Wolf in Cat's Fur
Note: I may be willing to do an after story for this following the end of this story, but only if people want one.
Charlie works on the Linerunner by outfitting it with chemical neutralizing aerosols when his wrist-com beeps. "All agents report to the boardroom, we have a new agent." Chief says rather joyfully. Charlie gets up and puts the tool box in the Linerunner's trunk before closing and locking the trunk. Charlie then dashes toward the boardroom. Charlie takes his seat with Kitty to his right and Dudley to his left. "Agents, we have a new member here with us. Please welcome Agent Patrick or Pat Panther." Chief says as he motions to the doors behind the agents. All the agents turn to face the doors and sees a tall panther dressed in black clothing with a pair of black sunglasses on. Kitty falls head over heels in love with Pat as Pat walks over to Chief. Charlie, however, doesn't hold the same amount of enthusiasm toward the newcomer.
"Thank you for the warm welcome Chief. Hello everyone, I am Patrick Panther it is nice to meet all of you." Pat says as he looks over at Kitty. Kitty averts her gaze, madly in love with Pat. Pat gives a calm and relaxed smirk. "You may return to your business, I'll be assigning Agent Panther to a unit sometime today." Chief says as he and most of the agents leave the room. "Kitty, come on, let's spar." Charlie says to Kitty. Kitty snaps out of her daydream. "Sorry Charlie, but I'll have to cancel, I want to talk with Pat for a while." Kitty says with a mix of sadness and joy. "Alright." Charlie says only slightly annoyed as he leaves the room. Kitty heads up to Pat and chats with him.
Charlie takes a seat at his cubicle and leans back in the chair with his feet on his desk. "My instincts don't lie. That's the Chameleon, the problem is how to I expose him without having to resort to getting him wet and making myself look like a hypocrit." Charlie says to himself. "Just admit it, you're jealous of Pat since Kitty's smitten with him." Dudley says from behind Charlie. "I'll admit it, I am jealous of him, but I know that's the Chameleon in disguise, my instincts never fail me." Charlie says looking up at the ceiling still calm and collected. "Have you ever been jealous before?" Dudley says smiling a bit. "No, but..." Charlie says starting to lose his calm a bit. "There's my point, you are letting your emotions have a detrimental effect on your instincts." Dudley says interrupting. Charlie gets moderately angry as he sits up in his chair. "That does it, I'm going to end this discussion by testing him." Charlie says getting out of his chair.
"Agents Cheetah, Katswell, and Puppy, you three are assigned to check up on Birdbrain to make sure he's not up to anything." Chief says to the three of them over their wrist-coms. "Chief, I suggest that Agent Panther be assigned to our unit. I want to put my suspicions of him being the Chameleon to rest hopefully." Charlie replies over his wrist-com. "I don't know why you'd think he was the Chameleon but very well. I'll have him meet up with your team at your vehicle." Chief replies a bit worried. "Alright Chief." Charlie says before ending the transmission.
Charlie and Dudley head down to the garage and see Kitty and Pat. Kitty runs over and hugs Charlie. "Thank you for letting Pat join our team, but why do think that he's the Chameleon?" Kitty says with a mixture of joy and confusion. "He was released from prison today, but like I said, this will end my doubts on him, hopefully." Charlie says as he goes into the driver's seat of the Linerunner. "I am very happy to be assigned with Tuff's best team." Pat says as he heads into the back of the Linerunner. "We are far from the best, we need all the help we can get at the time." Charlie says as Kitty goes into the back along with Pat and Dudley joins the two of them.
Charlie drives off toward Birdbrain's lair and see Bat guarding the perimeter, so he stops the Linerunner far off from the lair. "Why are we stopping so soon?" Pat says looking around. "Bat is guarding the entrance, but now that I think about it, he's nothing to worry about." Charlie says starting up the Linerunner again and he drives it straight into Bat, knocking him over the cliff. "Oops, didn't expect that." Charlie says embarrassed. "Let's get this over with, who knows what Birdbrain is up to." Pat says grumbling. "Pat's right Charlie." Kitty says getting on Charlie's nerves. "We're here already, it shouldn't be that hard to take down Birdbrain." Charlie says pretending to be calm as he exits the Linerunner to look around the base. He sees that the base hasn't really changed. "Okay, things appear safe. Let's go, but stay alert." Charlie says running into Birdbrain's lair.
"Is he always like this?" Pat says running after Charlie next to Kitty. "Yeah, it's sweet of him, but it's also annoying." Kitty says joining Pat. Kitty and Pat turn around and see Dudley just lounging around. "Dudley." Pat calls over to Dudley. "Huh, oh, moving." Dudley says moving to Kitty and Pat before the three of them follow Charlie. As they get closer, they start hearing the sounds of explosions and they see Owl knocked out on the ground before coming across Charlie who is avoiding shots by the Thunderbird Cannon before taking cover behind a mirror. Birdbrain sees the other tuff agents. He turns and fires the Thunderbird at them.
They take cover behind containers of birdseed. "Now what, we can't do anything?" Dudley says grumbling. "Pat, I need you to aim for the piping 30 degrees toward Birdbrain from above your head and again at the piping roughly 45 degrees toward Birdbrain." Charlie says over to Pat. "Can you say that in lame man's terms?" Pat says confused. "Alright, the are two metal rings on a piece of pipe near Birdbrain in the ceiling. I need you to aim roughly one inch away from the second ring and again at the ring closest to Birdbrain." Charlie says as the four still take cover.
"Why am I the one that has to do it?" Pat says a bit suspicious. "You are the only person right now that can shoot down that pipe without making yourself a target." Charlie says starting to lose what little patience he has left. "Oh, alright." Pat says as he aims his laser and fires them at the points Charlie described. Charlie follows the movement of the pipe before jumping from behind the mirror. Birdbrain turns to aim the Thunderbird at Charlie, but the piece of pipe falls on top of the tip of the Thunderbird, knocking the edge of it onto the floor. Charlie jumps onto the edge of the Thunderbird. Birdbrain tries to get the Thunderbird to move but can't. Charlie jumps off the Thunderbird and fly kicks Birdbrain into a wall and apprehends him.
"Okay, he's no longer a threat." Charlie calls over to Kitty, Dudley, and Pat. "Sorry for not letting you guys get a crack at him, but I want this done as much as Pat does." Charlie says as he slings an unconscious Birdbrain over his shoulder. "It's alright, let's take him to the can and report back to Chief." Pat says smiling. "Agreed. Pat, my instincts still are saying for me not to trust you, but I have seen you in action so I guess I can ignore them. Also, I'm saying that it would be impossible for you to get reassigned since Dudley and Kitty like having you as part of the team. To be honest, I don't mind having you here myself." Charlie says as the four of them head back to the Linerunner. Charlie throws Birdbrain into the prisoner transport section of the Linerunner before getting into the driver's seat. "Thanks Charlie, that means a lot." Pat says smiling as he, Kitty, and Dudley get into the Linerunner.
Charlie drives back to Tuff HQ. "Pat, I trust that you and Kitty will give Chief the debrief. I'll drop Birdbrain off at the slammer, return to headquarters then work on the Linerunner a bit more." Charlie says as Pat, Kitty, and Dudley get out of the Linerunner. "No sweat man." Pat says waving to Charlie before Charlie drives off. Kitty and Pat give Chief the debrief while Charlie drops Birdbrain off at the prison. Charlie returns while Pat and Kitty are still debriefing Chief. Charlie gets out of the Linerunner. Charlie is about to begin work on the Linerunner when he gets the urge to go to the bathroom. He heads up through the elevator and goes inside the closest restroom and enters a stall.
Pat finishes debriefing to Chief and enters the same restroom that Charlie's in. Pat changes to the Chameleon. "Eh-hehe. This is wonderful. Agent Kitty Katswell is in love with me and Charlie trusts me. It'll make it all the easier to get Charlie fired then destroy tuff." The Chameleon says unaware that Charlie's in the restroom. Charlie overhears the conversation and curses himself for not listening to his instincts earlier. "Just like my instincts told me. He is the Chameleon. Now that I know his plan and who he really is, it won't be that hard for me to blow his cover and get him sent back to jail." Charlie thinks to himself. The Chameleon changes back into Pat and Pat leaves the restroom and heads over to the cubicles to where Kitty is.
Charlie leaves the restroom two minutes later and heads back down to the Linerunner. "I can't go saying he's the Chameleon today as people would just believe I am making stories up out of jealousy. They'll probably take me seriously tomorrow." Charlie thinks to himself as he works on the Linerunner. The rest of the day passes and the tuff agents eventually retreat back to their homes. Charlie lays down on his bed thinking about blowing the Chameleon's cover tower before he falls asleep.