The next few hours passed in relative peace and enjoyment for Kitty. The turpitude of the past few sessions weighed on her, and she struggled mentally a bit, but most of her time in the desert was all right.
She started off by rubbing some peyote into her eyes but was somewhat distressed to discover that most of her buds were starting to dry out. Having to dig to the bottom of her herbs section in the satchel was annoying, but she found a number of buds with some juice and happily applied the buff. Now she was able to avoid any more reptile swarms and could see the individuals quite easily through their natural camouflage. The peyote buff also helped her see useful plants quite easily, and she was happy enough to gather some new ones for experimentation.
Kitty used her time outside town in two ways. First was reconnaissance. She swept the area outside town, filling in the gaps in her map and getting a feel for where most of the ranches the town of Delusion supported lay. Secondarily, she was happy to grind at her herbalism.
Anytime she found a new plant, the corresponding page would appear in her journal and provide hints as to the new plant’s uses. She also constantly tried them out as she went, to cut down on bag space problems and further her knowledge of each.
Kitty moved in a pattern, sweeping east and then north as she ambulated the desert hardpack. She was constantly aware of a lack of bag space for new herbs, so each one she encountered was carefully assessed, and then sampled based on the paragraph her book would provide.
Some were chewed and swallowed, some ground up and rubbed on the skin. She even tried burning some lavender in the hopes of creating a debuff similar to her chamomile experiment. All it did was choke and gag her with its overly fragrant smoke.
Kitty worked through the buffs from each new plant, memorizing and mentally categorizing each of them. Some, like the prickly pear fruit, came in handy by filling her food and water bars. Others, like the patch of lemongrass she discovered tucked into the shade of a boulder had the peculiar effect of making her feel more alert, while attracting small insects to annoy her. That buff wore off thankfully quickly, as did the accompanying debuff.
Finding useful herbs was an interesting process, and she quickly discovered that some shared properties. Both book pages for the Angelica root and Arnica flower stated that they could be used in a poultice to help wounds heal faster. What that meant to the in-game mechanics, she wouldn’t be able to figure out without trying it on a wound, but a sample of both was gathered for later experimentation.
Hours passed as she explored, expanded her map, and gathered useful herbs. As the sun was dropping and turning into a flaming swath in the sky, Kitty turned her path to stay closer to town. She began focusing her search for herbs on the area west of Delusion.
Reapplying her peyote buff as she went became habit, and after carefully timing the first dose, she discovered that it lasted for fifteen minutes. Night fell and her hunt for herbs picked up its pace. The reptiles had all gone into hiding because of the cooler night air, and she no longer had to be hyper alert to avoid them. She just had to make sure she didn’t stumble into a swarm’s hiding place again. Her pace quickened, and more desert herbs were gathered.
After only a few short hours of intense flower picking, night began to fade towards the pale grey of predawn and Kitty sat down to reread some of her herbalism book entries.
Lavandula (Lavender)
A gentle looking bush, lavender is known for its vibrant green sprigs topped with delicate purple flowers. While useful to flavor and enhance foodstuffs, lavender has long been used medicinally for a variety of constitutional issues. However, it is making its mark as a balm for the mind in recent times, either consumed as a steeped tea or inhaled as incense. Potency typically increases as the flowers are dried.
Kitty marked that page as one of interest, mainly because the ‘balm for the mind’ portion was unclear, but the rest of the plant’s applications were of interest as well. She was beginning to notice a pattern, it seemed that herbalism as a profession path was going to be a lot of cluetracking work and experimentation. The scientist in her warmed to that idea quite readily.
Simmondsia chinensis (Jojoba)
A low scrub with thick, leathery leaves, the Jojoba plant is often overlooked by even the experienced herbalist, much to their detriment. Jojoba oil is prized for many practical applications, notable among them the security of its properties. Oil based products made from the jojoba plant never seem to go bad, fixed in time like a butterfly pinned to a corkboard.
That one stood out to Kitty, potentially a hint about the next logical step in her herbalism path, making potions. She shrugged and grabbed a handful of the seeds, moving to put them into her satchel. Disappointment awaited her, as the small nuts just rolled off the top of her peyote mound, indicating she was out of bag space again. Her mind flicked back to the peyote page, and she opened her book to it once more.
Lophophora williamsii. (Peyote)
An unusually thirsty variety of cactus plant, Peyote is typically found in areas of desert that contain unusual amounts of water or limestone. As a topical unguent, Peyote is known to sooth burns, ease the ache of old joints, and aid in recovery of small wounds. Ingested in tea, or chewed, it can produce powerful visions and is considered by some to be the gateway to magic or the soul. To harvest, use a small knife and remove the button top of the plant at or slightly above the dirt line, leaving green visible in your blade’s wake.
Since chewing was specifically mentioned, Kitty decided it was past time to give that a shot. She popped one of the dried buttons at the top of her bag into her mouth and chomped down on it. As she swallowed the dried cactus, the effect was immediate.
Kitty felt power unfurling from her guts, tendrils of longing and will extending from her stomach into the world around her. Her vision brightened, and the dawning sounds of a desert waking from its evening slumber suddenly popped all around her. She could hear the scuffle of a nearby Gila Monster in its den, widening the entrance to begin its morning hunt. A mosquito whined past her ear, its wing’s thundering music rattling her skull for an instant. The nearby cacti groaned and stretched toward the sunlight creeping in over the horizon.
Then it all stopped, as suddenly as it started. Her senses were still revved up, but the desert had decided to be silent. This was something she knew, even as she became aware of the desert having a soul, and that soul suddenly cowering in fear.
To her south, past the railroad tracks, over the edge of the chasm, a dark presence approached. Kitty couldn’t see or hear it, but the power in her belly now resonated with it, calling to it. It was coming for her, and it made the desert afraid. Kitty’s blood ran cold as all of these understandings fell in on her drug addled mind.
She stood to run, her skinning knife in hand as if summoned, but froze in dread. It was there, right there across the tracks, staring at her.
At first glance, it appeared to be nothing more than a simple cougar, a bruise colored great cat with glowing golden eyes. Its coat shimmered, swimming between a vibrant purple and a sinking void of pure black. The glowing golden eyes left small streaks in the air as it stalked forward. Kitty noted it had six legs, an extra pair of limbs directly behind its front legs. Powerful feline muscles flexed and coiled as the great cat approached. It stunk too, the smell washing over her even from afar. She could see ripples above the monstrous cat, the air burning with its ferocious scent. Kitty tried to quantify the smell but could only identify the acrid odor of skunk spray dramatically sweetened by decay.
Kitty growled deep in the back of her throat and took a small swipe at the air with her knife, dropping into a ready stance as she bared her teeth. The creature reacted immediately, rearing up on its hind legs and taking a few staggering steps forward. It shrunk as it did, steam rising from it in gouts, adding to the wet stink in the air.
Only the glowing eyes remained, the rest had become a woman, wearing nothing but a great cat’s skin over her shoulders and head. Her skin was the same color as the animal fur draped around her, and it was clear that she had been beautiful once.
Had it been a woman when she first saw it? Kitty shook her head, reaching for her satchel instinctively and retrieving a bundle of lavender to cram under her nostrils.
When she smelled it, the power in her belly cried out for more and she took a deep gulp of air through the flowers. Her head cleared in an instant. The skinning knife had been the cat’s idea, not her own, she was positive of it. She gripped the lavender bunch in her teeth and shoved the knife back in its sheath. An instant after, her shotgun was swung down and leveled at the woman in front of her.
“Stop.” Kitty commanded through grit teeth.
It did not obey, stalking forward as unnatural sharp toenails dug into the earth and left paw prints in her wake.
Kitty fired, jerking both triggers at the same time. Her gun heaved and spat fire, glistening in the glow of her Peyote high. The thing stalking towards her doubled over, grasping at its guts. Then it yowled and pounced, crossing the remaining distance in a heartbeat. Kitty was slammed onto her back, the lavender bundle bouncing away as she coughed from the impact.
Once more the cloying smell invaded her body, causing her struggles to calm. The creature had her, and that was ok, right? She shook her head and screamed defiance into its smiling face. It screamed back.
“STOP!” the creature snarled. It was a command, not to be disobeyed. Kitty tried, but the magic in her belly relented to this greater source of power, and she was helpless to disobey.
“I’ll . . . kill . . . you,” Kitty gasped. She struggled it out past her teeth, as her body trembled beneath the creature’s weight. Her fingers slid down to her waist and slowly drew her knife against her will. Through an exertion of will, Kitty angled the blade upward for a stab but couldn’t bring herself to actually do the deed.
Great killing claws extended from the cat-woman’s paw pads and slid past her peripheral vision into the desert sand underneath her back. She could feel its hot blood soaking into her clothing, presumably from the buckshot she had put into its guts.
“I am sure you would,” it said. The creature’s voice was melodic, light, and happy. The juxtaposition was bizarre. “You defy all who oppose you.”
Kitty glared into its feline eyes, trying not to notice its full breasts pressing against her own. “Yeah, that’s the problem.” She coughed at the smell, eyes watering. “They shouldn’t oppose me.”
Hands started sliding up her body, starting at the waist. She was pinned by the thing’s paws, but it still seemed to have an extra set of arms, with human hands on their ends. Kitty squirmed, trying to get away as a hand cupped her breast, then slid up past and caressed her face. It left behind some of its purple blood, smeared across her lips and nose.
“Should I oppose you?” It giggled, melodic and tinkling. “I think not.” There its face lunged in close and began to sniff Kitty. It focused around her eyes and lips, before retracting with a toothy smile. “You are Wampus. Like me.”
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
One of its human hands slid down her torso again, almost sensual in its invasion. Kitty realized it was going for her skinning knife and tried to dodge that arm away, but too late. The thing took her knife and slid it lower, bringing it back up covered in a slick of purple blood.
“You are marked,” the Wampus Cat said. With that, the creature leaned back and sunk the blade into Kitty’s guts, directly into the magic seated there.
It erupted, blossoming throughout her body with heat and force. Kitty retched, rolling as the creature let her up and backed away. She vomited purple bile streaked with vibrant red blood, spraying the desert sand as her back convulsed. The creature stared at her with amusement.
“Let that fester and grow. In three days, I will come for it, and for you.” The creature shimmered as it bent low, shifting back into a great cat before speaking once more. “Then we will see if you are worthy of this magic, this power.”
In a flash of movement, it was gone. Back over the side of the world, into the endless dark. The desert came awake again, all of its vibrancy and life returning to motion and sound.
Kitty rolled over onto her back once the vomiting had passed, and gingerly raised a hand to see how bad the wound was. Her hands rubbed against her naked stomach, nothing remaining but the slick of purple blood and plenty of desert sand. Her knife was back in its sheath, undisturbed.
Her satchel weight shifted, and Kitty opened it to see a strange scrap of cloth hanging from her journal. It had purple lettering that looked and smelled like the creature's blood, scrawling out a message.
"Because of your playstyle and several recent significant encounters with authority figures, you have been visited by one of the mythical creatures of this land and given an opportunity to gain a magical class. This class will permanently alter your account, providing untold powers. If you can survive to acquire it. In three days, you will be tested. Good luck."
Once Kitty had read it, the scrap of cloth pulled itself from her hands and fluttered away on the wind, shredding itself until there was nothing left but some lint, swirling in the breeze. Kitty blinked and shrugged.
“Well, that was fun,” she grumbled as she struggled to her feet. "Could have given me a class without molesting me, but hey. Evil corporation gonna evil corporation."
The peyote was wearing off, which did very little to help the smell. The blood was disgusting, thick and ropey, coated with sand. Kitty started scrubbing, using handfuls of sand to help remove the disgusting stuff as she slowly walked towards town. She focused on getting a bath as her first goal.
When she arrived, the sun was up, and Delusion was coming awake. The town was emptying, people on foot, horseback, and buck wagon all filing out. They talked and laughed amiably enough, but Kitty couldn’t help thinking about what was coming for them. She approached the lead wagon.
“Hey. Don’t suppose you’d consider turning around and bunking for the night?” Kitty spoke pleasantly, conversationally. She was also covered in sand and stinking purple goo. Her responses were not positive. After the second time someone shoved her away from their family, she raised the shotgun to the air and fired a barrel. Everything stopped and people gaped at her.
“Good! Getting your attention is possible after all!” Kitty yelled. She glared around at the people. “You all need to listen up! That man we hung yesterday has a gang, and that gang is on its way here right now. If you leave, I can’t protect you. I need all of you to turn around and head back into town. You can all go home tomorrow.”
The words hung there as the people before her stared and thought. Then the first one laughed, and it cascaded through the gathered folk from there. Kitty stood aside and watched, grim eyed, as they left. Then she turned her back, shook her head, and walked away.
She focused on that bath and smiled wanly at the irate saloon owner while entering his formerly pristine establishment. He whined about the smell, warned her that her clothing may never be clean again, and promptly shut up when she waved a silver cougar coin at him.
After stripping down and flopping into the steaming bath water, Kitty finally relaxed. She started working through the strange encounter she’d had in the desert in her head. None of it made much sense to her yet, but at least she had a few days to figure things out. As she was scrubbing the purple glop off of her body, an alarm went off in her head.
Unbidden, a holographic display erupted from her wrist, flashing red around its borders. “Emergency message from Deacon.” It destroyed the illusion of the Wild West around her, and Kitty frowned at the interruption.
With a sigh, she exited the game and swiped open Deacon’s message to the sound of compressed railgun fire.
Deacon was hiding behind something Kitty couldn’t make out and working furiously on an electronics panel that looked like it was attached to the plasma caster he had stolen during their escape.
“Sorry to bother you Dr. Hardage, but we have a situation down here,” Deacon said. He sounded distracted. “The US Navy is en route as we speak. Somebody contacted them with your location, and they’ve sent a battle group to respond. I need you in this boat asap.”
Kitty frowned at that, swiping it closed and pulling up a com channel between the two of them. Deacon answered right away. “Doctor, good. We need to leave, right now.”
“Are the repairs finished?” Kitty asked. She walked to the door and tried it. Locked, as she had expected.
“Yes, just. They were wrapping up when the notice came through. Blacklight tipped us off to the mobilization. Where are you?” Deacon asked. He sounded strained, and the railgun fire in the background did little to help.
“Up top of the rig, near the ion booster. I hear gunfire, are you ok?” Kitty extended a nail, trying to shove it into the tiny space between door and frame. It did nothing, the frame was hardened, likely a titanium alloy. They really were used to dealing with pirates on this rig.
“Oh yeah, I’m good. They’re not trying to hit me, just keeping me pinned. I’m on board the Sum, they just keep shooting over the ramp.” He was remarkably calm.
“Well I’m locked in up here,” Kitty told him. She kept the rising panic out of her voice.
“Not an issue. I’m linked into your com unit. Just paint the door for me and get as far away from it as you can. Lay down on the floor, preferably behind something,” Deacon instructed.
Kitty heard the clatter of metal and plastic sliding against one another, followed by the terror inducing sound of a plasma caster winding up. Like an electronic tornado taking a deep breath. Weapon specs ran through her head, unbidden.
The UN armed forces designed plasma caster was a fearsome weapon, firing packets of magnetically attracted plasma particles. The magnetic attraction was unstable once outside the weapon, and speaking generally, lost cohesion after about thirty to forty feet. The effect was similar to a shotgun, with dramatically more devastating destructive capability.
Kitty did as Deacon said, dragging the loveseat-sized plug-in couches into the far corner of the room and climbing in to hide behind them. After she was secure, she lifted her wrist and painted the door with her phone’s imaging system. Then she took a deep breath, made sure she wasn’t shaking, and said, “Secure.”
The metal door vanished in a roar of blueish white fire, along with a sizable portion of the roof and floor. Deacon had fired the caster from an angle, and its payload went through the hardened metal like butter. It sheared the heavy cable anchoring the ion thruster to the rig, and the wayward engine cluster spun off into the sky like a deflating balloon.
Kitty rose, climbing out of her chair fort and making her way towards the hole in the floor while avoiding any dripping slag from the ceiling’s impromptu smelting. She sidled towards the exposed catwalk outside, being careful to avoid the gaping hole in the floor. The metal was rapidly cooling, turning various shades of grey, and it was safe for her to hold the lip as she eased herself onto the edge of the catwalk outside.
Before she could get her bearings, the tromp of booted feet ascending stairs became audible over the shouts and gunfire coming from below. Kitty glanced over the railing to see several armed workers following Amelia up towards Kitty’s level. There was no other pathway down, they would intercept her before she made it down a single level. So Kitty did the only thing available to her. She surrendered.
When Amilia and her crew rounded the last corner, they found Kitty on her knees, hands behind her head. She was gently smiling. Deacon continued to speak in her ear, and an impromptu plan formed.
“Well. This is a pleasant surprise, I expected you to put up a fight,” Amelia said. She gave Kitty a bemused smile before waving to her men to take the other woman captive.
“Eh. Seemed like a lot of work. All your guys have guns too, that’s no fair.” Kitty shrugged, allowing the workers to zip tie her hands behind her back. They started marching her down the stairs, and she went with them willingly.
“Yeah, fair isn’t usually the point of a gun, in my experience.” Amilia spoke dismissively, swiping and furiously typing one handed in the air above her wrist.
Kitty didn’t respond, just followed the armed men in coveralls until they reached a balcony overlooking the dry dock. When the thruster had pinwheeled off, it had immediately yanked all the smaller boats attached to it up through the plastic sheeting roofs of their docks, and then dropped them back down into the water as it flew out of range. The larger boats had simply fallen loose from their magnetic anchoring.
The deck was a mess, tatters of plastic sheeting scattered around and draped over walkways, and the occasional small craft smashed against the metal. The continuous whump and whine of railgun fire filled the air.
“Sure are shootin’ at my guy a lot,” Kitty mentioned offhandedly, peering over a nearby railing as she spoke.
“Don’t you worry, we have plenty of ammunition.” Amilia leaned over the railing too, checking the progress of her crew below as they scurried about, clearing the gangways of debris. “Got paid in small arms for a repair a while back, haven’t managed to offload the stuff yet.”
“Ah. Comes in handy getting you a bigger payday then, which I assume the US feds are rewarding your treachery with. Good short term business sense.” Kitty put her back to the railing, carefully extending a single claw. “Hope you’re not trying to kill him is all, I guess.” She shrugged.
“Not my first preference.” Amilia narrowed her eyes at Kitty. “Don’t suppose you’ll tell him to give up?” She withdrew the ion thruster's control box from her pocket and started manipulating it, looking up to the sky. The wayward device swung into sight, far above them. It began a slow descent, settling in to hover a hundred feet above the ocean just to the side of the rig. Amilia pocketed the control again, turning back to face Kitty for an answer.
“I mean . . . I can try.” Kitty looked up, taking in the underside of the level above them. She shifted her wrist slightly, making sure it was painting the roof directly overhead. “Hey ape?” Kitty asked. She spoke loudly enough for the rest of the gathered group to hear. “Fire on my target.”
Amilia’s eyes went wide in the same moment that Kitty cut her zip tie and ducked, arms over her head. A blue tinged fireball roared overhead and tore through the metal roofing above them, punching another gaping hole in the structure. Amilia’s men busied themselves with avoiding the molten metal splashing down on them from above, and Kitty used her time wisely. She swept behind Amilia and grabbed the other woman’s neck, claws glinting in the light.
By the time the dockworkers had recovered, Kitty had their boss by the throat and was walking slowly backward away from them. She kept her face mostly hidden behind Amilia’s floppy bun, peeking out just enough to see her enemies. A few of them managed to get themselves together enough to point guns at her again, so she lifted a hand to them, claw tipped fingers splayed in the universal motion for stop.
“Hey guys, where’s your medic?” Kitty asked, loudly. She had Amilia’s neck in a firm grip, claw tips dug under the skin, but kept her voice pleasant. “Nearby, right? Fully equipped, ready for a severe trauma victim?”
When no one responded to her, Kitty blew them a quick raspberry. She put her hand over Amilia’s face, her index finger claw tapping just beneath the other woman’s eye, drawing a pinprick of blood. “Tell them to stop,” Kitty ordered. Her attitude had shifted in an instant, becoming icy.
“Stop! Everyone stop!” Amilia hadn’t spoken since Kitty’s claws touched her throat, but she did as she was told without hesitation. “Let her leave!”
“Good work, thank you. Now we can go back to being polite.” Kitty removed the claw from her eye but kept a death grip on the woman’s neck. “Drop the guns.” She spoke only to Amilia.
“Drop your guns!” Amilia’s neck was bleeding, so Kitty retracted her claws as they moved. She led the woman down the remaining steps to the drydock area, moving towards the Ural’s Sum.
“Disarm the rest of them.” Kitty paused at the doorway, allowing Amilia to pull up her phone and swipe a few times.
“All crew drop your guns and back away from the Sum. We’re letting them go,” Amelia announced over the rig’s intercom. Her voice shook, and Kitty suppressed a twinge of guilt. When the gunfire didn’t abate, her claws came out again, digging new shallow furrows into the other woman’s neck. “Drop your guns!” It was a desperate shriek, and Amilia had begun crying as well, hot tears splashing down her face to land on Kitty’s arm. The gunfire stopped.
“Thank you. Now let’s go.” Kitty gently pushed Amilia by the neck through the doorway, in time to see the rest of her workers setting down their weapons in confusion. Guiding her prisoner past the group, Kitty and Amilia headed down the disconnected boarding ramp to stand above the gently rocking Ural’s Sum.
Amilia was sobbing, her chest heaving involuntarily. Kitty decided she needed to intervene. “Hey, calm down. You’re doing everything right, and if you keep that up, I won’t have to hurt you.” She peeked around to look the other woman in the eyes. “Just remember. I’m fighting for my life right now, and it was your choices that put us here. Sometimes bounties go bad. This is just how you fix it. That’s all.”
The Ural’s Sum was bobbing in the water below, still rocking. The vessels own gangplank was extended, a six foot walkway with handrails just reeling about drunkenly ten feet away. Kitty shook her head and watched it closely for a few seconds, timing her next move.
“Hey, just one more thing.” Kitty slid her hand into Amilia’s pocket, fishing out the ion thruster control device. “You can swim, right?”
Amilia nodded, going pale as she did. Kitty smiled at her, shoved the woman off the gangway, and hurled herself through the air, arms reaching desperately forward. She slammed into the Sum’s gangplank and wrapped her arms around the nearest safety rail.
As she did, the yacht lurched, roaring out of the dock onto the open ocean and leaving the repair facility behind. Kitty hauled herself aboard, staying on her belly and dragging herself forward one rail at a time. Standing in the entryway with the ocean spray hitting her, Kitty used the thrusters’ control device to bring it in behind them, keeping pace as they fled the Carolinas coast.
