Chapter 5: The Secret Truth

Where: Acmetropolis, flying to Loonatic HQ

When: 20 minutes after defeating Dr Dare

Katarina Vester was traveling along side with her Loonatic team mates, up in the air riding the jetpacks Tech created himself (except for Rev, he was actually flying without a jetpack). As they traveled towards the tall aquamarine building with a white glowing sphere at the top, Kat still couldn't believe she was riding a jetpack. She remembered when she had to ride a black S.I.D. helicopter to ride the air. Although she was having fun in the air, she couldn't help thinking she was being watched during the battle with Dr 'Says-Bad-Rock-Puns-A-Lot'.

"Good work, Loonatics," Zadavia's accent echoed as a blonde transparent woman in rainbow beams, floating in midair with the Loonatics, "We can all breathe easy now that Dr Dare is in his stone prison,"

"Again." Kat added after Zadavia's voice snapped herself out of her private thoughts.

Zadavia continued on, "If it wasn't for-"

"My Aqua Dense power we would all be doomed by that magic stick!" Duck announced, interrupting Zadavia like always.

"No, Duck!" Zadavia corrected, "I mean if it wasn't for Katarina and her lightning rod idea, all of Acmetropolis would've been stone cold,"

"Thanks, Zadavia. And it's just Kat by the way." she smiled.

Before you knew it, Rev began his speedy yapping, "You-know-I-think-it's-funny-your-nickname-is-Kat-because-you-are-a-cat-but-it-would-be-really-funny-if-the-first-letter-in-your-name-was-a-'c'-instead-of-a-'k'-so-would-be-calling-you-Cat-even-though-they-both-sound-exactly-the-same-Kat-Cat-Kat-Cat-Kat-Cat-Kat-Cat-Kat-Cat-Kat-"

"Yes, Rev. It would be funny if it was Catarina instead of Katarina, even though they sound the same." Tech sarcastically stopped him at once.

"Oh and Kat, there's two people waiting for you in HQ," the colourful woman said before she zapped away, "Zadavia out."

"Hey eh, Kitty Kat. Were you expecting anyone?" Ace asked as he flew ahead with his team mates gaining closer to HQ.

"I wasn't expecting…oh no." Kat realized who the two uninvited guests were.

While the rest of the team was curious of whom the intruders were Kat was nervous about seeing them again since she knew who they were. However Kat was prepared to face them, after all she doesn't have to do what they demand anymore. The Loonatics entered the large dark briefing room lit up by Zadavia's hologram presence in the middle of the table with two real buff men who must be twins dressed in black suits and black sunglasses so dark you couldn't see their eyes while standing near the table.

"Who are these guys, Kat? I'm pretty sure they're not your type." Lexi smiled as all the Loonatics sat down around the table.

"Just a couple of goons who shouldn't be here." Kat grumbled, sparks of electricity were buzzing around her paws with anger, lighting up the room like flashing strobe lights.

"But we were ordered to find you, Agent Panther." one of the giant dummies flatly clarified.

"Agent Panther?" Duck blurted.

Kat growled with her paws unintentionally making bigger sparks, "Those days are behind me. It's just Kat now."

Kat knew there was no doubt she could hold back her secret from her first and only friends, the chief's brainless and emotionless men in black were there. Obviously to get Kat back, well better them coming to her instead of the other way round.

Surprisingly, Zadavia didn't know, "Katarina, what is going on?"

"I used to be an agent for S.I.D." Kat sighed the painful truth.

"Sid? Who's Sid?" Duck shrugged, as always, getting the wrong idea.

"The S.I.D. is the Secret. Intelligence. Department. You may think Agent Panther has less experience of saving the world because she's the newest member of your little 'superhero group' but Agent Panther has saved the world many more times than you'll ever know…" the other twin explained.

Not surprisingly, Duck laughed loudly, "Wait? Kat, a secret agent? A spy? That's impossible she's just a kid! What's her secret weapon? A teddy bear?" His loud laughter caused him to fall backwards on his chair.

Tech scoffed with his arms crossed and a smug smile across his long face, "Says the 'action hero' who owns a rubber duck with a napkin as a cape."

Duck defensively cried, "You keep Danger Duck the second out of this!"

"Hey, doc. How about you give us more details, all of this is making us woozy in the head." Ace suggested.

One of the twins in black explained all the information about Katarina Vester that was unknown to the Loonatics and the rest of Acmetropolis, "When Miss Vester was a baby kitten her parents were killed in a train accident and she was the only survivor. The orphanage found her and raised for two years, they soon realized her natural abilities involving her high IQ and her physical agility such as natural cat parkour and acrobatics, and electronic engineering, languages, science, plus her ways of working out puzzles, equations and codes at a young age. The S.I.D. realized about this too, so on her second birthday we came by order of the S.I.D. to adopt her. After the adoption, the S.I.D. deleted all information of Katarina Vester, making her not existing to those who never met her,"

"So that's why I couldn't find any files of Kat and why Zadavia couldn't track her. You kept away from the outside world to make her not even be known." Tech realized out loud during a pause in the information.

The other twin continued on for his brother, "We kept Kat in her S.I.D. bedroom for three years to see to improve on her mental abilities-"

"Excuse me, but the last time I checked; bedrooms had beds. It was a metal prison cell filled with broken bits of technology." Kat meowed.

The twin went on with his rambling, "Unfortunately, it was more than an improvement…she used the inventions she created to escape the bedroom and the building. Luckily we kept bringing her back, but she tried to escape 27 times-"

"28 actually." Kat corrected in a grumble.

"-At age 5, the S.I.D. decided to train her to be an agent, improving her natural skills and giving her new ones like stealth, hacking, martial arts, weapons, driving, lock picking, undercover, marksmanship and plenty more. Once her training and tests were complete at age 9 and a half, we gave her an actual home and sent her on assignments…won them every time and was our top agent…until she quit many months ago, one night and day before the meteor crash."

Most of the Loonatics were expecting Kat to calm down her powers and blush, flattered. Instead Kat had her arms crossed with stronger and larger sparks buzzing out of her paws and her eyes filled with an angry blue glow.

"I'm still not convinced. Kat could've hired these muscle heads to tell us these lies to make herself seem cool since she's the newbie." Duck smiled doubtfully.

"I've been here for months, when are you going to stop calling me the newbie?" Kat moaned with the blueness in her eyes fading away.

"As soon as you stop these guys lying." Duck snorted with his bill up high.

Both of the stone faced twins pressed a button, activating the giant screen above all the Loonatics below. The screen viewed the surveillance footage recording of Kat's last mission ever.

"Where did you get this?" Zadavia asked about the video she never seen before.

One of the twins with flat heads answered, "We record everything."

"Eww, that's just disturbing." Lexi gulped.

Soon enough, Kat's team mates seen it all…the motorcycle, Rapid and Tweetdumb, the laser beams, Dr Sonic's invention, the bomb…everything, by the time it was over the Loonatic team mates all had stunned dazes on their faces at Kat. No longer a secret and Kat was sure Duck believed the men in black now.

Especially when Duck cried, "Why on earth did you quit? You were living my dream! And why didn't Sid chose me from the orphanage instead of a thumb sucker?"

"First of all: I don't suck my thumb. Second of all I quit since it was a lonely life with no friends, team mates, a partner or family. I took a job at the museum after the crash and the day I quit to make sure I earned money, get new friends and prove to the chief I can survive in the outside world without him. But they took everything from me…including my old cool pent house. He took more than that before I quit, he took away the opportunity of being adopted by a normal family! He took away my emotions as I trained! He took me away from other kids!" Kat roared, nearly sobbing.

Slam patted Kat on the back with a few confusing grumbles she could understand.

At the time he stopped Kat's eyes glowed back to blue with her paws sparking in a more powerful state as she stood up boldly.

"And if you Eastern island heads are here to bring me back then no! There is nothing you can say that'll force me back to that miserable lonely life of a S.I.D. agent! Nothing!" Kat went on with her vision focused on the chief's goons.

"Not even if Nigel Bank now has his cold hands on the Sonic-Wave Blaster 3000?" one of the twins rhetorically asked. Kat could've sworn she saw a smile sneaking across the twin's face.

"What?" Kat said and thought at the same time.

The other twin explained, "A few weeks ago, Bank's goons Rapid Gonzales and Tweetdumb attempted to steal the Dr Sonic's Sonic-Wave Blaster 3000 once again…and succeeded. The S.I.D.'s current agents tried to stop Bank, but they couldn't accomplish their task quite so soon. You were the only agent who defeated Bank on countless occasions and survived. With your training, skills and new abilities, the chief needs you to stop Bank from combining other powerful inventions into the most dangerous weapon according to his plan. Will you help?"

Kat was silent, she knew if she gone back to that life she'll never be happy again…but if she doesn't then the whole world could be in danger. During her thoughts and silence, the sparks zapped away, the glow in her eyes faded once again and she fell down on her chair.

"You've got two hours to make your decision." One of the twins insisted and walked away with the other.

Kat couldn't believe she broke her silence as she said while still trying to make her decision, "Don't keep your hopes up."