SWAT Kats -The Phoenix Squadron
By Mutitoon90
Chapter Ten: Technology Among Chaos
A week following Naga Viper's attack on Megakat City and attempt to capture Lygrus for her own purposes had came and went, and nothing else appeared to attack the metropolis since then, however the SWAT Kats and their female allies, the mayor and the Enforcer Commander, knew better than to believe that their enemies had given up on the first try. Also, the team of vigliantes saw that the peaceful time was a good time to put in some training, which was easier for Lucki and Jack, who were not restricted by being in the jail in the headquarters of the Enforcers. Kyle, who was still in the custody of the Enforcers, had to train in his jail cell as well as in the hangar while under the watchful eyes of T-Bone, Razor and Commander Feral, and the latter was Kyle's most preferred chaperone.
One of those training sessions, which allowed Kyle out of his cell, was in the second hanger's reflex room, which was more like a dangerous verison of a fun house, and T-Bone and Lygrus were tied on their personal scores.
"Not bad for a kitten!" T-Bone fired a turbo blade from his glovatrix, which sliced a cardboard cut-out of a creepling, and when he looked at his score, which was on the glovatrix, he grinned cockily as he stated, "Too bad that you can't keep up with O' T-Bone!"
"Don't be so sure, O' Man!" Lygrus replied sharply as he fired a turbo blade of his own, which flew towards one cardboard image of a ninja, cutting it into two pieces, and then it went to another ninja and sliced that one in half.
Seeing the shot, the older SWAT Kat growled under his breath, "Lucky shot." Needless to say, T-Bone was angry and mildly impressed by the shot.
"Luck had nothing to do with that shot." Lygrus flashed a grin as he bragged, having heard that comment, when he fired another shot.
However, the expression of confidence changed into one of shock as he saw the image of an elderly she-kat was sliced into pieces. He knew that the game was over and the score was an automatic zero.
T-Bone grinned, knowing that he had won, and seeing the look of shock on Lygrus's masked face made the amused smile even wider. The older kat was waiting for the next move of the newest member of the SWAT Kats.
Lygrus managed to shake off his complete surprise, and he also saw the elder SWAT Kat's smug expression, causing him to quickly change the subject.
"Speaking of luck, where's Angel; she's the one that's overzealous about the training."
With a laugh, T-Bone was willing to comply, saying as he managed his grin, "She's back at the first hangar, sleeping. I had to pratically order her to take tomorrow off."
"Really?" Lygrus asked, since he was under the impression that Angel, in either one of her personas, was the type of kat that once she had set her mind on something, there was hardly anything in the world that could change it, "Why?"
"Angel managed to tire herself out from all of her training and working on cars." T-Bone's grin had completely vanished at that point, "She told me that she wanted to be ready for whatever is thrown at us, and the extra training that she had done made her too tired to even train properly."
"By the sounds of what you've said," Lygrus looked worried about the well-being of the only female of the SWAT Kats, "Angel's trying to prove that she's deserves to be a SWAT Kat, despite the fact that she's already a member as well as the kat that restarted the team."
"I agree with ya," T-Bone sighed out, "but try telling Angel that; she'd remind us that you were designed to be a super-kat, Knight Mage has got his magic, Razor and me have been SWAT Kats for a while and even Cybertron's been out on the field! She feels like that she has to work the hardest, and she does."
"I don't like this..." Lygrus was sincerely worried about her, however T-Bone was able to ease the concern, even it was a little bit.
"Don't worry about her; she knows that she needs to rest every now and again, if she wanted to stay on team."
Taking a moment to process the information, Lygrus gave the older tom a sharp look with his amber eyes and said, "You threatened her."
"Ohhh, yeah." T-Bone made no attempts to deny the statement as he placed an arm on the younger tom's shoulder, "Big time."
As T-Bone and Lygrus continued to talk as they returned to the beginning of the reflex room training area, Commander Felina Feral was in the surveillance room, watching and listening to the conversation and shaking her head, knowing that Lygrus, who was once known as Luno, was basically stalling for more free time out of his cell in Enforcer Headquarters, and she could not blame him for doing that.
However, she had her duties to perform, and she was about to go to the reflex room to scold both of the toms, when she heard her communication device beeping. Reaching into the pocket of the grey Enforcer jacket, Feral pulled the device out and answered it.
"Feral, here."
"Commander, Razor here." The voice echoed out of the device's speaker, "There's a situation happening at Megakat University's Tech Labs. I don't know what's going on down there, but the alarm's gone off, and Knight Mage and I are en route."
"I'll be there as soon as I can." The current Commander Feral replied in her military manner, "Feral, out."
At one of the Megakat University's Tech Labs, the beings that were in the building was ripping up machines into pieces and pulling out some of the motherboards, which were stored into plastic cases with great care. As they were finishing their 'work,' the Cyclontron reached that lab, and the SWAT Kats that were riding it got off.
"I doubt that I shall ever get use to riding the Cyclontron..." Knight Mage held on to his stomach, trying not to vomit on the spot.
"Shh!" Razor placed a finger over his lips and pointed at the building that held the robbers and urged the young kat to go to the building and investigate it with him, and Knight Mage, who managed to keep himself from becoming too sick, gave a firm and understanding nod before making his way to the building.
With great caution, Razor and Knight Mage reached the building and found that the door was broken off of the hinges. Seeing that they might be facing an enemy of great strength, the masked toms went inside quietly, so they would not alert the robber(s) of their presence. However, they had failed to see that they were also being followed.
The two SWAT Kats were careful to not allow themselves to be spotted, especially when they found the robbing group.
"Now, we need to think of a plan to get these guys before they can away." Razor whispered to Knight Mage, who stated bluntly and quietly, "Yes, but something is amiss about this group..."
Just then, something flew by Razor and Knight Mage, nearly marking Razor's face, and landed into the back of one of the robbers. The object, which looked like an arrow, sparked up and eletricuted the intruder, who fell to the floor, and that caused the other robbers to look towards the two SWAT Kats, who knew at that they were going to fight.
Once the fight started, it did not take the duo long to defeat and disable the robbers. Razor used some taser missiles to try to stop the remaining members, but that failed since it did little to faze the approching bandits. Knight Mage managed to use his magic to throw the being into the wall, which allowed Razor and Knight Mage to find out why the taser missiles had failed once the lights were turned on.
"They're robots!?" Knight Mage shouted in shock as he saw the metal parts scattered on the floor near the bodies of machines. Razor was not such about his son's theory, and he decided to check them out.
Pulling off one of the ski masks, it proved Knight Mage's assumption, which caused Razor to turn his attention to the first fallen robot. Nearing the 'body,' Razor saw the arrow was also made out of metal.
"Incredible..." Razor said as he grabbed and managed to pull out the arrow with a couple of tugs. Once the arrow was no longer in the robot's back, Razor examined it carefully and stated, "This is one well-crafted arrow; it's like a scrambler missile!"
Then, the arrow started to heat up quickly, causing the older SWAT Kat to gasp in shock from the sudden heat. That caused him to drop the arrow, which exploded before it even landed on the floor. Some of the pieces flew into Razor, causing him great pain in his legs.
"Fa- I mean, Razor!" Knight Mage called out, nearly exposing himself and his father again, as he ran to the older tom's side.
"I'm okay!" Razor moaned out a little, "However, I'm more worried about the guy that made that arrow!"
Knight Mage was worried about the well-being of Razor, who was also his father, he knew that Razor was right. The arrow was causing concern to appear and to grow within his own being; he knew that one does not leave something that could evidence behind, unless they knew that it would not be traced back to them. He had seen it in the Dark Ages, and in the modern era, where fingerprints and DNA can help trace to find the gulity party, it would help hide someone if the evidence disappered.
However, something else was wrong with the scene; why was the arrow the only thing that was destoryed, but not the robots? Was someone trying to frame some kat, or was there something else going on here? There was one thing for sure: some kat does not want to be related to the Tech Lab robberies.
Then, the sirens of the Enforcers automobles echoed into the building, causing Knight Mage to pull out of his thoughts long enough to help his father, who was still in a great deal of pain.
"Ow!" Razor's exclaimtion of pain, which was caused by the SWAT Kat trying to stand up, was long enough to reach the Enforcers, who heard it and went to the area the SWAT Kats and the destoryed robots.
Outside the building, a figure in the shadows lurked nearby, when the car that belonged to Commander Feral came close to it. The being reached for an arrow that was in its belt quiver, ready to take action. In the car, Felina noticed something in the bushes and stopped her car. Cautious by both profession and second nature, the commander pulled out her gun, ready to take action.
In the bushes, the shadowy figure placed the notch of the metal arrow onto the bowstring. The being pulled back the string and aimed the shafted projectile at the commander, ready to fire the shot. Outside of her car, Felina checked her gun to see if she had any ammunition, and she did. She took a deep breath and aimed her gun, ready to fire the shot.
In the bushes, the shadowy being remained still for moments, refusing to let the arrow fly until it was right to do so. However, he did not know why the commander had not fired yet, but he knew he was in a waiting game. Near her car, Felina stood still, refusing to fire at the unseen being in the bushes until he made the first move. She did find it strange that the unknown being had not attacked yet, but she knew that she was in a waiting game.
"Commander!"
The call pulled Feral from her target, who was quick to make their escape almost quietly, and the Enforcer Commander looked back and sensed nothing the bushes.
"What is it?" Felina growled at little as the officer that had pulled her away from whatever was hiding in the bushes gave his report.
"Commander, one of the SWAT Kats has been injuried!"
Hearing this, the female commander was no longer fully thinking of the unknown being that was in the bushes as she demanded the information from the officer.
"BY WHAT AND HOW?!"
"Knight Mage didn't say much..." The officer gulped loudly as he answered, "The only thing he said that it involved a metal arrow..."
"Looks like I'm going to have to do some investigation on my own terms..." Felina Feral pushed herself towards the building with the officer, who was concerned about himself at that point, following after her.
"Is that the only information that you've obtained from Knight Mage?" The commander asked without looking at the officer, who nervously answered the question, "No ma'am! He also told us about the robbers, and that the robbers are robots."
"Robots?" Feral pondered for a moment, before asking, "Was it the New Metallakats?"
"I don't think so." The officer answered, "Despite the fact that they do use technology for their crimes, the New Metallakats are still in Alkatraz."
"Good point." The commander mentally kicking herself for forgetting that the New Metallakats were still legally imprisoned, "What about Discord?"
"She is in Alkatraz too."
"Right," the commander mentally kicked herself again, "and I know that Naga Viper is out of the question, since her M.O. is bio-chemically advanced wildlife."
"My question is why would any kat set robots to rob any place just to destory them?" The officer stated thoughtfully and within Commander Feral's earshot.
"What do you mean by that?" Commander Feral halted her movements and faced the officer, who looked surprised by the commander's inquiry before he answered.
"Well, Knight Mage had also stated the metal arrow that caused Razor's injury was the same weapon used to stop the robots."
"And you thought I didn't need to know this?" Felina eyed the figeting tom, who replied nervously, "No ma'am! I was about to-to tell you, but I-I-I don't know why I forgot to say anything about that!"
With a heavy sigh, Commander Felina Feral realized once again that she was becoming more like her uncle, the last Commander Feral, and that was more annoying to her than a forgetful tom kat.
"Don't worry about it." The current commander exhaled strongly, "It's not your fault, but do try to remember to tell me and your superiors about stuff like this; we won't always had the victims to give more information."
Grateful for the second chance, the officer saluted and said with a good amount of gusto, "Yes, ma'am!"
Once she reached Knight Mage and Razor, the commander was given the full story of the robbery from the SWAT Kats, from the response to the alarm to the arrival of the Enforcers. While they told their story, they mentioned that they had failed in seeing who was the archer that fired the exploding arrow.
"No one at all?" Felina asked the two masked tom.
"I fear that we cannot jest about this matter." Knight Mage shook his hooded head.
"However," Razor added, "we need to find out who would be behind this and fast! The longer this mess goes unsolved, the more likely that there's gonna be another robo-robbery."
"Agreed." Knight Mage nodded, while the Commander of the Enforcers announced, "I'll get started on a data search for anyone that's qualified to do stuff like this."
"Check out the robots too, Commander." Razor pointed a clawed thumb to the heap of metal and wires, "They could be connected to the arrow's maker."
"Good idea." The female commander nodded in argeement, and then she added to the older SWAT Kat, "You better get patched up back at the hangar."
With a little laugh, he replied with a jokng tone, "Yeah, before Kat's Eye News gets here."
"Then, we must make haste." Knight Mage announced, not understanding that Razor was only joking about the arrival of the news team.
The younger tom's reaction was answered by Razor and the Commander shaking their heads, realizinng that Knight Mage still needed to learn more about modern humor.
Becoming more serious, Razor added to his previous statement, "Also, we need to keep Angel in the dark about this whole thing until she's no longer on her day off."
"Argeed." Knight Mage turned to to the elder SWAT Kat with an amused grin on his face, "Espeically when her fury's directed at the enemy and not us."
"Good point." Razor chuckled upon hearing the partly-snarky statement he heard from Knight Mage, and the older kat realized at the point the Knight Mage needed to work on some parts of understanding humor.
"I'd be worried about Angel's anger." Felina stated mindfully to the two toms, "Remember: she's been made to take a break, so she might not be so careful of where her punches are flying at."