The Bodyguard 
                      by
                Lucca Stilgart 
                                                        
                   Chapter 1
     
     "Name?"
     "Jessica Maverick." 
     "Prior occupation?"
     "Security Chief at Kitty's Palace, Kat Vegas."
     "Occupation requested?"
     "Bodyguard."
     "Anyone in particular."
     "How should I know I just moved here. I'll take anyone."
      The officer behind the Enforcer Main Registry desk gave the
she-kat a bemused look. He handed her back her gun and registry
papers. "These papers allow you to hire yourself out as personal
services. They also give you the right to use your fire arm in case of
emergencies and immediate danger." He smiled sarcastically, "Just
don't get trigger happy, ok?"
       Jessica half smiled back, "I haven't fired this thing since I got it,
what makes you think I'll start now?"
       He was about to reply when Commander Feral entered the room
followed by three very upset kats. One was a female Enforcer, the other
was a blonde she-kat in a business suit and the last was a male Enforcer
in a uniform similar to Feral's, only not as important looking.
       "Uncle," the female Enforcer said, "don't you think you're being
just a little bit unfair."
       He kept walking towards his office, located on the opposite side of
the floor. Without turning around he said, "Felina, those vigilanties have
caused enough damage to the city as it is. I won't tolerate any more of
their antics."
       "Commander Feral," said the blonde she-kat, "you know as well as
I the SWAT kats weren't the ones responsible for the explosion. Dr.
Viper was!"
       "Ms. Briggs," said the other male Enforcer, "I don't see how a
Deputy Mayor has any place at an Enforcer precinct."
       "Shut up, Steele!" the Ferals shouted simultaneously. 
       His eyes widened and his mouth hung open. He looked around the
room to find something that would draw attention away from himself.
He spotted Jessica leaning against the registry desk. She had been
watching this little scene very carefully. Steele turned to her and said,
"Who are you?" The others turned around to see whom Steele was
addressing.
       "Who are you?" she shot back.
       He pointed to a brass name plate on his chest, "Lieutenant Steele."
He wrinkled his nose at her. "I don't remember anyone letting you in."
       "The door was open," she shrugged nonchalantly and stood up
straight, "I didn't think I needed and engraved invitation to renew my
officer licence."
       Feral stepped in front of Steele, "I am Commander Feral. What
business do you have here?"
       "I came over from Kat Vegas lookin' for a job as a bodyguard."
       "What made you leave," Steele asked with a mocking smile,
"hookers and gambling addicts boring you?"
       She stared him down, "That's my business short-round." Even
though she was barely two inches taller than him she said it anyway. He
gawked at her. Before he had a chance to retaliate Felina stepped
forward and shook Jessica's paw. 
       "I'm Lieutenant Felina Feral," she said with a smile. Pointing to
each of the kats in turn she introduced them. "This is my Uncle
Commander Feral, Deputy Mayor Calico Briggs and Lt. Steele."
       "Jessica Maverick, top guard in Vegas and I'm pretty lucky at the
tables." She shook their paws in turn, except Steele's. He was too busy
healing his wounded pride to even look at her. "I came to Mega Kat
City lookin' for work as a bodyguard." She turned to Felina, "Any
suggestions, Lieutenant?"
       Felina and Callie exchanged a glance and a smile. "Sure," Felina
said, "why not Ms. Briggs? She's the trouble shooter for the city and
gets her fair share of trouble herself."
       "Even though the SWAT Kats are there to bale me out most of the
time, I wouldn't mind a little extra security," Callie said with a smile.
       "Actually I don't think that's such a bad idea," Feral said. Everyone
looked at him, a little confused by his statement. "I've been looking
over your file Ms..."
       "Just Maverick, please."
       He nodded and picked up her diagnostic on the registry desk. "And
I'm impressed," he said glancing at her file, "your record is by the book
and there are no deficiency reports or records of misconduct. I am,
however, curious as to why you left." His eye brow raised as he put the
papers down.
       "I've got nothing to hide commander," she said. Suddenly her voice
became very stern, "But why I decided to leave is my own business."
       Feral growled out, "I'm keeping my eye on you. With a name like
Maverick I should have guards posted at your doorstep." He turned on
his heel and slammed the door to his office behind him.
       "Whoo," Jessica's voice reached a higher octave, "is he always that
charming or only on days when he's lookin' to hang someone?" 
       Felina smiled. "Dear old Uncle Feral. You gotta love 'em."
       Jessica whispered to Felina and Callie. "Ya know, there was a guy
like that in my squad back at the Kareoke Kat Klub," her paws were
animated as she spoke, "stuffed shirt type, always barking orders. One
night Lulu the cigar girl gave him the key to her room. Never had a
problem with him since. Turned out to be very sociable." Callie started
to laugh. 
        Felina thought for a moment and said, "You have that girl's
number?"
        "Felina!" Callie raised her eye brows.
        "I'm just kidding!" She laughed at Callie's shocked expression.
        Jessica, however, took the joke to the next level. "555-2231. Tell
her Mave sent him," she whispered to Felina. 
        Callie gave Jessica's arm a little tap. "Your terrible." She smiled.
        "I know," she sighed and said in a deep voice, "but it's so good to
be so bad. Meow!" They burst out into reels of laugher. Clueless as
ever, Steele walked to his office, shrugging all the way.  

                   Chapter 2
                                                
        It had been a week since Jessica had started working for Callie
and two of them were getting along very well. Jessica told all sorts of
tales about the happenings in Vegas while Callie showed her more of
the city. One of the first stops they made was to Jake and Chance's 
garage. Jessica had shown Callie her Ferrari. It was in top condition,
considering the action it had seen in Vegas, and she wanted to keep it
that way. She and Callie took it down to the garage for a little fine
tuning and when Chance saw it they swore he fell in love.
         "This is *your* car?" he said, running a paw over the hood.
         Jessica smiled and rolled her eyes at his excitement. "It better be
or Feral will have my ass for grand theft auto." She chuckled softly,
"Yes it's mine."
        "How'd you get it? Don't you know how much it costs? This must
be an import because they don't make these parts here." By this time he
had the hood up and his head stuck in the guts of the car.
       Jake walked out from the back wiping his paws with an oil rag.
"Chance, you gear head, who cares how she got it? We're supposed to
be giving it a tune up." Chance didn't answer him. 
      "He's out in the ozone layer," Callie said with a smile, "until he
explores every square inch of that machine we won't see his head for
another hour."
      Chance's voice came from the inside of the car. "Holy Kats! How'd
this....and that's so cool .....Oh boy look at this stuff! How'd you get
this car?"
      Jessica shrugged, "Eh. I know a guy."
      "If he's anything like the cigar girl, you can give him *my*
number," Callie said and laughed softly.
      Jake's brow knitted in confusion. "Cigar girl? What?" The girls
started to laugh. Jake shook his head and checked under the car. He
came out five minutes later and said, "Perfect. I've never seen a car in
such good shape before. But, uh, there's some thing kinda funky about
the tires." He stood up straight and turned to Jessica.  "The ridges
around them are pretty worn, almost as if the car was in high speed and
did some dangerous curves at the last minute. Unless you've been in a
couple of high speed car chases they shouldn't be there."
      Chance's head came out from under the hood when Jake finished
speaking. Callie looked at Jessica and waited for an answer. She gave
them one. "Old boyfriend," she rolled her eyes, "Men. They never give
up. They think 'No' means 'Yes' and 'Stop it' means 'Take me, I'm
yours'," she batted her eye lashes for effect. Callie and Chance started
to laugh but here eyes met Jake's. She knew that he didn't believe her.
When he didn't press the issue, she forgot about it.

                   Chapter 3
                                
       "What's wrong Ms. Briggs?" Jessica closed the door to Callie's
office behind her.
       "It's Dark Kat," Callie said, "he's stealing inter-net microchips from
Kat Gates' factories. With the amount that he's taking he'll have
complete control over cyber space."
       Jessica shrugged, "So what? A bunch of computer nerds won't be
able to download naughty pictures of Kitty Brinkly, big deal."
       "It *is* a big deal," she blinked for a second, realizing what she
just said. "I don't mean the pictures. If Dark Kat accesses Top Secret
government projects than the whole world could be at risk."
       "And that would be bad," Jessica confirmed.
       "Yes, very bad," Callie said putting on her coat, "and I want to be
there if anything goes wrong. The citizens might need some reassurance
and I want to make sure they know that I'll see to it that he's stopped."
       "Is that the only reason?" she asked. Jessica had already noticed the
picture of T-Bone on Callie's desk before she had turned it around.
       "Yes," she insisted, "let's go."
      Twenty minutes later they arrived at Gates Net World Factory.
Dark Kat had wasted no time in securing the area with creeplings, so
the Enforcers counteracted by surrounding the complex. Jessica and
Callie got out of the car and were immediately approached by Feral and
Ann Gora. Callie turned to Jessica, "Oh great. Don't they have other
kats to annoy?"
       Jessica smirked. "I take it, this is kind of a ritual?" 
       Just then the sound of a jet screamed across the sky.  Jessica
looked up and saw a black and red blur race through the clouds and
land near the crime scene. Callie looked up beaming with pride. "The
SWAT Kats!" 
       Jessica followed her gaze and said, "I'll take care of Frick and
Frack," her hands darted as she spoke, "you go make nice, nice with
your friends."
        "Ms. Briggs this is neither the time nor the place," Feral started.
        Jessica leaned up against the car. "Well, well, well, if it ain't the
rent-a-cop and the town crier," she crossed her arms, "Don't you have
anything better to on Friday afternoons?" As Jessica got into a heated
argument with Feral, Callie snuck off to talk to the SWAT Kats.
Unfortunately they were already inside the factory, so all Callie found
was an empty jet. She started back toward Feral and Jessica.
        "I don't think I heard you, punk," Feral growled.
        "I'll write it down if you can read," Jessica shot back.  The
argument was interrupted by Callie's blood curdling scream. Jessica
saw her being dragged off into the factory by Dark Kat's creeplings.
        "This is Feral," he said on the radio, "bring me chopper back up."
        "Geeze Feral," Jessica said, "when it comes to law enforcement
your still a mental slug!" She took off at top speed for the factory.
        Lurking in the shadows and behind large wooded crates, Jessica
watched the creeplings tie Callie to a chair. Dark Kat loomed over her
when they had dispersed. Jessica was too far out of ear shot to over
hear their conversation, but whatever he said it wasn't pleasant. The
wince on Callie's face told her that much.
        Suddenly two masked kats in blue and red uniforms jumped Dark
Kat from behind causing the three of them fell on to a conveyor belt.
An unidentified flailing arm hit the controls to the belt and started it
moving.  Jessica took the opportunity to untie the deputy mayor. 
"Really Callie," she said, knocking out a few creeplings, "I turn my
back for one second and all hell breaks loose."
         The two masked kats were thrown against a stack of crates and
fell to the floor with a
crash. Callie raced over to them, "Razor! T-Bone!"
         Jessica heard a click behind her. The cold steel of a gun barrel
chilled the side of her head as she was pushed over to Callie and the
SWAT kats.
         "You impudent little whelp," Dark Kat said to Jessica, "don't you
know who I am?"
         Her smile shifted to one side and she raised an eye brow. "Why?
Did you forget?" T-Bone bit back a laugh. Dark Kat brought the handle
of the gun down heavily on the side of her head. She fell to her knees
and grunted.
         "Such a strong spirit," Dark Kat sneered, "I will be able to
manipulate the entire world by the touch of a button. Government plans,
top secret codes, nuclear access commands, they will all be mine. In
short I will be a god!"
         Jessica put a paw to the side of her head. From behind her she
heard Callie scream. The creeplings held the SWAT kats and had a
tight grip on Callie. Jessica got to her feet. Dark Kat sneered at her.
'Ok,' she thought, 'those two are just waiting for a distraction to jump
this clown. The big one is about the same size as the bouncers at the
casino, he could easily break outta that hold. The little one, I don't
know, but neither will chance it if Callie's in the way.' She stood up
straight. "Hey Dark Kat!" she shouted. He looked at her. "Volare!!" He
didn't even have time to look confused. The SWAT Kats had broken
free of his henchmen and lunged at him. Jessica turned around to face
Callie and grabbed her by the shoulders.
          BANG!
          BANG!
          BANG!
         Dark Kat's gun went off three seconds before the SWAT Kats
had pushed him to the ground. Jessica's grip tightened on Callie's
shoulders and then released. Sounds of the fight behind her had
climaxed and died with the sound of breaking glass and a jet's take off.
Dark Kat had gotten away, but not before the SWAT Kats could stop
the microchip theft.
         Jessica winced as she forced out a smile. Callie's eyes hadn't left
hers since the shots rang out. "Jessica?" she said in a trembling voice.
         "Are you ok?" she said controlling a stutter. Callie nodded. She
let go of Callie's shoulders and stepped back. As T-Bone turned to her,
he asked, "Quick thinking Miss, but what did you say to him?"
         She fought off a wave of dizziness and smiled as she said, "I told
him to fly away."  Razor caught her as she fell to the floor. The last
thing she saw was Callie reaching out to catch her.
     
                   Chapter 4

         Jake and Chance watched Callie as she pace back and forth in the
hospital waiting room. She hadn't sat down in three hours. Chance
stood up and put a paw on her shoulder. "Callie," he said softly, "she's
gonna be just fine."
          She turned on her heel to face him. "Chance she got shot in the
back three times! Don't tell me she's going to be fine!" She wiped away
the tears as the doctor walked n the room.
         "Ms. Briggs?" he said.
         Callie ran over to him. "Is she ok? Did she make it? Please tell
me Jessica is alright."
         The doctor smiled at her. "She's just fine." She sighed in relief
and sank into couch with her head in her hands.  "She's lucky she wore
that BPV or she wouldn't have made it  to the hospital.
         "She what?"Chance asked. He looked at the doctor's name plate.
It read A. Napoliello
         "She was wearing a bullet proof vest when she was admitted,"
Dr. Napoliello replied. "We had to cut it off her before we removed the
bullet." 
         He looked at him, "What bullet?! I though you said she wore a
vest?"
         "She did. One of the bullets ripped through the material. It's just a
flesh wound and  the stitches won't even leave a scar. I've been telling
her forever to be careful." he smiled, "She's always been stubborn."
         "Can I see her?" Callie asked quietly
         "Sure you can," he said, "down the hall, third door on your left."
He walked down the opposite corridor to the west wing of the hospital.
         Chance turned around and called after him, "Hey Doc!" The
doctor turned around. "How do you know her?"
         He smiled and said, "Let's just say I'm kind of a patron saint of
hopeless causes." Chance looked down puzzled for a moment but when
he looked up again the doctor was gone. He shrugged and followed
Jake and Callie to Jessica's room.
         As soon as he closed the door, Chance felt someone's paw on his
shoulder and a seductive female voice purred in his ear. "Hey cutie,"
she said, "you look great in powder blue."
         His heart jumped up to his throat but when he realized who it was
he turned around and gave her a sarcastic smile. "I'm gonna hang a bell
around your neck." Jake and Callie laughed as the two walked over.
"You're supposed to be in bed."
        "Yeah, yeah," Jessica said, "well I decided against that."
        "No wonder that poor doctor has white hair," Jake said.
        Jessica grabbed her jacket and motioned them to the door. Callie
blocked her way, "No way. Where do you think you're going? You're
staying here to heal up."
        She smiled. "They discharged me twenty minutes ago. Callie
these things happen all the time. I get shot, go to the doc, he patches me
up and I free to go." Callie shook her head and complied with her. The
four of them walked out the door and down the hall.
        Before they left the building, Chance went over to the nurse
behind the main desk. "Excuse me miss," he said, "could you thank Dr.
Napoliello for helping our friend."
        "Who?" the nurse said, confused.
        Chance thought he pronounced his name wrong. "The Italian guy
who removed Jessica Maverick's bullet." She gave him a blank look.
"He's got black hair with some white in it, a beard with a mustache."
She still didn't show any sign of acknowledgment. He sighed heavily,
"Brown eyes six feet tall, kinda thin?"
        The nurse type for a few minutes on the hospital computer. "I'm
sorry sir but there's no one by that name or who fits your description."
        "But he was just....," Chance looked down the hall to the west
wing of the hospital. He shook his head and walked after his friends,
muttering, "I don't wanna know, I don't wanna think about it, I'm just
gonna get in the truck and go home."
        By the time he caught up to the others Jake was talking with
Jessica. "So what made you become a bodyguard?"
        She shrugged and smiled. "Oh. A little angel told me." Chance
looked at her and she started to laugh.
        Chance thought for a moment. He shook his head, "Nah," and
walked home with the others.