It was Minotaur Night in the Burrow.
Mr. Rabbit had bought one of these terrifying cow-monsters from Greek and intended to use it as tonight's entertainment as well as a way to make an example of those who tried to run away from their debt to the casino. The beast was inside a cage made of hardened, enchanted steel so that all the guests could see it without worrying for their safety. Next to it were the five freeloaders who hadn't paid their depth and were now being punished for it. Each of them was wearing rat masks, and were wearing chains on both hands and feet that kept them strapped and chained to the wall. The guests, all of them wearing colorful animal masks for the sake of anonymity, were studying these unfortunate individuals, trying to decide which one they would bet on would survive tonight's game of Hide-n-Seek with the Minotaur.
"I just don't understand why he is still running around instead of being, you know, DEAD!" Mr Rabbit said after he had turned off the microphone so that he could have a private conversation with his number one guy; the Gun Bunny. Like most of the employees in the Burrow, she was wearing her revealing outfit with an animal theme, a bunny girl costume in her case. But unlike the others, she was carrying a riffle tonight instead of the pistol that was enchanted to turn invisible when not used and she wasn't wearing highheeled shoes.
Mr Rabbit went on. “You keep telling me that you are just about to get him, but it has been months now. My patience is running thin, Sarah.”
“He’s tricky, I admit it. But he is the kind of guy who depends on the element of surprise. He only managed to stay alive so far because he had a trick or two up his sleeve. Eventually, he will run out of surprises. Then, I have him.”
“That’s all fine and good, but I don’t have time to wait for that. The Empress will eventually find out that I knew about Cat before she did, and when that happens… Let’s just say that I won’t be very happy. And if I’m not very happy, YOU won’t be very happy!”
“But now a have a tracer one him.” Gun Bunny explained. “After one of our confrontations, I got a small piece of his clothing. I’ve been wondering why it is that he could get past our security cameras as well as evade being filmed or been taken pictures of at the beginning of his career. The reason for this is that his tuxedo has electronics in it that makes him invisible to most technology.”
“So?”
“So I got in touch with my contact from Globetropolis Lab, and they have found a way to detect the… camouflage tech when it’s being used. Yes, it hides him, but not if you try to detect that technology he uses specifically. This makes it much easier to find him. Whenever he activates that function in his clothing, I will be alerted at my apartment and be given his location. It gives me the opportunity to plan an ambush when he least expect it. I almost ran him over not long ago-”
“Yes, there is that word again; ALMOST. Do you realize how much I hate that blasted word?!”
“Mr Rabbit, I admit it, Cat is a tricky one. But the problem with being tricky is that, eventually, he will run low on tricks. I will kill him, you just have to be patient, sir. After all, it’s not like he will just poop up in the middle of the casi-”
CRACK
“-no…?”
Everything paused, as the sound of stone being cracked could be heard. Everyone stopped doing whatever they were doing and stared at what looked like hock that stuck up from the floor. The stone plate was being removed and up came a man dressed in green. He was masked, but his body language implied that he was as surprised as everyone else in the room.
“… Oh… Pedarsag…” Cat slapped his masked face as the sound of a hundred clicking could be heard. All the waiters, all the game dealers, even the bartender had some sort of firearm aimed at the hero of Twilight City. All of them ready to shoot.
“Nobody shoot.” Mr Rabbit had turned the microphone on once more, making sure that everyone in the room could hear him. “Not yet, anyway.”
“Mr. Rabbit, with all due respect… Shouldn’t we just end it right away?” The Gun Bunny grinded her teeth while her trigger finger was itching as a mosquito bite. She had a loaded riffle aimed directly at Cat’s forehead while he was surrounded. It was too good to be true.
Which only made it THAT much more annoying as her boss said:
“No. That would be too easy.”
“But-”
“My dear Sarah, you have to learn to savour such moments, life is to short not to.”
Aaaand then Mr Rabbit started monologing.
Gun Bunny rolled her eyes as her boss walked down the stairs from the balcony as he told Cat how done he was, how he would soon be dead, blablabla.
This was the problem with working for a super-villain. They were so full of themselves that they would give the hero time enough to think of some sort of way to get out of getting out of-
Hey, Dollface. Move it, will ya?
“Who said that!?” Gun Bunny looked at her left and right, trying to see who had the nerves to talk to her like that.
But the waitress to her left wearing a domino mask and cat ears as well as waiter to her right in the very revealing peacock costume just looked at her confused. They still held their weapons. “Said what ma’am?” the cat waitress asked.
“… Nothing. Just be ready to shoot at Mr. Rabbit’s signal.” The Gun Bunny returned her focus on Cat and-
Hey, sugar, didn’t ya hear me the first time?
Gun Bunny looked left and right again. Then up, just to check if someone was hovering above her. One could never know.
Was it stress? She wondered if she had-
No, you ain’t losing it, toots. Someone is talking. See, I’m inside that pretty little head of yours.
"... Who are you?" She asked out loud to the voice no one could hear but her.
I’m a spook. And I’m taking over that sweet, sweet body of yours.
Meanwhile, Mr Rabbit was about to be done gloating. But Cat did not seem bothered by the situation he had gotten himself in.
"Sorry, Rabbit." Cat said, hands in his pockets. "But I'm afraid I have to close down your joint. And by that, I mean reduce it to a ruin."
Mr Rabbit laughed. "Oho, and what makes you think you can do that?"
"Simple." Cat giggled. "You are outgunned!"
"... I'm sorry, are you trying to be funny or... or... hey, wait a-" Mr Rabbit looked around and realized something unsettling:
Everyone in the room had their weapons aimed at him
Mr Rabbit refused to believe it. This was too much. "What the- How the-" He pointed an accusing finger at Cat. "WHAT DID YOU DO!?!?"
“Hotdog!” Up at the balcony, Gun Bunny was grouping her own body with a silly grin on her face. “Been a while since I’ve been in a dame’s body. Feels nice.”
“.. What the HELL is going on here?!” Mr. Rabbit yelled angrily.
“I’ll tell ya what going on.” Gun Bunny grabbed her riffle, laughing as she pointed it at her boss. “The name’s Bill Sixer, and I’m wrecking this joint!”
“No… NO!” Mr. Rabbit cleansed his fists. Then… he grew. In mere seconds, the already big man became even bigger. “NOT AGAIN! I WON’T LET MY CASINO BE ROBBED TWICE!”
“Wow…” Cat looked at the now 10 foot tall man dressed in a white tux and a bunny rubber mask. And he was sincerely surprised. But it DID explain the high ceiling of the casino. Mr Rabbit needed room to grow.
“Let him have it, boys!” Bill yelled through Gun Bunny’s lips, as all the possessed workers of the Burrow opened fire. Mr. Rabbit’s skin had hardened as he had grown, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t hurt. Screaming out in anger as well as pain, he smashed the balcony with a giant right hook. All the guest ran away in panic, into the tunnels that they did not know how to navigate through, but it was still better than staying in this madhouse. Cat took advantage of the chaos and began to free the captives in rat masks from their chains that kept them attached to the wall.
“Thank you! Thank you so much!” One of the rat guys said as he was free. “You saved our-”
SMACK
The guy landed on his tail as he received a left hook.
“Don’t thank me.” Cat said. “You guys are still dirtbags. Get out of my sight.”
As the guys with rat masks ran to the tunnels, Cat cracked his neck and began to pick up the lock to the Minotaur cage. While he did that, Mr. Rabbit was busy trying to subdue his employers without killing them. After all, replacing them would be too expensive. Most of the possessed waiters and waitresses had run out of ammo, so they began to break tables and bottles or did anything that would ruin the place as much as possible and spreading chaos. Mr. Rabbit felt like his body had been beaten by a bag filled with small rocks after the many bullets that had been fired at him. He covered his head behind his right arm as he moved closer to the Gun Bunny, the main host of Bill Sixer.
“Hot damn!” Bill grinned like an idiot. “I haven’t had this much fun for 12 damn years!”
“Mr Sixer, please, stop!” Mr Rabbit was getting annoyed the same way one would be if a swarm of mosquitos wouldn’t leave you alone. “The Burrow used to be yours, I spent a fortune making it successful again! I’m the great-grandson of Jean Ball, I’m your descendant!”
“My old doll Jean’s grandkiddo, eh? Small world.” Bill kept laughing as well as shooting. “Sorry, kid, nothing personal. Me and the pussy have us a contract, see?”
Meanwhile, Cat had managed to open the door to the steel cage. The Minotaur stepped out. It looked peeved.
“So…” Cat realized that he should have planned this better. “I don’t suppose you speak English, do ya?”
The roar from the beast that right almost immediately lashed out after the man who had just freed it was answer enough.
“Damn!” Cat evaded the creature’s huge arm by inches as he jumped backward. “Apparently, he only speaks Greek.”
As Cat tried not to get himself killed, Mr Rabbit had grown even bigger and now held Gun Bunny in one of his gigantic hands as he had to stand on one knee as his head had reached the roof. Those of the Burrows possessed employees who were still conscious attacked Rabbit’s leg with chairs, broken bottles or whatever they could find.
It annoyed him.
“Sarah, get to your senses, or I will be forced to squeeze you to death!” Rabbit yelled at the possessed Gun Bunny, while shaking her as a toy that didn’t work. Bill kept grinning through her lips. “I can’t afford to replace you!”
“Sorry, Longear.” Bill was in pain, but when it was someone else’s body, it wasn’t so bad. In fact, pain was hilarious when you were a ghost. “Your bunny girl can’t reach the phone right now. I-”
Oh, shut up already and get out, you has-been!
“… What in tarnation?!” Bill could hear the voice of the woman whose body he held hostage inside the head that did not belong to him.
I’m a professional. From Twilight! I’ve been possessed before. Now, get out of my head, you bum!
“… Heh… Lady…” Bill grinned. “You have guts. I respect that.”
The ghost of Bill Sixer left Gun Bunny’s body, and for a few seconds, the ghost of a dead gangster who was laughing could be seen before it disappeared. The grin on the now free Gun Bunny was replaced with a sneer. The others who had been possessed as well now collapsed.
“Mr. Rabbit… you’re squeezing me, sir.”
“Repairing this place will cost a fortune…” Mr Rabbit placed his right-hand woman on the floor, shrinking to normal size. “You are going to skin that cat, and-”
“SIR, LOOK OUT!”
Rabbit grew a few heads taller by instinct, as the mad cowbeast tackled it’s former jailer. Gun Bunny cracked her knuckles, grabbed two guns from the floor and marched toward the Cat who were busy planting explosives at one of the gates.
“Hey, Bill.” Cat stretched out. There were tears in his tux. “Well, you held your end of the deal, so-”
CLICKCLICK
Cat turned around. Gun Bunny held two pistols aimed at his eyes and she made a gruesome smile.
“… Bill?”
Gun Bunny bared her teeth. “Guess again.”
She could have killed him.
She really could!
But she wanted to enjoy the moment. And in a way, it’s understandable. Savour the moment, as Mr Rabbit would have said.
But those few seconds Gun Bunny used for gloating was all Cat needed. It gave him time enough to kick her and plant a foot on her stomach, making her miss. The bullets flew over Cat’s head and he grabbed her arms and squalled her wrists as he head-butted her, making her nose bleed. She just smiled and returned the favor and broke a small piece of Cat’s mask off. A green eye could be seen.
Cat knew that he was weaker than her. That he wouldn't be able to hold her arms for much longer, meaning that he would get a bullet between his eyes n a matter of seconds. And the cocky smile on his opponent's lips told him that she was well aware of this. This forced Cat to do something Gun Bunny wouldn’t expect at all.
BANG
“AAAHH!!!” Gun Bunny dropped the gun she held in her left hand and fell to the floor.
She had been shot in the knee.
Cat dropped the gun he had forced out of Gun Bunny’s right hand, and walked out of the gate with explosives attached to it.
“Well…” He chuckled as he took out the detonator from an inner pocket in his tuxedo. “I wish I could say it’s been fun, but… Na!”
“You… you…” Gun Bunny grinded her teeth, as she tried to stop the bleeding. “You… You can’t do that! Your kind can’t do that!”
Cat tilted his head. “Do what?”
“Superheroes don’t use guns!” She yelled angrily.
Cat chuckled as he pressed the detonator. “Says who?”
The explosives went off, blowing up the door, sealing it.
Gun Bunny cursed, as she managed to take a table cloth that lied on the floor, rip a piece off and tie it around her wound. Mr Rabbit came to her. He had blood all over his white jacket.
“… I just killed the minotaur I paid good money for.” His whole body quivered in anger. “The repairs for the Burrow will cost a fortune. We most likely lost plenty of loyal customers. If you as much as DARE say the word almost, then I will snap your neck.”
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Cat had no idea who the heck Frank Turk was when he was alive. But his flat tombstone was much appreciated as he needed something to sit on while he was waiting for Bill.
Tranquil Meadows was quite a place, really. The thought of a cemetery as an unpleasant place was not a common one for the people of Twilight.
Cemeteries are beautiful. Even in darkness.
It was a place of peace. A place where the living could find comfort, knowing that their lost one’s remains were here, creating a feeling of comfort knowing that they were near you, even if it was only their remains.
And no one was afraid of zombie invasion anymore. Sure, the undead might have been a problem once, but in this modern world of science fiction technology and magic, the walking dead was not that big a deal anymore. After all, zombies can’t fly, can’t change shape, heck, they can’t even tie their own shoes. The walkers has to outnumber you to be threatening. Zombies are in theory the least dangerous supernatural creature in existence. And harder to make nowadays, since so many decided to burn their lost ones to ashes before burying them.
Cat was not thinking of zombies as he sat there alone in the graveyard. He was thinking of a ghost. The one who, with a lack of a better word; lived in this boneyard. He wondered where the heck Bill Sixer had gone to and why it took him so long to come to his gravestone where he and Cat had agreed to meet.
As Cat was just about to stand up and go for a stretch, the spirit of the dead gangster appeared before him.
“Sorry about that.” Sixer said, not looking a bit sorry. “Just wanted to take a look at her one more time before we did this.”
“Who?” Cat asked, already knowing the answer.
“The city. Just wanted one more look at ol’ Twilight before… yeah. Oh, also, I wanted to hook up wth an old lady friend of mine one last time. An Indian dame if you can believe it. She's been spooking around town for 300 years.” Bill sighed. “I guess I would say that I‘m gonna miss it all, but…”
“You can still back out if- ”
“Hell no!” Bill interrupted Cat. “I’m been stuck as a ghost for I don’t know how long now. I just want it to end. It seemed like a good idea at first, but it ain’t no way existing. And if you are unlucky enough, being a ghost will make you go nuts! Trust me, I know this one fella who spooks around at an old gas station. Lost his marbles, poor bastard.”
“And you realize that you will seize to exist? Your spirit will be eradicated. No afterlife, no nothing. You will be gone.”
“… Well, it would also mean that I finally got peace… And going to hell doesn't exactly appeal to me... Let’s do this before I change my mind.”
Bill sighed, as Cat picked up a black plastic bag that lied next to Frank Turk’s grave and took out a bag with powder similar to pepper. With it, Cat made a pentagram in front of the tombstone that belonged to Sixer. Next, he turned on a matchstick and dropped it on the powder circle, and a five-pointed star made out of flames appeared. Then, Cat stuck his hand inside the bag and picked up a book. The cover said; Ghosthunting for Dummies. He opened it at the middle and started to read out of it. It was some type of rite. He repeated it, and went on like that for a few minutes.
Destroying a ghost was surprisingly simple… as long as said ghost didn’t resist. And Bill didn’t.
Finally, the flamed turned purple, then died out. Cat watched as the ghost of one of the most notorious gangsters faded away. Before he disappeared, Bill said his last word:
“Thank yo-“
And he was gone.
Cat sighed as he stepped through the gate and left the graveyard. He had hoped that he could have saved that favor and used Bill for his greater plan. But it was his own fault. He had been sloppy when he planned the digging of the tunnel that would get him inside the Burrow.
And being sloppy was lethal in his line of work.
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