"Uncle! I've just received reports of multiple robberies occurring at the same time, around the city. All patrols have fanned out to try and cover them but these are very organized bands of thieves and they are managing to cause enough havoc to keep our forces busy while they escape," Felina said, breathless from her race to her uncle's office from the comm center. She could have told him by intercom but felt it would be better to do this in person.
"What are they doing that's allowing them to escape?" Feral demanded.
"Setting off smoke grenades, the fire alarms, security systems, sprinkler systems, just to name a few things they've done to panic the civilians that get in the way of the enforcers," Felina said, disgusted that such tactics were proving so effective.
Feral growled and muttered under his breath as he reached for his radio and began firing off a flurry of orders to his ground and chopper forces. He realized he could not go out into the field as was his wont because there were too many hot zones. He would have to direct the action from here so he decided to go down to the command center located off the comm room to run the op from there.
While still on the radio, he signaled Felina to follow him as he hurried from his office, down the hall to the elevators. Divining where her uncle was going, Felina pushed the button for the floor she'd just left.
Within seconds they were off the elevator and hurrying through the comm unit to the command center. Feral switched from his hand held to the open mic system and ordered the techs to begin giving him reports every ten minutes from each hot spot and start a situation map. Ten minutes later, a pattern began to emerge giving Feral and his staff a good idea where the thieves might be heading next.
As he directed his troops to hustle to new locations in hopes of heading off the thieves, he heard over his radio, a brief bit of chatter from the SWAT Kats. According to the map, they were at the south end where there had been over six robberies. They had managed to apprehend at least six of the culprits but they too were hampered by the scattered nature of the multiple attacks. They could only respond after they heard an alarm call but too often they arrived too late to do anything.
Since they were already in the area, Feral decided he might as well make them part of his strike units. He ordered his comm operator to signal the SWAT Kats. Moments later, a harried voice come over the radio.
"Yeah, what's up, Commander?" Razor snapped.
"This is a large, well organized group that's striking swiftly in multiple sights, causing me to split up my forces. Add to that, they are deliberating setting off alarms, sprinkler systems, and anything else they can do to panic people who further get in our way to capture them. I've set up a monitoring system and we've been able to see a pattern of a sorts. Based on that, I've been trying to anticipate where they might strike. We've beginning to have some success at last."
"Crud! We heard the multiple calls but were too busy to get the whole picture. So what would you like us to do? Obviously, it's no good just hopping all over the place and in many cases, missing the crooks altogether." Razor's voice clearly rang with frustration and a willingness to be a part whatever Feral had in mind.
"Take a holding pattern and I'll direct you to where the main action is. Your mission is to capture as many of these guys as you can. Don't detour as I have my troops spread out doing the same thing. If we stay coordinated, we may succeed in getting a good number of these guys."
"Roger, taking a holding pattern at 10,000 ft," Razor acknowledged then passed the instruction to his partner.
"Well that's certainly a better idea than what we've been trying to do," T-Bone grunted in agreement then switched his mic to speak with his partner privately. "I'm actually glad to see him doing his job the right way for once, even if it was circumstances that forced the issue this time."
Razor snorted. "Face it buddy, you'll never get your mate to stay in his office."
"Yeah, I know but I can dream can't I," the tabby sighed.
"Oh sure and pigs will fly," the smaller tom said facetiously.
Some five minutes later, they were notified of a hit and T-Bone sent the jet at its top speed to get there before the criminals took a powder. They made it and were able to corral the thieves as they were attempting to use some kind of jet pack for their getaway.
This made it easy for Razor to simply shoot a net missile at them and collect them like fish in a barrel.
"Well that went faster than we hoped. Too bad we can't shoot some Glue-Trap at them but you can't be moving to use it," Razor sighed with regret.
The gel, originally called Gluco-Gel 9000 by its inventor Tech, was now being produced by the enforcers R & D section and Razor, privately. It made their job of capturing criminals so much easier but it did have its limitations. Like not being able to shoot it in a crowd.
The last time that happened, Mayor Manx received many outraged calls by innocent Katizens caught within it along with the criminals. So to placate them, he warned Feral to use it strictly on the criminals, effectively tying the Commander's paws in situations like the one they were dealing with now.
Feral had been thoroughly disgusted. None of the Katizens had been harmed and were instantly released with the counter agent. It was another case of the cowardly Mayor bending over backward to please his constituents at the expense of their safety.
The SWAT Kats, though free agents, obeyed the stricture too so as not to cause Feral anymore grief from the idiot Mayor.
The other invention Tech had left them, the nearly impossible jail cells, had worked well for more than a year until Dark Kat had figured out how to escape his special cell. To add insult to injury, he managed to free Viper and the Pastmaster as well, much to Feral and the SWAT Kats disgust.
It had taken Razor more than a month to figure out how to correct the problem. Unfortunately, the omegas made sure they were never caught again, being more canny about their attempts to take the city. For everyone's sake, it was a good thing Dark Kat had finally managed to over reach himself and get killed. Viper wasn't as smart as he thought he was and found himself back in his escape-proof cell with no DK to get him free and the Pastmaster had been scared off, hopefully for good this time.
So the only real threats left were Turmoil, escaped and hiding somewhere out of the area, and the Metallikats, still deactivated at the moment, thankfully. However, that didn't prevent new threats from appearing like whoever was leading this merry band of robbers and, of course, the ever exciting scientific accident and/or alien visitor.
Feral's head was pounding from a growing headache as he directed the SWAT Kats to their next target then his enforcers to one across town. He rubbed his temples as he worried about just how much loot these thieves had manage to take and the cost to the city for all the chaos they caused in their wake.
Many questions floated through his mind; who was behind this? What was their real goal? If it was only loot, perhaps they would lay low for awhile before striking again for more but if it was to raise money for something more dangerous, what could that be and how much trouble was the city in? Lots of questions with no answers...at least not yet.
Sighing, he temporarily shelved his concerns to the back of his mind and focused on ending this strange snatch and grab mission that was going on. When it finally ended and the last of the thieves they'd been able to capture were on their way to jail, Feral had Felina do an inventory on what had been taken, how many thieves had been involved, and any casualties.
~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~
When they received the call that no more thieves could be found and that the apparent siege was over, T-Bone could tell his mate was tired and frustrated when he spoke to them over the radio. He and Uly would have a lot to talk about tonight, he was certain but right this moment, as he and Razor were changing clothes, the only thing on his mind was why.
"Crud! Why the multiple hits? What were these guys trying to accomplish? They stole money, jewels, and other valuable things but I don't get the feeling it was for the thrill of it. Something is up...I just know it."
"I definitely agree with you on that, buddy. I don't like this at all. We barely get rid of one bad omega when we get hit with someone who has plans we have no clue about nor who the heck they are.
"Yeah, and I doubt any of those cruds in jail right now will be telling us anything unless we get very lucky to find a weak link among them, which isn't really likely." Chance sounded both disgusted and worried.
Jake grimaced. "Yeah, that's what I'm thinking too and the way our luck runs, we wont catch a break either. Whatever this person is planning, we'll not know about it until happens. For now, all we can do is keep our eyes and ears alert for any kind of trouble that might be related to this event." Shaking his head, Jake made a waving off sign. "Enough of this speculating, we've got work to do. Let's get back to the old grind, Chance."
Chance sighed and said nothing in return as he followed his friend up the hatch and into the garage. As they returned to their interrupted work, Chance asked himself, 'why couldn't we catch a break? Is that really too much to ask?' It just didn't seem fair to him that just when the two of them had finally found love, they now had to worry about some new threat.
'Good thing we're training Callie and Uly now because I've got a bad feeling they are going to need to defend themselves soon in whatever is about to happen.' Pushing his concerns aside for now, he set to work again on the truck he'd been installing brakes on.
~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~
Unable to do anything more about the incident until Felina had been able to gather the information he needed, Feral returned to his office and the desk load of work waiting for him.
As he sat down with a fresh cup of coffee and drew the first of many folders to him, his phone rang.
Sighing, he picked it up as he opened the folder to look the contents over. "Feral!" He said distractedly as not all of his attention was on the call.
"Ulysses? We were supposed to have a meeting about thirty minutes ago," Callie's concerned voice came over the line.
Feral blinked then quickly jerked his wrist up to stare at his watch. Cursing softly, he apologized, "I'm sorry, Callie. I'm sure you heard what went on..."
"Yes, we caught the news cast about it on the Mayor's TV but hadn't heard what the status was now. The danger over?"
"For now, I guess. Felina is gathering information on the whole mess which is why I haven't a report to give his honor at the moment."
"Any theories as to why they did this?"
"I only know of two possible reasons for doing what they did; the need for money to fund some nefarious plan or thrill seeking...guess which one I think it is."
"The former...as would I.. Really, Ulysses, you would think we could catch a break..." Callie's voice was both disgusted and wistful.
"You and me both. Anyway, I could come over now before I become buried under my work again...provided you're still free?"
"Yes, I can still see you. The Mayor has gone golfing now that the fervor has died down." She gave a derisive snort to show what she thought of that.
Feral couldn't agree with her more about the idiotic and cowardly mayor but didn't voice his opinion. "Good, I'll be there in about ten minutes."
"See you then."
He hung up his phone and stared at his desk for a moment. Reaching for his intercom, he summoned his assistant who appeared almost immediately.
"Sir?"
"I'm leaving to see the Deputy Mayor. Would you please categorize this mess into two piles; immediate attention required and those that can wait a few days, please?"
"Certainly, sir."
Sighing, Feral left his desk and grabbed his coat, buttoning it on his way out the door heading for the elevators. Within five minutes, he was driving to city hall.