~ Follow my adventures as a super-hero cat and an eccentric food taster ~

Jul 25, 2010

ADVENTURES OF MAL-LARCI: CHAPTER 20

Chapter 20: Trapped ©

I was well and truly trapped. The cage had come straight down over the top of me before I'd even had the chance to take one step.


We felines usually hate being in a cage at the best of times, but I'd been caught by a raving lunatic who hated cats. I figured I was in serious trouble.

Fortunately my partner, Lily the civet, another superhero, was hiding nearby and had received my distress call. She would have sent through a message to Headquarters by now. 



The man was Katzenjammer, a wanted criminal who had a pathological hatred of cats and would set bombs to destroy anything to do with them.


We'd been tracking him down and I had stumbled across him in this old workshop. 


"I guess it's just my lucky day," he'd said with a chuckle. "I'm sure I can arrange something special for you."

He had assumed I was an ordinary cat, not thinking for a moment that there might be such a thing as a superhero, let alone a superhero cat. But my abilities were flying, super-sight, hearing and extra-strong claws, not extra strength. I could probably scratch my way through the wooden floor beneath me, but then he would know that I was no ordinary cat. 

"Meow," I said, sitting back on my haunches and licking my paws. 

Hopefully fellow superheroes were already on their way here, and would grab this nutter before he decided to make me into a cat-skin wallet.

There was the softest of thumps on the floor and I realised Lily had jumped in through the open window. Her camouflage ability made her invisible in the dark and I felt reassured by her presence. I assumed she was checking the layout of the room, before the others arrived. 

"You've got perfect timing," Katzenjammer said. "I've got this place set to blow up as soon as I leave, which will be in about seven minutes. The bomb should make a lovely big noise, and there'll be one less mongrel cat in the world."

He giggled as he walked away.

"Hang tight," was the message I received in morse code from Lily as she jumped back out through the window, into the dark.

From behind the building I heard the sound of a motor turn over. It was the bomber making his escape. 

"Keep an eye on him," I transmitted to Lilly. "He's just leaving."

The vehicle reversed and I heard it drive out through the gate. 

I had less than seven minutes to get out of the cage, find the bomb and dispose of it. Wasting no time, I hacked at the floorboards beneath me with my claws and was through in under a minute. There was a crawl space beneath the building, and I quickly squeezed out from underneath the building and jumped back into the open window.

Using my super-vision I quickly scanned the room for an object that resembled a bomb. There were a variety of tools scattered about on the benches and other bits and pieces, and several unopened cupboards, but there was nothing unusual. Dashing across the room I flung open each cupboard in turn but found only empty shelves and an old carton of cola cans.

"Could it be hidden in a wall or in the ceiling?" I thought to myself. I wished Bob was with me at that moment. His x-ray vision would have spotted the bomb in no time.

I'd been tuning my ears in the hope of picking up a sound which might lead me to the bomb. Time was getting away from me, and I began to stress that I would never find it in time. 

Just at that moment I heard a tiny click. It came from the cola carton. It had to be the bomb. Would I have time to safely take the bomb away before it exploded?

A sudden thought flashed through my mind and I began to dig frantically at the floorboards of the building. Soon there was a hole big enough to push the carton through, but before I could do that, I jumped through the hole onto the ground beneath the building and continued digging. I figured I had possibly less than thirty seconds before the bomb exploded and I needed to find somewhere to place the bomb where it would cause the least damage. There were workers nearby and I didn't want anyone to be injured. I prayed that placing it into a deep hole beneath the building, would contain the detonation enough so that the explosive impact would be limited to this one building.

The earth was hard, but not as tough as the floorboards and I made steady progress downwards, until the hole was around 8m deep. I was fast running out of time, and my paws and claws were aching and bleeding. My heart was thumping as I flew back up into the room. Grabbing hold of the carton, I was pleased to find it wasn't too heavy, and floating upside down with the carton held stretched out in my arms, I gently placed it at the bottom of the hole.

Then with all my strength, I flew up to the space under the building, and crawled with all my might, expecting at any moment to hear the sound of the bomb going off. I reached the edge of the building and with a burst of speed I started to spring away, but it was at that moment, that the bomb detonated.

I felt the concussion of the explosion hit me. It slammed into me like an enormous truck and before the pain and shock of it caused me to lose consciousness, I felt my body spinning hopelessly, flung out into the dark sky and I wondered if I would ever see my family or Lily again.

Link to Chapter 21

No comments:

Post a Comment