The first time I saw the episode Mutation City I fell in love. Not with an individual or a plot or setting but with an idea, an image that graced my teenage mind. That was 17 years ago. That idea has been refined, expanded, altered, forgotten, relearned, abused, but never written. I never considered it serious enough of an idea to appeal to others.
And then last year I stumbled across Ulyferal and his thoroughly awesome expansions on Commander Feral. And realized my idea wasn't all that weird after all.
So I'm biting the bullet. Be gentle. This has been worked on for 17 years, more than half my life. It's not light. It's also not short. And it the characters aren't even mine.
Episode dialogue lifted from the episode.
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I am Dr. Viper's greatest creation.
True, every one of his creations are his "latest and greatest". His plantimals are truly amazing. But I am far and above even his idea for a living and breathing Megakat Tower.
I am sentient and sapient. I should hope so, I started this way. I was not an innocent bystander by far but I… Let's just say that I got in his way.
My mutation was an accident but that doesn't make me anything less than his greatest creation. I am beautiful. I am loyal. I am a work of art.
I am a monster.
And not a day goes by when I do not thank the stars for him making me so.
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"Megakat Biochemical, eight miles and closing," I said. My uncle sat at my side in the chopper as I flew, barking orders to our escort. They were allowed to return to base after being hit, acid eating into their rotor axles.
Megakat City was a wasteland under us. The streets were filled with unknown depths of goo, crawling with mutant creations of Dr. Viper. Katalyst X63 was potent indeed to be taking small animals, frogs and lizards, and turning them into the creatures infesting our city. It was almost painful to see, this city we as Enforcers were sworn to protect, reclaimed by the monsters Dr. Viper saw as "natural". I took great relish in shooting grasping tendrils into bits.
"Guess it's up to us now," I said. I shouldn't have said it.
A helicopter doesn't have the responses of a fixed wing aircraft. We lurched as something grabbed us by the tail; I shut down the engine so we wouldn't spin out and die when our stabilizing fins were torn off.
"We're going down!" I shouted. It was a pointless waste of words as our tail gave way and we spun into the muck.
"This is Feral, bring me chopper back-aiieee!" My uncle tried the radio but the cockpit hull melted around us and he screamed while getting out of the way.
I pulled my pistol. One of the mutant… things… came towards us. I fired at it but then its tongue grabbed my gun and ate it. We did the only thing we could do. We climbed to the roof of the wrecked chopper and my uncle pulled his sidearm.
The SWAT Kats came to our aid. Clearly they didn't expect the mutants either as their jet was pulled down into the flood. The wave from their splash washed us in.
The SWAT Kats were gone, submerged under this… goo. My uncle and I swam to the nearest building. We hung onto some poor kat's sixth floor window ledge and hoped.
Weird orange slime oozed through my clothes. It was like being encased in jell-o. It was warm, which disturbed me on some level. I could feel the tiny things squirming around in it. I could also feel the breath of the giant maw behind us. Whatever it had been it was now little more than mouth attached to a tail. It arched up out of the slime like a water snake, maybe that's what it had been. It was so far mutated I don't think it even had eyes anymore. Uncle's sidearm was useless now, clogged with gunk. He threw it at the thing.
The Turbokat burst out of the goo; the SWAT Kats had survived. I shouted to them and hoped they'd get to us before the thing did. I felt a stabbing pain in my back as I reached up and waved them down but ignored it. Pain wasn't important, getting us out of there was.
They shot a net at us. It pulled us out of the slime right as the thing leaped. It missed us and the Turbokat carted us away.
I pulled a foot-long winged eel-worm… thing… out of my fatigues and dropped it into the slime below.
"Are you injured?" Uncle asked.
I scratched at where I found the thing. It hurt like touching a wound and there was blood on my fingers. "Worm bit me," I admitted. "I'll be okay."
"Let me look," he ordered. I could tell it was an order. He lifted my shirt and winced.
"That bad?" I asked. His look worried me.
"Looks painful," he admitted. "You should be fine. When we get back I'm having a medic take a look at you."
I tugged my shirt back down and hissed as fabric touched the open bite. "Sounds like a good idea," I agreed.
The SWAT Kats set us down on the tarmac. Technicians ran up to get us out of this net as the tow cable was detached and the Turbokat took off to do our jobs for us.
My back itched like burrs. Uncle called for a medic for my bite while I found myself absently scratching at it. He took me inside, away from prying eyes. I purred at him for it and felt him purr back.
In Uncle's office a field medic had my shirt off and was scratching his head at my bite. He said something about it looking festered. I remember Uncle radioing for Dr. Conway to come up from the biotech lab when everything happened at once.
The medic shrieked and scampered off. He hissed, his ears back.
Uncle ran up to me, I could feel his arms around me. I heard him purring to me as he shouted for Dr. Conway.
I wondered why I was on the floor. I wondered why my back was on fire. There was agony and the sound of fabric and flesh ripping. Someone was screaming. I think it was me.
And then I didn't think anymore.
I knew I was inside. I was trapped. And I knew where I was meant to be. I knew where I needed to be.
And then I was there.
