SWAT Kats -The Phoenix Squadron
By Mutitoon90
Chapter Eight: Unexpected Discoveries
At the labs, the exotic she-kat and the fungus creature were back in the entrance area, carrying five canisters of a chemical that has the words "Katalyst X-9" on them. The creature nearly lost one of the canisters, when it slipped on a part of the floor that was recently waxed. The she-kat with the long hair hissed out when the she saw the canister flying in the air, and before the container fell onto the floor, the she-kat's tail extented in length and grabbed the descending object.
Shooting a death glare to the huge mushroom-kat, the she-kat with the pretensile tail hissed out in anger, "BE CAREFUL!"
The creature grumbled unintelliently, but the female understood its words completely as she responded, "I undersstand, but thiss iss the ssecond time that ssomething happened that could ruin everything!"
The creature replied in its own manner, and again, the she-kat replied, saying in a less furious-sounding voice, "Yess, you did eat the alarm, but we almosst losst a canisster of Katalysst X-9!"
Then, the creature rebuked, reminding the female about the stop to the record room, which the strange woman countered the statement.
"Thiss wass ssomething that hass been decided by Father over nine monthss ago. Thiss female," the she-kat hissed venomously, "Sselina Luna, iss the one who created Project Lygeruss."
"Looks like Doctor Viper's not the only mad scientist we have to worry about in Megakat City."
Unexpecting of the interjector, both the she-kat and the fungus creature turned their atttentions towards the door, which was where a proud-looking Razor and an ill-looking Knight Mage. Seeing this caused exotic female to hiss angrily before she hissed out at them.
"The SsWAT Katsss! This is not I wanted to happen tonight!"
"Sorry to ruin the party," Razor joked at the female, who was not pleased to hear any kind of comedy at that moment, "but stealing is still illegal."
With a dark glare, the female bared her fangs, tempted to bite the meddling SWAT Kats. Then, a dark idea formed in her mind as she looked at the fungus creature, causing a grim smile to twist her beauty face.
"Lookss like you're going to have extrass tonight." The female said in an amused tone as she turned to the fungus creature, which liked the idea of getting eat some more and gave the long-tailed female the canisters it had.
"Sorry, but SWAT Kats aren't on the menu tonight." Razor announced, prepared to battle the giant mushroom-kat.
Knight Mage, who was more accustomed to battling magical beings and sword-wielding toms, was not feeling as confident about fighting a creature that was a fungus by appearance as his father was.
"Don't worry," Razor whispered to Knight Mage's ear, "you've got an ace that Viper might not have expected or know about yet."
"Alas, 'tis not what I desire to hear at this point." Knight Mage announced to Razor quietly. It was evident that Knight Mage was not pleased about being put into a situation like the one he was in at that moment.
Advancing both by the order of the she-kat and out of hunger, the fungus creature charged at the SWAT Kats, Razor and Knight Mage, who braced themselves for the attack. The creature was unaware that Razor had a new kind of missile in his glovatrix in case of any case that involves Doctor Viper's creatures, and the same could said about Knght Mage.
Razor waited for the right moment to launch the projectile at the monsterous being, knowing that if his timing was off by a second, at least, the creature could dodge, and that would leave the two SWAT Kats open to an attack.
Knight Mage was also ready to attack his current enemy, however his course of action was a more direct plan than Razor's plan.
Once the fungus creature was close enough to be attacked by Razor's missile, the older SWAT Kat fired at the mushroom-kat, startling Knight Mage somewhat, since the son of Razor was not expecting an attack to the creature with the exception of his own. The missile flew in the air for only a couple of seconds before landing on its target and frozen the mutation in seconds.
The female hissed upon the freezing of her parnter, stepping away from the frozen form of her ally with a snarl on her beautiful face and a hiss flying from her red lips. She was not happy about the SWAT Kats stopping the fungus creature, and yet the masked toms were not done yet.
Knight Mage, who managed to recover from the scare that was unintented by his father, pulled out the Dragon Sword and swung it, destorying the mushroomish mutation and angering the unknown she-kat even more.
Despite her fury towards the SWAT Kats for destorying the creature, the strange female wisely chose to escape, knowing that she would be able to avenge her ally soon enough. Shaking the container that she was holding with her tail, she hissed out sharply at the SWAT Kats, who had turned their attentions towards her.
"Catch me if you can, SssWAT Katss!" The female kat announced as she threw the oversized vial at the two toms.
Acting quickly, Knight Mage grabbed Razor, swung his sword once again and sent both himself and Razor out of the building and into the Cyclotron. As swiftly as both kats could in their possible panic, Razor and Knight Mage put one their oxygen masks and climbed in the vehicle, and they successfully escaped the blast and the fumes from the chemical that was thrown at them.
"Crud!" Razor angrily yelled into his gas mask, "Now, we've got a big problem on our hands!"
"Agreed." Knight Mage nodded, "But remember: we are not only in this battle, and I am sure that the other SWAT Kats would like to know about what just occured."
"Roger on that!" Razor grinned, and seeing that Knight Mage's grisp on technology was not completely lost to his son made Razor truly proud of the younger SWAT Kat.
Meanwhile, Chance and Lucki had reached the new hanger, and they had seen that the Turbokat was missing the seats, which told them only one thing: Razor and Knight Mage were riding the Cyclotron.
"When do ya think they're gonna be back?" Lucki asked the older tom, who replied with a shrug of his shoulders, "I don't know."
Then, a beeping noise echoed from Lucki's pocket, which caused the she-kat to reach into it and pulled out her communicator device.
"Angel here." The female kat announced into the device, "What's the problem?"
Razor's voice rang out of the gadget, allowing both Chance and Lucki to heard the expecting answer.
"Right now, there's five canisters of Katalyst X-9 missing from Megakat Biochemical Labs, and one of them was used in an attempt to blow me and Knight Mage up!"
"Are you guys okay?" Lucki asked, concerned about the well-being of the two toms.
"We're okay, Angel; Knight Mage was quick to get the both of us out of there before the Katalyst X-9 hit the floor."
"That's good to hear." Angel breathed in relief before asking, "What's going on there, besides the missing chemicals?"
"With the exception of a couple of Doctor Viper's creatures, nothing else."
Hearing the reply turned Lucki's world upside down, since it was one of Viper's experiments that caused the death of her mother, when the she-kat was three years old, as well as the death of her father four years later. She knew that the SWAT Kats had destoryed the creatures that had killed her parents, but as far as Lucki knew, Doctor Viper was still out there in hiding, making more monsters to populate his Megaswamp City.
"Okay," Lucki said as she tried to remain calm, "we'll see you back at the hangar."
"Roger on that." Razor's voice rang out to Chance and Lucki, "Over and out."
Seeing the communicator shaking in Lucki's trembling paw as the she-kat turned off the device, Chance knew what was going through the she-kat's mind, since he was there when her father was eaten by the octopus-like creature that had grabbed the plane that Lucki and her father were on at the time. Chance wanted to comfort the girl, but he did not know what to do or what to said to Lucki.
"Lucki?" Chance asked, pulling Lucki from her memories.
"Yeah?"
"You okay? I know about how you feel about Viper since..."
"You don't have to say it." Lucki sighed out sadly as she spoke, "I'm all right."
"If you say so," Chance did not exactly believe his employee's words, which was why he added, "but if you wanna talk about it, I'm always got an ear open for ya."
With a mild smile, Lucki replied, "Thanks, Chance; I would really like that... a lot."
Chance smiled back, however he was still worried about Lucki, whom he thought might try to kill Viper for what he had done to her parents. For the time being, all the older tom can do was hope and pray that Lucki would forget about avenging her parents and do her job as a member of the SWAT Kats.
Then, an unexpected voice chimed out to the duo mechanics, startling the both of them and causing them to put up their guards.
"Well, and I thought I was the only one with unfinished business with Ol' Snake Lips!"
"Who's there!?" Demanded Lucki, baring her fangs as she yelled out to the owner of the voice, who replied in a calm manner.
"I'm a friendly kat, who has an affinity for pretty she-kats in uniform."
"What I was asking for is..." Lucki was starting to become annoyed, but before she finished her question, the voice said, "My name?"
A friendly chuckle echoed throughout the new hangar before the unknown tomkat's voice answered the question.
"The name's Kyle Luna, but I'm known as Luno."
"Luno!?" Chance was the one being loud at that moment, "You're that thief that's been making idiots out of the Enforcers before the SWAT Kats got back together!"
"And had the new members too!" Luno snickered as he appeared out of the shadows of the new hangar, "It's just rude to forget them too."
Chance's face seemed to twist with anger towards the younger tom, who merely continued to smile confidently, and the true form of the SWAT Kats' T-Bone asked, "Why are you here?"
"Originally," Luno's smile became slightly sheepish, "I was going to ask Lucki out on a date, since she's a pretty kat, was in a uniform and was having bad day thanks to that spoiled she-kat, but I found out you two were SWAT Kats and thought that I should get to know you guys better, and maybe try to convince you to let me join the team."
"WHAT!?" The unmistakeable shout of Commander Felina Feral echoed into the ears of every kat in the hangar, causing everyone to look at her direction.
Luno smiled casually at the leader of the Enforcers and waved at her, "Hi, Commander!"
That action caused Felina's blood to boil, which she assumed was the same feeling whenever T-Bone and Razor made him look foolish, however she managed her professional persona and said in a loud and firm voice, "Okay, Luno, you're under arrest!"
The tom with white locks in his black, mane-like hair paused for a moment to think, and then he put his hands in front of himself and bluntly announced, "Alright! Arrest me!"
The action was a complete shock to the commander as well as the two mechanics; it was not a common practice for criminals to tell the law enforcers to put them in jail.
"What's wrong?" Luno asked innocently as his hands remained together and in front of his chest, "Don't ya wanna arrest me?"
Hearing that helped Felina to recover from the shocking surprise, and the commander pulled out her handcuffs as she approached the smirking tomkat. However, he put his hand behind his back before Felina could put the handcuffs on him.
"Wha-?" A confused commander asked before she became angry and shouted at the bandit,
"I'm not in the mood for playing games!"
"I know that you're not." Luno replied with his smile staying in place, "I merely forgot one thing."
"And that is?"
"What I need from you, Commander, is for you and your Enforcers to check up on Megakat Biochemical Labs and look up someone in the record room." Luno bluntly explained his demand, "If a certain name comes up in the browser history, I can personally tell you what Doctor Viper might be up to. If that name isn't mentioned, I've just allowed myself to be arrested; either way, you win."
The commander, as well as the two SWAT Kats, were suprised by the demand, but Felina was worried about the robbery at Megakat Biochemical Labs, and she was concerned enough to say this: "You've get a deal."
"Okay!" Luno returned his hands to the front, and Felina slapped the handcuffs on him before he could pulled his hands away again.
"Now, where are the jewels that you've stolen tonight?" The commander wanted to make sure that the stolen items were returned to their rightful owners.
"Pants pocket on the right." Luno answered quickly with a sly grin on his face.
Felina noticed the smug smirk on the kat's golden-tan face, and so did Chance, who approached the thief and stuck his hand into Luno's right pants pocket.
"No fair." Luno falsely pouted as Chance pulled out the stolen jewels from the thief's pocket, and the response to the "pout" was a rhetorical question from the commanader of the Enforcers.
"Do you think it was fair for you to rob the places that you've robbed and think you can completely get away with it?"
Taking a moment to process the "question," Luno smiled and said with a chuckle, "Good point, Commander."
Chance gave the loot to Felina and said in a hushed voice, "Are you really going go on this crazy deal?!"
Felina whispered back, "He did just allowed himself to be handcuffed, and besides I had received a call about a break-in at Megakat Biochemical Labs; so he might help us out, even if he's only doing it to get a reduction on his jail time."
The larger of the kats did not like the idea, but he also knew that the commander made a good point. With a heavy sigh, he spoke out his thoughts.
"I don't like this deal, but the deal's with you and the bandit here."
Luno shrugged his shoulders as he replied to Chance's statement, "I do, 'cause there's gonna be pretty she-kats in uniforms where I'm goin'!"
Felina and Lucki shook their heads disdainfully while Chance could not help himself from smiling a little upon hearing the bandit's words.
Being annoyed with Luno's antic sayings, Felina pulled the black and tanned feline from Chance and Lucki, saying, "Time to go!"
Luno made no attempts to escape, nor he made any tries to resist the leader of the Enforcers. However, he did turn his attention to Lucki and shouted out to her, "Hey, cutie! If I manage to get probation, do you wanna go on a date with me sometime?"
That caused Felina Feral to yank on Luno's handcuffs, causing the tom kat to yelp out a little, and she left a mildly embarassed and extremely outraged Lucki with a strongly amused Chance, who did not help calm the younger she-kat with his laughter.
"And you said that you're not a pretty kitty." Chance chuckled as he nugded Lucki, who was not at all amused by Luno's proposal.
"Not funny, Chance!" Lucki swapped at her boss's elbow.
The she-kat's reaction only caused the burly tom to laugh even harder, which caused Lucki to become even more upset.
Thankfully, the sound of the Cyclotron echoed throughout the new hangar, telling Chance and Lucki that Razor and Knight Mage have returned from their drive.
The vehicle slowed to a complete stop in front of the two unmasked SWAT Kats, and Razor and Knight Mage exited from the Cyclotron.
"Any news about the robbers?" Lucki asked, hoping to forget about Luno's attempt at asking her out on a date.
Knight Mage looked confused and replied with a question of his own: "We have already spoke of the robber of the Megakat Biochemical Labs, so why are you asking once more?"
The redness that was still on Lucki's brown-furred face grew darker upon the realization that Knight Mage was correct. Chance, who had stopped laughing when Razor and Knight Mage came into the hangar, saw this and resumed his laughter, invoking Lucki's fury and the confusion of Razor and Knight Mage.
"What's going on?" Razor asked Chance, who managed to control his chuckling enough to give an answer.
"Lucki got asked out on a date!"
The announcement made Lucki so mad that she roared out at her employers, "BY A CRIMINAL! AND HE WAS IN HANDCUFFS WHEN HE ASKED!"
"Truly a bold tom to request a 'date' while being arrested." Knight Mage commented thoughtfully before adding, "I do hope that Lucki had the sense to refuse it."
"I did!" Hissed Lucki, still angry about being asked out on a date.
"Funny," Chance stated as he laughed, "I didn't hear you say 'no.'"
"I didn't say 'yes!'"
With a loud huff, Lucki turned away from the toms and went off to the direction of the locker rooms, leaving a laughing Chance, an annoyed Razor and a concerned Knight Mage.
The youngest of the toms looked at Razor and said bluntly, "I will see if Lucki's well."
"Are you sure that's a good idea, Kiddo." Chance earned a dirty look from Knight Mage as he uttered the old nickname of Jack Clawson, "Right now, she's pretty churned up inside, especially after hearing about Viper's creatures; she might not be in the best mood to talk."
"I am merely going to see if she's not too enraged to talk." Knight Mage replied as he pulled out a talisman that was in the shape of the SWAT Kats' logo from his cloak's pocket.
Placing a kiss on the talisman, Knight Mage felt his whole body being surrounded by the spell that was placed on the talisman as his whole body was in engulfed in light, and a moment later, he was Jack Clawson once more.
The blond-hair, green-eyed tom with red-brown fur placed the talisman back in the inside of his shirt, which was, at that point, a blue polo shirt. Jack also straightened his glasses, which he needed after spending years reading spellbooks by candlelight, and inspected his clothing attire, which included beige slacks and black shoes.
With a smile, Jack turned to the direction of the locker rooms, hoping that he could talk to Lucki as one kat would to another and not as SWAT Kats.
Chance and the masked Jake Clawson were worried, since the both of the veteren SWAT Kats knew how bad Lucki's temper can become, if the she-kat was angered enough. Although, Chance was more concerned Lucki's lack of worry for Jack's well-being.
"I don't think Jack's gonna survive this..." The larger of the toms announced with a worried expression on his aging face.
"I'm just was worried, Chance," Razor responded to the statement bluntly, "however, Jack's a full-grown kat; if he's gonna pull stunts, we have to let him know about how we feel, and then let Jack do what he needs to do."
Chance raised an eyebrow at his partner, "Sounds like you're doing better about letting Jack what he wanna do."
"Really?" The masked tom asked his best friend, "Well, that's news to me, since he's saying I've been smothering him more than his mother."
Chance chuckled a little before inputting his thoughts about the situation with Jack, "Hey, it's gonna to be tough for you and Callie to stop seeing him as a kitten and start seeing him as an adult."
"I know." Razor sighed out dejectingly, "I know."
Near the locker rooms, Lucki sat on a bench that was placed between the men's and the women's locker rooms, trying to calm herself, since she knew that she was too upset, she would be a hinderance to any mission the SWAT Kats could take on in the near-future, and that would not be good for the SWAT Kats and Megakat City.
"Lucki?"
The voice of Jack pulled the she-kat from her thoughts and caused her to face the youngest of the SWAT Kats in his everyday guise. Trying to be polite, Lucki responded to the tomkat with half-hearted, "Yeah?"
"May I please talk to you?" Jack asked Lucki, who said in response, "Sure, it's a semi-free city."
"Thank you, Lucki."
Jack sat down next to the brunette-blond kat and asked politely, "What's wrong, Lucki? You're upset about something, and I do not believe it is the proposal from the criminal."
Lucki's face reddened with annoyance, but then she sighed out in defeat before saying, "You're right; I'm more upset about Viper than anything else."
"What is so upsetting about Viper?" Jack asked, truly concerned about his female teammate, who was hesiant at first, but she finally spoke to him.
"Okay, I'll talk, but you're not to say anything to the others about this, unless I say it's okay to talk about it, understand?"
"Understood." Jack bowed a little, "I shall have no right to speak of what you are about to entrust to me, and it will be on my word of honor."
"Weird pledge..." Lucki muttered before saying, "Thanks, Jack."
"As you might say, 'not a problem.'" Jack smiled sweetly at the female of the SWAT Kats, "After all, t'was you that saved my life when I returned to Megakat City, lest I would have fallen to my demise."
"Hey, it's my job to save kats as well as protect Megakat City from the mega-manics out there." Lucki smiled a little as she spoke to the son of the mayor of Megakat City and the WSO of the SWAT Kats.
"I am still indebted to you, Lucki. So, until that day that I have returned the favorable act, I shall do whatever you ask of me."
That comment of commitment caused Lucki to blush a little before she shook her head and spoke to Jack about what was on her mind.
"Okay, when I heard that one of Doctor Viper's creatures had robbed Megakat Biochemical Labs, I felt... conflicted about the whole thing."
"Conflicted?" Jack was confused about Lucki's words.
"Yeah," the she-kat sighed out, causing Jack to be more concerned about his teammate, "you see, when I was three, my mom was killed by a creature of Viper's when he tried to turn Megakat City into Mutation City. Thankfully, my dad was there to get me away from the creatures and to the roof, even though he did regret leaving Mom behind despite that she told him to go."
"I am sorry for your loss, Lucki." Jack bowed his head slightly in an attempt to show respect to the deceased mother of Lucki Whitefang.
"Thanks, Jack," Lucki remained seldom as she spoke, "but I didn't know much about Mom outside what Dad and Grandpa had told me. Anyway, that's not the worse part."
"T'is not!?" Jack sounded even more confused by his ally's words.
"When Mom was killed, I was very young and half-asleep at the time, so I didn't have the time to process the information until I was older. However, I was wide awake, when a flying octopus monster attacked the plane my dad was flying and..."
Jack saw how scarred Lucki's mind had been, when she paused and crossed her forearms, causing each of her hands to grab one of her arms, which looked like she was hugging herself in an attempt to comfort herself, and Jack saw the tears forming in his teammate's eyes. Jack knew that Lucki looked up to her father since she was very young and spoke of him in high praise, so Jack could see how Lucki loved her father. However, Jack had failed to see how much her father's death had affected the young she-kat until that moment.
"I see..." Jack was unsure of what he was going to say to Lucki, who inhaled deeply before saying, "I know it's been years since then, but... It still hurts."
Jack could somewhat relate to Lucki; after all, he had lost ten years of being with his parents by being so bold as to fight against the Pastmaster at the age of nine, however he was blessed with being reunited with his parents, unlike Lucki, who would never have that kind of blessing.
"Lucki," Jack spoke out as he placed a hand on her should, "I know that I cannot truly relate to you in this matter, but please remember that you're not alone in this world; there are other kats out there that has become orphans thanks to Doctor Viper's unnatrual tampering. Also, you have us, your teammates and mentors, so do not condemn yourself from the others."
"I know that." Lucki smiled weakly, "However, as much as I want to kill Viper for killing my parents, I know that could get me into a mega-load of trouble, and that's not just from your mom and the SWAT Kats."
"What are you speaking of?" Jack expressed his confusion to Lucki, who replied, "If I managed to see my parents in the afterlife, I'm gonna have to explain myself to them, and no kat, no matter how old they are, wants to do that."
"Are you sure about seeing your mother and father in the afterlife?" The glasses-wearing tom asked the blond-brunette, who glared at him sharply due to his words.
Then, she retached her dagger-like glare, saying in a noticable fearful tone of voice, "That's another reason why I'm so conflicted."
Jack's green eyes widened with shock, "Are telling me that you could be condemned to a divine punishment after your death?! But why!?"
With another deep sigh, Lucki answered the question, sounding dejected as she spoke, "It's against the beliefs of my father had taught me, and he normally said, in times that revenge is considered, that revenge is best left to fate, because what goes around usually comes back around. He also said that once one starts killing out of revenge, they'll start living a vengeful life and, basically, start digging a hole that they could not hope to pull themselves out of, no matter how hard they try, and even if they were able to, their past would haunt them forever."
"I see..." Jack spoke again, finally seeing that Lucki's confliction is between killing to avenge her parents that she loved dearly and to control herself so she would not disappoint the same parents. However, he could not honestly say what he would do, if he were the one that was dealing with that kind of decision.
"Lucki," Jack got to his feet and looked at the she-kat in the eyes, "I know that you'll do the right thing, once the time comes."
"I'm hoping that I'd never have to in the first place." Lucki turning the front of her face away from her friend's line of sight.
Jack removed his hand from Lucki's shoulder and carefully thought out his next set of words to say to Lucki without depressing her farther.
Then, a thought struck him and caused a smirk to form on his auburn-furred face as he turned to his teammate.
"You know, Lucki, about the kat that proposed a date to you, maybe we could tell him that you are already 'dating' me, just to annoy him."
A smile came on Lucki's face as she replied to the suggestion, "Thanks for the offer, and I'll admit that I'm tempted, but I'd never do something like that, since I think that's a pretty petty thing to do."
"Oh, well." Jack shrugged his shoulders as he spoke, "However, I believe that I've gotten you smile, even if it was only a little."
"Thanks for that." Lucki maintained her grin as she rose from her seat on the bench, "Wanna go for some pizza?"
"If it is for that horrid combination you enjoy so much, forget it!" Jack declared to Lucki, who made a face of annoyance as she responded to his comment.
"Hey, how can you say that you don't like spinach and anchovies when you've never tried it?"
"You are one to talk!" Jack countered sharply, "You never tried pepper stew, and you have refused it!"
"I never was offered pepper stew!"
The tom was about to retrot, when he remembered that Lucki was not the one that had refused to try pepper stew; it was Chance. Calming himself, Jack apologized to Lucki, saying, "Please forgive me for I had fogotten about who was truly the one that refused the stew."
Lucki, who was still upset about being accused of being picky about consuming pepper stew, also calmed herself and replied, "Not a problem. These things happen."
Then, Lucki's communication device beeped, grabbing both Jack's and its owner's attention. It was pulled out of Lucki's pocket, and the she-kat answered it.
"This is Angel. Come in."
"Angel, this is Commander Feral." Felina's voice rang out from the device, "Suit up with Knight Mage and come up to Enforcer Headquarters; we've got a situation involving Luno and the break-in at Megakat Biochemical Labs."
"Right!" Lucki replied strongly, "We'll be there soon. Over and out."
"The commander needs the both of us to meet up with her?" Jack asked his teammate, who replied to the tom, "From where I stand, I'd say 'yes,' however it's most likely that she's called T-Bone and Razor before calling us."
"Really?" Jack sincerely sounded as he spoke to Lucki, "That's impressive on the commander's part."
"It is." Lucki nodded before adding, "We better get dressed and quick; the commander doesn't like to be kept waiting."
"Understood." Jack nodded back before the she-kat ran into the locker room to fully become Angel of the SWAT Kats.
