Chris marched into the mechanics shop where she found the two still working
on her rig.
"When will this be done? I need this to be done ten minutes ago," she said running her hands through her hair. She had to get out of Megakat and soon. She could only hide from the Enforcers for so long.
Chance and Jake looked up from the rig.
"It'll be a couple of days," Jake said tentatively, "what's the problem?" he knew what the answer would be.
"Let's just say that Enforcers are after me and leave it at that. If I stay here then I'm putting you guys in danger too, I can't do that to you."
She started pacing across the floor, "If this isn't going to get done then do you know where I can buy a truck? A big cheep one."
There was a long silence, marked only by the sound of Chris' shoes on the hard floor.
Chance glanced at Jake and they're eyes met, they had a silent conversation like this in a way that only friends as close as them could.
"Stay with us," Chance broke the silence.
Chris stopped, "What?"
"Stay with us, we'll hide you."
"No. Thanks but. . . if you got caught with me here. . . I couldn't live with that."
Jake spoke up, "What did you do?"
"Everything. Evading arrest, I messed up an Enforcer cruiser pretty bad."
"Did anybody see you?"
She snorted, "Only Feral and about twenty other Enforcers," she thought a second, "and the SWAT Kat's. I'm getting really confused about them. I'm not sure whose side they're on anymore. Probably not mine, I kind of jacked they're motorcycle." She stared pacing again.
Chance inwardly slapped his forehead; he knew they had forgotten something. "You stole they're motorcycle?" he clarified.
She shrugged, "I wouldn't call it stealing exactly, it was just kind of. . .handy. I plan on giving it back. I'm just not sure how."
"Where is it now?"
"Hidden in my trailer, the thing is pretty recognizable. I don't want somebody to drive by and see it." As an afterthought she added, "Or steal it, that thing is really high tech."
"So what are you going to do?" Chance asked.
Chris opened her mouth to speak but Jake cut her off, "She's going to stay with us."
"No!" she protested
"Don't be stubborn," Jake said, "You don't even have transportation."
"I've got a horse!"
"And the Enforcers have helicopters, jeeps, cars, motorcycles, and over 5,000 kats on duty."
"He's right," Chance interjected, "you haven't got a chance running from them, stay with us."
"So here I'm a sitting duck!"
"Does Feral know you're here?"
"No but-"
"Then it's settled, you staying."
Chris shook her head, finally giving in, "Fine, But I'm leaving tomorrow."
"And you staying in the house," Chance added with a grin.
"No!" She shouted, laughing.
"Are you hungry? Let's order pizza," Chance said reaching for the phone.
Chris realized she was starving and nodded.
Forty-five minutes later she was sitting on the couch with the two mechanics eating her third piece of pizza (with the anchovies picked off and put onto Chances thick slice), and doubled over in laughter over the Fraidy Kat show. Jake rolled his eyes at the show but manages a chuckle over the way Chris and Chance were behaving. Every commercial break it was the same.
"Have you seen the episode where Frady Kat was at the carnival and-" Chance would begin.
And Chris would cut him off excitedly, "-and he runs into the ghost clown!"
"And hides in the house of mirrors-"
"-then sees himself in all the mirrors-"
"-and then he trips and falls and says-"
Here they would simultaneously say. "I hate clowns!" and they would fall over each other with laughter until the toothpaste commercials ended and the show came back on.
At the back of her mind Chris wondered how she could have gone from being paranoid about capture to this state of utter bliss so quickly. There was something about these two that made her feel safe and carefree.
Fifteen minutes later it all came crashing down. The show had just ended, and Chance and Chris had just started in on another round of, "have you seen the episode where." when Jake interrupted them, "I think you guys want to see this."
Turning to the TV Chris saw a female reported with short, brown hair just beginning her report, "This is Ann Gora with Kats Eye news. Out top story tonight is a reported high speed chase through the streets of Megakat City today following an attack by the Pastmaster. The female suspect apparently captured the SWAT Kats, then released them after being threatened by the Enforcers Commander Ulysses Feral. When the Enforcers moved in to arrest her she fled on a motorcycle left by the Swat Kats."
The image on the screen cut to a close up of Feral at a press conference standing behind an official looking podium with a mass of microphones stuck in front of him. "The suspect is thought to be a female kat by the name of Christie Pawmer," he said looking over the crowd.
Chris managed a giggle, "stupid idiot couldn't remember my name," she snorted.
Jake looked questioningly at her, "you told him your name?" The SWAT Kat in him didn't remember that part of the confrontation.
"Yeah," she said, eyes fixated on the screen, "I went to see him earlier this morning to get some information on the SWAT Kat's. The name on my birth certificate is Chris Palmer," she answered Jakes unanswered question.
".she is considered armed and dangerous, " Feral continued, "you will find a description of her in your press packets. Questions?"
"Commander, was the suspect in any way involved with the SWAT Kats?"
"Our investigators are looking in to it," he responded.
"Where there any injuries?"
"One officer sustained minor injuries when his cruiser crashed in pursuit."
The screen cut back to Ann Gora, "again the suspect is Christie Pawmer, who is described as a tall, black kat, last seen wearing faded jeans and a T- shirt with 'Slurpie' written on it. She is wanted for charges of evading arrest, destruction of government property, and assisting escape."
Chance muted the TV and Chris looked down at her t-shirt, it was one of her favorites. It had SLURPIE written across the top of it in big, bold letters with a black and white picture of an electric guitar screen printed below it. There were signatures here and there around the design
"Damn it, I have to get rid of this now. It's one of my favorite shirts."
"What's slurpie?" Chance asked.
"This band, I dated the lead singer for a while and he gave me this shirt. They weren't really well known or popular, there probably not even playing together anymore, but he made all the guys sign it and he gave it to me and said it would be worth a lot one day when they made it big."
"Are you guys still dating?"
She shook her head, "no, we had kind of a falling out," she said with a touch of sadness.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Chris woke up the next morning on Chance and Jakes couch. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and figured that she must've fallen asleep here last night. She had a blanket wrapped up around her and realized that one of them had thrown it on her last night. She grinned at this.
She heard rattling in the kitchen and realized somebody was already awake. She rolled out of bed and folded the blanket up.
When Chris walked into the kitchen she found Jake tackling the piles of dishes. She joined him and started rinsing the dishes and putting them on the drying rack as he finished scrubbing then.
"You don't have to do that," Jake said.
"I know," she smiled and continued rinsing them.
"When I got up this morning and couldn't find a clean bowl to put my cereal in, I decided it might be time to do the dishes."
Chris laughed, "When I was in collage, and my roommate and I both worked as waters at this restaurant. It was a great job because they fed us dinner, and lunch sometimes too, and the hardest thing we had to learn to do was write our names upside-down on the paper tablecloth. There was this one guy who worked there as a busboy who was just a son-of-a-bitch, I think his name was J.C.. One night, only half of the busboys showed up and we were really short handed so our supervisor made us wash dishes too. We didn't want to so we did about half of them and hid the rest around the kitchen. The best part when the manager found out, we blamed it all on J.C. and he got fired. It was great."
Jake shook his head and laughed a little, "That's mean."
Chris grinned, "I know, I felt a little guilty about it until he put a rat in out mailbox and egged my car. I figure we're about even."
Jake snorted, "I somehow don't see hiding the dirty dishes being incredibly helpful in this situation."
"Me 'neither, but I love telling that story," she started laughing again.
About that time Chance came wandering down the stairs, yawning. "Why's everybody so happy? Wha'd I miss?"
"Chris got a guy fired from his job and he put a rat in her mailbox," Jake paraphrased.
Chance cocked his head, "what's so happy about that?"
Jake shrugged, "I have no idea."
This made Chris laugh harder.
The three of them finished up the dishes, and Chris went outside to feed Horse. When Jake heard the door slam behind her he turned to Chance and tossed him a small square-ish thing.
Chance caught it and asked, "What's this?"
"It's a pager, I turned off the all the main alarms in the house and rerouted the signal to these. It'll vibrate if Callie pushes the alarm button. This way if the alarm goes off, Chris won't know it."
"And then what? Make up some excuse why we both suddenly have to leave at the same time?"
"It's rigged so that the phone in the garage rings at the same time. We only have to say that we have to go pick up some broken down car."
"Won't she notice when we don't leave in the tow truck?"
"Nope because we'll leave in the truck."
Chance raised an eyebrow, "we'll fight Dark Crud in a tow truck? What are we going to do, throw a wrench at him?"
Jake shook his head, "No, oh ye of little faith, watch," he took the pager from Chance, "remember the camera I installed in the Turbokat?"
Chance shook his head, "No."
Jake rolled his eyes, "I was telling you about the camera in my science magazine, and we decided that I would install one."
"That was only two days ago."
Jake shrugged, "I've got a lot of free time, now watch." With his claw he pushed a few buttons on the pager. The screen changed from the words 'Chance's Pager' written plainly across it to a detailed picture of the inside of the hanger.
"Wow," Chance said, a few years ago he might have been more impressed but in the time he had known Jake he had realized that nothing was impossible for the smaller kat to accomplish.
"This is a real time image of the inside of the hanger as seen by the Turbokat," Jake explained, "With these controls you can remotely guide the Turbokat out of the hanger and away to where we are waiting for it."
"And see where I'm going on the screen?"
Jake nodded, "Exactly it only works short range, within about 5 miles or so, and the controls are pretty basic, just enough to get the jet from point A to B without crashing, so no barrel rolls or dives."
"One last question."
Jake crossed his arms and leaned against the counter, "Shoot."
"What keeps Chris from seeing the jet leave the hanger?"
Jake shrugged, "I can't control everything, hopefully with a little luck she won't notice a thing."
"When will this be done? I need this to be done ten minutes ago," she said running her hands through her hair. She had to get out of Megakat and soon. She could only hide from the Enforcers for so long.
Chance and Jake looked up from the rig.
"It'll be a couple of days," Jake said tentatively, "what's the problem?" he knew what the answer would be.
"Let's just say that Enforcers are after me and leave it at that. If I stay here then I'm putting you guys in danger too, I can't do that to you."
She started pacing across the floor, "If this isn't going to get done then do you know where I can buy a truck? A big cheep one."
There was a long silence, marked only by the sound of Chris' shoes on the hard floor.
Chance glanced at Jake and they're eyes met, they had a silent conversation like this in a way that only friends as close as them could.
"Stay with us," Chance broke the silence.
Chris stopped, "What?"
"Stay with us, we'll hide you."
"No. Thanks but. . . if you got caught with me here. . . I couldn't live with that."
Jake spoke up, "What did you do?"
"Everything. Evading arrest, I messed up an Enforcer cruiser pretty bad."
"Did anybody see you?"
She snorted, "Only Feral and about twenty other Enforcers," she thought a second, "and the SWAT Kat's. I'm getting really confused about them. I'm not sure whose side they're on anymore. Probably not mine, I kind of jacked they're motorcycle." She stared pacing again.
Chance inwardly slapped his forehead; he knew they had forgotten something. "You stole they're motorcycle?" he clarified.
She shrugged, "I wouldn't call it stealing exactly, it was just kind of. . .handy. I plan on giving it back. I'm just not sure how."
"Where is it now?"
"Hidden in my trailer, the thing is pretty recognizable. I don't want somebody to drive by and see it." As an afterthought she added, "Or steal it, that thing is really high tech."
"So what are you going to do?" Chance asked.
Chris opened her mouth to speak but Jake cut her off, "She's going to stay with us."
"No!" she protested
"Don't be stubborn," Jake said, "You don't even have transportation."
"I've got a horse!"
"And the Enforcers have helicopters, jeeps, cars, motorcycles, and over 5,000 kats on duty."
"He's right," Chance interjected, "you haven't got a chance running from them, stay with us."
"So here I'm a sitting duck!"
"Does Feral know you're here?"
"No but-"
"Then it's settled, you staying."
Chris shook her head, finally giving in, "Fine, But I'm leaving tomorrow."
"And you staying in the house," Chance added with a grin.
"No!" She shouted, laughing.
"Are you hungry? Let's order pizza," Chance said reaching for the phone.
Chris realized she was starving and nodded.
Forty-five minutes later she was sitting on the couch with the two mechanics eating her third piece of pizza (with the anchovies picked off and put onto Chances thick slice), and doubled over in laughter over the Fraidy Kat show. Jake rolled his eyes at the show but manages a chuckle over the way Chris and Chance were behaving. Every commercial break it was the same.
"Have you seen the episode where Frady Kat was at the carnival and-" Chance would begin.
And Chris would cut him off excitedly, "-and he runs into the ghost clown!"
"And hides in the house of mirrors-"
"-then sees himself in all the mirrors-"
"-and then he trips and falls and says-"
Here they would simultaneously say. "I hate clowns!" and they would fall over each other with laughter until the toothpaste commercials ended and the show came back on.
At the back of her mind Chris wondered how she could have gone from being paranoid about capture to this state of utter bliss so quickly. There was something about these two that made her feel safe and carefree.
Fifteen minutes later it all came crashing down. The show had just ended, and Chance and Chris had just started in on another round of, "have you seen the episode where." when Jake interrupted them, "I think you guys want to see this."
Turning to the TV Chris saw a female reported with short, brown hair just beginning her report, "This is Ann Gora with Kats Eye news. Out top story tonight is a reported high speed chase through the streets of Megakat City today following an attack by the Pastmaster. The female suspect apparently captured the SWAT Kats, then released them after being threatened by the Enforcers Commander Ulysses Feral. When the Enforcers moved in to arrest her she fled on a motorcycle left by the Swat Kats."
The image on the screen cut to a close up of Feral at a press conference standing behind an official looking podium with a mass of microphones stuck in front of him. "The suspect is thought to be a female kat by the name of Christie Pawmer," he said looking over the crowd.
Chris managed a giggle, "stupid idiot couldn't remember my name," she snorted.
Jake looked questioningly at her, "you told him your name?" The SWAT Kat in him didn't remember that part of the confrontation.
"Yeah," she said, eyes fixated on the screen, "I went to see him earlier this morning to get some information on the SWAT Kat's. The name on my birth certificate is Chris Palmer," she answered Jakes unanswered question.
".she is considered armed and dangerous, " Feral continued, "you will find a description of her in your press packets. Questions?"
"Commander, was the suspect in any way involved with the SWAT Kats?"
"Our investigators are looking in to it," he responded.
"Where there any injuries?"
"One officer sustained minor injuries when his cruiser crashed in pursuit."
The screen cut back to Ann Gora, "again the suspect is Christie Pawmer, who is described as a tall, black kat, last seen wearing faded jeans and a T- shirt with 'Slurpie' written on it. She is wanted for charges of evading arrest, destruction of government property, and assisting escape."
Chance muted the TV and Chris looked down at her t-shirt, it was one of her favorites. It had SLURPIE written across the top of it in big, bold letters with a black and white picture of an electric guitar screen printed below it. There were signatures here and there around the design
"Damn it, I have to get rid of this now. It's one of my favorite shirts."
"What's slurpie?" Chance asked.
"This band, I dated the lead singer for a while and he gave me this shirt. They weren't really well known or popular, there probably not even playing together anymore, but he made all the guys sign it and he gave it to me and said it would be worth a lot one day when they made it big."
"Are you guys still dating?"
She shook her head, "no, we had kind of a falling out," she said with a touch of sadness.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Chris woke up the next morning on Chance and Jakes couch. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and figured that she must've fallen asleep here last night. She had a blanket wrapped up around her and realized that one of them had thrown it on her last night. She grinned at this.
She heard rattling in the kitchen and realized somebody was already awake. She rolled out of bed and folded the blanket up.
When Chris walked into the kitchen she found Jake tackling the piles of dishes. She joined him and started rinsing the dishes and putting them on the drying rack as he finished scrubbing then.
"You don't have to do that," Jake said.
"I know," she smiled and continued rinsing them.
"When I got up this morning and couldn't find a clean bowl to put my cereal in, I decided it might be time to do the dishes."
Chris laughed, "When I was in collage, and my roommate and I both worked as waters at this restaurant. It was a great job because they fed us dinner, and lunch sometimes too, and the hardest thing we had to learn to do was write our names upside-down on the paper tablecloth. There was this one guy who worked there as a busboy who was just a son-of-a-bitch, I think his name was J.C.. One night, only half of the busboys showed up and we were really short handed so our supervisor made us wash dishes too. We didn't want to so we did about half of them and hid the rest around the kitchen. The best part when the manager found out, we blamed it all on J.C. and he got fired. It was great."
Jake shook his head and laughed a little, "That's mean."
Chris grinned, "I know, I felt a little guilty about it until he put a rat in out mailbox and egged my car. I figure we're about even."
Jake snorted, "I somehow don't see hiding the dirty dishes being incredibly helpful in this situation."
"Me 'neither, but I love telling that story," she started laughing again.
About that time Chance came wandering down the stairs, yawning. "Why's everybody so happy? Wha'd I miss?"
"Chris got a guy fired from his job and he put a rat in her mailbox," Jake paraphrased.
Chance cocked his head, "what's so happy about that?"
Jake shrugged, "I have no idea."
This made Chris laugh harder.
The three of them finished up the dishes, and Chris went outside to feed Horse. When Jake heard the door slam behind her he turned to Chance and tossed him a small square-ish thing.
Chance caught it and asked, "What's this?"
"It's a pager, I turned off the all the main alarms in the house and rerouted the signal to these. It'll vibrate if Callie pushes the alarm button. This way if the alarm goes off, Chris won't know it."
"And then what? Make up some excuse why we both suddenly have to leave at the same time?"
"It's rigged so that the phone in the garage rings at the same time. We only have to say that we have to go pick up some broken down car."
"Won't she notice when we don't leave in the tow truck?"
"Nope because we'll leave in the truck."
Chance raised an eyebrow, "we'll fight Dark Crud in a tow truck? What are we going to do, throw a wrench at him?"
Jake shook his head, "No, oh ye of little faith, watch," he took the pager from Chance, "remember the camera I installed in the Turbokat?"
Chance shook his head, "No."
Jake rolled his eyes, "I was telling you about the camera in my science magazine, and we decided that I would install one."
"That was only two days ago."
Jake shrugged, "I've got a lot of free time, now watch." With his claw he pushed a few buttons on the pager. The screen changed from the words 'Chance's Pager' written plainly across it to a detailed picture of the inside of the hanger.
"Wow," Chance said, a few years ago he might have been more impressed but in the time he had known Jake he had realized that nothing was impossible for the smaller kat to accomplish.
"This is a real time image of the inside of the hanger as seen by the Turbokat," Jake explained, "With these controls you can remotely guide the Turbokat out of the hanger and away to where we are waiting for it."
"And see where I'm going on the screen?"
Jake nodded, "Exactly it only works short range, within about 5 miles or so, and the controls are pretty basic, just enough to get the jet from point A to B without crashing, so no barrel rolls or dives."
"One last question."
Jake crossed his arms and leaned against the counter, "Shoot."
"What keeps Chris from seeing the jet leave the hanger?"
Jake shrugged, "I can't control everything, hopefully with a little luck she won't notice a thing."