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.”
“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…”
CHAPTER FIVE
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.