Chapter Eleven
"Talking"
'Thoughts'
At hearing the low husky voice speak his real name, T-Bone stiffened with fear and anger. Razor froze in watchful stillness at the same time. Leaning against the jet, the strangers eyed the vigilantes calmly, their postures relaxed.
Studying them, Razor noticed one had blue eyes, the other gold. 'Who were they?' he wondered, frowning.
"I don't know who you two are and I don't care. But get out of our way!" T-Bone growled angrily, finally deciding whoever these guys were didn't matter as much as going after the Metallikats. He raised his glovatrix and aimed it at them, threateningly.
"Or you'll what? Make us?" The oni with the gold eyes said indolently.
"If we have to...yes! We can't let the Metallikats get away, they're a danger to the city!" Razor add his threat to T-Bone's. They had to get going or they would lose the robot pair.
Raising his own glovatrix was the signal for T-Bone to lunge forward. Expecting this, the blue eyed oni, moved with the swiftness of their kind and met the pilot head on. As they came together, Kazuma grabbed T-Bone's armed left arm, pulling it behind the tom's back, lifted the whole body upward without effort and threw the tabby over his shoulder to go flying past Urabe.
Razor had been moving at the same time as his partner but halted in shock at the incredible speed of the blue eyed stranger then ran forward when he saw his partner strike the side of the Turbokat and slide to the ground.
"T-Bone!"
He charged forward to check his partner, his eyes on the one who had tossed the tabby in case he tried to stop him but it wasn't him that suddenly appeared before him. Gold eyes stared into his masked face just inches away making him jump backward in shocked surprise. Despite that, he raised his arms, ready to fight.
"Who are you? Why are you trying to stop us?" Razor demanded, frustration making his voice tight and angry. Past the golden eyed one, he could see his partner slowly getting to his feet.
"We? Well…Jake, you could say we are here to put you and your friend here out of business," Urabe said keeping her voice calm and easy.
"What?...Why? You seem to be doing the same thing as us and how do you know who we are in the first place," Razor demanded confused.
"Oh, we know everything about you and we're not here to be would be heroes like you two think you are. We're here strictly to set things right again for all and to do that, you need to be taken out of the picture." Kazuma answered.
"Us? What did we do?" T-Bone asked eyeing the blue eyed warrior uneasily. 'Crap, that guy threw me as if I was only a sack of potatoes. What is he?' He wondered. 'Not a normal Kat, that's for sure.'
"Oh a lot of things. One example is your grudge against the enforcers..." Urabe snorted turning her head to eye T-Bone archly.
"Oh so Feral sent you." T-Bone snarled.
"My, aren't you quick to judge!" Kazuma said in disgusted annoyance, raising his paws and extending his claws.
"Tsk, tsk, maybe you didn't hear my partner clearly...we said everyone which, of course, means Feral too," Urabe corrected the tabby bringing up a finger and shaking it at T-Bone in admonishment.
"Then who…?" T-Bone started to say when Kazuma moved toward him at eye-blurring speed grabbed his g-suit and tossed the tabby yet again.
"T-Bone!" Razor cried out, again trying to get to his partner's side only to intercept a solid kick to the side of his head that sent him flying back.
Urabe smirked a little under her mask as she watched Razor hit the roof floor with a thud but a sudden cry of pain had her turn around swiftly to witness Kazuma putting T-Bone in a head lock and twisting one of the tabby's arms behind his back, making him yelp in pain.
'I probably should stop Kazuma from breaking that idiot's arm though it would have served as a visible reminder to them.' She sighed, 'No ... injury isn't a great idea right now but kicking their asses is.'
"Hey, try not to hurt him too much. We need them to give Briggs a message, remember?" Urabe called to Kazuma coolly.
"And what message would that be?" Razor asked, warily, struggling to getting to his knees.
"We know everything."
~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~
Down on the street below, Antonio's eyes caught the flash of blue and red followed by a black form on the rooftop across the street.
Antonio was to stall Steele from racing after the Metallikats who were just peeling away in their odd vehicle. Fortunately, the Lt. Commander was still getting free of the mess made by the robots and yelling orders at his enforcers at the moment, so Antonio waited to see what Steele would do next before initiating new ways to delay the officer. No one paid him any special mind as he was wearing an enforcer uniform, the very one Kazuma had used some days ago.
Urabe had ordered him to infiltrate the enforcers the moment they took off to respond to the call on the Metallikats. It was easy for him to do this as the squad was totally focused on getting into their vehicles quickly and tearing off down the street to notice they had one more person than they'd started off with.
Bringing up a smoky, silver colored paw to his helmet, Antonio tapped it three times, signaling Karel that it was time for the other male to notify Raina to get ready. The female Sahara had been sent over to the Megakat Broadcasting Building to take over as pilot for the Kat's Eye News chopper.
The original pilot, Al, had an unfortunate run in with some bad tuna and was out sick. Raina's job was to insure Ann Gora and her camerakat would not be covering the event with the Metallikats.
Receiving the signal he was expecting from Antonio, Karel raised his right arm to use his communicator strapped there. Pressing a button, he connected with Raina. "Everything ready?" he muttered quickly keeping an eye on those around him, ensuring no one was watching.
"Affirmative. I disabled the chopper by pulling some wires. It will allow me to take off but not for long before having to return due to 'mechanical difficulties,'" she said, satisfaction in her voice.
"Good. I'll signal Antonio to start distancing Steele now then I'll head out," Karel said glancing over his shoulder to find Antonio. The male was standing next to an angry Steele who was waving his arms around.
"Good luck, Karel," Raina said before cutting the connection. She knew it was Karel's responsibility to track the Metallikats until the EMP went off then take the metal bodies away before the enforcers caught up to their vehicle.
Karel made a high sign which Antonio spotted then nodded letting him know he'd seen the signal. Turning away, Antonio grabbed Lt. Commander by the shoulder to get his attention. From his vantage point, Karel watched as the older Sahara said something to Steele that caused the tom to tense up, his face reflecting fury and outrage.
Shaking his head, Karel had to give Antonio credit for having the ability to piss people off with ease but then, Steele was so very easy to get angry, especially if someone questioned his orders.
He could hear Steele shouting from where he stood as the slim tom railed at the disguised Sahara male.
"That it! I won't put up with this kind of disrespect among my Enforcers!" Steele snarled loudly.
"Sorry? I thought I worked for Commander Feral, not you. My apologizes, sir, " Antonio said, mockingly.
The squad of enforcers milled around waiting for orders. Many enjoyed the mini show being put on by their annoying and incompetent second in command but others were getting worried about dealing with the real problem at paw...that of going after the Metallikats.
This altercation made it easy for Karel to slip away, leaving the enforcer weapon he'd borrowed on the top of one of the enforcer sedans before slowly backing into an alley behind him. He kept moving until the shadows in the alley hid him from view and allowed him to turn and run to the end of the alley way where he stopped and stripped off his clothes and changed into ones Urabe had left for him in a bag stashed behind a trash can.
When dressed, he stuffed the enforcer uniform into the bag, took out a key to a vehicle parked nearby and ran to its side. It was a large, green panel van which he unlocked, tossed the bag in on the passenger's seat then climbed into the driver's seat.
Starting the engine, he paused and looked around for a laptop that was supposed to be here for him. Though his cell phone had an EMP device in it, the laptop afforded a better connection. Finding it under the passenger seat, he pulled it out and quickly turned it on. Swiftly, he brought up the program he needed and watched the Metallikats head toward downtown. Grunting, he began driving after the pair.
Meanwhile, outside the bank, Ann and Jonny were on the scene recording. When the Metallikats took off, Ann hurried toward their van.
"Let's go, Jonny, I don't want to miss this."
"But Ann, the SWAT Kats haven't left yet," Jonny pointed up toward a roof across the way.
Surprised, Ann halted and stared upward. Sure enough, there was the Turbokat but in the next moment a roar filled the air...
"Oh, guess they're off now," Jonny amended turning to run toward the news van with Ann on his heels.
Up on the rooftop, Urabe jumped down from the Turbokat after shutting off the engines. It was she that had turned them on so that everyone below would think the SWAT Kats had taken off but in reality, she had merely moved it out of view of the ground.
Waiting for her was Kazuma who was holding both SWAT Kats in choke holds, their legs dangling off the ground, strongly helplessly to get free. See that the pair was still under control, Urabe went to the roof edge but insuring her silhouette wasn't seen, she stared down to see what the enforcers were up to. They were finally climbing into their vehicles and beginning to take off.
She raised her arm and checked the time on her watch. There were ten minutes left before the EMP went off. A soft oof noise made her turn around. Apparently, T-Bone and Razor had managed to kick Kazuma in the face with their feet, knocking the orange tom to his back. The angry pair were on their feet again.
Urabe swiftly ran to her partner's side to check on him.
"I'm okay, just caught me off guard," Kazuma said chagrined getting to his feet again.
"That's it! I'm tired of being treated like a kitten!" T-Bone snarled his voice rough from the choke hold.
"Bring it on, fur ball!" Kazuma dared the tabby his paws up.
"Some come on that is." T-Bone sneered closing the distance between them.
"Hey...there's a she-kat present...no foul language allowed," Kazuma returned scowling. "I won't have her ears violated by you when I pound some manners into that thick hide of yours."
"I hate to tell you this buddy, but that's no gentle female there!" Razor snorted. The male barked a laugh just as said she-kat appeared suddenly before Razor sending a fist into his nose that sent him flying backward...again...through the roof door and down the stairs to the landing.
He lay there groaning and seeing stars. "Argh! What the hell hit me?" he asked no one in particular as he groggily brought a paw up to his bloodied nose.
"Razor!" His partner cried in concern as he hurried to the broken door and stared down. Shocked, he quickly went down the stairs and carefully aided his friend to his feet.
"Come on, hot shot, take it easy..." T-Bone said helping Razor up the stairs one at a time till they reached the roof again.
"I can manage now, buddy," Razor said pulling away from the tabby slowly still shaken a bit after that powerful blow to his face. He looked cautiously around. "Hey! They're gone!"
T-Bone peered around cautiously worried the pair might still be lurking about but he could see no one. "Where did they go?"
"Don't know, but glad they are. I better check the Turbokat...make sure they didn't mess with it," Razor said darkly wiping the blood off his face.
"We don't have time for that Razor. The Metallikats are getting away and the Enforcers won't be able to catch them." T-Bone said urgently.
Razor frowned. He didn't like the idea of taking a chance that their jet was compromised but T-Bone was right. Too much time had already been lost and there was no telling if they'd find the Metallikats now but they had to try.
Ignoring his feeling of unease, Razor leaped up to his seat while T-Bone did the same. Giving his controls a quick check while his partner did the same, T-Bone started up the engines. So far everything sounded okay. Nothing seemed to be wrong so far.
He launched the jet upward by VTOL then sent it hurtling off in the direction the Metallikat Express had gone.
"Well everything seems okay," Razor said through the helmet radio.
"Yeah, so far, anyway."
~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~
After a destructive mad dash through downtown, the Metallikat Express was just short of the freeway when a timer reached its end sending an electro magnetic pulse out that fried all the electronics nearby which included the car and the two robots positronic brains.
Mac and Molly last cognitive thought was a strange electrical tingling zipping through them followed by excruciating pain that produced loud, electronic screams from them before they died. The unpowered vehicle turned with the movement of Mac's last jerking motion and was sent careening into an empty buildings front window, showering glass everywhere.
Just three blocks away, Karel had been tracking the Metallikat Express and the damage it was leaving to find the pair. His sharp bottle green eyes spotted the broken glass window and smoke trailing out of the building's interior marking the resting spot of the car he was looking for.
He quickly turned his wheel sharply bringing the panel van up onto the curb beside the building then climbed out, paused to open the side panel door before heading into the building. Opening the car door, he smirked at the dead robots. Urabe's idea had worked like a charm. Now to get rid of the evidence.
Reaching into the driver's side, he hefted Mac's heavy body out and carried it to his van. Dumping it inside, he returned to retrieve Molly. She was longer and a little more awkward to carry but he managed and dumped her metal body next to her mate's. He slide the door shut then returned to the car one last time to retrieve the EMP device before hightailing it back to his van and driving off quickly before the enforcers, who he could hear by their sirens, would see him.
As he carefully drove the speed limit down the street so he wouldn't attract unwanted attention by the cops, his communicator beeped. He raised his wrist and tapped the face with his other paw.
"Karel, you finished your task yet?" Urabe's voice came over the device. "The SWAT Kats and Enforcers are approaching your location fast."
"All done and on my way. No one saw me. What about the news chopper?" He asked as he cruised down the road.
"Taken care of courtesy of some bad wiring."
"Cool! See you guys at the steel mill in about fifteen minutes," Karel said, pleased things had gone well so far.
"See you there," Urabe responded then cut the connection.