“Come on Pounce!” a voice laughed.

“Gotta rest! Not easy for a guy who just ate 10 lollipops to move,” came the joking reply.

Munkustrap could see Tumblebrutus scampering into the Junkyard, with Pouncival rolling behind him. The Jellicle settled back down on the tire and waited to Mistoffelees.

* * *

Mistoffelees raced through the alleyways and tunnels, desperately trying to get to the Junkyard. This was it. The end of everything. Plan. Gotta have a plan,Mistoffelees thought. Gotta outsmart Roxnious. Wait a second. Am I crazy? No one can outsmart Roxnious, and you know it. You’ve seen his shadows try to do that and you’ve seen what happened to them. Mistoffelees stopped suddenly. He found himself on the outskirts of London. A peaceful river cut through the land. The night sky was clear and Misto could see the stars wink at him, as if laughing at his attempts to help.

Mistoffelees turned back to London. Inside the silent city, lay his Junkyard. And no one can take that away from him. Misto started slowly back, his mind slowly unscrambling.

* * *

Munkustrap paced back and forth in the Junkyard entrance. “He can’t stay out forever,” he muttered to himself, the he being Mistoffelees. It was almost two in the morning, and the magician still wasn’t back. But Munkustrap had restrained himself and remained patient. Now he was at the end of his rope.

He sat down suddenly. “Okay, let’s review the situation,” Munku said out loud. “One, there’s this cat named Roxnious who wants to eliminate the Junkyard and Jellicles. Two, his lair of despair is in the pipe. Three, he knows Mistoffelees and can somehow use that to his advantage. Four, Roxnious is probably spying on me right now. He’s been spying on us for weeks and knows everything he possibly could.”

Great. Things could not be any worse. Roxnious had the upper hand in this round. But that wouldn’t last.

There was a loud crash in the alley. Munkustrap turned, and saw Mistoffelees whipping towards him. The magical cat’s eyes were wild and had the don’t-even-try-to-stop-me look on his face.

“The Ritual!” Mistoffelees gasped. “We don’t have much of a chance now!”

“What?” Munkustrap exclaimed as Mistoffelees zipped right by him into the night. “What the heck is the Ritual?”

“Can’t explain,” Mistoffelees called over his shoulder. “Find all the Jellicles in range! Have them meet at the Junkyard. We don’t have much time!”

“Why?”

“The war has started!”

Munkustrap stared into the alley, the wind blowing gently through the air. All was silent. An almost full moon shone brightly in the black sky. Munkustrap looked at its shining face.

“Why is this happening?” he whispered.

* * *

Roxnious prowled impatiently in his lair. He was waiting for his scouts to get back from their rounds. His ruby eyes flashed in the darkness. A menacing growl started in his throat. The shadows shrank back as their leader paced.

“Sir!” came a throaty whisper.

Roxnious whirled. He found himself staring into a pair of glittering yellow eyes. “What?” Roxnious snarled. “What have you found?”

“The Jellicles are preparing to fight us, m’Lord. The magician is not among them.”

Roxnious hissed. This complicated things. But there was nothing that he couldn’t handle. “Send Xixon to find him.”

“Yes, m’Lord.” The cat bowed, then slunk into the shadows.

“Adelar!”

The cat turned, his tail twitching. “Yes, m’Lord?”

“You had better not fail me.”

“As you wish.”

* * *

Victoria raced through the alleys. She had heard Munkustrap’s call for the Jellicles. Something was happening. Something bad.

“Vicky! Wait up!”

Victoria skidded to a stop. Jemima scampered up after her, panting. “What’s going on?” Jemima asked breathlessly.

“I have no idea,” Victoria answered, shaking her head. “Do you think that something happened at the Junkyard?”

Jemima shuddered. “I hope not.”

“Where’s Etcetera and Electra?”

“They went the other way. I guess they were by the river when they heard the call.”

A yowl resounded in the alley. The kittens looked at each other. “We better get going,” Victoria said.

* * *

Mistoffelees crawled on his belly toward Roxnious’s lair, eyes intent and ears open. There was a soft rustling in the leaves. Misto froze. A black shape gracefully rose from the ground. Electric green eyes shone out from the shadows, searching for something. Probably Mistoffelees. Then the cat slunk soundlessly into the night.

Silently, Mistoffelees gave a prayer of thanks to the Everlasting Cat. He did not want to get caught. Not only would that not help the Jellicles, it would be just plain stupid. And I like my pride intact, the Jellicle thought. But still, I have got to be more careful. Mistoffelees crept forward and slid into the tunnel.

* * *

“WHAT?!”

There was a loud crash as Roxnious hurled an empty crate at the lair’s walls. It exploded into hundreds of pieces. Roxnious whirled back to face Adelar, his face contorted in fury. Adelar stood his ground, bearing the outburst without a flinch. His flashing yellow eyes looked forward at all times, never actually glancing Roxnious in the face.

“How could Xixon do such an IDIOTIC THING? We are CATS! We always land on our feet. We never, NEVER LAND IN A RIVER!”

A few snickers echoed across the warehouse. Roxnious glared into his troops, red eyes furious. “If I ever find out who is enjoying a good laugh on our warrior’s failure, I swear that you will regret it for the rest of your nine lives.”

Silence rested into the room. “That’s better,” Roxnious said, casually extending a sharp claw. He started pacing in front of the shadow cats. “Go. Get into position and wait for the signal. Otherwise do not move. Do not make a single sound. Do not even breathe. If you do, I will know. And you all know the punishment.”

The cats silently retreated. Roxnious watched as they disappeared into the London night, before he too walked away.

There was no one in the warehouse. Just the whisper of the wind, the faint shining of the almost full moon. There was no one in the warehouse.

Or so we thought.

Mistoffelees cautiously poked his head up from behind a large crate. He looked around, and then he let out a long breathe in a soft whoosh. “That was tense.”

“You’re tellin’ me!”

Misto whirled at the voice. To his total surprise and utter amazement, Pouncival tumbled off of a rafter on the large ceiling. He hit the ground and continued rolling in true Pouncival fashion until he reached Mistoffelees. “I mean,” Pouncival said, “it’s really cramped up there! Sure it LOOKS like a roomy hiding place but nooooo.”

“Hiding place?”

Pouncival smiled broadly. “I was playin’ hide-and-go-seek with Tumble, you know, and he said there were no limits! So I came here and thought, “Hey, this looks like a fine and dandy hiding spot!” So I climb on up there, which is no easy thing to do. You try doing it in the 40 seconds I had to hide. So I finally got up there after about 60 million tries, when these weird dudes with really freaky eyes come walking in. One seemed really mad. He seemed about ready to tear the place down! Anyway, I saw him with these list of places. Looked like he was handing out assigned hiding spots. So I thought, “Hey cool! If I could just have that list, maybe I could actually beat Tumble at this game!” So I snatched it.”

“When they were still in here? Pounce, that’s nuts!”

“Hey, Mungo’s not the only one who can steal. They were giving classes on how to do it! You should’ve gone to one, they were really helpful. Now I have an endless supply of ice cream…”

“Pounce!”

“Sorry!”

“Do you still have the list?” Mistoffelees asked.

Pouncival huffed and rolled his eyes. “No, I ate it.”

“Come on Pouncival, be serious.”

“Of course I have it! I’m not stupid.”

“Well…”

“Don’t finish that sentence or I really will eat it.”

“Pouncival I need that list. It’s really important!”

“What’ll you give me?”

“We do not have the time to play this game!”

“Oh, fine. But you better give it back. Finders keepers, remember?”

“Finally!” Mistoffelees sighed. He grabbed the list from Pouncival’s paws and started running out of the warehouse.

Pouncival stood in the middle of the lair. He shook his head and said, “I should’ve ate it.”

* * *

The night was getting darker by the minute. Mistoffelees shot through the streets of London, combining all the shortcuts he knew to get to the junkyard. As he was running, he was thinking, Haven’t I been running a lot lately?

“Hey, buddy!”

Mistoffelees skidded to a stop. He found himself in a back alley. A group of alley cats were behind him, perched on boxes and in trashcans. The one who spoke stood up.

“What’s the rush?”

“I don’t have any time to explain,” Mistoffelees panted. Then he thought for a minute. “Well, on second thought, yes I do.” He walked back over cautiously. Alley cats were tough, but they were good to have on your side. Allies would be great at this point. “My name is Mistoffelees.”

The cat smiled broadly, showing pointy teeth. “Daxil,” she said. Daxil was black with a red streak winding around her tail. The Queen gestured to the other cats around her. “Melia, Garian, Rana, Pax, and Dyne. My flunkies, if you wanted to call them that.” Daxil settled back onto her box. “So, what’s going on? We’ve been hearing the cry all night long. It’s been driving me insane!”

“Yeah, is it too much to ask for a few winks?” one Tom called with white and tan stripes.

“Shut up, Pax,” the red and black Queen with a white stripe above her left eye next to Pax said, shoving him playfully. “You need to set a good example, don’t want you to get on another cat’s bad side.” “Good point, Melia,” Pax said thoughtfully.

“So, back to the real point…” Daxil started meaningfully.

“Yeah,” Mistoffelees murmured. “Ever heard of a cat named Roxnious?”

There was a sharp hiss. The brown, yellow, and black Queen sprung to her feet. “Roxnious? Is this what all this is about, that son of a…”

“Rana!”

The cat (Rana) shrunk back. “Sorry, Daxil,” she muttered. “But it’s just that Roxnious has been causing us so much trouble lately! Just yesterday his group of morons came here, looking for some help. As if he doesn’t have enough! And when we refused, they just barged right through without a care in the world. That ditz Xixon was leading them. Typical. I knew he was just a suck-up.”

“You knew Xixon?” Mistoffelees asked curiously. Strange. The shadows didn’t have real contact with the outside world.

“Well, used to. Sort of,” Rana frowned.

“I always knew he wasn’t your type,” Pax replied, shaking his head woefully.

Rana erupted with a growl. The silver Tom perched in a trash can called out, “Don’t say anything else, Pax. We won’t help you this time. If she gets ya, she gets ya.”

“Dyne,” Daxil called out warningly. She shook her head, sighing hard. “See what I have to put up with, every single day?”

“You love us, though!” Pax cried, obviously unworried about Rana. “Come on, admit it. Help me here, Garian.”

“We help to keep you sane,” said the orange, black, and white cat named Garian. He frowned. “Well, sort of. We try, we really do!”

“What, keep me insane or sane?” teased Daxil. She shook her head again. “Wow, we really wander from the point, don’t we?”

“That’s alright,” Mistoffelees said. He really was fascinated by this band of alley cats. But he really needed to leave for the Junkyard. “I really have to get back to the Junkyard.” He turned to leave.

“Bye Mistoffelees!”

“Nice meeting you!”

“Drop by anytime!”

“Good luck!”

“See ya later!”

“Bring some hot babes next time!”

“PAX!”

* * *

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