Kitty Hero Chronicles

Chapter 20

Java floated back into consciousness, blurred conversations coming into focus as she became more present. She slowly blinked her eyes a few times, allowing the equally blurred room to become clearer. There were many other animals gathered around her, some sitting off to one side, others resting their heads on the chairs that faced her.

The smell of fresh flowers gently wafted into her nostrils, and she recognized where she was. She had been here before...in very similar circumstances.

"Wake up, sleepy head," a familiar voice whispered to her.

"Mom?" Java said, turning to look in the direction of the voice.

June Gray placed her paw on Java's head and stroked it with the compassion only a mother could effect. "Yes, sweetie, it's me. In fact, we're all here." She stepped away from where Java lay in her hospital bed, and Java scanned the room once more, now recognizing those whom she had merely seen before.

She was right. Everyone in the town must've been cramped in her room. Twitchy and Dach, Hershey and Faye, Trusty, even Matty and Onyx. Also joining the crowd were the staff of St. Maryvole's: Mrs. Fox, Peter, Simon, and the other housekeeping mice, and the maintenance dog Jessop. They were all gathered around her, enjoying cups of steaming hot coffee (courtesy of the Catnip Cafe, according to the label on the coffee sleeves that adorned the cups) and talking amongst themselves.

Everyone who had been on this crazy journey with her or had helped her in her quest to save Kittyville now decorated her room with their presence and further support. It was good to know that there were true friends and family in her life that she knew she could count on. But in her moment of happiness, she recalled her last memory.

"Where's Vincent Vladimir?" she asked.

Hershey Poodle, hearing the question, stepped forward to the foot of her bed and answered. "Don't worry, Java, everything's all right now, thanks to you. The latest news is that Vladimir's spending his time in a small cell in the Pound, specially designed just for him. He and the rest of his goons won't be getting out of there if Lieutenant Shep has anything to do with it."

"But I don't understand," Java said. "I know I blacked out, and I just assumed he got away; so what happened?"

"We stayed behind, just like you asked," Twitchy was saying now. "But when we saw the lights in Town Hall flickering, we knew something must've went down, so we decided to investigate. Thankfully we did, or neither one of you might have survived."

"When we got to the top of the tower, " Dach began, "everything was so dark that we could barely see anything. I actually tripped over Vladimir's staff thingy and fell on top of him."

"That's when he remembered he had his flashlight in his pack the whole time," Twitchy said.

"Thanks a lot, Twitchy," Dach said. "I wasn't going to say anything about that. Anyway, when I turned my flashlight on I saw you lying next to Vladimir. Onyx wrapped himself around Vladimir and Trusty carried you on his back. Me, Dach, and Onyx hauled Vladimir off to the Pound and while Trusty and June brought you here to St. Maryvole's."

"That was around an hour ago," Trusty said, now venturing over to her bedside and taking her small paw in his much larger one. "We're so glad you're okay, Java. I don't know what this town would have done without your bravery and self-sacrifice."

Java suddenly remembered someone else who had helped save Kittyville but she hadn't seen in her room with the others. "Tom! Where's Tom? Is he all right?"

"Calm down, my dear," Trusty said, giving her paw a light squeeze. He looked up and signaled to Java's mother. "June?"

Grinning slightly, June stepped aside, opening a curtain Java hadn't noticed before that now revealed the rest of her now much larger room and another hospital bed stationed just on the other side of her bedside night stand. Sitting upright in the bed, a large white bandage covering the top of his head, the crew of housekeeping mice now perched on top of his bed sheet, Tom—a.k.a. the Masked Avenger, a.k.a. Doctor Tom—looked across and over to where Java was laying.