"Do not adjust your screen. The images you see are real. Here and now, we will watch twists and turns of serious consequence."
Tracy is bored, sitting on the sofa, listening, staring at the carpet rather than her Multivision set. She's seen this special as a rerun for several months. Every time it's on, she thinks that it really shouldn't be, but she stays tuned in, anyway. Unbeknownst to her, ratings indicate that the episode is more popular than the infamous Beheading Channel. It seems that everyone is of the same mindset as Tracy; it's just unexplainably irresistible.
Her cat comes galumphing into the livingroom, spreading it's maw with exasperated boredom. "Hey, Mr. Kiddie. What are you doing, huh?" Tracy reaches down and plunges her hand into the deep mass of velvety fur. Kiddie looks up at her, wondering when he will get fed? It feels like more than half a day, which is one whole cat day, since his last feeding. Where is the love? His stomach burbles fall silent in the midst of heavy purrs. How can they compete with such warm massages? Aye, he thinks, there's the love.
The narrator continues, on screen, "This is the battle of the Cheshire Fractal. What will come of it?"
Mr. Kiddie opens his mouth and let's the purrs transform into a drawling meow. "What's the matter Kiddie? You don't like the Nature Lab channel? There's a cat on it, like you. Except he's not lazy. Well, I don't know... why watch it? I know what's going to happen, I think..." Tracy's eyes glaze onto the screen and her mouth hangs limp. She picks up Mr. Kiddie and gently rubs his belly.
It's a little difficult to identify the activity, at first glance. But eventually, the action comes to view.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, A Fractal Octopus, whom we will call Mr. Fractalpus, and a Cheshire Cat, Mr. Cheshire, meeting for the first time, are about to engage in the most profound battle that this station has ever witnessed. Enjoy the show."
Without any delay, Fractalpus slaps Cheshire and sticks to his fur, whiskers tangled in tentacle malice. Claws slash forth, tearing at the spineless jelly serpent. Mr. Fractalpus generates a new form. Seemingly random, he reshapes to avoid the cats wild scratch.
Back and forth, to and fro, they exchange blows and sucklings. The Fractal Octopus and Cheshire Cat constrict and cut each other while one reshapes around the swipes and the other vanishes, leaving suckers to sharp snatching jaws.
"The Fractalpus lashes out at the Cheshire grin and the teeth begin to disappear. Before they completely vanish, Mr. Fractalpus surrounds what remains of Mr. Cheshire. Tentacles wrap around the jaws and strangle them, forcing the cat to reappear. But watch how the Fractalpus is taking up the same space! It knows what is coming, but regeneration fails; he can't fracture in time. The algorithmic mutations become mere spasms, miscalculations, as the Cheshire cat solidifies inside and out of the frantic fractal beast.
Together, they scratch and twist and blurble.
They become one.
Tracy would swear that she could faintly hear a sputtering giggle, just as the two creatures melded together. 'That must be why I keep watching, over and over,' she thinks, 'that moment of uncertainty. What is happening?' Mr. Kiddie purrs and scratches his claws into Tracy's leg. "Ow, Kiddie. Gentle." She lifts the cat's leg and strokes the claws, which gently fall back, submissive.
Mr. Kiddie rolls carefully off of Tracy's lap and ambles toward the kitchen. Turning back, he sees Tracy, still glued to the Multivision. He licks his whiskers and fades into nothing, or nowhere, or somewhere that no one can see, leaving behind only a sly Cheshire grin.