Barely fifteen minutes had elapsed since T-Bone and Genus had arrived at the hangar, before Tara arrived by taxi. She paid the cabbie then turned with both paws filled. One held a plastic bag where a heavenly scent arose in a heady cloud while her other paw held a rather ordinary silver case as big as a regular size book.
"Here, let me take one of those, Tara," Chance said coming out of the garage to meet her.
"Thank you, Chance," Tara smiled, though there was a hint of concern when she saw the cut near his eye. She handed over the food bag and followed him back into the garage and on into the waiting area where the guys had gotten drinks, plates, and forks ready on the coffee table.
Chance set the bag down and began to empty it. While he was doing that, Tara set her case down and took out a portable medi scanner. She waved it over Genus then took out something that looked like a flashlight, sort of, and passed it over all the cuts and bruises the wolf had.
When she was done, she nodded at him and he moved to sit on the couch. "Your turn Chance, just stand here before me," she said.
The tabby stood where Genus had moments before and waited. Tara did the same things to him and within minutes, he was sighing in relief.
"That thing is amazing," he said as he reached up and could feel nothing where the long cut had been near his eye.
"Just a little high tech medical science," Tara said, putting her instruments away and setting her case on the floor near the chair she sat down in.
Genus had served up a plate for her so handed it to her when she sat down then set a drink before her on the table. She gave him a grateful smile.
Chance grabbed his own plate and began to chow down his food quickly. Tara could only shake her head at his unseemly haste.
"Relax, Chance. I know its getting late in the day, but you guys will get it done before nightfall, if you don't run afoul of more trouble as you did this morning. Speaking of Jake, I contacted the Wotan on the way here and found out he's doing alright. His bones were already mended as were all his wounds. His head wound is taking a little longer but he'll be okay after he rests. Dr. Tennar is keeping him under light sedation to insure he doesn't get up and try to leave," she said, mildly amused.
The tabby snorted and gave her a relieved smile. "He would too. Thank you for letting me know, I've been soo worried."
"You're welcome. So tell me what happened today."
Chance continued to eat while Genus filled his team mate in on the morning's work.
"Well, except for the mishap, you've had a successful start on your tasks. I wish you luck on disposing of those dangerous creatures. But do me a favor, please...try not to get hurt while doing it," Tara said as she prepared to leave again.
"Hey, you know we do our best, just the enemy has other ideas," Chance said, cheekily.
Tara just rolled her eyes, gave Genus a hug, then Chance a kiss and a hug before leaving in the taxi that Chance had summoned for her. The two males went down the ladder to the hangar once she left.
"We'd better reload a few things and the turbo mole then we're off," Chance said, as he headed for his locker and began to dress in a fresh g-suit.
Genus agreed and helped the tabby load then they were off to the Megakat Mines. When they arrived, the place was deserted, which was expected. After landing a short distance away from the mine so the jet would remain safe, Genus helped T-Bone load the capture cage into the Turbomole then they drove out of the jet and headed for the huge hole the SWAT Kats had made when they escaped the giant scorpion the first time.
It was treacherous going and the two were bounced around a great deal despite their seatbelts. It took a good twenty minutes to finally reach the deep hidden cavern below ground. The toxic lake was just like T-Bone had seen it before and all around it were the scorpions.
"Wow! Those are really nasty looking things," Genus commented, grimacing at the sight of those deadly stingers. This would soo not be fun nor easy.
"Uh Oh! Yow!" T-Bone yelled as suddenly the Turbomole had two med-size scorpions land on it. "Damn! I didn't think there were any that size left after we took out many of them last time. Guess we were wrong. Hope, Razor's new weapons will do the job. The old ones didn't have any effect on these things."
He pressed a button on his console and the Turbomole raised a laser from its top weapons launcher. "Eat laser, you cruddy things!" He yelled as he fired, knocking the ones off the mole.
Genus watched in grim dismay as the laser drove the creatures off but didn't kill them. T-Bone noted the same thing so switched weapons. A freeze ray shot out but it only held the scorpions a few moments before they were able to break free. The same for the scrambler and banshee missiles he tried next. The ineffectiveness of his missiles only angered the creatures which were now more numerous and swarming over the mole.
To prevent losing their ride, T-Bone roared off with all engines flaring forcing the scorpions to fly off. They gave chase though and T-Bone knew they had to come up with some other plan quickly before they were ripped to shreds.
Genus felt out of his depth here as he didn't know the terrain and had no idea what else could affect these atomic beauties except for what he had aboard the Wotan but they had no time to seek help from that quarter.
"Do you have any idea what to do next?" He asked the tabby.
"I don't know...wait...there is one thing but its going to be hard to get these things to cooperate."
"What is it?"
"Not far from here is a lava river. Razor and I got rid of many of these things there but it was a close and dangerous battle. We had to use our delta packs to evade them and karate chopped stalactites with scorpions attached that took them into the river, killing them instantly. Keeping ourselves from being taken out by those impervious stingers and huge sharp claws were the difficult side of the deal," T-Bone gritted out as he drove recklessly through the caverns trying to keep them from harm.
"Unfortunately, that does sound like the only thing that has a chance to work. Got a pack for me?"
"Sure, behind your seat."
Genus undid his seat restraint and searched the back area, finding the unusual flying jet pack and donning it. He quickly familiarized himself with how it worked.
"Okay, let's find that river and get this done," he said flatly, making sure he was adequately armed to play tag with the scorpions.
"Gotcha!"
Some ten minutes later, T-Bone came out of the cave they were running through and halted the mole quickly as the 'road' gave out to a cliff and the heat rose unbearably around them from the hot lava below.
"We're here and the bug brigand is right on our tails."
"Well let's not keep them waiting. After you..." Genus said, letting T-Bone take the lead as he knew this area.
T-Bone opened the canopy and leaped out followed by Genus. The pilot quickly sealed the mole then turned on his pack, just getting off the ground in time before a scorpion reached a claw toward him.
He zoomed over the river of fire with Genus nervously following. Hanging over a giant river of burning lava wasn't his idea of fun. He was further upset when he noted how easily and stupid the scorpions were as they leaped from stalactite to stalactite trying to grab the two of them. Some were so bent on getting the pair dancing in front of them, they actually leaped in the air without the certainty of catching themselves on the rocks to save them, falling to their deaths when they missed their targets.
"I think they are starving!" Genus observed. "Which explains their kamikaze behavior."
"I think you're right. We almost don't have to do anything except put up with the terrific heat, avoid the ones trying to grab us and play keep away from the ones literally leaping at us," T-Bone said, avoiding a leaper.
Genus fired his more powerful laser at a leaper heading for him, the force beam sent the thing flying backward into another of its buddies sending them both falling to the hot river.
For the next exhausting fifteen minutes, the two ducked, chopped rock, and fired their weapons at the desperately hungry creatures, sending them into the fiery river below them. They were so focused on keeping alive they failed to notice at first that their enemy was rapidly reducing until no more appeared.
"Wow! Is that it?" T-Bone panted, dripping sweat and desperately thirsty.
"Looks like it!" Genus said, equally hot and dry. "Let's get back to the mole. I need some water."
"I'm with you!"
The two jetted away from the hot river and into the much cooler cavern. Twin sighs of relief were heard but no other sounds except the jet packs followed them to the mole. There were no signs of any more scorpions of that size around.
They climbed into the mole and after grabbing some water, T-Bone drove them back to the toxic lake. He opened the canopy and while they rested, they counted the number of smaller scorpions congregating around the lake. To T-Bone's relief, there were far fewer of them than the original count.
"Seems those bigger creatures were eating the smaller ones. It would account for why there are so few. Fortunately, it seems they weren't able to breed due to the mutation either so once these are gone, no more should appear before the lake is cleaned," he observed.
"I think you're right. I also think we don't have to take the capture cage into space. We just fill it up then dump it out over the lava river," Genus suggested.
"Hey, great idea. So how do we capture these little creepy crawlies?"
"I would think your normal weapons would work long enough to capture them," Genus said, thoughtfully.
"Well we wont know until we try, so let's get to work."
Over the next hour, the pair chased down the smaller scorpions using net missiles to collect them. Razor had made the nets with Agracite, the same mineral that had made the scorpions super strong. The creatures did make bigger holes in the nets but T-Bone and Genus did manage to corral and dump them into the capture box before they broke through the netting.
Capturing them wasn't too hard but finding them in their multiple hiding places throughout the cavern was tedious and exhausting for the pair.
It was with great relief, that the last box full of scorpions was dumped into the river. Sighing, they carried the cage back to the mole and stored it then did a last careful sweep of the area before they felt they had done a thorough job.
Climbing back aboard the mole, T-Bone made a quicker trip back to the surface. Once up top, he paused to make a call to the Department of Environmental Cleanup and told them the area was safe to work in but that they needed to get to it quickly before more large scorpions were created by the toxic chemicals. They thanked him and promised they would send a team out first thing in the morning.
He reminded them to inform Commander Feral when the job was completed then cut the connection and used his radio to contact Feral. When he managed to catch the Commander he gave him a quick report on Dark Kat's hideout and the eradication of the scorpions.
"Do you want me to drop off the inventory we made on Dark Kat's stuff tonight?"
"Yes, please do that. I promised the archivist that I'd get him that by end of day," Feral said.
"Okay, have your assistant meet us and I'll hand it over," T-Bone sighed, wishing he could just go home now.
"He'll be waiting. Thanks, Feral out!" Feral said, cutting the connection.
Sighing to himself, T-Bone drove the mole to the jet. Soon they were winging their way to Enforcer Headquarters. It was a twenty minute trip but only a five minute one on the enforcer flight line. Sgt Fallon took the report and nodded his thanks then T-Bone sent the jet back into the air. It was already moving on toward dusk when they roared down the hidden runway some ten minutes later. They leaped down from the canopy, T-Bone pausing to change his clothes before the two of them headed to the apartment above for a shower and food.