Chapter 9

  Lyle took a deep breath, inhaling through his nose as he prepared for the most difficult shot of his life. Crowds of cats, all shapes and sizes and colors and patterns, gathered around him. He was trying to control his heartbeat and quell the shaking in his knees as he held his Rifle in both hands, muzzle pointed down and stock rested against his right shoulder.

  Jewels, the psychotic taskmaster of a cat that had drilled him every single day after arriving in this hellhole sat at the top of a massive ziggurat. A pergola shaded the insufferable cat from the sun, as male cats stood on their hind legs, fanning Jewels and feeding her small fish that had been attached to a bushel of stems like grapes. She wore a wig of black, chin-length straight hair and a golden tiara that wrapped around her head like a snake but had a cats head that was a miniature golden replica of the conceited cat’s own visage.

  Cheers and applause rang out around Lyle, female cats, well, cat-called, to him. Cats he’d never seen before goaded him on like they’d been best friends all their lives.

  “You’re the best, bro!”

  “Go Lyle!”

  “Woo-Hoo!”

  “You can do it, shoot that targets freakin head off!”

  That last guy wasn’t even a cat, it was a random human man wearing a large straw hat and a greasy coat over a flower-print collared shirt. Lyle was utterly panicking. Targets don’t even have heads!

  Three days prior…

  Lyle sprang into the air, jumping over bullets and twisting his body midair before a crossbow bolt could pierce his spine. Flippin his body to the side, Lyle hit a wall, feet first, crouching to his knees before leaping from the wall, four exact copies of him splitting off, heading in different directions. Cats with balaclavas covering their entire faces, exposing only the eyes and each wearing a black two-piece gi flashed towards all of his doppelgangers with long katanas as bullets and arrows continued to fall like rain.

  An annoying song about lightning-fast cats doing kung-fu played loudly around them, adding to the chaos. Jewels insisted that this song needed to be played, along with another one called Eye of the Tiger. Apparently, the feral feline had come across these songs and other on an unintegrated planet, and said that while the humans there, while weak and short-lived, had made considerable cultural and technological advancements for a “pathetic bunch of backwater primates” as she had put it.

  Jewels insisted the songs helped to get one “Pumped” and would improve his morale and motivate him. Lyle had no idea what the cat was talking about, he didn’t get that feeling. But, after so long training while listening to the songs, he couldn’t help but bob is head with the rhythm as he fought the army of cats.

  As the ninja cats slashed at all five of the Lyles, each clone dispersed into a cloud of sparkling light particles. The real Lyle smiled from where he ran along the wall, invisible. He made a trail of footprints appear in the sand, running towards an opening at the end of a long hallway. Pulling out six shuriken, three nestled between the knuckles of each hand, he threw the invisible star-shaped blades at the backs of cats that were running after the false trail. Each of the cats disappeared, showing they’d been eliminated from the simulation.

  Grinning, Lyle jumped to the wall leading to the doorway, he was so close!

  BEEP, BEEP. WHIIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRR

  Lyle froze, slowly looking up to see an absurdly buff cat holding a massive gatling gun, a cigar in the corner of his mouth and black paint across his face. It had a red headband around a mop of thick black hair and had a chiseled jaw, wearing tiger-stripe camo pants and black combat boots.

  “Say hello to my little friend!” The cat said in a deep, slurred voice.

  Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap. Applause erupted from the booth up above the training arena.

  “Bravo, bravo! You did well, Cupid, you did well indeed!” Jewels yelled from where she sat with one leg over the other on a director’s chair that floated in midair, she wore glasses and a bonnet hat, with a red scarf tied around her neck. Holding a black and white clapper board in one hand as she leaned her elbow on her knee, the cat dabbed at one eye with a cloth using her other hand.

  Lyle rolled his eyes “Master watches too many damn movies” he though to himself, as an absolute bombardment of bullets slammed down on him. A massive cloud of smoke and debris erupted from where Lyle had been standing. The cat didn’t stop firing until the ribbon of ammunition jammed, and the barrel slowly stopped spinning as it glowed red hot.

  When the smoke and dust settled, there was a large hole in the wall, pitch black in the haze of battle. Cupid’s shoulders slumped, feeling bad for the boy. A chorus of disappointed whispers kicked up from the surrounding cats who’d been watching. They had all hoped Lyle would win, he had been working so hard for this and had gotten so close, just to come up short at the final stretch.

  As the surrounding cats hung their heads and turned to leave, a voice cut out from the crowd.

  “Wait a minute, he hasn’t appeared in the respawn chamber!”

  Excited whispers immediately broke out as everyone turned to look at the glowing red bubble where a bunch ninja cats, military cats, and cats wearing robotic suits that made them look like cyborgs all hung out, drinking water with sweat towels around their necks. They all looked around for a moment before turning back to the crowd and shrugging, as if to say, “Don’t ask us, we didn’t see anything”.

  “He really isn’t there!”

  “What, really?”

  “But we all saw him get blasted to smithereens”

  “Well, if he didn’t get eliminated, where is he?”

  “I like to whisper, too”

  “Why are you dressed like a snow elf?”

  Duhn.

  Duhn. Duhn. Duhn.

  Music suddenly filled the arena, silencing the whispers as every cat turned to look at the gaping hole in the wall that still had smoke billowing from within.

  “Is that?”

  “It’s him!”

  “He did it, he actually did it!”

  A figure began to take shape from within the smoke, and Lyle gradually came into view as he stepped over the crumbling brick wall, his massive SiegeBreaker rifle resting in his grip. Lyle couldn’t help but smile, the gathered crowd erupting in thunderous applause and cheers as the white of his teeth shone in contrast to his soot-covered face. Jewel’s looked down at him, a smirk of acknowledgement on her face as she clapped her board.

  “And that’s a wrap!”

  Cat’s whooped and cheered, jumping up and down and throwing roses at Lyle’s feet. Some whistled and others cried, hugging the cats closest to them as tears poured out like a fountain. One cat even tried to kiss a cat next to them, apparently the excitement had given them courage they hadn’t previously had. But was firmly rejected with a paw to the face and shake of the head as they turned away dejectedly.

  Lyle fell to his knees exhausted as his adrenaline faded and he began to feel the aches and pains of the intense battle. He teared up a little as he stared down at the rifle in his hands. He’d finally done it. He’d finally… then he noticed the rifle in his hands wasn’t his, or rather, it was, but someone had clearly modified it.

  There was a bolt bypass module that allowed for a semi-automatic switch, giving the rifle a secondary firing operation. To go along with the mod was an extended magazine, as well as a longer barrel and a tactical silencer that doubled as a bayonet. His two to forty Hunters series diamond scope had been replaced with a Siege7 holovision clear sight that had a range of ten to eighty times magnification. Everything else was the same, except for one tiny little, itsy-bitsy detail…

  “JEWELS! What the fuck have done to my baby?” Lyle screamed, blood rushing to his face as a vein bulged on his forehead.

  “Well, I know your not the best-looking elf in the galaxy, but I would hope your offspring were a bit better looking than… that.” A condescending voice came from above Lyle as he looked up to see a calm, carefully composed cat, her directors ensemble from earlier nowhere to be seen.

  Lyle abruptly forgot the chewing out he’d been about to give his master. One thing he’d learned about the planet’s avatar was that when she was goofing off and acting irresponsible and wearing ridiculous costumes, she was either very upset, or very serious. And right now Lyle got the feeling that he’d seriously screwed up somehow.

  Shaking his head, he pushed that thought away, not wanting to let her manipulative ways stop him from saying what was on his mind.

  “You ruined it! You ruined the rifle my grandfather gave me before he passed away. That was all I had left of him” Lyle’s voice slowly rose as he got angrier.

  “Oh? And how exactly did I ruin it?” Jewels asked, arms crossed as she stared at him without a hint of emotion showing on her face.

  “There’s paint all over it! And glitter! And all of these stickers, why are there cat stickers all over it? Do you know how hard it is to get that glue off? And…and…and woah, your aura…I can’t bre-” Lyle’s vision slowly faded to black as his mischievous master’s aura flared, putting him face down in the sand as he fell unconscious.

  When Lyle came to, he was still lying in the sand, his mouth dry and gritty as he startled awake. “Ahck, ugh, cough, cough, pfffft” He struggled to spit out the sand that had gotten in his mouth as he hacked and coughed, choking on granules of sediment as he stood up. Patting himself off and looking around, he realized it had gotten dark out as he pressed two fingers to each temple. A vicious pounding pulsed in his brain, and he felt worse than the time Donny had convinced him and Chucky to try some of the rum he’d stolen from his dad.

  “Ughhh, what happened?” The last thing Lyle remembered was seeing his…

  “Where is it? Where is it, WHERE IS IT?” Lyle searched around frantically, his rifle nowhere to be seen.

  “No, no, no, no, no!” Lyle slumped on the ground, laying back with his arms and legs spread out like he was making a snow angel in the sand.

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  He finally recalled Jewels becoming very upset and then the distinct feeling of her losing control of her aura before he passed out, unable to withstand the pressure. He couldn’t help but think about the gaudy application of bright colored paint and numerous stickers that had covered his gun, s multitude of different cats in different whacky poses. A flash of anger crossed his mind again, making him forget about the headache that had been tormenting him a moment earlier, his grandfather on his father’s side had been a sniper in the last galactic war and had passed his Legion 7 SiegeBreaker down to Lyle a few days before he’d passed away.

  Lyle’s brow furrowed. “The Legion 7 doesn’t have the option for a semi-auto selector lever. The frame around the forward assist assembly is enchanted, preventing modification because it was made for war. Grandpa used to always say that they’d done that so that if a soldier were to be killed and the enemy got their hands on it, they wouldn’t be able to even fire a round, much less modify anything” Lyle talked out loud as he stood and began pacing.

  “Are you looking for this?” A high-pitched voice cut Lyle out of his musings.

  Looking over, he saw his friend Kren leaning against a wall, Lyle’s SiegeBreaker Legion 7, polished and cleaned exactly how he’d last left it sitting in its case, the lid leaning against Kren’s leg. Kren kicked the case closed and latched it shut. Picking it up he brought it over, holding it out as Lyle blankly reached out and took the case.

  “Kren, I…”

  “You know, we’ve all seen you drooling over that Titan X1 in that Tactigalactic magazine you’re obsessed with. Jewels said she wouldn’t caudle you and refused to chip in, but the villagers could only scrounge up enough credits to cover two thirds the cost. Cupid came and told elder Purvue to give him what we’d collected, and the next day Jewels had come walking into the village with a brand new Titan X1.” Kren looked at Lyle like he was a complete idiot, shaking his head in disappointment.

  “All the aunties pitched in and made micro-magnetic patches of all the villagers, so we wouldn’t damage the exterior with acidic glue. We also used heat-resistant poly-vinyl film so we wouldn’t clog the vents with paint.” The young cat said as he turned to walk away.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize” Lyle pleaded, tears pooling in his eyes.

  “No, Lyle. It’s not me you need to apologize to.” Kren squared his shoulders as he turned around and walked right up to Lyle, the much shorter cat looking kind of adorable as he puffed out his cheeks, trying to look mad but was clearly more hurt than anything.

  “You study guns all day long, you fire them and train and clean every single one religiously. Out of everyone here, besides Jewels and Cupid, you should have known that was a completely different gun. We all worked so hard to surprise you because we believed in you. All of us trusted that you’d beat the final trial today. It’s time you started trusting us back” Kren was fuming at this point, paw pointed right at Lyle’s nose as he all but shouted the last sentence.

  “Kren, my grandpa’s initials were carved into the butt, not a forgery. His. Exact. Initials. That’s not something that can be replicated.

  “Jewels used a clone-stone to perfectly replicate the butt, and had it installed on the stock for you, it was the one touch she personally added herself. She didn’t even pretend like Cupid did it!” Kren fumed, and Lyle couldn’t tell if he was imagining the smoke coming out from his friend’s ears. “Gosh man, pull your head out of your ass and take some accountability for once!”

  And with that, Kren stormed off, not giving Lyle the chance to dig his hole any deeper. Lyle stood there, arm extended as his mouth open and closed like a fish out of water. Dropping his hand to his side he exhaled deeply. “I’m gonna have to go fishing.”

  The next morning, Lyle staggered into the village, something massive and wrapped in wax paper on his back and bags under his eyes. Walking up to the porch of the frontier-era style building that was town hall, Lyle stopped in front of his master. Jewels sat back, leaning against one of the wooden pillars that supported the roof of the open porch, one leg hanging over the edge and kicking back and forth in the air. With a grunt, Lyle let the massive package on his back fall to the ground.

  Dropping to his knees, Lyle kneeled on one knee as he held out the other package he was carrying in his hands. “I would like to apologize, I didn’t stop to think, and I acted like a complete fool. Everyone worked hard to surprise me, and I returned that kindness by acting spoiled and ungrateful” he said, head bowed deep as he held out his offering in both hands.

  “Hmmm, and you think that if you bring us some fish and an apology that we’ll simply forgive you just like that, huh?” Jewels asked without looking at the kneeling Lyle.

  “No. I knew that wouldn’t be enough. Please accept this offer of piece.”

  Finally turning to look at what Lyle held in his hands, Jewels’ eyebrows shot up.

  “But you threw such a tantrum over it just last night. Why would I want it now?” Jewels asked haughtily, crossing her arms and turning her head to the side.

  “I’m not offering it to you” Lyle said, standing up and shouting “I would like to request that the council place this rifle in the hall of legacies. Both to honor my grandfather and for it to be passed on to the next generation, should someone be destined for it.”

  After a long moment of silence there was a small commotion inside the town hall and elder Purvue suddenly crashed through the front door, tripping and falling over his robes in the process, his long moustache of whiskers pointing straight up in a cartoonish feat of clumsiness. Mrs. Purview came running out after him, deceptively fast for her old age.

  Running up to Lyle she asked with big glistening eyes like a puppy begging for a treat “D-do you mean it my boy? But this rifle is so important to you, why would you…” she trailed off, looking at Lyle expectantly.

  “It is important to me. Very important.” Lyle said, motioning for Mrs. Purvue to take the case from him.

  “But not as important as the friends and family that support me and help me along the way. I really do hope everyone can forgive me.” Lyle now looked at all of the faces peeking through the blinds on the other side of the windows that faced the porch. Most of the cats tried to duck back behind the curtains, still trying to pretend they weren’t there.

  “Look guys, I know that I can act spoiled and entitled sometimes, and I’m sorry for ever doubting any of you, including you, master” Lyle flinched, expecting to be whacked upside the head with his last statement. His master hated being called master and insisted everyone call her Jewels. She didn’t like it when people treated her like the leader she was, claiming it made her feel old. Everyone knew it was really because she didn’t want to feel left out, and was afraid the village would grow distant if everyone treated her like royalty.

  “But you need it to challenge to firing range” Mrs. Purvue said, holding the case back out for Lyle to take back.

  “I can always get another rifle, but I can’t replace the people I care about” Lyle said, stepping back and politely refusing the elderly cat with a warm smile.

  “Plus, elder purview has been trying to get me to put it in the hall of legacies since he found out it belonged to my grandfather.”

  Suddenly, there was blur of motion, and the case disappeared from Mrs. Purvue’s hands. Everyone looked with flat stares as the old man seemed to forget his age took off towards the mentioned Hall of Legacies as he cackled, a cloud of dust billowing out behind him.

  “No takesy-backsies!” he shouted, laughing like a mad man as he disappeared around a corner.

  Everyone started laughing at the old cat’s antics, the atmosphere turning from tense to warm and inviting. Mrs. Purvue wrapped Lyle in a tight hug, floating in midair to wrap her small paws around his shoulders as best she could. “Thank you,” she whispered in Lyle’s ear.

  Pulling back the ancient-looking cat looked down at the massive bundle he’d carried in with him, giving Lyle a smile that reminded him of his grandmother.

  “Now, it’s time you go and shower and lay down for a bit. Let us old ladies cook tonight’s dinner” she said firmly, leaving no room for refusal as Lyle swayed where he stood, the exhaustion he felt finally catching up with him.

  When Lyle finally awoke, he stumbled downstairs in a groggy stupor to find the entire village in full-blown party mode, the adults drinking and dancing and celebrating. Kittens hovered around the food table, sneaking sweet treats when their parents weren’t looking. Jewels was in the middle of the dance floor, rocking a massive rainbow-colored afro and loose billowing clothes with white boots that had twelve-inch soles. Incredibly muscled male cats danced along with her as a glittering ball spun on a wired above them, reflecting multi-colored light on the surroundings.

  When she caught sight of Lyle, she stopped dancing, and the entire room went silent as everyone turned to look at the boy rubbing the sleep out of his eyes on the stairs, dressed in only his undergarments. Jewels walked up to him, swaying her tail back and forth as she strut her hips. As she stepped up in front of Lyle, she pulled out a massive pink gun case covered in stickers and writing.

  “If you throw a fit this time, the entire village is going to put you on a hook and use you as bait to catch a leviathan for calamari” She said as she passed the Titan X1 large caliber rifle to Lyle, smirking as the cate began cheering and toasting in the background, “Now eat up, you have three days to get accustomed to your new toy. And don’t think you’ll be getting off so easily with me.”

  …

  Lyle closed his eyes, doing his best to ignore the hubbub around him. The incessant chanting of cats completely freezing him in place. He really hated Jewels right now. He knows he had messed up, but he’d made up for it, everyone had forgiven him, right? But no, she just had to have the final laugh. She had done this before, though on a smaller scale, and even then, he’d failed every trial in which she gathered the crowd to pressure him. And now he had the entire village surrounding him, what was he to do?

  “Come on, rip the targets fucking head off!”

  “Rip its head off!”

  “Rip its head off!”

  “Rip its head off”

  That crazy man once again shouted out above the racket, urging the enigmatic enthusiasts among the crowd to holler his words as a chant. Who the fuck did this guy think he was? Lyle had an urging suspicion that this was also a manipulated machination of the monster in an adorable cat’s skin that was his master. And what did she know? Fine then. If she wanted to distract him and make him angry, he’d get angry, but he was not going to fail today.

  Lyle pictured Jewels dancing, spinning and moving her arm up and down, pointing from ground to sky. She laughed condescendingly at him, shaking her tail about. And Lyle centered that image in the exact center of the first target, lining that center with target behind it, and on he continued. He focused on the beating of his heart.

  Badump-Badump

  Badump-Badump

  Badump-Badump.

  Lyle allowed the sound of his heartbeat to fill his mind as it began to slow, sinking into the sound like a cardiovascular concert as he lined up his shot in his mind’s eye, hearing naught but that drum of his blood pumping. His FarSeer’s eyes allowed him to perfectly project the last thing he had seen when he closed his eyes, a function he’d figured out when being bombarded with flashbangs during an arena trial.

  Bringing up his rifle, he set his bearings. He accounted for drop, wind, and the gradual curve of the planet. He poured chi into the shot, focusing his innate talent on the bullet as he slowly but firmly pulled the trigger. Then, opening his eyes, Lyle didn’t even realize that the once exuberant crowd had become deathly silent as he focused solely on the dancing figure of jewels; or more specifically, her head. He pulled back fully on the trigger with resolve as the shot rang out in all its whistling silence.

  After the initial sharp crack of the round being propelled through the silencer attached to the muzzle, everything was silent for a long moment before a loud boom echoed out. With it came a mild breeze that shook hair and knocked over empty cups, and then another boom, and another as the bullet broke the sound barrier again and again. Immediately after Lyle shot the first round, following it with what he called his third eye, he adjusted his aim and fired again. Aiming at the back of the cone shaped round that was forty millimeters in diameter with his eyes as he simultaneously followed the path of the bullet within his mind.

  He fired until his magazine ran dry and then watched as a different screen projecting the view of each bullet as they lined up behind the initial shot appeared within his vision while not obscuring his sight in the least. He focused every ounce of mental fortitude he could muster to manipulate each bullet in a row, keeping but an atom of space between them as he waited.

  There!

  Lyle pushed, a headache forming between his eyes as he fought past the pain, slamming the round in the very back of what now resembled a crossbow bolt more than a line of individual bullets with how fast it was moving into the bullet ahead. What followed was a chain reaction of momentum and force that molded the projectiles together, building into mass of molten metal that moved so fast the metal began to drip off as the bullet began to disintegrate from the heat and pressure. Lyle clenched his jaw, forcing his chi to strengthen and preserve the round as much as he could while controlling its trajectory.

  The targets grew ever smaller, but the bullet was now the width of a reed as it continued its momentous revolution through gap after gap. Lyle didn’t know if it had been minutes, hours, or even days as he began to shake from exhaustion, both mental and physical. It reached a point where the boy could barely see the targets anymore as all he could see was Jewels’ head, forever just in front of his bullet.

  Then, suddenly, he realized he was staring at the real jewels! The stand and the fans were gone. The ziggurat was nowhere to be seen, and she’d lost the costume and wig. His bullet was aiming directly at where a target was supposed to be, a long needle thin pole stood secured in the ground, just like the target before it. But there was no target at the head of the pole, it was just gone, and he was instead hurtling directly towards the spot on jewels brow, right between her eyes.

  No. no. no. no. no! Lyle tried to wrench back on the now hair thin projectile with his will and chi, but it was to no avail. He simply couldn’t do it. He tried to shout for jewels to move as she sat there, staring back as if trying to spot the deadly object that was hurtling towards her, but his mouth made no sound.

  Time seemed to slow down, the world freezing around him as he cut off his connection, not willing to watch as he killed his master. As much as he complained and whined, and as angry as he was before, he felt a gut wrenching pain in his chest as guilt over came him. Where was the final target? It was supposed to be there. This was not how this was supposed to go!

  KAAAAABOOOOOOM!

  A massive shockwave sent Lyle tumbling over as he was forced out of his focused state, dirt and debris flying around him. He scabbled along the ground with his hands, searching for purchase before grabbing ahold of a stone and holding onto it as the blast died down. Covering his eyes with one arm, he stood up, peeking over his arm in an attempt to see whether jewels had survived or not.