Hello everyone! I'm taking a crack at rewriting my old SWAT Kats story. If you've read "A Strong Bond" in the past, thank you for reading and showing interest in this new version. If you're new to this, welcome! Please enjoy this new version and review.
Disclaimer: I don't own SWAT Kats, but Naomi Briggs belongs to me.
Chapter 1 - Reunion
T-Bone guided the Turbokat into a smooth turn as it entered its final descent into the underground hangar. A minute later, the Turbokat entered the tunnel as the the door closed behind it. T-Bone halted the jet to a stop and waited as it was lifted to the next level. Razor let a yawn escape his lips and stretched as the cockpit door opened. The dynamic duo jumped out and T-Bone finally stretched as he look at Razor.
"Another villain down, huh Razor." T-Bone asked.
Dr. Viper was trying to steal mutagens from Megakat Biochemical Labs once again. This was the third time this month he had attempted to help himself to the lab's generous inventory of advanced and experimental chemicals and mutagens. Razor had cracked his knuckles before removing his helmet.
"Yeah. I wonder what he was up to this time. I'm getting sick of busting him this month." he replied with an annoyed scowl. T-Bone returned the expression. "Yeah, I feel ya. I'm tired."
"Yeah, me too, but we have some repairs to finish. The day isn't over yet. Let's hop to it!" he said while walking to their lockers. T-Bone sighed and rolled his eyes. "Unfortunately, you're right…" he said as he slowly trailed behind his two kats traded their thrilling and mysterious vigilante identities for their less exciting mechanic and civilian identities as plain, old Chance Furlong and Jake Clawson. Chance closed his locker door and sighed again.
"Fun's over!" Chance said.
"Back to the grease pit!" Jake replied.
Before they returned to the shop, Chance walked to his beloved wall of tallies. Whenever they had squashed an evil kat's plans, he would mark the wall to signify their victory. He grabbed the stamp after dipping it into the ink pad and marked the wall with a huge, cocky grin.
"Take that Feral!" he said as he snickered. One perk of being a SWAT Kat was seeing the seething anger on their former superior's face whenever they one-upped his team of Enforcers. They might've been kicked out of the Enforcers, but he wouldn't trade his adventures of being a SWAT Kat with his best friend, righting the wrongs of evil kats and protecting the innocent for anything. They were Enforcers in their own right—they just better than the ones employed by the Megakat city government. Jake snickered as well.
"Come on, Chance. We've got work to do. We've been gone for a quite a while."
"Yeah, yeah." he replied as they made their way to the main level. After reaching their lobby, he spoke again as Jake turned the "closed" sign to "open" on the window.
"But before we start, I want to see if we made the 5:00 news. Turn the TV on!" he said as he went to the kitchen. Jake granted his request as he used the remote and Chance returned with two cans of milk. He tossed a can to Jake before his reached the couch to join him after opening the garage door. The familiar face of the Kats Eye News' well loved and top anchor promptly appeared on the screen with her soft, feminine smile.
"This is Ann Gora, Kats Eye News. Earlier today for the third time this month, Dr. Viper was trying to steal chemicals from Megakat Biochemical Labs, but unfortunately for him, the SWAT Kats stopped him and saved the day once again! Thank you SWAT Kats! Do you have anything to say Commander Feral?" she asked as she turned to the big, burly kat.
Commander Feral stood next to her with a huge scowl on his face, obviously unhappy with today's outcome. Chance gave the TV a half-lidded snarky smile as Commander Feral continued to fume. 'Yeah, keep fuming you bastard!' he thought.
"Saved the day? Are you kidding, Ann?! Those hotshots destroyed almost a whole floor in Megakat Biochemical!" he yelled, complaining once again. "Don't those hotshots know that you shouldn't -"
The commander was quickly silenced by Jake by muting the TV. Chance quickly shot a confusing look at Jake after taking a big gulp of milk.
"What'd you do that for?! I was watching the news." Jake scoffed.
"Ha! Like you care about watching the news! Don't you remember what happened the last couple of times when you listened to Ferals' ranting via our TV?"
Chance's expression changed to irritation. "I told you that was an accident!"
Jake wasn't convinced as it was evident on his face.
"So you throwing a can of milk at the screen, breaking it and spraying black paint on it another time isn't an accident? Sorry bud, but I'm not looking for another TV."
Before Chance could give his rebuttal, the the sound of cars interrupted them. Soon, two feminine voices filled the air. Chance quickly went over to the entrance to see who their impending customers were. He saw Callie closing her car door. His heart jumped in excitement. He had been eying Callie for a while and he didn't miss any opportunity to impress her. He quickly took off his cap, brushed his fur back, put it back on and flashed his best "cool kat" smile as he walked up to her.
"Callie! How are you today?" he asked coolly.
Callie smiled as her eyes met his. "Hi Chance. I'm fine and you?"
He leaned a bit closer to her and smiled, showing off his muscular physique.
"I'm great, just taking a small break from work. Jake and I have gotten a huge load to work with as of late. What can I help you with today? Your car isn't acting up again from last time, is it?"
'I'll be damned if my last job on her car broke down this quickly!' he thought.
"No, my car is fine. I'm not the one you'll be helping today. I'd like you to meet my cousin, Naomi." she said.
She turned and looked back at Naomi and called for her, as she was still sitting in her black car with the window lowered. Naomi quickly looked up from her phone and exited the car to join Callie. Naomi was the same height as Callie, both sporting high heel shoes, Callie with her usual purple and Naomi with blue. Her fur was a tad darker than Callie's and her hair was dark brown, wavy and was lengthy, stopping at the small of her back. Her eyes were a deep, rich forest green color.
"Naomi, this is Chance. He's one of the mechanics that I had told you about."
Naomi smiled pleasantly at Chance. "Hello. It's nice to meet you. I've heard a lot about you from Callie." she said as she extended her hand for a handshake. "Hello. It's nice to meet you too." He replied back.
Callie looked around for Jake. "Where's Jake, Chance? I'd like for Naomi to meet him too since you both will be working on her car."
Chance flashed another cool smile at Callie. "Oh yes! He's in the shop. I'll call him over." He turned to look inside the garage. "Hey Jake! Callie is here and she wants us to meet someone!"
"Here I come!" he replied. Jake emerged from shop lobby shortly afterwards. He waved and smiled at Callie. "Hey Callie! How are you? Who's our mystery guest?" Callie chuckled a bit at his words and directed his attention to Naomi. "This is my cousin, Naomi. She needs some repair work done on her car so I brought her here. I couldn't just let her go to any old mechanic." she said with a wink.
Jake smiled. "Oh really? That's nice of you, Callie! It's nice to meet you." he said as he extended his hand for a handshake. She had moved a bang from her face and made eye contact with him before shaking his hand. She jumped a bit before really getting a good look at him and shook his hand slowly.
"I'm sorry, did I shock you?" Jake asked. Naomi looked at him a bit closer and shook her head. "No, that's not the issue, forgive me. My name is Naomi. It's nice to meet you. Callie speaks highly of your shop." Jake flashed a sheepish smile at her. "Thank you. We aim to please." Naomi returned the smile. "I'm glad to hear that. I wouldn't expect less than excellent from two kats who have received such high praise from Callie."
Naomi observed Jake again. "What was your name again? You look familiar…" Jake flashed an "oh really" expression at Naomi and observed her closely. "Naomi Briggs, I'm assuming, right?" Naomi looked surprised and smiled. "Yes, that's correct." Jake thought a bit harder and came a possible conclusion.
"Did you go to West Megakat High?" Naomi smiled and nodded. "Why, yes I did!" Jake snapped his fingers and smiled. "Naomi! Naomi Briggs! I remember you! You were in the chemistry club! You guys were next door to my engineering club. You were really smart! I remember that you got a full ride to Eastern Megakat University for biochemical engineering! How'd that go for you?"
Naomi smiled proudly as she pointed to her lab coat's lettering that read "MEGAKAT BIOCHEMICAL LABS - DR. BRIGGS".
The two kats gasped as the two she-kats smiled proudly. "Thanks for noticing. Now that you mention it, I do remember you Jake! You were always tinkering with some complex machine. You were quite the dedicated aspiring engineer. Watching you tinker away was interesting. I was impressed by your prowess." she said.
Jake blushed a bit and smiled sheepishly while Naomi smiled at him again.
"Anyways, it's nice to see you again Jake! I can't believe that it's been years since we've seen each other! I definitely know that my car is in good hands now!"
"Likewise, Naomi!"
Callie and Chance looked at each other in confusion as the two reunited kats continued their conversation. Since when did a simple trip to a garage result in such an unexpected reunion?