Bounty Cats (Reboot)

Book One: Chapter 8

Blinding fluorescent light assaulted Rei's senses as she gradually clawed her way back to consciousness, her eyelids fluttering sluggishly. A soft, rhythmic beeping filled her ears–the unmistakable tone of a hospital monitor.

As she blinked groggily, a striped, equine face swam into focus above her, the zebra hybrid nurse offering a placating smile.

"Easy there, Miss Young. You're safe now. Just try to relax."

Instinctively, Rei attempted to heave herself upright–only for a searing lance of pain to shoot through her skull. A strangled groan escaped her as she crumpled back against the starched sheets, one hand rising to gingerly probe the throbbing knot along her brow.

"Don't try to move too much yet," the nurse chided softly. "You took quite a nasty blow to the head."

Fragments of memory tricked back through the fog - the docks...the ambush...Baby Shark's monstrous, unstoppable form as he battered them aside like rag dolls...

Rei's ears flattened against her skull as dread coiled in the pit of her stomach. "L-Luna...where's my sister?"

As if summoned by her desperate plea, the tattered curtain parted, revealing Luna stood rigid beside Rally's hulking frame. Relief and chagrin warred across her delicate features as their eyes met.

Then, without preamble, she crossed the room in two strides and laid Rei out with a stinging slap across the cheek.

"You idiot!" Luna's words dripped with venom as she towered over Rei, ears pinned back, and tail lashing furiously. "We almost died because of your idiocy! That walking shark tank was going to splatter our brains across the docks!"

Rei recoiled as if struck again, her ears folding in shame and bruised jaw throbbing. "I... I underestimated him, I know..." she rasped, unable to meet her twin's blazing glare. "But you agreed to the plan, Luna! We had to act!"

"And look where acting got us!" Luna flung an accusing hand towards the myriad of monitors and IV lines snaking from Rei's battered form. "You in traction, and me thinking we were fish food..."

Pushing herself upright with gritted teeth, Rei fixed her sister with an anguished look. "So what? We just quit? Give up on the debt and our whole career?"

Luna seemed to deflate, shoulders slumping as resignation crept into her voice. "If that's the price we have to pay to stay alive..." She shook her head slowly, clasping Rei's trembling paw between both of hers. "I'd rather lose the spotlight than my life, sis."

Their eyes bored into each other, years of memories and unspoken emotions passing between them in that fraught gaze. Rei opened her mouth to protest–to plead, to bargain...

But Rally cleared his throat, the gravelly rumble putting an abrupt halt to the charged moment. "Easy there, kittens. Claws away."

He moved to stand beside the bed, his expression uncharacteristically somber as he regarded them. "Luna's got a point, Rei. You took one helluva beating, pulling that crazy stunt."

One massive hand settled on Rei's shoulder with surprising tenderness. "Mistakes are gonna happen in this line of work. Cost of doin' business and all that." He shrugged, the simple motion betraying the truth of too many past brushes with mortality.

"But she's right–you gotta know when to cut bait, too. Ain't no bounty worth your lives."

Rei's throat tightened. "I don't care. I whether die than live on the street without a future."

Luna's blue eyes widened. "Seriously, sis? Is that all you care about? Not even me?"

Rei glared at the marble floor below her bed, only giving her sister silence.