An Impromptu Rescue
It was a clear, starry night in Megakat city. Street lights and car headlamps illuminated the streets, bringing a sense of safety to the darker parts of the town. Megakat City had gained a reputation for being a place where violent crime was rife, the result of the re-distribution of Enforcer resources to tackle terrorism. It was basically the same story everywhere, though the crime rate in Megakat City had decreased, thanks to the newly-initiated Patrol Squads. Made up of Enforcer troopers, and targeted at the relatively low-level crimes that caused so much fear, their introduction had meant citizens could once again walk safely through the streets. One night though, while making routine comic book run, Chance Furlong made an unsettling discovery...
Glancing up at the darkened sky, Chance quickened his pace as he walked back to the garage. "It's getting dark, I shouldn't have been reading. I always lose track of time when I do that" said Chance to himself, wishing there was more time in the day for comics. "What am I gonna tell Jake this time..." he wondered aloud. "How about, 'I was helping an old lady with her groceries and we talked a lot...' That could work" he thought, rather stupidly.
At that moment, a shout rent the still air of the street.
"There it is, get it!" someone yelled, and Chance felt something brush past against his leg, but as he looked back to investigate, three Enforcer troopers rushing past barged him into the street. The impact spun him around, knocking his newly purchased comics out of his arms, liberally distributing them across the road. Chance got gingerly to his feet, brushed himself off and checked his extremities for injuries.
"Jeez, what's their hurry" Chance wondered. It suddenly occurred to him that his comics weren't in his arms any more. He looked around, and, relieved, spotted his purchases still lying on the street, some of them partially underneath a parked sedan.
"Well nothing broken or stolen..." he thought, picking up his things from the road. "I wonder why they were in such a hurry."
Putting what had just transpired out of his mind, Chance continued on his journey down the street until something caught his eye. The Patrol Squad was in an alleyway between two tenement buildings, huddled togetherin a circle. It was quite by luck that Chance saw two kats cornered in the centre of the squad.
"Right, we've got you surrounded. You are ordered to come with us, or face your punishment" one of the Enforcers, evidently the leader of the squad, barked at the two small kats.
"Never!" replied one of his captives. "We know what your plan is; you work for the Nemesis Program! We're not test subjects, we're not going to be any part of it!"
Cautiously, Chance looked down the alley from behind a dumpster to watch them. What he saw was like nothing he had seen before. A white she-kat with ruby-red eyes in a ragged white dress stood in the centre of the squad, holding the paw of a little kitten that looked very much like herself. The little Kitten was holding onto her hand very tightly, a look of terror spreading like a mask across its little face.
"That's odd, they're not even adults and the Enforcers are all over them" thought Chance to himself as he crouched behind what had transpired to be an incredibly smelly dumpster.
His thoughts were cut short however, as gun fire echoed down the alley. As he looked on, he saw the older kat fall down to her knees, blood seeping from a chest wound. She gasped and croaked, trying to breathe, and looked up at the Enforcer standing over her. He lifted his gun again and, placing the barrel carefully against her forehead, fired. Her lifeless corpse fell backwards, landing on the concrete as her blood dripped, staining the ground a deep red colour.
Chance watched in horror as the situation unfolded before him. "How dare they!" he thought, "I've got to do something."
Without thinking it through any further, Chance rushed in, attempting to save the young kitten from the same fate. The Enforcers hadn't noticed that they were not alone, but soon did as Chance grabbed the nearest trooper, and slammed him into his comrades. The Enforcers crashed to the ground, their guns clattering across the concrete. Wasting no time, Chance grabbed the little kittens paw and ran down the street with him. They had rounded the corner before the Enforcers begin to stir, looking around in a vein attempt to figure out what had just happened.
"What the bloody hell just happened here?" demanded one of them as he used a rusting shopping trolley to pull himself to his feet.
"It doesn't matter; we have the sample that we need. The other one is of no importance, as of yet" replied the leader.
"You sure? I mean, what if it develops, you know, inside her?" asked the third Enforcer, gesturing to the bloody corpse lying beside them.
"Then our suppliers will deal with it." The leader told them. "Lets get out of here; we've got to get the rest of this done tonight. Have you selected suitable types yet?" he asked the one enforcer still lying on the ground, who was occupied nursing a deep cut in his leg.
"Yeah, they're being moved as we speak." He replied.
"Fine, then we'd better get a move on. We have a bus to catch" the leader said, turning to walk back to their car. The other Enforcer pulled his comrade to his feet and they followed their leader back towards a waiting patrol car.
---
As they rounded the corner onto Main Street, Chance looked around to see if the coast was clear. Seeing no one following them, he led the kitten into the Manx Municipal Park and sat him down on a bench next to the statue of the Mayor. He looked at the young kitten to see if he was all right.
"Are you okay?" Chance asked.
The kitten nodded and rubbed his eyes to get the tears out.
"Do you have a name?" Chance continued. "My name is Chance" he said, pointing to himself. "What's yours?"
"Cody" replied the kitten.
"Cody huh, well I think those Enforcers may be coming for you again, and after what happened to the kat who was with you, I can't risk leaving you alone here. Cody, if you come with me I'll protect you, okay?" he finished, smiling at Cody. Cody nodded and extended his hand to grabs Chance's.
Chance and Cody walked out of the park, towards a nearby bus stop to head back to the junkyard. Chance continued to be cautious, in case the Enforcers returned. Ordinarily he would have walked the journey, but he didn't want to take any chances. As they waited in the windswept bus shelter, he turned to Cody.
"So, Cody, do you have a family?" he asked.
Cody shook his head in response.
Wondering what he was doing there then, Chanced asked, "Oh, well, do you know someone here in Megakat City?"
Cody shook his head again, but continued to look at Chance.
Chance let out a sigh of irritation. "Well, do you know why they're after you?" he asked, somewhat annoyed at not being able to get anything out of the kid.
This time, instead of shaking his head no, Cody buried his head in Chance's leg. Tears streaked his face as he looked up at Chance.
"Oh, I'm sorry about that. You don't have to tell me right now if you don't want to, alright?" Chance told Cody.
Cody wiped his eyes and smiled at Chance, before looking down the street. Thinking he had spotted the enforcers, Chance jumped up, but it was only the bus. A lop-sided display above the windscreen read 'Ashland via Megakat Bridge'.
"This is us" said Chance to Cody, helping him up the steps onto the bus. They took seats at the back and were silent the whole journey, Cody with his head lying across Chance's lap while Chance himself tried to figure out how he would explain this to Jake.
---
Meanwhile, across town, an Enforcer prison transport bus was making its way towards Megakat Maximum Security Prison along a series of winding country lanes. This was typical, and had become a normal procedure of late. Now that the Patrols had been stepped up, there seemed to be ever more criminals headed for the prison.
The driver was surprised when he saw a patrol car coming up behind him, flashing its lights and siren. Worried he had a problem with one of his transfer prisoners, he pulled the bus over to the side of the road. The patrol car pulled up behind him, and three Enforcer troopers got out and walked towards the door, which opened with a pneumatic hiss as they approached.
"What's up?" asked the driver.
"You've got a problem with a couple of the transfers, seems they're wanted for more than just a bank robbery" replied the leader of the troopers.
The driver let out a sigh of irritation, this had happened before, and usually involved a lot of paperwork at the roadside. Looked like he wouldn't be getting home in time for Litterbin after all.
"We'll just have to take these two back to Headquarters, you can continue on your way once we've got them."
And with that, the leading trooper opened the internal security gate and hauled two of the prisoners near the front out of the bus, where his colleagues threw them face-first to the ground. Then he closed the security gate and stepped off the bus, banging the side twice to tell the driver he could go. Utterly nonplussed, the driver put the bus in gear and headed onwards. He was surprised the process had been so quick, but wasn't in the mood to enquire further. He still had a chance to catch Litterbin if he was quick.
The leading trooper watched as the bus rounded a corner and headed out of sight.
"Ok, get them up. Let's do this thing" he told his colleagues.
They dragged the two prisoners over to their car, where they had a silver briefcase resting on the bonnet. The leader donned a pair of protective gloves before opening it. Inside were two phials of an electric blue substance, a silvery injection gun and two radio trackers.
The leader loaded one of the phials into the gun, and his colleagues lifted one of the prisoners up onto the car.
"H-Hey, what are you gonna do with that, I ain't done nuffin'" protested the prisoner.
"Do you think I give shit? You're criminal scum, no-one gives a shit about worthless street trash like you" the leader said before plunging the needle of the injection gun right into the spine of the prisoner, who let out a blood-curdling scream as the blue liquid drained from the gun into his spinal column. The leader then implanted one of the trackers straight into the back of his neck. There was no scream this time; he had passed out from the pain already.
"Ok, give me the next one then" ordered the leader.
The other prisoner struggled, he didn't want to end up like his mate, but he was still wearing his manacles from the bus, and was being held by two burly Enforcers. Just to make sure, one of them drew his Buzz Baton, an electric cosh carrying 50,000 volts, and whacked his victim repeatedly across the back of his legs.
"Calm down, calm down, he ain't going nowhere. Now get him up here" barked the leader at his subordinates. Once again he loaded the injection gun and fired it right into the spine of the prisoner.
"Ok, let 'em loose" he ordered, and his two comrades unlocked the prisoner's bonds and left them next to each other behind a nearby privet hedge. Both had passed out.
"Right, let's go. They'll come to in a bit, and I don't want to be around for that" the leader said. His comrades chuckled, both knowing exactly what he meant, and the climbed back into their patrol car.
Lying behind the hedge as the Enforcers headed back towards the city, the two prisoners had no idea what lay in store for them...
---
Chance & Cody's bus pulled off the highway and headed down towards the golf course, a new route diversion initiated by the mayor which, conveniently, went past the junkyard. They got off at the forlorn-looking bus stop across the street, and as the bus pulled away from the stop they walked across to the garage.
Jake was already standing outside, waiting on Chance. He shook his head when he saw Chance walking across the street from the bus stop towards him. He didn't see Cody, who was hiding behind Chance's leg.
"Where have you been?" Jake demanded of his friend with an air of reservation.
Chance smiled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck, "I, uh... have a present" he said.
Jake gave Chance a look, and was startled to see Cody, who was looking around from behind the protection of Chance. "I think your present has other plans" he said as Cody quickly retreated back behind Chance when he saw Jake looking at him.
Chance shrugged, and then told Jake what happened, which unsurprisingly left Jake a bit shocked.
"All he says is 'Cody'? At least he knows his name."
"Yep, that's all. But what's strange is that it was Enforcers who were about to do him in. Surely they, of all people, would be out to protect kids like him" Chance pondered aloud.
After hearing mention of the Enforcers, Cody started to shake in fear. Chance patted his head for reassurance.
"Enforcers... That is odd" wondered Jake. "I wonder why they're so interested in this kid" he added, looking at Cody as he walked towards the kitten, who retreated behind Chance again, scared of Jake.
Chance kneeled down next to Cody, and pointed to Jake. "Cody, it's alright, he's a good guy, OK?" he told the kitten.
Cody nodded, waving at Jake and smiling.
"Look Chance, sweet as the kid is, what are we going to do with him? They're bound to come after him, so we've got to find somewhere safe to keep him" Jake told Chance, ever the pragmatist. Chance looked from Jake to Cody and back again. "Alright, fine" said Jake, bowing to the pressure of two such pleading faces, "we can hide him here for the time being, but we've got to find somewhere more permanent."
"Thanks buddy, that's all we can do for now, until we get more answers. He can sleep in the guest room" Chance replied.
"Fine" said Jake, somewhat tired already from having to wait so long for Chance. "Alright then... let's go in, I want something to eat. We've got tuna if you want."
Cody nodded vigorously.
The three walked into the garage, and as Jake headed through to kitchen to prepare the tuna, Chance and Cody sat on the sofa. Chance picked up the remote control, turning on the TV. As the box flickered to life, a picture of Ann Gora swam into focus. She barely had time to announce a Kats Eye News exclusive about two prisoners claiming to have been brutally assaulted during transport before T-Bone switched over to the cartoon channel for Scaredy Kat.
