Rank Reversal
"Commander Manx," Doggie Cruger nods to his boss upon entry to the Command Center.
"Lieutenant Commander Cruger, at ease," Commander Kat Manx smiles at her old friend. Doggie works directly under her as her body guard and second hand, as well as coordinating with her head technician, a man known only as "Boom".
"I wish I could find a way to convince you, Kat," Cruger begins, walking slightly behind his shorter comrade. She is shorter than his Sirian form, but not by much, as a tall, lithe Felid woman at almost five foot eleven. Her grace is unmatched by any being he has seen in any galaxy he has visited, and, in the privacy of his own mind, her beauty. Too often does he find himself admiring her elegance.
"Doggie, I told you, I have no business being a ranger. You're the Shadow Ranger, you belong in combat with our rangers," Kat looks up at her personal guard and best friend. "I'm not a ranger, Doggie."
"You could be, and you know it," he answers in a vaguely scolding motion. "I know Boom made you a morpher."
"Can we drop it, Doggie?" Kat sighs. Her reluctance is linked to the fact that how she became a Commander, through the final battle for planet Felisia, she laid down her Claws – steel blades worn over her natural claws – for the last time. If she becomes a ranger, she'll go back into combat—back to the front lines, to face her past.
"You can't avoid it forever, Kat," Doggie presses. Normally he wouldn't test his old friend, but this occasion warrants some force. "No one would be better."
"I said drop it, Lieutenant," Kat bites and walks ahead. She detects him following anyway, "you're dismissed."
"I can't be dismissed, Ma'am, I am to be by your side at all times," Doggie responds loyally. Not only as her body guard, but as her friend and someone who cares very deeply for her, he will not leave her side.
"Stubborn, old dog," Kat lowers her ears in displeasure, though she's secretly moved at her friend's dedication to her well being. Another part of her reluctance to go back into the field is the factor of conflict of interest. She cares deeply for her rangers, but she'd be able to control her protective instincts for them. For Doggie...she knows her urge to guard his well being would override her better judgement as unit Commander. If he were to...well, she can't allow that. Not only that, but Earth Gods forbid if he put himself in the line of fire to protect her.
"If I am a stubborn, old dog, what does that make you?" Doggie chuckles a little. They are both entirely serious people, but in most respects, he's the more likely to let down his guard, on the off occasion. He tends to be the lighter, though Kat has a motherly touch; "Kitty Kat?"
Kat makes a frustrated, feline sound, veering into Boom's lab to hide her blushing. Doggie has a way of getting under her fur that she can't seem to shake. He's her oldest and dearest friend, she can't be thinking of him like this! She's his boss, and he's her...very handsome, attractive, sexy, intelligent, valiant...I'm sorry, what did you ask?...
"Hey, Commander Manx, what's going on?" Boom asks brightly.
"How are things, Boom?" Kat asks for lack of a better sentence.
"Fine," he nods, noticing the woman's pinked cheeks. "Where's DC?"
Kat's blush doesn't recede any as she shakes her head, "just...taking a break."
"Have you thought about the Cat morpher at all?" Boom asks lightly. Commander Manx is a mechanical genius, and they share a close comradeship over their love of the sciences. He greatly admires her intelligence, and her ability to command respect.
"Boom, I told you, I don't belong in the field," Kat frowns at her younger colleague. She has mentored him personally for a number of years, but that doesn't mean he's immune to her piercing gaze. "I appreciate the gift but I'm not going into combat."
"You know, I don't think this is about you, or your rank, or position," Boom frowns. "I think you're afraid that you care too much about the rangers and DC; I think you're afraid that you'll be too protective of them in the field."
"Out of line, Boom," Kat hisses at him lightly in warning.
"You lost people of Felisia, I know that, but isn't that more of a reason to join in the fight against them again?" Boom insists.
"You are this close to an insubordination charge," Kat hisses and folds back her ears.
"You're a cold, stubborn, cat, you know," Boom storms out.
Kat, left alone in his lab, sighs to herself. Her recent nightmares of Felisia's fall have had her on edge, and now it's affecting those around her. She makes a mental note to apologize to him later as she goes back to her personal office.
"Commander Manx!"
Kat turns to her rangers, SPD's prized B–Squad. "Rangers, what's the matter?"
"It's, uh," Bridge cringes a little, "it's Lieutenant Cruger, Ma'am."
"What about him?" Kat's pupils thin to be slitted immediately, her natural reaction to bad news involving her old friend.
"He never came back from patrol, but at his station, we found this," Jack hands over the object left by a lone krybot.
Kat takes it without hesitation and places it on her console. A hologram comes up of Benaag, one of the Troobian Generals responsible for the destruction of her home. Kat growls and hisses at his image, "Benaag."
"Hello, Missus Manx—oh, wait, it's Miss, now, isn't it?" Benaag laughs cruelly at the reference to the personal murder of Kat's husband on Felisia. "I have another boy toy of yours."
"DC!" B–Squad sounds in distress for their friend.
Doggie is chained at the neck and caged within a forcefield, "Commander!"
"Silence, mutt!" Benaag snaps and presses a button. Doggie writhes in pain behind him. "This collar sends shocks directly into his nervous system. Fail to follow my instructions and he might suffer a lethal shock to his system. What do you think I used to kill your first love, Katherine?"
"Coward," Kat snarls at the hologram, "if you touch him—"
"Come to the old rock quarry and you may have your pet mutt back. If your rangers follow he'll be as good as dead before you see him again. Show up alone, Katherine, or you can say goodbye to the Sirian." Benaag waves in finality and the hologram ceases.
Kat picks the thing up and crushes it in her bare fist as if it were a kernel of popcorn. "Rangers, I'm going."
"No, Commander, it's obviously a trap!" Sky protests against his superior.
B–Squad joins in the objection but Kat turns on them sharply, "silence! I am going, you will remain here. Have Boom monitor the scene, but do not come unless I call for you: understood?"
B–Squad looks among themselves, unsure.
"Understood?" Kat repeats loudly.
"Yes, Ma'am," her Cadets respond to her faithfully.
"Good, now, go," Kat nods and they file out. Once they've gone she turns to her right, by her chair. There, sit her Claws, the traditional weapon of Felisian warriors. "I'm coming, Doggie."
"Hey, Benaag," Doggie calls to his captor. "What the hell do you hope to accomplish with this? Kat will be here shortly, and when she comes, you're going to wish I had killed you."
"Please, she couldn't even save her husband, what makes you think she's coming for you?" Benaag chuckles at the captive Sirian.
Doggie growls, though part of him has to acknowledge that Kat isn't likely to follow his instructions. He knows she will come, but if it's alone, or to fight, he must wonder.
"Benaag!"
Benaag and Doggie both look to the bottom of the quarry, where a lone figure stands. Benaag chuckles, "well, well, well, the little minx came after all."
"It's Manx, and if you hurt her," Doggie is silenced as another shock runs through him.
"I don't think you're in any position to be threatening, Doggie Cruger."
"Come out here, you coward!" Kat calls to the echoing quarry. Her fists are clenched at her sides, letting her Commander's coat blow around her openly in the wind. It reaches her calves, heavy and a luxurious black. Under it, she wears a black blouse and cargo pants, with heeled boots. She is small, but a force to be reckoned with. "I have come for Doggie! I've come to avenge my people, my home of Felisia...my husband!"
"I didn't think you'd come, Kitty Kat," Benaag laughs in the distance.
"Don't call me that," Kat spits in disgust.
"Aw, does only your little lap dog call you that? He'll be dead soon enough," Benaag jumps down to meet Kat, slashing his claws together. "Come to free him?"
"You told me to come to fight, so I came," Kat says evenly.
"You?—you're going to fight? I haven't seen you in action since the fated destruction of Felisia," Benaag chuckles as Kat's expression darkens at its mention. "You fought pretty hard, Manx, but you were no match for...well...you remember."
"Enough!" Kat silences him. She pulls out the Cat morpher, which she found at Doggie's station; figures he would keep it for her. She whispers her thanks to him in a moment before taking her stance. "SPD!—Emergency!"
"Cat Ranger!"
Benaag is surprised to see the lithe, feminine form clad in orange and white micromesh. Her gloves are equipped with her traditional Felisian Claws, ready for battle. Her head is protected by a dark visored helmet, spiked where her ears sit inside. "Ooh, you got a make over."
"Let's finish this, Benaag," Kat bares her Claws.
"Not so fast, Manx," Benaag summons a legion of krybots, "one hundred, to be exact. If you are able to defeat all of them and defeat me before Doggie's timer runs out, he'll live."
"Bastard!" Kat charges at Benaag on all fours, her Claws supporting her skeleton so she may do so in a completely natural motion. Some krybots block her path but she swipes them away easily. She continues to fight them off, making a significant dent in them. "You can't escape me, Benaag!"
Benaag doesn't answer but hesitates in the face of his adversary. He didn't expect her to be able to fight off his hundred krybots. "You won't save him, Katherine! You'll watch him die just as you did when I killed your husband!"
Kat doesn't dignify his manipulation with a response, but tears through more krybots. She catches sight of Benaag readying his gun. She skids to a stop on her claws and draws them just in time to catch the shot.
"You can do it, Kat," Doggie bows his head, hearing the timer on his collar counting down to zero, signifying his demise.
"You won't save him!" Benaag insists.
"I will," Kat says simply before deflecting the shot off her Claws. The solidification of laser energy hits the collar around Doggie's neck, destroying it. She swings the Claws to her side, reveling in the smoke hissing off them. "You have met your match, Benaag."
"You won't kill me," Benaag backs up now, pulling at every memory he has of Felisia he could use in manipulation. "Remember the promise you made to your husband: that you would never take a life in anger."
"He was not the only one to whom I made that promise," Kat says quietly, to herself. She remembers the day Doggie made her promise the same thing, in appeal to bother his and her compassionate sides. He told her that he didn't want her losing her sense of mercy, or gentility.
"I don't want these beautiful hands to be tainted in bad blood," Doggie took her hands his paws and bowed his snout to them. "That is my job, to make sure you won't have to, Kat."
"General Benaag, you are charged with the destruction of multiple planets as a Troobian leader; you are charged with kidnaping of an SPD officer, attempted murder in six quadrants, and the disappearance and murder of Robert Manx!"
Guilty.
"Containment!"
Kat catches the containment card with no small amount of satisfaction, though she does not smile. She does not acknowledge her rangers charging into the quarry or the realization that it's her as the Cat Ranger. She offers a prayer for her fallen people, home, husband. As she slides the containment card into her belt she walks to where Doggie lies, slowly. Her keen eyes pick up his minute breathing but it still sickens her to think about all this. It sickens her to think how he was hurt, almost killed, because of her, and her stubbornness. "Hello, my old friend."
"I'm not that old, Kat," Doggie wheezes, though its clear the collar has taken its toll on him. He lies limp, limbs splayed around him.
"Hush, Anubis," Kat whispers with the most gentle voice. She bends slowly, demorphed. Her hands go to his muzzle, which he lifts into her touch ever so slightly. Tears drop from her eyes, landing on his scales. "I'm so sorry, Doggie."
"I should thank you, Kat," Doggie sees her confusion and laughs slightly, "or should I say, I should thank Cat Ranger."
Kat also lets out a sardonic chuckle. "Cat Ranger is because of you, Doggie. Now, let's get you home."
She helps lift his large frame to his feet, and if she could carry him, she would. Her hand remains on his chest as he leans on her. "I'm all right, Kat," he insists.
"Are you sure?" she asks with deep worry in her voice. "The rangers are waiting, we'll have you back to base in no time."
"I'm okay, Kat," Doggie stops her just before they emerge from his containment cell and back into the light of day. "I promise, I'm okay."
"You wouldn't have been hurt in the first place if it weren't for me," she says quietly, downcast. "I told you it would be a mistake. I can't protect you—I was the reason you were almost..."
"Katherine," Doggie tilts her delicate little chin up, making her dazzling eyes meet his. "You can't blame yourself for this, Kat. I am glad you've faced your demons, and I'm glad that you made it out unscathed. I will be fine, Kat, and do you know why?"
Kat sniffs back her tears and shakes her head.
"I am fine, because I got to see you spread your wings again. You were here for me, and for Earth when we needed you most. You have proved time and time again why you are the Commander of Earth Base, and I am proud to call myself your guard...and your friend."
Kat is silent and teary as Doggie kneels to her, paws clasped around her hands. He lets his nose brush them in submission before kissing them; "Doggie... "
"Let's go home, Kat," Doggie straightens himself, though he lets Kat's arms remain around him in support, just as he lets himself lean over her frame just a bit. The warmth between them is comforting to the two.
"Yeah," she smiles up at her dearest friend and helps him out. As soon as they make it to the light the rangers are around them, checking on them both. They ask repeatedly if Doggie is okay, as well as Kat. They fawn over the appearance of Cat Ranger, and what it means for their squad. "B–Squad, please, our comrade is hurt, and needs to get back to base ASAP."
"Yes, Ma'am," Jack and Sky help Doggie to the jeep as Z and Syd strap themselves in. The boys climb onto their bikes while Kat climbs in back, laying Doggie's head on her lap.
"Kat," he coughs a bit.
"Hush," she lays a gentle hand on his snout, "we'll be home soon, old dog."
He smiles and takes her hand in his paw.
They both find it equally comforting.
"Commander, you need to stop pacing," Felix glances up from his station to where his friend and boss paces anxiously. "The tests are almost completed."
"I know, Felix, I know," Kat runs a hand through her curls. She glances back to where Doggie has yet to wake since they arrived. "I just wish I knew... "
"He should wake up any time now. There was no lasting damage to any of his systems that some rest won't fix." Felix hears Kat mutter something of the unlikeliness that Doggie will actually take a break. As she seats herself by her personal guard's side Felix remains silent.
"Come on, Doggie," Kat squeezes his paw. When she feels it squeeze back she perks, ears and all. "Doggie, can you hear me?"
"Kat," he responds, groggy, but there.
"Oh, thank goodness," Kat brings his paw to her lips and lays her head on his chest in a moment of emotion. She forgets herself as Commander for this moment and purrs into him.
"Kat," he says more dreamily now, placing a paw on her soft curls.
"I love you, you old dog," she whispers.
"I love you too," he rumbles deeply in his chest, quietly, by her ear.
Felix remains silent and pretends not to see anything. He pretends he's not witnessing his bosses professing their (entirely expected) love for each other in his infirmary.
"DC, you're okay!" Z, the first one in the door, declares gladly.
"Hello, rangers," Doggie greets them, chuckling at how Kat retreats, startled at the affectionate moment. He makes eye contact and chuckles more at Kat's brightly blushing cheeks.
"Glad to have you back, man," Jack nods, followed by his teammates.
"I am glad to be back," Doggie takes Kat's hand freely, who smiles at him in return.