Elena was feeling better now, her strength almost fully returned. She had spent the better part of the day helping Chance and Jake in the garage and with the repairs to the Turbokat. She was also surprised to find that her motorcycle was finished. The guys had competed it for her while she was recuperating.

Towards late afternoon, she was back working at the computer. The episode the night before had really bothered her. She refused to discuss it, and Chance knew better than to say anything. Jake never had any idea what had happened, but he could feel the slight tension between his two friends. Like Chance, he also knew that it was better not to ask the she-kat anything when she clearly didn't want to talk.

Elena scanned through the recent crime reports from the hacked Enforcer computer files. While doing so, she thought back to last night. To the strange and painful feeling that her body was changing. That she was loosing control of herself. She glanced down to the scars on her arm, now almost completely faded after only a few short days. She had been bitten, quite badly, by a felynthrope. A 'werekat' as they were also called. She knew that evil magic created the beasts, but that their bites could also cause a victim to become one, if the victim somehow managed to survive, that is.

She continued to work into the night, then finally found something. Elena turned quickly to her smaller computer and began to type furiously. The lines of codes scrolled quickly over the screen. She had found the strange signal from the microneural transmitter than controlled the drone jets! The signal was extremely feint, but it was there. She worked fast, tracing the signal. After what seemed like hours, but was in fact only a few short minutes, she completed the trace, mere seconds before it vanished again.

"That's strange... Underground?"

The she-kat leaned back in her chair, looking at the coordinates on the screen. Something just didn't feel right. She was feeling much better now, and she was restless. She needed to get out. After a few moments, she shut off the screen on the small monitor and got up. She climbed the ladder to the garage above, then continued up to stairs to the apartment, and into the bedroom.

Jake and Chance both looked at her in surprise when she walked back out of the bedroom in different clothes. They knew about the clothing, but it was the first time they had seen her wear them. Her original clothing that she had worn from the Shadow Relm, loose-fitting and comfortable, had been combined with black biker boots, black gloves that were the same was what the guys wore with their flight suits, and a black leather jacket.

Chance was quite impressed with her appearance, but also a bit concerned. "Going out?"

"Yeah, I need to get out for a bit. Thanks for finishing my bike, by the way." She smiled sweetly. There was no way she was going to let them know her true intentions. They'd never let her go alone. Elena smiled faintly to herself. They were almost as bad as Cymric had been about protecting her.

"Be careful, darlin'."

"Of course."

She headed back down the stairs to the garage, then walked the bike outside. She had designed it herself, with a little help from the guys. It suited her perfectly, built for speed and maneuverability, a bit like their cyclotrons. After putting on her silver motorcycle helmet, she revved the engine, kicked up the kickstand, and shot off in a cloud of dust out of the salvage yard and towards the city. It was late when she neared the other side of Megakat City, sometime after 11. The streets were mostly empty of traffic so she gunned the engines, testing out what her bike was capable of. Of course, several times she came upon an Enforcer patrol car. She had opened her mind to sense for them, and slowed down just before approaching, speeding back up again once they were out of sight.

Eventually she neared the location of where she had traced the strange signal to. She pulled the bike into a dark alley, idling the engine. The joy-ride was over, now it was time to get to work. Elena's mind shifted back to the mentality of the warrior-sorceress that she had been for so many years prior to meeting the SWAT Kats. But now there was one difference, she was combining magic with technology.

She held her hands out at her sides, palms up. With a sweeping motion, she brought her arms up and about her, as if she were pulling a blanket over her body. The Shadow Cloak wrapped around both her and the bike. The silver motorcycle changed to jet black, as did her helmet. Her clothing melted into a black body suit.

Revving the engine again, she rode quickly down the alley, coming out into another street at the other end. She had memorized the location of the signal's source, and knew she was very close. Another mile, and she pulled into another alley. Shutting off the bike, Elena maneuvered it behind a dumpster and placed the helmet on the seat. The Shadow Cloak made the bike virtually invisible in the dark shadows. Walking down the alley, the she-kat soon came to a sewer grating. Pulling it open, she jumped agilely down into the darkness below. She didn't have the stone with her, but she felt that she didn't need it. Whatever had made the signal, and the two drone jets it had controlled, was technological, not magical. She had scanned the city for magical energies before she left any ways, and had found none.

It was pitch black in the sewer, but Elena was used to darkness. She was, after all, the chosen of the Moon Talisman. She had become almost nocturnal in her years as it's keeper. Her delicate whiskers and keen ears helped her find her way in the darkness. She was close. She opened her mind, sensing for signs of life. Her magic had become stronger since becoming the keeper of the Astral Stone.

Elena suddenly stopped. She felt a presence nearby. Below her. Something... strange. She almost didn't notice it, until she remembered that she was now in the heart of a massive city, not the huge forest she had known so well. Large amounts of plant life didn't belong there. Not where she was. Yet that's what she felt. And something else. Something wrong, twisted. Too late she realized her mistake. A tendril reached up through a grate in the ground and grabbed her ankle. Before she could react, Elena was jerked down into a deeper part of the sewer.

She spun as soon as she hit the ground, kicking hard at the tendril. It jerked back. There was a soft glow, a lantern. Elena gasped. She was surrounded by hideous beasts. They resembled fungi, but could move around like animals!

A soft hissing laugh echoed from the shadows in front of her. Elena turned to look at the strange figure that stepped out of the darkness at the edge of the lantern-light.

"Ssssoooo... Your the one who traced my sssssignal? I had expected the ssssssSWAT Katsssss."

Dr. Viper's glowing eyes glared at the she-kat, a sadistic grin on his scaled face. "But it ssssseems that now you've fallen right into my little trap, my dear. Now, why don't you tell me who you are?"

Elena narrowed her eyes. "Your signal? You're the one who sent those drones against us?"

"Ussss? Who are you?"

She smiled. Elena had used the Cloak to partially conceal her face. Her eyes were shadowed beneath her dark hair, her red braids and silver earrings also hidden. "I'm called 'Dragonfly'."

"I sssssssee. And your working with the ssssssSWAT Katsssss?" He knew it was their tracer signal that found him.

She didn't respond Not a single movement beyond her steady breathing.

"Well then, if you are with them, then you will be the perfect bait to lure them into my trap!"

Elena glared at the serpentine kat before her. "Exactly who, or what, are you?" She was already sure that she knew, but she wanted her suspicions confirmed.

He laughed wickedly. "You may call me, Dr. Viper!"

The she-kat glanced around her at the hideous mutations surrounding her. "Alright then." She paused, then looked back to Viper with a wicked grin. "Hey Doc, I gotta riddle for you."

He raised an eyebrow at this. "Oh really? And what isssss that?"

"I live beneath the ground, and fall without a sound. Light a torch to see my face, and I vanish without a trace. What am I?" Her eyes had a soft red glow in the feint light.

"Hmmm..." Viper scratched his chin with a clawed hand. "Only shadowssss and darknessss vanish in the light."

She narrowed her eyes with a dark smile, her voice a half whisper. "Exactly!" With a single, quick motion, she swept her right arm in front of her, as if pulling a cloak across her body. In fact, that's exactly what she did. The Shadow Cloak wrapped fully around her this time and the she-kat vanished into a living shadow.

"WHAT?"

In the next instant, three of the fungi-creatures exploded, as if they had been sliced in half by a sharp blade.

"No!" Viper retreated back into the shadows. He had never expected something like this.

Several more of his creations were destroyed by the unseen weapon and it's wielder, including the living vine that had pulled her down there. Then the sound of boots running on concrete could be heard echoing down a black tunnel. He wanted to follow her. Wanted to take vengeance for her destroying his creations, but the strange she-kat was too powerful. He needed help. And he knew exactly where to get it.

Dr. Viper knew his way down the dark tunnels almost as well as Elena had known every single inch of the forest she used to live in. It didn't take him long to find the hidden lever in the wall of an adjacent tunnel. He pulled the lever and the panel slid open. Once he walked inside, it closed again behind him. Viper's long serpentine tail lashed. He was very irritated. Who was that she-kat? How did she possibly do the things she did? If she really was working with the SWAT Kats, then he had an even bigger problem now. But he wasn't deterred. He was still going to continue with the plan. They wouldn't stop him this time!

Viper walked over to the large mass of computer systems, and the "thing" that sat next to him. At one time, it was a kat, but now it was hideously mutated. The shredded remains of the kat's clothing had a particular insignia on the front of it, over what used to be the name tag. The name tag was gone, but the insignia still recognizable. It stood for "Pumadyne Inc."

Viper hissed to his 'creation'. "Activate your remote trackerssss! I want that she-kat sssstopped!" Dissssable her and bring her here! Now!"

The creature didn't move. He never did. He always just stayed huddled in the corner next to the hardware. He didn't have to move though. All he had to do was think. The wires coming out of the large computer system connected directly into his brain. Following his master's orders, the mutated kat 'thought' his orders into the program. Three dog-like machines suddenly came to life, and took off at a run down the sewers.

Dr. Viper was a molecular biologist. Computer technology wasn't his strong point. That's why he had to 'recruit' help for this particular project. He hated to rely on machines. Hated them. He preferred his creations. Machines could never imitate the strength and power of living things. But this kat had killed his creations. The machines were expendable. If they failed, his 'assistant' could rebuild them.

Elena was an excellent tracker, but everything in the sewers looked the same. She had quickly lost her way. All she knew was that she had to get back up. Back to the streets above. Then she could find her bike and get back to the salvage yard. This was something she couldn't do alone. Elena preferred to know her enemy. She knew a little about Dr. Viper, but not nearly as much as the SWAT Kats did. She needed to tell them about what was going on. But first, she had to find her way out of this maze.

Elena heard a sound behind her. A clicking sound, like steel on stone. Something was following her. And whatever it was, it was moving fast! No, not 'it'. 'Them'. There was more than one. Three by the sound of it. She rotated her left wrist, summoning once again the magic spear. The spear's blade could cut through almost anything organic. But could it cut through metal? Could it cut through these things, which she could only guess were machines, that followed her? Only one way to find out.

She stopped suddenly and spun around, facing the three sets of glowing 'eyes' that quickly approached her. Optic sensors. They were machines. The glow of their sensors was the only thing she could see, but her shadow cloak prevented them from seeing her. Or did it?

Too late she realized that they could see her. The cloak hid her form, but not her heat. They could see her via infrared!

"Oh crud..."

The first one lunged, the other two right behind it. She lept up, easily jumping over the hunting machines. But their reflexes were quick. Just like the drone jets. The three landed and lunged again. Elena side stepped, slashing the first with her spear. The sound of steel on steel echoed through the tunnels. Her spear wasn't strong enough to damage them. Now she knew she was in trouble.

"I am having a bad week!" She wondered what mirror she broken to cause this kind of rotten luck.

The machines were relentless. One she stood a chance against. Not three. Not without any weapons. She tried to run down the tunnel, but they were too fast. One grabbed her leg, jerking her to the ground. Elena spun around and stabbed her spear right at it's optical sensors. She connected, smashing one of them out. It had no effect. The other two had caught up by then. One grabbed the spear out of her hands, the other clamped down hard on her arm. She felt a sudden sharp pain. It wasn't the steel teeth, but more like a needle.

"What the Hell...? Oh no." They weren't trying to kill her. They were restraining her. Well, at least that meant she wouldn't be killed, yet. And that meant a chance of escape. She didn't fight the drug, she just let herself slip back into blackness. Again. "A very... bad... week..."