Ever so slowly, Marc turned away from the metal doors, and looked into the face of Dark Kat.
Grinning, Dark Kat leaned down and said, "Now, where were we?"
Coming up behind, the unknown kat in the metallic mask said, "We were ascertaining who this is...and what his business is here."
Marc tried to sound blubbery, which didn't take much work. "My name is Gary Thomasson," he lied, "and, you know, I decided to take the day off from the plant and go hiking, what's with the long weekend coming up, I figured, hey, why not get a head start, you know? Cause it's really pretty up here in the badlands and all..."
"And what is your business here?" the unknown kat asked inexorably.
"Well, see, I saw this cave and I thought I heard some buzzing sound coming from here, and I said to myself, I said, Gary, who on earth could possibly be in there? And so I decided to come take a look-see and..."
Dark Kat turned and raised a hand to the creeplings. "Toss him off the cliff," he stated. The creeplings began closing in on Marc.
"Wait!" shrieked Dr Viper. All eyes turned towards him. "I could find him...useful..." He rubbed his hands together. "The reagent I developed for amphibious characteristics in kats...I still need a test subject, you understand."
Dark Kat dropped his hand. "Oh, very well. Take him to the good doctor's laboratory." Five creeplings grabbed Marc and began dragging him down the hallway.
"I'm a very rich man!" yelled Marc, futilely waving his arms around. "I can make you all very wealthy!" Dr Viper began walking behind the creeplings, followed by Dark Kat and their leader. These two stopped in the corridor and watched Dr Viper follow the creeplings and Marc into a room off of the right wing.
"You see?" stated the unknown kat. "It is unwise to leave this door open."
"Yes," responded Dark Kat slowly, "but who knew that someone would bother walking through this area?"
"One must be prepared for all possibilites," said the unknown kat. The rest of his reply was drowned out by a large explosion at the end of the cavern. The point of impact was more than thirty meters from them, but was still powerful enough to knock them to the floor. It took them both a few seconds to come to their senses, then they both started climbing to their feet. Before they had reached a standing position, however, they were knocked back down by a kat on a motorcycle skidding by them.
"Pardon me," said Razor, turning sharply to the right. He drove down the corridor until he saw Marc jumping out of a door with Dr Viper and some creeplings on his tail. He skidded to a halt sideways, then turned the Cyclotron back the other way. Marc jumped on the back and was all set for Razor to take off, but instead Razor tossed a helmet back to him.
"Trust me - you're gonna need this," he said. Marc clamped it on his head, and Razor peeled out down the hallway. Marc was stuck trying to strap the thing on while Razor raised his wristgun and fired a warning shot towards Dark Kat and the unknown kat. They both jumped out of the way, and Razor turned left back down the cavern. Marc felt start to shake slightly. Although he was confident in Razor's ability to save him from this situation, he hadn't give much thought to the possibility of how dangerous it would be up until that point.
Razor cut into his thoughts. "Hang on," was all he said.
To Marc's surprise, Razor started speeding up. Marc thought, he can't honestly try jumping the canyon with both of us on here. Half a second later, he thought, well, maybe he can. Marc shut his eyes and held on for dear life.
Razor jumped the Cyclotron off the edge of the cavern several meters towards the opposite plateau. "Roll!" he commanded, and Marc didn't need to be told twice. He sprung from the cycle and balled himself up, landing roughly onto the plateau. Razor, meanwhile, had brought the cycle to a halt by landing it on its side and sliding the length of the plateau, stopping just shy of the opposite edge. Immediately, Razor jumped up and grabbed Marc - much to his surprise, who was hoping the ordeal was finished - and pushed him down the opposite side of the plateau, jumping down after him. As they slid towards the bottom of the canyon, Razor radioed into T-Bone.
"Now! Now!" he screamed.
T-Bone maneuvered the TurboKat back towards the cavern entrance, and let loose with a barrage of missiles. Razor and Marc came to rest at the base of the plateau, and Razor pulled Marc's hands over his helmet to help protect his head from the rocks that were being sent flying.
Thirty seconds later, all was quiet. Razor, and then Marc, sat up and looked around. Razor motioned Marc to stay put, which Marc had no trouble doing. In fact, he wasn't sure if he could move. Razor scrambled back up towards the top of the plateau. He jumped to a standing position, then let out a long quiet whistle. "Is it safe?" asked Marc, more than a little hesitantly. Razor nodded, so Marc began the trek back up as well.
T-Bone landed the TurboKat onto the plateau and leapt out. "Not bad, huh?" Razor just shook his head.
Marc finally managed to reach the other two. As he pulled himself up, he saw what they had - there was almost nothing left of the mountain. Now it was a large pile of rock and rubble. Except for a small bit of one of the metal doors jutting out of the rock, there was nothing to show that there had once been a cavern there at all.
Marc's eyes were wide as he said, "Well, T-Bone, it looks like you just shot yourself out of a job."
Razor mumbled, "UNICEF..." and smacked Marc lightly over the head.
T-Bone whooped. "Vacation, here I come!"
Razor put his hand on his shoulder. "We'd better start a search - make sure there aren't any survivors."
T-Bone's face fell. "Survivors? Would you look over there? No one could have survived that!"
Razor shook his head. "Still, just to make sure."
Sighing, T-Bone said, "Well, if you insist..."
"I do." Razor started walking over, with T-Bone reluctantly following. Marc was trying to decide if he should join in when he looked up in confusion. There was an odd whistling sound coming deep from that pile of rocks, and it was getting louder.
At the same moment, all three of them had dove to the ground as a craft of some sort shot out from the rubble. It was metallic in color, and perhaps six meters high and three meters wide - not very large. Unfortunately, they noticed, it was large enough to fit Dr Viper, Dark Kat, and their leader inside - as well as some creeplings and a few of Dr Viper's more bizarre mutations.
Marc started scurrying towards the other side of the TurboKat, hoping to use it as shelter, but a glance upwards told him there was no need. The craft wasn't turning to attack, but rather pointing northward, towards the city. Suddenly, the rockets behind came to life, and it scurried away.
Razor shot T-Bone a dirty look as they jumped back into the TurboKat. "Take the Cyclotron back," yelled Razor as T-Bone fired up the thrusters.
Marc turned his head as the TurboKat shot off towards the north. Once it vanished, he leapt to his feet and raced over to pick up the Cyclotron. Before he could get to it, though, he suddenly stopped and looked at his hands. They were shaking - really bad. He dropped to his knees, and then down onto his side. He lay there in near-fetal position, watching the vapor trails above him dissipate.
I'm so not cut out for this, he thought.