Blaze too stopped and turned around to face him, a surprised look etched on her face. "I thought you knew… Or at the very least I thought he would’ve asked you too. He has a thing for magical cats…"
"A ‘thing’?" Mistoffelees was puzzled.
She waved him off absently, "he likes power, and as magical cats we give him that. He has none himself so he collects others who do."
"And Thistle’s going to join him," Mistoffelees mused.
"Silly girl," Blaze sighed with a shake of her head. "He’ll use her and abuse her and then dump her like a ton of bricks when he finds someone better."
"Thistle’s a pretty good judge of character," Mistoffelees muttered, "she’d have to know that he’d be like that so why’s she joining with him."
Blaze shrugged and turned up her noes as they got to the place where the pavement was at its whitest and the sun shone straight off it and into their eyes. She controlled a sneeze that’d set off her power for sure. "Maybe she’s not joining him out of her own free will. Maybe he threatened her."
"Or," Mistoffelees added with a slight draw, "Maybe he threatened someone she’s close too."
"How do you figure that?" Blaze rubbed her watering eyes, she couldn’t wait to get into the dark, cool junkyard.
"Thistle’s a tough Kit, she’d kill him the moment he threatened her. But if he’s threatening someone else, like another Jellical perhaps, she’d do anything to help them, including giving up her own freedom."
"And that means, now she’s with Scatter Cat, she’ll bully us into anything, just to keep us safe," Blaze looked at Mistoffelees, "and everyone will hate her…"
Thistle stared at Scatter Cat in surprise, "you did what to Macavity?"
Scatter Cat smiled at his ingenuity. They were in what Scatter Cat had said was Macavity’s old hide out, a broken down warehouse at the other side of the city no less. The overpowering smell of rats, the kind that Macavity had working for him, was drowned out by the smell of the dogs that were lying around the warehouse. Macavity wasn’t there but Scatter Cat was and he lounged on what could only have be Macavity’s thrown. Thistle sat next to him, on a cushion on the ground. Scattered around the floor of the warehouse were dogs. Big dogs and small dogs. It was a cat’s worst nightmare yet Scatter Cat was impressed in the way Thistle looked completely at home around them, cleaning an obviously stubborn dirty paw.
"Ran him out, my dog comrades became too much for his scrawny rats." Scatter Cat muttered with a lazy smile, scratching behind his ears. "Macavity was a smart Tom but he had it all wrong. Dogs are a lot stronger and a lot more loyal then any rat is. They’re also easier to please." He smiled winningly down at the small cat. "Just a few bones here and there, a nice juicy cat every now and then."
Thistle just stared at him with those oh-so-green eyes, not phased in the slightest by the underlying threat. She cocked her head to the side, pondering her next question. "Is Scatter Cat you’re real name?"
"No," he didn’t elaborate straight away, but Thistle continued to stare at him until he was forced to break the silence. "My real name is Jaded-"
Now Thistle’s expression changed and an amused smile crossed her face as she looked up at him. "Not really a big Tom’s name is it? No wonder you changed it to Scatter Cat."
He continued as if he hadn’t heard Thistle’s sarcastic remark. "Black. Jaded Black."
The effect of Thistle was instantaneous. She lost her smile and the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. His words were cold, hollow and ultimately evil. The name stuck like pinpricks of ice on her heart and she shuddered away from those golden eyes.
"You asked," he said coldly, "I keep Scatter Cat so not to scare my minions."
"Can I call you Jaded?" She asked softly, still refusing to meet his eyes.
"Of course." Suddenly his paw shot out, grasping her beneath the chin and forcing her to look him straight in the eye. Her eyes widened in anger at the way he was treating her but she gulped down her out rage at the look of insanity that filled his eyes. "Now if you’d kindly show me this power of yours…" The sentence trailed off.
"I don’t know what you’re talking about," Thistle muttered angrily and a dangerous look of annoyance flashed across his face. He hissed, letting go of her chin his other paw slashed out, back handing her face. Thistle gasped as pain exploded behind her eyes and her head snapped back. She lifted a paw to find a thin line of blood running down her fur. Her eyes flicked to his and the fury in them would have normally been more then enough to make anyone shudder. But Jaded stared back at her with the same kind of fury filling his as well.
For centuries or maybe moments time seemed to stand still, they stared at each other. Then Jaded smiled coldly, and lifted his eyes from hers, "very well," he said simply, going to whistle the dogs.
"Wait," Thistle cried out in alarm, the thought of Mistoffelees unconscious flashed through her mind. "I’ll show you…"
Blaze was grateful when they entered the cool Junkyard. Mistoffelees was in a panic and while Blaze paused at the threshold, breathing deeply in delight, Mistoffelees dashed in, not really paying much attention to where he was going. If he had been he would have seen the Tom before he ran into him. He flew backwards, landing less then gracefully and Blaze used her paw to cover her mouth from the giggles that threatened to escape. Mistoffelees rubbed his noes, shaking out his whiskers and glanced at the Tom before them.
He was seated regally, seemingly unaffected by the run in with Mistoffelees. And he was large, far larger then most of the cats Mistoffelees knew. His eyes were like that of an ever changing sea, light and clear at one point before becoming a cool blue grey like the sea before a storm. It was quite disconcerting and Mistoffelees found he couldn’t look at them for long. His coal was a blue grey with dark navy tiger stripes adorning it. It was much like Munkustrap’s coat only this tom’s managed to look somehow more wild more tiger like then Mistoffelees deemed possible.
"Are you all right?" He asked, his voice was musical, like the soft chimes in the windows of people’s houses. Mistoffelees had no doubt that it could become like the ringing church bells if he wanted.
"Fine," Mistoffelees said simply, "who are you? I’ve never seen you around here before."
The tom smiled at him, standing up, "I’m just passing through, I won’t be much longer." He looked ready to leave but he paused, looking Blaze squarely in the eye. "Your parents would be proud of how you’ve turned out."
Blaze straightened in alarm. "Do I know you?"
His smile became sweet, "no, but I knew your parents along time ago." Mistoffelees bristled at the thought of someone flirting with Blaze, but held his tongue, knowing that Blaze’d tear it out if he said anything. "Have either of you seen a small cat? Her name is Thistlewait if that means anything to you."
Mistoffelees quickly forgot his jealousy and stared at the tom. "Do you know her?"
"Yes," the tom said with something that could only be described as a dreamy smile. "I’m here to keep my old friend out of trouble, but the Queens inside weren’t much help, they only seemed to want to talk about me."
Blaze giggled, this Tom was completely clueless about the effect he had on other cats. It was actually quite cute. Mistoffelees smiled, thinking of how pissed off Bomb would be about this elusive tom. But he sobered quickly, "Thistle is here, but she’s joined up with the local ‘Mob boss’ Scatter Cat."
The Tom gave a feral hiss, "Dammit, I’m too late. I knew the second she came back here he’d get his paws on her." The tom’s stormy eyes fixed on Mistoffelees. "I’m not about to lose her to that miserable excuse for a cat just because she wants to save your ass." He dashed quickly out of the junkyard, calling out, "if Thistle comes back here, tell her Christian is looking for her…"