Another month went by and it became difficult for Feral to leave his office any longer. He shouldn't be trying to come to work but he was stubborn. He was loathe to hand over his work to Steele any sooner than he absolutely had to.
So because of this, Ms. Briggs was forced to go to him when there was something of import that needed discussing with him that couldn't be done by phone or messenger. This was one of those days. A project she was responsible for funding required some pertinent questions answered. The matter was top secret so she had to go to Feral to discuss it.
When she entered his office she found him deep in layers of reports.
"Looks like my desk." She said, humorously.
He looked down at her and gave her a tired smile. "Performance reports. Thought I should get them done since they are due when I deliver. What can I do for you Ms. Briggs?"
Callie closed and locked the door behind her. Feral cocked an eyebrow at her.
"I need to discuss a few details with you on the Black Force Project." She said seriously.
Feral sat back and sighed. "Ahh, I see. What's your questions?" He asked gesturing for her to come up to his desk.
She took the steps til she was beside him then laid a report in front of him as she held an identical one. They began to go over the problem areas.
They'd been at it for some forty minutes when Feral groaned and shifted in his seat, a grimace of pain on his face.
"Are you alright, Commander?" Callie asked in concern.
"Uh, yeah...just a moment, Ms. Briggs. The kittens have decided to kick each other again and my ribs are in the way." He grunted and hissed in pain again then his expression went distant.
"Alright you two enough. Mommy doesn't like that!" He scolded his kittens. They didn't understand the words but could sense their mother's displeasure and quickly settled down after a quick, last kick. Sighing in relief, Feral focused his attention outward again to meet a confused look on Ms. Briggs' face.
He smiled in mild amusement. "I was just telling them I didn't like what they were doing and after giving a final kick to each other, ceased. Bratty little devils."
"You told them...but how? They are still within you." Callie asked in surprise.
"It has to do with the bond that Ten and I have finally managed to open between us. It allows me to communicate with our kittens as well, though I'm told that will end when they are outside me. Pity. The ability would allow me to control the little beggars." He said mildly.
"Wow! What a neat ability. Even if it ends when they are born, right now it must be really incredible." Callie said in amazement and awe.
"It is a bit. They can't really understand me nor I them but apparently they understand the emotions behind my words as I can sense whether they are in pain or unhappy in some way."
"That's truly amazing. Well, hopefully they will stay quiet so we can finish this." Callie said returning to the file they were discussing.
"I hope so too." Feral remarked as he returned to their work.
It took another hour before they were finished.
"Take care of yourself, Commander. By the size of you, I'm sure its becoming far too difficult for you to get around easily." Callie said as she gathered up the report and got ready to leave.
"Yes, unfortunately. I just don't want to leave too many things behind for Steele to do." He grimaced at the thought of that.
"I can certainly understand that. Just don't overdo it. Take care." She said then unlocked the door and left.
Feral sighed in resignation as he got back to the pile of performance reports.
That night he lay with great difficulty on their bed and tried to sleep. Ten had placed pillows in strategic places to try and ease his mate's discomfort.
As he lay behind Ulysses and wrapped an arm around the tom's chest since he couldn't around the large waist, he felt kicking against his palm and his mate's moan of pain.
He sent his thoughts to his kittens. "Shhh, little ones...time to sleep...mommy and daddy are tired..." He purred and murmured a song to soothe the kittens to sleep. It took a while but finally they quieted and fell asleep long after their mother had succumbed to exhaustion and was fast asleep. Their father followed soon after.
More time passed and Feral was now so large, he could no longer go to work. It exhausted him far too much. He was now within four weeks of delivery, though his doctor was afraid that he might deliver early which wasn't uncommon with twins but even more so for a male herm.
Tendaji had decided the time was right to surprise his mate with the new home he had purchased some months ago. Feral had to admit it was a very nice place. It had three bedrooms, a large master bedroom with bathroom, a home office for the both of them, a solarium, dining room, large kitchen, and a living space with high ceilings and skylights which looked out over the bay.
Feral had to admit, their new home beat his apartment so finally moved into their new place much to Ten's relief. Soon they were enjoying the peace of their remote home. Now that Feral couldn't go to work, Ten moved his own work to his home office where he could be at hand when his mate needed him. Feral continued his own work by using a laptop so he could talk and work with Felina and Steele, who was nominally in charge.
One would think he would be safe, unfortunately, he did have to go see his doctor once a week because he felt regular ultrasounds were needed to monitor the kittens even though Feral was able to tell the doctor the twins were fine by his mental contact with them. But the doctor felt a complete checkup was better to head off any potential problems.
So toward the end of his fourth week, he was sitting uncomfortably in the doctor's waiting room, with Kunto and Tendaji, waiting his turn to be seen.
Suddenly a loud rumble of sound was heard and the medical building, they were in, shuddered. Frowning in concern, Feral waddled toward a bay of windows that looked out onto his Enforcer Headquarters not more than two blocks away.
Shocked, he could see huge vines, that had erupted from the ground and had caused the ground to shake, crawling up the enforcer building and swarming over it. Choppers were circling it like angry bees but were not making any headway against them. They might as well be firing water rather than laser cannons and bullets. The roof cannons began to boom as he watched.
Pulling his radio out, he hurriedly contacted Felina. Ten and Kunto stared grimly at the scene. There was nothing his security team could do against something like this.
It took several minutes but Feral finally reached his niece. Meanwhile, behind him, the other patients came to the window to watch in horrified fascination and listen to the Commander and Felina's conversation.
"Uncle, the vines are destroying everything. They are as strong as steel and are invading all floors and keeping jets from being launched. They came up swiftly from the ground beneath the sidewalk before an alarm could be sounded. We are trying to evacuate as fast as we can and calling in all units that are located outside the city but it will take time for them to get here and, unfortunately, there is no guarantee they will have anymore effect than we are. The roof cannons can't make a dent in them. Dr. Viper is determined to take us out and he's so far succeeding." She said anxiously.
Feral could hear the battle coming through loudly on the radio. "Felina, get out of there. Ensure Steele get's everyone out as fast as possible then try to attack from outside rather than be trapped inside." He ordered urgently.
As he watched his building be torn apart, a familiar jet zoomed in from the south. As soon as the Turbokat got close enough, missiles began spraying out. Razor was apparently trying most of his arsenal to see what would affect the vines.
Feral stared tensely, his paw gripping his radio tightly. His choppers had pulled back since none of their weapons were having any effect but after tense minutes of battle, not even the SWAT Kats could make a dent in the damn things. His mind searched for someway to kill them then he had a brilliant idea.
"Dispatch, put me on an open channel." He ordered. Moments later he was calling the jet.
"SWAT Kats! I have an idea that might destroy those things." He said hurriedly.
"What might that be, Commander?" Came the gruff and tight voice of the pilot.
"The Mega-Beam Laser that Pumadyne was working on that Zed damaged. I heard they had it repaired and ready to launch soon. I'll call and get them to allow you to take it. Can you make it work?" Feral demanded.
"It's pretty big but...yeah...I should be able to attach it to our underbelly and hook it to my targeting scanner." Razor said thoughtfully.
"Good! Then get over to Pumadyne and I'll call them." Feral ordered then clicking off, grabbed his cell phone and called Pumadyne. He watched as the jet took off as he held on for the director.
He spent an angry ten minutes arguing with the director but finally managed to get them to give the Mega-Beam Laser to the SWAT Kats who had arrived while he'd been talking on the phone.
He hung up and continued to watch in angry dismay as much of his building was damaged extensively.
"That's going to cause taxes to be raised." Ten muttered.
Feral growled under his breath but didn't comment.
Suddenly, the air was filled with flying plantimals. The choppers tried to take them out but were not doing very well since the things spat acid and was making quick work of the choppers causing them to fall from the sky. The things began circling the beleaguered enforcer building while easily holding off the chopper squadron then began to spread out to the other buildings in the area.
Feral frowned in puzzled confusion. "What is Viper up to?" He muttered aloud.
"You know! Those things appear to be looking for something?" Kunto said thoughtfully, watching the behavior of the creatures.
As they continued to monitor the scene, the Turbokat arrived with an ungainly missile-like tube under their jet, tied in place.
Some of the plantimals turned from their apparent search to attack them. Feral clicked his radio on again. "Attention any chopper squadrons...protect the SWAT Kats jet. They are going to try to destroy the vines but need to be protected while they do so." He ordered.
He received immediate acknowledgment and soon the air was filled with choppers firing their blaster cannons at the flying plants to distract them. The air was a noisy battlefield that spread further out from the enforcer building. A few of the plants soared close to Feral's location, paused at the windows, looking in, then soared away again.
Kunto had an uneasy feeling about that behavior. He couldn't figure out why those things were looking into buildings but he was fairly sure it could only be something bad. He pulled out his own blaster and held it out ready.
Ten had noticed Kunto's action and looked toward him in puzzlement.
"Something's not right, boss. I don't know why but I don't like it." Kunto said in answer to the look.
"But, what do you..."
Whatever, Ten was about to say was violently interrupted by the sudden appearance of new vines on the building they were in.
Gasping in shock and worry, Ten pulled his mate away from the windows to try and escape. Pregnant patients and medical staff screamed in terror and tried to escape through the office door.
Staring over his shoulder, Ten felt an urgent need to get his mate out of here but the Kats at the door were blocking their escape. There was the sound of breaking glass and a long vine slithered into the room. Fast, like lightening, it reached in and snatched Feral around his legs and swept him out the window before Ten and Kunto could grab him.
Roaring in fury and fear, Ten rushed to the window and saw with horror his mate being carried off in the air, upside down. The vine that had grabbed him was carrying him to the street just below for some unknown reason and here he was trapped above and unable to reach him.
Anguish filled his heart as he quickly turned and raced to the elevator now that the crowd of panicked Kats had vanished. His pride mates following close on his heels. He prayed he would make it in time to save his mate.
He reached out to Uly as he waited for the elevator to get him to the lobby but his mate was too preoccupied and in pain to heed him.