A/N: I apologize for the lateness of this, but we got stuck with my aunt when a tree took out a power line in a freak gust of wind and she freaked out, and she didn't STOP freaking out until the power came back on (a day later,) and then when I got back, I still had to type this chapter up, and as you can probably see, it's rather long.
Anyways, the 'big reveal' is next chapter, as I suspected it would be, but a lot of important stuff happens here.
WARNING: Violence! This is why this story is rated T!
acosta perez jose ramiro: Thanks!
kakashiluckyblackcat: Yeah, it is! XD And I meant to mention this earlier, but I absolutely LOVE your username! XD
Luna246: All of that will be explained in the next chapter. And I'll say this for everyone: No names of anyone Kitty works with other than Alec will be mentioned in this story. I will mention them in the future, but until then, they will remain unknown. You are all free to guess, however, and if anyone by some odd miracle gets it right, they will get the biggest cookie I can find!
Spudwick13: That is totally the wrong time to mention that! XD And I put a little description of how Kitty used to be in this chapter with you in mind! Most of it still applies to the present day Kitty. And believe it or not, I did have fun with the toaster. I succeeded in scaring the crap out of all of my aunt's cats with it! XD
Ace, Rev, and Duck got back to their HQ a while later. By then, Lexi, Slam, and Tech were back, too. They were all in the living room (minus Tech, who was in the lab,) briefing each other on what they found. All-in-all, it wasn't much.
"So, the police didn't find anything else at the scene," Ace stated, "and Peshe was no help at all."
"I still don't like that guy..." Duck muttered, almost to himself. Rev nodded in agreement.
"I agree that something definitely wasn't right about him," Ace said, "but like I said before, it makes no sense that he's the bad guy in this equation based on what we know."
"Besides; I think we kind of have it down that Kitty is the bad guy, here," Lexi added.
"But-that-doesn't-mean-that-we-have-the-whole-story," Rev said. "Kitty-wouldn't-tell-Duck-almost-anything-when-they-met-and-that-leaves-a-lot-of-holes-to-be-filled-and-we-could-be-and-probably-are-still-missing-something-important-here."
"I'm with Rev on this one," Duck said. "Something doesn't add up."
"I think this might help," Tech said as he entered the room. He had gone to his lab right as they got back to do yet another marathon search session to find a pattern in the thefts.
"I take it you had a breakthrough," Ace stated in response to Tech's expression. He looked like a kid in a candy store.
"A huge breakthrough," Tech replied. "I was looking through the data on how the items that were stolen got here and where they came from, and there was one name that popped up in every single file. It's the one thing that absolutely everything has in common, and I triple checked it to be sure. Everything got here in some way that involved Vincent Peshe."
"Wait...what?" Duck asked, completely bewildered. He had said he didn't like Peshe, but he hadn't actually been sure of whether he suspected him of anything or not.
"All of the jewels that were just taken from the bank were shipped directly from Italy by Peshe," Tech stated. "The piece of art that was taken from the museum was from an artist funded by Peshe, and Peshe himself donated the piece to the museum. The necklace taken in the Hawthorne robbery was sent from a P.O. box in Italy that was traced to a business owned by Peshe. The list goes on and on!"
"So Peshe is linked to all of these crimes..." Duck murmured.
"The question is: Why?" Lexi asked.
"I think we can rule out Peshe as a victim," Tech said. "He would have said something about being connected so closely to a string of robberies, or reported it himself. I don't think he's being targeted in the traditional sense, either."
"Maybe-it's-an-insurance-scam," Rev suggested. "He's-having-all-of-his-stuff-stolen-so-he-can-make-a-buck."
"That's a good theory," Ace replied, "but don't think that's it. Kitty said to beware of the snake, suggesting Peshe, if 'the snake' really is in reference to him, is dangerous and we should stay away from him. If she was working with him, and she hasn't really tried hard to hurt us, then he wouldn't be much of a threat, either, leaving Kitty no reason to give us a warning."
"Until someone gives us the whole story, we may have absolutely no idea what's really going on," Tech speculated.
"Then we'll just have to roll with the punches for now," Ace stated.
None of them were too happy at that point. Most, if not all of the other criminals they had ever dealt with had been pretty straightforward. They weren't used to not knowing what was going on, and they didn't like it.
~~~~~~~~~
Later that evening, Duck was wandering around HQ on his own. He had been trying to figure out what Kitty's motives really were, and what Peshe's involvement in all of this was. Everyone had their own theories, but the not-knowing was bugging him the most. For the first time, he was able to think of explanations as to what was going on that involved Kitty having good motives. He still really wanted to believe that she had good intentions, despite all that had happened.
He turned a corner, still deep in thought, and almost walked headfirst into Rev.
"Whoa-! Uh, sorry, Rev," Duck said as he mentally collected himself.
"Duck-are-you-okay?" Rev asked with a look of concern. "You-seem-a-little-out-of-it."
"Uh, yeah, it's just that...I really want to believe that Kitty was innocent, but before, it didn't seem possible. Now, there are options where it is, and I'm having trouble wrapping my head around it."
There was an uncomfortable moment of silence before Rev suddenly asked, "Hey-Duck-what's-Kitty-like?"
"Huh? Why do you want to know?" Duck asked quizzically.
"Well-you-gave-us-a-bit-of-a-description-earlier-but-it-wasn't-much-to-go-on-and-I'm-just-curious-I-guess."
"Okay, then. Hmm... She seems to have changed...quite a bit since I last saw her, so all I can give you is a description of the Kitty I knew." Rev nodded in understanding. "Where to start? She was...smart, I guess. Well, not academically; she didn't do very well in school. If she or someone else was in any kind of trouble, though, she always knew how to get out of it unscathed, whether or not it involved breaking any rules. She stood up for all of the younger kids and anthros; she was the only one who ever did. She was kind of a...big sister to us. She was one of the older kids there; she should be 23 or 24 now. She kept to herself mostly, but she was open with a few of us. She was a relaxed, tomboy-ish, carefree, kind of girl last I knew her."
"You-two-must-have-been-pretty-close," Rev said.
"Yeah, we were," Duck replied. "Which is why it's bugging me so much that she didn't tell me what's going on!"
"Aw-don't-worry-Duck-we'll-figure-it-out!" Rev said encouragingly.
"I'm just worried about what we'll find..."
Suddenly, a loud explosion rocked the building and almost sent Duck and Rev falling to the floor. They were near the top of the building, and the blast had taken place at the bottom, so they weren't injured, but something was very wrong.
"What was that?" Duck asked nervously as he regained his footing.
"I'm-not-sure-I'll-go-check-it-out-be-right-back!" Rev shouted behind his shoulder as he zipped away.
Duck only had to wait one minute for Rev to return, and he looked pretty frazzled when he did. "Duck-I-think-we-need-to-get-out-of-here-now!"
"Why? What's going on?" Duck asked urgently.
"There's-a-big-group-of-people-downstairs!" Rev explained frantically. "They-blew-open-the-front-door-and-they're-heavily-armed-and-we-need-to-go!"
"Can't we take them?" Duck asked. They were super heroes after all.
"Hmm-let-me-think-we're-outnumbered-ten-to-one-if-not-more-and-they're-armed-with-guns-so-NO!"
"Alright, alright, alright!" Duck replied as he thought of possible escape routes. He was really happy that the rest of the team had left HQ earlier to do their own things; he and Rev could get out of the building easier than anyone else could. "What floor are they on now?"
"They're-already-more-than-halfway-up-the-building-so-you-can't-go-downstairs-to-grab-a-jetpack-or-anything," Rev replied as his eyes glowed signaling he was using his GPS. "Do-you-think-you-can-quack-down-to-the-street-from-here?"
Duck looked out of a nearby window. They were pretty high up. He couldn't quack very far, and he knew that he wouldn't be able to make it all the way down to the street. There were other things that he could reach, though, or at least get close enough to that wouldn't result in his hurting himself.
"See that building over there?" Duck asked Rev pointing down and across the street. He was pointing towards the tallest building in the area, other than their HQ. "I think I can make it to that."
"Okay-I'll-meet-you-on-top-of-the-roof," Rev said as he zipped off towards the roof of their building so he could take off.
Duck looked back nervously through the window down at the rooftop. It seemed miles away, but in reality it was only a couple hundred feet away. He hadn't tried quacking anywhere near that far since he had first gotten his powers and was experimenting to see how far he could go. He'd made a distance similar to it, but he'd been totally wiped out afterward. He could already see Rev flying towards the target building, and he could hear the yelling of the men right below him.
It's now or never, he thought as he gathered all of his energy. He clenched his eyes shut and let out a big burst of light as he quacked to the roof.
It took an extra second than it usually did, but he felt himself go somewhere, and he cautiously opened his eyes and was face to face with Rev. "Yes! I did it!" he shouted triumphantly. He then proceeded to fall the remaining five feet to the ground and landed roughly on his butt. It was then that he realized that Rev actually hadn't landed, yet. He felt completely wiped from all the energy he had used to teleport that great distance, and really hoped he wouldn't have to do anything like that ever again.
"Eh-close-enough," Rev commented as he touched down on the ground. They both turned around to look at their HQ. There was a large hole where the front door used to be, and there were a few people loitering around across the street to watch what was going on.
"...Think we should call the others?" Duck asked rhetorically.
Rev turned on his communicator and said, "Guys-we-have-a-slight-problem-over-here." Static. "...Guys?" More static. "...Anyone?"
"Well, let's look at the bright side; this can't get any worse, right?" Duck added sarcastically.
"Great-now-something-really-bad's-going-to-happen-because-you-said-that," Rev replied dryly, yet completely serious.
"How right you are," a male voice with a thick Italian accent said from behind them. They both flipped around to find that there were half a dozen men standing behind them, and they were all armed. All but the one who spoke to them had a gun of some sort pointed at the two Loonatics.
"Remind me to shut my beak next time," Duck told Rev nervously as he assessed the situation. He knew that Rev could be gone before these guys even knew what had happened, but he doubted that he had the energy to quack away. They could always try fighting their way out, but they weren't impervious to gunfire.
"And-you-all-would-be...?" Rev began.
"You'll figure it out in good time," the Italian man replied. "My boss wants to have a word with you."
"And if we refuse to go?" Duck asked.
"It wasn't a request," the man replied as he motioned to the men behind him. They raised their weapons, and Duck and Rev braced themselves for what was coming. They were prepared to start trying to fight their way out, but before they got the chance...
CLANG!
~~~~~~~~~
Kitty's POV
I had been watching their HQ for a while, waiting for something to go wrong, as it inevitably would. I noticed all of the men loitering around the front door of the building, and when they started setting something up around the doorframe, I knew something was about to happen.
As usual, I was right. They blew in the front door and stormed the place. I was expecting them to do that, and I really wanted to go in and help the two Loonatics still inside (I had seen a bunch of them leave earlier,) but there was no way I could do anything. I knew about the security on the inside of the building, so I couldn't have warned them beforehand, and there was nothing I could do at that point; I was good at one-on-many fights, but a small army had just gone into that building, and every single one of them was armed.
I watched and waited for something to happen and, much to my surprise, a red streak that I recognized as Rev flew off of the roof of the tower and hovered over the roof of the building next to the one I was on. I was hiding on top of a water tower, and no one ever seemed to have an inclination to look up, so I figured I was safe there. A few seconds later, Duck appeared over the same roof, and I smirked as he landed roughly.
I was glad they had gotten out, but contrary to their beliefs, the two of them weren't out of trouble yet; a small group that I knew were with the army that had stormed the building a moment ago were sneaking up onto the roof behind them. The situation got bad fast, and I had to do something, so I pulled out a shuriken from the pouch on my belt, sat up a bit so I could aim, and threw it.
The resounding clang told me that I had hit my mark, and I watched with satisfaction as everyone paused to identify the location of the sound. They got their answer two seconds later when the barrels of all of the guns clattered noisily to the ground, making their guns useless. There was always a slight delay. They had all been standing in a line, so it had been pretty easy to do.
Chaos ensued on the rooftop. The men pulled out more assorted weapons (if they had them,) and started frantically looking around for me. None of them looked up, again. Rev and Duck were using the distraction to their advantage; they were quietly trying to slip away down the fire escape on the side of the building. They had to reach it first, though, but there was a lot of ground to cover. Those guys would remember what their job was any second, now, so I was going to have to do something. Again.
I stood up, got a short running start, and jumped across the gap between the roofs. I landed on the edge of the next roof, but before anyone had even registered that I was there, I leapt forward and gave a very hard kick in the chest to the first guy in line. He fell backward, and ended up taking the rest of his crew with him in a domino effect.
I turned back to Duck and Rev, who were staring at the carnage. They looked up at me, and I shouted in an exasperated tone, "What are you waiting for, an invitation? Go!"
Rev didn't hesitate, but Duck did for a moment. "Now!" I shouted as the men started getting up. He looked as if he really didn't want to, but after a moment, he ran off after his friend. He did it just in time, too; all of the men had gotten to their feet and were threateningly approaching me with their wide range of weapons. One of them had another gun, two had knives, and the other two had a bit of pipe and a crowbar. The last one, the first guy I hit, hadn't gotten up yet, and appeared to be unarmed. To me, they really weren't that big of a threat. I just had to deal with them quickly so I could catch up with Duck and Rev and explain to them what was going on, as I inevitably would.
The one who was apparently the leader of this rag-tag team, the one who still had a gun, said, "We knew one of you was around here, but we weren't expecting you." The rest of the men surrounded me in a wide circle.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah; I've already heard that," I replied dismissively as I pulled out both of my katanas. A few of them jumped back with frightened looks. "Now, if you'll excuse my brevity, I don't have all night."
The men simultaneously charged me. I gave a powerful jump upward, back flipped, and landed just in time to see all of them run into each other. I straightened up and smirked as they attempted to untangle themselves. Then, I heard a quiet click right behind me.
I didn't hesitate; I knew what to do in that kind of situation. I spun around while swinging one arm and slashing my katana. My arm knocked away the arm of the guy with the gun, and I heard a quiet put sound as I did so, meaning he used a silencer. It fired off into the air, missing anything it could possibly hit. Unfortunately, I missed contacting anything with my katana as the guy with the gun jumped backward. The good news was that he landed so that he was tottering on the edge of the roof.
I heard quickly approaching footsteps behind me, so I paused a moment so they could get closer, then sidestepped. He ran right past me, swinging his crowbar where my head had been a second ago, and couldn't stop in time. He tackled the other guy, and they both fell the ten-or-so stories to the ground.
Two down, four to go, I thought as I turned to face the others. They were facing me, weapons drawn. Two of them had a knife, and the other was the one with the pipe. The unarmed guy was slowly and painfully getting to his feet. I knew they wouldn't go for the old fall-off-the-building trick like their buddies just had, so I would have to deal with these three the old fashioned way.
One of them rushed me with his knife, and I leap frog jumped over him. Two others were just behind him, but I didn't dodge them; I met them head on. I gave the first one a hard right hook to the jaw, and at almost exactly the same time, I gave a fierce kick with my left foot to the other guy's chest. He flew backward, but I only winded him. It's hard to hit two guys at the same time.
I had just about enough of this, so I kicked it into high gear. I spun back around to face the guy I jumped over before while slashing my katana. He never saw it coming. I put a deep slash on his chest, and the hit was strong enough to cause him to fall over the edge of the building. I continued spinning around to do a full 360, but the first one of the two still standing ducked. The other raised his bit of pipe in an attempt to block my swing of my katana. It worked, barely; I almost sliced clean through it. My katana got caught in it, though, and he managed to wrench it out of my hand and throw it back.
I caught movement out of the corner of my eye, and I moved just in time to avoid being hit by the knife from the guy who had ducked. His friend wasn't so lucky; it hit him square in the chest, and he fell a split second later. I turned to look back at the guy who threw it, and he was looking at his friend in horror.
"That was very clumsy," I stated before slashing him with my katana. I gave him a deep wound below his ribcage, and I probably hit his liver, because he bled out in seconds.
I turned back to the guy who hadn't moved throughout that whole episode, the one who I first kicked while making my entry, only to find that he was gone. I ran over to the side of the building the fire escape was on and looked down, and sure enough, he was stumbling through the alley down below, running for his life, clutching his chest.
I guess I broke something when I hit him, I thought as I watched his sad attempt at running. I couldn't let him get away, though, so I pulled a throwing knife out of a pouch, took careful aim, and threw it as hard as I could. It spun through the air for a moment before planting itself in the guys back. He fell and didn't move again.
I turned around, grabbed my other katana, and wiped them both off on one of the dead guy's shirts before putting them away. I briefly looked around at the carnage before taking off across the rooftops in the direction I saw Rev and Duck take off in earlier. Sadly, this was a normal occurrence for me, but I couldn't let those guys go back to their boss and tell them I was hanging around. Them knowing that me specifically was here would make me lose a big edge, and I couldn't risk losing that. There was a lot at stake here, and I needed to stay alive long enough to see it through to the end.
A/N: Don't say I didn't warn you. All will be explained in the next chapter, which sadly may be a little late. I have a lot of stuff going on next week, what with the start of summer school and all… You know, I don't really want to talk about it. I'll get it up ASAP. Until then, R&R!