The roller rink was cold on the inside. The Fall air made everything feel unnaturally damp and cold; there wasn't a cloud or a snowflake to be seen, but it was frigid as winter. The nights of Topeka were nipping while the days were scorching.

Priscilla expected at least a sliver of warmth, since she was sheltered, but it seemed even colder in the dark. Like she had been shut in a freezer.

Luckily, there wasn't any broken glass by the door, but ancient candy wrappers and empty bullets littered the floor. Priscilla wondered what in the name of St. Bernard could have happened there.

Conner flicked on the light. A lonely bulb flickered on, spitting out old yellow light.

Priscilla and Conner stood on checkered tile in the lobby. It felt like ice. A desk with shelves that held a few roller skates lined up on the left wall. The door closest to them on the right had a faded sign that read roller rink. No street shoes allowed past this point. The door a little farther ahead read party room. A door on the far wall read employees only. A red cubby with a few abandoned human shoes sat next to it.

"Let's look around and see if they're here." Priscilla announced, piercing the silence like a knife.

"My guess is that they're in that employees only room." Conner said.

They checked there first. Priscilla took extra caution not to step on any glass or old, ugly scraps of unknown material.

Conner flicked on the lights in the employees only room as well. The lights tinkled on for a second, but they died out. In the brief seconds of clarity Priscilla could see lockers, a few couches and a refrigerator, but no one was there.

They tried the party room. Same result, but there was a decomposing rat under the table.

Finally they tried the roller rink. It was big and cavernous. There were two windows to let light in, but it didn't help much. Priscilla could tell there was a roller rink and a disco globe, but it was too dim to see any details. A mural on one wall depicted a smiling cartoon human with tall yellow hair and sunglasses giving a thumbs up. A speech bubble once read: Rollerblading rocks! But rollerblading had been scratched out and someone had written feline rights instead.

Conner tried the light. "I really hope it stays on . . . " He muttered.

A single light bulb turned on, but it soon popped and glass shattered on the floor.

"Okay. Don't step over there." Conner said.

Priscilla pulled out her keys. On them was a cute little flash light. "I forgot I had this." She clicked it on. It wasn't very bright, but they could see a few feet in front of them. "Better than nothing."

They searched the big room. It was filled with all sorts of stuff. They even found part of a leg bone, though they weren't sure if it was from a dog or not.

Just as they were about to give up and Priscilla was turning to leave, the beam of her flashlight fell on a flash of orange, but it was gone quickly.

"Did you see that?" Priscilla whispered.

"Yeah!" Conner said.

Priscilla searched the area with her little flashlight, but she couldn't find anything.

"We know you guys are here." Conner said loudly. It echoed in the dark room. "We're right on time."

"Turn that dumb light off. It doesn't help anyways." Victoria hissed. "Your eyes will adjust to the dark."

Priscilla clicked off the light. It was pitch dark for a second, but soon she could see two figures crawl out from behind a couch in the corner she hadn't noticed before.

"Creepy place . . . Do you guys live here?" Conner asked.

"We don't live here," Victoria said sharply, "we just come here when we need to be away from dogs. And it isn't that bad once you realize the human ghost is just a superstition."

"It's pretty cold though . . . " Joe said. He had a cute green and white scarf around his neck and he was trembling.

Priscilla could see better after a while. Victoria was scowling and Joe was looking at the floor.

"Well, we can't talk forever. Conner and me have a curfew. Can we get talking about the Feline Rights Republic?" Priscilla asked.

"Yes. Take a seat." Victoria gestured to the couch.

"Umm, no thanks. We'll just take the floor." Priscilla said.

Victoria and Joe took the couch. It looked pretty comfortable, but Priscilla didn't trust the smell.

"About six years ago, when Joe was eight and I was twelve," Victoria started, "we worked for the FRR. Our parents were dead and they had been taking care of us for five years. We had a pretty normal childhood with them, but after a while they wanted us to go on missions. They were really simple, but still; we were helping the FRR. We didn't understand back then how terrible they were. One day they told us they would be testing a new serum on Joe. They hadn't tested it before on a living thing. It was supposed to give him the power to breathe underwater." Joe's eyes were dark as he stared at the floor. "After giving him the serum they would force him underwater to see if it worked. We refused to go on with the experiment and tried to escape. They caught us anyways and gave Joe the serum. It worked, but it gave him plenty of other abilities. On the other hand, the FRR wanted to punish me with another serum that hadn't been tested. It was called the death serum, but it didn't work. The purpose of it was to lower your body temperature and freeze you to death, but I got ice powers instead. We were able to escape through the sewer. We've lived in the city part of Topeka ever since."

It was quiet for a while. They were waiting for Victoria to say something more, perhaps like It was the most horrible time of our lives. We were wrong to trust those sinister beasts.

"The FRR makes such a bad reputation for us cats." Joe said quietly.

"You heard our side. What's your story?" Victoria asked. "You guys have flame powers, right?"

"Yeah." Conner said. "A few weeks ago, we went to go check out the FRR lab."

"Why would you do that? A couple of you dogs would get shot within twenty yards. It's suicide"

"It was Pricilla's idea."

"Hey," Priscilla said, elbowing him. "You agreed to come with me."

"Well you couldn't go by yourself." Conner said. "Anyways, we went to the lab and it exploded."

"Wait, what?" Joe said, sounding alarmed. "It just exploded?"

Priscilla nodded. "Yep. It glowed red for a second, then it all just popped and a giant wave of fire hit everything within a few miles."

"How did you guys survive?" Joe asked. His gold eyes shimmered in the dark.

"We aren't sure." Conner said. "It must have been like in the super hero movies where they get get their powers from a radioactive blast. We got burned pretty bad, but our fur grew back quickly."

"Some of the FRR cats must have survived," Priscilla said. "We saw some cats with lightning powers robbing a bank. We tried to stop them, but they got away."

"Who says they're FRR cats?" Victoria said.

"We aren't sure, but it seems to make sense. We got fire powers and the FRR cats got lightning powers. They must have been significantly closer to whatever made the blast. Fire comes after lightning strikes." Priscilla said.

"Alright. What are you guys planning on doing about the lightning cats?" Victoria asked. "You wouldn't ask to come talk with us if you didn't plan on doing anything about the cats."

What were they going to do about the cats? Priscilla hadn't thought of that before. Should they try to stop them? If the were from the Feline Rights Republic, it would be dangerous to leave them in the city. And the police couldn't take care of them, even before when the didn't have cryptic powers.

"We mostly just wanted information." Conner said.

"Actually," Priscilla started, weaving one of her crazy ideas, "I've considered stopping these cats. If they are the FRR, the police and the army don't stand a chance against them. They could barely keep them at bay before they had powers. But when Conner and I fought them at the bank, we won."

"We didn't win." Conner said. "They got away and we ended up in jail."

"True. But we stopped them from taking the money. That's more than the police will ever do. What if we stopped them, once and for all? We could do it! We could rid Topeka of the FRR!"

"That's crazy." Conner said.

"I'm listening." Victoria said.

"There would need to be a lot of planning and work, but we could be . . . Heroes! And no one would ever have to know it was us! We could get costumes and-"

"Stop right there." Conner said. "Do you hear yourself? You sound crazy! This isn't like in the movies, this is real life! We can't go and be vigilantes! We can't live double lives, it's more complicated than that! You have school, I have school, the FRR isn't our problem! It's the governments!"

"It will be our problem if we don't take care of it soon! The Feline Rights Republic is a terrorist group. They'll attack anyone. The police don't have it under control." Priscilla said.

"She's right." Victoria said. "The FRR is not afraid to hurt the innocent. Joe and I have seen their crimes first hand."

"What makes you think we'll do any better?" Conner asked. "We're only teenagers."

"Teenagers with powers." Joe said quietly.

"Yes!" Priscilla said. "Imagine what we could do, especially if we learned how to use our powers. We kicked those kitties butts, and you didn't even know how to use your fire."

"Priscilla, you can't convince me this is a good idea. It isn't. We would get ourselves killed . . . Or worse." Conner said quietly.

"This isn't about just the two of us, Conner. I'm not going to stand by and watch the Feline Rights Republic tear down Topeka. I'm going to stop them, with or without your help." Priscilla threatened. Her eyes glowed like embers.

It was terribly silent and cold for a long time. Conner was pushing around his emotions like a leaf caught in a tempest. What Priscilla proposed was absurd, but he didn't want her getting hurt. He couldn't let her face the FRR by herself. He didn't want to loose anyone else he cared for. He wouldn't let her get hurt if he could help it. Conner loved Priscilla more than he feared the FRR.

"I can't let you do that."

"What?" Priscilla asked, bewildered.

"I can't let you face the FRR by yourself. I hate you for coming up with something so stupid, but I won't leave you to fend for yourself." Conner said.

It was quiet till Victoria spoke up. "I'm glad this is settled, but you guys should leave. It's getting a little late, and if you can't already tell, we don't like dogs on our territory."

"She's right." Conner said. "I'll take you home."

They started to leave the spooky rink when Joe said: "We'll be at school if you need us, but keep the harassment to a minimum, okay?"