Loud noise filled the office in the third floor of the T.U.F.F. building. But not the noise of small talks between coworkers and not the noise of fingers that hacked on keyboards. It was the noise of many hands that clapped rhythmically together, cheering.

This noise was for no one else than the Agent Rick Lewis, the young squirrel with his dark blue suit, which always looked like it was oversized, and a new red and white striped tie, which he wore almost like a medal. An heirloom of his father, how he once said, which he just wore on special occasions.

And today was one of these special occasions, today was the day he got honored for capturing three of the biggest villains of Petropolis at once. Birdbrain, Snaptrap and the Chameleon. All of them caught by him. That sounds at first of cause very heroically but it wasn´t such a heroic deed.

More a coincidence. As he should get some doughnuts for the office he entered a little bakery and there the three sat, unarmed and careless. Every child with a gun could have apprehended those three in that moment. So Rick took his chance and now he got honored for his opportunism.

Proudly he strode through the applauding crowd towards his chief, Kitty Katswell, who already waited with a medal in her hand. She grinned friendly as Rick came to her. Also she felt proud. Rick has been her protégé over the last years since Dudley was gone and finally all these months of training effort paid off.

With this deed should he also be accepted among the other Agent. Kitty remembered that he couldn´t really integrate. Rick wasn´t really the typical agent, he was different. And like it always is if someone is different he gets rejected by the broad mass.

But Kitty believed in the one´s who are different. Her last partner, Dudley Puppy, was also different.
Thinking about him let all those memories come back to the surface. The good old memories and the recent bad memories. The mixture of both created this feeling of indifference in her again.

"Congratulations Rick." Beamed Kitty as he finally arrived in front of her.
"Thanks chief." Smiled Rick back as Kitty pinned him the medal on his chest. "But no need to honor me, it was my duty."

Kitty had almost started to laugh and pat his head like you would do it with a little kid that just made a funny comment. It was funny and cute at the same time when Rick tried to be cool with clichéd movie quotes. But out of respect and because she didn´t want to destroy the new reputation he earned she didn´t do that. She just grinned, nodded and tried not to burst into laughter.

"Okay e..e..everyone." called Keswick who stood beside her. "The party is over. We have three of them but h..h..hundreds are still on the streets. Back to work."
Grumbling dissolved the crowd and the T.U.F.F. agents shuffled back to their cubicles.

"Oh and chief, can I t..t..talk to you in private?" without waiting for an answer Keswick had already entered Kitty´s office. A little dusty chamber with a big desk in the middle. It was still furnished in the same way it was furnished by the last chief Herbert Dumbrovski who also died in here.

For Kitty it was hard to call this office her own. The chief was like a father for her and sudden death surprised everyone at T.U.F.F.. She was lucky that it wasn´t her who found him on that day. After Scratch´s unmasking and the things he told her on that day it would have been too much for her.

Still she heard his words in her head like a bad song. "I did this for you Kitty." This sentence was pure provocation. He did that for her? So the depressions and the suicidal thoughts were also something he did for her? The longer she thought about that the more this feeling of indifference arose in her.

That was a really creepy feeling. When she felt it, it was like everything around her doesn´t matter for her anymore. Her whole world began to become grey and indistinguishable, also a feeling of emotional emptiness slowly arose.

That was a reason why she didn´t think so much about the whole Dudley-Scratch-thing. Keswick in the meantime walked with a stern expression in front of the table and waited until Kitty closed the door. In the second the lock clicked into place his stern expression melted into a smirking face.

Kitty knew exactly what was going on and began to laugh loudly. "Haha! This boy is really killing me! 'It was my duty.'" She began to hold her stomach.
"I know." Meant Keswick joining in her laughter. "This g..g..guy is sometimes so unintentionally hilarious. Like last month when he a..a..accidentally got his tie into the shredder."

"With the time he is getting more and more like Dudley." Giggled Kitty but instead of joining her Keswick suddenly became quiet.
"Yeah, e..e..except for the fact that he wouldn´t leave and betray us." He said with a voice that was so stern like his face as he entered the office.

"Keswick don´t start this again, please." Sighed Kitty who regretted it now that she mentioned Dudley even if it was unintentionally.
"Don´t start this again?! Just two m..m..months have passed since we know that Dudley is Scratch. I think it hasn´t e..e..ended yet! I´m not starting this again!"

"Keswick, I just don´t want to hear it again, okay. For me he´s dead. It´s over."
"That´s all well and good…" sighed Keswick. "…but even if t..t..this point of view gives you finally the peace you deserve, we s..s..shouldn´t forget that Scratch is a criminal, our enemy!"

"As long as he isn´t in the city, we don´t have to deal with him. That´s how it is. And do you really want to bother me with a potential threat on my last working day before my vacation?"
Keswick suddenly looked taken aback at Kitty, he totally forgot about that. Kitty´s big trip.

It was one of her dreams to make holidays in India. And with the pay raise she received through her promotion to the new chief she finally had the means to make her dream come true. Today she was just here to give Rick his medal and do some paperwork concerning her temporary replacement.

The times in which the name of the one was drawn out of an old head were over. Nowadays you have to send an application to the supreme command if you want to have a temporary replacement. Then they decide if you get one and who it is. The big joke about that is that they won´t tell you who your replacement is.

So instead of letting the chief decide who would be the best to lead T.U.F.F., you get a complete stranger.
Kitty sat down behind her big table and began to fill the last few sheets while Keswick leaned back on the chair on the other side of the table.

"Don´t you have work to do?" mumbled Kitty without looking up from her papers.
"I´m carrying out an experiment w..w..where I test the long-term effects of coffee on usual agents."
"Seriously?" laughed Kitty. "You just watch the people drink coffee?"

"Yes." Confirmed Keswick smiling. "And I watch how the p..p..people react on that… For science."
"And what´s next? A long-term study how youtube videos influence the work habits?"
"How do you k..k..know that?" asked Keswick and pretended to be surprised.

"Just a guess." Meant Kitty and concentrated back on her papers. She filled a lot of sheets until the phone on her desk started ringing. She pressed the button for the speaker on it and answered it.
"Hello?"

"Yeah… uhm, hello Chief Katswell." Boomed a voice through the speaker which sounded like three generations of incest. It was the voice of the new gatekeeper of T.U.F.F.. A pig which could be easily described with the two attributes dumb and nice.

"Ah Mike, what´s going on?" called Kitty friendly towards the phone.
"Uhm here is someone for you."
"Who?"

"Uhm… ah cheetah girl with a green top and brown pants and black boots. She has brown hair and wears them as a braid…"
"Mike…" sighed Kitty with her hand on her face. She couldn´t believe how dim he was. "Don´t describe her to me, give me her name."

"Uhm… I forgot it… but she´s on her way upstairs." With these words he hung up. Kitty now put her hand from her face and hit her head on the table unbelieving.
"Hey, Kitty. Since when we´ve been e..e..employing idiots?" asked Keswick grinning evilly.
"We once employed Dudley." She said with her head still on the table.

"Your point." Laughed the T.U.F.F. scientist. "Well, I think I clear o..o..out now. I don´t want to interrupt you and your temporally r..r..replacement doing all this bureaucratic stuff. So, so long!" Keswick opened the door and left the little office.

But not a minute later the door opened again and the cheetah woman which Mike has described entered the room. Kitty´s eyes almost popped out of her head as she saw her standing in front of her. A well-known face she hadn´t seen for a while. Actually, a face she didn´t want to see ever again. But she was it, no doubt.

"Hello Kitty, you missed me?" sneered the cheetah with her hands on her hips.
"Oh damn no." cursed Kitty smacking the palm of her hand against her forehead. "Not you. Why, for god´s sake, does it have to be you?!"

"Still so theatrical Kitty?" the cheetah asked and set down on the chair Keswick sat before. "You really haven´t changed since the academy… well, you grew older."
"Exactly like you! We have the same age!" retorted Kitty angrily and stood up.
"Nope, I kept my youth."

Tired and not willing to give any further respond to these provocations, Kitty flopped back down on her chair. "Jessica…" she sighed. "What do you want from me? Are you just here to annoy me?"
"No, actually I´m here to congratulate you." Jessica smirked. "It´s really impressing that the number two graduate of the academy becomes the chief of a T.U.F.F. branch."

"Here we go again, huh?" Kitty couldn´t believe that Jessica still beat this dead horse. Just because she was a bit better in the final tests of the academy than Kitty, Jessica thought that this would made her the number one agent. "You know that you had just had one point more in this exam! And you know that I beat you in the basic training later!"

"Pah, I didn´t even try to be good in the basic training, otherwise I had beaten you without any problems."
"Whatever." Kitty averted her gaze from Jessica onto the papers on her table. "See, I´m waiting for my temporally replacement so would you be so kindly to disappear?"

"Oh, then I have a surprise for you…"
Kitty looked back up from her papers almost in shock. "You kidding…"
"Jessica Spotrunner, at your service."
"NO!"

"Yes!" Jessica began to laugh maliciously.
"Oh come one!" shouted the cat in exasperation. "Every time I think things are looking up life comes and f*cks me!"
"Well, that´s probably the only sex you get, huh?"

"Ah, what do you know." Hissed Kitty and pushed a sheet over the table towards Jessica.
"I heard the thing that happened with this Eric." Said the cheetah as she set her signature on the form.

"Who told you that?!" Kitty couldn´t believe what she just heard, these were private affairs. And Kitty couldn´t remember that she told Jessica anything private.
"That was just gossip picked up at the water cooler." Jessica didn´t look like she felt sorry for Kitty, she looked more like she was enjoying Kitty´s suffer.

"Enough… enough." Stammered Kitty and walked to the door of her office. "I´m going on my vacation now. And you, do whatever you want. But don´t dare to be here when I´m back."
"Oh come on Kitty. It´s been 19 years since we´ve seen the last time. Let´s talk a bit more." Screamed Jessica but Kitty had already left the office.

"Okay, if she doesn´t want to talk." Jessica stood up from her chair just to sit down on the chief´s chair behind the desk. Contentedly she laid her feet on the table and leaned relaxed back. "Two weeks" she thought. "Two weeks in which I´m finally having the job I deserve."

In her opinion it was about time that she got this job. Five years she tried to become the chief at T.U.F.F. in Petsburg but then they promoted this completely incompetent idiot. This guy wasn´t even able to tie his own shoes! No need to say that he wasn´t much good as a boss.

That was also the reason why she left the T.U.F.F. branch in Petsburg… Well, not the only reason. The main reason was a little angry outburst in which she destroyed almost the whole office there. Since this little mistake the supreme command has sent her from branch to branch to work as a filler.

She hated it. Her biggest wish now was to get back a normal job as an Agent or even a chief of a T.U.F.F. branch. She needed a way back.
But at first she would enjoy this job here in Petropolis. Especially she would enjoy that she had the chance to annoy her old competitor Kitty Katswell what was like someone put a cherry on this cake.

And it seemed that this was a complete success. If Jessica loved one thing then it was annoying Kitty. In these 19 years in which they haven´t seen each other it was one of the things she missed.
Why she did that?

Well, Jessica liked it to be the number one and since the academy Kitty was the only one who had the potential to be as good as her. So she teased her on every day they shared at the academy.
"Good old times." Sighed Jessica reminiscing and put her feet from the table. It was time to work now. And maybe if she did a good job the supreme command would promote here, who knew?

"Okay… first step is… ah! Case files! Maybe there is something interesting… Okay where is Kitty hiding them?" She began to search in the drawers of the table. But except of some empty sheets she found nothing. "Seems like you became a bit lazy Kitty." As she also searched the last drawer she discovered something.

It was a normal drawer but a very slim one and it was locked. "Oh Kitty." Mumbled Jessica shaking her head. "Do you really think you can hide something from me?" At one go she yanked the drawer open and discovered a file in it.

"What do we have here?" curiously she began to read through the file. "Scratch? I thought that was a myth…" she read further. The file contained contextless information about this guy. Also some photos of him. And then there were four names Willson, White, Robson, Johnson. They were underlined together with the word conspirators. On the last page of the file there was a little note added. 'Keep your distance, he´s dangerous. You know what he did to you.'

"Well, well. So he´s really exisiting. And he´s dangerous, huh?" thought Jessica smiling. She knew Scratch but just from rumors that the scum tells on the streets she picked up while she worked as an undercover agent. Scratch is a legend there. One of those legends the people just tell with fear in their voice. She could remember that a murdering biker with a long beard told her this legend for the first time.

Back then she dismissed this story as nonsense but with this file in her hand an idea suddenly stirred in her. Assuming that Kitty is a reliable source and the stuff in that file was true, what would happen if someone caught this legend?

The person would definitely get promoted. No, more than that, the person could wish for whatever she wants. Jessica began to smile, that was her way out.
There was just one little flaw. She had no idea where Scratch was. But that was, as already mentioned, just a little flaw. She would get him, but she needed help.