It was the day before the Ball and Pouncival woke up around eight. He looked over at his brother, who was still fast asleep. He walked over to Tumblebrutus' bed and poked his side. "Hey, you still sleeping?"

Tumblebrutus moaned and rolled over. "I was until you woke me up."

"Come on, let's go play." Pouncival said, tugging on his brothers tail. "Look how nice it is outside."

"I don't care, let me sleep. And stop pulling my tail!"

"Come on Tumblebrutus, I don't like to play by myself. Please?"

"Why don't you go find Electra or Mistoffelees? I'll be out later. Now leave me alone." he said, and covered his head with his paws.

Pouncival decided to take his brothers advice and find Mistoffelees. But before he went out, he walked over to his food dishes. They were empty. He heard the sound of a TV in the living room so he ran in and jumped on his owners lap. He started to meow for food. His owner pushed him off. "Not now, McCoy, I'm watching the epithode about Kirk'th evil twin." Pouncival was persistent and began rubbing his head on his humans leg and meowing even louder. "Oh all right, McCoy! I'll jutht pauthe it." Andrew got up and stretched. "I'll never get tired of thith show." he said, smiling.

What a nerd, thought Pouncival. All Andrew ever does is watch that dumb show.
Andrew walked over to a cupboard and poured out some dry food. "There you go McCoy." he said and petted the kitten. "You're food came fresh from the replicater. Now don't bug me anymore!"

Pouncival wolfed down his kitty-chow and lapped up some water. He ran over to his brother for a last time. "I'm leaving now, Tumblebrutus, you can still come now if you want." Tumblebrutus groaned and turned over again, but said nothing. Pouncival remembered that the back and front doors were usually locked and the weather was too cold for any windows to be open. He reluctantly went over to Andrew again. He meowed and then ran to the front door and started scratching on it.

"Oh come on McCoy." Andrew said getting up. "I thwear thith ith the latht time I'm pauthing my show." He walked over to the door and unlocked it. Pouncival jumped out of the way and Andrew opened the door. "Thtay out of trouble, McCoy. Thet your phatherth to thtun." he said to himself as he closed the door.

The air was cool, but the sky was blue, so Pouncival decided it was going to be a good day. He decided to go to Mistoffelees house to see if he wanted to play. He thought about taking the shortcut through the woods, but decided against it. It was still early, he had plenty of time. So he walked down the sidewalk and when he got to the edge of the road he turned right. As he was walking he saw Alonzo coming towards him. "Hey, Alonzo." he said when he walked by.

"Is your brother up yet?" was the reply.

"I tried to wake him up but he wouldn't. Hope you have better luck."

"Yeah, thanks." he said and went on his way. Pouncival continued to Mistoffelees house and when he got there he went around back. He saw Mistoffelees in the back yard alone so he walked up to him.

"Hi Mistoffelees. Want to play?"

"Huh? Oh, hey Pouncival. Play what?"

"I don't know, we could go find the girls and see if they want to play tag or something."

"Yeah, okay. I think Victoria mentioned that they were all going to be at the junkyard, so let's go there first." Mistoffelees and Pouncival ran off together to the junkyard. When they got there, they found Jemima, Victoria, Etcetera and Electra.

"Mistoffelees!" Etcetera cried. "I wanna ask you something!" The four girls ran over to him. "Member last year at the Ball?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Well, remember when you said you would make me disappear?"

"That I don't remember."

"I do, you told her you would sometime and you never did." Pouncival said.

"Oh, whatever." Mistoffelees said and then looked at Etcetera. "You want me to make you disappear, don't you?"

She smiled big. "Uh-huh. Right now."

Mistoffelees sighed. "Alright."

* * *

A short distance away, a slender, orange cat was walking down the sidewalk. He was on his way to the Russell Hotel where he was going to get some food, and cause a little trouble. When he reached the Hotel, there was a bellhop standing by the front door. Great, he thought to himself, why is that guy standing there? He looked the bellhop who looked down at him

"Hey, get outa here! You're taking business away." At this the cat hissed angrily and slipped into the alley so he could find a way in the back of the Hotel. As he approached the junkyard, he saw several kittens playing. He knew for a fact that they had been at the Ball last year. He recognized two kittens from then. Instead of going up there and making trouble, he decided to see what they were doing. He hid in the old stove, out of sight and listened. He heard a high female voice.

"Wait! Is it going to hurt me?"

"No, no. Just stay still, you're jumping around too much."

The orange cat strained to see what was going on, but it was difficult. There were too many kittens jumping and running around.

"Now, sit there and keep quiet." It was a black cat. The orange cat saw him and a girl kitten standing in the center of the junkyard. The other kittens were standing back a few feet, watching intently. He saw the black cat waving his paws over the girl kitten.
What is he doing, thought the older cat, still in the stove. As soon as the thought had left him, he saw the girl kitten disappear! He was amazed, and all his questions about last year became answered. He remembered taking Old Deuteronomy to his hideout, far across town... The rats had taken off the net, but just to make sure Old Deuteronomy wouldn't try to run, the rats surrounded him while Macavity had taken the lead. He had glanced back to make sure the leader was still there, and when he did, he saw nothing but his three rats, standing in silence. He laughed as he remember what happened next...

"You let him escape!?" he roared. The four rats stood there shaking, too scared to speak. The orange cat ran over to them and slapped the nearest one with such a powerful blow it sent him flying across the alley and smashing against the wall. "You shouldn't have taken the net off, you idiots! Where'd he go?" he had demanded.

One of the rats, Max, still shaking, bravely spoke up. "Uh..uh, we, uh uh..."

"Just say it!" he bellowed.

"He..he just disappeared!" Max said.

"Is this right?!" he yelled, looking at the other rat, Malcom, who was covering his face with fear. Knowing that if he told the truth, he would get killed, so he lied.

"N-n-no. It w-was R-rocky. H-he let him g-go!" then Malcom got on his knees.

"Please don't eat me!"

The orange cat rolled his eyes and swiped at the begging rat. "Get outta here before I do eat ya!" He turned his attention to Rocky. His voice was low, and quiet. "Now, you. Why did you let him go? Huh? You thought it'd be a nice thing to do, huh? Did you think that'd be smart?"

Rocky was frozen with fear. He opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came out. "Don't be scared, Rocky. I just want to know the truth. Did you let him go, Rocky?"
Rocky's mind went blank. He didn't say anything.

"That's what I thought, Rocky. That's what I thought." his voice was still a whisper.

"Well, since you let our prisoner go, you know what's going to happen to you, don't you?" then he shouted, "DON'T YOU!" and grabbed the rat with his front paws and ate him in one mouthful.

"I'm back!" a cheerful voice shook him from his thoughts. "That was the silliest thing I ever did!! Do it again, do it again!"

"Come on, Etcetera, this is boring." Electra complained.

"Yeah, can't we play tag or something?" Pouncival said.

"Oh all right!" Etcetera agreed. "But, you're just jealous that he didn't disappear you." The kittens ran off together, still arguing. The orange cat decided to follow them.

* * *

Astraya was getting hungry. She hadn't eaten for at least a day. She was walking down the street looking at all the different shops and restaurants she passed, waiting for the perfect one. She passed three restaurants, a pizza place, and ice cream shop, and a mexican restaurant. None of that food appealed to her today. She was about to give up hope and try some fishing when she came across a deli. Perfect! she thought to herself. The door wasn't latched all the way, so she walked right in and immediately hid under the front counter. She waited for what seemed like an hour until the owner went back to answer the phone in the other room. She jumped up onto the counter and was amazed by the variety of meat she saw before her. Pepperoni, salami, turkey, chicken, ham, the choices were endless. She fought the urge to just start eating right where she was and walked over to the turkey, her personal favorite. She bent down and smelled the fresh turkey. "Mmm." she said.

Suddenly she felt herself being picked up by the scruff of her neck and thrown down on the floor. She dropped the turkey in midair and hissed. She darted out the door before the owner could find a broom. She started to walk away but stopped when she heard laughing behind her. She spun around. "What's so funny?" she asked, glaring at the two cats who stood before her. She noticed they both had collars and figured they were laughing because she was a stray.

"Want to see how it's done?" Rumpleteazer asked, walking towards Astraya.

"What do you mean? How what's done?"

"Stay there." Mungojerrie said and they crept into the deli.

"Hey, I just got kicked out of there!" Astraya warned them, but they didn't hear her. She waited by the door for only a few seconds until Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer came out. Both had a large helping of turkey in their mouths. Astraya's mouth dropped to the ground. "What'd you do that for?"

"What do you mean 'why'?" Mungojerrie asked, letting the turkey fall to the ground. "Weren't you trying to steal some food in there?"

"Well, yeah, but I'm a stray. You two have collars."

"So?" Rumpleteazer said, also letting her food drop to the ground. "Does that mean we don't to steal things?"

"I guess not, I just thought..."

"That since we have collars, we don't steal things, right?" Rumpleteazer replied, making her point.

Astraya laughed. "I guess so. Hey, aren't you two my partners for the Ball next week?"

"I thought you looked familiar. You're Astraya, right?" Mungojerrie said, putting his paw out. "I'm Mungojerrie and this is Rumpleteazer."

Astraya was shocked. "Wait a minute. You're telling me, that you are The Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer?" she shook there paws. "I can't believe it. I've heard stories about you, but I never thought I'd actually get to meet you. I'm Astraya."

"Nice to meet you, Astraya." Rumpleteazer said. "Help yourself." she said, pointing to the turkey.

"Thanks!" she said and started to wolf down the food. She ate all of what Rumpleteazer had brought out. Realizing what she had done, she looked up at them, embarrassed. "Sorry."

"It's okay, don't worry about it." Mungojerrie said and smiled at her.

She liked Mungojerrie a lot. "Can--do you think you could teach me how to steal better, Mungojerrie?" she tried to gracefully bat her eyelashes at him. Rumpleteazer giggled.

"Are you serious? You really want us to teach you how to steal?" Rumpleteazer asked. When Astraya nodded, Rumpleteazer jumped up and smiled at Mungojerrie. "She wants us to teach her, Mungojerrie!"

"Great, let's start now." he said. "Now, the first rule is Get out fast...the longer you stay, the more chances of getting caught." They all started to walk away together.

"Yeah, yeah, ok. Then what, Mungojerrie?" Astraya said excitedly.

"The second rule is..."

* * *

It was several hours later. The sun was setting and the air was getting quite colder. Pouncival was on his way home with Electra. And even though it wasn't quite dark yet, Pouncival was a little scared. He never liked be outside at night, even at the Ball last year he had been a little nervous. And now he was alone with only Electra. Well, better her then Tumblebrutus, he thought. Electra is much more stronger and tougher then him. As he was thinking, he glanced over his shoulder. He thought he had heard something behind them, something scurrying quickly. But when he looked, nothing was there. It was now dark, and even though they were almost to his house, he was still worried about being outside this late. He tried to think of other things to get his mind off of all the strange noises he was hearing behind him, but he couldn't help himself and looked over his shoulder once again, with a nervous look on his face.

Electra saw this. "Hey, what's up?" she asked calmly.

"Did you hear something behind us?"

Electra looked behind them. "No, why, did you hear something?"

Pouncival knew he must have just imagined it. He shook his head. "No, no I guess not." Just as he finished his thought he heard a loud crash behind them. They both turned around and jumped to attention. "Did, um, do you s-see anyone?" Pouncival asked, his voice shaking.

"I'm sure it was just another stray or something. Gosh, you really are scared, aren't you?" Just as she finished saying that and they began walking again, Pouncival was sure he heard something behind them. But before he could do or say anything, they heard a voice.

"Stop where you are." it said, softly, but loud enough for them to hear it. They stopped in their tracks and Pouncival nervously turned his head until he was face to face with Macavity. Electra also turned around and gasped as she saw who the voice belonged to. At the site of the scared kittens Macavity began to laugh.

"Pouncival, run!" Electra hissed. She started to turn back around, but Pouncival wouldn't move.

"I, I think we should just listen to him, see what he wants." he gulped.

Macavity had stopped laughing and heard Pouncival. "Good idea kid." He then slowly walked up close to them. He circled them a few times, just to scare them even more. He knew the boy was terrified, but there was something about the girl kitten that didn't seem right. He stared into her eyes, and she stared right back.

Pouncival tried to sound brave. "What do you want?" he asked, his voice cracking at the end. He was embarrassed, but stared back at Macavity. He was actually looking directly at his forehead, he found that much easier then staring into those mean, glowing eyes.

Knowing they were both scared, he decided to push it a little further by acting nice, in a weird sort of way. "Don't be scared, Pouncival. I'm not going to harm you. I just want to know something." He looked at Pouncival, then Electra. His eyes stopped on her, and she kept staring right back at him, not even shaking. She was getting impatient.

"Well, tell us!"

Macavity raised his paw to slap her when Pouncival stepped in front of her. "You said you weren't going to hurt us." Even though he was completely terrified, the shakiness in his voice had disappeared.

Macavity replied calmly. "Now just relax, just relax." he paused and waited for Pouncival to step out from in front of the female. When he did, Macavity started talking again. "I saw you playing in the junkyard today. Do you play with your friends a lot?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Electra asked, annoyed.

Macavity raised his eyebrows and spoke to Pouncival. "You're little friend here sure isn't very nice."

"Rumor has it, neither are you." he mumbled under his breath.

"What did you say, Pouncival?" his voice was getting louder and definitely more intense. "Fine, I'll get to the point. I saw you playing with a black cat today. He seemed to have some sort of powers. You wouldn't happen to know his name, would you?" he asked, getting as close to Pouncival's head as possible, without making contact. Pouncival began to shake again.

"Um, a black c-cat?" Pouncival began, dodging Macavity's eyes. "Um, no, I don't really, um, know him."

Macavity rolled his eyes. "He was at the Ball last year and he was the one who took Deuteronomy away from me." Macavity was getting angry just thinking about what that kitten had done. "Wasn't he?"

"We're not telling you anything!" Electra said loudly. At the sound of her voice yelling at him, Macavity grabbed the female and held her down, covering her mouth so she couldn't scream.

Pouncival panicked. "Hey, let her go! You're hurting her."

"Tell me who it is!" Electra struggled to get free, but Macavity was much stronger then she was. After a minute of endless twisting and turning, Electra went limp.

Pouncival stood where he was, unable to move. He stood there, watching Electra. She was still breathing, but he could tell Macavity wasn't letting in much air. She looked at him with pleading eyes that said, Do something. But Pouncival didn't know what to do.

"At, at least let her breath. She, she can't breath." Pouncival was on the verge of tears.

"It's very simple, Pouncival. Just tell me the name." Macavity said as he tightened his grip on Electra, who let out a muffled yelp in pain.

Hearing this Pouncival couldn't take it any longer. There was no way he could fight Macavity, and there was no way Electra could breath much longer, so he did the only thing he could do. "His, his name is Mistoffelees." he paused, the tears rolling down his face. "Now let her go!" he pleaded.

"Just a minute there. Where does he live? Where does Mistoffelees live!?"

Pouncival was crying and could barely talk. "He...he live...woods..in th-the woods."

"Where?!" Macavity demanded.

"N-near w-water. Creek, th-the creek." Pouncival saw Electra's eyes close. He became hysterical. "N-now let her g-go!" Macavity tossed the now unconscience kitten to the ground and started to walk away.

"Hey, thanks, Pouncival," he paused and turned around. "It was one friend or the other. Good choice." he said and began to laugh as he left the area. As soon as Macavity was out of sight Pouncival ran to where Electra lay.

"Electra!" he cried, nudging her side. When there was no response, he began to shake her violently. "Wake up, Electra, wake up!" He realized what he was doing and then stopped. He looked at his friend, his best friend, and began to meow pitifully. "What do I do? What do I do?" He began to lick her face, hoping that would wake her up. In a few moments, she opened her eyes and immediately began to cough. She tried to speak.

"What--Macavity...where...?"

Pouncival saw how hard it was for her to talk. "Shh." he said quietly. "Don't talk. Can you walk?"

Electra tried to stand up, but failed. She laid back down, breathing heavily. "Just...leave..me here. I'll..be..fine. Go..on."

"No, I'm not leaving you. Come on, I'll help you." he helped Electra get up and they walked the remaining distance to his house. "You can stay in my house tonight. Andrew won't mind." he said this uncertainly, but he didn't care. He began to scratch at the front door and meow. He did this for about five minutes until Andrew opened the door. He didn't even look at Pouncival, he just opened the door and kept staring at the TV. Thank goodness for Star Trek, thought Pouncival as he slipped into the kitchen with Electra. Andrew stood there with the door open until a commercial came on and he snapped into reality.

"What? Mutht have been my imagination." he said as he looked outside and saw no one there. As he closed the door he said to himself, Or maybe it wath a tribble.

In the kitchen Pouncival helped Electra into his box. He looked over at Tumblebrutus, who was sleeping. No point in waking him up, he thought. He saw Electra trying to get comfortable in his box. As soon as she was, she fell asleep. Not wanting to wake her, he decided to just sleep on the floor. He laid down next to the box and closed his eyes. He thought about what had just happened only moments ago. He wondered if Macavity really would have killed Electra, and what he was going to do to Mistoffelees.

Mistoffelees! He began to get a sick feeling in his stomach. What have I done, he thought. He tried to push those thoughts out of his mind for now, but no matter how hard he tried, he keep thinking about Macavity. Then something dawned on him. Why hadn't he told Macavity the wrong place? I'm so stupid! he thought. Mistoffelees is in trouble and it's all my fault. He started to cry again and then he glanced over at Electra. He tried to reassure himself that he had done the right thing. But no matter what he told himself, all he could think about was what he had done to Mistoffelees. He closed his eyes again and after what seemed like hours, he drifted into a troubled sleep.

~ ~ ~

It was the next night and Pouncival was walking home with Mistoffelees. They were in a dark and deserted alley, not even one street lamp was around. Pouncival was scared. "Where are we, Mistoffelees?" Mistoffelees didn't answer. Instead, he stopped and stared at Pouncival. There was something different about him, thought Pouncival. And whatever it was, he didn't like it. "What?" Pouncival asked, his voice shaking. "Why are you staring at me, Mistoffelees?" Mistoffelees just kept staring at him with mean, glowing eyes. Pouncival heard a noise behind him. He jerked his head to the side and no one was there. When he looked back at where Mistoffelees had been, he was gone. Pouncival panicked. "Mistoffelees?" he called out. Clouds were filling the already dark sky and the covered the moon. It was getting foggy and Pouncival was frozen with fear. But he told himself to just keep walking, he'd be home sooner that way. "Mistoffelees?" he called again, as he walked alone. He heard something in front of him, but the fog was so thick he couldn't see who it was. He walked up slowly to the shadow. "Is that you, Mistoffelees?" Pouncival asked. He finally heard a voice.

"No, Pouncival, Mistoffelees is dead. You killed him." Pouncival's heart began to pound and he cried out, "No, I didn't mean to! I didn't mean to kill him!" The fog was disappearing and he could make out who was with him in the alley. It was Macavity. "I didn't kill him, I didn't!" Pouncival was hysterical now, he kept repeating himself and Macavity just laughed and laughed. Pouncival kept yelling, "I didn't kill him! I didn't kill him..."

* * *

"Pouncival, wake up!" it was Tumblebrutus. He had woken up during the night by Pouncival's crying. He poked his brother's side a few times. "Hey, Pouncival!"

Pouncival was rolling around the floor, crying. "I didn't kill him...I didn't..."

"Pouncival!" Tumblebrutus hissed. "Snap out of it!"

Pouncival woke up and looked around. "What?" He sighed, relieved. "It was only a dream." Then he looked at his older brother, his eyes watering. "I dreamed that I killed Mistoffelees." he began to whimper.

"What?" Tumblebrutus began to laugh quietly. Then he glanced over at Pouncivals bed. "What is she doing there?" he pointed to Electra.

Pouncival tried to control himself, he was tired of crying. "We, we were on our way home form the junkyard and, and it was getting dark and I was scared." Pouncival swallowed hard.

"Yeah, so?"

"Lemme finish! I kept hearing something be-behind us and it was Macavity. He was following us!" Pouncival looked around the room making sure all the doors and windows were closed before he continued. "He, he told us to stop and he grabbed her, he grabbed Electra and said if I didn't tell him who got Old Deuteronomy back, he would kill her!" Pouncival broke down, crying.

Tumblebrutus felt bad for laughing before. He could tell Pouncival was really scared. "Hey, I'm sorry, Pouncival. But you're all okay, right?"

Pouncival looked up at his brother. "Yeah, but, but what about Mistoffelees? Macavity is gonna kill him now. What am I gonna do?!"

Tumblebrutus was taken aback. "What? You mean you told him about Mistoffelees?" he rolled his eyes. "Smart one, Pouncival. Why the heck did you do that?"

Pouncival was confused. "He-he was going to kill her..what was I supposed to do?"

"I don't believe you! You could have lied to him, you could have called for help, anything then tell him."

Pouncival knew his brother was right. He should have lied. "But, but what do I do now?"

"Obviously you should tell an adult. But don't be surprised if you get yelled at." Tumblebrutus walked back over to his bed.

"Wait, who should I tell?"

"Tell anyone, tell your partner you're assigned to, just tell someone."

"O-Okay. But don't tell anyone, especially Mistoffelees. Please don't tell."

"Mistoffelees is my friend. I think he has a right to know that you got him in serious trouble, don't you?"

"Tumblebrutus, please! Please don't tell him. At least wait until I tell someone."

"Fine. Now go back to sleep and leave me alone." Tumblebrutus laid back down and closed his eyes.

Pouncival looked over at Electra, who luckily hadn't woken up with all the commotion. Then he looked at the clock. It was almost morning. Pouncival really did not want to go back to sleep, even though he was exhausted. He was scared he'd have another dream. He walked over to his bed and waited for the sun to come up.