((I want to thank all of you for being so kind and supportive of this first effort of mine. I am so very pleased people are enjoying this fic. Please comment how you like this chapter.))
((SWAT Kats are property of Hannah-Barbera and are used without permission. Various named and unnamed OCs that do not appear in the cartoons are owned by me.))
A few minutes later, the ICU is fairly quiet in T-Bone's room, where a still figure lays in the bed with his head entirely swathed in bandages. A screw twists bit by bit inside the frame of a vent in the air conditioning duct, and finally it falls to the ground with a tinkling sound. There's a red glow through the hole for a split moment and then another screw begins twisting and eventually falls to the ground as well. The third follows and then the vent cover pops outward a bit, just enough that it can be pivoted away on the remaining screw.
Mac creeps to the opening to peer down at the bed and grins with pleasure. "Poifect, he's a sitting duck. Wish Molly could see this. Poor Mol, I'm gonna go back and get that other SWAT Kat good," he growls. "But this is too easy! " He leaps from the duct onto the foot of the bed, and tappity taps his way to the head. He raises a foreleg, the light glinting off the sharp metal tip as he aims to plunge it into an eye. "Say goodnight, SWAT Kat!"
"Hold it right there, you're under arrest!" Felina kicks the bathroom door wide open, with a weapon in hand. "I've got you right in my sights, Mange. Don't move!"
Mac looks around, his leg still poised. "Oh yeah? You can't shoot me without risking shootin' yer friend here. Looks like we're at an impasse, Loo-tenant!"
"Not quite Mange!" booms a familiar voice from very near.
"Huh?!" Mac looks around and then yelps as an arm snatches him by the leg, and he's held aloft as the formerly prone figure in the bed jumps up spryly. He quickly unwraps the bandages obscuring his face.
"Feral!?" Mac shouts. "What're you doin' in here?"
"Fortunately one of my Enforcers correctly ascertained where you could be hiding! Felina, the neural neutralizer!" he says, holding Mac out.
"Got it, Uncle,' Felina replies, aiming with Professor Hackle's invention.
"Oh no, not this time!" Mac snarls, and Feral's wrist and hand are pierced by Mac's legs. He lets go reflexively and Mac drops, trying to scatter under the bed. Feral swings at him with his baton ((Alright, I'm sorry, but it is a baton? Or a cane or what is that stick with the pommel?)) and misses, lurching forward and trying to look under the bed. Mac suddenly scrambles out the other side, and jumps. He's boosted by the rocket in his base straight into Felina's face, smack in the eye. Felina yelps, knocked backwards. Her arm flies outwards and the neural neutralizer impacts the wall with a "crack" and a few green sparks.
Mac lands lightly and takes off out the door. "After him!" Feral shouts, racing behind. There's a rush of Enforcers down the hall, but too far away to catch the fleeing Metallikat. "You idiots! Where were you?!" he shouts, eyebrows raising when Steele steps forward.
"I uh, had them fall back sir, I didn't want…"
"IMBECILE!" Feral roars. "I'll deal with you later. After him, men!" He pauses though, turning back and trying to help Felina up.
"Uncle, I have an idea of where we should look for Mac next…"
Mac wastes no time in charging deeper into the ICU, and down a back hallway. "Stupid Feral. Hard Drive musta flaked off somewhere if he had time to come lookin' for me," he snarls, peering around a corner. There was a heavy fire door at the end of the hall, and a dark room with the door barely cracked open. He was eyeing a window when a crash and hushed voices gains his attention. However, there's also the echoing of boots rushing down the hall. Looking around swiftly, he jumps into a convenient waste receptacle and burrows down.
"This way men! He must have gotten the fire doors open somehow!" Feral shouts, as they run past. Mac remains crouched in the tissues and candy wrappers, listening. But his eyebrow raises as he hears another clattering and female voices.
"Sir! T-Bone, stop fighting. Alright? You're safe… do we have any midazolam?"
"Sshhhhh... Quiet. I don't know, I don't see any."
His lip curls and he cautiously exits the trash can, with a banana peel perched jauntily atop his head until he shakes it off. He creeps to the doorway and peers cautiously though the gap.
"Rita, watch his claws! He's trying to get the restraints."
"Can anybody get to pharmacy for some midazolam?"
"Are you kidding? He needs haldol," says an irritated voice and there's another clattering noise.
Mac glances around the room, which was some sort of storage, with a couple ICU beds crammed inside. It looked like two of the occupants of the ICU hadn't gone far. Either they'd not had time to move them or they were too fragile for it. Mac quickly slips behind a box, watching. The lights were out in the room, through the silenced monitors were shedding a green glow. But all the action centered around one bed, where three nurses were fighting with a burly yellow striped tom cat, trying to keep him from shredding them or the restraints with his claws. A fourth young nurse runs out another door. The third nurse, a hard faced brunette, reaches over and slaps a button on the ventilator which stops chugging.
The SWAT Kat's struggles become weaker and the panic in his eyes increases ten fold. Mac winces, almost feeling sorry for the poor slob. The other two nurses are staring at the brunette in shock. "Turn that back on!" the blonde gasps, letting go of the SWAT Kat's wrist and slapping the vent controls. The ventilator hisses back into life and T-Bone's chest shudders.
"What the hell was that? Have you lost your mind?!" she hisses, just as the young nurse creeps back in.
"It worked didn't it?" the brunette asks. "Rita, hurry up with that mido."
Unfortunately, right on the returning nurses tail is Feral, with a hasty wrap of gauze around his hand and wrist. "How is he doing," he asks, realizing by the tension in the room something isn't quite right. T-Bone's head turns slightly and dull eyes watch the Commander. "He's awake?" he asks, with surprise.
"Well, he is, but he's also confused, and fighting the vent. You know, Mel, the vent?" she says sarcastically, eyeing her colleague. "The thing that breathes for him?"
The nurse who'd shut it down rolls her eyes.
The young nurse is slipping a needle into T-Bone's IV. Feral steps forward, looking down at T-Bone, who is staring back at him with very little recognition. "Commander, did you catch the Metallicat?" The young nurse asks, all breathless.
Feral glances up as Felina slips into the room, the side of her face starting to swell. "We haven't found him, Uncle."
"Blast!" Feral shouts, pounding the wall with his fist. T-Bone jumps a little, eyes widening, and at that wakeup call is appearing a bit more alert. "We can't stay here any longer. Mange could be anywhere. I'm sorry ladies, but we need to evacuate, now," he says firmly.
The blonde nurse sighs. "Right. Mel, you get the vent, I'll get the IV pole…"
"Why don't you guys take the other patient first? I'll stay here with T-Bone," Felina offers.
The blonde quirks an eyebrow. "What if something happens?"
"Well, you won't be gone that long will you? Besides, maybe I can calm him down for you."
"Probably. He's got some midazolam in him now so he won't have so much anxiety about the vent." The nurses scurry around, and it does take all four of them to move the other patient's bed, the vent, and all the other myriad equipment. Feral steps out into the hall, directing the Enforcers to guard them and help.
Felina slips over to T-Bone, who tenses, his claws still out. She grabs a tissue from a box on a shelf and reaches to gently blot tears away from his cheeks. "Hey, Chance," she says softly. His ears prick and he looks at her, expression faintly puzzled. "I know you must be confused, and hurting but…bet you're worried about your partner. Jake is alive," she says, Both his ears prick up, and he blinks slowly. "Yeah, that's right. Jake's fine, and you're going to be fine," she says, and pulls a chair over with her foot and sits. She takes his hand in hers, his claws retract and his fingers curl gently around her hand. "You guys had an accident, but everything's going to be okay." She places her other hand on his shoulder.
"Well well well isn't this touching?" Mac jeers, tapping his way out of his hiding place.
Felina jumps to her feet, pointing the neural neutralizer at him. "Freeze!" she shouts, then pulls the trigger. The gun makes a wheeeeeze-click and shoots a couple green sparks.
"Hah! I thought so!" he crows triumphantly. "Outta the way, toots! Me'n the grease monkey got some unfinished business."
Felina grabs at her radio. "I need Enforcer ba-augh!" Felina ducks but not quite enough as Mac busts her in the face again, knocking her to the floor. She crumples there, coughing and spitting out a tooth.
"Hah! Now lemme see, dis shuts it off…" He glances at T-Bone who is watching him with glittering eyes. "Goodbye, SWAT Kat," he laughs, tapping at the vent controls. It powers down and T-Bone's chest stops moving. "I'm gonna enjoy watching you die," he taunts, then there's a heavy step from behind.
"Eh?!" he looks up, just in time to see Feral's baton come crashing down on his skull. The top of Mac's head caves in a bit and Feral gives him another three or four bashes for good measure.
The nurses rush in and one quickly powers the vent back up again. T-Bone's eyes close a moment, fists clenched as it kicks back in. "Ow," Felina mumbles, as Feral helps her to her feet. He looks at Mac with distaste, whose eyes are flickering red and legs moving feebly. "Good work Felina, you were right about him sneaking in here. Though it would have worked better had that neural neutralizer been up and running."
"Wow, Ungle. You weally cwobbered him!" Felina says with surprise.
Feral harrumphs and glances at T-Bone. "Well, SWAT Kat, looks like I get to save your tail for once," he says with sudden humor. T-Bone smiles faintly at him, around the tube in his mouth. "But we're not out of the woods yet," Feral adds. "Hard Drive is still on the loose."
"Don' worry, Ungle," Felina says, her cheek puffed out. She's buisily tucking some gauze into the gap in her teeth. "I goh a pwan."
"Razor?" Bright light interrupts the comfortable, dusky darkness he was floating in.
"Leamme 'lone," he mumbles, and he hears a feminine giggle.
"Wake up, hero." He squints his eyes open with an effort, eyeing Jamue who's leaning over him and fiddling with the leads on a EKG. He realizes next that he's laying on something soft and a hissing oxygen mask is fitted over his face. It takes him another moment to come to the conclusion that he's on the cot inside an ambulance. He can see that Barry and Callie are outside the open doors, peering in. And nothing seems to be exploding, on fire, or shooting at him. Having ascertained this, he closes his eyes again.
"Oh no you don't, hero," she says sharply and gives his shoulder a shake. "You gotta stay awake." His eyes slit open and she smiles at him. "There, that's better. Hey, they caught Mac!" she says, and that pricks his attention.
"Hey, his pressure is dropping," the EMT says quietly, and Jamue reaches over to twist the valve on the IV wide open.
"What is it?"
"88/40. He's got a temp too."
"Razor, anything hurting? Razor?" The paramedic jostles his shoulder and his eyes pop open again.
"Uh?"
"Anything hurt?"
"Hurt… oh… yeah. My stomach is killing me," he mutters.
Jamue's expression becomes more concerned and she reaches to gently palpate his abdomen. "Where at?" she asks, as he winces.
"All over. T-Bone?"
She nods. "He's fine, Mac didn't get to him. They just have to find Hard Dri- Hey. Razor? HEY!"
He'd started to smile at that welcome news, before his eyes had fluttered closed and his head lolled limply to the side. She reaches over and viciously rubs his sternum with her knuckles. Razor doesn't flinch.
"I can't find his pressure!" the EMT shouts, and all three of them stare in horror at the flat line on the heart monitor.