SWAT Kats: The Phoenix Squadron
By Mutitoon90
Chapter Three: An Unexpected Turn in Expections
It was a quarter to three in the afternoon, and Lucki was dressed in an outfit that was composed of a black cap, a green T-shirt that was a size too big for Lucki, blue jeans with holes in the knees and tennis shoes that looked and was overworn as she walked down the sidewalk towards where she was to meet with her employer, enjoying the sight of kats continuing on with their lives after Discord's defeat and passing by a large television screen that showed the Cat's Eye News reporter, who was a tom with brown hair and light tan fur, talking about the event involving Discord and the SWAT Kat that was known as Angel.
"Cat's Eye News is still receiving calls from several of the citizens of Megakat City about the heroine of the day, Angel the SWAT Kat, who took down Discord before the invading kat could make good on her threats. When we interviewed Commander Felina Feral, she stated that she was grateful to Angel for stopping Discord, but she also added that Angel must be careful about destorying the property of others, since the strictfulness against crimes of property damage. We also spoke to Mayor Calico Briggs-Clawson, who replied that it was good to see the SWAT Kats return to action, and most of us would agree.
"Now for the big questions: Is Angel the newest recruit of the SWAT Kats? Is she the only one, and if not, how many more SWAT Kats, like her, are out there? Will the original SWAT Kats, T-Bone and Razor, return to action, or are they in full retirement from battle? So, many questions and not an answer to be found as of yet... Only time can tell us the answers we want to know about the SWAT Kats.
"One thing is for sure; the SWAT Kats are back and ready for action. This is Andy Gora, signing off."
At the end of the report, Lucki had entered the building, where she was to meet up with her employer, and she found herself in a pizza palor, which was filled with many kats that talking about many things and included the topic of the SWAT Kat that saved the city from Discord's powercord. With a smile, Lucki walked to the counter and orderd a spanich and anchovy pizza, which caused the she-kat that was taking the order to cringe in disgust, and that resulted a quiet giggle from the brunette-blond that requested the order. Being told that it would take a little bit of time, Lucki went to an empty table and sat there, thinking about what happened bewteen her and Discord.
Reveiwing the battle in her mind, Lucki realized that she had, once again, lived up to her name, which was really Fortuna, and her nickname that her father had given her, since he was not fond with the name. She realized that she was nearly killed by the underlings' laser guns, the power soundwaves that would have been produced by Discord's amped-up guitared-up guitar, the guitar's built-in blades, the explosion of the control panel as well as the airship that completely blew up minutes later and the lasers from Discord's escapeship. In her mind, Lucki was thankful that the original SWAT Kats had left many of their training rooms and supplies behind, since she would have passed out if she had tried laughing the Sonickat without the training.
Then, she remembered something that she had heard during the fight against Discord: "Looks like the Old Man was right about the 'guests..." That caused Lucki to become concerned about what might happen next, because if the 'Old Man' was one of the powerful villians that once attacked Megakat City years ago, that meant there could be someone, if not more, teaching some of the youth of Megakat City about becomin a villain, and that was not good for the people of the metropolis.
Then, a frightening thought formed in her mind, and she did not enjoy coming up with the very thought: 'What if one of the 'teachers of the new generation of supervillians' was Dark Kat himself?'
Before any other foul thought took form in her mind, she heard, "Order of spanich and... yuck... anchovy pizza!"
Lucki was so disturbed by the thought that she had failed to see the announcing she-kat's face twist with disgust as she picked up the box of pizza, since she was leaving the palor once her boss meets up with her.
As she went to the door, the entrance to the palor was opened by a burly, forty-something-year-old tom with tan-yellow fur, which had tan-brown stripes, and wearing a red jersey-like shirt, which was tucked into his black denim pants, and he recongized the she-kat with a happy greeting.
"Hiya, Lucki!" The tom waved at the she-kat with a somewhat-gruff voice, which Lucki recongized right away as only one person.
"Hiya, Boss!"
Then, the two kats exited the palor and started off to wherever Chace Furlong, Lucki's employer, was taking her.
As they walked, they talked about the event involving Angel and Discord, which Lucki said that it was a good thing that the SWAT Kats might be making a comeback. Her boss agreed with Lucki about the comeback, but he added that he wished that the same could not be said about Discord. That resulted in a bit of laughter from the two kats as they approached their destination.
A few minutes later, Lucki saw that they were heading towards Megakat Park, and then something unexpected, at least to Lucki, happened: Chance went into the park. Following him, Lucki asked, "Why are you going this way?"
"We're going to meet up with a pal of mine." Chance answered bluntly and quickly to the younger she-kat.
Not sated by the answer, Lucki could decide rather or not to continue her questioning or leave it alone. Thankfully for her, she did not need to ponder for much longer.
"Hey, Chance!" A voice called out, grabbing the attention of both Chance and Lucki.
Lucki saw the kat that called out to them, and she knew who the kat was right away; nearly every kat in Megakat City knew Jake Clawson, the mayor's husband, was scarred over his left eye by the Pastmaster when the villian kidnapped Calico, his wife, ten years earlier. That was another thing that the she-kat was not expecting at that moment.
"Hey, Jake!" Chance responded to the call as he hurried towards the leaner of the male kats and high-fived him, and Jake received it greatly and with a smile on his face.
Another unexpected thing, which was not seeing that the friend that Chance was talking about was the husband of the mayor's husband, was experienced by Lucki, who was becoming more confused with each passing event, when Chance started to talk to her. She knew somehow that was going to endure more of these strange events before the day was over.
"Hey, Lucki!" Chance called out to Lucki, who was walking to the two toms at the time, "I know that you know who he is, but I'd like to introduce to Jake Clawson, best WSO to ever fly in the skies!"
"Hey!" An embarassed Jake responded to the priase that he felt that he did not need, "I was only the weapons systems operator; you're the ace pilot."
As the two toms started to agrue who was the most important person at their job, whether or not it was currently or formerly, Lucki was confused about the introduction; she thought about why would her employer to the mayor's husband and then mention what Jake used to do, if he had already retired. This caused the lone she-kat to become extremely annoyed with the older toms.
"HEY!" Shouted Lucki, who was successful to halt the bicking that was being made by the male. Once she had their attentions, she started ranting loudly.
"What the furballs is goin' on here? I'm startin' to feel like I'm nuttin' more than a statue in the park, and I don't know what's goin' on!"
The toms, Chance and Jake, looked at each other, looking dumbfounded at the she-kat's rants, before they returned to Lucki and started to explain.
"Well," Jake, the cinnamon-shaded tom, was the first to speak, "sorry about ignoring you like that; that wasn't the intention or impression we wanted to make to you."
"For what's going on," Chance, the larger kat, explained, "we need to get out of the open to explain the rest."
"Get out of the open?" Lucki parroted as she followed her boss and the mayor's spouse to a part of the park that was in the area's center. It was all too strange to the young she-kat.
As the three kats reached the center of the park, Lucki noticed that Jake had pulled out something that looked like a security card, and her employer hasten his walking pace to a tree, which he felt for a couple of moments before opening a small door within the tree.
Dumbfounded about the tree being opened by Chance Furlong, Jake Clawson used the security card into the swipe machine that was embedded inside the tree, and then he allowed the eye scanner to scan his left eye, which Lucki thought was a good idea, since it was scarred.
The she-kat became more surprised as she saw an opening that was large enough to allow the three kats to go through and small enough to be well hidden in the middle of Megakat Park.
Looking at her boss, the brunette-blond asked him, "What's going on?"
"We'll explain, when we get there." Chance replied, sounding a little annoyed with the she-kat's inquiries.
The first to jump into the hole was the mayor's husband, then it was Chance, and finally it was Lucki's turn, but she took a few moments to compose herself for the drop before jumping into the hole, which closed after she entered it.
Upon dropping into the hole, Lucki found herself on a slide for a few moments before finding herself at the bottom. Looking around, the she-kat held on to her box of pizza, which acted as a source of comfort to Lucki at that point as she asked, "Where am I?"
"Don't worry." Chance patted her on the head, startling the young she-kat, "You're safe in the new hangar."
Hearing the statement caused Lucki's ears to perk up as she asked her employer, "Did you say 'the new hangar?'"
"That's right." The husband of the mayor replied in his friend's place before he told Lucki to follow him, which the she-kat did with a few questions in her mouth and on her mind.
As the three kats walked, Lucki's attention was directed at the darkness that surrounded the area, but the dark areas of the room did well to hide anything in its cloak. It annoyed the youngest kat greatly, since she had a natural curiosity about knowing things, but she did a good job on controlling herself and her habit.
Before she knew it, she found herself and the two older toms in a servaillance room of a kind, and this confused Lucki greatly as she watched Jake make his way to the control panel that sat under the screens.
Lucki felt the impulse to ask another question, but she did not get the chance to inquire, because Clawson pressed a button, causing all of the screens to activate and to show several moments of the brunette-blond in the SWAT Kats' hanger either working on the Sonickat or training in many of the training rooms. From want she saw, Lucki was thankful that none of the pictures showed her in any state of undress. However, she realized that they only people that would have been able to put in cameras in the hangar were the SWAT Kats themselves!
"Aw, crud!" Lucki exclaimed before looking at the two toms and asking them, "Are you two, by any chance, the SWAT Kats?"
The two friends looked at each other, exchanged a mischievious glance and returned their attentions to Lucki.
"Well," Chance answered with a chuckle in his voice, "we are."
Lucki looked at Jake Clawson, who nodded his head to confirm his and Chance's answer, and she paused for a moment. After being speechless for that tiny amount of time, Lucki asked her boss with a somewhat hurt tone of voice, "Why didn't ya tell me?"
Chance looked guilty upon hearing the tomboy's voice and answered, "Sorry 'bout that, Lucki, but I was under strict orders," at that moment, he turned his eyes to Jake, who sheepishly shrugged his own shoulders to his friend, as the bigger tom spoke, "however, that order was dropped after you knocked Discord outta the sky."
"Okay," Lucki stated, sounding very understanding about the situtation, but she did have a few more questions, "but what's going on?"
"Well," the mayor's husband answered with a smile on his red-brown face, "for the last few months, Chance and I have been working on restarting the SWAT Kats, but this time, we'd have more kats with high-level skills in their respective capabilites, and one or two ground units fighting on the ground, when the Trubokat can't touch the ground for any reason."
"Also," Chance chimed in, "with what we saw today, they may be more of those younger generation villians, and that might be more than we could handle."
"So," Lucki thought out loud, "you're trying to be safe rather than sorry."
"Pretty much." Chuckled Clawson, and then he continued after regaining a serious expression, "However, the reboot's being compromised by Callie after the tragic loss of our son ten years ago.
"What!?" Lucki was completely taken aback by the statement, "I thought that he was sent out of the city to protect him!"
"That's what Callie and I told the city after the Pastmaster's last attempt to kidnap Callie." Clawson explained, trying to fight back the tears, and that told anyone that losing his child was still painful to him, ever after ten years had passed.
"What happened?" Lucki asked, but she quickly covered her mouth, surprised at her own insensitivity. Recollecting her wits and removing her paws from her lips, the brown and yellow she-kat stated frantically, "If you don't wanna talk about it, I totally understand!"
Clawson, still feeling somewhat bitter about what happened to his son, smiled at Lucki and replied in a fatherly manner, "That's okay; I know that you weren't trying to be cruel."
Sighing out of relief, the she-kat assumed in a question-like tone, "And that's why the mayor refused to allow the SWAT Kats to be reinstated."
"That, and a few other things..." The mayor's husband looked at Lucki's employer, who looked regretful upon hearing about the loss of his best friend's son once again.
Lucki followed Clawson's direction of attention and was silent for a few moments before asking, "After what's been happening for a little while, maybe that... Maybe the mayor might reconsider putting the SWAT Kats back in action."
"I hope so." Clawson stated firmly, and then Chance added his own thoughts into the conversation, "She'd have to be crazy to not reinstate us!"
"You'd better hope that Megakat Asylum has an extra room." A stern, female voice rang out, grabbing the attentions of the group and causing them to turn towards its owner.
"Commander Feral!" Lucki exclaimed in her shock from both hearing and seeing the leader of the Enforcers in the SWAT Kats' new hangar, "What are you doing here?"
"I can tell that you two hadn't told Lucki that I'm one of the people that is responsible for even getting this hangar bulit into the city."
"Really?" Lucki was dumbfounded about the statement, especially since she knew that the former commander of the Enforcers, who was also the current commander's uncle, would cough up a hairball, if he ever found out about the hangar idea coming from Felina.
"That's right." Chance spoke up again, "It was even her idea to put a secret entrance in Megakat Park."
"Cool." The brunette-blond kat bluntly and cheerfully replied, showing that she was impressed with the current commander's actions.
Then, Lucki shifted from impressed to curious and asked Felina Feral, "What did you mean by what you've meant when you came in?" That question caused the three older kats to became confused, and that made the youngest of the kats to correct herself, saying, "What I meant was why did the mayor say 'no' to returning the SWAT Kats to action."
"That's because she didn't to see any more kats sacraficing themselves in the that her son did!" The powerfully stern voice of Mayor Calico Briggs-Clawson echoed throughout the room, causing Lucki to turn towards the blond she-kat, who was marching towards her as she added, "I am thankful that you've stop Discord, but I'm putting a stop to any more vigilante stuff, starting with you, Fortuna Whitefang!"
As much as Lucki detested being by her given name, the fury that rose and burned within her body was hotter and more noticeable, when she was told not of be a SWAT Kat anymore. Lucki could understand why the mayor did not want any more lives to be lost in the line of duty; after all, she lost both of her parents to Doctor Viper's creatures on different occasionss. However, trying to stop people from trying to protect their home was not, by any means, going to stop them at all. At that point, her anger became words, and after putting her boxed pizza on the panel of the many screens, Lucki directed them at the mayor of Megakat City!
"What makes you think that people weren't gonna try to fight off nutjobs, like Discord or those that T-Bone and Razor have fought off in the past!? Huh!? I understand that you don't want more kats to be killed in the battle, but that's, by no means, an excuse to to stop me or anyone else that feels the same thing as me! I AM gonna be a SWAT Kats, and I DON'T CARE if you make the commander put a warrant out for my arrest; I'll keep fighting for Megakat City, because of the same reason you're trying to stop me!"
After her declairation, Lucki panted, which she usually did when she had been angry enough, as she maintained her expression of defience to the mayor, who looked shocked at that moment before recomposing herself before she spoke again.
"Well, if that's the case," Lucki heard a grim tone in the mayor's voice, "it looks like that I have no choose but to..." A pause came, making the youngest she-kat nervous, but what the mayor added to the end of the announcement was completely unexpected.
"Welcome to the SWAT Kats, Lucki."
"Huh?" The younger she-kat was, without a doubt, completely taken by surprise, when the blond she-kat welcomed her with a smile and a giggle.
"Way to go, Lucki!" Chance leapt up into the air before grabbing his employee and pulling her into a bear hug.
"Congrats, kid." The commander of the Enforcers smiled, looking very relieved about Lucki's acceptance into the team.
"Wow, Callie!" Jake directed his attention to his wife, "If I didn't know any better, I'd probably thought that you were serious."
The mayor grinned with a little gleam of mischief in her eyes as she responded to her husband, "Well, it's not my first time in trying my hand in acting as you and Chance know well enough."
"We know, Callie!" Chance laughed a little after putting Lucki back to the ground, "WE KNOW!"
The only one that was not making any kind of comment was Lucki, who was still a little stunned about the unexpected change of heart by the lady mayor. Lucki's unusual silence did not escape the notice of Felina Feral, who went to the young kat, placed a paw on Lucki's shoulder and asked, "Are you okay?"
Coming out of her self-induced trance, the brunette-blond looked at the commander and replied, "I'm okay; I'm just a little stunned."
"All right." Felina smiled at the brown-furred she-kat as she spoke, "You weren't expecting any of this, when you woke up this morning, were you?"
"Are you kidding me?" Lucki returned to her normaI self, "I wasn't even expecting to fight a supervillian on my first test flight of the Sonickat!"
Looking shocked from what she heard, Felina Feral asked, "You're kidding!"
"I wish!" The answer was blunt and clear as it came out of Lucki's mouth.
"Well," The commander recomposed herself as she spoke, "it only shows that you're great at building vehicles."
"Or living up to the name my mom gave me on that fateful Friday that Thirteenth." Lucki stated bluntly, but she had a smile on her face, since she knew that she had been blessed with good fortune in her young life.
Chance, who had overheard the sentence, chuckled as he recalled the story that his employee had told him during her second month of working at the Megakat City Salvage Yard.
According to Lucki, the brunette-blond female was born on a Friday the Thirteenth, and thirteen misfortunate things happened to her parents on that day: The first and second things were that Lucki was earlier and the phone was not connected, which prevented Lucki's mother from contacting either the hospital or Lucki's father. The third and fourth unlucky events were connected to each other, because Lucki's father was blamed for something that one of his co-workers did, and that caused Lucki's mother to be in labor by herself, which last longer than she had expected. The fifth unfortunate thing was that all of her neighbors were not home.
When Lucki's father came home, he bumped each of his elbows when he tripped over the capret rug on that same day; the first time was when he came home, landing on the right elbow, and the second one was bumped, when he was rushing to the car upon finding out that his wife was in labor. After getting both his wife and himself into the car, Lucki's father ran over the trashcan that was in the way, since Lucki's father had forgotten about when he heard his wife's cries, and that act of forgetfulness caused garbage to fly into the wind.
Once he was on the road to the hospital, Lucki's father and mother managed to have an half-hour of unfortunate events, but that ended, when they saw that the way was blocked by a campagin parade for Mayor Manx's re-election. Quickly, Lucki's father took a different route, but he soon found out that there was some constrution being done on that route, causing him to take a third route. There was nothing blocking the third route, but there was a lot of garbage there, and a sharp piece of garbage caused the car to get two flat tires.
After getting off of the car, Lucki's father managed to call a cab, which was just getting off a break. However, once the would-be parents entered the cab, they found out almost immediately that the driver was under the influence of katnip, but it was too late to tell the doped-up kat to stop, because the driver had droven into a brick wall of a nearby building.
Thankfully for Lucki's parents and the driver, Lucki, who was born in the taxi cab, was crying so loud that someone manage to hear over the loud yelling of the building's owner, and that caused the smart kat to call for an ambulance, which came in a record time, to take the four kats to the hospital.
All four kats escaped death, although Lucki's parents had minor injuries and had to stay overnight for observation with their newborn kitten, but the driver was dismissed from his job and forced to take a program for kats with an addiction to katnip.
As soon as the lucky parents saw their kitten, it was Lucki's mother that name her child Fortuna for the events that led to the child's birth as well as the kitten's hair color, since it was believed, by Lucki's mother, that kats born with striped hair were to be blessed with great luck. Lucki's father was not fond with the name that his wife had choosen, and give the alias 'Lucki.'
Chance believed that it was a story that Lucki made up, but he did a little research and found that he owed Lucki an apology, when he found out that Lucki was being sincere about the story of her birth. He did say that he was sorry, but the she-kat told him not to worry about it, since it was not the first time someone believed that she was making up stories.
Then, the tom kat remembered something about Lucki: it was her birthday! Chance went to the young she-kat and, in a brotherly tone, asked, "This has to be the best birthday in your whole life, right?"
"Birthday!?" Lucki exclaimed, grabbing the attention of the other kats, "I've forgotten that it was my birthday again!"
"Second time today too." Chance shook his head, simplily not believing that this kat has forgotten her birthday more than once, however he decided that it could have been due to the excitement of the day.
"Well," beamed Lucki as she went to her nearly-forgotten pizza, "it's a good thing I've got some pizza to celebrate with!"
Chance groaned upon hearing Lucki's statement, "If that's what I think that is, I think I'll pass."
Jake Clawson, upon seeing his friend's reaction, asked, "What's wrong with her pizza?"
With a mild grimace on his face, Chance stated, "Her favorite pizza is spinach and anchovy."
"Spinach and anchovy?!" Jake repeated in disgust before adding his own comment about the she-kat's taste in food, "Pizza should never be sevred with those nasty topping combo."
The females heard the toppings that Lucki liked and tried not to express disgust in an attempt to not hurt the younger she-kat's feelings. However, that was not the case for Lucki.
"Don't tell me that you guys haven't tried it."
"We have." The four older kats responded in unison, causing Lucki to laugh out a little before saying, "If that's the case, it means more for me!"
With a giggle, Lucki opened the box, grabbed a slice and bit into it. She enjoyed the flavor and the disgusted faces of her new allies.
"As long as she doesn't eat that crud in the Turbokat," moaned Chance as he held a paw to his stomach, "I'm okay with it, at least, for the most part."
Hearing that statement, Lucki put the half-eaten pizza slice back into the box and looked at the tom that was her employer and asked, "What did you say?"
"Well," Chance chuckled a little, "it's expected as a member of the SWAT Kats, and as it scares me to death, there'll be days that wouldn't be able to fly the Turbokat, and I know for a fact that you've wanted to be a pilot, like your dad..."
A shocked Lucki asked the older tom, "Do you mean that I'm going to fly Turbokat!?"
"After you get some training under your belt, Lucki." The tan-yellow tom replied to the question, "I'm not putting a rookie in the pilot's seat without some training."
Without warning, Chance was pounced by an estatic Lucki, who gave the pilot a powerful hug, sending herself and the older tom into a spin.
"OH, thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Lucki said in her excitement as she hugged Chance, "This IS definately the BEST birthday in my life!"
Little did any of the kats in that hangar knew at that time, it was not only the rebirth of the SWAT Kats, but something else was about to rise up with the original SWAT Kats.