Kitty Hero Chronicles

Chapter 19

Before exiting the Pound, Java contacted Twitchy and Dach and told them to meet up with the five of them outside Dog Patrol Station. As they emerged, Java saw her old friends and was thankful they were still okay. It was too bad she couldn't say the same for her town.

In addition to her friends, Java saw the chaos that lay before her. Building's were blown down by the furious winds, rubble littered the streets, the catwalk swaggered like a rickety rope bridge. Fires were beginning to smolder in random areas of the town, the smoke rising in rolling billows. What the fierce winds had encouraged in the flames the sheets of pouring rain and hail had extinguished.

"Java, it's so good to see you again," Twitchy said, bringing her back to the situation at hand. "What's up with the crew? And what happened to the doc?"

But Java had barely registered Twitchy's questions as June appeared in between Twitchy and Dach. "Mom!" she said, rushing to embrace June in a giant hug. "I'm so glad you're okay. I was worried sick about you."

"I'm fine, honey; really, I am," June said, turning her attention to the battered Tom. "It's him you should be worried about. I'm curious to hear what happened as well, not to mention who's the rat helping Onyx with Tom?"

"Tom's going to be fine," Java said. "Onyx and Matty were just about to escort him to St. Maryvole's. Listen, you guys, there'll be time for introductions and catching up later. Right now we've got to stop this storm from getting any worse."

"I don't see how it could get much worse," Dach yelled above the latest thunder clap. "We've seen everything up here from flooding to hail to burning buildings due to the massive amount of lightning strikes that gadget of Vladimir's is generating. And it hasn't stopped since it started...as a matter of fact, this is the calmest it's been since the storm began."

Java looked around. Everything was calm all right, but what was the old saying? It's always the calmest just before a storm. Somehow Java had a feeling that whatever additional storm came next, it would indeed be a grand finale.

"You two, get going before things start going haywire again," Java said to Onyx and Matty. "It's not safe here." They both nodded and started for St. Maryvole's with Tom in tow when he told them to stop. They slowly turned him back around to face Java and the rest of the unlikely team of heroes. At that moment, as he looked each and every one of them over, Tom knew he'd left Kittyville in good paws.

"Good luck, Java," he said. "And take care of yourself."

"Don't worry about me," she said. "Just get yourself to St. Maryvole's and wait for me. I plan on stopping by for a visit when this is all over."

"Spoken like a true superhero," Tom said.

Java was having a hard time holding it together for the good of all involved. She knew in Tom's eyes—the Masked Avenger's eyes—she had finally achieved superhero status. She could feel a knot in her throat and decided she'd better say something to keep from losing it here and now. "If we all get out of this in one piece, a round of catnippuccinos are on me."

Tom grinned and hobbled off with his two living crutches. As the three of them disappeared Java turned back to Twitchy, Dach, and June. "What's the situation up here, besides the weather I mean. Is everyone in town okay? Were there any injuries?"

"Well," Twitchy began, "everything was going as normal as could be expected for the annual Fall Festival when the time for the grand finale finally arrived. Without the mayor here to introduce him, Vladimir took it upon his greasy self to do the honors of being the M.C. as well as the guest of honor."

"Yeah," Dach interrupted. "And then he came onstage with a some sort of object wrapped in a white sheet. He did this dramatic reveal and everything, and when he pulled the sheet off, it looked just like an ordinary cane of some sort."