Title: Disguising
Author: Kristen Sharpe
Date: September 13, 2024
Rating: G
Disclaimer: SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron, its characters
and concepts are copyright to Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc and are used without
permission.
"We’ll need masks.”
Their last topic – monster movies – had petered out five minutes ago due to Chance’s lack of enthusiasm for Jake’s favorite genre. So, Chance’s next comment came out of nowhere.
Jake looked at his best friend around the new housing they were shaping for their proto-jet’s first engine. “Obviously. Though I feel like we’re gonna need another engine, some wings, that kinda thing first.”
“Can’t hurt to start planning now,” said Chance, tightening a last bolt near the floor and straightening.
“Okay.” Jake rolled with it. “Well, flight gear is obvious too. We can probably pick up some of it from military surplus stores if we’re careful.”
“Yeah, but we gotta modify any Enforcer gear or Feral will recognize us in an instant.”
“Feral and everyone else we knew back there,” Jake agreed. “So, what’re you thinking?”
He had a suspicion.
“Well, the colors have to be way different for a start.”
Jake propped his right arm against the engine housing. “Mm-hmm.”
Here it came.
“I was thinking of something brighter.”
There it was.
Jake grinned. “We gonna be the Kat Kommandoes or Rockat?”
“That’s—!” Chance sputtered at being caught immediately in his comic book fantasies.
But, Jake quickly waved his free hand. “It’s a good idea.” And, one of the first times Chance wasn’t hiding his hopes under a thin layer of sarcasm and cynicism. “We’re gonna be in a jet; stealth isn’t really an option. And, the further we get from Enforcer colors, the better.”
“Exactly!” Chance was grinning now. “But, plenty of people know I read ‘Kat Kommandoes’, so we gotta mix it up. I’m thinking… Purple and green.”
“What?” Jake made a face. “No. No purple. And, definitely not with green. Look.”
He left the engine and darted to the monster of a desk that was one of the few things left behind from the MegaWar III bunker their hidden hangar had once been. He’d cleaned it out and taken it over as his own workspace. It was now covered in rough blueprints and pages of calculations. He quickly grabbed some scrap paper and a pen to doodle a crude drawing of a flight suit, then waved Chance over.
“Okay, I don’t have a purple pen, but look…” Jake swapped his black pen for a four color one and scribbled green across parts of the suit as Chance came over to look at what he was doing. Finishing, Jake shoved the crude doodle toward him. “Imagine that with purple.”
“What about blue?”
Jake quickly scribbled in some blue.
They both eyed it thoughtfully.
Jake doodled another flight suit beside the first. “Blue as the main color?” he asked.
Chance just grinned, so Jake colored the main body of the suit blue.
“Black for the accent color?” Jake suggested.
“Red,” said Chance. “We gotta be bold.”
“Also the only other color I’ve got,” Jake noted, but obligingly gave the doodle some splashes of red.
Again, the two considered his handiwork.
“Not bad,” Jake admitted.
“Perfect,” said Chance.
“Okay, fine, you get your masks and comic book colors.” Jake rolled his eyes but couldn’t hide his smile. “I mean, once we figure out how to even get flight suits in those colors. But.” He couldn’t resist; he really couldn’t. “Here’s my idea – no shoes.”
“What.”
It was less a question and more a statement. And, the face Chance put with it made voicing such a crazy proposal entirely worth it.
Jake pressed on. “I mean, we’ll have to get out of the jet sometimes. We’re gonna be doing this alone without support, after all. So, if it comes to a fight, my balance is better without heavy boots.”
“No.”
Jake smothered a grin and continued as though his friend hadn’t spoken.
“Lots of martial artists don't wear shoes.”
“In the movies. And, no,” Chance repeated.
“Hey, it’s only fair. I agreed with your idea.”
“You said no purple. I say no no-shoes.”
“Yeah, but we compromised on color. We can’t compromise on something like shoes - yes or no?” Jake made a show of thinking. “Unless sandals would count? What about sandals?”
Chance left the table and started toward the ladder leading out of the hangar.
“No.”
“Aww, c’mon, Chance. It’s a matter of flexibility. Oh, and, if we needed to do any climbing, we’d have our claws.”
As he chased after his friend, Jake thought he might have been starting to warm up to his own pretend argument. Not that it would ever amount to anything.
Author's Note: I tried to address the barefoot thing. I did! I just have no idea how to justify it. Bare feet probably aren’t even safe inside the jet for various reasons. So, that’s why this mostly turned into a bit of poking at the Remco toy of Razor, which, yes, is technically blue and green. But, mine definitely leans a bit purple.