Chapter 6:
When T-Bone came around, he found himself in a small, pitch-dark room. He couldn't see anything ahead of him, but he could hear Razor's slow breathing. He was bound, his hands wrapped fast behind his back, his feet wound together so tight the rope was cutting into him.
"Razor," he said, hardly above a whisper. "Razor!"
Razor groaned in his sleep and stirred beside him, his tail brushing up against T-Bone's leg. "Oh, my head," he moaned silently. "What happened? Where are we?"
"No idea," T-Bone growled.
"They're in here," someone said in a thick cockney accent.
The door crept open and the light poured in, burning their eyes.
Another voice, this one heavily Spanish: "You see? I told you we would do it. Now where's our cash?"
Three figures stood in front of them now, with the light at their backs – all T-Bone could see were silhouettes.
"Wait, cash?" he thundered, writhing in his bonds. "What the he – "
"My god, it's them," the tall, broad shouldered figure said in amazement.
"FERAL!" T-Bone howled.
"Like me partner said, mate," the cockney one said, ignoring him and taking a thick envelope – presumably full of money – from the silhouette which was Feral, "it's all a doddle."
"What?" Feral asked, turning toward the figure on his left.
"Right. What is it you MegaKat-folk say? 'Ain't no thing but a chicken wing.' "
"I see," Feral replied. Then, to someone T-Bone couldn't see, "Take them away."
"WHAT?" T-Bone howled, thrashing harder, pulling at his bonds.
"Relax, T-Bone," Razor muttered so only he could hear. "We'll get out of this."
T-Bone and Razor were shoved into a cold, damp cell, shackled at the ankles and wrists. It was dark outside the small, barred window now – it had been for a while.
Razor sank into a corner of the cell. "How the heck are we gonna get out of this?" he asked no one in particular.
"What, you don't have a plan?" T-Bone asked dryly, hitting his shackles against the bars to annoy the guards. "HEY!" he called out. "I'm hungry!"
Razor perked up.
"What?" T-Bone asked, seeing him bolt upright.
"I can't believe I forgot!" he said quietly. "I think I still have some cherry bombs!"
"Didn't they empty your pockets?" T-Bone asked.
"Yeah," Razor replied, "but they didn't empty my shirt!"
"Yeah, that makes sense," Chance muttered sarcastically.
He pulled out three small bombs. "I knew that pocket would come in handy one day."
T-Bone watched as he lined the three bombs up against the back wall.
"You got a light?" Razor asked.
"No," T-Bone replied. "They took 'em."
"Hmmm…" Razor glanced around the room. "Ah hah!" he exclaimed, walking over to the back left-hand corner and picking up two stones. "This should work."
He bent down over the bombs, striking the stones together. T-Bone watched intently as the stones produced sparks. He grinned. So much for the Enforcers, he thought to himself.
The next thing he knew he was on the floor, and three figures were standing on top of Razor.
"Nice try, SWAT Kat," Feral spat, gripping Razor's hand, "but you're not getting out of here that easily. Enforcers, restrain them!"
Before they could register what was going on, they were tied up together and hurled onto the floor. Razor gasped in pain – he was on the bottom.
"Sorry," T-Bone grumbled.
"Not a problem," Razor groaned as they shifted into a sitting position.
Feral stared down at them, clear distaste in his eyes. "Every action has a consequence – "
"Holy crud, he's gonna monologue," Chance snarled loudly. "Skip to the point, Feral, we don't have all day."
"Actually, you do have all day," Feral said furiously. "You have all day, everyday for the rest of your lives!"
"What?" Razor exclaimed. "But we haven't done anything wrong!"
Feral glared at them. "You've been the cause of millions of dollars of damages to the city, you've tapped into Enforcer systems, you've illegally been impersonating officials – "
"Impersonating officials?" T-Bone growled. "When did we do that?"
"Everyday you put on those stupid masks, you take away jobs from the legitimate police. Speaking of which – you!" he said, pointing to a thin Enforcer by the door. "Remove the mask."
"Oh crud," said Razor.
T-Bone thrashed in his bonds, shouting insults at them and their mothers. The Enforcer walked slowly towards them, bent down beside Razor, and whispered, "Sorry." He put his hand on the mask, hooked his fingers under it and started sliding it off –
A tremendous boom rocked the cell and the back wall exploded inwards.
The room was filled with chocking gasps. As the smoke cleared, T-Bone saw the Enforcer who had been removing Razor's mask – and, coincidentally, blocking the both of them from the worst of the blast – was covered in rubble, lying still on the floor.
"He's breathing," Razor said softly.
"What the heck was that?" T-Bone asked, squinting at the gaping hole in the wall. Two figures – female – stood in the moonlight, partly concealed by the smoke.
"Ay-up!" someone exclaimed, and one of the figures hoisted a large gun onto her shoulder. "Hope it's not a bother, but we thought we'd pop by for a moment, see how things was going."
"Actually," the second figure said – a thick Spanish accent, "we thought we'd take back what was ours. We decided we want to keep them."
"WHAT?" Feral howled. "How dare you! Enforcers, arrest them."
The Enforcers charged as the dust cleared, and Riot attacked, knocking them over the head with the butt of her gun, ramming her boot into their stomach, doing whatever she could to keep them at bay. Jazz was gone.
"¡Coño! ¿De qué son hechas estas cuerdas?," someone whispered irately into Razor's ear. He turned his head slowly, not wanting to frighten her away – it was Jazz. She was desperately sawing at the ropes that bound them together with a small pocketknife. "¡Olvídelo!" she said, throwing down the pocketknife and pulling a gun out of the holster. "Stay very still," she said quietly.
Razor held his breath.
"Don't mean to be a bother, love," Riot yelled from the front, knocking an Enforcer down, "but could you get a wriggle on? I'm slightly outnumbered!"
"¡Excelente!" Jazz said triumphantly. "An' I didn't even hurt anyone!"
Razor looked down. The rope was cut and singed, and the ground a few millimeters from his hand was smoking.
"What are you doing?" T-Bone asked incredulously. After all, several hours ago they had turned him and his partner in for cash.
"I'm saving your behinds!" she said. "Honestly! You toms take a lot of looking after. We were waiting forever for you to break yourselves out. But apparently you can't even manage that by yourselves."
"Well…thanks…I guess," Razor said as she cut through the shackles with a small laser at the end of her gun.
"De nada," she replied with a smile. "Now time to go."
She cut T-Bone free and herded the two of them out the hole behind Riot, who knocked out the last Enforcer with a kick to the throat.
Feral's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates as he realized his prize prisoners were escaping.
"No!" he shouted, pulling his gun out and pointing it at Jazz. "Get back here you filthy –"
Riot held her own gun up to his throat. She had a way of appearing and disappearing like nobody's business. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," she said. "That's my partner you're pointing at. Drop it. Now," she instructed, digging the barrel deeper into his larynx.
Feral choked a little and dropped the gun.
"Ace. Now, put your hands up where I can see them."
Feral raised his hands slowly.
"Shouldn't we help her?" Razor asked.
"No, she's fine. Hurry up! We're on foot and Feral's backup should be arriving any minute now."
"Brilliant," Riot said. "Now listen to me closely, or I'll blow that ugly mug of yours right off those strapping shoulders."
Feral nodded in compliance.
"Right. I'm going to leave now. You are going to stay right here, with your hands behind your head. You're not going to call any back up, now, are you?"
Feral shook his head and folded his hands behind it.
"Very good. But, since I don't believe you, I'm going to save myself the trouble of dealing with your betrayal – you know, the pain, the anger, the crying – and knock you out. Good night!" She slammed the butt of her gun on his head and he tumbled to the floor, out cold.
She blew at imaginary smoke coming from the barrel. "I'm a comical genius, I am," she said sarcastically.
A few minutes after they had reached the TurboKat, still sitting silently on top of City Hall, Riot appeared.
"Well that was fun," she said, hands on her hips in a Peter Pan stance. "Who wants to do it again?"