It had been a pretty busy and successful day...successful because one of the omega headache loopholes had been taken care of and, the last she heard from the SWAT Kats, Dark Kat's hideout should be found the next day. All in all, Callie went home in an almost happy state of mind. The one hold out to complete happiness was the decision she had to make about allowing herself to be made a mage...wizard...witch...sorcerer...or whatever the name was for a magic user.
She shook her head and sighed as she stepped aboard the elevator at her apartment building. Abi said she would be here in about an hour and a half. That would give her time to shower and prepare something for dinner.
Stepping into her apartment minutes later, she hung up her coat in the closet then dropped her briefcase on the coffee table before heading down the hallway to her bedroom. Some fifteen minutes later, she was refreshed and wearing a two piece lounge wear in peach tones. Relaxed, she went to the kitchen to begin making supper.
When Abi Sinian arrived and let herself in after a shouted 'come in' from Callie, her nose picked up the scent of something delicious. She left her coat and purse on a nearby chair and made for the kitchen.
"Hmm, something smells wonderful! You decided to make dinner tonight, huh?" She asked the blond, going up behind her and giving her a warm hug before releasing her to go sit at the breakfast bar to watch.
"Yeah, I do like to cook once in a while when I have the time. This is a recipe my grandmother taught me. The entree is from a little place down on the bay which makes the most marvelous fish soup, add my grandmother's seared steak with caramelized onions and Gorgonzola cheese paired with whole green beans garnished with bacon and almonds for the main course finishing with a cherry cheesecake bought at the store and we have a gourmet meal as good as some fancy restaurant," Callie told her proudly, smiling as she served up the soup in beautiful blue china bowls.
"Wow! That sounds fantastic! Can't wait to sink my fangs into it!"
"Well, if you help set the table, we'll get to eating it that much quicker," Callie laughed.
Very quickly the pair had the table set and were digging into the delicious food. Conversation was light, no serious subjects allowed by tacit agreement. Finished and comfortable replete, they cleared the table, filled the dishwasher then took their dessert and wine to the living room.
Settling on the couch, Callie brought up the results of the genetic tests. Abi's reaction was predictable.
"So are you going to go through with it?"
"Part of me adamantly doesn't want to but the responsible side of me knows refusing is really not an option," Callie said, resignation filling her voice.
Abi grimaced as if she'd eaten something bitter. "I don't envy you! It's not fair that you have no choice in this but everything I've heard points to you being the only one to deal with the Pastmaster and I don't like it!
Callie reached over and grasped her lover's paw. "I know and I don't blame you. Seems ever since I took this job as Deputy Mayor, I've been in danger all the time. You'd think I would be used to it by now but this is more than getting into trouble...this is altering my whole being for the sake of taking out one enemy. It just seems like overkill."
Abi shook her head in commiseration. "That's exactly why I don't like it!"
"Neither do I," Callie murmured then looked out her apartment window that showed a magnificent skyline of Megakat City at night. "Abi?" She murmured.
"Yes?"
"Have you ever thought there were forces out there somewhere that had ultimate control over our lives?"
Abi blinked in surprise at the odd question. Instead of answering right away, she thought about it for some minutes before answering. "I've seen signs that our ancient ancestors seemed to think so but, as for myself, I'm a bit divided. I deal with fact a lot of the time but have been forced by all the weirdness we've encountered in this city over the past five years, to change that viewpoint. If such strangeness can occur here, why not elsewhere."
"Exactly. You might find this surprising, but Razor and I both have a strong sense that powers beyond our world have been manipulating us and many others to fit some grand plan of the cosmos. We've gotten the feeling that the course we're on now is one they've already determined for us. Both of us feel a Golden Age is upon us but we must solve these last few problems before we reach it," Callie said distantly.
A look of incredulity came over Abi's face but she didn't laugh at Callie. She knew the deputy mayor was an unusual Kat to begin with so it shouldn't have come as any surprise that she would feel some great power was guiding them to some goal. She herself couldn't feel it but she'd learned recently not to look too closely into things that couldn't be explained. Accepting them was far easier on the sanity.
"Okay, can I say this has gone into the truly weird category, here, without sounding totally negative toward your feelings? I've learned the hard way that accepting the strange and bizarre is far easier than trying to fight about it. Since even Razor says he feels the same as you, I'll just have to resign myself to accepting you feel this as well and go with it," she sighed finally in resignation.
Callie gave Abi a wane smile. "I honestly know how you feel because I think its just too weird to believe as well but I can't shake what I feel either. So you're right, accepting it is the only way to go or it's the funny farm instead."
Abi just snorted and took a sip of her wine. "Okay, so some nebulous beings are messing with us which I guess means, you will have to go forward with being altered."
"Yeah, that's what it means alright."
"Then why did you need to talk to me about it, if the decision is essentially out of our paws?"
"Because I needed to hash it over and hear it before I could accept it," Callie said, shrugging her shoulders helplessly.
"I guess I can understand that...but I still don't have to like it."
Callie grinned and set her wine glass down. "No, neither of us has to like it so we let it be and do something far more enjoyable, hmm?" She said leaning closer to steal a kiss.
Catching her breath moments later, Abi murmured, "I hardily agree with that, let's stroll back to the bedroom and do some that something else." She stood up and tugged the blond she-kat to her feet. Arm in arm they strolled down the hall to the master bedroom.
An apartment not far from Enforcer Headquarters...at nearly the same time...
"I can't wait to have all those little problems solved and the cases closed," Feral said, sighing as he removed his coat and weapon and put them away.
"Now that they've been identified, it's only a matter of time, love," Kam murmured, giving his mate a brief kiss before heading toward the kitchen of Feral's apartment.
Kam had moved from the apartment he'd shared with Genus to Feral's and enjoyed his new domestic situation. He'd not planned on being mated as yet but fate had had other ideas and he found he wasn't too upset by that.
He went to the fridge and poked around for the makings of a meal for the two of them. Kam loved to cook but like Feral, usually never had the time. Living here temporarily gave him the opportunity to enjoy his little used skill.
"Yeah, I know but it's just like waiting for Christmas...the suspense is killing me."
Kam laughed and pulled out some hamburger. "How about some excellent chili with beef and you pick the side dish?" He asked.
"Sounds delicious. Let's see...vegetable or salad or fruit..." he murmured as he took his turn in the fridge. "Ahh, the perfect thing..." he said more to himself than Kam as he pulled out various fruits and began preparing them.
"Tomorrow I'm supposed to get a report from that archivist," Feral continued as he helped with dinner.
"Be interesting to see what he's found out," Kam said as he began cooking the beef. "Oh, and before I forget, I told Ms. Briggs she has a very strong magical core and is a good candidate for having her dormant genes turned on."
Feral paused in what he was doing to look over at his mate in consternation. "What did she have to say?
"She needed a little time to speak with someone about it first and would give me her decision tomorrow, however, I'm certain she's already decided to have it done," Kam said mildly.
His mate continued to frown as he thought of the serious step Callie would be taking. "She'll not be the same..." he murmured unhappily.
"Ulysses!" Kam stopped what he was doing, moved to his mate's side quickly to give him a hug then shook Uly firmly by the shoulders. "She'll be able to do magic that's all. Who she is inside will never change. She'll still be the forceful and brave she-kat you've always known. I'm sorry this upsets you so but, unfortunately, she is the only one who can deal with the Pastmaster. Our mages will be by her side to aid her so she won't be alone fighting him, but she must do the deed herself. She's a strong she-kat and I have every confidence she will handle this new ability with ease once she's been trained. Try not to worry soo much." Having said his piece, Kam returned to the cooking food.
Ulysses stood there for another long moment before sighing and returning to his own task. Kam was right! Since he had no say in the choice Callie would make, he would have to wish her the best and be there if she needed him and his enforcers. He prayed all went well with her. He knew she was strong and level-headed but he couldn't completely squash his need to protect her as he would any female of their kind.
Kam heard the sigh and glanced over his shoulder to see the pensive look on his mate's face. Shaking his head, he made plans to thoroughly overwhelm Uly's senses in bed later tonight, helping the dark tom to forget temporarily, his many worries.
In another part of the city...later that evening...
"Genus?"
"Yeah, Jake?" The wolf asked as they lay on his rental bed enjoying the afterglow from some exceptional sex.
"I wanted to ask you if you'd be allowed to help us find Dark Kat's hideaway and aid me in developing something to dispose of some radioactive scorpions?"
Genus' eyebrows rose questioningly.
"It's two of the chores T-Bone and I have drawn in the plan to rid our city of the still open problem areas. The hideaway has a creepling-making machine we have to destroy and there are most likely many bombs that need to be defused. As for the scorpions, a mining company broke the environmental rules and dumped toxic waste down a mine shaft into a small river used by the creatures living at that depth...in this case only the scorpions were affected. Chance and I managed, with great difficulty, to dispose of a scorpion nearly as large as our jet. Fortunately, the ones left are only about two foot long and there are about a hundred of them at last count," Jake explained.
"Ah yes, I heard a little about that when my captain was speaking with Ms. Briggs on her trip to our ship. I didn't get the particulars but did learn you had some really dangerous problems that hadn't been addressed and were allowed to fester and/or repeat themselves."
Jake grimaced at that summation. "Yeah, I know we dropped the ball. To be honest, Chance and I never thought about what happened each time we finished a case for the enforcers. It's obvious now we were just as much at fault as the enforcers at not following up," he sighed in disgust.
"Don't' let it eat at you. Seriously, there is no way you could have possibly thought of doing that since you were not part of the system. Now, the museum has an office specifically trained for this and would have been the ones who could have spotted these problems and brought them to the proper authorities attention if they had been allowed access to the files as they were supposed to be. However, Feral had apparently not been told of this program so didn't know he was supposed to send a copy to the museum. Manx apparently didn't know or lazily thought it was being done so never checked and Ms. Briggs obviously had not been told such a program existed. Add in Dr. Sinian's part at not realizing she wasn't getting those reports and you have a chain reaction of failure that just kept getting worse with no one realizing it," Genus soothed his lover.
Jake stared at him in shocked surprise. "You mean there was an office already supposed to be doing this but due to mismanagement, it failed to be done during Manx's tenure?" He asked incredulous.
"I'm afraid so."
"That's just soo stupid and criminal to boot," Jake growled shaking his head and thinking about it for some minutes then sighing and letting it go as something he couldn't have changed anyway. "Well at least it's now been identified and corrected. So back to my questions...can you help us?"
Genus eyed his lover thoughtfully for a long moment. "Well...I could help you improve your scanner with a few tweaks that will aid in your search. As for the scorpions...what is the main problem with collecting them and disposing of them?
Jake snorted and said, "those things just happen to be nearly indestructible and capable of using both electrical and fire energy. Though small, the sheer number of them can cause havoc and I have nothing they can't escape."
"Ahhh, okay, now I understand...hmm...I need to check with my captain and see what you have that could be converted or altered to do the job," the wolf said, considering.
"Perfect!" Jake sighed in relief. "So, now that a plan has been made, let's do something else for a while," he purred suggestively.
"I like that idea," Genus smirked as he reached for his lover once more.