Shadow Kat watched as T-bone, still unconscious and breathing labored, but still alive, was being taken away onto the Turbokat on a stretcher.
After Razor argued with paramedics, Callie convinced them to load T-bone into the cargo bay of the Turbokat and secured him.
Callie went back inside to talk to the Enforcers while Shadow Kat stayed outside with Razor. "Will you let me know how he's doing? I'll see what I can find in my ex-fiancé's research I have stored and get that to you." Shadow Kat said as Razor nodded. "Roger. I will keep you posted. Please hurry. I don't want to loose my partner and friend." Shadow Kat nodded as Razor got into the pilot's seat. Shadow Kat moved back to the sidewalk as Razor took off back to the hangar.
A paramedic tapped Shadow Kat on the shoulder. "Hey, you said you wanted this?" He asked, holding up the ashes of her former fiancé in a large plastic bag. "Yeah, thanks." She said as she took it and he walked away.
Shadow Kat sighed. 'Now at least I can put you back where you belong. I just hope T-bone won't be joining you in that graveyard soon.' She thought sadly as she went to her motorcycle to switch back to her car and drive home.
Back at the hangar, Razor had just parked the jet and hopped down. Cybertron happened to be nearby and asked Razor in beeps where was T-bone? Razor took off his helmet and placed it on a nearby table. "T-bone's in the cargo hold. Dr. Viper injected him with something and I have no idea what. We need to get him out of the hanger and make an infirmary down here. I can't carry him upstairs and neither can you."
A while later and some ingenuity, Razor and Cybertron got T-bone out of the cargo hold and to the makeshift infirmary. Then they managed to get his helmet, mask, gloves, and flight suit off. They left his undershirt and boxers. Razor put the heart monitor on his chest and also got an IV for fluids going in Chance's arm. He remembered the field training from their Enforcer days. He actually reacted to that, but stayed unconscious. Cybertron came over with a report and handed it to the now unmasked Jake. It was a pathology and blood report.
"Huh? According to this, Chance's blood cells are attacking his body. Whatever Dr. Viper injected him with, it's shutting him down slowly, one organ at a time." Jake looked at his unconscious best friend and partner, giving him a sad look. "Buddy, you gotta pull through. I need my partner and you have a pretty she-Kat to come back to now too. Hang in there, pal." He said as he looked at the heart monitor. It beeped negatively as his pulse and heart rate went down one point. Jake's ears folded back as he looked at Chance.
The next morning, Vivian went to work as usual. She walked into the garage, expecting to see Chance but he was nowhere to be found. She sat down at her normal spot and waited for Chance to maybe come downstairs or maybe come out of the back, but after a while of working, he never did. She then waited for Jake to walk by.
"Morning Jake. Where's Chance?" She asked as he stopped and looked like he was considering something for a moment, or that he got caught. "Uh...he's sick today. Some bug or something." Vivian got up and started heading for the upstairs apartment. "Where are you going?" Jake asked, trying not to show the fear on his face. "Going to go check on him. We're kinda dating so I should..." Jake ran and stopped her from going upstairs, stopping her from finding out Chance wasn't there.
"You really...shouldn't go up there. He's...he's been up-chucking some nasty looking crud. You don't wanna see that." Vivian tried once again to go around Jake. "I can stand a little vomit. I've seen worse on deployments..." Jake stepped in front of her again. "You should really stay down here. What if he's contagious?" Jake asks as Vivian gives him a suspicious look, but relents and sighs. "Fine. If he needs anything, you'll let me know, right?" She asked as he smiled and nodded. "I will, for sure." She walked away from the stairs and Jake blew out a breath.
'Hopefully she'll get me her fiancé's research soon so I can save Chance in time. I don't know how I'll be able to explain it to her if Chance dies without revealing to her that we're the Swat Kats.' He heard a beep coming from his pocket. A notification from the heart monitor that Chance's heart rate dropped another point. Jake shook his head and looked towards the trapdoor to the hangar. 'Don't give up, buddy. We both need you.'
A while later while looking through the salvage yard's inventory, Vivian noticed there were items that were unaccounted for. Items such as jet engine parts, radar screens, parts for radar, even parts to make missiles were missing. She focused on those and the looked up as Jake walked by.
"Hey, Jake. Could you come here for a second?" She asked as he came over to her desk, curious. "Yes, ma'am?" He asks she slides her book to him. "Can you explain what happened to these missing salvage yard parts? I normally wouldn't ask, but they're the more expensive items and I don't see any sales receipts for them." She said as Jake looked it over and tried to hide the fact he knew something, but the look in his eyes slightly gave it away.
"Hmmm...not sure. Maybe someone came and stole them? We do get kats that come and see if they can grab anything of value from time to time." Jake said as Vivian raised her eyebrow slightly at him. "Really? Then why is there no enforcer report for the alleged thievery?" Jake shrugged. "We didn't think it would be worth the enforcers time to come down here for stolen salvage." She gave him a suspicious look, but then shook her head. "Okay, but that is our property. You need to call the enforcers when stuff like that happens so we can properly record it." She said as Jake nodded. "I'll keep that in mind if it happens next time." He said as he walked away.
'He's hiding something, and I wanna know what!' Vivian thought to herself as she gathered up her things. It was time to go to Enforcer HQ. As she began to walk out to her car, she stopped at the garage to talk to Jake. "Hey, take good care of the big lug for me, will ya? Tell him I hope he gets better soon." She said as he smiled at her. "I will. Have a good day, Vivian." He said as he went back to work on the car he was currently working on. Vivian nodded as she walked out to her car and left.
Just as she was leaving, the monitor Jake had in his pocket started to beep incessantly, signaling something was horribly wrong with Chance. He dropped his wrench and ran to the trap door to check on Chance.
When he got there, he was convulsing violently on the bed, going into cardiac arrest. "Crud! Chance, hold on!" He said as he tried to get him to stay still, but was struggling against the bigger tom. He was still unconscious. Chance suddenly stopped moving altogether and he flat-lined. "Oh no! No! Buddy, come on!" Jake said as he jumped on the bed and started doing CPR and chest compressions desperately on his friend. "Come on! Come on! Come on! Don't you leave me buddy! The city needs you! I need you! Vivian needs you!" Jake yelled with tears in his eyes at his dead friend. Cybertron came over and had his palms electrified. Jake saw that and got off of Chance. He put his hands on Chance's chest and shocked him. Jake looked to the heart monitor. Nothing.
"Hit him again, Cybertron! We can't loose him!" Jake yelled as Cybertron shocked him again. Yet again, nothing. "One more time! Come on buddy, come back!" Cybertron shocked him again and this time one beep came. Then another and another until his heart fell back into a steady rhythm. Jake breathed a sigh of relief as Chance gasped for air, but stayed unconscious. 'We gotta hurry. Chance isn't going to last with whatever is attacking his system much longer!'
A while later after work had ended, Vivian was at her storage unit, digging through some boxes which she knew was copies of Max's work. It was released to her from Pumadyne after the Enforcers completed their investigation after his death the first time. She found the box and put it outside of the storage unit, then going back and closing the door to it and putting the lock back on. She put the box in her car and headed for her hiding place where Shadow Kat's motorcycle was. She had the communicator T-bone had given her, but assuming Razor was the one taking care of him, he might have the communicator now. She secured the box in front of her so it wouldn't fall off and land all over the road. She pressed the button and hoped Razor would pick up.
Back at the hangar, Jake sat next to Chance, just staring at him at his bedside, not sure what to do. 'If he goes into cardiac arrest again, I'm not sure if I'll be able to get him back. I almost lost him the first time.' He heard a faint beeping noise coming from somewhere. He got up and tried to trace where the sound was coming from. Jake walked by the lockers where the sound was coming from the loudest. "Huh?" He said as he opened T-bone's locker, having hung his flight suit back up in it. He reached into the inside pocket and took out the communicator T-bone had given to Shadow Kat.
"Razor here?" He said as Shadow Kat spoke. "Hey, Razor. I got Max's research papers, but I can't make heads or tails of it. Maybe I can hand it over to you and you can find the cure for what Dr. Viper injected into T-bone?" She said as Jake was now filled with hope. "That's awesome! Where can I meet you?" She gave him the address to an empty parking lot just outside of the city.
A while later, Razor showed up on the cyclotron, meeting Shadow Kat, sitting on her motorcycle. A brown box was on the ground next to her. He parked close, turning off the cyclotron and getting off. She picked up the box and handed it to him. "How's he doing?" She asked with genuine concern. Razor shook his head.
"He nearly died once already. It's so weird for me seeing him laying in a hospital bed, down and out like that. We've both been hurt before, but neither one of us have gotten it that bad that we needed hospitalization." Even though he had the mask on, she could tell he was genuinely concerned for his partner's life. Shadow Kat's ears laid back. "Well, at least you guys haven't had any real alerts for the past few days. Hopefully it stays that way until you find a solution." He nods as she turns and goes back to her motorcycle. She swung one leg over and looks at Razor. "Just...let me know how he's doing? I care about him as a friend and sort of teammate." Shadow Kat says as Razor smiled slightly.
'If only she knew she was talking about the same tom as she was earlier in the garage today as Vivian. Maybe Chance will tell her when he wakes up. He already knows her secret identity. I don't see why he shouldn't tell her.' Razor thought to himself as he nodded. "Roger that. See you later." She nodded back, turning on the motorcycle and leaving. Razor secured the box and left as well, preparing to pull an all-nighter to try and get the cure for T-bone and save him.
The morning sun came a few hours later. Jake was no longer wearing the mask and helmet, but he still had the flight suit off his upper body and wrapped around his waist, he had a wife beater on and was sitting in a chair in front of a table with a microscope he had hidden downstairs, along with a couple of beakers and test tubes.
He found the compound Max had developed, along with the anti-compound to it. 'It's been over 24 hours since Dr. Viper injected him with that stuff. Chance seems to be holding for now, but his vitals are weak. Hopefully I'm not too late.' Jake thought to himself as he put what he thought was the anti-compound into a syringe. He got up off the chair and came over to the sleeping Chance.
He glanced at the heart monitor. It was still dangerously low. Just about as low as it had been before he went into cardiac arrest the first time. He shook his head and used the IV bag to inject the anti-compound. "It's up to you now, Chance. Hopefully you decide to stay here with us." He said as he finished the injection. He placed his hand on Chance's shoulder and looked at the unconscious kat. "You better come back to us buddy, 'cas if you die, I'm gonna kill you." Jake said, repeating almost the same thing he did when Chance almost drowned when Dr. Viper flooded and tried to convert the city to mutation city. He let him go and walked to go back upstairs and get some shut-eye. At this point, Jake would maybe get an hour or two of sleep before having to open the garage for the day.
A while later, Jake was barely opening up the garage when Vivian showed up. Obvious lack of sleep was all over his face. She gave him a weird look as she came in. "Rough night?" She asked as Jake nodded. "Yeah, I was up with Chance all night. That crud's got a hold of him, bad. Thinking about closing up shop early today to get some shut-eye." Just as he said that, their "favorite" old lady Kat customer showed up. Jake resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Ugh...so much for that idea." Vivian watched as Jake went to go greet the old Kat lady and see what was wrong with her car now. She looked to the stairs where Chance and Jake's apartment was. She watched him start talking to the old Kat lady. She waited until he popped the hood to check it and made her move.
She made her way quickly up the stairs. She had to see if Chance was okay. He seemed like a fairly healthy Kat and if it was viral, Jake would have had it by now. She made her way down the hall and saw the two rooms across from each other. She picked the one on the left first. 'Huh, a Kat Commandos poster, this has to be Chance's room.' She thought to herself as stepped further in. She saw several stacks of comics around his room.
He was actually fairly tidy for a bachelor, save for a few empty milk cans laying around along with discarded clothing here and there, but otherwise pretty clean. His bed was empty though. Vivian's ears fell back and her face went into one of concern. 'Jake would've told me if he was in the hospital instead, right?' She shook her head, peeking in real quick to what she assumed was Jake's room, making sure she didn't pick the wrong room. The bedroom was empty in there as well, except for a bed and a couple of dressers. She went further in to the living room area. Chance wasn't there either. She snuck her way back downstairs, shaking her head.
'This doesn't make sense! Where else would he have Chance if he was sick?!' She asked herself as he resumed her spot at her tiny desk. Luckily she got back before Jake noticed she was missing. She tried not to let on that she no longer trusted him. He was hiding the tom she was dating for crying out loud! She deserved to know the truth!
About an hour or so later, it was time for Vivian to leave for HQ. She picked up her things, barely able to look at Jake. "Heading out?" He asked as she looked up at him. He was standing in the doorway leading to the garage. "Yeah. How's Chance doing?" She asked as Jake shrugged.
"Okay, as far as I know. I checked him this morning and he was sleeping in his room. Still doing the same thing right now, probably." Jake said as she resisted the urge to glare at him. 'Liar.' She thought to herself, plastering on a fake smile. "Okay, tell him to call me when he starts feeling better." She said as he nodded. "Will do!" He said as Vivian picked up her things and went to leave the garage.
'He's hiding something. It's just too weird that both Chance and T-Bone are both M.I.A. at the same time. T-Bone didn't show up to HQ when Chance was protecting me either. But...there's no way they could be the Swat Kats...is there?!' She thought to herself as she got in her car, shaking her head. 'There's also that trap door I never see either one of them go into. Maybe there's more down there than just storage?' Vivian thought to herself as she drove away to HQ.
The next day, Vivian decided to check up on something she overheard while at Enforcer HQ. Apparently, there were reports of some mafia activity out by some of the abandoned warehouses out by Megakat bay. 'Dad must be up to his old ways still. Now's my chance to stop him.' She thought to herself as she pulled into her hiding spot and changed from Vivian to Shadow Kat in the back of her car. Once she was finished, she locked her car and got on the motorcycle, leaving for Megakat bay.
Later, she arrived at Megakat bay, preparing for anything she might face, his goons or otherwise. She snuck around the side of the building and heard some noise coming from the inside. Shadow Kat slipped in and hid behind some nearby wooden crates towards the front. Some unsavory mob looking kats stood around, talking to each other. She recognized one in particular, one that looked just like her, but of course, without the red hair and he was older and male. 'Figures my Dad would be here, the low-life.' She thought with a scowl across her features.
"Boss Vanfang, we've received word that the finest katnip will be here in matter of 3 days. Also, the weapons cargo will be here tonight or early in the morning." One of the Kat thugs said as Dominic Vanfang smirked. "Excellent, but make sure the katnip is here in two days instead. We can't risk the Enforcers catching on to us, or the Swat Kats interfering." One of the whimpier looking kats spoke up. 'That's one of his henchmen I almost took out at Megakat City mint, but T-bone stopped me.' Shadow Kat thought as she looked on.
"What about that Shadow Kat she-Kat? She's taken out a few of our guys already." Dominic narrowed his eyes at the cowardly tom. "Oh, I've received some interesting intel on her. She'll be taken care of soon."
Shadow Kat glared a bit. 'On me? What intel could he possibly have on me?' She thought as the door to one of the crates she had a hand on wasn't nailed in well, accidentally came apart and fell down with a loud crash. All of the mobsters turned and looked to where the noise came from. "Who's there?! Show yourself!" She heard one of them say.
'Crud! Way to go Shadow Kat!' She mentally cursed herself as she heard them coming towards her hiding spot. She blew out a breath. 'There's too many of them and only one of me. Well, if I gotta go down, better go down swinging.' She thought as she took out her gun, and dove towards another large crate, shooting at their knee caps on the way. She took out 3 of them as she hid again. She heard the obvious sounds of pain and "she shot me's!" from a couple of them. Gunfire rang out as Shadow Kat hid behind another large wooden crate.
'That box isn't going to hold for long, and Kevlar only does so much.' Shadow Kat thought, gritting her teeth. She heard the sounds of a motorcycle outside. A few moments later, Razor jumped down from the air duct above her.
"Forget to send me an invite?" Razor asked with a slight smirk as he came to hide next to her. "Wasn't planning on inviting anyone." She said as she shook her head.
Razor frowned. "You know, T-Bone would be pretty upset if he found out you died." Shadow Kat reloaded her gun. "How do you know he isn't dead himself?" She asked as he smiled. "Your fiancé's cure. I gave it to him yesterday. He's not up yet, but his vital signs were better." Shadow Kat saw something caught Razor's attention behind her and he acted quickly, firing a rocket net over her head from the glovatrix, taking down a mobster Kat that had snuck up behind her. The same happened behind Razor and Shadow Kat deployed an electrified escrima stick and hit the Tom in the face, shocking him and knocking him down. She picked it up from the unconscious mobster.
"You really, really gotta tell me where to get some of those!" Razor said as she smiled at him, just as Boss Vanfang spoke up. "Shadow Kat, Swat Kat, come out quietly and we'll make sure your deaths are quick and painless." Shadow Kat rolled her eyes at the voice she recognized as her Father. "As if!" She replied.
"Slow and horrible it is then. Get 'em boys!" She heard him say. Shadow Kat pulled herself over the wooden crate, jumped down and kicked one of the mobsters in the face. She then was surrounded by at least 6. Razor came to her aid, taking down 2 of the mobster kats with two octopus mini-rockets. Shadow Kat took the arm of one of the mobsters and threw him into the other one, much like she did when she first met T-Bone at the bank. They each finished the other two with a karate kick to the face.
Five more mobsters came out. Boss Vanfang had already fled. 'Figures. Dad's always been a coward!' Shadow Kat thought angrily to herself as both Razor and herself took cover behind some crates as they opened fired upon them. "We're pinned down!" Shadow Kat yelled to Razor. They both looked around. There truly was no way out of this.
Suddenly, the glass roof crashed in above them. It was the Turbokat with someone in the pilot's seat. The Turbokat fired the cement gun at the mobsters. Some were hit, but most ran out the back way. Someone repelled down to them that they didn't expect. "Miss me, guys?" He said with his signature wide smirk.
"T-Bone!" Both Shadow Kat and Razor said, excitedly. Razor walked up to T-Bone and couldn't help himself. He grabbed the burly Kat and hugged him. Razor let him go after a few seconds. "Glad to have you back buddy, how are you feeling?"
T-Bone rubbed his chest. "Chest is a little sore. What happened and how long was I out?" He asked as Razor went on to explain. "You almost died, that's what happened! We had to shock you back to life. I got the antidote to what Dr. Viper injected you with from her." Razor said, thumbing towards Shadow Kat. "If it wasn't for her finding her fiancé's research, you'd be a goner. And about 3 days. Things haven't been the easiest without you, T-Bone."
T-Bone smiled. "Seems like you two have everything handled just fine." He said as he looked over at Shadow Kat. He smiled more at her. She was trying to fight back tears of happiness as she walked over to him and threw herself in his arms and hugged him tightly. "I'm so glad you made it through." T-bone looked down at the top of her head and gently hugged her back.
'If I had died, she would've found out we were the Swat Kats. There would've been no other way for Jake to explain to her why both T-Bone and Chance were now dead. I would've died not being able to tell her either. She'd be so hurt by that. I have to tell her, just not yet. I have to consider things for a while first.' T-Bone thought to himself as she stepped back and out of his arms. "Glad to be here still. Looks like the mafia is back to being active again. As if we didn't have enough trouble with Viper and Pastmaster running around." T-Bone said as Razor nodded. His ear flicked towards the coming Enforcer sirens. "Looks like the calvary's here." Razor said as they all went outside to talk to Feral and the Enforcers.
Shadow Kat considered telling the Enforcers her father, Dominic Vanfang was spear heading the operation, but thought better of it as Vivian, her alter ego, still holds the same last name as her father. 'They may ask me questions when I come in for work. That could get awkward, or they could fire me, thinking I'm associated with him.'
Later, the vigilantes part, but Shadow Kat did not head back for her car to change back to Vivian. 'I'm gonna follow them and see just where they stay. It's too weird that they seem to stay pretty close to where Chance and Jake's shop is. I know it's not right, but Jake is hiding something, and I think I may know what it is.'
Shadow Kat turned off the lights on her motorcycle and switched to silent running as she tailed the jet to wherever it was going, making sure not to stay too close and not to loose them. She was almost shocked when she saw them fly over Jake and Chance's shop. The TurboKat turned and went to the other side of the junkyard. Shadow Kat watched as the door to the underground hangar opened and the TurboKat went in. Shadow Kat's heart felt like it stopped for a moment. 'Oh Kat gods, I was right! Chance and Jake are the Swat Kats! Chance has been keeping this from me! He also knows who I am and has for a while!' She felt slightly angry at this fact. She had the motorcycle parked off to the side. She dove into the closing hangar before it could close completely.
Inside, T-bone parked the jet. They had put the cyclotron in the cargo area Razor had taken to the bay when he got the call about possible mafia activity and he took his usual spot behind T-Bone for the ride home. They both jumped down and out of the TurboKat. "I'm really glad you're back, buddy. I'm sure Vivian will be glad you're back too. She's obviously worried about you. It's been hard to cover for both T-Bone and Chance."
T-bone took off his helmet and looked at his partner. "Really? What did you tell her-" T-bone was cut off by the alarm in the garage. "Intruder alert. They came in behind us through the hangar." Razor said, looking at the monitor in the corner.
T-Bone waved it off. "Probably another junkyard raccoon. I thought you updated the security, pal?"
"Remember the last time you thought it was a junkyard raccoon? It was the Metallikats trying to kill us." Razor said as T-Bone readied his glovatrix. "Highly doubt it's them again, but let's check." Razor followed him with his glovatrix armed as well. They saw something struggling after being caught with a net that had come down and picked up whatever tripped the alarm. T-Bone smiled slightly and complimented Razor. "Good job on the upgrade buddy. Whatever snuck in got trapped." Both T-Bone and Razor turned on their flashlights on their glovatrixs. Both were shocked to see what or who exactly they had caught.
"Shadow Kat?!" Both T-Bone and Razor said collectively as she struggled against the net. "Uh...a little help?" She said with a sort of sheepish smile.