Andrew Mackay - Infinity Claws

“Oh no,” Lindsey whispered to the boys under the loud music playing on the footage, “It’s perfectly safe. These claws are designed to not cause injury. If they were using their real claws, it would.”

“So they’re like Jitsaku gloves?” Jamie asked.

“Yes, they’re a bit like boxing gloves,” Lindsey turned to Jelly and Bisoubisou. The latter sank her teeth into the contraption and tried to tear it off her paw – to little success.

“I do not like this,” Remy said. “Look, it upsets her.”

Jamie agreed, although Jelly didn’t seem to mind her new toy as much as her opponent. She sniffed around as she operated her new “claws’, winding them in and out.

Jamie clapped his hands, attracting Jelly’s attention. She looked back at him, failing to emote. Her face displayed a steely, determined expression. At least that’s what it looked like to Jamie.

He walked over to her and ran his hand across the top of her head. She head-butted him back and purred.

“We’re going to win. Aren’t we, girl?”

Jelly rubbed the side of her face along his palm and purred. She may as well have just said “Hell, yeah,” judging by her response.

Bisoubisou, on the other hand, found her new glove very uncomfortable.

Remy folded his arms and stared at her. “Bisoubisou?”

She stopped fussing and looked right at her owner.

“Do not ruin this for me, you understand?”

As Remy finished his sentence, the combat zone lit up behind him to a ravenous audience. He and Jamie turned to face the area together, surprised at the layout.

The zone measured ten by ten feet. The left half colored in red, the right half in blue.

A ten foot cage surrounding all four walls.

“Oh, wow…” Jamie muttered. “That’s insane.”

“Okay, guys,” Lindsey said. “Let’s get ready…”

Lindsey carried Jelly in her arms to the hole in the caged combat zone. She pushed her through and wiped her palms down on her pants.

Jelly couldn’t get out. She raced up to the western side of the metal railings in an attempt to approach Jamie.

The railing sparked, threatening to zap her if she touched it. An electrified fence. She couldn’t get out.

Jelly whined and ducked her head, deeply unimpressed.

“Not now, girl,” he whispered, “Look. All these people watching. You made it to the finals.”

Jelly spun around and whipped her tail around, purposely showing him her behind.

“That’s not nice. How would you like it if I did that to you?”

Jelly lifted her right paw and attempted to claw at the cage, teasing the electricity out.

“No, don’t do that—”

Zap.

“—Meow,” Jelly yelped and jumped back. A whiff of singed fur wafted around Jamie’s immediate vicinity.

An angry growl from Bisoubisou in the blue half forced her to turn around.

The house lights in the arena drew to a close. Two flood lamps illuminated the combat zone.

Blue streaks of electricity shot across the metal railings. The ground began to rumble as a high-pitched whine flew across the stage.

“Good people,” announced the female voice, “Welcome to the final of the Star Cat Trials. In the red left corner, representing the United Kingdom… Jelly Anderson.”

A shower of fireworks burst around the western red half of the combat zone, scaring Jelly into a huddle of tense nervousness.

The crowd cheered and chanted, “Jell-ee! Jell-ee!”

Remy folded his arms in a huff, trying block out the audience’s love for his opponent.

Bisoubisou tumbled around, clawing at her metal “glove’ in a desperate bid to remove it.

“And her opponent in the blue corner, hailing from Russia, Bisoubisou.”

The crowd were less than enthusiastic about the Russian Blue currently occupying the blue half. Angered, Remy held up his middle finger to the crowd, which only made them eager for his team to lose.

“ Combat combines the disciplines of Jujitsu and Kung Fu,” Gunnar said into the drone camera at the edge of the stage. “Jitsaku is the name of the game in Combat . In just a few minute’s time, we’ll have a winner, won’t we?”

Aggressive music started up, suggesting that the action wasn’t far away.

Gunnar raised his hand. “Let’s begin!” He walked over to his podium and pushed a lever forward. “Zero gravity, ready.”

The crowd fell silent as the combat railings vibrated, jolting hundreds of thousands of volts through the metal girders.

Jelly’s paws lifted slowly from the ground as weightlessness set in. Scared, she revolved in the air, trying to hold on to something to stop her from levitating.

She nearly hit the railing, but remembered the electric shock that would occur if she did. Her claws retracted and, instead, pushed forward, tossing her around in mid-air.

Bisousbisou went wild with fear. She tried to catch her tail as it drifted in front of her eyes.

“No, girl,” Remy screamed, “Get upright and get ready to fight.”

Bisoubisou squealed in terror, wondering just what the heck was going on.

An audience member turned to his friend, munching on a bucket of popcorn. “Cats doing Jitsaku?”

“Yeah, really,” his friend snorted.

“That’s a bit stupid, isn’t it?”

“Nah, they’re dressing it up as Jitsaku,” another man sitting near them interrupted, “They’re probably gonna just scrap like they usually do.”

“Welcome to Combat,” announced the female voice, “One strike equals one point. There is only one round. There will only be one winner… who will become USARIC’s Star Cat ?”

The music crashed to a halt.

Jelly and Bisoubisou floated in the air, ready to attack each other. It wasn’t because they had to fight, but because they felt the desire to kill.

And they caught that desire from being holed up in an electrified cage. Everyone knew it. Only the Anderson and Gagarin family seemed to care.

Jamie knew that the setting was designed to provoke the animals. It was the first time in his life that he took exception to something that didn’t directly involve him. Sure, he’d been hurt before – and experienced injury – but this particular event felt incredibly unethical. He didn’t even know what unethical meant, but he was sure that a decent example of it stood before him.

“Here we go, guys,” Gunnar said, “Let’s Combat !”

A buzzer sounded off. The central section of the cage shot down, allowing the two cats to go at each other.

Bisoubisou wasted no time.

She threw her gloved paw forward, hurtling the rest of her body through the air.

Bisoubisou took a swipe at Jelly’s face and narrowly missed. She tumbled back-first against the electrified railing and felt a wave of electricity shudder down her spine.

“Meeooooww,” Jelly floated back. Her hind legs hit the floor, providing her with an opportunity to push herself toward her rival.

Jelly threw her claws forward and latched onto the spinning Bisoubisou. The two tussled in mid-air, gnawing and gnashing away at each other.

Jelly sank her fangs into Bisoubisou’s neck and tore out a clump of fur. A final smack to the head put the Russian Blue out of action for a few moments.

Zaapp-pp.

Bisousbisou’s head caught in the railing, jolted by a split-second’s worth of electricity. “Raooowwaar!”

Jelly realized what she had done. She ducked her head and turned herself upside down as Bisoubisou kicked away from the cage.

The lightning bolt rumbled through Bisoubisou’s hind legs, causing her fur to stand on end as she rocketed toward Jelly.