The Meaning of Fear
By Nick Clawson
(With help on this chapter from Pinky)
Hi everyone, I'm back with a
new chapter! (whoohoo) Nick Clawson,
(Jake's twin brother) gets to make an appearance in this chapter, or maybe the
next, I haven't decided yet. You never
heard much about Jake's family on the show so it's entirely possible that he
had a twin, isn't it? Anywho… go read.
~*~
Chapter 2: "Eh… If he got the chance, he'd arrest Dark
Kat then leave us wherever we were stashed."
Calico
Briggs didn't like being tied up. She
didn't like being gagged. She just
plain hated being somekat's hostage.
But here she was, seated on the floor of the Mayor's
office, watching Dark Kat as he studied the screen of his laptop, every so
often glancing up to the small television to see what Ann Gora had to say about
the situation. The Mayor lay next to
her, unconscious after passing out from a bout of hyperventilation.
Dark Kat turned suddenly towards her. "Your SWAT Kats should be here soon,
shouldn't they?"
Unable to do anything more, Callie simply glared back at
him.
"Yes I do believe they should be, you *did* call them."
Dark Kat trailed off as he considered his next words. "And do you know what they'll do, Deputy Mayor? They will separate. Commander Feral will inform them of my
threat and the pilot will stay outside with the jet to make me think they
aren't taking any action against me.
Callie's green eyes narrowed with confusion. What was Dark Kat getting at?
"But Razor, the small one, leaves the jet often." The
massive kat, if the creature that Callie was now looking at could accurately be
called a kat, stood and began to pace as he spoke. "His self confidence is easily destroyed, making him and
enjoyable hostage, and he lacks the physical strength of his partner making him
an easy target. Their loyalty to one
another leaves me with no doubt that one captured SWAT Kat will bring me the
other, and I will be able to finish them. With no one but that ridiculous Feral in my way, Megakat City will soon
be mine. And I owe it all to you Deputy
Mayor, for summoning them for me. You've made my job much easier." The evil kat gave her what was obviously his poor impression of a smile,
then turned and strode purposefully into her office.
Callie wanted to cry. This was a trap and she was the bait. And she'd unwittingly done her job very well.
~*~
The rear entrance to City Hall was swiftly drawing nearer
to Razor and as he approached, he switched the Cyclotron's engines to silent
running. No sense alerting whomever
Dark Kat had playing guard duty to his presence.
He found the door to be unlocked and ,surprisingly
enough, unguarded.
"Razor?" T-bone's voice came through the speaker
on his headset.
"I'm in, buddy. Not a single guard at th' door." He shook his head in confusion. "If Big Purple's gonna go around makin' threats like that…" Razor let the thought go unfinished.
"This whole thing seems weird ta' me buddy, I dunno if
I want you in there by yourself."
"I'm ok buddy, It's those hostages I'm worried about."
"Razor"
"Hold a second…I hear voices T-bone, I'm gonna check it
out. Razor out."
The voices came from a room at the end of the
hallway. The door stood slightly ajar,
and a soft light, different from the harsh fluorescents that lit the corridor
came from the opening.
He padded silently down the hallway, his bare paw pads
making almost no sound on the plush carpeting. He reached the door in short order and, after pausing to take a deep
breath and ready his glovatrix, he leapt inside.
What he found made him feel terribly silly: It was a small guard station with TV's
monitoring the activity around the building and one tuned into 'The Godfather'.
The voices… Razor thought ruefully. The room was otherwise empty.
Grinning a bit, Razor pushed the communicator button.
"T-bone?"
"Did you find anything, buddy?"
"Just that one of the guards was watching 'The
Godfather'."
Razor didn't notice the door being pushed aside, or two
of Dark Kat's ninjas standing behind it. He didn't see when they began to approach him, a damp, green tinged
cloth raised.
"I'm just gonna head up to the Mayor's-" Razor stopped, the sickeningly sweet
overpowering scent reaching his senses only second before the cloth was brought
down over his mouth and nose.
He struggled violently even as he felt a second pair of
paws pinned his arms to his sides, removing his glovatrix in the process. Even as his senses grew foggy, he heard
T-bone's frantic cries from the headset in his helmet. The last thing he clearly remembered was the
helmet being ripped off, then the sound of breaking plastic.
~*~
"Razor!"
T-bone was in a panic, and the static that answered his
calls did nothing to ease the fear.
Ramming his fist on the appropriate button, he popped the
canopy and jumped onto the wing, then to the ground. Ignoring Feral's annoyed warnings he rushed towards the building,
stopping only when he felt Feral's strong grip grabbing him around the arm.
Growling under his breath, he turned to face the
Commander.
"Stay out of that building SWAT Kat. Dark Kat threatened to-"
"God damnit, Feral!" T-bone angrily shook the hand off,
"My partner is in there and he's in trouble and if you try to stop me I will
give you a black eye." With a growl for
emphasis, he turned on his heel and stormed into the building.
Making
his way first to the ground level guard station, he threw the door open and
sprung inside, glovatrix ready for whatever threat might be waiting for him. But there was no threat. Just Razor's glovatrix and helmet, the
crushed communicator dangling from it by it's cord.
"Oh
God…Jake…" He clutched the equipment to him, squeezing his eyes shut before the
tears could come.
~*~
Lt.
Felina Feral stood outside the guard station, her weapon hung precariously in
her limp grasp, threatening to fall to the ground at any moment. She'd heard something she wasn't supposed to
hear and she knew it.
Felina
didn't expect T-bone to turn so suddenly and see her there, and he obviously
didn't expect her to be there. The
burly kat was visibly startled, jumping a bit and taking a few backward steps.
"Christ,
Felina!" His voice was choked, as if he
was fighting tears. The wet patches on
his mask told her he'd been unsuccessful.
"How
long've you been standing there?" He
asked, sounding more composed this time.
She
would never know why she'd given such a cold reply, even as she spoke, she knew
that it wasn't what he needed to hear.
"Long
enough. Jake, T-bone?"
Behind
their mesh covering, T-bone's green eyes narrowed dangerously, and every muscle
on his body tensed. For the first time
since she known him, Felina was afraid of this big kat who'd never been
anything but a friend or a helping paw to her.
Clutching
Razor's glovatrix and helmet in his paws, T-bon stalked past her, knocking into
her and nearly sending her to the floor in the process.
Felina
looked after the SWAT Kat, her heart sinking. Everyone knew what would happen should the two vigilantes be found out, the SWAT Kats themselves
undoubtedly knew. And with a kat he
obviously cared very much about in the paws of Dark Kat, the last thing T-bone
needed to worry about was being found out.
"T-bone!"
She watched as the golden furred tomcat stopped. When he didn't turn to face her, she called "I won't tell."
He
turned towards her then, his expression softer, the corners of his mouth lifted
in the faintest hints of a smile. "Thank you Lieutenant."
~*~
Jake stood in his bedroom.
Chance lay in his hammock, tossing and turning fitfully
every so often.
A pang went through Jake's heart and he padded silently
towards his lover, climbing into the hammock and wrapping his arms around
him. Chance's green eyes fluttered open
and he looked upon Jake's face with shock.
"Oh God, Jakey! I
thought you were-I mean-I'm sorry, I shouldn't have let you go, I should have-"
Jake silenced Chance with a firmly planted, yet gentle
kiss. The kiss had the desired effect
and Chance stopped babbling, choosing instead to run his strong hands from
Jake's shoulders down his well-toned arms as he succumbed to the wonderfully
gentle, yet earth shattering kiss of
the sort that can only be shared by those truly in love.
Jake pulled away after what seemed to him a short
eternity and looked sternly at his boyfriend. "Now, what's all this apologizing about, Furball?"
The light left Chance's eyes and he looked down
guiltily. "I shouldn't have let you go
by yourself. If I'd gone, you'd be safe
instead of being Dark Kat's prisoner."
"Chance, if you'd gone in there with me we might *both* be prisoners! Who would help us then? Feral?"
Despite his best efforts not to, Chance had to laugh at
that. "Eh… If he got the chance, he'd arrest Dark Kat then leave us wherever we
were stashed."
Both kats giggled at that, Jake though, sobered
quickly. "The point I'm trying to make
is that if you'd gone in there or talked me out of going, in which case the
hostages might have been hurt, the situation could have turned out a lot
worse."
"Not for me…"
The two looked into each other's eyes for a moment before
loosing themselves in a passionate kiss.
~*~
Author's Note: (From Pinky) Oh well, I guess Nick Clawson
will have to wait till the next chapter to make his appearance. Whaddaya think? Ya like? If so go check out some of my stuff! ( I did write most
of this chapter… ::grins at Nick::) By
the way, Big Purple is a name that Kristen Sharpe called Dark Kat in her story
Technical Diffuculties. I found myself
using it without even really realizing it. So…. Don't be mad Kristen, it's a compliment. I like it. :)
