Title: Matchmaker, Matchmaker Crisis Email: Toongirl16@aol.com By: Emmerette' Snow Summary: Emmerette lives in the small town of Halo up in the mountains. She is seventeen and her time to meet the matchmaker has arrived. When things go awry, the matchmaker blames Emmerette'. She runs off and meets Jake and Chance... And, her life changes... Rating: PG Disclaimer (I'm guessing I need to put this in here) I don't own Jake or Chance or any other Swat Kat character. The small town of Halo is mine. So is Emmerette' and her family and the matchmaker. Matchmaker, Matchmaker Crisis Once upon a time, there was a small town in middle of the Rocky Mountains. The town was small, but full of families and friends, warriors, warriorettes, guardians, and young women to bring pride to their familes. One small house belonged to the Snows. Their daughter had turned seventeen. When a child in the family turned seventeen, they would go to the matchmaker to see if they were good for being wives or guardians and to see if they would bring honor to their family.... Now, our story begins in this little town called Halo. "I Emmerette' Snow has... No have...have..have...come to bring my family honor," Emmerette' Snow recited as she read the script of the matchmaker. She had been practicing for weeks for this! All of a sudden, her father came in. "Emmerette', you are going to be late for your meeting with the matchmaker. Your mother must be waiting," Samuel Snow sighed. "Oh nooooo!" Emmerette' wailed and hopped into her tomboyish pants and shirt. She looked at the wall; Japanese scriptures filled it. She murmered to herself, "I hope I studied enough." She ran out the door... A few minutes later, Emmerette' ran up and looked at her mother. Her mother did not look that pleased with her and placed her hands on her hips, her blue eyes sparkling brightly. Her mother's hair seemed darker than black today. "I'm here!" Emmerette' exclaimed. "Emmerette'. Must you always be late? Your grandmother just might be right about you being too much like your uncle," her mother groaned. "Where is Grandmother, anways?" Emmerette' questioned. "She didn't want to know what's going to happen," Emmerte's mother sighed. "Come along now." Emmerette's green eyes looked closly at her mother, her black hair swaying as she followed her. They reached the door to a wooden cabin. Bamboo curtains opened up to reveal Nata, the towns' bridal maker. She looked over Emmerette'. "So, this is that tomboy Emerette'. This is going to be a lot of work, but she'll do ok," Nata exclaimed, full of pride. Then, she grabbed Emmerette' by the ear and dragged her in. Emmerette' blinked as Nata lightly pushed her into a bathroom with a tub and walked in after her. She began to wash Emmerette's tanned fur; too bad it didn't hide her red cheeks. "Your hair is too stubborn. Have you been combing properly?" Nata asked. Emerette' blushed. "Nata..," Emmerette' started only to find herself being dried and put into some silk underwear, overpants and a shirt. A moment later, Nata was circling her, getting the most beatiful bridal gown there was onto her. Its long, purple sleeves and bell-skirt fit perfectly. Emmerette' didn't have time to look the dress over before she was dragged away and her hair was done into a large bun. The hair around her ears seemed dead. The hair drooped below her ears. Finally, the white make up, black lines around her eyes, and red paint onto her lips was applied, an umbrella shoved into her hand. "Go before you're later than you already are!" her mother shouted. As Emmerette' ran down the dirt road, her sandals hitting the dirt hard, it created a patting sound. "Oh, please don't let me be late," she panted as she found the line of three other girls going in to see the matchmaker. "Oh, not them too!" Emmerette' groaned like she had always done when she saw the other girls who always scolded her. "Please let them see I'm not as bad as they think I am," Em murmured as the other three girls were already at the doorstep. She stared at the bamboo curtains. For such a mean woman she did beatiful paintings. The bamboo curtains were painted as a scene of Halo. The bamboo rustled and opened. "Snow, Emmerette'," the matchmaker announced. Emmerette' slowly stood up; she didn't say a word. The matchmaker nodded her in. Then, the plump woman around her fifties studied Emmerette'. "Village tomboy.... Isn't today just my day?" she asked herself rather loudly. A moment later, a teapot was shoved into Emmerette's hands. She had spaced out and accidentally dropped the teapot with the tea all over the matchmaker and her ugly little dog. The matchmaker, angry as ever, shouted at Emmerette' and broke into a fit. "YOU shall never bring honor to your family! NO HONOR!! CURSE YOU, EMMERTTE' SNOW!" she shouted on the top of her lungs. Emmerette' ran out crying. Her mother gave her a worried look. "I must learn to trust mother," she murmured. Emmerette' ran and ran and ran until her feet were too tired to keep on. "I wonder where I am...," Emmerette' thought out loud. She noticed her surroundings were different. There was strange writing on a sign standing outside of a large dump. "H...Hello?" Emmerette' stammered. A dazed kat with dark cream colored fur looked at her. He was quite skinny, but looked strong. "May I help you, Miss?" he questioned. Emmerette' paused for a moment. The kat spoke English. She could tell because she had studied it. Emmerette' took a deep breath. She hoped her English would come out right. "I...I am Emmerette' Snow. I came from those moun... moutanies... I mean, mountains over th-there. I ran here aft-after seeing the.....matchmaker..." Emmerette' paused. She needed a good reason to run away from her home, not a 'I failed a test and now I'm running away,' type excuse. She quickly found a lie. "...and I accidently got sick and my mother and father, along with the matchmaker, got so angry they exiled me from my hometown, Halo," she finished and looked at all the enforcer cars. She had seen them once in a while in the mountains. "Just one minute..," the kat said and looked at her sympathetically. Then, he went to a bigger kat with a lighter, yellowish, shade of cream colored fur. He talked to him for a moment, and they both came back out. "Emmerette' Snow, I'm Jake Clawson. This is my best buddy, Chance Furlong," Jake said. "Hello Mr. Clawson and Mr. Furlong." Emmerette' grinned. She sniffled and a tear escaped her eye once more. The white make-up with black borders and red cheeks smeared a bit more. "Emmerette', do you have a place to stay?" questioned Chance. "No... I do not, un..un... fortuna..tley," she explained; her English needed some work. "Would you like to stay with us?" Jake asked. Emmerette' paused for a moment and thought it over. "Alright." She nodded. Chance showed her to the bathroom and started the shower up for her. Emmerette stared and whispered to him that she had brought no clothes. "Uhh.... We'll take care of that....," the kat stammered. "And,... one more thing,... Emmerette'. Your name's umm... a mouthful.. Could we call you Em?" he asked. Emmerette' looked at him, then nodded. "Cool," said Chance, and he left the room. Emmerette' smiled. "Em..," she murmered to herself and locked the bathroom door. She went into the shower and washed the make-up and bits of splattered tea off. When she came out a few minutes later, she put a towel on and peeked out the door. Another kat in a pink dress with blonde hair and glasses handed her some clothes. "Here you go, Emmerette'. Jake and Chance told me about you. I'll be here for a while getting my car fixed if you want to talk.... My name's Callie Briggs." She smiled. "Thank you, ...M...Miss Briggs." Em smiled and thankfully took the clothes. She dressed herself and looked in the mirror. Callie had given her a blue t-shirt, some jeans and her sandals. After Em brushed her hair, she came out and looked around the house. Soon, she found the repair garage and Chance and Jake fixing a car. Miss Briggs spotted her and waved Em over. "Hi, Emmerette'. The guys told me you also go by Em, correct?" Callie asked. Em nodded. "Yes, ma'am." "You don't have to call me ma'am. Just Miss Briggs." She smiled kindly. Em got ready to respond when Chance broke in. "Your car's ready, Miss Briggs." "Thank you, Chance. Thank you, Jake. Nice meeting you, Em." Callie nodded and paid them for fixing her car. Then, she drove off. "So, kiddo, whaddya want for lunch?" Chance asked, wiping his face and hands off on a green towel. He then wiped it off on his mechanic suit. "Chance," Jake stared at him. Chance gave an innocent shrug. "Em, what would you like for lunch?" Jake asked in a gentle voice. "Anything but tea," she responded. "Why not tea?" Chance asked. Jake threw him a look. "Umm.... my mother....threw tea on the matchmaker and blamed it on me..." She bit her lip. "Oh...that's okay." Chance grinned. "Thank you." Em grinned in thanks. Em knew it was bad to lie, but how could she tell the truth? They'd think she was a liar and also a coward. As the afternoon passed on, Emmerette' sat at a table, lightly humming to herself as she sketched Jake and Chance. Jake's cheeks were a bit hard to draw, but she managed. She soon heard arguing outside.... and saw something moving in one of piles of scrap. Emmerette' watched Jake and Chance argue with two other kats. One of the kats sounded horrible. She could hardly understand him. His voice slurred most of his words togethor. While the other kat wore a blue cap that hid his eyes. "You really n-need speach therapy," Emmerete' announced, getting in the middle of the arguement. She stepped up to the small yellow cat known as 'Murray.' "I am apologzing in ad...vance," Em managed to say 'ad-vance' faster than she had ever done in English. "Why whoulz zat b'?" the small yellow kat questioned. Emmerette' punched him hard in the nose, kicked him in the knee, then kicked him again. Murray flew back and inside the garbage truck. The other kat, known as Burke, came up, then stared at her. "Ah... Say, Burke, maybe we can continue this.. later...," Jake explained. Emmerette' kicked Burke in the knee, and he fled to the truck. Then, he and Murray drove off. "Ja-," Em started. When she turned, they were gone. Em figured it must've been work for them. She heard noises and felt booms from downstairs. She blinked and saw an open hatch. Carefully, she climbed down the ladder. She then had to jump down mid-way because over half of the ladder was missing. Em then blinked when she saw two kats made of metal. "What's this? You two are babysitting now?" asked the short one. Emmerette' sensed something about them was bad. Quickly, she took out a blue stone, blue as the ocean on a clear day. She started to whisper some magical words that her mother had taught her. The stone lit to life and glowed light blue. A steamy mist of light blue magic flowed from the stone. Emmerette' started to glow. She magically floated upwards. When she reached the ceiling, she floated there. "I call on this power to release the light. Knight of lights, show the light!" she shouted. The steamy blue magic picked Jake and Chance up. They floated up to her and looked at her full of shock. The blue mist surrounded the metal kats and sent them through the hatch. Emerette', with Jake and Chance, floated after them. The blue mist glowed brightly. The robot kats argued with each other. Soon, they were sent into the sky. A small twinkle marked where they had last been seen. Emmerette' floated downwards carefully with Jake and Chance. She stopped whispering. Chance got ready to ask her something only Emmerette' didn't get to hear his question; she went unconscious. A few hours later, Emmerette' woke up. "How did you do that?" asked Chance as he saw her wake up. "The stone possesses great po-power," Emerette' stuttered. Then, she asked Chance a question. "What was that place down there?" Jake scratched his head. Then, they explained that were the Swat Kats and that she needed to keep this a secret. Emmerette' nodded. After a few minutes of thinking she finally decided to tell them the truth. After a few minutes of explaining, Chance looked angry and Jake looked calm but annoyed. At seeing this Emmerette' softly cried. "I didn't want you to thik - Think... I mean that I am a coward," Emerette' sniffled. "We understand.... but, next time, tell the truth," Jake said gently. He had calmed down. It took a Chance a little while to calm down, but he did. "Umm... Jake... Chance.......I have a problem... Miss Briggs only gave me one set of clothes," Emmerette' explained later that night. "Actually, she gave us some of hers that don't fit her anymore to give to you." Chance grinned and handed her the pants, jeans, shirts, and socks. "Oh. Please tell her great thanks to her," Emmerette' said. "We will," Jake assured Em. One Month Later.... Jake and Chance came to like Emmerette' a lot. She soon seemed to be theirs. They had grown so close that Emmerette' thought of them as father and uncle. Emmerette's family had come looking for her and found her, but, seeing how happy she was, they left without Emmerette' knowing they were even in the salvage yard. "Em, we were going to give this to you later, but we figured your mother or grandmother, even father, might come by, so we want you to have this," Jake said with a grin one day. Em blinked and took the small package. She slowly unwrapped it and a silver locket with "Emmerette'" written on the front of it fell into her lap. She picked it up and opened the small locket. On the right side of the locket, Chance grinned. On the left side of the locket, Jake's picture grinned at her too. "Thank you so much! You are family to me!" she cried out happily and hugged both of the kats. "Em, umm.... Callie knows a matchmaker if you would like to try again," Chance said later on that day. Em stared at the table thinking for a moment, then nodded. The next day Em was once again in make up and a fancy wedding dress, this time walking into a large office. A woman around thirty smiled at her. She did everything the matchmaker at Halo did. Em passed the test with success and, a few minutes later, the matchmaker came out. "I have found your match," she explained. "His name is Jake Clawson." She grinned at Jake and Em. "Umm... I'm kinda......dating someone right now..." He blushed. Em felt a little down, but then the matchmaker spoke up again. "There is one more match. Come with me," the matchmaker explained. Em followed. She clutched lightly onto the silver locket Chance and Jake had given to her. "This is your other match," the matchmaker explained. Em looked. A kat around twenty stood there. He wore a strange suit; it looked like a jacket only it had buttons like on a computer. The man bowed. "My name is Hard Drive," he stated. As soon as Em heard him talk, she fell in love. When Chance and Jake saw him, they explained to her that he was a villain. Em knew she could reform him. "If you let me work on reforming him just for a year, I'm sure he'll be reformed," Em said stubbornly. Chance sighed. "Well, you can give it a try." Slowly, a year passed, and Hard Drive reformed. "My real name is David Furfell," he admitted. Emmerette' had done it. She had reformed him. Jake and Chance admitted they never thought she could do it. As two years went past, Emmerette' and David got married. They worked along with Jake and Chance in the salvage yard. David never did find out about their secret identies, and, whenever the alarm went off, Emmerette' explained that meant they had to go and fix a car in another fix-up yard. David and Emmerette' had two kittens, both boys. She and David agreed to name them Chance and Jake Jr. Furfell. The End.