EPISODE 2

Stepping back into the garage the first thing Jake saw that the company's giant tow truck hitching up what must have been the oldest car in Megakat City. This wasn't some fine collectors automobile either, but a pile of metal and glass just barely holding together. If vintage cars aged like fine wine, this jalopy was aging like milk. Just by looking at the outside Jake knew that they were looking at a full days work. For starters the hood, doors, and trunk were different colors then the car it's self and covered in dents, rust and scratches. Jake didn't even want to think about what the inside must look like.

The crane holding the front of the car up began to lower and stopped once all four tires (two of them flat) were firmly on the ground. Jake took the crane and detached it from the vehicle just as Chance was stepping out of the truck. He was wearing the blue mechanics jumpsuit they were assigned with his first name in a little faded yellow patch on the side. Oh his head was a red hat turned backwards. If Jake was sweating in just shorts, then Chance must have been dying in all that denim.

"The things a complete mess, buddy." Chance commented as he came around to Jake's side of the car.

Chance Furlong was tall tabby and self-proclaimed ladies-kat who evened out his height with his size. The guy was as strong as they came and knew it, though he never really flaunted his muscle unless it was to impress a girl or taunt Jake. His fighting style was pretty strait forward, things rarely got to the point where they have to fight an enemy hand-to-hand, but when it did, Chance relied on his fists to take care of the job, which they did.

Jake, himself, was shorter and less built then his friend, but what he lacked in strength, he made up for in his agility. As Chance fought boxing style, Jake preferred a more karate like approach, using his entire body as a weapon. That was just another way the two of them evened each other out. Together, they made one heck of a kat.

"That's putting it mildly, Chance. How did you manage to tow this hunk of junk here in one piece, anyway?"

"Wasn't easy. Now if you excuse me, I'm going to change out of these clothes. I'm cooking in here with this heat." Chance said and he took off his hat to wipe the sweat on his brow.

"Right. I'll get started here."

"Good luck. If you thought the outside was bad. Woo! You ain't seen nothing yet. "

He slapped Jack on the back as he passed by as if to exclaim the severity of the car's condition. Jake walked to the front of the vehicle and lifted the hood till it was stopped by the clip inside. He felt around, unlatched it and pulled the hood up, thinking that there was no way that the inside could be any worse. He was wrong.

Jake only needed to give a quick looked to see what the problem was, the engine was shot out completely, and looked older then he was. From there the problems just kept going on. He sighed and walked to the work bench on the far side of the garage, picking up a clipboard. The 'problem chart' as they called it, was used to mark down everything wrong with whatever that were working on. Jake took down the cars make, year, and license plate and then began writing everything that was broken with the car or about to break. By the time he finished, the entire page was filled up with things that would need to be repaired or replaced. The owner would probably have more luck just buying a whole new car then getting it fixed. The clipboard was hung by a nail in the wall close to the car so that they could check what still need to be done as quickly as possible.

By this point, Chance had come back into the garage. He had substituted the jumpsuit for a sleeveless t-shirt and red shorts, but he still had the hat on top of his head. He strolled over to the side of the car and clutched the side, looking into the abyss of mangled auto parts.

"Told you the inside was bad." He said.

" 'Bad' is putting it mildly, Chance. This is more like what the inside of a car would look like if it took a hit by one of my missiles."

"No argument here." Chance sighed and tapped his fingers on the side of the car. "Well, I guess we can't put it off any longer. We might as well get to work."

"I was afraid you were going to say that."

And with that Chance and Jake started on the aged auto.

----------------

The inside of the Kat's Eye News studio was just as busy as it ever was. People were coming and going at the speed of light, it was like being in the dead center of an ant farm. Ann Gora wasn't even supposed to be here today. This was going to be her day off, but did she take it? No. She never did take a break, because news never took a break and when you lived in a town like Megakat, there was something happening all the time. That meant Ann was always out somewhere covering the news with her camera man, Jonny. They made a pretty good team together. Jonny was a smart kat that knew his camera inside and out. The best part was he was just as willing as she to put himself in harm's way for news.

Ann rode a packed elevator up several floors before she got to the news room studio. Feeling more like tuna then kat in there, she was more then happy to step out of the cramped little box and into somewhere she could more around. Behind her, the rest of the people in the elevator moved to fill the space left absent by her slim frame.

What some people wont do for a little elbow room. She thought as she straitened her dress and fixed her hair with one paw. In the other was a small briefcase filled with papers, notes, a tape recorder, pens, and other random objects she used for her job.

This area of the building was pretty empty about this time. It would be a few hours till the news would be shot so the only a handful of the 'behind the camera' workers were here. The room was a large square with a stone floor. To the left was the oak news desk with it's real oak finish and giant mural painted to look like the nightly cityscape. To the left was the weather screen and surrounding all of that were cameras and stage lights. Two doors lead too the editors office and the production office. She was headed to the latter.

Only a few steps into the room, a voice called over to her. She followed it to a table opposite the set, though she already knew who spoke. It was the voice of Jonny. The guy was dressed in slacks and a plain white shirt with a vest to hold small pieces of equipment. He had on his ever-present sunglasses and hat. Ann had worked for Cat's Eye for years now and had not once seen Jonny without his shades and cap.

"Hey, Annie, what'ca doing here? I thought you had the day off."

By Jonny's side on the table was his hand-held camera. The tape deck was open and several tapes were stacked by him, some marked, others blank. He was reviewing over the stories that would be aired that day, checking to see that everything was in order before they were sent off to the editors to be finalized.

"A good reporter never has a day off." She remarked with a smile and then added under her breath, "No matter how much she needs one."

"What was that, Ann?"

"Nothing. Anyway, don't mind me. I'm just here to drop off the final draft of Mayor Manx's extended golf course."

"Manx and golf? Now there's a shocking combination." He joked, moving his attention back to his work.

Ann sighed. "Tell me about it."

She had opened up her case and began shuffling through her papers, looking for the one she needed with the Manx story on it. She wanted it handy as soon as she was in the office. The dumb thing should have been right on top, but it wasn't. Then things never were that easy. If being a reporter taught her one thing, it was that you always had to dig to find what you were looking for. After a short search she had come across the stapled stack of papers she was looking for when the loudest explosion she had ever heard in her life rocked the news building causing her to drop everything in her hands, spraying papers all over the floor as bits of debris fell from the ceiling over head.

"Holy kats!"

The cry came from Jonny. Ann spared a glance over and saw that the boom had been so big that it had knocked over the table he was working at. Jonny was sitting on the floor with a death grip around his camera with tapes scattered around him. She guess that he's almost dropped the camera as she'd dropped her briefcase.

There was a second explosion, stronger and louder then the first. Ann barely kept her balance as the build rocked. Anyone who hadn't starting running in a panic before, sure where now. The shaking had caused several stage lights to fall over to the ground, breaking the glass in shattering blows. The cityscape mural, that was only held up by a few nails, came off the wall with a thud.

A third boom came, much closer then the last two. This time, Ann did fall over. She looked up from the floor and saw an overhead light break free from the ceiling and plunge toward the ground. Ann buried her face in her arms as deeply as she could before the light hit the ground, spewing glass in all directions. When it landed she heard a short, but harsh cry. It was Jonny. He was still sitting in the same place on the floor, but the camera was lying next to him. Both of his paws were clutched around the back his leg as he took deep breaths through clenched teeth.

"Jonny!" She yelled.

Ann rushed over to him as the last of the staff fled the room without even a look back. They were the only two in the casting studio now, maybe even the entire floor if the running kats (one of whom had been the man Ann was dropping off her papers to) had already reached the stairs or elevator.

"Jonny, are you okay?"

Of course he's not okay! Her mind screamed. That's not how you react when your okay! He's hurt, genius! Is that registering with you? He's hurt!

"Yeah. I'm fine, Ann. It's just a little cut."

"Let me see."

She pulled one of his paws off the wound and looked at it. The cut was deep and blood was flowing freely from it. The ceiling light had fallen right next to Jonny when it shattered, sending a large amount of the glass at him. He was cut slightly on his face and arm too, but his leg was the worst of all. She'd probably be sliced real pretty too from flying shards if that last shook hadn't taken her off of her feet. Thank you unsteady, high-heel shoes .

"Can you walk?" She asked.

"Yeah. Totally. I'm cool."

Jonny used the fallen table and a brace and pushed himself up, but as soon as he got pressure on his bleeding leg, he came right back down to the ground again, grabbing back on to the wound.

"Acutely, I've been better." He joked then took another large suck of air.

"Come on, Jonny. I'm getting us out of here."

Ann moved around to his bad side and put his arm over her shoulders, ready to help him to his feet. She wasn't even sure if she could lift him. Jonny was kind of a built guy and she wasn't one for physical labor. She had a horrible thought that if she couldn't get him to his feet, what would she do? Go for help maybe, but the idea of leaving him behind was unsettling. She could stay behind, find something to bandage the cut and slow the bleeding. If he could get to a phone in one of the building's offices and get help, then she could stay with Jonny till someone arrived.

But before she could even see if she could help him up, another blast came from right in the room. It came from the wall by where the mural fell. They were showered with bits of concrete and stone. Ann shielded her eyes and looked into the gapping hole that had appeared like magic. From the smoke a figure floated in and spoke:

"Finally, after years of lying in wait, I can get my revenge on this news station and all of Megakat city! Everything now belongs to me, Forecaster!"

The smoke cleared Ann got a good look and the maniac who had been attacking the station. His fur was a very pale yellow as opposed to his hair with was almost electric bright and stood strait up on his head. Ann could actually see bolts of static spark in between strands of his hair. He wore a tight suit that went from his ankles to this neck. The entire thing was a storm cloud gray with lightning streaks that moved up aand down the entire thing like veins.

The man, Forecaster, floated across the floor to them, Actually floated! His feet did not touch the ground once. Jonny was looking at the man with wide-eyed horror that she could see even through his glasses. She didn't know how she looked, but it was probably much of the same. Forecaster came within inches of the two them and leaned down. A sick smile curled across his face at the sight of them, but it wasn't both of them he was looking at, it was Jonny and only Jonny.

"Why, hello, old boy." Forecaster said smoothly. "Wouldn't happen to remember me, would you?"

Jonny started to shake all over. He didn't speak for a long time, but when he did, his voice came out shaky and un-even.

"K-K-K-Kirk! Kirk Rex? B-b-b-but you're-you're-"

"Dead?" Kirk finished and laughed. "Afraid not, friend. Though I understand why you would think so. It's been, what, six or seven years?"

"Eight." Jonny corrected. He sounded like a small child being forced to talk to a scary relative he didn't know by his parents.

"Has it really been eight years? My, how the time does fly when you're plotting revenge. You haven't chanced a bit, you know that? Still the same Jonny. However I must correct you. It's not Kirk Rex anymore. It hasn't been since the 'accident'. It's Forecaster now, boy and you best remember it because I'm about to rock this town like a hurricane!"

Forecaster laughed again and raised his arms up. From outside, Ann could have sworn she heard lighting. It scared Ann very badly. She wanted to run, but she felt glued to the floor. The hold she still had on Jonny's arm had become more of a death grip, but he didn't seen to notice one bit.

"I hope you're ready team," the ex-Kirk said. "Because the two of you are going to help me spread a little storm warning to the people of Megakat City."

TO BE CONTINUED