["Worlds Apart 2: Blood Wars" is a cross-over story between Swat Kats, and the World of Darkness. It is the sequel to my orriginal cross-over, "Worlds Apart". A note to the SK fans who read this story: though the first story gave a lot of focus to the Swat Kats themselves, Blood Wars focuses more on the WoD characters (particularly the vampires, and the were-dragon Nakela) so don't be too disappointed that Chance/T-Bone, Jake/Razor, and the other kats that we all know and love arn't as big a part of this story as in the orriginal. But of course, you know they're still gonna be there to kick some bad-guy tail! ]
[Also, thanks to Cody Furlong for the use of and help with his vampire kat character, Grendel. Note that this story is rated "Mature" for violence, gore, and sexual content & references.]
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The sun had only been down for about an hour, but already things were picking up at the north end of Megakat City. Two Enforcer patrol cars pulled up quickly outside of the small bar, their lights and sirens going. Due to the caller stating that the pair of kats trashing the place were 'unnaturally strong and fast', Lieutenant Felina Feral was one of the respondents, since she was the most familiar with the newest form of 'creatures' that were beginning to plague the city. It had been ten months since she, the Swat Kat T-Bone, and the pride of were-beasts had killed the first and most powerful of the vampires, but several of the vampire's fledglings had escaped and had now taken root in the northern part of Megakat City, and had began creating a new generation of blood-suckers.
Felina had the shotgun in her hands, though she had a feeling it would be useless in this particular case. The wooden stake which so many of the other officers had joked about was also attached to her belt. If these really were vampires, they wouldn't be joking for long. The she-kat motioned to the other two Enforcers, and they were about to head into the bar when the door smashed open, a kat being thrown through it out onto the street. The kat was big and heavily built, with clothing like a biker, yet he now lay in a crumpled heap in the street, bloody and only semi-conscious.
"Call an ambulance and get that guy out of the way!"
She shouted the orders to the other two Enforcers, then picked up the mic to her car's loud-speaker.
"This is Lieutenant Feral of the Enforcers! Come out now of there with your hands up!"
She expected that would respond somehow, possibly by coming out, but not to give themselves up. She was not disappointed as she had to leap out of the way of a pool table, minus it's legs, thrown through the smashed-open door and crashing upside-down on top of her car.
"Oh crud! These have got to be blood-suckers alright!"
Felina glanced over at the other two Enforcers. One was getting the injured biker out of the way while the other was calling for backup. Neither one was paying attention to her at the moment so she ducked down out of sight behind her patrol car and pulled out the small communicator, hitting the red button in it's center.
"Swat Kats, we've got a vampire situation at the Stray Cats Tavern on Riley Avenue."
After only a few seconds, she heard T-Bone's voice over the com.
"How many of them are there? And are you sure they're vampires?"
"The kat who called it in said two, and I'm pretty sure that they are since they just threw a pool table out the door and at least thirty-five feet onto the top of my patrol car!"
There was a slight pause, then the burly pilot came over the com again.
"Okay, we're on our way."
He was tempted to tell her to stay put, but knew that saying so would only make the stubborn she-kat even more likely to go in anyway. They had been making a patrol over the southern end of the city so he engaged all three engines at maximum power to speed off toward the opposite side of the massive city.
Moving back into view from behind the car, Felina saw that the other two Enforcers had the biker back to safety now, and she could hear the ambulance approaching in the distance.
"Okay, cover me!"
The both looked at her in shock and were about to protest but she had already began to make her way across the street toward the entrance of the bar. As she approached, three more kats, beaten and bloody, ran out of the door in a panic. Felina had to jump back out of the way, knowing full well what they were running from. The other two Enforcers tried to stop them and get them away from the front of the bar to wait for the ambulance. Several other sirens could also be heard as the backup approached as well.
Felina cautiously moved to the side of the door, the shotgun ready in her hands. And she looked around the corner she could see the two vampires inside, along with several dead bodies, and a few kats that were still alive, but in very bad shape. The place was completely trashed. One of the vamps was feeding on a barely living she-kat, one of the waitresses. She then glanced up suddenly at the sound of a fighter jet in the night sky overhead.
T-Bone looked down on the scene below as he passed overhead.
"That's the place... Oh please tell me she's not about to go in there!"
"Well what did you expect, buddy? That she-kat's got way more than just nine lives."
"Yeah, but at this rate she's going to use them all up long before she ever has a chance to retire."
"Like we're not?"
The tabby laughed lightly at his partner's comment as he brought the jet around for another pass over the bar and prepared to engage the vertical thrusters to hover. Razor armed one of his new missiles and lowered the targeting visor on his helmet.
"Okay, as soon as these blood-suckers get out into the open it'll be time to try out the new Sunburst missile."
"You sure this thing'll work?"
"I sure hope so, pal. Nakela's been helping me get it to the right polarity for natural sunlight."
"Oh, so that's your excuse for her being around a lot more lately..."
"Very funny. As if you haven't been spending a lot of extra time with Sarita."
"Hey, she is my 'mate', bud. Plus I've also got three very good reasons for staying at the Den Realm more."
"Heh. Yeah, that I'll agree to."
As the jet passed over the buildings and came back in view of the bar, T-Bone engaged the vertical thrusters to hover the jet, facing the entrance. There was no sign of Felina. After a few moments, they then saw the she-kat running fast out of the shattered door, with a tall red-furred kat chasing after her, fast. The other Enforcers opened fire, but the bullets didn't even seem to phase the kat as he caught up to Felina and slammed her hard to the ground. Thankfully her flak-jacket protected her from the vampire's sharp claws on the first swipe. Razor never gave him a chance for a second try.
"T-Bone! Use the anti-glare visor! Sunburst missile, deployed!"
The larger Swat Kat lowered the protective visor just as the missile fired down toward the street below. Built similar to one of their flashbulb missiles, the nose-cone opened to form a reflective dish just before a flash of blinding light lit the area. The vampire let out an ear-splitting scream as his flesh and fur burst into flames. The missile's nose-cone closed again just before it impacted the side of the bar's wall behind the burning blood-sucker. Felina quickly got to her feet and scrambled away from the vampire as he collapsed to the ground in a flaming pile of charred flesh and blackened bones. The female Enforcer looked up to the black jet hovering overhead.
"Nice timing, guys!"
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In the science lab at the Enforcer headquarters, the vampire that Felina had managed to stake lay motionless on an examination table. For all practical purposes, the dark-gray-furred kat appeared to be dead. Commander Feral stood with his arms crossed looking down at the vampire as Dr. Konway went about the exam. Felina stood next to her uncle while T-Bone and Razor were nearby, opposite the exam table. Konway used a pair of metal rods to gently open the vampire's mouth for a better look at the long fangs.
"Well this is interesting. The tips are extremely sharp, but the fangs themselves are fairly thick, designed for holding rather than cutting. And they seems to be very deeply rooted as compared to normal teeth."
T-Bone absently rubbed his neck as he listened. The scar was long gone, but the memory of his own attack was still too clear.
Feral had that usual glaring look that he always had.
"Humph. So you're saying this thing really is a vampire, Konway?"
"Oh most definitely, Commander."
Setting down the pair of rods, he gently pushed open the lids of one of the vampire kat's eyes with his gloved hands. The eyes were blood red and had a faint eerie glow to them.
Feral narrowed his eyes at seeing the red color and glow.
"Well, at least now it's dead."
"Wrong, Feral. It's only torpored. Pull that stake out and he'll jump right up off that table."
The Commander looked up sharply and glared at the larger Swat Kat.
"And how exactly are you so sure about that?"
Felina placed a hand on her uncle's thick arm as she then spoke up.
"Because it's true. Staking them through the heart only puts them in torpor. It can't actually kill them."
"Fine. So where are these were-cats you three talked about?"
Razor glanced over to a clock on the wall for a second before answering the question.
"They should be getting here any moment. Just remember Feral, that these two are shape-shifting jaguars, not kats. But even so, they are on our side. The female's been hunting and killing vampires for over a decade."
"I don't care what they are so long as they don't start causing any trouble here. We've got enough vigilante's in this city already."
T-Bone glared at the large brown kat and was about to make a sharp remark when a low rumbling growl caused everyone to go quiet. Feral and Dr. Konway both watched in disbelief as the air near the pair of masked kats shimmered, and two jaguars seemed to materialize out of nothing. The smaller feline had a shimmering golden coat and ocean-blue eyes, while the larger male was more of a reddish-gold and had greenish-yellow eyes. They noticed that the male also had a large scar that ran across his left shoulder from back to chest and walked with a limp, barely putting any weight on the front left leg.
Felina smiled and walked around the exam table, and the confused scientist, toward the two spotted felines. The male jaguar limped over to her and she rubbed his side affectionately. The female walked slowly toward the prone vampire, and shifted forms as she did so. Her new form appeared similar to a tall, athletically built she-kat with the same spotted golden fur as her jaguar form, though the numerous strange tattoos could now be clearly seen through the shorter coat. Her clothing was a deep red halter-top and skirt that was short in front, and down to her ankles in back, both with gold trim. She also wore brightly-colored bird feathers weaved into her auburn hair and golden Mayan-style earring with small red and green feathers attached to them. However, despite the female's exotically-attractive appearance, there was just something about her that gave the other kats the creeps.
Felina and the Swat Kats have gotten used to her disconcerting aura, but Konway took several steps away from her as she approached the table to look down at the motionless vampire. Even Feral himself even took an inadvertent step back, causing a sarcastic smirk from T-Bone. The chief Enforcer looked at the eerie woman, then over at the male jaguar leaning against his niece with narrowed eyes.
"So these... things are the were-cats?"
The female looked up sharply with a cold look in those depthless eyes while the male growled low. Felina rubbed his head gently to get him to stop as she looked up at her uncle.
"Yes. And they are good friends of mine, uncle. This is Akin-CĂșrri, and she is his adopted mother, Sarita de Sangre."
"And they're both shape-shifters?"
To his surprise, and adding to Konway's nervousness, the female were-jaguar spoke. Her voice was cold and flat.
"Yes. Both myself and my son were born as jaguars, not as people, though we are able to take the forms of both, as well as several forms in between. We are of the Balam tribe of were-cats."
"And you two are the only ones?"
"Of our tribe, yes. For now. There is also a close friend who is of the crocodilian tribe of shifters, as well as one Fallen wolf who unfortunately escaped us a while back when we killed the other two Fallen ones. I suspect he's working with the blood-suckers."
Feral narrowed his yellow eyes at the spotted she-kat.
"What do you mean, 'for now'?"
"Darian ShadowClaw, the Fallen panther whom I killed last year, may have spawned several kits from she-kats in the southern part of the city where he hunted."
That comment finally shed light on something that had been bothering him for the past few months as he turned to face his niece again.
"Is that why you've been researching those rape cases from last year?"
She nodded. In her spare time, Felina had been trying to locate and talk to Darian's victims to find out if any were pregnant. Of the four she had located, three had now given birth, the time frame matching up to the kits most likely being Darian's. Sarita had secretly gone to see the kits for herself, and confirmed that all three did indeed have shifter blood, though she could not say whether or not they were Bastet or just Kinfolk. Needless to say, the three would be carefully watched from the shadows as they grew up and became teenagers.
Dr. Konway cleared his throat and tentatively moved back to the examination table, opposite the eerie were-cat.
"Well miss... Sarita, is it? What exactly can you tell us of these vampires?"
She glanced to the red-furred scientist with narrowed eyes, then looked back down to the vampire on the table.
"They're strong, fast, and hard to kill. They ignore most damage easily. Bullets have virtually no effect. Blades work a lot better. They fear fire as they burn very easily. They are technically 'dead', so they don't breath and have a very low body temperature."
"I got a liver probe reading of 56 ferinheight."
She nodded, her tail twitching casually and her arms folded over her chest, sharp claws extended.
"No heartbeat. The blood doesn't flow through their veins, it saturates every part of them. They have to feed regularly, though they don't have to kill to do so. Most of them actually don't kill at all, else they would soon wipe our their food source. Believe it or not, they're not all actually evil. All of the vampires in this city now are 'fledglings'. Less than a year turned and so they don't have the extreme abilities that Mason had. She could shape-change all or part of her body, as well as control animals, and she even had a minor amount of control over other people. The most important thing to know is this: First, never let them bite you. They call it the Kiss and it causes the victim to feel such a strong feeling of ecstasy, like a drug, that they don't fight back. Some mortals even frequently allow themselves to be fed on because they're addicted to the feeling. Second, never drink their blood. Any who do, be they mortal, vampire, or even shifter, will fall under the leech's control."
Razor shivered. It took a while for him to get over what had happened to him, and everything he had done under Angelida's control. And even then, it was only with the help of a ritual by the were-dragon, Nakela, that he was able to put the terrible experiences, as well as the guilt and grief it caused, behind him.
"Humph. Alright then, so what's the easiest way to kill them? Permanently."
"As I said, fire or sunlight. Though that still has all the same dangers as burning anything. Beyond that..."
She took her right hand and made a motion with one claw across her own neck, in the basic symbolism of decapitation. Dr. Konway cleared his throat again.
"Umm..., Commander, I know that you wanted this thing disposed of, but I am curious if there is any way to revive it first, with the were-cats here, so I can get an idea of just how intelligent, and strong, that it is?"
Everyone looked at the geneticist with expressions that varied from looks of surprise, to cold glares.
