As Feral was inspecting a new style of body armor in his R&D section, Sgt Fallon came racing in, face showing major concern. Feral sighed mentally as he prepared to receive some bad news.
"Commander, there's been a report of something odd hovering our world which was discovered by the observatory and whatever it is looks like its in a fight with something else."
Feral's eyes widened. "A fight?...in space?" He blurted in disbelief.
"Yes sir!"
"Kat's Alive! We'd better head over there on the double, ready my chopper!" He bellowed, rushing out of the research section and heading for the elevator at a run.
Sgt Fallon contacted the tower on his radio so that a pilot and chopper would be ready on the pad when the Commander arrived. As Feral jumped into the waiting elevator, Kam quickly squeezed in beside him. It was obvious his lover had forgotten all about him.
"Let me come with you, Ulysses." He said urgently.
Feral whipped his head to the side and eyed his lover. He had forgotten him but should he take him along?
Before Feral could make up his mind, Kam hurried on to say, "I could be of some help with this new threat."
The dark tom sighed and nodded. The elevator arrived on the flight line level and the two rushed out, running for the chopper warming up on the pad. They climbed aboard, Feral taking the seat next to the pilot with Kam getting in the rear.
"To the Megakat Observatory, stat!" He barked into his helmet radio. The pilot acknowledged and they were soon lifting off and zooming north of the city.
Kam sat tensely in his seat. The only thing in space right now was the Wotan but who could they be fighting. He didn't dare contact the ship until he could see what was going on.
They arrived within twenty minutes, the pilot setting down in an empty section of the parking lot. Feral and Kam jumped out and ran to the main entrance. There they were met by a small excitable Kat who led them to the main observatory. Visitors were eyeing the enforcers with some concern, wondering what was going on.
Feral and Kam were led into the huge room where the telescope was, all visitors had been cleared out for the duration of the emergency.
"Up here Commander!" Called one of the scientists up on the cat walk where the computers were that ran the telescope.
Wending their way up the stairs and onto the balcony, the two arrived next to someone whose name tag said, Canton. Before Feral could say anything, this Kat immediately started speaking in a precise voice, excitement and worry in his eyes.
"We'd been changing the position of the telescope for a new project. While that is going on the computer monitors the images as the telescope moves to its new configuration just in case it spots something interesting as its traversing. The computer alerted the operator that something unusual had been spotted and he halted the telescope and sent it back to the image it had captured. If you'll move over here, sir, you'll be able to see in real time exactly what is going on at this very moment." He gestured to a viewer that allowed the scientists to see what the telescope lenses were focused on.
The screen revealed the darkness of space with stars sprinkled in the background but what caught the eye was the bright blasts of light that signified weapons fire. A large dark ship was engaging something that could only be seen briefly when hit with a missile before vanishing from view again.
Feral hissed sharply as he recognized the black ship but was totally unprepared to see it managing to be in space when the last time he'd seen it was when it attacked the nuclear power plant a couple of years ago.
"I don't know how its possible but that's Dark Kat's Black Widow. He's somehow managed to make it space worthy. I have no idea what he's attacking though."
Kam did and was worried. The Wotan was under attack and by the looks of the fight, just barely holding its own since its cloaking was functioning fitfully. It was obvious it had taken damage already.
He had to make a quick command decision without being able to speak with his Captain. His leader needed assistance...now but the shuttle couldn't fight this enemy alone. There was no choice. He reached out and grabbed his lover by the sleeve.
"Commander, I need to speak to you privately. It relates to this and time is of the essence." Kam told him grimly.
Feral looked over at him, frowning. He was about to protest but the look in Kam's eyes stayed him. He nodded then turned back to the lead scientist, Canton.
"Keep an eye on this, record it for evidence purposes. I'll let you know when to stop." He ordered.
"Understood, Commander." Canton nodded.
Feral quickly left the balcony following Kam's hurrying form as he made for the outside. He didn't try to ask why his lover was in such a rush, just followed until they could speak privately.
When they made it outside, Kam continued on until they were halfway to the chopper and far enough away from the main entrance of the observatory.
He stopped and raised his communicator. Feral came up to his side and stared at him, puzzled. Kam tapped in each member of his teams signal in quick succession, sending an emergency burst to their comms telling them to respond immediately.
"What are you doing?" Feral asked.
"Just wait a moment longer, love, and I'll explain everything I can but we're short on time for a full explanation." Kam said tightly as he waited for responses from his team.
At the museum, Tara blinked when she felt the alarm on her communicator sting her. Leaving her work table, she casually left the room for the rest room nearby. She quickly checked to see if she was alone and responded to the call.
"Tara here!"
"Tara, be outside for pickup by enforcer chopper asap. This is a priority one response. Acknowledge!" Kam commanded.
Tara sucked in a breath of concern but answered, "Acknowledged sir, awaiting transport at north side of museum. Out!" Wondering what had happened, Tara returned to the office she'd left and sought out Dr. Sinian.
"Abby? I'm sorry but I've just received an urgent call from family. I need to respond asap and don't know when I'll be back." She told the doctor.
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Do what you need to, Tara. I'll see you when you can come back, don't worry about it." Dr. Sinian said kindly.
"Thanks." Tara said with a brief smile then quickly put away what she'd been working on and headed out of the building for the pickup point.
Genus had been walking back into the building after finishing a section of wiring on the bridge section. He was supposed to fetch more wire and head for another area to work, when his communicator alerted him to answer he looked around slowly, then stepped back into the supply closet and shut the door. Kam told him to wait for pickup on the flight line, Feral would give clearance for him. Genus acknowledged. Worry creased his face as he informed the crew chief of his absence.
Feral was getting really annoyed especially when Kam asked him to clear some Kantin named Genus to be permitted on the flight line. He nearly refused but the look on his lover's face made him think twice, it was worried and grim. Something really major was going on and it had his fur standing on end.
Kam's last contact to reach him was Donar. The wolf had just completed a run to Pumadyne and was just preparing to reload. Receiving the message, he signed out for the day without explanation and hurried to the far side of the building so no one would see him being picked up by an enforcer chopper.
Once the last of his people had checked in, Kam hurried to the waiting chopper with a confused and starting to get angry, Feral on his heels.
"Please send us to the closet pickup point then each one in sequence than I'll give you our final destination. Hurry Ulysses." Kam hissed urgently as he climbed into his seat.
Still frowning, Feral quickly gave the pilot his orders then, instead of sitting next to him, Feral went in the back to sit next to Kam. The chopper went airborne and as they sped off, Feral gave his lover a demanding stare.
Kam removed the helmet and gestured Feral to do the same. The helmet radio was not secure and he didn't want anyone to overhear him.
He leaned close to Ulysses and shouted in his ear. "That ship that's under attack by Dark Kat is mine. It's called the Wotan and its from the planet Arcanus as are myself and my team mates." Over the trip to the first pickup, Kam explained their mission and why they were here.
Feral's expression had, at first, been one of disbelief but as Kam continued to explain it grew tense and upset. Kam wasn't happy to see that expression on his lover's face but he could do nothing about it right now, the situation was too dire.
Pursing his lips tightly, Feral's mind was whirling in angry confusion. This was an alien sitting beside. It was an alien that he'd been having intimate relations with and he didn't know how to take that. He shoved his personal distress aside for the more important fact facing them both right now.
Dark Kat had learned of the visitors and had taken his ship up to confront them and most likely, to try and take their technology from them to use on Megakat City. Of that, Feral had no doubt. If Kam's people had wanted to take over their planet or just their city, they would have done so long before now. And besides, he had no feeling of evil intent from Kam.
Oh, he had lied to Feral, there was no doubt of that but it was duty that required him to and the dark tom could not fault him for obeying his own Captain and the rules that governed his people. On that he and Kam were the same and that more than anything allowed Feral to trust him despite the subterfuge used on him.
"Fine! So your people were trying to help us and now Dark Kat is trying to steal your technology. What do you suggest we do about it? We have no space capabilities." Feral finally said flatly.
Kam sighed. This was why he was becoming so enamored of this Kat. He had was angry, confused and upset but still managed to set that aside to deal with the matter at paw. He was indeed a worthy lover and companion.
"The SWAT Kats can get into space and have fought this enemy before. My shuttle is armed as well. I figure the two of us could help the Wotan defeat Dark Kat. You're welcome to come along." Kam said.
Feral grimaced about the SWAT Kats but had to admit Kam was correct, those two were properly equipped to handle this.
"Damn right I'm going along. I may not be in charge of this mission but I have enough knowledge about Dark Kat as well to prevent you from getting shot down." He said firmly.
"Excellent. Then you better contact the SWAT Kats and have them meet us north of the city near the spiked ridge mountains. I'll give you the coordinates as soon as I'm aboard the shuttle." Kam said.
Feral nodded then put his helmet back on and contacted his tower. He had them relay an open frequency message to the SWAT Kats.
Chance and Jake were working on an engine together when the enforcer band sang out from a shelf nearby.
"Attention SWAT Kats! Emergency! Commander Feral asks you to head toward the spine ridged mountains north of the city. Load up your weapons and be prepared to go into space! Urgent you respond immediately!" The dispatch said and repeated twice more before going silent.
Both friends gaped at the radio as if it had jumped off the shelf then turned to each other.
"What the heck?" Chance started to say.
"Wow! Something must be coming in from space!" Jake cut his buddy off. "Wait! Genus and the others!" He said excitedly. "I knew they weren't from here!"
"Wha...Wait! Jake you can't be sure of that!" Chance said, feeling the situation running away from him.
"And we don't know it isn't and the only way we're going to get our answers is to respond to Feral's call." The cinnamon tom said with certainty, quickly going about closing the garage then heading for the trapdoor to the hangar.
"But what if it's a trap?" Chance tried again, moving reluctantly to follow his partner.
"Then we run!" Jake said simply as he hurried to change his clothes.
Sighing in defeat, Chance did the same. Soon the pair were loading missiles for just about anything then taking off in the direction Feral had given them.