Heroes and Villains

4 - The Cat and the Lemur

I take a deep breath as I look at the city enlightened by the moonlight. The air up here is so much nicer than down there.

After the bar closed, I said my goodbyes to the girls and Jaden. Then, I went my way towards my tiny apartment building but never really got there.

Instead, I turned into my mutant form and used my ropes to come up here as I usually do after every single work shift.

I like to hear the hovering cars cross the skies above my head, even if there aren’t that many of them at this time of the night.

I stretch like a feline and take another deep breath of fresh air. Up here, the buildings are filled with pretty gardens on their terraces and there’s barely any pollution left as all vehicles are electric.

The city is filled with light, showing off the pretty colors of the tall buildings, so contrasting to the blackened and crumbling buildings we live in down there. It’s like a whole different world up here.

A better world. Too bad this world is only for the important and the wealthy.

My ears twitch when the sound of an alarm siren reaches me. Even in such a perfect world, there’s still crime.

And I’m here to stop it.

Smirking, I jump backwards from the building I am in into the large void of floating roads down there.

Throwing my rope with a hook at the end, I hitch a ride from one of the passing cars. They don’t seem to notice me and continue on their way, which is right where I have to go.

Unhooking the rope, I jump out of the moving car into another building and continue jumping from building to building until I reach the ground.

I land in front of one of the most important banks of the upper city, and one of the largest too. Stepping up, I am stopped by two thugs who point their guns at me.

“Stop it right there, freak!” One of them shouts at me and I raise my hands to show I mean no harm.

I recognize their suits. They work for my arch-nemesis, Monkey Paw. He is also a mutant, but unlike the others living downtown, he has found a way to move up the ladder. He is the best robber in Chicago and will kill anyone who gets in his way.

“Now, now, boys” I say. “It’s rude to call me a freak when your boss is one of us”

“You’re Kitty Girl!” The other shouts, both still pointing their large guns at me, ready to shoot.

“My reputation precedes me” I say with a smile.

In truth, I am Kitty Girl. I always have been.

Of course, no one can know about it. I would be dead in a second if anyone in the Hamato Industries found out.

“Kill her before she tries anything!” He says and my ears twitch as I hear the trigger going off.

I jump out of the way of the bullets and attack them, immediately relieving them of their weapons by scratching their arms severely.

“You might wanna take some antibiotics for that” I say and I kick the one on the right in the ribs while the other tries to attack me from behind.

I kick his chest with my foot and flip in the air to kick his chin with great strength. Then, I hit the other guy on his neck.

They both fall flat on the ground and don’t get up again. I shake my hands and look at the entrance. Typical Monkey Paw. He only places two guards on the entrance. It’s almost too easy but I know he will send out more now that he heard the racket.

Lucky for me, I trained with a ninja.

I use the shadows to sneak in through the main door while four more guards walk outside, ready to shoot whoever they find.

Once inside, I crawl the rest of the way in, avoiding the looks of the watchful thugs. The place is filled with them. I count 15, no 20, more than 20. Monkey Paw really did go all out with this one.

I stop to stand up behind a pillar and take in the rest of the facilities. There are hostages scattered all around the bank too. It will be hard to fight the thugs and keep them out of harm so I will have to find a way to get them out of here first.

My two high ponytails twitch as my ears catch the breeze coming from the air vents. I smile as I have an idea and jump up to open the latch and get in.

Crawling through the air vents, I find the person I am looking for: Monkey Paw.

He is looking as hideous as ever. He is a Lemur mutant, with the black spots around his yellowish eyes. The only other details that give him away as a mutant is the long-stripped tail coming out of his back and the small white ears peeking out of his gray hair.

“You there!” He shouts as he approaches a now shaking civilian. “Tell me a joke”

“W-What?” The man asks, clearly scared out of his mind.

“A joke!” Monkey Paw shouts. “You know what a joke is, don’t you?”

He points his gun at the head of the civilian. “Make it quick. I don’t have all day”

The man looks around in a panic. He is expecting someone to save him from this, but no one can get the gun away from his head at the moment.

“Well?” Monkey Paw insists pressing the gun further at his head. The man closes his eyes as the cold metal presses against his forehead.

I don’t know how he expects anyone to tell him a joke with a gun pointed at their head.

“I… I think I know one” The man says, still visibly shaking.

“What are you waiting for?” Monkey Paw says. “Share it with the guys!”

“W-What kind of exercise do lazy people do?” The man says, now looking down to avoid watching Monkey Paw’s expression.

“What?” Monkey Paw asks, obviously excited to hear the rest of the joke.

“D-Diddly-squats” The man answers, still not looking at him.

There is a moment of silence in which everyone thinks the man is going to die, including me, but then Monkey Paw bursts out laughing.

He laughs for a while in a shrill way. He even gets to wheeze a little.

“That was a good joke” He says, whipping a tear from his eye. “You’re free to go”

The man looks astonished at him, not believing what he just said.

“Guys, come untie him” Monkey Paw says moving to the ladies on the front desks of the bank.

I use this chance to climb out of the air vents and infiltrate the hostages, turning back into my usual self. I move silently amongst them as one of the thugs comes to release the joke man and lets him walk out of the bank unharmed.

I borrow a hoodie laying on the ground and put it on, pulling it up to hide my face as I continue crossing my way through the hostages.

From the corner of my eye, I see Monkey Paw supervise his goons as they try to open the vault with their special devices.

What I am really trying to reach is the fire alarm that will cause the smoke detectors to activate and turn on the water, soaking the entire bank.

Not only will that make removing the money from inside the vault all that harder, but I also know Monkey Paw hates water.

I don’t like water either, but I’m willing to make the sacrifice.

However, just as I am about to reach the fire alarm, Monkey Paw calls me out.

“Hey, you!” He shouts, walking my way.

I flinch, knowing I can’t get out of this and thanking God that I am wearing a black mask as part of my usual Kitty Girl clothing. I can’t have my arch-nemesis know my real identity, can I?

I turn around to face him but look down so he can’t immediately see my face. He seems to analyze me for a moment before talking again.

“Tell me a joke” He says again, this time a little more seriously.

I can tell he is about to point his gun at my head, but I am faster than that.

“Have you heard about the new restaurant called karma?” I ask him, still looking down.

He looks confused at me before saying. “No…”

“There’s no menu…” I say as I slowly raise my head to face him and at the same time change my appearance again. I can see the realization in his eyes as I smirk at him, my fangs showing. “You get what you deserve!”

Before he can even have time to point his gun at me, I jump at him.

I make him drop his gun before he can reach the trigger and wrap my arms around his, climbing onto his back by wrapping my legs around his torso. He is immobilized from the waist up.

“My, my, Kitty” He says in his smug voice. “If you wanted to get kinky, all you had to do was ask”

“Shut up!” I shout and get one of my pointy nails to his neck. “Tell your men to back off or I’ll rip out your throat before you can say diddly dee”

He chuckles, clearly amused, and signals his men to stand back with a slight gesture of his head. The men still hesitate but do back away from us and the hostages slowly.

“Now, let the hostages go” I continue, still immobilizing him.

“Oh, do you want to stay alone with me, Kitty?” He asks, still smug. “I like the sound of that”

Annoyed at his display, I am about to scratch his arm, but he takes my momentary distraction to back into the nearby wall.

My back hits the wall and I am forced to let go of him due to the impact. Acting quickly, he turns around and pins me to the wall, grabbing my wrists over my head.

“Now, this is more like it…” He says, closing in on me and placing his head at the crook of my neck.

“You forget I still have my fangs to bite you” I growl, hissing at him.

“So feisty” He says, looking at me. “That’s what I like the most about you”

Not taking his crap any further, I kick him where the sun doesn’t shine as hard as I can. With the intense pain, he lets go of me and falls to the ground while holding his groin.

As soon as they see their boss fall to the floor, the thugs start shooting at me and I am forced to jump to the ceiling to keep the bullets away from the hostages.

Jumping from place to place as the bullets keep tailing me, I manage to get close enough to the goons to start taking them down one by one.

Grabbing one of them to act as a shield, I kick another behind me and throw my man shield to another unexpecting guy.

Spinning in the air, I kick another two into oblivion, using both my fists and my feet. Now, the others are starting to get scared and backing away from me. I hiss at them to give them even more reason to fear me.

But then, out of the blue, a gigantic metal net falls on me, forcing me to crash against the floor.

I hiss and growl as I struggle against the metal net, but it won’t budge and it is too heavy for me to get it off of me.

“It’s no use, kitty” Monkey Paw’s trembling voice reaches me. He is still in pain after my last kick. “This net was built specially to capture you. Courtesy of Hamato Industries”

I hiss at him and continue thrashing against the net, but am starting to get pretty desperate here.

If I can’t get free from this net, Monkey Paw is going to take me to the Hamato Industries and who knows what kind of messed up experiments they will do to me. Not to mention the fact that my secret identity will probably be unveiled.

This is it. I’m screwed.