It was becoming impossible for Roly Poly to hold it in. Even with his paw clamped against his mouth, morsels of laughter were radiating off him. The fat rolls on his body were wobbling violently from the reverberations.
Zhao Yao patted Matcha"s head before dumping him on the ground.
"Go to that corner there and stand on your hind legs. You are not allowed to sit unless I say so," he ordered.
Matcha"s face was wet with tears as he meekly did as he was told.
"I"ll deal with you when we"re home," Zhao Yao added, throwing him one last dirty look.
Then, he turned to Michael and said, "For now, I want to talk to you. Tell me what your plans for the Cat King of the West are. What kind of dream is he stuck in?"
Michael was dumbfounded. He never would have expected that his final hope, Matcha, would give up so easily. There was no fight. There was no brawl. The cat just surrendered. He looked towards him and shouted, "Sir George! Why aren"t you fighting back? Didn"t you tell me that you only lent him your power because you pitied him? Didn"t you say that you"ve had enough of his tyranny?"
Matcha"s protestation was instant.
"Lies! You"re telling lies!" he shouted, before turning his pair of large, innocent eyes at Zhao Yao, "Zhao Yao, Zhao Yao, I don"t know what this foreigner is talking about. I"m loyal only to you."
Zhao Yao rolled his eyes before gripping Michael"s collar roughly.
"Save your breath," he warned the blonde, "My cats will never betray me. Now, tell me what the h.e.l.l you"re doing to the Cat King."
Even though Michael had no clue what Matcha had mewled about, he could still conclude that the ginger cat had no intention to fight his owner. He had no way out except to start talking.
He had barely opened his mouth when a surge of anger stormed his body. He was overcome with an uncontrollable fury that made him throw a punch at Zhao Yao.
Zhao Yao caught Michael"s fist almost immediately. He narrowed his eyes at his opponents, studying him. Hostile thoughts towards Michael were invading his mind. He felt that everything that had happened was this stupid blondie"s fault and he really, really wanted to bash his skull in.
The two men were not the only ones who were suddenly overwhelmed with rage. The supercats who surrounded them were beginning to look crabby.
Matcha had extended his sharp claws. Roly Poly was baring his teeth. The ragdoll cat family had begun to hiss.
Only Ares and Sphynx Cat were unaffected. The pair observed the changes around them curiously.
"I wonder what"s going on?" Sphynx Cat asked.
Ares thought about this for a moment before responding. "This looks like a superpower to me. We might be protected because of my deflective s.h.i.+eld."
At this, he expanded the reach of his s.h.i.+eld to cover every man and cat that was at the end of the tunnel.
The tense expressions on their faces instantly relaxed. They were still full of fury, but it was not as intense as what they felt before.
"You fools!" Michael shouted, "It"s the Cat King! That was him activating his power!"
Rationally, Michael knew that there was no point in getting angry or throwing a fit. However, there were still remnants of rage left that made it impossible for him to speak unless it was at the top of his lungs.
Zhao Yao rolled his shoulders and shook out his arms and legs.
"What happened exactly?" he wondered aloud.
"That was the Cat King"s work," Michael yelled, "His ability is to transform the temperaments of those around him to match his own. He had been a religious Buddhist, so he could reform the prisoners here."
"Now, Nightmare Cat is keeping him in a dream that is filled with endless agony, rage, and violence," he continued, still speaking at full volume, "This is why the people and cats that are within his reach have become more and more aggressive!"
All along, Michael had only asked Nightmare Cat to test the waters. He had never sanctioned a transformation as drastic as the one he just experienced.
It would seem that the defeat at the hands of Zhao Yao had incited Nightmare Cat to forgo protocol. He was desperate for some revenge and the Cat King"s power was the easiest way to get it. He would convert every supercat in the prison into feral monsters that would tear Zhao Yao apart, or at least cause him a bit of trouble.
Even without the cats, Zhao Yao"s new, antagonistic personality would ensure that he would initiate conflict and unrest wherever he went.
"How big is the Cat King"s reach?" Zhao Yao shouted at Michael.
"He can affect the entire prison!" Michael bellowed, "You"ve got to kill him! He"s a time bomb that can detonate any time now. When that happens, the supercats will be exploding with rage!
"Make Nightmare Cat stop!" Zhao Yao yelled back, "Can"t you just give him sweet dreams instead?!"
Michael shook his head vehemently. Frustration was building in him like a hairball.
"No, I can"t!" he cried, "That cat does not listen to me. Even if I wanted to stop him by force, I can"t. He"s still in the dreamscape. He"s untouchable!"
A throbbing headache was developing beneath Zhao Yao"s temples. He did not want to imagine the chaos that would ensue when dangerously hostile supercats, prisoners, and prison guards clashed.
He pushed against the boundaries of the deflective s.h.i.+eld, fighting to get closer to the Cat King. A plan was quickly formulating in his head as he did so.
The first thing he had to do was to quarantine the Cat King. He swiftly contained him in another force field, thereby blocking his power from seeping into the prison.
"This works, but I can"t do this 24/7. This also doesn"t deal with the fact that the prison probably already…"
"Stop hesitating! You might be able to stop the spread of his power now, but the damage has been done," Michael shouted, echoing Zhao Yao"s a.s.sumptions, "The only way to undo it all is to kill him. I bet the prison has already descended into chaos. If you don"t stop him now, things will only get worse."
Zhao Yao had no idea what was going on in the prison above them, but he could see that his own cats were starting to act on their aggression. Elizabeth"s family of four were hissing and grappling with each other. Roly Poly and Matcha had gotten into an all-out brawl as well. Both were trying to scratch, bite, and beat the other.
Only Ares and Sphynx Cat, who had been protected by the deflective s.h.i.+eld all along, remained composed. They were not hit by the Cat King"s wave of ferocity.
The scene of absolute anarchy moved Zhao Yao to place his palm on the Cat King"s head.
"Do I really have to kill him?" he wondered.
"No."
"There must be another way."
Zhao Yao turned and shouted, "Ares, put me and the Cat King in the same force field."
Ares blinked up at him in surprise. He asked, "Are you sure?"
"Hurry!"
Ares nodded and did as he was told. With that, Zhao Yao was containing the Cat King with one force field, which Ares was containing the two of them in another.
Zhao Yao switched from Ares" skill to Elizabeth"s. His eyes gleamed red as he seized control of the Cat King"s mind.
"Wake up now!" he ordered.
The Cat King"s eyes snapped open. He might have just woken, but he was already in the worst of moods. He cast a malicious glare at Zhao Yao, which was ignored.
"Deactivate your power!"
Unfortunately, that did not work.
"How can this be?"
It did not take long for Zhao Yao to land on a plausible explanation, "Maybe his power is always switched on? Does that mean that he has been spreading anger for as long as he was dreaming?"
He had no time to question this conclusion. His close proximity to the Cat King had rapidly intensified the rage within him. He switched powers once more, this time to the Sixth Sense.
"C"mon! Stop being so angry all the time! Can"t you try and cheer up?"
Zhao Yao had hoped to spread some semblance of joy to the Cat King. However, he himself was overcome with a complex blend of wrath and anxiety, so it was impossible to use the Sixth Sense as he had intended.
Instead, the only emotion he managed to pa.s.s to the Cat King was his anger, which in turn worsened the cat"s mood.
"I"ve failed?"
Zhao Yao"s eyes narrowed in resentment. He yanked the Cat King"s neck, squeezing it so tightly that it looked like he wanted to choke him to death.
At this point, he had transformed into a man with the shortest of fuses. The smallest irritation could set him off. The only thing holding him back was his spirit, which was fortified with the strength of five supercats and would not be easily broken. It curtailed the savage impulses that pumped through his body.
"Of course I failed. I"m not happy at all, so how can I spread joy?" he reasoned with himself, "The only thing I can give him is what I feel now - fury."
Golden s.h.i.+mmers flashed past Zhao Yao"s eyes as he tried to activate the Sixth Sense again. This time, he delivered an incorruptible ethos that sat at the very core of his existence.
"Can you stop wasting time on s**t like this? Life is so much better when all you do is eat, sleep, and play video games!"
Zhao Yao"s slacker"s att.i.tude to life rolled off him in waves and crashed into the Cat King, drowning him. In that moment, the profuse anger within him dissipated to give way to laziness. In turn, the fury that he had been spreading was also transformed into idleness, which was pa.s.sed back to Zhao Yao. Upon receiving it, Zhao Yao"s own lethargy deepened and that drilled into the Cat King too. This mutual sharing of laziness kept going and kept building, creating an infinite flow of idleness.
10 minutes later, all the fighting had stopped. Elizabeth, Matcha, Roly Poly and the rest of the cats were pa.s.sed out on the floor, not moving or responding.
Ares peered at Zhao Yao and the Cat King of the West, who were both lying on the floor as well. He scratched his chin thoughtfully and wondered, "Has he succeeded?"
"My dear Ares, why don"t you withdraw the force field so we can find out?" Sphynx Cat suggested, "If something"s not right, bring it back right away."