SWAT Kats: Red Moon Rising
Prologue: Fatal Follies
The orders were clear. No scientists were allowed in the labs after 10 p.m.
After the last scientist left the premise, the soldiers locked down the entire place. Doors were covered with repulsor fields and even the sewer systems that led to the labs were patrolled. While the Enforcers made up the bulk of the guard force, there was a sizable number of marines in the area as well. Unlike the Enforcers, the marines wore bulkier combat armour with urban gray camouflage colour. Years of training made the marines some of the toughest combatants on the planet and the ones patrolling the labs were no new recruits too. They were seasoned veterans with combat experiences gained during the Angorian Continental War and the Chartreux Incursion Conflict. The military was aware of Megakat City's villains and they wanted to make sure the project was not jeopardised.
Ulysses Feral, commander of the Enforcers, was there to oversee the guards along with an old friend of his from the military academy, Colonel Martin Bobtail. Feral met Bobtail when they were just new recruits many years ago. After finishing their tour of duty in the restive region of Katmandu, both went separate ways with Feral working his way to becoming the commander of the Enforcers and Bobtail working his way to becoming a well-respected colonel in the Federal Army. Both were happy to see each other again and just an hour ago, the two a drink at the local bar. The two arrived at the lab in an Enforcer squad car just minute before midnight.
"I must say, Feral my old friend, you could've been a general if you'd just stay in the army. It always bugged me that you'd rather be an Enforcer than a soldier. My impression is that you'd make a good one," Bobtail said while adjusting his cap.
"Perhaps," Feral remarked. "But I know this city needs help and help is what my Enforcers will give."
Bobtail snorted and said, "No offence, Feral, but I think the SWAT Kats seem to be doing a better job than your Enforcers are. You're a good leader but a good leader is nothing without competent troops."
"There are many situations that my Enforcers can handle. They only seem incompetent because those vigilantes keep getting in our way," Feral said indignantly.
"I understand your disapproval for vigilantism but I've been following the news. Seems to me that your Enforcers almost always have their tails handed to them by quite a number of odd villains. The SWAT Kats are almost always there to free you from sticky situations."
"The SWAT Kats are lawless vigilantes, nothing more. I see no reason for the deputy mayor to support them. Their actions are giving people the wrong idea that we're allowing anybody to dish out justice however they like."
"With a city like this, I think I'm all for street justice," Bobtail muttered.
Feral did not answer Bobtail. He was an Enforcer through and through and everything had to be done by the book. Still, he had to grudgingly acknowledge the many times the SWAT Kats helped the Enforcers pull through multiple dangerous situations. Recently, he gave the SWAT Kats a deep thought, something he had never done before. Now that he took the time to analyse the way they fight, something about them seemed rather familiar. He could not quite put a finger on it though and the sense of familiarity bothered him. Feral wondered if those two vigilantes were related to the two Enforcers he had discharged years ago.
"It couldn't be them. Those two may be rebels but they're not criminals...are they?" Feral wondered silently.
A couple of soldiers saluted the two when the passed by and while Bobtail returned the salute, Feral walked by without saluting. The two leaders decided to check the backside of the facility, making sure the laser fences were operational. The idea of laser fences were not new but it was a recently implemented technology with Megakat City being the first commercial user. Feral liked the idea but the power requirements were so ridiculous that more than half of the power supplying the labs were transferred to the fences to keep it online, rendering most internal security measures offline save for the ones in Delta Lab where the unfinished canisters of mutagen were stored and the repulsor fields. It did not matter much to the Enforcer commander because all windows and doors were covered by the repulsor fields. They used far less energy and are strong enough to stop even tank shells. His only main concern were the sewer systems.
"The military's given quite a lot of leeway for the Enforcers. You guys are perhaps the only organisation in this world that develops its own defences separate of the army," Bobtail said as he threw a pebble at the laser fence and watched it disintegrate in a bright flash.
"What can I say," Feral replied with a smile. "This city's a magnet for unsavoury kats, hell-bent on conquering the city."
"Conquering the city? If that's their only goal...they're awfully short-sighted. You know what they say: why be content with a city when you can conquer the world?"
"They're not all that smart," Feral said dismissively.
"For the likes of the Metallikats...maybe. But I can see Dark Kat being the only one ambitious enough to aim far and wide," Bobtail added.
"I can say the same for that bug-eyed freak Harley Street. He'd probably would want to turn every kat on earth into a ci-kat-a"
"It's unfortunate what happened to him though I suppose it's a risk scientists must face," Bobtail said and rubbed his furry chin. "Speaking of Harley, what happened to him?" he asked and turned his attention to Feral.
Feral shook his head and answered, "I don't know."
While they continued their inspection of other parts of the lab, something had happened to the patrol groups that were tasked with guarding the sewer system. Three teams were supposed to patrol the north, west, and south parts of the massive sewer system but two teams had went missing. Alpha and Delta teams were supposed to check in half an hour ago but Omega team received only static. Then, one-by-one, the members of Omega team were picked off, quietly and swiftly. In the end, only the team's captain and his second-in-command were left. Not wanting an ambush to take them by surprise, they backed into a small room where the sewer flow controls were located. The captain quickly locked the door while his second-in-command kept a look out through a glass window.
"Is the air in here breathable?" the captain asked.
"There's still some hydrogen sulphide but the air is mostly breathable," his second-in-command replied while consulting his handheld air analyser.
"Okay, what in the nine hells just happened to the teams?" the captain said and removed his helmet, revealing a brown tom with a scarred face. "Something is picking us off."
"Could possibly be a mutant," his aide replied without taking his eyes off the analyser. "The Biochemical Labs is known to dump wastes into the sewers. My theory is that some mutant inhabitant is picking us off."
"Heavens forbid that we're facing more than one. I can't get a distress signal out," said the captain. He twitched his nose as the smell of rotten eggs irritated him. "Conley, you got a signal booster with you?"
"Got one right here. Let me adjust – "
Conley stopped midsentence when the lights in the sewer went dark. Someone or something had cut power to the sewer. Years of training kept the two toms calm but the captain's hands were shaking with anxiety and a bit of fear. Their helmet-mounted lights were on but the captain was looking the other way. It was a fatal mistake because there was a sound of shattered glass followed by a scream. It was Conley and when the captain turned around to see what had happened to his second-in-command, he had disappeared. The place where he had stood a few seconds earlier was now full of glass. All that was left of Conley was his air analyser, its screen splattered with blood. The glass was no ordinary glass either. It was thick bullet-proof glass and something had shattered it with ease.
"Conley, are you alright?" the captain asked through the squad communications channel. "Sergeant Ben Conley, what's your status?"
Static.
"Shit...shit...shit," the captain muttered. He raised his weapon and started aiming at every source of noise he heard. His calmness was completely gone, replaced by overwhelming fear and desperation. Feigning bravery, he started shouting orders at whatever was hiding in the darkness to show itself. There was only silence save for the captain's loud breathing and even louder heartbeat. His position was compromised and there was no way to warn the other guards without the signal booster. There was only one option left: run for the nearest exit. Luckily for him, his local range scanner detected an exit not too far from where he was at.
The captain wasted no time thinking about his safety. He put on his helmet, opened the door, and made a mad dash for the exit. Adrenalin kept him from tiring out and his trigger finger was constantly hovering over the trigger of his assault rifle. The exit was just around the corner ahead but the way was blocked by a pile of rubble. It was recently made because bits and pieces of dirt and pebble still rolled down from the pile. "Are you kidding me?!" was the captain's only response to the situation. He did not want to turn back so he started rolling the rubble away. While he was clearing away the rubble, he did not notice something swimming in the dirty murky waters. A creature rose from it menacingly, its entire body shrouded by darkness but its eyes glowed brilliant red. In fact, they were so bright that it caught the attention of the captain.
His reaction was surprisingly quick and he spun around with his weapon safety off. His helmet light revealed a centipede-like creature with mandibles dripping with glowing green acid that sizzled when it came in contact with water. There was no time to analyse the creature and the captain opened fire at it immediately. It was such a large target that it was hard to miss but the bullets did no damage to it. On the contrary, his shots made the creature angry instead. It screeched and screamed as the captain peppered it with a hail of armour-piercing shots.
"Go for the eyes, Max, go for the eyes!" the captain thought.
With only two bullets left, he had to make the shots count. The creature spat a blob of acid at him but the captain leapt aside. He quickly adjusted his aim at the two bright red eyes and fired. His shots were spot on and the once brilliant eyes were reduced to bloody gore. The creature screamed in pain and flailed about violently, trying to hit its attacker. "That was for my men and the other teams!" Max shouted at it and high tailed from the area. He made a mistake of looking back while running because he ran right into something sharp. It took him a while to register what had happened and when he looked in front, he saw a smiling green kat with glowing yellow eyes. He looked down and saw that a large knife was in his chest.
"Animal cruelty isssss not tolerated," the kat said.
Max was too weak to fight back and he grunted in pain when the kat pulled out the knife. He fell onto the grimy floor and blood began to pool around him. The kat was not done with him though. He bent down and turned Max around so he faced the ceiling. Then, he removed Max's helmet and poured a vial of yellow green liquid into his open mouth.
"I'll see you in the lab in five minutesssss," the kat said and walked away, leaving Max to struggle with an overwhelming pain as his body began to twist and mutate.
Back at the surface, an entirely different crisis was going on. Dark Kat had announced his presence and his creeplings assaulted the lab. His new weapon of war, an airship called Dark Star, was both a battleship and a carrier. The massive guns on the ship laid waste to the troops on the ground while his creeplings dropped to the ground as if performing an aerial invasion. Feral had not expected this and there was no proper anti-aircraft weapon available. Even for Dark Kat, attacking a biochemical lab with an aerial battleship was overkill though given that there was military presence, he was expecting heavy weapons and resistance. The sky was filled with unmanned drones that carried high-powered laser slicers. They made a hard situation even more difficult by providing close-air support for the creeplings on the ground. Not even the battle-hardened marines were able to deal with a horde of creeplings and drones. Feral had called for backup while hiding in a nearby tool shed along with his friend. It did not take long for reinforcements to arrive.
The Enforcers came with tanks, commandos with missile launchers, and Feral's favourite chopper backup. Even with reinforcement support, it was hard to fend off Dark Kat's minions and drones. The Dark Star seemed to unleash an endless wave of drones and creeplings. Feral and Bobtail came out from the tool shed with weapons drawn and were immediately greeted by several creepling launching themselves at them. They tackled Feral and Bobtail to the ground and wrestled with them for leverage. Feral and Bobtail threw punches at some of the creeplings. It knocked them down for a while but they just shrugged off the pain, got back up, and continued the wrestle.
"Get them off me!" Bobtail exclaimed and took a shot at one of the creeplings.
The shot missed and one of the creeplings grabbed Bobtail's pistol and wrested it from his grasp. Another clubbed Bobtail in the head with a brick and knocked him out cold. Feral was knocked out too by the brick-wielding creepling. With the struggled ended, the victorious creeplings took the lab keys that were in Feral and Bobtail's pockets. After that, they tied them up and threw them into the tool shed before blocking the door with a heavy dumpster. The Enforcers and marines were too busy to notice that their leaders were out of commission. They continued engaging Dark Kat's airship and his army, all the while not noticing that the group of creeplings that had attacked Feral and Bobtail had snuck into the lab via a hole in the wall made by a stray rocket. So much for cheap and effective repulsor fields.
The Dark Star had made a hole in the roof so Dark Kat could enter the building as well. His personal jet took off from one of the launch bays and landed safely onto the roof. The Enforcer choppers attempted to intercept him but Dark Kat's laser drones kept them at bay. Dark Kat emerged from his jet with a smile of victory and satisfaction on his face. He found it a pleasant surprise that the SWAT Kats had not responded to the situation. Normally, they would be on scene in a snap but their absence was a welcome change though Dark Kat remained cautious for ambushes.
"Secure Delta Lab now," Dark Kat said to his minions.
Delta Lab was located in the north wing of the building and the entrance was at the second floor so he had to walk for a bit. By the time he reached the entrance, a couple of his creeplings were already there waiting for him.
"Good. Open the lab doors so I can get my claws on the mutagen."
The lock system required two keys to be turned simultaneously so two creeplings took positions at each side of the entrance. They inserted the keys into the locks and turned at the same time. The sound of clicking locks filled the corridor and the doors slid open silently. Dark Kat entered the lab and his creeplings followed close behind. Finding the mutagen was easy because there were canisters of them in there, each labelled with a serial number and a test result sheet. Dark Kat found the latest test batch in a class locker. A simple swing of the fist the glass locker shattered. Just when he was about to grab the vials of orange liquids, he heard a loud bang followed by the sound of a bullet ricocheting off the edge of the glass locker, close to where his hand was. Dark Kat growled and turned to see who did that and his eyes met with the eyes of Dr. Viper. He had a smoking pistol in his hand and behind him were several bulky kat mutants with guns in their hands.
"I believe you're about to take what is mine, Dark Kat," Dr. Viper hissed.
"You meddlesome fool. I was here first!" Dark Kat said angrily. "I'm giving you five seconds to clear this place before I have my creeplings deal with you and your mutants."
"You can't order me around. We're not in the Alliance of Evil anymore and I don't have to listen to you," Dr. Viper countered as he pointed his pistol at Dark Kat.
"I'm not giving you a choice, Dr. Viper. The fact is that I was here first and I had the keys."
"And you did me a favour by opening the doors. Your work is finished; mine has only begun so you should clear this place."
His mutants raised their weapons at Dark Kat and the creeplings took it as a threat to their master. Without orders from Dark Kat, they attacked Dr. Viper and his mutants and pushed them away from the exit. In that brief moment, Dark Kat took the vials and ran. Dr. Viper saw Dark Kat headed his way and stuck out his tail so the large kat tripped over it. The vials fell from Dark Kat's hand and the contents splashed onto several of the creeplings. They writhed and howled in pain before falling onto the floor and laid there motionless. They did not move and Dark Kat thought they were dead.
"No! Those were the only latest samples!" Dark Kat exclaimed. "You'll pay for that!"
Dr. Viper tried to shoot Dark Kat but he slapped the pistol out of Viper's grip and wrapped his claws around his neck. Viper countered by reaching into his lab coat pocket and retrieved a test tube full of acid. He smacked the tube at Dark Kat's face. The glass shattered and acid bathed Dark Kat's face. He let go of Dr. Viper's neck, covering his face while screaming in pain.
While the two and their respective minions fought in a melee, none of them noticed the seemingly dead creeplings that were splashed with the incomplete mutagen began to stir. As they got back onto their feet, they began growling like a feral dog. Their teeth grew even sharper and their wings started to mutate into crude hands with sharp claws. The skin on their bodies split and fell off, revealing a blood-covered bat-like hulking creature with thick muscles. It was only when one of them snarled that Dark Kat and Dr. Viper stopped their fighting.
"This is fascinating," Dr. Viper said with a gleam in his eyes. "These are very good results for an unfinissssshed mutagen. Mutants, seize him!" he commanded and pointed at Dark Kat.
He thought he had control over them but the mutated creeplings attacked him, Dark Kat, the other creeplings, and Dr. Viper's mutants instead. They were extremely tenacious and ferocious, filled with bloodlust and the will to kill. Even when Dr. Viper's hulking mutants had larger bodies, the mutant creeplings took them down easily and tore them to bloody bits in a few seconds. When they opened their mouths, orange liquids dripped from their teeth. They proceeded to bite the other creeplings. The mutant creeplings attempted to bite Dark Kat and Dr. Viper as well but Dark Kat fended them off. Dr. Viper was not so lucky and he was bitten in the tail.
Dark Kat ran for the roof, determined to escape before he too became the next victim. However, upon reaching the roof, he saw his personal jet was up in flames. Hovering above the jet was the Turbokat and in front of the burning jet wreck was Razor, one of the SWAT Kats.
"Looks like we're late for the party," Razor said. "How about we make it up to you by taking you down here and now?" he added and did a battle-ready stance.
"I don't think you want to do that, SWAT Kat. I'm not the real problem right now," Dark Kat said calmly.
The answer caught Razor off guard and he lowered his fists slightly. Before he could ask for an explanation, two mutant creeplings broke through the roof and charged at Dark Kat and Razor. Dark Kat sidestepped and allowed one of them to run past him. With a quick kick to the back, he sent the mutant creepling flying into an air conditioning unit. The other creepling latched its claws onto Razor's uniform and opened its mouth to bite him. Razor responded by pointing his glovatrix at it and fired an octopus missile. The missile pushed it backwards and Razor got back onto his feet.
"Alright, Dark Kat, what're you pulling off?" Razor asked and turned his attention towards him.
"I'm not pulling off any tricks."
"I don't believe you."
"You don't have to believe me; you already saw it for yourself. I'll give you my advice just this once, SWAT Kat, get away from here before you get into trouble."
As if on cue. more mutant creeplings burst through the roof. There were more of them now and Dark Kat knew what had happened but said nothing about it. He reached for a remote control in his pocket and pressed it. Moments later, a jet from his airship swooped down. It fired a few shots at the Turbokat, making T-Bone veer away. The jet landed onto the roof and Dark Kat climbed into it.
"Have fun cleaning up the mess," he said and took off.
"Hey buddy," T-Bone called out to his friend via the communicator. You need my help taking those freaks?"
"You go get Dark Kat. I can handle his goons," Razor responded.
With that, T-Bone flew after Dark Kat's jet, leaving Razor to face five mutant creeplings. He had taken them on before. They were not that smart nor were they strong but these ones were totally different. They had little resemblance to the usual creeplings and looked a lot more grotesque and with wider mouths. They were a lot larger too and had the height of a young kat. Dark Kat certainly did something to them but Razor could not understand why they attacked him as well. Instead of attacking Razor one-by-one, the mutant creeplings all charged at him with claws outstretched. Using his superior agility, Razor dodged and sidestepped attempted attacks while dishing out some punishment of his own. Besides several octopus missiles, Razor loaded some rubber rounds in them. He took aim at the closest mutant creepling and fired at it. The rubber bullets impacted it and knocked it off balance.
While Razor was engaged with two of them, one of the mutants snuck around him and ambushed him from behind. It leapt onto Razor's back and held him tightly. It tried to bite his head but Razor stopped it with his right forearm. Its teeth sunk deep into his flesh and Razor cried out in pain. He tried to shake off the creepling but it only bit down harder. The others swarmed over him and threatened to rip him apart but the timely intervention of T-Bone saved Razor from becoming creepling chow. T-Bone fired the cement machine gun at them and the quick drying cement shots knocked them back, including the one latched onto Razor's forearm. Its teeth made three bloody tear wounds and blood flowed from them like a stream of red, dripping onto the roof and making small blood pools.
"Dark Kat got away with his airship," T-Bone said in a disappointed tone. "It's a good thing I turned around fast enough to save you. You alright, bud?"
"That thing did a number on me," Razor answered and winced in pain. He held his wounded forearm with his good hand. "It's gonna need stitches. Nice shooting by the way."
T-Bone landed the Turbokat and quickly leapt out of the cockpit so he could take a look at his friend's wounds. There was a medical kit in the cockpit but it had only basic medical supplies to treat minor wounds. The lacerations were rather bad and Razor needed proper medical attention. He felt a burning sensation coming from the wounds and saw blood and some unknown orange goo exuding from it. It was disgusting to look at. There was a hospital nearby and T-Bone wasted no time brining his friend there. The best he could do for the time being was to quickly apply some iodine and bandage the wound.
When the commotion had died down, Enforcers and army personnel were all over the place. The lab was locked down tight and the dead bodies in the building were brought out. Feral and Bobtail were freed from the tool shed and the two were there to oversee the post-battle cleanup work. An army general was there as well and no doubt he was clearly incensed over the attack.
"You should've known better, Colonel Bobtail," the general said angrily. "I've already told you that Megakat City is a dangerous place with dangerous villains. I told you beforehand to deploy heavy weapons in case of situations like this! This is not some cheap million-credit white elephant project the government loves so much! Do you know what those spilt mutagen mean? It means 90 million credits wasted and the work has been set back by 2 years! Now the scientists need to start over from scratch! And you, Ulysses Feral," the general then turned his attention to Feral. "I hold you equally responsible for this goddamn mess. The military didn't give the Enforcers leeway in defence research just for them to not be used. And for fuck's sake can you please make your Enforcers a little more competent?!"
"With all due respect, sir, I think my Enforcers are – "
"Are what? Competent and ready for action all the time? We've been turning a blind eye to the multiple failures of the Enforcers, trusting your knowledge and experience as commander to steer them in the right direction eventually. The army didn't form the Enforcers to train a group of donut-eating toms with oversized weapons! I've been keeping a close eye on your actions for the past few years, Feral, and I first started doubting your leadership capabilities when you dismissed Corporal Jake Clawson and Sergeant Chance Furlong. I know what happened that day."
"That was an error in judgement that I truly regret."
"Oh, really now? The biggest problem with you, Feral, is that you're inflexible and that is the primary reason for the failure of the Enforcers. I will credit you for being well-intentioned but you fail in the art of war. You know very well that the enemies of Megakat City are highly unorthodox. In the military academy, I taught you to do things by the book but I also taught you to be flexible in tactics and strategies when the need arises. Need I say more?"
"No...sir. I understand what you're trying to tell me."
"I'm not trying to tell you something, Feral. I'm telling you straight up that you need to change the way you lead the Enforcers. You were always a thick-headed tom, you know that? Sometimes I ask myself why I even voted for you to become commander of the Enforcers. Here's one last piece of advice I'm ever going to give you. Be flexible. There is a reason why some of your Enforcers, your niece included, go against your orders. If they make a good point, listen to them for crying out loud. The Enforcers are nothing without a commander and the commander is useless without the Enforcers. Two-way communications and compromise goes a long way. Do you understand me?"
"I understand, sir."
"Good," the general muttered and let out a sigh while rubbing his temples as if he was having a headache. "This mess is gonna cause a big hoo-ha in the Homeland Security and Defence Departments and there's definitely a lot of paperwork to be done."
"Is there any way I can help the situation, general?" Feral asked.
"Yes, there is. I need you to conduct an investigation, find out how exactly Dark Kat got to know about this secret project. We've been pretty tight-lipped about this so it should be next to impossible for word to get out. My guess is that there's a traitor. Once you have the report and evidences ready, I need you to come over to the Nexus to present your findings to the Board of Generals. Be sure you have a competent stand-in ready by then. I don't trust Steele," said the general.
"I'll see to it at once."
The general nodded his head and said nothing else. He stayed in the premise for a while and went to inspect Delta Lab. Feral and Bobtail on the other hand checked on the dead mutants. They were horrified to find out that the tall and muscular mutants bore bits and pieces of clothing from the squads that went missing in the sewers. Mutants usually meant Dr. Viper was present but none of them saw the half-snake kat. Feral then wondered if Dark Kat and Viper were working together and made a mental note to investigate possible alliances between the two.
There was much to do and even more controversy to deal with but the attack on the biochemical labs was only the beginning to bigger problems.
A/N: SWAT Kats was one of my favourite childhood cartoons along with Gargoyles, Animaniacs (cheeky cartoon that one) and many others. This isn't my first time writing fanfics (I had an older account which I forgotten the username and password) but it is my first time writing a SWAT Kats fanfic. Never got around to writing it until now. I'm actually glad to see quite a number of SWAT Kat fans here. Before settling on the idea of Red Moon Rising, I had other ideas for a SWAT Kat fanfic including time travel to the past that takes place during the Old West period (yep, Razor and T-Bone as masked riders), Pumadyne working on a teleportation device that linked hell to Megakat City, and another time travel idea involving Razor and T-Bone fighting in Megawar II in propeller planes. Feel free to suggest which idea I should pursue next after I finish Red Moon Rising. I apologise for any continuity and/or grammatical and spelling errors. I strive to make my fics as perfect as possible so you guys don't cringe when reading them. I welcome constructive criticisms but leave the fuel and fire behind.
Yours sincerely, Arclight-Zero