FOR LOVE OF A PRINCESS

CHAPTER 10: The Messengers are Briefed

After escorting her guests to their quarters, Feral sighed and leaned against the wall of the elevator. Though she had told her secretary and the knights that she was done for the day, that hadn't exactly been true. The work day usually never ended for her until well after and it was only three pm in the afternoon.

She still needed to write up her report on Dark Kat's capture for turn in to city hall and there was the matter of speaking to the SWAT Kats. That should be an interesting conversation especially if she surprised them with a small amount of magic. The thought of what that arrogant pilot's face would look like made her smile.

Her secretary eyed her with surprise as she walked past and into her office. She paused at the door a moment. "I still have a few things to get done so please see that I'm not disturbed. You do not have to stay when your shift is over."

"Understood, sir. Unless it's necessary, I will see you tomorrow."

She nodded at her efficient secretary and turned to enter her office, closing the door behind her. Shedding her coat and hanging it up, she made for her desk. Grimacing at the extra paperwork that had appeared in her in basket, she sat and set to work.

The sun was setting when she tossed the last report in her out basket. She leaned back and stretched her arms into the air to ease tight back muscles. A feeling of accomplishment filled her as she remembered how complete her report on Dark Kat was ... this time. They had the omega dead to rights. He would not be getting out of jail.

However, and here she paused and sighed. It's frustrating as hell how that mutant always manages to escape what should be a secure lockup. Perhaps I should ensure that doesn't happen this time. A sinister smile tugged at her stone face. Yes, that would be a very prudent move. I would rather he be dead but that isn't allowed under the law so I will simply ensure he doesn't escape to cause more hell and finally gets the punishment he so richly deserves and the people of Megakat City will finally feel safe. All except for Viper. She sighed again more in frustration this time. I really need to get that lizard but I have to deal with my father first. There is always something. Nevermind, time to take care of an omega I can do something about.

She rose from her seat and left her office. Her secretary had already left for the day as had all of the day shift. It was quiet as a tomb on her floor except for the sounds of choppers arriving and departing outside her windows on the flightline.

Taking the elevator, she went down to the cellblock in the bowels of Enforcer Headquarters. Passing through the checkpoints with the ease her rank gave her, she was soon standing before Dark Kat's specialized cell.

Stripped down to just a prison jumpsuit, Dark Kat looked very strange. Besides his strange purple color and deep eyes of orange, his body was rather grotesquely bigger than Feral's glamoured one. His ears were oddly sharp and pointed, those sharp long fangs made him look like some kind of throwback to the stone ages.

Shaking her head mentally, she wondered yet again where the hell this guy had come from. Was he an experiment gone wrong, a mutation (as many of the scientists and doctors believed), or something else entirely.

Eyeing the prisoner, she realized this was the first time they had managed to strip Dark Kat of his dramatic and overly armored clothing. It was only because he had been more damaged than normal that they had been able to do it at all. Usually, the mutant would recover quickly while being transported and using his nasty creeplings, effect his escape from custody leaving a wake of injured or dead bodies. This time she had walloped him good with her magic so he stayed out cold for far longer. He certainly didn't look happy about it either.

"Enjoy your victory while you may, Commander," Dark Kat's deep, gravely voice growled coldly. "I will not remain here for long."

"Oh I think not this time, Dark Kat," Feral said in an equally flat, cold tone. "You haven't figured out how I managed to defeat you, have you?"

Dark Kat's weird eyes narrowed and his overlong fangs showed prominently as he scowled at the figure on the other side of the bars. "Matters not how you and those insufferable SWAT Kats managed it. I will take that in account when next we clash."

"Ah, but you should wonder because it wasn't the SWAT Kats at all that brought you down. I did that all by myself. They only finished what I started." Smirking, she moved to stand quite close to the bars.

Dark Kat held very still. He could grab this fool in an instant but Feral knew that so why was he being so careless and what did he mean he had taken his advanced Black Widow down? Something was not right here.

Feral could see the calculation behind Dark Kat's expression. She was momentarily surprised that she could as the criminal was very skilled at hiding his emotions and thoughts. Almost like her own stone face. So, apparently, she had been keeping too tight a rein on her magical abilities and senses because she had never divined his mindset so easily before. Interesting, but not something she should be distracting herself on right now. She pushed it to the back of her mind for later perusal.

She reached out with her paws and gripped the bars. Her eyes began to glow as she softly whispered a spell. As she weaved the spell into the walls and bars of the cell, a glowing blue light spilled from her paws and spread rapidly to surround Dark Kat then snapped out of existence on her last word.

Letting go of the bars, she stepped back and let her senses reach out and check her handiwork. The runes were invisible except to her eyes and she could see them covering the walls, floor, and ceiling while the bars glowed a gentle blue invisible to all but her.

"There that should hold you."

Dark Kat frowned at her. "Exactly what have you done?" He asked warily.

"Touch anywhere in your cell and find out. However, I must warn you to do so very carefully."

The omega glared at her a moment longer before reaching out to a nearby wall with a single finger. The moment it came in contact, Dark Kat felt a jarring shockwave rip through his paw and up his arm. With a cry of pain and surprise, he jerked away, holding his arm which had gone numb. He stared at Feral in angry surprise, only a hint of unease showing in those glowing eyes.

"What was that?" Dark Kat demanded.

Feral began walking away. "Magic!" She whispered then passed through the security door, pleased with herself.

Dark Kat stared after her uneasily. This was not good. Not good at all. How had Feral been able to do magic? He thought that weird fool Mad Kat or that dead idiot that seemed only to want to take this city back into the past were the only serious criminals that used magic. Viper with his biological weapons did not stand a chance against magic even if his threat was one DK had taken note of and had intended to deal with as soon as he was in charge of the city. But if the Chief Enforcer was capable of magic ... that put his future plans in jeopardy. He must find a way past this seeming barrier and soon.

He would not lose! Nothing would stand in his way of ruling this city!

~o~o~o~o~o~o~

Feeling very satisfied, finally, with herself, she returned to her office and closed it up. Pulling on her great coat, she stifled a yawn and locked her office. On her way down in the elevator, the swing shift officers jumping on and off as she passed different floors gave her greeting before hurrying on to whatever task they were into at start of shift.

In the parking garage she climbed into her all terrain vehicle and made for home through the late evening traffic. Entering her apartment some thirty minutes later, she wished for a moment to be able to shed her clothes and sink into her recliner and veg a bit but that wasn't on the agenda tonight. Shucking her great coat and hanging it up, she briefly debated leaving her laser pistol then decided to leave it, turning to lock it up in her closet safe. Locking her apartment door, she turned on a nearby lamp.

Sighing, she took a stance in the center of her living room and built a mental picture of where she wanted to go before intoning a short spell. A swooping motion that made her stomach momentarily lurch unhappily ended abruptly with her standing in the main courtyard of the city's salvage yard and, incidentally, in front of Jake and Chance's Garage.

Shaking herself out and waiting just a moment to allow her stomach to settle she let the night sounds of the city sweep around her. Kat's Alive, I hate using that spell. I can see why none really used it for transporting even if it is faster ... too upsetting and disorientating.

Now that dusk had fallen, the yard and garage were closed for jp tight which was fine with her. Glancing around, she noted their tow truck was parked outside rather than in the garage. No lights shown in the office and none above in the apartment. Using her magical senses she checked to see if the pair were somewhere on the premises. Instantly she detected them beneath her feet in the hidden Mega-War II base.

Smiling, she walked toward the office entrance. At the door she noted the above average security system and smirking, used a small amount of magic to pop the door lock and both blind the camera and short out the security system. Opening the door quietly she slipped inside. There was still enough light from outside to light her way through the shabby little office and through another door that led into the garage proper. She worked her way past a big SUV in the first bay on the hoist and an old sedan in the next bay with its hood up, till she reached the back wall. In the floor was a suspicious hatch.

Again using a little magic she easily bypassed the security on the hatch and opened it. It moved smoothly without a sound. She would have been very surprised if it had squeaked. Jake would have been very affronted at such a defect.

Staring down, she could see the area was huge and well lit. Voices drifted up to her from a distance off. With that as an indication of where the pair were located, she climbed down the ladder affixed to the wall ending up on a landing with a few steps that led to a huge expanse of floor. A huge hangar yawned before her.

She walked casually down the steps and studied the layout. She had seen the schematics for this place but they didn't do justice to just how huge it all was. To her right a short corridor led off into darkness. Where she stood there was a very large computer center against the far wall. Down from that was a long workbench with various weapons and plans in different stages of production. To her left was a hoist embedded in the floor and the accouterments of a garage around it though no vehicle was there. Another door in the wall gave her a peek into an area that was an obvious changing chamber. But it was what lay before her that held her interest. The sleek super jet, stylized the Turbokat, sat on a turntable that obviously raised it to a hidden runway and slide open launch door. Against the walls were more workbenches and just beyond that was an obvious weapons cache where the pair kept their ammunition.

Chance and Jake's voices came from somewhere in or at the rear of the jet's location. A head popped up at that moment for a second near the canopy while the voice of the other came from behind the jet somewhere. The head never turned toward her so didn't see or hear her approach. She walked lightly despite her heeled boots and managed to sneak close to the cockpit then looked up at the smaller of the two toms and waited.

"Chance ... can you get me a sixteenth inch socket ..." Jake shouted to his partner below him.

"Uh...sure just a sec buddy." Chance's voice drifted up from the rear compartment. She heard his footsteps coming down the ramp then rummaging within a toolbox that must be on the ground there then tramping back inside before the tabby's voice sounded closer to where Jake was sitting in the cockpit area. "Here you go. You gonna be any longer there?"

"Nah, just a few minutes more and I'll have this thing cinched down," setting actions to words as he leaned down out of sight again.

"Great because I'm starving and I don't want to miss the latest episode of Scaredy Kat."

One could almost hear Jake's eye roll in the sigh he let out as he finished his work. "Don't you think we should talk about what happened today?"

"What do you want me to say, Jake? I still can't wrap my head around Feral being both female and a Princess for crud's sake. How are we supposed to deal with that?"

"I hear ya but I actually meant what do you think she might want with us?" Jake grunted then Stood once more but instead of leaving by open rear, he simply leaped to the ground landing lightly, socket wrench in his paw. Chance was just coming down the ramp to meet his partner who dropped the tool in the box with a loud clang. They still hadn't sensed Feral standing there listening.

"No idea." Chance's tone sounded like a shrug of indifference but she knew otherwise.

"Well we do know she wants our help in trying to convince her father the King to come to Megakat City." Jake had apparently signalled the canopy to close then the ramp as both began closing silently. The two walked side by side from the rear.

"Yeah, but how is she going to do that and how do we fit into the picture? We are the last people to ask to do something like what this calls for."

"And that is?" Jake coaxed.

Chance grimaced at his partner, annoyed. "A diplomat, of course, sheesh."

"I believe I can answer that for you," Feral spoke up making the two stopped in their tracks in total shock, mouths agape.

Chance was the first to react. His fists clenched at his sides, he anger suffuses his features. "How did you get in here and why aren't you surprised about all of this?" He demanded.

She eyed him calmly. "I have always known who you were and what you were up to."

That statement caused Jake to hiss with fury, his own face livid. "You knew! You knew we weren't guilty of trashing the Enforcer Building! Why did you do this to us?" Stalking to her and halting in her personal space as he shouted this condemnation.

Her expression was one of determination though her eyes shone with regret. "Because it was necessary. You already saw how hard it was for the Enforcers to stop the omega threat. What you may not have known or realized until you were no longer a part of the organization was how much my paws were tied by the Council and Mayor Manx. They were so worried about damages and retaining their seat, they would pay no attention to my pleas for better weapons and equipment, more troops and better training. All of which require money they wouldn't release to me. So I had to find another way to get the help we needed before we were enslaved or destroyed." She paused and stared at the two males. "I could not bear to lose more officers. It takes far too long to educate and train them to be losing them as fast as they graduate."

"You were the best the academy had ever turned out. Better yet, you were the perfect team. You could think outside the box if need be, not hidebound to rules, chain of command, or orders that didn't suit the situation. You were exactly what was needed to safe us. Free thinkers with hearts of lions and a moral compass that wouldn't allow you to break the laws that govern us, though you wouldn't hesitate to bend them if it was necessary to protect those you have sworn to protect and defend and, most importantly, not be indiscriminate killers."

"Then why didn't you just ask us?" Jake asked, his shoulders slumping in resignation as he tried to understand her reasoning. Though that didn't mean he wasn't still furious with her.

She sighed. "Because I needed the anger, the outrage, and motivation to show me and the Enforcers we were wrong about you. You needed a reason to become what you are now. Simply asking you wouldn't have been motivation enough plus you needed to be completely set apart as rebels. With all the eyes and ears around, if you tried to pretend you were still working for me while being vigilantes it would not have come off as authentic as it is now. Look I know that doesn't help ameliorate my blame in this nor the toll it took on you and your reputations ..."

"Which are smeared so badly all our friends and families have shunned us," Chance growled.

She had the grace to wince and look uncomfortable. "Yes, I know and I'm truly sorry about that but I took up the sword of duty to protect this city and I had to do what I needed to in accomplishing it."

"But you can do magic! Why didn't you use it?" Chance demanded, not mollified in the least.

"Because she would be revealing herself to those who have been hunting for a missing princess for years," Jake answered for Feral, his tone bitter.

"Only partly true, Jake. Yes, I was hiding but I was also very much aware that any use of magic in a city that didn't believe nor accept it would get me fired or killed. Since I was the only one doing all I could to hold together a military command deteriorating due to lack of funding I couldn't take that risk. Someone had to do this job and no one ... no one wanted the position. Who would when you get no funds and are expected to protect a city of this size? It's like fighting monsters with toothbrushes. Plus there is the fact that you would have to be brave enough or stupid enough to take on such an asinine job fighting criminals so powerful they constantly threaten the entire city not just small parts of it. A job that doesn't pay enough to endanger one's life time after time! One where a person has to accept blame even when nothing could have prevented the destruction! One who gets shafted on funding over and over again, and all pleas for help are ignored by the very government that bitches you are not doing enough while tying your paws every chance they could get. Who would do that?"

Chance face burned with ashamed. Yes his reputation and career were ruined but hearing how hard it was for Feral to do his job in the first place made him realize he got it easy in comparison.

"No one and I'm sorry. I guess in some way I knew all that must be happening but it chose not to care. It was just easier to not hear it and be pissed instead. It hurt to be considered worthless and be forced to take the blame for something I didn't do and to be kicked out for it. My family was proud of me going to the academy and becoming an Enforcer and you ruined that. It's just hard to ignore what it did to me."

She sighed. "I know and I would like nothing better than to announce to everyone that though you work outside the laws of this city, you are both brave, true, and do care about what happens to this city and get no compensation for doing it. However, the laws do condemn what you're doing and as an officer of the law I have to enforce it. I have been trying behind the scenes to get that law altered, at least in a way that won't promote vigilantism as you'll admit that's not a good thing on the face of it, but will help your cause for doing it. But it takes time and now I'm under fire and so is the city. But I promise not to give that up though to do that I can't be deported. Not now." She held her paws out to them beseechingly for understanding and support even though she knew they had every reason to refuse.

They were silent, each warring with their own anger and resentment. She sighed.

"Look why don't we go upstairs and talk this out, please. I'm hungry, and like you, tired but tomorrow I have to come up with a message and a plan to save not only Megakat City but my kingdom and the world."

Chance glanced over to Jake who still looked really unhappy but resigned. They shared a look of agreement.

"Yeah, sure. We're done here for the night," Jake said aloud.

She nodded, relief in her eyes.

"On one condition," Chance suddenly announced.

Feral looked a bit surprised. Eyebrows raised, she asked, "And that would be?"

"That we talk to the real you. I'm tired of being lied to."

She blinked at him in stunned surprise. But unlike her countryman, these two would not treat her as if she was beneath their notice. Still it felt uncomfortable to be that female she had been upon arrival to this city. She hadn't allowed herself to be female in so very long she wasn't certain she could even act like one. Staring into Chance's uncompromising face, she sighed. This is not a battle I need to pick right now.

"Very well but please excuse the fact that I have not been female in mind and body for some twenty years so I will be a bit rusty."

Chance suddenly grinned. "Actually, that's a good thing as you wont be trying to use feminine wiles on us."

"Chaance ..." Jake sounded disgusted.

Feral wrinkled her nose in annoyance. "I wouldn't have done that in the first place. I never learned that crap even when I was female all the time. I think its demeaning and subservient behavior."

"Wow! You really were a feminist warrior, weren't you," Chance teased.

She blushed as she realized he hadn't meant anything by his previous remark. And it was a bit disconcerting that he felt comfortable enough around her despite their past to tease her. It felt strange and kinda of nice too.

"If you're done embarrassing her, shall we go upstairs?" Jake snorted, unknowingly interrupting the odd mood between her and Chance, as he turned to lead the way back through the hangar.

Chance just chuckled and shrugged, that ever present smirk on his mug as he gestured for her to go ahead of him. She did so, back rigid as if to give lie to the fact she was even remotely female.

Chance just shook his head behind her. He had to remember this was a totally different person he was about to confront and needed to change his basic thinking and put aside what had been done in the past between them. The future was filled with far more danger than omegas and that wasn't what he and Jake had signed up for. But they did have a hero complex so they couldn't shirk the coming storm. This should be an interesting and scary conversation.