FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Time for part 2 of MGtS: The Day after. Sorry if it's a little more sloppy than the last one; today ended up being busier than anticipated, and I was only able to give it a quick glance before posting to meet my once a day pace. Hope everyone enjoys it as it is; catch you later!

---

Sending me my own personal minion, Katie? THAT'S your idea of stepping away from your super villain life style?! I groaned gently, feeling a headache starting to come on. This was going to be a long day...

"Master?" Clara, my new catgirl minion, looked concerned by my reaction. "Is everything O.K? Am I not suitable for you?"

"What? No, you're fine. I mean, great. I mean..." I shook my head, wondering how exactly to handle this situation. "I just wasn't expecting you, that's all."

"Oh! That's O.K; Mewstress said she wanted this to be a surprise." Clara's smile returned almost instantly. "I can get Mewstress if you'd like to talk to her about it now."

"Yeah, that'd be great, than-"

"Hello, Puppy."

A small yelp escaped me as Katie, or rather, the Mewstress' voice came out of nowhere and calling me by her pet name for me. I glanced around the apartment quickly, half expecting her to be right behind me. Her powers were magically based, and despite there being more than a few villains and heroes with such powers, how exactly magic worked was largely up for debate. It wasn't until she spoke again that I realized her voice was coming from Clara, or at least, from Clara's mouth.

"Sorry, Puppy; didn't mean to scare you." Clara's normally brown eyes were now faintly green, much like Katie's when I first saw her as the Mewstress. Looking closely, I could even swear they were glowing slightly. Clara had seemed a little ditzy and easily distracted, and now it was like a completely different person was in control. As I was about to find out, that was exactly what was happening now.

"If my girls let me, I can look through their eyes, even speak through them if I desire." Clara/Katie smiled as she stepped toward me slowly, her movements looking both seductive and predatory at the same time. "So, what do you think?"

"U-Um um..." I gulped nervously, trying to remember what I wanted to talk to Katie about. Clara may not have been model material, but she was certainly an attractive young woman. The fact that my girlfriend's voice was coming out of her mouth made the whole situation intense and slightly awkward at the same time.

"R-Right, about Clara..." I half stepped, half stumbled into the nearby kitchen, giving myself a little time and space to gather my thoughts before I did something stupid. "I'm kinda wondering what she's doing here in the first place."

"Yes, I figured that question would be coming." Clara/Katie followed me into the kitchen, but stayed in the doorway as I started putting together a cup of coffee, desperate for some kind of distraction.

"Well, the answer has multiple parts to it." Katie knows how useless I can be without coffee, so she let me go about my work as I made my cup. "The simplest part is, I want somebody close to you at all times."

"Somebody close to me? Like, a bodyguard?" That got a raised eyebrow from me. "Am I in danger now that I know about your secret identity?"

"Probably not; I've always been very careful about keeping as much distance as possible between Katie Field and the Mewstress. Still, I'd feel more comfortable having someone watching your back when I'm not around."

I nodded slightly, though I couldn't help but wonder if maybe there was a little more to that explanation. Was she worried I'd betray her and try to report her to the police? Did she want someone around to keep an eye on me for her protection as much as my own? I mean, I want to believe her desire to change her ways, but it's hard not to consider she had ulterior motives.

"Another reason is that I needed a way to introduce you to my girls." Katie continued as I mentally wrestled with my concerns. "Most of them only know the Mewstress, and suddenly introducing a boyfriend and telling them we've been together for years now would be a terrible shock to them. So I told them that I've decided to train you as my new apprentice."

"What?!" There was no keeping the shock out of my voice when I heard that. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, but before I could protest further, Katie had a finger on my lips, shushing me as her other hand gently stroked the underside of my muzzle.

"Shh, Puppy. I know you're upset, but listen, please." My anger was still there, but Katie had learned a while ago that the underside of my muzzle was a serious weak spot for me. If she wanted me in a calm, relaxed state, she knew that was a good way to get me there.

"I'm well known for working exclusively with my girls, so I told the girls that I was training you to throw everybody off. It was the only decent reason I could think of to keep you around without them getting suspicious. I'm not going to, of course, but they needed some reason to understand why this strange new guy is hanging around where he doesn't belong."

"And finally, as much as I need them to get used to you, Xavier, I need YOU to get used to THEM." A quick look at my puzzled face told Katie I needed a little more explanation.

"To most of the world, my girls are mindless thralls, doing whatever their Mewstress desires. While I will admit some of them aren't terribly bright, they're more than just my minions and servants. Before meeting you, I always thought it was just me and my girls against the rest of the world, and a lot of them share that mindset. I know there's more than that now, but I can't just abandon the closest thing I've had to a family."

"Ngghh..." Damn it, this was happening WAY too fast. I really wish she'd just drop the whole super villain thing cold turkey, but she'd been involved with it for years now. It was a little much to expect she'd be able to just walk away from everything over night, and trying to talk about her family had always been a dodgy subject even before I knew about her alter ego. I could guess it must have been pretty bad and never pushed too hard on the subject, and I could only imagine telling her to just abandon her minions would not go over well.

"...Alright, alright..." My shoulders slumped in resignation after a very, very long pause to think everything over. "I'm not thrilled about this, but if you really think this is the best way to handle this situation, I'm willing to work with it. We really need to have a discussion about how we're proceeding with this in the future, though. And in person, too, not doing... whatever this is right now."

Katie smiled and hugged me tight, which considering it was with Clara's body made those earlier intense and confusing feelings only more so.

"Thank you, Puppy. I promise you we'll talk more about this. I'm never going to ask you to do anything illegal, and I am working on something to change my girl's focus." Thankfully Katie let go quickly, allowing me to (mostly) keep my composure. "Just, give me some time, please?"

I nodded dimly. Katie quickly excused herself and promised again that we'd talk more very soon. After a few moments, the glow began to fade from her eyes, returning to Clara's normal brown color. After a few blinks, Clara seemed to be back in control of her own faculties.

"So, did you work things out with Mewstress, Master?" She asked. Though she was physically present for the conversation, Katie's magic must have left her mentally out of the loop.

"Um, yeah, we got things settled for now." I tried to put on my warmest smile for her, wanting her to feel as welcome as possible. A quick glance out of the corner of my eye showed the bus for the mall where I worked would be leaving soon.

"Ack!" I quickly chugged my coffee and grabbed an apple from the fridge. I could grab something more filling at the mall, but this would have to do for now. Glancing back at Clara, I held out a second apple to her. "Do you want one?"

Clara seemed almost stunned by my offer. She reached out slowly, almost tentatively for the apple, as if she was afraid it was a trap. When it was almost in her grasp she quickly grabbed it. The catgirl stood there for what seemed like ages, just staring at the piece of fruit.

"Clara? Hello?" I tilted my head a little as she continued to observe the apple, as if it was the beautiful thing she'd ever seen. "Is everything alright?"

"Y-Yes, Master. It's just..." Clara smiled up at me, a tear forming in the corner of her eye. "Mewstress is the only one who's ever given me anything before, without asking for something in return. Even when I got hurt, and couldn't help with her work, she still took care of me, when no one else had before, and didn't ask for anything. That's why I wanted to help her; because she was so good to me. No one else had been before or since... at least, until now."

Her eyes were clearly watering now as now Clara(at least, the real Clara, not Katie using Clara's body... man, magic is confusing) hugged me tightly.

"Thank you, Master. You're a good person, just like Mewstress said you were!"

I couldn't help but smile a little. This was a lot, and happening really fast, but maybe I just needed to trust Katie after all. Maybe I just needed to stop being so suspicious and try to be understanding. I would be an idiot not to be a little cautious, but I loved her, and needed to give her a chance to make everything work.

"Clara, I'm glad you're happy, but I really need to get to work..."

Not that there wouldn't be some adjustments along the way...