Chapter One

“You gonna sit there all night sulking?” asked the glum bar maid as she polished one last glass before her shift ended, “or are you going to cheer up before all the bars close and you’re out in the cold until you find the will to drag yourself home?” Her joke hadn’t gone down well with the heavy-set tabby leaning on the bar in front of her. He was inconceivably sad, that she knew. She hadn’t seen a grown tom sit and stare at his glass like this before since the enforcers had their last round of lay-offs.

“If you’re gonna talk to me like some retarded kitten, then I ain’t gonna act like anything but.”

“Pardon?”

“You heard!!” cried Chance, suddenly jerking up his head to scowl deeply into the she kat’s ice blue eyes.

She glowered back. She hadn’t expected him to even talk that much. He hadn’t said a word all evening. Oh well, it was a start.

“You’ve been sulking like this all night. Want to tell me what’s up?” she asked him, her glower softening into an understanding gaze that seemed to penetrate into his soul, or seemed to as far as she could tell from his eyes, which were now filling up like a kitten’s when he’s just been told ‘no’.

He looked away, hiding his eyes and pushing his paw deep into his pocket.

“You wouldn’t understand, Dessy.”

“I know what it’s like to feel upset. I know what it’s like to know something has just happened to you that no one else can relate to…” She trailed off. Chance was gazing at her again, just like in high school when she knew he knew something she didn’t.

Her name was Destiny Softpaw. A short rather chunky silver tabby she-kat with ice blue eyes which, as far as she knew, were her best feature. She was sometimes known as Dessy to people who weren’t likely to get a kick for calling her that, i.e. her sisters, Chance, and normally Jake. But, Jake wasn’t here tonight, and she wanted to know why.

She broke away from his gaze long enough to resume her tasks and gather enough courage to ask him the question she had been dying to ask him all night.

“Chance, where’s Jake tonight?”

Chance doubled over and lay his head on the bar.

“In heaven, Dessy.”

She stood there, slightly stunned. He couldn’t mean this, could he?

“How…?”

“Accident in the je… pickup truck,” he corrected, not taking his head off the bar or even moving. “He had a head on collision when some kat came out of nowhere on a narrow country road. No one’s fault. Typical, he crashes the pickup truck the first time in ages I let him borrow it…” A ghost of a smile passed over his face at the thought of his partner, quickly followed by one of the many tears he had shed in the last few days. Not just at the thought of his closest friend’s death, but also at the thought that nobody could be allowed to know how he really died. How he died protecting his home from something, that, in the enforcers would have earned him a posthumous medal and an honorary promotion. “Oh, God…”

“You OK, Chance?” asked a now incredibly concerned Dessy over the sound of his stifled sobs.

“I will be, sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. Just let it all out,” she whispered as she leaned over the bar to stroke back his, by now overgrown, head fur. At least now she knew why he let himself go so badly, and she didn’t blame him.

She looked at the red eyed, large-gutted tom that sat in front of her. Then she made a conscious decision; she had wanted to do this for a long time, and now the opportunity presented itself perfectly…

“Chance, would you like to stay over at my place tonight? I can sleep on the sofa, and you can stay in my room. I just don’t think you should stay alone tonight. You need someone to talk to…”

Chance sighed. “Thanks, but I have a better idea…”

Her shift finished, and she and Chance left the bar and headed over to the scrap yard.


Chapter Two

Back at the scrap yard, Chance and Destiny sat at either ends of the sofa, feeling about as uncomfortable as it is for two kats could be.

“Sorry about the sofa,” muttered the still red-eyed Chance. “It needs re-stuffing or something”

“It’s OK. It feels fine to me.”

“Wanna watch TV?” asked Chance.

“Only if you want to. I’m just happy to sit and talk, that’s if it’s all right with you.”

“Sure. What do you want to talk about?”

“I think we both want to talk about the same thing, or rather, kat”

Chance lowered his head and haunched his shoulders. Then, putting his head in his hands, he let out one small hiccup like sob before leaning back into the tattered sofa cushion, with his face still covered by his hands.

“You loved him, didn’t you, Chance?”

“Like a brother,” Chance softly replied as he slid his hands down his face and wiped away another tear.

“Come here,” said Dessy. She leant over and linked her arm in Chance’s, and he began sobbing into her hair as she leant against him. “It’s all right,” she cooed. “Shhh…”

“I can’t shhh,” he murmured, “he was the closest person in the world to me. Nobody knew me as well as he did, and I’ll never know anybody as well as I knew him.”

Dessy thought for a second. She didn’t know if what she was going to say was right, but, as she could think of nothing else to say, she didn’t appear to have an alternative. She’d never been good at giving advice, or taking heed of it for that matter. Oh well, she’d try…

“How do you know you won’t meet another like him? He was special, but other people are too. You could find another kat to befriend. Someone who needed a friend as much as you do…”

Chance leapt up like, well, a scalded kat, knocking Dessy onto her back on the sofa. Turning to face her, he leant over until he was on eye level with her, then, leaning close into her face, he growled, “There is nobody else like my buddy in the whole world. Goodnight.” He turned and stalked out of the house.

“Chance, wait! I didn’t mean it like that! Chance! Oh God, what have I done?”

Chapter Three

“Chance! Wait!” she called as she raced out of the house after him. “I didn’t mean it like that! All I meant was you might find someone who would want to help you. Someone who, in a way, knows what you’re going through, someone who’s known you since high school and you’ve never looked twice at. Someone like, ME!”

Chance stopped in his tracks, and turned to face the now distraught Destiny.

“You couldn’t possibly understand,” he snarled. With that, he turned and continued off down the sidewalk in the direction of the roughest area of town he could think of.

Chance was now alone. He ambled along at steady pace, taking in the sites, sounds, and smells of the night in deep gulping breaths. He became conscious of the cold as he turned a particularly draughty corner and set his eyes on a bar which was close by.

He entered the bar and got a drink. His aim: to drown his sorrows.

Several drinks later, he began trying to work through a few things in his slightly fuzzy head. Could he have stopped Jake’s death? He didn’t suppose so. He hadn’t wanted to acknowledge how his friend had died, but now, three days later, he felt suitably prepared.

They had been flying the Turbokat in its first test run with its new weapons, new ejektor seats, and updated engines, when, on the edge of the radar, they had spotted several enforcer jets in a battle formation.

“Razor, should we check it out?”

“Sure. It’ll give us a chance to test out our new engine with some enforcers, and whoever they’re fighting;”

“Um, Razor? Who are they fighting? Nothing’s showing up on the radar.”

“No idea.”

“Could it be a training exercise?”

“Over such a populated area of the City? I don’t think so.”

“Well, come on then! One’s just gone down, we’d better go help them.”

As they approached the area of the dogfight, they saw that it couldn’t possibly be a training exercise. There were several unidentifiable jets in front of them, all of which were firing seemingly randomly, but were taking down enforcer jets at a terrifying rate.

“Razor? Who are they?”

“Well, they fly like us, but their jets seem older, perhaps enforcer surplus.”

T-Bone nodded. “Yeah, definitely enforcer surplus. But, Razor, how can they be out manoeuvring the enforcer jets?”

“Must have incredible pilots.”

“But, who are they, and where are they from?”

“They have the dark SWAT Kat logo on them.”
Both were silent for a minute.

“We haven’t…”

“T-Bone, chill. This could mean anything. Another jet just went down! I think it’s time we got our tails in gear.”

“Right, buddy.”

Their jet manoeuvred around the lead enemy jet to take on the following, less difficult jets. They took a hit in the wing.

“Crud!”

“Relax T-Bone, we’ve won with more damage than that.”

“But, they’re out manoeuvring us!”

“Not for long if I know you, buddy.”

“Razor, can you send out a missile or something?”

“No, they’re too fast.”

“Too fast for the fastest glovatrix in the west?”

“Well, if you put it that way…”

“Razor, we’re hit again!”

“They just took out one of the engines!”

“Can we fly without it?”

“As long as there is no other damage, yes.”

“Crud! Again!”

“Oh no.”

“Razor, that didn’t sound like a promising ‘oh no’.”

“T-Bone, we have to eject.”

By now, the jet had gone into a steep fall, and was spiralling out of control.

“Do we have to?”

“Uh, YES!”

“Well if you’re sure.”

They both ejected out of the cockpit to safety, or so T-Bone thought.

“Razor, you OK buddy? Buddy?” T-Bone called over the radio headset that was contained within his helmet.

“No. My seat didn’t eject. I’m so sorry, T-Bone…”

“Razor, do something!”

“I can’t.”

“You can!”

“Goodbye, Chance.”

“JAKE!!!!”

That was the last Chance saw Jake. Sitting in the bar now, he tried to figure out who, and why. Why was pretty easy, the seat had been so new it was untested, and the eject mechanism had failed. But, who were those jet pilots? He didn’t have any idea, but maybe the logo was a clue. He was definitely still in his own world, had been all the time. There were too many of them to be the dark Swat Kats. He paused a second to get another drink, then continued his train of thought. Dark Kat had apparently armed the dark SWAT Kats, so perhaps he could have armed these too. That had to be it!

He leapt to his feet and raced out of the bar and onto the street. Heading to a phone booth, he dialled the number for the enforcer headquarters.

“Hello,” came a sullen secretary’s voice.

Obviously working late, thought Chance.

“Hi, yeah. This is Chance Furlong from the Megakat City salvage yard. I’m calling about some old enforcer jets which should have been disassembled and sent for scrap. We haven’t received them.”

“So?”

“So, do you know where they are?”

“Not a clue.”

“You must have records.”

“Yes.”

“So, look at them,” replied Chance, becoming more than a little annoyed.

“OK, yeesh. Here. There were five sets of parts sent to you, and you say none arrived?”

“None, thanks.”

He put the phone down before she could complain and began to walk home, or rather staggered. Although he sounded sober, he was more than a little tipsy.

Now he knew who had killed Jake. He couldn’t really have done anything, or could he? One against five? Oh God.

Unknowingly, he staggered into the middle of the road. Deep in thought, he didn’t see the rather large van coming towards him…

Chapter Four

“Chance? Chance?”

“Wha?”

“Shhh.”

“Oh, Dessy, don’t start that again.”

“Oh, I’m so glad you’re OK.”

“I don’t feel OK.”

“Yeah, well, that’s your own fault. They had to put a few things right without an anaesthetic, because you’d been drinking. They couldn’t give you any painkillers, either, for the same reason,” replied Dessy, with little more than a hint of concern. Well, she was trying to sound disapproving at the same time.

“How did I get here?”

“I followed you, to see if you were OK. You were drunk before you left, and I didn’t want you to get…” She trailed off. Chance was staring into her eyes again. “What’s with you, Chance?”

“You were right, I haven’t looked at you twice. How long have I been out?”

“A couple of um, days…”

“Days!!! What’s happened to the salvage yard?”

“Relax. Things are taken care of.”

“What about Jake’s fune…”

“They postponed it until you came round. It’s tomorrow afternoon.”

“Have you been with me all this time?”

“Yes. I haven’t left. I didn’t want you to be alone when you came round.”

“Speaking of coming round, would you stay with me at the salvage yard for a while?”

“I’d love too. But, why this sudden change of heart? I thought you wouldn’t want me to…”

Chance leant forward and put his arms around her, pulling her close. Destiny didn’t know how to react; he’d never done this before.