A Bad Situation

The Turbokat touched down outside the residence of Professor Hackle, who was already outside waiting for them.
"Where is the disc?" Hackle asked as they climbed out of the plane.
"Wha... How did you know about that already?" asked Razor, handing it over.
"I've been expecting you since I heard about the Pandemic. Xenon would do this himself if he were around, so if you're here, it means he is dead and needs me to finish his work" answered Hackle, walking back inside his house. T-Bone picked up Cody and followed him inside.
Hackle loaded the disk into a computer, and checked what appeared on the screen. It made little sense to anyone else, but Hackle obviously understood it, as after reading the screen for a few seconds he turned to the others.
"You Swat Kats must go to Megakat Biochemical and bring as much Katalyst M56 as possible to Xenon's refinery facility. There I can use the equipment to make enough anti-mutagen serum and vaccine to go around" Hackle announced.
As he did so, Razor noticed an unusual picture on the TV, and turned up the sound.
"This is Ann Gora, Kats Eye News, reporting live from the new Unity Coach Station. MKC United predicted a big upturn in trade here, but not this" she said.
The camera panned across to the loading bays. Around each coach was a huge crowd of Kats vying to get on board. Drivers were taking fistfuls of money off people to be let on, and some were already pulling out, their chassis groaning under the huge extra weight they were carrying. The picture cut to an aerial shot, and as the camera followed one coach leave the station, it became clear why everyone wanted out of the city. The coach was having to drive right over a crowd of mutated pandemic victims to get out. Passengers reeled back from the windows as the mutants tried to stop the vehicle, but its size was protection for them.
"What is going on?" asked T-Bone. "Where did they all come from?"
"That doesn't matter now." Hackle responded. "We must ensure now that we do this as fast as possible. I will take Cody to the refinery and begin preparations for making the anti-mutagen. You must go and get that Katalyst."
"But it's not safe, there's a riot out there!" Razor protested, not wanting to let them drive across the city.
"We'll be safe" said Hackle, opening a door into an adjoining garage. Inside sat what the Swat Kats had come to know as the Metallikat Express. "I designed these, and this one will protect us."
"Ok professor, we'll meet you there" T-Bone shouted back as he and Razor ran to the jet to take off.
A few minutes later, Hackle and Cody got into the hovercraft and headed out of the garage towards the refinery. They were in such a hurry, they didn't notice the headlights of another vehicle come on behind as they passed, nor that the vehicle was following them.
A few hundred yards behind in a Puma-Dyne armoured patrol van a conversation got underway.
"No, they will not be allowed to undermine our profiteering" said a first voice.
"Indeed, we shall ensure that they are finished" added a third.
"Certainly, with the destruction of that living anti-mutagen we shall be rich" concluded, ominously, a third...

---

It was pouring with rain as the Turbokat flew over the city to Megakat Biochemical, but Razor's dimensional radar steered them true.
"I don't like this buddy, I don't want to leave Cody alone, anyone could overcome Hackle" T-Bone said as they flew past the Megakat Tower.
"We had to - Hackle will need Cody to make up the vaccine. All we can do is get the Katalyst and get it back to the refinery so he can complete the job" Razor replied.
"Right" said T-Bone, increasing thrust.
It wasn't long before the Jet flew over Katalina Street Underground Station and T-Bone put it into hover mode as they flew into the rooftop landing platform on top of the Laboratory.
The two Swat Kats climbed out and headed down into the darkened building. There appeared to be no-one about, and no guards intercepted them as they made their way deeper into the bowels of the facility.
"This is creepy Razor" T-Bone said as they pushed through a door into a control room. "Where are all the staff?"
"Maybe they were on those coaches out of the city - there wasn't much traffic on the roads as we approached, everyone has either got out or barricaded themselves in" he replied.
"I guess" said T-Bone, still not quite content with his surroundings. He had the feeling he was being watched. He looked back down the corridor they had just left to see if there was anyone there, but he couldn't see anything. The only movement was an automated CCTV camera panning about. At least, he thought it was automated.
"Get over here, stop messing about" Razor said impatiently. He was busy checking through a stock list on one of the control room computers. The monitor listed hundreds of Katalysts, and it took a few moments for Razor to scroll down to the one they needed. "Here, Katalyst M56. Says it's down in containment, come on" Razor said, leading the way back out of the room. T-Bone followed, but kept throwing looks over his shoulder. He still couldn't shake the feeling he was being watched.
They walked through a maze of corridors, Razor using his glovatrix map to find the way. They turned a corner to where a door marked 'containment' stood.
"This is it" Razor said, walking through.
Inside were hundreds of giant containers, each holding thousands of gallons of different Katalyst. They were hanging from a system of pulleys on the roof, obviously designed to move them around easily. The two Swat Kats walked along an overhead gantry next to them, reading off the numbers of each Katalyst they passed.
"M53, M54, M55, here we go, M56" Razor said, pointing out the container. "We can use the automatic system to move this up to the roof, then we can carry it under the jet."
"Yeah, under the jet" T-Bone said distractedly, he definitely felt uneasy about being there.
Razor manipulated a control panel next to where the Katalyst hung, and directed it on a path up to the roof platform before leading the way back up to the jet.
"Razor, isn't it odd that no one came in to stop us taking this? It was almost too easy" T-Bone said, and as they walked out onto the platform it became clear that he was all too right.
"Well, well. So the Swat Kats are just a couple of common thieves after all" Feral said, his gun pointed at them.
The Turbokat was no longer standing on the platform, instead an Enforcer chopper and several dozen troopers stood there, all pointing their weapons at them.
"I can't believe you guys would do this, looting, of all things. I'm disappointed, I thought you two were the good guys" Felina said, standing next to her uncle.
"It's not like that Lieutenant!" T-Bone protested, but she wasn't buying it.
An Enforcer Sergeant put the two Swat Kats in cuffs, and flanked by a dozen troopers led them out to a waiting prison transport.
"It's straight to the slammer for you thieves" he told them as he shut them in the prison bus.
"Great. How are we going to make the vaccine now?" T-Bone said irritably as the vehicle pulled off and headed away from Megakat Biochemical.
The prison bus drove out of the city through the suburbs towards Megakat Penitentiary. Shackled to the seats of the bus, Razor and T-Bone couldn't move, and whatever plans they may have been brewing were well and truly scuppered.
As they passed a small farm, the driver looked in his rear-view mirror. Approaching fast from behind was an Enforcer patrol car, flanked by two Puma-Dyne vans. The bus pulled over, and the vehicles came to a halt behind it.
Three enforcer troopers approached the front door of the bus, which opened with a pneumatic gasp.
"Change of plan. The Swat Kats were infected with something at the Biochem facility; they need to be taken to Puma-Dyne for decontamination" the lead trooper told the driver, who was experiencing a strong sense of deja-vu.
His two subordinates boarded the bus, and took the Swat Kats out to the waiting vans.
"Twice in one bloody week. Typical" muttered the bus driver as he watched the convoy drive off towards Puma-Dyne.
He put the bus in reverse, and used the driveway of the farm to turn the vehicle around. Misjudging the distance, he backed into the rusting hulk of an abandoned tractor, smashing the tail light. Ignoring it, he put the bus back in gear and headed back to Enforcer Headquarters.