Unrecognizable

~Chapter Thirty-Four~

About a week and a half earlier...

It was decidedly not a beautiful night. Clouds covered the sky, and they were not holding back as torrential rain pounded down on a small cat, with the occasional flash of lightning and boom of thunder. Ugh, she was cold. And wet. And it had taken her forever to get away from Scar. He simply would not stop fussing over her. Oh, would she stop wondering off? Was she acting normal? Oh, would it kill her to just stay with Scar? It got very annoying very quickly. Jellie must've loved the attention, though. In Citrus's faded memories, she could very distinctly feel the absolute warmth towards the wizard that the cat felt.

It was disgusting.

Almost as disgusting as her fur being absolutely soaked in this rain.

Finally, she made it. Luckily, the bright Nether portal was like a beacon through the hazy rain. Leaping through the purple mist, Citrus landed in the Nether and shook her fur out. The portal always messed up her fur; it was quite annoying, actually. Not only did she have to deal with simply awful vertigo, but she had to worry about cleaning her fur after as well? Absolutely terrible. Plus, the Nether was just, so hot. Well, that made sense, but it didn't mean she had to like it. At least the rainwater nearly immediately evaporated. The one good thing to come of this.

It wasn't like Citrus herself cared about being too perfectly tidy, but surely it might get suspicious if Scar were to notice his generally lazy cat being all scuffed up. Oh, the things she did for this job.

Soon enough, Citrus made it back to her home, wet again. After brushing away bits and bobs with her tail, the button to let her in was soon uncovered. It was so simple, yet so effective. The cat would be surprised about the sheer lack of people discovering it-- zero-- if she hadn't witnessed the Hermits' level of competency several times firstpaw. It was sad. She pressed the button with her paw and leaped back to the floor, where the staircase revealed itself. After a quick glance to ensure no one was following her, and a quick shake to get some of the water out, the cat ducked into the bunker, which soon closed back up behind her.

Why were these stairs so long? Of course, Citrus had no trouble traveling down them-- she could see in the dark just fine, thank you-- but it was just an annoyance, to say the least. After what felt like hours, a bright glow shone from the bottom of the staircase, signifying that the lab was right there. And who should be waiting there but Sage, writing something in a notebook of his on the couch next to Jellie's old cell. Citrus jumped up onto the cell that used to hold that cat-- since then, she had been transferred to Mumbo's, as being solitary was probably boring. They weren't monsters, after all. Or, at least, Sage wasn't, given that it was his idea. Good for him. Citrus probably would've just left Jellie in there.

After quickly grooming down her fur as well as she could, the cat set her sights on Sage. "Hey, Sage," she called over to the definitely-not-a-clone, who seemingly had not noticed her presence in the slightest. "Sage, Sage, what're you doing? Hey, hey, Sage." Her cooing was likely incredibly annoying to everyone but her. Especially to Sage. Either he was ignoring her or he was just oblivious, for he neglected to even acknowledge her. "Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaage." Having decidedly no other options, the cat walked gingerly up to the edge of the cell and leaped onto the arm of the couch. She then proceeded to whack Sage in the face with her-- still slightly wet-- paw.

"Jeez!" Haha, there it is. Sage turned to her, annoyance present on every feature of his face. "If you must know, I'm strategizing. You know, because I have actually important things to do," he explained, wiping the water off of his nose. Then, a small smile crept onto his face. "This should, in theory, be easier than I thought. It turns out, these Hermits are all idiots." Sage sat back, seemingly pleased with himself. If everyone had his self-confidence, the world would probably be burning down constantly. "I just need to take out one, and the rest should follow suit."