Thanks a bunch Vincent Note--The main character this story is my RPG character, Blade Syric. There's also another fanfic author in this story who makes a special appearance. If you're reading this, you know who you are. Vincent Pantheric's ESCAPE FROM MEGAKAT CITY In 2007, the crime rate in Megakat City rises 250%. The once great Megakat City becomes the one maximium security prison for the entire nation. A fifty foot containment wall is erected about a half mile from the border of the city which surrounds the entire area. All bridges, tunnels, waterways, and land between the border and the wall are mined. Enforcer Headquarters is relocated to Anakata Island. The Enforcers, like an army, are encamped around the city. Enforcer gunships patrol every inch of the borders nonstop making any escape from Megakat City impossible. The only ones inside the city are the prisoners and the worlds they have created. The rules are simple, once a kat has been exiled to this city of the damned, they never return. 2019. Now. | | \ Containment Wall_ _Enforcer Outposts | \ / / \ _*____ / | __\/ ____ \_*_ \__*/ ___/ \___ \ /|___/ \ \* Enforcer Headquarters_ \ \ \ \ \ *\ \ EN | | _Mine Field Anakata Island_ \ \ | CH \ \* / \_\ / / \ \/ |\*| | \___ MB \/\ /_/ \/ \___ \ \* /| ____ \ \ \ /*/ / \__\ | | Water Mines_/ \ \ SY PU | | \ \ / /* *\ \____ ___/ / \____ \____/ ___/* | *\______/ / * / EN--Old Enforcer Headquarters CH--City Hall MB--Megakat Biochemical PU--Pumadine SY--Salvage Yard It was a normal night at Megakat City Maximium Security Pennetentary. As the guards paced back and forth along the containment wall, a black armored chopper landed on the helipad near the Enforcer Headquarters on Anakata Island. The door on the side opened up and three kats jumped out. Two of them were prison guards who stood on each side of a third kat with yellowish fur with streaks of black and gray. This kat looked like the essence of cool. He wore a black sleeveless shirt, green combat jeans, black boots, a brown leather jacket that looks like it's seen better days, and an eyepatch over his left eye. He also wore handcuffs on his wrists. The guards led him to a large concrete building. He did not resist, but the guards weren't taking any chances. As they walked down the corridor there were a couple small groups of kats standing around talking. Whenever they passed by them they would stop talking and look at the chained one eyed kat. He glanced down and noticed they were following a yellow line. He wasn't impressed by any of this. As they followed the line they came to a small room with a couple other kats in it. None of them were dressed in guard uniforms, so he assumed they were here for the same reason he was. "Next departure to Megakat City is in one hour," the guard said, "make yourself comfortable." He stepped into the room and the guards closed the door behind him. He leaned against the wall and sighed. Warden Ulyssess Feral sat in his dimly lit office filling out paperwork. He hated this job. He turned his chair around and looked out of the window at the city which was just as dark as the sky. He once swore to keep the scum out of the city, now it was his job to keep them in. He never would have imagined that this would happen to the city. When he turned his chair back around Felina Feral burst into his office. "Uncle," Felina said, "we have a problem!" "What is it Felina?" Feral said. "President Manx's plane has been hijacked and it's heading for the city!" Feral stood up out of his seat, "What!?" "We need you in the command center now." Feral nodded and followed Felina out of the room. Feral and Felina stormed into the command center. "At first everything seemed okay," Felina explained, "then suddenly the pilot said he was being attacked by a creepling." "Creepling?" Feral said, "you mean one of Dark Kat's henchmen?" "Exactly." One of the kats sitting at the radar turned his chair around, "It's down, sir!" Feral and Felina ran over to him and looked at the monitor. "Where is it?" Feral asked. "In the middle of the city." Then another kat with head phones on turned around, "Sir, I'm getting a message." He paused and said, "It's Manx!" "Put it on speaker." Feral ordered. The kat flipped a few switches and Manx's voice came on the speaker. "Hello?!" a frantic scottish accented voice yelled, "Is anyone there?! HELP!!!" Feral picked up a mircophone and spoke into it, "Mr. President, please try to remain calm, we'll have you out of there as soon as possible." "Don't be too sure." a strange but familiar voice said in the background. "Who was that?" "Oh no!," Manx exclaimed, "Help me! It's.....AAAAAHHHHHGGGGG!!!" "Mr. President?," Feral said into the mic, "Mr. President, are you there?" "It's too late, Enforcers." the strange voice said again, "This is the Lord of Megakat City." Feral finally recognized the voice. Dark Kat. "There's no way you can save your President now. Any attempt to do so and he shall die. We will state our demands later." Then all that was heard on the speaker was lots of static. "Wait," Feral said, the only response was more static, "Are you there? Come in." Nothing, "Damn!" He yelled dropping the mic. Feral sat in his office scratching his head thinking. He was completely stumped, he couldn't think of anyway he could save the President. He let out a big sigh and looked down at his desk. He saw the stack of folders lying on front of him. The files of the prisoners that were just brought in. The name on the top folder caught his attention. He looked a bit closer. ________________________ / Syric, Tabbison Carter \ ______/ A.K.A.--Blade \__________________________________ Then an idea hit him like a frieght train. He thought about it a little more and picked up the phone. "Sgt. Rush, there's a prisoner that was brought in today by the name of Blade Syric. Bring him to my office." He sat back in his chair and wondered if what he was doing was a good idea. A few minutes later a voice came in over the intercom, "Sir, Vice President Briggs on line one." He pressed a button on the intercom, "Thank you," Then he picked up the phone, "Warden Feral........Yes Ms. Briggs, I'm well aware of the situation.........We can't, he said if he see's choppers they'll kill him......What's that.........What kind of files.........I see........Just give me 24 hours, Ms. Briggs, I'd like permission to try a rescue.....Thank you, Ms. Vice President........Yes it's good to here from you, too, Ms. Briggs......Goodbye." He hung up the phone and sat back again. "Come in." Feral said after hearing a knock at his office door. The door opened and three kats walked in. Two of them were guards, the other was a one eyed, yellow furred kat with handcuffs. "You can leave now." Feral said to the guards. "Are you sure?" one of the guards asked. "It's alright." "Yes, sir." The guards turned around and walked out of the room, closing the door behind them. Feral turned his attention to the other kat. "Have a seat, Syric." Feral said. He sat down and put his feet up on the desk, and said coolly"Call me Blade." Feral sat down at his desk and looked at the sheet of paper in front of him, "Tabbison Carter Syric, Lt., Enforcer helicopter pilot, awarded three medals, fired for destruction of private property, disobeying orders, and striking a senior officer." "That reminds me," interupted Blade,"how's your jaw, Feral?" Feral gave him an icy glare while Blade just smiled back. He continued, "Arrested for armed robbery and gunfighting in New Kat City, life sentence at Megakat City Maximium Security Pennetentary. I'm ready to finish that fight you started, hot shot." "Is that why you brought me here?" "Actually, we need your help, Syric." Feral said. Blade looked at him in disbelief, "Is this some kind of joke?" "I wish it were. Here's the deal," Feral explained, "President Manx's plane went down in the prison. We'll give you exactly 24 hours to go in and get him out alive. If you do, you will recieve a pardon for every crime you have committed." "Every crime?" He said with interest. "What do you say, Syric?" "I'll think about it." he said trying to been in the drivers seat of this conversation. "No time," Feral said, "I need an answer now." "Why me?" Blade asked. He knew Feral needed him as much Blade needed that pardon. "As much I'd hate to admit it, you were one of the best we had, you know how to sneak into places quickly and quietly, plus you're the only one I'm gonna risk sending in there." Blade thought quietly for a few seconds, "Guess I'm going in either way. Doesn't make a difference to me, I'll take the assignment." "Just don't screw it up, Syric." Feral said. Blade glared at Feral, "Call me Blade." Blade, Feral, and Felina went to a small room filled with all kinds weapons. In the middle of the room was a table with a couple of weapons and devices laying on it. ".55 Cobra Automatic," Felina said pointing to a large machine gun on the table, "It's equipped with armor piercing rounds, silencer, and laser sighting." "Are those my guns?" Blade asked looking at the two 9mms beside the Cobra. They looked like the ones he had before he was arrested. "That's right," Feral said standing behind Blade, "I figured you'd want those. Another thing, Manx has some important documents with him. These documents were supposed to reach a meeting that was intended to prevent war with the United Katdom. Manx was on his way to this meeting when his plane went down." "What're the documents about?" "You don't need to know that to carry out your job." Feral growled. "Remote mines," Felina continued, "they can be detonated with this timer." She attached a watch on Blade's wrist. Blade looked at the watch. 24:00:00 "When does my time start?" he asked. "Soon." Feral replied. "You'll be flying in with the jet glider. It's small and quiet so you won't be detected." "Where am I landing?" "The landing strip at the old Enforcer Headquarters, about the only place you can land." Felina took out a map and layed it on the table. It was a map of the city. She circled a spot in the center, "The President's plane crashed somewhere in this area. There's a couple other places you should be cautious around." She marked a few other areas on the map, "City Hall is where we think the Lord of Megakat City may be hiding the President. We also think Dark Kat is the Lord of Megakat City. And Megakat Biochemical is most likely where Dr. Viper is currently living. Stay away from there if possible." "Right." Blade said not paying much attention. For some reason he prefered going in then figuring it out. "You might want to take this map with you." she said folding it up, "There's also a diagram of the mine field near outpost two in case you run into a problem, that outpost is closer to Enforcer HQ where you'll be landing. As you know the timer will be set for 24 hours. If time runs out before you get back, you won't have worry about coming back at all." Felina said. "Why's that?" Blade asked. "Because you'll be wearing this." Feral said still standing behind him. Then he quickly attached some sort of collar around his neck. Blade reached up and tried to get the collar off but with no success, "I wouldn't do that if I were you," Feral said smiling, "any attempt to remove it will cause the pack of C-4 to detonate." Blade stopped messing with the collar and glared at Feral in anger, "The C-4 pack isn't that large, but just big enough to take your head right off your shoulders." "What?!" Blade exclaimed. "Just in case you were thinking of trying something funny." Blade jumped at Feral and wrapped his hands around his neck, "Take it off me now!" Felina rushed up and tried to pull him off Feral. "If you get back before time runs out we can deactivate the collar." she explained. Blade slowly released his grip. "Now," Feral said, "if you want that thing off, you'll do exactly what we say. By the way, about the timer, it started the second the collar was attached." Blade looked at the timer again, he was right. 23:59:11 23:59:10 23:59:09 "It's also eqipped with a locater so we'll be able to track you inside the prison." Feral continued while rubbing his neck. Blade stared at Feral angerly, "You're gonna regret doing this to me." "The glider's waiting." Feral said. Felina stopped the jeep when they reached the jet glider on the runway. It was set up on a machine that was designed to slingshot the glider into the sky. Blade jumped out of the jeep. "Good luck, Blade," Felina said, "Anything else you need?" "Yeah," Blade said taking his jacket off, "hold this till I get back." With that he threw the jacket to her and walked over to the glider. Blade opened up the canopy and stepped inside. He closed the canopy, flipped a couple switches on the control panel and turned on the radio. "Feral, you copy?" "I'm here, Syric." Feral's voice said over the radio, "You ready." "Ready." Blade said. "Okay, launch in three, two, one, launch." Blade pulled a lever and the glider was shot into the night sky. He soar over Megakat Bay directly towards the city. Two guard stopped pacing and watched the glider fly off. "Twenty bucks says he makes it." one of them said to the other. "You're on." he replied. Blade felt a bit strange going back to this city, because he had only lived there once, as a katizen. Then when he lost his job he left the city, and a few years later it became the wasteland he was heading into now. As he past over the containment wall he suddenly wondered whatever became of the SWAT Kats. No one has heard from them ever since the prison was developed. He finally snapped out of it and spoke into the radio. "Just passed the containment wall." "Copy that, we've got you on radar." Blade soared through the dark city, dodging skyscrapers here and there, until finally arriving at the old Enforcer Headquarters. He circled around and came in for a landing. After he landed he disembarked the glider and headed inside the building. He looked around inside the building he saw it was now a lot different than he left it. It looked like a tornado had come threw there. Papers all over the floors, desk and chairs busted and thrown about, windows broken, and walls covered spray paint. "I'm inside the Enforcer Headquarters heading down to the first floor." Blade said into the radio walking down the stairwell. "When you come out of the building the plane should be directly south." Feral said. "Roger." Blade turned the radio off and headed to the exit. 22:46:24 When Blade stepped out of the building, he took out the map he was given and looked it over. The plane crashed about five blocks away. He folded the map and put it away. As he walked down the empty streets he took out the Cobra and checked if it was loaded. After checking he proceded to the plane. The streets he walked down were covered with trash and stripped cars. Very few kats were out. Some were standing by barrels with fires built in them, and some could be seen lurking around in the alleys. The ones that were standing around watched Blade curiously, they didn't usually see kats walking around inside the prison with guns. About thirty minutes later he finally arrived at the crashed plane. Both of the wings were broken off but the hull still seemed intact. The door looked as though it had been ripped off. When he looked inside he saw about five dead kats, most of them had either been stabbed or shot with arrows. He looked around the plane and didn't find any survivors or Manx. He walked away from the plane and took out his radio. "I'm at the plane, no one else survived, Feral." Suddenly he heard a strange laugh echoing from one of the alleys. He heard more laughs and whistles coming from the other alleys. He scanned around with his gun held at the ready. Then he saw a couple kats starting to come out of the alleys. Blade estimated that there were at least 15 or 20. Two of them ran up with baseball bats. Blade aimed the Cobra and fired until they fell. When the others started to approach quickly Blade turned and took off down the street. As he ran they pursued him, but when he got halfway down the block he was suddenly tackled and pulled to the ground. The Cobra flew out of his hand and skidded into the sewer. The one that tackled him pinned him to the ground while another came up with a pipe. He brought the pipe up but before he could bring it back down on Blade's head an arrow flew up and went through his neck. He dropped the pipe and fell to the ground grasping his throat. The one that pinned Blade looked in the direction the arrow had come and recieved an Octopus Missle in the chest which sent him flying back. Blade got to his feet and three other kats rushed up to him. One threw a punch but Blade caught it, twisted his arm, swung him around and slammed him into another kat. The third kat pulled out a knife and stuck it in Blade's arm. He growled in pain, then spun around and delivered a kick to the third kats face. After he went down he looked around for the ones that helped him. He saw two kats in long black coats, the shekat had a crossbow and the other seemed to have some sort of robotic glove. "Look out!" the shekat yelled. Suddenly Blade felt something hit the back of his head hard. As he fell to the ground everything around him seemed to get dark. "Hey! Leave him alone!" another voice yelled. Then all Blade could hear was lots of yelling and fighting, and slowly fall silent. When Blade regained consciousness, he found himself lying on a couch. His shirt was removed and the wound on his arm had been bandaged. He groaned as he sat up and rubbed the back of his head, which was still hurting from the blow. "I was wondering when you'd get up." a voice said. Blade looked up and saw a short, young she-kat with brown fur and hazel eyes enter the room. "You've got a pretty nasty bump on your head." "Where am I?" Blade said trying to get up. But the other kat gently pushed him back down to the couch. "Whoa, pal. You're safe, and you're not in any shape to go anywhere." Blade reluctantly sat back down, then he checked the timer on his wrist. 17:18:02 "I'm Jennifer, what's your name?" Before he could say anything he saw another kat walk into room. "Hey, Jake, he's up." she said. When Blade saw the other kat he felt like he had seen him somewhere before. It took him a couple seconds but he finally recognized him. "Jake Clawson." Blade said getting up again. Jake had recognized him, too. "How's it going, Blade?" he said not exactly suprised to see him. "You know him?" Jennifer asked Jake. "He should," Blade interupted, "we use to be good friends back in our Enforcer days. That is until you testified against me." "You deserved it. Anyways I thought you were dead. What're you doing in this place?" Jake asked. "Lookin' for someone." Blade said. "Who?" Jennifer asked. "President Manx I'd bet." Jake answered for Blade. "How'd you know?" he asked curiously. "Who doesn't? We have a good idea where he is though." Blade walked up to Jake. "Listen, I don't have a lot of time to mess around." he held up his wrist with the timer on it, "I've only got so long until I'm not gonna be around anymore." "What do you mean?" Jake asked. Blade pointed to the timer, "When this goes beep," then pointed to the collar on his neck, "this goes boom. Got it?" Jake nodded in understanding. "Alright, we'll take you there." Blade pick his shirt up off the arm of the couch and put it on. "Just tell me where he is." Blade said. "We're coming with you." Jennifer said, "It's not a very good neighborhood." "She's right," Jake said, "you need us." "Fine." Blade agreed putting on his gunbelt. "Well," Jennifer said walking out of the room, "let's get to it." Blade followed but stopped when he felt Jake's hand pulling him back. He spoke in low tones, "Listen, I'll help you on one condition. When you get the President out, take Jennifer with you, too." "Why?" Blade asked. "She doesn't belong here. Trust me." Blade thought it over and said, "I'll see what I can do." "Thanks." All three of them walked out of the salvage yard together. Jake wore a black bandana over his face with the eyes cut out, a blue and red flightsuit, and a long black jacket. Jennifer wore the same type of clothes but with no bandana. Blade took out his radio to tell Feral what his situation was, but for some reason it wasn't working. He figured it must have been damaged in the fight. He cursed to himself and threw the radio away. Blade cautiously scanned around for any more kats. "It's okay, Blade," Jake said, "This is a good nieghborhood, as good as it gets anyway." Blade looked at him to say something then noticed some sort of insignia on his coat. He tried to think of where he had seen it before. Then it hit him. "You're a SWAT Kat?" Blade asked. "Sure am. Well was anyway. By the way, while I'm wearing this, call me Razor." "Sure. What happened? And why are you still in this city?" "Well, just before the Megakat City became this wretched hole, we were shot down by Dark Kat." Razor explained. "We? Oh yeah, your friend." Blade interupted. "Yeah, T-Bone. Anyways, our jet was completely destroyed, we swore to make Dark Kat pay for that. We didn't think that the news about this place becoming a prison were true so we stayed." The trio had just passed Pumadyne when Blade asked, "What happened to T-Bone?" "He's at City Hall. He managed to infiltrate Dark Kats gang a while back, that's how we knew President Manx was here." Razor chuckled a bit, "I guess Dark Kat finally got what he wanted, he's the Lord of Megakat City, but unfortunatly for him he's also a prisoner." Blade just nodded and saw that the sun was just coming up. He checked his timer again. 15:57:09 "Keep your eyes open," Jennifer said, "We're nearing Megakat Biochemical." She walked a little further to scout ahead. Blade watched her disappear around a corner and turned back to Razor. "What's her story?" He asked. "She came here a couple years ago. She's about the only innocent person in this place." "What do you mean?" "According to her she was wrongly accused of a crime." Razor explained, "A couple hours after they dropped her off she was jumped by a gang. Me and T-Bone rescued her and invited her to stay with us." "Sad story." "So, how did the great Blade Syric end up here?" Razor decided it was his turn to answer some questions. "Bad luck." Blade replied. "And how did you get in?" "There's a small jet glider at Enforcer Headquarters, I'm taking the president out in that." Razor was about to ask something else when they heard a scream from where Jennifer had disappeared. They both ran around the corner and saw Jennifer caught in some sort of strange vine which moved by itself. Razor leaped over and sliced off some of the vines with his glovatrix. Then one of the vines wrapped around his neck and slammed him into a wall. Blade whipped out his 9mms and blasted the vines that came near him. Suddenly a green tail lashed out from the shadows and knocked the guns out of his hands. Blade turned and saw a strange silhouette. "Niccccccccce try." the figure said then laughed evily. Dispite Blades struggles he was slammed into the wall next to Razor by the vines. The figure finally stepped from the shadows and into the light of the rising sun, reveiling his identity to the kats. "Viper!" Razor exclaimed. "Well, a SSSSSSSSSWAT Kat, Dark Kat will be please." Viper said laughing a bit more. Then he turned his attention to Blade, "And who might you be?" Blade didn't answer, just glared at him. Suddenly the vines around his neck tightened, "I sssssssaid who are you?" Blade just grunted and struggled, then remembered about what Feral had said about the collar. If it squeezes any harder it may bust it and cause it to explode. "Don't worry, I'll find out ssssssssoon enough." Soon the vines got so tight Razor and Jennifer lost consiousness, but just before Blade blacked out he heard a very familiar laughing. The shadows disguised the laugher, but he knew who it belonged to. "Dark....Kat..." Blade weezed with the vines still on his throat, then finally passing out. Feral sat at his desk in the command center. It had been over seven hours since they last heard from Blade. His tracer showed that after his last transmission he ran from the plane quickly and stopped down the block. Then made his way down to the salvage yard. Now it showed he was walking towards City Hall. Feral wished he could know what Blade was up to. He sighed and sipped his coffee, the only thing that could keep him awake on mornings like this. Felina stood by the kat manning the radar, which had a map of the city on it with a single yellow blip heading very slowly towards City Hall. Suddenly the little blip disappeared. "Uh oh." Felina said. She walked over to Feral's desk, "Uncle, Blade's tracer just went down." "Oh that's just perfect." he said sitting back, then he looked at the clock on his desk which was synchronized with Blades. 15:32:43 "We'll give him more time." "Do you think that's wise?" Felina asked "Be patient, Felina. I know Blade, he'll pull through." "Yes, sir." she said then walked back over to the radar. She couldn't quite believe Feral was trusting him. Neither could he. 07:24:09 Blade slowly opened his eyes and viewed his surroundings. He was laying on a table in some kind of room that looked like it had once been an office. Razor and Jennifer were just getting up as well. Two kats stood by the door with crossbows. Blade looked out the window and guess that he was in some kind of office building about thrity or fourty floors up. "Where are we?" Blade asked the guards. "You're in the home of Lord Dark Kat." Blade figured the translation was that he was in City Hall, "You'll be next in the ring as soon as they finish preparing, just behave and you won't get hurt, much." Blade glared at them and stared out the window again. "Ring?" Jennifer asked, "What are you talking about?" "You'll find out, you two are next after him." the guard said. "Well," a strange voice said from the doorway,"Blade Syric, and a SWAT Kat, too." He turned around and saw Dark Kat before him with two other kats. He had the same clothes but they were slightly tattered. "Dark kat!" Razor exclaimed. "What do you want from us?" Jennifer asked. "And how did you know my name?" Blade asked eyeing Dark Kat "Most of us here heard about Commander Feral being struck by one of his own men." he said with a chuckle stepping out of the room. "Come Blade, if you compete well, I will allow you to join me, if not, then all of you will die." Blade reluctantly followed them out, stopping at the doorway and turning to Razor and Jennifer, "I'll be back soon, this won't take long." "Bye Blade." Jennifer said "Good luck." Razor said. Blade was lead down a long hall way, about as messy as Enforcer Headquarters. Graffiti on the walls, trash on the floors, and a few torches hung on the walls as well. They came to a huge room filled with kats, in the middle was a platform set up like a boxing ring, two kats were already duking it out in the ring, one with a staff, the other with a bat. The kats leading Blade stopped him at the entrance. The kats yelled and cheered as Blade saw one of the kats deliver the final blow to his opponent, nailing him in the head with the bat. The kat fell to the ground, motionless. Blade looked around a little more, he figured the balconys must have been reserved for the most known criminals. He saw Turmoil sitting in one of them, in the next one was Dr. Viper, in the middle was a much larger one with a couple of creeplings jumping around, he figured that must belong to DarkKat. Once the defeated kat was dragged out, Blade was pushed to the steps of the ring. Then he heard DarkKat's voice coming from the balcony calling the attention of all the kats in the room. The kats cheered and hollered, then went quiet when DarkKat raised a paw. "I promised you a while ago that one day before we ride out of here victoriously, we would have one more great spectacle of death in this arena, today you will see that death. The death of Blade Syric!" The kats cheered even louder, waving sticks and knives in the air as they did so. Blade climbed into the ring after receiving a poke in the back from one of the kats with a crossbow. Now the kats booed and hissed at Blade, then brightened up again when another kat stepped in. He looked at the kat more closely. "Rex Shard?" Blade inquired. "Heya Blade," Rex said, "long time no see. May the best kat win." He stepped up and extended a paw. Blade extended his own paw to shake his, but Shard quickly jabbed Blade in the jaw with the one that was extended. Blade stumbled back a bit, then leaped at him and tackled him to the ground. Shard struggled and finally flipped Blade off, then quickly got back up and started torwards Blade. While on the ground Blade swiftly whipped a leg up and planted it in Shard's face, knocking off balance. Meanwhile, Razor and Jennifer tried to think of a way to get out of the room. They could have climbed down but thier Glovatrixes were taken. Then the door opened and a kat wearing a black cloak with a hood stepped in the room, and was stopped by one of the guards. "What do you want?" the guard asked. "The boss wants the prisoners in the ring now." he replied. "Hm, I don't think so, I'll have to check with him." "Suit yourself." the kat said, then punching him dead in the face knocking him out. "What the?!" the other guard exclaimed, only to recieve a hard kick to his stomach. He groaned and fell. Razor and Jennifer just starred, until the kat pulled back the hood. "Heh, miss me buddy?" Chance said. "Chance!" Jennifer exclaimed running over. She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly. "I'll take that as a yes." Chance chuckled. "I'm glad you're still alive," Razor said walking over, "do you know where the President is?" "Yeah, I'll lead you." "Good. Oh, and Blade...." Razor began. "Can take care of himself," Chance interupted, "We have to get out of here now while they're still watching him, there aren't that many guards around at the moment." "We can't just leave him here." Jennifer said. "We have no choice, it's now or never." Razor and Jennifer just nodded and followed Chance to the room where the President was. "Oh yeah," Chance said as they walked down the hall, "you might need these." He took out a glovatrix and a crossbow. "Alright!" Jennifer exclaimed. "Ssshhhhh." Chance said with his finger on his lips. "Oh, sorry." They turned down another hall and saw a door with two kats standing next to it. Chance and Razor put on their glovatrixes and leaped into the hall. Before the kats could react two octopus missles pinned them to the wall. "Let's go." Chance said. Razor kicked open the door and saw the President tied to a chair. They ran over to Manx and untied the gag on his muzzle. "Are you okay, Mr. President?" Jennifer asked. "Not until I get out of here!" Manx exclaimed. "Quiet," Razor said untieing the ropes on the chair, "we'll be out of here in no time." "Oh thank you all, I.....wait, you're the SWAT Kats!" "Yes sir, Mr. President." Chance said. "But you...but...how?" "We'll explain later," Razor said pulling him out of the chair, "but right now we need to move fast." "Yes, fast." Manx agreed. Chance poked his head out of the room and signaled the others it was clear. Just as they turned the corner out of the hall a kat appeared walking out of a room further down the hall. He walked to the room the President was in, but stopped when he saw the two kats pinned to the wall. He quickly ran into the room and looked around. "Crud!" he yelled. Blade and Shard began to get exausted. When they heard a bell ring two weapons were thrown into the ring, a staff and a bat. Shard immediately picked up the bat and charged Blade. Blade rolled to the side and snatched up the staff. They circled each other for a bit, weapons held at ready. Shard charged again with the bat, but Blade easily ducked it and smacked Shard in the back of the head with the staff. He stumbled forward a few steps and turned back around, just in time to see Blade plant a spin kick to his face. He fell to the ground, growling. Shard ignored the pain and got back up. He swung the bat repeatedly only to be dodged or shielded with Blade's staff. Finally with all his might he swung the bat again and broke the staff in half. The crowd cheered as Blade looked at the staff in suprise for a few seconds, in which Shard decked him in the stomach with the bat. Blade gasped, then Shard grabbed the back of his neck and threw him to the other side of the ring. Blade rolled and dropped one of the brocken pieces of the staff. Shard charged him with the bat raised, ready to deliver the final blow. Just before the bat hit him Blade thrust the broken end of the staff into Shard's abdomen. Shard doubled over grasping his stomach. The crowds went quiet, they stared at this somewhat unexpected vicory. Shard lay on the ground motionless now. A faint voice could be heard somewhere in the audience, repeatedly yelling, "Blade! Blade! Blade!" Soon others joined in, and then the whole room called out his name, all with the exception of DarkKat and Dr. Viper. "Blade! Blade! Blade!" they yelled over and over again. He looked up at DarkKats balcony, seeing the look of approval in his face. Then another kat ran up next to DarkKat and started to whisper something in his ear. His expression changed immediatly to anger, then he stood up and addressed the kats in the room. "Listen to me!" The kats quieted down and drew their attention to him, "President Manx has escaped, search the building, search everywhere!" With that he turned and stormed off, while the other kats immediatly vacated the room, as well as Blade. As he disappeared in the crowd he was even congradulated on the victory, he ignored them and made his way to the stairwell. He didn't have to be a genius to figure out who got Manx out, or where they were going. He rushed down the stairs to the first floor. There was no way he would get there on time on foot. When he walked through the front doors he saw about three kats riding up on motorcycles. Just as the third one past Blade grabbed the back of his neck and yanked him off. The rider fell to the ground with a grunt while Blade ran to the fallen bike and picked it up, starting it up again. DarkKat stood looking out of the window at Blade, watching him ride down the street torwards the Enforcer building. He knew Blade knew where the President was. He turned to his creeplings. "Round up some men and gets my car ready." When Blade road down the street he realized he hadn't checked his timer. 02:12:18 "I can make it." he said to himself as he passed the crashed plane, but then something caught his attention. He looked at the plane again and saw two kats standing near the door, one of them was Jennifer. He circled around and stopped in front of her. "Blade!" she exclaimed, she turned to the door, "Jake, Blade's alive!" "So you're Blade?" Chance stated more than asked. "Chance Furlong, I remember you, then you must be T-Bone." "How did you know?" he said after changing his expression. "I told him." a voice said from the door, then Jake and Manx jumped out, "We found the files." "Files?" Blade said "They were in the plane?" "Yes," Manx said holding up a beige envelope, "I hid them after the crash." "Come on, we're wasting time." Jennifer said walking up to the car they stole. Blade decided to ditch the bike and go with them. Razor sat in the drivers seat while Blade road shotgun, and the other in the back. When they got about a block Blade reached back and took the files. "What're you doing?" Manx said nervously, "Give those back." "Relax, just looking." Blade took the files out of the folder and looked through them, mostly a bunch of equations and fomulas. Blade put them back and placed the folder in his back pocket. "Give me the files." Manx said again. Blade turned and glared at him. "When we're out." he ordered more than said, Manx decided not to argue and sat back. "Where to?" Razor asked still driving. "Enforcer Headquarters." Blade said, "We gotta get to the glider." "Jennifer." Razor said. "Yeah?" she responded "You're going out with Blade." She blinked. "What?" she said not believing what he's saying. "I told him to take you out, too." Razor turned down a street. "He's right, Jenn." Chance agreed, "You don't belong in this place." "And what? You guys do?" Blade didn't know what to say, the glider would only hold two. He was just about to say something when Enforcers HQ came into view. They brightened up for a split second knowing they were home free, but their expressions changed when they saw a couple cars in front of the building that weren't supposed to be there, and a crashed glider that also wasn't supposed to be there. "Crud!" Blade cursed loudly. Three kats standing in front of the building turned and saw them, not because they heard Blade, but heard the car driving passed. Blade and the others saw that one of the three kats was DarkKat. "There they are!" DarkKat said pointing, "I want their heads! But I want the President alive!" Razor slammed on the gas and sped off, not wanting to look behind. "Now what?!" Chance exclaimed. "Keep going north, don't stop till you reach the wall." Blade ordered. "That's crazy!" Razor said, "There's a mine field up there!" Blade reached in his belt, took out the map, and unfolded it. On the back was a diagram of where the mines were placed near outpost two, just as Felina said. "Here, can you read this and drive, too?" he said holding the map out so he can see, but not blocking his vision. "I think so." Razor said a bit unsurely. This caused the others to buckle thier seat belts and cross thier claws. It's been almost a half a day since they lost Blade's tracer. Feral was ready to give up and send in a covert team to find Manx, which he should have done in the first place. Vice President Briggs arrived about five hours ago, waiting for any kind of news. Both looked at the counter on Feral's desk 00:43:22 "Miss Vice President," Feral said standing from his desk, "I think it's time we approved the recon team." "Yes." Briggs said with a nod and a sigh, "If we don't find him war may be declared. You think the United Katdom will understand?" "I hope so, Miss Briggs," He looked at the timer again, "I hope so." 00:15:51 "Damn!" Blade yelled checking his timer, "Not much time." They had just gotten to the city limits, to a half mile mine field. "Carefully." Jennifer said to Razor who quickly turned and dodged each mine, while checking the diagram at the same time. "Thanks for the tip, Jenny." he said sarcasticly. Suddenly they heard a loud explosion behind them. Chance looked out the back window and saw two cars coming up, which would have been three, if one of them didn't hit that mine. At the same time, Feral picked up the phone to approve the team, when a guard interupted him. "Sir." the guard said standing beside him. Feral lowered the phone and turned to him. "What is it?" he asked impatiently. "Our choppers near outpost two spotted a couple cars driving through the mine field, it's like the lead car know where they're placed." Feral and Briggs' faces lit up a bit. "Syric." he said relieved "Warm up the choppers, tell them to head to outpost two, I'm coming along." "Yes sir," the guard saluted and walked off. All five kats sat on the edges of thier seats as Razor swirved to avoid the mines. They came very close to one, too close since it detonated. "Watch it buddy." Chance said. "I'm trying," Razor said, "this isn't easy you know." "You're pushin' it to hard." Jennifer said. Blade knew he didn't have much time left, and hoped Feral would keep his part of the bargin and get this collar off. He still held the map up for Razor but lowered it to check his timer, then was distracted by Razor. "Hey, what're you doing, hold it..." he almost finished, but was cut off when a mine exploded near the rear tire, sending them flipping over. All of them groaned and made thier way out after the car came to a halt. "..up." Razor finished crawling out. When Blade got out he heard another explosion. He turned and saw the two cars again, one bearly missed one. Blade searched the pockets on his belt and found the palm size remote mines, setting them for impact detonation, meaning one strike and kaboom. "What're you doing?" Chance said stumbling out of the car a bit. Blade didn't answer, instead he jumped up on the car and waited for them to get closer. "Blade!" Jennifer called, "We have to go now!" Blade waited a bit longer until they were about fifty feet away. He threw the mine as far as he could, which hit the windshield of one of them, sending it flipping and crashing into the other. Then Blade jumped down and grabbed the President's wrist. "Let's go!" With that he pulled Manx along and the other's followed. Chance ran a bit further than Jake, who had now taken off his bandana. Jake still read the map and gave the directions. He looked at the map a bit more closely and looked up at Chance, then his eyes went wide. "Chance stop!" he yelled out, a split second too late. A mine then exploded in front of Chance sending him flying back past the others. Jennifer stood in shock for a moment and ran to him. "Chance!" she screamed kneeling beside him, eyes tearing up, "Chance wake up!" He gasped in pain gripping his stomach with both paws, which was bleeding badly. Jake ran over and examined him. His face was slightly burned on the side. "Chance," he called "speak to me!" "J-Jake," he stuttered "Go...go on..help..them get out." "No way," Jake said putting Chance's arm over his shoulder and lefting him up, "I'm not leaving you here, we all have to keep moving." Chance winced at the sudden pain when he was helped up. When they walked past Blade something fell out of his cloak. Blade picked it up, a Kat Kommandos comic. He looked at it for a split second and smiled slightly and checked his timer. 00:03:34 Feral's chopper landed at outpost two and he disembarked almost immediatly when it landed. He picked his radio off his belt. "Feral to tower, any sigh of activity in the mine field?" Feral said. "The cars hit some mines, I spotted five kats on foot, the President is among them." "Excellent, tell the wall guards not to fire on them. Have them get a winch and get them out of there." he ordered. "Yes sir" the tower responded. Manx was the first to reach the wall, then Jennifer, Jake and Chance, finally Blade. They could hear an announcment over the speaker telling the guards not to fire on the prisoners. When the rope was lowered Jake and Jennifer growled at Manx's impatientence. He was pulled out over the wall first, Jeniffer was next. When the winch came down for Chance they carefully strapped him into the harness. "Good luck buddy." Jake said quietly as Chance was raised out, then turned to Blade, "Who's next?" Before Blade could answer something grabbed the back of his neck and slammed him into the wall. Blade tried to turn and see his attacker. "DarkKat!" he yelled. DarkKat was busted up a little and a bit singed, he would have been worse had he been in the car that was hit with the remote mine. Jake jumped on his back and locked his arms around DarkKat's neck. "You'll all pay for this!" DarkKat growled and snarled. Blade delivered a swift punch to his face knocking him back. Jake climbed higher on him and flipped off his shoulders. DarkKat charged at them both again, Blade side stepped and tripped him. DarkKat hit the ground with a loud thud. Then Blade turned to Jake. "Go, I'll finish here!" he yelled to him. "You sure?" "Yeah, go!" Jake nodded and jumped onto the winch. Blade watched Jake disappear over the wall, then turned in time to see DarkKat slug him right in the face. Blade fell back rubbing his jaw. "You ruined my plans, Syric," Darkkat said towing over him, "Now you shall suffer for it!" DarkKat leaped at him, but Blade planted both feet in his chest kicking him back. When DarkKat fell again the ground exploded under him. Blade jumped a bit and sheilded himself, not expecting him to just explode like that. He looked around but DarkKat was no longer there, just a few charred remains. Blade chuckled a bit when he remembered the diagram said there was a mine planted where he landed. Then realization hit him and he turned to the winch being lowered down. He instantly jumped to his feet and grabbed it, with pulled him over the wall. When he saw Feral, Felina, and Briggs on the other side, talking to Jake and Jennifer, he slid down the ladder quickly and ran up to him. "Feral!" he yelled "Get this thing off me now!" Felina took out a small remote and punched a few buttons, but was stopped by Feral. "The documents." he said holding out a paw. Blade glared at him for a second in anger and took the folder out of his back pocket, slapping it in Feral's hand. Then Feral gestured for Felina to continue. She pushed a couple more buttons and the collar beeped. "That's it." she said. Blade looked at his timer which was still running. 00:00:03 00:00:02 00:00:01 00:00:00 *BEEP* Nothing. Blade sighed in relief. A few minutes later an ambulance arrived for Chance. Jennifer and Jake went with him. Felina and Callie were still astounded that they had once again run into Jake and Chance, because of their being gone so long. Manx was being prepped up for his presentation of the documents to the United Katdom. "Three minutes until you're on the air, Mr. President." Callie said handing him his speech notes. "Thank you, Callie." Manx replied. Blade walked up, collarless, and after watching Chance's ambulance depart, but was halted by a secret service agent. "Oh, he's okay." Manx said to the agent, who then let him through. "Well, Blade, I'm in your debt, anything you want, just name it." "I'd like a lot of things but one thing comes to mind at the moment." Blade said taking a drag off a cigarette. "Uh, yes?" "One of the kats I came out with, I'd like her to be pardoned." "Why of course, I owe her as well," Manx said tying his tie, "I'll get right on it as soon as I finish with the speech. I'm on the air in two minutes. Anything else?" "I'll get back to you on that." Blade nodded a goodbye to Callie and walked off. Felina approached him with his jacket. "You asked me to hold this for you." she said handing it to him. He accepted it and put it on, "And here." She handed him a car key with a seven on the tag. "So what're you gonna do now that you're free again?" "Not sure," he said passing Feral, "I'll work it out." "Well we know nothing like this is going to happen again," Feral said, "so when you end up back here in shackles there's not going to be another pardon, Blade." Blade just turned and glared. "The name's Syric." He then turned and walked off. Manx stood at a podium looking into the video camera set up in front of him. "We're on the air, Mr. President." said the camerakat. Manx smiled into the camera. "Good evening ladies and gentlekats of the United Katdom, I'm sorry I can not be there personally at the meeting, but I have here something that may help to bring our great nations together." Manx opened the envelope and took out it's contents. Chance's Kat Kommandos comic book. Manx's faced turned to shock, he stuttered a bit not knowing what to say. As Blade walked to the car lot looking for the number seven car, he took the documents out of his other back pocket flipped through it. "I told you you'd regret doing that to me, Feral." he mumbled taking out his lighter. He lit up the corner of the pages and watched the flame crawl up the papers. Then he dropped the burning documents in the trash can next to the jeep with a number seven on it. Blade jumped in the seat, started it up, and drove as far as he could from Megakat City. The End