Chance groaned as he woke up with a throbbing headache.
"What happened?" he asked as he touched the fore part of his forehead and discovered a bump.
The previous night rushed back to him.
"Oh, crud! Jake!" he tried to run out of his bed, but he almost fell on the floor.
He realized he may have a concussion.
He carefully steadied himself and noticed he was in his boxers and tank top instead of his pajamas.
"What?" he went to rub his head in confusion, but flinched when he touched the bump by mistake.
He quickly made his way to Jake's door and nearly pounded on the door.
"Hey, Jake? You okay in there, buddy?" he asked.
The only response he got was some sort of sleepy moan.
Chance opened the door to find Jake tucked into his bed, lying on his stomach.
Chance ran over and flipped Jake onto his back so he wouldn't accidently smother himself.
This only made Jake tense up, and balled up his hands into fists, but he still didn't wake up.
"Oh, my god! Sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you!" Chance said as he retucked in his partner.
Footsteps then came from downstairs coming up to the second floor.
"Hold on! I'll be right with you in a min—AH!" Chance tripped running out of Jake's room and slammed his face into the wall.
"Oh, my gosh! Are you okay?!" the female owner of the footsteps ran up to Chance and helped him up.
"Yeah, I just woke up with a concussion, that's all," Chance said as he rubbed his forehead.
"Hi, I'm Amelia Boyer. I'm your new coworker. You're Chance, right?" the shekat shook his hand.
"Yeah," Chance realized she was wearing the same kind of work uniform he and Jake wore.
"Hold on, I'll get dressed and—"
"Don't worry, I can take care of things. You and Jake don't look so well."
"Are you sure? This is your first day, right?"
"Relax, I know how to fix up a car and how to handle customers. I'll be fine."
Alright, but if you need anything, let me know," Chance closed the door to Jake's room before heading to his own.
After he closed the door, he changed into his pajamas and headed back to bed.
Xxx
'Amelia' was looking around the garage, actually scanning it to familiarize herself with the location, as she already scanned the bunker.
That's where he physical boy was after all, just chilling out in her new alt. mode.
Aerospark – aka, 'Amelia'—found a notepad with the names 'Burke' and 'Murray' on it followed by their phone numbers.
"They must be coworkers," she said to herself.
She found a phone and dialed on of the numbers.
"What do you want, grease monkeys?" a gruff douchebag voice said.
"Oh, jeez," Amelia muttered before speaking up. "Hi, I'm Amelia. I just started working here today, and Chance and Jake aren't feeling well. Can you drop off a couple of powerades for them?"
"O-oh! S-sure thing, Amelia! Burke and I'll be over in half an hour!" Murray said before hanging up.
"Hmm. They'll be interesting," Amelia put the phone back to its place.
She glitched her holomatter-form down to the bunker, she needed to get something from her alt mode.
She found where her left arm was and opened a panel.
It was her first aid kit for organics.
She reached in and pulled out a see-through tube filled with a milky clear gel.
The gel was an antidote to energon pisoning.
She was going to give it to Jake after Burke and Murray dropped off the sports drinks.
She climbed the ladder out of the bunker with the tube in her front pants pocket, opened the hatch, climbed out of it, and closed the hatch before walking to the breakroom.
She put the gel on the coffee table so she wouldn't accidently squeeze it out in her pocket.
Xxx
Ulysses woke up to find himself upside down looking up at the ceiling, wondering if he fell out of bed.
He groaned as he got himself back onto his own two feet.
The aching in his neck and shoulders told him he had been in that position for some time.
His vision then became very bright and he saw strange shapes—almost like an alien language.
He rubbed his eyes and shook his head, returning his vision back to normal.
"I need coffee…" he grumbled as he walked to the kitchen.
Xxx
Chance was sleeping when he heard Burke and Murray's truck parking in front of the shop.
"Oh, I don't have time for this!" Chance dragged himself out of bed again and stomped down the stairs while he held onto the rail.
Seeing Burke and Murray talking to Amelia while handing her a box of sports drinks wasn't what he was expecting.
"What's going on here?" Chance asked.
"I asked these two guys to drop of some powerade," Amelia said as handed Chance a sports drink. "You guys'll need an electrolyte recharge. I'm gonna put these in the fridge."
Chance walked up to Burke and Murray as Amelia headed to the kitchen. "You two are up to something, I just know it!"
"Hey, we just wanted to meet the new girl," Murray said.
"But Murray ruined his first impression, so I had to make a good one!" Burke smiled.
Chance squinted and saw that Burke was more well-dressed than Murray. (i.e. his best work clothes)
"Yeah, mine wasn't the best, either," Chance said as he opened the sports drink and began to drink it.
"Wait a second, how'd you get that bump on your head?" Murray asked as he pointed to the bump.
"Uh…" Chance froze, not knowing how to explain it.
"From my guess," Amelia said as she walked back into the room, "a workplace accident."
Burke and Murray looked at each other and muttered about how that made sense.
"Guess I might've tripped while salvaging," Chance said. "I don't remember much from yesterday."
"Is Jake able to work today?" Burke asked.
"I don't know, I think he came down with something," Chance gave the only answer he had.
"Hey, we can help with salvaging while you and Jake are recovering," Murray said.
"You guys don't have to worry about teaching me to fix cars, I did a lot of vehicle repair work at my old job," Amelia said.
"Say, what was your old job?" Chance asked.
"The company I used to work for is very 'hush-hush' on the details of our work, so all I can say is repair of multiple vehicle types."
"So, were you fired or something?" Murray asked before Burke elbowed him in the ribs.
"I just needed a less stressful job, so here I am," Amelia gestured with her arms.
"We usually get a heads-up call or email when we get a new coworker," Burke said.
"Huh, guess they forgot or the message got delayed. How's about I get started on repairing those cars? Now, I'm kinda bad at remembering the names of specific parts, but I know what they are and where they do."
"We'll help you find the parts you need," Murray said as he and his brother ran to salvage supplies.
"Jake has a list in the office of the parts the cars need!" Chance shouted after them. He then noticed the tube with the gel inside it on the coffee table. "What's that?"
"Oh, that's in case any of my company's experimental fuel gets on us," Amelia said. "It neutralizes it for safety."
Chance got a look on his face like he was trying to connect some dots.
"Dude, you're still concussed. I'll give you and Jake some more details once you both better," Amelia gently pushed him to the stairs.
Xxx
It was the middle of the afternoon and Chance decided to watch some Scaredy Kat on his phone, despite still having a concussion.
He heard two knocks on his door and Amelia came in.
"Hey, I got a—" she then saw Chance on his phone. "C'mon, man! You know screen light's not helpful with concussions."
"Oh, come on! You don't even know how bad it is! It's not like you're a doctor or anything," Chance crossed his arms.
"Good thing I brought this, then," Amelia held up what looked like a high-tech hand-held check out thing you'd see at the store. "An experimental medical scanner."
"Will that thing hurt?" Chance asked.
Chance flinched as his fur felt like a static wave came over him, which often happened when fighting Hard Drive.
"Yeah, according to this data—" Amelia pressed a button and a holographic screen with data projected from the scanner "—if you stay off your phone for a day and a half, you should be able to get back to work in 3 days, starting tomorrow."
"How about you drop me off at the hospital for an actual medical suggestion?" Chance asked.
"This thing was made by the best medics and scientists from my old job," Amelia said as she turned it off. "And besides, I can't exactly drive."
"Crud, I should've asked Burke and Murray to—"
They then heard pained groaning a thud, followed by even more pained groaning from Jake's room.
They both looked at each other, knowing something was wrong.
Amelia grabbed Chance's arm as he got out of his bed again, so he wouldn't fall… again.
"Oh, god! What did that laser do to him?!" Chance said as he and Amelia ran into Jake's room.
They opened the door to find Jake's bed a mess and what looked like a foot fall off the far side of the bed.
They got to where Jake was and saw him writhing a little while drenched in sweat.
"Jake, you okay?!" Chance sat up his friend.
"Back… ow!" Jake managed out.
Chance lifted up the back of Jake's shirt and saw that he was having muscle spasams.
"I'll get the cream!" Amelia ran out of the room.
"C'mon, bud," Chance grunted as he picked Jake up. "Let's get you cleaned up."
He carried Jake out of his room, into the hallway, into his own room, and to his bathroom, the only bathroom with a bathtub in it.
"Okay, Jake, can you stand?" Chance put Jake on his feet.
Jake tried to stand, but collapsed against Chance.
"Mm-nm!" Jake weakly shook his head.
"Alright, then, let's sit you down on the floor and I'll help you change out of these," Chance said.
Chance sat Jake on the floor when Amelia ran in with the cream.
"I know he came into contact with the fuel I told you about! Put this on where he was affected. It'll turn a pinkish purple as the toxins are pulled out," she said.
"Oh, like you know—"
"That he was hit with energon last night, when we were fighting the purple jets," Amelia gave him a serious look. "I'll explain when you're both better."
Chance hesitated before grabbing the tube. "This stuff safe to go down the drain?"
"That was one of the main focuses of its development, of course it does!"
"Could you, um, give us some, uh—"
"Got it!" Amelia exited the room and closed the door shut.
Chance pulled Jake's shirt off.
"Okay, Jake, you wanna lie down on the floor mat or against the tub?" Chance asked.
Jake pushed himself off of Chance and almost fell on the floor, but he and Chance caught himself and lowered him to the floor mat.
Chance squeezed the cream into his hand, then he saw that Jake's fur on his shoulders to the middle of his back had been seared short.
Chance breathed in through his teeth. "Damn! That must've hurt ya."
Jake responded with a sharp groan.
Okay, I'm gonna apply the cream, now," Chance began to rub the cream on Jake's injury.
Jake tensed up a little, but then relaxed and tried to lean into Chance's hand.
"What? D'ya want a message or something?" Chance asked.
Jake nodded his head and tried to say something.
"Fine. But don't do anything weird," Chance then straddled Jake's hips (remember, Jake's still lying on his stomach) and began to rub in the cream with more pressure than before.
Jake tensed up again, and then began to purr as he relaxed.
"You realize purring counts as weird?" Chance asked.
Jake just kept on purring.
The cream started to turn the pinkish purple Amelia told him about.
He kept messaging until Jake's shoulders and middle back we covered in the color.
"Alright, Jake, I'm gonna take your pants off and put ya in the tub to clean you up," Chance said.
He got off of Jake and finished undressing him.
He put the now taken off pants with the rest of the dirty laundry and picked Jake up when the door opened.
"Hey—" Murray started before he saw Jake and slammed the door closed.
Chance put Jake in the tub before going to the door. "Murray, what are you doin' back here?"
"Uh, we brought a pizza, thought you'd might be—"
"You just wanted to see the new girl again, didn't you?"
There was a hesitation.
"Yeah… we did…" Murray admitted. "How's Jake?"
"Turns out he had contact with the experimental fuel yesterday. I'm just cleaning him off now."
"Oh, damn! Are you gonna take him to the hospital?"
Chance facepalmed.
"Could you do me a favor and get Jake's pajamas and help me get him to the hospital after I clean him off?" Chance asked.
"Gotcha, man," Murray said as he walked away from the door.
Chance walked back to Jake and made sure he was sitting up.
"Alright, bud, let's clean you off," Chance said as he grabbed the detachable showerhead.
He began to rinse off Jake off, who began to purr again.
Xxx
Lieutenant Johnathan Steele. The worst enforcer in ANY combat situation, the best at paperwork and surprisingly good at investigating how jets crashed.
He was currently looking over several missing persons reports on his desks.
"How can 150 kats disappear without a trace in ONE WEEK?" he asked himself.
The door to his office opened and Sargent Talon entered.
"Sir, there's a crash we'd like your assistance in investigating," Talon said.
"One of ours?" Steele asked.
"No. the Turbokat."
Steele felt his stomach drop as he stood up from his desk and followed Talon.
"You sure it's the Turbokat?" Steele asked.
"From flyovers we've done earlier, we matched the observations from our archives to the SWAT Kats' aircraft," Talon said.
"Where's the crash site?"
"Magakat Canyon. Will you be okay in a helicopter?" Talon asked as they entered an elevator.
"Oh, geez… everyone knows I don't fly well. I'm not sure a chopper will help or not…"
"Don't worry, partner," Lt. Feline said as she joined the two toms in the elevator. "I got ya covered."
She tossed Steele a pack of airsick pills and a bottle of water.
"Um, thanks," Steele said as he took the recommended dose and drank the water.
"I'll make sure the flight's nice and steady for ya, too, Lt. Commander," Felina said.
Steele smiled. She's nicer about this than her uncle would be.
Xxx
Jake and Chance were in the back of Murray's personal truck, being driven to the hospital.
"Think Amelia and Burke'll be okay?" Chance asked.
"Amelia has a lot of work experience, and Burke an' I've been working at the scrapyard longer than you and Jake've been enforcers," Murray said.
Jake groaned in response to that.
"Yeah, Murray, you don't need to rub it in," Chance said as he helped Jake sit up straight.
"Sorry," Murray muttered. He then spoke up. "Say, is Jake doin' alright back there?"
Chance let go of Jake, who would've flopped onto the floorboards if it wasn't for the seatbelt. "Not good."
"We'll be there in a few minutes, guys, don't worry. And Amelia gave me a paper with info on what the experimental fuel can do to someone."
"Was it just me or is she fact at block print writing?"
"She is. Wanna listen to the radio?"
xxx
Steele had his eyes closed shut for ¾ of the helicopter ride.
"John, the meds should've kicked in by now," Felina said.
"Then why do I feel a pit in my stomach?" Steele growled as he gripped his seat.
"Look, we're out of the city, why not enjoy the view the rest of the ride?"
Steele opened one eye, and then the other.
He could see the afternoon view of the canyon they were flying in.
"Huh. This isn't… s-so bad," he held his stomach.
"Do you have vertigo or something?" Felina asked.
"Well, maybe? I'm defiantly afraid of flying."
"The meds are helping, right?"
"Y-yeah. C-can we keep talking, actually? It helps me when flying."
"I heard you're joining the kats working on all those missing persons cases."
"I already have, and I think I'm noticing a pattern: a purple muscle car was seen near a few of the last known sightings of kats."
"You think there's a connection?"
"I'm going to ask the commander about it. See what he thinks."
"I think we're almost at the crash site," Felina said as she saw a couple of helicopters ahead of them.
"Oh, yea—uhh…" Steele accidently looked down at the ground below.
"John? You okay?" Felina asked.
Steele then fainted.
"Good thing no one else was here to see that," Felina muttered. "Hope you wake up when we land."
Xxx
Jake felt himself being carried by chance somewhere, probably the hospital.
Oh, god, am I gonna die? He thought.
The next thing he was aware of was being handed off to someone else and being put down on a bed and wheeled somewhere.
He felt himself being sat up and his shirt being taken off.
He tried to weakly fight back, be he felt two hands grab his wrists and muffled voices talking to him.
He could feel hands observing where he was shot on his back.
Chance and I are gonna be SO arrested!
He was then laid back down and someone jammed something into his arm.
He then blacked out.
Xxx
"Well, Mr. Furlong, your new coworker was right. You do have a concussion," the doctor said.
"It's not that bad? Is it?" Chance asked.
The doctor gave him a serious look. "Well, you did say you had some amnesia, so I'd like for you to stay here overnight for observation. Okay?"
Chance slumped his shoulders. "Yeah, I'll just give my coworkers the heads-up."
"Alright then, I'll have a nurse show you to the recovery room in a little bit," the doctor left the exam room.
Chance pulled out his phone to text Murray when the nurse came in.
"Phone off. Follow me," she said.
"Oh, c'mon! I was just giving my coworkers the heads-up I'll be staying overnight," Chance said as he pocketed his phone.
"You can do that in your room. And you need to let them know you're not ghosting, you're just not allowed to use your phone."
Chance followed the nurse to his room.
They arrived at the room, which looked like a cheap apartment closet-sized bedroom, with a single person bed in a corner with a nightstand by it, a bookshelf and desk with chair were on the other side.
The desk had a couple of puzzle and coloring books on it so kats could pass time while they were there.
"Chance, put your phone in the box on the wall," the nurse pointed to the square box on the wall. "You send the texts?"
"Hold on!" Chance sent out the texts.
He then put his phone in the box on the wall and the nurse put in a code that locked it.
"That'll open at 8:00 am, the door to your room won't be locked, so you can use the restroom, which is down the hall. Dinner will be here around 6 to 6:30. Got that?" the nurse asked.
"Yea—wait, did I turn my phone off?"
"There's a signal blocker in the box, so you won't hear any pings. I gotta go now, later," the nurse left the room.
Chance walked over to the desk and got an easy coloring book.
Xxx
Amelia and Burke were salvaging materials to keep the garage stocked up when Burke received Chance's text.
"Is that from Chance or Murray?" Amelia asked.
"Chance. He and Jake are gonna be staying the night at the hospital," Burke said. "Murray's gonna be back in a few minutes, do you need a ride back to your place?"
"Don't worry, my roommate's gonna pick me up at 7pm," Amelia said as she put her box of salvage into the work truck.
Burke did the same thing and they both got in the truck to drive back.
Xxx
Murray was driving his truck back to the salvage yard to pick up Burke when he saw a black and purple muscle car following him.
"Eh, we're probably goin' the same way," he said to himself.
Xxx
Steele woke up with the bump of the landing.
"Ooh-ugh! Don't tell me: I fainted…" he said to Felina.
"You did. Need some help out?" Felina asked.
"I'll let you know if I do," Steele unbuckled himself and slowly stood up.
Felina opened the door and offered her hand to Steele when he went to get out, which he accepted.
A few of the officers there started giggling when they saw Steele get out of the helicopter.
"Ignore them," Felina muttered to Steele.
Steele walked up to Sargent Talon.
"Is it alright if I start investigating?" Steele asked.
"Yes, they just finished taking photos of the site," Talon said.
"Is the coroner going to be here?"
"No, there aren't any bodies."
"So, they ejected?"
"We're not sure. Take a look for yourself."
Steele walked up to the wreck.
It was only the cockpit that remained.
He took out his notepad and pencil and started to get to work.
He was going to look inside the cockpit, but the ladder he thought he saw wasn't there.
A female sergeant walked up to him with the missing ladder.
"Sorry, my officers thought it would be 'funny' to hide it," she said.
The laughter in the background confirmed her statement.
Steele took the medium folding ladder, opened it, and stepped up it to get a good look at the inside of the cockpit.
"Guys, I think we should start looking for the SWAT Kats' bodies," he said.
"Why do you say that?" Felina asked.
"Because I don't think they were able to use their ejector seats. They have huge gash marks in them, like something tore them out. You can see how the seats practically work in this condition."
"Let me see," Felina said as she and Steele switched places.
Feline couldn't believe her eyes when she saw the seats.
"What in the world could've caused this?" she quietly asked out loud.
"Where's the rest of the wreck?" Steele asked.
"We have kats still looking for it, sir," Talon said.
Everyone stopped what they were doing when they heard the purple jets' engines.
"Oh, shit!" Felina exclaimed as everyone looked up and saw six purple jests and one silver jet.
"Guys! We need to get cover! Now!" the female sargent barked the order as kats ran to the choppers and hid in them.
Steele and Felina were hiding in their chopper when Felina's breath began to hitch.
"Are you okay, Felina?" Steele asked.
He could hear her muttering 'we're gonna die' over and over.
He grabbed Felina and held her as she began to go into the fetal position.
"Hey, hey. Look, we're gonna be fine. Just take some nice deep breaths," Steele said as he patted her back/shoulders.
Felina grabbed onto him and held tightly.
Steele continued to hold onto her as well as they waited for the jets to go away.
It felt like 2 hours before the 'all clear' was given.
"Felina, you good?" Steele asked.
Felina shook her head 'no'.
"C'mon, let's get you some fresh air and find someone to fly us back," Steele managed to stand up himself and Felina at the same time.
Sargent Talon helped the out of the chopper. "Lt. Felina, are you alright?"
Felina's panicked eyes began to look around the sky.
"We need to get her back to HQ and have her get to the infirmary for a psych eval," Steele said. "Get the wreck to HQ as well. We'll investigate it in the forensics unit."
"I'll take Felina," Talon managed to pry her from her grip on Steele. "Sargent DuClaw has a seat available in her helicopter."
Xxx
Burke and Amelia were sorting their salvage haul in the garage when Murray drove up with a purple muscle car following him.
"Oh, scrud!" Amelia said as she grabbed a wrench.
"Hey, it could be a customer," Burke said.
Murray got out of the truck as the three approached the muscle car.
"Hey, bud. We can't help ya, we're closed," Murray said to the driver's side window.
They didn't receive an answer.
"Where's the license plate?" Amelia asked.
"Maybe they got one in the back," Burke walked to the trunk. "They don't."
"Are fully blacked out windows legal in this city? Cause they weren't in my old city."
"No, I don't think so," Murray said.
"Guys, we need to get into the garage and close it up," Amelia said as she backed herself to the garage, keeping her eyes on the car.
They boys followed her lead.
They got into the garage and closed it.
"Who do you think that guy is?" Burke asked.
"The metal looks like the kind on the purple jets," Amelia said.
"How can you tell?" Murray asked.
"I got a telescope at home. And my company warned us about vehicles like that."
"Why?"
"They tried to steal some of our tech and fuel in the past."
Burke and Murray looked at each other.
"Think they're coming for th—" Burke's mouth was covered by Murray's hands.
"They may be after something in the salvage?" Amelia shrugged.
They suddenly heard and engine revving.
"Office!" Amelia shouted.
They ran to the office just as Burke and Murray's personal truck rammed through the door, into a customer's car, and into the wall, with debris flying everywhere. Good thing they closed the office door.
"Oh, DAMN!" Murray shouted.
"FUCK!" Burke also shouted at the same time as his brother.
The purple car peeled away from the scene.
Xxx
Ulysses could barely handle the pain on the back of his head.
He got his cellphone and sent an email stating that he would be taking an additional day off.
He collapsed onto his bed and closed his eyes in too much pain to get painkillers.
He went out like a light.