“So what do you want us to do?” Romeo asked again.

“Nothing, you two need to go home,” Isis concluded.

“What?!? That’s crazy!”

“I guess you don’t understand,” Isis stepped up to Romeo so that she was directly in his face. “We are the Amazons, the queens’ tribe. We don’t send for a male’s help.”

“Then, why did you send Piper for Dash and why were you searching for me?” Romeo asked, his voice brimming with attitude.

“That was a necessary situation.”

“Oh? And, what was it?”

“The Strays.” Everyone took that to mean that Isis had planned to take over this strong new clan. Looks of pure terror were exchanged between Piper and Laurali. “Anyway,” Isis continued. “Go home.” She walked out away from the pier with her two female accessories close behind. Piper looked over her shoulder and gave Dash a sly look and a wink. Romeo caught this and grinned mischievously at Dash. The queens continued down the street until they reached a tall apartment building. Slowly, the three began climbing the cold metal fire escape staircase on one side of the building. On the roof, Piper questioned Isis’ motives.

“First I need to know that you two are assuredly devoted to the clan.” The two nodded vigorously. “Good, then you won’t abandon me?” Isis continued after more nodding. As Isis lay out her plan before the felines, they had to lean forward in order to hear her almost imperceptible voice. Occasionally, one cat would raise her eyebrows, or look at the other in shock. When Isis had finished, Laurali wrung her paws nervously while Piper furrowed her eyebrows.

“I…I don’t know about this, Isis. It’s far too risky for my liking.”

“Lauri, if you abandon me now, Ivy will definitely be in true peril. All because of you.”

“No pressure, right?” Laurali said with a sigh.

“Right. Now I really need you to be in this 100 percent, all the way.”

“Fine.”

“Let’s go then, you all know what to do, yes?” The two nodded. “Just one thing before you go… merde.” Piper giggled, the word was a bit of a naughty expression in French, but she knew that it also meant good luck. Hopefully, that’s what Isis was referring to.

“Where are you going?” Romeo turned to Dash as he headed out onto the street.

“Home.” He held the ‘o’ as if questioning his reply.

“You’re joking right?” Romeo walked up to him. “Those dames are completely off their hinges. Ha! Thinking they can handle that wild pack of savages between the three of them!”

“What are you planning? We have absolutely no strategy! We might as well go home.”

“No way!” He grabbed Dash’s arm as he turned. Pulling him in the opposite direction he said, “If we have to just waltz right into their hideout, we will.”

“Oh really?” Dash struggled in vain to get out of Romeo’s grip.

“Oh yeah… definitely.”

“Y’know, I’m thinkin’ this goes a liiiitle deeper than you’re saying,” Dash said while prying Romeo’s claws off of his limb. “You’ve got issues, that I understand, but really, don’t you think it should be you discussing this with Isis instead of dragging me to my death? I mean really, think about the logic here.”

He spoke in vain however, as Romeo was thinking of a plan to rescue Ivy, or truly, show Isis who the stronger leader was. With Dash in tow, he directed his march towards the Strays’ hideout.

“Well, c’mon, kid, don’t just sit there.” Dina tapped her foot impatiently while she stood at the door.

Without a word, Ivy rose gracefully, eyes fixated on some imaginary diversion across the room. Oh my God, Macavity? The concept pounded from the inside of her head. It was like knowing what would become of her. Well, Ivy, let’s keep a level head. No jumping to conclusions now. Of course the evil leader of a crew of cold-blooded killers, thieves and maniacs is going to be the one performing the introductions, but a level head is the key.

Still in her daze, Ivy was led down the flight of stairs though down a different hall. The queens arrived at a door-less entrance. In place of the door was a sheet of hanging red, silver and black beads on strings. Yet Ivy’s fate was still vague through the dense sheets of baubles. Muffled conversation could be heard and a thin layer of greenish-gray smoke rolled out slowly and smoothly from under the beaded portal.

Dina looked at the Siamese next to her. “Brace yourself honey,” she said with raised eyebrows. The two cats walked through the ornamented door and immediately Ivy’s eyes began to tear. Though, she was able to make out a horde of cats, sitting in various places around the mediocre sized room. Some were in corners, others on huge couches or chairs and some standing. Most all of them had some catnip in their paw. Humans don’t realize it, but cats don’t just eat the small herb, we smoke it whenever we get the chance. It’s a nasty habit but one that comes along with being in the city, just like humans pick up smoking cigarettes. It’s more the addiction to the herb than the high. Though it makes some extremely hyper, it usually lasts for only a few minutes, then transforms the mood to mellow. Ivy could feel herself begin to droop a little, and then her mind became frantic. She smiled, not realizing what was causing the sudden change in state.

“Follow me sweetie, there’s someone here of minor importance here that I want you to meet,” Dina said as she licked her paw and adjusted one of Ivy’s stray hairs. In the far corner of the room there was a large blue and purple velvet couch with tassels hanging off the sides, large red pillows also with tassels and several cats lying on or around it. It was a drastic difference from all the other pieces of furniture scattered across the room, which mostly consisted of colors on the neutral scale.

With Ivy in tow, Dina approached the cats who all stood to greet her. The Siamese surveyed the motley crew. There stood a short tom with rough brown and gray stripes, a ragged red bandana tied around his head with a torn ear, he looked rough but smiled whimsically when she looked at him, she noticed that his tail had a bit of red bandana on it as well. A female about the same size stood next to him, her tail twitching nervously. Her coat was completely red with the exception of a white stomach and the tip of her tail. She oddly reminded Ivy of Piper though her eyes were a curious violet. Beside the red cat was a white female. The cat couldn’t have been slightly past her kitten years. On top of that, she had no markings, a common trait in kittens. A pure white except for a paw that had black stripes on it, they looked like the result of an accident rather than her normal markings. Behind her was a tom who had resumed his place on the couch. The only thing that Ivy could get through her head about him was He’s gorgeous. If her mind had maybe been a bit clearer she would have processed that the cat was a Burmese, dark brown fur that faded to lighter brown in places. His eyes of crystal blue were the only other trait that proceeded through her stuffy mind that was beginning to calm down. Ivy’s wandering stopped there but if she had looked farther down the line she would have seen a young queen with black and white stripes on a gray coat and bright yellow eyes. Her tail was a short as if it had been cut off. Her breed was known as the Japanese Bobtail.

Down the row Dina said each cat’s name, “Bailey, Binx, Click, Madison, Kakalia, I would like you to meet Ivy.” At the sound of her name, the Burmese tom jolted to attention, though not rising from his position on the furniture.

“Are you the queen Macavity just caught?” he asked, interested.

Ivy was a bit annoyed of the other cats thinking maybe she was a fish that Macavity had hooked. She folded her arms and nodded, looking to the side with a look of obvious exasperation.

“I’m off to a sit-down with Mac right now. Could you keep an eye on her?” Once the Burmese nodded in reply, Dina headed for the door. Ivy was accustomed to the light smoke surrounding the room by now. However, its affects would last for a few hours.

“Have a seat, chicklet. You look uncomfortable,” Click patted the space next to her on the couch where she was now seated. Right away Click fired questions at Ivy. “So what happened? Did you put up a fight? Any blood? How long have you been here? Tried to escape yet? Pretty tough huh?”

“Umm…”

“Aw, lay off Click, she just got here,” the gorgeous Burmese said without making eye contact with either of the two. Instead he closed his eyes and stretched out on his half of the sofa. “Let’s let Kakalia finish talking, she’ll be interested in that.”

The tall queen was sitting on the ground, facing the three on the couch. She leaned backwards on her paws so that she was comfortably slouched. “Okay, so there I was,” she began in her ultra smooth and deep voice. “Sitting in the middle of the road, automobiles darting past me at 60 miles an hour…”

“So I booked it out of there and here I am,” Kakalia finished. The hour long story consisted merely of her being dropped off as a kitten in the middle of the road, crossing the street when the light turned red and finding these headquarters where she had grown up till that day.

Sure Ivy was interested, just as Madison had said she would be. She was so interested that she had downed 5 bowls of the icy blue elixir that she had first seen in the bar. After the first bowl she felt woozy and tired, but with each bowl came Ivy’s state of deliriousness increasing. She swayed back and forth; eyes drooping halfway then popping open.

“That was so interesting (hic)!” Ivy blurted out. She then turned to the white queen, who had fallen asleep, “Wasn’t that just so fascinating?” The ‘so’ in the phrase was drawn out and she dropped her head as she slowly continued with the syllable. Ivy turned back to the storyteller, “I mean I really wouldn’t mind hearing that a second time!” She continued to sway side to side. “Could I have another bowl of that bluish stuff?” Ivy asked loudly to no one in particular.

“Umm, I don’t think so,” Madison said as he caught Ivy from swaying herself off the couch. “Boy! You’re an interesting case aren’t you?” He shifted so that she could lean against him.

“Would you like to hear a poem?” Ivy said rather boisterously and slowly in her rich British accent. Click grunted in her rest.

Taking that as a response, the Siamese began, “When I see birches bend to left and right / Across the lines of straighter darker trees, / I like to think some boy’s been swinging them. / But swinging doesn’t bend them down to stay / As ice-storms do. Often you must have seen them / Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning.” Each word came out as if she was a stuffy phonetics teacher, each word enunciated, low, slow and dignified. She then paused. “I do not know the rest nor do I know what it means!” came the harsh whisper, which was in vain as everyone could hear the cat’s words. She giggled, “Do you know a poem?” Her voice continued in the manner of the stuffy phonetics teacher. With the ‘you’ she raised her voice sharply, held the ‘know’ unusually long and one eye would droop steadily while the other would remain open, then vice versa.

“No,” Madison said absent-mindedly as he looked around the room for Dina. “I wonder if Dina will come along soon?”