Julia laughed but did get out her camera. “I still can’t believe you’re really going to do this, Missy. I guess you’re right, though. Unless we actually see it, we just would never believe you.”
“After you get those pictures of me, I’m going to run off and explore up here since I have the chance. I really do need this. You just have no idea. But, I’ll chow down on those steaks before I go.” Missy had one more thought, and she added, “Be sure to only get my good side, Mom. I don’t want those scars on my left shoulder to show up in any of the photos. Someone might actually recognize me!”
“You really got those from a black bear?” asked John. “I never got the story since you wouldn’t say but Mom said something.” He was starting to realize his sister was really about to do this.
“Oh, yes. It was the end of that first winter, when I didn’t know any better. He found a deer I’d killed the day before and I was hungry. I guess he was hungry too. When I returned for my meal and found him there … well, I guess I should have let him have the deer. But, we fought and I chased him off. It all happened very fast. I did let him live.”
“And, your leg? Was that from some hunter?”
“Yep. I let him live also.” With that, Missy giggled. She turned to Julia and Heather and said, “Hold up that blanket. I’m getting undressed now.”
While her Dad and her brother stood back, giving her privacy behind the blanket her Mom and Heather were holding, she undressed and placed all her clothes in a neat pile. “Please have these here for me when I return.” She then crouched down and Shifted. She was used to the shimmer of light and burst of energy but Julia and Heather gasped.
“Oh, my God! Missy! Heather, just look at her. Tell me you’re seeing this too.”
“Oh, yeah! Wow!” Heather dropped the blanket and turned to her Dad and then looked at John. “John, what do you think now, huh?” She quickly turned back to study her sister. Her sister, the cat.
Missy stretched first and then slowly moved forward, proudly stepping with her head high. Her tail was straight up and she walked around the clearing so they could all really get a good look. Then she went over to the steaks, lying on the ground with plastic underneath. She looked right into John’s eyes and then lowered her mouth, her jaws biting into the meat. She lifted her head, showing her large fangs, and continued to eat. It was very obvious she was quite pleased with herself.
John was truly amazed and looked at his Dad. “Did you see that glow and feel the energy when she did that? This is unbelievable. But what’s really getting me the most are her eyes. They have a lot of yellow gold in them now but you can really still see that it’s Missy, can’t you?” He looked at his Mom and Heather for their agreement.
Heather walked up to Missy and asked, “Can I touch you? Oh, Missy!” She stroked Missy’s head a few times, gently at first and then she reached out with both arms and dropped down beside her sister, wrapping her arms around her. When Missy started purring, very loudly, she began to cry. These were tears of happiness plus all the strong emotions she was feeling. Julia came over and joined them.
“My poor Missy,” Julia said. “What you must have suffered when this first happened to you. I’m only now really seeing what a terrifying experience that must have been. How you managed to survive, living this way for two years, I just can’t imagine.” Heather got up and let her Mom kneel down so she could hug Missy.
Everyone got to pet Missy and, after she finished eating the steaks, she posed for photos. Pretty soon, things were getting a bit hilarious as Missy started hamming things up. She rolled around on her back, she invited each of them to embrace her, she extended her claws and showed her fangs, making fierce growling noises and the longer things went on the wilder her antics became. They were laughing themselves silly by the time she finally walked to the edge of the clearing, turned to look at them one last moment, and disappeared. They couldn’t even hear her moving away through the underbrush.
They all looked at one another and Julia said, “I feel so much better now, about so many things, but I also feel just terrible about so many other things. Anyone else feeling like that?” Her daughter was a werecat.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Nov 2016
It was Thanksgiving and everyone was home. Heather, from her apartment in Boston near the university campus and John from his college dorm in Easton, an hour away. Patrick was now in the eighth grade and Missy had returned to school in the eleventh grade. Junior year. She’d finished the last of her makeup work with her tutors and was free to begin other activities.
She had earned her black belt in karate and was working towards second degree which would probably happen sometime the next summer. Her goal was to earn her third degree belt a year after that, right before she’d be going away to college. She was playing soccer and lacrosse for her high school varsity teams and intended to play basketball and softball for them later on. And, next year? She’d do it all again. She loved competing in sports, even though she was holding herself back. She didn’t take unfair advantage of her skills but used them in a way which most benefited her team. Even so, she was being written up in the local news as quite the star athlete. Julia was adding these to that scrapbook she’d put together years earlier.
While her mixed martial arts workouts were now only once during the week with maybe an event every other weekend, it was here where she was able to really let herself go. She loved the challenge and the extreme exercise. No one could move as fast as she could but she still allowed the guys to pummel her. They’d long since forgotten having any qualms about her sparring with them. She made it fun and somehow never seemed to get hurt. More and more spectators had been showing up each week as the word had gradually gotten out about “that girl” the guys were sparring with. It wasn’t a contest for who would win or lose. It was more an exhibition with her holding her own, in spite of all the ways they’d come at her and all the punishment they seemed to be giving her. She kept bobbing right back up and would send them flying. Most now admitted they’d actually improved their own skills a great deal during all of these bouts.
The big discussion at the dinner on Thanksgiving was about the MMA World Expo coming up that weekend in New York City. Missy had finally agreed to actually compete and was entered in the Amateur Women’s Middleweight class. It would be her first time competing against women in mixed martial arts. She did this in karate tournaments all the time, which she always won. But those weren’t full contact like these MMA bouts would be. The whole family was going down to watch her. Her MMA Sensei had recently re-organized his school into a larger club and she was representing them. Club enrollment had doubled since Missy had joined a year ago. She was still the only female.
The Middleweight class was for over 135 pounds and up to 145 pounds, max. She could easily qualify for the next lower class since her weight usually was 135 or less. But, she wanted to go up against the best of the best, and those women were in this higher weight class. And, she had a plan. She was pretty sure she would easily win but that wasn’t her only goal. She wanted to have some fun and put on a show. The notoriety would be great for her club.
During the last couple weeks of the summer, when John had Claire over along with Jeff and Mark and Alice, they’d all watched some movies together. The guys had insisted on a marathon with one of their favorite actors and it was two of those movies which gave her the idea for her current plan. In one, the actor had gained sixty pounds over the course of making the movie, to portray the lead character in his later years. And in the other, he’d spent six months preparing for his role with an intense training program during which he’d really bulked up. He’d worn a lot of fantastic prison tattoos for this movie. And, she’d read he got so much bigger from working out, they’d had to enlarge some of those tattoos.
Missy knew all about incredible body transformations. So, she’d been working out at the gym with some heavier weights and then been washing down all the large meals she was eating with p
rotein shakes. She was now 155 pounds of solid muscle but carrying a bit more body fat than a year earlier. She could easily lose 20 pounds if she were to run as a cat for a week in the mountains, so she wasn’t at all concerned. She wanted to see what she could make her body look like for the upcoming competition.
The extra pounds actually filled out her curves, making them appear a lot more rounded. Many of her friends were now kidding her about that, comparing her curvaceous figure to that of Jessica Rabbit, the voluptuous cartoon siren. She thought that was pretty funny, since it reminded her about all the poor rabbits she’d devoured as prey in her mountain lion form. And, she was enjoying the opportunity this MMA bout was giving her to eat even larger portions at each meal. She intended to make an amazing appearance at this event. Her family and everyone at her club were very enthusiastic plus several more friends were coming down from her school. She even had friends from the gym and her karate class all heading to New York City to watch her.
But, this Thanksgiving meal was her last full meal. Patrick didn’t know she was a werecat so she didn’t discuss her plan until he was out of hearing range. Then she explained it to the others. Over the next forty-eight hours, she intended to Change back and forth several times. She knew what the energy bursts did to her body each time. She was burning calories but not losing muscle. She knew just how much she could eat in between each Change, managing her loss of body fat, so her body would look shredded and ripped by Saturday when she entered that ring in New York. She would have twelve-pack abs rather than six-pack abs. Her arm and leg muscles would look like steel cables. Her family needed to help, since she intended to stay hidden in her room during the cycles when she was in her cat form.
Ever since she’d revealed to them what she was, they’d been taking turns bringing her back and forth to the State Forest where she’d been able to run free for hours at a time. As a cat. Missy had never felt so complete and these past few months had been wonderful. And, these opportunities had allowed her to fully exercise all her enhanced abilities, which she’d carryover from one form to the other.
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That Saturday morning, Heather helped Missy with her final preparations and she was definitely feeling butterflies from all the anticipation. Her long hair was up in a tight bun which included several braids, all woven together. Finally, hearing her name being called, she walked out into the large stadium. There were several MMA cages for the competitors, all on raised platforms, and a huge crowd of spectators were seated all around. Her family and friends began screaming her name out as soon as they saw her. Her club had given her a special cape, a dark red which matched her hair, with large lettering in black and white. She was wearing a lot of bright green eye paint and her eyes were blazing; her lipstick was a deep wine colored red. After parading down the aisles, with Heather trailing behind her, she approached the cage for her first match. Her opponent was already inside, bouncing from one foot to the other. With a theatrical gesture Missy removed her cape, climbed up the few steps and went inside.
Now, everyone could get a good look at her and many were shocked at what they saw. Most of her friends and even those at her club and her gym had only ever seen her when all covered up in her gi uniform or wearing casual clothes which covered her scars. But, for this event, Missy was wearing only some very small shorts and a little sports bra, both a bright iridescent green, so her body was mostly exposed. Wide hips, narrow waist, long legs, and an upper body which was perfect. Her successive Changes had stripped away all her body fat and her weight had dropped down to just under 145 pounds. She now looked awesome with solid muscles rippling under her silky, shiny skin. Her muscles appeared lean, not bulky, and she had incredible symmetry. The way the light reflected off her body as she moved around just made the definition in her stunning physique more noticeable. Heather had helped her apply oil all over and that actually made her silvery white scars much more obvious.
She definitely had an intimidating “bad girl” look which was exactly what she’d wanted. There were a lot of spectators suddenly taking notice of Missy and going through their program looking for information about her. She was new to the MMA world having never competed before and was a complete unknown. This was the heaviest women’s class at the World Expo and all the other women were fairly well known, in spite of this being an amateur event. None were as young as Missy. No one had heard about her club even having any women. It wasn’t a large club but it had sent male competitors to some of the past Expo’s and its Sensei was well known due to his early career in the sport.
Interest in Missy was soon growing, with a lot of word-of-mouth drawing more and more attention to her. This was helped by her actual performance, since she easily won each bout, and by late afternoon of that first day her reputation as a serious contender had been firmly established. A lot of interested bystanders crowded around to study her. Her movements were really beautiful to watch, fluid and graceful, whether wearing her cape outside in the aisles or walking around inside the cage, waiting for the signal to be given. This feline display was all very deceptive since the way she’d then turn things on for each bout was so explosive. Whether she was blocking kicks or dodging blows or attacking her opponents, her speed was an impossible blur. And, she was so powerful that opponent after opponent would stagger out. Most just didn’t know what hit them. Three of her wins were knockouts in less than thirty seconds. Three more wins were by submission holds.
Missy was thrilled at the end of the day and having the time of her life. Back in the hotel with her family, she was glowing with excitement. Six bouts, all wins. Everyone kept saying what a great job she was doing and couldn’t get over the way she looked out there and what a great show she was putting on. Her brother Patrick, who still thought she was only normal, couldn’t get over her appearance. She looked so different. What had she done to herself and how had she ever done it all so quickly? He’d not really seen her that much since that Thanksgiving dinner. The others all knew and just smiled at one another. Their Missy was really something.
Sunday was just more of the same. The crowd got more and more enthusiastic about her consistent wins and when she stepped into the cage for the final bout, she was clearly their favorite. Missy had pumped herself up, Changing once more during the night so when she Changed back that morning, her rock hard body showed even more definition. The effect, with the oil glistening all over, was truly something to see. Photos were being taken constantly and she played up to the crowd, turning so all the scars on her left shoulder were prominently in view. “Get my good side!” she’d yell, laughing mischievously. Then she’d give them some fierce expressions and pose like a bodybuilder. Hamming things up like that, flexing her arms and arching her back, making a real spectacle of herself was such delicious fun.
But, as she faced her final opponent, she focused solely on the bout itself without letting anything distract her. She’d trained herself for extreme fighting like this and when it was time to fight, nothing else mattered. If neither contestant could win by knockout or by getting their opponent to tap out, indicating submission, then the bout would be evaluated and scored by three judges. Since this was the championship match, there would be five rounds, each of five minutes duration with a one minute rest period between each round. Missy’s opponent was a powerful girl named Kalinda Johanat who of course was billed as “Killer Kalinda”.
Kalinda was wearing black and she had blond hair. She was an inch shorter than Missy with arms and legs which showed some very big muscles. She didn’t have the definition which Missy had and her shoulders and hips were not as wide, so she’d packed more of her weight into those powerful arms and legs. Her appearance just looked beefier and she was clearly a brawler. She had won most of her matches by knockout. She looked at Missy with an expression which clearly showed she was determined to win by knockout this time as well.
Scoring really came down to effective striking and effective grappling. Effective striking would be the total number of lega
l heavy strikes which were landed while effective grappling would be the amount of legal takedowns and reversals. Control of the fighting area and effective aggressiveness and defense were additional factors considered by the judges but to win, there needed to be some real dominance displayed in the striking and grappling. There were penalties for fouls and prohibited conduct which would cause points to be deducted, so these were to be avoided. Three fouls were cause for disqualification.
At the referee’s signal both girls moved forward but Missy quickly darted away and then spun back to deliver a kick. She had moved so fast that Kalinda was caught by surprise and unable to block. Advantage Missy. With a grimace, Kalinda charged and managed to connect with her knee but it was only a glancing blow since Missy was moving away. When she tried to follow that with a kick, Missy suddenly out maneuvered her and executed a takedown which definitely caught her by surprise. She was quick to recover and the girls began exchanging blows, causing the spectators to start making noise. The flurry of activity, with each girl demonstrating her prowess in bursts, was indeed exciting to watch. Often, the movements were just a blur.
As the end of the first five minutes approached, Missy suddenly spun and managed a magnificent takedown, with Kalinda falling hard on her ass. Advantage Missy. She had dominated this round and Kalinda was no longer very confident about any knockout. Missy was just a little too fast, always managing to avoid any serious punishment and showing a resilience and stamina which was truly remarkable. As the round ended and they went to their corners to rest, it was obvious this match would be going the full distance, all five rounds.
Rounds two and three went in similar fashion, with Kalinda beginning to tire out there. But, for round four, Kalinda got her second wind and came at Missy with full force, pummeling her with blow after blow in a ferocious effort which got the crowd really riled up as they watched to see if Missy would fall. Instead, Missy countered with an explosive series of movements which suddenly had Kalinda falling back, her fury spent. Then, once again a takedown by Missy which left no doubt who was in charge. She put Kalinda in a hold which might have forced her to submit had the round not ended. It was the video clip of this round which would later almost go viral on the internet.
Missy the Werecat Page 15
