Title: It Takes a Theif
Author: McCall
E-Mail: FelinaSWKT@aol.com (Ask for McCall)


					It Takes A Theif
        				    Part 1
				         By McCall


  The tall, lean she-kat crouched behind a dumpster of the grimy alley of 
Megakat City, waiting for the right moment. The barbecue aroma that 
floated across from the hot dog stand was nearly intoxicationg, but she
bided her time. If there was one thing she'd learned from all her years of
experience, it was that one could never be too eager, even in minor affairs
like breakfast. As always, she sensed when the timing was perfect.
    Picking an aluminum pie plate out of the dumpster, she hurled it a 
sleek, gray car parked at the curb. She could throw as straight as any 
tomcat. Alarms rang out as the pie plate bounced off the door of the Lexus.
The pudgy hot dog vender rushed over to help along with several other 
concerned citizens. The she-kat sauntered across the street. This was where
so many amateur theives flubbed up. If she were to dash across the street 
to pilfer a hot dog, then kats would have noticed her, thus defeating the
purpose of her diversion. Like everything else she did, she was completely
cool, casually selecting a dog from the counter and applying a thin stream
of mustard to it before nonchalantly strolling up the sidewalk. The she-kat
smiled to herself as she heard the hot-dog vendor arguinh loudly with the
owner of the Lexus. "Let this be a lesson to them," she thought. "Nobody
comes between Andy and her breakfast."


	"Chance, hand me that crescent wrench, will you?" Jake Clawson asked
his friend. A gruby brown paw reached out from under the Firebird. 
Grumbling, Chance Furlong slapped the wrench across Jake's palm.
  "I hate this, I hate this, I hate this." He looked mournfully at his 
left arm, encased in plaster up to his shoulder.
   "Sorry, buddy," Jake said, his voice slightly muffled as he twisted a
screw into place. "but until that cast comes off in six weeks, I'm afraid
you're reduced to being my assistant." Jake rolled out from under the car
and tossed the wrench aside. "That takes care of the carberator, but I 
think this crate's gonna need a new transmission, too."
   "Not that I can take it for a test drive or anything." Chance continued
to complain. "I still can't believe I did that. I mean, here I am, a 
SWAT Kat. I'm an expert pilot. I've travelled through time, foiled drug
smugglers, and beaten up bad guys on numerous occasions. But did I go down
in a blaze of glory? Nooooo. I have to break my wrist falling down the
stairs because I tripped over my shoelace!" Suddenly, a new thought
occured to Chance. "Hey Jake. You haven't, uh...told anyone exactly *how*
it happened...have you?" he asked anxiously.
  Jake looked at his partner with amusement. "No, buddy, don't sweat it. I
wouldn't do that to you. Unless of course...you were to, say, really drive
me crazy by moaning about how miserable you are. Then a certain deputy
mayor is going to know the whole story, along with the rest of the city."
  "That's blackmail!" Chance shouted.
 Jake shrugged. "Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. Now, it's getting kind of 
warm in here. Would you mind terribly bringing me a nice, cold glass of
lemonade? I'd like it fresh squeezed, with one of those little blue 
umbrellas."
  Chance stomped inside, muttering under his breath. "It's gonna be a long
six weeks."
  Jake grinned as he popped the hood of the Firebird. He had no real 
intention of emnarrasing Chance by telling Callie what a klutz he was, but
he saw no reason why he couldn't take advantage of the situation. It would
be nice having Chance wait on him paw and foot for a while.


   The next morning, Jake was sitting at the table reading the newspaper
when Chance came down for breakfast. "How's the arm, buddy?" Jake asked.
  "I am tring to forget about it," Chance growled as he selected a jelly
donut. "I hardly got any sleep last night." He shoved Jake's feet off his
chair and sat down. "I have to keep my arm propped up all the time or it 
swells up. I still can't believe I did that. The worst part is I invented so
many stories about how it happened I keep getting them all mixed up. I mean,
I told Callie I was bunji jumping and the cord snapped, I told Felina that
I injured it lifting a car off a five month old kitten....or maybe that's 
the one I told Ann Gora...no, wait, I definitely remember telling Ann I was
hit by a car trying to push a little old lady out of the way. Then what did
I tell Callie?"
  Jake finally interrupted him. "Hey, buddy, listen to this!" He cleared
his throat and began to read from one of the front page articles. "Valuable
Artifacts Unearthed Near Megakat City." According to this, that crazy idea
the mayor's office had last year to finance the archaeological dig outside
the city actually paid off. Three days ago, they found the remains of an 
ancient Claudanian civilization. And those remains are worth an estimated
six-point-seven million bucks."
  Chance forgot about his arm with a quickness that made Jake suspect it
wasn't hurting him as much as  he let on. "All that dough for some old junk
that's been underground for the past three hunderd years?"
  "It's a bit more than just junk, Chance. This is proof that historians
have been waiting for. It shows that a Claudanian tribe really did exist
near here." Jake explained. "Anyhow, the artifacts will be on display at 
the museum for the rest if this week at the museum. Wanna go down and take
a look at it later?"
  "Why not?" Chance said glumly. "I've got nothing better to do."


   Andy leaned against a stop sign, flippingthrough a paper she'd just 
swiped. Only occasionally did news hold any interest for her, but she still
thought it was important to stay informed. "Let's see...that fat mayor is
having some kind od big deal gaa premiere dinner party...They're passing a 
bill to raise the speed limit...My horoscope says I will reassure a troubled
friend...They're calling for rain tomorrow...Some old guy just sold his
model train collction...Hello. Valuable artifacts. This sounds promising.
Could be time for old Andy to do a little digging." 


	In a dark, sinister, foreboding corner of Megakat City, someone dark,
sinister, and forboding was hard at work. The hulking form stood over a tray
of test tubes. "If I  can just get the formula right." he muttered to 
himself. "My plan will be complete. And then all of Megakat City shall be
under my power!!!! It's so good to be bad!!!"


	That afternoon, Jake and Chance stood outside the room housing the
artifacts, speaking with Abi Sinian, museum curator.
  "My goodness, Chance, what happened to your arm?" she asked with concern.
 "Uh...uh," Chance stammered, looking to Jake for help. Jake just grinned.
 "Well, see," Chance began. "There was this, uh, bull! Yeah! This stampeding
bull. He was charging toward me. I knew my time had come. I lept forward
bravely. But then, his horn got me right in the arm!"
  "You should have seen him, Abi." Jake said. "So agile. No one could call
him a *klutz* or anything."
   "Getting back to those atrifacts," Chance changed the subject rather
quickly. "Can we see them now?"
 Abi nodded. "Right in that room. Just *please*, be careful. Don't even 
breathe on anything." The room was guarded by a rope fastened across the
doorway. Abi unlatched it to let Jake and Chance through.
  "Are your shoelaces tied?" Jake whispered.
  "Shutup!" Chance growled.
  But both of them shut up fairly quickly when they entered the room. 
Nothing the article said could have prepared them for such a sight. The room
was huge and cluttered floor to ceiling with some of the most beauitful
pieces of work Jake and Chance had ever seen.
   "I thought artifacts were supposed to be crumbly and grimy." Chance said
in awe. "This stuff looks more like treasure."
   Indeed, the display looked like the treasure house of an Egyptian 
pharaoh. Detailed statues of gold and bronze sttod guard by the door. Rich
tapestries ans paintings adorned the walls. Glass cases housed jeweled 
knives and cookware. Shields, clubs, and swords hung on a wooden rack.
Enermous diamonds, rubies, opals, carbuncles, amethysts, and other precious
gems were heaped on the floor as if they were potatoes.
   Chance was admiring one of the paintings. "This is a marveleous 
likeness." he observed. He actually had no clue what it was a likeness of,
but he knew it was good.
  Just then, Jake noticed a small door adjoining the room. "Hey, Abi," he
called. "What's in there?"
  Abi practically flew over to block the door. "I'm sorry, Jake. You can't
go in there."
    Now, Jake was gying of curiosity, He decided to turn on the old Clawson
charm. "Aw, come on, Ab." he coaxed. "Just a little peek? I thought we were
friends."
   Abi looked torn. "Jake, that room is top secret. I don't even know what's
in there, The archaeologists brought that load in late at night, giving
strict instructions not to let *anyone* in there."
   Jake finally relented. But he could not quell his curiosity, "There must
be something pretty special in there." He'd give anything to find out what
it was, but he couldn't betray Abi's trust, Still, there had to be some 
way...


 	Callie Briggs walked out of the mayor's office into the bright
afternoon sunshine. It had been a day filled with paper work, and Callie
hated paper work. She couldn't wait to get home, take a hot shower, and curl
up for the night with a good romance novel. As she turned into the alley
where her car was parked, Callie felt something cold and sharp press against 
her side. She froze. An icy hand grabbed her arm. "Help!" Callie attempted
to scream, but the hand clamped over her mouth. Frantically, she tried to 
bite down on the hand. It didn't work. She felt herself being dragged away.
And there was no one around to help her.


 	Chance stretched out on the couch. It looked like it was going to be
another one of those boring evenings. He picked up the remote and flipped
on the T.V. Then he flipped it off again. He couldn't wait for Jake to get 
back from the store. At least he'd have someone halfway intellegent to talk
to. Close enough, anyway. Chance was just about to raid the refridgerator
when he heard an unmistakable *BEEP*. He grabbed for his communicator.
 "Yeah?" he said into it. "T-Bone?" came a wobbly voice. It was Callie, and
she sounded real scared. "T-Bone I need help/" she managed to say. "I think,
uh, there's someone following me. I'b b-by myseld and-and I'm frightened.
Could you come here? Now? Please? I realy need you."
   "Whoa, Callie, slow down!" Chance felt a trace of confusion. It wasn't
like Callie to call him for something trivial. She must really be freaked
out. "Of course I'll come, but where are you?"
   "In an alley of Valerie Street." Callie answered.
   "I'll be right there." Chance promised. "Just stay calm."
  "Thanks, T-Bone. You have no idea how much this means to me." she said,
sounding relieved. "Oh, and, T-Bone?"
   "What?"
  "Come alone."
 There was a click as Callie hung up. Chance frowned, pondering the 
omniuosness of her last words. If he didn't know better, he'd swear this
was a trap. But Callie would never help one of the SWAT Kats enemies get
them...right?


	When T-Bone pulled onto Valerie Street fifteen minutes later in a car
no one would recoginize (he realized flying the Turbokat was not necessary
in this situation, and it would be next to impossible with a broken arm) he
was feeling a lot more confident.  "Callie probably isn't even really all
that scared." he said to himself, getting out of the VolkesWagon and 
heading towards the alley way. "She just wanted a chance to see me. And why
not? After all, I'm smart, handsome brave-" That was as far as he got. 
T-Bone felt a hard piece of iron collide with his skull, and he felt himself
falling. Then his head snapped back and hit the ground, and everything went
black.


	Jake walked into the kitchen and set the grocery bags on the counter.
  "Chance?" he called. No answer. That was funny. Jake had expected to find
him sacked out on the couch, wattching Scaredy Kat reruns, but the living
room was empty. Then he saw the note taped to the coffee table. "He leaves
messages in the strangest places." Jake said to himself. The memo said, 
  "Had to leeve. Callie in truble." (He could never spell)Jake sighed. How
many times had he told Chance not to go out as T-Bone while his arm was in 
a cast? All anyone would have to do is see Chance with a broken arm, and put
two and two together. They would come up with a SWAT Kat. "It's probably no
big deal." Jake told himself.  "He would've contacted me if there was a real 
problem, right? He'll be back soon." But as Jake glanced up at the clock
and the hands slowly moved to five-thirty, he felt an uncanny sense of
forboding.
	
				  End of Part 1