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Chapter 20: Surprise! Dark Kat!!
In his hidden lair, Dark Kat listened to the reports from around the city on the news channels. He grinned, pleased to see how much havoc his criminal troops were doing to the city's morale and how exhausting it was on the city's defenders.
Everything wasn't completely good news as the enforcers were somehow managing to sweep up his criminal army more easily than he'd first thought they could even with the aid of that damnable SWAT Kat. However, Dark Kat wasn't entirely unhappy, since his forces had done what he'd wanted them to do which was wear down the defenders of the city. Now as dusk was falling, it was his turn and he intended to finish the job.
By morning Megakat City would be his!
Getting up from his monitoring console, he called out orders to his creeplings waiting nearby. They answered and swarmed after him as the huge tom strode confidently through his lair toward a large all black vehicle. It looked somewhat like the original black widow except it was larger, sleeker, and armed to the teeth. Gun mounts could be seen on the upper and lower areas of the behemoth.
Boarding his jet, Dark Kat signaled his army of creeplings to follow and soon he and a swarm of larger than normal creeplings poured from his mountain retreat. The new type of creeplings were about four feet tall, with longer, sharper teeth and claws, and were black instead of pink so they blended well in the night sky.
Following him out of the mountain was a fleet of one hundred mini jets flown by his ninja forces. These jets could attack with deadly speed and were meant to take out the enforcers jets and chopper squadrons while Dark Kat took out the Turbokat and destroyed Enforcer Headquarters.
Meanwhile, at said headquarters, Feral's early warning system of strategically placed monitors on every tall building in the city, demonstrated its success by the call Feral received just as night fell.
"Feral!" He barked into his radio. It was set for one frequency that connected him to his early warning network of spies.....no one else could tap into it thanks to some of the tech Razor had brought back with him.
"Sir! Post fourteen! Bogies spotted coming from northeast! One large jet followed by a fleet of some hundred mini jets and a large, unknown quantity of weird creatures that are bigger than the original creeplings! Heading for city center!" The monitor reported excitedly.
"Roger! Message received. Hold your post and report anything else you see!"
"Roger, sir. Post fourteen out!"
Feral turned to the ones waiting in the room with him. T-Bone and Felina were lounging on the couch, catching some rest and getting a bite to eat while Razor and Colonel Sharpclaws stood near him listening tensely to the report over the radio.
"Well you heard.....Dark Kat is on his way! Time for you and I to put in an appearance, Razor!" Feral said, his smile little more than a grimace full of fangs.
"Finally! I was getting tired of waiting. Better call the Professor to get Cybertron II back for duty!" Razor said more to himself than Feral as he raised his special communicator to the Professor's lab. A moments speech and he was informed the huge robot was once more on its way and would arrive at Enforcer Headquarters within ten minutes.
"Colonel, summon up the troops, notify the flight deck, and let's get this show on the road!" Feral ordered. Sharpclaws gave a sharp nod and hurried to the comm center.
As the other four hurried from Feral's office for the flight deck, one floor down, Felina asked,
"Did you catch that about some new kind of large creepling?"
"Yes, but hopefully our new style Taser mounted on all the choppers will take care of them," Razor told her. She nodded and asked nothing more as they made for their own jets.
In preparation for this final assault, Razor had converted their new weapons into something their jets could fire on Dark Kat's forces. The special explosives that had a greater kick to them, would ride ordinary missiles carrying no ammo of their own. These empty missile's only purpose were to deposit the new explosive to a mini jet then, when enough of them had been tagged, then Razor and Feral would set them off with a detonator they carried.
He also had a special type of high powered Taser installed on all of Feral's alpha flight choppers and gave both the jet and chopper flights containers filled with a nasty gas from their trip to Earth. Everyone was to wear special masks to protect themselves from the gas effects and to only fire the gas high in the air so that no one on the ground would be harmed. Thankfully, it dissipated quickly, less than fifteen minutes after dispersal.
As for Dark Kat, he and Feral's special missiles they had brought back from Earth, were loaded aboard the Turbokat and would be fired when Razor could get the perfect kill shot of Dark Kat's modified black widow.
With more confidence than they'd ever had against this deadly enemy, the enforcers and Turbokat roared off the flight line and into the darkening sky. They wanted to head off Dark Kat's forces before he managed to fly over the more populated part of the city.
"This is Feral! Where is Dark Kat's fleet now!" Feral put out a call to his spy posts as he rushed to the last reported sighting of the omega.
"Post twenty, sir! Dark Kat is just passing over Pumadyne at a fast rate of speed. His forces are spread out over five miles to either side of him and in his wake."
"Roger!" Relieved to know the battle would occur over a sparsely populated area, Feral called to his troops and allies with the news of Dark Kat's location....again using a more restricted and protected frequency thanks to Razor. Feral was assured the omega could not hear them and would not be aware that he'd been spotted until it was too late. Troop chatter was forbidden until battle was formally engaged thus continuing to keep Dark Kat in the dark. They would finally get the drop on this evil Kat and surprise the hell out of him.
After another fifteen minutes of flight, they spotted Dark Kat's fleet dead ahead, only just passing over the pasture land just outside the city proper, another ten minutes and he would be right on top of city hall and that's what they wanted to prevent at all costs.
Cybertron II had been told to stay back of the fleet and when the battle was engaged, to take out any of the enemy that managed to get past their defenses. A more excellent back up, Feral could never have imagined.
Without any warning calls, Feral and his fleet fired the first salvos and the fight was in full swing in seconds.
Dark Kat howled in fury as his ship rocked a little from multiple missiles that bounced off his shielding. Around him his mini jets were being hit with some kind of electrical charge before they could even begin to do an attack of their own.
Roaring, Dark Kat unleashed his own formidable weaponry. In seconds the air was filled with bright electrical burst of light, explosions, gas and loud booms of missiles striking their targets.
It was hard for Feral to resist charging right up to Dark Kat's ship right now. But that wasn't his mission. He took his jet squadron and played tag with Dark Kat's jets, planting their secret weapon all over them while trying not to get tagged themselves.
His chopper flight was doing a great job of drawing creeplings into a trap of many choppers before saturating the air with gas. Feral was pleased to note, the gas was far more deadly against those creatures than they'd hoped. The things were so stricken, they began to fall from the sky where Cybertron II collected them and deposited their coughing and screaming bodies into a roll around cell he pulled behind him.
Dark Kat's new weapons and jets were more dangerous and faster than Feral's so that nearly half of the enforcers fell from the sky within the first few minutes of battle. The Commander had to put a stop to that, quick, so when he thought enough explosives had been seeded among Dark Kat's mini jet fleet, he signaled the bombs to explode.
Instantly, all around him, jets were exploding including some of those ugly creeplings. Those things were able to fly rings around their jets and do damage to the ailerons causing jets to lose control. The chopper squadron immediately swooped in and fired their Tasers at the other startled creeplings, pleased to find they worked very well, as the creatures fell screaming in agony from the sky and into the waiting arms of Cybertron II. In this instance, it was unfortunate the robot was not allowed to kill, leaving Feral with the nasty task of executing them after the battle was over.
Meanwhile, the Turbokat was being effectively harried by a large number of mini jets. They were kept too busy to try and take out Dark Kat at the moment.
"Crud, buddy! Where the heck did he get all these things?" T-Bone growled in frustration as he fired his own set of weapons on the jets harassing them.
"I don't know, T-Bone, but I do know they are keeping us from getting Dark Kat. I've covered as many of them as I could with my mini bombs. Let's get some distance so I can set them off. Do a sudden shift to VTOL then grab sky upward quickly," Razor called back.
"Good idea! Say when!"
After a few more minutes and firing more of his special missiles, Razor called out, "NOW!"
T-Bone responded instantly, switching the Turbokat to VTOL abruptly then taking them skyward just as rapidly. Their enemies were startled enough to actually crash into each other in some cases. Razor quickly set off his charges which took out the rest of them in seconds.
"That cleared the sky!" He said smugly. "Okay, buddy....let's go get Dark Kat!"
"You got it!" T-Bone agreed, happily, quickly switching back to forward motion, staying at his present higher altitude, as he roared off to where Dark Kat's jet was hanging back from the battle.
A little earlier, Dark Kat had retreated somewhat, so as to view the battle better. He was furious and shocked to have been found out so quickly before he was even within the city limits to do some of the demoralizing damage he'd planned.
What was more disconcerting, was the strange new weapons the enforcers were utilizing. He still did not know Feral and the other SWAT Kat had returned. He just thought this new Chief Enforcer was more formidable and resourceful than he'd first assumed. The addition of that large robot was also a surprise. 'Where did they get that gas and how are they blowing up my ships? I don't see any missiles flying,' he wondered in frustration.
As he watched and fumed, he noted both sides seemed to be evenly matched....at least for the moment....neither side had an overwhelming advantage, though, he was forced to admit, those odd electrical bursts and the gas from the choppers were making a rather alarming in road on his creepling army and the enforcer jets mystery explosive devices were decimating his jets far too quickly.
Too much longer and he would be alone in the sky facing what was left of the enforcers. Not good! He needed to put an end to this battle quick or all his plans would be finished. Growling to himself, he pushed the black widow back into the battle and began to systematically take out the rest of the fighter jets.
"Looks like we got free just in time, Razor!" T-Bone called out when he spotted what Dark Kat was up to.
"Yeah and I don't think he's spotted us yet so how about we drop down behind him and give him a present, then you grab some air before it goes off?" Razor growled in fierce anticipation.
T-Bone gave a dark chuckle in return. "Great idea but better warn Feral!"
"Already done so!" Razor retorted as T-Bone sent the Turbokat into a steep dive then leveled off quickly.
"Surprise package delivered!" Razor shouted for all to hear as he sent their two special missiles flying from their nests.
T-Bone veered off sharply and left the scene as fast as he could.
From a safe distance, Feral opened his radio to one he knew Dark Kat was probably monitoring and shouted, "Say good bye, Dark Kat!"
Dark Kat had noted the enforcers backing off suddenly but before he could see why, his alarms went off. Looking at his scope he saw two bogies nearly on top of him.
He frowned in puzzlement and annoyance. 'Did these fleas truly think their puny missiles could penetrate his shielding?' He wondered angrily when suddenly a very familiar voice shouted at him over the radio......he had only a second of life left to realize Feral had returned....shock shook him.....then the missiles impacted, tearing through his shields and blowing him and the black widow up in a spectacular burst of sound and color.
Feral and the SWAT Kats doubted the omega even had time to scream as they watched their deadliest enemy be blown to little pieces.
"Got him!"
"Yes!"
"Bingo!"
"Whoohoo!"
Came multiple cheers of relief and triumph over the air ways.
"Finish off the rest!" Feral boomed through his mike to what was left of his enforcer squadrons.
With great relish, the enforcers proceeded to clean house with the help of the Turbokat. In less than thirty minutes all of Dark Kat's aerial fleet had been destroyed. As a final chore and with Feral's blessings, the SWAT Kats killed the captured creeplings with a ring of Taser blasts thus ending the war for good.
Cybertron II was sent home with their profuse thanks but Cybertron I was welcomed to stay with the SWAT Kats as their back up maintenance hand so that Razor could finally have a break....to which it agreed with many a happy electronic chirp.
In exuberant spirits, what was left of Feral's forces returned to headquarters for a well deserved down time. Feral had Colonel Sharpclaws order fresh forces out to the battle field to clean up the mess while back at headquarters, Feral, Felina, the SWAT Kats and Sharpclaws celebrated their success in taking out one of the worst omegas they had.
"Now all that's left is to take care of Viper and our city will finally be at peace," Feral sighed, enjoying his glass of champagne, Colonel Sharpclaws ordered for their celebration.
"Hmm, you know Commander.....I think you and I can come up with a way to be rid of that mutant once and for all. Some of our new weapons could work against his plant army and perhaps the magic we learned could rid us of Viper," Razor mused aloud.
Feral paused to study Razor quietly for some minutes. "You're thinking to go search for that lizard rather than wait for him to make an appearance, hmm?"
"Yeah.....I'm tired of these omegas getting the upper paw and now that we've gotten the Pastmaster to vanish permanently and killed Dark Kat.....we should just finish the job immediately."
"I like the idea, but let's get some rest first, allow the city to celebrate and my troops to get their breaths back before we tackle the next thing," Feral coaxed quietly. He was just as gung ho to finish this as Razor but he knew his people's limits and, besides, he wanted to see home finally.
Razor eyed Feral for a moment and realized he was being selfish. He knew Feral wanted to be rid of Viper just as much as he did, but the poor tom wanted to actually be home first and Razor could kick himself for forgetting that.
Nodding understandingly, Razor said, "of course, you're right.....Viper's not going anywhere and we have time." 'Let Ulysses have a break, he deserves it,' he thought privately.
Feral gave him a warm smile back, raising his glass to salute his one time partner.