Swat Kats: The Creeping Shadow Kat
Prologue
"Mystic Volcano Gods, Alien Bugs, Mutant Blobs, nothing could stop the SWAT Kats. Even with the Enforcers against them, the SWAT Kats saved our beloved Megakat city over and over again."
Cathy glanced up from the pool table, her black eye's glinting in the florescent lights. Her lanky partner was staring intently at his phone, "Joker, if you don't want Feral clocking you upside the head I'd turn that off."
Joker, a slim kat with scraggly fur, glanced up from his phone, "Is your granduncle really going to be upset at me for watching a documentary? Besides, what else am I going to do?"
She straightened up from her hunched over position. Her white tank top came to rest on her toned body and her golden fur glistened with sweat. Cathy stood a whole head taller than Joker and her shoulders were broader than her male partner's too. This was less Cathy being an amazon and more Joker being a toothpick.
Cathy leaned against her pool stick and smiled at her copilot, "I don't know, maybe pay attention to our game of pool?"
"Right, because it's my turn? Oh, no, you haven't missed a shot yet," Joker shrugged, "I wouldn't expect any less from the spectacular Cathy Furlong though."
Cathy cocked her head to the side with a smug grin, "I don't think that means you shouldn't try."
"I guess you're right," Joker scoffed. He scooped up the pool chalk and handed it to Cathy, "You still have your turn though."
Cathy snatched the small, red cube from her partner and vigorously thrusted the tip of her pool stick into the dusty indent.
*Splorch*
Cathy closed her eyes just in time for something wet and sticky to hit her face. She opened her eyes and glared at Joker. She felt angrier at herself than the orange furred trickster she called a friend. After all, you didn't get a nickname like Joker for being a straight laced, no nonsense guy.
Joker was covering his muzzle as his body violently shook with suppressed mirth, "Oh, Cathy, it looks like you've skewered that poor, poor cube."
Cathy wiped her face and looked down at the red gunk in her paw. She brought it up to her snout, keeping an eye on Joker, and sniffed. Yup, it was ketchup.
"Well, if anybody could make a pool cube bleed it would be you," Joker smirked.
"Just hand me your water bottle so I can clean this off." Cathy said, paw outstretched. Joker freely gave up his drink, which made Cathy suspicious. She wrapped her fingers around the flimsy plastic bottle and uncapped the top to smell the contents. It was water all right, she got a real good sniff when Joker squeezed the bottom, causing water to shoot up Cathy's nose.
Sputtering, Cathy coughed as water dripped off her short, black hair. She shot daggers at Joker, who was already on his way to get something to help Cathy dry off.
"You know, you're real lucky I know why you do this stuff," Cathy said.
Joker pulled out some paper towels from a cabinet in the small kitchen area where Enforcers would prepare meals, "And, why is that?"
"You're jealous of my genes."
Joker snorted as he rolled his eyes, "Your genes? Have you looked in a mirror?" He handed Cathy the paper towels and pointed at the side of his head, "you got your mom's weird white side burns thing."
Cathy vigorously rubbed her face then shook her head like a wet dog shaking off water, "They aren't side burns, that's just how my hair is." Cathy tugged at the white tuffs of hair that framed her strong jaw.
"And, really your genes?" Joker said, "You're selling yourself short Cathy, our accomplishments are from your skill, not your parents."
The two friends stopped their small talk as a grey haired kat walked through the rec room door. They both stood at attention and saluted as Commander Feral passed by.
"At ease," the bulky old kat said, heading to the kitchen area.
Cathy relaxed as her granduncle passed, however, Joker's gleeful smile had her worried, "All right, what did you do," she whispered.
Joker shrugged, poorly suppressing his smile, "Why, whatever could you mean?"
Cathy smiled back, Joker's pranks were always funnier when they happened to somebody else. She earnestly watched her granduncle pull out a sandwich from the cooler...
####
Cathy stood in the cold hanger with a green hose splashing water on the grey concrete and her feet. She sighed as Joker waddled over with a bucket of soapy water. There were five jets in the hanger and over three hundred choppers. Commander Feral had made it very clear he wanted each one cleaned. The initial humor of watching her granduncle double over with tears in his eyes faded rather quickly when those eyes shot fiery daggers at Joker. The poor guy should have known that Feral would single him out.
"You know you don't have to be here, right?" Joker said, dropping the soapy bucket. Suds splashed over the edge and onto Joker's boots.
"Hey, I can't leave my copilot hanging, right?" Cathy said, "Now get scrubbing."
Joker raised his eyebrow, "I thought you were going to help?"
"Oh, I am," Cathy wiggled the hose, "I'm rinsing, you're scrubbing."
"And who's drying?"
"I don't know, Joker, did you get water shot up your nose?" Cathy sneered.
Joker grumbled something unintelligible as he snatched up a stick with a sponge on the e d. He grumpily dipped it into the soap bucket and began to scrub down the grey, single engine jet plane's underbelly. "I bet the SWAT Kats never had to put up with this."
"You kidding? They had to clean their jet too, dude."
"You know I joined the Enforcers because of them?" Joker said.
"How so?"
"I idolized those guys! Flying through the air, fighting bad guys, and saving the day. I wanted to be a hero like them." Joker said as a soapy glob splashed his head, "I dreamed about flying with them, not scrubbing down jets." Joker sighed, "That dream went out the window when they disappeared. Poof, my dreams of heroic praise were thrown in the trash."
Cathy didn't really agree with her friend's mindset. She'd joined the Enforcers because she wanted to help keep Megakat city safe. Sure, being a SWAT Kat was a fun dream, for a kid, but being an Enforcer was a much more reasonable idea. The SWAT Kats were technically criminals and her granduncle's hatred for them wasn't unfounded. The city had suffered incredible damages due to the vigilantes' involvement. That being said, wouldn't the damages have been worse if the SWAT Kats hadn't stepped in?
The water splashed against the concrete and Cathy's mind began to wander followed by her eyes. She looked over the jets and remembered the rush of flying through the air during her advanced training. Adrenaline pumped through her veins as she flew through the course. Joker, manning the targeting system, hit every target and they'd completed the course in record time. She'd wondered if their little team could have rivaled the SWAT Kats, but reality crashed down on her when Joker pointed out just how much the SWAT Kats outclassed them. They'd flown through much more difficult situations with even better performance. Could she ever outclass the SWAT Kats? Well… since they'd disappeared she'd never know.
In her wondering something caught Cathy's eye. An officer was walking towards the ammo stockpile with a very strange looking kat trailing behind him. Cathy glanced out the open hanger doors at the dark night. Why was there an inspection so late at night? The other kat was dressed in a grey long coat and… was his head a dark purple?
"Hey, J," Cathy said, gesturing towards the two people, "what's going on?"
Joker turned to where Cathy was looking, "Don't know. Would be a shame if it distracted us from doing this job though."
With that Cathy and Joker tossed their tools aside and headed towards the more interesting event. Upon getting closer, Cathy got a better look at the weird kat. Sure enough, his head was a purple so dark that it could have easily been mistaken for black. His head was featureless, except for two white, pupil less, eyes that looked at her and Joker. He waved with a gloved paw.
"Hey, what's going on over here?" Joker asked, rubbing his shoulder's as the fall air rushed over them.
"Hm?" The weird kat said.
Cathy eyed him suspiciously, "Do you have clearance to be back here?"
"Clearance? Yeah, sure," the kat tapped the officer on the shoulder and swung him to face Cathy, "Chuck here was just showing me around."
Joker's brow furrowed, "Isn't his name Casper?"
"Is it?"
Cathy stared at the officer's blank expression. His eyes starred into the distance and a grey film seemed to cover them, "Sir, are you okay?"
A hoarse moan escaped the officer's lips.
"Hugh, so that's what happens when I try to make them talk," the kat said.
Cathy instinctively reached for her sidearm, forgetting that it was locked up in the armory.
The kat flicked his wrist and a wave of dark energy bowled them over, sending them sliding a foot away with a raucous crash.
"The stealthy way was getting boring, let's really have some fun!" The kat cackled as dark tendrils erupted from the shadows. Metal screeched as choppers and jets were tipped over like plastic miniatures.
Propping herself up, Cathy glanced towards the alarm switch several feet away, "Got a plan, Joker?"
"Group up and hit it till it dies?"
Right now wasn't the time for humor, "I'll distract that thing and you go for the alarm." Cathy whispered, "Ready?"
"Don't die."
"Go!"
Cathy made a mad dash towards the shadowy kat, "You want to play? Let's play!"
Cathy immediately regretted her words as the kat raised his hand and batted her away like a paper doll. Once again, she was sent tumbling along the cold ground. Cathy cried out as her arms were tightly pinned to her body by a ring of shadowy energy and lifted her into the air.
"You don't seem fun to play with at all," the kat said in a mocking tone, "Him on the other hand," Cathy saw Joker deftly dodge around grasping shadows on his way to the alarm, "now he's putting up a good fight."
The kat dropped Cathy, knocking the wind out of her. Gasping and wheezing, she struggled to her feet in time to see the possessed officer lurch towards her. She side stepped the officer and grabbed his arm. Using her shoulder as leverage, Cathy flung the officer over her back and slammed him into the ground. She'd apologize for that later, but now she- Metal screeched as the kat pulled the stockpile's heavy doors off like they were flimsy newspaper. Heavy ordinance was stored in there!
Sirens blared and lights flashed, helping Cathy breath easier. Joker had done it, despite her failing to distract the monster.
"Okay, ow," the kat said, covering the ear like shapes on his head, "I don't appreciate that noise."
Heavy, metallic thuds sounded as the hanger's shudders slammed down, sealing the exits. Any minute a platoon of Enforcers, lead by her mother, would come in and blast this creature to pieces!
"Welp, this is somewhat frustrating," the kat said, "But, that's what makes it fun!" The kat's eyes squinted in a joyful expression.
Cathy watched in horror as missiles and rockets were carried out of the armory by dark tentacles. The kat didn't even acknowledge her existence as it walked towards the shut hanger doors. Cathy, seeing an opening, made a mad dash into the armory. Most of the equipment stored here were meant for use by the jets and choppers. However, they did stock some heavy artillery for infantry use.
"Bingo," Cathy muttered as she laid her paws on a rocket launcher. She ran out of the armory with the launcher bouncing on her shoulder. "Hey, boogie boy!" She called out, "Suck on this!"
Cathy barely kept her balance as the launcher's recoil nearly knocked her over. Steadying herself, Cathy's emotions shook as the kat caught the rocket midflight. The rocket's jet flared in vain as the kat held it like a toy plane. Cathy's blood froze as the kat chuckled in amusement.
"Well, looks like I've underestimated myself."
The kat twisted the rocket towards the ceiling and let go. The hanger shook, and Cathy's bones rattled as the roof exploded. She dodged just in time to avoid being hit by the bulk of falling debris, but not fast enough to avoid it completely. Rolling across the ground, Cathy came to a sudden stop as a girder slammed on top of her right arm. Cathy grit her teeth to keep herself from screaming.
"Cathy!"
Cathy heard her mother's voice shout out. Her vision was blurred, but she could see the red lasers streak across the hanger and hit the kat's body.
"Now this is a party!" The kat practically sang.
The sound of high pitched laser fire sounded through the air like a choir of death. Scuffling and the sounds of combat erupted in a soul shaking cacophony. Cathy could hear screams from her fellow Enforcers as the creature attacked them.
Cathy felt a presence beside her and shape touch her shoulder.
"I gotcha Cathy, I gotcha!" Joker's voice was panicky and strained. She could hear him grunt as he tried to move the girder that pinned her down.
Her vision was clearing as her adrenaline dulled the pain, "Get out of here, Joker, my mother can take things from here."
"I'm not leaving…" Joker's eyes grew wide with fear as he glanced towards the battle, "Wait, are they retreating?"
"What? No, my mother would never retreat! Not…"
"She's fine, she's fine!" Joker fruitlessly tried to comfort her, "Everything's fine…"
Cathy turned her head to see the strange kat on the other side of the hanger, paw on the heavy shutter.
"Missiles? Rockets? Why did I think I needed this stuff? I'm invincible! HAHAHAHA!"
Joker stared at the mad kat laughing hysterically. Cathy hadn't noticed the laser pistol in her partners hand, but it became all she could see when he raised it. "J, you can't fight that thing. Not with a pea shooter like that!"
Joker's brow furrowed… then he turned to look at something beyond Cathy's vision.
"J?"
Joker snuck away, then came back with a large missile under his arm. "He can't leave here, Cathy."
"What?"
"If he gets out there, people are going to die… Thanks for being my partner, Cathy."
Cathy lurched forward to try and grab Joker, but a searing pain shot through her arm, blurring her vision once more. "Don't! Do you think this is what the SWAT Kats would do!?"
"No, it's what I would do."
The blurry shape of her partner ran towards doom, and Cathy couldn't bare to see it swallow him. She turned her head away, and the explosion knocked Cathy unconscious.