Greetings to all fans of the Swat Kats. This is my first fanfic. Please note this in any flames that you send. A few points to remember. 1) Swat Kats: The Radical Squadron is owned by Hanna Barbera. Which in turn is owned by Ted Turner, the same man who recently donated US$1.25 BILLION DOLLARS (over four years) to the United Nations! 2) Tim Hunt is owned by me. Please inform me if you wish to use him. 3) As Tim hunt is an Australian, he pronounces some words differently. For example Lieutenant is pronounced as _LEFT_tenant and his rank would be Flight LEFTtenant. 4) All flames and praise can be sent to Mark Johnson at rodj@mrbean.net.au or Hunter By Mark Johnson Deep in the Nevada desert lay a top-secret military base. It's official name was Area 51 a base where the military would make incredible new super weapons and improve existing ones; a base where the impossible was made possible, a base where crazy ideas became hard reality. To the people who worked there it was known as Dreamland. It was a normal day in Dreamland. In one of its many hangers sat an aircraft, a heavily modified F-22C Raptor. Fully armed and fueled, it would today make its final test run using the new technology that would make its younger brother, the F-22A seem outdated. To its pilot it was a great honour to be selected for this mission. For the pilot, flying an experimental aircraft was nothing new; he had done it many times before and would do it again. But to Flight Lieutenant Tim Hunt, an Australian test pilot, to be chosen over other American pilots to fly an aircraft that he had only read about, and (before last month,) was only simulator graded in, today was a very special day indeed. Tim had just finished putting on his flight suit when the base commander, General Douglas Drybeck entered the pilots' locker room. "Can't you read General?" Tim asked as his commander limped over towards a bench that was in the centre of the room. "Tim, you know that getting a star on your shoulder gives you certain rights and privileges one of them is ignoring some signs, another is busting you down to private" "Don't you mean an Aircraftman sir?" "Whatever. Sign this" The general handed Tim a clipboard with a single piece of paper attached "What the hell is this?" "An organ donor form. You forgot to sign it when you entered Dreamland" "General if I have an accident, I would seriously doubt that you can work out my blood type, let alone recover any usable organs," Tim joked as he signed the form. "And now if you will excuse me General, I have flying to do" Tim said as he took his helmet and flight harness from the open locker and left. General Drybeck smiled and closed Tim's locker. He knew from past experience that Hunter, Tim's flight name, performed better if FtLt. Hunt was otherwise occupied with a trivial matter. Chuckling softly to himself, General Drybeck was having trouble believing that something so simple as signing a fake form would make the required impact for the better. The General now knew that only an act of God could stop the testing of the new and improved F-22 for Project Whisper. And that wouldn't happen while he was overseeing this project. Meanwhile in another dimension..... At the MegaKat City salvage yard two bipedal felines were working in their modest two car garage. Chance Furlong, the larger of the two, was helping his friend, Jake Clawson, repair the car belonging to the deputy mayor. "I wish Callie would just give up and buy a new car, Jake" "Affirmative, but..." Jake never got to finish his sentence as a klaxon was heard throughout the entire garage. Chance went over to a nearby phone that was secured in its own wall case "Yes, Miss Briggs?" he asked "T-Bone, Dark Kat is at the MegaKat central bridge and is creating some sort of vortex" "Say no more Miss Briggs. We're on our way" The two mechanics ran down to the hanger hidden beneath the garage. Donning flight suits and masks they stopped being Chance and Jake and instead became T-Bone and Razor, The _SWAT Kats_ Back on Earth..... Tim had made his way towards the tarmac were his aircraft waited for him. He caressed its sleek, black lines as if it were a champion racehorse. "Beautiful is she not, sir?" one of the ground techs asked. Tim only nodded in reply as he put on his helmet. When Tim put on that helmet he took the name Hunter- the English translation of Jager, a name that several German pilots had given him. Jager was a tag that suited Tim's flying style. Expertly tracking down his targets and making the quick kill, in the skies he was deadly. Hunter made his way into the cockpit of his Raptor, pushed the button labeled start-up and the aircraft began its systems check and start-up procedures, displaying them on the left VDU. Idly he read them as they were displayed, taking the time to make sure that his helmet and mask were on properly and that a small cassette player was strapped to his right thigh, a practice he adopted after watching the movie _Iron Eagle._ BATTERIES TO POWER TURBINES TO SPEED INTERNAL POWER TO ENABLE STARTING INTERNAL POWER ANTI-GRAVS ENABLED ANTI-GRAVS ENGAGED TARGETING SYSTEMS TO ENABLE DOWNLOADING NAVIGATIONAL DATA.....DONE UNDERCARRIAGE RAISED HAVE A NICE DAY!! Hunter smiled at the last line, he always did. Taking to the air he quickly gained the necessary altitude and made his first radio transmission of the test. "Whisper 1 at angels 10, nosing over. Requesting vectors" he told the controller. "Whisper 1, proceed to waypoint 0-1" "Roger that, proceeding to waypoint 0-1" Hunter flew to the first waypoint in under a minute. The red earth reminded him of the Australian desert. For a brief moment he thought that he would never see his homeland again but quickly dismissed it as a case of pre-mission nerves. "Whisper 1 to base, Hunter is at waypoint 0-1" "Confirm Whisper 1. Hold position" Using the gravity repulsers Hunter stopped in mid air. The repulsers, linked to the navigational computer, altimeter and the thrust vectoring nozzles in the wingtips and fuselage, allowed less than 5 centimetres of movement in any direction. They also had the advantage of letting Hunter fly as slow as he wanted, (since the wings weren't needed to provide lift,) and do other things such as VTOL maneuvres or even fly backwards. Presently his radio crackled to life. "Hunter, this is Drybeck. Start your run" "Roger that, starting run on my mark. 3-2-1-Mark!" Hunter's mind drifted back towards the pre-flight briefing.... "In this stage of testing the F-22 will go through tactical, navigational and weapons maneuvres" Drybeck said addressing the briefing of the department heads. "Without servicing in between" This brought looks of shock from most of them, except Tim, who nodded silently. "Gentlemen, you all know that for the Joint Chief's of Staff to approve this project, certain....obligations must be met. One of them is an aircraft that is low maintenance; the other is that this bird must be able to outfly anything in the sky. We know that the F-22 can outfly aircraft that could be used against us, but there may be times when it may not be possible to service aircraft in-between missions. Operation Desert Storm taught us that" Drybeck went on to give Tim and the department heads sealed envelopes with their individual mission details, so they didn't know what each other was going to do and more importantly, so Tim couldn't find out what opposition he was to expect. Meanwhile in MegaKat city..... "Back off SWAT KATS, this is Enforcer business" "Yeah, whatever, Feral" was T-Bone's cocky reply "Your Enforcers don't seem to be able to handle it. And what about that vortex? Does anybody know what it is or what it's doing" "Never you mind. The Enforcers can handle this" "ER...T-Bone. Much as I hate to admit it, Feral's right. The only thing Dark Kat has done is stop traffic" "Krud...your right, Razor. I'll set up a holding pattern. When Dark Kat makes his move, we'll get him" Inside the Fearship that Dark Kat was using as a transmitter for the creation of his portal, creepling were pointing towards a monitor and chattering excitedly. Dark Kat calmed them down with a wave of his paw "Patience my creeplings" he said in his deep and majestic voice "Soon we shall be able to open the portal and send the SWAT KATS into another dimension, and MegaKat City will be mine!" Going back to earth...... "Is that the best you can do, Charles?" Hunter said with his usual faint Australian accent to Major Charlie Wilcox, the commander of the Surface to Air Missile batteries that should have 'shot' down the F-22 as it made its Run. Unfortunately the SAM sites were up against a target that was radar invisible, moving at under 200 Mph at under 100 feet- not the best set of calculations for the computers to work with. By the time the computers had the correct firing solution, Hunter was out of range of the first SAM and was using his electronic jammers in combination with some risky low altitude maneuvres and the natural stealth design of the Raptor to avoid the others. Hunter was feeling good. So good in fact that he switched his mike from 'Intercom' to 'transmit' so that the crew back at Dreamland and the crew that he had just humiliated could hear what he was about to do. Placing a cassette into the player he said over the mike "If you think that was good, you ain't seen nothing yet." With that Hunter pushed the play button and the sound of BTO's 'Ain't seen nothing yet' was heard over the airwaves as Hunter went into the second phase of the test. The second phase of testing was simple- fly through the canyon as fast as you can using all the resources at your disposal. This was an exercise that Hunter had done many times before but he was uncertain as to whether the guidance and navigational systems would hold after what he had put them through when he had given the SAM sites the slip. But this is why he was a test pilot, to find out what the aircraft could take before it went into active service. "Engaging Supercruise mode" Hunter said as he went to full throttle. Supercruise or exceeding the speed of sound without the use of afterburners was a relativity new concept in aviation and was incorporated into the F-22 during its initial design stage. Now Hunter was using it to see if the guidance and navigational systems could take the strain of performing at such high levels. "Hunter, what the hell do you think your doing?" came Drybeck's worried voice "Just testing the guidance and navigational systems, sir" "If you stay at those speeds you might have to test the ejection systems, too" "You say the nicest things" Hunter said sarcastically. Drybeck let the sarcasm go. He knew that Hunter was just letting of some emotional steam "You're going to be hitting some crazy weather patterns soon-" "How soon?" "Soon!" "When the Hell's that?" Hunter was getting upset. Strange weather patterns in canyons have been know to throw jets against the canyon walls and were not to be taken lightly. "10 seconds, present speed" was the reply Drybeck didn't have time to say that he would sooner lose a state-of-the-art $158 million dollar test aircraft than one of his pilots. Instead his attention was drawn towards the dimensional radar image of the canyon were Hunter was flying. Hunter would hit that weather pattern at over the speed of sound after taking a sharp corner. If Hunter had any sense he would abort his run while he had time. Otherwise the F-22 would smash into the canyon wall and kill Hunter instantly. Drybeck glanced at the digital clock that hung on the wall in the command centre. Hunter had only eight seconds left. In the dimension where Kats fix cars..... Dark Kat smiled his evil smile "When the SWAT Kat's make their next pass I will fling them into another dimension and then I shall rule MegaKat city" He then laughed. One of the Creeplings started it's mindless yapping, breaking Dark Kat's mirth. "What is it, my Creepling?" he asked with noticeable surprise in his voice, when he saw the readings. Something was coming through the portal. "Razor, this is getting boring" "I know T-Bone, but..." Razor's console began to sound an alarm "What the-, T-Bone something is coming at us. Fast!" "Krud! What is it?" "It's smaller than the TurboKat, and travelling at almost 800 mph" In the Canyon..... Hunter was just about to enter what looked like a storm cloud, but at 5,000 feet and in the Nevada desert Hunter thought that was unlikely. He decided to report in "Whisper 1 to control. Entering atmospheric anomaly. Will report on exit, see you on the other side!" In the command centre, Drybeck swore. Hunter flew into the anomaly, which looked like a dark, swirling cloud, and was pleased to see that his instruments were functioning within normal parameters. Suddenly he experienced a total systems shutdown, an event that could only happen when a power surge caused the circuit breakers to trip, thus stopping the flow of electricity to the instruments and protecting them from damage. Because of this, Hunter was out of control, beginning to lose altitude and his body felt like it was on fire. As Hunter lapsed into unconsciousness he had a sudden thought that he was going to die wearing blue, the most dignified way for an officer in the RAAF to go. MegaKat City..... The dimensional portal that Dark Kat had created had become unstable as an unknown body moved through it. Muttering curses Dark Kat decided that the best tactic was to make a frontal assault upon the Enforcers and leave in the confusion. Swiftly he executed his plan. The Katizens of MegaKat City watched in shock as Dark Kat's Fearship began to rise and move towards the line of Enforcers. Many of the Enforcers started firing while others, who were closer to the Fearship fell back towards a more strategic position. Hunter's plane then decided to make its entrance. Hunter was dimly aware of a sensation of falling. Opening his eyes he noticed that _HE_ was falling. Struggling he attempted to regain control of his aircraft before realising how futile the action was. With the power out the fly-by-wire controls were inoperative and thus Hunter was gliding out of control at 5,000 feet at just over the speed of sound. While he was contemplating his fate, Hunter noticed that his forward motion had suddenly stopped. Exhausted, he passed out. "Well Razor?" T-Bone asked as he gently placed the strange aircraft in a nearby park "Do we help them?" "Negative T-Bone" Razor replied "We've got to check out that jet" "Right, I'm going in" The TurboKat landed next to the F-22 as the Swat Kats began to examine the Raptor's strange lines. "T-Bone! I've found the pilot!" Razor called to his companion "Is he alive?" "Can't tell" Razor answered as he examined the canopy further. Finding the release lever he gave it a sharp pull and the canopy popped open. "I'm in!" T-Bone scrambled from the tailfins to the nose of the Raptor and helped Razor open the heavy canopy and get his first look at its pilot. "He's a Swat Kat" T-Bone exclaimed, for indeed Hunter's blue flight suit and red harness looked like the Swat Kats uniform. Hunters' face was obscured by his helmet, with its visor and air mask making identification impossible. Razor undid Hunter's air mask and raised his visor. When he had done this he looked in shock at the pilot of the strange plane. Curious as to what had spooked his partner T-Bone had his first look at the mysterious pilot "Kats alive!" he exclaimed "It's me" At the Dreamland Command centre..... "Any word from Whisper 1?" Drybeck asked to whoever was listening. Someone was, "Nothing as yet, Sir. Search and Rescue hasn't reported in" "I want to a full report within the hour!" "Sir!" MegaKat Park..... Hunter was beginning to regain consciousness. He could hear two voices- one was called T-Bone, the other Razor. 'They're interested in the Raptor and _MY_ condition' thought Hunter 'Pilots, they must be pilots. Probably Search and Rescue' "Razor, he's coming around" he said to his partner, T-Bone addressed the unknown pilot "Hey buddy, what's your name?, rank?" "Hunt, Timothy Warwick. Flight Lieutenant, Royal Australian Airforce. O117456" Hunter replied weakly. He then opened his eyes and saw T-Bone. "WHAT THE...!" he yelled as he reached for his sidearm only to be stopped by an unseen hand. Striking with his right hand he punched T-Bone, knocking him to the ground. Then, still using his right hand, he pulled Razor forward while rolling his left shoulder at the same time. The effect- Razor unconscious from a shoulder jolt to the jaw and a service issue sidearm drawn on T-Bone. "Now, my turn to ask the questions. Who are you, and where am I?" "My name is T-Bone; the guy that you just knocked out is Razor. You're in MegaKat City" T-Bone answered carefully. Whoever this Kat was he acted like he had never seen another Kat before. Something wasn't right. "You said your name was-" T-Bone was interrupted a crackle from Hunters portable radio. "All Enforcers, this is Lieutenant Commander Steele. An Unidentified Flying Object from Dark Kat's portal is reported to be in MegaKat Park. You are ordered to destroy it at all costs" "I'm Flight Lieutenant Tim Hunt" Hunter said to T-Bones unfinished question "And I'll be leaving know, before your Enforcers try to turn me into atoms" As the canopy closed Hunter could see the look of confusion on the cat-like aliens face "The airframe is indestructible" Hunter said in lieu of an explanation. When the canopy closed, he reset the circuit breakers and began his first manual start in this aircraft. Hunter began to talk to himself as he began the manual start-up procedures "Batteries are to power, turbines to speed, internal power enabled, A-G's enabled and engaged, targeting systems enabled, navigation -is stuffed-, undercarriage -was never lowered-. Now let's see if this bird can still fly," It could. On the ground Razor had just regained consciousness and saw T-Bone run past him to the TurboKat "Come on Sleeping Beauty" said T-Bone "We've got to save that pilot from the Enforcers" "Are you sure T-Bone?" Razor asked as he struggled to catch up. "We may have to save the Enforcers from that pilot" "What makes you say that, sure-shot?" "Call it a hunch" replied Razor, jerking his thumb in the general direction of the sky. High above the grounds of MegaKat City, Lt Commander Steele was trying to shoot down the UFO that was the F-22. Hunter was having the time of his life outflying the slow and bulky helicopters. Unfortunately his luck ran out when he was boxed in by several buildings, what appeared to be a news crew and about thirty armed 'choppers. Hunter hovered while he made the decision- to fight or to run? Steele made the decision for him by opening fire. Bullets from Steele's machine-gun pods ricocheted harmlessly off the armour that made up the airframe of Whisper 1. When it appeared that the Enforcers had expended their ammunition Hunter returned fire with his 20mm cannon, in one sweeping arc he had sent the vast majority of the Enforcers either down or returning to their base to re-arm and refuel. Hunter spun the Raptor around, and came nose-to-nose with the meanest aircraft he had ever seen. Hunter recognised the pilot as the Kat that had called itself T-Bone. He tried to make contact. "Whisper 1 to unidentified aircraft, what are your intentions?" T-Bone just rolled 10 degrees left then 20 degrees right then back to level, a maneuvre known as a wing waggle, the international 'follow me' signal for pilots. Hunter mirrored the maneuvre, the sign of agreement and followed the TurboKat out of the city. Briefing room 6, Dreamland..... "Report" barked General Drybeck "Search and Rescue reports that they haven't found any trace of FtLt Hunt or Whisper 1. Radar hasn't been able to lock onto the F-22's transponder signal or IFF codes" "Inform the Head of the Joint Chief's of the situation. That is all" MegaKat City..... "T-Bone what the hell do you think you're doing?" Razor asked as the TurboKat made its way towards its hanger with the Raptor following close behind. "Razor, remember when we accidentally got stuck in that crazy dimension where we were the bad guys? I think that this Kat is from another dimension that is similar but with one major difference" "Kats aren't the dominant lifeform" Razor said realising what T-Bone was getting at "And if we can get him to talk back at the hanger-" "-We can find a way to get him home" The trio made its way towards the hanger with T-Bone demonstrating how to make a safe landing while Hunter didn't land until he had entered the hanger, hovering a foot above the ground until he found a suitable place to park. Hunter was in shock; part of his rational mind had shut down in an effort to preserve his sanity. Acting only on instincts that have been drilled into him from an early age, Hunter act's in the only way that he knows how. He stays cool calm and collected, ready to take whatever action that is necessary no matter what the outcome. For the moment, Hunter tries to make himself at home. Hunter reached behind his seat and grabbed his flight bag. He then walked towards the set of lockers at the far end of the underground hanger, finding an empty locker next to the one marked with the initials T.B on its door. After storing his helmet and harness Hunter -now Tim Hunt- placed his gloves next to his helmet. As Tim stored his gloves he looked at his hand. It resembled an animals paw instead of a human hand. Instinctively he took his signal mirror from his harness and examined his face. It looked strangely like T-Bones. Tim glanced at the two Swat Kats who where now in civilian clothes and almost unrecognisable. 'What on earth happened to me?' thought Tim 'It's clear that I'm not on the same world. Maybe that weather anomaly was a kind of trans-dimensional gateway'. A memory of an old university paper appeared in Tim's mind. That paper was written by three mathematicians, Einstein, Rosen and Podalsky; it stated that mathematically there are an infinite number of alternate universes and how to travel to them. The paper was written after the failed Philadelphia experiment. 'But that still doesn't explain what happened to my hand and face' Tim was to scared to change out of his flight suit and into the drill uniform that was in his flight bag, for fear that his body had also mutated into something other than human. Could these animals have cracked the code and found the unknown variables that three of the greatest minds of recent time could not do? Tim's mind boggled at the thought. Turning towards T-Bone and Razor he asked "What did you say your names were again?" "I'm T-Bone and he's Razor" T-Bone replied indicating to himself and Razor respectively. T-Bone and Razor. In Tim's mind those names held a great meaning for him. "T-Bone and Razor" Tim said deep in thought "Your real names are Chance Farlaine and Jake Carlson, right?" Razor looked open mouthed at his partner. Although the strange kat had got their names wrong, the names that he had said were close enough to get them worried. "What makes you think that those are our names?" Razor asked casually "Because those are the names of the pilot and his weapons officer that won both the Top Gun and Red Flag trophies last year. Chance and Jake were their real names. They're the first team to beat the USAF best pilots that fly Tigers, Eagles, Falcons and every other aircraft in the US inventory. They are the best team I have ever seen, in any airforce" "We're flattered, but our last names are Furlong and Clawson. What's yours?" Tim smiled "Hunt, Tim Hunt" he said extending his hand/paw T-Bone smiled "What's your callsign?" he asked, grasping the offered paw firmly "Hunter. I don't suppose that you could tell me about your world?" Razor smiled "Only if you tell us about yours?" "Deal!" ************************************************************************ Commander Feral was furious. First those samned Swat Kats made an unwelcome appearance. Then a strange flying object appeared out of the vortex causing Dark Kat to attack his Enforcers. That idiot Steele nearly got a third of the Enforcer 'choppers destroyed when the UFO returned fire after Steele attacked it. And to top it all off the UFO flew off with the Swat Kats. It was going to be one of those days. There was a knock at the door. Feral's expression softened slightly as his niece entered the office. "Uncle, we could track the TurboKat while it was in the city centre, but when it left the built up area, well...." Feral nodded, it was the same story. After the Swat Kats left the radar net that the Enforcers set up to keep track of their own 'choppers, the TurboKat always managed to avoid the air traffic controllers at MegaKat Airport. To make matters worse the UFO was radar invisible, casting its radar 'shadow' over the TurboKat making it even harder to track. ************************************************************************ In the hanger Jake, Chance and Tim were working on the Raptor and discussing the various differences and similarities between the two universes. while the only work needing to be done on the TurboKat was a simple refuel and it would be flight-ready, the Raptor needed to be re-armed, re-fueled and have its systems serviced. "So Tim, you're a pilot and an aeronautical engineer?" Chance asked in disbelief "Yeah, only officers are pilots. Before I went to flight school I was given a full scholarship to the Australian Defense Force Academy, where I studied for my degree in engineering" Tim winced internally, knowing that his life before joining the airforce would have to remain a secret. For their sake they couldn't know that he was an Assassination Bureau operative. "Hear that, Jake?" Chance asked the figure half immersed in the inner workings of the Raptor's navigational systems "You've just been replaced!" "Very funny Chance" Jake replied with notable sarcasm "I would like to know who designed these circuits" "I did!" "Your kidding me!" The look in Tim's eyes told Jake that he wasn't "It was designed with the back-up systems to be almost as powerful as the main" Tim explained as his eyes widened in shock when he saw what Jake was about to do. With speed gained from years of experience Tim leapt forward and grabbed the soldering iron that Jake was using. As the slight smell of burnt fur filled the hanger Jake cried out in surprise at Tim's action and speed. Chance spun around and saw the soldering iron in Tim's paw and Jake trying to regain his breath. "What happened?!" Chance asked Tim "Jake was going to solder a loose wire without removing the thermite charge first" Tim replied with a surprising amount of calm "I just stopped him. Nothing serious" "Nothing serious!" Jake said finding his voice "You grab a hot soldering iron from my paw before I can even blink! You could have been badly burnt!" "If you had moved that soldering iron another few centimetres, that would be serious" Tim retorted "How could a soldering iron be serious?" Chance asked as he examined Tim's paw "The heat from the soldering iron would have set off the thermite, turning the circuits into a burnt cinder" Jake said dumbfounded "And I don't think I can find a replacement on this world" Chance finished examining Tim's paw, finding the fur only slightly scorched. "Is there anything else that we should know about your jet and equipment?" he asked with a slight grin "Yeah" Tim said offering Chance a hammer "hit it!" "You can't be serious!" Chance looked into Tim's eyes and saw that he was "Okay, it's your jet" Chance struck the Raptor's fuselage and its skin remained unblemished. Surprised Chance hit the fuselage with all his might and was again surprised to see the hammer crack and the skin of the Raptor unblemished "H..How did that happen?" Tim smiled "Trade secret" "We gotta get some of that 'trade secret' so I won't have to keep buffing out all the dings Chance puts in the TurboKat" The trio laughed at the last statement and continued working of the Raptor, "You guys take a break while I work on the armaments, and I'll tell you exactly what this bird can do!" "You're on " ************************************************************************ Deep in the sewer systems beneath MegaKat City a sinister shadow began to shake with laughter "Yesss, thisss new development might work to my advantage. But I mussst work quickly" The shadowy figure then disappeared into the sewers, laughing occasionally. ************************************************************************ To Be Continued..... "Why do people take an instant dislike to me?" "Saves Time!"