't you know the old song that goes like this..."
"Excuse me, but we really don't have the time to play music right now," Luna insisted. "Shampoo is right, we need to find a way out of here..."
"Oh, so you suddenly agree with what the 'barbarian brute' says?"
Shampoo angrily looked around. "Who said that?"
"That would be us..." Two sleek cats came slinking out of the shadows. "We are siamese, if you please..."
"We are siamese, if you don't please..."
"Oh boy..." Tom groaned. "Just what we needed... Si and Am, the troublemakers..."
The siamese twins ignored him. "Do you honestly think there's a way out of this prison?" Si asked Luna.
"Yes, do you actually believe that?" Am hissed. "That woman is a human... and humans are always stronger than cats."
"Or maybe you two are just a couple of scaredy cats," Tom mocked. "To your information, my friends and I once took care of a butler who wanted to kidnap the kittens of a good friend of mine."
"That's true, we helped him," Scatcat added, and his band members nodded.
"And I... I know this bad man who wanted to take Jenny away from her home," Oliver spoke up. "I thought I'd never see her again, but together with my friends, I managed to bring Jenny back home."
"So you see?" Luna smirked. "Humans might be bigger and stronger as cats, but if we work together, we might be able to trick her long enough to escape. Well, the main problem is: I don't actually think that she's a human..."
"Huh? What else is she supposed to be?" Oliver wondered.
"Don't listen to her! She's babbling nonsense!" Si hissed.
"Yes," Am agreed. "She's just leading you into danger!"
"Will you two shut it already?" Tom shouted. He turned to face Luna. "Well then, Miss Luna... would you explain to us what you mean when you say 'She isn't human'?"
"W-well, that is hard to explain..." Luna swallowed, once again enthralled by the charming voice of the handsome tomcat. She batted her head with her paw. 'Bad thoughts, Luna, bad thoughts! What would Artemis say?'
Artemis grinned while walking alongside Gatomon. "Say, do you have anything planned for Saturday evening? I know this very nice, Italian restaurant... and they sometimes have some spare food for hungry cats like us..."
"Nice try, Romeo..." Gatomon frowned as she followed her Digidestined.
Artemis groaned. "So beautiful... and yet so cruel..."
"Oh, really?" Minako huffed. "And what about Luna?"
The white Mau suddenly gulped. "Um, you're not telling Luna about this, aren't you?"
Minako grinned like the cat who caught the canary. She just loved to see him sweat like this.