When Worlds Collide: Part 5 by Mikazo ************************************************************ Campbell looked left and right nervously several times. He was alert, keeping an eye on every enforcer vehicle that drove around. The enforcers all seemed to be driving in the same direction. "Goddamn, those bastards are everywhere," muttered Campbell. "Where the hell are they going anyway?" Every now and then, an enforcer car would pull from the side into an intersection, and then turn and drive towards the more dense areas of the city. In the distance, smoke could be seen rising into the sky. Campbell continued to drive down the road, glancing around at each intersection. As he got closer to the smoke, the enforcer cars were more numerous, and there was a steady flow of traffic going the opposite direction by civilian cars. Campbell could hear what sounded like gunfire. It sounded like the laser blasts that had been fired at him and the mercenaries on the tech center raid. Loud explosions could be heard, and there were helicopters overhead. Suddenly, a huge explosion rocketed the intersection just ahead, blowing a fire hydrant out of the sidewalk and causing it to spray water everywhere. Campbell pulled to the side of the road. He stepped out of the car and put on his pistol belt and alice pack. Grabbing his rifle, he walked into a dark alley where he figured he wouldn't be seen. On the side of one of the buildings was a fire escape stairway. Slinging his rifle over his shoulder, he jumped up to grab hold of the ladder hanging down from the exit. He hoisted himself up and began to climb the ladder as explosions rocked the streets nearby. Campbell walked up the staircase to the top floor. When he got to the top floor, he pulled an extendable mirror from his pistol belt. He extended it and held it up in the air over the lip of the building so he could see over it. After confirming that nobody was there, he put the mirror back and then pulled a box out of his alice pack with a grappling hook in it. He removed the grappling hook and threw it over the lip of the building. He then pulled on it to make sure it was secure, and then walked himself up the side of the wall. He grunted as he pulled himself over the lip. The sun shone brightly on the roof of the building. Replacing the grappling hook, Campbell walked to the other side of the building and peered down. Tanks, enforcer cars, and enforcers littered the streets. Their guns were all aimed at the building in front of them which looked like a bank. In front of the entrance, two robotic-looking creatures could be seen exchanging gunfire with the enforcers. The powerful-looking laser blasts fired by the enforcer tanks seemed to be deflected by the robots and were not damaging them at all. However, they fired at the enforcers with explosive shots fired from cannons mounted on their arms. A smoldering, useless tank sat in the street directly below Campbell's position as well as three others in the intersection. Several cars were blackened, smoke rising out of them, the tires having been melted under the intense fire. Several wounded enforcers lined the streets, and the rest were hiding behind stairways, bushes, destroyed tanks, or anything else they could find. They kept their guns aimed at the robots' general direction, but they seemed helpless to do anything. "Yeah... who's laughing now, motherfuckers?" muttered Campbell under his breath, grinning. He continued to look at them from his position. "Why the hell can't they do anything? Bunch of pussies." He chuckled to himself at his little pun and smiled, enjoying seeing those dozens of arrogant enforcers helpless, unable to take out a couple of robots. A black and red jet suddenly flew overhead from out of nowhere. Campbell had to duck quickly to avoid getting hit. "Hey... isn't that Campbell?" asked Razor. "Whoa... hey, it is!" said T-Bone. "What's he doing here?" "I don't know, but I hope he stays under cover." Campbell suddenly had an idea. "Hey," he wondered. "I bet if I can take out those robots, the enforcers'll think I'm better than them, and they'll think I'm on their side. Then they could ally with us and we wouldn't have to avoid them." He pondered the idea, and then another thought hit him. "Then, when they least expect it, BAM!" He quickly dismissed that idea as being helpful. "That's what I'll do. I'll take the fuckers out myself." While T-Bone and Razor circled the area, trying to figure out how to deal with the Metallikats, Campbell walked over to the lip of the building and unslung his rifle. He aimed it down at the robots, centering the crosshairs on the shorter, dumpier looking one. Unlike the manually adjusted 8x scope issued on his rifle, he had a custom fit 8x scope which automatically adjusted for wind compensation. Centering the crosshairs between the eyes of the robot, he fired. Mac's head was jerked 90 degrees to the right as the bullet smashed into the bridge of his nose. He stumbled around. "Oh-ho, man," said Campbell, excited. "Hey, what da hell was that?" Mac sneered, looking around for the culprit. Campbell aimed and fired another shot at the robot, knocking it back. Realizing the 5.56mm bullets had some stopping power against the robots, he fired round after round at the robot. The shower of bullets knocked Mac on the ground, and sparks could be seen flying from his head. Campbell continued to aim and fire at the robot's head. Campbell went through his 30 round magazine and hid as he slapped a fresh magazine into the rifle before taking aim and firing again. Mac's head was severely dented, and sparks flew out of the holes in his head. He spasmed on the ground, griping and unable to get back up under the relentless gunfire. Bullet after bullet pounded his metallic skull, causing both of the robots to panic. Molly looked around for the sniper, keeping her cannon aimed at the enforcers. Campbell turned the rifle on her and started firing at her. The bullets knocked her around as a missile was fired from the TurboKat at the robots. The missile impacted the ground and sent a short electromagnetic pulse through the air, which caused the robots' circuits to go haywire. They were floored, stunned, and unable to move. The enforcers moved in, realizing that they could safely haul the robots into custody. Campbell wiped the sweat from his forehead, unable to believe what had just happened. He had just done himself what an entire enforcer platoon couldn't. Of course, he had had to take out a couple squads of ex-Spetsnaz terrorists in Russia, so the idea wasn't new to him. Campbell heard more sirens down below. Looking down, he saw several more enforcer cars surrounding the building he was standing on. They jumped out of their cars, their rifles aimed up towards the roof. "You on the rooftop!" blared a megaphone. "Surrender immediately!" Campbell's eyes went wide with shock as he looked around desperately for an exit. He ran to the lip of each side of the building and peered down, but the enforcers were surrounding the place quickly. Feral was down below with the enforcers. "Hold your fire," he ordered. "You saw what he did to those robots." "What are we going to do?" asked an enforcer. "We'll send a tactical team in there to the roof to flush him out." "Are you crazy?" replied the enforcer. "That's suicide! He'll kill every one of them. Just use a chopper to blast him off the roof." "So he can run inside and hide in a room? And we'll have to find him, which leaves us open to ambush? Ha! I'm sticking to my original plan." "YA FUCKIN' TRAITORS!" came a faint shout from the top of the building. "FUCKIN', GODDAMN TRAITORS!" "Enforcers, move in!" ordered Feral. The tactical team battered the door open and charged in. Campbell saw them move in and desperately looked around for a place to hide behind. He couldn't find anywhere to hide, so he laid on his stomach and kept his rifle aimed at the door. If only he had a tin can, he could set a booby trap behind the door that led into the building. Then, the sound of a jet engine roared overhead. The black jet, which had disabled the Metallikats earlier, hovered overhead, lowering down. "Hang on!" blared T-Bone's voice through a P.A. megaphone over the roar of the jets. "We're here to help!" A net lowered down and Campbell instantly scrambled into it, keeping his rifle aimed at the door. The jet began to rise up and fly off slowly, just as the roof door was kicked open. The enforcers scoured the area before one noticed Campbell in the net. He alerted his teammates and they began firing at the net. However, their guns were out of range by that time. The jet cruised slowly towards the outskirts of town as Campbell rode in the net. "He was pretty good out there!" said Razor. "Sure was," said T-Bone. "We could probably use his help." "Well, he probably needs ours too," said Razor. "Well, what do you think?" asked Razor. "How are we going to let him off?" "Umm," T-Bone said. "I guess I didn't think of that yet. How about we let him off in the scrapyard?" "He's gonna find out who we are sooner or later," said Razor. "Why not let him find out now?" "Yeah," grumbled T-Bone. "That's a good point." The jet slowed down over the scrapyard, and the net was lowered. Campbell crawled out, and the jet circled around and flew back into the hangar. "Hey... they just flew right in there!" said Campbell. "I know what's going on." He walked into the shack. Just as he got in, he saw Chance and Jake climb into the garage from a hatch. They saw Campbell as they were getting out and eyed him, somewhat nervous. However, they knew they had to tell him the truth. "Okay..." said Campbell, with his hands in the air at chest-height, defensively. "Now, I know you're probably trying to keep a low profile, so I won't tell anyone, but... are you the Swat Kats?" "I thought you would've guessed eventually," said Chance. "I think it was worth it to get you out of there." "Yeah," said Jake. "Besides, you really held them off good." Campbell smirked at the comment. "I could've taken those enforcers too," he said. "My combat vest would've stopped those laser blasts long enough for me to do it." "Yeah," said Jake. "Those lasers aren't very powerful." Campbell looked at him skeptically. "How do you know?" "We were enforcers once," said Jake. "We used those same rifles. Mark II light pulse lasers. Those things were worthless against anything that wasn't naked. They can set things on fire and burn holes in kats, which makes them really convenient to use, but they'll just bounce off of anything else." "They don't run out of ammo, so they're really cost effective," said Chance. "Yeah," said Jake. "I hated those things though. That's why, after we made it into an elite fighter caste, Chance and I got into flying the jets instead." Campbell sat down on a chair. Chance and Jake sat down on the sofa. "Why didn't you stay in it?" asked Campbell. "Long story," said Jake. He explained how they had an enemy in their sights, and were ordered not to fire, and Feral knocked them into Enforcer headquarters. This gave them grounds to explain why they worked at the junkyard. Campbell listened intently, interested in war stories. "So Feral made you crash into the damn place 'cause he flew too close? And you're the ones payin' for it?" Chance and Jake nodded. Campbell shook his head. "I hate hearing shit like that." "Well, I think the public likes us," said Chance. "That's good," said Campbell. "But I'm more interested in what to do about Feral. He seems like one of those haughty, stuck-up kinds of asswipes." "Oh, that's him all right," said Jake. "I can't stand him. He's more interested in his ego than in the city. He thinks we're criminals." "Yeah," grumbled Campbell. "But, the enforcers are okay, aren't they? I mean, maybe we can get them on our side." "I think they ARE on our side," said Jake. "Even the second in command sympathizes with us." "Well, that's why I didn't attack them," said Campbell. "I figured we could get them on our side. Maybe Feral would cut us some slack." "That's a pretty hopeless task," huffed Chance. "No, I'm serious," said Campbell. "I bet we could do it. We just keep saving their asses and refrain from attacking them." "That's what we've been doing!" said Jake, trying to explain. "Okay," said Campbell. "Have you ever confronted them?" Chance and Jake thought for a minute. "Well, um... not face to face. I mean, they could try to arrest us." "Then, maybe we need to do that," said Campbell. "Face up to 'em." Jackson then walked into the room. "Jackson!" said Campbell. "Where the hell have you been?" "Where the hell have YOU been?" asked Jackson. "I've been out in the goddamn scrapyard trying to find parts for that thing, and I've almost got it fixed." Tauer walked in behind him. "Well, I've just been screwing around downtown. Almost had a run-in with the enforcers." "Have fun?" asked Jackson. "It was disappointing," said Campbell. "That whole enforcer battalion is pathetic. I swear to God, they're just like what Torres said. They couldn't pour piss out of a boot even if the instructions were written on the heel." Chance and Jake chuckled. "Why would you be afraid of 'em then?" asked Tauer. "Your vest would've stopped those laser rounds." "Well, I haven't a goddamn clue," huffed Campbell. "I could've taken 'em on, but I had a getaway vehicle available. So I high-tailed it out of there. Besides, you know it would be bad P.R. if we killed any of those enforcers." "Good point," said Tauer. "Get that radio fixed?" called Torres. "No, not yet," said Jackson. "Well, what're we gonna do until then?" asked Tauer. "I'd just hang out," said Torres. "Maybe raise a few stinks. I was watching on the news some stuff about some character called Dr. Viper. They think he stole something from a biochemical lab. Maybe we could find him. I don't know about you, but I'm kinda itching to damage something. You know, we could hijack an RV or something and drive around and look for hot- spots and shit." Just then, something rattled the small shack. Elsewhere in the house, Chance, Jake, and the mercenaries could hear the back door burst open. They could hear the flapping of leathery wings accompanied by a nasty giggling sound. Everyone in the room looked towards the direction of the noise as the mercenaries drew their weapons and took cover behind anything they could find. They aimed their rifles at the entryway into the living room. "The fuck?" muttered Torres, as several pink, bat-like creatures rounded the corner and charged towards them. "Covering fire!" yelled Campbell as he fired several rounds at the creatures, tearing them to shreds. Tauer, Jackson, and Torres followed suit and let loose with their rifles as the whole shack erupted into gunfire. Chance and Jake had no choice but to run into the garage and get into the hangar where they stockpiled their weapons and equipment. They climbed down the ladder, knowing they had to act quickly, and changed into their Swat Kat gear. Pieces of shrapnel, mostly composed of bits of glass and wood from the windows and walls, flew haphazardly around the room as the bullets mushroomed through the bodies of the creeplings and cut into the walls behind them. Dead creeplings littered the floor near the entryway. Torres maneuvered his way towards the front door, which was lying on the ground. Torres walked outside, with the other mercenaries behind him, and scouted the area for any creeplings. Occasionally, a creepling would dart out from one of the scrap piles and dive at him, but he was quick to turn and blast a few holes through it. Torres maneuvered his way through the scrap piles and stopped for a minute, surveying the area. Suddenly, a huge swarm of creeplings flew out from behind the scrap piles and started to close in around him. They peered at him as he pulled a grenade out of his vest. He pulled the pin out and heaved it at the swarm of creeplings. "Eat this, you little pink bastards!" he yelled. Just as the grenade went off, gunfire from Campbell, Jackson, and Tauers' rifles cut the creeplings to shreds. Suddenly, two huge explosions rocked the pile in front of him, forcing Torres to jump and roll behind a small scrap pile for cover. T-Bone and Razor ran out from the side of the shack and fired a few more missiles at the scrap pile, sending the few remaining creeplings in a flurry. They tried to retreat back to where they came from, but Torres unloaded on them with his M-249 and killed every last one. Torres looked in the direction that the rockets came from and saw T- Bone and Razor with their arm-launchers at high ready. He spun around and kneeled behind the scrap pile and pointed his machine gun at them. Campbell reached past him and pulled Torres' gun into the air and away from the Swat Kats as he pulled the trigger. "Don't shoot!" yelled T-Bone. "It's us!" Torres peered closely at them. "Chance? Jake?" "Shh!" they said, approaching him. "Yes, but don't call us by those names." "Well, what the hell are you dressed like that for?" T-Bone and Razor sighed. "I'll explain it later," said Razor. "You'd better explain it soon before you scare the shit out of me like that again," huffed Torres. "I almost shot you in the head. Be careful, for chrissakes." "Sorry we startled you like that," said T-Bone. "Call me T-Bone," he said. "This is Razor." "How many fucking names do you have?" "When we're decked out like this, we're T-Bone and Razor," said Razor. "When we're not, we're you-know-who." "You mean Chance and..." "Shh! Shut up! We don't want anyone to know our identities!" barked T-Bone. "Oh... oh, I get it. You two are a couple of superheroes," said Torres. "In a way, yeah," said T-Bone. Torres shrugged. "I don't have any problem with that." "They saved my ass," said Campbell. "I think we owe 'em." "We already owed them," said Tauer. "Those goddamn enforcers owe them too," said Campbell. "They owe us, for chrissakes. We took out a couple of these robot critters that were blowing up all their tanks and shit, and then they turned their guns on me." "The robots?" asked Torres. "Be serious for a minute, goddamn it," said Campbell. "Why the hell would they do that? I'd like to go downtown again and show them a thing or two." "How did Dark Kat find us?" asked T-Bone to Razor. The mercenaries turned to look at them. Razor shrugged and shook his head. "That was Dark Kat too?" asked Tauer. "Those were his creeplings," said T-Bone. "And, I think those were his stormtroopers that attacked you earlier." "Do you know where this guy is?" asked Campbell. "No, we don't," said T-Bone. "But, he knows where we are now." He put his head in his hands. "What if he tells Feral?" "Then, we kill Dark Kat," said Campbell, "or wait 'till he kills Feral and then kill him. Whichever works." Razor looked at Campbell. "Dark Kat has always threatened MegaKat City with mass destruction," he said. "Nuclear weapons, neutron bombs, everything that's designed to kill millions of kats. That's why he has close ties to Dr. Viper." "Who's he?" asked Torres. "Some lizard dude?" Razor smiled and nodded. "He wants to swamp MegaKat City with mutagens and experiment on the citizens. He gets lots of financial help from Dark Kat. Dark Kat gets lots of help from Dr. Viper in creating weapons. They help each other out, but nobody really knows what they're up to. I do know that, if we find Dr. Viper, we find Dark Kat." "Well, I was watching the news while I was here," said Tauer. "There was a break in at a biochemical plant or something. They were saying something about Dr. Viper and how nothing was stolen, or something like that. You want to check it out?" "Sure," said Torres, "we got nothing better to do." Dr. Viper had just finished creating the concoction of one of his secret weapons. This new addition to his arsenal, heat-seeking, highly corrosive venom, had a rather simple DNA structure and could be inducted igenetically into his plantimals, or whatever else he saw necessary. However, he was still unsure of any experimenting to do with the head crab he acquired at the Biochemical Lab. For now, all he could do was talk to it. "Yesssss," he hissed. "If thissssss worksssss, I can take on the Sssssswat Katsssss and the enforcerssss mysssself. I won't have any usssse for that imbecccccile, Dark Kat. I can take him on as well so he doesssssn't destroy MegaKat Cccccity. Yessss, I want it preserved for my experimentsssss! Dark Kat issss too great of a threat to my experimentsssss. Yesssss, he issss." "Viper!" Dr. Viper dropped his katalyst in surprise and gasped, causing the beaker to break and spill all over the floor. "D-Dark Kat!" he said. "Uh, what are you doing here?" "Your new weapon," said Dark Kat. "I need it. Now." "Well, umm, yesssss, but you ssssee, sssssomething happened on the way to the Biochemical Lab..." "WHAT?!" roared Dark Kat. "I have developed another one," said Dr. Viper hastily. "Then, let me see it," demanded Dark Kat. "Sssssure," said Dr. Viper, feeling around in his jars for the head crab. "It ssssshould be... right... here... sssssomewhere..." "Forget it," said Dark Kat. "I'll be back when you have something valuable to give me." He walked out of Dr. Viper's lab. "Yesssss, I'll be sure to... GIVE it to you," he hissed, chuckling.