Munkustrap yawned, and turned his head. The junkyard seemed lifeless. All the Jellicles were sleeping. He looked up at the stars, it looked about midnight. He grinned at the sound of midnight, just the thought! Grizzabella had just re-entered the junkyard as a kitten, totally unknowing to her last life. Demeter had taken her into her care, and called her Midnight. The young kitten simply adored Munkustrap, though she referred to Alonzo as her father, which was the mate Demeter had chosen.
Munkustrap yawned and shook some of the snow off his body. His father, Old Duetoronomy, was a bit disappointed in him. He hadn’t chosen a mate, he didn’t even have his eye on any particular queen.
He sat up on the tire. On the old ford were Mungojerrie, Rumpleteazer, Mr.Mistoffelees and Silabub. Mungojerrie was on his stomach, and Rumpleteazer was sprawled out on top of him. Mistoffelees was leaning against the window, Silabub was in his lap, curled up against him. Munkustrap tried not to laugh at the gathering snow on them all. He sneezed, hoping no one heard. By the old clock, RumTumTugger was literally surrounded. Which didn’t surprise Munkustrap. As you can guess, he’d been asked by many of the queens for his hand, he hadn’t decided yet. He was on his back, his side against the clock. Cassandra was on her stomach, tilted towards him on the clock. Bombalurina was on his other side, her head was on his chest, his arm was around her waist. Her leg was across his stomach. His mane looked white, Munkustrap blinked. Snow.
"Munkustrap?"
Munkustrap sneezed again, turning his head he smiled slightly.
"Hello Excetera. How are you?" He yawned and patted the tire next to him. The young queen had a questioning glance in her eyes, he assumed she had a question.
"Munkustrap, can… can I ask you a question?"
"Sure. Shoot."
"UM…. You.. you know Plato right?"
"Mmmhmm." He nodded slightly. Excetera swished her paw in the snow on the tire, she looked a bit nervous.
"He.. he uh.. he asked me to be his mate," Munkustrap smiled.
"Is there a problem with that?"
"Well.. I’ve never had a mate before.. I’m nervous." He smiled, and rubbed her head.
"If you don’t mind me saying, Plato is one of the most reliable toms around. Also, if you’re still nervous, I’d talk to Demeter. She gave Victoria some good advice yesterday, but she’s with Alonzo now."
Excetera turned her head to try and find Demeter and Alonzo.
"WHOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!" All the cats in the junkyard stirred awake, muttering and yelling as Skimbleshanks ran into the junkyard. He ran to the center of the junkyard.
RumTumTugger, still holding Bomby, sat up.
"Awwww Skimble, why’d ya haf to go and wake us up? I was dreamin’ ‘bout Bomby and Cassie." Both queens gave each other a warning glance, Cassie hissed.
Skimble frowned, and Jenny hopped off his back.
"Sorry lad, I’ve gut sum bad news I’m afraid." Munkustrap’s ears perked up, and Excetera ran towards Plato.
"What’s the bad news?" Munkustrap asked, sliding off the tire, and walking towards them. Jenny gave Skimble a hug.
"Well, I was helpin’ sum lads onto me train, when I heard one of ‘em say sumthing about…." He frowned, "Macavity bein’ in the area." Many of the queens gasped, Tugger motioned for Cassie to sit beside him, he put one arm around her, and grinned devilishly.
Munkustrap frowned, and rubbed the back of his neck.
"Around our area?"
"Yes sir. But… There’s more." Munkustrap frowned, and motioned for Skimble and Jenny to come sit on the tire and talk. All the Jellicles quickly sat down at the base of the tire. Skimbleshanks frowned, Jenny put a re-assuring paw on his shoulder.
"He’s got two kittens." Many of the Jellicles gasped.
"MUNKUSTRAP! Kittens! We can’t handle one Macavity! Let alone his kids!"
"What are we going to do!?"
"How are we going to deal with them?"
"How old are they!"
"What is there to do?"
"Kill ‘em!"
"Where are they?"
"We tore down his place!"
"Could they be here!"
"SHUSH!" Munkustrap yelled silencing everyone’s voices. Though they still stirred. "How old are his kittens, Skimble?"
"Well… their twins…."
"How old?"
"The one takes after her father but the other…"
"How old Skimble, how old?"
"Three.. human years."
More yelling from the Jellicles.
"LISTEN! Everyone! Yes, I understand, this is a problem. But he’ll handle it!" Mr. Mistoffelees piped it, tossing a spark up and down, as if to make a point. Silabub stuck her tongue out at the Jellicles.
"Thank you Mistoff. Skimble, you said before, one takes after him, what about the other one?"
"She’s as sweet as can be."
"Wait a minute buddy." Tugger said, his legs dangling over the edge of the ledge. Bomby and Cassie still at his sides. "How do you know all this information on them? Hmm?"
Munkustrap, along with the other Jellicles looked at Skimble for an answer. "Surely those ‘lads’ getting on the train didn’t tell you all this?"
"No.. well um.." Munkustrap frowned. What was Skimble hiding. Suddenly, Jenny burst into tears. Skimble frowned, and wrapped his arms over her shoulders.
"Because their my kittens as well.." Jenny muttered. Millions of the cats gasped. Asparagus lunged forward.
"ASPARAGUS!" A loud voice boomed. All the Jellicles immediately knew who it was. Some of the younger queens, and Midnight rushed towards Old Duetoronomy, and helping him along, was Pouncival. "Sit, my friend. Let us not accuse Jenny. We all know Macavity’s ways.." He said with a glance at Demeter. Alonzo sat up a bit straighter. "I am sure there is reason for this, and, in my opinion, I think we should forget about the kittens."
"But!" Asparagus started, "Duetoronomy, Skimble himself said one of the three year old kittens acts just like her father! What are we going to do with two Macavitys?! What if they turn the other one to their side? Then what?"
"We’ll just wait and see."
Munkustrap frowned, and looked up at the moon as the snow cloud drifted over it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"DAMIT!" Screeched Hyperistithianniesbuea as she cut herself on another wire.
"Shut up and keep working you piece of-"
"You shut up you-"
"You don’t talk to me that way you little-"
"I can talk to you how ever I want yo-"
"Why can’t you two have a normal conversation for once?" Sparkaljiggle muttered from her perch behind Macavity, holding a duffel bag. Macavity and Hyper looked at each other, then back at Sparka.
"SHUT UP!" The two said, and Hyper crawled back into the tunnel.
"I don’t understand why you both want to take out the cities power anyway. Wouldn’t it be kind of dark?"
"’Wouldn’t it be kind of dark?’" Macavity said, mimicking her. "Of course it’ll be dark you ditz! That’s the whole idea! If the city is dark, then we can work better!"
"I could work better if you two’d shut up!" Hyper screeched, sliding back out of the tunnel, her face red with stings and blood. "Now, Mac, if you want this done tonight, the idiot needs to shut up, and keep Sparka quiet while your at it." Hyper laughed, and headed back into the tunnel. Macavity looked after her with a sneer.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"THERE!" Hyper yelled, and pushed her paws into the wall. A loud crash was heard, and Hyper backed out of the tunnel knocking her father over. "Out of my way! Give me the stool Sparka."
Sparka nodded and reached into the bag, handing Hyper a stool. Hyper bashed Macavity over the head with it, and wrapped the end of her tail around it, dragging it into the tunnel behind her, and putting a flashlight between her teeth. She jumped out of the tunnel, and looked around the large factory room. Large, loud machinery was everywhere.
She ran down the long path in-between two machines, and found the switch. Standing on the stool, she reached up, and pulled down the lever. A loud cranking sound was heard, followed by the long groan of the power shutting down, and the slow flicker of the lights.
"YES! I DID IT!" Hyper screamed as the room was thrown into darkness, then fell off the stool, losing her flashlight. "Oooh no…"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The junkyard was suddenly alerted of a problem in the city. A loud noise from seemingly every corner of the city came alive, shouting and swearing. The cats questioned each other, then, automatically, turned to look at Mistoffelees.
"I didn’t do nothing!" He yelled, Silabub raised an eyebrow, and he looked at her. "Really I didn’t! Old D!" He yelled.
"Now, now. I’m sure Mistoffelees did nothing. But, I do want to know what’s going on. Mistoffelees, you, Munkustrap and Mungojerrie go find out what’s going on."
"YES SIRRE!" Mungojerrie shouted, leaping to his feet, and sending Rumpleteazer rolling off the car to the snow.
"’EY!"
"Sorry ‘Teaza!" He hopped down, picked her up, and sat her next to Silabub. Mistoffelees kissed Silabub on the check, and Rumpleteazer looked at Mungojerrie with a sly grin. He kissed her too, doing his best impersonation of the utter bliss Mistoff showed. Rumpleteazer laughed. Munkustrap looked at Old Duetoronomy.
"That’s part of the reason why I don’t want a mate just yet." He hopped off the tire, followed by his two daydreamy companions. Duetoronomy shook his head.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Yeah, I guess so. But Rumpleteazer’s got more agility." Mungojerrie stated, Mistoff considered this. He and Mungojerrie had been discussing their mates non-stop since they left them in the junkyard. Munkustrap just rolled his eyes.
"What do you think Munkustrap? Who’s got nicer-" Munkustrap held his paws up at Mungojerrie’s hand motion, not wanting Mistoff to finish the question.
"From what I gather, there’s a power outage. Nothing run by electricity works." Munkustrap said. Mungojerrie and Mistoff exchanged ‘oh, anyway’ glances, and started their discussion again. Munkustrap frowned.
"Let’s head down to the power building and check it out." Munkustrap started to race ahead of them. They moaned, but reluctantly followed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"HYPER! Come on!"
"Shut up Sparka! Someone’s coming! Let’s move!" Macavity hauled Sparka to her feet, and dashed away.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"FINE! They wanna leave, let ‘em leave!" Hyper yelped as she ran into another machine. She still hadn’t found her flashlight, and was no searching in the pitch blackness for it.
CRASH!
A window broke, Hyper froze, then hurried around, trying to find her flashlight at a quicker pace.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"SORRY!" Mungojerrie shouted, Mistoffelees laughed. "’Ey Mistoff, there ain’t no ‘ight down there. Ya mind?" He grinned in the dim moonlight.
"Whatever you do, just hurry up, I want to get back to the junkyard." Munkustrap muttered.
Mistoffelees mimicked Munkustrap, and jumped into the window, hitting the ground and rolling into a hard machine. A piece of something fell on his head.
"Ow!" He lit a spark in his hand, and suddenly he heard it… a loud, creaking, moaning sound. Kind of like something big falling. "Whoops…" He muttered, stepping back.
"What?" Munkustrap called.
"Um.."
"Wot?" Mungojerrie asked.
"Um…"
"Mistoffelees?"
"UH…."
"Wot cha do this time?"
"Well.. uh.." Munkustrap and Mungojerrie dived through the window just in time to see a large piece of machinery fall on a now screaming cat just ready to pounce on Mistoffelees.
"MISTOFFELEES!"
"I DIDN’T DO IT!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Once the three toms had turned the power back on, they somehow managed to get the beaten, broken and bruised cat from under the machine, and left, with the cat.
"Wot are we gonna do with ‘er Munk?" Mungojerrie asked as they crept into the secret entrance to the junkyard.
Old Duetoronomy, Jenny and Skimble were down there.
"Munkustrap? What’s this?" Duetoronomy asked.
"Hyperistithianniesbuea!" Jenny nearly screamed and rushed forward. Skimbleshanks looked down.
"Jenny?" Deutoronomy asked.
"She’s, she’s the kitten whom acts like her father. What happened?" Jenny said fussing over the wounds on her daughter.
"Misto-" Mungojerrie started, Mistoffelees elbowed him. "Uh, a big machine fell on her while we were fixing the power."
"Fixing the power?" Skimbleshanks questioned.
"The power went out,"
"Jenny should we keep her here?"
"Is Silabub around?"
"I hope she’s all right."
Everyone started talking at once, and no one about the same thing. Once they realized they were all talking, they stopped, and Munkustrap walked over to Old Deutoronomy.
"We found out that the problem was the power had gone out. We don’t know how, or why, but when we went in there…" He looked at Mistoffelees who bit his lip. "We had a bit of an accident, and a big piece of machinery fell on her. Jenny," He said, turning to her. "Do you think it’s safe to keep her here? I, I know you want to, being her mother and all, but, is it safe? If she’s like her father….."
"Of course it’s safe!" Jenny said. Old Duetoronomy frowned.
"Jenny, please, think this over…"
"Even if she is like her father, just some time, and love will do the trick. Please, just a chance." Jenny frowned. Everyone else looked at Old Duetoronomy. He frowned.
"All right."
"Shall I tell them?" Munkustrap said, not at all pleased by the idea, he’d had to much of the rebellious Jellicles for one day.
"No thank you Munkustrap, I’ll handle it."
Continuation