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The first light of dawn stretched its fingers over the horizon, painting the sky with hues of pink and gold that seemed almost too bright, too cheerful for the stark concrete walls of the maximum-security California Prison. Not that it mattered as the beauty of the new day was lost on the inmates, buried in the depths of their cells like forgotten treasures, as they awaited the clang of the doors that signaled the beginning of another monotonous routine.
In one such cell, Kitty Kat lay on her bunk, her tail flicking with agitation as the events from weeks past played in her mind like a broken record: the heist, the betrayal, the humiliation. A low growl escaped her throat as she remembered when she was so close to achieving her dream of becoming the ultimate criminal mastermind, and now it was all gone. The MOON-X rocket was a smoldering wreck, the gold scattered, and she was back behind bars with her pride in shambles.
The Phantom Bandit's identity was known to the world, and even worse, she had lost the respect of her own crew. Pigtail and Doom had turned on her at the last minute, unwilling to go down with the ship of a plan that had gone sideways, taking the deal offered by the authorities, leaving Kitty to face the full brunt of consequences alone.
And as the thought of her former comrades taunted her, it was inevitable that her mind drifted to the Bad Guys. Wolf, Snake, Shark, Piranha, and Tarantula had once been her allies-turned-adversaries, but as she reflected on their camaraderie, she couldn't help but feel a pang of envy. They had come so far from their villainous roots, finding a new path, a new purpose in their lives. And it was all thanks to the bonds forged in the fires of adversity and tempered by the realization that there was more to life than the thrill of the heist.
And then there was Diane.
Kitty’s mind swirled with thoughts of the woman who had been her golden ticket to victory. The woman who had been her ultimate trump card and yet had turned out to be the wild card she hadn’t seen coming. Diane Foxington, the charming and enigmatic former Governor of California, in truth the infamous criminal known as the Crimson Paw, whose identity she had held in the palm of her hand like a grenade with the pin pulled, the smugness she had felt when revealing Diane’s secret to the world a high she hadn’t anticipated. The power rush had been intoxicating, but ultimately it had led to her downfall.
The memory of their confrontation aboard the space station sent a shiver down her spine. The way Diane’s eyes had blazed with a fierce determination as she chased Kitty through the zero gravity corridors was burned into her mind like a brand. The fear that had gripped her in those moments was a new emotion, one she had never truly felt before…or at elast in a long time.
But as she lay there, her thoughts grew clearer. It dawned on her that up until that point Diane had been holding back, that she could have seriously injured her, or even possibly killed her when she had the chance. Yet, she had chosen to spare Kitty’s life, perhaps in an effort to maintain some semblance of her own moral compass. It was a revelation that both humbled and infuriated Kitty.
How dare she? After everything she had done, Diane had shown her mercy, and for what? To watch her friends betray her and her legacy crumble to dust?
The anger grew inside her like a tumor, festering and consuming every bit of her pride.
It wasn’t fair.
She had been the smart one, the one with the plan, the one who was supposed to come out on top. But here she was, back in a cage, while the Bad Guys were off gallivanting...
Her thoughts froze.
The memory of the news flash she had received upon her arrival at the prison played in her mind like a twisted homecoming video. The Bad Guys had crash-landed the MOON-X rocket, and according to the reports…
They didn’t make it.
The world mourned their heroes, their tragic end celebrated in headlines and tributes.
For the first time since she was a cub, Kitty felt something akin to grief. It was a strange, alien emotion that weighed heavily on her chest, constricting her breath and making her eyes sting with unshed tears. She had never thought she could care about them, never thought they could mean anything to her beyond a means to an end. Yet here she was, feeling the loss of individuals she had once considered her prey.
Doom's reaction played through her mind, the usually stoic and seductive raven's feathers ruffled and eyes filled with a sadness so profound it was palpable. Truthfully, Kitty had thought Doom was made of tougher stuff, but the revelation of her "Snakey Cake's" end had hit her like a wrecking ball, all while Kitty had watched with a scowl of disapproval.
But at the same time...
Kitty knew she shouldn't care about her former colleague’s grief, but the raw emotion on Doom’s face was etched into her memory like a tattoo that couldn't be scrubbed away. The raven had always been the cool and calculated one, the master of deception and charm, yet she had crumpled at the news of Snake's supposed demise like a paper boat in a tempest. Her feathers had drooped, her eyes had lost their shine, and she had whispered "Snakey Cakes" with such sorrow that even Kitty had felt a twinge of something she hadn’t expected to feel.
Then it happened.
A single, salty drop fell from her eye and landed on the cold concrete floor of her cell, prompting Kitty to shoot her hand up to her face, her eyes wide with surprise. It was a sensation she hadn’t felt in years – the warm wetness of a tear. She stared at her fur-covered paw in disbelief, feeling the wetness spread across her cheek. Was she... crying?
The Phantom Bandit, the feared criminal mastermind, brought to tears?
NO!
The Phantom Bandit did not cry. The Phantom Bandit was supposed to be above such petty emotions. Yet here she was, feeling them all too keenly.
The anger grew stronger, burning through the sadness like a wildfire through dry grass. How had she allowed herself to be reduced to this? To care about the very beings she had sought to use and discard like yesterday's newspaper? Her claws dug into the mattress, tearing through the fabric to the springs beneath, a silent scream escaping her lips. The injustice of it all was suffocating.
Kitty’s muscles coiled, ready to pounce, but there was no enemy in her cell to direct her rage at. She paced back and forth, her tail lashing behind her like a whip. The walls felt like they were closing in, each step echoing in the emptiness. Her mind raced, searching for a way out, a way to regain her power.
The tears that had started to fall now stained the fur around her eyes. She snarled, trying to force them back, but they stubbornly remained, a testament to her weakness.
It was infuriating.
It took her back to a time she had buried deep in her subconscious. The last time she had felt this way was in that classroom, with that teacher who never gave her a lollipop as a reward.
Kitty had been a young snow leopard then, her fur still soft and her eyes filled with innocence. She had tried so hard to be good, to follow the rules, to be the model student. But it had never been enough. That teacher had looked right through her, had seen the predator lurking beneath the veneer of innocence and had decided she wasn’t worth the effort. It was the first time she had felt truly powerless, truly rejected.
Until she found the girls.
Kitty had always been the outsider, the one who didn’t quite fit in. Her sharp intellect and cunning had earned her a reputation as a mastermind, but it had also kept her at arm’s length from any real connections. She had convinced herself that the likes of Pigtail and Doom were merely colleagues, tools to be used in her grand schemes. They were pawns in her game of chess, nothing more.
But as she sat there, surrounded by the cold, walls of her cell, she remembered the moment she had shared her story with them. It had been a rare moment of vulnerability, a slip in her usually impenetrable armor. She had told them about her past, the struggles she faced as a young snow leopard, the pain of being overlooked and undervalued. The way Pigtail’s snout had scrunched up in sympathy, and the fiery spark that had ignited in Doom’s eyes had made her feel, if only for a brief instant, understood.
Their friendship had been a lie, she told herself firmly. A ploy to get them on her side, to manipulate them into doing her bidding. And yet, as she thought back to the laughter, the camaraderie, the shared moments of victory and defeat, she couldn’t shake the feeling that there had been something genuine there. Something that had reached through the years of her carefully constructed persona and touched her.
And then her thoughts brought her back to the space station.
The memory of the moment when Doom had wanted to save Snake and Piranha, trapped in the path of the meteor shower of gold, washed over her like a cold, hard slap in the face. The thinly veiled desperation in the raven’s voice had been palpable, but Kitty’s drive for power had overridden any shred of compassion she might have felt. She had choked Doom with a vice-like grip, her eyes narrowed in a feral rage, insisting that the plan go ahead as it was. And when Pigtail had tried to intervene, she had thrown her aside like a ragdoll, the pig’s squeals of protest echoing in her ears.
But as she sat there, the weight of her choices crushing her, she realized that maybe, just maybe, she had been wrong. The Bad Guys had been her equals in wit and strategy, not merely pawns in a game. They had proven themselves capable of growth and redemption, something she had never truly allowed herself to consider.
Her eyes fell on the crumpled newspaper article that lay on the floor of her cell, the image of the heroic quintet staring back at her. They had sacrificed themselves to save the world from her greed, and now they were gone.
For the first time in years, Kitty felt the true weight of her loss. It wasn’t the gold she craved or the power she had wielded that ached in her chest; it was something she never valued until it was ripped away; the camaraderie, the friendship...the respect.
In the quiet solitude of her cell, she thought back to Wolf’s words, his insistence that there was a difference between fear and respect. He had been the one who had seen through her facade, who had called her out on her manipulation and greed. She had dismissed his sentimentality then, but now, as she stared at the crumpled newspaper article with its haunting image of the Bad Guys, she knew he was right.
Her anger began to dissipate, replaced by a deep, soul-wrenching sorrow. Kitty's fur stood on end as she allowed herself to feel the pain she had pushed away for so long. Her whiskers quivered and her eyes grew wet once more as she realized the gravity of her mistakes. The Phantom Bandit was no more. In her place sat a broken creature, her spirit bruised and her dreams shattered.
"What did I do?"
The quiet sob that escaped Kitty's lips was almost imperceptible, but to her, it echoed through the cell like a thunderclap. Her anger had crumbled, revealing the raw, unbridled pain beneath it. Her fur stood on end and her whiskers drooped as she let herself truly feel the depth of her sorrow. Her eyes, usually sharp and calculating, were now pools of despair, her pupils dilated with grief. The tears flowed freely now, carving paths through the dust on her furry cheeks, creating a stark contrast against the stark white of her face.
"Girls...Guys...I'm so..."
The words caught in her throat, a lump of regret forming that she hadn't felt in years. She had been so consumed by her own ambition that she had never truly considered the cost of her actions. The lives she had put in danger, the hearts she had broken, and the trust she had shattered. Her mind reeled with the faces of those she had hurt, and she could almost hear the echoes of their accusations, their pain.
"I'm sorry."
The words were barely a whisper, but in the silence of the cell, they echoed like a confession shouted from the highest peak. Kitty Kat wiped her eyes with the back of her paw, the fur damp from her tears. She had never been one for apologies, but in that moment, she felt the need to express her regret to the void. It was a futile gesture, she knew; the Bad Guys couldn't hear her, neither could Diane...or her girls.
The sudden sound of metal on metal snapped her out of her melancholic haze as the slot in her cell door slammed opened.
"You got a package," the guards rough voice sounded from the other side of the bars, jolting Kitty back to reality. She quickly swiped at her face, the sneer returning as if it had never left. The last thing she needed was for the prison staff to see her weakness.
The guard slid a small, unassuming box through the opening, its contents unknown to Kitty. She eyed it suspiciously before reaching out with her to grab it. The package had a bit of weight, and shaking it she could definitely hear the contents were lose within it.
But the moment the guard closed the slot, the harsh mask she wore in front of the world slipped away as she walked back to her bed, actually sitting down gently instead of plopping down like usual.
The box lay in her lap, a silent sentinel to the turmoil that churned within her.
Her heart was racing, a strange mix of anxiety and curiosity.
With trembling paws, Kitty unwrapped the box with a tenderness that was entirely uncharacteristic of her usual fierce demeanor. And as the paper gave way to the cardboard box beneath, she hesitated to lift the lid, her fingers trembling with the anticipation of what could possibly be waiting for her inside.
But once she opened the box, eyes went wide as she took in the contents.
Lollipops.
And not just any lollipops...
Red Ones!
Kitty didn't even give it a second thought as she giddily plucked one of the sweet treats from the box, her fingers clumsily removing the wrapper from the sweet bulb of redness beneath, twirling it around between her fingers, a smile playing on her lips that was as rare as the snow leopards that roamed her homelands. The scent of sweet strawberry filled the air around her, a nostalgic reminder of a time when things were simpler, a time before the Phantom Bandit had been born.
With a sense of childlike glee, she brought the lollipop to her mouth, the taste dancing across her tongue like a ballet of sugary delight, a symphony of flavors that she hadn’t experienced in what felt like an eternity. She giggled as the sweetness hit her taste buds, a sound so foreign to her that it almost surprised her. It was a sound she hadn’t made since she was a young snow leopard, playing in the snow and dreaming of adventures beyond the horizon.
But as she enjoyed her stolen moment of joy, her eyes fell back to the box. Nestled among the lollipops was something that didn’t quite belong; an old school pager, the kind that had been out of fashion for years. It was a relic of a time before smartphones and instant messaging. Her brows furrowed in curiosity as she carefully plucked it from its sugary bed.
But to her further confusion, beneath the outdated device was a folded piece of paper, a stark white square that seemed to pulse with an eerie significance amidst the sugary chaos. Kitty picked it up, her claws tracing the creases as she unfolded it with a mix of trepidation and curiosity.
But when her eyes danced over the brief message, her heart skipped a beat and filled with something she hadn’t felt in a long time: hope.
Whenever you’re ready to talk~ W
Kitty’s eyes grew wide with shock as the words sank in, the sweetness of the lollipop suddenly lost to the bitter taste of astonishment. Her paws trembled as she set the note down, the candy stick still in her mouth.
Wolf... alive?
It couldn’t be.
The news reports had said they were dead, their heroic sacrifice celebrated across the globe. Yet here was a message, a beacon of hope in the form of a simple note, signed with a single letter that could only mean one thing: he had survived.
THEY had survived.
The realization hit Kitty like a meteor, sending her emotions spiraling through the vast expanse of her caged heart.
Her eyes, once filled with the fiery determination of the Phantom Bandit, now brimmed with joyous tears. The taste of the strawberry lollipop grew sweeter with each tremble of her lip, the stick sticking to her fur as she bit down, trying to keep her composure. It was a futile effort. The dam had broken, and the tears flowed freely as she took a shaky breath and examined the pager in her paw. It was a simple device, but it held a message that was anything but.
The words "I'm Ready" were displayed in plain, digital clarity, as if they had been written just for her, anticipating her approval.
But was she?
Ready, that is.
The pager in her paw was a lifeline, a silent promise that there was another path for her. One that didn’t involve deceit and betrayal. Kitty stared at the tiny screen, her stinging from the tears she had allowed herself to cry. It had been so long since she had felt hope, so long since she had allowed herself to believe that she could be more than just the Phantom Bandit.
Finally, Kitty made up her mind.
With a trembling paw, her thumb hit the button to respond.
And with that, she waited.
The seconds ticked by, each one a tiny explosion in her chest as hope and doubt wrestled for dominance. The silence of the cell was deafening, only broken by the occasional clang of metal echoing through the hallways.
And then...
BZZZ! BZZZ!
The sudden noise startled Kitty, the pager in her paw vibrating against as it came to life. She snatched it up, and when she read the message, her eyes went wide with excitement.
"See you soon."
At that moment, the walls of her cell felt less confining, and for the first time in what felt like an eternity, the hope she felt made her feel...
Free.