Here's part 3! only two more parts left after this. At I at least got a couple reviews, and so, as to my two reviewers...
Kenshin:unsigned one word review...yeah
Proforce:Thanks for the compliment, there's not alot of real pairing time in this, too much action going on, but there ARE hints, things to come maybe?
T-bone banked the TurboKat around in a lazy arc for home. They'd spent the last five minutes flying random; the park had been too close to home for a direct fly-back, no sense in getting tailed. Lining up the course T-bone let his mind wander back to his conversation with Felina. He had thought he was going to die on the spot, he was so nervous he was afraid he might start shedding but it had gone okay. She had been in a pretty good mood and he hadn't messed up too bad so all in all he had to call it a succe-
"T-bone, flip over to the EM channel." Razor's voice interrupted T-bone's thoughts. He casually flipped over to the emergency channel and picked up a transmission in stream.
"-tuation critical. Two, I repeat Two doses of stim have been administered. The patient's metabolism is reacting violently. Enroute to Manx Memorial Hospital. Have a full emergency crew available. Expect contact from Enforcer Felina Feral; report her uncle's condition as critical, but hopeful. EM Caster out."
T-bone hit mute for a second, "Sounds like Feral took a hit down there."
"What do you think T-bone, should we check it out?"
"I don't think we'd be too welcomed down there. Felina will be there for him no doubt. Best we can do is refuel, rearm, and try and figure out who's behind this. That Dragon was one of the past Master's, but it wasn't any ordinary dragon."
"No kidding. The way it regrew like that, hmm. I smell Dr. Viper, and the plant attacks last week reeked of him too."
"Think they're working together?" T-bone turned his attention forward and brought the TurboKat in for a landing, Razor waited until they'd popped the canopy to respond.
"It's possible T-bone." Razor hopped out and pulled off his helmet and mask, T-bone finished post-flight checks on all the systems, "But whoever it is, they're doing a great job hiding where they are. We can go out looking, but I don't know how we're going to find them. Sometimes I wish we had more than one jet."
"Perhaps I can help you there." Both T-bone and Razor spun to face the new voice. As one both glove o' tricks came up to train on the Kat walking our from around a repair dolly, "Come now, we're on the same side aren't we?" The Kat's roguish grin had 'I gotcha' written all over it.
"Mr. Kaque?" Razor's voice held as much confusion as filled T-bone's head.
"That's me again. Hasn't changed in the last few hours. Nice place you boys got here."
Razor seemed pole-axed, T-bone tried to recover the initiative, ask the obvious, "How did you find this place?"
Marcus pointed to the two still raised glove o' tricks, "May I?" Both SWATKat's lowered their hands in unison and T-bone nodded. Marcus made his way around to the left wing of the TurboKat and pointed to a small silver bullet hole, "Tracer round, fired it off just before you guys left, looks like my aim was a little off, I hit too high on the wing." T-bone heard Razor make a strangled sound, he continued to use the obvious, "That still doesn't explain how you got here so fast"
"Well you flew over this place directly from your way out, then went past into the desert lands out south. I had to say to myself. Where in the desert would you hide a hangar? The Salvage yard seemed a better place to get parts, and to hide things. So I took a peek, and got lucky."
"What do you want now that you're here?" T-bone felt his stomach knot, if this Kat blew their identities it was all over.
"Same thing you do, to find out who's behind this. This half-baked on site co-operation stuff is a serious weak link in the program. I figure full-fledged co-ordination will work out much nicer. You have the tech, we have the manpower, and we can get things done. Of course the enforcers could never 'officially' condone the SWATKats. Since no one knows you're actually enforcers we would appear to be condoning vigilantism."
T-bone let the sarcasm sink into his voice, "Co-operate? With the enforcers? Yeah, Feral'd have a field day with that. Not to mention your guys can't handle what we go up against."
Marcus frowned; it was an expression that seemed wholly out of place on the Kat's face. He gestured to the hangar, "Look at all this. All this high tech stuff you've come up with. No doubt it's advanced, and clever too. Now, look what we get to deal with. Down powered weapons, tin-can vehicles, dumdum shells, I'd say Feral and his men do pretty damn good with what they have."
T-bone let his frustration at being found out get the better of him and words left his lips before his mind approved them, "Feh, we could do ten times better than all of the enforcers, without our gear."
"It's a date then. I'll pick the time and place; you just bring yourselves and your old enforcer gear. We'll see how it fairs." Marcus walked to the stairs up and grinned, "And just so you know, your secret's safe with me, me and one other Kat that is."
"Wait." T-bone protested, trying to figure out how he'd been suckered into this deal.
"The future waits for no Kat." Marcus said over his shoulder as he disappeared up the stairs. T-bone climbed out of the cockpit and slide down off the wing of the TurboKat. Razor was still just standing there rigid and unmoving. T-bone reached out and tapped his friend's shoulder, "Razor? You okay buddy?"
The words slipped from Razor's mouth at only a whisper, a question steeped in awe; "You hit the wing of the TurboKat... mid-flight...with... a rifle?"
* * *
Captain Chavez was pacing in the waiting room when Felina entered. She pulled off her helmet and tossed her gloves into it as she made her way to the Captain, "Sir! Have you heard anything yet?"
Captain Chavez shook her head and pointed to a closed set of Operating room doors, "They took him in there over an hour ago, and nothing so far."
Felina actually took one step towards the OR before good sense caught hold of her. She couldn't do anything in there, and she'd only get in the way. She looked to the counter and the nurse on duty, then to Captain Chavez again. The older She-Kat shook her head once and Felina sighed. She flopped down in a waiting room chair and did just that, she waited.
It wasn't a long wait; some five minutes after she arrived a doctor in bloodless scrubs came out of the OR. Pulling her mask off the doctor made her way directly for Captain Chavez, and by default Felina.
"You the one who brought the Commander in? Got the entire hospital put on Alert AND used two stims on him?"
It sounded like a setup, the Captain must have known it too because her nod was a slow one, "Yes."
The Doctor shook a finger in the Captain's face, "If you EVER, and I mean EVER pull anything like this again, I'll have your badge, I probably should for cramming a perfectly healthy Kat full of drugs."
The Captain looked pole-axed. Her mouth hung open for a moment, then worked wordlessly for another moment before a sound came out, "perfectly...? But I took his pulse on sight; it was practically nonexistent. And his ribs..."
"His ribs." The doctor interrupted, "Are just fine. As are all his internals, both CAT scan and x-rays came up negative. You got a lot of people worried over nothing and are just lucky a double stim didn't kill him." The doctor turned, and Felina managed to get in before the doctor left, "Can we go in and see him now?"
The doctor paused and nodded; though she didn't turn around, "Yeah you can, we'll be moving him out of there and into a normal room until he decides to go. He's got a clean bill from me though."
Felina left a dumbfounded Chavez behind as she rushed into the OR. There was her uncle, stuck in a blue hospital gown, lying in bed. He looked perfectly healthy, but just seeing him in this setting made Felina's stomach turn knots, "Uncle?"
Feral looked up from brushing his uniform coat at her voice, "Felina." His voice was stern, not harsh, but it asserted he was still very much in charge.
Felina kept her voice down. There was something about hospitals that made you want to whisper, "I came to see how you're doing. The doctor said you're fine?"
Feral nodded, "That's right. I was thrown clear by the blast, but I was in the air when it hit me, so I got off with a few bumps and bruises." The explanation over her uncle heaved himself out of the bed, "Where's the Captain?"
"Probably being chewed out by the doctor again. She wasn't too happy about the Captain doubling up your stim dosage, especially without your being injured."
Feral pulled the gown over his head and Felina had to look away quickly.
Her uncle, roc ksolid disciplened mind that he had, probably didn't think twice about changing in front of her, or any other Enforcer if nesecary. With him business was business and you didn't get distracted by 'foolish things'. Felina just couldn't bring herself to see it that way.She heard the sounds of him dressing back up in his clothes, then his
voice; "The Captain was just doing what she thought was right. That could have been a dangerous explosion. If she thought my condition was bad enough to warrant it then I trust her judgement."
"Whatever you say Sir." Felina had a hundred unvoiced questions, but as she studied the floor tiles intently and waited for her uncles polished boots to step onto them and let her know he'd fully dressed she couldn't put voice to them. This was a game he played with her. Toying with the one 'delicate' area in her otherwise gun ho personality. She felt a flush of embarrassment rising in her cheeks as usual, and the hair on the back of her neck prickled. Just then the boots came, saving her any further thought. She looked up, still feeling the flush on her cheeks. Her Uncle straitened the top button on his coat with a scowl, "Grow up Felina." Was all he said and he stepped past her and out the doors. Felina winced inwardly at the reprimand and released a breath she didn't know she was holding. Every time she made headway proving herself to her uncle it seemed something came along that knocked her back down to a child in his eyes.
* * *
It was much later that evening when Felina made it home finally. She tossed her duffel down on the floor by the door, knowing full well that her uniform would wrinkle if she didn't pull it out of the bag soon. She left her helmet and gloves on the recliner and headed for the kitchen. One long pull on a cold brew later she sighed. Spinning the bottle cap on the counter she went over the day's events. The bottle cap was spun three times more before she was done, and able to classify this day as simply a push. She'd lost ground with her uncle, but she'd met that new kat who seemed all right. And also seemed to have fallen like a rock for her. It was almost cute to see him falling over himself trying to talk. He was nice though; maybe she'd give him a call... DAMN! Tossing back the last of the beer Felina chalked today up as a failure, she'd not gotten his number.
Felina headed back toward her bag, time to get the uniform out before it wrinkled. A sound gave her pause though, the tink tinking of the bottle cap. It shouldn't have spun this long. Looking back she saw it vibrating on the counter, a moment later she could feel the vibrations through her feet. The earthquake was only seconds in coming.
* * *
Enforcer Headquarters was a shambles. The earthquake hadn't damaged the building so much as sent every bit of paper splashing off of desks and onto the floor. In the hurried dispatches that followed there was no time to pick it, or anything else knocked over up. So, with relatively minor damage it still managed to look like a war zone. Commander Feral stood in the Com center, picking up snippets of conversation as damage control teams reported in all over the city, along with the extra patrols sent out to discourage any random looting that might start. One voice cut in over the din of the several dispatchers on duty.
"Sir, Zeta wing is reporting in, you might want to have a look at this."
Commander Feral turned to the young com Kat; the fear in his voice was what caught Feral's attention. The Kat switched over to his full monitor displays. "This is live feed from Zeta leader's nose cam."
The image that filled the screen was an odd one. A turtle, or at least what looked like a normal large land turtle, with black dots buzzing over it, flies maybe. The only thing that ruined the otherwise peaceful image was the sight of one of Zeta's planes in the picture too. It looked larger than one of the dots, but was not even close to as large as the turtle. Add that to the fact that that creature had to be at least a good distance off, and it smacked of what had become an alarmingly regular parade of giant creatures bent of destroying MegaKat City. It was in the sand barrens, south east of the city, and a glance at the nearby area map showed it to be about 200 miles out. The comKat just stared at the monstrosity, and Feral reached forward to key open the channel, "Squadron Leader give me your report."
"Yes Sir. We got first sight on this thing 14 minutes ago and deviated within allowable limits from our flight path to investigate. It is slow moving, very slow. But also very big. My estimate is that it is at least 1000 meters in length, and perhaps one sixth that in height. Orders Sir?"
"What are those things hovering over it?"
"Unknown Sir, we haven't gotten close enough to find out."
"Move in then, but do so with extreme caution, do not engage."
"Yes Sir."
The Camera view banked and adjusted at the Squad leader turned his plane dead on towards the creature. It took surprisingly long for the image of the creature in the viewer to get larger, an indicator of the distance between it and the plane. Eventually though the dots above it began to get larger and become easier to pick out.
"Sir, I make twenty objects over the creature, still no definite ID on them, but judging from here, I'd imagine each one's about as large as a plane. They might be an escort?"
Feral rubbed his chin, normally he'd want to investigate this, but with all that had been happening lately, "Break off and return to base Zeta leader. You've done your job."
"Yes Sir."
Feral leaned back from the controls and spoke to the comKat who was still looking at the screen in a mix of awe and horror, "Call up an extra patrol for the express purpose of keeping tabs on this thing. They are to maintain a distance of two miles, and are not to engage under any circumstances." The comKat nodded, but Feral was already on his way out of the room. If his hunch was right, he was going to need some serious firepower to even hope to save the city this time.
* * *
Razor Threw a can of milk to T-bone as he came back down into the hangar. The can was intercepted though, pulled out of the air with a deft snatch by Enforcer Kaque.
"Thanks Jake, just what I needed." The Kat grinned and popped open the can. Razor blinked, how had he gotten in this time? T-bone was giving Razor the 'well. What do we do now?' look and Razor was fresh out of idea of how to deal with this Kat.
"Well, good to see you again Mr. Kaque." Razor lied, "What brings you by?"
Marcus took a drink and pointed to the computer monitor Razor had been working at, "You have to ask?" Playing on it was live feed from an Enforcer cam of the beast that was approaching the town, "I was curious to see what you two had figured out about that."
Razor pondered playing dumb for half a minute, but it really wouldn't achieve anything in this situation, "It's called a Behemoth. Dr. Simian was able to fill us in earlier today. They used to live in this area millions of years ago. Wading through swamps and feeding off algae as they went."
Marcus took another swig of milk and pointed at the monitor, "Weaknesses?"
T-bone answered that one, "None. Seems they only died out because they overpopulated, it takes a lot of food to keep one of them going."
Marcus tapped the lid of the can, "Whoever's controlling it seems to have gotten past that problem."
"Whoever?" Razor asked incredulously, "This whole thing reeks of the Past Master."
"Though that Dragon seemed more like Doctor Viper's work." T-bone commented as he switches the view on the monitor over to a cam outside enforcer HQ here Enforcers were coming and going in droves, preparing.
Razor nodded and shrugged, "Maybe they're working together. But as of now we don't have any leads on how to crack that monster. Especially not with his dragon cover."
Marcus nodded, "Well, the info will help. We've found what looks like an abandoned base twenty miles south of it's present location, underground, only satellite imaging caught it."
"Well we should get in there." Razor said, more to himself than anyone else.
"We will. You two, four hours; in your real uniforms, south edge of town, Megakat highway" Marcus grinned as he set the empty milk can down, "Don't look so surprised guys. Now you'll get a chance to show how much better you are then normal enforcers." With that he left back up the stairs.
Razor looked to T-bone who shrugged rather helplessly, "You better hope your uniform fits buddy, I think you've been putting on weight."
* * *
Three hours and fifty nine minutes later Commander Feral was driving his hum-vee down Megakat highway with Marcus in the back seat rechecking a pistol.
"Soldier, you've rechecked that piece a hundred times." Feral glanced back in the rear view mirror, "What's eating you?"
"Dragon if I'm not careful." Marcus joked with little humor, "I don't know Son, something about this whole mess just has me spooked."
"You mean besides the fact a prehistoric mobile land mass is going to hit the city in five days?"
Marcus holstered the pistol and leaned forward, "Yeah, besides that." This time his voice held a little more humor, "Still, I can't shake this feeling. Hold up, we got two passengers coming up here." Marcus gestured to the side of the road and Feral pulled over, two Kats in enforcer garb stood beside the road, "Who're these two?" Feral said as he opened his door.
"Our backup." Marcus replied as he got out too.
Feral recognized the two Kats after a moment, and did his best to cover his surprise, "Clawson, Furlong, fancy meeting you here."
The two Kats seemed just as surprised as he, and it was Marcus who spoke first, "I met these two at the picnic Commander. I heard about the situation. Creative punishment, as always." There was a genuine admiration in Marcus' voice, "Still, their records indicate they're good. And, hearing them brag I thought I'd like to see them in action."
Feral nodded, Marcus' story seemed to make sense, and then Marcus said the line Feral had been dreading.
"I also thought it would be a kicker to see the SwatKats without their toys."
Feral thought the two Kats took it well, Jake's jaw dropped like a rock while Chance looked like he was trying to decide if he could take both Feral and Marcus. He winced inwardly as well. Marcus always did kick the hornet's nest. Feral knew though, when Marcus kicked, diamonds usually fell out. Deciding against the riot act, Feral opted for the simple truth, "Yes. IT will be interesting to see you two back in uniform, even if it's only for a short while."
Feral did get some pleasure in the various reactions that brought out, even Marcus missed a beat, and so Feral went on, no sense in hiding anymore, "I've known for a while. It wasn't difficult to figure out. Flying Style, availability of parts, timing of their arrival, attitude." Feral crossed his arms; "You got the job done, barely. I was biding my time. But if you had ever crossed the line for even a moment I would have nailed your asses to the wall."
There was a long silence, punctuated only by the rushing sounds of cars passing them on the highway. Chance was the one to speak first, "So," wary didn't even begin to describe his tone, "Where does this leave us?"
Feral's mind raced through alternate solutions he'd thought up, but they were all rejected for the one he'd long ago decided would have to work, "We finish this mission. Then you two go back to the Junkyard, and I go back to headquarters. I'll still be watching, know if you two ever push it too far I'll come down on you so hard you'll wish Dark Kat were the one who had you."
Both SwatKat's nodded to that, though hesitantly. Feral glanced at Marcus and saw the older kat giving him an appraising look, "Well done Son." He murmured under his breath. Then louder, "Well, let's get out of the road, shall we?" Both SwatKats still looked like they were trying to decide if they should bolt or attack, but they did pile into the Hum-vee, taking up the back while Marcus switched to the front. The rest of the ride out to the site was done in silence.
The insertion went off without a hitch; Feral had to admit Clawson and Furlong's skills impressed him. The group had ditched the hum-vee back at the road and humped it out four miles to the site. The entrance was a vent hidden under a rock outcropping. It led down into an underground complex that looked almost like an old military bunker. Feral didn't have time to think too much on it as they moved through the place room by room. Nothing was what they found a whole lot of, until they hit the fifth level down. There they came up to a door with a functioning maglock.
"Damn, complicated things." Marcus frowned as he examined the lock. "No way I can get us through this without tools."
Feral nodded, and mulled it over, then let out a low short whistle. Moments later Jake came trotting up from his rearguard position.
"Alright Clawson." Feral pointed to the lock, "You're supposed to be a tech genius, can you get us through this?"
Jake took a moment to look over the lock then took out his knife. Marcus fell back to fill the rearguard spot with Chance while Jake popped the casing off the lock. Feral watched and waited for minute after minute as Jake toyed with the bundles of wires within the lock. Just as Feral was about to tell him to give up the light on the lock switched to green and the door opened a fraction with the hiss of a seal opening. Jake's satisfied smile was larger than simply opening the lock justified in Feral's mind. Still, the kids were good, if 'besting' him kept them sharp and motivated; he could deal with it.
Feral pulled the door open a bit more to get a look inside, only darkness greeted him, "Alright Clawson. You and Furlong wait here at the door." Feral whistled the same whistle again, and then another one, and both Marcus and Chance came trotting up. Feral motioned Marcus forward, and pointed to the door. He himself took up a spot against the wall beside the door with his pistol drawn. Marcus slipped a foot into the crack where the door was already opened, and pushed it open all the way with one quick motion. Following up he ducked into the room and to the right of the doorway. Feral followed up when no gunfire came, plunging into the darkness of the room to take up a position on the left of the door. His eyes adjusted to the gloom quick enough, revealing some kind of lab. Feral lowered his pistol, "looks like we found something."
"Well I definitely found a light switch." Marcus grumbled as he stepped away form the wall, rubbing his back with one hand. He turned and flipped on the lights. Feral moved the door closed as Marcus moved further into the room. With the door shut no one would see the whole group at once. Not that anyone seemed to be occupying this place.
"Find anything Soldier?" Feral asked as he holstered his weapon.
"Looks like it..." Marcus was leafing through some papers on a counter, "But there's a lot of it here."
Feral checked out what looked like a working computer console and began scanning through the database.
* * *
"Jake, do I have to tell you I feel like I've had every hair on my body rubbed the wrong way?"
"Same here buddy." Jake kept his eyes down the hall as he talked, "I can't believe Feral knew."
"It does make sense I guess when you think about it. Seems the old Kat's not as dumb as we thought."
"Definitely not. I guess things will still work out, but something just doesn't feel the same."
"Yeah. Still, it does feel... I don't know... kind of good to get back in uniform and do something sanctioned for once."
Jake nodded at that, and silence fell between them for a moment. Chance opened his mouth to speak again as something, nothing distinguishable, just something, came into view down the corridor. It turned to face them slowly, "Jake, what IS that thing?"
"I don't know buddy." The thing raised its arms, vaguely felinoid looking; it was covered in a green chitenous shell. Without presentation or pretense, it charged.
Chance drew his pistol and dropped to one Knee, beside him Jake did the same but remained standing. They both snapped off shots at the thing as it charged. Each shot hit it square, and had no effect in the slightest. Chance wasn't sure how many shots he got off before the thing hit him full in the chest. Chance remembered thinking it weighed a lot more than it should have before everything went black.
* * *
Jake dropped the useless pistol from his hand as he turned to face the creature. A part of his mind worried about Chance's limp form slumped against the wall, but the rest of it was trying to decide how to hurt this thing. A dozen ideas came to mind all needing the glove o' tricks. And all he had was himself, and a knife. Squaring off Jake feinted at the beast out of reflex then drove his heel into its midsection with a spinkick. The results were, mixed. The thing staggered back a few steps, stunned. But Jake was in no position to take advantage. Pain shot through his foot and up his leg as he connected. He did his own little step dance back, favoring his throbbing foot. The creature lunged at him and Jake sidestepped less gracefully than he would have liked because of his foot, but good enough. He spun on his good heel until he was alongside the beast, and drove his elbow down into its face. The outcome was a bit better this time. His arm just went numb from the elbow down as if he'd hit his funny bone, and the beast staggered and ran headlong into the wall. Still, Jake realized as it rounded on him again. He'd run out of limbs before it ran out of steam.
* * *
A dull thump, heard even through the thick sealed door brought Feral's head up from the computer display. He exchanged a quick look with Marcus, "Get everything you can gathered up, I think we've been found out."
Feral keyed in the print command for the files he'd been looking over and drew his pistol, heading for the door; there was no further sound from it. Feral eased the door handle to open then took in his breath, and pushed the door open. He dropped to a firing stance in one smooth motion doing a quick assessment of the situation. Thinking back in future times, Feral often had to chuckle at how the job had changed him. He didn't even miss a beat seeing Jake squaring off against a large green creature. He snapped off the obligatory trio of shots; all bounced off like he'd expected them too. Things were just never that easy. Re-holstering his gun Feral approached the melee. The thing had turned it's attention to him when his shots hit it, and was coming his way. Feral heard the door reseal behind him as he flexed his hands.
"Feral, keep it at a distance, it's hard as a rock and strong as one too." Jake was moving up behind the creature, but was favoring one leg. Feral brought his hands up, a part of him wondering where Chance was. The creatures lifted it's arms and ran at him in a blind rush, Feral slide left and planted a solid blow right against the thing's sternum. The blow brought the creature up short, but it reacted much faster than Feral had planned. It swung its arms with unreasoning savagery, one clipping the side of Feral's head and the other catching him in the gut. Both blows drove him back, but the rain of punches stopped, much to Feral's surprise. Shaking his head once his vision refocused on the creature, flat on its back, with Jake pinned under it. Feral took a step forward, but it felt like slow motion. The creature squirmed around as Jake tried to get free. The younger Kat was freed all right; a blow sent him flying back against the side of the hall with a loud crack as his helmet hit the cement. A deep growl slid through the hall, and Feral realized it was his own, part of him was waking up that he'd thought long buried and silent.
* * *
Chance's ribs felt like broken matchsticks. He came too wheezing in pain. But the pain was good for something; it brought things into focus faster, sounds, fighting. His eyes opened sluggishly, but he forced them to. Feral stood toe to toe with that green thing that had laid him out. The two seemed engaged in some twisted parody of a boxing match. Blows landing on both sides looked devastating, but neither party was dropping. Across the way, Jake was splayed out, unconscious at least, plastered against the wall. It took a moment for all this to register to Chance, but when it did the rush of adrenaline that followed was enough to get his limbs moving again. Pushing himself up he drew his combat knife, "Feral, you got backup."
Feral landed a sharp shot to the jaw of the beast that bought a moments time, "This thing's unstoppable." The large Kat's uniform was rent in a dozen places, but he wasn't bleeding at least.
"Just gimme a shot..." Chance hissed, moving up, hefting the knife in his hand and looking for an opening. The thing was circling again, trying to figure out how to deal with both of them.
"Alright Furlong, you want your shot, you got it." Feral darted in at the beast, which struck out at the incoming target. Feral caught the arm though, and used his momentum to circle behind the beast, grabbing it's other arm and holding it in an effective if sloppy full nelson, "Take it!" Feral yelled, straining to keep the thing in check.
Chance was already on his way in, however tough the thing's hide was to punches; the knife sank into it just fine. Chance rammed the blade into it's gut to the hilt, then twisted and zigzagged the knife, disemboweling it in one stroke. The beast curled up around it's wound and let out on last wail before dropping to the ground to lay still. Chance dropped the knife on the body and hurdled them both to get to where Jake lay, "Hey, Jake, you okay?" He placed a paw on the shoulder of his friend. This close he could see the spider web of cracks in the back of his partner's helmet. Chance lifted the Visor on his partner's helmet and leaned in to check his breathing, "Jake, speak to me man." He was breathing.
"oooo..." Jake shifted slightly, his eyes opening, "what... owww..." Chance felt a weight lifted from his chest as Jake came around.
"Good work, both of you."
The praise sounded so foreign to him Chance looked around to find out who else had snuck up on them. But it was only him, Jake, and Feral in the hallway, all looking worse for wear, but on top in the end.
"mm, well, I'll say one thing for the enforcers." Jake mumbled as he stood up, touching the back of his head, "They make good helmets."
* * *
Marcus closed his eyes and waited for the numbness to go away. It slowly pulled back from his arms the tingling reached back to his chest and finally pulled away. His breath calmed and he realized he was still staring at the hilt of his knife sticking out of the thing's eye. Whatever it was had been quick and it hit like a truck. Pushing back the onrushing headache Marcus snatched up the satchel full of papers and disks and made for the door. Outside Feral and the two SwatKats were all looking worse for wear, and another of those things was gutted on the floor.
"Looks like you boys had all the fun." Marcus forced a grin passed his pounding headache.
Feral tugged what was left of his flak vest into some semblance of order and spoke, "You've got the information Soldier?"
Marcus held up the satchel and nodded.
"Good, then let's get the hell out of here."
Jake piped in, "And nuke the site from orbit."
To Marcus' surprise Feral responded to that, "Affirmative."
* * *
The exit was clean and quiet, a thankful relief to the team. The ride back was as quiet as the one up. Feral pulled the hum-vee over where they'd picked up Jake and Chance. Marcus got ready to fill the void of silence he knew would follow, but Feral beat him to it.
"Alright Clawson, Furlong, listen up. Here's the situation. This assignment never happened, You go back to the yard and continue on as you were." Feral repeated," Exactly as you were."
Jake popped open his door and nodded once, sharply, as he got out, "Yes... Commander." Chance got out the other side and both shut their doors in sync. Feral shifted the Hum-Vee into gear then said out the window; "The SWATKats will be kept informed of progress on this issue. Including any pertinent information retrieved from the disks." Feral hit the gas and accelerated away, cutting off the conversation. After a moment Marcus decided to speak up, "Well Son, speak your mind."
"You set me up Soldier."
"Damn Right I did son, though you set up a pretty little ambush yourself. Good call on your part though. So, what's your POA on this little situation."
"Wait and see, Those two are damn good, but still young, I don't know just how bad all this rattled them."
"Sounds like a fair plan." Marcus looked out the back Window as they Hum-vee slid into the City proper, a low dome-like hill crossed the horizon, but Marcus knew this hill wouldn't be nice enough to stay there for long.
Kenshin:unsigned one word review...yeah
Proforce:Thanks for the compliment, there's not alot of real pairing time in this, too much action going on, but there ARE hints, things to come maybe?
T-bone banked the TurboKat around in a lazy arc for home. They'd spent the last five minutes flying random; the park had been too close to home for a direct fly-back, no sense in getting tailed. Lining up the course T-bone let his mind wander back to his conversation with Felina. He had thought he was going to die on the spot, he was so nervous he was afraid he might start shedding but it had gone okay. She had been in a pretty good mood and he hadn't messed up too bad so all in all he had to call it a succe-
"T-bone, flip over to the EM channel." Razor's voice interrupted T-bone's thoughts. He casually flipped over to the emergency channel and picked up a transmission in stream.
"-tuation critical. Two, I repeat Two doses of stim have been administered. The patient's metabolism is reacting violently. Enroute to Manx Memorial Hospital. Have a full emergency crew available. Expect contact from Enforcer Felina Feral; report her uncle's condition as critical, but hopeful. EM Caster out."
T-bone hit mute for a second, "Sounds like Feral took a hit down there."
"What do you think T-bone, should we check it out?"
"I don't think we'd be too welcomed down there. Felina will be there for him no doubt. Best we can do is refuel, rearm, and try and figure out who's behind this. That Dragon was one of the past Master's, but it wasn't any ordinary dragon."
"No kidding. The way it regrew like that, hmm. I smell Dr. Viper, and the plant attacks last week reeked of him too."
"Think they're working together?" T-bone turned his attention forward and brought the TurboKat in for a landing, Razor waited until they'd popped the canopy to respond.
"It's possible T-bone." Razor hopped out and pulled off his helmet and mask, T-bone finished post-flight checks on all the systems, "But whoever it is, they're doing a great job hiding where they are. We can go out looking, but I don't know how we're going to find them. Sometimes I wish we had more than one jet."
"Perhaps I can help you there." Both T-bone and Razor spun to face the new voice. As one both glove o' tricks came up to train on the Kat walking our from around a repair dolly, "Come now, we're on the same side aren't we?" The Kat's roguish grin had 'I gotcha' written all over it.
"Mr. Kaque?" Razor's voice held as much confusion as filled T-bone's head.
"That's me again. Hasn't changed in the last few hours. Nice place you boys got here."
Razor seemed pole-axed, T-bone tried to recover the initiative, ask the obvious, "How did you find this place?"
Marcus pointed to the two still raised glove o' tricks, "May I?" Both SWATKat's lowered their hands in unison and T-bone nodded. Marcus made his way around to the left wing of the TurboKat and pointed to a small silver bullet hole, "Tracer round, fired it off just before you guys left, looks like my aim was a little off, I hit too high on the wing." T-bone heard Razor make a strangled sound, he continued to use the obvious, "That still doesn't explain how you got here so fast"
"Well you flew over this place directly from your way out, then went past into the desert lands out south. I had to say to myself. Where in the desert would you hide a hangar? The Salvage yard seemed a better place to get parts, and to hide things. So I took a peek, and got lucky."
"What do you want now that you're here?" T-bone felt his stomach knot, if this Kat blew their identities it was all over.
"Same thing you do, to find out who's behind this. This half-baked on site co-operation stuff is a serious weak link in the program. I figure full-fledged co-ordination will work out much nicer. You have the tech, we have the manpower, and we can get things done. Of course the enforcers could never 'officially' condone the SWATKats. Since no one knows you're actually enforcers we would appear to be condoning vigilantism."
T-bone let the sarcasm sink into his voice, "Co-operate? With the enforcers? Yeah, Feral'd have a field day with that. Not to mention your guys can't handle what we go up against."
Marcus frowned; it was an expression that seemed wholly out of place on the Kat's face. He gestured to the hangar, "Look at all this. All this high tech stuff you've come up with. No doubt it's advanced, and clever too. Now, look what we get to deal with. Down powered weapons, tin-can vehicles, dumdum shells, I'd say Feral and his men do pretty damn good with what they have."
T-bone let his frustration at being found out get the better of him and words left his lips before his mind approved them, "Feh, we could do ten times better than all of the enforcers, without our gear."
"It's a date then. I'll pick the time and place; you just bring yourselves and your old enforcer gear. We'll see how it fairs." Marcus walked to the stairs up and grinned, "And just so you know, your secret's safe with me, me and one other Kat that is."
"Wait." T-bone protested, trying to figure out how he'd been suckered into this deal.
"The future waits for no Kat." Marcus said over his shoulder as he disappeared up the stairs. T-bone climbed out of the cockpit and slide down off the wing of the TurboKat. Razor was still just standing there rigid and unmoving. T-bone reached out and tapped his friend's shoulder, "Razor? You okay buddy?"
The words slipped from Razor's mouth at only a whisper, a question steeped in awe; "You hit the wing of the TurboKat... mid-flight...with... a rifle?"
* * *
Captain Chavez was pacing in the waiting room when Felina entered. She pulled off her helmet and tossed her gloves into it as she made her way to the Captain, "Sir! Have you heard anything yet?"
Captain Chavez shook her head and pointed to a closed set of Operating room doors, "They took him in there over an hour ago, and nothing so far."
Felina actually took one step towards the OR before good sense caught hold of her. She couldn't do anything in there, and she'd only get in the way. She looked to the counter and the nurse on duty, then to Captain Chavez again. The older She-Kat shook her head once and Felina sighed. She flopped down in a waiting room chair and did just that, she waited.
It wasn't a long wait; some five minutes after she arrived a doctor in bloodless scrubs came out of the OR. Pulling her mask off the doctor made her way directly for Captain Chavez, and by default Felina.
"You the one who brought the Commander in? Got the entire hospital put on Alert AND used two stims on him?"
It sounded like a setup, the Captain must have known it too because her nod was a slow one, "Yes."
The Doctor shook a finger in the Captain's face, "If you EVER, and I mean EVER pull anything like this again, I'll have your badge, I probably should for cramming a perfectly healthy Kat full of drugs."
The Captain looked pole-axed. Her mouth hung open for a moment, then worked wordlessly for another moment before a sound came out, "perfectly...? But I took his pulse on sight; it was practically nonexistent. And his ribs..."
"His ribs." The doctor interrupted, "Are just fine. As are all his internals, both CAT scan and x-rays came up negative. You got a lot of people worried over nothing and are just lucky a double stim didn't kill him." The doctor turned, and Felina managed to get in before the doctor left, "Can we go in and see him now?"
The doctor paused and nodded; though she didn't turn around, "Yeah you can, we'll be moving him out of there and into a normal room until he decides to go. He's got a clean bill from me though."
Felina left a dumbfounded Chavez behind as she rushed into the OR. There was her uncle, stuck in a blue hospital gown, lying in bed. He looked perfectly healthy, but just seeing him in this setting made Felina's stomach turn knots, "Uncle?"
Feral looked up from brushing his uniform coat at her voice, "Felina." His voice was stern, not harsh, but it asserted he was still very much in charge.
Felina kept her voice down. There was something about hospitals that made you want to whisper, "I came to see how you're doing. The doctor said you're fine?"
Feral nodded, "That's right. I was thrown clear by the blast, but I was in the air when it hit me, so I got off with a few bumps and bruises." The explanation over her uncle heaved himself out of the bed, "Where's the Captain?"
"Probably being chewed out by the doctor again. She wasn't too happy about the Captain doubling up your stim dosage, especially without your being injured."
Feral pulled the gown over his head and Felina had to look away quickly.
Her uncle, roc ksolid disciplened mind that he had, probably didn't think twice about changing in front of her, or any other Enforcer if nesecary. With him business was business and you didn't get distracted by 'foolish things'. Felina just couldn't bring herself to see it that way.She heard the sounds of him dressing back up in his clothes, then his
voice; "The Captain was just doing what she thought was right. That could have been a dangerous explosion. If she thought my condition was bad enough to warrant it then I trust her judgement."
"Whatever you say Sir." Felina had a hundred unvoiced questions, but as she studied the floor tiles intently and waited for her uncles polished boots to step onto them and let her know he'd fully dressed she couldn't put voice to them. This was a game he played with her. Toying with the one 'delicate' area in her otherwise gun ho personality. She felt a flush of embarrassment rising in her cheeks as usual, and the hair on the back of her neck prickled. Just then the boots came, saving her any further thought. She looked up, still feeling the flush on her cheeks. Her Uncle straitened the top button on his coat with a scowl, "Grow up Felina." Was all he said and he stepped past her and out the doors. Felina winced inwardly at the reprimand and released a breath she didn't know she was holding. Every time she made headway proving herself to her uncle it seemed something came along that knocked her back down to a child in his eyes.
* * *
It was much later that evening when Felina made it home finally. She tossed her duffel down on the floor by the door, knowing full well that her uniform would wrinkle if she didn't pull it out of the bag soon. She left her helmet and gloves on the recliner and headed for the kitchen. One long pull on a cold brew later she sighed. Spinning the bottle cap on the counter she went over the day's events. The bottle cap was spun three times more before she was done, and able to classify this day as simply a push. She'd lost ground with her uncle, but she'd met that new kat who seemed all right. And also seemed to have fallen like a rock for her. It was almost cute to see him falling over himself trying to talk. He was nice though; maybe she'd give him a call... DAMN! Tossing back the last of the beer Felina chalked today up as a failure, she'd not gotten his number.
Felina headed back toward her bag, time to get the uniform out before it wrinkled. A sound gave her pause though, the tink tinking of the bottle cap. It shouldn't have spun this long. Looking back she saw it vibrating on the counter, a moment later she could feel the vibrations through her feet. The earthquake was only seconds in coming.
* * *
Enforcer Headquarters was a shambles. The earthquake hadn't damaged the building so much as sent every bit of paper splashing off of desks and onto the floor. In the hurried dispatches that followed there was no time to pick it, or anything else knocked over up. So, with relatively minor damage it still managed to look like a war zone. Commander Feral stood in the Com center, picking up snippets of conversation as damage control teams reported in all over the city, along with the extra patrols sent out to discourage any random looting that might start. One voice cut in over the din of the several dispatchers on duty.
"Sir, Zeta wing is reporting in, you might want to have a look at this."
Commander Feral turned to the young com Kat; the fear in his voice was what caught Feral's attention. The Kat switched over to his full monitor displays. "This is live feed from Zeta leader's nose cam."
The image that filled the screen was an odd one. A turtle, or at least what looked like a normal large land turtle, with black dots buzzing over it, flies maybe. The only thing that ruined the otherwise peaceful image was the sight of one of Zeta's planes in the picture too. It looked larger than one of the dots, but was not even close to as large as the turtle. Add that to the fact that that creature had to be at least a good distance off, and it smacked of what had become an alarmingly regular parade of giant creatures bent of destroying MegaKat City. It was in the sand barrens, south east of the city, and a glance at the nearby area map showed it to be about 200 miles out. The comKat just stared at the monstrosity, and Feral reached forward to key open the channel, "Squadron Leader give me your report."
"Yes Sir. We got first sight on this thing 14 minutes ago and deviated within allowable limits from our flight path to investigate. It is slow moving, very slow. But also very big. My estimate is that it is at least 1000 meters in length, and perhaps one sixth that in height. Orders Sir?"
"What are those things hovering over it?"
"Unknown Sir, we haven't gotten close enough to find out."
"Move in then, but do so with extreme caution, do not engage."
"Yes Sir."
The Camera view banked and adjusted at the Squad leader turned his plane dead on towards the creature. It took surprisingly long for the image of the creature in the viewer to get larger, an indicator of the distance between it and the plane. Eventually though the dots above it began to get larger and become easier to pick out.
"Sir, I make twenty objects over the creature, still no definite ID on them, but judging from here, I'd imagine each one's about as large as a plane. They might be an escort?"
Feral rubbed his chin, normally he'd want to investigate this, but with all that had been happening lately, "Break off and return to base Zeta leader. You've done your job."
"Yes Sir."
Feral leaned back from the controls and spoke to the comKat who was still looking at the screen in a mix of awe and horror, "Call up an extra patrol for the express purpose of keeping tabs on this thing. They are to maintain a distance of two miles, and are not to engage under any circumstances." The comKat nodded, but Feral was already on his way out of the room. If his hunch was right, he was going to need some serious firepower to even hope to save the city this time.
* * *
Razor Threw a can of milk to T-bone as he came back down into the hangar. The can was intercepted though, pulled out of the air with a deft snatch by Enforcer Kaque.
"Thanks Jake, just what I needed." The Kat grinned and popped open the can. Razor blinked, how had he gotten in this time? T-bone was giving Razor the 'well. What do we do now?' look and Razor was fresh out of idea of how to deal with this Kat.
"Well, good to see you again Mr. Kaque." Razor lied, "What brings you by?"
Marcus took a drink and pointed to the computer monitor Razor had been working at, "You have to ask?" Playing on it was live feed from an Enforcer cam of the beast that was approaching the town, "I was curious to see what you two had figured out about that."
Razor pondered playing dumb for half a minute, but it really wouldn't achieve anything in this situation, "It's called a Behemoth. Dr. Simian was able to fill us in earlier today. They used to live in this area millions of years ago. Wading through swamps and feeding off algae as they went."
Marcus took another swig of milk and pointed at the monitor, "Weaknesses?"
T-bone answered that one, "None. Seems they only died out because they overpopulated, it takes a lot of food to keep one of them going."
Marcus tapped the lid of the can, "Whoever's controlling it seems to have gotten past that problem."
"Whoever?" Razor asked incredulously, "This whole thing reeks of the Past Master."
"Though that Dragon seemed more like Doctor Viper's work." T-bone commented as he switches the view on the monitor over to a cam outside enforcer HQ here Enforcers were coming and going in droves, preparing.
Razor nodded and shrugged, "Maybe they're working together. But as of now we don't have any leads on how to crack that monster. Especially not with his dragon cover."
Marcus nodded, "Well, the info will help. We've found what looks like an abandoned base twenty miles south of it's present location, underground, only satellite imaging caught it."
"Well we should get in there." Razor said, more to himself than anyone else.
"We will. You two, four hours; in your real uniforms, south edge of town, Megakat highway" Marcus grinned as he set the empty milk can down, "Don't look so surprised guys. Now you'll get a chance to show how much better you are then normal enforcers." With that he left back up the stairs.
Razor looked to T-bone who shrugged rather helplessly, "You better hope your uniform fits buddy, I think you've been putting on weight."
* * *
Three hours and fifty nine minutes later Commander Feral was driving his hum-vee down Megakat highway with Marcus in the back seat rechecking a pistol.
"Soldier, you've rechecked that piece a hundred times." Feral glanced back in the rear view mirror, "What's eating you?"
"Dragon if I'm not careful." Marcus joked with little humor, "I don't know Son, something about this whole mess just has me spooked."
"You mean besides the fact a prehistoric mobile land mass is going to hit the city in five days?"
Marcus holstered the pistol and leaned forward, "Yeah, besides that." This time his voice held a little more humor, "Still, I can't shake this feeling. Hold up, we got two passengers coming up here." Marcus gestured to the side of the road and Feral pulled over, two Kats in enforcer garb stood beside the road, "Who're these two?" Feral said as he opened his door.
"Our backup." Marcus replied as he got out too.
Feral recognized the two Kats after a moment, and did his best to cover his surprise, "Clawson, Furlong, fancy meeting you here."
The two Kats seemed just as surprised as he, and it was Marcus who spoke first, "I met these two at the picnic Commander. I heard about the situation. Creative punishment, as always." There was a genuine admiration in Marcus' voice, "Still, their records indicate they're good. And, hearing them brag I thought I'd like to see them in action."
Feral nodded, Marcus' story seemed to make sense, and then Marcus said the line Feral had been dreading.
"I also thought it would be a kicker to see the SwatKats without their toys."
Feral thought the two Kats took it well, Jake's jaw dropped like a rock while Chance looked like he was trying to decide if he could take both Feral and Marcus. He winced inwardly as well. Marcus always did kick the hornet's nest. Feral knew though, when Marcus kicked, diamonds usually fell out. Deciding against the riot act, Feral opted for the simple truth, "Yes. IT will be interesting to see you two back in uniform, even if it's only for a short while."
Feral did get some pleasure in the various reactions that brought out, even Marcus missed a beat, and so Feral went on, no sense in hiding anymore, "I've known for a while. It wasn't difficult to figure out. Flying Style, availability of parts, timing of their arrival, attitude." Feral crossed his arms; "You got the job done, barely. I was biding my time. But if you had ever crossed the line for even a moment I would have nailed your asses to the wall."
There was a long silence, punctuated only by the rushing sounds of cars passing them on the highway. Chance was the one to speak first, "So," wary didn't even begin to describe his tone, "Where does this leave us?"
Feral's mind raced through alternate solutions he'd thought up, but they were all rejected for the one he'd long ago decided would have to work, "We finish this mission. Then you two go back to the Junkyard, and I go back to headquarters. I'll still be watching, know if you two ever push it too far I'll come down on you so hard you'll wish Dark Kat were the one who had you."
Both SwatKat's nodded to that, though hesitantly. Feral glanced at Marcus and saw the older kat giving him an appraising look, "Well done Son." He murmured under his breath. Then louder, "Well, let's get out of the road, shall we?" Both SwatKats still looked like they were trying to decide if they should bolt or attack, but they did pile into the Hum-vee, taking up the back while Marcus switched to the front. The rest of the ride out to the site was done in silence.
The insertion went off without a hitch; Feral had to admit Clawson and Furlong's skills impressed him. The group had ditched the hum-vee back at the road and humped it out four miles to the site. The entrance was a vent hidden under a rock outcropping. It led down into an underground complex that looked almost like an old military bunker. Feral didn't have time to think too much on it as they moved through the place room by room. Nothing was what they found a whole lot of, until they hit the fifth level down. There they came up to a door with a functioning maglock.
"Damn, complicated things." Marcus frowned as he examined the lock. "No way I can get us through this without tools."
Feral nodded, and mulled it over, then let out a low short whistle. Moments later Jake came trotting up from his rearguard position.
"Alright Clawson." Feral pointed to the lock, "You're supposed to be a tech genius, can you get us through this?"
Jake took a moment to look over the lock then took out his knife. Marcus fell back to fill the rearguard spot with Chance while Jake popped the casing off the lock. Feral watched and waited for minute after minute as Jake toyed with the bundles of wires within the lock. Just as Feral was about to tell him to give up the light on the lock switched to green and the door opened a fraction with the hiss of a seal opening. Jake's satisfied smile was larger than simply opening the lock justified in Feral's mind. Still, the kids were good, if 'besting' him kept them sharp and motivated; he could deal with it.
Feral pulled the door open a bit more to get a look inside, only darkness greeted him, "Alright Clawson. You and Furlong wait here at the door." Feral whistled the same whistle again, and then another one, and both Marcus and Chance came trotting up. Feral motioned Marcus forward, and pointed to the door. He himself took up a spot against the wall beside the door with his pistol drawn. Marcus slipped a foot into the crack where the door was already opened, and pushed it open all the way with one quick motion. Following up he ducked into the room and to the right of the doorway. Feral followed up when no gunfire came, plunging into the darkness of the room to take up a position on the left of the door. His eyes adjusted to the gloom quick enough, revealing some kind of lab. Feral lowered his pistol, "looks like we found something."
"Well I definitely found a light switch." Marcus grumbled as he stepped away form the wall, rubbing his back with one hand. He turned and flipped on the lights. Feral moved the door closed as Marcus moved further into the room. With the door shut no one would see the whole group at once. Not that anyone seemed to be occupying this place.
"Find anything Soldier?" Feral asked as he holstered his weapon.
"Looks like it..." Marcus was leafing through some papers on a counter, "But there's a lot of it here."
Feral checked out what looked like a working computer console and began scanning through the database.
* * *
"Jake, do I have to tell you I feel like I've had every hair on my body rubbed the wrong way?"
"Same here buddy." Jake kept his eyes down the hall as he talked, "I can't believe Feral knew."
"It does make sense I guess when you think about it. Seems the old Kat's not as dumb as we thought."
"Definitely not. I guess things will still work out, but something just doesn't feel the same."
"Yeah. Still, it does feel... I don't know... kind of good to get back in uniform and do something sanctioned for once."
Jake nodded at that, and silence fell between them for a moment. Chance opened his mouth to speak again as something, nothing distinguishable, just something, came into view down the corridor. It turned to face them slowly, "Jake, what IS that thing?"
"I don't know buddy." The thing raised its arms, vaguely felinoid looking; it was covered in a green chitenous shell. Without presentation or pretense, it charged.
Chance drew his pistol and dropped to one Knee, beside him Jake did the same but remained standing. They both snapped off shots at the thing as it charged. Each shot hit it square, and had no effect in the slightest. Chance wasn't sure how many shots he got off before the thing hit him full in the chest. Chance remembered thinking it weighed a lot more than it should have before everything went black.
* * *
Jake dropped the useless pistol from his hand as he turned to face the creature. A part of his mind worried about Chance's limp form slumped against the wall, but the rest of it was trying to decide how to hurt this thing. A dozen ideas came to mind all needing the glove o' tricks. And all he had was himself, and a knife. Squaring off Jake feinted at the beast out of reflex then drove his heel into its midsection with a spinkick. The results were, mixed. The thing staggered back a few steps, stunned. But Jake was in no position to take advantage. Pain shot through his foot and up his leg as he connected. He did his own little step dance back, favoring his throbbing foot. The creature lunged at him and Jake sidestepped less gracefully than he would have liked because of his foot, but good enough. He spun on his good heel until he was alongside the beast, and drove his elbow down into its face. The outcome was a bit better this time. His arm just went numb from the elbow down as if he'd hit his funny bone, and the beast staggered and ran headlong into the wall. Still, Jake realized as it rounded on him again. He'd run out of limbs before it ran out of steam.
* * *
A dull thump, heard even through the thick sealed door brought Feral's head up from the computer display. He exchanged a quick look with Marcus, "Get everything you can gathered up, I think we've been found out."
Feral keyed in the print command for the files he'd been looking over and drew his pistol, heading for the door; there was no further sound from it. Feral eased the door handle to open then took in his breath, and pushed the door open. He dropped to a firing stance in one smooth motion doing a quick assessment of the situation. Thinking back in future times, Feral often had to chuckle at how the job had changed him. He didn't even miss a beat seeing Jake squaring off against a large green creature. He snapped off the obligatory trio of shots; all bounced off like he'd expected them too. Things were just never that easy. Re-holstering his gun Feral approached the melee. The thing had turned it's attention to him when his shots hit it, and was coming his way. Feral heard the door reseal behind him as he flexed his hands.
"Feral, keep it at a distance, it's hard as a rock and strong as one too." Jake was moving up behind the creature, but was favoring one leg. Feral brought his hands up, a part of him wondering where Chance was. The creatures lifted it's arms and ran at him in a blind rush, Feral slide left and planted a solid blow right against the thing's sternum. The blow brought the creature up short, but it reacted much faster than Feral had planned. It swung its arms with unreasoning savagery, one clipping the side of Feral's head and the other catching him in the gut. Both blows drove him back, but the rain of punches stopped, much to Feral's surprise. Shaking his head once his vision refocused on the creature, flat on its back, with Jake pinned under it. Feral took a step forward, but it felt like slow motion. The creature squirmed around as Jake tried to get free. The younger Kat was freed all right; a blow sent him flying back against the side of the hall with a loud crack as his helmet hit the cement. A deep growl slid through the hall, and Feral realized it was his own, part of him was waking up that he'd thought long buried and silent.
* * *
Chance's ribs felt like broken matchsticks. He came too wheezing in pain. But the pain was good for something; it brought things into focus faster, sounds, fighting. His eyes opened sluggishly, but he forced them to. Feral stood toe to toe with that green thing that had laid him out. The two seemed engaged in some twisted parody of a boxing match. Blows landing on both sides looked devastating, but neither party was dropping. Across the way, Jake was splayed out, unconscious at least, plastered against the wall. It took a moment for all this to register to Chance, but when it did the rush of adrenaline that followed was enough to get his limbs moving again. Pushing himself up he drew his combat knife, "Feral, you got backup."
Feral landed a sharp shot to the jaw of the beast that bought a moments time, "This thing's unstoppable." The large Kat's uniform was rent in a dozen places, but he wasn't bleeding at least.
"Just gimme a shot..." Chance hissed, moving up, hefting the knife in his hand and looking for an opening. The thing was circling again, trying to figure out how to deal with both of them.
"Alright Furlong, you want your shot, you got it." Feral darted in at the beast, which struck out at the incoming target. Feral caught the arm though, and used his momentum to circle behind the beast, grabbing it's other arm and holding it in an effective if sloppy full nelson, "Take it!" Feral yelled, straining to keep the thing in check.
Chance was already on his way in, however tough the thing's hide was to punches; the knife sank into it just fine. Chance rammed the blade into it's gut to the hilt, then twisted and zigzagged the knife, disemboweling it in one stroke. The beast curled up around it's wound and let out on last wail before dropping to the ground to lay still. Chance dropped the knife on the body and hurdled them both to get to where Jake lay, "Hey, Jake, you okay?" He placed a paw on the shoulder of his friend. This close he could see the spider web of cracks in the back of his partner's helmet. Chance lifted the Visor on his partner's helmet and leaned in to check his breathing, "Jake, speak to me man." He was breathing.
"oooo..." Jake shifted slightly, his eyes opening, "what... owww..." Chance felt a weight lifted from his chest as Jake came around.
"Good work, both of you."
The praise sounded so foreign to him Chance looked around to find out who else had snuck up on them. But it was only him, Jake, and Feral in the hallway, all looking worse for wear, but on top in the end.
"mm, well, I'll say one thing for the enforcers." Jake mumbled as he stood up, touching the back of his head, "They make good helmets."
* * *
Marcus closed his eyes and waited for the numbness to go away. It slowly pulled back from his arms the tingling reached back to his chest and finally pulled away. His breath calmed and he realized he was still staring at the hilt of his knife sticking out of the thing's eye. Whatever it was had been quick and it hit like a truck. Pushing back the onrushing headache Marcus snatched up the satchel full of papers and disks and made for the door. Outside Feral and the two SwatKats were all looking worse for wear, and another of those things was gutted on the floor.
"Looks like you boys had all the fun." Marcus forced a grin passed his pounding headache.
Feral tugged what was left of his flak vest into some semblance of order and spoke, "You've got the information Soldier?"
Marcus held up the satchel and nodded.
"Good, then let's get the hell out of here."
Jake piped in, "And nuke the site from orbit."
To Marcus' surprise Feral responded to that, "Affirmative."
* * *
The exit was clean and quiet, a thankful relief to the team. The ride back was as quiet as the one up. Feral pulled the hum-vee over where they'd picked up Jake and Chance. Marcus got ready to fill the void of silence he knew would follow, but Feral beat him to it.
"Alright Clawson, Furlong, listen up. Here's the situation. This assignment never happened, You go back to the yard and continue on as you were." Feral repeated," Exactly as you were."
Jake popped open his door and nodded once, sharply, as he got out, "Yes... Commander." Chance got out the other side and both shut their doors in sync. Feral shifted the Hum-Vee into gear then said out the window; "The SWATKats will be kept informed of progress on this issue. Including any pertinent information retrieved from the disks." Feral hit the gas and accelerated away, cutting off the conversation. After a moment Marcus decided to speak up, "Well Son, speak your mind."
"You set me up Soldier."
"Damn Right I did son, though you set up a pretty little ambush yourself. Good call on your part though. So, what's your POA on this little situation."
"Wait and see, Those two are damn good, but still young, I don't know just how bad all this rattled them."
"Sounds like a fair plan." Marcus looked out the back Window as they Hum-vee slid into the City proper, a low dome-like hill crossed the horizon, but Marcus knew this hill wouldn't be nice enough to stay there for long.