DIMENSIONAL GENDER-BENDER
Chapter 2: Meeting the Commander
They both stared at the Commander. She only vaguely looked like her male counterpart. Her face was heart-shaped and her ebony hair hung to her shoulders. Her voice was a deep contralto and she was stunning. Standing near her was a handsome male with black hair and a white forelock. He stood eyeing them suspiciously.
"Well, I know you're going to have trouble with this but we're from another dimension and we are the SWAT Kats." T-Bone told her.
"You're right, I don't believe you!" She snorted. Her golden eyes glaring at them.
"Unfortunately, it's true. My dimensional radar has done this before only in that dimension we were evil now apparently, I'm guessing, we are female?" Razor tried to explain and get more information.
The Commander cocked her head at them skeptically. The officer at her side studied their jet a moment then looked at them more closely.
"Auntie, that jet does look a lot like the Turbokat and their G-suits and glovetrix appear identical to our SWAT Kats. Maybe they're telling the truth. Stranger things have happened before to us." He said cautiously.
T-Bone's eyes widened, "Lt Feral?" He blurted in shock.
"Yes, that's my name." He said staring at them quizzically.
"Oh man this just gets weirder and weirder." T-Bone groaned.
"Uhm...You see Commander...in our dimension you..." Razor said pointing at Feral "...are male.." then pointed his finger at Lt Feral and said, "...and you are female."
Both officers raised their eyebrows in surprise.
"I have a bad feeling this is going to be true of everyone we know from our home. So you can understand our confusion." Razor said shaking his head.
"I can't even imagine!" Lt Feral said commiserating but still skeptical.
"Oh joy! If what you two are telling us is true, I now have two sets of vigilantes running around interfering with my job." Feral said sarcastically still eyeing the pair before her suspiciously. "So what do we do now with you until we sort this out?" She mused distractedly.
"No offense, Commander, but we'd really just like to get home, however, I'm going to need help and a place to work. Perhaps your SWAT Kats can help and give us shelter. We'll try and keep out of your hair until then." Razor suggested carefully.
"I don't like the idea of you just wandering around my city..." Feral began.
"Auntie. They haven't broken the law here that we know of so maybe his suggestion is the best one for now. After all, locking them up won't get them home any faster." Lt Feral urged his aunt to accept the suggestion trying to coax her to go easy on the pair. He couldn't shake the feeling that they were telling the truth. He hoped their dimensions SWAT Kats could help this pair get home.
Snorting at first in annoyance but then conceding her nephew did have a point, Feral sighed, "Fine! You two stay out of our testing range and out of trouble. Good luck in finding your way home." She said as she turned away giving orders for the testing to restart and ignoring the pair standing at a loss behind her. Wishing them good luck as well, Lt Feral waved goodbye then hurried to join his aunt.
"Well, that was easy!" T-Bone said in surprise.
"You got that right! This Feral seems a bit more reasonable than ours." Razor said equally surprised as he headed for their jet.
Following his partner, the bigger tom couldn't help but add, "Maybe because he's a she?"
"Hu! That's certainly possible, T-Bone. They do think differently than we do." Razor said shrugging his shoulders.
As T-Bone lifted the jet up and away from the desert and headed for the city he asked, "Okay where do we go from here? Do you think the female version of us is at the salvage yard?"
"Well all we can do is check, T-Bone. We won't know how much is the same as our home if we don't look around first and that's the best place to start." Razor said.
"Roger that." T-Bone agreed and headed the Turbokat to the west side of the city.
Some minutes later they hovered very high above the salvage yard so as not to be seen.
"Well here we are. How do you propose to let them know we're here? I can't just go in the hangar. Their jet is most likely parked there." T-Bone asked his partner. "And we don't know for sure if they are down there." He added thoughtfully.
"That's easy enough to check. Hold on a minute while I use the X-ray device." Razor said as he activated the device. "Bingo! They're there alright and the jet is in the hangar but just like in ours, there is enough space to park our Turbokat. Let's see if I can raise them on our secret frequency." Razor mused as he attempted to raise their counterparts below them.
Cleo Furlong was welding a delicate piece of electronics on a motherboard she was working on when their radio piped up.
"Hello down there! We know who you are and need to talk to you in private! We are hovering at 30,000 ft above the yard in our jet. Please come up and speak with us." A strange male voice called.
"Who the heck are you and how did you get our frequency?" Cleo demanded angry and scared. Her partner Jinx Clawson slipped up beside her looking anxious.
"There is no way to explain over the radio that would help you believe what I have to say. Please, we mean you no harm. We need your help." The voice said politely.
Cleo looked at her friend, "Well what do you think we should do?"
"It appears they know who we are if they are hovering above us and asking us to come up there by jet. We aren't going to get any answers waiting and demanding down here." Jinx said shrugging her shoulders in frustration.
"Fine! Then we go up and see whoever this is but be ready for a fight." She said grimly then turned back to the radio. "Alright we're coming up."
She and her partner headed for the hangar, changed clothes quickly, and had their jet launched in minutes. They were soon high in the sky and staring in shocked amazement at a jet that looked so similar to theirs to be nearly mirror images.
