THERE BE DRAGONS!
Chapter 6: Taking Down Viper
The hidden dragon cringed in panic when he saw the news clip the night the report on dragons was released. He remained glued to his chair throughout the broadcast and only moved when it went to a new topic. Horror, shock, longing, fear raced through him in a barrage of intense emotions he couldn't catalog nor adjust to.
He flung himself from his chair and nearly ran to the balcony of his apartment, to get away from the chattering TV and feel the cool evening air on his face, though, his distress kept him from the sights and sounds of a huge city at night that he normally enjoyed.
Tears fell unheeded down his face as he desperately tried to find some order in the chaos that had suddenly become his life. Knowing he could simply ignore this news and continue to hide from his kind and pretend to be a Kat, didn't help still the chaos he was experiencing now simply because some part of him desperately longed to be with his kind.....to be loved.....to belong. He'd be surprised to learn this feeling was normal due to him being only a hatchling and far too young to be on his own. He'd probably laugh derisively at that information because he'd been forced to think like a Kat rather than a dragon and Kats treated him like an adult so he had no way of knowing that was wrong for him.
Though the hidden, or 'the lost' as the dragon community called them, denied their heritage and lived among Kats as Kats, they couldn't hide from themselves the fact they were dragons and dragons had certain needs not met by Kats, one of which was a strong instinct to be a part of a community...that was a part of their makeup.
Because they adamantly refused to be who they really were and didn't teach their hatchlings how to be dragons, they left their young confused about the strange feelings of need that wasn't being met and was only exasperated as they grew older. It was much worse for those who had been orphaned early in life.
Dragon hatchlings required the closeness of their elders during their most vulnerable years to ensure their continued health, both physical and emotional, and learning how to be a dragon They just didn't do well on their own.
To Kat kind, a young hatchling would appear more than old enough to handle their own affairs and, in truth, they were trained to manage their lives as Kats early on, however, being a dragon was something much more difficult and took far longer to learn. A dragon under a hundred years old was about the same as kittens aged one through their teens. After a hundred, they are in their twenties in Kat years and are becoming more independent though still carefully monitored for their safety and well being.
Unfortunately, the hidden could and did get decimated by hunters, leaving far too many young hatchlings to fend for themselves. This left Kat kind at risk from threats by angry, unhappy, and maladjusted dragon young. Hatchlings were the cause of many of the reports from history of the legends of attacks by dragons. It was imperative that the hidden be found and brought back into the fold once more. This was what Adair and his community was trying to accomplish.
For this young hidden, the death of his grandfather, the last of his family when he was barely seventy years old, had left him devastated. Anger, grief, and loneliness battled within him for years after his grandfather's brutal murder at the paws of a hunting pack of Kats that still practiced the old ways. Modern sensibilities had shoved the hunters into near oblivion (though not completely eradicated) since then but it had been too late for him and his family.
To survive, he took a chance and joined the enforcer academy with money from his family's hidden hoard of cash. It wasn't a lot but it allowed him to not be forced to live on the streets. The enforcers were a good fit for him and actually provided him the discipline he would have received from an older dragon. It kept him from becoming a threat to society.
But now he had a chance to be a part of a dragon community that could fill the empty feeling within him, however, he was too afraid to approach them. It had been drummed in his head that revealing oneself was a death sentence and he had their deaths as proof.....hiding meant living and hiding from his own kind ensured an even greater chance of survival.
But he found himself questioning that teaching more of late. As he grew older and failed to make any kind of ties with either dragons or Kats, he was left feeling remote, adrift, and very lonely.
'Is this the price I want to pay....to just drift through life without someone to share it with? It doesn't feel right somehow to be soo alone. And, if I'm truly honest with myself, was this really living at all?' He thought miserably. He received no answers to his entreaties from the night sky.
****************
Elsewhere in the city, another pair of eyes studied the news broadcast with cold interest. Another of the hidden, he too had been trained to keep himself removed from dragon kind and to stay only in his Kat form. They thought they were safe, but one day hunters found his family and proceeded to obliterate them in a most brutal fashion. He was the only survivor which served their purpose as they needed a live subject to study, looking for the species' weaknesses. He suffered their cruel and agonizing experiments for over ten years.
When he had reached the age of seventy, he finally managed to escape his nightmarish prison, killing the hunters and destroying their hidden fortress. He wandered the world for many decades after that before descending on this city only five years earlier. He was now more than two hundred and fifty years old. Memories of his horrifying past and the physical damage done to him, imbued him with a burning hatred and need for revenge. And, since he hadn't been taught to honor and respect his own kind, he had no use for them......they were simply an obstacle to overcome nothing more.
His eyes were hooded as he stared at the screen. It infuriated him to know that dragon communities existed and he suspected there was one located here. Their existence complicated his plans for the conquest of Megakat City.
He savagely cut off the TV and brooded.
Before he could even consider moving forward with his plans, he would now have to find and eliminate the dragon community then after he had taken over the city, he would have to find a way to keep other dragon communities from invading his home base as well as dispose of any that were hiding within the city at present. Scowling, he got up from his seat and headed to his workroom.
He hated complications!
*******************
At first, despite all the hoopla and many magazine and news photos, the public had yet to see one live dragon. That's because dragons were still leery of this sudden acceptance and didn't trust it.
Jake sighed as he watched the latest news broadcast a month after the bomb dropped about dragons being able to take the appearance of a Kat and living hidden among them all these centuries. There had been some outbursts of panic here and there among the more easily frightened of the population but it was milder than the dragons feared it would be much to their relief.
However, it still didn't give them the courage to come out. Oddly enough, there had been no sightings or appearances by omegas lately either, so Jake hadn't been able to show off how useful dragons could be. He snorted in frustration drawing his partner's attention from his comic book.
"What's wrong?"
"How are the Katizens of this city supposed to accept dragons if dragons won't make an appearance? If this goes on much longer, the population will begin to disbelieve all the news put out about us and then we'll be back to square one," Jake grumbled, unhappily
"Yeah, I think you're right about that but I don't know how you can do anything about it except to expose yourself by flying around the city. That doesn't sound so good to me because it also makes you a target for the scared fanatics out there," Chance warned.
"I know, that's why I was waiting my opportunity by taking out a bad guy but everyone seems to have decided to stay out of sight and continue to just watch and wait," Jake sighed in annoyance.
Chance chuckled at that. "Now that's a first! Complaining about things being quiet for once. Seriously, though, I understand your frustration but there's no point in getting your tail in a knot over it since there's nothing more you can do. Sorry buddy."
"You're right. I guess I'll just have to pray something happens soon or all my hard work will be for nothing."
It took another two weeks before Jake finally got his wish. They were working in the garage when their alarm went off. Chance was the closest to the phone so reached out and grabbed it quickly.
"Yes, Ms. Briggs?"
"T-Bone! Dr. Viper's odd plants have been spotted by a sharp eyed lab tech at a small private lab on the west side of the city. It's call GenTec and the enforcers have been notified. I haven't heard what Viper was looking for there so perhaps you'd better check it out!" She said hurriedly.
"Roger, we'll get right on it and thanks!" T-Bone said then cut the connection.
Chance looked over at his partner and saw Jake was already closing the garage and setting out the notice they put up when they were gone. The two of them then scrambled down to the hangar quickly and were soon roaring through the skies, all engines firing to get them to the lab more swiftly.
When they arrived, the enforcers already had the building surrounded and, fortunately, evacuated as well, as they could see a milling group of scientist types safely corralled behind the enforcer line.
Apparently Viper was still around because thick vines were waving out of the upper floors of the five story building where they'd broken the glass and were presently reaching out to choppers trying to cut them to pieces.....the choppers getting themselves knocked out of the sky for their efforts.
Razor fired his favored buzzsaw missiles and succeeded in cutting up a lot of vines but they grew back far too quickly.....a favorite mutation of Viper's. The SWAT Kat hissed in annoyance, switching to matchhead missiles.....these had more success but it was hard to take out the vines without taking out more of the building as well.
T-Bone pulled on the yoke suddenly sending them upward at a steep angle to avoid a huge, thick vine from trying to swat him out of the sky.
"What's your plan, Razor? These things are growing back too fast to take them out permanently and there's no telling what Viper is up too while we're stuck out here."
"I know and I can't use most of my munitions because it will just make swiss cheese of that building and I'd rather not rack up more property damage against us. There's only one thing left and it's finally the chance I've been waiting for," Razor said as he took off his helmet and switched to a small radio that affixed to his ear.
The device was his recent invention that would allow him to keep in contact with T-Bone when Razor left the jet and appeared as Adair. He climbed down into the cargo hold and put on his delta pack as he spoke with his partner.
"Hope your secret weapon is up to the job and can put an end to that writhing mess, but take care out there buddy....you're not indestructible," T-Bone warned him.
"I will, buddy. I may not be indestructible but I am fast and I have better accuracy with my special skill than with my missiles. At least, that's my hope. Launching by delta pack now!" Razor called out as he leaped from the small cargo door.
T-Bone watched as his partner vanished below him then disappeared only to appear moments later as a huge red dragon.
Soaring close to the building and avoiding the vines easily, Adair blew flames on each reaching vine and reduced them to ash with ease much to his relief. Confident he could take them all out quickly, Adair flitted like a fast moving hummingbird as he destroyed the vines using just enough flame to do the job without doing anymore damage to the building.
Feral, flying a fleet of choppers on the north side of the building, gaped in shock at the sight of a dragon appearing suddenly and dealing a death blow to the vines, clearing them away more rapidly than his troops were doing.
"Squadron.....back off and let that....thing... take care of the vines......beta squadron....remain in the air and watch for anything else Viper might send out......alpha squadron follow me to the ground...we're going in and finding Viper," he ordered rapidly while his heart still hammered in fear and longing at the sight of the red dragon. Pushing that part of him away, he concentrated on his job.
Seeing Adair's success in getting rid of the vines and hearing Feral's orders over his radio, T-Bone decided he might as well join the party. Flying the Turbokat to the roof of the lab, he landed quickly then jumped out, searching for a way into the building. Suddenly a brisk wind struck him from behind.....he whirled with his glovatrix extended only to relax a second later, when he saw it was Adair.
The red dragon closed his wings and lowered his head to speak to his partner, "I've cleared away all the vines I could reach from outside," Adair reported, blowing a little sulfur laden breath into T-Bone's face, making him grimace in disgust.
"Phooey, dragon breath....get a mint will ya!" He said jokingly then got serious again. "Feral is already charging in through the front doors so I'm heading in from the top.....you joining me?"
Adair went to the edge of the roof and stared down, saw it was fairly quiet.....no more vines to be seen then looked back at his partner. "I'll join you as soon as I can change without being seen. I'll use that warehouse a short distance away and be back to join you. Be careful you don't get jumped from behind," he warned preparing to leap into the air.
T-Bone nodded in agreement but was frowning unhappily. "We never addressed this problem of still functioning as a team when you're not a Kat. We need to talk about this potential problem later," he said grimly.
"You're right about that!" Adair said, troubled as well, then took off into the air.
Finding no entry from the roof, T-Bone rapelled down the side of the building and went in one of the many broken windows. He landed in an empty room.....minus any plants, he sighed in relief, then headed for the door leading to the hallway.
Here he ran into some of Viper's nastier plantimals....the electro and spiny ones. He began firing a variety of missiles from his glovatrix to clear the hall and the enforcers, who had made it up the stairs, did the same from other end of the hallway.
By the time they met where Feral had caught sight of Viper, Razor had managed to catch up to his partner so they could charge the room together. To their dismay, Viper used a thick vine to escape out a window, clutching something in his paw.
"You losssse SSSSWAT Katsss. I've got what I've come for!" He crowed triumphantly as a swarm of those nasty mosquitoes they'd fought before appeared to protect and transport Viper away from the scene.
Razor growled to himself. "I'll get him, T-Bone," he muttered hurriedly to his partner, then retreated out of the room, down the hall and out another window on a side away from the enforcers on the ground. He rapelled down then ran toward the nearby warehouse he'd mentioned to T-Bone. Just moments later, the red dragon was airborne once more and chasing after the rapidly departing swarm.
The beta squadron of choppers were in hot pursuit but were hampered by the mosquitoes which didn't care if they died getting mashed up in the chopper blades. Unfortunately for the enforcers, the dying creatures caused the rotors to clog sending the copters hurling to the ground.
Which caused Adair some hectic moments as he raced to save the many officers who were trapped aboard their choppers before they crashed, depositing them onto rooftops he passed. The rescuing allowed Viper to put distance between himself and his pursuer but hadn't counted on just how fast a dragon could fly. Finished with his missions of mercy, Adair flew at his top speed, rapidly closing the gap with the omega, much to Viper's dismay.
Meanwhile, back at Gen Tec, T-Bone hurriedly made his way out of the building and back to the roof before Feral and his enforcers noticed he was alone. However, he would have been surprised to learn, Feral had paid very little heed to his antagonists. He was having too much difficulty trying to ignore the dragon and do his job. Right now, he and his enforcers were in hot pursuit of Viper and there was that red dragon again, much to his dismay.
He had been stunned to witness the dragon willingly pause in its pursuit of Viper to collect each of his enforcers whose chopper had been disabled, to safety before steaming ahead of Feral to bridge the gap between them and Viper. He watched helplessly, because he was still too far away, as the red dragon easily crisped the mosquitoes and closed in on Viper.
As for Viper, he quickly realized his swarm was rapidly being decimated from around him. Turning his head, he spotted the red dragon!! Heart slamming in his chest, he stretched out over his ride to make himself a smaller target while he urged his mount to greater speed. He searched frantically for a way to evade his pursuer and quickly spotted a bell tower coming up on his left. Making his ride turn sharply, he headed for the structure.
Nearly ten feet from his target, Viper's mount was unceremoniously vaporized from beneath him leaving him to plummet to the ground below. Screaming in terror, he looked around wildly for some way to halt his fall and was stunned when he was suddenly snatched from the air by a clawed foot. He ceased screaming and stared upward at the dragon who craned his neck to stare into Viper's eyes with his glowing red jeweled ones.
"Where did you think you were going Viper?" Adair asked scathingly.
"Let me go!" Viper screeched, trying desperately to get free but Adair's grip was like iron.
"Uh, uh! It's back to prison for you!" Adair snorted then flew toward Enforcer Headquarters.
Viper could only stare upward at the huge creature holding him. He had heard the news about dragons living in Megakat City but he hadn't believed it however, with the very real thing holding him firmly, he was forced to revise his thinking. Things had just become more complicated and criminals like him were going to have to rethink their plans for taking the city with such defenders at paw.
A bit annoyed and still freaked by the dragon, Feral ordered his troops to return to base. He was unaware and actually, never paid attention, that the Turbokat seemed absent from the capture of Viper.
T-Bone knew Adair had things covered so he followed from above and when everything had ended in their favor, simply followed the group back to headquarters. He hadn't received a call from Adair asking for a pickup or declining one, so he hung around waiting.
The odd procession arrived at the enforcer building some fifteen minutes later. The red dragon landed lightly at the end of the flight line on one foot, balancing easily, using his tail to keep him from tipping over as he continued to hold Viper tightly.
Feral and his squadron landed near the flight line doors then he and a fresh group of troops walked cautiously over to the dragon. Feral halted some twenty feet away, unable to bring himself to move closer. He signaled his enforcers to continue on and take Viper into custody while he continued to study the dragon from a safe distance.
It was a beautiful shade of red that shimmered in the sun's light.....the wings were magnificent even folded as they were at the moment....and the jeweled red eyes.....how he missed those.....they reminded him longingly of his departed grandfather, despite that, he still couldn't approach the image before him now.
He watched as the red dragon only released Viper when his troops were close enough to actually grab the omega and begin hauling the mutant away. Once his prisoner was taken away by the awed enforcers who were rather nervous around him, the dragon stared at Feral in puzzlement.
It seemed strange the Commander refused to come closer to take the prisoner into custody himself....that just wasn't like him at all. Frowning, Adair began to take a few steps toward the tom only to have Feral immediately step backwards at the same time. He halted and cocked his head.
"What's the matter Commander? Do I make you nervous? Don't be, I'm not going to hurt you."
Feral shook his head, swallowed and took another few steps backward. "I believe you but I'm not interested in proving the statement true right now. I want to thank you for snatching Viper, saving my pilots, and stopping those vines quickly before they could do more damage. That being said, you shouldn't interfere in enforcer business. We are trained and willing to do what's necessary to protect this city. You are not trained and if things had gone very wrong, more than enforcers and a building could have come to harm that is why outsiders are not welcome on crime scenes," he said officiously.
Adair snorted and gave Feral a sarcastic look while at the same time, inside he was shocked and surprised that Feral had thanked him at all.....he never did that! Studying Feral's cautious stance and, if he wasn't mistaken, the hint of fear he could see in the tom's eyes, he decided not to push it with the normally taciturn Chief Enforcer.
So he simply said, "Yeah, I know all about that but when I can make it a shorter battle, with fewer casualties, I think that is more important than what you're overly concerned about especially since I'm much harder to damage. But, I promise not to interfere too much except when it looks like all is lost if I don't. That should ease your sense of duty somewhat. By the way, my name is Adair and you'll be seeing quite a bit of me. Later, Commander!" He said in parting, smiling as he lifted into the air and soared off.
Feral shuddered and watched tensely as the red dragon flew higher and higher until he couldn't be seen any longer, only then did the Commander turn on his heel and head back inside his headquarters.