After about a half hour of running around in the shadows and back alleys, the group of four are convinced that the A.P.S are no longer following them and start walking at a casual pace.

“So where are we going now?” Catalin asks.

“We need a base of operations. Normally I would say let’s find a forest, but I don’t see much natural scenery anywhere in sight in this damnable world, let alone a forest. Let’s start by finding a secluded place where humans would typically not go.”

As the four are walking, Catalin notices a beautiful cat with long white fur sitting on top a fence casually licking her paw clean.

Catalin whistles at her in a provocative manner and then calls out to her, “Here- kitty, kitty.”

The feline regards him with a smile and says, “Fuck off, shit stain.”

“Woah! kitty has claws. I like you even more now.”

“Get lost, my boyfriend will eat you alive loser.”

“Are you concerned about little ol’ me, I’m touched. Don’t worry, I’ll come by some time and ‘work things out’ with your boyfriend, then come pay you a visit.”

The feline just raises an eyebrow, wondering whether to take him seriously or not.

“So is it me, or did everyone understand that conversation just now?” Dominus asks the group.

“You mean listening to that cat dump all over Catalin, yeah, no, I definitely did not miss that!” Aria says smiling.

“Shit! You guys heard all that, I was so hoping only I could speak and understand ‘cat language’.”

“No it looks like we can all talk to any animal.”

“Isn’t that a bit strange.” Aria asks.

“If you are going to start picking apart that for being strange,” Bethesda explains, “then you should have started with the the fact that when we talk amongst ourselves, despite being various animals, we speak in human tongue.”

“I suppose.” Aria concedes.

“No doubt this is all the work of the philosopher’s stone. The very embodiment of a gods power. We mortals should not be surprised by any absurd thing it is capable of, or even how it chooses to function.”

The four warriors have been walking for quite a few hours now. Dominus has been leading them into ever shadier parts of town in hopes of getting away from prying eyes. His thought process is such that if he can’t escape the city and hide out in the wilderness, then they will simply have to make do with an isolated place in the slums.

As the four of them are walking across an open field, Bethesda comments, “These humans are really scary. At least compared to where we come from. I mean just look at the structures they’ve built, I have a hard time comprehending how to do it with my magics assistance, let alone how they could do this without it.”

“You mean these buildings were built by humans? I had just assumed they were built by giants.”

“No way. Giants aren’t very smart, there’s no way they would be capable of such architecture. And in the first place giants eat humans, there’s no way humans would be nonchalantly strolling around all over the place, in a city full of giants.”

Dominus is having trouble processing just what kind of absurd world they’ve ended up in.

“Look! Over there.” Aria points to a clearly abandoned building across from the field. Its surrounded by many other abandoned buildings. It’s surroundings look like a huge fire swept through the area, almost all the buildings and trees in the area are burnt to a crisp, some have even been reduced to piles of rubble.

The building Aria is pointing to however is a dirty white double story, with a number of windows on the second floor. It, for the most part, seems largely untouched by the fire and as such unlikely to collapse in on itself at any moment.

“That’s perfect.” Dominus explains, “It stands apart from the rest. It’s in an isolated area. It is not fit for human habitation. And last of all, that second floor makes for a great observation post.” Dominus notices the faded sign above the shop, or at least the part that is visible, ‘Dennis’.

“It’s not very big though.” Bethesda complains, “If you are intending to raise an army once again, then that won’t do.”

“True, but that may still be a ways off, so for now, for us, it’s perfect.”

On the lower floor the main entrance and windows are all boarded up, save for a single broken window around the back of the building. The four quickly climb through the window and scout the interior.

It looks to be some kind of shop. There are many display stands with multiple shelves located throughout. Of course there is not a single item left on any of the shelves, no doubt they have long since been looted and it is no longer possible to tell what this shop may have been selling once upon a time.

“This place is a dump.”

“How am i supposed to conduct alchemic experiments in this filth.”

“Relax, we’ll get it cleaned up, location is more important right now.”

Catalin left the three behind, bickering, and made his way upstairs. He could have thought he heard noises coming from the second floor.

Upon reaching the second floor, he hears it again. A shuffling sound and another almost muffled sound. Catalin explores the upstairs a bit, peaking into one or two rooms. One of the rooms contained bizarre furnishings and metal fittings that he could not possibly discern the purpose of and the other was empty.

The last room was behind a door that was open only a crack. Catalin uses his paw to push the door open further and strolls into the room.

In front of him, on the ground is a little girl. On top of her is a man who is busy holding her down with his knee on her abdomen and has one hand over her mouth. His other hand is busy fumbling with his belt buckle.

The slightly overweight rough looking man spouts pointless nonsense at the little girl, “Just keep still already, otherwise I’m going to make you!”

The little girl tries to shout in protest, but nothing can be heard other than mumbing through the man’s strong hand.

“You decide to come live in our house without asking anyone, well of course you’ve got to pay some rent.” The man grins at her with an evil, toothless smile.

“Well, I’ve seen just about enough.” Catalin speaks up.

The man looks up in shock and swings his head from side to side, “Who said that? Who’s there?”

He obviously doesn’t realise that a cat spoke up. Catalin sighs and then forces some mana into his claws. He leaps at the man and swings his paw, the claws cut deeply into the man’s face.

“Aaaarrrrghh! Aaarrgh!” The man stumbles away from the cat, both hands on his face, trying to stem the bleeding, but it is no use, the blood is pouring between his fingers and forming pools on the ground.

Catalin hisses, he had missed, he was aiming for the man’s eyes. Oh well, with a face like that the only option that’s going to be left to him is rape, not even the prostitutes are going to want anything to do with him.

“Get lost.” Catalin snarls at him.

“Eeeeaaaaah!” The man shrieks in terror and scrambles to his feet, running out the room and down the stairs as fast as his legs can carry him.

Catalin turns to the little girl who is already sitting upright and staring at him with big eyes of wonder, “You alright?”

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She nods slowly still in shock. “Um- You can talk?” The little girl looks to be a beggar, she is wearing mismatched poorly fitting clothes that are very worn and covered in dirt.

Catalin smiles at her coyly, “What can I say, I’m one of a kind.”

“Thanks for saving me. That man looked like he was going to be really rough.”

Catalin regards the girl curiously, “How old are you?”

“Eight.”

The other three come running up the stairs just then.

“Hey Catalin, what’s going on here?”

“Yeah, a man just came running past covered in blood, was that your doing?”

Catalin eases their concerns, “No worries my friends, he was simply a bandit trying to rape this little girl.”

The other three look at the little girl in surprise and the little girl stares back at them in equal measure. “By the way, what is your name?” Catalin asks.

“Helen. Oh and again, thanks for saving me.”

“Think nothing of it, I could never leave a damsel in distress.”

“Unless of course you’re the one distressing the damsel.” Aria adds snidely.

“You can all talk?” Helen asks curiously.

“Yes these are my companions, we are great warriors from another world.” Catalin answers with great gusto.

“Wow, that’s really cool.” Helen says excitedly.

“My name is Catalin, my friends are Aria the chicken, Bethesda the monkey and our brave and fearless leader, Dominus the possum.”

“Pleased to meet you all.”

“Do you live here Helen?” Dominus asks.

“Yes, but I did not know that the place belongs to that man.”

“Not any longer it doesn’t.” Dominus responds, “We have now taken it over and will be making it our base of operations from now on.”

“Um- can I still stay here? It’s really hard to find a decent place to live.”

“I do not see any problem with that, so long as you do not interfere in any of our plans.”

“Thank you.” Helen says with a big smile. She has already shifted closer to Catalin and started tickling the top of his head.

“Ooooooh. Wow, that’s good.” He practically purrs out and Helen just smiles innocently at him.

“Well now that that’s settled, can we start cleaning this dump up?” Bethesda asks.

“No, we have other priorities. First we must secure rations.” Dominus responds firmly.

Helen has moved her hand, stroking along Catalin’s back, all the way to the base of his spine. Catalin reflexively arches his back upwards in response, he can not believe how good it feels, he’s already hard! Helen stops at the base of his spine and starts tickling there instead.

“Oh shit, that’s the spot baby, I think I’m going to cum!”

“CATALIN!” Aria practically spits his name out in disdain. Oh shit. Catalin pulls away from Helen’s hand for fear that Aria might just cut his ball off if he messes around with a kid.

“Look, Helen.” Catalin addresses her seriously, “I’ve never been good at handling breakups, so I’m gonna have to be straight with you. I’m a cat and you’re eight years old, it was never gonna work out. But I’m no fool! You’re really cute and I’m sure you will grow up to be a beautiful girl some day. So come back to me again in four years time.”

“CATALIN!”

“WHAAAAT? She’ll be of marriageable age!”

Helen giggles, “Silly kitty. I can’t have a cat for a boyfriend.” She pauses seemingly in thought and then adds with a serious tone, “But if you look after me properly and prove to be a reliable man, then I can marry you when I grow up.”

“Deal!”

“CATALIN!”

“ANYBODY HOME?” They are interrupted by an intruders voice. “Come out, come out, wherever you are.”

“Helen, wait here.” Dominus commands as he leads the group back down stairs, quickly and quietly.

Three men come into sight on the lower floor. “What the hell?” The man in the middle speaks up. “I thought Ivan was high again when he said it was a cat that took him down.” The man says perplexed by the sight of the four animals.

“Bandits.” Bethesda snarls.

“Boss, the gorilla spoke, I didn’t know gorillas could speak!”

“That’s because they can’t you idiot!”

“Guys, there’s only three of them, time for some warm ups. Take them out.” Dominus instructs his comrades.

The three charge the men without hesitation.

“Huh?” The leader is momentarily stunned by the sudden charge, before an angry cat launches at his face and claws like knives rip through his left cheek as he tries to duck out of the way. “Ah shit!” He squeals in pain.

Bandit A tries to kick away the chicken that has charged him with reckless abandon, but Aria simply jumps over his leg and while concentrating as much of her spiritual energy into her feet as possible, swings around and brings her right foot into Bandit A’s shin. Bandit A screams in pain as he crumples to the ground.

Aria steadies her round body that she is not used to maneuvering like this, with a light flap of her wings. Before landing safely on the ground.

Bethesda has opted for a straightforward approach, with his more powerful body, he simply punched Bandit B in the stomach as hard as he could, it was enough to send him crashing backwards into the wall.

Aria hops up over Bandit A’s head and lifts her right foot upwards preparing to finish him off with an axe kick to his head that is now within range.

“Don’t kill them!” Dominus calls out from the stairs, where he has remained while watching the carnage unfold. Aria aborts her axe kick and the other two also let up on the enemy.

The leader is leaning against the window they entered from, trying to stem the bleeding of his cheek all the while glaring at the animals.

“Go now!” Dominus roars, “While you still can, and spread the word, that we the legendary warriors, have claimed this fort.”

Bandit A and B have had enough and have already dived out the window and started limping away. The leader however, “Fuck you!” and pulls out a gun.

Catalin does not know what manner of artifact or weapon the leader has seized upon, but he can tell from the man’s sudden confidence and mannerism that it should be a dangerous one. As such, he wasted no time bolting forward and slashing the man’s achilles heel. The leader does not have a chance to aim the gun as he is too busy putting both his hands to the ground to stop himself from falling over onto his face.

On his hands and knees, with his face pointing downwards, the last breath he takes is while watching a merciless black cat casually slash his throat open.

It does not take very long for the man who is writhing on the ground while suffocating in his own blood, to stop moving and lose consciousness. The four of them stare at the dead man and then Aria speaks up, “Hey Dominus, Helen does not need to see this.”

“Agreed, Bethesda take him outside and find a place to dump his body. Just be sure to search him for anything useful before you return.”

Bethesda sighs and then drags the man out the window, with surprisingly minimal effort and just in time too. Not a moment after he disappeared out the window, Helen is coming down the stairs.

“Helen you were supposed to wait upstairs.”

“Sorry, it just sounded like you guys were done.” She eyes the large pool of blood on the ground. “It also looks like you gave them a good beating.”

“Ah yes, yes we did.” Dominus chuckles nervously, “I don’t think they will be back anytime soon.”

“Well that’s good news.” She says smiling.

“Tell me Helen, where can we go to acquire some food and other supplies?”

“Normally you would go to the supermarket…” Helen pauses for a moments thought, “But, I’m guessing you guys don’t have any money.”

“Money?”

“Yeah you use it to buy stuff.”

“And what can you buy with it?”

“Anything, really.”

“So it’s like some kind of standard for trading?”

“I guess.”

“Well you are right in assuming that we do not have any ‘money’. But we are not normal people, we are warlords. So we will simply conquer this supermarket and pillage it.”

Bethesda just returned, “Hey Dominus, he only had three things on him. This brown leather satchel, this metal object I assume to be a weapon that he tried to use earlier and then there’s this.” He places a small vial on the nearby counter and unscrews the lid.

Dominus goes over to inspect it, “What it is it?”

“Not sure, it looks like it could be some kind of alchemic ingredient?”

But it is Helen that provides the answer, “That’s cocaine. My sister uses it a lot.”

This got Catalin’s interest, “You have a sister?”

“Yes.”

“Is she cute?”

“Kindof, I think.”

“How old is she?”

“Twelve.”

“Tell me Helen, what is this cocaine.” Bethesda asks.

“Huh, well it’s drugs of course?”

“Drugs?”

“Yeah, you sniff it up and then you go all weird and loopy. My sister says it makes you really happy.”

“Sounds like opium.” Bethesda finally reaches a conclusion.

“Okay and what about this then.” Dominus is inspecting the brown leather wallet and has opened it up to reveal some interestingly marked papyrus.

“That’s money. You use it to buy stuff.”

“Oh! Can we buy anything useful with this?”

“No I don’t think so, it’s very little money.”

“Never mind then. So lastly, what is this metal object, Bethesda seems to think that it’s a weapon of some kind.”

“Yes, that’s right, it’s a gun.”

“A gun?”

“Yes. You point this end of it at someone and pull the trigger,” she demonstrates as she explains, “and a bullet will come out really fast and kill the person if it hits him.”

“So it’s like a really powerful crossbow? Interesting. Alright, Bethesda! Make me some me guns!” Bethesda rolls his eyes as he takes the gun Dominus indicates and starts examining it.

“Aria and I will go with Helen to scout this ‘supermarket’ in the meantime and see what kind of defenses they have. As for Catalin-” Dominus is interrupted by the sound of a certain cat falling of the counter behind him.

Everyone in the room looks over to the floor where Catalin is now lying on his side. His four paws are stretched out twitching around as if he is running on an imaginary surface and he has a rather stupid grin on his face.

Dominus then notices the now empty vial standing on the counter. “That damn cat.”