Weird things happen with the names in the chapter. T-bone stays
consistently T-bone, but Razor will flip back and forth between Razor and
Jake depending if he's in SWAT Kat mode or Worried About Chris mode.
You'll get it I'm sure.
**************************************************
Chris tugged the flight suit Jake and given her. On her body it sagged in some places and was too tight in others.
T-bone nudged her, "Did you hear anything I just said?"
Chris nodded warily, "Yeah. You put the VTOL on and hover the plane parallel with the roof. I-"she took a breath then said very slowly, "Jump out."
"It's really more of a controlled fall," Jake corrected.
"So I fall with control out of the jet, shoot through the 83rd story window and swing in."
T-bone nodded, "Right."
Jake, now wearing sweat pants with no top, sat down at a computer and began tapping at the keys. A map flicked across the screen in front of him. Chris leaned over his shoulder to look.
"These are blueprints of Megakat Towers," he pointed at the screen, "You should enter the building here, and from there you should be able to go down the stairs, here, to get to the second floor, where the hostages are. If, for whatever reason, you can't get down the main stairs there are also some service stairs here. If worst comes to worst you can crawl through the ventilation system. Don't take the elevator."
"When I get to the hostages, how do I get them out?"
"This is surprisingly simple. Go down to the basement through these stairs. The city recently finished the building of a subway system. After T-bone drops you off, he's going to 'borrow' a subway car and meet you down there."
"What kind of guard does the Pastmaster have over the hostages?"
Jake shook his head, "We don't know. Probably a few cameras and a locked door. Disable the cameras and you'll probably have a good ten minutes before he notices. Maybe longer....maybe less," he paused, "Chris are you sure about this?"
She forced a smile, "Yeah, no problem."
T-bone pulled his mask and helmet on, "Time to go then."
Jake stood and handed Chris a helmet, "Remember, there's a walky-talky in there. I'll be with you the whole time. Take this too," he handed her a glovatrix.
"Why? I've got a gun," she subconsciously touched the cold metal at her side.
"Just take it, please."
She nodded and pulled it onto her hand, slightly surprised by how light it was.
"Your motorcycle..."She said absently.
"What?"
"Your motorcycle, I have to give it back to you..."she thought of how hard it must've been for them to have to hide that they where SWAT Kats with her right on top of them, "I'm sorry for that time in the street, when I almost arrested you guys. I called you some...harsh things were said. Listen if something happens to me Horse needs-"
"Stop talking like we'll never see each other again," Jake reached for her hand without even realizing he had done it, he tried to pull back but she held it firmly.
"Your right," she forced a smile and willed herself not to cry.
"Chris," T-bone called, "It's just come to the hour mark. Another hostage has probably died by now. Lets make this quick."
"Alright," she called back at him without pulling her gaze from Jakes eyes, "I gotta go now," she said to him, more quietly.
Jake nodded, "I know."
She turned away and walked to the jet. She climbed up the wing and was about to step into the cockpit when she turned and stole a glace at Jake. Suddenly, she leapt off the jet and ran across the hanger to him. She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. He pulled her closer to him and kissed her back, almost unable to believe what was happening. His brain tried for a second to work out just what was going on but he soon gave up and succumbed to the kiss. It was over in a second or a minute or an hour, too soon.
Still holding her to him he said, "Don't go. Let me go."
She shook her head, "No. You're hurt."
"I've had worse."
"I have to do this Jake, you'll be here the whole time right?" she tapped her helmet.
He nodded, "That's right. Right there to talk you through it. You don't have to do this."
"Yes," she grinned, this time a true smile, not forced or masked with darkness, "yes I do. I'll be fine." She kissed him again, more gently though, wary of his injuries.
"One more thing," he said, handing a small, foil wrapped package out to her.
"A powerbar?"
"Yeah. Just in case."
Chris laughed and tucked into a pocket.
T-bone looked up from his pre-flight check and saw the two of them break away. Chris walked backwards away from him. And Jake reached slightly towards her, like teenagers, T-bone thought.
The walky-talky on the desk next to Jake cracked to life, "What have you two been doing while I was at work?" T-bone quipped through it.
Chris climbed gracelessly into the jet and with shaky hands buckled the straps around herself, pulling them tight.
"Ever been in a plane before?" T-bone asked as the engines roared to life.
"Once. I threw up," Chris gripped the edge of her seat.
"Ready?"
"No!" she screamed, too late as the force of the engines propelling them forward pushed her back into the seat. She watched at the light in the tunnel flashed by then closed her eyes tight. She felt her stomach dip as they took off. Her breathing was shallow and fast.
The sun was just starting to rise over the city. It would have been a nice day by most peoples standards if not for the horrors that were occurring in Megakat towers right that moment.
"Is it over yet?" Chris gasped.
"Not quite."
She forced herself to open her eyes. At first she could only stare at the seat in front of her and at the strange array of instruments located directly in front of her. Then she snuck a glance to her right. Out side the sky looked clam you could hardly tell you were even flying unless you looked down. Unfortunately, Chris looked down. Seeing the landscape flash by beneath them she gasped, "Doesn't this thing go any slower?"
"I can slow down for you if you really want..."
"Yes, please,"
"...but we'll lose altitude faster then a duck with a hole in his butt."
"Oh," while she wasn't exactly sure what the duck had anything to do with it she got the loosing altitude part. That meant falling, which meant crashing, which meant warped metal and blood and coffins and her not ever being able to eat ice cream again. Or breathe for that matter.
She tried not to think about how high they were and instead concentrating on what she had to do. She skipped over the hanging out of the plane part and instead thought about getting downstairs to the hostages and how she might deal with anything she came across. Shoot to kill. While the SWAT Kats wouldn't agree with her philosophy, she thought it was a good one.
The plane dropped down suddenly.
"What was that?" Chris gasped.
"Just a little turbulence," T-bone said calmly, "We'll be there soon. Why don't you climb on back to the cargo space and hook yourself up to the wire. It's a self-regulating descender, Razor programmed it to drop you to the 83rd floor. You don't have to worry about anything but holding on and getting through the window," T-bone turned in the seat and flashed a smile, "Don't get hurt or else Razor'll kick my ass."
A thought flashed through Chris' mind, "Are you going to call me Chris over the radio? Won't somebody be able to pick it up?"
"Yeah you're Chris. You gotta be a SWAT Kat to have a codename."
Chris' heart sank. She shook her head, 'what?' she thought to herself, 'you were just expecting them to invite you onto the team? Don't be stupid. You're a wanted felon. And you hate jets.'
She pushed a button with a shaking finger and the seat she was sitting in slid back into the cargo bay. She carefully stood up and found the wire. There was a locking carabineer at the end that she clipped to a loop on the fight suit (it had a built in harness).
"T-bone!" She shouted into the cockpit over the growling engines, "How do I turn the radio on?"
"I got a button up here! Hold on!"
A low buzz filled her ears.
T-bone's voice cracked over the radio, "Can you hear me?"
She nodded then realized he couldn't see her, "Yeah. What's the range on these?"
Jakes voice came on, "It goes through a GPS satellite that I hacked into. Don't worry, you'll always be in contact. You were supposed to turn the radios on when you took off T-bone."
"Oh this is good," Chris said trying to ignore the tight knot in her stomach, "We haven't even started yet and we've messed up."
"We're in position," T-bone said.
Chris knees went weak.
"I'm opening the cargo bay doors."
Chris stood back and watched as the door on the floor slid open.
"Chris," it was Jake, "Don't look down. Are you listing? Don't look down, don't even think. Stand at the edge and lean back. Can you do that?"
"Don't look down. Don't look down." She chanted as she inched her way backwards towards the edge, "Don't look down. Don't look down."
She took a deep breath and tried to stop shaking.
"Don't look down." She took another baby step backwards and felt her foot touch nothing. There was the edge, just a quick glance to see where to put her foot.
She glanced. She saw the ground 83 stories below. Her head swam, her knees knocked together...she did the only thing she could think to do.
She flung herself as far away from the gaping hole in the floor as she could and began sobbing.
"Ja-"she started then corrected herself, half amazed that she had remembered, "Razor!" she sobbed, "I can't do it! I can't! I looked down and I saw how high and I can't."
She felt like she was six years old.
"Chris, you have to. I didn't want you to go but you didn't listen. What happened to that? You're halfway there. Just close you eyes and go." Razor was bad at this pep talk thing. Jake wasn't much better.
"I can't!"
"Why not?"
"Scary. I'm too high, I can't."
"You're not going to die. It's not going to kill you, it's perfectly safe."
"No its not!"
Jake knew she was right.
"Chris," T-bone cut in, "I know this is hard, but I know you can do it. And I know that you can do it very soon or else very bad things are going to happen."
"What?" Chris knew she had to help those people but it didn't sound like that was what T-bone was talking about.
"T-bone, what's going on?" Razor asked gravely.
"Guns. There is some sort of energy guns on the roof. Looks like some sort of anti-aircraft thing. I'm low enough that the radar hasn't spotted me yet but it's only a mater of time."
Chris heart sank even lower. She wanted to be anywhere but here.
Jake started his pep talk again, "You have to go Chris, you have to go now."
"But-"
"No buts! Close your eyes and lean out. It will catch you. You can do this."
"Chris go. The radar is swinging around again there's no way it's going to miss us again." T-bone said, half angry.
"I can't!"
"You have to." T-bone said and grit his teeth. He shoved the jet hard left, throwing Chris out the cargo doors and into the abyss.
Chris screamed all the way down. She was sure that she had surpassed the end of the wire and would fall do her death. She continued to scream and cuss up a storm even when she stopped.
"Chris!" She heard T-bones frantic voice, "Shoot the window! Shoot the window! Get off the cable before we get shot down!"
"T-bone you dirty son-of-a-bitch! I'm going to rip you apart limb from limb!" She shouted as a response.
"Chris!" Jakes voice.
"Damn it Razor I'm going to kill you too!"
"Later! Get in the damn building already!"
"I'll get in the goddamn building whenever the hell I goddamn want to!" She screamed as she reached for her gun.
"Go!" T-bone shouted, "They've got a lock on the jet and the guns are powering up! You have fifteen seconds before I drop your butt and get the hell out of here!"
She fired three shots at the window in quick succession. It weakened and shattered.
"You'll be lucky if you can drop your pants after I'm done with you!" she shouted as she began to swing.
"Ten! Nine!"
"Get closer you stupid ball of fuzz!"
"Six! Five!"
"Closer!"
"Three!"
Chris swung into the large window and felt the ground under her feet.
"Two!"
She fumbled with the carabineer holding her to the wire.
"One!"
The carabineer came loose and was ripped from her hands as T-bone pushed the throttle and rocked off, narrowly dodging the shots from the anti- aircraft guns.
"Yeah! Run away you, you son of a deranged tapeworm!" She shouted at T- bone.
"Layoff," he cracked, "You alive aren't you?"
"No thanks to you!"
"Ah, there's the Chris we know and love," Jake said, relaxing slightly.
"Speak for yourself," T-bone grumbled
Chris took a deep breath then realized how close to the edge she was standing. She was inches away from where the ground stopped and the void began.
She stuck her tongue out at it.
She turned and strode away from it, making it just past most of the shattered glass before she collapsed, shaking, to the floor.
**************************************************
Chris tugged the flight suit Jake and given her. On her body it sagged in some places and was too tight in others.
T-bone nudged her, "Did you hear anything I just said?"
Chris nodded warily, "Yeah. You put the VTOL on and hover the plane parallel with the roof. I-"she took a breath then said very slowly, "Jump out."
"It's really more of a controlled fall," Jake corrected.
"So I fall with control out of the jet, shoot through the 83rd story window and swing in."
T-bone nodded, "Right."
Jake, now wearing sweat pants with no top, sat down at a computer and began tapping at the keys. A map flicked across the screen in front of him. Chris leaned over his shoulder to look.
"These are blueprints of Megakat Towers," he pointed at the screen, "You should enter the building here, and from there you should be able to go down the stairs, here, to get to the second floor, where the hostages are. If, for whatever reason, you can't get down the main stairs there are also some service stairs here. If worst comes to worst you can crawl through the ventilation system. Don't take the elevator."
"When I get to the hostages, how do I get them out?"
"This is surprisingly simple. Go down to the basement through these stairs. The city recently finished the building of a subway system. After T-bone drops you off, he's going to 'borrow' a subway car and meet you down there."
"What kind of guard does the Pastmaster have over the hostages?"
Jake shook his head, "We don't know. Probably a few cameras and a locked door. Disable the cameras and you'll probably have a good ten minutes before he notices. Maybe longer....maybe less," he paused, "Chris are you sure about this?"
She forced a smile, "Yeah, no problem."
T-bone pulled his mask and helmet on, "Time to go then."
Jake stood and handed Chris a helmet, "Remember, there's a walky-talky in there. I'll be with you the whole time. Take this too," he handed her a glovatrix.
"Why? I've got a gun," she subconsciously touched the cold metal at her side.
"Just take it, please."
She nodded and pulled it onto her hand, slightly surprised by how light it was.
"Your motorcycle..."She said absently.
"What?"
"Your motorcycle, I have to give it back to you..."she thought of how hard it must've been for them to have to hide that they where SWAT Kats with her right on top of them, "I'm sorry for that time in the street, when I almost arrested you guys. I called you some...harsh things were said. Listen if something happens to me Horse needs-"
"Stop talking like we'll never see each other again," Jake reached for her hand without even realizing he had done it, he tried to pull back but she held it firmly.
"Your right," she forced a smile and willed herself not to cry.
"Chris," T-bone called, "It's just come to the hour mark. Another hostage has probably died by now. Lets make this quick."
"Alright," she called back at him without pulling her gaze from Jakes eyes, "I gotta go now," she said to him, more quietly.
Jake nodded, "I know."
She turned away and walked to the jet. She climbed up the wing and was about to step into the cockpit when she turned and stole a glace at Jake. Suddenly, she leapt off the jet and ran across the hanger to him. She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. He pulled her closer to him and kissed her back, almost unable to believe what was happening. His brain tried for a second to work out just what was going on but he soon gave up and succumbed to the kiss. It was over in a second or a minute or an hour, too soon.
Still holding her to him he said, "Don't go. Let me go."
She shook her head, "No. You're hurt."
"I've had worse."
"I have to do this Jake, you'll be here the whole time right?" she tapped her helmet.
He nodded, "That's right. Right there to talk you through it. You don't have to do this."
"Yes," she grinned, this time a true smile, not forced or masked with darkness, "yes I do. I'll be fine." She kissed him again, more gently though, wary of his injuries.
"One more thing," he said, handing a small, foil wrapped package out to her.
"A powerbar?"
"Yeah. Just in case."
Chris laughed and tucked into a pocket.
T-bone looked up from his pre-flight check and saw the two of them break away. Chris walked backwards away from him. And Jake reached slightly towards her, like teenagers, T-bone thought.
The walky-talky on the desk next to Jake cracked to life, "What have you two been doing while I was at work?" T-bone quipped through it.
Chris climbed gracelessly into the jet and with shaky hands buckled the straps around herself, pulling them tight.
"Ever been in a plane before?" T-bone asked as the engines roared to life.
"Once. I threw up," Chris gripped the edge of her seat.
"Ready?"
"No!" she screamed, too late as the force of the engines propelling them forward pushed her back into the seat. She watched at the light in the tunnel flashed by then closed her eyes tight. She felt her stomach dip as they took off. Her breathing was shallow and fast.
The sun was just starting to rise over the city. It would have been a nice day by most peoples standards if not for the horrors that were occurring in Megakat towers right that moment.
"Is it over yet?" Chris gasped.
"Not quite."
She forced herself to open her eyes. At first she could only stare at the seat in front of her and at the strange array of instruments located directly in front of her. Then she snuck a glance to her right. Out side the sky looked clam you could hardly tell you were even flying unless you looked down. Unfortunately, Chris looked down. Seeing the landscape flash by beneath them she gasped, "Doesn't this thing go any slower?"
"I can slow down for you if you really want..."
"Yes, please,"
"...but we'll lose altitude faster then a duck with a hole in his butt."
"Oh," while she wasn't exactly sure what the duck had anything to do with it she got the loosing altitude part. That meant falling, which meant crashing, which meant warped metal and blood and coffins and her not ever being able to eat ice cream again. Or breathe for that matter.
She tried not to think about how high they were and instead concentrating on what she had to do. She skipped over the hanging out of the plane part and instead thought about getting downstairs to the hostages and how she might deal with anything she came across. Shoot to kill. While the SWAT Kats wouldn't agree with her philosophy, she thought it was a good one.
The plane dropped down suddenly.
"What was that?" Chris gasped.
"Just a little turbulence," T-bone said calmly, "We'll be there soon. Why don't you climb on back to the cargo space and hook yourself up to the wire. It's a self-regulating descender, Razor programmed it to drop you to the 83rd floor. You don't have to worry about anything but holding on and getting through the window," T-bone turned in the seat and flashed a smile, "Don't get hurt or else Razor'll kick my ass."
A thought flashed through Chris' mind, "Are you going to call me Chris over the radio? Won't somebody be able to pick it up?"
"Yeah you're Chris. You gotta be a SWAT Kat to have a codename."
Chris' heart sank. She shook her head, 'what?' she thought to herself, 'you were just expecting them to invite you onto the team? Don't be stupid. You're a wanted felon. And you hate jets.'
She pushed a button with a shaking finger and the seat she was sitting in slid back into the cargo bay. She carefully stood up and found the wire. There was a locking carabineer at the end that she clipped to a loop on the fight suit (it had a built in harness).
"T-bone!" She shouted into the cockpit over the growling engines, "How do I turn the radio on?"
"I got a button up here! Hold on!"
A low buzz filled her ears.
T-bone's voice cracked over the radio, "Can you hear me?"
She nodded then realized he couldn't see her, "Yeah. What's the range on these?"
Jakes voice came on, "It goes through a GPS satellite that I hacked into. Don't worry, you'll always be in contact. You were supposed to turn the radios on when you took off T-bone."
"Oh this is good," Chris said trying to ignore the tight knot in her stomach, "We haven't even started yet and we've messed up."
"We're in position," T-bone said.
Chris knees went weak.
"I'm opening the cargo bay doors."
Chris stood back and watched as the door on the floor slid open.
"Chris," it was Jake, "Don't look down. Are you listing? Don't look down, don't even think. Stand at the edge and lean back. Can you do that?"
"Don't look down. Don't look down." She chanted as she inched her way backwards towards the edge, "Don't look down. Don't look down."
She took a deep breath and tried to stop shaking.
"Don't look down." She took another baby step backwards and felt her foot touch nothing. There was the edge, just a quick glance to see where to put her foot.
She glanced. She saw the ground 83 stories below. Her head swam, her knees knocked together...she did the only thing she could think to do.
She flung herself as far away from the gaping hole in the floor as she could and began sobbing.
"Ja-"she started then corrected herself, half amazed that she had remembered, "Razor!" she sobbed, "I can't do it! I can't! I looked down and I saw how high and I can't."
She felt like she was six years old.
"Chris, you have to. I didn't want you to go but you didn't listen. What happened to that? You're halfway there. Just close you eyes and go." Razor was bad at this pep talk thing. Jake wasn't much better.
"I can't!"
"Why not?"
"Scary. I'm too high, I can't."
"You're not going to die. It's not going to kill you, it's perfectly safe."
"No its not!"
Jake knew she was right.
"Chris," T-bone cut in, "I know this is hard, but I know you can do it. And I know that you can do it very soon or else very bad things are going to happen."
"What?" Chris knew she had to help those people but it didn't sound like that was what T-bone was talking about.
"T-bone, what's going on?" Razor asked gravely.
"Guns. There is some sort of energy guns on the roof. Looks like some sort of anti-aircraft thing. I'm low enough that the radar hasn't spotted me yet but it's only a mater of time."
Chris heart sank even lower. She wanted to be anywhere but here.
Jake started his pep talk again, "You have to go Chris, you have to go now."
"But-"
"No buts! Close your eyes and lean out. It will catch you. You can do this."
"Chris go. The radar is swinging around again there's no way it's going to miss us again." T-bone said, half angry.
"I can't!"
"You have to." T-bone said and grit his teeth. He shoved the jet hard left, throwing Chris out the cargo doors and into the abyss.
Chris screamed all the way down. She was sure that she had surpassed the end of the wire and would fall do her death. She continued to scream and cuss up a storm even when she stopped.
"Chris!" She heard T-bones frantic voice, "Shoot the window! Shoot the window! Get off the cable before we get shot down!"
"T-bone you dirty son-of-a-bitch! I'm going to rip you apart limb from limb!" She shouted as a response.
"Chris!" Jakes voice.
"Damn it Razor I'm going to kill you too!"
"Later! Get in the damn building already!"
"I'll get in the goddamn building whenever the hell I goddamn want to!" She screamed as she reached for her gun.
"Go!" T-bone shouted, "They've got a lock on the jet and the guns are powering up! You have fifteen seconds before I drop your butt and get the hell out of here!"
She fired three shots at the window in quick succession. It weakened and shattered.
"You'll be lucky if you can drop your pants after I'm done with you!" she shouted as she began to swing.
"Ten! Nine!"
"Get closer you stupid ball of fuzz!"
"Six! Five!"
"Closer!"
"Three!"
Chris swung into the large window and felt the ground under her feet.
"Two!"
She fumbled with the carabineer holding her to the wire.
"One!"
The carabineer came loose and was ripped from her hands as T-bone pushed the throttle and rocked off, narrowly dodging the shots from the anti- aircraft guns.
"Yeah! Run away you, you son of a deranged tapeworm!" She shouted at T- bone.
"Layoff," he cracked, "You alive aren't you?"
"No thanks to you!"
"Ah, there's the Chris we know and love," Jake said, relaxing slightly.
"Speak for yourself," T-bone grumbled
Chris took a deep breath then realized how close to the edge she was standing. She was inches away from where the ground stopped and the void began.
She stuck her tongue out at it.
She turned and strode away from it, making it just past most of the shattered glass before she collapsed, shaking, to the floor.