The gauntlet was made of a thick gray fabric or hide that I did not recognize, even when I gave it a sniff. The aliens evidently had four fingers, which was the first sensible thing about them I had noticed. I've never understood why humans needed so many fingers, when four are perfectly sufficient for gripping things and moving about. The middle finger was thicker than the other two fingers and thumb, however.

  Unlike my little girl's gloves, though, there was no evidence of stitching on the fingers. As she turned it around in her hands I did notice some lines of another material running around the cuff and into the palm of the gauntlet, but I didn't pay much attention to them because when she revealed the palm we finally got a good look at what the alien had been gripping.

  It looked like someone had taken two halves of a ball and mashed them together into a hamburger shape. Like the gauntlet, it was made from some material I couldn't identify, although this one looked more like some sort of metal or plastic. There was a very strange-looking strand extending out of the gap where the two halves met; when I looked at it with one eye it seemed almost like a thick string of plastic, but when I turned my head to look at it with my other eye it almost seemed to fade into transparency as I moved. I couldn't make snout nor tail of it.

  "It looks like a yo-yo," mumbled my little girl. "But like, an alien yo-yo." She lifted the bulbous thing out of the glove and the strand attached to it went taught a few inches away. "I wonder…"

  While she stood up and fiddled with the gauntlet, I tried to place the term "yo-yo." I had a vague feeling that I had heard that term before, but it wasn't—no, that was right! I'd overheard Mommy say something about yo-yos to my little girl shortly after they brought me back from the Bad Place. If I remembered correctly, it was some sort of toy that my little girl had played with quite a lot before I arrived, but whose string had broken. Daddy was evidently supposed to procure replacement string, but hadn't gotten around to it, and I suppose everyone must have forgotten again when I joined the family.

  I was curious to see what this "yo-yo" the alien had been toting around could do.

  My little girl made a few funny faces while she tried to adjust the gauntlet and fit all five of her fingers into it, but she eventually must have found something somewhat workable, because she turned her hand palm up with the alien yo-yo or whatever it was resting in her palm, then with a quick jerk threw it at the ground.

  I hopped away in surprise, worried that it might rebound toward me, but strangely the yo-yo thing never hit the ground. Instead, when it neared her ankles it suddenly stopped and remained rotating in mid-air as it made a surprisingly loud humming noise. I tentatively stepped closer and sniffed it before pulling back with a sneeze. It was making a very different smell than it had sitting in the gauntlet. At that time it hadn't smelled like much of anything, but now it had a hint of something I couldn't place. The closest thing I could think of was a screw that Daddy had left sitting in the sun coming in the living room window, back when he had been putting together what would eventually be the table my cage sat on. The screw had evidently gotten quite hot, and it had a very distinct smell that wasn't actually all that like the smell coming off the yo-yo thing, but was closer than any other smells I could remember.

  As it continued to spin, the yo-yo thing also began to give off a little bit of light, although I think it was the type that humans can't see because my little girl didn't make any noises about it. She did, however, exclaim, "The string disappeared!"

  That caused me to look higher, and indeed she was correct: the discomforting tubing had faded from sight. My little girl tentatively waved a hand between the gauntlet and the yo-yo, and it passed through the air undisturbed. She then gave a tug of the wrist with the hand that had the gauntlet on, and the yo-yo thing whisked upward and slapped into her palm.

  Her eyes sparkled. "That's so awesome. It has a bit of a kick, but a yo-yo with an intangible string is so cool!" She threw it downward again, but almost immediately jerked it back to her hand. She then proceeded to throw the alien yo-yo forward, caused it to whip around behind her with a flick of the wrist, and then tugged it back into her palm with a snap. "It looks like the string doesn't disappear right away. I guess I have to sleep it a bit first." She proceeded to go through a series of increasingly-complicated-looking throws and loops and I backed away a few feet.

  That yo-yo thing was making me nervous. It definitely didn't seem cool or sleepy to me, and I couldn't help but remember the hole in our door where the handle used to be, which was only a little bigger than the yo-yo thing and come to think had smelled similar, as well. If anything, the more she used it, the more the smell and light it emitted grew, and I was worried that it might be getting hot. She didn't seem to notice anything awry when she caught it with her gauntlet, though, so maybe I was just feeling the adrenaline rush from confronting that alien.

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  Before I could think of some way to distract my little girl from the yo-yo, something made an outraged-sounding squawk, and I twisted around to see not one, but three more aliens staring at us from the path near the street. The first was wearing what appeared to be swim trunks, the second had on a plaid flannel shirt and what appeared to be a full-length skirt, and the third was wearing nothing at all aside from a pair of swim goggles.

  I was not at all confident I could take on three aliens at once, but perhaps I could distract them long enough for my little girl to escape. I launched myself in a sprint towards them.

  "Snuggles!" yelled my little girl behind me, but I was already drawing within range of the closest alien and didn't have time to glance backward.

  Figuring that what worked once would hopefully work twice, when I got close to the nearest alien, I launched myself into the air and latched onto its leg, then scurried upward. This time, however, I made sure to aim for the side of its body opposite the hand it was wearing its gauntlet on. As I'd hoped, the alien hesitated, unable to grab me properly thanks to the yo-yo thing it was clutching, and I made it to its shoulder without even needing to dodge. As I had the first time, I launched myself into the air, whipped myself around, and landed a perfect paw strike to the alien's pressure point.

  Unfortunately, this time the alien wasn't alone, and as it collapsed in sudden pain toward the ground I had to throw myself to the side to dodge a swing from one of its compatriots. Leaving the partially-downed alien behind, I grabbed onto the arm of the alien that had swung at me, just behind where its arm emerged from its gauntlet.

  The alien clearly hadn't been expecting my rat-like reflexes, because it paused in apparent bafflement when instead of whacking me off its fellow I ended up latched onto its arm. I attempted to scamper up its arm toward its more vulnerable head and neck, but one of my claws caught on the fabric of its shirt.

  Out of the corner of my eye I caught some movement and realized the third alien was about to hit me. I was stuck; this was going to hurt. I yanked desperately at my claw, but freed it just a little too late and—

  There was a hissing noise as something whipped past behind me, a whumpf! as the alien that had been about to smack me disappeared, another hiss as something flew past me in the other direction, a solid thump noise, and the remaining two aliens and I both froze.

  I turned my attention to my little girl, who was still standing where I'd left her instead of running away like a good kit. Her hand with the yo-yo thing was held straight out as if she'd just caught it from a forward throw, her other hand bracing her arm and a look of utter determination on her face. "Don't. Touch. Princess. SNUGGLYPANTS!"

  The aliens gaped at her. I surreptitiously freed my claw, accidentally pulling the flannel shirt up and exposing some of the alien's blue arm as I did so.

  The muscles in the arm of the alien I was currently riding tensed, but before it could do anything I bit its wrist as hard as I could.

  The alien shouted and flung its arm outward toward where its compatriot was struggling to stand up.

  Just as I'd hoped. At the perfect moment, I let go, allowing the momentum from the alien's thrown arm to shoot me straight at the first alien. My paw connected with its temple, and it collapsed in a heap.

  I flipped over its shoulder and landed on the ground out of sight of the one remaining alien, taking a moment to locate the third alien. It was lying several feet away on its back, and there was a thin plume of smoke curling up from its chest.

  Looked like the yo-yo gauntlets packed quite the punch.

  And speaking of yo-yo gauntlets…

  I launched myself around the prone alien to find the final alien lining up a shot from its gauntlet aimed at my little girl. Unacceptable! I threw myself into the air, briefly landed on its opposite thigh which was extended as the alien took a step forward, then immediately vaulted into a backwards flip to briefly touch down on its gauntlet arm as it raised it to throw its yo-yo and used the added moment and a third leap to send myself straight into its temple.

  The alien fell sideways, its yo-yo hissed harmlessly into the sky, and I jumped away, landing in front of it as it hit the ground behind me, shortly followed by the yo-yo slamming into the ground and throwing dirt into the air.

  I didn't look back, though, because action movies are always way more fun when the main character doesn't look back. Plus my field of vision is wider than a human's, anyway.

  My little girl rushed over to me, scooped me up, and frantically looked me over. "Princess Snugglypants, are you alright?!"

  I checked myself over, and aside from feeling slightly exhausted from my unexpected mid-day workout—and needing a good grooming—I was in surprisingly good shape.

  "You were amazing!" my little girl continued after verifying that I wasn't hurt.

  Hey, she was pretty amazing herself! Good work figuring out that alien technology so quickly!

  My little girl turned her attention towards the road. "But what should we do now?"

  I followed her gaze. There were three aliens collapsed near one another on the ground, and a fourth still smoking a little ways further out. Pretty sure that particular collection was going to bring nothing but trouble to our unassuming little apartment building. This area was definitely not safe anymore, if it ever had been in the first place.

  But I realized my little girl wasn't looking at our vanquished foes when she walked forward a few steps, ignoring them entirely as she approached the street proper. I couldn't quite make out what she was looking at—I think humans might have better distance vision than me—but she was staring intently at something as she raised me to her shoulder and set me into my favorite position.

  Unusually, she didn't take her hand away once I was in place, but left it resting against my flank. "Snuggles," she said, still staring down the street. "We made a pretty good team just now, didn't we? Do you think we could go rescue my dad?"

  I licked my paws and ran them across my ears as I thought about it, then booped my little girl on the cheek with my nose.

  Looked like I wasn't going to finish my nap this afternoon.