This is my first story ever published EVER. Please give me any feedback you have about my story, positive or negative. I'm very pleased with it, for it was originally a six page story I was coaxed into putting here. If you give me any feedback, like I said, I'll greatly appreciate it! Thanks and enjoy!
Disclaimer: If I owned SWAT Kats, I'd be really happy. But, since I don't, I can only wish I did. Lara, however, is mine. If you want to use her, just let me know, ok?
SWAT Kats: The New Recruit
The story starts out eighteen years in the past. There is a woman whose face is covered by a veil. She is running from some lasers being shot. In her hands she has a bundle wrapped in blankets. She is also carrying a basket.
"If I can't have a good life, there is no reason you need to die with me." The woman says. She takes out a piece of parchment that has been written on. She places the bundle in the basket and floats it down a river. "Goodbye, Lara." The woman says with tears streaming down her cheeks. The basket floats down to a country house outside of MegaKat City. There a farmer and his wife find the baby kat in the basket and rescue her. They read the parchment:
"To whoever raises this girl, please raise her with the care and love that we were not able to provide. Her name is Lara. Please take care of her."
Present day MegaKat City. Lara is now nineteen years old. She is a white kat with brown hair. She is small for her age, but is very strong. She has always dreamt of going to the city to become an Enforcer. She tries to do it, but they turn her down and make her work in the scrap yard.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN I HAVE TO WORK IN THE SCRAP YARD!" Lara shouted at the officer.
"I mean that those were the Commander's orders, now pick up your clothes and move along!" the officer shouted back at her.
"Grr…." Lara thought. She picked up her clothes and was on her way to the scrap yard. There, Chance heard her coming, and ran to attack her, but she flung him into the air, and he came down with a loud thud which aroused Jake. He came over to see her, and at first, Jake started to drift off into space by infatuation. "Why you little punk! Why in the heck would you attack someone walking by minding their own business?" Lara shouted. Jake was shaken from his daze and walked over to Lara. She looked at him while he was walking over and started to blush and look at him blankly. Jake took notice of the look and started to fuss with his hair and pick at his fur. Lara started to laugh because he thought he had something on him. "Well, aren't you charming?" Lara said in a sweet voice she hadn't ever, and I mean EVER used.
"Well, you're sweet, but could you please remove your foot from my partner?" Jake said. Lara took her foot off of Chance and dusted him off, but gave him a sneer, then she looked at Jake. "What brings you to our little, scrap yard?"
"Well, that jerk Commander Feral told me to go here all because of an elevator incident." Lara said. Jake and Chance gave her the look of, what did you do, so she told them. "I was tinkering with the wires, just after he admitted me, and the whole elevator lost power and flew down the shaft. When it stopped, he sentenced me to work here to pay off my damages."
"Well, sounds like us, ey Jake?" Chance said with a smirk on his face. Jake nodded. "Well, welcome to the yard. It's not any luxury, but it's a start." Chance said.
"A start? This place is a DUMP! I won't get my new school clothes dirty." Lara said.
"School clothes? What grade are you in?" Jake asked her.
"I'm a junior in college. Why?" Lara answered, puzzled.
"Just asking. We thought you were younger. Anyway, Chance finished with a bachelor's degree in piloting, and I graduated with a master's degree in technology."
"So why are you working here? I'd think that you would be somewhere else. No offense." Lara said.
"Well, we were junior Enforcers, but we were pursuing Dark Kat when our jet crashed into the Enforcers main building. Feral wanted our heads for the damages, but he made us work here to pay beck the debt." Jake said. "You know we haven't introduced ourselves and we've been talking this whole time. Anyway, my name is Jake Clawson."
"I'm his buddy, Chance Furlong. I'm the better of the two."
"EXCUSE ME? I thought you just said that YOU were the better of us." Jake snapped.
"Um…anyway, I'm Lara Tailyor." Lara said, breaking the two from the squabble.
"Well, welcome to our little family" Chance said. The twosome showed Lara around the hanger, explaining everything that goes on there. Then, Lara found the secret.
"Well, I'm not going to dirty my clothes, so I'm going to change in this room here, I…YAHHHHHHHHHH!"
"LARA!" Jake and Chance yelled as she stumbled upon the entrance to the SWAT Kat lair. Jake and Chance lunged down the shoot to try and catch Lara. "Hang on Lara! We're coming!" When Chance, Lara and Jake landed, Lara was stunned to see the base.
"This…is…incredible! I can't believe it! My two new best friends are the SWAT Kats! No way!" Lara burst out saying.
"Well, you found out the secret. Now, promise us that you wont tell anyone." Jake said.
"Ok, under one condition;" Lara said as the two waited for a response. "You need to induct me into the team."
"Well, that sounds reasonable. What can you do?" Chance asked her.
"Well, didn't you experience it first hand?" Lara smirked. Chance was not sure what she meant, but then he remembered how she took him down with only one hand. Him, a big, burly Kat like himself taken down by a seemingly small girl.
"Well, what is it?" Jake asked.
"Remember how I took down Chance when I arrived? I have some pretty good close range combat skills to show off. Watch this!" Lara said. She took out a punching bag that she had in her amazing backpack. She had begun to beat it down. She stopped before it became a stuffy pulp. "The only reason I stopped was because even though it would have been a worthless scumbag, it still had a reason to live, and it would be better off in jail." Lara stated. Jake and Chance clapped for her.
"Well, that is some talent you have there. I say that you should be added to the team. What about you Jake?" Chance said
"I say yeah. Welcome aboard Lara! Now, you will need a codename to go by so no one can figure out our identities."
"Well, I like the name Streak." Lara said. The two thought about it, and they agreed it was a good name.
"Ok, now all we need to do is make up your costume." Jake said.
"Oh, no worries. I made my own costume when I was at my house when I was little. I can make a new one that will fit me today." Lara said. Jake nodded, and chance asked her what else she could do. "Well, I can cook, and I can…um…draw?" Lara said, dumbly.
"Well, that's pretty good, considering that Jake here is a lousy cook." Chance said. Jake was infuriated.
"HEY, I MADE PANCAKES ONCE!"
"Yeah, and they tasted like burnt wood." Chance said to edge on Jake. Lara started to laugh and Chance gave Jake, who was red, a laugh and a pat on the back. Whenever Chance did that, he usually meant, "Lighten up, Jake. You know that I'm joking." "Well, let's see that costume." Chance said. Lara pulled out the picture of her costume. It was a full body suit that was purple. On the shoulders there were hot pink triangles. On the legs there were sea green stripes. It also had a mask with pointed tips that was light blue.
"So, do you like it?" Lara said with hope. Jake and Chance huddled near each other.
"Well, it's different. That's pretty much all that we can say. We're not sure how it will hook up with the tech on the TurboKat, but I'll find a way to fix that. Other than the colors clashing with our uniforms, it's ok" Jake said.
"You think I should change the colors?" Lara said.
Chance thought she took offense to it. "No no! The colors are…unique, but it's not like ours."
"Well, that's ok. I could try it out with the colors that you have on your outfits." Lara offered.
"Uh…ok. I'll get on it." Jake said. "I'm going to need to…uh…" Jake stuttered. He wasn't entirely sure how to say that he needed her measurements. He started to blush and Lara looked confused. Chance gave him a smack on the back and he blurted out, "YOUR MEASUREMENTS!" Jake looked incredibly red in the face. Chance burst out laughing, and Lara looked a bit stunned. "Uh…th...that is for the suit…" Jake said, trying to redeem himself. Lara and Chance were laughing and Jake seemed to blush madly.
"Oh, poor Jake. You could have just asked me without being embarrassed." Lara said sweetly. At that point, Chance was laughing so hard he was crying. Jake was embarrassed, and Lara was a bit confused. "So….where's the jet?" Lara asked. "I want to fly it!" Chance stopped laughing instantly.
"Whoa, hold on there. YOU want to fly MY jet?" Chance said.
"Yeah, got a problem?" Lara snapped.
"Well, it's just that you are a girl half my size." Chance said with a devilish grin.
"WELL, I'LL SHOW YOU WHAT A GIRL CAN DO!" Lara yelled. She and Chance started to fight, and Lara was winning. In the end, Lara beat Chance hands down. "Now, anything ELSE you'd like to say?" Lara said triumphantly.
"No…" Chance growled under his breath. "I want to see your piloting skills. Take this simulation."
"Fine, I will." Lara said. She got into the simulation and started. Just after takeoff, she crashed. "Hehe…uh…that was a practice!" Lara said with a grin of innocence on her face.
"Um, no." Chance said, dampening her spirits.
"Hey, where's Jake?" Lara said suddenly. Chance looked around.
"JAKE! JAKE! WHERE ARE YOU?" Chance yelled. Lara ran towards a room with the door mysteriously opened.
"Maybe he's in here!" Lara yelled.
"Wait, get into your suit. If someone sees us, they might figure out who we are." Chance said, throwing Lara's old costume at her. They put on their costumes and ran through the door.
"Hey, what is this thing?" Lara said as she walked toward a piece of paper on the floor. "It reads; 'Dear SWAT Kats. I have Razor in my clutches. If you want him back before I remove his mask and reveal him to the world, surely exposing yours also, come to my tower and try to save him in the next 24 hours.. Signed, the Avenger of Souls.' That sounds creepy, but we need to save Ja..." Lara was cut off by T-Bone.
"Say his codename. We can't afford that to be slipped out. I'm T-Bone and he's Razor. You are Streak, remember?" T-Bone told her.
"Got it! Let's go T-bone! To the TurboKat!" Streak said with zeal in her voice. T-Bone and Streak rushed to the jet. T-Bone told her to sit in Razor's seat. Streak and T-Bone jumped into the jet and took off. "T-Bone, what if I'm not ready? What if we fail because of me…" Streak said sadly.
"Don't think like that! Just think that you will win and you will! Remember, Razor is relying on us. We can't let him down."
We'll get Razor and make sure we take The Avenger of Souls down!" T-Bone said with confidence.
"Ok, FOR RAZOR!" Streak yelled out. "Hey, T-Bone, how do I work this thing?" Streak said suddenly.
"Well, I think there is an instruction paper in the compartment under you. Check in there!" T-Bone yelled over the engine's roar. Streak looked under her seat and there was a piece of paper that read the directions for Razor's computer.
"Ok, so, if I press this button, I engage the throttle for my side." Streak thought to herself. She pushed the button and the jet started to move.
"Good job! Now we're ready for takeoff! Let's GO!" T-Bone yelled. The jet roared and flew into the sky. "Put on your oxygen…Streak?"
Streak was screaming. She was experiencing the thrill of flight at a high speed for the first time in her life. She was going so fast that she couldn't move her arms. "Streak! Streak! Come in! Are you ok!" T-Bone yelled, trying to get to her.
"I…I'm ok! It's just…WAHOO!" Streak yelled from the back of the jet. T-Bone sighed in relief. "Where are we headed? Do you have any idea where Razor and that psycho are?" Streak asked.
"Yeah, Razor had his suit on, so I'm able to pick up his location. He's at the old sawmill in the rural area." T-Bone said.
"The rural area! Mom and Dad are close by! Hurry, we've got to make sure they are ok! Make this thing go faster!" Streak yelled.
"I'll try, it won't be a pleasure cruise, though! "T-Bone yelled. "Hang on tight!" The TurboKat was flying at supersonic speed. "ALMOST! ALMOST!"
"T-Bone, slow it down a bit! I'm going to hurl! SLOW IT DOWN!" Streak yelled. The TurboKat hadn't ever gone this fast ever.
"I don't know if I can! It's never gone this fast! If we want to live, we need to eject, NOW!" T-Bone screamed. "On my signal, press the red button on the left armrest on the seat! Ready…"T-bone was waiting for the right moment to eject. "NOW!" The two pressed the buttons, but Streak's didn't eject.
"T-BONE! HELP ME! AHH!" Streak yelled as the jet spun wildly out of control.
"STREAK! PRESS THE BUTTON AS HARD AS YOU CAN!" T-Bone yelled though the mic. She wasn't ejecting, nor could T-Bone see the plane. "Streak, do you copy? SREAK, ANSWER ME! DO YOU COPY! STREAK!" Back in the jet, Streak was slamming her fist on the button. It still wouldn't eject her.
"EJECT EJECT EJECT! WORK YOU STUPID BUTTON!" Streak yelled. She tried with all of her might to get the seat to eject. She decided that she needed to pull the jet out of supersonic speed. She crawled through a compartment that led her to the pilot's seat. She pulled the bar that was the throttle. The jet started to slow down, and she tried to steer it back toward T-Bone before crashing, possibly to her death. "T-Bone1 I've managed to slow the TurboKat down to normal speed. I need to know where you've landed so I can try to drive it there."
"Streak, thank god you're alive. I'm by the Katlong river delta. The ground is really soft due to the river, so if you crash, you have a good chance of surviving." T-Bone responded.
"Rodger, T-Bone." Streak was driving a real jet. She felt really excited, but she needed to focus. She was running out of gas, fast. "T-Bone, I'm running out of gas too fast! Help!" Streak cried out.
"I can see you, I'll try to fly over and land the jet. Here I come." T-bone said as he got back into his ejected seat and used the small amount of fuel to fly toward the jet. In about 27 minutes, he was able to get aboard the jet. "Move back to Razor's seat so I can get in." He said. Streak opened the hatch, and T-Bone flew in. "Ok, brace yourself, we're going down!" He shouted. Streak braced herself. The jet rapidly lost altitude. Streak thought she was going to die. She wasn't wearing an oxygen mask, and she blacked out.
"Lara…Lara wake up." Lara woke up to see Jake and Chance looking at her. They were at the hanger. "Thank god, you're alright!" Chance said.
"Wait, how did we get here? How did you escape? Did we win the fight?" Lara asked.
"We didn't, Lara. You aren't awake. You are unconscious." Jake said. Lara looked stunned.
"Now Lara, you need to wake up…wake up…wake up, please…" Chance said, as the dream Lara was having was fading into reality. She saw T-Bone looking at her trying to get her to wake up. "Streak, please wake up!" T-Bone said crying. "Please, say something!"
"Something." Streak replied. T-Bone looked over at her. He saw her smiling at him.
"Streak! You hade me so worried! I'm so glad that you're safe!" T-Bone said.
"You know, I don't think that I've ever seen you crying. I like it." Streak joked.
"Well, I can see that you're back to normal. Now, we need to go inside that area and save Razor. He needs us now more than ever." T-Bone said. Streak noticed now more than before that behind his jokester appearance, he had a gentle soul and a kind heart. For a few minutes, she was sitting there, then when he called, she sprang up. Now she needed to help save Razor.
"Ok, here I come." Streak said. The two ran up to the old sawmill. "Boy, it sure seems bigger now." Streak said. She wasn't kidding, it was huge. There had to be at least sixteen stories on it. "Well, let's go in." Streak said. They pushed the door that was opened already. "Well, that's not suspicious." Streak said sarcastically. T-Bone gave her a gesture to go in. They entered the building, but all they could see was a string in a dark room. "What now?" Streak asked.
"Well, I guess we'll pull it." T-Bone said. He reached out to pull the string. When he pulled it, a sign with an arrow pointing downward appeared on the string. Suddenly, the floor underneath T-Bone disappeared. He fell down into the darkness below.
"T-BONE! COME BACK T-BONE!" Streak yelled. She saw him falling down as far as he remained visible.
"CATCH!" T-Bone yelled as he threw something up toward her. She barely caught it.
"It's a flashlight. It can clip on like a hair clip." Streak said. She administered the flashlight to her hair and switched it on. "Oh great, now I need to save both of them. This day just gets better and better. I guess you can't send a man to do a nineteen year old girl's job. Anyway, I suppose that I should go down and find T-Bone first." Streak said as she flipped the light on.
"Streak! I found you!" came a voice from the darkness.
When the person stepped into the light, she knew who it was. "Razor! How did you escape?" Streak said hugging him.
"Well, it wasn't easy. I think that he's going to try to find us as we speak. Where did T-Bone go? I thought I had just heard him with you." Razor asked.
"He fell through the floor into the darkness. I can't see him, even with the flashlight. What do you think happened to him?" Streak asked.
"Why don't you find out yourself!" Razor said as he pushed her down the hole. She knew that wasn't the Razor, the Jake that she knew. She didn't utter a single sound as she fell, just thinking about what happened, and whether it had actually happened. She couldn't even believe that they were the same person. Chance had said that he seemed braver and more different that he did when he wasn't in uniform, but not like that. She closed her eyes, and continued to fall…
Falling…
Falling…
Into the deep abyss…
To Be Continued…