Stray Cat Strut 52023

A small city mostly populated by well-to-do retirees, Burlington, Vermont, is now home to the Antithesis. The alien flora has taken root underground and throughout the surrounding woodlands, giving birth to monstrous beings driven by instinct to consume Earth’s own living creatures. With only three rookie samurai to protect them and resources dwindling fast, the people of Burlington are facing extinction. Cat LeBlanc’s success against the Antithesis in the megacity of New Montreal has raised her profile amongst the samurai. And despite her antiauthoritarian attitude and appetite for destruction in combat, she’s been assigned to assume command of Burlington’s defenses. Against her better judgment—and though it means taking time away from her girlfriend, Lucy, and their adopted gang of children, “the kittens”—Cat accepts the mission. Accompanied by pyrotechnic nun Gomorrah, Cat finds Burlington’s downtown is indeed struggling to survive, but the privileged residents of River Heights thrive behind the protection of their privately funded militia. Worse, the undisciplined trio of samurai-in-training she’s supposed to lead are variously arrogant, rebellious, and insecure. Now, Cat must forge a fighting force out of them while playing politics with the city’s wealthiest power brokers. Unfortunately, their enemy doesn’t also suffer from political and personal conflicts. The Antithesis is of one mind, a hive determined to spread their contagion across Earth. And if Cat can’t rally the samurai, soldiers, and citizens of Burlington to work together, the fall of the city may foretell humanity’s eventual fate . . .