Chapter One

Voices in my Head

Jake Clawson sat on the couch in the living room, feet resting on the coffee table. The six o'clock news was on, the lovely anchor reporting on nothing of interest. It seemed as of late the criminals of Megakat city were all on vacation, which meant the SWAT Kats were on forced vacation. Chance was getting quite restless with the lack of excitement actually. He was constantly going out, trying to find things to do. He was trying new hobbies, going to dance clubs, visiting his mom for often, and other random things. This left Jake pretty much alone at the shop. The brown kat would never tell Chance, but he did not like being alone. When he was all by himself and no one was around, he felt watched. The fur stood on end and his body just would not relax.

He fidgeted in his seat, his muscles screaming to move. His eyes darted around, looking at the shadows cast around the room by the lamp next to him. No matter how many times he looked around, there was no one there, no one watching him. Yet the feeling never left him. It only vanished when people were around. When he was with someone, Chance, Callie, hell even Feral, the feeling was gone, even if the company was not always the greatest.

"I'd prefer bad company to being alone," he stated aloud.

"Be careful what you wish for," his thoughts told him. He smirked at the idea of Dark Kat or Hard Drive suddenly crashing through the wall and attacking him. Their secret identities were safe; there was no risk of that happening.

"It would still be a nice break from the boredom," he said aloud again.

"I know what you mean. Nothing fun has happened in FOREVER!" Jake sighed and agreed with his mind. Nothing fun had happened in forever. He got up from his seat and moved into the kitchen. He pulled a can of milk out of the fridge and used his claws to open it. The brown Tom took a big drink and set the can down. Maybe he should follow Chance's example and find a new hobby. Perhaps then the cloud of boredom would leave him.

"There is bound to be something in the hanger." Jake moved through the kitchen and into the secret entrance to the hanger. Perhaps there was something to that thought. He descended the stairs down into the hanger, lights flickering on automatically due to the motion sensors he put into the stairway. The Tom moved across the hanger and over to his work station. Wires, scrap metal, a propeller, springs, cogs, and several tools lay scattered across the table. He looked the things over his mind trying desperately to find something to do. Slowly, several pieces of the puzzle came together in his mind. He sat down got to work. Gathering many of the random pieces of metal and such together on his table he set to work.

He soon became absorbed into his work. He was so absorbed in making something out of the random junk; he didn't hear the footsteps coming down the stairs. Nor did he hear the voice calling out his name. It wasn't until the large paw of the large yellow tabby touched his shoulder did he react at all. The small brown Tom jolted around on his stool, goggles still over his eyes. He stared up at Chance, the larger Tom raising an eyebrow as he looked down at Jake.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Y-Yeah. You just startled me…"

"I was calling your name for like five minutes. You had me worried buddy," Chance's voice showed his concern. Jake sighed, his ears flattening against his head a bit.

"Sorry. I was just working and I didn't expect you to get back so early."

"Early? Dude, its eleven thirty at night."

"It is?" Jake looked down at his watch and his eyes widened. It really was eleven thirty at night, "Wow…guess I got really absorbed in my work."

"Whatcha working on buddy?" Chance tilted his head up to look over Jake.

"It's a wrist saw. I figure if we ever get caught in nets or something, this will be a quick way of getting out before we get tackled." Jake turned and held up his device as he spoke. Using a metal cutter, he had cut saw-blade like teeth into the propeller. The blade was connected a wrist gauntlet via cables and a metal rod. Jake slipped the contraption on and stood up. With the push of a button, the blade began to whirl, the propeller blade becoming nothing more than a white blur.

"Nice dude, but ain't that a bit dangerous? I mean, what if you turn it on accidentally? You might lose a leg or an arm or somethin'."

"I'm going to see if I can get the blade to collapse without weakening it too much. That way it can be hidden and with a bit of paint, it will look just like a part of our gloves.

"Nice dude. Well, I think you've done enough tonight. Why don't we go to bed?" Jake yawned as Chance spoke. Sleep did sound nice at the moment. He nodded and started heading for the stairs. Chance followed, making sure to shut the lights off as he exited the hanger. Jake found himself in his bedroom soon enough. He discarded his jumpsuit in favor of just his boxers. He settled into bed and covered himself up. He turned the light off beside his bed and closed his eyes. As he drifted off to sleep, he hoped something exciting would happen the next day.

"Jake….Jake…JAKE!" The brown Tom in question jolted away, his head whipping around looking for the source of the noise. His eyes feel on Chance as he stood over beside him, staring down at him with a slightly annoyed look on his face.

"Do you have a new hobby of freaking me out?" he asked.

"W-What do you mean? I was just sleeping…" Jake pushed himself off of the table and looked up at Chance for a moment before snapping his head back to the table. He looked around to see he was in the hanger, sitting at his work table.

"You weren't in your bed this morning. I get up and make breakfast and I go to wake you up and you were gone. I called out for you and searched everywhere and couldn't find you. Then I came down here and here you are, drooling all over your table." Jake slowly lifted his hand up and wiped it across his mouth. There was definitely drool there. He looked down and his eyes widened. Sitting there before him was the wrist gauntlet he had been working on. The blade was gone and it was fully painted. He reached down and picked the device up, hitting the activation switch. The gauntlet opened, releasing the collapsed blade. The blade came out spinning ready to cut anything that got near it.

"Well, seems you finished your project. Now, want some breakfast, or do you plan on vanishing again and making me play hide and seek?" Jake nodded slowly as he stared at the device. He could have sworn he went straight to bed.

"You could have been sleep walking," Chance said as he took another bite of his bacon.

"Sleep inventing you mean? I don't know. I've never done anything like that before." Jake had to admit it was weird. He didn't remember getting up and going down into the hanger at all. He had told Chance this, but the tabby seemed like he was trying to brush it off.

"There is a first time for everything. You might have just been too exhausted to remember. No big deal."

"Maybe…" Jake trailed off as he took another bite of egg. The brown Tom sat there thinking deeply.

"Should I tell him?"

"And what? Have him think there is something wrong with you? It's just a few blackouts."

"There isn't such a thing as 'just a few blackouts.'"

"Sure there is. It's probably just the boredom. Don't worry so much."

Jake sighed as his thoughts wondered what to do. He would often have mental discussions with himself. It helped him focus. The fact was Jake had been having some lapses in memory for a while now. He could be doing something then suddenly be doing something else, with a span of either a few minutes or a few hours being the different. At first he had thought it to just be him spacing out, but it had been getting a bit more frequent lately. And with last nights little event, he was getting to be a bit scared. Perhaps he should talk to Callie. She might be a bit less likely to make a big deal out of it.

"How do you not make a big deal out of blackouts?" This time there was no answer, just a churning knot in his stomach.