Chapter Text
An alarm screamed eliciting a curse from a sandy furred male who slid hurriedly from under the car he'd been working on. Grabbing the special phone off the wall, he barked, "T-Bone!"
"The Pastmaster is at the museum, hurry?" Came the familiar, breathless voice of the deputy mayor, the whine of lasers nearly drowning her out.
"Right! On our way!" Chance turned to close their garage doors, shouting to his partner, who was upstairs. "Jake!"
"Coming!" A brick colored tom came flying down the stairs to join his partner. The two went down a secret hatch in the floor at the rear of the garage.
Minutes later, the Turbokat was roaring across the sky toward the Megakat Natural History Museum.
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"Give it up Pastmaster!" Feral shouted through a bull horn while staying safely behind a thick pillar.
He and his Enforcers had been attempting to get their adversary to give up, though Feral knew very well the fiend wouldn't but laws had to be followed. His biggest problem was the exhibit room the sorcerer was trapped in had only one exit, which Feral ensured was blocked by them. But it also wasn't terribly big and mostly empty except for a very large artifact and a small display case against the wall beside it.
However, despite being boxed in, the Pastmaster was supremely unconcerned as he easily held off the Enforcers while casting a spell of some kind on a strange mirror that was imbedded in a carved slab of stone.
Feral ducked the careless blast from the magical pocket watch the evil sorcerer used to keep them at bay, then shot a blast from his laser pistol, which hit a magical shield the Pastmaster must have just erected, absorbing the energy. Cursing, he turned to the curator of the museum who was hiding behind him and behind her was the deputy mayor. Calico Briggs had been at the museum to see this artifact for the mayor and had been the one to alert them about the Pastmaster.
"What is that thing he's trying to do something to?" He demanded.
"It's an ancient mirror from Queen Callista's time. It was recently unearthed at the site where her castle used to stand. We don't know exactly what it does yet," Dr. Sinian said.
"Apparently, he does," Feral grumbled, turning back to see what the sorcerer was doing now. He blinked in dismay and cursed.
"Oh my!" Dr. Sinian exclaimed. She'd taken a chance and peeked around the pillar to see what had caused the Commander to swear.
Ms. Briggs looked as well and gasped in shock. "What is that?"
No one had an answer, but what they saw was certainly cause for concern. No longer reflecting the room at large, the mirror now held a swirling image of some other place. Feral could just make out a castle on a hilltop, a forest to one side and glittering lake on the other.
"Strange, that seems familiar somehow ..." he muttered aloud. Dr. Sinian turned and gave him a surprised and questioning look.
Suddenly, an explosion struck the floor at the Pastmaster's feet, and, despite his shielding, was sent flying, screaming in fury all the way, to hit the display case nearby, shattering the top of it and momentarily losing his watch to the floor.
From the ceiling transom window, the SWAT Kats rappelled to the floor with their glovatrixes extended.
"Whatever you're up to Pastmaster, we're here to stop it," T-Bone growled, hitting the floor solidly with his feet then charging forward.
"Get the Pastmaster!" Feral shouted at his Enforcers, using the SWAT Kats interference to gang up on the evil gnome before he could get his watch back to attack them.
Unfortunately, being so short has it advantages. The Pastmaster rolled forward off the display cabinet and hit the floor rolling, snatching his watch as he passed it then struck the wall and bounced to his feet, firing immediately at the group charging at him.
The SWAT Kats managed to open their shields barely in time to keep from being bowled over but Feral and company weren't so lucky as they went sailing through the air, striking the opposite wall and sliding to the floor in a groaning heap.
Wasting no time, the SWAT Kats pushed ahead against the magical energy beam, firing a tarpedo and flash bulb missiles at their enemy.
The Pastmaster ducked the tarpedo but was blinded by the flashbulb. He ended up staggering back against the side of the stone mirror and nearly falling through it's surface but was prevented by a flying tackle from Razor.
While the two wrangled on the floor, Feral came barreling forward till he came even with T-Bone as they passed the front of the mirror. Then disaster struck.
The Pastmaster managed to get a paw free and fired a volley of energy at the two racing toward him. The beam caught the pair dead on, tossing them cursing in fear and anger through the image still showing on the mirror.
Hearing his partner's cry and seeing him vanish through the mirror, Razor heaved with his feet, catching the Pastmaster in the stomach and sending him into the oncoming Enforcers, felling them all to the floor again.
Recovering quickly and seeing he would get no where with his plans now, the Pastmaster formed a portal hastily and leaped through, closing it behind him.
Ignoring the escaping criminal, Razor turned to face the mirror, horrified that the image was rapidly disappearing. With a cry of: "T'Bone!", he raced toward it, then leaped through, refusing to abandon his partner. He only hoped he'd be able to find a way to get them back home again.
The exhibit room went silent as everyone stared in dismay at the now blank mirror. The Pastmaster was gone but so were their Commander and the SWAT Kats.
One of Feral's officers finally found his voice. "What do we do now? How do we get them back?"
Uncertainty on her beautiful face, Briggs turned to look questioningly at Dr. Sinian. That worthy simply shook her head. "As I told Commander Feral, we only just got this artifact. We have no idea yet what it does, though, obviously seeing it in action tells me it's some kind of dimensional portal but beyond that I know nothing else. I'll have to search through Queen Callista's scrolls to see if it's mentioned and what spells were used to open it."
"Search quickly, Abi. We don't know if the Pastmaster will return but there's a good chance he might since he didn't get to do whatever it was he came here to do with that thing," Briggs ordered then turned to the Enforcers. "I suggest you leave a small force to guard this mirror just in case he does show back up."
The ranking officer nodded, unhappiness on his face. "I'm sure the second in command will do that immediately, Ms. Briggs when I tell him what's happened here." He turned away, pulling out his radio to report to his superior.
"Callie?" Abi Sinian stopped the deputy mayor as the blond was heading for the doorway.
"Yes?"
"Even if I do find out what this mirror does, there's no one alive today who has the ability to cast a spell, so getting them back won't be possible. We have to hope they find a way to do that from their end," the curator said unhappily.
Callie sighed and could feel a megaheadache coming on. "Just find out what you can Abi. We'll worry about that later."
Sinian sighed but nodded agreement then hurried off to her office.
Giving the mirror one last anguished look, Callie turned away. She needed to return to city hall and brief the Mayor. He was definitely not going to be happy about this.