In the Dark
A Thursday Prompt story
© 2025 by Walter Reimer

Prompt: serial

Rocket Rat and associated characters are ©  walt46



“Need to use the bathroom, Champ?” the older feline asked his son, the reflected glow of the screen some thirty feet away limning his gray tabby fur. His overcoat, his son’s jacket, and their hats sat on the unoccupied seat to his right. He gazed down at the kitten, a smile on his face.

“No, Dad,” Steve said, squirming in his seat as the pictures and sound on the screen faded. Newsreels bored him. “I just want it to hurry up and come on.”

His father chuckled. “Patience, Steve.” It was something he and his wife were trying to teach the seven-year-old. He was still in the “I want it now!” phase, though.

“Shh,” came a hissed entreaty as the newsreel ended and the first cartoon came on. This one was a short morality play about a rich man who had been assaulted by a thief and helped by a poor kid. The rich man learned a lesson and became more generous to the poor because of what he’d seen and heard.

The second cartoon was a great deal funnier, with the children and some adults laughing at the two antagonists beating themselves senseless over something to eat. The cartoon ended with the pair finally realizing that they could have saved themselves the trouble by simply sharing the food.

Steve fairly bounced around in his seat as the screen darkened, and lit back up to show the bird and mountain logo of Petrel Studios and a familiar orchestral fanfare. A few kids cheered as the iconic image of a rat in uniform appeared.

“Yay!” Steve said gleefully as the fourth chapter of Rocket Rat’s latest adventure, Lord Myu Strikes, began with a trailer that brought the audience up to speed on the story so far. Lord Myu, a heavyset lynx who had been driven from his usurped throne on the Moon with his two beautiful but dangerous female minions, Kat and Nip, had been plotting to attack the Earth as revenge for Rocket Rat spoiling his plans.

The preceding three chapters had disclosed some of the bad guy’s plans, attacking railroads, public buildings and industrial plants with his advanced weaponry, while hired saboteurs tried to attack the Global Police, the organization that backed Rocket Rat.

Two subplots involved the efforts by Kat and Nip to undermine Lord Myu, concealing their intentions by slavish devotion to their master, and efforts by the head of the Global Police’s scientific laboratories, the reformed mad genius (and the hero’s love interest) Dr. Jane Red Deer, to counter the bad guy’s machinations. The recap done, a brief fade out and fade in began this week’s episode.

In the darkened theater, nothing was impossible, and the audience went silent as the story unfolded.

Steve’s father felt himself sitting up a little straighter in his seat as Kat and Nip appeared on screen. The two lynx femmes were sultry, curved in all the right spots, and wearing just enough to pique the interest of the Hays Office but not enough to have the film series banned. It was one of the reasons he would accompany Steve to the movies every Saturday.

He hoped his wife would never find out.

Steve sat transfixed as the series’ brawny hero, Captain Rod Stone (Rocket Rat’s actual name) fought the bad guys after discovering their lair. The kitten would occasionally shadow box, paws curled into fists, as the rodent traded blows with one minion after another until the last saboteur fell. He then hauled the guy up by the front of his shirt, slapped his face to wake him up, and interrogated him.

The guy was spilling the beans when the picture cut to a small tube extending from around a corner, held in a slim feminine paw. It jerked as if someone had blown violently through the tube.

A dart appeared in the bad guy’s neck, and he slumped (unconscious, not dead) in Rocket Rat’s grasp. The rodent saw the dart, turned to see its source, and dropped the man so he could pursue.

It was Nip; both lynxesses liked pointy things like daggers, but the younger minion was very adept at poisons. Steve’s father recalled one episode where she had tried to kill Lord Myu with a poisoned meal, but to her disappointment he’d been taking antidotes.

Nip got into a car driven by Kat and the two sped off; Rocket Rat pulled on his flying helmet and the rocket pack on his back belched flame and smoke as he began to pursue them. He took a running jump at the camera, which cut quickly to a shot of him flying.

All the kids in the audience cheered.

The two lynxesses bickered as Kat drove, it becoming apparent that Nip had been told to aim at the hero and not the minion. Nip drew her blaster pistol and hung partway out of the car window, shooting at Rocket Rat. Captain Stone drew his own blaster and returned fire, the picture cutting to show small explosions on either side of the car as Kat swerved.

“Hold still! I’m trying to get a good shot!” Nip shouted.

“Then maybe you should get out,” Kat said, taking her right foot off the gas pedal long enough to apply it to her sister’s derriere. The younger lynxes yelped and was propelled from the car, rolling in the grass before shaking it off and firing back at the receding car out of spite before shooting again at Rocket Rat.

One shot hit one of the rocket pack’s straps, causing the rodent to cartwheel; there was a closeup of his helmeted face and a quick cut to a fast-approaching rock outcropping . . .

And the fanfare came up with the legend, Next Episode: The Mountain of Death, and the kids all cheered.

The main feature was an adventure film, but Steve’s father knew that all his son would be talking about for the next week was what he thought the next chapter would bring as Rocket Rat continued his crusade against evil.


end