The Chronicles of the Doomcat
Part Eight: Turning Point
By: Miss Special
"Thumbless Poker" was a game Entropy was still getting the hang of. It was exactly like regular poker, except played in beast mode. Cats don't have thumbs, hence the name.
Spirit, who was well adapted to life without thumbs, was playing well. She had a respectable reservoir of chips.
En kept dropping his cards. He couldn't figure out how to hold them for long, and he was getting bad hands on top of it. He was running low on chips.
Destroyer Angel was taking them both to the cleaners. She had no tells, her poker face was perfect, and although she hadn't gotten any spectacular hands, her bluffing was excellent.
Since poker is a quiet game (at least when playing with a rock like Destroyer Angel), they had the video screen on for background noise. The channel was set to the news, since fugitives have a hard time keeping up with current events while on the run.
The newscaster was currently rambling on about the weather in some far corner of Transformer Space. Then, she was handed a sheet of paper, and abruptly went to the next story.
"The Cybertropolis Police say they have apprehended the being known as 'Destroyer Angel'." All cats paused in their game. "The femme charged with flattening an entire section of Cybertropolis was captured earlier today at a spaceport on the edge of a small solar system." Angel was in front of the screen in the blink of an eye, transformed, cards carelessly dumped onto the floor. En looked at them: one pair. She'd been bluffing again!
The newscaster continued, "No word yet on what will be the fate of 'the Doomcat', as she calls herself, but for now she is being held in Cybertropolis Maximum Security Prison. In other news today…."
"The pit…?"
"Angel, do you have a double?"
"Not that I know of."
"Did the Vok make another one of you?"
"They don't have the resources. It'd be cheaper to just take me back."
"Then what…?"
Angel shook her head.
"What should we do about it?"
"Do we have to do anything?" En wondered. "You're off the hook now. People won't be after you."
"But whoever it is can't impersonate a Vok! Who does that lowlife think he- she- it- whatever is?" Angel growled angrily.
"Can't impersonate a Vok?"
"Have they no respect? It's an insult! A Transformer thinking they can pretend to be a superior race?"
En was about to say something, but Spirit signaled him not to. This was obviously a programming thing, and arguing with programming was futile.
"We have to investigate!" Destroyer Angel said decisively. "Changing course for Cybertron!"
"But-" En started.
"I would've said the same thing," Spirit said. "We probably should figure out who's impersonating the Doomcat."
"If you say so."
Cybertropolis hadn't changed much. Actually, it hadn't changed at all, except for rebuilding the area that Angel had trashed.
Destroyer Angel, Spirit, and Entropy stayed in the shadows around the Cybertropolis Maximum Security Prison.
"I'm going to have to infiltrate," Angel whispered.
"Isn't sneaking into a prison crazy?" En obviously wasn't very hot on any of this.
"I won't get caught. I'm a Doomcat."
"You're too big to get in. An Angel-sized hole in the fence would be too conspicuous," Spirit said.
"I'll just fly over the fence."
"The fence goes all the way around, including above, the prison. And it's electrified. If you made a hole anywhere big enough, they'd notice the black spot in the power grid."
"This place wasn't designed to keep small cats out, though."
"No! I won't do it! Besides, I'm a small WHITE cat. Bad for hiding in shadows."
"We can fix that," En mused. Angel caught on an grinned evilly. Spirit backed away.
"Oh, no. No no no no no. No way."
The small, blue eyed black cat glared at her so-called friends.
"Now you'll blend in!" Angel proclaimed happily.
"Oh, my fur! I spend hours taking care of it, and now look at it!"
"Aw, lighten up, Cyberkitty. It'll wash out."
"It'll wash out WITH WATER. As in BATH. I'm not going to forget this."
"The sooner you investigate, the sooner you'll be back to normal."
"Alright, smart one, how are you going to get me in through the electrified fence?"
"Silly kitty, having to ask."
"Destroyer Angel, you are insane."
"I'm a Doomcat. It's just a little electricity."
"Being a Doomcat is your answer to everything! Achieving world peace? No problem! You're a Doomcat! Changing the oil? Of course! It's a Doomcat specialty! Is changing the flow of space and time impossible? Not if you're the Doomcat!"
"You're not very nice when you're grouchy."
"It’s my revenge for you wrecking my fur. The fence, please."
Angel turned to the fence and unsheathed a paw full of claws. She dragged her claws down the wire, veins of electricity running over her paw and down her foreleg. It seemed to have no effect on her, and there was a Spirit-sized hole in the fence in no time.
"Good luck, Cyberkitty!"
"Remind me to claw you when I get back."
"Will do!"
As soon as Spirit was out of sight, Angel idly watched residual bolts of electricity play over her paw.
Dodging the searchlights was easy. Dodging the guards was slightly harder, but still easy. No one expected a small cat to infiltrate the prison. No one expected anyone to infiltrate the prison. Prisons were made to keep people IN.
Getting inside was as simple as climbing through a window. The window was tiny, built into the top of a door, but Spirit leapt through it easily.
Sensing someone else in her area, she instantly took cover behind a security console. The danger passed, and Spirit slowly came out of hiding. She looked around, trying to find some sort of strategic advantage.
She smiled when she found it. Pipes going along the ceiling. There wasn't enough space for a convict to crawl on top of them, but ample room for Spirit.
When Angel returned to the 'Bomber, she didn't make her presence known. She went into the control room and sat down on the floor, leaning against the wall. She wrapped her wings partially around her and pulled her knees up to her chest as best she could.
"Hey, are you okay?" Entropy sat down beside her.
"What if she gets caught?"
"Huh?"
"Spirit. If she gets caught…."
"Then we bail her out. She won't get caught, though."
"It's not that simple. If she gets caught, I go berserk."
"Can't you fight it?"
"I don't know. Can you fight programming?"
"I don't think so."
Silence. Destroyer Angel was staring straight ahead.
"Entropy, you're the first friend I ever made."
"What? What about Spirit and Cheetor and all your other friends?"
"Angel befriended them. I didn't. When they look at me, they still see Angel, and think I'm Angel, even Spirit. She's gotten used to me, but she forgets sometimes."
"She does?"
"She's good at covering it up."
"Oh."
Silence again.
"I'm not Angel."
"Nope."
"I'm me."
"You weren't this introspective earlier. I thought you were pretty happy."
"I didn't want to worry Spirit."
"You fooled Spirit?"
"She doesn't think I'm capable of it."
"Just out of curiosity, what brought all this up?"
"Sometimes I forget I'm not Angel. And then I remember I'm the Doomcat, but I'm not completely Vok. It happened earlier, when I was getting Spirit into the prison."
"Oh."
Angel suddenly stood up and headed for the lift.
"Where're you going?"
"I have to go see someone." She didn't wait for him to respond. She left the Little Bomber and flew away at top speed.
The prison warden stared at his screen, bored out of his mind. Though the worst of Cybertron came here, tonight was a quiet night. It was after Lights Out, so the inmates were either sleeping or quietly plotting amongst themselves.
Spirit watched him from above. How to get him away from the computer? She needed to access it in order to find out where the impostor Destroyer Angel was. She backtracked along the pipes a ways, and got an idea.
"Hey!" she said, making her voice sound as low as possible, "You cheated! I saw you slip that ace into the deck!"
The warden groaned, rolled his eyes, got up, and went to the cell where the voice came from. The cell's occupants were apparently sleeping, but they weren't going to outsmart this warden.
"Alright, the jig is up. Nice acting, but I'm not fooled."
The inmates stirred, but didn't wake.
"Hey! I'm talkin' to you! You're not fooling anyone, so hand over the deck and you won't go into Solitary."
One prisoner blinked awake.
"Wha?"
That job accomplished, Spirit left the warden to sort things out, went to the computer, landed right in front of the keyboard, and started typing.
First, she tried searching for "Destroyer Angel". That turned up nothing. She tried "Doomcat". Nothing for that, either. So she did a search for inmates who arrived within the past few days.
Nothing. According to the news, Angel was supposedly thrown into prison three days ago. Something would've turned up. What was going on?
"What the-?"
Spirit froze. She'd been caught. But she wasn't in trouble just yet.
"Meow," she said sweetly. She walked over the keyboard, rubbing against the screen. Jumping down away from the console, she performed the classic figure-eight circling maneuver, developed centuries ago by newly domesticated cats. She made sure to purr.
"Oh, I hate cats," the warden grumbled. Spirit sat down, looked up at him, and appeared as innocent as possible.
"Nice try. I'm going to report you."
You jerk! Spirit thought angrily. You'd report a little kitty?
She tried leaving.
"No you don't." The warden grabbed her by the scruff of the neck. She was helpless.
"Hey," the warden said, looking her over, "you're no normal cat. I'd almost say you were a Transformer…."
Oh, it was going to be a long night.
Luck was smiling upon the Doomcat. The place was still open, even at this time of night.
Not bothering to read the sign on the windowless door, Destroyer Angel burst into the room, startling its occupants.
"Destroyer Angel?" The Seer looked surprised. Her mech friend looked alarmed.
"Y-you shouldn't be here! You're a- a criminal! I should turn you in!"
"I sensed some dark spots in the Matrix coming…" the Seer remembered.
"I need to talk to you!" Angel wasn't begging, but her voice sounded urgent.
"Get out before I call the police!" the mech ordered. Angel ignored him.
"Those dark spots you mentioned- were they my friends?"
"I need more information first. Where have you been?"
"Around. Here and there. No place in particular, just traveling from one planet to another."
"You left the planet?" The mech was nearly shouting. "Seer, if she gets caught in here, we'll be arrested, too!"
"But we won't." The Seer turned back to Angel. "You have friends traveling with you?"
"Spirit and Entropy."
"Ah, Entropy. Yes, it makes sense now. Entropy faded out of my vision some time ago."
"The Matrix has lost track of him?"
"And Spirit. Anyways, what have you come here to ask?"
"Seer," the mech interjected, "you have an appointment coming in two cycles! Destroyer Angel has to go or we'll be in trouble!"
"That's enough!" the Seer scolded. The mech backed off. "Destroyer Angel, what was your question?"
"Did Angel have a future?"
"That depends. When she came in to see me, it was too late for her."
"I know, but what about before that?"
The Seer waited a long moment, then said, "Yes, she did."
"What was it?"
"Angel had no marketable abilities outside of warfare. She would not have been able to adapt to a life of peace."
"Seer, your appointment's coming!"
"Destroyer Angel, you must go. I have not foreseen it, but I believe you are in danger coming here."
The mech whispered hoarsely, "He's here!" The door opened, the lights flickered, and the appointment walked in, closing the door behind him.
Destroyer Angel was nowhere in sight. She had used the shadows when the lights flickered to silently sneak out.
The warden hadn't decided whether the small black cat sitting in the interrogation chamber was an actual cat or a robot in disguise. Although the prison supervisor wasn't pleased about being woken up in the middle of the night, the warden had assured him the matter was important. Everything was going according to plan.
Spirit was still playing the dumb cat act. She feigned disinterest in everything but sleeping on the annoyingly cold table. The chamber door hissed open, and a tall, stately mech walked in. He looked at Spirit in a disappointed manner.
"That's not the Doomcat," he told the large one-way mirror on the wall. The warden on the other side of the mirror shrank in his seat.
Spirit kept her eyes closed, until her head was rudely grabbed. The mech looked her head over, turning it this way and that as best he could. He paid special attention to the insides of the cat's ears.
"The ears give it away. The cat is techonorganic," he concluded. Bravo, Spirit thought sarcastically, wishing she could bite him.
"However," the mech continued, "the Doomcat's accomplice is a white cat. Not black." He ran his hand across Spirit's back, rubbing the fur the wrong way. Small flecks of black came off on his hand.
"Paint," he noted. "Or fleas. I'm inclined to believe the former. Could I get a bucket of water?" he asked the mirror. Now Spirit wanted to claw his optics out.
~Hey, Cyberkitty, how's it going in there?~
~Not now, Angel. I'm busy.~
The lift took Angel up into the 'Bomber, where En was playing solitaire on the floor. He looked very bored.
"Are you winning?" Angel asked. En jumped.
"I didn't hear you come in!"
Angel grinned impishly.
"Where'd you go?" En asked.
"To see a friend."
"Feel any better?"
"Not really."
"Want to play War?"
"What??? War is not a game!"
"I meant the card game." En wasn't so sure he wanted to play now. Angel looked angry.
"Oh." Angel calmed down. "Sure, I'll play."
The water was ice cold. Spirit shook it off herself, making sure to get the mech as wet as possible.
"Paint has been confirmed," the mech said to apparently no one in particular, ignoring the spray. "This is definitely Destroyer Angel's cohort. If you lead us to the Doomcat, small one, I'll let you go free."
Spirit said nothing and glared at him.
"It won't do you any good. Whether you talk or not, we will find her."
"I doubt that," Spirit replied coldly. "Explain what you're doing."
"I am asking the questions, not you."
"You've obviously never met a cat before. You can ask and prod and coerce till you turn blue in the face, but you'll never get anything out of me." She curled up in place and closed her eyes.
"Alright, I'll explain," the mech said after some time. Spirit stared at him the way cats do.
"My name is Derpolitzt. I am in charge of apprehending the Doomcat. I used the media to report that Destroyer Angel had been caught. It was a ruse to lure her here and capture her. Things didn't go exactly to plan, but now I have a bargaining chip."
"You are an idiot. You're using a berserker's best friend as a lure. When she finds out, she won't be interested in bargaining."
"We'll see about that."
"Derpolitzt, sir," a femme stuck her head into the interrogation room. "There's been a Doomcat sighting in the business district."
"Excuse me for a moment," Derpolitzt told Spirit condescendingly, leaving with the femme.
~Angel, I've been caught.~
There was no response, but Spirit's fur prickled.
Derpolitzt returned.
"Tell us where she is," he ordered Spirit.
"Or you'll what? Destroyer Angel knows I've been caught. She's on her way here right now. She's going to rip this place apart."
"And if she does, she'll be risking the life of her friend. She'll be careful."
"There is no reasoning with a berserker! When she gets here, we're going to die. Including me. And anyone she doesn't kill outright will probably perish when she flattens the building."
"And how would you suggest averting this?"
"If you let me free, she might possibly calm down. No promises."
"We'll prepare an exchange. Gulo, get in here." The femme came. "Gulo, contact all forms of media and issue an ultimatum to Destroyer Angel: her friend will walk free if she turns herself in."
"Understood, sir." Gulo left.
"YOU ARE A SLAGGING MORON! No cell could hold Destroyer Angel unless she wanted it to. You're messing with power you can't even begin to comprehend!"
"We'll see about that."
"Jack beats six!" Another win for En! He collected his cards, put them in his deck, and got his next card ready, waiting for Angel to put hers down first.
Nothing happened. En looked up at Angel.
Her eyes had turned red.
"OH, SLAG!!" He grabbed Angel by the shoulders and shook hard. "Angel, snap out of it!"
Destroyer Angel violently pushed Entropy away.
"Don't get near me!" Her metallic voice rang harshly.
"Fight it, Angel! Keep in control!"
"I'm TRYING!" Her optics continually shifted from yellow to red. "They caught her!"
"It's okay! Go to your happy place!"
"I DON'T HAVE A HAPPY PLACE!"
"Um… Think of pink clouds and fluffy bunnies! Everyone's happy and singing and saying how nice it is to be in the Happy Place!"
"What kind of freak Happy Place is that?"
"You don't like my Happy Place?"
Angel looked at En slowly. She took a deep breath and let it out. Her optics stopped changing color.
"Yeah, make fun of the Happy Place now. It worked."
"Slag." Angel collapsed into a seat and turned the radio on.
"That was close."
"En, not only are you stupid, but you're crazy."
"I think more stupid than anything."
"Attention," the radio cut in, "this is an important bulletin for Destroyer Angel. Attention, Destroyer Angel: You friend has been captured. She will be released upon your surrender at the Cybertropolis Maximum Security Prison at sunrise."
"How long is it till sunrise, En?"
"I'd say about a megacycle and a half. Wait- you're not thinking of going, are you?"
"I'm a failure as a Doomcat. I can't even protect my friends. Every time something bad happens, I go berserk."
"Angel, you can't! You can't just give yourself up! They're going to tear you apart!"
"So? I’m a liability. I shouldn't even exist. I’m a failure twice over- Angel wouldn't have succeeded in anything even if I hadn't come along. Besides, maybe I'll help out science or something."
"Stop talking like that! There has to be another way!"
"Like what? Send another Doomcat in my place?"
"…Do we have any of that paint left?"
"I think so. Why?"
"Well, I was thinking, if I run fast enough, it'd be hard to tell me apart from you."
"I'm not letting you turn yourself in as me."
"Neither am I! But I bet I could take them by surprise."
"I don't want you taking risks on my account."
"I thought just being around was a risk. Seems to me if I've nearly made you go berserk twice, and kept you from going berserk three times, I can take a bunch of people who think they can keep you in a cell."
"Alright. I’m not going to stop you." Angel got up and went to her quarters.
"What are you doing?"
"Packing. I'm leaving."
"But why??"
"So I don't hurt anyone. It's friends that cause me to lose it, and so I have to leave my friends behind. Sorry."
"…I understand."
En went to get the paint. He was nearly finished painting himself when Angel came out dressed in dazzling white armor, her helmet under her arm. En's jaw dropped. Angel looked at him.
"What? Did I forget something?" She tried to look at her back.
"Is that the armor you told me about?"
"Yeah. I figured it'd make me less recognizable."
"Makes sense."
"So… I guess this is goodbye."
"Isn't there some other way?"
"No. Sorry."
"Good luck."
"Thanks, En."
"For what?"
"I dunno. Just thanks." Destroyer Angel turned and went down on the lift. Entropy sat for a moment, and then went back to painting himself.
The guy at the ticket counter hesitated when the femme- very dangerous looking, clad entirely in white, with more blades than he could count- asked for a ticket for the first ship leaving the planet. She seemed very calm; not the kind of bot who wouldn't care where the ship took her, just so long as it was leaving soon.
"Alright," he said cordially, "What's your name?"
"De- Angel. My name's Angel."
"Alright, Angel, your ship leaves in ten cycles. You'd better get there fast if you want to get a good seat." He held the ticket up for her to take. She reached out with a clawed hand and he shrank back. He realized what he was doing, finally gave her the ticket, and she took it.
The femme calling herself Angel walked away from the ticket booth and went to the ship.
Sunrise was near. The Dinofelis crouched in the shadows, painted black from nose to tail.
Wait- they were expecting Angel to be there at sunrise. So wouldn't it make more sense to strike before the sun came up, to catch them off guard?
He could see them- a mech, a femme, and Spirit, who was mottled black and white. She looked miserable.
Without thinking about it, En jumped from the shadows, knocked the mech and femme over, grabbed Spirit in his mouth, and ran.
"What the- put me down!" En's saber teeth were digging into Spirit.
"Uh-uh," En grunted, still running.
"Shouldn't we go after them??" Gulo exclaimed.
"That wasn't the Doomcat," Derpolitzt said. "We missed our chance."
"But if we capture them, we can use them as bait again!"
"Spirit was right. Capturing Destroyer Angel's friends invites disaster and little else. Activate Plan Omega."
"But… We don't even know if it'll work! It puts lives at risk! It's crazy, reckless, and highly unlikely to work!"
"And this plan was sane, well-planned, and likely to work. Obviously, it didn't. Plan Omega is our last resort. Activate it."
"But-"
"Activate it."
"Yes, sir. Activating Plan Omega."
"Will you put me down now?"
En dropped Spirit at the foot of the Little Bomber.
"Yuck. You taste bad."
"That's good to know." Spirit's voice dripped with sarcasm. "What happened to you?"
"I'm a stand-in for Angel. How do I look?"
"Terrible. Where's Angel?"
"Oh…."
" 'Oh'? What's that supposed to mean?"
"She left."
"Left?"
"Yeah, she said something about being with friends makes her go berserk, so she can't be near them."
"You let her go?"
"Well, I was about to stop her, when I remembered an old saying: When you catch a butterfly and then let it go, if it flies away, it was never yours in the first place, but if it comes back, it's yours to keep. Or something like that."
"En?"
"Yeah?"
"DESTROYER ANGEL IS NOT A BUTTERFLY!!!!!!!!!"
"Well, yeah, but I was speaking metaphorically."
"Don't you get it? Angel needs us to keep her going! Now she's going to do something stupid, like turn herself in, or get lonely and depressed! You screwed it up, Entropy!"
"So we go find her. It can't be that hard."
"Yes it can. She's slipped under the radar for this long, and she's probably going to stay that way."
"What do we do, then?"
"We need help."
End Part 8.