Andrew Mackay - Infinity Claws

The tile turned white under her paws, scaring her. “Meow,” she yelped and jumped into the air.

“Good girl,” Jamie said to a wave of applause from behind his shoulders.

Remy hit the third panel. Bisoubisou wouldn’t move. “Come on, you insolent feline. Move,” he instructed her, tapping the button over and over again.

Instead of obliging, she rolled onto her side and licked her paw.

“Ugh, you idiot.”

Leesa hit the fifth panel button and looked at Remy.

The boy made a face at her. “What are you looking at?”

“I don’t know,” she said, “Maybe an idiot?”

Ping.

Suzie Q-Two jumped forward and hit the fifth panel with her paws.

It lit up, scaring the life out of her. “Meow!”

“Whoa,” Gunnar chuckled into the microphone, “Okay, it’s between Jelly and Suzie Q-Two. One for one for those two, and Bisoubisou is looking a bit out of her league.”

“No she does not,” Remy thumped the controls and kicked the deck. “This is unfair.”

The crowd erupted in waves of laughter as they watched Bisoubisou lick her paws, completely ignoring her master’s instruction.

“Let’s mix this up a bit,” Gunnar said to the crowd.

“What?” Jamie looked down at his controls. The gears and buttons powered down.

Daft Punk’s Harder Better Faster Stronger kicked off through the arena speakers.

“It’s a dance-off!” Gunnar turned and pointed at the grids. “A classic track all the way from the early twentieth century. Here we go.”

Jelly’s head jumped from left to right and up and down as she observed the panels come to life against the beat of the tune.

Bisoubisou jumped to her feet and growled.

Suzie Q-Two did the same and hopped to the first panel, pressing it down.

The buzzer went off, awarding a point to the white bobtail.

“Yes, yes, yes,” Leesa jumped in her seat and applauded her cat. The tiny ball of fluff hopped to the next panel and racked up some more points in tune to the beat. “You go, girl.”

Remy looked at Bisoubisou and clenched his fist. “Commence dancing, you stupid cat.”

Bisousbisou jumped to her feet and raced into the middle of her twenty-four panels. They lit up, one-by-one, in time to the beat. She twisted around and followed the lit panels with her head, whining to herself.

Jamie stood out of his chair and clapped along with the music. Jelly hopped from one panel to the other, collecting points. “Go, go, go.”

The timing of the music intensified, flashing the grid panels even faster.

“Wow,” Jamie marveled at Jelly as she jumped from one to the other. She wasn’t doing a perfect job, however. One particularly difficult jump sent her onto her hind legs and tumbling over onto a grayed-out panel.

Bzzz .

“Oh. That’s an error, right there,” Gunnar said into his microphone. “Anderson may lose points for that.”

“No!” Jamie yelled from his seat, “It’s going too fast. That rubbish olden days music is too quick.”

Jelly scrambled to her feet and squealed. Her pupils dilated as she tried to keep up the attack on the flashing panels.

Suzie Q-Two caught up with each panel and totaled over thirty points which displayed on the mega-screen.

“Suzie Q-Two is winning,” Gunnar commentated, “But can she keep this up…”

Bisoubisou finally got involved in the event. She jumped from one lit panel to the other with extraordinary grace and ability.

“And we’re back in the game,” Gunnar said, watching Bisoubisou trashing her opponents.

Suzie Q-Two had a hard time keeping up with her rivals. The panels blinked away even faster against the thrust of the music. Her eyes turned a urine-stained yellow.

“No, Suzie Q-Two!” Leesa screamed, “Don’t do that now!”

Her cat shrieked and bushed out her tail. She went into a flying hissy fit and attacked her grid at random, flying into the air. Her tail got in the way.

Bzzz-Bzzz-Bzzz…

The mega-screen showed Suzie Q-Two’s points drain away to zero as she hit the wrong panels.

“No, no, no,” Leesa started to sob as her cat jumped from her own grid and raced across Bisousbisou’s, pushing her out of the way.

“Whoooaaaaa,” the crowd roared as they watched Suzie Q-Two hop into Jelly’s grid and threaten to attack her as she danced.

Bzzz .

Jelly flipped in the air and clipped Suzie Q-Two around the face with her paw.

The music track crashed to a halt, leaving a flummoxed Jelly catching her breath. Suzie Q-Two rolled around on her belly and licked her paws.

“I think we’d regard that as a disqualification,” Gunnar said.

Leesa’s panel buzzed out. The lights on her grid flipped off.

The girl burst into tears, lamenting her cat’s disobedience.

A bunch of audience members scrunched up their betting slips and threw them to the ground. “Ugh, absolutely useless,” one of them said to his friend.

Leesa looked over her shoulder at her mother and father. They didn’t know how to respond.

“Sorry, honey.”

“It’s not fair,” she bawled back at them.

The three cat handlers ran onto the three grids. Lindsey lifted Jelly into her arms as the crowd made a fuss over her.

“Jelly, Jelly, Jelly,” they chanted over and over.

It hadn’t gone unnoticed by Jamie that the largely American crowd were not in favor of the British cat winning over-and-above the Russian contender.

Remy was riled up by this fact.

“Let’s look at the final scores, please,” Gunnar held his hand up to the mega screen.

The numbers whizzed around and settled on the final result.

J. Anderson = 42 pts

B. Gagarin = 40 pts

Remy face-palmed himself and sat into his chair in utter disbelief. “Nooooo.”

“Yes,” Jamie punched the air and waved at Jelly as Lindsey carried her back to her box. “Way to go, Jelly.”

Emily whistled from the family and friends audience section, catching her son’s attention.

“Mom, we’re winning!”

“I know, poppet,” Emily giggled, excitedly, “Just one more round to go.”

Gunnar stepped forward as the tiled grids spun around on their axis and sank into the floor.

“Could the contenders please visit their pets one final time and prepare for the final round.”

Remy and Jamie jumped out of their seats and raced each other to the two cages at the right of the stage.

Lindsey held out her arms in an attempt to prevent the boys from getting too close. “Wait a second, guys.”

Jamie watched as a technician lifted Jelly out of her cage and slipped a device onto Jelly’s right paw.

Bisoubisou received the same treatment from another technician.

Both cats had a lightweight glove clamped to their right paw.

“What’s going on?” Jamie asked.

Lindsey explained over the commotion coming from the restless crowd. “It’s a special device they need for the final round.”

Remy approached the deck and eyed the device attached to his cat’s right paw. “What is it?”

“Watch, up there.”

Jamie and Remy turned around and looked up at the screen.

The lights died down, focusing the audience’s attention on the screen.

Footage of a cat’s paw flashed up. A human hand slipped on a set of metal ridges that ran over the cat’s own claws.

“The final round,” the female narration played out. “Infinity Claws. The ultimate test of strength, character and… combat .”

The screen displayed record footage of several cats in a one-on-one, swiping at each other with their infinity claw gloves.

“No, no,” Remy moved forward trying to stop the proceedings. “They’re sharp. It will hurt them.”