Hey, Readers!
Hope you've enjoyed the story so far! This chapter is all about Max's first time seeing the hidden bunker, along with riding in the Turbokat, where he sees something that serves as a painful reminder, and makes Jake and Chance realize what kind of world their new friend is from. Plus, they make a decision that will change their lives forever.
Favorite and Review if you like, and I hope you enjoy!
Never Forget:
"So whaddya think, buddy? Should we become a trio instead of a duo?"
"You do realize what this'll mean, right," Chance questioned, banging out the last dent in the wing of the jet; the two were currently in their hidden lair, having just said goodnight to Max, who had gone to bed upstairs. "We'd have to train him; that'll take who knows how many months-"
"Not a lot," Jake rationalized, wiping some slime off the cockpit window. "He seems to be a pretty fast learner, and his body looks naturally built for combat; he must've done something besides band to keep it in shape like that."
"Unless marching band in his world includes boot camp!"
Jake snickered at that.
"But he ain't even a kat, and we're supposed to be gettin' him home, remember? How would it be if he dies before he gets to go home, or if he does go home, we would've trained him for nothin'!"
"Look, I know that better than anykat, but you've seen how antsy he is; he's been here for nearly a month, and he's gonna go crazy if he can't go outside. This is the only option where he gets to do so. Besides, it'll be something to distract him from his homesickness. And," he added, climbing down the ladder, "if I can keep us from dying, I can surely keep him from dying! I made a promise that I would get him home, and I intend to keep that."
"Hey, I keep myself from dying, too," the blond kat argued lamely, but grinning as well. Then he seemed to get serious, giving his pal another glance. "Do you really think this is a good idea?"
Jake hesitated before answering. "Yes."
The burly pilot gave his best friend a hard look, finally nodding seriously. "If this is what ya think is best… then I'll follow you, brother."
"-'Till we enter the great Litterbox in the Sky," the cinnamon feline finished, the two of them fist-bumping and grinning. "But there's still one last thing we need to do before we ask him…"
..
"Woah," Max exclaimed, stepping off the ladder and into the underground bunker, examining the large space with wide eyes. After three or four weeks of living with the kats, they had finally consented to show him where their hidden Swat Kat lair was.
The underground space was huge, almost the size of an above-ground plane hanger, and it was lit with dozens of bright fluorescent lights. Off to one side was something that reminded the human of a gym; there were punching bags, a bench press, a sparring mat, and, for some reason, one of those giant sphere machines he vaguely remembered seeing astronauts train on. Nearby, he found two lockers, one marked "R" and the other marked "TB," and he assumed they were for the two kats. For some reason, the wall next to it was covered in miniature skull-and-crossbones marks, and a stamp lay nearby.
The two kats showed him their training area, explaining that the sphere device was called an Aerotrim, and was used to simulate G-Force. The skull stamps represented successful missions, and the human was blown away by how many there were; dozens and dozens, and he wondered if they'd ever failed a mission before, but was too nervous to ask. Off to another side, there was a small room full of weapons (mainly guns) and missiles, along with a workbench covered with parts and papers of plans.
"This is where I work on most of our gear," Jake explained as Max glanced at some of the plans, in awe of the detail in the plans.
"Cool… what's this glove thing?"
"Oh, the Glovatrix," Chance asked, picking up the device in question and putting it on, holding it up for the teen to see. "Grappling hook. Missile launcher. Cement launcher-"
"Cement," the human asked incredulously.
"It's a special mix that Brainy over here came up with," the blond kat answered, his friend grinning at the compliment. "Hardens in three to five seconds."
"That's pretty cool; like an Assassin's Creed gauntlet."
"A what?"
"Nothing."
But the greatest feature of the hidden bunker was the large black and red jet that sat a dozen or so yards away on a round landing pad, gleaming under the florescent glow. Max had never seen a jet in person before, and he was blown away by how huge it was; it looked big enough to hod a car on the inside (and he later learned that their Cyclotron was inside the hull, along with several large missiles). Of course, he'd seen it on TV whenever he watched Jake and Chance defeat some villain, but seeing it in person, real as day, was so much better than watching it on their miniature set.
"So that's-" he started to say.
"The Turbokat," Chance said proudly, grinning and patting the side of the plane. "Our pride and joy!"
"How long did it take y'all to build it the first time," the human asked, slowly reaching out and running his hand on the smooth metal exterior.
"Nearly a year; we had no control of the parts that showed up in the scrap yard, plus it took us a while to get it airborne," Jake answered, looking at the jet with pride as well. "But it's one of a kind, in a good way!"
"But how did this bunker get here? Did y'all build it?"
"Nah, we found it about a week after we moved here. We think it mighta been from Megakat War II; probably abandoned in the 50's."
The teen gave them a funny look. "So… this bunker is from your World War II?"
The two felines gave each other a glance. "I… guess so?"
"So y'all've had wars in this universe?"
"Yeah," the cinnamon kat replied. "Two Megakat Wars, along with a war around the 1770's that founded this country of Pawmerica, when we declared independence from Great Kitten." Max gave a small snicker at the names, which didn't go unnoticed by the brawny kat. "Hey! At least it's a better name than 'Americ-'"
"Anyway," Jake quickly cut in, climbing up the ladder towards the cockpit. "Wanna go for a ride?"
"W-W-What," the young man sputtered, looking at the sleek jet with some apprehension.
"We figured you'd probably want to get out of the scrap yard for once, and since this baby's got tinted windows, you don't have to worry about being seen."
Max looked at the plane with fear, but also excitement; he'd wanted to see what this world looked like beyond the mountains of metal, and what better view than from the air? Besides, he figured that they were trained pilots, and based on their moves on TV, he should be safe. "Fine," he eventually answered, smiling a little. "Sounds fun!"
"Okay," the smaller kat replied, reaching into the back seat and pulling out a pack. "There's only two seats, and since Chance is the best pilot, he'll take you; I gotta stay here and work on some modifications, anyway."
"Works for me," Chance grinned, rushing over to his locker and grabbing his flight helmet; Max caught a brief glance of his Swat Kat outfit hanging on a hook before the door slammed shut. "Here," he said, tossing a second helmet he grabbed to the human. "Ignore the ear holes and tighten the straps; you should be fine." The teen quickly put on the helmet, feeling incredibly stupid (since it wasn't made for human heads), tightening the strap around his chin.
"You got the back seat," Chance added, climbing up the ladder and settling into the front seat. Max quickly followed him, jumping into the back seat, which was surrounded by buttons, dials and screens. "I'm shutting off Jake's weapons system, but TRY not to touch anything?"
"Will do." Even though he was nervous, Max was excited to be in a real fighter jet, and looked around the small cockpit, wondering what all those buttons and knobs did.
"Also, your helmet has a microphone in it, so we can talk to one another in the air. To your right is an air mask in case of loss of pressure, and there's a sick bag underneath your seat." The large kat turned and grinned to him. "How's your stomach?"
"I'm not gonna puke, if that's what you're implying."
"Good." He turned back to the front, the cockpit glass sliding over them. "Buckle up." They both did so, the human tightening his straps to keep him secure. Looking out the window, Max gave Jake a small wave and smile as the engine suddenly roared to life, causing the plane to vibrate a little. The platform they were on suddenly descended, carrying the jet with them. When it stopped, a wall in front of them slid open, and the jet suddenly shot forward, accelerating well past 60 mph in a few seconds.
Max was pushed back against his seat by the force as the Turbokat shot into the dark tunnel. He couldn't look out the windows, since his head was trapped against the headrest, but he suddenly feel the plane pull up, and he felt that brief moment of weightlessness as the jet suddenly shot out into the late afternoon air, flying up between the mountains of scrap metal.
To the human, it was like riding a roller coaster, except three times as fast, and he was encased in metal. He felt the plane climbing higher and higher, and he vaguely saw the sky outside; it was orange, since the sun was setting. Eventually, they leveled out, and the plane slowed down enough for him to move around. For a couple of minutes, he simply looked at the sky and the clouds around him, glad that he wasn't seeing (or smelling) the unique charm of the scrap yard.
"Take a look, kid," Chance's voice cackled in his ear. "To our right's Megakat City!" Max turned to look out the right window and gasped.
It was New York City. Of course, he knew it wasn't really New York, but at a first glance, he saw the familiar Manhattan skyline, a few of the tall buildings twinkling as the sun continued to set. Upon closer examination, he saw that there were subtle differences in the architecture and design of the buildings, but he still saw it as the Big Apple. He'd only seen New York in pictures, but he figured that this was probably the closest that he could get to seeing it, so he gaped at the sight, taking it all in.
"Hold on," the blond kat yelled, turning the plane towards the city. "I'm gonna give ya a closer look!"
They were now flying over the metropolis, the buildings passing under them as they flew at a reasonable speed over the city. Max was grateful that the Swat Kat wasn't going super fast, allowing him to examine every building closely. Down below, he saw several cars and the miniature forms of the feline kats going about their business, and tried not to imagine how far of a drop it was.
"What's that building," he asked, indicating to a tall metal building with a landing strip on top of it. It certainly stood out from all the other buildings, towering over them, and several other jets lined the strip, all with a familiar logo on them.
"That's the Enforcer building; Feral's headquarters." Even over the roar of the engine, he could hear the anger in the kat's voice.
"Well, then-" The human gave the building the Bird as they passed it, which did not go unnoticed by the feline.
"What was that?"
"Oh… it's a human thing, since we have five fingers; we call it the Bird. You do it to insult someone."
"Insult? What does it mean?" Max told him, and the plane dipped a little before straightening up. " … Am I right in assumin' that all humans have as bad a mouth as you?"
"No," the human grinned, "but I'm trying to get better."
"Coulda fooled me! We should get goin'," Chance added, turning the jet away from the building.
"Why? I thought they couldn't see us through the windows."
"Yeah, but Feral might get annoyed if we keep flyin' close to his building." They took off, heading back towards the bay, towards the setting sun.
"Wait, is this the West Coast," the human realized.
"Sure is!"
"Oh… so it's not New York, but more like Sacramento or San Francisco," the teen muttered to himself.
"Don't you mean San Francalico," the burly pilot asked.
Max sighed in defeat, looking out the window at the passing buildings. "Yeah, this whole name thing is gonna take some getting used-"
His voice cut off, his face going pale as he recognized the buildings approaching on the right side of the plane. He stared at them in shock, his mind struggling to catch up with the rest of him. Wait, he thought, this isn't a copy of New York, so how-
"What? Did ya say somethin'," the brawny pilot questioned.
"N-No," the boy lied quickly, turning away from the twin structures as they disappeared behind them, the uneasy feeling still lingering. "Can… can this plane do any trick and stuff?"
"O-ho," the feline grinned, hitting a button as the jet started to speed up. "I hope you know what you just asked for, buddy!"
"The plane suddenly did a barrel roll, Max screaming as the world spun around while Chance just cheered with excitement. They finally straightened up, and the human was starting to feel some of the G-Force, but he kept his head (and his dinner). It was basically like being on a roller coaster, and pretty soon, he was cheering as well as the kat made the jet twist and spin and do circles in the air.
"Watch this," Chance called, now flying low over the water before flying straight up, flying between a few buildings.
"Isn't this kinda dangerous," the human called, jumping as the plane took a sharp turn.
"Nah; this baby's got killer reflexes," the large kat reassured him, now flying right down a wide street, heading towards the bay once again. "Think I can make it between those two buildings?"
"STOP!"
The sudden yell was so shocking, it jolted the kat, and he quickly decelerated, turning on the jet's hover mode as they floated several hundred feet in the air in front of the two buildings. Looking back, he was surprised to see the human staring at the two towers with… fear? Shock? Terror, even?
"M-Max," he asked quietly, noticing that the human's hands were shaking slightly, "are you-"
"I'm fine," the teen answered, his voice slightly high, quickly tearing his eyes away from the metal structures. "I just… I'm not feeling so hot. Can… can we go back to the bunker, please?"
" … Sure." Chance slowly accelerated the jet, which flew around the buildings, soon heading back towards the junkyard, the setting sun brilliant and beautiful.
..
All in all, the trip to and from the city took about two minutes each, but Jake was shocked when they came back fifteen minutes later, coming over as the platform with the Turbokat ascended.
"What gives, Chance," he demanded when the cockpit slid open. "I thought you'd give him an actual tour of the city and-"
The cinnamon kat cut off his comments as his friend frantically shook his head, jambing his thumb back towards where Max sat, the human looking shell-shocked but passive-faced at the same time.
Immediately, the small kat's eyes widened, wondering what happened; the young man didn't look physically sick, but he didn't look fine, either. He looked like he was shivering, though the underground bunker was pretty warm.
"Uh… Max," the small kat asked tentatively as Chance climbed down from the jet, the human still sitting in his seat. "Are you oka-"
"Sure," the human spoke up, his voice slightly higher and off than it was earlier. He quickly unbuckled his seatbelt, hands shaking slightly as he started to climb down the ladder. "Why-Why wouldn't I be?"
"Because you flipped out when we passed the Megakat Trade-"
The teen gave a startled yelp, slipping off the ladder. The large kat quickly caught the human, who quickly pushed out from his grasp, landing on his feet.
"D-D-Don't," Max stammered, glaring at the kat. "Just… just don't talk about it!"
"Max-"
"And don't ask," the human snapped at Jake. "Please."
"Why not," Chance demanded, but the human stayed silent, now looking down at his feet, embarrassed. "Look, we took you into our home and let you see our lair, so if there's something you're keeping from us that we should know-"
"You don't want to know."
The whisper cut off the kat mid-demand, and the two Swat Kats stared at the human, finally realizing what was wrong with Max; he was afraid of the buildings, for some reason. A few tears leaked from the human's eyes, but he quickly wiped them away, sniffling a little and taking deep breaths as he finally looked up at the two kats, trying to keep his emotions under control. For a second, he considered not telling the two kats, but he quickly pushed that thought aside.
"The… The World Trade Center buildings existed in my universe," he started. "In a city called New York. There's world trade centers in most states, but this was a well known one; the twin towers rose over most of the surrounding buildings."
Jake and Chance glanced at one another, not sure why this would upset the boy, but then it clicked in the cinnamon kat's mind. "Wait, why do you say 'existed'-"
"On September 11th, 2001," the human continued, leaning against the jet for support, wiping away more tears, "terrorists hijacked four passenger aircraft, crashing two of them into the Twin Towers, killing themselves and everyone on board."
The two kats' mouths dropped open, horrified, but the teen carried on.
"The other two planes: one of them crashed into a government building, the other one crashed in Pennsylvania; the passengers and crew revolted and took over the plane, but it still crashed. No one on board survived those crashes, either.
"I was only a year old when it happened, but my parents and older sisters were old enough, and of course every year we re-watch what happened on the news… as a reminder of who was lost. We watch… we watch the planes fly… watch the buildings go up in flames, and a few hours later, collapse in on themselves." The young man's sniffling grew louder, and his voice was shaky and croaky.
Jake and Chance stared at the sniffing human, shocked beyond words at this revelation. They knew that there were bad guys in Max's world, but based on what he had told them of the human world, they didn't think that kind of evil existed in his universe. But now…
It was scary, to say the least, for the two kats to think about. It was early October now, which meant that if their timeline followed Max's, their towers would barely get to see the 21st century before getting destroyed, and thousands of kats would die. The two pals looked at one another, not sure of what to say, and Max was still crying, though he was starting to get a handle on himself.
"I… I-" he sputtered, wiping some snot on the sleeve of his jacket. "I'm sorry… I just… I-"
"Don't apologize," Jake finally spoke up, walking over to the human and kneeling down next to him, putting a friendly hand on his shoulder. "That… that's horrible, to say the least… I wasn't even there, and I can't even fathom-"
"Yeah," the boy sighed, still hugging his knees. "It… it has that effect on most people."
"Will… will this happen to us," Chance asked quietly, still unable to believe what had happened, but knowing deep down that it had, despite never seeing it.
The teen shook his head, finally starting to calm down. "I dunno. You guys have different governments… different politics, despite a few similarities. Not to mention you guys are a completely different species; heck, y'all even have magic and time travel! I… I doubt that something like that would happen here, based on what I've learned of your world." He looked at the two kats. "But we thought the same thing on my Earth, so I honestly don't know; I'm… sorry." He seemed to become more distraught, and the cinnamon kat put a calming paw on his shoulder.
"It's okay," Jake answered, smiling a little at the young man. "But now we know, so we can prepare and prevent something like that from ever happening."
"Yeah," the burly kat added, walking over to Max as well. "Jake and I'll stop them, we promise you that. We can even go to Feral and Felina, tell them what you told us!"
"But they probably won't believe you," the human cut in bitterly.
"Don't worry," the cinnamon kat cut in, "Whether we tell Feral or not, we want to thank you for warning us. Who knows, you may have just saved a few thousand lives with this revelation."
The teen gave a small smile at that. "Yeah… I didn't realize that." He seemed to brighten up after that, straightening up a little and wiping his nose. "It feels good… knowing that I've probably helped more than just sorted metal bits for y'all. If there's any other way I could somehow help your society, just let me know; I know about 24 years worth of history that might be helpful to you.
The two kats looked at each other, a silent and quick conversation passing between them. Fortunately, they were both in agreement, and turned back to the human.
"There is something," Jake said. "But it won't be easy, and it probably involves plenty of danger and-"
"You two want me to become a Swat Kat," Max cut in, wiping away the last of his tears. "Or Swat Human, whatever fits better."
"Stop doing that," Chance snapped, glaring a little after he got over his shock. "It's freakin' me out!"
"Well what else would you have me do that's possibly dangerous, besides help that old kat lady with her car? But I'm surprised that y'all're just asked out of the blue." He gave them a wary look. "If this is because of what I just told you and you feel sorry for me-"
"No, we… we've actually been discussing it for a while now. I mean, you're in great shape, which should make training easier for you, and as for flying in the Turbokat, today was our way to test to see how you would react to flying in a jet, seeing if you could withstand the G-force, and it appears that you passed. Besides," Jake added, "it means you would get to go out into the world, even if you're wearing a disguise, and you can not only help others, but maybe find whoever brought you here, or someone who could send you home."
"But it won't be easy," the larger kat added. "There's gonna be months of training before we let you go out on a mission with us; early mornings and late nights with little to no sleep, exercises, most of them grueling… not to mention training you in hand-to-hand combat, and Jake'll probably have to make a special Glovatrix for your hand-"
"But it's your decision, so you can say no, and we won't judge," Jake continued, giving the human a serious look. "You can have a few moments if you want to think about-"
"Hell yeah I'm gonna say yes," Max exclaimed, now grinning from ear to ear, the mournful aura from minutes earlier gone. "Anything to help you guys, and I can finally do more than just sit and watch TV whenever you go to fight some bad guy! When do we start?"
The two feline friends looked at one another, both of them grinning as well. "Tomorrow morning. 5 AM."
"That's lit!"
Jake and Chance blinked at him. " … Lit?"
Max laughed like that, finally standing up. "Looks like I'll be teaching you two a few things as well!"
..
Later that night, as he was lying on the couch, the teen thought back through the memories of the day, his phone alarm set for 4:50 AM, not wanting to miss his first day of training.
Not only did he now have an opportunity to go out into the world, but he also got to become a superhero, which included flying in the most bad-ass plane he'd ever seen. Not to mention those glove things were pretty cool; he could imagine taking down bad guys with that, flying away in the Turbokat as grateful kats cheered.
Then he thought back to the Trade Center, his joy dampening at the memory. He sincerely hoped that Jake and Chance's world, or any other world for that matter (if they even existed), would never have to go through what his did. In fact, he was so moved with emotion, he did something he hadn't done since the night his father died, something he swore never to do again, but realizing now that he was starting to do again ever since arriving in this strange new world.
He prayed.
And that's the chapter! The idea came to me, and I couldn't get it out of my head; I felt that I needed to have something in the story that showed how different Max's world was from the Kat's cartoon world. The Megakat Trade Center is mentioned and seen in the cartoon a couple times, so I figured that Max would eventually see it, and thus this chapter is born.
This chapter is dedicated to those who have lost their lives in the 9/11 Attacks, as well as their family members, first responders, and those that were affected on or after "America's Darkest Day."
Also, for those that were wondering, Max was teleported from his world on September 20th, 2019, and appeared in the Scrap Yard September 18th, 1995... Also known as the Air Force birthday (my timeline ended up working with the date, and it's kinda a cool Easter egg).
Also, I do NOT own Assassin's Creed in ANY way, shape or form.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter; the next one's kicks of a multi-chapter story arc, featuring Johnny K and Ann Angora, along with a certain pair of villains! Stay tuned, Readers!
