Title: Changes Part One
Chapter 4: Hunting
By: Cody Furlong
"JAKE!" Chance's anguished voice filled the early morning air then was quickly followed by a loud thump before everything went quite again.
In what served as the master bedroom the lone tabby sat on the floor on his tail trying to recover from what had just happened. He could have sworn that he'd heard his lover's voice screaming out in pain, yet the room was dark and silent. Grumbling irritably the tom got up off the hardwood floor and sat on the edge of the bed.
He hadn't fallen out of the bed since he and Jake had first started sleeping together. Scrubbing a paw down his face the tom heaved out a sigh. His short fur was matted down with sweat while his heart was pounding in his barrel shaped chest.
After watching then re-watching the security video the previous day, he'd gone out as T-Bone to spend the last hours of daylight, and most of the night flying around trying to find his partner. However the searching was in vain as the pilot returned home at nearly two in the morning empty handed.
All he could do was slam his fist into his locker leaving behind a dent as he stood there half undressed, lines of concern at what might be happening to his kitten and where he might be etched on his face. It wasn't until another hour later, after going back over the tape again, trying to ferret out any info that might help him, that he'd finally made his way to bed.
It had been a restless sleep that had ended abruptly with him jerking awake and out of the bed, screaming out Jake's name as he landed on his tail. The tabby grunted and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, he had no idea why he had done that, only that it didn't bode well for his future mate.
Willing his racing pulse to normal Chance's broad shoulders heaved up then dropped back down with another sigh. Looking to the ring box sitting on the night stand then the clock next to it, the mechanic growled at the beat up alarm clock.
The bright red numbers reading seven thirty burning into his tired eyes, along with the glow of dawn filling the room told him he only had two hours until the garage had to be open for another day of business. Grumbling in annoyance the blonde male got up and stripped off the boxers he'd slept in before heading out of the room to take a cold shower.
The shower might not have lasted as long as he'd have liked especially since Jake wasn't there to share it with him, though the rain of fluid did do it's job of getting him clean and partially awake. Returning to his and Jake's room, the muscled tom then set about dressing.
Once he was clad in his usual attire it was back down the hall of their tiny apartment to the even smaller kitchen for some coffee. As Chance puttered about doing the necessary tasks to get the coffee maker brewing he though about the video.
For that bastard to have done the things he had seen, he had to have used magic or been a supernatural of some kind. The Pastmaster was bad enough to deal with, they certainly didn't need a tom that looked like he could bend steel popping in and out of the shadows wherever he wanted.
A growl escaped from his throat as he mulled it over in his mind, he hated the fact that he had no way of fighting against that kind of thing, hell he barley even understood magic to begin with.
It was clear that he'd need to get some help from someone more knowledgeable in this kind of thing, he even had an idea for who to go to. The problem was how would he get her to help him, without endangering his and Jake's identities as the Swat Kats?
The sent of the brewing liquid pulled the tom from his thoughts, grabbing a mug out of the cabinet over him Chance poured himself a cup of the strong, back coffee. Leaning back against the counter the tabby sipped at his drink, the smells wafting up into his nose, and the strong taste working to fully wake him. Once the drowsiness had been cleared from his mind, the vigilante set out to fill his stomach with something solid while not burning the garage down in the process.
An hour later his poor cooking skills provided him with semi-burnt scrambled eggs, blackened toast, and a few shriveled up strips of beacon. Chance wrinkled his nose up at the smell of the overcooked food but picked up his fork and started to shovel it into his mouth anyway. It tasted as bad as it looked, but he was too hungry to care, and only had a few minutes left until the garage had to be open.
The first thing on the list was to finish that sedan Jake had been working on, since it's owner was scheduled to come pick it up later today. Dumping his plate and fork into the sink Chance downed another mug of coffee before leaving the second story apartment to head down to work.
After unlocking and opening everything up the tabby grabbed his tool belt then walked over to the car. Minus the cap, tool, and rag, everything else had been left like it had been when Jake had been taken, glancing around nervously at where the shadows were, Chance cleaned Jake's thing up then got to work.
It was slow going as the tom kept one eye on his surroundings not wanting to get sneaked up on himself, so it wasn't until midday that he was signing off on the work order for it. Leaving the fixed sedan where it sat in the shade the grease covered tabby walked off into the brake room.
He was glad that it was turning out to be another slow day, with him having to work the garage alone he hoped the heat would keep it that way. Taking a bottle of water from the fridge, the mechanic removed its cap before taking a large gulp of the refreshing liquid.
Dropping down onto the couch the tabby propped his booted feet up on the coffee table. Then after swallowing down another gulp of water Chance sat the half empty bottle down, and picked up the remote for the small TV that sat on it's stand across from the couch.
The old screen buzzed and fizzed when he hit the power button until the image of one of the local newscasters came into focus. Taking his feet off the table the tom leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees in interest of what might be on the news.
As it turned out nothing of interest was happening at all, the weather was scheduled to stay hot for the next several days, the super villains were quite, and the city's pools and beaches were crowed with kats trying to beat the heat.
Flipping the device off Chance stood up and stretched himself out, stifling a small yawn as he did so. What had he thought he'd see? Some omega attack he'd have to go rushing off by himself to deal with, or some report of a black and dark gray tabby abducting more kats into the shadows perhaps?
The striped male grunted picking up and draining the last of his bottle then dumping the empty container into the trash. The thought of heading upstairs to try and make some lunch sprang to mind just before the familiar sounds of a certain car driving up made his ears twitch. Sighing the tom walked back out into the garage, then outside to greet the petite, peach furred, blonde haired she-kat climbing out of her green sedan.
"Afternoon Callie.. What can I do for you?" Chance gave the shorter female a smile as he greeted her in his usual fashion.
"Hey Chance, I know you've probably had a ton of these already with this heat wave going around, but my Ac isn't working right." The pink suited queen smiled back at the taller muscled tom.
"Actually no, it's been pretty quite the last two days. So I can get on it right away." The mechanic grunted moving around to the front of her car then popping the hood.
The Deputy Mayor shook her hair out, then combed her small fingers thorough her long, golden locks as she watched the powerful tom get to work. She'd always been attracted to that burly grease monkey, but knew that he and Jake were together now, it didn't stop her from dreaming of him though.
Speaking of the cinnamon tom where was he? Usually both of her friends came out to greet her and work on the 'green monster' together. But other then Chance and the white car parked in one of the two work bays, the place seemed empty of the athletic male.
"Chance where is Jake at? The two of you always seemed to be connected at the hip." The she-kat asked, moving over to stand next to the tabby.
"He's huh upstairs.. taking a nap, the heat was getting to him." Chance quickly fibbed hoping the lie wasn't caught.
Callie frowned in concern. "Oh, I do hope he'll be alright, tell him I said hi for me when he wakes up."
"I sure hope he is…" The male whispered back under his breath.
"What was that Chance?" The pretty Deputy Mayor asked having caught some of what he said but not understanding it.
"Oh ! I said I sure will, and I found the problem, it shouldn't take me more than a few minutes to fix." The tabby quickly covered, straitening back up from over the engine then walking back into the garage.
Callie watched him go, watched the rippling muscles she could make out through the tom's sweat soaked coveralls. More than that though she was worried, she knew that's not what he'd said under his breath.
Looking closer she noticed that he seemed to be a bit more tense than she usually saw him. She wondered if there was something more going on with Jake that Chance wasn't letting on, but pushed that thought aside when the large feline returned carrying some car part she didn't recognize.
True to his word, it was only three minutes later that Chance had the air conditioner working properly again. The she-kat smiled and thanked him, the big tom simply waving it off as nothing like he usually did.
Once the paperwork was done and she was gone Chance huffed out a sigh. He hated having to lie to her like that, but he couldn't exactly tell her that his lover had been abducted into the shadows by some strange tabby.
-
The rest of the day had seemed to just crawl by, other than the owner of the white sedan coming by at three to claim it, the rest of the time it was just plain boring without his partner there to keep him company, though it did give him plenty of time to think.
By the time he was closing up the shop the dirty tabby had a plan formed that he hoped would work. So it was just after dark, dinner, and a shower that T-Bone flew out of the hangar, and headed for the Megakat Museum Of Natural History.
The visitor's parking lot was empty when the burly pilot hovered the Turbokat down onto the roof as soft as a feather. T-Bone knew that except for the guards, and a few other museum personnel the place would be empty. He also knew that the particular female he'd come to see was still here by the light on in the window of her office.
Dr. Abi Sinian was the one to go to for all things magical in nature, the curator's experience and knowledge made her a pool of information. She'd helped the Swat Kats before, when dealing with that undead troll and the time magic he favored using, he hoped she would be able to help him with his current problem too.
Leaping down out of the sleek fighter jet, the vigilante jogged over to the railing on the side of the building he needed to be on. Leaning over the metal barrier the male looked down the two stories to the window he wanted. After mentally judging the distance, the hero uncoiled a length of grappling line from his Gloveatrix then attached the hook end of it to the railing.
Giving the cable a good tug to be sure it would hold his heavy frame, the colorfully dressed tom carefully climbed over the railing, then started to make his way down the side of the building. Once he was crouched on the narrow window sill, T-Bone raised his free hand up and softly knocked on the frosted glass window pane.
He was quickly rewarded when the large double window opened up for him. "Oh! T-Bone, what are you doing here?" The curators soft voice inquired.
"Razor's on vacation, and I need your help on this case I'm working on." The striped tom gruffly replied as he freed himself of his line before dropping off his perch into her office.
"Of course! You and your partner have saved my life many times. How can I be of help to you?" Abi thought it was a bit odd that the smaller Swat Kat had gone on vacation, but said nothing of it.
The burly pilot didn't answer her right away, instead choosing to do a quick scan around the large office to be sure there weren't any security cameras, then to go and make sure the door was locked. The archeologist chuckled softly and closed her window before returning to her desk to watch the large male. Once T-Bone was sure that they wouldn't be getting any visitors he walked back over to her.
"I have a video I need you to watch, yesterday a tom-kat was kidnapped from his place of business by another unknown male, and I think that magic was involved in it. The victim hasn't been reported missing yet by his coworkers due to the strange way it happened. Instead of the Enforcers they managed to get into contact with me for help." The Swat Kat filled her in on what he'd concocted earlier while pulling out a tape from one of the pockets on his flight suit.
"Oh dear! If magic was involved you certainly came to the right kat! Please show me the tape." The brunette haired she-kat gasped in surprise, then quickly got up and went over to where she kept a TV and tape player.
Putting the video into the machine T-Bone forced himself to watch the event play over again, thought not as closely as Abi did. Her eyes drank in all the details as she watched, pressing her nose close to the screen to not miss anything.
Once the short video had ended the female stood there in thought for a moment before speaking. "Off hand, I'd say you had a vampire… They're the only ones I know of that would have those kinds of abilities." The doctor turned and walked across the room to a book shelf then pulled a large leather bound book from it.
"If I remember correctly, one of the old texts I have here describes some of what we saw as being vampire abilities…" As she spoke the curator moved back to her desk and set the book down before starting to flip through it's pages.