I do not own Swatkats. I do own the Warkats.
Thanks go to Ulyferal for being my Beta Reader.
A New Beginning
By Cody Furlong
It was a late summer night in Megakat City and while most kats would've been asleep by now, at Chance and Jake's Garage two kats were still awake. The two mechanics had received a rather rude customer right at closing time, who had demanded that they fix his car by morning. They would've turned the kat down, but because of a rival garage that had just opened nearby, they needed the business.
Inside the two story building, the taller and burlier of the two pulled his head out from under the vehicle's hood and straightened up then wiped his paws off on a rag pulled from a back pocket.
"I'm done here bud. How's it look on your end?" The brawny kat known as Chance Furlong asked, while gazing out of the garage's open door at the thunder storm merrily raging on.
"I'm finished here too, bro." The smaller kat known as Jake Clawson replied, rolling himself out from under the car on a mechanic's dolly.
"I hope we don't get called out tonight." Chance commented, offering his paw to Jake.
"I hear ya, besides the storm, I'm beat." The slim kat responded, accepting the paw and getting pulled onto his feet.
"Roger that, let's hit the hay." Chance readily agreed.
The two closed up shop for the night and went to bed. However, hidden in the shadows nearby, a group of black cloaked kats had been waiting for them to do just that. A few minutes after the lights went out they moved in.
Chance had just settled down in his bed when the sounds of rending metal followed by a loud crash was heard. Instantly, his senses went on high alert as he leapt up and made his way towards his door in nothing but his boxers. Quickly stepping out into the hall, he meet up with a similarly dressed Jake running from his own room.
"What was that?" The larger kat inquired.
"I don't know, let's go check it out." The smaller one answered.
As the duo carefully crept down the short hall and went silently down the stairs, nether could've been prepared for what they saw when they entered their garage. The solid steel side door that lead out into the yard looked like it had been ripped out of the wall and flung inwards, only to smash into the side of the rude kats car. Further inspection revealed several sets of claw marks embedded into the door frame as well as the door it's self. It was a little disconcerting as the marks were far too large and deep to have been made by a normal creature!
"Crud! What happened down here?" Chance gasped, even with his own strength he couldn't have ever done that!
But before Jake could respond to his buddy, the two found themselves surrounded by ten kats clad in black robes. Silently one of them pointed at Chance which caused the rest to immediately begin tightening their circle around the two.
They tried to fight them off, but it was like the robed kats weren't even feeling their blows. In the end, the last thing Jake saw, before getting knocked out, was Chance being dragged quite handily outside, despite his kicking and struggling.
When Jake awoke sometime later, he realized two things. First, it had stopped storming and the second more important thing, was the robe wearing kats along with Chance were gone!
"Crud! Hold on Chance, I'm on my way!" Jake shouted, climbing to his feet and running for the hanger's secret entrance.
Five minutes later…
Razor landed in front of the run down cathedral that he had traced his partner's tracking implant to. Leaping out of the jet, he cautiously made his way toward the buildings massive doors with a Glovatrix ready on each arm.
After what had happened at the garage, he wasn't about to take any more chances. However, the extra firepower proved to be unnecessary as he made it to the doors without incident. In fact, the place seemed to be just as abandoned as it was supposed to be, that fact alone made him suspicious.
Quickly shoving his uneasy thoughts aside and focusing on his friend, he forced the doors open….What he saw immediately afterwards made his heart stop. It wasn't the fact that the inside was just as devoid of cloaked kats as the outside was that had done it. No, it was the fact there, in the back of the room, an unmoving Chance lay strapped down, spread-eagle style on top of a large stone platform, that had his blood running cold.
Completely forgetting about the mysterious robed kats, or that this might be some sort of trap. Razor ran toward the kat he thought of as his brother. When he reached Chance's side he could only gape anew.
"Oh no! Chance, what did they do to you?" The slim tom whispered while looking over the numerous claw and bite marks that covered Chance's torso, arms and neck.
Slowly, afraid of what he might find, he placed two fingers against the side of Chance's neck, then sighed in relief when he felt Chance's pulse. Thankfully aside from the fang and claw wounds he was only unconscious.
"Come on bro, let's get you outta here." Razor spoke softly while undoing the straps from around Chance's wrists.
He had just finished with the wrist straps and was moving down to the ones around Chance's ankles when Chance let out a low moan before suddenly bolting up with a gasp and wide eyes.
"Easy Chance, I got you." The slim kat soothed, wrapping one arm around Chance's shoulders to help support the burly tabby.
When he realized who it was, Chance relaxed back down while suppressing another moan. Sitting up so fast had the effect of making the room spin, on top of the splitting headache he already had.
"Don't try to move, until I can get these ankle straps off." Razor ordered, before quickly setting to work on the nearest one.
"You don't have to worry about that bro, I won't." The big kat groaned, trying to add some levity to the situation, before closing his eyes and trying to ease the pounding he felt between his ears.
Razor had finished with the first one and was moving on to the second one when he asked. "What happened in here and what did they want with you?"
Chance massaged at his temples for a moment before answering. "I don't really know bud, beside the fact they were crazy. Only one of 'em said anything and even then it wasn't much. He didn't exactly say what they wanted, only that I would understand what it was soon enough. After that they all ganged up on me, like I was a slab of meat on an all you can eat buffet." Chance answered both questions at once.
Razor paused to frown at hearing that, before he finished undoing the last strap. Then moving back up to his friend's side, he helped him to sit up on the edge of the platform before speaking again.
"Will you be alright… can you move? We gotta get out of here before whoever they are comes back."
"Besides the killer headache, I'll live and yeah, I think I can move if you help me." Chance replied, giving Razor a grateful smile as he helped him to his feet.
Chance was a little unstable on his feet at first, but he quickly began to regain his footing as they made their way towards the jet. By the time they had arrived home, he could move freely again and his headache was gone.
In fact he felt good enough that, after Razor had changed back into Jake, and he had his wounds treated, he was able to help Jake clean up the mess left by their invaders plus fix the rude kats car again. Which thankfully wasn't as badly damaged as it first looked.
The garage door, however ,would have to wait until later to be repaired. In the meantime, they would simply have to make do with the sheet of plastic secured over the opening as both toms finally went to bed again.
Over the next two days, the rude kat picked up his car, they received a visit from their favorite Deputy Mayor and fixed the door. The city was otherwise quite during this time and there was no further sign of their mysterious robed kats. However, that would soon be changing, as the next day and night would prove to have a few surprises in store for them.
The first of which came that morning when Chance discovered that his claw and bite marks were gone! That normally wouldn't have been a problem, except for the fact that wounds like that should've taken a week to fully heal, not three days. He had barley been able to get through his morning routine before he went racing out to find Jake sitting at the kitchen table.
"Whoa buddy, your running around like your tail's on fire. What are you in such a hurry for?" The slim kat greeted his friend.
"Jake, I think those crazy kats did something to me." The big kat answered his partner as he sat down across from him.
"You mean, besides katnaping you and using you for a scratching post and chew toy. What else could they have done?" Jake replied, still more than just a little angry at those kats for doing that to Chance.
"I don't know. But the claw and fang marks they gave me are completely gone, there's not a single trace of 'em left." Chance spoke while pulling up his right t-shirt sleeve so Jake could see his arm.
"Chance, you know that you've always been a fast healer. Just because your marks have healed up doesn't mean those kats did something to you." The cinnamon colored kat responded, while looking over Chance's arm.
"But still, three days Jake. I maybe a fast healer, but I'm not that fast. It should've taken me at least a week for them to heal. Plus there's the fact, that those kats ripped a solid steel door out of a equally solid brick wall with their bare paws. Also, did you see the size of those claw marks? That's, just not normal." The golden kat persisted.
"Your right, maybe we should go see Dr. Sinian about it tonight." Jake said, frowning now in concern.
Further debate ended there when Chance's ears suddenly flicked towards the window.
"It's Burke and Murray." Chance answered Jakes raised eyebrow, before standing and heading outside.
As he followed his partner out a few seconds later. Jake briefly wondered how Chance had heard them coming, when it was almost impossible to hear a vehicle from inside the building until it was pulling up right outside of it.
When Jake arrived outside, he found that he was in time to stop Chance from punching the other two kats faces in for dumping their load of salvage right in front of the garage doors as usual. When he grabbed Chance's arm, he could feel the muscles in it rippling even through the fabric of Chance's t-shirt and coveralls and for a split second he thought that Chance's claws and fangs were slightly longer as well. But when he looked again they were their normal size. However the other two must've seen it too, because they quickly scrambled back into their truck and blasted out of the yard at full speed without any of their usual insults.
'Yes, Dr. Sinian would definitely be getting a visit from the Swat Kats tonight.' Jake thought to himself.
Later that night…
The duo had just closed up and was about to head for the hanger when the perimeter alarm went off. How the cloaked kats had been able to get through the yard without setting it off three days ago, they didn't know. But now wasn't the time to think about that as the duo raced out into the yard to find out what had tripped the sensors.
After rounding a mound of salvage in their search, the two suddenly skidded to a halt when they saw the robed kats standing in the clearing beyond it. Before either of them could make a move, one of the cloaked kats lowered his hood, before looking towards the big tabby and speaking in a voice that Chance recognized as belonging to the one that had spoken back in the cathedral.
"Come with us Chance, you belong with us now."
"I'm not going anywhere without Jake! Who are you and what do you want with me?" The kat in question shouted.
The other kat laughed darkly before responding.
"That won't be possible I'm afraid, you see your friend doesn't have what we're looking for. So why would we bother to make him one of us. As for who we are, the better question would be, what we are. You see we are an ancient race known as Warkats. We once ruled over this land, until kat kind, other supernatural creatures and even our own kin, hunted us down and brought us to the very edge of extinction! But now the time has come to rebuild our ranks and regain our former glory. Which is were you come in, you posses the skills and traits that we are looking for, so I have given you the honor of joining us."
"If you think I'd help you, you're crazy! Your talking about taking over the city, I'd never help you do that!" Chance snarled.
"I'm sorry to hear that, I guess that means we'll just have to persuade you to do otherwise." The other kat growled turning towards Jake.
Before Chance or Jake could react they were jumped by the group and quickly overwhelmed and separated, with most of the cloaked kats overpowering Chance and beating him into the ground before going after Jake.
Chance could only look on helplessly as his only family was beaten, he tried to stand, to crawl to his brothers side, but his body was too weak to move. The punishment he had taken, was meant to be just that, he knew it because they still needed him alive. But Jake…He realized they were going to beat him to death!
When that revelation struck him, he suddenly found a new source of strength. He let out a savage snarl as his body started to change. All at once he began to grow taller and broader, his muzzle lengthening as his fangs grew larger. His claws in both his hands and feet unsheathed themselves as they became over size as well.
His body continued to ripple and spasm, building up muscle as his short fur grew to medium length, his golden honey base color turning a darker shade of dirty gold. By the time his transformation came to an end seconds later, he was now as tall and as wide as Dark Kat and packed with solid muscle.
Instantly, he leaped onto his massive feet before letting out an almighty roar and charging into the cloaked kats, who had spun around to face him when they heard his roar. It wasn't a pretty picture as the full fury of a Warkat unleashed slammed into them.
At first it didn't seem like Chance would be stopped, until he was tackled from behind and put in a headlock by another Warkat just as big as he was. Before he could break free the other one spoke in a gruff, deep voice that Chance recognized as being the same kat as before, apparently this guy was their leader.
"Enough! You are one of us now, whether you like it or not, there is no going back, so you might as well get used to it. I don't want to be responsible for killing one of our own since there are so few of us left, but I will if I have to. However, I do have some honor, which is why I'm challenging you to a one on one fight. If you win, we'll leave you alone for now. But if you lose, you must come with us. What do you say to that?"
Chance stopped struggling while he thought about it. They were both equal in size and strength, which meant that the fight could go either way if it was just about those two factors. Except he also had his Swat Kat and Enforcer training to help him, but then, he also didn't know anything about his new found abilities either, while his opponent knew everything. Taken all together it still meant that they would be fighting on a fairly level playing field. But it would still have some risk. He thought it over for a few more seconds before answering, his own voice having taken on a darker huskiness in this form as well.
"Alright, but on one condition. If I lose, you must allow me to make sure that Jake will be alright and that I can say good bye first."
A second later the hold was released as the leader stepped back several paces before speaking.
"Agreed, as I said, I do have some honor. I can see that the two of you are very close. The rules for this battle are simple. The rest of my kats will form a circle around us for the ring, if any of them try to help me you'll automatically win. The other ways you can win is by forcing any part of you opponent to touch the ground outside the ring, making your opponent submit, or rendering your opponent unable to continue fighting. Do you agree to these rules?"
Chance nodded his agreement as the other kats formed a nice sized circle around him and their leader before going into a combat stance.
A few seconds later as if some silent starting signal had been given, the two charged at each other. Right before they would've made contact, Chance flipped over the top of his opponent and delivered a powerful kick to his back sending him stumbling towards the ring's edge. His feet had barely hit the ground when he followed it up with a flying tackle that sent both of them to the ground even closer to the edge. However, at that point, the leader kicked out with both legs and caught Chance in his gut before he could react, causing him to fly back into the center of the circle.
Chance quickly recovered and stood his ground waiting for the other to make a move. He didn't have long to wait before his opponent pounced at him, leaping to the side Chance avoided the pounce but received a claw swipe to the back when the leader suddenly whipped around upon landing. Gritting his teeth, Chance spun around in time to catch the fist flying towards his jaws. He quickly launched one of his own with his free paw, but it was caught by it's target.
The pushing match that followed lasted for a full minute until the leader kicked out at Chance causing him to leap back to avoid it, then once more forcing the tabby back towards the ring's edge. Seeing what was about to happen Chance hurdled over the other kat, only to come slamming back down when the leader dug his claws into his ankle and jerked him down as he passed over.
The leader hastily mounted on top of Chance and was going to force him to submit, when the tabby suddenly rolled putting him on top. However that didn't last long, as the leader rolled as well, but Chance simply went with it and continued the roll once he was back on the bottom. The two continued to wrestle and grapple with each other for several minutes, using their claws and fangs to gain better grips upon their opponent, grunting, growling and snarling as they did so.
When the two finally came to a rest with Chance on top, they both sported several sets of slash and bite wounds across their upper bodies. Neither one paid any attention to them however, as they completely healed over within a few seconds as if they had never even been there. The two panted heavily for a moment before Chance spoke, when he did he had a smile on his face.
"Looks like I win. Do you give up?"
The leader panted for a few more seconds as he took stock of the situation, the tabby had him well and truly pinned this time and he had somehow gotten his foot out of the ring as well. He was beat in two different ways, nodding he reverted back into his kat form before speaking.
"Yes, as agreed we'll leave and you can stay with your friend. When you want to change between your Kat and War form all you have to do is concentrate on it, that is the only thing about your abilities I'll tell you. Consider it a freebee, every thing else you'll have to learn about on your own. Now if you would let me up."
Chance slowly stood and watched as the cloaked kats broke the circle and disappeared into the night. The leader having climbed onto his own feet paused to offer a last parting shot before following his kats.
"Remember, this is not over. You are part of a larger world now. Eventually, I or another of our kind will come looking for you. While there are others out there that would take both you and your brother into their packs, we are not one of them, my invitation is for you alone."
After checking to see if they had really left, Chance ran to Jake's side. Kneeling down, he picked up the tom and cradled the tiny, unconscious kat in his huge arms. Looking him over carefully, he could tell that Jake was fading fast. He had lost a lot of blood from the uncountable claw marks covering his battered and broken body and his breathing came slow and labored, but surprisingly there wasn't a single bite mark on him.
Realizing that there would not be enough time to get Jake to the hospital, Chance quickly thought back to what those Warkats had done in the cathedral to turn him into one. It hadn't been lost on him during the fight that he now had regenerative abilities. Abilities that Jake desperately needed to have if he was to survive. The only two things they had done to him were to claw and bite him and since Jake was already badly clawed but had no fang wounds, he figured that it must've been the bites that had made him a Warkat.
Sending up a small prayer, Chance held Jake close to his chest before sinking his fangs into his friend's shoulder. The effect was almost immediate when Jake suddenly gasped, his eyes going wide as he clutched at Chance's chest fur before slumping back down. After carefully releasing his jaws, Chance sat frozen for several endless seconds, waiting to see if his frantic plan worked
When Jake began to breathe normally, Chance huffed out a heavy sigh of relief. Bowing his huge head in thanks, he looked upon his friend sleeping peacefully in his arms before smiling and whispering softly.
"Don't worry little brother, I'll take care of you. You may not've had what they were looking for, but you have everything that I'm looking for."
With that Chance carefully stood with his burden held close, then turned and began walking towards the garage.
FIN.