The silence of the vast and arid midday Megakat Desert was broken by the whooshing sonic boom of the Turbokat as it swept along through the air, close to the ground.
"Nothin' like a desert test run!" yelled T-Bone jubilantly in the cockpit as they flew towards Megakat Canyon. "We should do this more often, buddy!"
He liked getting out of the salvage yard, where he too often felt cooped up, confined, even in their secret underground hangar. So he relished any excuse to get out and stretch his legs, so to speak, and keep his piloting skills good and honed. Always hungry for action, he preferred fighting villains, but a trial run of the new missiles Razor had developed recently would have to do on a quiet, beautiful day like this with nothing interesting happening... even if T-Bone had serious doubts about these latest missiles. As they approached the mouth of Megakat Canyon, he flew the jet around around some; up, down and all around, refusing to fly in a straight line, grinning ear to ear.
"T-Bone," said Razor behind him, a touch of indignant impatient in his voice, "may I remind you we're here to test my missiles, not your flying."
Razor could be such a party pooper! T-Bone pretended to pout, but couldn't supress his smirk. "Aw, but I'm havin' fun!" he pretended to protest, but he was already righting the jet and getting it back on course for the canyon which was dead ahead.
"You can do tricks after we're done!" Razor chided, sounding like a schoolteacher scolding the class clown, which, he had to face it, pretty much described Chance Furlong's personality. The bigger SWAT Kat was a born showoff and risk-taker and loved goofing off.
"Yeah, after we prove these things are duds!" T-Bone said, his mood souring slightly, though he continued grinning.
Razor grumbled. T-Bone hadn't been quiet about what he thought of his latest inventions. From the drawing board to the final prototype phase, he'd made sure his partner knew that he thought these latest missiles were over-the-top, even for Razor.
"What?" demanded T-Bone, his smile faltering a little. He glanced over his shoulder, then back ahead. Razor's grumble meant his friend was annoyed, but the pilot refused to back down. "Come on, Razor," he insisted, pleading his case, "I know you're real..." he struggled for the right word which wouldn't bruise Razor's ego any further, "'creative' when it comes to missiles, but I got my doubts about these babies. 'Specially the screamin' ones." The Banshee Missiles. He stuck his pinky into his ear and wiggled it around inside, grimacing. "My ears still hurt from that noise they make."
Razor chuckled, brightening a little. "Sometimes creativity is our best weapon. Not everything can be solved with just a regular missile that goes 'boom.'" T-Bone was about to protest that he liked things that went "boom" when Razor added, "I think Feral proves that every day."
Okay, T-Bone thought. Now Razor had him convinced up to a point. But the missiles still needed to prove themselves. Which was what they were here for, after all. If they succeeded, he'd eat crow and admit he was wrong, or at least try to; if they failed, he'd get to gloat about how he was right all day long. He flew into the entrance of Megakat Canyon. It was a long, deep-throated canyon with natural stone arches over it are irregular intervals. Flying through the crevasse, which was wide enough to admit the jet's wings; where it wasn't, T-Bone turned the Turbokat on its wing and flew sideways through tighter spots. He was beginning to enjoy himself again, unable to resist showing off despite Razor's protests, intentionally picking areas of the canyon that were more difficult to navigate in such a fast-moving aircraft as a jet, the better to showcase his impressive skills, the walls of the canyon a blur beside them in the cockpit as the jet rocketed past.
Razor just sighed and shook his head. Noting their position, he turned serious and got down to business. "Okay, now, get ready, 'cause the first set of drones is comin' up!"
"Roger," replied T-Bone, getting his head back in the game.
Set up on a natural arch a few yards ahead were a trio of tank robot drone vehicles, each armed with a top-mounted laser cannon. Razor had specially designed them as fodder for his missiles, and he had to admit that for what they were, they were impressive little gadgets. He'd even given them an extra flourish, painting them in the distinctive SWAT Kat color scheme of red and blue despite the fact they existed solely to be taken out in this test run. They opened fire as the Turbokat approached. Explosions filled the air. T-Bone was momentarily alarmed, and Razor smirked, allowing himself to savor his cocky friend's surprise. When they'd set the drones up, Razor had neglected to mention they'd actually fire at the Turbokat. A little extra something to spice up T-Bone's fun.
"Razor, I thought you said no live ammo!" said the startled T-Bone, tightening his grip on the steering mechanism as he weaved and bobbed to avoid behind hit by the surface to air explosives.
Razor's smirk widened. "Just keepin' you on your toes, buddy! Besides, it wouldn't be a real test without some danger!" He leaned forward slightly and consulted the Turbokat's weapons panel. In addition to the main buttons for the jet's usual arsenal, each one neatly labeled, there were two newly-added buttons with handwritten temporary labels. Razor pressed the one marked "Slicer Missile." "Deploying Slicer Missiles!"
Three Slicer Missiles shot forward. There were five of them aboard in all, two more besides the ones Razor had just fired. He'd learned since the incident with the Megavolt Missile that when loading up on prototypes, always keep spares. The wedge-shaped projectiles unfolded into huge cutting blades like a trio of Swiss Army knives, blades so sharp that the three missiles passed through the tank drones like jelly. The tanks immediately stopped firing. After a moment, they collapsed into evenly cut pieces. The Slicer Missiles continued on and crashed into the canyon walls, splintering apart. Razor had designed each individual blade with a specific tensile strength so that it remained rigid only for the initial impact; after cutting through a target, they weakened and became brittle and the next thing they hit caused them to shatter like glass. This was to reduce damage for when the missiles inevitably hit something else upon passing through their initial target.
T-Bone raised an eyebrow, impressed with their performance. "Okay, I gotta hand it to ya, there, Razor, those things did pretty good." As for the Banshee Missiles, he remained doubtful. "Still not sure about the screamers, though." He grinned. "My turn to have some fun again!"
Razor didn't say anything. He simply grinned. He passed over the archway, blowing the sliced remains of the tank drones off with the jet's backwash, and did a barrel roll underneath an archway to avoid a huge outcropping. As the Turbokat zoomed past, some smallish winged flying target drones, three in all, arranged under a ledge, activated and rocketed off in pursuit of the jet. These targets he'd set up by himself and hadn't told T-Bone about. And unlike the tanks, they were mobile, capable of long range and very dogged pursuit.
In the cockpit, T-Bone was alerted to their approach by an insistent beeping sound from his radar screen. "Heads up, buddy, three bogeys closin' fast!"
"That'll be the other drones."
"What other drones?" T-Bone asked. "I thought the tank sushi back there was all that..." He trailed off, scowling. "You and your surprises!"
"On your toes, buddy!" giggled Razor. "On your toes!" Once more his finger hovered over the weapons panel and he selected the button marked "Banshee Missiles." "Banshee Missiles, deployed!"
As with the Slicer Missiles, there were five experimental Banshee Missiles on board. Three were launched facing rearwards from the jet and zoom towards the pursuing drones. These resembled ordinary missiles except for their modified front ends, from which high-pitched sonic waves emitted. These struck and shattered the foremost drone. It exploded in midair. However, they overshot the remaining two drones and crashed into the supports of the natural archway where the tanks had sat. The archway blew apart on impact and collapsed into the depths of the canyon, leaving just its broken off ends sticking out of the canyon walls on either side. The drones continued chasing the Turbokat, firing laser blasts.
Razor frowned. "Crud. One outta three. I gotta work on their guidance system."
"I told ya..."
Razor wasn't having his friend's triumphant jeering. He smirked. "They sound cool, though."
T-Bone glowered and rubbed his ear again, remembering. He hoped that was the last they'd seen - and heard - of those awful things, and that Razor junked the remaining two once they returned home. He pushed the throttle forward as he continued fleeing the drones. He flew up and out of the canyon with the pair in hot pursuit.
"Eh," he said, indifferent, "nothin' beats a plain ol' ordinary missile."
"Speaking of which...!" said Razor, and activated a third button on his control panel. This one was neatly labeled "Plain Old Missile." Sometimes ordinary missiles that just went "boom" were the right idea. Especially when the fancy ones failed to perform as expected. A pair of missiles that had "From Razor With Love!" stenciled on their sides fired back and hit the drones dead center, destroying them. Flaming debris rained from the sky.
"Woo!" he cheered. "Maybe sometimes the old-fashioned way is better, T-Bone."
"Come on, let's head home," said T-Bone, and prepared to turn around and head back towards Megakat City, several miles distant. "I got a craving for a tuna fish sandwich."
Razor stopped him. "But first, we clean up our mess!"
No sense leaving a bunch of junk to clutter up the perfectly nice Megakat Canyon, he reasoned. Besides, what if someone found the parts and turned them in to the Enforcers? Or kept them for themselves? Even from the busted bits and pieces, someone, like the lab guys at Enforcer Headquarters, could potentially reverse engineer the missiles and drones and produce their own versions. Razor didn't want to chance losing the edge they had over the Enforcers... or, worse, his weaponry falling into the wrong hands. The Enforcers were one thing, but Megakat City's criminal element with SWAT Kat weaponry was a nightmare he didn't want to think about.
"Ugh, fiiiiiiiine!" sighed T-Bone, then banked the Turbokat away and began heading back the way they came, looking for a place to land."
~*~
The long white mayoral limousine drove up towards the main gates of a heavily fortified prison with huge stone walls and guard towers sitting near the desert highway. The Megakat Maximum Security Prison, though Callie Briggs as she shifted in her plush, comfortable seat in the limo's rear. Armed guards glowered down at the vehicle as it approached the huge gates and slowed, chauffeur Royce Bentley honking the horn.
One of the guards turned and yelled down inside. "Comin' in!"
The gates opened. Gently accelerating, Bentley drove through into the unpaved earthen courtyard. Gripping the armrests of her seat as the stretched luxury car bumped gently over the uneven ground, Callie suppressed her annoyance as Mayor Manx exhaled loudly beside her. He kept checking his cheap gold pocketwatch.
"This is the third one today...!" he whined.
Callie leaned back in her seat as the car drove past numerous blockhouse with barred windows. Hizzoner could be such a petulant brat. "Come on, Mr. Mayor. You have to do the yearly prison inspections..."
Manx was undeterred in his complaining. "But all on the same day?" he asked, dejected.
Callie refrained from reminding him of why he was being so impatient. That it was his own fault. He was impatient because he'd had the lack of foresight to schedule three prison inspections on the same day as the golf tournament at Megakat Springs. His golf bag and change of clothes were in the trunk. When Callie pointed out the potential scheduling conflict, he'd brushed her off. Of course they could do both, he insisted! He'd been cheerful and optimistic during the drive out of the city, but had begun fidgeting restlessly before they'd even arrived at the docks to take the ferry to Alkatraz Island, and although he'd smiled and nodded and swapped funny stories with the warden, it was clear to Callie on the boat ride back that Manx was already losing interest.
"It's the last one," said Callie, holding up a finger. "Besides, you said yourself... the faster we get this over with, the faster you can tee off."
Manx brightened a bit, then turned and looked out the rolled up window without responding. The gates closed behind the limo with an ominous, reverberating bang as Bentley drove up to the brutalist-looking administration building. Standing outside were Warden Cyrus Meece and three prison guards. The limo stopped. Meece and the guards approached as Bentley got out and walked towards the back of the car. Callie made a point of getting out first on her side, while Manx, as usual, waited until the tired-looking chauffeur had opened his door before exiting. He shot his cuffs and Bentley shut the car door as his employer walked over to greet the Warden and his men. Callie shut hers and followed. They met halfway and shook hands with Warden Meece.
Meece was a fat fellow in a tacky purple suit and magenta tie, with a gray crewcut and a neatly-trimmed mustache. Callie frowned. She remembered Meece from the last inspection they gave. She didn't like him. There was something unctuous and unpleasant about him, even though as far as she knew he ran a tight ship. Megakat Maximum Security Prison had never had a recorded escape in its entire short history, something Meece was proud of and loved to boast about.
"Good afternoon, Mayor Manx," Meece said, a thick Southern drawl to his voice. "How nice of you to come down and pay us a visit."
No hello for me, Callie thought. She kept her mouth shut. The three guards lingered behind the purple-suited Warden. They looked mean and tough. The meanest-looking one was a gaunt, stone-faced individual whose features looked like they've never been lit by a smile in his life. Callie thought his name was Slammer, the captain of the prison's security force. The Mayor moved to shake Captain Slammer's hand, but the glowering corrections officer emphatically didn't accept. Manx jerked his hand back as though bitten. Callie smiled a bit. At least someone here saw through Manx's glad-handing.
Manx backed up and cleared his throat. Putting on his best "official" voice, he said, "Well, you know I have to make these yearly inspections of all the prisons, Warden Meece."
There was a gleam in Meece's eye. "Then I'm sure you're going to be impressed with what you see." He turned and the three headed off, followed at some distance by the guards. They entered the main building of the prison where all the inmates were housed, which was separate from the administration offices. They were given laminated visitor ID badges and had to be buzzed through numerous checkpoints before entering the main cell block. There were rows and rows of prisoners in drab gray uniforms, many of whom came to look out at the visitors. Armed guards stood at every entrance and exit.
"Megakat Maximum Security Prison lives up to its name, Mayor. We're the most secure prison in all Megakat City," Meece was saying.
"Yes, indeedy," Manx said, sounding bored again already.
Following their visit to the second prison, Manx wasted valuable time by making a point of getting his golf bag out of the trunk to practice some putts in the carefully manicured front lawn of the main building. It'd been difficult for Callie to persuade him to put the putter away so they could make the third and final prison visit before the tournament. Initially, Manx had hesitated, insisting they had time, but finally relented when Callie had the audacity to suggest Manx take his seldom-used personal helicopter to Megakat Springs, allowing her to finish the inspections by herself. She could handle it, she insisted. No, glowered Manx, gesturing with his putter. The warden would be expecting no less a luminary than Megakat City's mayor, not the deputy mayor. To an extent, he'd been right, she realized; after all, Meece hadn't even acknowledged her presence since they arrived.
And with that, he'd spitefully tossed the putter into the trunk without returning it to the golf bag, and gone and gotten into the car, leaving it to the longsuffering chauffeur, Bentley, to shut it. Callie made helped him. It didn't require two people to shut the trunk, but Callie knew what it was like to feel unappreciated, so she'd made a point of helping him. He'd smiled his thinks. A few of the prisoners hooted and hollered and gave Callie a few "kat-calls," bringing her back to the present. She ignored them with pure, cool professionalism. Although impressed with her detachment, Captain Slammer, bringing up the rear with his men, was nonetheless of a... different persuasion.
"Knock it off, you hooligans!" he said with a voice like gravel. "We got us a lady visiting!"
His guards gave the misbehaving inmates a few whacks on the knuckles with their nightsticks where they gripped the bars as they passed the cells behind the group. They piped down. Callie's opinion of the prison guard captain changed. She wasn't sure she liked this kind of physical abuse, even if they were criminals. She didn't thank Slammer; although she nevertheless appreciated the gesture, the fact that Slammer believed the convicts should face comeuppance for insulting a visitor, the Deputy Mayor, no less, she hadn't needed his help. Besides, she doubted Slammer would've accepted her thanks; all he did when she glanced back at him was tip the wide brim of his hat and say "Ma'am" disinterestedly.
The tour continued without incident. Manx was still bored out of his skull and made a point of repeatedly continuing to check his pocketwatch, unimpressed with what he's seen so far. That darn tournament, Callie thought. She, despite her dislike of Meece and Slammer, was impressed; a few broken fingers aside, something she'd bring up with Meece at a later date, Megakat Maximum Security Prison was definitely living up to its reputation as tightly run and well-ordered.
The group, sans their escort, then went to Warden Meece's office on the second floor of the main administration building. Waiting for them there was a kat Callie had never seen before. He was young and scruffy, in a rumpled shirt and tie wearing glasses, sitting in one of the plush armchairs reserved for visitors in front of the desk. A magazine he'd apparently been reading was on Meece's desk in front of him and he was drumming his fingers idly on the armrests. Callie wondered who he was, noticing a visitor's ID badge clipped to his shirt pocket, but for the moment she was too busy gawking at the room they were in. It wasn't very big but it was strikingly opulent and luxurious in comparison the rest of the facility. Megakat Maximum Security Prison was state-of-the-art, being only a few years old, constructed to house the worst criminals in Megakat City and the surrounding towns and counties, but it was also extremely spartan. Here, though, were wood-paneled walls and plush, deep, rich red carpet. The desk the scruffy-looking kat sat in front of was made of hand-carved oak. Tastefully nude classical paintings and a statue of a beautiful she-kat drawing water decorated the room.
This opulence stunned Callie. During the previous inspection, Meece's office had been functional. Now, though, it seemed as though the Warden was moving up in the world. But how? Meece's budget had been cut considerably since the destruction of the Megakat Tower, and as far as she knew he wasn't personally wealthy.
Callie went to the window. There were three. One immediately behind Meece's desk with a view of the courtyard, and one to either side of the room. Callie approached the window to the right of the door. Down below, she saw prisoners, supervised by guards, working around a storehouse that abutted the main building. They were pushing covered wheelbarrows of something in through a big loading door. Something was up.
She cleared her throat and spoke for the first time since getting out of the limo. "The prison certainly seems to be in great shape, Warden. How are you able to keep it up on the sadly meager budget you have? Especially after all the cuts made to compensate for rebuilding the Megakat Tower?"
The others turned to look at her. Manx frowned at the mention of the tower.
After a moment, Meece's eyes gleamed brighter, his smile becoming more condescending and smarmy. "Well, my little side project sees to that. If you'll follow me...?"
He turned, gesturing back towards Callie and Manx with a crooked finger. The three exited the room, Manx pocketing his watch. The other kat rose to follow.
Meece led Callie and Manx outside, with the scruffy kat in the rumpled shirt and tie trailing behind to the storage house Callie had seen through the window. It was a single story gray structure that sat alongside the main building. They went in through a smaller door beside the big loading one. Upon entering, Manx and Callie's eyes widened in astonishment as they beheld boxes and boxes of glittering diamonds. The prisoners being supervised by the guards were adding more diamonds to the collection. Each wheelbarrow had its cover removed to reveal more of the precious stones, which the inmates tipped into the boxes. So that was how Meece funded the prison... not to mention his expensive taste in office furnishings. Callie glanced back at a grinning Warden Meece. The scruffy kat from his office lingered in the doorway behind him, hands stuffed into his pants pockets. Who was he? wondered Callie.
"We use prisoners to mine the nearby mountain for precious diamonds," Warden Meece explained. "We keep them here until we ship them out to dealers, who in turn pay us the money we use to fund the prison."
They walked among the rows of boxes as the prisoners finished up, pushing the empty wheelbarrows out, followed by the guards. Now Manx was interested. Of course, thought Callie. Now that there was an untold fortune in diamonds, suddenly her boss' interest in the prison had been piqued. From a random box, Callie picked up a diamond between her fingers. No one objected. It definitely seemed real to her, although she was no jeweler. Assuming they were real, where had they come from? Supposedly there was an old mine or two out in the middle of Megakat Desert, but they'd long since run dry during the big diamond rush back before Mega War I. Had Meece found a new vein? Was the scruffy-looking kat from his office involved somehow?
Palming the stone and curling her fingers tightly around it, she turned and said, "But I thought those old mines were dried out."
Without missing a beat, Meece said, "They are, as a matter of fact."
That admission surprised Callie. "But then how did you get the diamonds?"
The kat in the rumpled shirt and tie aproached them and stood beside Meece. The Warden clapped him on the shoulder. "I think he's the one who can best answer your question, Deputy Mayor. Let me introduce you to Dr. Leiter Greenbox."
So that's who he was. A scientist of some sort. Possibly a geologist? Callie continued playing with the glittering diamond in her hand.
"Thanks to this genius, diamond production is going to triple!" Warden Meece continued excitedly, gripping Greenbox's shoulder tightly in his enthusiasm.
The scientist smiled. "You mean thanks to the Gemkat 6000!"
"The what?" asked Callie, eying him.
Greenbox reached into his pocket and produced a folded-up piece of paper, which he unfolded into the blueprints for some sort of machine, spreading them out on a table. According to what Callie was looking at, the physical model of the device would be roughly the size of a household vacuum cleaner and the schematics indicated it had a clear compartment built into the side for storage. "It's an experimental mining device contracted by the prison," Dr. Greenbox said, stuffing his hands back into his pockets, smiling, clearly proud of what he'd designed.
"And," Meece added, grinning, "a workin' model of this baby is being used up at the mines."
Callie frowned and flicked the diamond she was holding back into the box she'd gotten it from with a "chink." The Gemkat 6000. That settled it. Greenbox was definitely a geologist, or at least worked in a field that was geology-adjacent. Gemkat Labs was a private outfit located somewhere outside of Megakat Springs. Callie knew enough about them to know that they did technological-based geological work. The Gemkat 6000 was just something they'd invent. Manx leaned over the blueprints to study them, squinting through his glasses as though the diagram was difficult to see. His enthusiasm was gone now that he was faced with a machine more complicated than a toaster oven.
Enthusiastic, Greenbox continued, "It uses a high-velocity laser beam to heat rocks to the point of crystallization. Basically, about a million year's worth of nature's work in about a few seconds. Making them essentially artificially-created natural diamonds, if you will... assuming that makes any sense. Just as valuable as the real thing because they are the real thing."
Callie yielded to a swift liking of the Doctor. There was an "aw, shucks" quality to his cadence and his enthusiasm for his work. Something genuine in him that was lacking in the other two men in the room with her. His pride lacked the smarmy arrogance of Meece, and unlike Slammer he actually smiled. Remembering the way Slammer had made his guards rap the knuckles of the misbehaving convicts earlier, Callie remembered how she'd initially liked him too because he'd amused her by refusing to shake Manx's hand. While he didn't strike her as a bully, he was still a little too quick to violence for her tastes, especially for a prison guard. She just hoped he didn't abuse his authority. As for Greenbox, she hope her initial impression of him would hold firm...
"Ehhh," grumbled Manx, straightening and making a point of adjusting his glasses in a gesture calculated to make himself seem like the smartest person in the room. He furrowed his brows, eying Dr. Greenbox. Of the device pictured in the blueprints, he said, "Looks complicated..."
Greenbox chuckled, and Meece shook his head.
Callie only wanted to know one thing. "Is it safe?" She didn't want the prisoners working with the thing to be in any danger.
Warden Meece turned and glowered. "Who cares if it's safe or not? It's just convicted criminals using it."
Greenbox cleared his throat and cut in. "As long as you use it correctly, Deputy Mayor," he reassured Callie, smiling. "Fortunately, it's very simple to use." His smile broadened. "I promise you, no one is going to be hurt because of my invention."
Callie nodded, also smiling. She was sure now. She liked Leiter Greenbox.
~*~
At that same instant, many miles away, convicted criminal Rex Shard stood outside the entrance to one of the old diamond mines used by the prison. He was an older kat with grayish-white fur, and ugly. Even if his nose had been broken more than once in the past and never quite healed properly, giving him the unmistakable look of someone with an excessively violent past, Rex Shard couldn't be considered handsome. He was, however, impressively built, with a bodybuilder's physique from a lot of time spent in the prison exercise yard lifting weights.
Shard was shirtless, a pair of goggles worn up on his forehead. For work purposes, he is wasn't shackled. That was fine by him. It felt good to get out of the prison and into the open, somewhere where there weren't any plain gray stone walls. That was why he'd volunteered for this gig. Any gig like it suited him just fine, really. Whenever the opportunity came up, Shard would sign up. But because he wasn't exactly a model prisoner, and a murderer, attempted murderer, thief and all-around scumbag serving a nine-life sentence at that, he was ordinarily denied. But this time was different.
Today would make Shard only the third inmate to work the mine using the device he currently held in his rough, strong hands. The Gemkat 6000 was proven, or so they said, but because it involved a high-velocity laser of great heat and intensity, potentially dangerous stuff, most of the usual guys who competed with Shard for getting plum outdoor work had emphatically not volunteered. That had left Meece with few options. Even a promise of putting in a good word to the parole board hadn't made them budge. When Shard first approached Meece, the Warden had turned him down per usual, selecting first one inmate with a history of better behavior on the inside and then another. Only when the way his work program was set up meant that he had to rotate the volunteers out was Meece finally forced to accept Shard as a volunteer.
And so he stood outside, stripped to the waist, not minding the heat at all, enjoying it, really. He'd grown up in the desert, after all. He had fond memories of catching lizards and scorpions and running off from his deadbeat parents to explore. But he never wandered too far from home. The Megakat Desert was vast. He knew well enough that if you got lost in it you were as good as dead. It was one reason why escape wasn't on his mind.
The other two reasons stood on either side of him, armed with prison-issue laser rifles. And unlike Shard, they found the heat of the Megakat Desert far less appealing. The two sweating, bored guards assigned to watch him were named Talon and Lem, and Shard didn't like them one bit. Talon especially. He was short and obese, his girth straining the seams of his uniform, and he was one of the meanest guards serving under Slammer. Lem was the more agreeable of the two. He was tall and lanky and peered out at the world through cheap green sunglasses that had solid plastic lenses with narrow rectangular slits in them, giving him an odd, squinty-eyed look.
"It's really easy to use," Talon was saying, pointing at the Gemkat 6000. "Even a pinhead like you can use the Gemkat 6000 without a problem!"
A bully through and through, Talon loved using his authority - and a supposed connection to a high-ranking Enforcer - to bully the prisoners whenever Warden Meece and Captain Slammer weren't looking, which was often, it seemed, and Shard was his favorite victim. He knew that even though the muscular convict was bigger and stronger, Shard didn't dare fight back.
Fortunately, Shard had weapons besides his fists. Talon wasn't particularly bright, and Shard's sharp tongue was usually more than enough to the fat idiot in his place. He fixed the guard with an angry stare. "What kind of a fool do you take me for?"
He didn't need to be reminded how to use Greenbox's invention! The Doc himself had given him the rundown before they set out in the armored prison van parked a few feet away, on loan from the Enforcers like all the vehicles used by the prison. The big gold "M" logo adorned its hood. The prison's close relationship to the Enforcers seemed to be why Talon always claimed to have a relative serving in their ranks. He was supposed to be some sergeant or other, but nobody really believed him, least of all Shard. There probably was an Enforcer sergeant named Talon, but Shard doubted they were related. You didn't serve in the Enforcers if you were an idiot, and anyone related to Talon the guard had to be dumb as a sack of bricks.
Talon wasn't going to let up. "The kinda fool serving a nine-life sentence!" he said smugly, seemingly determined to ruin Shard's day by reminding him that as soon as they were done, it was back to his cell.
Lem, the other guard, interjected. "But the Warden's willing to talk to the parole board about shaving some time for using that stupid thing." He pointed at the Gemkat 6000.
A promise Shard intended to hold Meece to, but mention of his jailer nevertheless stirred extreme distaste in him. "The Warden? Cyrus Meece is the only one gettin' rich off this mine!" Oh, he knew all about Meece's skimming. And Greenbox, too. Information he would've used to his benefit provided anyone would've believed him. The mining machine had a shoulder strap. Shard slung it over one shoulder and then turned and trudged into the mine. He threw a parting barb at Talon over his shoulder. "And don't get any uglier while I'm gone, fatso!"
That did it for Talon. He balled up a fist and stepped forward as if to follow Shard into the mine. "Hey, you hood! Come here and say that to my face!"
Lem held his partner back. "Easy there, Talon. He's not worth it."
Shard proceeded deeper into the mine, lugging the Gemkat 6000 and muttering to himself. "So, this little gizmo mines a day's work's worth of diamonds in seconds? Gimme a break!"
He honestly didn't believe it would work, but hadn't said so when he'd volunteered for fear of being turned away. When you were serving a nine-life sentence and spent most of your days staring at a gray wall, even fooling around with what looked for all the world like a prop in a cheapo sci-fi thriller felt like a vacation to tropical Anakata Island by comparison. Though he had to admit, he was starting to regret having volunteered for this particular assignment... the dark and dank old mine was already reminding him of his cell, and he felt a slight tightness in his chest as something akin to claustrophobia began to well up in him. Still, he had to see this through. Besides, the tunnel was larger than his cell.
He approached the wall of the mine, frowning. Apart from two shallow sort of pits, the wall was bare. Where was he supposed to begin? He should've asked the other two cons who'd worked this detail where they used the machine. Unslinging the device, he pulled his goggles down and turned the machine on. It hummed to life in his hands. Again the doubts about whether it was going to work surfaced, the claims of both Dr. Greenbox and the other men who'd worked with the device before him notwithstanding. Still... all those diamonds in the prison storehouse had to come from somewhere, so maybe...
He held the Gemkat 6000 like a gun, from the hip, picked a spot on the wall at random, shrugged and pulled what amounted to the device's trigger. To his surprise, a bright green beam shoots out of the front, boring into the rock. He was amazed. "Wow..." he whispered in awe, "I take it back. Let's see what this baby can do!"
The immediate area around where the beam penetrated the rock began to heat up and crystallize. As if magnetized, a horde of newly-created diamonds was suddenly sucked up by the beam as if by magic, clunking noisily into the clear fiberglass storage compartment on the Gemkat 6000's side. It then shut off without him doing anything and beeped three times. Shard, puzzled, lifted the drill up to peer into the storage compartment. He figured that it was designed to automatically turn itself off once the compartment was full or to prevent overheating.
"Dang!" he cried. "That Doc wasn't kiddin'! This thing's full already! Wow, a guy could get rich overnight with this beauty."
He glanced at the wall where he'd aimed. There was a sunken pit where the mass of rocks that'd been heated up and converted into diamonds had been. It was identical to the other two he'd seen a minute ago. So that's what those had been. He lifted his goggles up and turned to look back down the tunnel. He saw Talon and Lem standing at the entrance, laughing and talking to one another. He couldn't hear what they were saying. The van was visible further behind them.
A smirk crossed Shard's face. Suddenly, he was thinking of escape. Just not on foot. One of the guards had the keys to the van. The alternative was smuggling the diamonds back into prison in a most uncomfortable way. He preferred taking all the diamonds he'd just mined, swiping the van, finding a decent fence somewhere in either Megakat Springs or Megakat City and then skipping the country to swallowing only a few of the diamonds and coughing them up later back in his cell. Taking off his goggles, he knelt, setting the mining machine down. He started attempting to open the compartment with the diamonds.
"I think I'll take a few off the top before that crud Meece and his crud partner do!" he said, straining as he struggled with the compartment.
Taking the entire Gemkat 6000 with him was out of the question; easier to stuff the diamonds into his pockets. Bulging pants pockets were weird-looking but way less suspicious on the streets than a big technological device. Dang, he thought, Greenbox designed it real good. It sure was hard to open. Grunting as he strained harder, he continued talking aloud to himself quietly.
"Then I'll take care a' dumb and dumber out there and be on my way to freedom before you can say..." he continued and trailed off as the compartment lid refused to budge and his fingers started hurting. "Before you can say... Rrrr! Drat!" No go. The thing wasn't opening.
After taking a moment to scratch his chin in thought, he grabbed a rock. He hesitated, considering the consequences of hitting a device he knew nothing about with a big, hard object, but Rex Shard was nothing if not a risk taker. He'd lived his entire life on chance. Sometimes he won, sometimes he lost. You never knew what life was going to hand you until you held out your hand...
"Aw, what the heck."
He brought the rock down onto the device hard. Crack!
And with that, Shard's world became blinding white light and deafening noise. He'd held out his hand and life had promptly smacked it away. He'd taken a chance.. and lost. He screamed.
~*~
An explosion rocked the mountainside. Talon and Lem turned and fled. They half ran and were half flung through the air by the force of the concussive blast belching out from the mine opening. Both guards slammed hard into the dusty earth, their laser rifles flying from their hands. Both managed to keep their hats on, although Lem's sunglasses flew off. As the dust settled, the two kats got to their feet, coughing.
Squinting in the bright sunshine, Lem turned and picked up his sunglasses. "That was some explosion!" he said. "Did Shard cause a cave-in?" He put his sunglasses back on.
Talon gave a cry and grabbed his arm. "Look!" he yelled, pointing.
Lem turned and followed his partner's outstretched finger towards the entrance of the mine that they'd just run away from, and his jaw dropped at the startling transforming it'd undergone. The reinforced wooden beams and a good amount of the rock surrounding the hillside in all directions were all gone, replaced by a ring of glittering multi-colored crystal shards jutting outwards. From what the two guards could see, the effect, whatever it was, went all the way down into the tunnel; the sparkling walls, floor and ceiling of the completely transformed mine shaft receded into the darkness.
A figure emerged. It was Rex Shard! Somehow, the convict had survived the explosion, but that wasn't the truly miraculous part. No, what was so stunning it left the guards completely speechless for several moments was the fact that the entire right side of Rex Shard's body had been completely covered in green-colored crystal! There was a perfectly symmetrical line down the center of Shard's body separating the mineral portion from the flesh and blood portion. This included his clothing, such as he wore; the entire right side of his pants and his right shoe were gone, either turned into or covered by the green crystal. Remarkably, the pants didn't appear to be torn, and stayed on.
Shard was aghast at what had happened to him. "What..." he cried, trying to form words, "what's happening to me?" He raised his right arm and held it aloft, examining the hand. He found that the limb, and presumably the entire right side of his body, wasn't merely covered by the crystal... it had been turned into it! The sun shone murkily through the green crystal, which was clouded, as though flawed somehow. What struck him the most is that he wasn't in any real pain. He clenched and unclenched his hand, finding that despite having become solid crystal, that side of his body remained flexible.
Managing to find his voice, Lem said, "Get the van!"
Talon turned and ran as fast as his bulk allow to the parked prison van a few feet away.
Meanwhile, over at the mine entrance, Shard's surprise had given way to anger. He strode forward. Lem backed up a bit, raising his arms defensively.
"T-Take it easy, Shard!" he yelped, trying to sound authoritative and reassuring. "We'll get you to see Doc Greenbox!"
Shard responded by grabbing the front of Lem's shirt and lifting him into the air using his right hand, the one that had been transformed, intending to fling him to the ground. It was difficult to say who was more surprised by the ease with which Shard did this. Shard had always been strong, but not strong enough to lift a fully-grown kat into the air with one hand... but Shard's newfound super strength wasn't what truly surprised them. No, what surprised Shard - and Lem, for all the few seconds he had left to process surprise - was what happened next. Almost as soon as Shard had grabbed him, there'd been a blinding flash. Observing through the windshield of the van, Talon shielded his eyes, but the partially transformed convict did not. Lem grunted and opened his mouth to scream, but no sound came out. Shard watched in mazement s Lem's body, including his clothes, stiffened, becoming hard, brittle and semi-translucent like the right side of Shard's body, but clear instead of milky green, the ends of his fur turning into sharp, pointy protrusions.
Lem's thoroughly crystallized form hung stiffly in Shard's grasps from a handful of shirt now permanently "frozen" mid-grab. Rather than dashing the guard to the ground, Shard set him down carefully standing up. Because of the position of his feet, soles flat down, he didn't fall over, although he was somewhat precariously balanced.
Uncovering his eyes, Talon gawked at what had become of his partner. "Lem!" he cried. He watched as Shard stood studying the effects of his touch.
The convict experimentally poked at Lem's shoulder. The guard wobbled but remained standing upright. He tapped at his chest. It made a "ting ting" noise. Totally solid crystal. So, thought Shard, what happened to the mine entrance and what happened to him was something he could replicate with his touch. He bent and picked up a rock in his right hand, the one now made of green crystal. Fwoosh! There was a flash and the rock became the same translucent crystal as Lem. Both objects were a different, non-living crystal in sharp contrast to the right side of his own body, which, while hard, was flexible to an extent.
He rotated his right arm in the socket, and felt the two halves of his body seeming to pull at one another, as though the mineral side wanted to tear loose from the flesh and blood side, ripping him in half. As before, it wasn't painful. Nevertheless, he winced. Curse that fool Greenbox and his stupid machine! And curse that greedy Meece for hiring him! The prisoner was too enraged to be particularly introspective at the moment, and so he completely ignored the role his own stupidity and carelessness had played in what had befallen him.
Now wasn't the time to sit and think. Now was the time for action. For vengeance. He heard an engine turning over. The prison van. He couldn't let Talon escape and warn everyone. Besides, even if he didn't care about whether Talon warned the prison about his impending return, Shard was in the mood to settle some old scores. Talon had insulted him one time too many. Fortunately, it seemed that the electromagnetic force of the explosion had somehow damaged the vehicle. The guard couldn't start it. Grinning, Shard calmly walked forwards. If Talon got out and ran, he was positive he could effortlessly chase the fatter kat down and capture him without much difficulty. But he didn't need to.
"Goin' somewhere, Talon?" he sneered, peering in through the driver's side window at the terrified guard.
All of Talon's earlier arrogance and confidence was gone. The guard screamed as Shard reared back his right fist and punched through the glass, shattering the window, and grabbed him by the shirt collar...
~*~
Mayor Manx's limo sat parked in the prison courtyard. The chauffeur, Bentley, held open the door as Manx and Callie Briggs approached, with Warden Meece walking alongside them. Dr. Greenbox stood nearby, hands stuffed in his pockets.
“Sorry I have to rush off, Warden,” Hizzoner was explaining, “but there's urgent matters that need my immediate attention!”
Unable to help herself, a smirking Callie said, as an aside to Meece, “The Manx Invitational Golf Tournament.”
The Warden gave a small. He’s suspected as much. Manx frowned, having overheard. Never one to enjoy the butt of the joke, he suddenly smirked as he got an idea, making a point of getting into the limo first and slamming the door, jerking it out of Bentley the chauffeur’s hand, preventing Callie from getting in after him. Bentley looked at Callie, but she simply shrugged. “But, the Deputy Mayor can continue the tour, right Callie?”
Callie sighed. “Right, Mayor.”
Warden Meece gave her a sympathetic look as the chauffeur walked around the car and got behind the wheel, but didn’t drive off just yet. Callie turned to say something to Meece just as Captain Slammer came running up.
“Warden, something's goin' on up at the mine!” he said urgently, looking uncharacteristically worried. “I can't reach my men!”
A dark look came over Meece’s features, and, for an instant, his jolly Southern good ol’ boy facade turned serious. And there was something else about his expression that bothered Callie. She was getting the same feeling she gotten during the tour of the storehouse.
“Sounds like trouble!” Meece said.
Overhearing, Greenbox came running over. Manx rolled down his window. “Trouble?” the Mayor said, giving a nervous little laugh. “Why, Deputy Mayor Briggs is my favorite troubleshooter. She can handle it.”
Callie stared at him.
Hissing under his breath, Manx said, “Handle it Callie!” Then the window rolled up and the limo pulled off, Meece and Slammer exchanging glances. Callie glared at the departing limo as the prison gates opened for it. Typical Manx. Leaving the prison inspection early just because he was bored and had one of his stupid golf games - a tournament named after him, no less! - while there was some kind of unexplained trouble at the diamond mine… the mine that technically by all rights shouldn’t exist… leaving her to, as he put it, “handle it.”
“Enjoy your game, Mayor…” she said with a sigh.
“What’s going on?” asked Greenbox as he walked over.
His mood brightening once again, the Warden assured the scientist, “Nothin’ serious, Dr. Greenbox.” Trying to play it off as nothing, Meece turned and added, to Callie, “Probably just radio trouble.”
Slammer didn’t look convinced. And neither did Greenbox. “If it involves my Gemkat 6000, you can bet it's serious!”
Callie thought things over a moment. The gates shut after the departing limo. Well, at least it beat accompanying Manx to Megakat Springs. “Warden, I want to take Dr. Greenbox and have a look up there for myself.”
“Sure,” said Greenbox, “we can take my Jeep.”
Meece looked like he wanted to protest and exchanged another look with Captain Slammer, but then turned back to Callie and smiled. A smarmy, smug, fake smile. “Why that'd be just fine, Ms. Briggs.” Suddenly he seemed eager to end the conversation, and made a show of looking at his expensive gold wristwatch. “Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some things to take care of in my office.”
He and Captain Slammer walked off towards the administration building.
Callie looked at Dr. Greenbox, who smiled cheerily. “Ready when you are,” the friendly scientist said.
~*~
The long white limo drove down the otherwise completely deserted road. Manx, in back, fidgeted impatiently. “Oh, do hurry!” he pleaded. “I don't want to be late for tee off!”
Royce Bentley was exasperated. “Don’t worry, sir,” he said, a hint of a British accent to his voice. “Don't worry, sir. Megakat Springs is only twenty minutes away.”
He floored it. Go here, do this, drive me to this golf course, now that one. Bentley sighed. If the ordinarily miserly Manx didn’t pay him so well, the chauffeur wouldn’t consider it worth it driving the golf-loving blowhard around everywhere.
~*~
The Turbokat flew along across the great, seemingly endless desert, the SWAT Kats still on their way home. T-Bone was grumbling. “We'd be home by now and I'd have a tuna sandwich in my tummy if someone hadn't insisted we clean up our mess in the canyon…” He took his eyes off his flying long enough to shoot an angry glare over his shoulder into the jet's backseat. “We're pilots, note junkmen.”
“Now where have I heard that before?” Razor chuckled. “Hey, buddy, picking up after ourselves is pretty important. Especially out here where there are no junkmen.”
He held up a finger for emphasis.
“Even the SWAT Kats have to try and leave as little of an impact on the environment as possible.”
T-Bone just grumbled some more. “Yeah,” he conceded, “especially without Feral and his goons to do it for us like you said. Oh well, at least the cleanup went faster than I thought it would. I guess if we clean up Main Street, Manx'll give us a parade.”
He frowned.
“Say, that phony-haired phony's promised us at least two parades by this point. I haven't seen any ticker tape or confetti or ‘Thank you, "SWAT Kats’ floats, have you?” The more promises Hizzoner made regarding such things… not to mention the longer they went without happening… was beginning to make him feel like the Mayor wasn’t being entirely honest with such grateful talk.
Razor laughed. “Oh, come on, T-Bone, that kinda grandstanding isn't why we–” he began, a lecture prepared and everything, when he stopped and looked at his console as it began beeping frantically. “The scanner's picked up a really weird kind of electromagnetic disturbance Southeast from here.”
“Yeah, and my guidance systems are going wacko!” T-Bone added, tapping a gauge or two as his own scanners blinked crazily.
“Well, I’m tracking it,” Razor studying the little screen carefully. “It's moving. Due Southwest.”
At this, they turned and looked out the cockpit plexiglass in that direction.
“What's that way...?”
“The Megakat Maximum Security Prison.” Razor narrowed his eyes.
“The big one.” The one where the worst criminals went after being found guilty. “Won't hurt to head over and take a look. It's only five miles away.”
The Turbokat changed course, heading Southwest. Playfully jeering, Razor asked, “What happened to getting home as fast as possible, huh, T-Bone?”
“Hey, buddy, I dunno about you, but I smell adventure...!”
~*~
Rex Shard walked through the desert, sweating as the intense heat pressed down against him. Or at least the left side of his body was sweating. The right side, being entirely composed of green crystal, naturally, was not. It was a strange sensation. He both did and did not feel things on his right side… and for some reason, he felt as though he had to step carefully, as though if he strode forwards too hard with his left foot, that entire side of his body would tear loose from the right half; his rational mind recognized this likely wouldn’t happen, and yet he couldn’t help but step gingerly, striding towards the prison in the distance.
Getting back hadn’t been difficult. But it had taken him longer than he would’ve liked. He was anxious to get ahold of Meece. Unfortunately, although he’d turned Talon to crystal and not the van, the crystallized guard remained in the driver’s seat; Shard had tried but been unable to pull him out, and besides which, his hand had slipped and without thinking he’d braced it against the door, and after a momentary flash of light, the van was useless to him or anyone else even if Talon could be removed.
Determination kept him going, powering through the oppressive heat, allowing him to stave off exhaustion. The determination to get even. Even if it was his own stupid fault for trying to open the storage compartment on the gizmo, Meece and Greenbox had insisted to every prisoner used in the work program that the blasted thing was safe. Safe, huh? Well, he was walking proof otherwise.
Two guards were on sentry duty up on the ramparts of the high walls near the gate, both armed. One sat on the edge and turned slightly, catching a glimpse of a figure approaching across the dunes. Wavering. Mirage-like. Frowning, he rested his laser rifle against his knee, using his hand to visor his eyes under his hat brim. “Who’s that?” he asked.
The second guard squinted, raising his gun a bit. The mirage solidified into reality. He instantly recognized Shard… and just as instantly recognize something was terribly wrong with him. Not close enough for him or his partner to recognize exactly what was wrong with him, though. But to his untrained eyes in the bright sun, Shard looked hurt. “It’s Rex Shard!” he said. “Hurt! Hurt real bad, I think!”
Shard crossed the highway that ran in front of the prison, walking up to the gate. The two guards pointed their weapons down at him. “Give yourself up, Shard!” the second one yelled.
He kept coming as though he hadn’t heard him.
“Stop right there or we will fire!” yelled the first guard.
Finally, Shard acknowledged them. “Take your best shot!” he growled.
They decided to oblige him. Laser bolts pelted the ground and bounced off Shard's crystallized right side. One shot grazed his left arm, and he growled in pain, but otherwise seemed completely indifferent to the guards' efforts to put him down.
Standing in the parking lot over by the administration building, Callie and Dr. Greenbox were walking towards a green Jeep fitted with a rollbar which Dr. Greenbox had said was his vehicle. They stopped at the sound of laser fire. “What the--?” cried Greenbox as he and Callie turned and looked towards the perimeter wall.
Captain Slammer came running out of the front entrance of the administration building behind them.
On the opposite side of the wall, Shard stepped fully up to the gate now. The guards, seeing the condition he was in up close, had stopped firing and were staring down in dumb, silent, openmouth shock. A third guard joined them. Puzzled, the three watched as Shard’s crystal hand touched the gate. He closed his eyes and concentrated. Seconds later, there was a big flash of light. On the other side, Callie, Greenbox and Slammer jerked back in surprise at the huge burst of light shining from the opposite side of the wall. They shielded their eyes.
A “flow” of crystal spread from Shard’s hand over the doors, walls and up into the ramparts, crystallizing everything. Two of the watching guards were instantly turned into crystal like Talon and Lem had been. The third elected to take his chances leaping from the top. The crystal “wave” flowed down the wall in either direction. More and more stunned guards were either transformed along with it or chose to jump. As for Shard, he found that the exertion of using his power on something so big had caused him to become fully crystal now, a hulking, brutish kat made entirely of glittering, jade-colored gemstones.
He opened his eyes, now solid yellow and glowing, and withdrew his hand. The entire length of the prison’s front wall was a giant glittering twenty foot tall perimeter made of brittle crystal. “I’m comin’ for you, Meece!” he bellowed. Then, reeling back his fist, he punched the crystal gate, shattering it. Bits of crystal fell inward and Shard entered the courtyard through the big hole he’d just punched.
Although they were a good distance from him, Callie and Greenbox could tell Shard was no ordinary kat. Callie gasped. Greenbox’s eyes widened. The two reflexively took a step back. Alarms were going off all throughout the prison. Steeling himself up, Captain Slammer turned and ran inside.
In his upstairs office, Warden Meece was glued to the window, eyes widened at the events occurring outside. Two guards stood behind him. Pulling himself away from the window, he hurried over to his desk, grabbed the phone, and hurriedly dialed a number as the guards rushed from the room. The prison did have one Peacekeeper tank on hand, but Meece wasn’t entirely confident any of his men were brave enough to use it. He needed outside help. “This Warden Meece!” he said into the receiver. “Get me Commander Feral at Enforcer Headquarters! And fast!”
Outside, just as Meece had predicted, most of the guards were too scared of Shard to try stopping him, and ran away as he strode towards the main building. Over by the parked cars, Callie and Dr. Greenbox still stood in wide-eyed shock. Callie finally moved, grabbing Greenbox’s arm. “Come on!” she said. “We’ve got to warn Warden Meece!”
“But--!” Greenbox tried to protest. He figured the Warden already knew by now. But he was cut off as Callie dragged him along, the two running towards the main building to get there ahead of Shard.
Meece was still on the phone, sweating, panicky now. “Yes, a mining accident! T-Tell Commander Feral to send someone over here pronto!”
Suddenly the line went dead! Meece looked at the receiver in disbelief, then set it down on the desk by the cradle. He unlocked the bottom drawer of his desk, taking out a laser pistol. This in hand, he ran to one of those expensive-looking paintings and knocked it aside, revealing a hidden safe.
Hurriedly, he began turning the dial. Opening it with a clank, he began taking out stacks of $100 bills and began stuffing them into a handy briefcase. Time to get the heck out of there. He’d worry about the consequences later. The legal consequences of what he’d been up to were nothing compared to what would happen if that monster outside got ahold of him.
Meanwhile, Callie and Greenbox rushed down the richly wood-paneled hallway, passing the two guards who had just come from Warden Meece's office. Bursting through the double doors of the office, Callie and Greenbox startled Meece. Bills went flying everywhere. “Warden” Callie began, “there’s–”
Screaming, Meece blasted away with the laser pistol he’d taken from his desk drawer. Callie and Dr. Greenbox leaped to the right to avoid the shots and all the terrified Warden managed to accomplish was shooting up his own doorframe. He stopped after seeing who it was.
Callie held up her hands, trying to calm the panicky Warden down. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! It's us!”
Having entered the administration building, Shard was on his way to the Warden’s office when he encountered Slammer and the two guards from before. The Captain had a truncheon. His men were likewise armed.
“Outta my way!” Shard demanded. “It’s Meece I want!”
“We want you!” said Slammer. Gritting his teeth, afraid but determined, he declared, “You’re going to have to get by us…”
With a growl, Slammer lunged, swinging his truncheon. Shard grabbed his wrist, catching his blow. Slammer gasped and in a flash of light was crystallized. Shard released him and Slammer was left stuck in mid-swing. The other guards look terrified but stand their ground.
Shard snerked. Moving past Slammer, he approached the other two guards. The second one was the first to act. He swung his truncheon and it banged uselessly off the crystal convict. He staggered, stunned. The first guard tried his hand, but his weapon deflected as well. The second guard redoubled his attack and yelped as his truncheon cracked in two. Laughing, Shard grabbed a guard in each hand, pinning each against the wall. They writhed and contorted and turned into crystal.
They remained standing frozen in mid-struggle as Shard let them go. “Easy, peasy, one, two, threesy,” he snickered and walked on.
Back in his office, the armed Meece was still sweating and profusely apologizing to the two people he almost shot. He stood in the middle of the room, towards the door; Callie and Greenbox were facing him, away from the door. “S-Sorry, Mrs. Briggs!” the Warden apologized. “I thought you were…” He trailed off.
Dr. Greenbox looked like he wanted to be anywhere other than where he was, while Callie was torn between asking about the money was currently scattered all over the floor and getting everyone to safety. She opted for the latter. The issue of the money could be dealt with later… if later ever occurred. Taking charge, she said, “I'd ask what you were doing with all of this money, but we've got more important things to worry about! We have to–”
Meece gave a kind of choked cry as his eyes widened at the sight of something behind the other two. “Too late!”
Greenbox turned and gasped. The sound made Callie whirl, eyes widening behind her glasses as the huge crystalline figure stepped into the room. All three normal kats back away from him as he entered the room: Callie and Greenbox to the right side, by the window overlooking the storehouse, and Warden Meece up against his desk, still clutching his personal sidearm in shaking hands.
“Sorry, am I interrupting?” the intruder said in mock apology.
“Wh–Who are you?!” Meece managed to blurt out.
“Rex Shard, the latest sucker you got to use Greenbox's stupid little device!” was the convict’s response. “Well, it was flawed!”
So much for the Gemkat 6000 being safe, Callie thought with a quick sideways glance at Dr. Greenbox. She saw the look of fear and worry on his face and decided now was not the time to bring that up. She decided to stick to her plan of “get everyone to safety,” wishing she hadn’t left her SWAT Kat communicator in her purse… her purse currently sitting in her car in the prison’s parking lot.
Shard continued, “It blew up and did this to me!” By “this,” he clearly meant his current condition. He walked right towards Meece, hand outstretched. “And now I'm gonna do it to you!”
With a cry, Meece blasted away with the laser pistol, but all his shots bounced harmlessly off of the approaching crystal criminal's torso. Upon seeing how little effect his fire was having, he stopped, letting the gun fall from trembling hands. Trying to bargain, he managed to stammer out, “Now, now, Shard! I--I'm sure we can work this out!”
“Work this out!” was Shard’s reply. His only reply. Well, not quite. Because, this time, he meant something else by “this.” He grabbed Meece by the front of his suit, lifting him up into the air, the Warden kicking and struggling, turning and holding him towards Callie and Dr. Greenbox.
There was a flash, and as Callie and Dr. Greenbox watched, horrified, Meece turned to crystal!
Callie was aghast. She’d known that the convict’s - Shard’s - touch turned inanimate objects to crystal. She’d witnessed it herself outside. The perimeter wall being made of glittering crystal was a testament to this. But the fact he could do it to people, as well…? That caught her off guard. And Greenbox, too, she could tell from another glance at the inventor.
Shard sets Meece down, but he was for lack of a better word “frozen” in such a position his feet weren’t right, and he teeters, then falls over. He seemed to topple in slow motion away from Shard, towards the other two… and upon hitting the floor smashed to pieces! His head, intact, rolled across the plushly-carpeted floor and stopped at Callie and Greenbox's feet. Callie gasped, covering her mouth. Greenbox looked like he was going to be sick.
Shard laughed. “Aw, how clumsy of me,” he sneered. He now eyed the inventor with malicious intent, hands on his hips. Callie he was essentially ignoring. For the moment. “Now, Doc…” he said, “let's you and I talk about my ‘magic touch.’”
Callie’s mind ran through various scenarios of what to do. The phone on the desk was off the hook, the receiver lying beside the cradle. This told her the phone lines weren’t working. So much for calling the Enforcers. That left the SWAT Kats. Shard ignoring her could prove to be the key to his undoing, she thought. If she could get around him and get to the office door, she could–
No, she thought. She couldn’t run away and abandon Greenbox. Not after what she’d just witnessed happen to Warden Meece. She prayed that somehow some kind of alarm was sent out, a distress call of some sort, that either the Enforcers or possibly even the SWAT Kats would pick up. It was all she could do. That and pray.
As for Shard, he took a few threatening steps towards the two.
Callie mouthed that prayer.
In stepping forwards, Shard’s foot came down on and crushed the crystallized disembodied head of Warden Meece, crushing it, grinding it into the floor as he approached a terrified Callie and Dr. Greenbox. They backed closer and closer towards the window that overlooked the prison storehouse. Callie’s silent prayer became more desperate.
Suddenly, Greenbox holds up a hand. “Wait!” he cried. “I can help you!”
The crystal criminal pauses, as though confused by the offer. “Help me...?”
“Y-Yes. All I have to do is get the Gemkat 6000 and–” Greenbox tried to continue.
Realizing what the inventor meant, Shard balled up his fists angrily, growling. “No! No I don't wanna be ‘helped!’ Not like that! I don't wanna go back to bein' a nobody!”
The phrase “Power corrupts and absolutely power corrupts absolutely” went through Callie’s mind.
“Naw, Doc,” Shard continued, “what you're gonna help me do is figure out how to control these new powers a' mine, so I can rule this burg, see?” Naturally, Callie was horrified at this prospect, while Greenbox spluttered, trying to get a word in, but Shard cut him off savagely, “And you are gonna help me, or else you're gonna end up like him!” Without turning around, he pointed at the shattered pile of broken crystal that used to be Warden Meece. Whose equally crystallized and very crushed head was still under his foot. Greenbox swallowed, and Callie made a terrified little choking sound.
At that, Shard turned and eyed her, as though noticing her for the first time. “Or maybe her…”
Crud, thought Callie. Callie is torn between standing up to this bully, deadly crystal touch or no deadly crystal touch. She again ran through her options, and they weren’t any better than they’d been a moment or two ago. To escape, even to get help if not to save herself, she’d have to run from the room, and that meant getting past Shard. Callie didn’t relish that challenge. Besides, she still didn’t like the idea of abandoning Greenbox, even if Shard now made it clear he didn’t intend on harming the scientist.
Greenbox tried to find his spine, timidly putting himself between the villain and his intended victim, shaking his head back and forth in a wordless gesture of negation. Callie had to admit she was impressed by his bravery. But Shard had already made up his mind. He strode forward again. When he lifted his foot, the crushed bits of the crystallized Warden's head tinkled off of his sole onto the carpet. Callie felt her breakfast threatening to come up.
“Yeah! Yeah…” Shard said, moving to elbow Greenbox aside. Evidently he was confident that it was only his hands that turned things to crystal. Greenbox clearly did not share this confidence, made a tight little sound in his throat, and deftly hopped aside, pressing himself against the wall as he avoided the elbow, his courage abandoning him as he watched the convict turned monster approaching the defenseless Deputy Mayor. Shard continued, “Maybe you need another up close and personal demonstration of just what it is I can do…”
Callie stifled a scream as that glittering emerald hand reached for her throat!
Behind Shard, Greenbox turned and looked over at one of the chairs for visitors sitting in front of Meece’s desk. Stepping away from the wall, he moved to grab it, as though he intended to hit Shard with it. Bad idea, thought Callie, and tried to find a way of informing him not to go through with his ill thought out plan without alerting Shard, while the villain kept his attention focused solely on her.
“...and then maybe you'll agree to–” Shard went on, then stopped short suddenly.
Whoooshhhh! The roar of jet engines, muffled by the office walls, filled the air.
“Huh?” Shard halted mid-sentence. Over his shoulder, Calllie saw the Turbokat hovering outside the window at the opposite end of the office, and all the terror left her face, replaced by joyful recognition. Dr. Greenbox saw the jet, too, a look of pathetic relief coming over him. Shard spun around and saw the jet, himself. “The SWAT Kats?”
Blap-blap-blap! Slugs from the cement machine gun shattered the glass of the window, sailed across the office, and smacked Shard right in the chest! Callie leaped aside as the crystal criminal flew back, smashing through the window that overlooks the storage house. He fell down towards the roof in a shower of broken glass, screaming all the way. “Aaahhhhh!!!”
~*~
Shard crashed right through the roof of the storage house, landing in a crate of diamonds. “Ow!” he cried and then lay there, dazed.
~*~
Callie and Dr. Greenbox looked down through the smashed glass at the hole in the roof below. Then, Callie hurried over to the other side of the room, standing by the other shattered window. Outside the window, the canopy of the Turbokat popped open, revealing T-Bone and Razor.
“I am so glad to see you guys!” Callie managed to gasp out.
“Hey, Ms. Briggs!” said T-Bone, grinning. “Always nice to be wanted. What are you doing here?”
In spite of everything, Callie managed to laugh. “Yearly inspection of the prison! It was either this or golf, and you know how I feel about golf!” Then, turning serious, not betting for a second that they’d seen the last of Shard, she quickly added, “Anyway, we've got a big problem!”
~*~
A groggy Rex Shard sat up amongst all the diamonds. Suddenly, they all flew right to him, attaching themselves to his crystal body as though magnetized, and with a bright flash of light, they became fused with him, creating another layer of unbreakable crystal! The end result was that Shard just kept growing and growing with each new additional later. And nobody was more surprised than him! “Uh? What the--?!”
~*~
Greenbox still stood by the window overlooking the storehouse. He was not relieved in the least that Shard had crashed down through the roof below. Something about a creature made of green crystal, which to his somewhat trained eye looked like emerald or jade or perhaps a new kind of green diamond, who had the power to turn things… people… into crystal, ending up in a big building full of nothing but more gemstones bothered him… although he wasn’t sure why. Although he was a geological technician, his expertise was mostly with the nitty gritty of the work required for the drills; his knowledge of the crystals Gemkat Labs worked with was limited… but there was something the professor in charge there had mentioned offhand, conversationally, when first hiring him… and although he couldn’t remember exactly what it was, it bothered him.
Bright flashes of light came through the hole in the roof. Callie Briggs came over to stand beside him. “Dr. Greenbox, what’s happening down there?” she asked, her relief at the SWAT Kats’ arrival threatening to evaporate. She didn’t like those flashes of light… or the way they seemed to have arrested Greenbox’s attention.
“I was just thinking about something the Professor in charge of Gemkat Labs once said–” Greenbox began as his boss’ words finally came back to him, and then he stopped himself as a dazzling rainbow of colored light engulfed the storehouse as it was turned to crystal from within… the result, he knew, of the rapidly growing villain within getting bigger and bigger. Hurriedly, he explained, “The thing about crystals, and rocks and minerals in general… is they inherit the properties around them…”
“What?!” cried Callie.
“And the SWAT Kats just knocked that Shard fellow into a building storing nothing but diamonds!”
As if on cue, the roof suddenly exploded as a fifty foot Rex Shard erupted from within! He towered over the entire prison as debris and diamonds rained all over the place! Reflexively, those watching from Warden Meece’s office flinched back as, in the Turbokat, T-Bone and Razor watched Shard shoot up like a crystalline weed invading the Warden’s garden, their eyes and mouths wide open in shock.
“Oh, boy,” said T-Bone worriedly, his sense of adventure disappearing and fast. “I think that’s Callie’s big problem!”
“Looks like it just got a heckuva lot bigger!” Razor cried.
Shard was momentarily taken aback, but then laughed heartily. He crossed his arms as he looked down at the tiny Turbokat. “So, it's the famous SWAT Kats, come to challenge the mighty Rex Shard, eh?” he said, radiating confidence. “Well, take your best shot! Rex Shard is bigger and badder than ever! There's nothing I can't handle! Nothing!”
Uncrossing his arms, he reached down to grab the Turbokat. “It’s gonna be one of those days!” said an annoyed T-Bone, watching the huge hand whipping down. Despite his immense size, Shard was no lumbering, clumsy behemoth. He was fast! “Hang on!” Jerking the stick, T-Bone closed the canopy and banked left hard, the hovering Turbokat reverting to normal jet mode and quickly zipping out of reach.
Shard was fast, but T-Bone was faster.
Callie and Greenbox jumped as the giant crystal hand that missed the Turbokat took the roof off! Debris - normal chunks of concrete, wood and insulation as well as glittering bejeweled crystallized versions of the aforementioned - rained down upon the two kats inside. Warden Meece's expensive furniture and artwork took a pounding as the crystalline chunks hit them. Callie grabbed Greenbox's arm, and they ran from the office before the entire ceiling caved in, burying the shattered remains of the now dead Warden along with all his - Callie suspected - ill-gotten money. Callie realized that she and Dr. Greenbox were going to have a little talk later about what, if anything, the scientist knew about what Meece was up to. If anything. Run now, judge later, she told herself.
The two ran down the hall, passing the two crystallized prison guards standing forced up against the wall and the crystallized form of who Callie recognized as Captain Slammer, the prison’s guard commander, still standing in mid-swing of his truncheon. It was obvious the three had made a heroic but doomed effort to protect their boss.
The building rumbles around them. Slammer teeter-tottered, but manages to remain standing despite being frozen in a position of motion. For a brief instant, Callie was afraid he’d fall and smash and was tempted to turn and grab him and set him aside somewhere, to prevent him from toppling over and sharing his boss’ fate, but then another “wave” of transformation caused - by Shard's touching the administration building's roof - "flowed" down the walls, ceiling and floor of the hallway. She quickly realized there was nothing she or Greenbox could do for Slammer or the other two guards… not right now and perhaps never.
Callie couldn’t believe she was being pursued not by an enemy or a monster but some kind of process that was converting everything into mineral as it creeped with the inexorable inevitably of a glacier along the walls, ceiling and floor, only faster than any glacier she’d ever heard of… but it was, regardless! She and Dr. Greenbox made it to an emergency stairwell door and Callie threw open the crashbar. She threw one last look at the “frozen” Slammer and his men before she and Greenbox ran into the stairwell.
Kicking off her high heels as she went, Callie raced down, two, three steps at a time. A panting and bug-eyed Dr. Greenbox was right behind her.
As the door automatically swung closed, it crystallized in a bright flash and the transformation which was consuming the building “followed” them into the stairwell, too, coming down the stairs after them as if deliberately pursuing them! Callie suppressed the urge to scream. It was a living nightmare. Reaching the landing, the two actually leaped the last set of steps, landing hard and painfully on hands and knees, then ran towards a door marked "Exit."
~*~
The Turbokat zoomed across the partially crystallized prison courtyard, flew over the wall as though retreating, then turned to circle back. As they did, T-Bone saw the emergency exit door on the side of the administration building fling open and Callie and Greenbox run out, turning to watch as the entire structure, with Shard towering above it, turning into crystal.
Watching in the Turbokat, the SWAT Kats winced and shielded their eyes from the bright, flashing light of the effect. “Holy kats!” cried Razor. “What does this guy have, a mineral Midas touch?!”
The crystallization spread to the blockhouse where the cells were. In seconds, that has been converted as well. And the prisoners with it, thought Razor glumly. Criminals or not, he didn’t relish their fate.
Shard stood over the now almost fully transformed but mostly intact prison like a kid gloating over his sand castle at the beach. The storehouse was completely destroyed, in total shattered ruins around his feet; aside from the smashed roof representing where Warden Meece's office used to be, though, the administration building was intact, and so was the blockhouse. They glittered, eerily beautiful, like glinting works of twisted cut glass artwork under the hot desert sun. Only most of the courtyard grounds and the perimeter wall remain untouched.
Out of one the few intact buildings - a garage of some sort - emerged a tank. A Peacekeeper to be precise, like the kind the Enforcers used, and although it had their gold “M” logo on it, it was painted desert beige and crewed not by Enforcers but by prison security. At least some of the guards had chosen to stay and fight, Razor thought, though he was unsure how wise their course of action was. But any help was always welcome in his book.
The tank drove past the fleeing Callie and Greenbox and stopped a few feet from Shard. The double barreled turret swung into position, guns aiming up, and the SWAT Kats watched in horror as first the laser blasts did nothing to the huge monster, and then Shard narrowed his eyes and bent down to grab the vehicle.
“Miserable little insects…!” growled Shard, who took a step forward, his enormous foot kicking chunks of what used to be the storage building in all directions. Callie and Dr. Greenbox ducked as the foot passed over them and bits of debris landed around them. They were so tiny to him he hadn’t noticed them. Yet. He was completely focused on the tank.
Razor grit his teeth.
The prison guards crewing the Peacekeeper, seeing their fire had no effect, opened the turret hatch and one looked out. He screamed and began trying to scramble out.
“I don’t like this Mr. Shard’s attitude…” said Razor.
“Then let’s polish some crystal!” said T-Bone.
Razor flipped a few buttons, firing some ordinary "From Razor with Love" missiles. These exploded harmlessly against Shard's back as he bent towards the tank and its occupants. He grunted, more in annoyance than pain, and turned as the jet zoomed past him, trying to grab it and failing. Nevertheless, Razor at least accomplished his goal of deterring Shard from his attack against the tank and its crew; first one guard and then the other managed to scrambled free of the hatch, hop down and run to safety. And upon realizing this had been his enemies’ intention, Shard became enraged, grabbed the Peacekeeper - crystallizing it in the process - and turned and threw it one-handed like a pro football player at the Turbokat. He missed. The tank flew harmlessly away into the near distance.
As the Turbokat flew past him, he made another attempt to grab it that was equally unsuccessful… but accidentally discovered another ability: as he swatted at the tiny aircraft, the claws on the tips of his fingers flashed, and the claws grew into four glittering, razor-sharp crystal spears and fired after the retreating Turbokat. “Whoa!” he cried, surprised. “Didn’t know I could do that!”
He was delighted. Laughing, he repeated the gesture, sending a barrage of the projectiles right at the Turbokat this time.
“Whoa!” yelped T-Bone.
T-Bone banked right, barely avoiding the sharp crystals. They flew past and crashed into the prison walls, now long abandoned by the surviving guards, bringing them down in a tumble like breaking glass. Crrrrrash!
As all this was happening, Callie and Dr. Greenbox rushed into the parking lot. It was one of the few areas of the prison grounds that remained untouched. A few cars were left, including Greenbox's green Jeep and what Meece's expensive-looking luxury car.
“You said you could help him back there!” Callie said. “Can you?”
“Maybe,” replied Greenbox, “but first we have to have the Gemkat 6000, and then we need to get back to my lab!”
“Then let's go!”
They jumped into the Jeep, Callie in the driver's seat, and sped off across the prison courtyard. Shard took his attention off the Turbokat long enough to see that Jeep driving towards the partially destroyed crystal gate and recognized both people in the vehicle. “Where do you think you’re goin', Doc?” he demanded. “We still got business to discuss! Like you helpin' me control these powers!”
He strode after them. Looking in the rearview mirror, Callie gasped and her bare foot floored it towards the front gate with the massive hole Shard punched through it back when he was regular-sized. Shard seemed to completely forget about the SWAT Kats, and went stomping after the Jeep. The Jeep went flying through the hole in the gate and got a ton of air, hitting the asphalt hard and going careening wildly down the short front driveway, tires screeching.
Callie stopped at the bottom of the drive long enough to ask, “Which way?”
“Take a right!”
Callie started driving again and swerved the Jeep, nearly tipping over, and zoomed off down the road, toward the town of Megakat Springs. The fifty-foot Shard reached the prison perimeter wall just then, looming over it, and growled angrily. He prepared to step over the wall to pursue them when suddenly the Turbokat buzzed him, flying past his fast.
“Oh, no, you, don't, sucker!” T-Bone snarled. “Ya gotta finish us first before you can lay your ugly hands on Callie!”
Shard was enraged at this defiance, swatting at the jet, flinging more of his deadly crystal claw spears. T-Bone dodged them relatively easily, although the last one grazed the hull, leaving a big scratch, angering Razor.
He hated "dings" and "dents" of all kinds. He knew this was petty and unrealistic, to expect the Turbokat to emerge from every battle undamaged, but nevertheless in his own way he took as much pride of the sleek black and red fighter as T-Bone did, and even he was capable of losing his temper, especially considering who their current opponent was. He knew the name Rex Shard. What he’d done. The people he’d robbed, hurt and killed. Now he was gigantic and armed with powers more deadly than Razor could’ve imagined in the wildest science fiction story ever. That such a cruel and sadistic kat as Shard gained such abilities, giving him more ways to hurt and kill people, had already enraged Razor… and now the big creep had had damaged the Turbokat. Now it was personal.
As his partner banked around for another pass at Shard, he flipped a switch on the weapons panel, and the cement machine gun lowered down from the undercarriage. Bap-bap-bap-bap! The blobs of cement hit Shard in the face, obscuring his vision. He stood for a moment, shoulders hunched as he trembled in silent, searing rage, and Razor laughed as he half expected the guy to hold up a sign saying something like “Sufferin’ Succotash!” or “Not Fair, Is it?” like a cartoon villain in Scaredy-Kat. It of course basically did nothing but momentarily embarrass Shard, but it was worth it to see him getting so frustrated. Razor was still laughing, imagining the “womp-womp” sad trombone sound effect playing, then something that made him realize angering Shard in his current state was a bad idea…
The angrier Shard got, Razor noticed, the more his color changed. Energy wells up deep within him, a white hot glow emanating from his torso, causing him to ripple and shine in a way that ended Razor’s laugh just as surely and as abruptly as if Shard himself had grabbed his thin neck and strangled him into silence. Something was very wrong… and Shard was definitely more dangerous than even Razor initially gave him credit for. Though fortunately for the time being, he and T-Bone wouldn’t have to be unfortunate enough to find out what happened when Shard got really angry.
“T-Bone…” he began.
“I saw,” T-Bone said soberly, and flew past Shard. “Somethin’ tells me makin’ this guy madder than he already is ain’t such a good idea…”
“I was thinking the same thing.”
T-Bone nodded and kept his distance from their enemy. Shard calmed down a bit and that inner pulsing glow of… angry power or whatever it was abated and disappeared and he returned to his normal green color. He clawed at the hardened cement chunks on his face, cracking and crystallizing them, freeing himself from them. It all fell away.
Then he performed an unusual move. He leaned back and flexed.
From what Razor understood, Rex Shard was a pretty well-built guy before. It was how he’d been able to kill people with his bare hands, if he remembered the news reports about the trial correctly. But now he's positively truly "chiseled.” Ordinarily, even would’ve guffawed at that idiotic pun, but instead watched with openmouthed concern and as he flexed his literally rock-hard pectorals, a pair of whirling razor-edged crystal "buzzsaw" discs shooting out of his chest.
T-Bone saw this too and yelped, turning the steering stick hard to one side. Despite the impressiveness of the odd maneuver, the discs failed to find their target. His rage threatening to increase, Shard finally stepped over the wall, leaving the prison grounds. He stood in the middle of the road with the prison behind him, roaring and shaking his fists at the Turbokat, which was coming around for a fourth pass… even though both SWAT Kats were unsure of exactly how to tackle this guy. Especially without angering him so badly he went ballistic like he almost did a minute ago.
And yet it wasn’t like they could just do nothing. He was struggling to think of what to do when a gruff, familiar voice came over the radio.
“Back off, SWAT Kats!”
T-Bone and Razor glanced to their left. From around the corner where the road wound around a small mountain, in the direction of Megakat City, a group of about five Enforcer Peacekeepers came into view. Riding atop the lead tank was the muscular, humorless Sergeant Talon, Feral’s lackey. He was almost always at Commander Feral’s side and rarely spoke and seemed to have exactly three facial expressions: serious, angry and smugly amused. T-Bone often liked to joke that the guy was probably a robot or something. In lieu of his customary peaked cap, Talon was wearing a commander's helmet with a built-in microphone and the Enforcers' "M" logo on it, similar to Feral's.
“The Enforcers are here!” he declared.
Great, thought Razor. As far as Enforcers went, Talon was an okay guy. Competent enough, but Razor didn’t think his involvement was going to help any.
The tanks came to a halt a few yards in front of Shard outside the prison. Although he was a little taken aback that the normal-sized crystalline monster he was sent to deal with - something he considered a waste of his time and his skills, which he wisely had kept to himself when ordered out to the prison - was now fifty feet tall, Sergeant Talon was Sergeant Talon and took this, and the bizarre condition of the nearby prison, with his usual casual air of disinterested confidence. His expression didn’t change. It was currently set to “serious.”
And although it had nothing to do with the current situation, he was not aware there was a guard stationed there with the same last name as him who often bragged that they were related. If he had, it wouldn’t have mattered to him in the least. It must have even gotten an amused smirk out of him. But at the moment, he was focused entirely on the mission entrusted to him by his superior: defeat the giant monster, and he knew nothing of Talon the guard, anyway.
Shard looked down at the little column of tanks. “Oh, look! The Enforcers!”
The tanks spread out - two on either side of the lead one containing Sergeant Talon - and their dual-gunned turrets swung around to aim at Shard. “Enforcers, move in!” ordered the Sergeant.
T-Bone contacted him over the radio built into his helmet. “Bad move! You don't know what this guy can do!”
Talon didn’t reply. He ignored him and the tanks opened fire as they drove forward, pelting Shard with their lasers. They didn’t have any more luck than the prison guards with their Peacekeeper earlier, the lasers just bouncing harmlessly off of Shard like everything else had so far. The Sergeant’s hard mouth soured into a frown. He was now in “angry” mode.
Shard laughed. “That tickles!”
Talon’s expression altered slightly from “angry” to what Razor would call “troubled caution” as he signalled or the advance to halt and the tanks to stop firing. As the Turbokat roared overhead, Razor contacted the veteran Enforcer over the radio. “Guess he's tougher than both thought, huh, Sergeant?”
Sergeant Talon's frown deepened, and again he did not dignify the vigilantes’ attempts to contact him with a response. He turns and addresses his tank corps. “Hit him again! Harder! All at once!” He raised his arm, then swiped it down. “Now!”
The Peacekeepers blasted away. Still this accomplished nothing. Shard roared in annoyance at their redoubled attack. “When are you fools gonna wise up?!”
Remembering what had happened with the guards and their tank earlier, Razor decided it was time to get involved again. He frowned, consulting his instruments. Time to see if his new missiles were up to the challenge. Selecting some Slicer Missiles, he fired them. “I'm gonna cut you down to size, big fella!”
Chink! The blades broke against Shard and the missiles themselves exploded into useless shrapnel. Razor gave a little yelp. Shard wasn’t even fazed. In fact, he started laughing! “What's the matter, SWAT Kats? Can't ‘cut it?’” He guffawed at his own stupid joke.
“Great,” said T-Bone, “he isn't just a giant monster that talks, but he's got a bad sense of humor, too.”
“Just your kinda guy, then, huh?” Razor said sourly. T-Bone shot him an annoyed look. “Swing around, we’ll have to try something else!”
“Like what?” cried T-Bone. Then he realized. He palmed his face. “Oh, no, not those stupid Banshee Missiles!”
Razor was insistent. “Their guidance systems may not work, but I bet their sound'll shatter Shard like a big pane of ugly green glass!”
T-Bone remained doubtful but said nothing more. Razor started tap-tap-tapping on the control panel as T-Bone circled around for a fifth pass at the monster.
Meanwhile, the Enforcers finally halted their useless attack at a signal from the Sergeant. “Rereat, men!” Talon ordered, but like everything he did, it was reserved. His voice was calm, but nevertheless urging swift action. “Retreat!”
The Peacekeepers began backing up, but were too lethargic. Shard reaches down for the Peacekeeper closest to him, the one nearest to the lead tank on Talon's right. He watches in reserved horror as the enormous hand closes around it, the two-man crew of commandos managing to escape out through the rear troop deployment hatch. The ordinarily nearly emotionless Sergeant winced slightly as the hand simultaneously crunched the tank like a soda can and turned it to crystal, shattering it apart in his grasp.
The tanks continued reversing. Talon unholstered his Enforcer-issue laser pistol and fired up at Shard's midsection. Shard swung his arm down at the lead tank. The Sergeant ducked down into the turret, pulling the hatch closed after him; the huge green hand just barely missed it, the turret pivoting and blasting away at the titan's legs.
After a moment, Talon reopened the hatch and peeked out. The earth shook as Shard stepped over his Peacekeeper, bringing one huge foot down towards the closest tank on the left. Crunch! This earns a gasp from the Sergeant. He didn’t see anyone get out before the foot crushed the armored vehicle flat. Neither did the SWAT Kats. Now Talon was beginning to really worry, but he kept his cool.
The next tank over swivelled its turret 'round, but only managed to fire twice before Shard kicked it sky-high like a football. The vehicle went sailing through the air, hit the sand several yards off the highway and went violently rolling across the dunes. When it finally stopped, landing upside down, no one emerged from the rear hatch. Two more Enforcers gone.
Now Shard returned to the two remaining tanks. When he lifted his foot off of the one he stepped on, Talon could see it’d been crushed flat. The final Peacekeeper besides Sergeant Talon's turned around completely and opened fire. The Enforcers were going to fight to the last. Observing this from the air, Razor hurriedly continued working with his instrument panel, which for some reason was deciding at this moment to give him trouble.
“I warned 'im…” grumbled T-Bone, pushing the throttle forward. “Hang on!”
The Turbokat dove down towards Shard as he walked at the tank that was shooting at him. In taking one of his gargantuan strides, his shadow fell over Talon's Peacekeeper. Afraid of being stepped on, Talon shouted down into the turret hatch at his crew. “Forward, forward! Drive forward!”
The tank lurched forward. Shard’s foot passes over it harmlessly, so focused is he on the fifth tank pelting him with irritating laser fire. In the diving Turbokat, Razor finally got his weapons panel to cooperate and opened fire with a combination of ordinary missiles and Slicer Missiles, which all blasted apart over Shard multi-faceted bare back with zero effect except to make him grunt and glare at the jet, then returning his attention to the tank, doing nothing to turn him from his murderous course. Fortunately, as his huge hand approached, the few seconds Razor delayed him saved its crew. The dual guns stopped firing and the top hatch opened, and two Enforcer commandos emerged into view.
“Holy kats!” cried one.
“Jump!” yelled the other.
They both climbed out and leaped from the tank just as Shard grabbed it, his palm crushing the open hatch lid down even as, with a flash, the entire tank was crystallized.
Crushed hatch aside, this Peacekeeper was intact in its crystal form, and Shard's fingers curled around it, but instead of crushing it, he lifted it one-handed as the Turbokat roared past him. Snarling, he threw the tank after it, as he had the prison guards’ tank, ignoring the two commandos, who raced for safety, just as with the guards. And just like with the prison-issue Peacekeeper, T-Bone easily dodged the powerful but clumsy throw and the brittle glittering tank broke apart into multiple shards against the side of the mountain bordering the prison and the road.
Shard flung some of his finger-spears at the retreating Turbokat in frustration that he’d missed with the tank. As before, T-Bone skillfully dodged all but the last one... and this one speared the jet's left wing! “Aaahhh!” screamed T-Bone as the entire jet shook and spun wildly. He managed to right it.
“We're hit! Not enough power to maneuver!”
Shard flung another round of his deadly projectiles, which T-Bone barely avoided, the Turbokat flying off in the direction of Megakat City.
“Got to land this baby for repairs!” He hated running away, but there was no choice; escape to face Shard again later, or remain and perish. He hoped and prayed he could get them back to the hangar.
“Aw, come back and fight! You wimps!” Shard yelled.
Turning, he observed the final tank, Sergeant Talon's, driving away from him, Talon facing backward in the open turret hatch, blasting away uselessly with his laser pistol.
“And this for you!” He formed and flung two of his crystalline spears, which sped towards the slowly moving Peacekeeper.
Frowning, Talon once again ducked down inside of the turret, pulling the hatch cover closed after himself.
Clang! The spear simultaneously bounced off the armored hatch cover and splintered apart into tiny shards, but the less heavily armored rear area of the Peacekeeper wasn’t as lucky. Like most tanks, the Peacekeeper was most heavily armored on the front and sides, not so much around the rear where the engine was located, to allow easier access for repairs, though this left it vulnerable to attacks from behind. An old saying in the Enforcers was, “A Peacekeeper has only one real weak point… its butt.” And this proved true as, unlike the spear that hit the hatch, the second one pierced the tank’s rear as easily as it had the Turbokat’s wing, wrecking the engine. Smoke belching from the impaled rear, Sergeant Talon's Peacekeeper grouned to a halt on the spot.
Shard roared, took a step towards the helpless tank, but then paused, turning; the smoke trail left by the damaged Turbokat was still visible, but slowly dissipating. Frowning, he considered chasing them, but reconsiders it, turning and heading down the road in the opposite direction, opting to go after Callie and Greenbox instead. He was hellbent on finding that dang scientist and forcing him to do what he wanted. Nobody told Rex Shard no. Nobody. At least not without consequences.
He left the Enforcers in ruins.
As the giant's footsteps gradually receded, Talon opened the hatch of his stopped tank and peeks out cautiously before emerging fully. “Get me Commander Feral!” he said into his helmet mic.
~*~
A lone Enforcer chopper flew through the air above the Megakat Desert. Inside, Commander Feral was in the gunner’s seat, an Enforcer pilot beside him at the controls. The Commander was currently on the radio.
“This is Feral. This is Feral. What's the situation at the prison, Sergeant?” He was confident that his best Enforcer was radioing in to report success.
He was disappointed and surprised when Talon’s reply was instead a report of dismal defeat. “A lot worse than we thought! Shard is gigantic! He just trashed all my tanks! He even took out the SWAT Kats!”
“What?!” he yelled, disappointment and surprise turning swiftly into anger. “Where is he now?”
“Gone.”
“Where did he go?”
There was a pause. “Due west, I think.”
Feral's eyes widened. “That's in the direction of Megakat Springs! That's where Mayor Manx is!” Growling, he quickly switched frequencies on the radio, dimly remembering something about some stupid golf tournament His Honor was hosting in the nearby town of Megakat Springs, a town whose population fell under the Enforcers’ jurisdiction and was thus Feral’s responsibility. A town whose population he knew down to the last one. Every now endangered life.
“Attention, all units! This is Feral! I want a tank corps to head to Megakat Springs, on the double!” Remembering the one Enforcer assigned to the substation there, he added, “And try to get ahold of our man there! Now!”
The reply he got back from dispatch was not reassuring. “He isn’t answering the radio, sir!”
“That lazy–!” Feral snarled, throwing the handset aside against the dashboard. His pilot didn’t seem to notice. Turning to him, Feral ordered, “Step on it! I want to personally lead the attack against his Shard character myself, this time!”
The pilot nodded and the chopper swung around and headed off towards the town.
