Tired from the Viper mission, the Phoenix Squad took to the showers and cleaned up before meeting in Sunsinger's room for dinner and mission debrief. When dinner was finished, Tye discussed their next missions.
"The next two targets on our agenda will be Turmoil and Hard Drive. We can pretty much take care of them with very little assistance from the enforcers might even get a few more omegas if we can get these two quickly. I'd like to avoid mixing it up again with Feral. He would only inhibit what I plan to do because it crosses his moral high ground." He grimaced in annoyance.
"Well we knew he'd be by the book in the first place. No surprise there. I suspect the SWAT Kats don't step too far over the line either but that's only because they generally just engage the enemy and capture them if they can and then hand them over to the enforcers. They don't do any research of their enemies. But to be fair, they usually don't have the resources or the time to anyway." Clawfur observed.
"Yes I know, just didn't think we'd be butting heads so soon is all." Sunsinger sighed. "Anyway, for these next two, it's going to be a paper chase and research mission. We have to track down Hard Drive, dispose of his surge suit and wipe his memory of being able to construct another. For Turmoil, a little political maneuvering is called for. I intend to have her own country extradite her. They have a much harsher form of punishment and prison than Megakat City. It should prevent her from ever returning here. Of course, Feral will be incensed since her crimes were committed here, he will naturally insist she serve the time here. Unfortunately, their prison allows her and others to escape repeatedly. So we're going to take care of it permanently despite his objections." Sunsinger said grimly. "And Feral is not going to know what we've done to Hard Drive, though I don't doubt I'll get an earful when we destroy the surge suit."
"That's for sure!" Clawfur sighed. "Okay, I take it you want to split us up into two teams?"
"Yes. I want you, Tommy, Darren, Landon, and Warren to go after Hard Drive. The rest of us will handle Turmoil." Sunsinger ordered. "Let's get some rest and start on our new missions tomorrow. With nods of agreement, the team broke up and went to their rooms for bed.
Next morning, Byron sat down at his complex communications system and tapped into the enforcer's mainframe. He was researching reports on Hard Drive trying to track where the techie criminal had last been seen. When he would come up with some promising leads, Chris, Tommy, Landon, Darren and Warren would go check them out. While he was doing that he also looked into the court documents on Turmoil's case. All the data he could ferret out of the system he handed over to Tye.
Tye sifted through the data looking for enough info he could use to build a case strong enough to convince Turmoil's country to extradite her. He checked contacts he had in that country trying to feel out the political scene surrounding Turmoil's history there seeing whose chain he could pull. This type of work was very tedious and labor intensive. He had his part of the squad researching everything they could find on Turmoil. There was so many legal hoops they had to climb through that it could take days to get what he wanted done but he was a patient kat and thorough. If it took days, weeks, months...that is what it took as long as in the end it was successful.
Across town...midmorning...
It took Chris' team four days to pin down Hard Drive. The high tech criminal was hiding in a fairly nice middle class neighborhood. He'd rented a small apartment under a fictitious name while he tried to find a buyer for some new invention plans he'd recently stolen. Because of that robbery, that no one had attributed to him, he thought he was safe but it had given him away to the squad.
"He's not wearing his surge suit, Chris." Warren said from his post across the street. He had been spying on Hard Drive with a pair of binocular.
"Good! Let's go guys!" Chris said to his squad as he led them from around the corner of the apartment where they'd been waiting for the signal from Warren. They rushed up to Hard Drive's door and kicked it in startling the high tech criminal who was sitting at a computer. They overwhelmed him and as they put handcuffs on him, Tommy stepped in and quickly injected the criminal in the arm. Hard Drive hadn't noticed because he was still surprised at having been caught.
"Who the heck are you guys?" Hard Drive snarled just before the drug made him go glassy-eyed and silent.
"Alright, Tommy do your stuff." Chris ordered as the rest of the squad searched Hard Drive's apartment for the surge suit and any data to create more of them as well as any more stuff he might have stolen. Tommy had administered a special designer drug used in the spy business that would allow someone to order a person to forget permanently something they knew. It was 100 effective. Hard Drive would never make another surge suit unless he stumbled on it again by accident by the time Tommy finished with him.
Darren found the suit and Rue located the data for making more on the criminal's computer. Chris found a couple more plans besides the ones Hard Drive had recently stolen. Chris ordered Rue to destroy the computer.
Chris took the suit outside and walked with them to where Warren was still on watch. The squad had found a burn barrel nearby. Placing the suit in it, he squirted an accelerant onto it and lit it. The suit flashed then melted quickly. Chris poked around the burning suit to insure it was completely turned to ash. Finished, he signaled Warren to join them and walked back to the apartment.
"We're done here. Let's get this guy to the enforcers along with the stolen goods." Chris said as he led the way to their van. Tommy closed the door to the apartment and followed. Soon they were heading toward Enforcer Headquarters. Hard Drive was back in the here and now and was looking around him in confusion. Nobody spoke to him on the drive. At Enforcer Headquarters, Chris and Tommy pulled Hard Drive up the stairs and shoved him toward the Desk Sergeant.
"Here's Hard Drive and the plans he stole. Have one of your officers take our statements and take custody." Chris told the Sergeant.
The Sergeant eyed them in surprise but knew who they were and what they were doing for Megakat City per Mayor Manx's orders but none of the enforcers liked it. He called for an officer to take their statement and another pair of officers to process Hard Drive. Very quickly it was done and Chris and Tommy were walking down the stairs to their van for the trip to their hotel. Chris reported their success to Tye and the disposition of the prisoner and his suit.
"Excellent, one more down." Tye said pleased. "It's going to take awhile yet to get Turmoil taken care of so I have a task that's tricky but not too difficult for you and Rue. I want you to appropriate Mad Kat's jack-in-the-box from the secure area at Enforcer Headquarters and dispose of it in the deepest part of the ocean." Tye said with a smirk.
"Don't want much do you?" Chris said shaking his head and smiling. His mind already making plans for how to accomplish this mission.
Tye just smiled back. His squad was good and didn't need many directions to get the job done.
Two days later...dawn...shift change at Enforcer Headquarters...
It took stealth and disguising themselves as enforcers but Chris and Rue managed to slip into the building without raising any suspicions. Using fake papers with a forged signature from Feral, the pair went in, kept their faces from being seen by the security camera, got the property in question and walked out hiding the evidence inside another box meant to hold copier supplies.
Renting a helicopter for the day, Chris and Rue flew out over the ocean for an hour until they reached the part of the ocean that was known to have a deep chasm. In that spot, Rue jumped into the water with the magical box that was inside a lead box and took it down as far as he was able to go and dropped it. He waited for ten minutes watching it fall. When he was certain the box was heading down into the chasm he swam back up. Chris dropped down low enough for Rue to catch the hanging rope ladder and climb back up into the chopper. Another mission accomplished. It would be a long while before anyone realized the box was gone.
While Chris and Rue were busy, Tye had set in motion actions that would get Turmoil extradited but they would take time to reach fruition so he let them move on their own keeping an eye on them while he pursued another pair of omegas.
Their research had disclosed the fact that when the Metallikats were defeated they were always handed over to an inventor named Professor Hackle who apparently had been responsible for their existence in the first place. The Professor had wanted desperately to make the pair responsible robots that would help katkind but time after time his efforts failed and the pair had wrecked havoc on the city in pursuit of their criminal agenda. Their time was up as far as Tye was concerned. They needed to be put out of business permanently.
On the pretense of speaking to the Professor about his work, Tye with JJ and Landon got into Hackle's lab. While Tye kept the Professor occupied showing him his inventions and explaining his hopes for robots aiding katkind, JJ and Landon searched and found the Metallikats in a side lab. The robots were fortunately not active so it was relatively easy for JJ and Landon to remove the disks that held the criminals memories. They quickly searched for any duplicates but found none. They slipped back in the room to stand behind Tye and listened politely. After about an hour, they thanked the Professor and took their leave.
"Alright now we destroy those things." Tye said and put action to words by crushing the disks with a rock. "That is the end of the Metallikats. No need to tell anyone. They'll just get used to never seeing that pair anymore." Tye said grimly pleased. They climbed into their van and returned to the hotel.
Since so much had been done in quick succession, he told his squad to take a little time off and act as tourists while keeping an ear for any whisper of Dark Kats whereabouts. Byron set his spy system to signal if anything that might indicate some clandestine action by the dangerous criminal popped up so they could check it out. Meanwhile Tye had some private business to pursue.
Evening...a few miles from Enforcer Headquarters...
Tye had checked out Commander Ulysses Feral before coming to Megakat City. His research had uncovered an honest, hard line, hard nose by the book military leader whose private life was squeaky clean but empty. There were no signs of a relationship or a close friendship with anyone. When he met the kat in person he discovered something very important. Commander Feral was just good as Tye at hiding what he truly was. No one on Tye's squad were aware their leader was not a kat and apparently that was also true of Feral's enforcers and the other kats he interacted with. Wanting to confirm his suspicions, he thought now would be a good time to catch the Commander and speak to him privately.
So here he was standing in the shadows of Feral's apartment building waiting for the Commander to return home. Obviously working late again, it was eight o'clock when Feral drove into the underground parking garage. Tye used his magic to cloak his presence until he was close to the black hummer.
Feral startled when Tye slipped up beside him as he climbed out of his car.
"What are you doing here?" He asked irritably.
"We need to talk privately with no chance of anyone hearing us. I don't think your apartment qualifies. Why don't we go to Megakat Park for a chat?" Tye said quietly.
Feral narrowed his eyes and stared at Tye suspiciously. "What is soo secretive that my apartment doesn't suffice?" He said tightly.
Tye leaned close suddenly and whispered something. Feral's eyes widened in shock stepping back from Tye. He gripped himself firmly so as not to give in to a serious case of 'fight or flight' reflexes. His breath came in short pants of fear. He looked around wildly to insure there was no one else in the parking garage.
"Easy, it's alright were the same you and I. No need to panic." Tye soothed keeping his voice low and not moving a muscle, waiting for Feral to regain control of himself and calm down.
His mouth dry, Feral deliberately took slow deep breaths to calm himself while staring at Tye with frightened eyes. Tye made a strange cooing sound attempting to further soothe the terrified commander.
"Shall we go, then?" Tye asked again softly.
Trembling, Feral said carefully, "I don't want to go anywhere with you. I want you to leave my city and never let me see you again."
"I can't do that. Please! There are soo few of us why would you turn me away?" Tye asked urgently.
"Because we are safer apart than together. If they should find out...no...I won't risk all that I have worked for...not for you not for anyone...leave my city..." He hissed tightly.
"You would condemn our species to extinction due to fear? Haven't they taken enough from us that you would hide among them just so you can have a life that is incomplete and empty? What kind of life is that? How can you bear to be soo alone and untouched?" Tye pressed then dropped his voice to a near whisper, "Have you forsaken the sky forever?"
Feral choked in pain while backing away from Tye. "Why do you want to hurt me? You know nothing about me. My life was hell before I came here. I'm safe and as happy as I want to be. Why torment me with things I gave up to have that much?"
"But it needn't be that way!" Tye pleaded not willing to back down. This was just too important. "This city is used to the unusual unlike other countries. Our chance of surviving here are much better."
"They are used to it because they have no choice!" Feral hissed again. "They will never accept what we are!"
"But if we save this city from the omegas, what would our chances be then?" Tye pushed again. "Might they not accept their benefactors? There are two more criminals that threaten this city more than any others...Dark Kat and the Pastmaster...with them out of the way Megakat City could finally have peace. My squad is good and we might succeed in taking down Dark Kat but I know we'd succeed if we took him down and my squad is no good trying to take out Pastmaster. He is magic and only magic can finish or banish him once and for all and only we can do that. Don't you see its fate that brought me here and fate that I found you. Accept it and me and finally be happy." Tye pleaded.
Feral tried not to hear Tye's persuasive argument. Truth be told, he was very lonely and he did want to protect this city that had given him a stable and safe home all these years from the constant danger that threatened it but at the same time he was soo afraid to take the chance. He stood torn and indecisive.
Moving slowly, Tye closed the gap between them as he'd talked until he was within touching distance. He gently reached out and carefully caressed the dark tom's cheek. He felt the tremor of fear and something else ruffle the fur before him.
"Let's go to the park, please." He whispered as he continued to stroke the dark cheek.
Silence held around them for several long minutes while Feral wrestled with his fear and his need. It didn't help that Tye's touch was setting off a fire throughout his body. His eyes closed and he leaned unconsciously into the gentle caress.
Tye couldn't breathe...so much rode on this wonderful creature accepting him he didn't dare move any part of his body except for the finger he was using to caress the soft fur. 'Gods above how much he wanted Feral.' Such a fortunate find and he'd been soo lonely for his own kind for soo long.
He shouldn't be doing this now...he should have waited until his mission here was finished...but he couldn't stand being near and not touch. It hurt too much to be alone. Their kind suffered so much for what they were and though they wished it could be different they had learned to use magic to hide their appearance to survive. Katkind was terrified of them and that fear reduced his kind to loneliness and extinction.
"Alright," came a soft barely heard whisper that startled Tye from his bitter memories to the here and now. His heart leaped, Feral had agreed, careful still, he gently gestured to the hummer. Almost in a dream, Feral went to the driver's side and started the hummer. Tye climbed in the passenger side. In moments they were on the road heading toward Megakat Park. No words were spoken. Almost as if he were reading his mind, Tye watched as Feral parked near a more remote, wilder section of the park.
They got out and Feral led the way up a pathway toward a small hilly area. He began climbing and before they reached the top, Feral turned suddenly and went around a huge boulder strewn area then disappeared. Tye was startled until he reached the spot Feral had been and saw the crack in the space between some boulders. It was a tight fit but then it opened into a small four by four space. It was surrounded by the hill on one side and the boulders on the other and just the sky above.
"I found this years ago. It's where I go when I can't leave the city but wish to be alone. When I have time, I go out to the desert where there are many caves." Feral murmured looking up at the evening sky.
"It's beautiful and quiet." Tye said softly moving closer to Feral. He was soon directly behind him. Slowly he placed his arms around the other's waist. Feral didn't try to move away. Sighing in relief, Tye pressed his nose into Feral's ruff and sniffed deeply. He scent was intoxicating.
Feral shivered as Tye's body pressed against his. It felt warm, comforting and when the male nuzzled and sniffed his neck he nearly moaned. To be touched so...his eyes brimmed with unshed tears of grief at how much their kind had lost. He'd thought he'd found contentment doing without the need of touch but Tye had undone that in seconds. Now he burned with need to be touched, held, kissed...it flamed within him brightly.
Tye moaned with need and desire. Feral's scent changed to one of arousal. His heart leaped with joy as he moved to the dark kat's front and laid a kiss on his quivering mouth. Time passed and the moon came up as they coupled and explored each others body. Dawn was approaching when they finally parted and dressed. With a parting kiss they separated in Feral's garage.
He slipped into his hotel room and took a quick shower before sliding into his bed for a few hours sleep. He felt soo wonderful and his dreams were filled with the other half of his soul.
Feral walked into his apartment and stood in the middle of his living room for some minutes. He was ambivalent about what had happened. He wanted Tye but he didn't want him. As he looked around the life he had built for himself, the thought of it all coming down around his ears if the kats of this city found out what he was made him shake with fear. But at the same time the touch, the feel of another like himself was so incredible. He ached for that and couldn't bear the thought of giving it up. He was soo torn. Unlike Tye, he had no time to sleep. He went to the shower and hung his head and the tears he hadn't shed earlier came pouring out in the shower. He felt overwhelmed and lost. 'What had he done?' He moaned in misery.