Jacob “Grimscar” Gregson Special: Reckoning with Roberto

One half-eaten robin. One head and tail of a squirrel. One fish, clearly stolen. One child's toy, played with and then stolen. One adult toy- He quickly dropped that one back in with the rest of the collection; somewhere out there, a lonely lady was not happy.

All this, plus more, barely fitting inside of a shoe box. The field agent could contend with a lot; superpowered villains, highly-trained assassins, insane elements from the weather to the Earth, and food poisoning (sometimes with literal poison). Roberto, however, was none of these; he was a bobcat. And once again, he was leaving these undesirables around Jacob's home, usually near the bed. It wasn't surprising, as Roberto was a wild animal and barely liked Jacob, despite him having saved the bobcat's life as a cub.

Jacob Orion Gregson, code-named “Grimscar”, field agent of S.U.I.T.S, had a problem. The problem weighed about forty pounds, was two years and two weeks old, loved to growl deeply and yowl intensely, and formed a habit of jumping up on top of anything between one and ten feet, including Jacob himself. For nearly as long as Roberto had been alive, he was hell to deal with after Jacob brought him home. Even today, as both matured physically, Jacob wondered if the bobcat even tried to understand basic boundaries and behaviors.

“Roberto,” Jacob started as the sitting animal looked between him and the shoebox, “I thought we had an understanding.” He pushed the box a few inches towards Roberto, who growled at it. “Don't start with me, Bobby”, Jacob warned, using the nickname that let the bobcat know how much trouble he was in. “Let us start with the animals you keep leaving in pieces inside my home.”

“First,” he explained, sifting through the items and pulling out bones, “dead things do not belong in a house, an apartment, a suite, or anywhere inside of a building...aside from a mortuary or even a crypt, but this place is neither of that.” He dropped the bones and lifted the squirrel head. “Secondly, if you're not going to finish what you killed, at least leave it somewhere outside where you can get it. I cannot, and will not, eat your food!” Setting back the bodiless squirrel, he then pulled out the doll. “This,” he proclaimed, “is not food, and it belongs to someone else. Why you took it is beyond me!”

Letting the doll fall back into the box, he reached for the adult toy, hesitated, and pulled away. “That...thing...I don't know what possessed you to take that, either!” After several seconds of silence, he then said quietly, “How you got it is the more pressing concern...”

He then pushed the box away and knelt closer to Roberto's face. Roberto growled again, and stood up on all four legs. “Sit down!” Jacob ordered. Roberto licked his fangs, but followed the order. “For almost two years, I have done my best to provide a home for you. A home, away from gangs of teenagers that have no problem attacking creatures that can't defend themselves! Creatures that, in turn, were turned out of an animal shelter because of those said gangsters! I understand that you are wild, a predator made for the outside environment. I understand that you can get as easily frustrated as me, if not more so, and you have a tendency to lash out worse than me! I mean, look at the scars you gave me!”

He rolled up his sleeves, revealing the claw marks that looked almost as fresh as the day they were delivered. Roberto looked upon the scars, leaning forward to smell them. Jacob continued:

“Those girls had neither discipline nor common sense to not destroy a shelter; they did it as a 'terf ownership', caring not for the people working there nor for the animals taken there. When it burned, the animals were released into the streets; I barely got anyone out of there. Days later, I find you as a cub, being kicked around and harassed. I stepped in and tried to get you out without a fuss. I had to break a few fingers, give a few bruises, and disarm one of the girls using a knife. You hear me? A teenage girl thinking she was tougher than the baby bobcat she was kicking around decided that my life was worth less than her fun, and she ended up in the hospital...and I was restraining myself! After I got you away, you bit me and scratched me; I refused to hurt you in kind because you were scared and angry, and I was just another tormentor in your eyes.”

“For months, I nursed you back to health and prowess, and I endured more bites and scratches for all that time. When you finally stopped doing such, mainly because I implement a light form of discipline that is fair and, I thought, encouraging, you decided to turn my home into a wasteland. Dirt tracking, fecal matter, piss stains – again, I thought the discipline would take. I even let you outside everyday, from when I leave for work to when I let you back inside after I come home.”

Jacob leaned back, folding his legs into a cross-sitting position. “All I wanted from you was to abide by a few simple rules for a simple household. Don't bring the outside inside, don't attack me from behind when I'm training, do not follow me to work-”

He couldn't help but laugh a little at how that event turned out. Roberto had tailed him all the way to the S.U.I.T.S main headquarters, and kept tailing him for days. When he felt the time was right, he rushed past the doors, outmaneuvered security, and actually got to the stairs. From there, it was just a matter of picking out Jacob's scent, and heading to the floor where the scent was strongest (made easy for the bobcat, as Jacob never uses elevators). By the trade known only amongst cat-kind, Roberto had opened the door, snuck inside and onto the floor, and proceeded to find Jacob, locating him in the men's room, using a urinal. In true predator fashion, he pounced at the back of Jacob Gregson. The hunter had been hunted, and he had the new wounds on top of the old ones to prove it. His boss was laughing too hard at all this to get angry with Jacob, just giving him a few days off to take care of the cat and the cuts.

“- especially on Mondays, and do not bring me things that you find!” The laugh from earlier did little to deter his disappointment, and he sighed heavily. Roberto, meanwhile, watched him and made no noise. Maybe he understood that Jacob was tired from a long day of work, combined with all these items that he put around the home, and the obvious frustration at the discovery.

For a couple minutes, there was that silence again. While Roberto operated by silence, as any good predator would tell you (they actually wouldn't, as that would defeat the purpose), this heavy air became discomforting, and the big cat stood up slowly. When Jacob didn't react, the bobcat moved quietly to the crossed legs of the human, and when no reaction happened, he placed his face against the flesh of the knee. He started rubbing, little by little starting at the left cheek, then expanding to the rest of the head and then, afterwards, adding the neck.

Jacob, in turn, anticipated this, though he expected Roberto to try to actually get into his lap, usually with the aid of his claws. This was different; it felt as if Roberto was actually trying to get his attention, and doing it in the least painful way possible. He still felt upset, and contemplated pushing the cat away. But he reached out and actually started scratching the animal's ears. “Roberto,” he cooed, “what am I to do with you?”

Another week of work came and went, but unlike before, Jacob was not attacked unexpectedly by Roberto, nor awoke to different items of interest within his suite. He had worried before when he didn't see Roberto immediately after coming home, but the cat would always come to the door, and give a signature scratching sound that would alert Jacob and get the door opened. At first, Roberto avoided him, but then he started coming to Jacob after a few days, and did the same rubbing technique applied on the day of the intervention. Each time he added his neck to the rubbing, Jacob would reach down and start scratching behind the ears. It appeared that peace was reestablished.

Jacob awoke to a loud rapping at his door. It was his day off, and the time was around seven in the morning. Groaning, Jacob got out of bed and headed to the door, opening it and finding a Sheriff just outside the threshold. “Jacob Gregson?” After a nod from Jacob, the Sheriff continued, “Mr. Gregson, I'm Sheriff Bladen, sorry to interrupt your day, but there's some questions that I would like to ask you concerning a bizarre case of ours. You currently work for S.U.I.T.S?”

Jacob nodded. “Yes, Sheriff.”

Sheriff Bladen took out a notepad and pen, and continued: “Mr. Gregson, out of curiosity, do you have any symptoms of kleptomania, sleep-walking, insomnia, violent behaviors, or hoarding tendencies?” When Jacob responded with only a confused look upon his face, Sheriff Bladen put down the pen. “See, there have been reports of small animals being torn to shreds with a few pieces missing, as well as certain items missing from people's yards and even from inside their houses. There's an action figure that a kid named Billy claimed was in his sandbox until he came back from lunch and found it gone, several squirrels with either their heads or tails missing from otherwise eviscerated bodies, and another...adult toy...belonging to an Emily Veils, all of these being found piled at the parking spot of the S.U.I.T.S. Piled on Spot Number Thirteen, which I was told by your boss is your parking spot. Do you know anything about this?”

Jacob was confused, at least until the realization hit him a few seconds later. That damned bobcat! He didn't bring anything into his suite, so he decided to take such to the only other spot associated with Jacob, at his workplace!

AND SPEAK OF THE DEVIL!

Roberto was climbing the steps and stopped behind the Sheriff. He had what looked like a cleaned fish from the market in his mouth, only dropping it when Jacob spotted him. The Sheriff, in turn, looked behind himself and saw the real culprit; it was Jacob who identified him:

“BOBBY!”

Roberto turned bob-tail from the suite to the stairs, and hauled kitty-ass out of there.