Kitty was taking aim and tried to hold the new weapon steady. It was heavier than the guns she was used to but then again, it had more features. At least the ones Dudley had told her about were things she had wished for in rifles for a while. An aiming support system that felt like someone was aligning the shot for you.
A holographic plane that acted like a scope for accurate shots over a ridiculous distance. A beam function where, according to Dudley, it was like wielding a giant lance made from energy that could cut through steel like a scythe through grass. It felt insane for her, no wonder the humans were so keen on this care package from their ship.
Dudley originally also wanted to show her some of the close-range weapons but after remembering what she had done with the dagger, he skipped the demonstration. Instead, he was now holding the very same dagger he had in his chest not too long ago. It was almost impressive to her with what indifference he used this blade after their encounter.
He was practicing a few sets of movements that seemed alien to her, which made sense, he never learnt armed close combat with edged weaponry at T.U.F.F. The melee curriculum's focus back then was on hand-to-hand and maybe a baton from time to time.
Kitty watched him making his moves. It wasn't a very exciting sight to behold, after all he really slowly practicing some of the procedures, but it was better watching him doing this than sinking into thoughts again. Two hours have passed since the alarm went off and Powers hadn't answered a lot since then.
Kitty was worried about that, after all, Nick was out there fighting. Probably getting injured. Possibly getting killed. The minor to major quakes that traveled through the building more often as time passed didn't help to get her mind off thinking about him.
Dudley didn't seem very concerned about all that, although Kitty suspected that he was just pushing these worries to the back of his mind for now. In this situation, he kind of did the right thing, at least in her eyes. So, she tried her best to emulate his way of thinking and concentrated on his motion and think about the rest when push comes to shove.
"These are some interesting moves." She commented as she let the rifle sink down.
"Thanks." He said and stabbed the air a few times with the dagger. "I am not the biggest fan of getting close to the enemy, but I think when push comes to shove it's better to be prepared."
"Well, I like that way of thinking." She meant and put the rifle on a table nearby. "But, didn't you love to beat the villains up back at T.U.F.F.?"
"Well, everything has a story and…" he stopped mid-move for a moment and looked at her. "…I had worse things in my back than this dagger."
Kitty shuddered, that was more than she wanted to know about that. "Okay, but why don't we swap places then… just give me something else than the dagger."
"Don't take that personally Kitty but…" The look on his face revealed some discontent. "But well…"
"What?" Kitty crossed her arms, the stare she gave him demanded an answer.
"I don't think you will be, how to put that, the best fit for that position." He avoided looking back at her while saying this.
Kitty shook her head and sighed. "Oh, Dudley." She meant in a patronizing way. "I think we both know who the better of the two of us is."
"Oh, is that so?" Dudley stopped his training routine and looked at her. "Well, good thing that you take it so well. I know how proud you were of your fighting skills."
Kitty's expression darkened. "I meant myself." She gave her words the time to take effect before adding. "I am the better one."
Kitty wasn't a proud person, proud people would have gone crazy working at T.U.F.F. over the time. But there were a few things she took pride in, one was her fighting skill. No other agent at T.U.F.F. had even come close to her, not even Dudley.
She remembered the countless training sessions in which she had sent him on the boards. Not even with his fancy new techniques and the extra years of training he would ever come close to her, at least that was her opinion. And she was ready to stand her ground regarding this.
"Oh boy…" Dudley put the dagger on the table and walked to her. "I really don't want to fight with you but…"
"Then don't and just accept it." She smirked triumphantly. "Now give me another melee weapon and you take the rifle."
"Kitty, be reasonable." He rolled his eyes. "I might not have any shield energy left but I am sure I can at least survive long enough among a squad for you to fire at them."
"And you think I can't?" She laughed in a tone that was more than mocking. "Prove it."
"You want me to prove it?" He raised an eyebrow. "Come on that's childish."
"If you don't want to, that's fine. But give me another weapon then."
Her voice was at the same time provoking and demanding which brought Dudley to a sigh.
"Fine, I'll prove it, what do you want me to do."
"Easy." Kitty pulled one of her legs back and got into a fighting stance. "Try to hit me."
"Fine." Groaned the dog and kept standing in the exact same posture.
"Okay ready. Set. Go!" Kitty's first move was trying to jump back a little as she expected Dudley to hit her with a straightforward punch.
But losing her balance in the instant she moved happened so fast that the next thing she registered was her lying on the ground. Dudley looked down at her, his eyebrow still raised up high and he started gently tapping his finger on Kitty's forehead.
"One two three…" He counted every tap.
"Stop it!" she hissed and got back up again. "That proves nothing."
"Do you want another demonstration?" Dudley spoke with a voice that seemed emotionless but for Kitty, it was just a façade. She knew that he was mocking her with that. She could bear to be laughed at, but this was worse.
"Yes, this time the other way around." She got into her fighting stance again while Dudley still remained in a normal pose. "Dammit Dudley could you take that seriously?!"
"I'd rather not…" he said and something like a smirk was visible for a second.
"Are you mocking me?!" she gritted her teeth and turned her open hands into fists.
"I actually don't try." He again slipped, and this time a giggle came out of him. "I don't want to make you angry."
"I'll show you angry." She growled. "Ready. Set…" This time she jumped at him with a kick even before her countdown ended. She had aimed for his stomach but again her efforts were in vain. Dudley blocked the kick with his hand and twisted her foot around in a gentle manner, well as gentle as possible at least until she lost her footing and landed on her belly. As soon as she was lying on the ground Dudley's voice became audible.
"The next thing I would do is stomp on you but I think I spare you." He meant and released her foot.
"You SPARE ME?!" She jumped up again and rushed with her claws not extended. In the second she was close enough to hit him he caught both of her hands and held her in place. He put a very smug grin on as he said. "I think I take the dagger."
It took Kitty a bit of struggling against his firm grip and the realization that she had lost the fight to finally sigh. "Fine… I yield."
"Thank you," Dudley said and let her go and just in this moment of negligence Kitty used her chance to pinch his nose.
"Yes!" She called triumphantly. "I got you."
"Nice one." Laughed Dudley and rubbed his nose. "So can we stick with the 3 to 1 and be civil again."
"Sure." She smiled widely and walked to the table. "Still got it."
"Whatever makes you happy, hun." He said and then took a deep breath.
As much fun as that was they couldn't distract each other forever from the matters at hand. And as a new tremor shook the building Kitty looked helplessly at him. In return, he nodded and once again tried to use his communicator to reach Powers.
"Sly, give me a sign that you are still alive." Said the dog and waited as static replaced a proper answer.
"Did he answer?" Kitty had shouldered her gun. She looked ready to fight.
"No still just static…"
Like Dudley provoked him with that statement Powers' voice echoed over the lab's speakers which added a certain gravitas to his angry tone. "I am trying to win a battle here, Puppy! So could you give me a little break and don't ask every five goddamn minutes?!"
Although stressed and angry Dudley realized that their situation could be worse. After all the human hadn't used words like survive or salvage the battle. He seemed still to think that they could win.
"Well, then give me an update for once."
The sounds of energy discharges became distinguishable from the static and a scream filled with agony followed.
"That's what you get for trying to rush us." Powers growled.
"Sly please."
"Hold on let me just…" A sound not unlike a boiling kettle ripped through the air. "Good, now, where were we."
"The update." Dudley urged exasperatedly.
"A right. We are taking heavy losses but we can keep the enemy at bay. Some kind of carrier ship is over us but Meternagel is trying his best to keep its fire drawn on him."
"How many casualties?" Dudley asked and the military coldness in his voice not only scared Kitty. His own eyes grew as he said that and added. "Do you know anything about Nick?"
"Negative, I think his squad is still alive." He meant but the words didn't calm the two parents in the slightest. Powers' words made it sound like it was just a matter of time before the squad's state changed. "Concerning the other question, we have 5 confirmed deaths and 25 people in unclear states. Ryan is doing his best out here but he's just one gu…" Powers fell silent as another voice appeared in the background and exchanged some muffled words with him.
"Dammit, that's bad." The Captain commented. "Dudley, our left flank was breached, we could repeal the attackers again but a lizard squad made it inside."
Kitty moved to Dudley and looked at him, he nodded at her and then said. "We'll take care of that."
"Much obliged." The captain again fired a few shots from his gun. "They are probably here to get the old folk and the younger kids. Make them regret even thinking about that. Powers out."
"You heard the captain in command," Dudley said and grabbed his dagger tightly. Kitty couldn't avoid noticing the tone in his voice.
"Are you annoyed in any way?"
"I don't think it's time for it now, but this rank pulling is getting annoying yes." He said as they both ran out of the room.
"You are right, not the time." Meant Kitty shaking her head.
"Fine, listen, you live down here a little longer than I do. I know the children, wounded, and the elderly are in the cafeteria. Is there any choke point where we could catch the troop?"
Kitty thought for a moment before she answered. "There are two, unfortunately. We could barricade the one over there but the other is pretty open."
Dudley didn't waste any more time talking and started to shove anything that could make a good barricade into the hallway. Especially everything made from metal was favored by him. A few metal benches, one or two lockers, and even a whole table he had grabbed from a room nearby. Kitty tried to help him as well as she could but it was kind of complicated as he wasn't really communicating to her what he wanted to grab.
"Okay, that should give you some cover," He slightly panted. "I'd say you try to hold this path, I take care of the other." Dudley drew his dagger and was about to jog sprint away as Kitty intervened.
"Negative, I think we are better as a team."
The dog looked confused for a moment before shaking his head. "Oh, sorry force of habit. This wasn't meant as a topic to debate." He winked at her and then started running.
Kitty looked baffled after him before she realized it. "Hey wait! WAIT! You can't pull rank on me!" she shook her head angrily and then readied her rifle. "He pulled rank on me, can you believe that?!"
It was an odd feeling seeing Dudley do that, especially to her. During their whole professional relationship she was always the one ranked higher and, as far as she remembered, Dudley never had a problem with that. She always had the feeling that he liked being told what to do, basically handing the responsibility to think over to her.
And now he was standing there in his uniform giving orders like he has never done something else. Kitty had already thought about this change of character back then when he was reintroduced to them as Captain Dudley Puppy. But seeing him, in a way grown up, leading people was not the worst thing that happened to him.
Still pulling rank on her, that was a no-go. She took a deep breath again as she looked through the holographic scope, her trigger finger was itching. Something would happen very soon. Steps became audible, and their intensity rose until she saw the first lizard shoving its bulky body into the hallway.
The lizard was bulkier than any she had seen before, it also wore a tactical gear similar to the ones she had seen in the antenna tower back then. A grey-green mechanically enhanced suit combined with a helmet onto which a visor was attached. The long plasma rifle in their hands were attached to the visor through a thin cable.
These were the details Kitty could catch in the time between stimulus and reaction, which in this case meant between detection and the pulling of the trigger. The three impulses of bright light stamped a hole through the lizard big enough to climb through. Kitty had wished that the other lizards would just come into the hallway one after the other so she could have just shot each of them easily.
But of course, they had to take positions and start to fire back. Kitty ducked down behind her barricades and waited a few seconds before peeking out. The lizards tried to move towards her in the hallway. She yanked the rifle around and send a volley of unaimed shots toward her enemy.
The ones who weren't hit retreated hastily to their first position and started barraging her with plasma. Kitty waited again but this time realized something rather problematic. She had taken cover behind a metal table which had become noticeably hot with every shot of the lizards. Had they already melted away the rest of the barricades.
"Oh great…" She thought as the metal started glowing. The lizards kept their shelling knowing fully well that they just had to keep shooting. Kitty was running out of options besides jumping to the wall at the end of the hallway. She got herself ready, they wouldn't get her without experiencing some resistance.
She took the gun, changed the fire mode and with a beam of bright white light she shot through the table slicing her own barricade in two. Kitty didn't wait for the lizard's reaction and quickly withdraw while pointing the ray roughly into the hallway. She was almost in safety as an explosion swept her off her feet and tossed her to the wall.
She hadn't realized that the lizards had thrown something. Her view was blurry and burning shrapnel rained from the ceiling as a bulky figure slowly came closer to her. She tried to lift her gun but couldn't muster the strength as her arms felt like shivering twigs. At that moment she thought the last thing she would hear was the sound of a plasma gun, when suddenly, pair of firm hands pulled her back onto her feet.
Dudley's face seemed to get clearer the more often she blinked and soon she recognized a pair of concerned eyes eying her body up and down.
"Are you okay?" he seemed to whisper but Kitty could clearly see that his lips formed words in a normal way.
"WHAT HAPPENED?!" She screamed without intending it.
"A grenade happened," Dudley said and looked towards the destroyed barricades. Calling them that was actually a far fetch, what was left of the metal was pressed into the wall. Kitty looked at the place where she was standing seconds ago, retrospectively leaving had been a fantastic idea.
"Are you alright?" His voice sounded louder this time and Kitty could hear the ambient sounds returning into her field of hearing.
"I think I am…" Unsure about her own words she looked at herself. Her tail had caught fire, and there was the distinct smell of burnt hair but besides that, she felt pretty well given the circumstances.
"What about the lizards."
"Well, you handled your bunch pretty well." Dudley smiled and gave her a pat on the shoulder. "There were just three left when I arrived."
Kitty looked toward her attackers. A lot of them lay at the end of the hallway probably hit by her shots.
Three corpses lay in her vicinity looking like a talentless butcher had exercised on them.
"And the rest…"
"Don't worry, handled them." The dog winked at her. "Now come on ensign, we got a battle to fight."
Dudley wanted to lighten the mood a little but all he received from Kitty was a frown. "I am not part of your crew Dudley."
"Really? I know a lot of people who would give much for an opportunity like that." He grabbed her by the hand and started jogging. "I don't want to brag but I got a certain renown."
"Oh really, not bragging, huh?" Kitty grinned as she kept up with his pace. "What's next, want to show me your ship?"
"Oh I'd love to… but the chimera is still in the docks."
"Like that is the only reason…" She laughed.
"Yeah there is a certain interdimensional barrier we must overcome but then I must invite you on my personal shuttle."
"Oh that sounds more tempting." Kitty said mockingly. She knew the shuttle the humans had used. It wasn't small but nothing to brag about.
"No really, as a fleet captain, you get your own shuttle, it's actually for diplomatic purposes but I think I can give you a ride… I just say that you are a diplomat." Dudley's voice sounded less jokingly and Kitty realized that this was a serious offer from him. A shuttle for diplomatic purposes, how would that even look? Full of luxuries she couldn't imagine in her wildest dreams?
She didn't come to think too much about his proposition as they arrived at the entrance of the bunker, or what was left of it.
Behind the remainders of the walls, a row of wounded grabbed onto dear life. Kitty knew each face and name of them while Dudley just recognized a few. There was Daisy with a big shrapnel stuck in her abdomen clinging onto it with shivering bloodied hands. Next to her lay a dog he knew because he had screamed at him before.
It was the father of this boy Terry. He had half of his jaw missing and stared senselessly toward the rest of a ceiling. Next to him, Dudley couldn't recognize who lay there due to the white sheet that lay over the person. He maybe didn't know who lay there but he knew what it meant, and so did Kitty as she turned her eyes away from them.
And while they stood there and watched Ryan ran back and forth between the wounded and tried to stabilize them as well as possible.
"How is the situation?" Dudley tried asking but Ryan wasn't listening.
"I don't have the time for you!" he hectically mumbled. "Go and…"
"Let me through!" Isaac's voice suddenly pierced through the battle noises. "Ryan! I need help now!"
Kitty and Dudley started in shock at the scientist, he was holding a small battered bundle on his arm. They hadn't have recognized him if not for the bloodied labcoat and the splintered glasses.
It was Keswick, and he looked like he came straight from hell. A big hole gaped where his belly should have been and instead of intestines all they could see was a pool of blood. Dudley held Kitty back as she tried to run to their friend.
"What in the name of… what happened to him?!" The question from Ryan's mouth made the situation not feel more under control for everyone around him as he placed Keswick on the ground.
"Tank shell by the enemy went right through him," Isaac explained quickly. "You need to save him, do you understand!"
"I am not a miracle worker!" Ryan retorted and pushed Isaac away. "Get me more supplies, now! And shoo these bystanders away."
Isaac stumbled backward and just nodded without giving him any remark. He ran over to a crate and rummaged in it while calling over to Dudley and Kitty.
"Powers is close. Look for the closest energy barrier." He explained and Dudley confirmed with a nod. He wanted to leave but Kitty resisted.
"We can't just leave him, Dudley!"
"There is nothing we can do, let the two do their thing!" he yelled over the explosion of a tank shell.
Again, he started moving and this time ignoring Kitty's resistance. He simply pulled her with him as she watched the two humans operating on Keswick until they disappeared from her field of view.
"Finally!" Powers greeted them with a salute as they arrived underneath a blue energy shield.
The little crater which he had chosen combined with the shield provided sufficient cover from everything coming from the frontline. Powers was standing in front of a holo projection of the battlefield and eyed the map critically. Behind him Kate lay on the edge of the crater and created an opening in the shield from time to time to shoot the rifle she was hugging.
"How is the situation?" Dudley asked and while he received a thumbs up from Kate who had just fired her gun, Powers seemed more concerned.
"We have this thing back there that is controlling the air space." He pointed to a big flying blimp-like hologram. "Meternagel is diverting its attention but he can't do so forever."
"I know these." Kitty intervened as she compared the hologram with the sky in front of her. "They used it for their initial invasion, it's basically a bomber."
"Good to know, that doesn't make it easier."
"What about the ground troops." Dudley leaned closer to the hologram. He knew the little projections hadn't had any details, they were just for strategic planning, but he nevertheless hoped to see Nick somewhere there.
"We are pretty much flanking the enemy right now. Shredding their forces." The captain grinned complacently. "If they do not get any reinforcements, that's it for them."
"Any news about the casualties?" Dudley had straightened up ending in a posture that was worthy of a high-rank military while Kitty looked in disbelief at the holo map.
All this time they had fought the aliens, they had to use traps ambushes, and stealth for every victory. And even with these means every victory was a hard-earned struggle. Now there was this broad angular-faced human, who tried to tell her that they were winning an open battle.
"35 with 10 confirmed deaths among them" Powers said grimly. "That's more than 50 percent of our forces incapacitated."
"Tell me one thing…" Without realizing also Kitty imitated the stance both captains displayed. "If we lost 50 percent of our forces, how much did the lizards?"
"Right now?" Powers crossed his arms behind his back and looked closely at the map. "My rough estimation would be about 350 soldiers."
"You're joking right?" Kitty gasped hearing that number. 350 were probably more than all lizards the resistance had killed at all up to this point. "That's a whole battalion."
"You have to know, our dear Sly is, how should I put it, probably humanity's best strategist," Dudley said as his eyes also met the point all other gazes were fixed on.
"That's flattering… But I'd say I'm in the top three." Powers replied to Dudley with a wide grin.
"So, there is just this bomber vessel between us and victory?" Kitty inquired.
"Victory is a big word. But yes." The human nodded.
"I don't like standing around," Dudley growled and looked up at the ship that was still pestered by the little shuttle flying maneuvers around it. "Where can we help?"
"I'd rather have you two back but… I am running out of options." Powers pondered. "I might…"
"Sly bad news!" Kate called out and moved her eye away from the scope. "Reinforcement is arriving, more heavy artillery."
"They mean business, huh?" the captain sighed and shook his head. "This isn't good."
"Sly…" Meternagel's voice boomed through a radio receiver that seemed for the terrestrial troops.
"I heard about the reinforcements, John."
"Good because there is like a ton of them beneath me and they are starting to shoot…" the sound of static interrupted the pilot and first Dudley but soon the others saw why. The vehicles on the ground had raised their fire upwards in an attempt to hit the ship.
"Meternagel, update!" Barked Powers and moved closer to the radio. His posture had changed radically. The cold and analytic stiffness had yielded to a nervous cowering.
"Oh no…" the pilot came back on the radio sounding unfittingly concerned for himself.
"Status!" repeated Powers and grabbed the radio with both hands.
"The fuel containment field is destabilizing I…"
"Emergency landing, right now!"
"And where? On one of these tanks?! I just have about ten seconds" Meternagel sighed, and his voice had something grave. "We had a good run Sly."
"John this is not the time…" Powers wanted to say but he could just helplessly watch as the ship flew a loop and then towards the bomber vessel.
"I have one last ace up my sleeve." Even without visual contact, the defiant grin of Meternagel was audible at that moment. "Hey Dudley, tell your mom she makes great pancakes."
The silence arrived again and tried to feel at home in the little crater. And for just a little moment, a fracture of a second, the sounds of the battle were driven away by it. As it surrounded them all as they watched the last grains of sand in the hourglass of a life.
The little shuttle collided with the hull of the bigger vessel and a ball of bright light was the result. The bomber struggled against the force of the antimatter explosion but it relentlessly shoved the ship to the ground right into the crowd of vehicles that had fired fiercely a millisecond ago. The troops had no time to evade as the bomber impacted the surface and engulfed the whole area in bright bronze flames.
Dudley took Kitty's hand and she felt how he squeezed it. It wasn't a gentle gesture, it was the squeeze of someone who wanted to just grab onto something to not lose his footing upon seeing something horrible. Kitty knew this all too well and returned the gesture.
And then, with the might of a sledgehammer to the face, the silence left and made space for the deafening cacophony of matter ripping apart.
Powers didn't say a thing and just stared at the radio while he put it slowly back on the ground. Kate ran to him and took his head in her hands. "It's okay… It's okay." She gently said and looked him in the eyes.
Dudley gave Kitty's hand a last squeeze then he let go of her. He also didn't say a word as he walked through the holo map to Powers. He grabbed the radio the captain had put down and then spoke into the cable-attached handheld microphone.
"This is Captain Puppy on behalf of Captain Powers I order you to charge the enemy now!" he spoke with brutal sobriety. "The reinforcements are crushed, this is the moment to do the same to the rest of them. Destroy them, now!" Dudley put the microphone back down. The next thing he did was walk to a crate and grabbed a rifle similar to Kitty's.
"Time to win this battle." He nodded to the cat.
"Agreed." She grimly said and took her gun with both hands.
"Kate, take care of Powers, we bring that home," Dudley said and hopped over the edge of the crater. Kitty exchanged a quick glance with Kate who just gave her a nod.
"Let's go." She said to herself and then followed Dudley.
Victory was a big word, but this could be the first step toward it.
-Hey guys, hope you enjoyed the chapter. I'm a little late with the chapter, sorry for that. As always, don't forget to tell me what you think, PMs and reviews are appreciated, and of course stay tuned for more :)-
