by Gwyneth Rees
* * *
*translated from Cat Scratch for human readers
TAGG THE SUPER CAT
Back at Tagg’s house there was still no word from Chester. Wild Bill insisted there was no need to worry, but Tagg wasn’t so sure. What if Chester had disappeared too?
Wild Bill demanded to hear everything about their adventure, and was particularly interested in the information they’d found out about Nemesissy.
‘So her human’s a scientist? Doing strange experiments on rats, you say?’
‘That’s what Hamish thinks. But do you think it’s true, what Marshmallow said about Nemesissy?’
Wild Bill was looking thoughtful. ‘Might be. There was a colony of strays living there before – not the sort to give up their territory without a fight. Then again … can you trust the word of a hit cat?’ He turned and began to amble off towards his summer house. ‘By the way,’ he called back to them, ‘Glamour came by while you were gone. Melody is on the mend, but she’s to stay with the vet for another day or so. Glamour’s gone to the factory to speak to Nemesissy. Melody told her it was a human who attacked her.’
‘Nemesissy’s human?’ both kittens blurted out at once.
‘We don’t know. That’s what Glamour’s gone to find out.’
‘We have to go after her,’ Sugarfoot said. ‘If the hit cats are right, then my mum could be in danger!’
‘So could Rowdy,’ Tagg added, realising he’d forgotten to tell Wild Bill about Marshmallow knowing Rowdy’s name. But there was no time to mention that now.
As they took a shortcut across someone’s garden, Tagg stopped suddenly, his nose twitching.
‘What is it?’ Sugarfoot whispered, freezing just behind him.
‘A mouse,’ Tagg hissed as he spotted further movement under a nearby bush. ‘I’m starving.’ He squatted down into a low crouching position, but just as he started to wiggle his tail end ready to pounce, Sugarfoot let out a shocked screech.
Tagg jumped and the mouse scampered away in fright.
‘What’s wrong?’ he demanded, scanning the area for danger and not seeing any.
‘It’s you!’
‘What about me?’
‘You’ve gone completely green!’
Tagg checked his paws and saw that they had turned the exact colour of the grass they were standing on. Shocked, he turned to check his tail. It was also green.
‘You even smell of grass,’ Sugarfoot said, giving his fur a sniff. ‘Oh … wow! This must be your superpower!’
‘Turning green?’ Tagg let out an indignant growl.
‘Not just green! Keep thinking about chasing that mouse and go over to stand beside that house. Go on.’
Tagg did as she said. To his amazement, as soon as he stood against the painted grey wall his fur turned grey.
‘Stick your paw in front of the back door,’ Sugarfoot urged him. ‘Just your paw! Go on!’
Tagg did so and watched as his paw turned exactly the same colour of blue as the door itself, as if it had been painted with the very same pot of paint. The rest of him stayed grey like the wall.
‘Your superpower is camouflage!’ Sugarfoot exclaimed. ‘I can hardly see you or smell you. It’s like you’ve totally blended into the background.’
‘Camouflage?’ Tagg was too shocked to say anything else.
‘It’s AWESOME!’ Sugarfoot miaowed. ‘You may as well be invisible! You’ll be able to sneak around everywhere without being seen. It’s the perfect superpower for a secret agent!’
‘Really?’ Tagg wasn’t sure about ‘awesome’ – he’d been hoping for super strength – but he had to admit that his new superpower had lots of potential.
* * *
As they reached the hole Melody had made in the factory fence, Tagg started feeling nervous again. His superpower may have shown itself at last, but he didn’t have a clue how to control it. Since he’d stopped chasing the mouse he was no longer disappearing into the background as they hurried along. Although when a car had roared past them, he’d turned green again, only this time it was the same shade of green as the hedge they were padding along beside.
‘Your feelings must be triggering it,’ Sugarfoot said. ‘It switches on when you sense danger or when you need to chase something.’
‘Yeah, well, it’s all pretty weird if you ask me!’ Tagg grunted.
‘Don’t worry. Even the weirdest superpowers can come in really useful. Look at my mum! She saved Melody’s life!’
‘That’s true,’ Tagg said, and as he remembered that Glamour might be in danger, he quickly pulled himself together. ‘Come on. We’d better hurry.’
They fell silent as they reached the factory. Tagg led Sugarfoot towards a metal spiral staircase at one end of the building. It seemed to be an old fire escape. ‘This looks like it could be a way in,’ he murmured. ‘All we need is for one of those windows to be open …’
‘So what’s the plan when we get inside?’ Sugarfoot whispered as she followed him up the rusty steps.
Tagg didn’t want to admit that he was making all of this up as he went along. ‘Well, first we need to find your mum,’ he miaowed in a determined voice. ‘Then … well …’
Sugarfoot suddenly felt an aggravating tickle in her throat and only just managed to stifle a cough. She wanted to continue up the fire escape behind Tagg, but the tickle in her throat wouldn’t stop. Could it be a hairball? But she had coughed up hairballs before and none of them had felt like this. Her throat really hurt, as if hundreds of sharp fish bones had got stuck in it all at once.
‘What’s wrong? Are you OK?’ Tagg asked in concern, waiting on the steps for her to catch up.
‘I … think so. My throat feels … weird.’
‘Your voice sounds hoarse. You’d better rest it.’
She gave herself a shake, remembering why they were here. ‘I’m OK. Let’s go.’
Minutes later they were creeping along a gloomy corridor inside the building, heading for a door at the far end. The door had been left ajar and Tagg poked his head inside, only to be confronted with the strangest room he had ever seen. He was so taken aback that he let out a shocked little hiss.
He seemed to be in a science laboratory of some kind. In the centre of the room was a table with two glass incubators connected to each other by transparent plastic tubing. More tubing joined them to a strange-looking machine that had been constructed from various bits of metal joined together. The machine had all sorts of levers, wheels, cogs and other odd parts sticking out of it, plus several thick cables attaching it to what Tagg guessed were six enormous batteries.
‘Over here!’ mewed a weak voice, and he turned to see a cage in the corner of the room. The cage contained five cats, and Tagg immediately recognised Glamour. She wore a strange muzzle that stopped her from speaking properly – and from using her super lick.
Next to her a large male cat was sitting on the floor, completely wrapped in thick chains. Only his head had been left free. ‘Mum! Dad!’ As Sugarfoot raced past him into the room, Tagg realised the male cat must be her missing father, Flash. ‘We have to free them, Tagg!’
There were three other cat prisoners in the cage, all secured by the same chains. Two thin black-and-white cats, who Tagg didn’t recognise, were steadily devouring some old fish heads.
The last cat had a strange, glowing muzzle on the end of his tail and Tagg realised it was Thumper, the drummer from One Purr, whose superpower was to shoot firebolts from his tail. Only now he obviously couldn’t.
Tagg knew they wouldn’t be able to free any of them without help.
‘You have to stop Nemesissy,’ Flash grunted. ‘She’s using her superpower to control her human. He’s invented that machine.’ He pointed his nose at the strange contraption in the middle of the lab. ‘I don’t know what it does exactly but it can’t be anything good. And we’re going to be her test subjects.’
‘How did they capture all of you?’ Tagg couldn’t quite believe that Nemesissy
had managed to disable so many super cats.
‘They shot us with a tranquilliser gun. When we came to, we’d been tied up and left here. Rowdy tried to stop them shooting Glamour today, so they shot him as well! The human tied him up with a super-strong rope he’s invented. And Nemesissy is so angry she’s going to feed him to her pet shark.’
Tagg felt sick. ‘Oh no! Where did she take him?’
‘The shark tank is in her private room on the top floor.’
‘OK, I’m going up there. I’ll come back as soon as I can and get you all out of here,’ Tagg promised, trying to sound more confident than he actually felt.
Sugarfoot insisted on going with him.
Worried that he might be leading her into more danger, Tagg lowered his voice and mewed, ‘You do know I don’t really have a plan, or any idea how to rescue Rowdy, don’t you?’
Sugarfoot’s whiskers twitched slightly as she whispered, ‘Why else do you think I’m coming with you?’
At the very top of the staircase Tagg crossed a small landing and nudged open the door to Nemesissy’s private quarters. With Sugarfoot close at his heels, he slipped silently inside.
He felt his heart beating furiously as he spotted Rowdy. His brother was bound and gagged and dangling helplessly in mid-air above an enormous glass fish tank. The tank contained a large shark.
Nemesissy suddenly whirled round to face them, making them both jump. ‘Well, look who’s here! The kitten rescue squad!’
She looked just as majestic as she had at the concert – her fur sleek and her lilac Siamese colouring as striking as ever. Her purple-blue eyes gleamed as she lifted up her perfectly pointed chin to regard them with undisguised contempt.
Tagg just gaped at her.
Nemesissy gave a mocking hiss. ‘Come right in! I’ve been expecting you. How sweet of you to bid your naughty brother farewell.’ She lifted a paw and lazily pointed it in the direction of her captive. ‘How do you like my super-strong rope? Another of my human’s amazing inventions! Do come closer and take a proper look!’
She was grinning as they nervously approached the tank. ‘Don’t worry about Sharky. I know he looks cross, but he’ll be in a much better temper after he’s eaten!’ She snorted at her own joke. ‘Sharks are so greedy they like to swallow their food whole,’ she continued smoothly. ‘I do hope he doesn’t get indigestion.’
Meanwhile, Rowdy was struggling in vain against the glowing rope that bound him. It clearly contained some sort of weird energy that was even stronger than Rowdy’s superpower – which was a very scary thought.
‘You won’t get away with this,’ Sugarfoot said in a small but clear miaow.
Nemesissy laughed. ‘Phooey! Why ever not? I’ve already got away with millions of evil deeds!’
‘I don’t understand,’ Tagg interrupted. ‘We’re all super cats, just like you. Why would you turn against us? What is it you want?’
‘What do I want?’ Nemesissy sounded as if she found that the most stupid question imaginable. She was practically spitting as she continued, her eyes glinting crazily as her shrill miaows grew louder and louder. ‘I want your superpowers as well as my own, of course! Why settle for one superpower when you can have them all? Can you imagine it, Tagg? Possessing all the superpowers in the world! Think how powerful I’ll be!’
Tagg gulped. ‘But how … I mean, how can you … ?’
‘How?! My human is the cleverest and craziest scientist in the world – that’s how! And using my superpower I have made him invent a machine that extracts the superpowers from other cats and transfers them to ME!’
Tagg grunted as he realised she was talking about the machine in the laboratory.
‘That is clever,’ Sugarfoot began slowly, stalling for time. ‘But there’s one thing I don’t understand – how do you expect your plan to work? I mean, we all know that when a super cat dies their superpower dies with them.’
‘Quite right, my dear. Why do you think I’m having to keep all my captives alive instead of killing them straight away? Such a shame about Melody, by the way! I did so want those lovely super claws!’
‘But why kill Rowdy?’ Sugarfoot asked, trying to stay calm. ‘Don’t you want his super strength?’
‘Rowdy?’ Nemesissy gave an evil hiss. ‘Rowdy’s a different story. Rowdy betrayed me! Me! Luckily, super strength is a very common superpower. I can easily obtain it elsewhere. From Tagg’s father, for example. Now – enough chatting. It’s Sharky’s dinner time … I just have to press this button here and a specially made knife will cut through the super strong rope. All designed by my very own human pet. You know, I don’t rate humans on the whole, but occasionally you find one who’s an absolute gem.’
GO SUPER CATS!
Everything happened at once.
Nemesissy slammed her paw down on the big plastic button and a deadly-looking knife on a metal arm shot out from the wall, perfectly angled to cut the rope that was fastening Rowdy to the ceiling.
Sugarfoot started coughing again, only this time the tickle in her throat felt as if something much bigger than a hairball had got stuck. Her legs gave way beneath her as, from the back of her throat, came the most incredible yowl. It was a yowl she had no control over. She felt the floor vibrate under her and saw the look of surprise on Tagg’s face. And that’s when she realised what was happening. This wasn’t just any YOWL – it was a SUPER YOWL!
Everything in the room was vibrating now. A glass fell off a shelf and smashed on to the floor; blinds rattled; Nemesissy’s fur ruffled and her ears flattened like a cat caught outside in high winds; mini waves formed on the surface of the water in the tank. The metal arm protruding from the wall above them vibrated with the knife still attached, and instead of cutting the rope it merely nicked it.
Sugarfoot was too confused to take it all in. The phenomenal outpouring of energy from her throat had left her feeling shaky and exhausted.
Nemesissy glowered at her. ‘A super yowl, eh? When you learn to control it that could be very useful! Now, if you’ve quite finished … ?’
Sugarfoot knew she didn’t have the energy left to speak, let alone yowl again. Panicking, she scanned the room for Tagg. Where was he?
Clearly, Nemesissy was mystified by Tagg’s disappearance too. Her tail grew bushier and bushier as she searched the room for him.
Luckily, Sugarfoot spotted him first. He was perfectly camouflaged and practically invisible, but she could just make out his movements as he climbed up a bookcase and leaped off it to land on his brother’s super strong shoulders, grabbing the handle of the knife in his jaws and yanking it free.
But this movement caught Nemesissy’s attention and she let out an angry hiss as Tagg cut the rope that bound Rowdy’s legs and the rest of his body.
Nemesissy spat in fury as she saw the rope falling away from her prisoner. Now that Rowdy’s legs were free, he began to swing them back and forth, his whole body moving like a pendulum as Tagg clung to his shoulders, the super strong knife held firmly in his jaws. Once they were swinging high enough, Tagg waited for exactly the right moment before cutting through the rope that attached them to the ceiling.
Instead of dropping straight down, they flew through the air in an arc, landing with a massive thud on the floor to one side of the tank.
As he saw the hungry shark swimming towards them, Tagg held his breath, only to let out a sigh of relief as it banged its nose stupidly against the glass wall.
Meanwhile, Nemesissy was miaowing loudly for her human as she made a dash for the door.
‘We have to free the others,’ Tagg panted as Rowdy struggled to his feet. ‘Can you help us?’
‘Of course! I’ll take over from here. You two just get yourselves out of here safely, OK?’ Without waiting for a response, Rowdy bounded after Nemesissy.
Tagg and Sugarfoot stared after him.
‘Like that’s going to happen,’ muttered Sugarfoot after a few moments.
‘I know. We just saved his life and n
ow he’s treating us like babies! You wait – he’ll probably need rescuing again in a minute!’
‘We’d better go after him. Nemesissy’s human is still around here somewhere.’
As they crept stealthily down the staircase, Sugarfoot whispered, ‘Oh no … my throat’s starting to tickle. I think I’ve got another super yowl building up.’
‘Good,’ Tagg whispered back. ‘We might need it.’
‘Yes, but I can’t control it yet!’
They fell silent as they reached Nemesissy’s laboratory. A human voice could be heard inside. ‘You know it’s very noble of you super cats to offer your services like this,’ a man’s voice was saying quite politely. ‘Of course, there’s even a tiny chance you could survive the superpower extraction … though it’s highly unlikely … but even if you only live for a few minutes afterwards, you’ll be lucky enough to see the masterpiece you’ve helped to create – a more powerful super cat than anyone has ever dreamed of. A feline of incredible power … a feline who it will be every cat’s honour to serve …’
Loud, impatient miaowing interrupted this monologue. It was Nemesissy. ‘Get the tranquilliser gun, you idiot! They’ll be here in a moment!’
‘Yes, ma’am. I’m presuming we’re using the stun darts again, not the poisoned ones?’
‘Yes. I want their superpowers. That little female has a most enchanting yowl. I could make great use of that!’
The ability to communicate properly with the human was a major part of Nemesissy’s superpower, Tagg realised. It was a pretty awesome power – for a human to understand what you miaowed at them and then do your bidding without question. The possibilities were endless!
