Dream Sep 11 2018

I was a boy, and Dad was being a shit lately.  He was drunk a lot and didn't think about others' emotions, and Mom often complained to me about it since I understood and also had to live with Dad.

Well, Dad decided one day to have a party, and it involved going to a nearby park, where we all went on a ride.  It ended up going up onto a high roof that scared me, but there was a way down, and a nearby wild bobcat lured me down it before hiding.

Later, I don't recall how, but I ended up on that roof again, but trapped.  There were markings in eight directions: shorter for the cardinal, longer for between, and after I looked for a few moments, I figured out that if I called along it, my voice would be amplified.

Well, when I called out, nobody answered, but a few cats appeared.

I remembered how the bobcat helped me, and I started meowing along the cardinal directions, because the others weren't good, for some reason.  I missed a lot because I was terrified, but eventually an army of cats appeared, and having them nearby calmed me.

I explained that I couldn't get down, and then there was a montage.  They were training me in a mystical art (I forget the name, but all cats could use it), humans just never realized.

They told me that it was nearly impossible to use during the day because it involved shadows, but at the end of the montage, I was able to transform the cats temporarily into statues of greek or roman warriors, standing in a heroic pose, like they were charging into battle without shields.

My concentration faded when I heard the voice of a childhood friend calling to me, so I hurried to the edge, where she declared that I'd abandoned her, and she couldn't take it, so she was leaving me.  I got emotional, told her I wasn't stuck on purpose, and she told me to jump, she'd catch me.  It was so high, I didn't want to hurt her.  She got angry, and the mail for me she was holding, she threw upwards.

I saw that I was accepted into a good college, and other good things in the mail.  All sorts of good things, but what moved me the most was that she was ugly-crying as quietly as she could.

I used the power from the cats and formed a tower out of those letters that I was able to climb down, and we hugged tight.

The cats' ignored me for a time, and I was later taken and trained by Hunters because apparently, I was one.  I came back to my hometown with other Hunters (not sure why), to discover that my friend was not only still alive, but it'd only been a few days for her.  My father gave up drinking, and other people from my childhood had become better people, or at least I understood them better.  Mom had passed, so I was sad about that—that might have been what prompted the change in Dad.

I was welcomed back by the community with open arms, and sought the cats to thank them for their help so long ago.  During my search, I found a few books about cats, and learned they could take a humanoid form.  They were aliens!  I learned their preferred combat tactics, but thought little of them because I didn't think I ever wanted to fight the ones who saved me.

My search took me to the water's edge, and strange UFOs appeared, blue and white and covered in glowy orbs.

Water beings came out and a short battle happened before it stopped in a draw and the decision that instead of fighting, we should play.  This was after their leader flung several people and the leader of the cats into space.

They used the same art as the cats, but their limitation was the water and they had super strength.

To play, they made waves, and by the time I surfaced after what felt like an eternity, nobody else had but other Hunters.

I demanded to know where the humans were, and the water people asked what the big deal was, the strong should survive.

I got angry.  I told them that I was a human before I became a Hunter, and these were the people who raised me.  I was pissed that they would imply lesser status to the humans, and led a charge into the water to rescue the humans.  We found all but one, each one encapsulated in a bubble.  I used my cat-taught powers freely to save everyone, and by the time we surfaced, the water people had left.  A cat on the shore informed me that they had my childhood friend, and I gathered a group, ready to go in and save her.

The community I grew up in, several promised to take care of things while I was gone, along with a few Hunters.  I decided a small group to get back my friend was best: a techie, a Hunter, a socialite girl who was chipper and went with the flow, and a cat who chose to take a human form, and warned me that using the power in water might alert the leader of the water people.

We all swam, and I sped us using the power, believing it was a race against time.

We arrived at the home of the water people, a military base.

Cue another montage of sneaky stuff.  Disguises, combat...  I remember one scene where we had to disguise as dancers, and the cat wiped dirt off on a cape he assumed was for girls, so he handed it to me because he thought I was a girl (and apparently I had chosen to disguise as one).  I snickered when I realized the girls had a simpler cape, but went with it and joined the dosey-do dance until one of my allies got my attention, and I snuck away, and then into a back room to flick a switch.

A video came on.

I heard as a female cat declared to the water people that it was time to end their peace, that a human had taken their powers and was on the attack with a small group, and it was time to re-learn the art of guerrilla warfare.

I was being told to turn it off, but I couldn't stop listening, not until I saw the water person who was manning the projector and music was staring at me over the side of his cubicle.  I waved at him and fled.

Another scene that stuck out was one where I could see scanners that found the cat leader and others who were floating in space in bubbles.  I used my power to bring them back down to town gently.

The next scene that stuck out, I was confronted by a male cat, the cat leader in human form, who had been a wild bobtail before I became a Hunter, held an orb he said held my childhood friend.  He said he'd give it to me, but only if I could best his general, now that he'd allied with the water people.

The female cat who had been speaking in the video stepped out, carrying a polearm.  My allies were defeated, and I was the last one, the only one who made it to that long sewer-like maze.

I wanted to object, to say that I couldn't, but the leader cat said he found the book I'd been reading, I should be fine.

Before I could answer that I was only reading for curiosity, the female charged me.  I barely avoided her, using the steps I learned from the book.

Cut to the end of the fight.  We're both exhausted and I'm pretty sure I can't dodge the next thing.  She is still able to stand straight, and I'm shaking.  The male cat starts to clap slowly, then pushes the orb he says has my friend in it towards me.  I see more than one shadow.  I open it, and find more than one 'egg'.  All are abnormal.  I demand to know what's going on.

He says he included the things she made with the art, saying that when they taught her, she did strange things with it that they didn't anticipate.  She used it without pre-planning how she wanted it to end up.

I took the orb and its contents home.  People welcomed me, and I found it'd been over a year.  I was the owner of a flourishing business, and negotiations were opening with the water people.  Cats had taught more people their art, and it led to prosperity (they didn't teach anything powerful).

I let everyone show me all that happened in my absence before I opened the eggs from the orb.

The pieces she made with the strange powers they taught were nothing more than strange shapes.  I didn't understand, and when I finally freed my old friend, she was... different.

Thinner, with a more lithe build that hid muscle underneath.  She woke and remembered nothing, not even her own name, and a nearby cat who the leader-cat from before sent with me put a plastic bag over her head.  I flung the so-called helper cat away and yanked the bag off.

My friend smiled at me, and something clicked in my mind.  I aimed my palm at her and used the cat power, and she went flying, to land limply several yards away, with a serene expression on her face.

Cut to the credits scene.  One of the strange shapes of art she made that was in the orb with her is present on a dark surface.  It starts to brown as a male voice says that steaks are done, and she prances into the room, no older than six.

The day is going well, with a steak breakfast, and her father takes her to work with him, where a disguised alien is trying to use his brain to plot a course through space, but it's too much for him, and he perishes.  She tries to use his daughter, but is stopped, and she loses her disguise.

She vows to teach the little girl the business, and drags her to a room, where she lays down strict rules before they enter.