01 - A Tale to Tell
Hmm. Well, where to begin? I suppose I should start with my name. Just call me CeeCee, everyone else does. It is my civilian name, altered from my "hero" name, Cats Cradle. As of now, I am a proud hero and protector of Paragon City, number once magnet for trouble of insane varieties on the planet.
Like most, I didn't intend to become a hero. It just sort of happened. Unlike most, I did have a choice. Looking back it wasn't the smartest thing I've done. I don't trust the motivations of my.. I guess you could call them my employers. You have to understand though. I was desperate. I hated who I was. I lacked motivation to grow into who I would become. My life was going nowhere, and I didn't care enough to do anything about it.
The offer was too good to be true. A chance live a dream. Two dreams actually. One was my salvation, and the other was a childish fantasy. My life has become more dangerous than I ever imagined, and I am being used for an unknown purpose. Is it wrong to know I would do it all again.. for an impossible dream? I know I would. I couldn't live that other life and be that other me. I couldn't keep pretending. I suppose I can say this so easily because I truly don't know where this path will lead me. It is still possible to delude myself into thinking these "people" have the best of intentions. No matter what happens.. I have sold my soul to them.
I only hope I don't come to regret it.
I am CeeCee, aka Cats Cradle, and this is my tale. This is the day I became who I am now.
It was impossibly dark, or maybe there just wasn't anything to see. She had the strange sense of nothingness surrounding her. A true nothingness. Not even empty space. There didn't seem to be something for their to be empty space in.
She seems to be waking up.
She felt cold and tired, as if all the heat and energy had been sucked right out of her. Every part of her body ached. There didn't seem to be a single cell that didn't throb with at least a dull trace of pain. She felt as if she were laying down, but there was nothing there to lay on. A strange terror gripped her. Had she made the right choice? Her head was still too busy spinning to make sense of anything.
Relax, the process was very stressful. Try not to move too much. You should feel better in a bit.
She mumbled incoherently and put her hand in front of her face. Despite the lack of light, she was able to see it, but nothing else was visible around her. "You've.. you did it," she said as she looked down at the rest of her body, "You really.. uughh!"
I told you not to move!
"Yeah.. good advice.."
Seriously, don't move. Your pain is more than just physical. Things are still settling.
"Sorry, I just didn't really believe it till now. You really did it, but why did you leave my-"
Hey hey hey! Language. This is a KIDS show.
"..What?"
Don't worry about it. If at some future date you find you are unhappy we can complete the change. Let's not go to far with this though, okay? You might find you like it.
"If you say so, but the whole reason I accepted this insane offer was to get away from it."
Yeah yeah, angst and so forth. You people put too much stock into your physical forms.
"Ugh.. you suck. Can I speak to someone else? Preferably of the non mocking female variety?"
Nope. I'm all you get. Tough noogies. Try moving now.
She let out a groan and tensed her muscles and stretched her limbs. Everything was still stiff and hurt, but at least she could move without extreme pain. The drastic sense of fatigue had not left her, but she was warm now. Just then, a long and thick black tail with a white tip twitched its first twitches. Her head jerked back so she could look at her own [censored].
"Why do I have a tail..?" she asked hesitantly.
Oh that. We figured you would enjoy that. We poked around a bit and..
"What?!"
Oh come on! Try and deny it. Say it. Say, "Miss Mysterious floating voice.. I so do hate being an adorable cat girl! Change me back!"
Her mouth opened for a moment, but it closed a second later. She let out a sigh and crossed her arms over her chest. Those black large cat ears pinned back against her head when the detached feminine voice started to laugh.
I thought so. Now are you going to stop being a stuffy grumpy puss pants and listen?
02 - A Tale to Tell
You get all that..?
"I think so," she said hesitantly.
...Alright, what do you need me to go over?
"Well, I get the general idea, but.. how?"
How what?
"You said you messed around with my soul to give me these powers.. but how does that work?"
Look, there is no explanation I could give that wouldn't just make you ask more questions. The problem with "spiritual powers" in humans is most of you are so weak and unaware. Without awareness you can't recognize what little is there. This can be gotten around if you had sufficient power. Chances are you would just stumble on it. Without either you get stuck in the dark groping for a light switch. Some of you get lucky and find it.. others spend their entire lives looking. Your race is kinda screwed. Even magic had to be taught to you first. You would have never found out otherwise.
"...Oh."
So.. YEAH.. anyway. We opened your eyes a bit and gave you as much of a boost as we dared. You've got it coming out the ears now, kid. At least compared to most. I gave you the basics of what to do so you can control it. The rest will come with time. This is as much as I can tell you. Going much deeper would be kind of pointless for someone on your level of existence. Just know that what we did works.
She let out a soft sigh, "Ok.. what was that about air element? I can control air?"
Not as such. You can't control air, but you are aligned to give your power aspects of it. Kinda the same thing. If you don't turn out to be a total loser you should be able to fly and slice through just about anything. Maybe some fancy air wavey stuff. IF you aren't a loser.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence.."
Oh no problem. I'm here to help!
"I can tell."
Oh dear look at the time. It is time for me to let you loose upon the cruel uncaring world! My poor child.. may you far well in the world beyond. Look out below.
"Wait a secoooooaaaaaaaaaahhh!"
The nothingness melted away revealing the real world. It was the beautiful Paragon City. Skyscrapers were all around her. Not to far away she could see a statue of gigantic proportions depicting a man holding the world on his back. Directly below she could see a hospital. Soon she realized she was plummeting toward this hospital. Panic filled her being, but pain replaced it when she clipped the edge of the roof and knocked a sizable chunk free. She continued plummeting till the ground in front of the Atlas Park hospital broke her fall. Shortly after the chunk fell beside her.
"Dammit.." she coughed, "could have at least given me some cloths..."
Ahh.. that bit never gets old.
An elderly doctor stood just outside the doors, staring in horror at the scene before him. He took a step toward the girl but turned around and rushed inside, "Get a team out here fast! I don't know what happened, but we have a hero down!" She let out a small groan as she let the world slip away.
"I thought you said "she" was a hero," a young nurse sighed.
There was a soft and periodic beep from a machine keeping track of the catgirl's heart rate. She was strapped to a strange looking hospital bed. The restraints themselves were specifically designed to handle heroes of titanic strength. Electricity flowed through the restraints, strengthening the metal in them. She looked highly uncomfortable, but at least she was dressed, even if it was just a hospital gown.
The elderly doctor only gave a shrug, "At the time I thought she was. Look at her. She fits the bill. Strong and resilient as well as strange looking."
"Kinda short for a hero though. Cute too. Especially for one with such a big.."
"I heard that.." that catgirl mumbled. Upon recieving an odd stare from the doctor the nurse shuffled out of the room. The catgirl strained uselessly against the bed, "Is this really necessary? I feel like I got hit by a bus you know." The doctor nodded as he looked over the beeping monitor, "Afraid so. You aren't a registered hero. Normally we don't arrest anyone that looks like a catgirl under suspicion of criminal activity, but you did drop from the sky and take a chunk out of our building." He made a soft hmming noise and tapped the girl's IV bag a bit.
"Are you still in any pain?
"I'm fine, thanks.. Feel sleepy though."
A blond skirt wearing hero burst into the room not a moment later. She was in red and blue with gold shoulder pads and a gold belt. A strange sword sat at her hip, dangling from the belt. She had an air of confidence and authority about her. The friendly smile greeting new heroes to Atlas was nowhere to be seen, "Nothing on her at all..?"
The doctor turned toward Ms. Liberty, "Nothing. Whoever she is she isn't a citizen of Paragon City. She doesn't look like she is a villain though."
Ms. Liberty looked to the girl again, "Looks can be deceiving. Do you have a name, girl?"
"Mf.. haven't been this way long enough to get one.."
"Excuse me?"
"I got stuffed into this and fell out of the sky. Then ouch. Big ouch."
"Alright then. I'll get a team to come transfer her to confinement shortly."
"Hey! Wait! I was telling the truth! Some crazy disembodied voice thought it would be funny to dump me in the sky!"
"Regardless, you are an unknown. You will be detained, questioned, and examined."
"E.. examined?!" the catgirl squeaked.
"Yes," the doctor spoke up, "I imagine to establish what and who you are."
You know, it might help if I poofed you up an identity first.
"Yes, THAT MIGHT HAVE HELPED!" the catgirl yelled at the ceiling.
"Who are you talking to..?" Ms. Liberty asked, startled.
"You mean.. you can't hear that..?"
Nope. Only you can hear me right now, sport. Enjoy sounding crazy!
Miss Liberty sighed and put her head in her hand, "Great, I got a crazy one. Why couldn't you have busted your butt on Brawler's hospital? Galaxy is pretty quiet. He could use the excitement."
Mwahahahahaa! *cough* Gahk... Ugh.. won't do that again.
Eeek!
If you read part 2 before you might want to read it again! I was.. very disappointed at the quality of the writing(still am a little disappointed). None of the story changed, but I did add in more detail. I think it is a more enjoyable read.
I'm going to try to keep all of these episodes as high quality as that one at the least, but hopefully I can do better.
Good story so far, glad it's back. 
Also, Happy Birthday!
It's been my birthday for three days!
>.>
Does that mean you're three years older?
It's cat years anyway. 
Don't we multiply by seven for cat/dog years?
YAY!
I remember most of the first one, might wanna make it a bit different.
Keep writing and I might get inspired to write...
The Prelude
A massive crash jolts everyone on stage.
"What was that?!" Jennifer yelped.
Cats Cradle rolled her eyes, "Oh don't mind that. Everyone is just in a panic. The Creator decided to start from the ground up."
WHAT?! You mean we have to go through all that crap again?
"No no.. This time we are jumping right into the action. The Creator realized that is why she lost the will to write the last one. Too much set up. This time I think we are doing a learn as you go thing."
Oh.. well.. I guess that is alright.
Jennifer whimpered softly, "Are we still all in it..?"
"Oh yeah yeah! They just changed my name and the story a bit to smooth things out. No one is losing a job. I don't think The Creator has enough money for lawyers to deal with our contracts.."
That's good. It is hard getting work as a disembodied voice. Also.. why are we calling the author The Creator?
"Author didn't have the same ring to it."
An explosion shakes the entire studio and a crewman runs across the stage while on fire. Soon after a camera flies across the room.
I see...
"Anyway," CC said shaking her head slightly, "The Creator was unhappy with a few things, and a complete rewrite became necessary. Almost the same story though, and I have a much better name if I say so myself."
Jennifer let out an exasperated sigh, "Where is John with our damn coffee?"
"I think he is on fire"