“I don’t envy you one bit, deary.”

I smiled through the massive train car chugging through my skull as my temples throbbed uncontrollably. I could recognize the sweet, deep voice of Mama anywhere. I was just so happy to see that big ol’ bitch instead of some disgusting goons looking to violate my unconscious body.

“Yeah, she looks like shit.” That voice I didn’t recognize

My eyes started to clear up as a skinny, yellow hooded cat bent down and held her paw against my forehead. She took something from her jacket and started to shake up the small grey tube. It rattled about like an old paint can.

I winced from the sound and turned my head. I could finally see where I was dumped. Some back alley behind what I would guess was the Holo Erotica building. The alley was wet and glistening just like the rest of the city. Piles of trash and rusting dumpsters took up most of the space in the alley. A few bodies sat huddled around a small trashcan fire, while a few more lay still under some trash.

The cat’s paw jerked my head back to her as she slid the tube into my mouth and pressed a button. I inhaled whatever was inside. It smelt sweet and lemony but tasted like straight ethanol, sharp and bitter. I coughed a few times as she pulled the tube away.

Mama bent over and picked me up in her arms. It must have been effortless for her to hoist my small body. I was cradled in her massive arms now and it felt great. The heat from her big, fuzzy body kept me warm in the chilly city air. “What’d you give her?” I could hear the concern in Mama’s voice.

I’d be concerned too if it weren’t for the feeling like a back-alley Doc was scooping my brains out with a ladle. I had no clue what I just inhaled, but I was starting to feel great.

“Don’t worry, just some stims, painkillers, and a little bit of Huff. My own concoction for hangovers and Holo-binges.” The cat pulled her hoody up and started to walk out on the street. “We best get off the streets though. Police patrols will pick up after that Lion went psycho, we don’t want to get caught out and about.” The cat stopped and glanced back at Mama, “And you’re not easy to miss, Big Stuff.”

“Wait, did you say Huff?” I squeaked out of my Saharan desert of a mouth. It was the same stuff the Dog-Cops shouted when the lion inhaled his own tube. Did this cat just give me psycho drugs? I was starting to freak out that my eyes would glow, and I’d rip Mama’s head right off.

“Not enough to make you crazy. Just enough to make you feel like a million bucks. Don’t worry.” The cat glanced side to side at the mouth of the alley. “I’ve used it a hundred times. You should start feeling like normal in a few minutes.” The cat turned back to us, “You must have used one hell of a Holo-track to melt your brain this much. Must’ve been amazing.” The cat waved us on and stepped out onto the wet sidewalk.

 Mama slogged along behind, with me cradled in her big, beautiful arms. I could feel her heartbeat as I listened to her breathe. She vibrated softly and was so warm I just wanted to take a nap in her thick, fuzzy arms.

“I’ve got an apartment just a block up the way. We can lay low there for a bit.” The cat strode along the sidewalk quickly, shoulders hunched as she passed everyone on the sidewalk without a second glance.

I could notice the buildings getting worse for wear as we continued on the one block. Many of the windows were barred up with metal or covered up with wood and boarded shut. There were more homeless people about, panhandling, huddled together for warmth. We finally made our way up a stoop to an apartment building around the corner. The front door used to be glass but now was just an open metal frame with bits of clear glass brushed to the side of the stairs.

“It’s gonna be a little tight. This place was made for cats, not big grizzlies.” The cat turned and smirked, “Just try and suck it in, okay?” The cat entered the building and quickly ascended the stairs inside.

Mama glanced down at me and shrugged as she bent down to enter the building. Trash was scattered about and one of the doors to an apartment was busted off the hinges and lying on the floor. It was dark inside, but I swear I could see some bloodstains on the floor inside.

“Nice place she’s got here.” I cracked a smile at Mama as she ignored me and followed the cats up the narrow stairwell. Mama’s body hit both sides of the walls around the stairs, scraping the walls with each step upwards.

I began to laugh to myself.

“Keep it up, and I’ll drop you.” Mama rose an eyebrow and glanced down at me. I quickly shut up. This was too nice to ruin, and I was enjoying Mama’s hospitality, plus, I didn’t want to walk. I was tired, what can I say?

We trudged down one last hallway. Several lights flickered as we passed them, some hanging from the wall by the wires, the same walls that had several holes and cracks throughout them. This place wasn’t one I had to find myself occupying in a long time now. The fact that people even lived here was mind blowing, but it beat being outside in the elements.

I’d been there before. Stuck in a bad situation where any choice I make doesn’t seem to matter. I had to put myself in an even worse situation just to pull myself out of terrible poverty. It’s been a long time since I had to see something like this. It began to humble me.

“This is it!” The cat flapped back her yellow hood as she pulled out a metal key for the door. Something I hadn’t seen used for a long time as well.

Mama just barely fit down the hall, bumping into this and that wall with each step. A door opened ahead of us and an old, grey cat poked his head out.

“Stop all that racket! Damn kids, a man’s trying to sleep here.” The old cat badgered us with his cataract filled eyes looking us down. I’m sure if he’d seen the large grizzly bear in his hall he would have just ducked back inside without a peep.

“Shut it, Gramps! I got guests.” The cat turned to us, “Just ignore him.”

“Y’all ignored me before, and that’s how the corpos took over and turned this place into fuck all!” The old cat slammed the door and shuffled back into his apartment. I kinda liked the old man.

“Welcome to my humble abode.” The cat backed into her apartment with her arms held wide and a smile on her face. Mama squzzed into the old doorway, pressing herself in one side at a time. The old wood creaked under the pressure of her body and she halted, stuck between the doorway.

“You good to walk?” She rose her eyebrows. I began to chuckle but held back as she just carried me a whole block and up several flights of stairs.

“Yeah, I feel much better now.” Mama set me down and began to pull herself from the door. I looked around the apartment as the cat was grabbing random things and organizing them for unexpected company. The attempt was in vain. The whole apartment was a mess, save for one shelf with a few pictures on it. I used my HUD to zoom in and check them out. One was a picture of a grey and white long-haired cat in a flight suit, the other was a young looking cat with two older cats in lab coats.

There was a single sofa in the room with a beat-up coffee table full of old magazines and newspapers, half-eaten food, and bits and bobbles used to make something I couldn’t even guess. An old mattress was propped up against the wall until it was ready to be used. The kitchen, which was just a small area off to the side of the room, had old, crusty dishes in it from days or weeks past.

I glanced to the left and there was a small bedroom door barely propped open. I used my hood to magnify inside. There were tables set up with beakers and burners, tubes and drips, something a chem-tweaker would have around to create some new cheap, crazed drug for the streets.

The cat turned from her cleaning to see me staring inside the room. She quickly jumped over the coach in an elegant hop that only an Anthro-Cat could accomplish and shut the door. She chuckled nervously, “That’s private, sorry.”

“It’s okay, I’ve been in the same spot you are. I know we do things we don’t want to just so we can survive.” I slumped down on the sofa and put my feet up on the table, “So, do we get to know your name?”

Mama finally lurched out of the doorway, shutting the door behind her. She finally got a chance to look around and she just frowned. “This is now way to live, deary. Tsk, tsk.” Mama began to pick garbage and debris from the floor.

“Uh, yeah, right.” The cat cleared her throat, “The name’s Noodle.” She extended her hand to mine.

“Vixie,” I grabbed her hand tight, “That’s Mama. Nice to finally meet you in person.” I was a little uneasy about his cat, but she gave us no reasons to not trust her, besides her tailing us. “So, why were you following us?” I held tightly onto her hand.

“Sorry, about that. It was a job from my boss, your client, believe it or not.” Noodle nervously chuckled again. “He wanted me to tail you guys and make sure you didn’t get into any trouble. The last thing we need is our shipment to be stolen, broken, or found out by the authorities.” I dropped her hand finally as I felt a little better with the explanation. Noddle made a gesture with her hand pulling away from her face, “To the stars.”

My eyebrows perked up as she said that. It was the same thing the lion yelled before he went haywire. “What’s that mean? To the stars?”

“You don’t know!?” Noodle almost jumped out of her boots. “That’s the motto of the Meowtlaw Stars! The greatest cat squadron of freedom fighters in the galaxy, probably the universe.”

It was easy to tell she was excited, she ran off to the other side of the room to grab a picture, the same one with the grey, long-haired cat. She handed it to me with glee. “That’s Captain Yeti, leader of the Meowtlaw Stars. Kind of a local hero around here. He was instrumental in building the Meowlith Prime colonies.”

The name hit me hard. I’ve heard of Captain Yeti before, but it wasn’t in the same positive light that Noodle portrayed him as. “You mean the Cat terrorist from Earth.”

“Gwah!” Noodle snatched the picture back, “He was no terrorist. He was a hero for all of us Anthro-kind. He fought and sacrificed so we could enjoy a better future.”

“Not everything is as the Earth news says it is.” Mama turned on the faucet and started washing dishes, “Especially if you’re and anthro. Things are different for us.”

“Hmm.” I had only been told and seen the explosions that were on the net at the time. Every news outlet lined him as a terrorist with his organization trying to destroy rule and order. I guess to some, he was a hero.

Noodle ran over to the window and pressed some button on a makeshift machine. She flipped the curtains open and a blue hologram lit up before filling in with color. I could see the city through it, but something was off. I stood up and looked closer at the holo. The city outside the window looked clean and beautiful.

“This is what your so called ‘Terrorist’ created.” Noodle pointed out into the city, “An escape from the brutality of Earth. A place where all Anthro-kind is welcome. Colonized first by us cats. A place where we worked together and built a happy community. My parents were chemists here on the first flight. They worked hard to build up Carpetree and used their expertise to create drugs we all needed to survive, free of cost. People came first here, not money.”

I could tell Noodle was starting to get emotional. Her voice began to quiver when she talked about her parents. I could understand too. It was a paradise. I’m sure they had their own problems here, but from what Noodle said, this place was a refuge for the downtrodden on Earth.

“I was born here. This is my home world. It was beautiful, until the Corpos came in. It was slow at first. Captain Yeti was away on business so it was up to us to keep Meowlith Prime good. They slowly bought trust with supplies and subsidies. It took just a few corrupt politicians to sell the rest of us out, and in a few short years, the Corpos owned everything and the city, the moon, turned into this.”

Noodle pressed the button on the contraption again and the hologram stopped. I gazed out into the real city of Carpetree. It was run down and forgotten. The remnants of a great city where now the only green remained to extract the wealth out of every last one of us.

“My parents tried to resist but they were quickly rounded up by the Corpo backed police, along with the rest of us loyal to our ideals that had any skills. They’re in the next city over. A city turned prison where the Corpos extract any profits off the skills of the people there. I haven’t seen them in years. I don’t even know if they’re alive.”

“I’m sorry.” Was all I could really say. There wasn’t much I could do to console her. I could hear Mama sobbing a little while finishing up the dishes.

“Don’t be.” Her voice and mood changed in an instant. Her fiery gaze was pointed out the window. “As soon as Captain Yeti came back, I joined up with the Meowtlaw Stars, and now I fight the good fight. I use the notes and teachings of my parents to make drugs to help out where I can.” She placed the picture of Captain Yeti on the shelf, “I can take you to him, ya know?”

“That would be great. We were supposed to meet up with him anyway.” It was a way to meet our supposed client. If he really was our client, we could meet up with Captain Uwu and Speck. If he wasn’t, then we could potentially shut down someone trying to scalp our delivery. Either way, things were going to get dicey. This is why I hated going planeside. Things always got hectic and emotional.

“Great! Let me get some Pain-Away filled up and we can head out.” Noodle ran off to her room and slammed the door.

Mama shuffled up to my backside, looking out the window with me. “You think we can trust her?”

“I don’t know, but we don’t have any other leads. We can at least run this one through.”

Mama grunted in stubborn agreeance.

Noodle emerged with her backpack full of goodies. “You guys ready?”

I was about to say yes when an ear-striking siren sounded off outside. We all reflexively covered out ears and looked out the window.

“No, not now.” Was all I could say as a dozen grey ships began to descended from the Gellical Ascension ship above. Transports full of foot soldiers and a handful of Missionaries no doubt. They were accompanied by a couple dozen more Strikers. Just our luck. People in the streets frantically ran for cover, screaming and yelling. The ships flew off in several directions, several of them were coming right towards us, blasting the city indiscriminately.

I slowly reached down to my gun. It was going to be my new best friend for the foreseeable future. I tried to reach out in my coms, but there was only static.

The Gellicals were on a new crusade, and Carpetree was their new target.

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