Author Note: This take place five years after Shadow within a Shadow. The three chapters will be a Point View from Felina, Callie and the SWAT Kats. Enjoy!
Chapter 4: Razor (Jake Clawson)
The day Feral had left the city, Jake Clawson had awakened at his usual time, about an hour before Chance and went downstairs to make them breakfast. Chance joined him in time to eat together. They put their dishes in the sink and went down to open the garage and get to work. Their workload had backed up because of being called out as the SWAT Kats a few to many times recently.
They had no interruptions so succeeded in making a dent in their workload by the time they closed the garage for the day. As Jake began to close the gate, Callie's green sedan came speeding toward their place. He waited for her to enter before closing the gate behind her car, leaving it unlocked.
As he walked to their car, Callie and Felina jumped out and rushed to them in excitement. Jake looked over at Chance who just shrugged, his arms filled like his friends with a happy she-kat.
Felina was waving a piece of paper urging Chance to read it. When Chance simply took it but didn't look at it, Jake pulled away from Callie to snatch it from his friend's paw.
Chance protested half-heartedly but Jake ignored him and read the paper.
It was a letter and his eyes widened when he read it's contents. His heart squeezed with sorrow as he felt the writer's anguish, loneliness, and pain. He couldn't believe he'd never seen this side of Feral before. It made him feel bad as he urged Chance to read it too
"Well I'll be damn. He just walked away? Wow! That's incredible." Chance said in amazement then paused to think about how this would affect them.
"This is great news! Now we don't have to worry about the enforcers trying to capture us all the time and we can fight crime our way." The tabby said, getting over his shock and grinning like a fool.
Jake could only shake his head at that comment. All this time Feral knew who they were and that they had a relationship with Callie and Felina. He could only image what Feral felt when he found out about his niece and Chance dating.
While the others were celebrating their new freedom, Jake couldn't help but feel something bad was going to happen because of this event but he pushed it back into the recesses of his mind when Callie came to him, hugging and kissing.
Five years later…
Everything in the first four years was going great for them. He and Chance were able to spend more time with Callie and Felina which was a big plus.
Though Jake could see the old Enforcers weren't happy about Felina taking command, the younger ones had no problem with it and made no complaint when the SWAT Kats aided them. Crime was being held down and the big criminals were being kept from destroying the city so what was there to complain about? With the enforcers off their backs, it was far easier to fight crime for the SWAT Kats.
Everyone seemed happier that Feral was gone especially Mayor Manx. Without Feral's more tempering presence, Manx was more bold about dipping into the city's budget to fund his risky and half baked ideas for making money.
This behavior began to have far reaching consequences. At first only Callie bore the brunt of the Mayor's spending habit but soon it began to spread out. Felina was the next to feel it when her requests for assistance for her Enforcers was met with refusal.
At first, Felina understood the problems Callie was having but as the pressure mounted at Enforcer Headquarters about lack of funds for upgrades, new training to keep ahead of the more well funded criminals, weapons and equipment becoming more critical, Felina could no longer be understanding.
Jake thought he could ease the situation for Felina by secretly giving her plans to help her research and development upgrade their equipment. This only help a little. The problems just were getting too widespread and too costly. Felina had to press Callie saying she couldn't possibly stay ahead of the increasing crime wave without an increase in her budget.
Callie had to angrily tell her there was no money she could give her. Their twin frustrations strained their friendship to the breaking point.
Meanwhile, the SWAT Kats began to feel overwhelmed. They were never supposed to handle regular crime problems. They just weren't equipped for it but as enlistments to the enforcers began to drop alarmingly and crime jumped up, the SWAT Kats found themselves doing regular police work. Jake had never been required to deal with such things since leaving the enforcers so was completely unprepared to deal with the emotional overload these extra responsibilities were causing.
As they struggled with handling an ever increasing workload to fight crime, their garage work fell hopelessly behind putting them behind on their payments to the Enforcers for their damaged flight line. Meanwhile, their relationships with Callie and Felina were falling apart. The fighting between the she-kats had spilled over to their lovers causing frequent fights.
Jake tried to tell Callie that Felina was only trying to do what she could with nothing and was desperate for help and that he and Chance were feeling overwhelmed by handling nearly all the crime in the city but his approach only won him a furious tirade from Callie about her budget woes.
Jake mourned the loss of the closeness he and Callie once had. He watched as the same thing was happening to Chance and Felina. He could see things were coming to a head.
It was only a matter of time before the katizens of Megakat City revolted against Mayor Manx for his excesses.
"Callie, the only way we could save the city is for you to run for Mayor." Jake said one night, hoping to avoid another fight.
"Believe me, I realize that Jake but the people perceive me as part of the problem and may not want me either." She said flatly.
"But you won't know unless you try, Callie." Jake begged.
She sighed and stared at him a moment. "Alright, I'll try but I have a bad feeling its already too late." She said unhappily. Privately, Jake thought she was right.
As time passed, the lovers were seeing less and less of each other and when they did find time to see each other it was to fight. Things at Enforcer Headquarters were becoming more difficult for Felina as whispers about her suspected love life with T-bone, her commanding skills and her inability to get them what they needed began to become louder and louder.
Jake tried to have Callie hurry and make her bid for Mayor but it seemed she felt there was still time. This of course led to a more vicious fight than any they'd ever had and ended in Jake finally breaking things off with her. Despite the pain and unspoken words between them, Jake left.
When he got home, he found Chance sitting on the sofa drinking alcohol. It was clear he and Felina had broken up as well. What a pair they made...neither able to comfort the other...the pain was too raw.
As his world began to fall around him, Jake as Razor began to hear the gossip among the enforcers whenever they were at a crime scene. It was vicious and nasty. Despite their care to keep their private lives separate from their SWAT Kat ones, the enforcers had still been able to see the writing on the wall of two pairs of lovers suffering a major breakup that affected everyone. Mutiny filled the air.
Only a few weeks later, Jake and Chance were watching Kats Eye News with Ann Gora presenting the news about Felina and Callie. Felina Feral had been removed from duty and placed under house arrest. She was being charged with fraternizing with the enemy and betrayal of the regulations she had sworn to upheld. While the Deputy Mayor was being charged in federal court for knowingly aiding and abetting the vigilantes. Also Ms. Briggs had been subpoenaed to appear in the trial of Commander Feral.
Chance violently shut the TV off and disappeared down to the hangar to take his fury out on an exercise bag. Jake sat there in stunned horror at the blank TV for some time. Finally, he slowly got up and made for his bedroom. He went to the top drawer of his dresser and pawed around until he found the crumpled letter.
He dropped down on his bed and reread the emotional letter from Ulysses Feral. He swallowed painfully as he lowered the letter and stared out his window.
"He knew! He knew all along what would happen. We ignored his warning and this is the price we're paying." Jake said aloud, his voice filled with anguish.
In the Shiori Village a festival was being set up. Ulysses Feral was helping his lover Makoto set up a booth. He was quite enjoying life in his new home. He felt laid back about things and his temper was calm and easy, no longer easily triggered to anger. As he helped Makoto set up the stuff required for cooking Ramen, an orange tabby walked up.
"Yo, Ulysses! I need your help!" Kazuma said with a grin.
"What? You can't see I'm busy?" Ulysses asked him with equal parts amusement and annoyance.
"You look like you're nearly done. I need help passing out these flyers about the festival. It'll just take about five minutes." Kazuma coaxed his friend.
"No way. You volunteered for it not me..." Ulysses began to protest but Kazuma interrupted.
"Fine, if you don't want to help, then I guess I have to tell everyone about your little moonlight swim." He threatened while hiding a smile of mirth.
"You wouldn't dare!" Ulysses gulped.
"Try me." Kazuma said smirking as Ulysses and Makoto blushed.
"Oh, I'll get you for this! Give me those flyers!" Ulysses snarled unhappily grabbing the pawful of flyers his friend handed him.
Kazuma merely chuckled good-naturedly, but knew he would have to be on his guard. Ulysses would no doubt find something about him that would be even more embarrassing than what he had on his best friend.