#superkitty

Miracle Mouse glared at Natalie. “Really? I’ll bet you were in cahoots with the kidnappers, so you could lull Mice into trusting you, and then blam!”

“Blam?” Natalie asked disbelievingly. “Look, I don’t need to lure Mice into trusting me. If I was an evil Cat and I hunted people, any kind of people, I could just do it. I’m super-strong and I can fly. As far as I know, you’re the only Mouse who can do those things.”

“And that’s why we’re destined to be nemeses!” Miracle Mouse snarled. “The Super-Cat and—”

“It’s Superkitty. Not Supercat.”

He ignored her. “—the champion of Mousekind, Miracle Mouse! We were destined to battle each other!”

Natalie shook her head. “I really don’t want to battle you. We’re heroes! We’re both on the same side!”

“Have you ever turned a Mouse over to the police?” Miracle Mouse demanded.

“Sometimes, yeah—”

She was going to point out that the Mice she had last turned over to the police had been kidnapping a Human baby after stealing a car, but Miracle Mouse interrupted her. “The police are all Dogs, Cats and Humans! There are no Mice on the police force, and they have no respect for Mice! Mice die in police custody!”

“I didn’t know that,” Natalie said, shocked. “Really? How can the police get away with that?”

“Because they’re the police! All of Kookilariland sees them as the champions of justice. No matter what kind of harm they do, they’re allowed to get away with it! The prosecutors? The judges? They’re all friends with the police! They let them get away with murder!”

“Then we need to stop it!” Natalie said passionately. “You and me, together! We’re superheroes! And if no one wants to listen to you because you’re a Mouse, then they’ll listen to me because I’m a Cat!”

Miracle Mouse was no longer making a heroic pose while ranting; he was actually looking at Natalie as she was, not as he expected her to be – she assumed, anyway, because he was looking at her like he was very puzzled. “You’re… not as old as you look, are you,” he said. It wasn’t a question.

Unlike Humans, who sweated when they got nervous, and Dogs, who panted, Cats generally showed no sign of nervousness as long as they could resist the desire to groom themselves. “No! Haha, why would you think a thing like that?” Natalie said, laughing. “I’m definitely an adult!”

“Look. Kid. I don’t know how you got powers or why you’re trying to get into the superhero business, but you need to go home. I am pretty sure you’re just a kitten.”

“What, because I believe that it’s wrong for the police to hurt Mice? I’ll have you know that every Cat I know, including some definitely adult Cats, would agree that that’s wrong!”

“Yeah, well, why haven’t they done anything about it, then? I’ve never seen Cats marching in protest of harm done to Mice!”

Natalie blinked at him. “Cats don’t march. Like, ever. It’s not a thing we do. But my d—Some older Cats I know do write letters to the mayor, and make phone calls. I mean, I don’t know if they do it about police hurting Mice because I didn’t even know that was a thing that happens, but I do know they do it when people talk about knocking down apartment buildings in Mouse neighborhoods so they can build apartments for rich Humans and Dogs.”

“But not Cats?”

“Cats in Kookalariland are mostly refugees from Kittyland. We don’t have enough rich Cats that they want to build apartments for us. And if a Cat is rich, she wants land, lots of it, so she doesn’t have to run into anybody by accident and so she has small-creatures she can hunt. Rich Cats don’t live in apartments. They don’t live in the city at all.”

“There are rich Cats. The mob boss Uberkatz. Have you never heard of him?”

Natalie rolled her eyes. “Okay, one, and he has to live in the city because he’s a mob boss and the city is where most of the organized crime is. And I’ve only heard of him because I’m a superhero and also he’s stepping on my name.” Her best friend Arthur Boy, who was a Dog, had told her that “Uberkatz” meant “Supercat” in another language, which was much too close to “Superkitty” for Natalie’s comfort, and she was going to have to kick Uberkatz’s butt just for that one of these days. “Anyway, that’s not the point! Cats do try to make the government do the right things for Mice. It’s just… the government is very big, and the number of Cats is, well, not super small, not like Parrots, but there aren’t nearly as many of us around as there are Humans and Dogs and Mice.”

Miracle Mouse’s whole posture had relaxed, no longer as if he was on the verge of trying to punch Natalie. “Well. Maybe there are a few good Cats. Or maybe you’re lying to me to make me think you’re friendly to Mice so I don’t try to stop your nefarious anti-Mouse schemes!”

Natalie burst out laughing. “I’m gonna tell my friends that you think I have schemes. They’re always yelling at me for charging into things without a plan. Seriously, if I had a nefarious anti-Mouse scheme, I would probably forget about it the moment I saw a kitten crying about not being able to get down from a tree. I don’t, um, stick to plans very well.”

“It’s true,” Joey said, slightly more relaxed now that it looked like maybe his friend and his hero were not going to fight. “Superkitty doesn’t really have schemes. That’s more her friends’ style, and they don’t have anti-Mouse schemes either.”

“And how would you know that, young citizen? Do you think they’d share their plots against Mice with you? Hmm?” Miracle Mouse loomed intimidatingly over Joey, leaning down into his face for emphasis at the end.

“Hey, knock it off! Joey really respects you, he thinks you’re a big hero! The least you could do is be nice to him and respect his opinion even if you don’t agree with it!” Natalie snapped.

“Oh?” Miracle Mouse was back to sneering. “And if I make it clear to this young Mouse kit what an idiot he’s being in trusting a Cat, any Cat… what are you going to do about it?”

Natalie narrowed her eyes. “I don’t want to fight you. But Joey is my friend, and I won’t let you hurt my friend or call him an idiot. You be the hero he believes you to be… or I will kick your butt for being a bad superhero and letting my friend down.” She made fists of her paws.

“Superkitty, don’t…” Joey pleaded.

“He doesn’t have the right to treat you like that!”

“Yeah, but he’s a hero for all Mice! Even if he’s being kind of a jerk, he’s still our hero! I don’t want you to fight him!”

Natalie sighed. “All right, but only because you asked.” She turned to Miracle Mouse. “You hear that? My friend doesn’t want me to fight you to defend him… so I won’t. But I will tell everyone I know what a lousy excuse for a hero you are.”

And then Miracle Mouse laughed.

“Are you laughing at me?” Natalie demanded.

“No… well, yes, somewhat. I was testing you, young Superkitty. I was cruel to this Mouse kit only to see what your reaction would be.” He put a paw out to shake. “Perhaps you are a hero I can work with after all.”

Natalie took his paw and shook it. “Well, I’d much rather work with you than not. I admit, I don’t know a lot about what goes on for Mice in this city. I know a lot of bad things, and Joey here tells me other things, but I’m sure you know more than both of us. And I want to be a hero to every person in this city, not just Cats. You have your own city to defend, and I know you’ll come here if there are Mice in trouble, but I want you to know that if you do come here to save Mice, I’ll help you out.”

“All right, Superkitty. I don’t know if a Mouse and a Cat can ever be friends, but we can at least be allies.”