Thunk! The moss-covered rock hit the chain once more. Murdoch, sweating, grunted and raised it over his head again. He was a big kat, muscles bulging through the prison-issue white shirt and plain brown pants he was wearing.
He and four other convicts had just gotten done escaping from an Enforcer substation located on the outskirts of the city, where they'd been awaiting transport and fled into the depths of Megakat Swamp. Thunk! The rock came down, destroying the last of the chains linking him and his four cohorts together. Satisfied, he tossed the rock aside with a splash.
"Boys, we're a chain gang no longer," he said. "Now we're just a plain old gang. And I'm the leader. Any objections?"
There were none. His nickname during his frequent prison sentences was "Murderin' Murdoch." Nobody knew if he ever actually had killed anyone, but he looked tough enough that nobody really ever questioned him.
"Good, now come on!"
The five of them turned and trudged through the swamp. Although Murdoch was confident they were home free, his fellow prisoners were of the nervous, jumpy sort.
"Hey, Murd, how come we're in Megakat Swamp again?" asked one of the other cons.
"'Cause, genius, the Enforcers will never think to look for us in this place!" Murdoch replied.
As they went on, the water they were wading through gradually got deeper and slimier. Something slithered down from a tree. It was a large snake with three glowing eyes. It opened its mouth and hissed at the convicts. Startled, one of them grabbed the three-eyed reptile by the neck and flung it away. Landing in the water with a splash, it swam off.
"This place ain't natural!" he said.
"Yeah, well, it's our ticket outta spendin' the rest of our nine lives in jail," Murdoch snapped. "So shut up and keep movin'!"
The further they proceeded the less leaves there were on the trees, and the larger, more deformed, gnarled and twisted they became. The escaped prisoners had found their way into the heart of the swamp, known to those who lived on its edges as "the Dead Forest." It was a polluted, sludgy, nearly lifeless area with huge trees rising up out of the fetid water like skyscrapers. They looked unhealthy, sick, dead yet somehow still living.
From the largest tree of all, one of the convicts saw what appeared to be a light shining through a kind of window. "Look! I see a light ahead!"
Murdoch squinted in the darkness. He saw it, too. "Someone's crazy enough to live here...?"
"What if it's, y'know... him?" asked another con, terrified.
The one who'd first spotted the light seemed scared, too. "Y-Yeah, Murd? What if it's D-D-Dr. Viper...?"
Murdoch became angry. "It ain't Dr. Viper! Everyone knows that freak lives in the sewers. Now come on."
He trudged on. As they passed by some of the smaller trees, each con broke off a large, thick branch to use as a cudgel. They finally arrived at the base of the tree, which Murdoch estimated to be at least twelve stories tall. Alongside it was a crude dock of sorts, onto which the five cons climbed.
"I don't see any entrance..." said the third convict.
Neither did Murdoch at first. Turning, he noticed a ladder hanging down and looked up. It went up to a large knot in the side of the tree serving as a natural balcony of sorts. He smirked.
"I think we found our mysterious swamp hermit host's front door, boys," Murdoch said.
"Now what?" asked the third con.
"Up, dummy," replied Murdoch, gesturing to the ladder with his cudgel.
He went up first. Lead by example, he liked to say. He was followed by three of the other four convicts, but the second convict, the one who'd been so creeped out by the three-eyed snake, lingered on the dock.
"Are you guys sure this is such a good idea?" he asked.
"If you're such a scaredy-kat, stay down there!" Murdoch called down.
He and the other three continued climbing.
The second con, sighing, scratched his head, growing more worried by the minute. "Be careful!" he called after them. "W-Watch out for possums and stuff!"
The knot had a knothole. A deep one. It served as a kind of tunnel into the rotted, hollowed-out interior of the tree, which was honeycombed with different rooms and chambers, most of which, it turned out, were empty. Brandishing their tree branch cudgels, Murdoch and his three companions proceeded deeper into the interior, following the source of the faint light they'd seen coming through the window.
As they passed the walls, enormous, thickly-veined eyes opened, turning to watch them go. But each time one of them sensed they were being watched and turned, the eyes closed in time... only to reopen and continue staring at them as they headed off.
The group entered the main hollow of the tree, which seemed to serve as a living area. There was a ratty couch, two armchairs, and a crooked, ramshackle coffee table. Aside from this, the room was entirely given over to lab equipment of all things, with a huge worktable covered with flasks, beakers and retorts. Murdoch was baffled. His companions were becoming angry, impatient and scared.
"What is this place?" asked the third con.
"I dunno," Murdoch admitted, "but we'll steal whatever we can, then leave."
He heard the sound of movement. The four kats turned to see a figure lying on a cot across the room, its back to them. A blanket was pulled up over it. Murdoch smirked, his confidence returning. The owner, he thought.
"Must be the owner," he told his cohorts. "I'll go wake 'im up and ask if he's got anything worth takin'."
Another con grabbed his sleeve. Murdoch looked down at the hand grabbing him, then up at its owners face, which was deeply entrenched on the right cheek by a knife scar. He was annoyed at this challenge to his authority.
"Forget it!" whispered the scarred convict with hoarse fear. "I don't like this! Why bother? This guy ain't got nothin' we need! Let's just get outta here!"
"Relax," said Murdoch, jerking his arm free. He smacked his cudgel into the open palm of his hand. "This old swamp hermit ain't gonna give us any trouble."
Nearby, the other two convicts were examining the chemistry apparatus on the table, watching as the chemicals heated and bubbled over bunsen burners and flowed through spiralling glass tubes. It was beginning to dawn on them just where they were. Murdoch was wrong. Dr. Viper didn't live in the sewers...
"M-Murd," said the third con, "hey, listen..."
But Murdoch was already at the cot. He gave the sleeping figure a poke with his cudgel. It shifted a little. There was a buzzing noise.
"Wake up, you old weirdo!" he growled.
Upon getting no response, he reached down to grab him even as the con with the scar, wary, rushed forward in an effort to stop him, but it was too late; Murdoch grabbed the sleeping figure's shoulder and shook him. He started to demand to know whether he had any valuables or tools, when suddenly the kat in the cot rolled over to reveal a hideous sight. Murdoch gasped aloud and backed up as the figure rose from the cot.
He had brown fur and bulging compound green eyes like a fly. Two twitching antennae sprouted from his forehead. There were deep scars radiating out from the center of his face. He was clad in only the ragged remains of clothing, including a filthy lab coat with the sleeves ripped off, a threadbare dress shirt open to the waist and loose pants that looked far too large on his sticklick legs. Huge membranous wings buzzed and flapped behind him.
The creature that had once been MASA's Dr. Harley Street was most displeased at having his rest so rudely disturbed. So stunned was Murdoch by the half kat, half Ci-Kat-A's appearance that he just stood there as Street grabbed his arm and bit into it using his thick mandibles. Yelping, Murdoch dropped his makeshift cudgel and collapsed to the floor, writing in pain as a fire shot through him and burned its way into his mind. He squeezed his eyes shut.
The scarred convict lunged forward, swinging his tree branch like a baseball bat, but Street grabbed it, yanking it from the startled con's grasp. He snapped it in half, then grabbed its owner and bit him. Crying out as he, too experienced the agonizing pain, he fell down to writh painfully alongside Murdoch. Slowly, their twitching and thrashing stopped as they understood. They'd been chosen to serve a higher power. Opening their eyes to reveal they had become green and insectoid like Street's, they rose slowly from the floor almost robotically.
From across the room, the remaining cons dropped their branches and turned to run. Just then, a green, striped kat with spiky black hair and a loosefitting lab coat entered, carrying a kerosene lantern. A thick, snakelike tail lashed angrily behind him.
"What'sss all this ruckusss?" demanded an annoyed Dr. Viper.
At the sight of the intruders, he became enraged. His tail whipped around, hitting one of them. He was sent flying into the wall. Hitting it, he slid down into a dazed heap. The remaining convict whimpered in fear as the tail now slowly encircled him and squeezed him, lifting him up off of his feet.
"Intrudersss, eh...?" mused Viper, calmer now that he'd dispensed punishment and had the remaining would-be thief in his coils. "I know jussst what to do with the likes of you!"
Dr. Street walked over to the unconscious convict over by the wall, bending over him. He bit his shoulder. What was going on? wondered the con in Viper's grip. This was like some horrible nightmare. "Wh-What's happening?!"
"Nothing that need concern you," Dr. Viper said, hissing soothingly, like a lover. "In a moment, I assure you you won't care one little bit."
Using his tail, he held the squirming convict out towards Street. Rising from his task, Street turned menacingly towards the last remaining normal kat, as his bitten victim rose, bug-eyed, stiff, like a zombie behind him.
"You're going to be jussst like your friendesss!" Viper hissed. "Isssn't that nice?" Turning to Dr. Street, he said, "Doctor, if you pleassse?"
"With pleasure, Doctor," replied the bug-eyed former MASA scientist, with a slight "buzz" to his voice.
He advanced towards the held-out convict who loosed a terrified scream.
Still waiting outside for his friends, the convict on the dock heard the scream and jumped. He turned to look up the ladder he'd last seen his companions ascend.
"Guys?" he called. "You okay up there?"
He heard a bubbling sound behind him and turned. There was a stirring amidst the murky swamp water. An enormous mushroom cap topped with feline ears broke the scummy surface and started towards the dock like a shark fin. There was a sudden eruption of water and a hideous roar, and the convict, holding his useless branch "weapon," had a brief impression of glowing red eyes and an enormous mouth rushing towards him, before everything went black. He felt himself slurped up and his scream was abruptly cut off. There was a rumble around him as a thick, wet belch issued forth from Dr. Viper's mushroom monster.
~*~
Burke and Murray Schlepper sat on the hood of a beat up old station wagon, which was parked facing a sort of thrown together obstacle course. The normally rugged dirt ground of the salvage yard had been smoothed into a path that snaked its way around various junk piles. At various points on this makeshift track there were enormous, age-pitted, weather-beaten concrete dividers and piles of dirt, some with ramps made from plywood boards, some without, and tunnels made using whatever happened to be at hand.
Burke reached into a cooler sitting next to him that contained more water than ice and grabbed a bottle of new grape-flavored Kitty Kola. Popping the cap using a fridge magnet bottle opener, he handed it to his brother. Murray took it and sipped it. Both brothers were wearing sleeveless tank tops and shorts due to the summer heat, which seemed to beat down on the salvage yard the hardest. Murray belched. Burke grabbed himself a bottle of soda from the cooler as Chance Furlong zoomed into view on rollerblades, followed by Jake Clawson right on his heels. The duo came literally flying into view, sailing through the air, having ramped off one of the plywood boards.
Chance slalomed around some strategically-placed obstacles consisting of random junk, giving a big yell. Behind him, Jake just as expertly navigated the obstacles. Both of them were stripped to the waist in the hot afternoon sun, and aside from sticker-covered rollerblading helmets, elbow and knee pads, the two were in naught but small shorts.
As they skated past them, Burke and Murray cheered them on, holding up their soda bottles. The mechanics' usual nemeses were observing their little race for lack of anything better to do on such a hot day, and after working alongside one another for so long, tensions between the four of them had cooled somewhat, in sharp contrast to the summer heat.
Murray was betting Chance would win. "Woo! Yeah! Chaaaaance!"
His brother had other ideas. "Go Jake! Go Jake!" yelled Burke.
Although sincere, their cheering was a little halfhearted. They were growing a little weary of the spectacle. The four of them had made plans to go to the park later that day, and the park had trees. And trees meant shade. The Schleppers were eager for their charges to hurry up and finish the race so they could get going. But Chance and Jake pushed ahead, as usual forcing themselves to their personal limits in an attempt to outdo one another.
"These new Turbo Rollerblades are radical, buddy!" said Chance, panting but still bristling with stamina, sweat pouring down his naked torso.
"Yeah," said Jake, also panting and sweating, but showing no signs of tiring, either, "they're gonna give me one more way to beat your tail!"
Chance glanced behind himself for a moment in disbelief. Did he hear correctly? He saw the shirtless Jake smirking as he gained on him, closing the distance. Unconcerned, he turned his head back around: gotta keep my eyes on where I'm going, he reminded himself.
"Dream on, buddy!"
They came up on a concrete divider laying across the track. He hunkered down. Behind him, so did Jake. He zoomed around some empty, rusty oil drums and as he reached the divider, his leg muscles strained and he launched himself through the air, sailing over the obstacle, graceful despite his bulk in comparison to Jake, who after swinging 'round the metal drums didn't need to squat so low to gain the height necessary to clear the divider; his leg muscles tensed and he shot into the air like a coiled spring. Still airborne, he flew towards Chance.
Watching from nearby, Murray took a gulp of his soda and elbowed Burke in the ribs, pointing. Burke was struggling to uncap his soda bottle using the bottle opener, but paused to look up, gasping. It seemed for an instant that Jake was going to hit Chance, but instead, the smaller, thinner kat grabbed Chance's shoulders and swung his legs up, effectively using his own momentum plus pushing down on Chance's shoulders to clear his opponent entirely, landing a few feet in front of him, now in the lead.
He grinned and gave a thumbs-up back to a surprised Chance. "I like this dream!"
Burke and Murray cheered. Burke pumped his arms, not realizing he was shaking his unopened soda bottle.
Chance and Jake ceme up to a tunnel made from a hollowed out 747 engine. Arms behind his back, graceful as a figure skater, Jake navigated the tunnel with his eyes closed, zooming around the cylinder, from the bottom, to the sides, over the ceiling, then down the other side without even trying.
Seeing this made Chance angry. He zoomed through the engine without any fancy stunts, too mad to show off. Besides, they were out of sight of Burke and Murray, so there was nobody to show off to.
"Crud," he grumbled to himself, "let's see what these things can really do!"
Each of the two had a small remote control device in their hand, and he pressed the button on his his. Miniature rocket boosters popped out of the sides of his rollerblades. They ignited, and with a burst of sudden speed, Chance rocketed forwards. He would've lost his helmet if it hadn't been strapped firmly to his head. Not that it didn't make a valiant attempt to free itself at the sudden, shocking speed at which its wearer was suddenly now traveling, the chinstrap stretching, helmet being tugged along behind. He shot past a startled Jake in a blue, trailing dust from his rollerblades... and smoke, Jake noticed with some alarm.
The rollerblades' wheels were spinning rapidly. Too rapidly. They were overheating and the friction, even against the dirt, was chiseling them down to little nubs. Chance's triumph turned to sudden worry as he wobbled uncontrollably.
"Chance, slow down!" Jake yelled after him.
"I caaaaaaaaaaaaaan't!" Chance screamed.
He 'rounded the corner of an obstacle, having gone the entire circuit, and actually sailed wildly out of control off of the track, trailing fire. He headed flailing towards the old station wagon where Burke and Murray were sitting. Murray yelped and jumped off. Burke had returned to struggling with the bottle opener, and didn't notice the incoming Chance, despite the screaming. His battle with the soda bottle had completely consumed him.
Reaching up, Murray grabbed his brother and yanked him off the hood, right as Chance was about to hit the front fender. However, he leaped up in an effort to clear the car, but didn't quite make it; his butt bounced off the hood, jostling the cooler. Propelled up by the impact, he sailed over the cooler - and the startled heads of the crouching Burke and Murray, and somersaulted through the air, to land feet first on the rough dirt, smashing both the wheels of his rollerblades and the little rocket thrusters.
No longer propelled by anything except his own momentum, Chance promptly fell to his knees and skidded along - kneepads preventing any injuries - before coming to something resembling a gentle stop banging against the closed passenger door of Burke and Murray's dump truck.
"Ow..." he moaned weakly.
Burke and Murray got to their feet, mouths agape.
Jake skated up and stopped beside them. "Chance!"
He skated over to his buddy as Chance slowly leaned over backward to lie on his back, knees bent, legs folded under him. Murray snickered as a wincing Burke, shaking his head, finally popped the cap on the soda bottle, and got blasted in the face by the shaken up carbonated beverage. Murray laughed at him, so Burke turned the deluge towards his shorter sibling, drenching him. Murray coughed and spluttered.
Ignoring them, Jake tends to Chance. "Chance, are you-"
He was cut off as suddenly Chance was up on his feet, the friction having completely annihilated the rollerblades - and his socks! - leaving him barefoot. And his soles were blazing red and smoking. "Yeeeooooooooowwwww!"
Hopping up and down like a man walking on hot coals, he struggled with the ruined remains of the rollerblades and finally got them off, then ran over towards the station wagon, each step an agony.
"Hot, hot, hot...!" he said, pained. He saw Burke's soda. "Cold, cold, cold...!"
Burke turned and aimed the last of the spritzing, fizzy cold drink at Chance's feet, but it quickly ran out, so Chance clambered onto the station wagon's hood and dunked both feet into the cooler - to much consternation from its owners. Ignoring Burke and Murray yelling at him, his eyes rolled back into his head in pure ecstasy and relief as smoke and steam rises up from inside the cooler.
"Aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh..."
"Hey, that's ours!" complained Murray.
"Pipe down, I'll get you guys some more soda," Jake the great mediator placated him.
Grumbling and dripping in soda, the Schleppers turned and plodded off. They discussed the race. They seemed especially delighted at the way Chance crashed at the end.
Ignoring them, Chance turned and grinned at a scowling, disappointed-looking Jake, trying to save his dignity. "You gotta reinforce the wheels, buddy. I'm too fast for 'em."
Jake was agitated. "No, you're not. You just took another unnecessary risk. As usual. I told you before we started this race that the turbo boosters hadn't been properly tested. You could've gotten yourself really hurt."
"Aw, jeez, you're just sore that I won!"
Jake fumed. "By cheating!"
"Says the guy who swore up and down he really did eat that last mongo pepper."
"Then let's do another race later on at the park," growled Jake.
"Great idea!"
"But this time we're not using the rocket function on the new Turbo Rollerblades," Jake said, lifting a finger. Before Chance could protest, he quickly added, "I'm not letting you ruin another experimental pair of my Turbo Rollerblades and make a fool of yourself in public. This time it's gonna be a real race, without either of us having an unfair advantage!"
~*~
Murky daylight flooded through the filthy glass of the windows, weakly illuminating the laboratory interior. Flanked by his mushroom monster, Dr. Viper stood mixing up some ingredients in an enormous cauldron-like hollow stump whose contents were heated to a bubbling froth.
Street paced impatiently behind him. The four converted convicts stood off in a corner. They still resembled normal kats except for their eyes. The mushroom monster kept eying them suspiciously, wriggling his tentacles in agitation; he didn't like them, or Street. Street, for his part, ignored the big mutant.
"How much longer, Doctor?"
Viper didn't reply at first. He just poured chemicals into the bubbling brew. Finally, he seemed satisfied. "There. It'sss ready, my good Dr. Ssstreet."
Street came over and looked in, making as much of a disgusted face as an almost fully transformed Ci-Kat-A was capable of, and then turned and nodded to his his accomplice, antennae twitching.
"Now then," said Viper, "I've done my part. Now it'sss up to you to go and get-"
"Super-Katalyst 566," Street interrupted, having heard all this before. "I know."
Viper turned toward the mushroom monster. "I want to sssend-"
Street interrupted him again, arrogantly. "He won't be necessary."
Viper whirled around. Both his and his mushroom monster's eyes glowed with mutual fury, yellow and red in the semi-darkness. "He knowsss the way-"
"And so will I once I bite someone who works there and gain their... 'cooperation,'" Street assured him.
Viper twisted his mouth into a scowl. He didn't like this rebelliousness from his "partner."
"Nor do I need him for protection. Or assistance." Street looked at Murdoch and the other converted prisoners from the night before. "I have all that I need right here."
"But..." Viper began, trying to argue.
Street held up a hand. "Relax, my dear Dr. Viper. My Ci-Kat-A brothers and I have everything under control. You'll soon have your precious katalyst. And soon I will have what I want as well."
He walked down the steps leading out of the lair interior.
"My brothers, to me!" he called.
The other four converted kats followed him. Once they were gone, Viper goes and opened the window. With the mushroom monster looming over his shoulder, Viper watched Street flying off over the desolate, swampy landscape of the Dead Forest. The four converted prisoners trudged through the water in the same direction.
"Jussst don't screw thisss up, you brainless bugsss," he hissed under his breath. "Dr. Viper doesssn't look kindly on failure."
He shut the window and he and the monster moved away, receding into the darkness of the lab interior.
~*~
An Enforcer chopper flew along high above Megakat City. Inside, Lieutenant Felina Feral was flying. Another Enforcer named King was sitting beside her in the co-pilot's seat. He'd been one of her uncle's top pilots for years, although this was the first time he and Felina had flown together. Riding in back was Gray Taylor, a fresh graduate from the Enforcer Academy. Young and eager, he was dressed in the uniform of an Enforcer commando, the helmet visor up, and could barely contain his excitement.
"Oh, boy, my first mission!"
"Calm down, rookie," said an amused Felina, keeping her attention on her flying, even though Gray's enthusiasm was infectious, making her feel like a rookie again herself, "nothing exciting happening yet."
"Sorry, ma'am, I mean, sir, I mean..." Gray trailed off uncertainly. "How do you address a female Enforcer officer?
"You say 'Lieutenant,'" King informed him from the co-pilot's seat.
Gray blushed. "Sorry, sir." Then to Felina, "Sorry, Lieutenant..."
Felina shook her head and exchanged smirks with her co-pilot.
"Not even a week out of the academy and he's already itchin' for action, huh, Lieutenant?" said King, already building an easy working relationship with Commander Feral's niece.
"Don't I know it," said Felina. Over her shoulder, she said, "Don't worry, Corporal Taylor."
The chopper continued to zoom through the city.
"This is Megakat City," she added, a little darkly. "Trust me, you won't lack for excitement here..."
~*~
The elevator doors dinged and slid open as Dr. Belljar stepped out. He was young and slim with short blonde hair. Carrying a notebook, he walked down the hall towards an enormous, steel-reinforced door marked "Top Secret - No Admittance." He sighed. Beyond that door was an old secret, mostly forgotten by all but a few Megakat City. He did not relish these weekly visits, or the progress reports he had to give Deputy Mayor Briggs and the Enforcers.
Posted out front was Steven. He was a big, burly kat wearing the uniform of a security guard. Gone was elderly, inattentive Emil. Megakat Biochemical Labs took its security very seriously these days. Steven rose and walked to the door, which had no visible handle. To one side behind the guard's desk was a big keypad. A little light above it was currently red.
"Come to see the freak show again, Doc?" asked Steven with a smirk.
"Just open the door," grumbled the scientist.
Shrugging, Steven entered a security code. There was a beep and the light turned green, the enormous armored door sliding open into the wall. The two went inside. This room amounted to little more than a long hallway. On either side were three huge holding cells. Like the entrance, they were only openable by a keypad each, but instead of a thick metal door, each cell had a sliding clear glass door allowing observers to see inside.
Inside five of the six cells were the surviving converted guards from the MASA incident. The sixth cell was empty. These five individuals were all that remained of the MASA personnel bitten and turned by the Ci-Kat-A queen and her drones... now progressed so far into their transformations they were essentially fully-fledged drones themselves, but unlike ordinary Ci-Kat-A, they were not purple, as they'd retained their original fur color, and their compound eyes were green instead of red. They had no clothing. One was distinct from the others; he had a bushy mustache from under which his insectoid mandibles poked. This, Belljar remembered, had been MASA's nuclear reactor guard and the first one turned after Dr. Street.
The five had been kept here since the incident, where Megakat Biochemical experimented on them endlessly in an effort to find a cure for the Ci-Kat-A bite, not just in the hopes of saving them, but also to develop a means of fighting the aliens if they should ever return.
Belljar turned and looked at the sixth, empty cell, wishing the missing Street occupied it. His whereabouts were unknown, and as long as he remained loose, the danger of a resurgent Ci-Kat-A "plague" was ever present... putting more pressure on Belljar and his colleagues to develop a cure.
Consulting his notes, Belljar walked down the line of cells on one side, examining the occupants to see what, if any, effect the latest experimental antidote they'd given them the previous evening had had. They stood motionlessly in the middle of their cells, and but for the twitching of their antenna, there was no sign that they're alive. The cells were soundproof, so Belljar and Steven couldn't hear any noises the creatures were making.
As the scientist and the guard walked down the line of cells, the Ci-Kat-A's behavior changed. They rushed the glass doors and smacked into them, clawing uselessly at the clear barrier between them and their intended victims. Neither Belljar nor Steven flinched, used to these fruitless attacks.
"Ever wonder what goes through their heads?" asked Steven conversationally, pointing at the Ci-Kat-A.
"How much they'd like to get out of these cells and bite us," replied Belljar without looking up from his notebook. "So be vigilant."
"Yes sir."
With a sigh, Belljar made some notes. No improvements. He examined the two occupied cells on the other side of the room. Stopping at one, he activated an intercom, through which he and Steven could hear the occupant's ceaseless buzzing. Belljar turned the intercom off and then sighed again, making more notes.
"The latest treatments are still having no effect. Well, we'll just have to try something else. We can't give up on them."
"If you say so, Doc," replied Steven skeptically.
They left. Steven entered another code, shutting the door. Gradually, the agitated Ci-Kat-A stopped trying to break through the glass and resumed their original positions, standing motionlessly in the middle of their individual cells. They were as still as department store mannequins.
Belljar walked off down the hall toward the elevator. "I'm going back upstairs. Deputy Mayor Briggs ought to be arriving soon. I'll be back shortly."
"Sure thing, Doc."
Belljar got on the elevator and left.
Back in the restricted area, another change came over the five captured Ci-Kat-A. Their antennae twitched and they started becoming restless, even though no one was in the room, as though they sensed something.
Steven sighed tiredly, using one finger to spin his articulated desk lamp around in an effort to entertain himself, when suddenly the duct cover of an air vent flew off and lands on the floor. Suddenly very attentive, the guard got up.
"Huh?"
The converted Murdoch slithered out of the air vent. He was still mostly kat-like except his compound eyes. The other three converted former convicts followed suit. As Steven went for his gun, the four hurriedly overwhelmed and subdued him. One covered his mouth. Another prevented him from drawing his laser pistol. Emerging from the vent last of all was Dr. Street. He glided down to the floor using his wings and landed in front of the group.
He studied the door, eying the keypad. Turning, he grabbed the front of Steven's uniform, jerking him out of the cons' grasp. Before the guard could yell for help, Street's mandibles sank into his throat. Releasing Steven, he steps back as the guard collapses, writhing. The Ci-Kat-A hive mind began to worm its way into his brain. After a moment, he stopped, rose, eyes green and insectoid. He walked to the keypad, where he entered his security code. The light turned green and the door opened. The converted prisoners entered one by one, Steven following.
Murdoch lingered with Street. "What about Super-Katalyst-"
"What that small-minded fool Viper wants can wait," Street cut him off angrily. "This is more important. Come."
Murdoch didn't the press the issue any further and the two went inside.
~*~
Callie Briggs' dark green sedan pulled into the parking lot of Megakat Biochemical and parked. Opening the gull wing door, the Deputy Mayor got out. She was dressed in her usual attire, but had her jacket off, slung over her shoulder, tie slightly loosened, the top button of her dress shirt undone; concessions to the heat. She was here for her weekly visit to check up on the captured Ci-Kat-A, to see if Dr. Belljar had made any progress. She saw him through a window and waved, then went inside.
A stone-faced security guard was at the front desk in the lobby. A little desk fan blew over him nonstop. He glanced over disinterestedly as Callie came in. Dr. Belljar got off the elevator to greet her.
"Ms. Briggs, thank you so much for coming."
They shook hands. Although she put her blazer back on, Callie had elected not to button it, or her shirt, and left her tie loosened.
She fanned herself. "It sure is a scorcher out there today, isn't it, Dr. Belljar?"
"Yes it is, isn't it? Thank goodness for the miracle of air conditioning!"
They turned and headed towards the elevators.
"The AC in my car is busted. It was like riding in an oven all the way over here. I don't supposed you can make this presentation a long one, can you, Doctor?" she asked half-jokingly.
The two got on the elevator. "I'll do my best to ensure you remain to enjoy our facility's air conditioning for as long as you require, Deputy Mayor."
The doors shut. A few minutes later, the two were in the main lab of the building while Dr. Belljar retrieved the necessary files. Big windows from floor to ceiling let bright sunshine in. There were rows and rows of shelves containing neatly arranged and carefully labelled bubbling flasks and canisters of orange-colored katalysts and gently humming electronic machinery, computers and the like. There are a few workstations and desks. On one, there was a ten gallon tank containing a large black desert scorpion. After a moment, Dr. Belljar approached holding a manila file folder containing the data on Megakat Biochemical's efforts to cure the afflicted guards.
"I hope you have some progress to show me," Callie said. "There's five anxious families awaiting answers. They're calling my office night and day. I need to give them something, Doctor."
The scientist squirmed uncomfortably. "I just got done checking the latest results and they aren't encouraging..." He trailed off.
Callie sternly adjusted her purse's shoulder strap. "I want to have a look for myself anyway."
Belljar sighed, setting the file folder aside. "Fine," he said, "follow me."
The two left the lab and started off down the hallway.
"Sam Konway down at Enforcer Headquarters has a few interesting ideas. He's a little more openminded than I am, which is probably why Feral headhunted him to head their biotech division. I can show you what I've managed to get done so far, and then what Konway has in-"
He stopped short as they 'rounded the corner. They saw the ventilation grate on the floor - and the top secret room's door wide open, various figures filling the doorframe.
"What in the world?"
They walked closer, more cautiously, and ducked down behind Steven's desk, peering over the top into the room. Dr. Harley Street looked around angrily at the imprisoned Ci-Kat-A, spreading his arms like a preacher giving a sermon.
"My brothers! In a moment you shall be free! And together we shall have our new queen and conquer not only Megakat City, but the world!"
The five converted MASA guards in their glass-encased cells were jumping up and down excitedly. The bug-eyed Steven went to each one in turn and entered the security code to open it. The glass doors slid open, and the former MASA personnel stepped free to mingle with their new "brothers," making particularly grateful buzzing noises to Dr. Street, who offered soothing pets and strokes.
Callie and Belljar continue peering over the desk. "This is bad!" whispered Belljar.
"It's... it's Dr. Street!" Callie whispered back. "I thought he was dead!"
"And now, my brothers, we must complete our secondary mission for our 'friend and benefactor' Dr. Viper," Street continued.
More excited buzzing from the assembled converted kats. Murdoch glanced towards the open door. The two ducked down behind Steven's desk. But it seemed Murdoch had seen them. Or at least he thought she saw something. Enough to go and investigate. Two of the converted convicts accompanied him.
"We'd better alert someone...!" Dr. Belljar was whispering fearfully.
"A good idea!" Callie agreed, slipping her hand into her purse, trying to locate the communicator. Suddenly-
"Aha!"
Gasping, they turned. Murdoch was standing on the desk, pointing at them as though in accusation. He was flanked on either side by the other two converted prisoners who'd accompanied him. Behind them, through the open door, Street and the others stopped what they were doing and turned, antennae twitching in agitation.
"Spies!" cried Murdoch.
He hopped down from the desk and ran towards them, salivating, arms outstretched like a zombie. Callie swung her purse to hit him, knocking him slightly off balance. A second convict rushed forwards. Having seen Callie in action, he grabbed her purse and ripped it from her grasp, throwing it aside. It smacked into the wall, spilling out its contents, including the communicator.
Jumping up, Callie resorted to fisticuffs, punching the converted prisoner in the face, sending him staggering backward. He fell onto his back and lay spread-eagle on the carpet. She then kicked Murdoch in the diaphragm with the tip of her high-heeled shoe, making him double over in agony, ripping her skirt all the way up past her mid-thigh in the process.
As Murdoch collapsed and the third convict advanced, Callie grabbed a potted plant and threw it at him. It smashed across his face, and he fell to his knees, clutching his head.
Dr. Street emerged from the top secret lab, growling, and with one great sweep of his arm, knocked everything off of Steven's desk, and then, with superhuman strength, he grabbed the desk and lifted the entire thing over his head.
"All those who oppose the rule of the Ci-Kat-A... MUST DIE!"
With a grunt, he hurled the desk towards Callie and Dr. Belljar.
"Duck!" cried Callie.
The two hit the dloor and the desk smashed into the wall, splintering into pieces!
"Get them!" ordered Street.
At their leader's command, the combined might of the Ci-Kat-A came pouring out of the lab door behind Dr. Street as he stood motionless, seemingly impassive, the converted kats buzzing past him. Murdoch and the other two convicts got up and joined them in advancing on their two intended victims. It was a gruesome and terrifying sight. Callie couldn't believe this. Harley Street alive! And now more Ci-Kat-A!
If they got out of the building, there was no telling what harm they could loose upon Megakat City. But maybe it was already too late. After all, Street hadn't come alone. Who knew how many other kats he'd bitten before coming here? Megakat City could already be doomed. But Callie would worry about that later. Right now, she needed to get herself and Dr. Belljar to safety. She wasn't going to do any good if she got bitten and became a Ci-Kat-A herself.
Dr. Belljar raced off down the hallway. Callie started to follow before noticing her communicator lying over by the other items that spilled out of her purse. She hesitated. She needed to call the SWAT Kats. She lunged for it. Halfway down the hall, Belljar turned and saw her. He ran back and grabbed her arm, misunderstanding. Of course, he didn't know about the communicator.
"Are you nuts?" he cried. "Come on!"
"But-!" Callie protested.
Ignoring her pleas, he dragged her along down the hall as the buzzing horde of kat-insects pursued them. Callie and Belljar made it to the elevator. She'd need to find some other means of contacting outside help. Belljar pressed the call button, Callie gasping as she watched the Ci-Kat-A horde coming towards them.
"Come on, come on...!" Belljar whimpered, desperate.
Ding! The doors opened. The two rushed in and waited for the doors to close. They were halfway shut when one of the convicts suddenly appeared and reached in. If the door shut on his arm, Callie realized, the safety feature would cause it to automatically open again. And it seemed he knew it, grinning evilly. Pressing herself flat against the rear wall of the elevator car, Callie took off one of her high heels and threw it at his face. He yelped and staggered back as it bounced off his forehead and back into the elevator. The doors shut. Callie sighed in relief.
She and Dr. Belljar heard frenzied banging, then clawed fingertips appeared through the crack, beginning to force the fiercely-resisting doors open.
"They're gonna get in!" Callie cried. She looked up and saw the emergency hatch. She kicked off her other shoe. "Give me a boost! Hurry!"
Belljar complied. Opening the hatch, Callie climbed onto the roof of the elevator car. She reached down.
"Hurry."
Belljar jumped up and grabbed her hand and climbed up just as the Ci-Kat-A wrenched the doors open and came rushing in, the mustached former MASA guard in the lead. Belljar kicked the hatch cover closed. Suddenly it opened again, and the mustached Ci-Kat-A appeared, mandibles snapping. He bit Belljar's heel. The scientist screamed. Using her bare foot, Callie kicked the Ci-Kat-A in the face, but he refused to relinquish his hold, attempting to drag the flailing Dr. Belljar back down into the elevator with him. Callie kicked the hatch cover closed on the former MASA guard's head. Bang! With her heel, she grunted and kicked down on the cover's top, banging him on the head a second time. Finally, the kat-insect released his grip and fell back down into the elevator interior, leaving Callie and Belljar lying there panting and sweaty.
After a moment, a panicky Dr. Belljar took off his shoe and inspected his foot. Nothing. No bite. His sock isn't even torn. He sighed in relief. The mandibles had only penetrated the thick rubber of the shoe's heel. Callie looked up at the elevator cables. She remembered how she and Razor had ascended the central air shaft of the Megakat Tower with her piggybacking on him. Vines, elevator cables...
She turned to Belljar. "Can you climb?"
"I, uh, I think so..."
"Then take off your other shoe and follow me!" She began to climb, using her splaying toes to grip the cables. "Grip the cable with your toes!"
Confused, but getting the idea, Belljar took off his other shoe and both socks and went up after her. "Where'd you learn to do this?" he asked.
Callie smirked. "You mean besides hitting the gym and climbing the ropes twice a week to stay in shape because I'm constantly being targeted by every criminal with a pulse? And some without?"
"I meant the gripping the cable with your toes thing."
"Oh," said Callie, smiling gently. "A friend taught me."
In the elevator, the Ci-Kat-A with the mustache was furious, clenching his fist and rubbing where Callie kicked him. "Capture...!" he managed to snarl. His voice was heavily distorted but intelligible. Unlike Street, the further a converted kat transformed, the more difficult speaking became for them, and they were really only capable of uttering a few monosyllabic grunts.
Street approached. "Forget them."
The mustached Ci-Kat-A was irritated. "They'll tell..." he hissed.
"It won't matter," Street said, dismissive. "By the time help comes, our business here will be finished. He turned to Steven. "Which way to the main lab?"
Steven pointed and walked towards the stairs, the other Ci-Kat-A following.
On the next floor, Callie managed to get the elevator doors open and climbed through. She waited for Dr. Belljar. He climbed into view and she grabbed his hand and helped him get up the rest of the way.
"Now come, we've got to get a phone and contact the Enforcers!"
They ran off down the hall.
"There's a phone in my office!" said Belljar.
~*~
Meanwhile, Felina Feral's chopper zoomed between the buildings on patrol. Suddenly a voice buzzed through the radio. A priority message from dispatch.
"Attention all units in the vicinity of Megakat Biochemical Labs! Respond to a possible break-in!"
That place, thought Felina with a sigh. She grabbed radio. "This is Chopper 4, responding on the double!"
In back, Gray Taylor could barely contain himself. What a time to have a rookie along, Felina thought.
"This is getting better and better!" Gray said.
"I told you this place was rarely quiet for long! Hang on!"
She pushed the throttle forward. The chopper flew towards Megakat Biochemical in the distance.
~*~
At the salvage yard, everything had been loaded up for the park trip. Chance and Jake had put their shirts on and were getting into the tow truck. Outside, Burke honked the dump truck's horn impatiently as Murray poked out of the passenger window.
"C'moooon, are we goin' or what?!"
Chance sighed. "Why are we bringing those two?"
Jake smiled. "Because we're nice?"
Chance didn't look convinced.
Turning serious, Jake said, "And besides, it keeps 'em outta trouble."
He and Chance shut the doors. Chance turned the truck on and messed with the radio, flipping past some music, trying to find a good song to help him take his mind off of what a day at the park with Burke and Murray Schlepper was going to be like. Suddenly, an Enforcer dispatcher's voice filtered in weakly. As with all their radio equipment, he and Jake had modified the tow truck's radio to be able to tune in to the Enforcer channel in case of emergencies.
"-akat Biochemical L-" the voice was saying. Chance could only pick out "biochemical" and he already didn't like the way the afternoon was shaping up.
"Hold it, Chance! Go back!" Jake cried.
Ignoring more honking from Burke, Chance turned it back to the Enforcer band. "I repeat," said the dispatcher, "we have a possible break-in at Megakat Biochemical Labs! One unit is already en route, but be advised, all available units in the area join in investigation! This is a Priority 1 site!"
"Boy, he can say that again!" grumbled Jake. Sometimes it was a toss-up whether Megakat Biochemical Labs or Puma-Dyne was a more popular target for the city's criminal element.
Chance turned off the radio. "And he will. That's what dispatchers do. That's probably the tenth time he's said it. Let the Enforcers handle it."
"Chance...!" cried Jake, aghast.
"What?" the bigger mechanic asked sheepishly. "They've gotten better!"
Jake just glared at him.
"Nnng, fine!" He shut off the engine. It beat going to the park with Burke and Murray anyway.
He and Jake got out and walk to the idling dump truck. Murray looked down at them, growling, Burke visible over his shoulder at the wheel.
"You guys go on ahead," said Jake. "We, uh, forgot some stuff." If anybody would buy such a lame excuse, it'd be the Schleppers.
"Fine with me!" said Murray, then nudged his brother. "C'mon!"
The truck turned and lurched out of the salvage yard. Waiting until they were sure it was gone, Chance and Jake turned and rushed with all speed towards the garage - and the hangar.
~*~
Felina's chopper continued towards Megakat Biochemical. Its path took it towards the Kat's Eye News chopper, flying at a slightly higher altitude. Ann Gora was in the front passenger seat. Jonny K. sat in back filming out the open side door.
Ann was speaking into her microphone, finishing a wather report. "And so it's a perfect afternoon for a day at the beach. This is Ann Gora, Kat's Eye News, wishing everyone in Megakat City a fun and sunny Thursday!"
She yawned and stretched.
"And I've got a date with my deck chair back home. Oof. Take us back, Al."
"Hey, look!" Jonny said, pointing.
The Enforcer chopper zoomed by underneath them, the rotor blades whizzing past close enough to touch.
"Now where are they going in such a hurry?" Ann wondered.
She squinted in the bright afternoon sunshine, seeing that the Enforcers' path would take them to Megakat Biochemical Labs. Jonny did too.
"Looks like Megakat Biochemical Labs!" he said.
Suddenly all fired up, Ann said, "Al, go after them!"
Sighing, the news chopper pilot whipped the helicopter around and flew off after the Enforcer one.
~*~
Felina's chopper approached Megakat Biochemical Labs and hovered a safe distance down the street. Felina's co-pilot King looked through some binoculars as Gray Taylor fidgeted in the back.
"Let's see what we can see..." King muttered.
Gray was impatient. "Come on, what are we waiting for...?"
"Pipe down kid," said the veteran Enforcer. "We gotta get the lay of the land."
Gray frowned.
"No use rushing i-" King continued but stopped short.
Through the binoculars, he saw through the front windows looking into the main lab. Although the huge panes of glass primarily showed reflections of the surrounding buildings, King could see the Ci-Kat-A ransacking the room. He froze and went cold. He remembered those things. And what they'd done to three good Enforcer pilots he'd known personally from the academy.
"What is it?" asked Felina, sensing something was wrong with her co-pilot.
"Ci-Kat-A!" King said, gritting his teeth in fury. "They tried to take over Megakat City once! They got a lot of good Enforcers killed that day!"
His grip tightened on the control yoke on his side of the chopper, finger twitching at the trigger. Felina placed a calming hand on his wrist and his grip relaxed. She hadn't directly experienced the Ci-Kat-A incident. It'd been before her time. But she shared his anger at the Enforcer lives lost. Nevertheless, she prided herself on remaining cool and professional, and she needed her companions to keep their heads.
"Easy, Private," she said. "I know I wasn't there when this all went down but I can understand your anger. Nevertheless, we've got the element of surprise, so let's not spoil it.
"Roger, Lieutenant," King said, a little reluctantly.
The chopper climbed higher and flew around to flank the building, coming in from above and behind to land on the rooftop helipad undetected. As the rotor blades wound down, the side door whooshed open and Felina and King out, checking their laser pistols.
Gray squatted in the open door. "What about me?"
Felina didn't want the rookie near anything dangerous on his first mission. "You stay here!" she commanded sternly. "Radio for backup!"
She turned to King.
"Come on!"
They rushed towards the rooftop door. Looking angry and dejected, Gray went and slumped into the pilot's seat, arms crossed indignantly. He flicked on the radio to report in to Headquarters.
"So much for my big first mission," he grumbled to himself. Into the radio, he said, "Attention, dispatch! This is Corporal Gray Taylor! We've got a break-in at Megakat Biochemical Labs by some creatures called Ci-Kat-A! Over!"
~*~
The Turbokat roared out of the salvage yard tunnel and took to the skies. Chance and Jake were now masked as T-Bone and Razor and were tuned to the Enforcer radio broadcast in the jet.
"I repeat! Megakat Biochemical has been infiltrated by creatures known as Ci-Kat-A!" the Enforcer who'd identified himself as Corporal Taylor continued.
A shudder went through T-Bone and he made a face. "Eeew, not those guys again. I thought we'd eliminated that bug problem!"
Jake thought for a moment, trying to remember every individual Ci-Kat-A they'd taken out. "I'm pretty sure we killed the Enforcers who got bitten, and all the drones."
"And the queen," T-Bone interjected, remembering how the penthouse of Megakat Tower had landed on her and flattened her, smirking a little at the memory. He'd loved seeing that big bug go splat. It'd been especially funny when her guts drenched Mayor Manx's limo.
"Right." They were flying over the city now. "That leaves only a few unaccounted for. Like Dr. Bug-Eyes himself." It occurred to Razor that they never had found out what had happened to MASA's Dr. Harley Street, last seen taking an Octopus Missile to the face and falling three-hundred stories out the Megakat Tower penthouse window. Not to mention-
"And..." said T-Bone, realizing, "the guards from the Space Center! Nobody ever did tell us what happened to those guys!"
"Took the words right outta my mouth!"
T-Bone thought. "Three-No four! So five left?"
He glanced back at Razor, who was rubbing his chin, eyes narrowed in concentration. Wracking his brain. That was all the Ci-Kat-A. Wasn't it? "I can't help but feel there's one we're forgetting..."
"Who cares?" said T-Bone, turning around and focusing on his flying, smirking smugly. "At least without the queen it's not a full-scale invasion this time. Just the leftovers from last time to mop up."
"Yeah, except they can make more by biting people!" Razor reminded him.
T-Bone's smirk vanished.
"Even without the queen, it could be a huge epidemic!"
"Take it easy, buddy!" T-Bone said, trying to reassure his partner - and himself. "We'll find out how many there are when we get to Megakat Labs! And then we'll squish 'em!" he added with grim determination.
Razor was a little uncomfortable with T-Bone's cavalier attitude towards killing the converted kats. The three Enforcers whose choppers they'd shot down had been last resorts to save the life of Commander Feral. Nevertheless, he said nothing else as the Turbokat continued on towards Megakat Biochemical Labs.
~*~
Steven and three of the four converted prisoners watched impassively as the more "evolved" Ci-Kat-A randomly trashed the lab, hurling empty beakers and overturning tables. Street stood apart from his brothers, idly watching the scorpion crawling around in its tank. The little arachnid crawls around, snapping its pinchers up at Street. He then walked over to the window. Were those rotor blades he heard? He didn't see anything.
His face with his mandibles and huge green compound eyes was almost blank and impossible, but his antennae betrayed his inner emotions. He was angry at being reduced to being Dr. Viper's gofer, and didn't like the idea of continuing to work for that slimy swamp-dweller, even if Viper had saved his life.
Off in the distance, he could see the cooling towers of the Megakat Nuclear Plant. His antennae twitch more excitedly now, in deep thought.
Nearby, Murdoch walked walked along the rows of shelved katalysts. They were almost all a sickly orange colored, each in a neatly-labeled, stopperared Erlenmeyer flask. Murdoch moved his finger along the rows until he stopped at the one labeled "Super-Katalyst 566." He grabbed it, turning to Street over by the window.
"Street!"
As though snapping back from a daydream, Street jerked and turned to look as Murdoch walked over with the flask.
"Super-Katalyst 566! Success!" Murdoch proclaimed, grinning broadly.
"Good work, but there's been a change of plans," Street said. "I've decided that what we want and what Viper wants are no longer compatible."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean we aren't going to give him Super-Katalyst 566," Street said, walking past Murdoch to investivate the shelves himself, head jerking rapidly this way and that in a very insectlike manner as befitting his nature. "He's going to think we are however..."
Murdoch's mouth twisted into a grimace of curiosity and confusion. He didn't like being Viper's flunkey either and would do whatever Street commanded, yet he was nevertheless thrown by this sudden change in what had been a very carefully laid plan. He still possessed some autonomy because his transformation hadn't progressed as far as the five drones they'd freed from captivity.
Street's gaze lighted on something. Realizing he found what he was looking for, he snatched another flask frm the shelf, antennae going wild, suggesting great excitement. It was another super-katalyst, but of a higher number, but Viper wouldn't know the difference until it was too late. All he had to do was switch the labels.
Murdoch walked over.
"I know enough of biochemistry to know that this chemical will serve our purpose better," Street said, pointing to the flask he just grabbed. "But I still need that swamp-dwelling maniac to mix the brew for us."
Murdoch nodded, beginning to understand somewhat. "And then...?" he asked eagerly.
"Then we won't need that pitiful slime anymore."
Murdoch grinned evilly.
Felina and King took up positions on either side of the double doors leading to the lab, guns up. The doors were slightly open, allowing the two a good view of the lab interior. They could see the Ci-Kat-A but the Ci-Kat-A couldn't see them.
King was sweating a little. "Don't let them bite you," he said in a husky, terrified whisper.
"Huh?" Felina whispered back.
"The ones with mandibles," King clarified hoarsely. "Don't let them bite you... If you do, it's all over."
Grimacing, Felina looked in, watching the fully transformed former kats crawling over the walls like roaches, while the recently-converted kats stood in a line like stoic soldiers awaiting orders.
"You become like... them..." King continued.
"I read the reports," Felina snapped. She really needed King to keep his cool. Reassuringly, she said, "It'll be okay, all right?"
He nodded. Good. A combination of harshness and kindness never failed.
"Now, on my signal..." She waited a moment, inhaling deeply. "Go!"
Street was still holding the flask of the second super-katalyst, while Murdoch still has Super-Katalyst 566. "Now to switch the labels," Street said.
Bam! The doors flew inward. The two Enforcers leaped in, guns aimed at the eleven Ci-Kat-A. The five fully-transformed drones jumped back, making irritated, angry shrieking sounds, while Steven and the converted prisoners merely turned their heads as one, their formerly expressionless faces twisting into hateful grimaces at the intrusion.
"Freeze!" Felina ordered.
"The Enforcers!" cried Murdoch.
The converted kats found themselves staring down the barrels of two laser pistols and were unsure how to act. Felina and King had them dead to rights. They entered the room fully, the Ci-Kat-A backing up warily. Meanwhile, two of the "old" Ci-Kat-A - including the mustached guard - were carefully and stealthily approaching on the ceiling.
Sensing movement, however, Felina whipped her gun up and fired. The laser blast hit between the duo, blowing a huge hole in the ceiling. Amidst falling debris, the two drones fell down and landed flailing on their backs, stunned. Their brother Ci-Kat-A tensed as if to attack, but Felina quickly brought her gun back down to point directly into the midst of them.
"Nice try. Now, surrender or we'll splatter your guts all over this lab!"
She and King approached cautiously, the Ci-Kat-A backing up further. A completely unfazed Street made a point of handing the flask he was holding to Murdoch so that the converted con was holding both it and Super-Katalyst 566 and he had his hands free. His wings buzzed in irritation. Turning, he eyed a flask labeled "Katalyst 96" on a shelf nearby, then looked over at the tank with the scorpion in it.
Suddenly, Gray Taylor rushed into the room, gun drawn. "Freeze!" he yelled. "Enforcers!"
Felina and King whirled, startled and angry to find Taylor standing in the doorway behind them.
An opening.
Street issued forth a piercing shriek. "Attack!"
The Ci-Kat-A rushed towards the distracted Enforcers.
A free-for-all erupted. The Ci-Kat-A rushed forward and quickly tried to overwhelm the three Enforcers. The second convict and a Ci-Kat-A drone leaped onto Felina and King, but she and her pilot managed to shake them off, flipping themselves over backwards, sending the two Ci-Kat-A flying through the air. They slammed against the wall on either side of the double doors and fell to the floor, buzzing in disorientation and confusion.
Callie Briggs and Dr. Belljar, still barefoot, cautiously crawled over on their hands and knees and peered in. Gray Taylor, terrified, fired his blaster this way and that, but the winged Ci-Kat-A all dodged his fire.
"If this keeps up, they're liable to hit something dangerous and blow up the entire building!" whispered a concerned Dr. Belljar.
"If only I had my-" Callie whispered, more to herself than Belljar, but she stopped herself.
Fortunately, Belljar didn't seem to have noticed. "I might have something," he said. "Stay here." He got up and ran off barefoot down the hall.
In the lab, Felina karate-chopped the first Co-Kat-A, while King pistol-whipped the second converted convict as laser fire flew over their heads, the third Ci-Kat-A drone dodging them easily in midair, Gray's laser beams putting holes in the ceiling.
"Corporal, control your fire!" Felina yelled. Like Dr. Belljar, she was concerned that a wayward blast might blow them all to kingdom come. She remembered that in past incidents, Megakat Labs had a tendency to blow up. "Everything in here is extremely explosive!"
Gray stopped firing. "Look out!" he cried.
Felina turned. Steven, the converted kat in the security guard's uniform, came running at her. His laser pistol was still holstered. Apparently he hadn't had the presence of mind to draw his weapon. Yet. Felina wanted to ensure he didn't. She kicked him in the midsection and he went flying back, crashing into a big lab experiment table. He went sliding along it, knocking flasks, beakers and other delicate-looking laboratory glassware to shatter all over the floor before falling off the other end himself.
Felina winced. This was a bad place for a fight, with so many combustible things around them.
Suddenly, she was recovered from behind by the recovered second Ci-Kat-A, who hooked his spindly arms under her armpits, restraining her. He was about to bite her when Gray Taylor hit him on the head with the butt of his gun. This stunned him enough to allow Felina to wriggle free, and, turning, enraged, the drone backhanded the Enforcer rookie, sending Gray staggering away to collapse between the mustached Ci-Kat-A and his fellow Ci-Kat-A, the first one, who'd fallen from the ceiling earlier.
Recovering, the duo rolled over and grabbed Gray, holding him down. He struggled, but to no avail. "Help!" he cried.
Felina and King turned to come to his aid, Felina cursing ever bringing a rookie along in the first place, when Street grabbed the flask of Katalyst 96 he'd been eyeing earlier, pushing off the floor and taking to the air. He buzzed over the two Enforcers' heads, grabbing their sidearms away with his grasping, talon-like feet. He tossed them away, then grabbed a tall metal shelf with his free hand, shoving it over. It fell down and landed on Felina and King, pinning them, scattering cardboard boxes and spare computer parts everywhere. Satisfied, Street buzzed down and landed over by the tank containing the desert scorpion specimen.
Over by the door, the second convict recovered and walked over, assisting dragging a squirming, terrified-looking Gray to his feet. Callie watched helplessly, unsure of what to do.
"You'll be joining us, Enforcer," Street said to Gray.
"No!" cried Felina, struggling. The heavy metal shelf kept her and King pinned by good.
Street ignored her. "But first... a little surprise to keep your friends busy."
He uncorked the flask of Katalyst 96 and poured it into the tank, splashing it onto the scorpion. The arachnid twitched and began to turn in circles in increasing agitation, becoming visibly larger with each circle it completed.
"Viper isn't the only one who can create monsters..." Street said, throwing the empty flask aside to shatter against the wall.
Viper? That would explain their interest in the katalysts. Felina now correctly guessed that there'd been a secret facility within Megakat Biochemical where the surviving converted MASA guards from the last time these alien bugs had tried to take over Megakat City had been imprisoned for study. She'd figured that'd been why Street had broken in; to free his Ci-Kat-A "brothers." But his interest in the katalysts had puzzled her until now. Were Street and his cronies working with - or for? - Dr. Viper to steal chemicals?
She had to get free so she could warn everyone that there was danger besides the resurgent Ci-Kat-A plague. That was bad enough. Potentially apocalyptic, even, given everything she'd read and what King had told her. But if Dr. Viper was involved, it was worse than anyone could possibly imagine. She twisted and strained. Beside her, King did the same. But it was no use. The heavy duty metal utility shelf refused to budge.
Street pushed the table with the scorpion on it over onto the floor in front of the two pinned Enforcers, smashing the glass tank. The steadily growing scorpion began crawling towards Felina and King. They renewed their struggles, useless though they were.
That accomplished, Street grabbed and prepared to bite Gray Taylor. "Soon, your fear will be replaced by the rapturous delight of serving a higher purpose," he reassured the terrified rookie, "then-"
Suddenly the sound of helicopter rotors caught his attention. He released Gray back into the arms of the other Ci-Kat-A. More Enforcers? No. He turned. It was the Kat's Eye News chopper, hovering outside the huge windows of the lab. Jonny leaned out, filming, but Street only had compound eyes for Ann Gora, who was reporting from the front seat beside the pilot. Street was so focused on her that he barely registered the appearance of an all too familiar black jet swooping past the news chopper.
The other Ci-Kat-A were perplexed to say the least. "Dr. Street, we have what he came for," Murdoch said. "We must go."
Street ignored him as something triggered a memory...
Dr. Harley Street, wearing a full-body hazmat suit except for the helmet, which was tucked under one arm, stood beside his MASA car in the desert, offering Kat's Eye News reporter Ann Gora a friendly little grin as the retrieval truck lifted Kat Sat 1 up with its crane behind her.
"Why don't you stop by the Space Center tomorrow?" he asked the beautiful reporter flirtatiously.
"Kat's eye news will be there, Dr. Street," Ann said with a smile.
Street was snapped back to the present by the telltale sonic boom heralding the Turbokat's arrival. Nevertheless, Street remained fixated on Ann.
"Dr. Street!" Murdoch said, buzzing and twitching irritably.
"Switch the labels!" Street told him without taking his eyes off of Ann. "Hurry! The SWAT Kats are here!"
Murdoch nodded. Street continued towards the window, continuing to hear the last thing Ann Gora said to him before he'd been bitten by the queen back the Space Center. "Kat's Eye News will be there, Dr. Street."
"A sign..." he murmured to himself. Yes. A sign. The answer to the Ci-Kat-A's problems was sitting in the hovering helicopter right outside, he realized.
Suddenly, the barefoot Callie ran in, grabbing a microscope and clobbering the mustached Ci-Kat-A over the head with it. He gave a pitiful little buzz and collapsed. She punched the second con and sent him crashing into Murdoch, who fell to the floor. He held onto the one flask, but the let go of the one containing Super-Katalyst 566, which rolled away. This left only one Ci-Kat-A holding Gray Taylor.
"I got this guy!" Gray said. "Go help Lieutenant Feral!"
Nodding, Callie ran over, stopping short at the sight of the scorpion, now the size of a table, crawling over. Shaking away her terror, she started struggling to pull the shelf off of the trapped Enforcers as the scorpion came nearer and nearer.
"Deputy Mayor, what are you doing here?" cried Felina.
"Believe it or not, I came to check on the progress of those guys!" she explained, straining, looking over at the Ci-Kat-A drones.
"And where are your shoes...?"
"Nevermind!" Callie said.
The scorpion hissed at her, grabbing the shelf in one serrated claw, and she shrieked, kicking it in his ugly face with her bare foot, barely avoiding its mandibles. It growled and released the shelf and backed up, shielding its face with its claws, raising the rear portion of its abdomen, tail uncurling slightly.
Outside, the Turbokat swooped around and landed in front of the building, unable to land on the rooftop helipad due to the Enforcer chopper. Noticing from the news chopper above, Al turned and tapped Jonny on the shoulder. Jonny turned and started filming out the window on the opposite side of the chopper as the SWAT Kats emerged from the jet, flexing their fingers in their Glovatrixes.
"C'mon," said T-Bone, "let's get this over with before I get the heebie-jeebies again!"
"Aw, and here I thought you said you'd gotten over your little bug phobia," Razor teased.
"Yeah," said T-Bone. "The LITTLE bug phobia. The BIG bug phobia... not so much!" He shuddered.
They rushed inside. The guard at the desk, having stood up as the Turbokat landed outside, looked confused. He was completely unaware of what was going on several floors above him because no alarms had gone off. He reflexively put his hand on his holstered sidearm, but didn't draw it.
"Hey, have you seen a giant Ci-Kat-A...?" asked T-Bone.
"Huh?" asked the confused guard, wondering if there'd been some breach of security and whether these vigilantes knew about Dr. Belljar's efforts to study and cure the converted kats upstairs. He considered calling the Enforcers.
"Nevermind," said T-Bone.
"What do you SWAT Kats want?" asked the guard.
"We're just here to bust some big bugs," replied Razor.
He and Razor went into the stairwell. The guard scratched his head under his hat. That was it. He was calling the Enforcers. He grabbed the telephone.
In the hovering news chopper, Ann Gora seemed mesmerized as Dr. Street approached her from inside the lab and stood motionless, only the window glass separating them. Behind him, Callie was still struggling with the heavy utility shelf pinning Felina, while Gray Taylor was fighting the first Ci-Kat-A, and seemed to be losing. Ann, staring into Street's eyes, was a little unsure of what to say or do, as Jonny turned and filmed over her shoulder.
Finally, she found her voice and spoke into her microphone. "This is Ann Gora, Kat's Eye News, coming to you live from Megakat Biochemical Labs where it seems we are experiencing a resurgence of the giant alien Ci-Kat-A creatures who terrorized the MASA Space Center and endangered the city last year!"
Street lifted one clawed, three-fingered hand and laid it against the glass separating him from Ann, feeling a desperate longing welling up within him, completely ignoring everything going on around him.
The first Ci-Kat-A had an overpowered Gray Taylor pinned to the wall and started sinking his salivating mandibles into the Enforcer rookie's throat. The SWAT Kats rushed in. The drone stopped mid-bite and turned towards them, having only partially pierced Gray's furred skin, but kept the Enforcer pinned against the wall.
"Yikes!" cried Razor. "That's a lot of Ci-Kat-A!"
T-Bone pointed at the scorpion. "And that!" he said, disgusted.
The Ci-Kat-A holding Gray opened his mouth. A deluge of vomitous, yellowish green gunk came rocketing out, and the two vigilantes dodged deftly, shoulder rolling to either side of the door they entered through. It sailed past them, out into the hallway, splattering onto the wall.
"Aaghhh!" Razor cried, unwanted memories of being cocooned surfacing. "I forgot about that crud!"
Lying on his side, he spun, sweeping the first Ci-Kat-A's feet out from under him. Releasing Gray, he fell onto his back and began flailing like an overturned turtled, spindly legs kicking. Gray, clutching his neck, slid down the wall. Rising, Razor helped him stand.
"You okay, pal?" he asked, concerned for the Enforcer.
Gray seemed groggy. "I, uh, I think so..." he said.
Razor turned and looked at T-Bone as the mustached Ci-Kat-A got up and charged him, snarling. He was about to shout a warning, but T-Bone, getting up, was already aware of the approaching enemy. He aimed his Glovatrix, intending to give at least one of these glop-spewing bugs a taste of his own medicine.
"Here, lemme wax your upper lip for ya!" he growled. "Launching Mini-Tarpedoes!"
Globs of blackish sludge shot out and hit the Ci-Kat-A in the face, sending him flying backwards. He hit the floor, elbow hitting the flask of Super-Katalyst 566 just as a recovering Murdoch was reaching for it. It went spinning away. Murdoch and the second con watched in suspense as the whirling container threatened to hit the edge of a shelf and smash. They winced, then sighed when it didn't, slowly spinning to a stop.
Murdoch shoved his fellow converted prisoner off of himself. "Get them!" he ordered. "I'll get the katalyst!"
The second con nodded and, along with the third and fourth Ci-Kat-A, rushed over to try and prevent Callie from assisting Felina and her fellow Enforcer, intent that the mutated scorpion should have its helpless victims.
Seeing this, T-Bone turned to Razor and Gray. "Razor!" he cried. "You and..." he trailed off. "What's your name?"
"Gray," replied the Enforcer, seeming a bit distant, "Gray T-Taylor..."
T-Bone nodded. "You and Taylor keep the rest of the bugs busy while I go help Callie and the Lieutenant and that other guy!"
"Roger!" said Razor, turning as the converted guard, Steven, and two more converted cons, including the one with the scar, and the remaining "old" Ci-Kat-A came rushing at him. "No problem," he assured himself confidently. He could take these four.
He knelt down and fired a big net, which scooped up the scarred con, pinning him against the wall. He shrieked in distress, a sound no normal kat could ever make, causing the fourth Ci-Kat-A drone to break off and go to help him. Meanwhile, the second con and third Ci-Kat-A descended upon Callie to prevent her from helping the Enforcers. They didn't get there in time. With a final grunt, Callie lifted the heavy shelf off of Felina and King, allowing them to wiggle free just as the scorpion's tail darted forward, the stinger puncturing the floor where they'd just been.
The third Ci-Kat-A grabbed Callie's arm. As Felina and King got up to help her, they were suddenly both grabbed by the giant scorpion's claws and lifted into the air. The claws squeezed them, forcing the air out of their lungs. Their mouths opened and closed in silent agony as the segmented tail uncurled, preparing to sting. As the Ci-Kat-A was about to bite Callie, T-Bone leaped in and kicked him in the thorax, sending him stumbling backwards over to where Murdoch was crawling on his hands and knees to grab the crucial flask. The staggering drone's heel knocked it away, eliciting a growl of annoyance from Murdoch.
"Thanks T-Bone," said Callie, panting.
"No problem." T-Bone turned to the scorpion. "Hey, pinchy!"
The scorpion, its tail curling back up slightly, turned toward him, its victims in either claw.
"Suck smoke!"
He fired a gas grenade from his Glovatrix, which hit the creature in the face. Boom! A cloud of smoke filled the air, momentarily blinding the monstrous arachnid. As it coughed and wheezed, it lowered its arms a big, weakening its grip enough for Felina and her fellow Enforcer to wiggle free. They fell to the floor as the scorpion defensively backed away, disoriented by the smoke. They were helped to their feet by Callie and T-Bone, and rejoined the fight. Punching and kicking, Felina grabbed the third drone's spindly arm and swung him around, using him to hit the second con, knocking him flat on his back. She then released the former MASA guard and he went sailing away, where he became entangled in the tubing and wires which ran along the lab ceiling, struggling and hissing fiercely.
She then noticed Murdoch. "Whatever you do, don't let them get those flasks!" she told T-Bone. "They've got some kind of important katalysts Dr. Viper wants!"
"Roger that!" T-Bone said, started off, then paused. "Wait. Viper? What is this a miscreant convention?"
He ran over and did a slide across the floor like a baseball player heading for home, kicking the flask just out of Murdoch's reach.
"No!" cried Murdoch.
The flask went whirling away, then got sent flying in another direction, towards Razor, by the flailing mustached Ci-Kat-A, stilling to free his eyes from the tar. An enraged Murdoch set the other flask down out of the way and jumped onto T-Bone, grabbing him in a headlock. T-Bone strained and choked against the bigger con. Murdoch wasn't able to convert the SWAT Kat by biting him yet because his mandibles hadn't grown in, but he could break his neck! T-Bone strained and gurgled, eyes slowly closing.
Meanwhile, Razor deflected clumsy blows being thrown by Steven and the other Ci-Kat-A. A sideways chop to the neck sent the converted Megakat Biochemical Labs guard stumbling away to crash against a desk. Razor caught a punch thrown by the now freed scarred convict, using his momentum to swing him around, pinning his arm behind his back, twisting it. The scarred con gave a yowl of pain. As he did so, the con's heel nicked the flask of Katalyst 566, sending it spinning away into the middle of the room.
Razor slammed the converted prisoner against the wall, knocking him out. He then ducked as the fourth Ci-Kat-A swooped in, allowing him to smack into the wall. As the dazed kat-insect landed, turning, Razor delivered a double punch to his midsection, kicking him aside, where he remained on his feet, dazed, holding his head. Finally, Razor turned and jump-kicked the fourth convict, sending him staggering and stumbling uncontrollably across the room. He unintentionally kicked the still-spinning flask of Katalyst 566 back over to where Murdoch was attempting to choke T-Bone to death.
The fourth con himself smacked into the big window over the street, making Ann and Jonny in the chopper jerk back in surprise and snapping Street out of his reverie. Nevertheless, Jonny filmed the dazed prisoner slowly sliding down, face and palms pressed against the glass, face squished and scrunched as it pressed against the window. He thunked into a heap on the floor. Street looked down at the unconscious con, then turned to look at the chaos behind him, getting angry.
The flask of Katalyst 566 finally came to a halt over by T-Bone and Murdoch, the orange liquid inside sloshing.
Meanwhile, as Razor fought the fourth Ci-Kat-A, who had recovered enough to fight, the SWAT Kat noticed something was wrong. The Enforcer, Gray Taylor, wasn't firing his weapon and in fact hadn't budged from where he'd been standing. His back was to Razor.
"Hey!" he cried, exchanging blows with his opponent. "Why aren't you firing?"
He delivered a final punch to the Ci-Kat-A's face and he teetered and fell to lie to sprawled on the floor, then turned to find Gray standing turned around, holding his gun, head down, panting heavily. Suddenly he stiffened, raising his head and opening his eyes. They were green and insectoid!
"Oh, that's why..." said a shocked Razor.
With an insectile hiss, Gray raised his gun and fired at Razor, who leaped aside and up, onto the wall, as the laser blast continued on and hit the armored glass of the big lab window, splintering but not shattering it as it passed through it, leaving a little hole. The laser blast barely missed the tail of the news chopper, spooking Al.
"That's it," he said. "I'm moving us away from here."
Ordinarily one to argue with her pilot and insist on staying despite danger, Ann was weirded out by her little "moment" with Street. "A good idea!" she agreed.
The chopper banked away.
Back inside the lab, Murdoch grinned, close to killing T-Bone when a voice behind said "Hey!"
"Huh?" He turned and all he saw was an Enforcer-issue boot planted in his bug-eyed mug.
Felina kicked him off of T-Bone and he released the SWAT Kat, landing with a thud between the katalyst shelves. They rocked from the impact, jostling the flasks on them, but thankfully nothing fell off. Murdoch lay there breathing heavily, but didn't get up.
"Th-Thanks, Lieutenant..." said T-Bone, rubbing his throat.
"No problem," said Felina, she and King having retrieved their laser pistols in the meantime. They were both armed again.
Meanwhile, Razor ran along the wall, being shot at by Gray and Steven, the recovered guard having finally drawn his own sidearm. Observing, T-Bone and Felina rushed to the rescue as Murdoch sat up almost robotically, frowning, then smiled, seeing both crucial flasks close at hand. He grabbed them.
Razor deftly dodged all the laser blasts, landing and sweeping Steven's legs out from under him. He cried out as he hit the floor and Razor kicked the gun from his hand, then turned and found Gray's gun barrel right at his forehead, cursing himself and waiting to feel the laser blast rip through his skull.
Rushing over with T-Bone, Felina gasped in horror, as did King.
"Taylor!" cried Felina.
"Not again!" said King.
Gray turned and glared at them, surprised, allowing Razor to grab the laser pistol and twist it out of the converted Enforcer's hand. Gray growled angrily. Razor punched him in the throat. Felina winced. King raised a shaky hand, trying to aim at the converted rookie.
"I can't get a clean shot," he said, anguished.
Suddenly there was a muted "Pew!" and Gray staggered back, clutching at his neck to to find a little feathered dart sticking out of his skin. After a moment, he wobbled and collapsed to the floor. The barefoot Dr. Belljar stood in the doorway holding a tranquilizer rifle, two spare darts clenched in his teeth. Hearing a roar, Razor turned and saw the huge scorpion scuttling towards them, abdomen up, tail uncurling to strike.
"Mini-Turboblades!" he yelled, firing.
The Turboblades sailed through the air, slicing off the scorpion's stinger. The creature shrieked piercingly. It batted at Razor with its claws, snapping and slicing at the air. Razor backpedaled, trying to fend the serrated claws off. Dr. Belljar took one of the spare darts out from between his teeth, loading it into the tranquilizer rifle. The scorpion's left claw lashed out, grabbing Razor's wrist, squeezing, crushing his Glovatrix.
"Aaghhh!" Razor screamed. "Hey! Let go, you overgrown...!"
"Pew!" Another dart sailed through the air and stuck in the scorpion's side between the armored plates of its back and lower belly. It growled, releasing Razor, who staggered back, clutching his wrist and inspecting his damaged Glovatrix. The scorpion's movements became lethargic, and after a moment, it lay down on the floor and ceased to move. Razor sighed in relief, giving Belljar a thumbs-up in thanks.
The various Ci-Kat-A were either recovering or freeing themselves and regrouping. The one with the mustache had even managed to wipe the tar off of his face, although some globs remained in his facial hair. Except for the unconscious Gray, they all converged on Street, surrounding him like bodyguards. With him standing at the head of the group, they looked like a street gang ready for a rumble.
"Now what?" asked Callie.
"Round two is what," replied T-Bone.
The SWAT Kats and Enforcers prepared for another go, when suddenly Murdoch came running into viewing, holding the flask of Super-Katalyst 566. Or, at least, that's what its label said. He held it up triumphantly.
"Street!" he cried happily.
"Oh, no, ya don't!" said T-Bone, taking aim with his Glovatrix. Suddenly Steven the guard jumped up and chomped onto his arm. "Yeeeeooouch!"
He punched Steven in the head, making him relinquish his hold, and the guard staggered over to where the other Ci-Kat-A were. T-Bone was panicking, rubbing his forearm where he was bitten. A grinning Murdoch handed the flask to Street. Hurrying, Dr. Belljar took the remaining dart from between his teeth and loaded the tranquilizer rifle again.
"Fortunately for you, SWAT Kats, I have more pressing matters than settling old scores," Street said.
Turning, he shrieked, making everyone except for the other Ci-Kat-A wince and cover their ears, blowing the armored panes of glass out of the winfow frames. Belljar dropped the tranq rifle. Leaping onto the sill, glass crunching under his feet, Street yelled over his shoulder.
"But believe me, that reckoning is coming... and sooner than you think!" To the other Ci-Kat-A, he said, "Let's go!"
Spreading his wings, he flew off. His ten underlings followed. The five who could fly gripped the five newly-converted kats under their arms and carried them as they zoomed off after Street. The SWAT Kats and Enforcers fired after them to no avail. Callie grabbed the dropped tranq rifle and took aim, but Street was by then too far out of range, too far ahead of the pack. She grimaced and lowered the rifle.
"A reckoning? What's he talkin' about?" asked T-Bone, rubbing his arm.
"Well, we did squish his lady friend last time..." said Razor.
The flying group of very jubilant Ci-Kat-A passed by the hovering news chopper. An uneasy Ann, Jonny and Al watched them go past. The Ci-Kat-A paid them no mind save Street, who stopped, turned, using his rapidly-beating wings to hover in place like a grotesque hummingbird.
"Go on without with me," he said to the other Ci-Kat-A.
He then cautiously approached the hovering aircraft. Al's eyes widened, and Ann grabbed at his shirt, trying to find her voice as she watched the horrific parody of the once handsome scientist she flirted with once approaching them, trying to tell her pilot to get them out of them. Dutiful Jonny filmed with his camera, but he unbuckled his seatbelt, ready to leap to Ann and Al's defense if the need arose.
Street landed with delicate ease on the chopper's passenger side pontoon, the whirling rotor blades whipping his hair and antennae around. The helicopter lacked front doors, so he made one, tearing a hole in the fuselage one-handed to expose Ann sitting buckled into the front passenger seat. The reporter sat frozen with terror but also with morbid curiosity. As one would toss aside a wadded up piece of paper, Street flung the torn off section of metal away, and it went whirling off like a crooked Frisbee to who knew where.
With his free hand, he grabbed Ann's wrist in what at first she took to be a violent gesture, but soon turned tender. Ann dropped her microphone.
"D-Dr. Street..." Ann said, managing to find her voice.
"Ms. Gora," said Street, all schmooze, "I must apologize for my rudeness the last time we spoke. As I said at the time... I was busy. I hope you can forgive me."
Pretending to be filming, Jonny surreptitiously slid across the rear seat to Ann's side, meaning to open the sliding door there and intervene, but Street reached in over Ann's shoulder and punched the hapless cameraman with the knuckles of the hand holding the flask. The thick glass of the flask clunked off of Jonny's head and he was knocked backward, almost falling out of the helicopter. Although he didn't, his camera did; it flew out the open door on the other side, plummetted to the street, and smashed on the asphalt.
Back inside the chopper, as Jonny lay unconscious in back, Ann and Al frozen in fear, Street resumed turning on the "charm." "My apologies for that interruption," he said.
He moved to kiss (or bite?) Ann's hand. A scream was rising in her throat but couldn't quite seem to make it out as her delicate-looking hand came closer and closer to the deadly-looking mandibles. With her other hand, she managed to grab Street's shoulder and shove, knocking the converted MASA scientist off of the pontoon he was perched on. His buzzing wings prevented his falling and he kept ahold of the flask.
"Ah, well," said Street, seemingly crestfallen. "Perhaps the mood was wrong, my queen."
Suddenly, Al pointed. "The Enforcers!"
An annoyed Street turned and looked at an approaching squadron of Enforcer choppers. He turned back to Ann. "We must do this... some other time."
He flew off. A shaken Ann and Al watched him go.
"'Queen?'" said a confused and disturbed Ann.
"What was he talking about...?" asked Al.
Ann didn't have an answer for him.
~*~
Back in the main lab, the SWAT Kats watched with gritted teeth through the broken windows.
"Come on, let's get to the Turbokat!" T-Bone said.
"No way, buddy," said Razor "Those bug-eyed bandits are long gone by now."
T-Bone sighed. "Good point..." Suddenly remembering that he'd been bitten, he cried, "Aw, no! My arm! Aghhh! That guy bit me! I'm gonna turn into one of them!"
Dr. Belljar came over and examined him. "Which one bit you?"
"That security guard guy..."
"Steven?" Belljar smiled. "You're fine. He hasn't progressed far enough into his transformation to have developed the mandibles or the venom necessary for conversion."
T-Bone sighed in relief, looking down and noticing Belljar's bare feet. Hearing a cry of alarm from Callie, the SWAT Kats turned. The giant scorpion had gotten up. The sedative had worn off. Simultaneously, both SWAT Kats took aim with their Glovatrixes, before Razor growls, remembering his was broken, as T-Bone fired a weighted net which encircled and entrapped the huge arachnid. Felina and King fired knockout gas grenades from their sidearms, and Callie finished the creature off by firing the remaining dart from the tranquilizer gun. The scorpion thrashed a bit before the double dose of sleep agents did their work and it collapsed into a heap, entangled in the net.
"That ought to keep him out this time," Callie said with some satisfaction.
"Long enough to get him into one of the special holding cells upstairs," said Belljar. He glanced at the equally unconscious Gray Taylor. "And him, too. If you'll assist me?"
Felina and King helped Dr. Belljar get the oversized scorpion onto a gurney. Belljar wheeled it out of the trashed lab, Felina and King following, Felina carrying Gray's arms and King carrying his legs as they bore their fallen fellow Enforcer from the room. After they were gone and it was just Callie and the SWAT Kats, T-Bone noticed Callie's bare feet as he had Dr. Belljar's.
"How come you and the Doc-"
"Why is everyone asking about my-our feet?" Callie said, sighing. "We took our shoes off to climb an elevator cable to escape the Ci-Kat-A." She smiled at Razor. "A trick I learned from Razor here."
Razor smirked. T-Bone scowled.
"Anyway, I should probably go and oversee Corporal Taylor's transfer to the holding cells and talk to Dr. Belljar about what, if anything, can be done for him." She mumbled to herself, "And maybe find my shoes and my purse..."
She walked out. The SWAT Kats turned and resumed looking out the window.
"Now what...?" asked T-Bone.
"We leave it to the professionals for now, T-Bone. There's nothing else you and I can do here. We're not scientists, after all." He grumbled. "Besides, Burke and Murray are waiting for us at the park."
T-Bone grinned. "Yeah, where I'm gonna whip your tail."
"Fat chance!"
They left the room.
~*~
In Dr. Viper's lair in the Dead Forest, the ten Ci-Kat-A stood in a loose group, the mustached drone cleaning himself, licking his forearm and washing his face in an effort to free his facial hair from the remnants of the Tarpedo gunk.
Dr. Viper stood by the hollow tree stump cauldron, yelling at Street. "You foolsss!" he hissed. "You idiotic bugsss! How could you bungle such a sssimple mission?!"
He was extremely animated, tail lashing this way and that, waving his arms around. Dr. Street by contrast was the very picture of calm and composed. At least on the outside. His jerking antennae betrayed a slowly-boiling anger to match the contents of the stump cauldron bubbling beside them. He didn't like being talked to this way by his "colleague."
His eyes narrowed suspiciously, the mushroom monster was positioned over on the other side of the room, observing the proceedings closely, ready to strike if Viper needed him.
Street held up the flask. "In case you failed to notice, we did manage to acquire your precious katalyst, Doctor," he buzzed in exhausted annoyance.
Viper snatched the flask from him. "And a good thing too! Or elssse-"
"Or else what?" Street interrupted him, stepping forward.
The other Ci-Kat-A tensed. The one with the mustache stopped washing himself. Remembering that he was outnumbered, Viper left the threat unfinished. Instead, he turned the topic to the "recent additions" to his ally's little bug-eyed entourage.
"And where did thessse six come from?"
"I told you I had to bite someone who worked there," replied Street.
"And them?" Viper jerked a thumb at the other five, fully transformed original drones.
Street clenched his fist. "All that remains of the original Ci-Kat-A, imprisoned for study. I had to free them! And besides, it's actually seven. We had to leave one of our newly-anointed brothers behind due to interference from-"
Viper cut him off. "Ssspare me your sssob storiesss, Ssstreet! The mission was sssupposed to be in and out without being detected!" He prodded the Ci-Kat-A doctor in the chest, eyes glowing, his anger returning despite his attempts to control his temper. "You've failed me! And if you hadn't gotten the katalyssst, I'd be even angrier than I am now!"
The other Ci-Kat-A relaxed, concluding that at this point Dr. Viper's outbursts were little more than toothless threats. They returned to near motionlessness except for the one with the mustache, who resumed cleaning himself. Dr. Street remained wary, however. His developing plan notwithstanding, he was cautious, and gave the nearby mushroom monster a sideways glance.
Uncorking the flask what he understandably thought was Super-Katalyst 566, Viper poured some of it into the hollowed out stump he was using was a mixing cauldron, then put the stopper back in with a smug look of satisfaction. The contents of the cauldron bubbled and boiled in a manner he didn't expect them to. His smug look slowly faded. Stroking his chin in thought, he watched the developing chemical reactions, then used an eyedropper to suck some of the brackish-looking liquid up.
Street tensed as Viper went to a potted Venus' flytrap on his worktable containing three fanged mouths on stems. He applied a drop of the liquid and stood back. He was shocked when the plant, twitching and growing, burst free of the pot, flying potting soil going everywhere, the mutated scientist gasping as the three stems separated into three distinct creatures. Their roots developed into spindly, hairy insect legs, and diseased-looking veined wings sprouted from their backs. Standing with mouth agape at these "Venus Trap Flies," Viper grabbed the flask of "Katalyst 566," looked at the label, then looked at Street.
"That wasn't sssupposed to happen!" he cried in confused anger. Suspicion dawned. "Sssomething's wrong..."
He prodded at the label with his thumb, gasping at how easily it peeled away and fell off.
"Thissss isn't Katalyst 566! You- You ssswitched the labelsss!"
If he expected Street to deny his treachery, he was surprised when the Ci-Kat-A scientist simply said, "Yes, we did."
With a ferocious snarl, Viper hurled the flask at Street, who ducked. The flask smashed through one of the dark, murky windows, splashing into the water of the swamp outside far below. Viper was beyond enraged, eyes glowing like yellow hot coals.
"You tricked me!" Pointing at Street and shrieking so fiercely his voice became hoarse and his throat hurt, he demanded, "Whaaaat issss iiiiiit?!"
"Super-Katalyst 666!" Street said.
Viper was confused. "What? But that hasss nothing to do with-"
Street interrupted him. "The small, pathetic dreams of a mere Earth mutation?" he asked. It was his turn to be smug.
Viper reeled from this. His mushroom monster tensed, tentacles wriggling in anticipation, furious at his master's betrayal. He began waiting for an opportunity to attack.
"Super-Katalyst 666 will be better served as part of MY plan for a new breed of Ci-Kat-A to take over Megakat City!" Street declared, pointing a clawed finger at Viper, who was speechless. "And eventually the world!"
Pushing past a stupefied Viper, he went to the tree stump cauldron and gripped the edges, leaning in, looking at the bubbling contents happily.
"Thanks to you, I have all that I need to enact my new plan. To create a race of mega-insect servants loyal to me and my Ci-Kat-A brothers! I'll send them to create a distraction while I destroy the Megakat Nuclear Plant to irradiate the entire city!"
Furious, Viper found his voice. "Nooooo! My ssswamp city can't grow under sssuch conditions!"
"That's the idea, you pitiful reptile!" said Street, whirling and pointing at him again. "It will provide an endless source of food for the new Ci-Kat-A race my queen will bear for me!"
With a roar, the mushroom monster attacked! But as per Street's plan, arranged before they'd returned to the swamp, the five original Ci-Kat-A who'd been freed from captivity opened their mouths and unleashed an ugly torrent of their sticky yellowish slime which splattered all over Dr. Viper's creature, knocking him back with the force of five firehoses. He ended up plastered to the wall, looking very worried and confused.
Satisfied that Dr. Viper's sole ally was taken care of, Street turned and grabbed the snakelike feline by the scrawny neck, lifting him up. "Your feeble-minded and simplistic creations are no match for the superior Ci-Kat-A race!"
Viper gagged, but managed a laugh. "Ha! Ha! You aren't even true Ci-Kat-A! You're jussst cheap imitationsss! All the REAL Ci-Kat-A are dead!"
That made Street angry, and he tightened his grip. Viper stopped laughing. "True," Street admitted, "but once I have my queen... the pure Ci-Kat-A race will be reborn!"
"But reborn from a she-kat converted by your bite!" Viper gasped out, angering Street even further. "They'll ssstill be the offspring of-"
He was cut off as Street squeezed even tighter, making him gag, forked tongue sticking out.
"I have no time to argue technicalities with you, Viper!" he said, and bit him.
Nothing happened. Street looked confused, loosening his grip on Viper's throat a little.
The evil green kat smirked. "Did you really think I'd ally myssself with you without firssst developing and injecting myssself with an antidote to your ssslave venom?"
Street's confusion quickly turned to anger. "I may not be able to bite you, Viper, but I can crush the life out of you!" He now gripped Viper's throat with both hands, intent on strangling Viper to death.
"Ughhh!" Viper gagged. He swung his tail, knocking Street aside, forcing him to release him.
"Subdue him!" Street ordered.
As the drones turned and rushed towards Viper, the evil biochemist leaped through the already partially broken window. He fell flailing into the murky water far below. The Ci-Kat-A went to the window and looked down, seeing only ripples and bubbles.
"Let him go!" Street said. The assembled Ci-Kat-A turned from the window to face their leader. "He can't stop us now! We have work to do!"
The mushroom monster, still stuck to the wall, grunted, straining against the muck holding him imprisoned, which had hardened into a resin-like substance. The Ci-Kat-A ignored him as no threat. Finally, he managed a lopsided smirk and turned into liquid, sliding free of his sticky bonds and dripping down the wall. As a green puddle, he oozed across the lab floor and down the stairs, escaping unnoticed.
Outside, Dr. Viper surfaced from the water, gasping, looking at his tree, now taken from him. He shook his fist. "You bug-eyed foolsss will regret betraying Dr. Viper!"
After a moment, his mushroom monster, returned to his solidified state, popped up beside him, just his eyes, ears and the top of his head showing. Viper patted him on the head affectionately. Turning, he began swimming away and the monster followed.
"I've got to get to Enforcer Headquartersss..." he told his creation.
He was very unhappy at the thought, as was the mushroom monster. Bubbles surfacing around the partially-submerged mutation indicated his underwater voice was voicing extreme disapproval of Viper's plan of action.
"I know, I know!" Viper admitted. "Desperate timesss call for desperate measuresss..."
~*~
The converted Gray Taylor had been confined to one of the glass-doored cells in the top secret lab. The giant scorpion was in another, snapping its claws angrily. Gray snarled and thrashed uselessly against the glass. Watching him sadly was Dr. Belljar, who had his shoes and socks back on. Standing beside him along with a few Enforcer commandos was the Enforcer's biochemist, Dr. Konway, his face a mask of professional detachment as he observed the imprisoned Enforcer, hands stuffed into his lab coat pockets.
"You were right to call me down here," Konway said to Belljar.
"The scorpion is easily returned to normal with anti-mutagens," replied Bellhar, sparing the enormous arachnid a glance, before returning his attention to Gray. "But it seems, sadly, that I've done all I can for the victims of the Ci-Kat-A here at Megakat Biochemical..."
Konway smiled and laid a sympathetic hand on his colleague's shoulder. "You did your best. Now it's time for the Enforcers' bio-tech division to take over." Grimly, he added, "After all, this time, it's one of our own."
"I understand, Sam," replied Belljar. "And thank you."
He looked in on Gray, who licked the glass. A shudder ran through Belljar.
"I'll supervise his transfer immediately," said Konway, turning and nodding to the commandos accompanying him.
Standing nearby was Callie Briggs. She was leaning against the wall. Her skirt was still torn, but she had one high heel back on and was in the process of struggling into the other as she talked with Ann Gora. Her cameraman, Jonny K., was downstairs in the lobby nursing a goose egg on his forehead with the help of an ice pack and Al the chopper pilot.
"It was the strangest thing ever," Ann was saying, clearly sounding spooked. "I mean, I remember Harley Street could be a little flirtatious when he was normal, but..."
She trailed off uncertainly.
"Believe me, Ann," Callie said as she finished getting her shoe on, "I know what it's like having a crazy villain creep on your like that." Apparently attracting weirdos ran it the Briggs family. She remembered looking up her ancestor, Queen Callista, after the Pastmaster kept calling her that. The resemblance had been uncanny... right down to the insane little gnome's obsessive quest to marry her.
"Well, I think after that, a good lie-down on my sofa at home is in order," Ann said, exhaling. "I'll see you later, Callie."
The said their goodbyes and Ann walked out. A broad-shouldered Enforcer sergeant she often saw accompanying Commander Feral walked in with her purse. Talon, Callie thought his name was.
"There you are, Deputy Mayor," he said. He held the purse out to her.
"Thank you, Sergeant," Callie said, taking it. She dug around inside and was distressed to find the communicator missing. "Sergeant?"
Turning to go, Sergeant Talon paused. "Yes, Ms. Briggs?"
"Is this..." she trailed off, choosing her words carefully, "...all that was in the purse? And around it on the floor, I mean?"
The Sergeant raised an eyebrow. He seemed confused by the question. "Um, well, yes, Ms. Briggs. I gathered everything up and put it in the purse." Concerned, he asked, "Is anything missing?"
"No. Well, I mean, yes, but..."
Talon smiled. "I'll have my men search this floor a little more thoroughly."
"No, that won't be necessary, Sergeant," Callie said, blushing a little. "It isn't important." Liar, she mentally kicked herself. "But if you do see it, it's a makeup compact. Kind of triangle-shaped." She made a triangle shape with her hands.
Sergeant Talon nodded. "Yes ma'am."
"Something like this?" asked a deep voice from the hall.
They turned. Commander Feral's enormous frame filled the doorway. In one huge hand, he held the communicator. One of his fingers was dangerously near the button in the middle. Callie held her breath. Feral turned the object over in his hand as one would a silver dollar, then smiled and held it out to Callie.
"I found it over by a potted plant in the hall," he explained. "I hope it's what you're looking for, Ms. Briggs," he added.
Callie managed to take the communicator from him without her hand shaking. Did Feral know? No. If he did, he'd be arresting her right now, or at least dropping some very unsubtle hints that his long unvoiced suspicions about her collaboration with the SWAT Kats had been confirmed. Instead, the Commander's smile and his concern for Callie's personal belongings seemed completely genuine. Reassured, Callie smiled back, nodding her gratitude to the taller kat.
"Thank you very much, Commander," she said.
Feral nodded and immediately returned to gruff Enforcer mode, as he exited the lab, followed by Talon. In the hallway, he encountered his niece, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. She hadn't wanted to go into the lab where the rookie she'd been given charge off was currently imprisoned and slobbering all over the glass door of his cell. Feral didn't blame her, and, as she opened her mouth to say something, he cut her off, doing his best to reassure her in his own gruff manner.
"It wasn't your fault, Lieutenant. Corporal Taylor should've obeyed your orders and remained in the vehicle."
Felina closed her mouth. It was true. And yet... Gray had nevertheless been her responsibility. "I just can't help but feel responsible..." she admitted after a moment's silence.
"As his commanding officer, that's entirely understandable." Warm sympathy flowed from Feral's words. His surrounding subordinates were seeing a gentler side of their Commander that usually only Felina saw when the two were off duty. Turning serious again, Feral started to say, "But at the end of the day--"
A walkie-talkie attached to Sergeant Talon's belt squawked. He unclipped it. "Talon here," he said into it.
Feral and Felina heard indistinct chatter on the other end. Sergeant Talon's eyes widened and he turned to his two superiors.
"Commander, we need to get down to Headquarters. There's an... interesting situation developing."
"Well?" Feral asked. "What is it?"
"It's Dr. Viper sir," Talon said flatly, his face a mask of detached professionalism once again after he'd recovered from his initial surprise. "Apparently he wants to surrender himself."
~*~
In the Dead Forest, the ground rumbled, sending ripples through the scummy water. Scrawny-looking swamp birds screeched and took off. Alligators hissed in annoyance, slithering away. The source of the tremor was Dr. Viper's lair. The towering tree quaked ominously. From the root-entangled base there was a sudden eruption as a group of giant mutated grub worms burst forth through the rotten, moss-covered bark surface, creations of Dr. Street utilizing the mixture of Super-Katalyst 666 and other chemicals mixed for him by his former accomplice Viper to mutate some swamp vermin.
They were about fifty feet long in length, pale white, covered sickening-looking pustules. Their heads were tiny in comparison to their big, sluglike bodies, their most noticeable facial features being big, Ci-Kat-A-like green compound eyes and their mouths, which consisted of thin, spoutlike proboscises surrounded and protected by big serrated mandibles like those of an ant. The eyes were a clear sign that they were under Ci-Kat-A control... more specifically Dr. Harley Street's control. Or at least the creature who had once been Harley Srteet.
They dragged their heaving, pulsing bulks along through the mucky, muddy water using four thickly-muscled black jointed legs ending in wickedly-clawed hands with opposable thumbs, and headed off through the Dead Forest towards the more lush and verdant expanse of Megakat Swamp... and the very distant skyline of Megakat City several miles outside of the swamp, just visible in the polluted, misty haze.
Following after them, making sickly buzzing sounds, were the three "Venus Trap Flies" Viper had unintentionally created earlier. A very satisfied-looking Dr. Street walked out of the big hole the worms had created. In one hand he held a stoppered flask of the mixture Viper had unwittingly created for him, the vile brew he'd used to create the big grubs. Behind, his ten companions lingered excitedly.
Murdoch convulsed and stepped forward a bit, bending over, and with a "rrrrrip," alien bug wings sprouted through the black of his prison-issue shirt. The pointed tips of mandibles had already begun to emerge from the corners of the former convict's mouth. Street nodded in approval.
"Now begins a new dawn for us," Street said.
He addressed nine of the other ten Ci-Kat-A and pointed after the departing grubs.
"Go! Accompany them! Find the greatest concentration of pitiful Earth vermin and wreak havoc!"
There were affirmative buzzes. The Ci-Kat-A took off, rushing off after the grubs and Venus Trap Flies. Once again, those capable of flight carried those who couldn't yet.
Street turned to Murdoch. "You'll accompany me now that you can fly. While they keep the Enforcers and the SWAT Kats preoccupied, you and I will pursue our TRUE objective."
Street flew off. Murdoch flapped his new wings a few times, then flew off after his leader.
"I'm ready for our 'private interview,' Ms. Gora!" Street said, giving a buzzing cackle.
~*~
A line of Enforcer cruisers, with Feral's in the lead, pulled around the corner. Following them was an ambulance carrying Gray Taylor strapped to a gurney inside. The convoy stopped at a most unusual sight. Commandos in front of Enforcer Headquarters surrounded Dr. Viper and that half-kat, half-mushroom creature of his, who'd emerged from the sewer in front of the building. The open manhole cover was visible behind them. Viper had his arms raised, palms turned towards the sky in a gesture of surrender.
Commander Feral and Felina got out of the lead car and walked over. "What's going on here?" Feral demanded.
The lead commando turned and tried to explain things. "I dunno, sir! He and that... that thing of his just popped out of the sewer suddenly!"
"And...?" Feral asked.
"And that's it," said the commando with a shrug. "They haven't moved since--"
Seeing Feral, Viper turned. "Commander Feral!" he called, cutting the lead commando off. His sudden movement made all the Enforcers surrounding him and the mushroom monster jump back. "I have to ssspeak with you!"
"The only thing I'm willing to discuss with you, Viper, is which prison cell you'll find most accommodating before the D.A. can set your trial date!" Feral said, reaching inside his greatcoat and pulling his laser pistol.
"Wait!" Viper pleaded, sounding uncharacteristically desperate. "It'sss very important! It'sss about the fate of everyone in Megakat City! Including me!"
Feral blinked, looking at Felina, then turned back to Viper.
"All right, scuzz bucket," he said finally. "I'm listening. But I warn you. No tricks."
He leveled the blaster right between the mutated scientist's eyes.
"Or I'll shoot you where you stand."
Viper simply smirked.
~*~
Manx Municipal Park was bustling with activity that warm, sunny day. Picnicning families lay on blankets and ate food. Cyclists pedaled along the bike paths that wound through the park's sparsely-forested landscape. The enormous statue of Mayor Manx had some graffiti sprayed on its base, but overall the park named after him seemed to be in generally good condition considering how poorly its grand opening had gone a year earlier.
Among the parkgoers were Chance and Jake. They'd driven to the park and already had their skates on, skating around over near their statue, although their mood was generally gloomy. The promise rematch hadn't even happened. And Burke and Murray hadn't showed up, although perhaps that was a good thing.
"Tough luck about that new Enforcer guy," Chance was saying, "what was his name?"
"Taylor," Jake reminded him.
"Yeah, Taylor," Chance remembered now. Corporal Taylor. Poor guy. "As if we needed any more reason to hate those nasty bugs..."
He shuddered at the thought, rubbing where he himself had been bitten, grateful that the converted guard hadn't been far enough along in his transformation to have done to him what had been done to Taylor. The thought of losing his sense of self and being mind-controlled while his body inexorably changed into an alien bug filled him dread. He really, really hated the Ci-Kat-A.
"I just wish we knew where they went."
Jake skated in a circle around Chance.
"Relax, buddy," he said, trying to sound optimistic. "Street's bound to surface again sometime soon. Whatever he and his bug-eyed crew have planned with that katalyst they took, we'll stop 'em. We just gotta wait for 'em to act. Until then, we can't just rush off trying to look for 'em because we don't have the slightest clue where to begin."
He smiled.
"So just enjoy some time off for a change, will ya? Beautiful day, fresh air, lovely scenery..." He trailed off, eyeing the Manx statue. "...well, mostly."
He chuckled.
"Hey guys!" yelled Murray from nearby.
Jake halted beside Chance and they watched as Burke and Murray Schlepper came walking up. Both of them were carrying rollerskates. Chance grumbled, but Jake wordlessly urged his friend with a pat on the shoulder to be civil. Burke and Murray put on their rollerskates and proved to be surprisingly graceful skaters despite their odd proportions, bulk (especially in Burke's case) and general seeming clumsiness.
Clearly enjoying themselves, the brothers made a point of showing off. Murray wore a Walkman, through which what Chance and Jake thought was the Nutcracker Suite could be heard tinnily as Murray pirouted about. Chance shook his head. Jake just chuckled. The fact the Schlepper Brothers had warmed enough to them over the last year to be considered something resembling friends frankly amazed him. It wasn't so long ago these two spent every waking moment of their lives trying to pick fights with Chance and Jake and generally making their lives miserable. Now they were skating with them at the park. How times change, thought Jake.
Mayor Manx's long white limousine pulled into the park. One of the tinted black windows rolled down and Manx leaned out, waving to the uncaring public, who mostly ignored him. The limo parked near the state. The uniformed chauffeur got out and went to open the back door, but it flew open. He jumped back as Manx got out in his golfing clothes, nine iron in one hand, crumpled speech notes in Callie Briggs' handwriting in the other.
"Come, Callie!" Manx said, excited. "I want to get this wretched speech over with so I make my tee time!"
He ran off towards the base of the statue. Callie, getting out after him, briefcase in hand, sighed and exchanged tired looks with the chauffeur, who merely shook his head and shut the door. They watched Manx beginning to deliver a speech about progress and low crime rates to no one in particular. Noticing Chance and Jake, Callie smiled and walked over.
"Well, if it isn't my two favorite auto mechanics."
"Hi, Callie," said Jake.
"Nice to see you two out and about," said Callie, who rarely interacted with the pair outside of the garage, or so she thought. "What's the occasion? Or is it just for fun?"
"Yeah, that and, uh..."
Chance skated past behind him. "We needed a break from mindsucking stupidity, but it followed us."
Callie glanced at Burke and Murray. She wasn't too familiar with them, but she was aware there'd been tension between them and Chance and Jake in the past. "I see. Well, you know the old saying. You can't pick your friends."
At that, she again looks over at a wildly gesticulating Manx, still droning on and being ignored by the parkgoers. Suddenly a punk on skates shot past and grabbed Callie's purse.
"Hey!" she yelled.
Chance and Jake immediately moved to pursue him. "Don't you worry, Callie! We'll catch this guy!"
Before they could move, Callie, gripping the handle of her briefcase tightly, turned and flung it after the retreating thief. It hit him in the small of his back, sending him sprawling. With a yelp, he crashed to the ground, and the contents of Callie's purse scattered all over the cement. A few bystanders gasped and then applauded, including Burke and Murray.
A little numbly, Chance and Jake went and helped Callie pick up the dropped items from her purse. She smiled. "Thanks, guys
"Don't mention it," said Jake "Say, that was pretty impressive, Callie."
"Self-defense classes," she said with a smile. "The SWAT Kats can't be everywhere at once, after all."
Chance got up and skated over to where the mugger was lying. Finishing, Callie stood and gave her purse a little shake, all the items rustling inside, and she gave it a little pat with a smile. Meanwhile, Chance grabbed the dazed mugger and yanked him to his feet, dragging him over, the criminal's shirt collar in one hand, Callie's briefcase in the other.
"Here ya go," he said, handing her the briefcase. To the mugger, he said "Now say you're sorry and be a good boy and sit and wait for the Enforcers."
He gave the crook a rough shake.
"S-Sorry," the mugger said, wincing.
Suddenly, the ground trembled. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked around in confusion. Birds flew screeching in a wild panic from the trees.
"It must be some kind of earthquake!" cried Jake.
The ground split open, and the giant grub worms created by Dr. Street erupted up into view, sending chunks of earth and concrete flying in all directions. They bellowed angrily, emittung a gurgling hiss, drooling slime hideously from their probscises. People began screaming and running away.
Numbly, standing and watching openmouthed, Chance released his hold on the terrified mugger, allowing him to skate away to safety. He hurriedly disappeared into the anonymity of the fleeing crowds.
Murray screamed. "Yaaahhh! Let's get outta here!"
Burke grabbed his smaller sibling, slinging Murray onto his back, and began skating away.
"Aw, man, can't we just have one nice day without anything bad happening?" complained Chance.
Noticing the fleeing Burke and Murray, Jake said, "They've got the right idea! Come on, Callie!" He scooped an unresisting Callie into his arms.
Nearby, Manx screamed as one of the worms slithered over towards him. "Godfrey!"
He and his chauffeur ran to the limo, the chauffeur opening the front door, Manx opening the back, but before they could get in, the worm's path towards them took it into direct contact with the statue. Bonk! It slammed into it. Manx stood half in, half out of the car, watching in wide-eyed terror as the enormous stone version of himself with its insufferably smug grin came teetering down towards him. A quick-thinking Chance skated over and grabbed Manx, pulling him to safety by the collar. He turned to do the same for the chauffeur, but he'd already leaped free as the statue landed on the limo, crushing it.
The grub worm bellowed and bents towards them, the spoutlike proboscis widening a bit like a funnel, as though to swallow them whole. Instead, it sprayed a torrent of acidic slime!
Chance, it turned out, had worn the Turbo Rollerblades after all. He'd intended on cheating again in the rematch that never ended up happening, but he realized it was a good thing he had them. He activated the rocket boosters. Little jets of fire shot out from his heels, propelling him forward with Manx in his arms. In motion, he hoisted Manx onto his back, the terrified Mayor releasing his precious golf club so that he can hold onto Chance's back with one hand and grab his hairpiece with the other; his golfing cap flies off, and the toupee would've joined it, but Manx, skilled at saving what little dignity he had in these kinds of situations, managed to snatch it out of the air just in time.
The two shot off just as the acid spewed forth by the monstrous worm hits the ground. The puddle hisses and bubbles and began to melt through the concrete. Manx screamed. The chauffeur got up and ran off in another direction.
Nearby, Callie was being carried by Jake. Both of them took notice of the Turbo Rollerblades, but for different reasons. Jake was simultaneously annoyed and relieved that his friend brought them even though he swore he wouldn't, while Callie was confused, wondering why on Earth Chance would have rocket-powered rollerblades. Although there were more pressing things to worry about right now, like the giant grub worm slithering determinedly after them, hissing, she had noticed it nevertheless. She clung as Jake skated around bushes, park benches and other obstacles, struggling desperately to put some distance between them and their wormy pursuer, which sprayed a firehose-like torrent of its greenish acidic glop, just missing them, splattering the ground with the hideous liquid.
It reoriented itself and spat another blast, which Jake just barely dodged. The slime splattered all over a bench, a hot dog vendor's cart and a sundial, causing them to hiss, bubble and pop, melting into puddles like heated candle wax.
Running perpendicular to them, Chance noticed their plight, and with a whoosh, he skated over, making a beeline for the worm that was trying to get them, shouting a taunt at the one chasing him and Manx in the process.
"Come on, ugly! Come and get me!"
Enraged, the worm redoubled its efforts and started undulating his bloated body faster in an effort to catch them. The one chasing Jake and Callie was oblivious to this. Chance shot underneath its raised chin, momentarily confusing it, and them wham! The worm that'd been pursuing him smashed into its companion and both were sent reeling into the grassy knoll, smashing into a gazebo, splintering it into matchwood.
Safely out of their reach, Jake breathed a sigh of relief. Chance deactivated the rockets on the Turbo Rollerblades and skated normally alongside his friend, offering a sheepish grin. Jake just shook his head.
Upon reaching what they figurd was a safe distance, the two set Callie and Manx down. "You guys stay here! We'll go get help!" Jake said.
"But--" protested Callie.
Before she could finish, the two skated off, heading towards where they'd parked the tow truck, thankfully parked out of Callie and Manx's line of sight. They opened the doors, and rummaging inside, pulled two parcels from underneath the seats containing emergency SWAT Kat suits and Glovatrixes. They'd been caught without the Turbokat before and had since taken to carrying emergency equipment stowed in the truck just for situations like this.
"I wish we had the Turbokat!" complained Chance as he changed clothes.
"Beggars can't be choosers!" said Jake as he likewise started taking off his civilian clothing. "Hurry and get dressed! Those worm things are slow, but Callie and Manx won't be safe where we left them for too long!"
They hurriedly changed, becoming T-Bone and Razor once more.
"Let's rid this park of these overgrown pests!" T-Bone said.
Rushing forward, he aimed up at one of the grubs with his Glovatrix.
"Launching Mini-Matchhead Missiles!"
Fwoosh! The missile flew up and splatted into the worm's ugly face. It shrieked in agony as its soft flesh was set alight, its entire head aflame.
As its screaming rose in pitch and becames unbearable, a wincing T-Bone readied his Glovatrix again. "Time to put this poor ugly thing outta its misery!" He aimed at it. "So long, big guy! Launching Mini-Turboblades!"
The Turboblades shot out and sailed true, hitting the worm's soft underbelly, piercing it easily. They passed through its thick body and erupted out of his back, neatly slicing the enormous monster into three sections. The middle section thudded to the ground, lifeless, as did the head, the life draining out of its face, a mixture of greenish, bloodlike goo, acid and saliva drooling from the limp proboscis, a death rattle gurgling out, while the lower half continued twitching and flailing, spraying green slime in all directions, as though unaware the upper two portions it'd been separated from had died.
T-Bone gave the dead monster a little salute. "Rest in pieces, pal!"
~*~
At Enforcer Headquarters, the mushroom monster was out front, still surrounded by commandos. Dr. Viper had gone inside in the meantime. The assembled Enforcers were clearly nervous. The monster glared at them with narrowed eyes. Hearing the rackety whir of rotor blades, the commandos looked up. High above, they saw a squadron of Enforcers taking off from the elevated runway and flying away. While they were thus preoccupied, the mushroom monster turned and eyed the still open manhole he and Viper had used when they arrived. He inched toward it.
Suddenly, a commando noticed him. "Hey!"
The mushroom monster's eyes widened, and right as the Enforcers took aim at him with their laser rifles, he liquefied himself, collapsing into his sentient puddle form, and promptly oozed swiftly across the asphalt and into the manhole, disappearing from sight even as the startled commandos opened fire.
A few run to the open sewer and aimed their guns in after him, but were stopped by their leader. "Hold your fire! He's gone!"
The Commander wasn't going to like learning they'd let Viper's monster sidekick escape, thought the lead commando.
~*~
Back at Manx Park, Razor was fighting another worm. He readied his Glovatrix, aiming into its proboscis, which widened as it prepared to shower him in acid.
"Launch Mini-Piranha Missile!"
The missile shot forth, the tip splitting off to reveal working serrated mandibles which opened and closed, making metallic "chomping" noises.
The little projectile flew into the funneled opening of the proboscis and made an unpleasant, somewhat obscenely cartoonish bulge as it travelled right down the protruding appendage - and promptly got stuck! There was a pitiful little whirring noise signifying that upon becoming stuck, the Piranha's metal jaws had stopped working.
Razor blinked, taking a step back. "Aw, crud...!"
The worm's brows knitted in fury and it shook its head back and forth wildly in an attempt to dislodge the missile, then stopped, glared down at Razor, and reared back, preparing to spit acid at him, throat bulging and swelling. Splorch! The acid hit the Piranha Missile inside the tube, and, although it did actually begin melting it, it isn't quick enough.
Razor watched in disgusted horror as the worm's face bulged outward like an inflating balloon and then popped, shooting torrents of the corrosive glop every which way. Some of it headed for him, but he deploys the expanding shield from his Glovatrix, using it to protect himself as he ducked behind it. The acid splatted the shield, where it hissed and fizzed, but thankfully didn;t melt it.
After a moment, Razor peaked over the top of the shield. He saw the headless body of the giant worm lying on the ground a few feet away, surrounded by several bubbling puddles of acid. Smirking, he lowered the shield completely and it retracted back into its compartment in the Glovatrix.
"Thank goodness for acid-proof shields!" he said.
"Good job, buddy!" T-Bone congratulated him. He looked at the third mutated worm slithering its way across the park. "Two down, one to--"
He stopped short as he heard a sickly, insectlike buzzing noise, and then he and Razor turned towards the big hole in the ground the three monsters erupted from. The five Ci-Kat-A drones and a trio of winged Venus' flytrap-like abominations - the "Venus Trap Flies" - came flying out like a swarm of locists, followed by the three converted convicts and the Megakat Labs security guard, Steven.
"Spoke too soon, buddy!" Razor said. "Looks like our fan club is here for a visit!"
The SWAT Kats and their foes clashed! The two vigilantes focus primarily on the fully transformed Ci-Kat-A drones, the five created from the MASA guards and released from captivity, because they were the ones whose bite could convert more kats - including them if they weren't careful! T-Bone fired some Mini Tarpedoes from his Glovatrix, hitting the first drone in the face. He flew down awkwardly and landed, struggling to wipe the drippy black glop from his face.
"Hi-yah!" Razor leaped in and kicked him in the stomach, knocking him down, where he lay on his back and flailed.
A Venus Trap Fly swooped down at Razor, and he ducked, allowing it to smack into another Ci-Kat-A - the one with the mustache. Whirling, fired a miniature "plain old missile," which hit the winged insectoid-plant abomination, splattering it all over the Ci-Kat-A. The mustached former guard wiped the bug guts off of himself and, with a hissing rasp, launched himself at Razor, trying to bite him. He and Razor rolled around on the ground.
Meanwhile, T-Bone was going hand to hand. He punched Steven in the face, then grabbed his arm, flipping himself over backwards, sending the converted guard flying. Steven smacked into the Ci-Kat-A who had the tar all over his face, bowling him and the convict with the scar over.
He turned and finds himself attacked by one of the bug-eyed convicts, who grabbed a bolted down park bench, lifting it with superhuman effort, muscles straining as he tore it loose. Growling, he swung it at T-Bone. The burly SWAT Kat leaped back, and was seized from behind by another drone, whose salivating mandibles prepared to sink into his neck.
But T-Bone was inadvertently saved when the convict, yelling, swung the bench again. Right as he did so, T-Bone fell to his hands and knees with the drone on his back. The bench smacked the ex-MASA guard off of the SWAT Kat's back, and then T-Bone leaped up and swung one leg, sweeping the convict's feet out from under him. The convict dropped the bench and hit the ground. T-Bone leaped onto him and brought his elbow down hard on his head, knocking him unconscious.
Whirling as the drone got up, he launched a Bola Missile, which handily tied the flailing kat-insect to the trunk of a nearby tree. "Ha! Gotcha!" he cried, smirking. "Stick around, ugly!"
"T-Bone!" Razor yelled.
T-Bone turned and saw Razor still struggling with the mustached Ci-Kat-A. Assuming a firing stance, he fired another Bola Missile, which snagged the transformed kat, knocking him off of Razor. He flailed around, tied up. Razor got up and a single punch rendered the tied up Ci-Kat-A unconscious, and then he and T-Bone high-fived one another.
"Good teamwork!"
The heard more sickly buzzing, and more Venus Trap Flies swooped down at them. Suddenly, high-powered laser fire ripped in, shredding the insect-plants into lumpy, sticky glop, and the SWAT Kats turned to see a squadron of Enforcer choppers flying in. They began saturating the park with smoke bombs to confused the Ci-Kat-A and Venus Trap Flies, some of whom fell flailing to the ground, coughing and sputtering like bugs who'd been sprayed with insecticide.
"Looks like the cavalry got here just in time for once," said T-Bone, giving a thumbs up to the choppers as they went by overheard, he and Razor putting their oxygen masks on to breathe more easily in the smoke.
Nearby, Callie Briggs was racing headlong across the grass. Mayor Manx's chauffeur was running ahead of her, while a huffing and puffing Manx brought up the rear, holding on to his toupee, sweat stains visible under the arms of his golf sweater. The third giant grub worm was doggedly pursuing them. One of the choppers hovered above and a rescue ladder was dropped. The chauffeur reached it first and scrambled up, followed quickly by Callie.
She turned and yelled at the panting and sweating Manx, who had fallen dangerously behind. "Mayor, come on!"
"I ca... n't..." wheezed Manx. "C-Callie, go on without me... I'm done for!"
Spluttering like a deflating whooppee cushion, the exhausted Mayor fell down, grabbing one of the lower rungs. Callie reached down and pulled him up by the arm, straining with the effort, wishing Manx would go on a diet. Turning, Manx saw the giant worm approaching, shrieked, and began climbing so fast he almost overtook Callie. To avoid being knocked off by his flailing, Callie was forced to release Manx's sleeve and climb up faster.
The chopper began lifting higher now that Manx was on. The worm's acid-dripping mandibles grabbed the end of the dangling ladder, a few rungs below Manx's golf cleats. It yanked, attempting to jerk the entire chopper down from the sky. On the ladder, Callie, Manx and the chauffeur all screamed as they were whipped around wildly, the chopper straining, its engine audibly whining with the effort. Inside, Commander Feral strained at the controls.
Suddenly the acid ate through the section of the ladder the worm was biting onto, and it snapped loose of its own accord. The three kats held on as the chopper jerked free and climbs higher, avoiding a torrent of the corrosive liquid sprayed after it in impotent anger. Once the aircraft was steady, the chauffeur got safely aboard, followed by Callie and finally a thoroughly worn out Manx.
Feral swooped around, firing at the giant worm. It roared and sprays more acid at him. Feral yanked at the controls, dodging, causing the chopper to yaw and pitch uncontrollably. Callie and the chauffeur cried out as they were flung to one side. They steadied themselves with one hand on the wall.
Manx, yelping, grabbed at the back of Feral's seat. "Feral, fly this thing steady!" he demanded.
"Mr. Mayor, that's difficult when giant monsters are attacking!" Commander Feral snapped back, continuing to wrestle with the controls.
Callie was a little more appreciative. "Thank goodness you got here, Commander!" she said, relieved.
"Don't worry, Ms. Briggs," said Feral confidently. "The Enforcers can take care of that hideous monster!"
He lowered his targeting visor and fired, sending a missile which hit the monster dead center, exploding it violently into thick mushy goo. Some of it splattered the windshield. Feral righted the aircraft, steadying it, and Manx's eyes rolled back into his head at the sight of all the viscera oozing down the windshield.
His chauffeur, sensing he was about to faint, moved to catch him. "It's okay, sir!" he said. "I've got you! Fall into my arms!"
But Manx was too heavy and simply slipped through the chauffeur's arms and thudded to the floor of the cargo bay. Thunk!
Outside, another Enforcer chopper, piloted by King, landed near the SWAT Kats, and Felina Feral and a group of Enforcer commandos leaped out.. including none other than Gray Taylor! To T-Bone and Razor's surprise, the Enforcer rookie was back to normal. And he looked mad!
Although some of the Enforcers were armed with their standard laser rifles, a majority were packing unusual weapons - single shot gas-propelled dart guns. They ran up and took positions on either side of the SWAT Kats, loaded their weapons with feathered darts filled with a kind of greenish iquid. T-Bone and Razor looked confused.
"How come you're back to normal?" Razor asked Gray Taylor.
"No time for that!" replied the rookie.
"What's that stuff, Lieutenant?" asked T-Bone, indicating the liquid in the darts.
"Watch and see!" Felina replied with a smirk.
Snapping the dart compartment of her weapon shut with a click, Felina took aim at one of the onrushing converted convicts. With a soft hiss of expelled gas, she fired a dart of the green liquid, which stuck into the con's chest. He was flung back. With a yell of pain, he flopped around on the ground, eyes squeezed shut, and T-Bone and Razor watched in amazement as he reverted to normal. His wriggling ceased, and, with a gasp, he opened his eyes to reveal that they were normal feline eyes again. His conversion had been reversed by whatever it was Felina just injected into him.
Steven got up and rushed at them. "Look out!" Felina cried.
Beside her, Gray whirled and fires. The dart hit the bug-eyed security guard in the neck. He plucked it out, but then fell to the ground, contorting in agony, and they watched as his green compound eyes slowly transformed back into his original kat ones. Rising, he looked extraordinarily confused. He and the once again normal con were quickly overtaken by the commandos, who escorted them to the waiting chopper.
"I don't believe it!" cried Razor. "You found a way to reverse the effects of the bite!"
"Let's see if it'll work on these guys," Gray said, pointing to the drone who was tied to the tree.
Snarling, he flexed his sticklike arms with surprising strength and snapped the bonds of the Bola Missile, and hopped down, rushing at the group with clawed hands outstretched. Slipping a dart into the chamber of his weapon, Gray snapped it shut, aimed and fired. The dart imbedded itself into the segmented underbelly.
The Ci-Kat-A promptly backed up, emitting a shrill shriek of pain. The sound of crunching bones and squishing organs filled the air as he began to slowly and painfully transform back into an ordinary kat. His wings and segmented body parts disappeared, arms and legs thickening, becoming more muscular, antennae receding into his forehead, his mouth slowly changing shape, the mandibles retracting into nonexistence, and, as he underwent this change, his voice became less and less monstrous until it became an ordinary feline moan, and then the now perfectly normal, albeit naked, kat fell to his hands and knees, head bowed, shaking and panting.
"It's a miracle...!" said Razor. There was no other word for it.
The MASA guard, returned to normal, slowly raised his head, blinking his eyes. "Ahh..." he moaned. "Wh-where am I?"
"Safe," said Felina, motioning to her commandos, who got a blanket to drape over the guard's naked body. He was led to the chopper.
Grimly, she turned and fired a dart into the mustached Ci-Kat-A with the same results. She smiled as he to reverted back to his original self, naked, and looked extremely confused about where he was and what has happened to him. He had only a vague and foggy memory of Dr. Street wearing sunglasses and wanting to show him a "surprise." He too was given a blanket and helped into the chopper.
Throughout the park, teams of Enforcers were exiting from their landed aircraft and using the dart guns to shoot both the convicts and MASA guards, repeating the process, whittling the Ci-Kat-A army down to nothing methodically. Soon, every single converted kat would be restored to normal. As for the Venus Trap Flies, they were dealt with using regular firearms, blasted apart with well-aimed laser shots.
Feral's chopper circled the park and finally landed near where the SWAT Kats and Felina were standing. The engine cut out and the rotor blades begin winding down as Callie hopped out and ran to where the SWAT Kats are, embracing them.
"Boy am I glad that's over!" she said.
But Razor was apprehensive. "Something tells me that wasn't the end of it. Where's Street?"
He went to the big hole the insect army came out of, peering down. There was nothing but blackness. Despite this, Razor wasn't particularly relieved. Callie gently touches his arm.
"I'm glad you guys showed up when you did," she said.
Meanwhile, T-Bone grinned and slapped Felina on the back as the two observed the now once again normal kats being tended to. The three escaped convicts were being handcuffed, so relieved to be normal again that they were not even resisting, while Steven and the five MASA guards were being given medical attention. Everyone seemed to be okay.
"How'd your Enforcer lab boys manage this, Lieutenant?" asked T-Bone.
Felina frowned a little. "We had a little help from an unlikely source."
T-Bone and Razor exchanged glances. Hearing another chopper approaching, they turned and watched it land. The door slid open, disgorging a thoroughly enraged Dr. Viper in handcuffs and attendant commandos guarding him with laser rifles.
"Viper?!" cried both SWAT Kats at the same time.
"You foolsss!" Dr. Viper hissed, tail lashing. "I told you, thisss was only a dissstraction!"
"Distraction or not, we weren't about to just let the park get attacked, slimeball," Felina told him.
She turned and looked at the confused SWAT Kats.
"A case of 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend,'" she explained. "Viper agreed to give us the antidote to the Ci-Kat-A bite that was already in his bloodstream in return for us stopping Street. Dr. Konway cured Corporal Taylor successfully as a test."
She clapped Gray on the shoulder. "And it worked," he said. "I feel like a million bucks."
"Once that was out of the way, we just flew on over here."
Viper was impatient. "You have to ssstop Sssstreet before he ruins everything!"
"Wha--? Stop Street?" T-Bone eyed Viper. "What's goin' on?"
"He'sss going to attack the Megakat Nuclear Plant!" Viper said. "The fate of all of Megakat Cccity is at ssstake!"
~*~
After making sure Jonny got looked at at the ER for the lump on his head, Ann Gora returned to her new apartment in the recently opened Skycor Towers, glad that her cameraman was going to be all right. Skycor was a very large building and despite its motto being "Luxury Living at an Affordable Price," it cost an arm and a leg to pay rent in, and even though her apartment was one of the smaller ones, and she was paying less than she'd paid at her old apartment in Megakat Heights, Ann was still living above her means. Not that she minded. Even though she was late on her full rent now and again on a mere field reporter's salary, she liked the luxurious apartment and she liked the view of Megakat City's skyline even better. Her ultimate goal with regard to Skycor Towers was a penthouse, several stories above where she currently lived. There, she knew that the view of the city would be even better.
She got herself a cup of hot tea and drank it slowly, exhaling as she reflected on her stagnating career as a reporter, if only to take her mind off her very weird encounter with what had once been Dr. Harley Street earlier that day. She'd bristled when given the task of doing a mere traffic report earlier than day, but had kept her mouth shut. Work was work, and her editor wasn't the type of person you argued with. Nevertheless, it bothered Ann immensely that despite being what many considered the face of Kat's Eye News, MBC didn't pay her much for the work she put in - work that was often extremely dangerous. She suspected it was partly because her co-workers resented her ambition and tenacity, and her superiors considered her reckless. Once upon a time, before she'd earned a reputation for herself as MBC's best field reporter, her nickname around the office had been "Ann-bitious." Since then, the nickname had gone away, but the grumblings of the other reporters - not all, but many - about her putting her career above her journalistic integrity had never quite stopped.
With the mug of tea, she went into her living room and sat on the sofa, kicking her high heels off and trying to relax. She sighed. It was untrue, of course. Ann had never denied her ambition to become the best reporter at Kat's Eye News, but the idea she valued her career more than breaking important stories was ludicrous and it offended her. She simply wanted what she believed she was owed for all the hard, dangerous work she'd put in over the years, putting her life on the line to ensure the citizens of Megakat City were kept aware of everything that was newsworthy. Traffic reports, while honest, admirable work the public relied on, was, frankly, beneath her.
She'd had a taste of the limelight a few times, mostly due to colleagues falling ill or having family emergencies. She'd gotten to host a talk show for a week a year earlier, during which time she'd interviewed Commander Feral about his (in her opinion, baseless) accusations that the SWAT Kats had destroyed Megakat Biochemical Labs and the Megakat Tunnel without provocation. And during the attempted robbery of the Megakat Mint by the Metallikats and the subsequent rampage of the giant machine known as Zed a few months ago, Ann had gotten a filled in for the regular newscaster who'd called in sick. Both times, of course, her stint had been short-lived, and the regulars had eventually returned, and she'd been sent back to do field work.
But as much as it annoyed her, she couldn't say she disliked the work. Dangerous as it was, she couldn't deny getting a thrill from being so close to all of the various threats plaguing Megakat City, and, whether she felt she deserved a talk show gig or a job as a newscaster, she enjoyed showing up her more timid colleagues who were less willing to get close to danger. Not that she was reckless, despite what everyone said; she valued her life and the lives of others, and every risk she took was, in her opinion a calculated one.
And, in the end, she was doing important work, so she couldn't be said to be entirely dissatisfied with the path her career had taken. Flexing her toes, Ann leaned forward and put the mug on the low coffee table in front of her, removing her necklace and her earrings, placing them into a small ashtray on the table. She didn't smoke. The ashtray had been her father's and she'd kept it for the purpose of holding various little odds and ends like spare change, keys, and her jewelry. Undoing the top few buttons of her dress shirt, she was starting to remove her jacket when she became aware of a faint buzzing noise, and turned, jacket half on and half off, to look out the window. She didn't see anything. Suddenly, the phone rang. Rising, she finished taking the jacket off and went to the phone.
Outside, Dr. Harley Street was flying towards Skycor Towers, the stoppered flask of the chemical whose main ingredient was Super-Katalyst 666 clutching in one hand, Murdoch flying along behind him. Street was dimly aware that Murdoch was his last remaining ally; he could no longer sense the other kats he'd bitten and converted through the psychic connection all Ci-Kat-A shared. It'd started with Gray Taylor, the Enforcer they'd been forced to leave behind at Megakat Biochemical Labs. Not even half an hour later, one by one, Steven, the five MASA guards and the three convicts who'd been converted along with Murdoch had followed suit. Street was distressed by this, as he was unaware whether this meant they'd been killed... or, worse, cured. His eyebrows furrowed in indignant concern as the possibility that someone had developed a means of combating the venom used to convert unwitting victims into loyal acolytes of the Ci-Kat-A cause. Somehow he knew Viper had something to do with it; after all, the slippery snake had made himself immune to the venom, and he had escaped...
...which had been entirely Street's fault, he realized, mentally kicking himself. He'd ordered his followers to let the mutated biochemist go. At the time, he hadn't cared where Viper went or what Viper did, but, now, with the loss of mental contact with all of his other "brothers," Street was beginning to regret the decision not to hunt the snake down and kill him. Had Viper gone to the authorities, offering his immunity to the bite in return for immunity from more Earthly legal consequences, or even just to ruin Street's plans? Street didn't know for certain. All he did know is he had to hurry and get his queen.
As the two got closer and closer to the building, Street's multi-faceted compound eyes scanned every window until he spotted Ann Gora. There she was. His queen! She was on the phone. "And now, my future queen," he said, "it's time I paid you a visit..."
Back inside her apartment, Ann was on the phone with her editor. There'd been an attack at Manx Municipal Park. By the Ci-Kat-A. Ann felt her stomach do flip-flops. So much for not thinking about Dr. Street anymore today. "An attack on the park?" she asked wearily. Her editor was talking very fast and it was difficult to quite make out what he was going on about, but apparently there'd been giant worms and weird half plant, half insect creatures, and somehow Dr. Viper was involved. And of course he wanted her to go down there and cover the aftermath. She sighed. "Sure, I can get down there right away..."
Turning, she gasped as she saw none other than Dr. Harley Street making a beeline for the window with another converted kat behind him. Crud, she thought; not only was she going to have to think about Street some more today, she was about to get attacked by him! She screamed as the glass shattered, her editor on the other end of the phone, worried, demanding to know what was wrong. The buzzing alien scientist landed, the other Ci-Kat-A right behind him, and they approached Ann as she struggled to find her voice, to tell her editor to call the Enforcers.
"I've come for you, my dearest!" Street declared like a gentleman caller paying a visit.
Finally, Ann managed to scream into the phone, "Call the Enforcers, I'm being attacked!"
Striding forward, Street grabbed the phone, tossing it away. "Now, now, Ms. Gora," he chided, wagging one clawed finger, "none of that. We don't want anyone to spoil the mood!" He turned to his accomplice, holding the flask out to him. "Guard the door."
The other kat-insect nodded, taking the flask from him. Ann observed he was one of the ones from Megakat Biochemical earlier that day, wearing a prison issue white shirt with a serial number on it. Somewhere in the back of her terrified mind, she dimly remembered hearing about a group of convicts escaping from an Enforcer substation and disappearing into the swamp. Between that and Dr. Viper's apparent involvement with Street, Ann guessed that this had been the fate of the escaped criminals; turned into mindless drones for the former MASA scientist. The buzzing former prisoner went and stood by the front door as commanded.
Street gently took Ann's arms by the wrists. She was petrified, shaking. Was he going to bite her? Was she going to end up like the bug-eyed con guarding the door and so many other unfortunate souls like the MASA guards and that Enforcer rookie from earlier? She felt a sob hitching in her throat.
Street seemed oblivious to her terror. "Yes, think of it, Ann," he was saying, "the story of a lifetime!"
He made no move to sink his mandibles into her. That was something. Composing herself and steeling her nerves, trying to buy time, hoping her editor had managed to call the Enforcers, Ann decided to change tactics. Fear clearly wouldn't sway Street or his companion and prevent them from turning her; in their minds, they were doing her a favor. So she decided to play along, somewhat, adopting a more casual air with her "guest." Slipping into professional mode, she began to ask questions of the raggedly-dressed former scientist.
"The story of a lifetime? Well, Doctor, you do owe me a story from years ago..." she said, reminding him of that night in the Megakat Desert when he'd first shown something resembling a romantic interest in his tone of voice, inviting her to MASA for the full story about the Kat Sat 1, before everything had gone so awfully, horribly wrong, for him, for her and for so many others.
"True," Street said. "But that story you already know. The Ci-Kat-A queen rode in her larval state aboard the satellite and with her bite she changed my life forever. This one is new. The tale of how I survived my encounter with those meddling vigilante SWAT Kats."
Despite herself, Ann was interested; like many others, she had wondered what had happened to Street. Except for him, all the kats bitten and converted by the Ci-Kat-A had been accounted four - the three Enforcers killed, the five MASA guards captured and imprisoned for study. But Street's fate after the destruction of the Ci-Kat-A queen's new nest in the Megakat Tower penthouse and the death of the queen herself had remained a mystery... one Street himself was apparently about to explain to his captive audience. And one Ann suspected involved Dr. Viper, given that the converted con guarding the door and his fellow escapees had gone missing in Megakat Swamp, and that her editor had mentioned the mutated biochemist in relation to the Ci-Kat-A attack on the park.
"I was in the queen's new nest, about to bring Deputy Mayor Briggs over to our side, when suddenly something smashed through the glass and hit me in the face. It was one of the SWAT Kats' stupid gimmicky missiles. It had sharp metal arms that wrapped around my face tightly."
Ann realized he was talking about an Octopus Missile; the SWAT Kats used them often enough that the name was mostly common knowledge, especially considering Razor's tendency to announce what missile he was firing. For whose benefit, Ann had never quite been able to figure out. None of this she conveyed to Street; she simply nodded as he continued.
"I sailed across the room and smashed through the window on the opposite side. I plummeted, screaming. I tried to fly, but I couldn't control my momentum, and so I fell. Three-hundred forsaken stories. I fell and fell, flailing, struggling to rip the SWAT Kats' accursed missile off of my face, until at last I landed hard on the cement walkway in front of the building. I lay there, twitching and broken. I'd managed to tear the missile off... leaving me with these ugly entrenched scars on his face. I was dazed and lay on my back, watching as the Enforcers set fire to the penthouse, and with it the eggs! Then I witnessed the SWAT Kats aerial battle with the queen. I lay there, helpless, wounded, powerless to do anything to avert disaster. As I watched my kind's hope for the future literally go up in flames, I managed to summon the strength to crawl to a nearby manhole.
"I lifted the cover and all but fell in, splashing down into the filthy water. I picked myself up and limped along down the tunnel. I don't know how long I wandered the sewers beneath the city, but eventually I found... him. Dr. Viper. He seemed just as surprised to see me as I was to see him. He offered to help me, and I accepted, perhaps against my better judgment. We returned to his lair in the Dead Forest, at the heart of Megakat Swamp, to begin plotting our takeover of Megakat City. Of course, our partnership couldn't last forever. His dreams of conquest were pitiful compared to my own." He paused, looking at the other converted kat by the door, then at Ann. "To OUR own," he corrected himself.
"Wh-what do you want with me?!" Ann demanded.
"How forgetful of me! I got so caught up in explaining the past that I forgot to explain the future. You see, Ms. Gora, we Ci-Kat-A can reproduce in one of two ways. The way I was created, and the way I made my friend Murdoch here, or the 'natural' way, through the offspring of a queen!"
"B-But what has that got to do with..." Ann trailed off, eyeing Street's salivating mandibles, remembering her very real fear of being bitten, and all at once the horror washed over her. "Oh no!" she cried. "You can't mean--"
"Oh, but I do!" Street gave her wrists something like an affectionate squeeze. "I can think of no she-kat I wish to make my queen more than you!"
Ann struggled to reason with him. "But, but it still won't be entirely natural... even if you bite me and turn me, it still won't be the same as the original queen!"
Street winced and looked melancholy all of a sudden. Ann couldn't know it, but he was remembering that Viper had said something quite similar to him earlier, when their partnership had ended. "True," he said sadly, "but it'll be good enough. And good enough is all we Ci-Kat-A have left."
Suddenly, despite her fear and horror, Ann found herself feeling the beginnings of pity for Street.
Despite her burgeoning pity for Dr. Street, Ann wasn't exactly relishing spending too much longer in his presence, or getting bitten. She backed away from him, but he moved forward and scooped her into his arms like a groom about to carry his bride over the threshold. She kicked and struggled, thinking he was about to bite her, but, for whatever reason, he didn't, instead carrying her to the broken window. Realizing he intended to carry her away like Frankenkat, Ann stopped struggling, lest she get dropped. He flapped his wings, preparing to fly off.
"Come," he said, "it's best we be off before--"
Before help comes, Ann thought. And, indeed, Street was interrupted mid-sentence, first by the sound of approaching sirens and then by the roar of approaching jet engines. Below the balcony, Ann saw some Enforcer cruisers driving up, then turned and saw the Turbokat approaching. The Enforcers and the SWAT Kats! The jet circled the building. Down below, the cruisers stopped and a brawny Enforcer sergeant and several commandos got out and ran inside. Street's compound eyes narrowed in annoyance.
"Too late!" he cried. "Well, those meddling Earth pests won't interfere with my plans! Not again!"
There was more enraged desperation than resolve in his voice, Ann noticed. With her in his arms, he flew out of the apartment window. Murdoch followed with the flask in hand, even as someone began banging on the door, yelling, "Enforcers! Open up!" He flew out the broken window after Street just as the door was kicked in and the brawny sergeant and his commandos rushed in with laser guns up. They went to the window, watching the Ci-Kat-A escaping with their prisoner.
"We're too late!" cried the sergeant. His hand went for the walkie-talkie clipped to his belt to call for chopper backup. Whoosh! The Turbokat flew past the window, in hot pursuit of the Ci-Kat-A. "Guess it's up to the SWAT Kats." Nevertheless, he unclipped the radio from his belt and spoke into it. "This is Sergeant Slate-Gray at Skycor Towers! Get me Commander Feral immediately! Street has Ann Gora and he's headed in the direction of Megakat Nuclear Plant.
In the approaching Turbokat, T-Bone and Razor had armed themselves with Glovatrixes equipped with dart launchers. It'd been a quick and dirty modification done right there in the park, cannibalizing parts from the Enforcers' gas-propelled dart guns, and Razor still wasn't entirely satisfied with the results, but as long as they worked, that was all that mattered. He flexed his fingers in the Glovatrix. He was itching for a throwdown. So was T-Bone. It was time to end this bug problem once and for all. With all the converted kats taken care of back at the park, Street and the last escaped convict with him were the only two remaining Ci-Kat-A. Or so Razor hoped. He couldn't shake the feeling that there was still one they were missing...
"I hope two syringes of this stuff will be enough," he said as T-Bone pursued the two Ci-Kat-A and their prisoner. Dr. Konway hadn't had time to make any more than what had been brought to the park.
"It'll be enough," said T-Bone confidently, smirking over his shoulder at his friend. "Especially for you, Sureshot." His expression turned grim as he turned back around. "There's Dr. Bug-Eyes dead ahead. And he's got Ann Gora. I better just follow 'em for now. There's no way we can hit him without risking Ann Gora."
Razor nodded. If Street turned back to normal mid-flight, they'd both fall to their deaths.
Flying a little ways ahead, Street glanced back at their pursuers and shrieked back at Murdoch. "Take care of them!"
Murdoch turned and flew at the Turbokat. T-Bone and Razor jerked back in their seats in reflex as he zoomed over the cockpit, getting around behind the jet. His mouth underwent the next stage of his transformation, pointed mandibles emerging from the corners of his mouth. He made a sound in his throat like someone trying to cough up a load of phlegm and vomited sticky yellow slime onto the back of the Turbokat, clogging the air intakes.
T-Bone growled and tried to maintain control as the aircraft stalled and began to plummet. "Aw, man, not this sticky crud again! I'm gonna have to fly back to the hangar and--"
"No time, T-Bone!" Razor interrupted him. "Remember, Viper said Street's next stop is the nuclear power plant!"
"Right," grumbled T-Bone. "Time and essence and all that. Fine, I'll set 'er down on that rooftop! Hang on!
The Turbokat swooped down and crashlanded, more or less safely, on the roof of an apartment building. Issuing forth a hissing chuckle, Murdoch turned and flew off after Street, clutching the all-important flask in his hand. On the roof, the canopy opened and the two SWAT Kats got out, both wearing their Delta Bak Paks. Activating their jetpack function, they flew off in pursuit of the insectoid villains and their news reporter captive. Watching from inside Ann Gora's apartment nearby, Sergeant Slate-Gray continued speaking into his walkie-talkie.
"Inform Commander Feral that Street is on his way with Ann Gora and the SWAT Kats are in hot pursuit, but without their jet. Street's accomplice clogged their intakes with that sticky yellow slime these things puke up."
"Roger that," said the dispatcher on the other end.
Slate-Gray lowered the walkie-talkie from his mouth, watching the tiny figures receding into the distance, towards the far away cooling towers of the nuclear plant rising like twin volcanoes over the rooftops. Ordinarily a calm and collected individual, he felt a flutter of concern in his stomach. If Street succeeded, then the towers might as well be volcanoes. Nuclear ones that would spew hot radioactive destruction down upon Megakat City. Feral or the SWAT Kats, he didn't care which, he just hoped someone stopped Street from making Megakat City glow in the dark for the next thousand years...
~*~
Night began to fall. A cordon of Enforcer Peacekeepers and halftracks and armed commandos had been set up to defend the Megakat Nuclear Plant from attack. They were supported by security guards in their Jeeps marked with the radiation symbol emblem of the plant. Three Enforcer choppers sat ready and waiting to take to the air. Commander Feral paced impatiently with his arms behind his back. Off to one side waited Felina and the handcuffed Dr. Viper, who was being guarded by three commandos. It was deathly quiet except for the idling engines of the vehicles and the waves of Megakat Bay lapping at the shore. And some murmuring among the commandos.
"Isn't this a little much to defend against one bug-eyed MASA doctor...?" asked one of the Enforcers next to him doubtfully.
"No way, man," replied his fellow commando. "The more firepower we've got, the better. I was part of the hazmat team that went in and mopped up at the Space Center. You didn't see what I saw." He shuddered.
Sergeant Talon, sticking out of the turret of the lead tank, looking so much like he belonged in it that he may as well have been attached to it at the waist, glowered down at them.
"Cut the chatter, you two," he growled. "Focus on your duties."
They shut up. Nearby, Commander Feral continued his uneasy pacing. He turned and looked at the cuffed Viper. "Well, Snakeface? Where is he? I thought you said the nuclear plant was his primary target."
Viper shifted restlessly in his cuffs. The commandos guarding him looked scared to death of him breaking free. "He'll come, believe me, Commander," Viper said confidently. "Dr. Ssstreet is a kat after my own heart. Onccce he has sssomething ssset in his mind... nothing will ssstop him."
Feral raised once eyebrow. He'd suspected from the beginning that Dr. Viper wasn't being entirely forthcoming. He was Dr. Viper, after all. He was beginning to worry the evil biochemist had some sinister ulterior motives for helping them against Street.
"Wait a moment!" he cried suddenly, holding up one hand for silence. He heard a distant buzzing. In the distance, he saw two approaching figures. "There they are!"
"I told you!" said Viper, as though seeking vindication.
"Shut up!" Felina snapped at him, then turned to the three commandos guarding him. She didn't want him present when Street arrived. Who knew what would happen then. "Get him out of here! Take him back to Enforcer Headquarters and lock him up.
She looked for a dissenting countermand from her uncle but he was too busy looking through a pair of binoculars someone had handed him. Nodding, two of the commandos grabbed a strangely unresisting Viper and dragged him to one of the waiting choppers. The third followed nervously with his rifle at the ready. The four got in and the rotor blades fired up and the chopper lifted off. Like her uncle, Felina was finding Viper's cooperation strange and was beginning to worry he had something up his sleeve. But that would have to wait.
Sticking out of his Peacekeeper's turret hatch, Talon issued an order into a walkie talkie he was holding. "All tanks prepare to fire."
Felina addressed the commandos acting in support of the armored vehicles. "Prepare to open fire! We'll blast those bugs out of the sky."
Suddenly, Feral's walkie-talkie squawked. "Feral here," he said into it. "Thrill me."
An Enforcer dispatcher's voice reported tonelessly, "Sergeant Slate-Gray at Skycor reports that Ann Gora has been abducted by Dr. Street, and that he and his companion are on their way to you as we speak, sir. The SWAT Kats are in pursuit with jetpacks."
Feral grumbled. It figured the vigilantes had failed to stop Street and save Ann Gora. But, then, he reminded himself, so had the Enforcers he'd sent to take the reporter into protective custody. Oh, well. The whole gang would soon be there anyway. Street was coming to him, with Ann Gora.
"Roger that," he said after a moment. "Feral out."
Yeah, he was thrilled, all right.
"Wait!" he said. "Hold your fire!" He peered through the binoculars. Yeah, there was Ann Gora, all right. Oh, he was thrilled. Super thrilled. Grumbling, he lowered the binoculars. "They have a hostage. It's Ann Gora!"
There was murmuring among the commandos.
Fast approaching were the two Ci-Kat-A and their prisoner. Street was as giddy as he was capable of being, cradling Ann in his arms with infinite care. Hearing the whup-whup-whup of approaching rotor blades, they turned and watched as the Enforcer chopper carrying Dr. Viper flew past. He and Street eyed one another through the open side door of the chopper in the split second they were beside one another before the aircraft moved past.
"Viper," said Murdoch.
"He is meaningless," Street said dismissively, even though his fears about his former ally cooperating with the Enforcers seemed to have been confirmed. "Our final objective lies before us. Keep your mind on your business, my friend."
Murdoch nodded.
Ann squirmed in Street's grasp and he tightened his grip a little. "Don't struggle too much, Ms. Gora. I wouldn't want to drop you. It's a long way down."
Gulping, Ann looked down.
One of the commandos guarding Viper in the departing chopper raised his rifle and prepared to fire at Street and Murdoch before one of his comrades pushed the barrel of his gun down, pointing at Ann. The first commando glowered in angry disappointment. They heard jet engines and T-Bone and Razor fly past on their Delta Bak Paks.
"Hey, look!" cried one of the commandos. "It's the SWAT Kats!"
Viper just smirks smugly and steepled his fingers. Despite nothing seemingly going his way, he was bizarrely content and compliant with his captors, and quite relaxed. And, indeed, though none of them knew it, everything was very much going his way and Feral and Felina had been right to be concerned. The chopper flew on to Enforcer Headquarters without incident. Viper had only to wait.
"Come on, T-Bone!" yelled Razor as they flew along "Punch it! You're flyin' like an old lady!"
T-Bone smirked. "My impulsive personality rubbin' off on you, buddy? Take it easy. I'm followin' at a safe distance."
Razor smirked and nods, understanding. "Let's just hope Street hasn't bitten Ann Gora yet..." He rubbed his modified Glovatrix. "...with only two doses of this stuff left, if he does, somebody's gonna have to go on bein' a Ci-Kat-A. At least for a little while longer."
"Yeah, well, Street's got my vote if that happens," T-Bone said through gritted teeth.
"Easy, T-Bone, it isn't his fault," Razor reminded him. "It's none of their faults."
His friend sighed. "I know." He steeled himself up. "Okay, ready to enact the plan?"
"You bet." On the way, both doses of the cure had been given to Razor. He zoomed forward.
As the Ci-Kat-A approached the nuclear power plant, they hesitated a bit, slowing, seeing the cordon of defending Enforcers.
"Nothing's happening," said Murdoch. "They're not firing at us."
"It's because we have our future queen here," said Street, realizing. "They won't fire as long as she remains a normal kat. That's why I haven't bitten her yet." He looked down at Ann in his arms. "THAT'S going to happen once we get inside. Once I breach the reactor and turn this entire city into food for you and the brood you'll bear me, my queen."
"I'd rather die!" Ann cried, realizing now she'd been on borrowed time. She squirmed more fitfully, kicking Street, and he accidentally dropped her. She fell, screaming. "Aaahhhhhh!"
"Noooooooo!" cried a suddenly terrified Street, diving down after her, an equally worried Murdoch following.
Suddenly, T-Bone whooshed by between them and the falling Ann. Street stopped and hovered in midair in surprise. Murdoch slammed into him. The flask jostled, the liquid inside sloshing.
"Clumsy fool!" cried an enraged Street. He grabbed the flask from Murdoch. "Give me that!"
Below them, T-Bone swooped down and scooped Ann up in his arms, saving her. "Gotcha!"
"Thanks!" cried Ann, relieved.
Hovering in the air with buzzing wings, Street was seething with broiling rage. "Our queen!" he snarled. "Those SWAT Kats have interfered in my plans for the last time."
He looked at the chemical inside the flask. The time had come to use it. Suddenly the air around him and Murdoch began exploding. Lasers whizzed past. The two Ci-Kat-A cried out in surprise. Upon seeing that Ann Gora was no longer in danger, Feral had ordered his men to open up on the duo immediately as soon as the reporter and the SWAT Kats were what he considered a safe distance from them. Street clutched the flask with both hands as though his life depended on it while he and Murdoch weaved and dodged the aerial attack.
"Get the queen," he told Murdoch. "I'll ensure those puny Enforcers will no longer bother us and clear the way." When Murdoch hesitated, clearly not liking the idea of letting Street take on the Enforcers by himself super-katalyst or not super-katalyst, Street said, more fimrly, "Go."
Murdoch nodded and dived down after T-Bone and Ann, dodging the explosions and lasers. Looking over his shoulder, T-Bone saw their pursuer, and then, closing in on Murdoch from behind as per the plan, Razor. He grinned but Murdoch didn't notice. He was too focused on closing the distance between himself and the SWAT Kat who'd dared steal away his future queen, arms outstretched, claws grasping at the air, close to touching the soles of T-Bone's bare feet. Clutching Ann to his chest, T-Bone flew down closer to the ground, Murdoch following close behind with Razor hot on his heels without him even realizing it. They were only a few feet above the ground now.
Behind Murdoch, Razor loaded the first of the last two doses of the antidote into the dart gun he'd rigged to his Glovatrix. He took aim. "Hey, bugface!" he yelled.
"Huh?" Murdoch turned and looked back.
Pffft! The dart flew out and sticks into the transformed con's neck. Murdoch gasped and plucked the dart out, but it was too late. Already he was reverting back into a normal kat.
"Bingo!" yelled Razor.
Murdoch's wings shriveled and fell off. His Ci-Kat-A mandibles retracted into his mouth and disappeared. His eyes squeezed shut, then opened. They were normal again. They rolled in their sockets in confusion. Where was he? The last thing he remembered was breaking into some crazy swamp hermit's home in the Dead Forest. Still airborne, flying forward forward of his momentum, he suffered nothing worse than a few bumps and bruises as he slammed into the dirt alongside the road leading towards the power plant, tumbling and coming to a stop lying sprawled on his back, alive but unconscious.
Whilst dodging lasers and explosions, Street observed the loss of his final ally with surprise and anger. Curse those meddling SWAT Kats, he thought, trying to decide whether to resume engaging the Enforcers or punish them for returning Murdoch to normal.
T-Bone flew down and landed beside Murdoch, setting Ann safely aside. He kneeled and checked the con's pulse, giving Razor a thumbs up. "He's okay, buddy."
"Good," said Razor. "One down..." He loaded the final dart into his Glovatrix, then turned and looked at Street nearby, doing his best to dodge everything the Enforcers were throwing at him. "...one to go."
He aimed and fired. But Street was ready. With his free hand, he grabbed the dart out of the air and flung it contemptuously to the ground. It broke, spilling the precious antidote everywhere.
"Nice try, SWAT Kat!" he snarled. "But I am not so easy to take by surprised!" He flew down and landed amidst the explosions.
Watching through his binoculars, Feral held up a hand. "Cease fire!"
Street, flask in hand, approached the trio. He stopped about twenty feet from them. He held out his free hand. Something came over him. Something he'd been trying to deny ever since the death of the original queen. He felt sad. Alone.
"Ms. Gora... Ann..." he pleaded, "come with me. Please. Be my queen."
Ann hesitated.
"One bite and you will understand. One bite and together we can make an entire new race of children to feed on the irradiated remains of this pitiful Earth city."
"But the people..." Ann said, looking down at Murdoch, then at the SWAT Kats, "...everyone will die of radiation poisoning!"
Street shook his head. "No!" he insisted. "No, they won't! Not if we turn them! Then they'll thrive in the new radioactive environment! There will be peace! No more wars, no more--"
"No more free thought or choice," Razor interrupted him, having heard speeches like this before. Street eyed him with annoyance. Razor narrowed his eyes at him, refusing to back down. "Face it, Street. The ends don't always justify the means. The Ci-Kat-A way is not the right way."
Ann stepped in, pleading now herself. "Dr. Street... Harley..." she begged, "you're sick. Your thoughts aren't your own. Turn yourself in to the Enforcers. You've seen that they can cure people who've been bitten by the Ci-Kat-A!"
She pointed at Murdoch lying out cold on the ground.
T-Bone chipped in. "Yeah, c'mon, Doc. Come with us and we'll get you to the Enforcers. They can make more of the cure and you'll be your old self again."
"Please, Harley," Ann begged further. "Please."
For a brief moment, Street considered it. Something glimmered in his eyes. But then he rejected it. No. He'd come too far. Been a Ci-Kat-A for far too long to go back. There was no going back. Only forward. And if these pitiful fools wouldn't listen to reason, then he'd have to force them to see things his way by giving them choice but to become like him to thrive in the new radioactive environment he was going to create for the Ci-Kat-A race, of which he was now convinced he and he alone was the savior.
The SWAT Kats both observed his change in body langiage and realized that things were about to turn violent again, tensing as Street pulled the stopper from the flask he held.
"Looks like we're doin' it the hard way..." Razor observed glumly, slowly beginning to raise his arm to fire his Glovatrix. He may have been out of the antidote, but he had plenty of the weapon's regular compliment of miniature missiles.
"If I can't have a new queen..." Street mused, more to himself than anyone present, "...then I shall be the Ci-Kat-A KING!"
Before Razor could fully raise his arm to fire, Street upended the flask, dumping the contents on himself. It splashed down over his body.
"Oh boy..." said Razor. "I got a feeling this just got a whole lot worse..."
Street's body shuddered. He dropped the empty flask, which shattered, his skin bubbling, expanding to tumorous proportions, ripping out of what little remained of his torn and ragged clothing, his brown fur darkening, turning black, his features and limbs distorting and then disappearing. As the SWAT Kats and Ann backed up cautiously, they realized Street was transmogrifying into a huge, thick, black, slimy cocoon!
"Oh, gross...!" cried a disgusted T-Bone. "What was that stuff he poured on himself?!"
"It must've been whatever he stole from Megakat Biochemical Labs!" replied Razor. He turned to Ann. "You need to get out of here, pronto!"
"But--" the reporter tried to protest.
"No 'buts!'" Razor insisted. "Go!"
Miffed, Ann turned and fled.
At the Enforcer blockade surrounding the power plant, Feral peered through his binoculars. Feral lowered the binoculars, blinked, then raised them again, gawking at the hideous sight of Street cocooning himself.
"What's he doing, Uncle...?" asked a disgusted Felina standing beside him.
"I... don't know, Felina," her uncle admitted. "But it looks like he's turning into some kind of insect cocoon."
The fully transformed Street, now a big, black cocoon covered in pulsating boils and dripping a viscous, clear slime, fell forward with a splat and lay motionless on the ground. The SWAT Kats pointed their Glovatrixes at it. Nothing happened. T-Bone and Razor exchanged confused glances.
"Well, that turned out to be a whole lotta nothin'..." said T-Bone, somehow sounding both relieved and disappointed at the same time. He walked over and prodded at the cocoon with his foot. Still nothing happened. It just sat there, pulsing and throbbing. "What'd he do...?"
"I think he pupated himself," said Razor, squatting down so he could examine the huge black mass from another angle. His partner turned and looked at him, one eyebrow raised, prompting him to elaborate, "You know, like a cocoon?"
"Like a... like a butterfly sorta deal?"
"Yeah, he's changing in there," Razor said, narrowing his eyes, watching the undulating bulges ripping along the cocoon's surface. "I just know it." He stood back up. "And somehow I don't think that anything as pretty as a butterfly is gonna come out," he added grimly.
"Oh, for the love of--" cried an exasperated T-Bone, throwing his hands up. "Then you mean this isn't over?"
As if in response, a wet, splitting crack startled them. They whirled. The cocoon was shuddering and rocking violently. It heaved and the top bulged, then split as a glistening, shelled back rose up, followed by the rest of what Dr. Street had become, an enormous scarab creature some seven feet tall with a shining ebony exoskeleton, except for his segmented underbelly which was an off purple color, and his eyes, which were no longer green but a blazing yellowish orange, different from any Ci-Kat-A seen previously. He was as majestic as he was terrifying.
"I am the Ci-Kat-A king!" the creature declared in a voice that was deep and distorted.
"Great, not only a giant bug, but a giant bug with delusions of grandeur!" T-Bone said, and he and Razor fired Mini-Turboblades at the huge bug, but they just bounced off his armored carapace. "Crud! He's a real-life Hard Shell!"
Ignoring the SWAT Kats, Street's armored back split open, the shelled plates moving aside as he spread his huge wings, which were a royal metallic purple color. Pushing off the ground with his taloned feet, he took to the air and flew towards the power plant.
"Yes, I am the Ci-Kat-A king... and I will turn this pitiful city into a paradise for my kind!" he declared.
At the blockade, Feral lowered his binoculars. "Open fire!" he ordered. "Fire, fire, fire! All of Megakat City is at stake if that thing breaches the reactor core!"
Felina nodded to the assembled Enforcers and plant security. They opened fire on the black scarab, but the laser blasts and artillery did nothing. The SWAT Kats moved aside to safety, where the unconscious Murdoch was still lying. They watched as everything the Enforcers and security guards had did nothing against the mutated Street.
"Razor, nothin' Feral's throwin' at 'im is even denting 'im! We've gotta find a way to stop him, or else Megakat City's gonna go into mega-meltdown!" said T-Bone, uncharacteristic fear tinging his voice.
"Tell me something I don't know!" replied his partner.
They ignited their jetpacks and pursued Street admist the lasers and explosions peppering the air. At the blockade, Street landed with a thud and bellowed. The commandos and security guards scattered, Street taking a blast from Sergeant Talon's Peacekeeper directly to the chest with no effect except that he staggered back a bit. Enraged, he grabbed hold of the tank, straining. Feral and Felina drew their sidearms, firing at the huge monster to no effect as, with great effort, Street lifted the entire tank up! Talon, poking out of the turret, cried out in surprise, clambering out onto the top of the tank.
Street tilted the tank sideways, and Talon fell off, smacking hard onto the pavement. He looked up as Street turned the Peacekeeper entirely upside-down and shook it, the two-man crew falling out of the open turret hatch. A startled commando landed on either side of Talon.
"Come on, men!" the Sergeant yelled. "Run!"
The three got up and rushed off as Street flung the tank down towards them. The last man just barely avoided being crushed. A second Peacekeeper rolled forward and fired, but had no more luck than Talon's did. With a roar, the black scarab grabbed and twisted the double barreled laser cannons. The hatch opened and one of the commandos crewing the vehicle poked out, drawing a laser pistol. Before he could fire, he was seized in Street's clawed hand and flung indifferently aside, smacking against the side of an Enforcer cruiser, his gun flying from his hand.
Once more, the insect began to lift the tank. The rear hatch opened and the second commando crewing the Peacekeeper got out, then turned and screamed as the tank tilted up and back, falling towards him. He rolled aside and the tank landed upside-down, rocking unevenly, twisted and broken as Street pushed on. The Enforcers and security guards scattered before him. He wrenched the gun off of an Enforcer halftrack and flattened the cab with one big, clawed foot, the two Enforcers inside just barely throwing open the doors and leaping out in time. Then, in a fit of pique, he shoved the halftrack onto its side and stomped off towards the power plant entrance.
Feral and Felina, joined by several commandos, continued firing at him, but finally Feral held up a hand. "Stop! he yelled. They didn't immediately stop firing. "Stop, I said!" They reluctantly ceased firing. "It's no good! Nothing can stop that thing!"
The SWAT Kats whooshed overhead on their jetpacks. "Except maybe the SWAT Kats!" said Felina.
Her uncle grumbled. "Good luck to them..." he said grudgingly, knowing the fate of Megakat City, and perhaps the world, just might rest in the hands of the two vigilantes he spent most of his free time railing against. Deep down, this time, he really hoped they would succeed where he and his Enforcers had failed.
Growling, the scarab approached the main entrance of the nuclear power plant. Guards with holstered laser pistols stood at either side of the entrance. They gulped as the huge shadow fell over them, hands reflexively going for their sidearms. They hesitated in drawing their weapons, however. The same duo, one skinny, the other burlier, had twice been confronted in this manner by those who sought to break into the power plant. The first time, it'd been Dark Kat. They'd never even gotten the chance to fire their guns before his ship's heat ray melted the guard hut that stood to the left of the entrance coming in. The second time, it'd been none other than the Ci-Kat-A queen herself, and although they'd managed to fire that time, their lasers, they remembered had had no effect against her, and her piercing shriek had nearly deafened them. The burly guard, who'd stood closer to her, still complained of a pain in his left ear from time to time. And now, confronted with a beastly alien insect-kat twice as big as her, and one they'd just witnessed trash Enforcer tanks like tinker toys, the two guards looked at one another, left their pistols in their holsters, then turned and ran in opposite directions, abandoning their post. Street ignored them, battering down the front door.
It fell inward with a bang and Street shouldered his way in, destroying the doorframe because he was too big to fit through otherwise. The lobby was deserted, all non-essential personnel having been evacuated by order of the Enforcers. Not only did he remember his way to where the reactor was from the last time he'd been here with the queen, Street, his antennae twitching, found he could actually sense where the strongest concentration of radioactive materials was located.
"Yes," he growled, "the power... the foooooddd... it is near... I can sense it...!"
He stomped down the hall, making the entire building shake as he made his way past abandoned security posts, following arrows pointing towards Sector 6, where the power plant's primary reactor was located. In the Sector 6 control room, atomic engineer Peterson had just finished getting into his lead-lined radiation suit. He walked over to the control panels for the main reactor, which was visibly glowing in the room beyond a big window. He'd just received word that the Enforcer blockade had failed to keep the Ci-Kat-A from reaching the building. It was up to him now. Like the guards out front, Peterson had twice encountered and failed to prevent intruders who'd sought access to the reactor. It was his intention to succeed this time by powering the reactor down. It was a contingency plan he'd gone over with Commander Feral and the plant manager.
Now, unable to raise the guards at the entrance on his radio, Peterson prepared to shut the reactor down. It'd black out half the city, all of it, perhaps, if the substations couldn't take it, but Peterson didn't care. If it would make the reactor less tantalizing to the Ci-Kat-A or at least prevent a larger nuclear disaster from happening if the core was breached, then it was worth it for a few citizens of Megakat City to go without power for a little while. Peterson's thickly-gloved hands were just beginning to turn the knobs and dials to begin the shutdown procedure, however, when the reinforced door leading into the control room flew inwards off of its hinges, whizzing past the engineer. It hit the window looking in on the reactor room, cracking it, but didn't break it.
Peterson, working with his back to the door, whirled and held up a hand with all the courage he could muster. "Stop!" he cried, as he had twice before.
He didn't get the rest of his familiar spiel out, not that he figured the intruder would listen any more than the previous ones had. He stopped short, gasping at the sight of the huge black scarab towering above him. The Ci-Kat-A queen had been big, and he'd been expecting something along those lines, but this... this was beyond horror. A black demon from the depths of some bad dream.
"Holy kats!" he whimpered.
All the courage drained from him, and he turned and ran from the room through an emergency side exit, moving as fast as his cumbersome radiation suit would allow him.
"Forget this!"
Again, Street ignored the pitiful kat who fled before him. He only had eyes for the nuclear reactor. He visibly salivated, slimy saliva dribbling off of his mandibles as he approached the control panel. What remained of his scientific mind recognized what the engineer had been preparing to do, seeing which switches had been flipped, which knobs turned, and he was bound and determined to prevent anyone from completing what Peterson had started. There would be no shutdown of the reactor. He grabbed the control panel, tearing it loose from the wall, causing alarms to begin blaring, and hurled it at the already cracked window looking into the reactor. It hit and smashed through the thick, reinforced glass.
Battering through the wall, Street entered the main reactor room. His final goal. "Yes... yes... I can taste it..."
His long arms stretched out, reaching towards the nuclear fuel rods glowing in their bubbling cylinder of water in the center of the room. Behind him, the SWAT Kats ran into the control room and skidded to a halt. They'd entered the building and it hadn't taken very long to track Street down. Razor figured he'd go straight for the reactor - which he remembered was in Sector 6 - and he'd been right. Unfortunately. He swallowed, and he and T-Bone watched helplessly as the monster scarab approached the reactor.
"We gotta stop 'im!" cried T-Bone, raising his Glovatrix.
"No!" yelled Razor, grabbing his friend's wrist. "That doesn't do any good!"
"We gotta try somethin'!" T-Bone insisted.
The bigger SWAT Kat was right about that, Razor thought. He pushed T-Bone's Glovatrix arm down. "First thing's first, we gotta protect ourselves from the radiation that's gonna be pouring outta that reactor."
He pointed to some lead-lined radiation suits hanging up on the far wall. He and T-Bone ran over and hurriedly began putting them on. They weren't stopping Street from breaching the reactor. He knew that much. All attempts to prevent that had failed and would fail. What they could do, though, was find a means of turning the reactor off. He looked around the room. He knew little about nuclear power, but he knew enough to realize there must be an emergency shutdown procedure of some sort. Unfortunately, he didn't see anything that looked like an off switch, and there was no one in sight to ask for help. Besides, he thought, eyeing the battered console laying amidst all the broken armored glass in the next room, he had a feeling he knew that the controls he sought had already been destroyed. Street made sure nobody could prevent a meltdown. At least not the conventional way by shutting the reactor off. The SWAT Kat way was another matter. Already a plan was forming in the thin SWAT Kat's brain.
"I feel like an astronaut in this stupid thing," T-Bone grumbled, using a built-in speaker provided by the radiation suit. "And it weighs a ton."
"It's lead-lined," Razor explained, utilizing his suit's speaker as well. "Come on."
They heard a smashing sound. Turning, the two vigilantes went to the hole in the wall where the viewing window used to be, and realized they'd struggled into the radiation suits just in time, their Glovatrixes worn on the outside so they could still use them. Street had broken the thick glass of the cylinder full of water surrounding the nuclear fuel rods. More alarms began blaring, a cacophony of distress for an audience of three, one of whom, Street, was paying them no attention whatsoever. Red lights flashed. The monstrous black beetle was bathed in a mixture of crimson light and the yellow glow from the fuel rods, making him look like something from the depths of the underworld. The bubbling liquid from the cylinder splashed everywhere, filling the room as the glistening scarab wrenched a fuel rod free and began to eat it. Almost immediately, he began double in size, increasing from seven to fourteen feet as he greedily munched down the radioactive metal.
In the control room adjacent, gauges and monitors that measured the radiation levels started registering increasingly high levels of radioactivity. Computer screens flashed warning messages. A surprisingly calm computerized female voice announced over the PA: "Warning! Warning! Main reactor breach! Radiation leakage at dangerously high level!"
T-Bone shifted uncomfortably. "Well, smart guy, he's breached the reactor and he's havin' his snack..." T-Bone said. He paused, glancing at the gauges. "...and I'm guessin' those measurements ain't good. So what's your plan?"
"We were never gonna stop him from breaching the reactor," Razor said. "He's just too thickly-armored for anything we've got on us. But what we can do is prevent this place from totally melting down and destroying Megakat City, and maybe take care of Dr. Bug-Eyes once and for all at the same time."
"And how can we do that?" T-Bone asked doubtfully. "I'm no nuclear physicist, but without the water keeping those fuel rods cooled off, they'll just overheat and blow up, right?"
"Not exactly, but--" Razor started.
"So we gotta get 'em cooled down, right?" T-Bone pressed.
Razor grinned behind his suit's faceplate and held up a finger. "Now you're with me! Come on!" he said, turning and hurrying from the room as fast as his heavy suit would allow.
T-Bone lingered, looking back and forth between Razor disappearing around the corner and Street munching away in the next room. "Razor, where are you going? The monster's in here!"
"Come on!" said Razor's voice through the suit-to-suit speakers. "We're gonna bring the water to the reactor!"
"We're gonna what?!" cried T-Bone, ambling after his partner.
~*~
Outside, the Enforcers were licking their wounds after the thrashing Street had given them. A few were tending to the commando who'd been flung against the side of the car earlier. Wrecked vehicles lay strewn about the power plant lot. Suddenly, they heard alarms and a computerized voice being announced via external speakers.
"Radiation leakage at dangerous high level! Meltdown imminent!"
Nearby, Murdoch sat up, very confused. The last thing he remembered was telling his fellow prisoners that Megakat Swamp would be a good place to hide from the Enforcers. Now they were nowhere to be found, and he had two holes torn in the back of his shirt he couldn't account for... and the very Enforcers he'd sought to escape were mere yards away! Fortunately for him, they didn't seem to be in any condition to bother stopping him if he attempted to run. And, indeed, upon that announcement over the PA, he gasped, got to his feet and ran off. Nobody noticed or bothered stopping him.
Peterson, the atomic engineer, came hurrying out of the building through a side entrance used by plant personnel in case of emergency. Feral glowered. It was obvious that the plan to shut down the reactor had failed. Peterson confirming it when he came slowly jogging up in his full lead-lined suit seemed unnecessary given the alarms and announcements. He pulled off the suit's hood, panting and sweating. "Commander," he said, "I wasn't able to finish the shutdown procedure. I'm sorry, I didn't expect-"
"Neither did I," Feral admitted, cutting him off, not wanting to hear Peterson's excuses, figuring the engineer had fled upon seeing Street's new look. He was angry, but the time for blame could be assigned later, if later ever came.
"Radiation leakage at dangerous high level! Meltdown imminent!" the voice on the PA repeated.
"Evacuate the area, men!" Feral yelled. The Enforcers and power plant personnel began to flee, some in vehicles, some on foot. Time to issue a citywide evacuation order, Feral realized, reaching inside his greatcoat and taking out an Enforcer-issue communicator. It linked him directly to Headquarters' main control room. "This is Feral!" he bellowed. "Initiate Evacuation Code N-9305! I want all civilians and Enforcer personnel out of the city immediately to the minimum safe distance! Just in case!" Without giving the technician who'd answered his call time to reply, he lowered the communicator from his mouth.
Sergeant Talon walked up. "'Just in case?' Sir, you sound somewhat confident the SWAT Kats might just pull this off..." He sounded skeptical.
"I am. I have to be. Because the alternative is just giving up."
Determined to help the SWAT Kats in some way, Felina ran for an Enforcer chopper sitting on the ground which had been left untouched by Street's rampage, clambering in. Gray Taylor was at the controls. "Get this thing in the air! We have to go help the SWAT Kats!" she said, sitting in the co-pilot's seat. She smirked. "And maybe you can get a little revenge against that big bug."
Reflexively rubbing where he'd been bitten before, Gray flicked some switches. The rotor blades fired up and the aircraft lifted off.
At first, Feral didn't think anything of it, until the chopper flew towards the power plant and not away from it. Into his communicator, he yelled, "This is Commander Feral! Lieutenant, what are you doing?"
"What else?" came his niece's voice through the receiver. "Helping the SWAT Kats avert meltdown!"
"Felina!" the enraged Enforcer Commander bellowed.
"Sorry, Uncle." Felina sounded grimly resolved.
Feral only got angrier. "Felina, come back here!" Getting no response, he tried a different tactic. "Corporal Taylor, this is Commander Feral! I order you to fly back here at once!" Still no answer. Either they were ignoring him or they'd simply turned off the radio. "Oooh, that niece of mine is teaching that academy rookie some very bad habits." Slowly, his anger subsided and he turned to Sergeant Talon. "Let's get out of here."
"But what about the Lieutenant?" Talon demanded anxiously.
That worried Feral; he couldn't remember the last him his top sergeant had ever been anxious or afraid. And that made him anxious, too. And afraid. Not just for the city, but for Felina. He turned and watched his niece's chopper flying towards the power plant. "She'll succeed. She has to. Because if Lieutenant Feral and the SWAT Kats can't stop that monster bug... then no one can. Now come on, let's go!"
They got into Feral's cruiser and sped off.
Slightly encumbered by the heavy radiation-proof suits, the SWAT Kats ran through the deserted plant, pursued relentlessly by the blaring alarms and flashing red lights. T-Bone was in the lead. Even though it was Razor's idea, he, being bigger and stronger, moved faster in the weighted lead-lined suit. But his slimmer partner was no slouch; hours of training in the salvage yard's obstacle course helped keep the deceptively skinny-looking tom toned enough that he was able to keep up with T-Bone, even if he did fall slightly behind.
Every so often, panting audibly, their breath fogging the faceplates of the hoods, the two SWAT Kats would pause to look at the signs, helpfully accompanied by arrows, that the power plant staff had put up everywhere. They needed to get to one of the plant's cooling towers. It didn't take long, which was fortunate, because time was a luxury they didn't really have. Finally, they reached a security checkpoint - unmanned, of course - that read "Cooling Tower A - No Admittance." There were a set of double doors behind a glass panel opposite the guard station.
"Here we go!" said Razor.
He grabbed the chair behind the desk at the guard station and flung it. Crash! It shattered the glass partition, and a new jangle of alarms, which he and T-Bone ignored, joined the cacophony.
"In here!" Rushing forward, Razor jiggled the pushbar and shoved. "Locked!"
There was a keycard reader, but, obviously, neither he nor T-Bone had security clearance, and there was no time to hack in. He smirked a bit. He'd done this dance before. He tried to lift a leg to kick the doors open, found the suit wouldn't let him, and frowned, flinging himself shoulder-first into the doors. Pain shot through his shoulder and the doors stubbornly remained shut and locked. A hand clamped on his shoulder and he turned.
"Allow me!" said T-Bone, and flung himself forward with all his might like a football player. The doors burst open on the first try, swinging inward. "Unlocked!" he said triumphantly, and gestured. "Brains before beauty, buddy! This is your plan, after all!"
Ignoring the twinge of annoyance he felt at his friend showing him up, Razor went in. The cooling tower interior was vast, with slightly inclined walls sloping up towards the open top. Hearing whirring rotor blades, the SWAT Kats watched an Enforcer chopper fly overhead, before Razor's attention turned to a large outlet pipe on the far side of the room. He ran over as quickly as his radiation suit would allow. The pipe was enormous, sealed with a hinged, riveted door with a valve handle. A sign beside it informed the reader of the pipe's purpose and some small print legalese signed by plant management stipulated severe consequences for employees who opened the pipe in any event except for an emergency. Razor grinned. This was what he wanted. This was Megakat City's salvation. He hoped.
He turned to T-Bone, who stood waiting with his hands on his hips in the middle of the room. "This pipe leads directly to Megakat Bay! It's where the plant gets its water from!" he said.
T-Bone frowned, but quickly understood his friend's plan a little better now. He knew the plant was by the ocean. Open the pipe, flood the plant. Drown the nuclear fire before it got too hot and melted the whole place down. He gave Razor a thumbs-up. "Good thinkin'! We'll put out the reactor before it melts down and hopefully drown Dr. Bug-Eyes once and for all while we're at it!"
He ran over, and, together, he and Razor began attempting to turn the massive valve.
"Remember!" said Razor, grunting and sweating inside the suit. "Lefty loosey, righty tighty!"
"I know, I know!" gasped T-Bone, also grunting. "We're both mechanics!"
Try as they might, though, the valve stubbornly refused to budge more than a few inches. Evidently, the staff hadn't had to open it in a while. Up above, that Enforcer chopper reappeared. Inside, Felina Feral and Gray Taylor watched the two SWAT Kats wrestling with the valve. It took Felina a moment to realize what they were doing, before she too understood what their plan was and grinned.
Beside her, Gray Taylor remained puzzled. "What are they doing?" he asked.
"I think I know!" she reached inside her pocket, felt the gloved tips of her fingers touch the communicator T-Bone had given her back during the Katrina Moorkroft debacle, hesitating. Should she reveal her secret to the other Enforcer? She frowned. Better contact the vigilantes through normal channels. She activated the chopper's loudspeaker. "SWAT Kats!" she said into the helmet's microphone. Her voice echoed down through the cooling tower interior. The two radiation-suited vigilantes flinched as the tower's acoustics amplified her voice. She winced, but kept talking anyway. Her friends' comfort was of minor concern to her right now, with the entire city at stake. "This is Lieutenant Feral! I know what you're trying to do! Stand back! Get clear of the pipe and we'll blast it open!"
Down below, the slimmer of the two figures - Razor - gave a little salute to signal that they understood, while the other - T-Bone - shook his fist up at the hovering helicopter to show his displeasure at nearly having his eardrums blown out, and then the two ran from the tower, back through the double doors they'd entered through. Once they were safely out of the way, Felina flicked a switch. A targeting scope swiveled into place and she sighted the pipe cover through it, focusing her crosshairs on the valve handle in particular. Although he still didn't seem to understand what was happening, Gray, to his credit, trusted his superior's judgment, and kept the aircraft steady, and didn't pester Felina with any questions.
Whoosh! Felina fired. A missile flew down and blasted the valve handle and the cover - and much of the pipe and surrounding wall - into nonexistence, and Megakat Bay began rushing in. Beside her, Gray gave a cry of excitement and understanding as he finally got what they were doing.
"That water will hopefully flood the power plant and cool down the breached reactor!" Felina explained.
Gray nodded, then frowned. "But what about the SWAT Kats? We can't just leave them to drown."
"And we're not gonna!" said Felina, unbuckling her seatbelt and pushing the targeting scope back into place. She moved into the rear of the chopper, slid open the side door and knelt down, preparing the rescue ladder for lowering. "Lower us down inside the cooling tower as far as you can!"
Meanwhile, in the reactor room, the black, glistening, horribly beautiful thing that had once been Dr. Harley Street, the scarab, munched away happily on the fuel rods he wrenched free from the smashed open reactor, growing bigger with each bite he took, completely unaware of what was happening elsewhere in the building. Unaware, that is, until a torrent of water began gushing into the room. At first he ignored it. A burst pipe someplace. Until the unmistakable smell of the ocean made his antennae go berserk. Saltwater! The ocean! Megakat Bay! A pipe had been burst, all right, he realized... the pipe leading from one of the cooling towers to the sea! Rage filled him, a fury like nothing he'd ever experienced! Already, as the water level rose up over the base of the reactor pedestal - knee-deep for him now - the glow of the fuel rods was beginning to fade.
His worst fears were confirmed when the voice announced over the P.A., "Attention! Attention! Critical radiation leakage levels lowering!"
"Cuuuurse you, SWAT Kats!" Street howled in anger, and stomped from the room. He had to find the source of the water and stop it. The cooling towers! Yes! He had to get to the cooling towers and stop the flow of ocean water before it completely drowned the reactor and ruined all his plans. Failing that, his dream of an irradiated Ci-Kat-A paradise fading from his vision even faster than the rising waters of Megakat Bay filling the power plant interior, Street vowed that the two meddling vigilantes who'd killed his beloved queen, taken Ann Gora from him, and dashed his dreams, would pay for all of it with their lives. Clenching and unclenching his clawed hands, he stomped down the hall towards the cooling tower, fighting against the onrushing torrent of seawater.
"Attention! Attention!" the female voice announced over the plant P.A., audible over the rush of water flooding in from the broken pipe as the two SWAT Kats re-entered the cooling tower. "Radiation levels lowering. Cleanup crew to Sector 6. Initiate emergency decontamination procedures."
"Bingo!" said Razor. He consulted the wrist-mounted dosimeter of his radiation suit and was relieved to see that the color was still blue. Just to be safe, though, he also turned and consulted a radiation detector mounted on the wall underneath a sign that read "Safety Is Our #1 Priority!" With a relieved sign, he noted that the radiation levels inside the power plant were indeed returning to normal. On the downside, water rushing in from Megakat Bay via the broken pipe was threatening to flood the entire building. Already, he and T-Bone were ankle-deep in it, and wearing their heavy, lead-lined suits. The alarms continued blaring. Even though the threat of radiation leakage was gone or at least minimized, it seemed flooding was something the Megakat Nuclear Plant's computer system considered an emergency. So did Razor. "I think it's safe to take these things off," Razor said after giving the radiation detector another glance just to be sure. He pulled off his visored hood. "And we better get 'em off quick. This place is filling up with water fast and these suits weigh a ton!"
"Fine by me!" agreed T-Bone, pulling his suit's hood off, too, grateful for the comparatively sweet and fresh air of the cooling tower's interior after spending so long in the suit. The downdraft from the Enforcer chopper's rotor blades did wonders to help cool him and Razor down, as well. The downward-rushing gush of air whipping through the interior of the tower felt good against his sweaty fur. He began struggling out of the heavy suit. "As for the water, maybe we oughta fix what we, or rather Lieutenant Feral, broke." So saying, he worked one arm free from the suit and held up his Glovatrix for emphasis. "I figure a few cement slugs'll plug that leak long enough for the repair crews to do a proper fix-up."
Razor was getting ready to agree when there was a roar which shook the entire structure. Halfway out of their radiation suits, the SWAT Kats turned. The glistening black form of the mutated Harley Street was visible through the doors leading back into the plant proper, barrelling down the flooded hallway, murder in his glowing compouned eyes. He was far too big for the doorframe, but it didn't matter; he destroyed it and a good portion of the surrounding wall shouldering through. The cooling tower provided him with the headroom he required to rise to his full, monstrous height, arms spread, clawed fingers splayed, ready to slash through his enemies.
"SWAT Kats!" he snarled. "You'll die for this!"
"I think plugging the leak might have to be someone else's problem!" Razor said.
As the duo struggled to finish removing their suits, Street stomped towards them, wading through the water, which was now waist-deep for the two vigilantes, and knee-deep for enormous mutated scarab. Above them, in the Enforcer chopper, while Gray kept the aircraft steady, Felina unfurled the rescue ladder. It dangled down. "SWAT Kats!" she yelled down. However, she couldn't be heard over the combined noise of the roaring Street, the rushing water, and the noise of the whupping helicopter rotors. She yelled up to Gray. "Corporal! Get on the loudspeaker!"
"Roger!" Flicking a switching which activated the aircraft's P.A. system, Gray yelled into his helmet mic, "SWAT Kats! Grab the ladder!"
At that, the SWAT Kats looked up and saw the ladder. "Rescued by the Enforcers!" grumbled T-Bone. Even so, as he finally kicked free of his suit, he was sloshing through the rising water towards the ladder. "I'm never gonna live this down!"
"Beggars can't be choosers!" said Razor, following him, still half in, half out of the suit. "Besides, at least it's Lieutenant Feral and not her grouchy uncle! He'd never let us hear the end of it!" With a growl, the giant Street slashed at him, but even with the leaded suit, Razor was able to dodge, and the scarab's claws did the rest of the work in removing the suit for Razor, slashing it, as well as a goodly portion of his G-suit underneath, to ribbons, exposing the thin SWAT Kat's midriff and leaving deep scratches. "Aaaghhh!" Razor yelled.
"Buddy!" T-Bone cried, looking back with one hand on the bottom rung of the ladder.
The water continued to rise. The two vigilantes were up to their armpits in it, whilst the black scarab was now waist deep. He was moving sluggishly, as they had when they had their lead-lined suits on, something which didn't escape Razor's attention. Street must weigh a ton in this form, he thought.
As Razor staggered towards him, T-Bone grabbed Razor's wrist with his free hand. "Come on!"
"I am, I am!" With his free hand, Razor aimed at Street's face and fired mini cement slugs. "Eat cement, bugface!" Splat!
"Blaaaghhhhh!" growled Street, staggering back, flailing, swiping at the swiftly-hardening gray glop which covered his face.
Getting one arm around Razor and yanking him up so that they were both on the ladder, T-Bone nodded to Felina, who was sticking her head out the open side door. She nodded. Whirling, she yelled up front. "Get us out of here!" Gray pulled up on the control yoke, and the chopper began to rise. At the same time, Felina activated the winch which began reeling the rescue ladder in.
But Street wasn't finished. Managing to scrape most of the dried cement off of his face, enough to allow him to see, he noticed the escaping vigilantes and howled with rage. No! He couldn't allow the pitiful Earth pests who'd ruined all his plans and taken his queen from him - twice! - to escape! Sloshing through the water, he reached the slightly inclined wall of the cooling tower and began to climb up it, scuttling madly up after the retreating chopper and his prey.
The chopper continued rising, winching the ladder in at the same time, as Street crawled up the interior of the tower after them ahead of the rising water, struggling to haul himself up, his weight bearing him down somewhat, taloned hands and feet digging into the cement. With a growl, he swiped at the SWAT Kats' dangling feet, but they jerked them up out of the way in time. He snapped at them with his drooling mandibles. All the while the water continued gushing in behind him, filling the bottom of the tower up. Finally, the chopper flew up out of the top of the tower, pulling the SWAT Kats along with it, just as Street emerged, hauling himself halfway up, reaching for his escaping prey unsuccessfully.
Even as the ladder continued winching the vigilantes in, Felina, realizing something needed to be done about the monster, jumped into the seat beside Gray Taylor. She flipped her helmet's visor down, grabbing hold of the yoke for the aircraft's firing controls. She took aim, but not at Street himself, realizing that he'd shrug off whatever she fired at him. Instead, she aimed for the rim of the cooling tower on which he was unsteadily perched. Having observing the difficulty with which he crawled up after them, and the unsteady movements he now displayed while attempting to haul himself up completely out of the tower, Felina guessed correctly that the Ci-Kat-A king was extraordinarily heavy. She gritted her teeth, pulling the trigger. Two missiles shot out.
From their position being winched up on the ladder, the SWAT Kats watched as the missiles flew forward and struck the top of the structure. There was a fiery explosion as the topmost portion of the cooling tower exploded in a rain of concrete debris. With a startled bellow, the giant scarab pitched backward, arms flailing. He attempted to spread his wings and fly, but his momentum prevented him. Besides, he was falling backwards, and even though his wings unfurled, they simply flew up and around his plummeting body as it tumbled down the center of the cooling tower's interior. The black horror fell and fell, until at last he splashed into the churning, foaming seawater filling up the bottom of the shaft, and his great weight ensured he sank like a stone. He flailed uselessly, struggling to reach the surface, only for the chunks of concrete which had followed him down to strike the surface and slam into him, bearing him down to the floor several feet below. This was it, Street realized. He was drowning. Something like peace came over his mind. The SWAT Kats watched from above as bubbles rose to the surface, and then gradually stopped. Dr. Harley Street was gone.
Later, Felina's chopper set the duo down on the ground in the power plant parking lot, then Gray flew around and landed nearby. As the rotor blades whipped the air up around them, T-Bone immediately bent to examine Razor's body through the slashed G-suit where the scarab had scratched him. The wounds weren't that serious.
Smacking his friend's probing fingers away, Razor said, "Easy, buddy, I'll be okay. Street didn't get me too bad. Just a flesh wound." He sighed, rubbing his head. "Lucky the Ci-Kat-A only convert people with their bite, not scratches!"
Nodding, T-Bone said, "I kinda feel bad for poor Dr. Street..." He turned and looked at the smouldering cooling tower.
"Yeah," agreed Razor, "it wasn't his fault. But at least it's over now."
As the Enforcer chopper's rotor blades died down, Felina got out and walked over. "A shame about Street," she said with a heavy sigh, "but I'm glad you two are all right." She smiled and clapped Razor on the shoulder.
Approaching sirens made them turn. Enforcer cruisers and plant security Jeeps were rushing up. "Looks like it's time for us to split," observed T-Bone. "We gotta head back to Skycor Towers. We kinda left our ride there."
Felina chuckled. "I can give you guys a lift," she offered.
"Nah, we can manage," said T-Bone, and, waving, he and Razor headed off, as Felina went to meet her uncle.
~*~
Dr. Viper sat as well as his bulky tail would allow on the cot in his cell in the holding area of Enforcer Headquarters, rubbing his thin wrists where the handcuffs had been. His forked tongue darted in and out of his mouth. He thought about the unprecedented step he'd taken in alerting his enemies to the actions of his former partner, Dr. Street. As much as he hated having to cooperate with that fool Feral, he was pragmatic enough to realize that Street's plan would mean not just the death of millions in Megakat City, but the death of his own plans to turn it into a beautiful swamp city.
Ignoring the single nervous Enforcer commando stationed outside his cell, he slid off the cot and stood, idly twiddling his thumbs. Being locked up was a minor setback, and he had plans that were already in motion to ensure his freedom, so his current predicament was of no particular concern to him. He was darkly amused to note that his captors seemed more concerned by his calmness and confidence than they might be if he were ranting and raving angrily. An angry enemy was a beaten enemy. A calm enemy was one who had a few cards in his hand left to play. Of course, his freedom, and, indeed, his survival, depended on the authorities succeeding at the Megakat Nuclear Plant. if they failed, Megakat City was doomed and so was he. In fact, at least part of his plan involved deliberately putting himself precisely where he was, so he'd be instantly killed along with everyone else if the Enforcers - and those bothersome SWAT Kats - failed. Oh, he didn't want to die, but he preferred a quick death by instant obliteration to the slower pain of radiation poisoning or nuclear winter.
And so, as he waited for either deliverance or death, to pass the time he mused on what he'd call his swamp city if and when he eventually succeeded. He could never quite make up his mind what to call it. Once, he'd been enamored with "Megaswamp City." But after that failed, he'd considered the name jinxed. Later, he toyed with "Mutation City," and had come close to realizing that goal, even transforming himself into a building-sized monstrosity of great power and, as far as he was concerned, handsomeness. That too, had failed, and the anti-mutagens he'd been doused with had robbed him of the size and strength bestowed upon him by Katalyst X-63, reverting him to what he considered normalcy. Now, as he waited in his cell, for either the end or for rescue, he noted that "Mutation City" was also jinxed as a name, and turned his mind to a new name.
He was just starting to think that "Viper City" had a certain ring to it when he heard the door of the detention area open, and the sound of footsteps. Determined to appear as aloof as possible, he didn't turn to see who had come in, merely listening. He recognized the voice of the other commando who sometimes stood guard outside his cell.
"Good news!" he said. "That mutated freakshow Street got stopped cold!"
"By us or by the SWAT Kats?" asked the other commando, sounding a little tired.
The commando who'd brought tidings grumbled and scuffed irritably at the floor with his boot. "The SWAT Kats," he admitted.
Viper smirked and finally deigned to look over his shoulder at the two. So, it was rescue, then, he realized. Street had been stopped, and Megakat City was safe from nuclear annihilation, ready for the greatest and most twisted scientific genius in the hemisphere to once again take steps to mold it in his image. His tongue flicked out pleasurably.
"Let's go celebrate and get something to drink!" said the commando who'd just come in.
The commando who'd been guarding Viper glowered, turning to look at the prisoner through the bars. Viper was indifferent to whether the two left. If they did leave, however, they'd survive his escape. Remaining, he knew, drastically lessened their chances of living to see the next day.
"What about him?" the first commando said, gesturing at Viper in the cell.
"Eh, he's not goin' anywhere," said his friend.
The other commando hesitated, but then nodded, and the two left. The door shut with a bang, and Dr. Viper was left entirely alone. There were no other prisoners in the adjoining cells. Lieutenant Commander Steel, in a rare display of intelligence, Viper surmised from his reputation, had insisted this particular section be dedicated exclusively to Dr. Viper, and the captured criminals who'd been there when an eerily cooperative Viper had been brought in had been transferred. Now all the evil biochemist had to do was wait. He didn't wait long. Crack! Rumble! The floor buckled and then bulged up, splintering, and then a thick mantle of green slime oozed up into view. Dr. Viper stood back and watched with something akin to paternal pride as the puddle reared up into a hood of horror and then the churning column formed itself into the shape of his creation and trusted assistant, the half-kat, half-fungus mushroom monster.
It growled irritably, disliking being inside of Enforcer Headquarters like this. Viper gave it a reassuring pat on what passed for its shoulder. "There, there," he said, "let's not dawdle. I can tell you're impatient to leave, and so am I, now."
He turned and leaped into the hole the creature had emerged from, the mushroom monster oozing down after him. Above, alarms began to blare as whoever was on duty in the detention center control room happened to glance at the security monitor and noticed an empty cell with a hole in the floor. But the duo were long gone by the time the guards came running. They crept through the bowels of the building and into the sub-levels, where they accessed the sewer, and from there began their trek back to the Dead Forest in Megakat Swamp. Dr. Viper was eager to return to work...
~*~
Meanwhile, T-Bone and Razor, unaware that Viper was at that very moment making good his escape from Enforcer Headquarters, returned to Skycor Towers. On the roof, they found the Turbokat where they'd left it, and after using a first-aid kit to treat Razor's scratches, they set about cleaning the intakes from the thick sludge vomited up by the Ci-Kat-A. While they were thus engaged, the door permitting access to the roof area opened and none other than Ann Gora emerged. She waved and walked over.
"I wanted to thank you," she said.
"Eh, it's no big deal," said Razor modestly.
"No big deal?" growled T-Bone, trying, without much success, to fling sticky rivulets of Ci-Kat-A slime from his fingers. "We had to fight a giant beetle and stop a nuclear meltdown and now we're in up to our elbows in sticky crud!"
Razor shot him a look. He smirked. "All in a day's work for a SWAT Kat," he said, elbowing his partner.
"I can't help but feel bad for poor Dr. Street," Ann admitted, turning and looking over the rooftops at the cooling towers of the nuclear power plant miles away in the distance.
"You and everybody else," said Razor. "Poor guy just wasn't himself. But I guess, at the end of the day, it was him or Megakat City." He hopped down from atop the jet and walked over. He went to put his hand comfortingly on Ann's shoulder but paused, realizing it was covered in the sticky glop, and thought better of it. "Besides," he continued, lowering his arm discreetly, "it wasn't like we didn't give him a chance... you most of all."
Ann nodded, a little misty-eyed. "I understand. But I still feel miserable about what happened to him. And not just the fact he died... what those alien bugs did to him. He was one of the most brilliant minds in Megakat City, and they took it away from him when they bit him." She looked at the ground. "But at least it's over..." She trailed off, then, frowning, raised her head and turned to look at Razor. "It is over, isn't it?"
Razor frowned. From atop the jet nearby, T-Bone said, "Sure it is! Street's dead and we turned everyone else back to normal. And all the original Ci-Kat-A are gone, too, including the queen! You don't gotta worry about a thing, Ann. Megakat City's bug problem is solved once and for all."
Razor's frown deepened. He still felt the same nagging feeling from earlier, but drove those thoughts from his mind. Whether they'd forgotten a Ci-Kat-A, now or from back then, he realized poor Ann Gora was not in any condition to be worried further. What she needed now was reassurance that the alien threat was over, and it was reassurance that Razor was happy to give her. Nodding, he said, "T-Bone's right. We're pretty sure we got 'em all. Just go get some rest for now, okay?"
Ann brightened a little. "Rest? Not on your life! I've got to start on my notes! This is gonna be a great story!" She thanked the two again and left.
When she was gone, Razor went back to helping T-Bone clean the Turbokat, with a little less enthusiasm than before. The prospect of a forgotten Ci-Kat-A having returned to his mind now that the immediate threat was over was beginning to weigh on him a little. He glumly scrubbed at the intakes.
His mood didn't go unnoticed by his friend. "You okay, buddy?" asked T-Bone.
"Yeah," said Razor, "just..."
"Look, I'm tellin' ya, we got 'em all!" T-Bone assured him with a grin. "Relax, and scrub harder! This crud doesn't come off easy!"
Razor nodded and put his back into it. Soon, the intakes were clean enough to allow the SWAT Kats to take off, and they flew back to the salvage yard.
~*~
Up in space, an old satellite circling the planet collided with a MASA rocket, breaking apart along its surface. The rocket was not as old as the satellite. In fact, it had been launched the year prior. It was in a decaying orbit around the planet, gradually descending back towards the surface from which it had been launched with each circle it completed. The hatch was off, having been blown off during its launch. Inside, in the control room, a single Ci-Kat-A drone was perched frozen with its mandibles embedded in the control panel, where it'd been since being knocked there by the SWAT Kats a year ago. Although for all intents and purposes it appeared dead, one miraculous thing about Ci-Kat-A was their ability to survive in environments of extreme cold and low, or even zero, oxygen, coming as they did from a planet with very thin air. The drone was frozen solid by the extreme coldness of space, but its eyes blazed with a barely-suppressed crimson fury, waiting for the day when it would be thawed... a day not too long from now, considering the gradually increasing speed with which the rocket's orbit was decaying. It was frozen, waiting...
The End.
