PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING PRE-CHAPTER NOTES BEFORE STARTING THIS CHAPTER!

Hey, Readers! I know the last chapter kinda ended on a cliffhanger, but basically, if you didn't get it, Max got hit with a serum that forces him to see his greatest fears on repeat for a set amount of time, based on the dose. I'd asked last chapter if you guys wanted me to post it before or after Christmas, and only one person (Trekker77) replied, so I decided to post it today (12/20/2019).

Also, this is my final chapter for this story that I'm posting in 2019; the next chapter WILL be posted in January 2020! Crazy to think that this story's gonna cross two different decades! Since it's the last chapter before a long break for the Holidays, it's pretty long, involves a bunch of different POVs, and, for the first time, a warning disclaimer.

WARNING: contains heavy swearing (including an f-bomb), disturbing images, Max's past memories, deaths, and a whole lotta blood (I kinda embraced my inner Stephen King, Shirley Jackson and Lemony Snicket for this chapter, so be warned). I know this story's rated T, but this chapter might be closer to that of M because of how intense parts of it are.

If you are uncomfortable with ANY of this type of scary and disturbing stuff, then I encourage you to SKIP from Max's POV, straight down to Razor's POV(I'll put three of those lines across the page so you can tell where Max's story ends), which follows a whole bunch of different POVs taking place after Turmoil's defeat. Max's obviously going to be traumatized, so I'll keep what he tells Chance and Jake vague so anyone who didn't read Max's POV doesn't get scared.

For those that decide to read the whole chapter, you're brave, and all of you enjoy this chapter, even though it's kinda sad (and long; it's my longest chapter of this story yet), and I hope that I don't give any of you nightmares.

You have been warned.


Utter Turmoil: Part 3

Max POV:

Max woke with a start, gasping and sitting up, a sharp pain in his back. He last remembered being on the airship, seeing Turmoil getting captured, and then… he couldn't recall anything else.

"What did you do," he asked, looking up at where the demented she-kat was supposed to be.

But he wasn't on the airship anymore.

He sat in a field of grass that spread out far around him, and the sky above was a sapphire blue, dotted with some puffy white clouds. In the far distance was a line of trees, and a tall structure of some sort stretched towards the sky about half a mile away from him. At first, he didn't understand why he was suddenly in a field instead of the ship, and wondered if the airship had somehow crashed, but then he recognized a tall structure in front of him, the blood draining from his face.

"What the-"

The San Jacinto Monument towered above him; it was an obelisk, not unlike the Washington Monument, but the only difference was a large star on top of it, making it 5 meters taller than the DC tower. It was where the Texan army had defeated Santa Anna and won Texas' independence, and was a popular historical site; he hadn't been there since he was a kid, and it was crawling with tourists. However, it was abandoned now, and a cold wind whipped across the plain.

Looking down, Max saw that he was still in his Swat Kat uniform, but his mask and weapons were missing. Confused, he stood up, looking around for any sign of Jake or Chance.

"Guys," he yelled, looking around the field, searching for the kats. "Where are you? What's going on?" He paused in his calls, and started when he heard a noise.

Someone was screaming his name.

"MAX!" Suddenly, he saw them; how had he missed them before? They were right in front of him!

His mom and sisters were kneeling a few yards away from him, their arms tied behind their backs. Tears were running down their faces, and they looked like they'd lost a fight with a mountain lion. Bernadette, who was dressed in her nun habit, looked worse for wear, and Marie was crying, along with their mom. Behind them, a row of Enforcers stood still at attention, staring blank-faced in front of them.

"... Mom… sis-," Max whispered, taking a step towards them; after not seeing them in person for so long, he didn't know what to do, though he was confused as to what was going on; was he back in Texas, or did the San Jacinto Monument exist in this Kat world as well?

"Max," Marie whispered, her glasses knocked slightly askew as she shook with fear.

Suddenly, he felt as if he weighed a ton; he couldn't lift his foot, as if he was stuck in place. He tried to move, but he couldn't, his feet seeming to be trapped in place.

"READY," a voice called out from behind him (it sounded suspiciously like Commander Feral, but the human couldn't turn his head around to check), and to the teen's horror, the soldiers primed their weapons. "AIM!" They aimed them at his family.

"NO, STOP-"

"FIRE!"

The weapons were discharged, and the only family the teen had crumpled to the ground, dead.

Max screamed, now able to run towards them, but before he could reach him, the ground gave out under him, and he fell through darkness.

..

Reaching out for something to grab, he eventually caught a pole, and suddenly, he was back in someplace he'd never thought he'd see again: his old gym.

How could he forget the place? It was large, maybe the size of a football field, with a tall ceiling that was lit with fluorescent lights. He was currently dangling from the horizontal bar, some two-and-a-half meters off the ground, but as he looked around the space, he saw the pommel horse, the rings, the mats, the balance beam, he bowl of chalk, the pit full of foam cubes for the kids, and-

His dad.

Martin Greenwich looked like he did in his prime, which was when Max was a kid; jeans, a sweatshirt that read, "Olympics 1976," and his old pair of lucky sneakers; he favored his left leg more, sine he'd hurt his right years ago. He wore a baseball cap for some sports team, but it was his face that shocked the teen. His dad looked like he did when he was young; happy, younger, and full of life.

"D-Dad," Max stammered, confused, still hanging from the bar. "H-H-How're you-"

"Hey, Sport," the man replied. Sport; that's what his dad used to call him when he was younger. "I'm so glad that you're gonna save me. Do the routine that we practiced, okay? That way I don't die."

"Wha- What," the teen asked, a frown covering his face

"C'mon, Max, we've talked about this; do the flips, I don't die, and we get to live happily for the rest of our lives, okay?"

"Uh… fine." This was getting bizarre, but the teen decided to do what needed to be done; besides, he was still shaken by what had happened to his mom and sisters, so he was determined to not let his dad perish. Pulling himself up onto the bar, he started to do a few turns, feeling the air whip his hair back as he spun around, keeping his body stiff.

For a scary moment, he wondered if he'd suddenly lose control of his body, like what happened out in the field, but he didn't. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to do, but a quick look at his dad's nodding face told him that he was doing fine. He twisted, letting go of the bar several times, grabbing it again in a different grip as he continued to twist and spin around. Eventually, he let go of the bar for good, did a quick flip, and landed on both feet; a perfect dismount. Grinning, he looked over at his dad, who was beaming at pride with him.

"Great job, Sport," his dad told him, giving him a wide smile. "I'm so proud of you! Let's see the score!"

"Score," the teen asked, knowing that there were no score boards in the gym.

His dad's face suddenly fell, becoming full of sorrow. "You… you failed." He turned towards Max. "You've killed me."

Suddenly, a loud crashing sound echoed through the gym, and Max turned to find the weirdest scene he'd ever seen. A car had somehow broken through the wall, and was speeding across the floor, knocking equipment aside as it tore across the space. A second later, the teen recognized the make and model, and another second after that, he saw where it was going.

"DAD LOOK OUT!"

The grey pickup truck, his dad's old car, the one he'd been driving the night he died, plowed across the floor, heading straight towards his dad, who made no effort to move out of the way. This time, the teen RAN, rushing to push his dad out of the way. He threw out his arms, saw the grille of the truck as it bore down upon him, and-

..

He kept his eyes shut when he woke up again, not wanting to see what would appear next; his heart was racing like mad, and the fear of the unknown, mixed with the horrors he'd seen so far, was starting to make him paranoid.

"Max?"

The teen's eyes snapped open, and he tried to sit up, but someone grabbed him by the shoulders, rightening him before he could fall.

"It's okay," Chance said kindly, the kat's face coming into focus. "It's over, you're awake now; it's over whatever it was."

The human looked around, seeing that they were back in the garage apartment, not anywhere crazy or unbelievable. He scanned the room frantically, searching for something off, for something to be wrong, but finding none.

"Max, you're awake now," the blond tabby assured him, and the young adult noticed that he and the mechanic were in their regular clothes. "We beat Turmoil, but she did something to you; you were screaming like a crazy kat and we had to bring you back here until you calmed down."

"I… I," Max stammered, standing up, still anxiously looking around for someone to attack.

"You're up," Jake said, walking into the room from the back hallway. "You had us worried for a second, pal! That must've been some nightmare you were having! Good thing you're awake now; Johnny's on his way over for dinner."

Something was wrong. He couldn't tell why, though, since everything his senses were telling him showed everything was normal, but he felt a sense that something was off. He looked back to Chance, frowning slightly. "Weren't you… weren't you injured?"

The kat gave him a slight frown. "No. You must've imagined it; you seemed pretty out of it earlier."

"Yeah," the cinnamon kat added. "We took out Turmoil pretty quickly, though she knocked you unconscious with something. We brought you back here and figured we'd let you sleep."

"Fine," the boy muttered, rubbing his face in his hands, trying to wake himself up and make sense of what was going on. "What're we having for dinner?"

" … You."

The boy's head shot up, right as the brawny mechanic leaped across the room, tackling him to the ground. His face was full of rage, his mouth open in a snarl, but the scariest part were his eyes, which were now solid red, burning like an inferno.

Yelping in fear, the boy tried to push the kat off, managing to do so as he scrambled to his feet. However, he'd forgotten about Jake, who tackled him from the side, snarling and salivating as he knocked the human into the side of the wall. Looking back, up, the teen gave a yelp of fear as he saw his friends.

Besides the eyes, their claws were out, and both were on all four limbs, stalking towards him with hungry expressions. It was like the first few weeks he was here in the kat world; waking up in cold sweats at nightmares of the kat creatures attacking him. Did that mean this was a dream, too?

"This isn't real," the boy yelled, back against the wall, looking for something around him to keep the feral monsters back. "I'm asleep! You aren't real!"

"Is this real enough for you," Chance asked, grabbing his hand and tearing it off in one swift movement. Blood trickled from his mouth as he chewed and swallowed the hand, giving him a grin with blood-stained teeth.

Max screamed in pain, unable to even look at the wound, and shook with fear, hoping and praying for an end to whatever was happening.

"Hey! Stop it!"

The three of them turned around to find Johnny standing in the doorway, staring at them in shock. He wasn't acting crazy like the mechanics, and simply stared at the scene in horror.

"Johnny," the human cried, sticking the bloody stump underneath his armpit in an effort to staunch the blood. "Help me, they've gone-"

"You guys started without me," the kamerakat said indignantly, taking off his backpack and tossing it onto a nearby chair. "Whatever happened to guests eat first?"

"Sorry, man," Jake said. "We were gonna save you some."

"It's fine," the tan tabby said, taking off his sunglasses to reveal his own red eyes. "But I get to keep the bones when we're done!"

"Deal."

"No," the human muttered, trying to break down the wall behind him as the kats turned back towards him. "NO, NO NO!"

And then they were upon him.

..

Max woke up screaming, writhing on the ground as he tried to swat away attackers that were no longer there. Sitting up, he stared at his hands, seeing that they were both back where they should be, and breathing heavily trying to calm down.

"What's happening," he muttered to himself. "Why is this-"

He stopped, his eyes going wide in horror as he recognized his new setting.

It was his garage. The one back in Texas. The one from The Worst Night.

As if on cue, the door slammed open behind him, and Max turning around and expecting to see his dad instead saw… himself.

Not himself as he was today, but him from five years ago; fourteen, pimply, and full of hormones. His younger self was wearing a regular t-shirt and gym shorts, and the present him recognized it as what he was wearing the night his dad died. For the first time, Max was starting to wonder if he had died, and was somehow reliving his past, but before he could focus on that idea any more, his younger person started talking.

"Chill out, I'm here now, and I'm gonna practice," the younger Max said, walking over to the crude horizontal bar that sat nearby. Following close behind him was his dad, looking exactly the same way he looked on the night he died; older, more tired-looking, and angry, a cane in his hand as he was still recovering from the botched operation six weeks earlier.

"You know better than to waste time like this," his dad yelled at the younger Max, the present Max seemingly invisible to the two of them. "State's in a few months, and if you're not ready-"

"I'm gonna be ready, Dad, calm down!"

"If you need help focusing on your training instead of going out to movies with your friends, I'll help you; you're grounded."

"WHAT?!"

"You heard me. Until State's over."

"That's in three months! You can't do that," the younger Max shouted, fists balled in rage. "You have no right!"

"I have every damn right, boy! I'm your dad, and what I say goes!"

"You know what," the teen said, pushing over a bowl of chalk, scattering it across the ground, "that's it! I'm quitting!"

"You're not quitting," his dad snapped back.

"Watch me! I'm sick and tired of all this gymnastics shit being shoved down my throat and not being able to have a normal life! I'm already the top gymnast in the county, so I don't have anything else to prove!"

"But you can do better! The 2018 Olympics could be in your future, and-"

"I don't give a shit about the Olympics, and I'm not gonna go just because you wanna prove that you're still a good athlete!"

"I'm not trying to-"

"Besides, my grades are still slipping; if I flunk out of school-"

"You'll get a scholarship for gymnastics, like I did!"

"Oh, so it's all about being like you? Well, I don't WANT to be like you, dad! I don't want to end up crippled and miserable for the rest of my life!"

Silence followed this statement. The present Max watched his younger self glare at their dad, fists clenched and face red. He remembered how he'd felt that night; angry, confused, and guilty about what he'd said, but his younger self didn't back down. His dad stared back at the younger Max, just as angry, the cane shaking in his grip.

"Fine," his dad finally spat, opening the garage door. "Don't go to the Olympics, but you're not quitting! I'll drag you to the gym myself and pull you out of school if that's what it takes! I'll home school you!" His dad walked towards their grey pickup, unlocking the car.

"No," the present Max muttered.

"You can't force me to do shit," the younger Max yelled at his dad. "Just go away and leave me alone!"

"Don't worry about that," his dad replied, groaning as he climbed into the driver's seat and turning the ignition. "I'll be back in an hour, and you better be ready to show some respect and straighten your act!"

"FUCK YOU," the past teen yelled, flipping off his dad. "Just go and DIE for all I care! Get out of my life!"

"DON'T," the present Max yelled, starting towards the car. "DAD DON'T GO!"

But Martin Greenwich didn't listen, slamming the door shut and taking off down the driveway, disappearing into the night. The younger Max, meanwhile, walked back inside, slamming the garage door behind him.

"DAD," the present Max screamed, running into the driveway, trying to stop his dad. "DAD COME BACK I'M SOR-"

A sudden force knocked him back, and he was suddenly blinded by a bright light.

..

What was going on? Why wouldn't it stop, whatever it was? Shielding his eyes, he waited for his vision to adjust before looking around.

He was in a large white room that reminded him of a science lab. Behind him was a wall while several tables of computers and tube sat a few yards in front of him. Confused, he got up to walk out of the room when he stopped, realizing that there was a thick pane of glass in front of him, cutting him off from the rest of the room. He knocked on the glass, but it remained intact, his hand bouncing off the smooth surface.

"Seems intelligent."

Max jumped at the noise and turned to find a kat in a lab coat sitting on the other side of the glass, writing something down on the clipboard.

"Hey," the teen called. "What's going-"

"Indiscernible language," the kat interrupted, continuing to write on the page.

A sick feeling in Max's stomach grew as he watched the kat.

"Ugly, too; without any fur." The human whipped around to find another scientist kat, this one female, staring at him intently, her eyes cold and calculating.

"Someone let me out," the teen yelled, trying to break the glass again, but unable to. Looking up again, he staggered back as a dozen or so kat scientists now stared at him, lining the room in front of the pane of glass.

"Can we proceed," one of them asked.

"Not yet; we need their permission first," another answered.

"Then send them in."

A door on the other side of the glass opened, and a final scientist walked in, leading two kats towards the center of the room. They stopped in front of the glass, glaring at the human inside.

Jake and Chance.

They were dressed in their Swat Kat uniforms, but their masks were missing, which was something that never happened. Their eyes were normal, but the human couldn't help but shrink back in fear, his hand tingling with pain.

"Guys," he said cautiously, looking at the two of them with apprehension, "what are you-"

"Can it, freak," Jake spat. "Thanks to you, we're goin' to jail for the rest of our lives!"

"Jail? What're you-" The human now noticed that the two Swat Kats were handcuffed, and were shackled at the ankles. His eyes went wide. "How did you-"

"You, dumbass," Chance growled, glaring at the human with pure hate. "You had to botch the whole Turmoil mission, and we got exposed on live TV! We defeated Turmoil, but the Enforcers came for us as soon as we landed, and now we're goin' to Alkatraz, because of YOU!" Some spittle flew from his mouth, the flecks landing on the glass, and the teen took a few steps back back, his heart racing with fear.

"No…" he muttered, looking at them both, searching for some sign that they were lying. "No, I didn't-"

"Are you going to sign the release or not," a scientist asked, sounding impatient. "Of course, you can't sign in your present states, but we need verbal permission before we can start the experiments."

The teen went pale. "Experimen-"

"No problem," the cinnamon kat said. "You have my permission!"

"Same for me," the blond tabby added. "He deserves whatever he gets!"

"Guys, don't do this," Max pleaded, fear rising in his chest. "I'm sorry that you got captured; I didn't mean to hurt-"

"Spare us the excuses. We should've let you drown the first day we saw you," Chance snarled. "We would've been free if it wasn't for you, and now we're gonna die in prison! You're nothin' but a screw up, and you deserve to die with us!"

The teen gasped, not believing what he was hearing. Everything he didn't want to hear or happen, everything that made him scared, was now coming true. Whatever Turmoil did to him was no longer in his head; it was reality.. He slapped himself, trying to wake up, but he didn't.

"Have fun Max," Jake called as he was led out of the room.

"Yeah, take good care of him," Chance added sarcastically as he left, the door slamming shut behind him.

"Guys, come back," the human screamed, pounding on the glass once again. "GUYS! I'm sorry! Don't leave me, PLEASE!" A raw, animalistic fear filled the boy, and he banged on the glass, trying to break through the strong material that refused to budge.

"Let's get started," one of the scientists spoke up, all of them unfazed by his panicked temperament. "First test: Lung Endurance."

The teen stopped banging on the glass as a familiar sound started behind him, but he didn't turn around, too scared to see what he feared the most. If his fears were coming to life, he figured that drawing would appear eventually, but he didn't want to face it; it might go away if he didn't look at it. However, when he felt the water lap over his feet, he finally turned around, and gave a horrific scream as the nightmare became worse. SO much worse.

Because it wasn't water that was filling the cell.

It was blood.

The red, sticky liquid poured by the gallons into the room, the space quickly starting to fill. The teen stumbled back, back pressed against the glass border as the scientists questioned how long he could hold his breath. The smell, sharp and metallic, was nauseating, and the teen threw up into the pool that had now reached his shins. Somehow, though he didn't know how, he knew that the blood was his dad's, coming to overwhelm him and punish him.

Max went crazy; he screamed, attacking the glass again while the scientists calmly watched, jotting things down on their sheets as the blood continued to rise. It was hot, like being in a hot tub, and the heat was unbearable.

"HELP," Max screamed, his voice going raw from the shouting as it reached his chest. "HELP! GOD, HELP ME, PLEASE!"

The blood continued to rise, but the teen kept yelling until the blood entered his mouth, choking him as he fell back into the liquid, the whole of it burning him as he blindly twisted around, choking on the taste. His vision was already black, but the teen continued to struggle in the liquid, unable to breathe, and eventually, he fell into the void.

..

Again and again and again.

His family being shot, his hand being ripped off, the blood filling the room. Each horror was repeated again and again, forcing him to live through them without any escape, without any help from the outside. He lost count of how many times each nightmare repeated itself, but knew that it he'd gone through this merry-go-round of horror at least three times. Or was it four?

Was he dreaming?

Was he awake?

He could no longer tell. But for some reason, he kept thinking of one word as he was hit by the car, watched his father die, and saw his friends offer him up like a lamb to the slaughter.

VOID.

VOID.

VOID.

..


..


..


Razor POV:

Razor sat in the hallway, staring at the two doors across from him, waiting. T-Bone was in one, currently being worked on by some of Professor Hackle's medical robots, since they couldn't very well go to a hospital without having their identities revealed, and his robots were able to operate without having to remove his mask (they were still prototypes, but they worked more efficiently than kat doctors). In the other Lonestar was there, unable to move but occasionally screaming in pain.

When Turmoil had done something to him, the human had collapsed, writhing on the floor, as if he were having a seizure. Razor had left Felina, who was woken up by then, rushing to the teen's side, turning him over while the super villain laughed in the background.

"What happened," Lieutenant Feral murmured, looking at her unconscious Uncle, then over at Razor and Lonestar. "Where's T-Bone? Did she use the fear serum on him?"

"What do you mean 'fear serum,'" the cinnamon Swat Kat had demanded, right before Lonestar started to scream, his limbs flailing uncontrollably.

They had to sedate him, since he was shaking too much for them to move him, using one of his own tranq darts, but he still screamed every now and then, tears leaking out from between his closed eye lids. They steered the airship towards the ocean, Felina helping him get Lonestar and T-Bone onto the Turbokat before taking her uncle back in their Enforcer helicopter. They both flew away as the ship crashed into the ocean (they crashed it at an angle so the ship would float on the surface for a while, allowing the Enforcers waiting in boats to arrest Turmoil and her associates), going their separate ways.

Now, as he waited for some sort of change behind one of the doors, Razor contemplated what had happened; never before had any member of the Swat Kats gotten this injured before, and he wondered how things could've gone so bad. His best friend was nearly beaten to death, and their human friend was obviously featuring his own torture, but one he couldn't escape.

"Razor," Professor Hackle spoke up, walking down the hallway, leaning on his cane as the Swat Kat stood up to meet him. "I have good news; according to my computers, based on data gathered from my robots, T-Bone will make a full recovery. It was fortunate that you were able to get him here in time."

The cinnamon tabby gave a sigh of relief, glad that Chance was going to make it. Then he sobered, not looking at the other door. "What about Lonestar?"

"Well," the Professor said, turning towards the closed door, "I was able to extract an example of his blood, but found something very confusing. Besides an obvious dose of some unknown chemical mixture in his system, his DNA appears to not be that of a kat." He turned back to the Swat Kat, raising an eyebrow. "He isn't one of us, is he?"

Razor shuffled his feet, avoiding the scientist's eyes. "Uh…"

"Don't worry. I don't care if he's from another planet, nor do I believe him to be dangerous; if you two trust him enough to make him one of you, then I trust him, too. I will not reveal his status to anyone, since doing so might expose you two as well. Has it been difficult, keeping his identity a secret?"

The smaller Swat Kat considered lying for a second, thinking that he could somehow try to explain why Max didn't have kat DNA, but another look from the Professor made him sigh. "Yeah… we can't tell you how, but know that we've tried to make sure his life is as normal as we could make it for somekat who can't go outside."

"How young is he?"

"Nineteen."

Professor Hackle shook his head sadly. "It's a shame this had to happen to him. I was able to isolate the substance that Turmoil gave him; it's chemical component was designed to target the amygdala, which is the part of the brain that deals with emotions, though this serum was specifically meant to trigger one's fears."

Razor swallowed a lump in his throat. "So… he's seeing his worst fears? Right now?"

"I'm afraid so. Imagine being forced to watch your greatest fears, including the ones in the subconscious of your mind, on a loop with no escape."

"Will… Will he get better?"

"Fortunately, the dose was small, and doesn't seem to last for very long. I predict that our friend will be waking up soon, but he'll probably be disoriented and frightened. Would it be okay if he were able to spend some time here to rest and recuperate?"

"I'm afraid not; there's another kat that knows about his existence as our alter egos, so how would we explain his sudden absence?" His eyes widened with another revelation: if Max is going to be traumatized by what happened, how would they explain his behavior to Johnny?

The Professor seemed to read his mind. "It will be difficult, keeping this a secret from your other friend, but there's one way you could explain it."

"How?" The older kat didn't answer, but simply gave him a look. "You mean… we can't! We haven't told anykat, even you, and Max only found out about it by accident-"

"I'm not telling you what choice to make," Professor Hackle told him, "but if I were your other friend, I'd be a little suspicious as to why one of my friends seemed to suddenly show signs of having PTSD. Besides, your friend here will need all the support he could get when he wakes up, and-"

A longer, louder scream came from Lonestar's door, followed by a loud thud and the beeping of a machine. The two kats ran to the door, flinging it open to see what had happened. The room was like one in a hospital, and the machines beeped near an empty bed.

Max was crouched in the corner of the room, his mask lying nearby, next to a pile of vomit. He was breathing heavily, looking around the room with wide eyes full of fear, hugging his knees as one of his hands shook unnaturally. A few wires and tubes that had been attached to him were now lying ont he floor near the bed. Upon seeing him and the Professor, the teen tried to scramble back away from them, forgetting that he was in a corner.

"STAY BACK," he screamed, holding out his hand as tears streamed down his face. "DON'T HURT ME, PLEASE! I'M SORRY FOR SCREWING UP!" He grabbed the sides of his head, looking around the room in a panic.

"Max," Razor said, taking a tentative step towards him. "Max, it's me. It's-"

"DON'T EAT ME," the human cried, taking off his shoe and throwing it at him. "I'M SORRY FOR SCREWING UP THE MISSION!" He gave a chocked sob, still shaking like mad.

Jake turned back towards the Professor, who could only give them a pitying look.

"DON'T LEAVE ME WITH THEM, THEY'RE GONNA DROWN-" Max suddenly looked around him, seeing something that only he could see, and gave another scream, scrambling away from the walls in a panic. He ended up bumping into the Swat Kat, starting to flail his limbs.

"MAX," Razor said more loudly, grabbing the boy's hands to prevent either of them from getting hurt. "Calm down! It's over, you're safe now-"

"LIAR," the teen screamed, trying to pull my hands free. "THAT'S WHAT YOU WANT ME TO THINK! YOU'RE GONNA KILL ME! YOU'RE GONNA LET THEM KILL ME! I GOTTA SAVE MY DAD!" He broke down into more tears, his shoulders shaking as he continued to sob. "I WANNA GO HOME! I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE! I WANT MY MOMMY!" He suddenly pulled the cinnamon tabby into a hug, still blubbering like a baby, a few words intelligible every now and then.

Jake hugged him back, unsure of what else to do, helping steady the boy, who continued to shake uncontrollably. He could only hear bits and pieces of what the boy was saying, but based on what he heard, he could only imagine what he'd gone through under the effects of the serum. While he was mad at Turmoil for doing this, the small kat new that he needed to push that aside, focusing on both of his friends' well-being, starting with Max.

"It's okay," he told the boy, who continued to cry, hugging him tightly. "Everything's gonna be okay."


T-Bone POV:

When T-Bone woke up, he stared up at the plain ceiling wondering if he was in a hospital, and immediately felt his face, relaxing as he felt the fabric of his mask covering his eyes.

"T-Bone," he heard a voice cry, and turned to see Razor coming towards him, a relieved smile on his face. "You're alright, buddy!"

"Of course," the blond tabby grinned. "It'd take more than a crazy she-kat to take me out!" He looked down at his legs, noticing the blanket that was thrown over him, as well as a tube coming out of his arm. "Where are we?"

"Professor Hackle; he was able to use his medical bots to fix your injuries." His friend gave him a worried look. "Still feeling any pain? She broke one of your legs, but he was able to completely fix it; you won't even need a cast!"

"That so?" Now that it was mentioned, the kat couldn't feel any pain in his body; it seemed like a faint memory, and looking at his arms, it was as if he'd never been beaten. "I'm fine, thanks for asking, but did we defeat Turmoil? Last thing I remember was Lonestar going to face her."

Razor's face fell at that, and a cold feeling swept over the burly Swat Kat.

"Razor," he asked, pulling himself into a sitting position. "What happened? Is Lonestar dea-"

"He's alive," his best friend assured him. "And we defeated Turmoil, arrested her and her soldiers, and save Feral and Felina. But-"

"But what?"

The cinnamon kat hesitated before continuing. "Turmoil… Turmoil did something to him; she injected him with some kind of-"

"Fear," T-Bone interrupted, his eyes going wide as he realized what had happened. "She was gonna use it on me; she said it made you experience your greatest fears for half and hour, and-" He gaped at his friend. "Kat's alive, is he alright?!"

"Not really; we had to sedate him just to get him here, and when he woke up, he thought he was still imagining things. According to the Professor, he's showing symptoms of extreme PTSD; he was under for half an hour, but who knows how many times he had to live out those fears during that time."

Chance could only stare back in horror as he took in the information. He knew what his own fears were, and could only imagine what it must be like to have to have them play out in his mind repetitively. Then he remembered something else. "Turmoil… she said that it was from her benefactor. They… they wanted her to test it out on Lonestar specifically, but she was gonna use it on me and Feral instead."

Jake frowned at that, the gears turning in his head. "Wait, but that would mean-"

"That whoever their benefactor is, they know about Max being a human, and if they support the likes of Turmoil, then they're not good guys."


Johnny POV:

Johnny pulled up in front of the garage, frowning when he noticed that the lights were off; usually, if Jake and Chance weren't home, Max always was, and wondered why the place looked abandoned. He was even more confused when he tried to open the door to the apartment, finding it locked.

"Guys," he called, peering through the window at the darkened living room, searching for any sign of the kats or human. "Max? Jake? Chance? Where are ya?"

There was no answer, and he wondered for a second if they were somehow pranking him; it wouldn't be the first time they'd done that. Determined not to get hit with a water balloon or the like, he ran back outside, going towards his bike. He resolved to wait out there for a few minutes before going back, and-

Suddenly, he heard a whir of an engine from behind him, and turned in time to see another bike pull up next to his. It was one he recognized, and he gaped at the driver.

"Razor?!"

The Swat Kat pulled off his helmet, revealing the vigilante's masked face. "Come we me; we don't have much time."

"What? How come? I'm waiting for my friends here, and-"

"It's about Max."

The kamerakat froze at that, shocked at the Swat Kat's statement. Sure, he remembered him and T-Bone giving the human a ride, but how would they have known his name? Did Max tell them? Or was Max in some sort of trouble, along with Chance and Jake? "What happened? Are he and his friends alright? They're not here right now!"

The Swat Kat sighed, then did the last thing the tan tabby was expecting: he pulled off his mask, exposing his identity. And it was one that Johnny recognized.

"I'll explain on the way," Jake told the shocked kamerakat. "Now climb on!"


Turmoil POV:

Turmoil sat in her cell at Enforcer Headquarters, staring at the wall in front of her, waiting for something. They'd patched up her wounds at a hospital, under careful surveillance in case she tried to escape; a bandage was wrapped around her hand, and stitches crossed her face as she waited.

Eventually, the ground trembled a little beneath her, splitting open as a hole appeared in the floor. Smiling, she watched as a small device flew out, landed on the floor in front of her, and a holo display appeared in front of her.

"Were you able to do it," the black-clad figure asked her, the lenses of his glasses seeming to glow.

She nodded. "Yes. I am impressed vith how quickly the serum took hold of his mind; they had to sedate him just so they could move him to safety." The she-kat frowned at him. "You did not tell me that he vas an alien."

"He isn't," the Benefactor answered coolly. "But in a way, he is. Nevertheless, he will be disturbed by what he had experienced, which will affect his and the Swat Kats' performance in the future, making him and his friends easier to catch. I thank you for upholding your end of the bargain."

"And I thank you for upholding yours," she replied, walking towards the hole to climb in.

"I'm afraid I can't let you leave," the holo-display told her. She paused mid-step. "I have my own plans for this city, and the last thing I need is an unstable villain getting in the way."

"Unstable-" she started angrily.

"But I still have one last trial to test before I move on to my final preparations."

A hand shot out from the hole, its claws digging into the floor by Turmoil's foot. She stepped back, staring at the arm, which was covered with black fur, and given its size, belonged to a huge kat. The rest of it soon followed, and she took several more steps back as the kat appeared in front of her.

When she was little, one of her favorite comics was about a kat that turned into a hulking monster whenever he grew too angry. This kat in front of her reminded her of that kat; eight feet tall, short black fur, and a face curled into a snarl, revealing needle-sharp teeth. But his eyes, solid orange and seeming to glow, terrified her.

"Is this her," it asked in a chilling voice that sent shivers down her spine.

"Yes," the holo-projection replied before turing back to the she-kat. "This is my creation, and the next step in kat evolution. His name is Gorgan. Look upon him, and know that the world will soon be filled with kats like him."

"Kats alive," she muttered, staring at the monster in front of her. "Vhat… Vhat does he do?"

"You're about to find out," Gorgan spoke up.

"And try not to scream," the hologram told her. "He doesn't like screaming." And with that, the device turned off, rolling back into the hole.


Felina POV:

The next morning, Felina, cleared by a doctor with a minor concussion, followed two guards towards the final cell at the end of the hall.

"Any problems with her," she asked one of the guards.

"None; she fell asleep sometime after midnight, and hasn't woken up yet."

"Then let's give her a wake up call," the Lieutenant replied, unlocking the door and stepping into the room.

The first thing she noticed was a large hole in the ground right in front of the door, angled so that anyone looking in through the bars of the door window couldn't see it. What was more confusing, however, was that Turmoil still lay in her bed.

"Crud," the kat muttered, leaping across the hole and landing next to the bed. "She's obviously escaped and left a dummy; call the squad and-"

She cut off as she noticed two things. First, as she grabbed the shoulder of the dummy, she noticed how realistic the fur felt, and turned in time to find one of the hands, showing the same nail polish that the villain wore, fall limply off the bed. Why would anyone bother to pain the nails on a dummy?

The second thing, however, was much scarier. Something fell on her shoulder, like a drop of water, and she looked up, her eyes going wide as she took in the ceiling.

"Lieutenant, she's- KAT'S ALIVE," one of the guards yelled, soon followed by a retching sound. The other one fumbled for their communicator, calling for back up.

On the ceiling was a word; a single word that was gibberish to the kat, and painted with something that wasn't paint. It read:

GORGAN.

END OF ACT TWO


Yeah... A lot to swallow here, I know, but I wanted to wrap everything up before the Holidays.

I also apologize for the language; usually, I try not to use a lot of profanity in my works, so I apologize for my large use of it in this chapter.

Just writing this chapter gave me chills; never before have I written a chapter with so much horror elements in it, as well as so much sadness and bad stuff happening to a main character of mine. Obviously, Max is gonna be traumatized, and it's gonna take a while for him to go back to being somewhat normal again.

Besides that, however, what a chapter! Johnny find out about the Swat Kats' true identities, Professor Hackle makes an appearance, and we finally see what happened to Gary Robertson (see Chapter Four if you don't recall who he is), as well as a bit of Dr. Void's plan for kat-kind. Also, of course, the whole giant portion about Max's worst fears. For those of you that read it, I hope I didn't traumatize you too much. I'll try not to make future chapters as dark as this, for the sake of those that aren't into that kind of stuff, but there will still be dark moments in future chapters.

Also, get ready for a time jump! That's all I'll say on that matter.

And, if you're confused as to the whole "ACT" thing, Act One is Chpaters 1-11, and Act Two is Chapters 12-17 (See Chapters One and Twelve for the Act titles). Obviously, Chapter 18 will start the next act, which is entitled Act Three: Worlds Collide.

As always, favorite and follow the story to keep yourselves updated on new chapters, and feel free to leave a review with your thoughts and comments on the chapter and story so far. Have a great day, and I hope I didn't leave any of you shook.

Anyways, I wish a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays and a Happy Winter Break to you all, and hope that you all that are traveling travel safely! Have a great day, and a Happy New Year!

Note: I do NOT own San Jacinto (or the monument), The Hulk, Marvel, Stephen King, Shirley Jackson, Lemony Snicket, or the 1976 or 2018 Olympics in ANY way, shape or form!

-aggiefrogger