Owlette heaved a sigh of relief as she stepped out of the hangar. She had just gotten back from a mission. She stretched her arms before pressing a button on the computer in the central room. "Jeez, Pharaoh Boy just gets harder and harder to deal with now," she muttered. She stepped towards the huge circular table and sat down on her chair, the one marked with her red owl emblem.
"Alright, how about I just relax here for a bit?" She got out a novel and set it on the desk. She flipped to the page where she'd placed her bookmark and began to read. She'd been reading for a while when she heard a frustrated scream, "GAH! WHY THE HECK DID I DO THAT?!"
Surprised, she snapped her book shut and looked around, searching for the source of the sound. It sounded like it was coming from one of the dorms in Power Q. Sometimes, whenever the Power Heroes were tired from missions or didn't want to go home yet, they often spent time resting in their dorms. The headquarters was sort of their home away from home.
She walked down the corridor looking left and right. She wondered where the scream had come from. She wished she had Super Cat Ears so she could detect exactly who had screamed and where. It was then she remembered that all the other heroes were still out on missions, except for Catboy. She headed straight for his dorm and knocked on the door.
"What?" she heard him ask. He sounded as though he was completely irritated or fed up with something. A worried feeling crept up on her insides. She hated it when he was upset.
She slowly opened the door and saw Catboy lying down on his bed, staring straight up at the blue ceiling above him. He'd decorated it with glow-in-the-dark stickers. "Hey, it's me," she said, making him sit up in bed and turn to look at her. "Is everything okay in here? I heard you scream just now."
Catboy stared at the table. His friends had all gone on missions except for him. Maybe it was better for all of them this way. He probably shouldn't go fight the night time villains tonight. Not after what happened the night before. He groaned as he got up from his seat, his limbs still sore from the incident. He decided to lie down in his room.
Walking down the corridor to his dorm, his legs hurt more and more with each step. He touched his right cheek. He could still feel the scar. It wasn't bleeding anymore, it actually stopped bleeding ages ago, but it was still there. A painful reminder of how terrible he'd been. He flopped onto his bed and stared up at the glow-in-the-dark stickers on the ceiling. His friends were probably still mad with him. They did stare at him before leaving Power Q to go on their separate missions, although he wasn't sure if it was a cold stare or not.
Catboy's stomach growled asking for some food. He was starving. He hadn't eaten at all that day, he felt too queasy. He couldn't stop recalling the events from the night before. It just made him feel guilty all over again. Maybe he didn't deserve to become the leader of the Power Heroes, much less be a part of the team.
He furiously kicked his legs in bed, not bothering how much it hurt. "GAH! WHY THE HECK DID I DO THAT?!" He was so frustrated in himself, and all he wanted at that moment was to just let it all out. He was done. He was done with everything. He was tired with the guilty feeling that had been following him around all day.
He heard a knock on the door. "What?" he asked, forgetting to hide the irritation in his voice. "Hey, it's me," said a familiar sweet voice. He sat up right in bed and looked at Owlette, instantly recognising the voice as hers. "Is everything okay in here?" she asked worriedly. "I heard you scream just now."
"No, I didn't scream," lied Catboy as he lay back down in bed. "It must've been something else." He was terrible at lying sometimes. He turned to face the window, looking at the view of outer space from his Power Q dorm. He often did this when he was upset. The view from his window always managed to calm him down, but it always took quite a while.
"Don't lie to me, Catboy." Owlette stepped closer and closer until she was sitting at the foot of his bed, stroking his kitty tail. "I'd recognise your voice anywhere. And besides, you're the only one here besides me. Wanna tell me what's the matter?"
"Nuh-uh." Catboy had buried his face in his pillow, so his voice sounded muffled. "I'm never gonna talk about it."
"Are you still thinking about the night before?" Owlette asked slowly. She had to be careful. The heroes had had a hard time, especially Catboy. Knowing he was very upset, she couldn't risk making him feel even worse.
"I said, I'm never gonna talk about it!" Catboy almost sounded angry. But of course, he was; he'd been affected the worst after what had happened. If it had happened to Owlette, she would have reacted the same way he was now.
The owl heroine sighed as her mind flashed back to that particular incident…
Romeo had really done it this time. He'd sent all of his Fly Bots to attack the Power Heroes. Earlier that night, he'd sent them a message saying he'd like to have a small chat with them and possibly call a truce.
The PJ Masks Power Heroes seemed sceptical about it, though. It wasn't their first time receiving a message from Romeo like that. "He's obviously lying," said Gekko. "Remember the time he sent us a similar note? He used the Opposite Ray and turned Catboy and Owlette evil." He shuddered at the memory.
"Gekko's right," agreed Owlette. "I think we should just ignore it, it's probably just a part of one of his schemes to trick us into getting captured."
"Well, what do you think, Catboy?" asked An Yu, as she and the other heroes turned to face their leader.
"I think we should go and investigate," he replied. "I don't think it's just a trick."
"I don't know about this, Catboy." Ice Cub sounded uncertain. "What if something bad happens? What if we get hurt?" Newton Star, Bastet and Lilyfay nodded in agreement.
"I'll have to agree with them on this one, Catboy," said Armadylan. "Usually, I'd love to fight bad guys, but I think we better play it safe this time."
"Come on, you guys, when did we ever start playing it safe?" asked Catboy. "What if right this very moment, Romeo is attacking the city with his robots? Do you guys really just wanna sit here as he maybe destroys the whole city and takes over the world? Besides, if he actually does attack us with his Fly Bots, we'll fight them off together as a team."
The other heroes exchanged concerned glances before Owlette spoke up. "Fine, let's go. As long as we all stick together, we'll be fine." She nodded towards PJ Robot, who pressed a button on the computer. A live video feed popped up on the Picture Player.
"He's at the park," announced Catboy. "Let's go!" And with that, all the heroes, including PJ Robot, headed towards the park.
Romeo flashed them an evil grin the second he spotted them. "I see you've got my message, do-gooders!"
"What do you want, Romeo?" demanded Catboy. "If this is another of your evil schemes, I suggest you put a stop to it right now before things get really ugly."
"Listen, I just want to say that I've spent all my days of villainy trying to take over the world, only to fail every single time thanks to all of you." He looked at each and every one of the Power Heroes. "So I decided, there can only be room for one of us here in the city."
"Wait, so what you're trying to say is, you're done being the villain?" asked Gekko. The look on his face was a mixture of confusion and incredulousness.
"Oh, I never said that," said Romeo, his evil grin getting wider. It almost looked kind of creepy. He snapped his fingers. "Fly Bots!"
"What the what?" said the Power Heroes in unison as hundreds of Fly Bots appeared in every direction and charged towards them. As if they all shared the same mind, they all called their own powers and started to fight off the flying robots.
"I knew we should've stayed at Space Q for this one," muttered Newton Star. Even through all the chaos, Catboy heard his friend crystal clear. His heart sank as he realised he'd made the wrong decision. He spotted Romeo running off into his Flying Factory and flying away into the night sky.
"You guys stay here and fight off the Fly Bots!" the cat hero called out. "I'm gonna go deal with Romeo."
"But you said that we'll fight them off together!" Lilyfay protested.
"It'll just be for a while. I'll be back." Catboy raised his arm out to the sky. "Super Cat Stripes!" The Cat Stripe managed to tie itself around one of the wings on the Flying Factory. Catboy held on tight to it as he got pulled up to the sky.
Romeo turned around to see Catboy standing at the entrance to the cockpit. "If it isn't Kitty Litter Boy." He got up from his seat and walked towards the hero. "Where are all your friends?"
"They're all fighting off the Fly Bots, which you sent to attack us!" replied Catboy angrily.
"Some hero you are," said Romeo as he walked around Catboy. "I thought you're all about 'working as a team', but I guess I was wrong." He snapped his fingers and a few more Fly Bots appeared. Catboy gasped.
"I always keep extra Fly Bots here, for situations such as these. Have fun!" He happily watched as the Fly Bots chased Catboy out of the cockpit.
"What have I done?" thought Catboy as he ran down the flight of stairs. "This is the dumbest thing I've ever done." One of the Fly Bots zapped the steps near Catboy's feet, making him trip and fall. He landed at the bottom of the steps and felt something sharp cut his right cheek. He touched it and looked at his hands. He gasped when he saw blood.
He saw the exit just a couple steps away from him. He got to his feet and ran outside. Behind him, the Fly Bots got closer and closer. Without any hesitation, he leapt over the railing. He fell out of the sky screaming and landed in a bush.
"Ow…" he groaned as he got out of the bush and dusted himself off. He saw hundreds of damaged Fly Bots lying around on the ground, his friends standing in the middle of it all. They all had bruises. He ran up to them. "You guys managed to fight them all?"
"Nice job leaving us in the lurch, leader," said Armadylan, his arms folded. "While you were busy with Inventor Boy, we were stuck here fighting off a bajillion flying robots!" He didn't bother asking about the scar on Catboy's cheek.
"Look, I'm sorry, okay? I shouldn't have run off like that, and it was a dumb idea to make us all come here." Catboy stared down at his feet. He'd never felt so guilty before.
"Let's just… let's go back and call it a night," said Owlette with a sigh. "I'm so tired."
When the heroes returned to Power Q, none of them said a single word to Catboy. He didn't even feel like saying anything either.
"Catboy, you know Armadylan didn't mean to say that last night," said Owlette as she helped Catboy sit up in bed. "He was just angry, and anger always makes us say things we don't mean."
"I know, but…" Catboy paused for a moment, swallowing the big lump in his throat. "When those Fly Bots ambushed us, it made me really doubt my capability of becoming the leader. Maybe I shouldn't even deserve to be a hero."
"But you're an amazing hero and leader, Catboy." Owlette rubbed circles on his back, gently. "We wouldn't even have become the PJ Masks Power Heroes if it weren't for you."
"I made a dumb mistake, Owlette," insisted Catboy. "And it got all of us hurt, especially me."
"Hey, it's okay." Owlette helped him lean against her body. "Everyone makes dumb mistakes sometimes, even me. What matters is we get back on our feet and learn from them. And besides, we all forgive you, Catboy. We just didn't say anything because we thought you were still upset."
"I never thought of it that way," Catboy said slowly. "Guess I'll have to talk to the others when they get back."
"That's my little blue kitty." Owlette kissed him on his forehead and the two of them giggled. "Feeling any better?" she asked.
"Mmhmm," said Catboy, sitting back up straight. He smiled at her. "Thanks Owlette, I love you."
Owlette smiled back. "I love you too."
Catboy's rumbling stomach broke the silence. "I'm hungry," he admitted, his cheeks red with embarrassment.
"How about we get you some peaches?" Owlette stood up and reached out her hand.
"Sure, I'd love a snack right about now." Catboy took her hand and together they walked out of the room and towards the dining area.
AN: Thanks to everyone who read my one-shot and enjoyed it. I promise you all there's plenty more to come and that they won't disappoint. Feel free to drop any requests.
Take care and have a great day! :D