Title: Doubletake
Chp 2: Too Good to Last
Author: Kristen Sharpe
E-Mail: skgirl@hotmail.com
Date: May 3, 2002
Rating: PG
Warnings: May contain slightly more than average violence for a children's cartoon.
Disclaimer: "SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron," its characters and concepts are copyright to Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc and are used without permission.
Author's note: And, here's chapter two, which should get the story moving along a bit more. The only real comment I have to make here is that when you get to this chapter's end, you'll probably be thinking, "Uhm... She put the wrong summary with this. This is more like ______." I know what it looks like. And... well, I'm not telling you what it is, but I will say that the summary does fit and it'll all make sense later. I hope.
And, yeeee-ow! I guess I didn't botch that parade up too badly. Thanks to ALL of you that reviewed!
----------------------------
Chapter 2: Too Good to Last
----------------------------
Callie Briggs yawned sleepily and tried to focus tired eyes on the winding mountain road visible in her car's headlights. The road was all that was visible. Fog veiled the world to either side of the powerful high beams.
"Whatta day," she muttered, glancing at the clock on the dashboard. Its florescent letters read 12:31. And, it wasn't announcing lunchtime. "First, the parade and then... that mess," she grumbled.
The SWAT Kat Day parade had been fun. The grins on both SWAT Kats' faces had been more than worth the extra ribbing it had taken to get Manx to fulfill his promise. Not to mention the sight of them doing the Macarena! Callie smiled at the memory, chuckling softly.
Then, she sobered. The visit she had just completed was another matter entirely.
"Puma-Dyne finally offers an explanation... and it makes no sense.... Why would a technician steal a jet only to chase the SWAT Kats around with it?" Callie muttered.
And, it had taken both she and Feral's unannounced drive out to the site where the jet had crashed in order to pry out that much of an explanation. Puma-Dyne simply did *not* want to discuss the incident. Feral had been much less satisfied than the petite Deputy Mayor, staying on to survey the area and harass anyone on hand.
With a sigh of frustration, Callie drummed her fingers on the wheel and stared into the darkness beyond the car's headlights. The darkness offered no answers.
"I'm too tired for this right now," she decided at last. "I can't wait to get home and get some sleep." The sentence became a yawn as she reached up to rub sleep from one eye.
Then, forcing both eyes open, she kept a wary gaze on the road as she drove into a stretch that had been blasted out of the side of the mountain. A sheer wall of rock rose to her right and, to her left, the mountain dropped away abruptly. A guard rail was the only barrier between her car and a misty abyss.
Without warning, the entire road began to vibrate. The asphalt rippled in a sudden, wave-like motion. With a gasp of surprise, Callie slammed on the brakes. Her car skidded across the bucking road and through the guard rail with a metallic shriek. Catching briefly on the shattered rail, the car's hinder part slewed around so that the vehicle was parallel to the mountainside as it slid down the steep incline.
Then, before Callie could even vocalize a scream, it was over. The car had careened into a stubby tree that, miraculously, held it and stopped.
Loose shale tumbled down into the darkness for some minutes more. Then, there was only silence.
Her entire body aching, Callie raised her head slowly and surveyed the scene. Her breath came in quick gasps as she tried to move only her head, afraid any sudden movement would send the car into the nothingness below.
"I've got to get help," she stuttered.
The communicator. Where was her comlink to the SWAT Kats?
"My purse," she answered her own question, searching the car. It had been in the passenger's seat. Now, with her car tilted downhill, it was lying against the door on the passenger's side. "If I could just reach my communicator," Callie mumbled to herself, leaning toward the other seat and slowly reaching for the outstretched shoulder strap of her purse.
As her weight moved, the car shifted dangerously. In one swift movement, Callie grabbed the strap and pulled the purse to her.
-------------------------------------
All was quiet in the MegaKat City Salvage Yard, its tenants worn out from the day's excitement. Jake was sleeping soundlessly with his head buried under his pillow in an attempt to block the deep, rumbly snores emanating from the bed to
his left, where Chance was doing his finest impression of a saw mill.
Suddenly, the klaxon broke the night's relative silence with its unearthly wail. First in the hangar, then relaying to the second floor to another klaxon disguised as a smoke detector.
Jake was forcibly jolted awake. "Wha?" he muttered, every muscle tensing. He directed blurry eyes toward his alarm clock and found only the darkness beneath his pillow. Confused, he struggled to sit up, finding his legs bound together. "What is...?!" he howled, fighting to extricate himself from what quickly proved to be his pillow and his thin, tangled sheet.
Chance, apparently, had no such problems.
"Trouble," the big kat muttered groggily as bounced out of his bed. He aimed for the door just beyond Jake's bed. In one powerful leap, Chance lunged onto the middle of his friend's bed, using it as a springboard for the door.
Jake only had time to let out a strangled yelp before his larger friend slammed into the bed. One huge foot made contact with the mattress before the big kat leapt off and bounded out the door, having narrowly missed coming down on Jake's stomach.
Recovering, Jake catapulted out of bed and after his partner, yelling, "That one's gonna cost ya', pal!"
Chance reached the alarm first, moving more by instinct than his bleary, unadjusted eyes, and punched the intercom button. With a final surprised bleat, the alarm was silent and a sizzle of static filled the hangar.
"SWAT Kats, I'm on MegaKat Mountain Road." Callie's voice cut through the static.
High and scared, the quivering soprano reached Jake's ears as he leapt down into the hangar, ignoring the ladder altogether, and hurrying up beside his friend. The sound shattered any illusion the slim kat had held that this might be a minor emergency.
"There was an earthquake, and my car went off the road," the quaking voice continued. She gasped slightly an instant later, her heavy breathing huffing into the comm unit.
Chance's green eyes flared wide, pupils dilating far more than even the darkened room required as he and Jake waited for her to speak again. Waited. Prayed.
Earthquakes had become common in the MegaKat Mountains ever since the PastMaster had raised the ancient pyramid of Katchu Picchu from its resting place on a fault line. None had been deadly yet, but the seismologists monitoring the situation had speculated that a major quake could be coming.
At last, Callie found her voice again. "I'm on the side of a cliff. I really, really need your help."
"Hang on, Miss Briggs. We'll be right there," Chance barked, quickly slapping the intercom button to end the transmission and racing toward his locker. Silently, he prayed no harm would come to Callie in the time it would take them to reach the mountains.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Twenty minutes later, the TurboKat's magnetic grappler was settling Callie's car onto the nearest patch of undamaged roadway. The car's wheels touched down lightly with a soft thud.
Razor smiled to himself, pleased he'd managed the entire operation with little trouble, and signalled the magnet to detach from the car and retract. That done, he turned from his controls to glance down at the roadway again.
Below, Callie Briggs heaved a tremendous sigh of relief and opened the driver's side door to step out shakily. Composing herself, she looked up at the hovering jet.
"Thanks, guys!" she called, waving to draw their attention.
"Are you alright?" T-Bone yelled, looking down at her as the canopy slid backward, opening the cockpit.
"I'm fine - thanks to you," Callie returned, smiling.
Thank goodness indeed. She shivered briefly. She could still feel the emptiness in the pit of her stomach, that horrible sensation of the world dropping away beneath her.
"We'll follow you home in case of any more freak earthquakes," Razor assured her quickly, almost as though he'd noticed the tremble.
"Thanks!" Callie called, hoping she sounded as grateful as she felt. She turned and got into her car again, quickly buckling and turning the key in the ignition. As the engine came to life, the clock on the dash lit up, its fluorescent letters reading 12:59 a. m. "Am I ever going to be glad to get to bed," the blonde she-kat murmured wearily, looking at the clock. Then, she reached for the gear shift and headed her car down the road. The TurboKat slowly circled overhead.
---------------------------------------------------
Unnoticed in the rush to save Callie, a lone Enforcer helicopter watched from across the night-darkened mountain valley.
Commander Ulysses Feral set the handset he'd been holding back on its rest as he saw Callie's car safely retrieved. The SWAT Kats had saved the day once again.
Without his help.
With a growling sigh, Feral headed the chopper for Enforcer Headquarters. He still had a report to write tonight. A very incomplete report.
---------------------------------------------------
The sun was high in the sky by the time even the early-rising Jake settled himself on the couch with a bowl of cereal the next morning. With a tired yawn, he reached up to scratch the top of his head, running his fingers through his mussed and matted fur. Then, he turned his attention to fumbling in the couch cushions for the remote control. Freeing it, he turned on the TV.
"Whatta night," the orange-furred kat muttered as he aimlessly flipped through channels.
"Phillips Hairball Eli... I was abduc...! ...pondering what I'm pondering, Pinky? Bring you this special report.... Iiiiiit's...!"
Ears finally registering all he'd heard, Jake suddenly stopped and, with a worried frown, flipped back a few stations to find the "special report."
"This is Kat's Eye News' continuing coverage of the theft at Puma-Dyne," announced an unfamiliar anchorkat. "For those of you who just joined us: Last night, a fighter jet was stolen from the main hangar at Puma-Dyne's private airstrip by two armed tomkats. The surveillance camera caught the theft on film. Speculation has been that this crime was committed by our very own SWAT Kats. You may remember that just yesterday..." The anchorkat continued with a soundbyte from the parade as Jake yelled for Chance.
"Hey, Chance, you better get in here!"
"What?" Chance muttered as he dragged himself into the room, nursing a mug of coffee from the kitchen.
Jake pointed to the screen.
A fuzzy security camera image of two kats standing in front of a door appeared on screen. Their backs were to the camera. The larger of the two raised his right arm to aim it at the door. There was a flash of light from the area of his hand and followed by explosion as the metal door was rent to shreds. The kat then spun to face the camera, his face still veiled in shadow. There was another flash of light, and the screen went black.
Chance and Jake stared at each other in shock.
The kat had been wearing a glovatrix.
---------------------------------------
To Be Continued....
Okay, soooomeone owes me some Peeps now ;) Another someone needs to get off his duff and finish "Timeless" (Yes, second someone I do know you have a new, engrossing project... but don't forget your old ones!) A third someone needs to finally admit that I truly am more evil than her. And, I think I accidentally left my Shoulder Angel Jake and Shoulder Demon Chance with a fourth someone. Could you put them in a box with airholes and mail them back?
Chp 2: Too Good to Last
Author: Kristen Sharpe
E-Mail: skgirl@hotmail.com
Date: May 3, 2002
Rating: PG
Warnings: May contain slightly more than average violence for a children's cartoon.
Disclaimer: "SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron," its characters and concepts are copyright to Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc and are used without permission.
Author's note: And, here's chapter two, which should get the story moving along a bit more. The only real comment I have to make here is that when you get to this chapter's end, you'll probably be thinking, "Uhm... She put the wrong summary with this. This is more like ______." I know what it looks like. And... well, I'm not telling you what it is, but I will say that the summary does fit and it'll all make sense later. I hope.
And, yeeee-ow! I guess I didn't botch that parade up too badly. Thanks to ALL of you that reviewed!
----------------------------
Chapter 2: Too Good to Last
----------------------------
Callie Briggs yawned sleepily and tried to focus tired eyes on the winding mountain road visible in her car's headlights. The road was all that was visible. Fog veiled the world to either side of the powerful high beams.
"Whatta day," she muttered, glancing at the clock on the dashboard. Its florescent letters read 12:31. And, it wasn't announcing lunchtime. "First, the parade and then... that mess," she grumbled.
The SWAT Kat Day parade had been fun. The grins on both SWAT Kats' faces had been more than worth the extra ribbing it had taken to get Manx to fulfill his promise. Not to mention the sight of them doing the Macarena! Callie smiled at the memory, chuckling softly.
Then, she sobered. The visit she had just completed was another matter entirely.
"Puma-Dyne finally offers an explanation... and it makes no sense.... Why would a technician steal a jet only to chase the SWAT Kats around with it?" Callie muttered.
And, it had taken both she and Feral's unannounced drive out to the site where the jet had crashed in order to pry out that much of an explanation. Puma-Dyne simply did *not* want to discuss the incident. Feral had been much less satisfied than the petite Deputy Mayor, staying on to survey the area and harass anyone on hand.
With a sigh of frustration, Callie drummed her fingers on the wheel and stared into the darkness beyond the car's headlights. The darkness offered no answers.
"I'm too tired for this right now," she decided at last. "I can't wait to get home and get some sleep." The sentence became a yawn as she reached up to rub sleep from one eye.
Then, forcing both eyes open, she kept a wary gaze on the road as she drove into a stretch that had been blasted out of the side of the mountain. A sheer wall of rock rose to her right and, to her left, the mountain dropped away abruptly. A guard rail was the only barrier between her car and a misty abyss.
Without warning, the entire road began to vibrate. The asphalt rippled in a sudden, wave-like motion. With a gasp of surprise, Callie slammed on the brakes. Her car skidded across the bucking road and through the guard rail with a metallic shriek. Catching briefly on the shattered rail, the car's hinder part slewed around so that the vehicle was parallel to the mountainside as it slid down the steep incline.
Then, before Callie could even vocalize a scream, it was over. The car had careened into a stubby tree that, miraculously, held it and stopped.
Loose shale tumbled down into the darkness for some minutes more. Then, there was only silence.
Her entire body aching, Callie raised her head slowly and surveyed the scene. Her breath came in quick gasps as she tried to move only her head, afraid any sudden movement would send the car into the nothingness below.
"I've got to get help," she stuttered.
The communicator. Where was her comlink to the SWAT Kats?
"My purse," she answered her own question, searching the car. It had been in the passenger's seat. Now, with her car tilted downhill, it was lying against the door on the passenger's side. "If I could just reach my communicator," Callie mumbled to herself, leaning toward the other seat and slowly reaching for the outstretched shoulder strap of her purse.
As her weight moved, the car shifted dangerously. In one swift movement, Callie grabbed the strap and pulled the purse to her.
-------------------------------------
All was quiet in the MegaKat City Salvage Yard, its tenants worn out from the day's excitement. Jake was sleeping soundlessly with his head buried under his pillow in an attempt to block the deep, rumbly snores emanating from the bed to
his left, where Chance was doing his finest impression of a saw mill.
Suddenly, the klaxon broke the night's relative silence with its unearthly wail. First in the hangar, then relaying to the second floor to another klaxon disguised as a smoke detector.
Jake was forcibly jolted awake. "Wha?" he muttered, every muscle tensing. He directed blurry eyes toward his alarm clock and found only the darkness beneath his pillow. Confused, he struggled to sit up, finding his legs bound together. "What is...?!" he howled, fighting to extricate himself from what quickly proved to be his pillow and his thin, tangled sheet.
Chance, apparently, had no such problems.
"Trouble," the big kat muttered groggily as bounced out of his bed. He aimed for the door just beyond Jake's bed. In one powerful leap, Chance lunged onto the middle of his friend's bed, using it as a springboard for the door.
Jake only had time to let out a strangled yelp before his larger friend slammed into the bed. One huge foot made contact with the mattress before the big kat leapt off and bounded out the door, having narrowly missed coming down on Jake's stomach.
Recovering, Jake catapulted out of bed and after his partner, yelling, "That one's gonna cost ya', pal!"
Chance reached the alarm first, moving more by instinct than his bleary, unadjusted eyes, and punched the intercom button. With a final surprised bleat, the alarm was silent and a sizzle of static filled the hangar.
"SWAT Kats, I'm on MegaKat Mountain Road." Callie's voice cut through the static.
High and scared, the quivering soprano reached Jake's ears as he leapt down into the hangar, ignoring the ladder altogether, and hurrying up beside his friend. The sound shattered any illusion the slim kat had held that this might be a minor emergency.
"There was an earthquake, and my car went off the road," the quaking voice continued. She gasped slightly an instant later, her heavy breathing huffing into the comm unit.
Chance's green eyes flared wide, pupils dilating far more than even the darkened room required as he and Jake waited for her to speak again. Waited. Prayed.
Earthquakes had become common in the MegaKat Mountains ever since the PastMaster had raised the ancient pyramid of Katchu Picchu from its resting place on a fault line. None had been deadly yet, but the seismologists monitoring the situation had speculated that a major quake could be coming.
At last, Callie found her voice again. "I'm on the side of a cliff. I really, really need your help."
"Hang on, Miss Briggs. We'll be right there," Chance barked, quickly slapping the intercom button to end the transmission and racing toward his locker. Silently, he prayed no harm would come to Callie in the time it would take them to reach the mountains.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Twenty minutes later, the TurboKat's magnetic grappler was settling Callie's car onto the nearest patch of undamaged roadway. The car's wheels touched down lightly with a soft thud.
Razor smiled to himself, pleased he'd managed the entire operation with little trouble, and signalled the magnet to detach from the car and retract. That done, he turned from his controls to glance down at the roadway again.
Below, Callie Briggs heaved a tremendous sigh of relief and opened the driver's side door to step out shakily. Composing herself, she looked up at the hovering jet.
"Thanks, guys!" she called, waving to draw their attention.
"Are you alright?" T-Bone yelled, looking down at her as the canopy slid backward, opening the cockpit.
"I'm fine - thanks to you," Callie returned, smiling.
Thank goodness indeed. She shivered briefly. She could still feel the emptiness in the pit of her stomach, that horrible sensation of the world dropping away beneath her.
"We'll follow you home in case of any more freak earthquakes," Razor assured her quickly, almost as though he'd noticed the tremble.
"Thanks!" Callie called, hoping she sounded as grateful as she felt. She turned and got into her car again, quickly buckling and turning the key in the ignition. As the engine came to life, the clock on the dash lit up, its fluorescent letters reading 12:59 a. m. "Am I ever going to be glad to get to bed," the blonde she-kat murmured wearily, looking at the clock. Then, she reached for the gear shift and headed her car down the road. The TurboKat slowly circled overhead.
---------------------------------------------------
Unnoticed in the rush to save Callie, a lone Enforcer helicopter watched from across the night-darkened mountain valley.
Commander Ulysses Feral set the handset he'd been holding back on its rest as he saw Callie's car safely retrieved. The SWAT Kats had saved the day once again.
Without his help.
With a growling sigh, Feral headed the chopper for Enforcer Headquarters. He still had a report to write tonight. A very incomplete report.
---------------------------------------------------
The sun was high in the sky by the time even the early-rising Jake settled himself on the couch with a bowl of cereal the next morning. With a tired yawn, he reached up to scratch the top of his head, running his fingers through his mussed and matted fur. Then, he turned his attention to fumbling in the couch cushions for the remote control. Freeing it, he turned on the TV.
"Whatta night," the orange-furred kat muttered as he aimlessly flipped through channels.
"Phillips Hairball Eli... I was abduc...! ...pondering what I'm pondering, Pinky? Bring you this special report.... Iiiiiit's...!"
Ears finally registering all he'd heard, Jake suddenly stopped and, with a worried frown, flipped back a few stations to find the "special report."
"This is Kat's Eye News' continuing coverage of the theft at Puma-Dyne," announced an unfamiliar anchorkat. "For those of you who just joined us: Last night, a fighter jet was stolen from the main hangar at Puma-Dyne's private airstrip by two armed tomkats. The surveillance camera caught the theft on film. Speculation has been that this crime was committed by our very own SWAT Kats. You may remember that just yesterday..." The anchorkat continued with a soundbyte from the parade as Jake yelled for Chance.
"Hey, Chance, you better get in here!"
"What?" Chance muttered as he dragged himself into the room, nursing a mug of coffee from the kitchen.
Jake pointed to the screen.
A fuzzy security camera image of two kats standing in front of a door appeared on screen. Their backs were to the camera. The larger of the two raised his right arm to aim it at the door. There was a flash of light from the area of his hand and followed by explosion as the metal door was rent to shreds. The kat then spun to face the camera, his face still veiled in shadow. There was another flash of light, and the screen went black.
Chance and Jake stared at each other in shock.
The kat had been wearing a glovatrix.
---------------------------------------
To Be Continued....
Okay, soooomeone owes me some Peeps now ;) Another someone needs to get off his duff and finish "Timeless" (Yes, second someone I do know you have a new, engrossing project... but don't forget your old ones!) A third someone needs to finally admit that I truly am more evil than her. And, I think I accidentally left my Shoulder Angel Jake and Shoulder Demon Chance with a fourth someone. Could you put them in a box with airholes and mail them back?