Out of Control: A Kitty Introspective

In this short story, Kitty finds herself taken over by a new force.

## Story

Danger. Chaos. Alarms. Wind. Howling Wind, so much wind.

With my robot strength, I shove the big metal door off of myself, and see Andy pointing a gun at the crazy tortoise and his big coon cat friend.

*“How did they find us? How long have they been chasing us? WHY are they after us? Who in their right minds would come after us?! They don’t even have uniforms or anything…!”* So many questions, but I don’t have any time to think about it right now.

Andy’s gun goes off, as he gets me up. “Let’s skedaddle, Kitty.”

I look him dead in the eyes. Nothing would make me happier but…No.

“What? Why?” Andy asks.

“They’ll stop the ship from crashing,” I reply, looking over Andy’s shoulder at the seemingly unstoppable Tortoise that just took two shots from Andy’s gun and who’s still wrestling with the controls. “I have to stop them,” I hear myself say. “Just leave…”

“Oh no, I am NOT leaving you behind!” Andy says.

“A-”

Suddenly, I freeze up. Or, my body does. I can’t talk. I can’t move. It’s… Strange.

Then, my robot arm snaps up, grabs Andy by the throat.

I scream in surprise, but… nothing comes out of my throat. My body isn’t responding. I can’t even close my eyes as my body… As I-

As I chuck my only friend out of the plane.

No. No, I’d never do that. I… I don’t-

But now, this doesn’t stop. My body, my arms, and legs, my entire form, both the cybernetic and the mobian, they don’t stop.

It’s like a sickening rollercoaster, only I can’t even scream. It just goes faster and faster.

I’m trapped and forced to watch as I- No, NOT I-, as something that’s *taken over me* turns around and begins attacking the intruders. Disarming and defeating the Admiral, before tossing the cat aside and brutally retaliating against the Tortoise.

My movements and combativeness are choppy. Graceless. Awful.

But… Effective. The Tortoise that I thought was so formidable is rendered senseless in seconds. Unconscious, under whatever force has taken me and my full cybernetic strength over.

The Admiral; Beauregard was his name? He runs over to check on his friend, even though he’s also badly hurt.

For a moment, I’m able to catch my breath as I find myself staring at both of them. Then I wonder: Will I kill both of them?

A terrifying chill colder than any winter’s night spent out in the streets comes over me.

I don’t have a choice in the matter. Whatever’s controlling me is deciding.

I’m just a captive audience of one in my own body.

*“I don’t want to kill them, please don’t kill them.”*

I don’t even know if anyone or anything can hear me, but somehow, my plea is answered.

My vision swings as I find myself exiting, leaping out of the plane and into the water, which is only yards away.

The adrenaline I feel fades as I- well… as I hit the water.

But there’s a sort of… detachment to the sensation.

I feel the water, but it’s like… It’s like it’s happening to someone else. I can hear the watery echoes in my ears, but… It’s distant.

I see through my eyes, but it’s itchy, and irksome, like I’m watching through a VR headset.

And I’m still not blinking. Really, that’s the most annoying thing.

I growl, but no noise comes out. *“Okay,”* I say to myself. *“If anyone’s out there, please just let me close my eyes while you do whatever it is you’re doing? I appreciate the save, but I’d also of handled it just fine, thanks!”*

I wait for a minute, hoping for a response.

But there is none.

~ ~ ~ ~

I swim for a long time, only coming up for air every two minutes or so. I can feel my lungs nearly bursting each time with my organic need for air. I would’ve panicked the first few times, but… I literally cannot. Only mentally, and frankly, that just makes it worse.

I lose track of how long I’ve been swimming around the 10 minute mark.

But eventually, my forward momentum stops. I tread water for a moment staring out at the ocean. I know somewhere a few miles behind me must be the shore, but I can’t even turn my eyes over to confirm. I just stare, straight ahead.

Then my lungs fill with air as I take a deep breath and dive down… down…

1 minute. The pressure increases, and I don’t seem to be slowing down, propelled by my Cyborg strength.

2 minutes. I would say the pressure is unbearable, but seeing as I’m not willingly subjecting myself to any of this, we passed ‘unbearable’ a while back.

Through my frozen, unblinking eyes, I see the vague outline of something metallic. A Submarine.

My curiosity is immediately swallowed up by the sensation of me swallowing water.

*“Noo!”*

I’m in a full panic, flailing and gagging and struggling to swim to the surface…

Or I would be, but whatever has control of me just continues calmly, if slightly faster, towards the submarine.

I’m drowning. Drowning in my own body that’s on some sort of cursed autopilot.

My body swims below the submarine, and up through an open hatch.

I hear my body gasp for air. Precious air! And my stomach cramps, ejecting saltwater from my mouth, as I just stand there. Here. Like a robot.

I can feel my organic pain. My natural reflexes kicking and screaming. I want to throw up the gallons of saltwater I just ingested, take a few more gulps of delicious air instead. but… I just stand here.

I feel sick.

But it only gets worse.

Suddenly, I lurch forward, and walk through the submarine. I hear some voices up ahead.

"Aaah, and here she is now! Our newest minion!"

Minion?

This bird mobian, with big glasses and wild, unsmoothed feathers is sitting in a chair in front of a computer. On the computer is…

It takes me a second.

On the computer is… the computer. And the bird.

The computer is showing what I see. But with additional controls and a sort of heads-up-display, as well as controls, and a command prompt line.

It's my own sight. The computer is… me.

"Hello, dear."

The voice is off to the left, but I *can’t look at it*. At least, not till the crazy-feathered bird at the controls casually types in a command line and sends it, looking back at me with a crazed grin. In response, my whole head swivels just a tad to the left, and I see another bird. This one’s much taller. He’s got some sort of authority, and wears some sort of commander’s hat, I guess. Anyway, he’s the one talking.

“Kitty, is it? A bit of a basic name, but it will do for now.” He says, as he strides up to me, his fancy cape billowing behind him. He walks up to me, and as he gets closer, his leering grin puts me on edge. I try to take a step back, but of course, nothing happens, and instead he gets so close to me that I can feel his breath. We’re about the same height, actually. His strange glasses are so shiny, they hide his eyes completely.

“You’ll do very nicely, Kitty,” he says. “Who would ever suspect a cat to be working for the Kukkus?” He reaches out to stroke my whiskers, and I can do nothing. Nothing except stare at his shiny glasses that reflect my vacant stare back at me.

No. Not me. My prison.

“Dr. Fukurakov?”

“Yes, Commander!”

The ‘Commander turns away, and I breathe a non-existent sigh of relief, only to have it lump in my throat at his next words.

“Run a full diagnostic. By then, we will be outside of the Federation’s reach, upon which we’ll send Kitty out on an errand to refill the coffers! Perhaps from somewhere in Apotos. Yes, that sounds apropos.”

“Very good, Commander!”

From my right, I hear the ‘doctor’ rustle out of his chair, and approach me…

The nightmare begins again.

## Characters

*In order of appearance:*

* Kitty the Crazy Coon
* Andromedus Kukku
* Jasper Mudbaum
* Beauregard Cheddarosier
* Fukurokov
* Khamberlain Kukku