"A Far Cry from the Usual"
By Angelikat

Disclaimer: All Characters, aside from Rhianna, do not belong to me. They belong to their respective owners. I do not wish to infringe on any rights, I'm only doing this for my enjoyment.


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Rhianna Persian sighed tiredly as she walked into her small, uptown apartment. She took off her shoes and walked across the soft beige carpeting in only her socks. She took her jet-black hair down from it's ponytail, letting it fall to it's length down her back. She checked her answering machine, no messages. She deposited her keys on a table by the machine and walked toward her room to get a hot shower and change in to more comfortable clothing.
Her bed was unmade, and she wasn't in the mood to make it. She stripped down out of her Enforcer uniform and got in the shower. The warm water rushed over her, easing the aches and pains in her joints. Another hard day under Feral's gritty thumb. Often times she had threatened to quit the Enforcers, but she was a Lutenit, and couldn't risk the job....or the money.
Rhianna washed her hair and soon after, got out of the shower. She changed into a pair of jeans and a loose fitting t-shirt. She ran a brush through her long black hair and prepared herself a cup of Hot Chocolate. Within minutes, she sat in her living room, sipping hot coca from a warm mug and reading in her favorite chair.
Soon, the phone rang. Rhianna looked at it as it rang again. She set her book on the table next to her, as well as her hot chocolate and answered the phone.

"Hello?" She asked into the reciever.

"Hey babe." The person on the other end said. She smiled, it was Jake Clawson, her boyfriend.

"Hi. What's up?" Rhi asked.

"How about me and you, a nice restaurant, say....tonight maybe?" He said. "I have reservations at the nicest restaurant my meager paycheck can afford...how about it?"

"Alright. What time? And how nice?" She asked him.

"About seven? And very nice...expensive too." He offered.

"Seven's fine. See you then." She said.

"Love you." He purred.

"Love you too." She replied and hung up the phone. She looked at the round clock on her white-washed wall...six o' clock.

She went to her room and changed into a casual dress, not too formal...but not too cruddy either. It was dark blue dress that ended above her knees, it was cut in a conservative manner and clung to her body a little.

By the time seven 'o clock rolled around. Rhianna was pretty much ready. Soon, there was a knock on her door. She put her earrings in as she walked to the door, she opened it to see Jake there, donned in a pretty fancy tux holding a rose.

"Hey." He said, sweeping his eyes over her. "Here." He handed Rhianna the rose. She took it from his paw and smiled sweetly.

"Thank you, Jake." She replied. "Ready?"

"Let's go." He said. He took her paw in his as they walked toward the exit to the building. Jake opened the car door for her, she got inside and he hurried to his side and got in. "You look really nice, very beautiful."

Rhianna blushed and smiled. "Thanks. You don't look half bad yourself." She said. They drove off and into the parking lot of an expensive looking Seafood Restaurant. It was a new place, just opened up a few weeks ago. Rhianna always wanted to go.
The pulled into a parking place and Jake got out first. He opened Rhianna's door for her, he took her paw and helped her out of the car. They walked into the Restaurant and were shown to their table.

"Crud, this is expensive. Are you sure you have money for this?" Rhi asked Jake.

"Yeah. I've been saving up for this. I thought it was about time I took you some place nice. I figured you deserved it." Jake said.

"Well, it's nice that you're thinking about me, but this is too much thought." Rhi said.

"Just pick something to eat..." He said.

She smiled and looked back at her menu. "Oh....crab legs." She said. She looked at Jake who made an "Oh yuck" face and folded her menu.

"Shrimp and fries here." Jake said.

Soon after making their decisions, the waiter came and took their order. He was a burly fellow covered in light brown fur and a balding head. He wore a pair of black slacks, a dress shirt and a vest. At his chin was a black bow-tie.

"What can I get you fine couple tonight?" He asked kindly.

"I'd like the shrimp with a side order of fries." Jake said.

The waiter wrote it down and looked at Rhianna. "Madam?" He asked.

"A plate of crab legs" She replied.

"Very good, I'll be with you in a few minutes." He said. He took the menus away and moved off to a different table.

"He called me 'madam'." Rhi said.

"Feel privileged, because I have a feeling this is the first and last time we come here." Jake said. Silently adding the numbers up in his head.

"I kinda had a feeling that was going to happen." She replied.

A little later, their food arrived. Rhianna began eating her crab legs, until soon, out of no where, a French fry hit her on the head. She looked up to see Jake smiling across from her. She tossed a piece of crab meat at him, hitting his hand.

"Oh...ew.." He said.

"Afraid of the evil killer crab meat?" She teased.

"Disgusted is more like it." He replied. Soon, Rhianna heard her pager go off in her purse. She pulled it out and checked the number.

"Crud!" She growled.

"What is it?" Jake asked, dreading the answer.

"It's Feral. I'll be right back." She replied. She got up and went to a nearby payphone in the main lobby. She dialed the number and waited for the answer.

"Feral" The voice on the other line said.

"Lutenit Persian, sir. You called?" She asked.

"Ah, Persian. Good you called. I need you back at Headquarters, ASAP. Bank Robbery in progress at the Megakat First National. Retaliates." Feral said, matter-of-factly.

She looked back at her and Jake's table, he was picking at his food, looking disappointed. "But sir, I'm off-duty...and I'm out with someone. Can't you call someone else?" She said.

"I don't care what you're doing, Lutenit. Get back to headquarters, uniformed and ready, no excuses." Feral said and slammed the phone in her ear. She winced and hung up the phone. She sighed in disappointment and went back to the table.

"Jake." She said.

He looked at her and stood. "What is it?" He asked, putting his hand on her arm.

"I have to go. Feral needs me back at Headquarters." She said.

"Crud." He cursed.

"I'm so sorry, Jake. I can't get out of it. The Metallikats are robbing the First National...I have to go." She said. She kissed him. "I'll make it up to you, I promise." She said, putting her paw on his cheek. She turned and jogged out of the restaurant as much as her high-heel shoes allowed. She hailed a Taxi and hurried back to her Apartment.

Alone, Jake headed back to the garage, he took his tie off and discarded his coat. He threw it roughly onto the couch. He plopped himself heavily down on the couch.

"Jake." Chance said from behind him. Jake looked up. "Callie called...Retaliates."

"Right." Jake said. He got up and followed Chance into the hanger. He changed from his formal attire to his Flight suit, adjusted his mask and climbed into the TurboKat with Chance.

"Ready?" Chance asked.

"Let's do this." Jake replied. Chance powered the TurboKat forward and they took off toward Megakat City and the problems that befell it.

Rhianna had never been so rushed in her life. She hurried back to her apartment, changed from her dress to her Enforcer Uniform and pulled her hair up into a ponytail. She holstered her gun and left in a mad dash for her car. She got to Headquarters in record time and met Feral in the hanger.

"Persian, get out there, stop those Retaliates from robbing that bank and hurting innocent people." He said. Rhianna looked at him defiantly, he had ruined her dream evening with the tom she loved more than anything.

"Since when do you care about innocents?" Rhianna retorted. She headed to her jet and got in. She took off and out into the city. She saw a crowd of kats around a large building. That had to be the place. She turned her jet toward that general direction, only to be met by weapon fire.

"Ahh!" She yelped in surprise. The jet shook violently under the impact. Rhianna looked down to see both Mac and Molly holding their machine-gun hands at her. They must have fired simultaneously.

"Persian..." Feral said over the radio.

"Well armed sir, and hostages on the roof." She reported. A movement caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. The TurboKat came in their general direction. She heaved a sigh of relief. If anyone can handle the Retaliates it was the SWAT Kats.

"The SWAT Kats!! What are they doing here?!" Feral commanded, snapping Rhianna back to reality.

"I don't know sir." Rhianna said. She fired at the Retaliates, trying not to hit the hostages or bring the bank down on those people below. No pressure... She thought to herself. Soon, her jet was rocked again, more violently this time. She lost control of it and crashed the small jet on the roof of a nearby building. She climbed out of the smoking machine and fell to her side. Her left leg was bleeding, but the wound wasn't too deep. It just hurt!

Razor fired another grappling missile at the Retaliates and beheld as Rhianna's jet crashed. "T-Bone...I'm outta here. I'll be back." He said.

"Razor..." T-Bone said. But his partner was already gone. Razor left the jet in a cyclotron and went to the roof where Rhianna was. He parked the bike and went to Rhianna's side.

"Are you alright?" He asked. Rhianna looked up at his voice, her brow furrowed.

"Shouldn't you be over there?" She said as she pointed to the opposite roof. Razor looked over and saw T-Bone making passes over the roof. He landed the Turbokat and got out, fighting the Retaliates paw to paw. He walked over to his parked Cyclotron and opened a panel, from which flew a cable to the other building.

"Wait here." He said to Rhianna.

"Where am I going to go?!" She demanded. He grabbed onto the cable and slid over to the other building. Rhianna watched him go and wished she could help more. But her leg ached badly, and she wouldn't be much help from the other building anyway.


Razor reached the other building and stood beside T-Bone, fighting Molly. He glanced over at the opposite building where Rhianna was, then maintained his focus on the female droid. He fired a missile at her from his Glovitrix. She dodged.

"You have to do better than that, SWAT Kat." She said. Jake kicked her off of him and over the side of the building. Chance did the same, flinging Mac into a dumpster.

"Razor, get those people out of here." T-Bone said, firing a net missile at the dumpster and Molly. Razor did as he was told and freed the tellers held on the roof. They hurried back into the building, leaving Razor and T-Bone to clean up.

"Go get her, buddy." T-Bone said quietly. Razor nodded and shimmied his way across the cable back to the roof where Rhianna was. He went to her side and helped her to her feet.

"Lean on me. Just lean on me. Don't put any pressure on that leg." He said, putting her arm over his shoulders and his arm at her waist.

"Why are you so concerned about me?" Rhianna asked indignantly. She didn't even know him. Or...didn't think she did anyway.

"I'm concerned about all the victims of something like this" He said. "C'mon...let's get that checked out." He started to take her off of the roof.

"No. No, I'll be fine. Just need a bandage and hot water." Rhianna said.

"I think you need to go to a Hospital." Razor insisted.

"No hospitals." She said. She let him go and kept herself balanced. "I hate hospitals. I don't need them." She ripped a piece of cloth from her flight pants and tied it tightly around her wound, wincing every so often, but trying not to let it show.

Razor watched silently by. Rhianna never told him that she didn't like hospitals. He mused over it for a few minutes and shrugged. "Whatever you say. Are you sure you're all right?"

Rhianna looked at Razor, tears falling slowly down her cheeks. "I'll be fine. Just get out of here." She said, trying to hide the fact that she was crying. Razor wanted to go back to her, but changed his mind. Better that she not be anymore suspicious than she probably already was.
He walked over to his Cyclotron, got on, and left. Rhianna watched him go and hobbled to the stairs and out of the building. She made it back to her Apartment and gathered her bandages and a rag with hot water on it. She sat on the couch and removed the blood-stained piece of cloth from her wound.
It was deeper than she thought at first, she must have banged it pretty good off of her plane's control panel. She put the hot water cloth over it and hissed with pain. She shut her eyes tightly as tears formed and fell. She removed the cloth after a bit and cleaned it. She bandaged it tightly and changed into her jeans and t-shirt.

After an hour or so, there was a knock on her door. She picked herself up off of the couch and limped over to the door. She opened it to see Jake there, looking flustered, but trying to keep calm.

"Hi." She said.

"Are you okay?" He asked. "I saw it on the news. I saw you're plane crash."

"I'm fine." She replied, allowing him to come in. He did and looked her over as she closed the door. "I just got a cut on my leg and a few bruises."

Jake sighed and brought a paw to his face, his coat sleeve slipped from his wrist, revealing a very strange glove. Rhianna took his paw and pushed his coat sleeve back.

"What's this?" She asked, looking from the glove to him.

Jake's eyes went wide only a moment then back to normal and pulled his paw away from her. "What, that old thing? Just something I was working on to make working on cars easier." Jake lied. Crud...this bad, real bad. He thought.

"It looks like the glove that SWAT Kat was wearing." Rhianna said, looking into his eyes. "What's going on?" She asked him flat-out.

"Nothing, Rhi." He said.

"Don't lie to me." She told him, her beautiful golden eyes narrowed. "You're one of those SWAT Kats aren't you?" She guessed.

Jake laughed, it was faked the she-kat could tell. Rhi crossed her arms. Jake looked at her, then sighed. She knew, it was too late to try get by now. "Yeah, Rhi. I am." He sighed.

"Why didn't you tell me?" She asked.

"I was afraid Feral would find out." Jake said.

"You don't trust me?" She asked him.

"Not with this I don't." He retorted.

"You actually think I'm going to go to Feral with this?" She asked him, appalled and feeling like crud. He had lied to her, and on top of that, he didn't trust her. "I thought you loved me?"

"I do. You know that..." He said.

"Jake, I'm not going to Feral with anything. I don't even file reports for him. Why would I tell him?" Rhianna asked, her arms crossed. She limped over to the couch, unable to stand on her leg for very long and sat down. Jake sat next to her.

"You're an Enforcer, it could slip." Jake said. "And with how close you are to Feral..."

"I'm almost directly under him. But that doesn't mean I'm going to squeal." Rhianna said, not wanting to look at him. She didn't want to be angry with him, but she was.

"I know...but....look Rhi, it's nothing personal. Honest. I would just like to keep this a secret. Can you do that for me?" He asked her, putting her paw on her knee. She looked up and nodded. "That's my girl." He said and kissed her.

Rhianna returned the kiss, then looked up at him. "Maybe you should go." She said.

"Why?" He asked.

"I need to sort stuff out." She told him. She looked away from him and closed her eyes. If he lied to her about being a SWAT Kat, what else hasn't he told her?

"Rhi...." He started.

"Just go, Jake. I'll call you later." She replied. She got up slowly and left the room. She went to her bedroom and stood at her door and listened as Jake left. She shook her head and let her mind wander. She really had no reason to be mad at him. He was only doing what he thought was right by not telling her. But still....Rhianna shook her head and cast away the thoughts.

~~~ TO BE CONTINUED