**Author's Note**
Hi all!  In case you refused to read it the first time, here it is 
again, but broken down into chapters.  You know the rest...
~Barbara



Foreword.
        Greetings one and all.  What you are about to read is the first
installment in an interminably long sequence detailing several years of
events in MegaKat City.  Although this tale in particular does not exactly
involve the SWAT Kats, it is crucial to read as it provides the groundwork
for future stories.  It itself takes place several years ago, almost
immediately after the dismissal of Lts. Chance Furlong and Jake Clawson from
the Enforcers.  They are, as these events take place, working on a "project"
deep in the basement of their scrapyard garage.
	As a new class of cadets prepares to graduate from the Enforcer
Academy, the mayor of MegaKat City prepares for the elections, only five
months away.  It wouldn't be a problem, except he has lost his deputy mayor
to death.  Without old Deputy Mayor Rogers, he won't stand a chance at
winning re-election, as it was Rogers who did all the work.  He knows he has
to find a replacement - and quickly.  His choice?  A young she-kat named
Calico Briggs, fresh out of law school and ready to rise to the top.  She
seems the perfect candidate for the job... but she may be more trouble than
anyone expects, as you, the reader, have seen.
	That's all right, however - the Enforcers will protect her.  Bound
and determined to do this and all other aspects of the job are three
finishing cadets: Scotty Angora, Jason Whiskers, and Derek Whitepaws.  All
three are friends, competing for top honors in their class.  We shall see how
fate treats them - and how well they treat their fate.  But with the three so
closely knit and tense, the results of graduation may have greater
implications - and never forget, there are greater forces at work.  Greater
forces - that no one has ever heard of before, but will be sure never, ever
to forget.



In the Beginning There Was Dark
by Barbara Mooney

1. Deposition of Professor Hackle, Ph. D. (physics).

	"I swear that the following is the truth, as best my facilities are
able to present it, and it is the truth in entirety, with no omissions or
embellishments.
	"I have learned in my years that frailty is universal, and that we
all have it in quantity.  I myself possess it not only in my physical aspects,
which steadily weaken as the days go by, but in my will as well.  In my years
as researcher and inventor with Pumadyne and other government labs, I created
many devices, which exist for the purpose of evil.  They can do no good.  For
these years I worked, knowing the consequences of my actions would be the end
of the lives of many kats, and still I continued, fearing my own termination
and thus selfishly creating weapons of mass destruction, as well as other
devices whose intention is the enslavement, 'correction,' or murder of
innocents.
        "I have long claimed that the uses of my inventions were not those for
which I intended them, and that for that reason I left government work.  Such
is not the case.  What other possible use is there for an indestructible tank
than war?  A laser that slices clean through feline flesh than to cut?  A gun
does not have practical purposes in agriculture, ladies and gentlekats.  No, I
knew what I was doing.  I did not leave for reasons of conscience.
	"It is not that I do not regret my actions over those years.  Quite
the contrary.  I make this tape for the respite of my weathered conscience, in
the hopes that katkind might understand the courses of action taken by myself,
my supervisors, Commander Feral, and Deputy Mayor Rogers in the events
surrounding my dismissal.  I did not leave by choice.  I was removed, and it
was for the reason of the theft of my crowning achievement.
	"This achievement was my invention, created in the hopes of ensuring
success in battle situations.  It was a device which, properly implanted in
the brain, would allow a kat's movements to be controlled by another.  Only
one was created, and it was never tested for the fact that the project was
terminated.  My supervisors felt that the method of its entry into the brain
was dangerous to the subject's capacity to reason.  It would potentially
damage key synapses or irreplaceable cells.  I obeyed their wishes, but the
damage was done when I created it, because I left the device and its plans on
my desk, and both were stolen by the next morning.
	"I reported the happenings to my supervisors, and an immediate
lockdown of the laboratory was effected.  Headcounts were taken, revealing the
disappearance of but one technician, one whose job was to properly clean the
labs and to assist in dispersal of chemicals and mechanical parts to
researchers such as myself.  It is my theory that he stole the device, and I
made this clear to my supervisors, who refused to feel at ease in the
knowledge that this kat could not possibly ever use the device he had taken.
No, they were certain that he would sell the device to DarkKat, or another
diabolical individual, and so they summoned Commander Feral, the mayor, and
the deputy mayor to discuss the steps to be taken.
	"Commander Feral arrived immediately, for the description of my
invention they offered him was 'mind-control device,' a term to which I
object, as the device controls only the corporeal aspects of the kat.  I
attempted to differentiate for them between physics and metaphysics to no
avail.  <Sigh.>
	"Mayor Manx, however, did not arrive.  As a result of this he does not
know of the device, nor of the threat posed to the security of the city.
Deputy Mayor Rogers came in his place, and now, it seems, he has carried the
secret to his grave.
	"It was determined at this meeting by my superiors, Feral, and Rogers
that mere knowledge of the breach would cause widespread panic among the
civilians, and to keep the facts of the matter contained, they began a sort of
conspiracy.  I was stripped of my post; all documents or other factors
indicating my having been employed there were shredded and burned.  It was as
though I did not exist at that laboratory.  When it was determined that no one
else there knew of my work, they were allowed to go on, but could never speak
of me.  I was allowed to continue private practice here, but I could not do
such work as I had.
	"Meanwhile, Feral launched a private investigation into the
whereabouts of the technician, but the investigator was found dead within
days, as were all others.  So he ceased investigating, fearful that the
murders would draw public attention.  Rogers took care to erase the technician
from all formal records, keeping him in the confidential, secret files in
crime and statistics only.  This kat would exist only as a shadow, unable to
receive medical care or to work.  His corpse would be unidentifiable by all
records, save those held by Rogers.  And so he was gone.  Society would never
know.
	"It seems, however, that he may outlive us, having outlived one
already.  It is my fear that if he does, in that time he may master the
device.  He may have already.  Should he unleash the device on MegaKat City,
the results may be disastrous, and he may prove unstoppable.  I cannot allow
this.  I make this tape in an attempt to warn the public, in the event of my
death, of what is out there.  He is not bound by the morals and guidelines as
we are.  He is bound by nothing.  So far, he has outwitted us all.
	"Do not feel angry.  Events such as these are inevitable in the course
of time, and this one has been as yet the best contained.  It is I, if anyone,
to whom you should feel anger, for my actions were unjust.  They were unlike
the actions of Feral and Rogers.  It is my sincerest hope that nothing comes
of this misfortune, and that history will vindicate them... even at my
expense."