THERE BE DRAGONS!

Chapter 8: Dragons Everywhere

T-Bone shot straight up to avoid a large group of jets trying to trap him. As he arced the jet around, he was surprised to see more than Adair in the air. Through the heavy rain he caught sight of a golden, an emerald green, a deep royal blue, and of all things, a copper colored dragon.

They flitted up, down, and everywhere, making themselves a difficult target while they dealt heavy damages to the enemy. T-Bone quickly joined them, picking off the jets trying to escape the no win situation among the fast moving dragons.

Faster than he could have imagined, the sky was finally clear of enemy. Knowing the mother ship was most likely above them, T-Bone flew the jet upward, engaging all engines.

Seeing his partner heading for the stratosphere, Adair bugled a call and followed the jet. Multiple bugles answered him, the rest of the dragons quickly forming up behind in his wake.

As they burst through the thick cloud cover to the thinner, clearer air, T-Bone zeroed in on the immense airship belonging to...Turmoil? "Crud, I thought sure it would be Dark Kat!" T-Bone blurted aloud, surprised.

Aboard the air ship...

"Captain! Bogies at four o'clock!" A female officer barked to her commander as her radar painted six targets heading for them.

Turmoil hissed in anger. She'd been feeling triumphant when original reports proclaimed they were winning the battle then, less than forty minutes later, her squadrons reported a sudden enemy then contact was lost. Soon only a tenth of her now decimated fleet fled to land on the flight deck.

Fury filled her. 'How had the enforcers managed to take out her specially designed jets?' She wondered, confused. The enforcer fleet was sadly outdated so no way they should have been any kind of barrier to her superior forces but here they came to take out her air ship.

She went to an observation window and stared out, trying to see the jets of her enemy but instead she saw only one very familiar jet and five dragons heading for her airship.

Her eyebrows rose to her hairline and her mouth dropped open in shocked surprise. "Dragons?"

Second in Command Jen Straker gaped as well. "I thought they were a myth," she gasped, awed as she watched the dragons close in on them and begin belching flames at all the vulnerable parts of the ship while easily ducking the weapon's fire that tried to get a bead on them.

Turmoil's momentary astonishment was broken by all the alarms going off signaling disaster as the deck guns fired at the swift moving creatures. Turmoil could only stare, at a loss at how to deal with this new enemy. Enemies in planes she could deal with easily but these things...what was going to work against them? She watched as the creatures systematically reduced her proud airship to so much junk.

A sudden lurch and shriller alarms told her the engines had been compromised and her ship was losing its ability to stay in the air. A voice suddenly boomed from the radio speakers.

"Give it up Turmoil! My friends here are not going to let you escape and if you don't want to come crashing down to your deaths, you'll land this thing while it can still be flown!"

Her fury found a target as she snarled, defiantly, "T-Bone! You overbearing, lying tom! I might have known you would cheat! You couldn't take me out on your own so you sought these creatures to aid you!"

"Hey, I had nothing to do with the cavalry, beautiful. It was their idea! The dragons are trying to show how useful they can be to Kat kind. I think they've proven it quite well, don't you?" The tabby pilot sneered back at her.

Her fists clenched in helpless anger. The insufferable tom was only too right about that. If those damnable creatures hadn't shown up, she would be triumphantly demanding all the money from the city's coffers but instead, she was forced to surrender...again!

Snarling angrily she barked orders to fly to the Megakat Airport. "You win, you hateful thing!" She snapped. "I've ordered the ship to land at the airport. Will that suffice?" She asked through gritted teeth.

"Hang on a moment...I have to check!" T-Bone responded then switched frequencies to reach the enforcers. "Feral...you there? T-Bone here, need a question answered ASAP."

A burst of static then an angry, harassed voice boomed from his mic, "What do you want SWAT Kat?"

"Turmoil is surrendering and plans to set down at the airport. Any problems with that?" T-Bone asked, ignoring Feral's temper.

Surprised and more than a little angry that the SWAT Kats had the upper paw again, Feral nonetheless, put T-Bone on hold, grumbling under his breath as he put in a call to the Megakat Tower then his own tower to have a ground squadron head to the airport to meet the airship. Moments later, he called the Turbokat with instructions.

"SWAT Kat? Have Turmoil pilot her ship to runway 4Niner left. My enforcers will meet her there. She is to wait until ordered to disembark. Tower frequency is Fox Tangle 10...confirm!"

"Confirm...will relay! I and the dragons will escort and see that she doesn't deviate from her flight path," T-Bone responded and was about to cut the connection when he heard Feral's startled question.

"Dragons...plural?"

"Didn't you see them? Yeah, the red dragon was joined by four others and they made mince meat of the airship," T-Bone chortled.

All he heard over the radio next was a choked sound of strangled anger mixed with fear from Feral before the connection cut off. The tabby blinked in surprise at Feral's strange reaction but shrugged if off as he took a high position above the conning tower of the airship.

Off to his left he spotted his partner and gave a waggle of his wings which Adair returned by bobbing his head and giving the dragon equivalent of a smile.

At city hall, Callie sighed in relief as Feral sent a call through his office to her that the enemy had been halted. That was when she learned who their enemy had been.

"Turmoil?" She said, surprised. "Huh! I certainly didn't expect her. Oh well, I'm very glad more dragons had decided to join in or I fear she would have finally gotten what she wanted this time." At least the dragons had finally proven just how useful they could be. Wait until the mayor heard about this. Hell, the city would be abuzz for weeks after the news got around.

The other good news she'd received was the damages to the city had been light to minimal along the coastline and around the city. There had been some flooding in the low lying areas, but they were gradually receding...a few mud slides on the northern passes had shut down traffic for the next few hours...and many areas of farm land had flooded...but, all in all, they had been lucky enough to miss the true brunt of the storm which had remained out at sea. High swells from the storm had threatened the coastline the past few hours but the danger was coming to a quick end.

Even now, as she stared out her window preparing to go home, she could see the sun peek through the thinning clouds, making a spectacular rainbow.

Sighing with pleasure, she fetched her purse, turned out the lights and closed the door to her office. Her stride was brisk as she walked to the elevator.

The next morning shone wet and bright. There were large pools of water everywhere but the rising sun would soon have them dried up before noon. Cleanup of the city was already in full swing by the time the Mayor and Callie went to work later that morning.

"Mornin' Callae! I heard the news while I was eating breakfast. Can you tell me how much of it is true and how the citae faired after that terrible storm yesterday?" Mayor Manx asked as he made himself a cup of tea at his coffee bar.

"Fortunately, the news is good about the city storm damages, it was fairly light and cleanup is progressing quickly, and, as for the news, it was pretty accurate," Callie said in good spirits. She gave him a more in-depth report of what was happening around the city that morning and about the battle over the Enforcer Building yesterday.

"I haven't received a damage report from Commander Feral yet but expect it sometime this morning. I do know he suffered some significant damages to his flight line, control tower, and many windows but how bad it is, I'll just have to wait for his report," she finished.

Manx sighed and shook his head as he walked to his desk and sat down. "We certainly didn't need that damage on top of the ones the storm caused. We're going to be stretched thin in the treasury again this quarter."

"True, but it could have been much, much worse if not for the intervention of the dragons."

"I heard that! Was it true there were six dragons fighting Turmoil?"

"It was five and yes it was true. The SWAT Kats and the enforcers were seriously hampered by the storm but the dragons weren't bothered by it at all and their flames worked despite the heavy rain. I'm told they easily took out Turmoil's huge airship, reducing it to a lot of scrap metal that was barely flyable. She and her crew are in jail as we speak."

"Well, that is amazing. I guess they have their uses after all and saving the city money is a real boon," Manx said, pleased at the outcome. "So, perhaps, I was a bit hasty thinking they would be yet another problem on top of the omegas. Glad I was wrong!"

"I'm sure they would be grateful to hear you say that publically, Mayor Manx. Perhaps you should have a press conference telling the people what happened and how you support dragon kinds desire to be more openly who they are," Callie suggested.

"This might help stem the tide of panicked responses we're still receiving from Katizens on discovering dragons were hiding amongst us as Kats. Many are unreasonably upset about that fact and we have to stop that line of thought quickly and keep it from spreading to protest rally's or hate activity which could degenerate into a mob mentality very quickly. We are very lucky such hasn't occurred yet," Callie warned quietly.

Manx shuddered at the very thought of such a thing occurring...omega trouble was bad enough.

"We need to reemphasize the fact that dragons have lived among us for centuries with no real problems recorded. They just want to be themselves rather than hide. To make their case, telling the public what dragons did by assisting the enforcers to take out Dr. Viper and now, Turmoil would go a long ways toward showing their willingness to lend a paw to keep the city they share with us safe."

"Gadfrey! You're right Callae! Write me up a speech and set up the press conference right away while the news of what they did is fresh," he agreed, muttering an after thought to himself, "...and it couldn't hurt my image any either."

"I'm sure you're right about that Mayor. I'll get right on this...excuse me," she said, rolling her eyes mentally at the Mayor's usual self serving attitude before heading to her desk to set things up.

Around dinner time, after putting in a very busy day in the garage, Chance and Jake closed their shop for the evening. Jake took a paw at making huge sandwiches with a side of chips for dinner and they settled down before the TV to enjoy their meal.

Chance began to channel surf when a news report flashed on the screen at one of the stations he'd stopped at. He made a disgusted sound and was about to change the station again when Jake stopped him.

"Wait! I need to hear how the Mayor handled the appearance of all of us yesterday."

"Aw geez, Jake..." his partner sighed, annoyed but left the channel alone and picked up his sandwich, taking a big bite out of it as he listened to Ann Gora.

"This is Ann Gora of Kats Eye News reporting live from city hall as Mayor Manx prepares to give a press conference on yesterday's happenings..."

The cameras showed the Mayor standing on a podium in his news conference room which was packed with reporters. He signaled everyone for silence so the press conference could begin.

"I am pleased to announce that yesterday's attack by that notorious air pirate, Turmoil was stopped by the Enforcers, the SWAT Kats and a flight of dragons. You heard me right! A flight of five dragons made quick work of taking down that huge air ship as well as destroying a fleet of some new kind of jet fighter that was picking apart Enforcer Headquarters.

The terrible storm yesterday, severely hampered our enforcers during the battle but the dragons had no such problems as they wiped out the enemy jet fighters and for that I am very grateful. The storm caused enough damage without adding what Turmoil could have done to our fair citae!

As for the storm itself, our city workers have done a magnificent job of cleaning up the debris around the city. Damages were minimal due to the main brunt of the storm staying out at sea. We were very lucky there.

I wish to say thank you from the city to the dragon population. Your aid was gratefully appreciated and I hope it will continue. I want to commend you in helping to capture Dr. Viper during that nasty incident not long ago as well.

I want to reemphasize to you, the public, that dragon kind have been living among us all these many decades with no problems reported. Just because they now choose to come out of hiding will not change the fact they weren't a threat to us in the first place. I urge my fellow Katizens to accept them as you already have done when they use their Kat form. The only difference now is they can take their true form as well and not be forced to hide from us any longer.

My final words are, welcome dragon kind and please feel free to fly the skies of your home once more as you were meant to," Mayor Manx finished with a flourish.

"...And there you have it folks! Mayor Manx has asked all Katizens to accept dragon kind with open arms because, as he said, they already have been living here and now they've shown what they can do to protect us from outside invaders and omegas. Who knows? They may even be able to finally get rid of our other omegas, something they couldn't do because they were in hiding. It does us a disservice to keep them in hiding. So I say to you, my fellow Kats...let them be who they are at last and stop being afraid of them. They have more to fear from us than we have from them. We have been their bane for centuries. Let us lead the world in accepting them once again into the fold that is Megakat City!" Ann said in a ringing endorsement before the news switched to something else.

Jake sighed and allowed his partner to change the station. "Well, I certainly didn't expect such incredible support but I'm really pleased to see it. Hope that will convince more of my kind to get up the courage to be seen out and about in the skies once more."

"I doubt this one exposure and the endorsement by the city will encourage the more fearful of your kind to drop their centuries of hiding who they are, buddy," Chance said doubtfully, shaking his head.

Jake sighed, "I know but I can dream can't I?"

Chance just snorted and continued to shake his head as he surfed for something to watch.