Chapter 2: The Past Comes Calling
Commander Ulysses Feral scowled angrily as he stormed back into his headquarters after another humiliating encounter with his bane of existence, the SWAT Kats.
It certainly didn't help his temper when the Mayor rubbed the failure in his face very thoroughly. He growled to himself as he stabbed the button for his floor in the elevator. His officers wisely stayed clear of their infuriated Commander. They were smarting too from the defeat. It was painful to be constantly belittled by that pair of vigilantes.
Feral reached his office and angrily unbuttoned his coat and hung it up. Going to his desk, he flicked on his computer savagely and prepared to do a report of the incident...every little nasty detail whether he liked it or not.
As he was trying to compose it in as professional a manner as he could and leave out the emotions, he glanced at his calendar and his temper surged forward once again.
'Kat's Alive! That fool benefit is in two more days. I wish I could find a way to get out of that.' He thought miserably then shoved the thought aside and went back to his report.
More than two hours later, his miserable day got worse. An alarm reached him that Hard Drive had stolen something from a small private lab contracted to do some specialized research for the military.
Sighing in annoyance, he grabbed his coat and went to the flight line where his chopper was waiting for him. In moments, he and a squadron of choppers were headed north of the city.
Landing at the lab, Feral questioned the head of the project while his CSI looked for forensic evidence which, when it came to Hard Drive, would be damn little.
"What was stolen?" Feral demanded as he held his note pad and pen and glared at the nervous but belligerent scientist.
"I can't tell you that. You don't have a need to know." Dr. Balinar said tightly.
"And if Hard Drive finds a buyer for your precious secret item just how many Kats are going to die?" Feral snarled coldly.
Dr. Balinar paled and licked his lips. Feral just waited him out. Swallowing the scientist finally made a decision.
"He stole a prototype laser capable of disintegrating almost any type of material except agracite." He said unhappily.
Feral grimaced. "Of course. It couldn't be something as useful as a better transmitter or something that could actually help Kat kind." He said sarcastically.
Leaving the scientist, he went back to his office and gathered together his top special ops teams and had them chase down any lead they could get on who would be a likely buyer for the prototype.
Over the next two days the ops teams searched and Feral stewed, waiting for that weapon to be used against the city by one of its most dangerous criminals. What he didn't expect was the call he got to come running to a certain apartment in a rather nasty part of town.
He rushed off in his sedan and arrived on the scene. At least four patrol units were there securing the area and waiting for him. He strode to the main doors and met the officer who had made the call.
"So what do you have?" He asked, not having been told what this was about except it had to do with the prototype theft.
"You have to see this for yourself, sir. It's rather hard to believe." The officer said, firmly leading his Commander to the elevator.
When they reached the correct floor, the officer continued to lead the way down a hall to an open apartment door guarded by two enforcers.
When Feral reached the door and stepped through, he froze in the living area and stared in disbelief at the sight waiting for him there.
Hanging from the ceiling by his wrists was Hard Drive sans his surge coat which was no where in sight. On a the kitchen table beyond Hard Drive's hanging body was the prototype.
Feral looked from one to the other and back again in stunned amazement. Moving toward Hard Drive he hissed, "Who took you?" He demanded.
"I don't know who he was...get me down...I can't feel my wrists..." The criminal whined in pain.
"Cut him down!" Feral barked out.
Two officers jumped to do his bidding. Hard Drive dropped heavily to the floor but couldn't use his paws which hung limp in front of him. He whimpered in pain.
"Take him to headquarters, have his wrists seen to then book him." Feral growled as he made his way to the dangerous prototype and took it into his own paws.
Escorted by his officers he took the weapon downstairs and loaded it into his vehicle. He had two officers return with him to guard it on the back seat as they drove back to Enforcer Headquarters.
Feral questioned Hard Drive later that day but got no further answers from the techno thief. He was confused and frustrated by whoever it was that had taken Hard Drive out, insured the enforcers were summoned and, what was more stunning, allowed them to retrieve the dangerous weapon. Lack of answers to his questions made him angry and irritable.
He still wasn't in a good mood when he dressed carefully for the benefit being put on by the high society of Megakat City that night. He hated these things which only deepened his already bad mood. He wasn't even allowed to wear his dress uniform. His honor the Mayor insisted he wear a tux.
He tugged at the collar one last time before stepping out of his vehicle at the entry way leading into the Wilson Torg Manor House and handing his keys to the valet.
He walked up the steps and was barely able to be civil to the hostess as he went through the door. For the next few hours he mingled, satisfying the Mayor's requirement he meet and greet the elite of the city. Finally, his duty done, he slipped away to the gardens at the back of the mansion to get some much needed peace.
A pair of eyes watched the Chief Enforcer circulate the room. He bided his time sipping a glass of wine and charming the wealthy socialites without really telling them who he was or what he was doing there. He was exotically handsome and debonair causing many of the beautifully dressed she-kats to flirt with him, trying to catch his eye but his attention was focused on only one person.
He had come to this party for one reason and one reason only...and that was the dark tom disappearing out the french doors leading out to the gardens sometime after eleven p.m. Many females tried to halt his progress across the room but with a smile and a polite negative he eluded them easily as he made for another set of french doors further down from where his target had gone.
He quietly slipped through the doors and disappeared into the dark, avoiding the lights that dotted the gardens. He moved silently toward his target who was standing back in the shadows himself and staring pensively up at the night sky.
He watched Feral place his glass on a nearby table and cross his arms over his chest. The tom slipped up behind the Commander like a ghost then slid his arms around the powerful waist.
Feral had felt uneasy for the past ten minutes, his sixth sense activating, warning him of danger so when the arms came around him, he immediately whirled around and grabbed the wrists holding him and pinned the culprit to the nearby wall.
The moon behind him illuminated the face before him. His breath hissed out and he froze as he stared in shocked recognition.
"Hello, Ulysses. Long time no see." That familiar sultry voice from long ago said, a warm smile on his face.
"Aras?" Feral breathed out in amazement.
"Yes, it's me. Are you glad to see me?" He asked with a small smirk.
Feral shook himself and released Aras' wrists, stepping back to regain his composure.
"It's been a very long time. I heard you were some kind of hot shot spy." He said in a questioning tone while eyeing the tom he hadn't seen in nearly two decades. Aras was even more handsome in his maturity than when he was a callow youth.
"You've been keeping track." Aras smiled moving closer to Ulysses without seeming to. "I've been watching you too." He murmured, his voice going lower which did things to Feral's body he'd not felt in a long time.
Feral moved away uneasily, remembering how their last meeting had ended. Aras' smiled inwardly. He would not let Ulysses elude him tonight. He had special plans.
"I've heard things in your city have been a bit deadly lately?" Aras asked casually, standing at ease, leaning against the railing that ran around this area of the wide patio. They were invisible to the occupants inside and the few couples mingling in the gardens below.
"No more than usual." Feral said gruffly, watching Aras carefully. The reports he'd heard about the handsome tom were full of fantastic stories about his bravery, dangerous deeds, and deadly skills. He was also known as a master seducer but that wasn't news to Feral who well remember the tom's sexual prowess.
"Oh, I heard you ran into a very dangerous and near fatal problem that could have done a fair bit of havoc to your city if it had landed in the wrong paws." Aras hinted, looking away into the garden as if he hadn't landed a bomb in the dark tom's face.
Feral sucked his breath in and suddenly lunged at Aras, grabbing him by the collar and pulling him close.
"It was you! You were the one who caught Hard Drive and hung him like a prize turkey." He hissed in anger and surprise.
"Did you like that? I thought it was a nice touch. I was supposed to acquire that little device and the plans for making more to keep that very thing from happening. I let you make the arrest so that you could close the case but I intend to reacquire it for safe keeping. It's far too dangerous for these fool scientists to retain and use. I really wished they would stop making such instruments of mass destruction." Aras said, totally unfazed by his collar being pulled tight.
He was where he wanted to be...close and personal. He waited to see what Uly would do next.
Feral just stared at Aras in sheer disbelief. This tom had a lot of balls to do what he did then tell him he was intending to take the device again though he did agree with Aras assessment about scientists and their runaway inventions.
"Why would you think the thing would be safe in your paws rather than my evidence locker?" He snarled angrily.
"Really Ulysses...do you have to ask. Wasn't Dark Kat the one who stole the Metallikats heads from your evidence locker? Exactly how secure is that!" Aras snorted in derision. He didn't really want to rub Uly's face in it but he needed to make it clear the device was coming with him.
Feral reddened in embarrassment. Aras was right...damn him. "That still doesn't give you the right to steal it again." He said flatly.
"I'm not stealing it...you are giving it to me...legally. You know my agency is responsible for world peacekeeping. It will be much safer with us...trust me...besides I don't really want to pull rank on you and order you to hand it over." Aras said quietly but firmly.
Feral sighed in disgust and began to release Aras' collar but that wasn't in the tom's plan. As Uly's paws dropped free, Aras once more wrapped his own arms around the dark tom's waist.
"Now with that matter taken care of, I have other plans for this evening and you are a part of them." He said seductively as he startled Feral by leaning close and capturing his mouth in a heart stopping kiss.