Shifted | Marvel

7. Meow, meow (2010)

I am late.

Again.

Woops.

It has been four days since my first  training with Natasha. It went surprisingly well, even for me.

Today I'd finally be allowed to kick some punching bag's ass, but when I entered the large room and prepared myself to apologise for being late, I found an empty gym.

I looked around to find nothing but a small note on one of the benches.

Will be late
3 miles
Back at 2.

Natasha

I groaned at the words, knowing that I had to run a 3 mile lap within the next 45 minutes.

As Natasha had told me several times already, she would know whether I did it or not.

So now, five minutes later, I'm jogging away from the base towards a small forest that borders the imposing building.

Running between the trees brings a pleasant silence. No car horns or pissed-off people yelling at other people, just me and my dog-like panting.

And another sound I can't quite place yet. It's some sort of high-pitched squeal. I slow down and look around to find the source of the sound.

Between the green of the bushes I can see a little black furball. It's trembling and still making pained sounds.

I take a few small steps closer, careful not to scare the small animal, but fail miserably as I step on a broken twig. Two yellow eyes stare into mine, and I immediatly freeze in my step, putting my hands up in surrender.

It's an animal, it's not gonna shoot you.

"Hello there," I say, taking another small step forward. Getting closer to the small being I notice it's a young kitten. My knowledge of animals that live in a different reality tells me that it can't be older than a month or three.

"Isn't Mama around somewhere?"

It's a cat, it's not gonna answer you.

Looking at the little thing makes me feel pity, it didn't look healthy at all. From what I could see it was sickly skinny and it had some bald spots on its body.

"Okay, uh, I'll just wait till Mama comes pick you up, 'kay?" I say stepping back and sitting on a bench on a safe distance from the bush.

The minutes tick by and I do not take my gaze of the little cat and its surroundings. Soon, 20 minutes have passed before I get tired of waiting and listening to the little kitten making sad, pained sounds. I get up and walk towards the tiny animal again.

"Look if Mama kitty doesn't show up, I gotta find another way to bring you in safety, right?" I take off my jacket and get a little closer to the cat. When I'm close enough, I manage to pick it up and wrap the thin jacket around it, gaining a few hisses and tiny devastated meows.

"You're fine, I may look like one right now, but I'm not a monster," I try and reassure the kitty while I keep forgetting it can't understand me. Once it's safe in my arms it seems to calm down a little bit, but the yellow eyes keep looking into my brown ones.

I don't know what I'm planning on doing with it, but at the moment I'm taking it with me to the headquarters, but I take a small detour, knowing that a little further away is a pet store.

Not even 5 minutes later I enter the compound from one of the back doors with two items more then I left with, a black kitten and a small can of delicious looking wet catfood I managed to snatch from the store.