Forgive and Forget
"You know Chance, you really didn't have to come with me." Jake told his friend as they drove up to Tanya's house.
"Come on Jake," Chance answered. "you know I wouldn't let you go by yourself. Besides, I like visiting Tanya."
"Not to mention Rita." Jake said mistieviously.
"Oh yea?" Chance shot back. "What about you and Tanya?"
"Hey," Jake defended. "It's not my fault she asked me over to help her with her computer systems."
"Yeah right, bud." Chance said as they stopped at a large house and got out of the truck. "And I'm so sure that's the only reason you wanted to come over."
Jake slugged him in the arm before knocking on the door. It was answered shortly later by Rita.
"Oh good," she said. "you're here." She let the tom kats in. "Tanya really needs your help Jake, she's getting nowhere on those computers.
Rita led them towards the computer room. The could hear Tanya yelling at the computer before they even reached the door.
"Please wait while your computer shuts down?! Why you little. . . . That's not what I wanted!"
The three kats stepped through the door just in time to see Tanya smacking the sides of the computer screen. She was just about ot give it a good, hard punch when Jake ran over and grabbed her wrist. Tanya looked behind her to see who was preventing her attack.
"Jake," she cried. "I'm so glad you're here. I really need help with this. Chance says you're really good with computers."
Jake let go of Tanya's wrist and sat down at the computer.
"Let's see what I can do." he said as he began typing.
"Ooh that Hard Drive." Tanya cursed. "If he hadn't tried to take over the city all my systems wouldn't be screwed up. I hope they put him away for a long time. Better yet, I hope he gets the electric chair."
Tanya smiled at the irony of her idea. Three heads then popped into the room, interupting her thoughts.
"Tanya," Wakko anounced. "I'm hungry."
"I'm bored." Yakko wined.
"And I'm cute." Dot added.
Everyone looked at her.
"Hey, I can't help it if I'm cute."
She looked up at Chance and smiled. Chance looked discusted.
"All right kids," Tanya sighed. "I'll make you some lunch."
"Yeah." the Warners cried as they ran off towards the kitchen.
Tanya sighed and slowly fallowed them. Chance and Rita were left in the doorway while Jake sat at the computer. The idea of staying in the same building as the Warners didn't exactly thrill Chance. Plus there was really no reason for him to be there anyway. He wondered if Rita didn't want to be there either. Maybe she'd go somewhere with him. But before he could ask, Rita spoke.
"Hey Chance, do you want to catch a movie or something? There's not much we con do around here."
"Sure." Chance answered, a little suprized.
He fallowed Rita out the door but not before recieving a playful smirk from Jake. Minutes after they left, Tanya come in and plopped herself down in a chair beside Jake.
"Those kids are running me ragged." she said in a tired tone. "I'm so glad their plane leaves this evening."
"I found some of your files." was the only thing Jake could think of to say. "With this rate, I'll have everything back in order in a few hours."
"That's great. I'm only glad the files were only messed up and not deleted." She stood up and yawned. "I think I'll go take a nap if that's okay with you."
"Go ahead." Jake replied. "I can take care of this my self."
Tanya smiled gratefully as she turned to leave. Jake watched as she disappeared out the door and smiled to himself.
Chance and Rita reached the theatre to find that ‘Hard Shell 3' was playing. Chance groaned. He hated monster movies. Especially ones with monster bugs in them.
"If you don't mind Chance," Rita spoke. "I'd rather not go to any monster bug movie. How about we go to lunch instead."
"You don't have to aske me twice." Chance smiled.
Lunch was nice with Rita. They sat together in a small booth, enjoying each other's company. By the time they drove back to Tanya's house, Chance was very glad he had taken Rita up on her offer.
"That was fun." he said as he stepped out of Rita's car.
"Yea. We must do it again sometime."
"Anytime Tanya has those weird kids over again."
Both kats started laughing. Rita stopped and perked up her ears. Chance looked at her quizically.
"Chance, is that your truck beeping?"
Chance then heard it, too. It was the Swat Kat alarm.
"Yeah." Chance said. "Wait here."
He ran into the tow truch parked in front of them and shut the door so Rita couldn't hear.
"T-bone here." Chance said as he pushed the talk button. "What's happening Ms. Briggs?"
"I'm at City Hall." Calley said. "I've just spotted some of Dark Kat's kreepings breaking into a robotics store down the street."
"We're on it." Chance turned off the speaker just as Rita opened the passanger door.
"So what's going on?" she asked.
"Uh, duty calls." Chance answered as calm as he could. "I've got to go and get Jake."
Chance hurried up to the house while Rita walked slowly behind, puzzled at Chance's sudden urgency.
Wakko Warner poked his head into the computer room.
"Hey Jake, what cha doing?" he asked as he walked in and jumped onto the table.
"I'm trying to organize the last of these files."
"Can I help?" Wakko asked, about to push a button.
"No, don't touch that."
"Why not?" Wakko sounded hurt.
"Well, uh . . . .Here." Jake pulled a condy bar out of his pocket. "If I give you this will you promise not to push any buttons?"
"Sure." Wakko promised as he grabbed the candy bar and popped the whole thing- wrapper and all- into his mouth. Jake then turned to see Tanya standing in the doorway smiling at him.
"You're not bad with kids." she commented.
Jake looked up into her face and smiled. Her deep green eyes held his. Chance suddenly barged into the room, interrupting their gaze.
"Jake we've got some uh . . urgent buisness to attend to."
"I see." Jake said, catching the drift. He turned to Tanya. "Your systems are in order so I guess I'll go now."
"Okay." Tanya said. "Thanks for the help Jake."
Rita came into the room just as Chance and Jake were heading out.
"See ya later Rita." Chance called over his shoulder as he and Jake disappeared out the door.
"Boy, those two sure act weird sometimes." Rita commented.
"Yeah." Tanya aggreed. "But were stuck with them."
"Yeah." Rita said with a far off look in her eyes. "We are."
It had taken Chance and Jake longer than they had hoped to get back to the hanger and into uniform. But the two Swat Kats finally managed to take to the air.
"Whoa buddy," Razor called to his partner. "Easy on the G's. We'll get there."
"Sorry buddy." T-bone slowed the jet only slightly. "I just want to make sure we're never late again. Yesterday was embarrassing."
Razor silently empathized with his friend. He didn't like it when Commander Feral showed them up either.
"There they are." T-bone anounced as they flew over the robotics shop.
Three kreeplings with bags full of mechanical equipment stepped out of the store. T-bone brought the jet around and Razor readied his missiles.
"Spider missile, locked." Razor said as the kreeplings showed up on his radar. "Launched."
A long missile with a rope attatched to it snaked out from under the Turbokat. The missile split into different pieces creating a net. The net fell over the kreeplings and they were soon flying through the air, dangling beneath the Turbokat. T-bone turned the jet around to survey the store one more time.
"No sign of Dark Kat. What say we drop our payload at Enforcer HQ."
"Afirmative." Razor agreed. "We'll find out what Dark Kat's up to sooner or later anyway."
The Swat Kats flew off to Enforcer Headquarters. They dropped their catch of kreeplings on the helecopter landing, just bearly missing a suprized Commander Feral. The Swat Kats then flew off, laughing at the Commander while cursed their retreating jet. They weren't going very fast when T-bone looked down at the street. He gasped when he saw three creatures running down the middle of the road.
"Uh oh Razor, do you see what I see?"
"On no." Razor replied as he looked down. "Those kids are causing a riot down there. We should go down and get them under control."
"Roger that." T-bone set the jet down in the path of the rampaging Warners.
The kids didn't stop. T-bone and Razor jumped out of the jet, glovatrixes ready.
"No, stop." a familar voice called to them.
Both Swat Kats and Warners halted as Tanya ran up to them, tired and out of breath. "Swat Kats, don't shoot. They're with me."
"Tanya?" Razor asked. "What's going on?"
"These are my nephiews and my niece- Yakko, Wakko and Dot Warner. I've been trying to get them to the airport in time for their flight."
"Wouldn't it be faster to take a car?" T-bone pointed out.
"Ooh, you're good." Tanya mocked, obviously in a bad mood from her case. "I would have taken then in my car but someone ate the engine." She glared at Wakko who hung his head guiltily. "And Rita would kill me if I let them fide in her car so we had to walk."
"Hey, look at all this neat stuff." Yakko called from the Turbokat's cockpit.
T-bone and Tanya both jumped onto the jet.
"Yakko, get out of there." Tanya cried. "And don't even think of pushing any buttons." She turned to T-bone. "I'm sorry, sometimes they're hard to control."
"No, it's okay." T-bone said when he saw Yakko's disappointed face. "He can sit there as long as he doesn't touch anything."
By then, Dot was up on the jet in Razor's seat and was looking over the weapons pannel.
"Okay kids." Tanya said. "No breaking, no taking, and no eating."
She aimed the last two words at Wakko who was letting Razor show him the cargo bay. Wakko gave Tanya an "o.k." sign showing that he heard. Tanya then sat down on the wing with a tired sigh and leanded agenst the jet. Clearly showing that she was physically exausted. Razor looked up at her and frowned.
"T-bone, come here."
T-bone was reluctant to leave his precious jet. But so far the kids were being good. With one last look he jumped to the ground and joined his partner.
"What's up, buddy?"
"I think we should help Tanya get those kids to the airport." Razor told him.
"Are you crazy Razor? I don't want those things in my jet."
"Look at her T-bone." Razor pointed to Tanya. "She's never going to make it by herself and she is your friend. Besides, if the Warners don't make their flight, it's a sure bet they'll be staying here longer."
"Okay buddy." T-bone surrendered. "Let's get these kids to the airport."
T-bone walked over to the jet and jumped onto the wing next to Tanya. The orange she kat was half asleep when T-bone gently shook her shoulder.
"Huh? Wha?" Was all Tanya could say.
"We're going to help you get those kids to the airport."
Tanya was now fully awake.
"Oh no, I couldn't have you do that. I can get them there okay."
"No." T-bone said firmly. "I insist."
"But . ."
"It's okay. I'll take them to the airport in the Turbokat while Razor takes you home on the Cyclatron."
Now, all three Warners were on the jet, listening to the conversation.
"I don't know." Tanya said as she looked at the Warners.
"Oh please let us go." Dot pleaded.
"We promise we'll be good." Yakko added.
They smiled at her hopefully. Tanya sighed. She was too tired to argue with three hyper- active kids and a Swat Kat.
"Okay kids, you can go."
"Yea!" the Warners cried as they jumped into the jet.
Tanya slowly slide down the side of the jet. Razor was on the ground waiting for her with the Cyclatron. He handed her a helmet when she reached him. Razor got on the Cyclatron and Tanya sat behind him and put on the helmet.
"All right you little yard apes," they could hear T-bone say in the jet. "any funny buisness and you're riding to the airport on the wings."
Tanya put her paws on Razor's shoulders as he started up the Cyclatron. They raced down the street, leaving the jet behind. Shortly down the road, the Cyclatron hit a large pot hole, causing Tanya to quickly move her paws from Razor's shoulders to around his waist to keep from falling off. Razor turned and smiled at her. Tanya smiled back and then gasped.
"Razor, look." she pointed at a building in front of them. "What are those things?"
Razor looked just in time to see some more kreeplings disappear into an electronics store.
"Kreeplings." Razor said as he parked the bike in an alley to the side of the store. "Stay here." he added as he readied his glovatrix.
Tanya watched as razor disappeared into the store. Minutes later, two kreeplings emerged, bags of electronic partsin their claws. Before Tanya could act, a large black hover craft appeared down the road. It floated by the store, picked up the kreeplings and then it wizzed past Tanya.
"I have to stop them." the she kat concluded.
"She looked back at the store, no sign of Razor. She scooted up to the front of the Cyclatron's seat and started the engine. She sped off after the balck hover craft. As she got closer to it she woundered how she was going to stop it. She looked down at the weapons pannel and pushed a button. A missile fired fron the Cyclatron and exploded inches away from the craft.
"All right." Tanya exclaimed into the wind. "Now this is intense fire power."
Suddenly the black craft stopped and turned around. The next thing Tanya knew it was heading streat for her. She swerved out of the way, just bearly missing it. She quickly turned the Cyclatron around and when ofter it again. Up ahead she could see two more kreeplings appear from the electronics store, waiting for their ride. Tanya sped up. Then all at once, a kreepling appeared from the top of the hover craft. It lunged at Tanya, landing on her head. She momentarily lost control of the bike as she pried the creature off her helmet. She threw the kreepling off the bike and looked back at the street. Razor seemed to appear out of thin air in front of her. She swerved wildly to the right to miss him. With the amount of speed and the sudden turn, Tanya lost control. The Cyclatron fell on its side, skidded into a building and exploded in a burst of flames.
T-bone, back from the airport, spotted the explosion from the sky and leanded near it. He looked around for his partner from the cockpit. Razor appeared out of the fire with an unconscious Tanya in his arms. Her hair and fur were singed and she was covered in burns. T-bone jumped out of the jet and ran over to them.
"Razor, what happened?" he asked urgently.
"We've got to get her to a hospital." was all Razor could say.
His small voice quivered and his body shook. T-bone layed a large paw on his friend's quaking shoulder.
"Come on buddy." he said in a gentle voice. "Let's get her some help."
Minutes later, the Turbokat landed next to Megakat Hospital. A lone ambulance sat quietly by the emergency room door. An empty stretcher stood by the back of the ambulance. T-bone appeared around the corner with Tanya in his arms. Seeing that there was no one around, he ran up and layed Tanya on the stretcher.
"Hang on kido." T-bone wispered as he stroked her singed hair.
T-bone perked up his ears when he heard someone heading for the door from inside. By the time the door was open, T-bone was out of sight. Two paramedics stepped outside and gasped when they saw Tanya. They hurried up to her and wheeled her into the hospital.
Commander Feral was sitting at his desk in his office when Felina barged in.
"I know where you can find Tanya, Uncle." she blurted as she slapped a file on his desk. Before Feral could answer, Felina explained the whole matter. "She was found outside the hospital with burnes all over her right after an explotion occured on Main Street. Eye witnesses say that the Swat Kats were also at the scene."
"Really." the Commander mused. "I knew those two hot shots were no good."
"You're not suggesting that the Swat Kats did that, are you Uncle? They would never do something like that."
"I suggest we go down to the hospital and let Tanya answer that." Feral said as he grabbed his coat.
Tanya woke up in a bed in a white and sterile room. As her eyes slowly focused on the objects around her, she bagan to wonder where she was. Her body hurt in all different places. She raised a paw to her aching head, it felt funny. She looked down at her paw to see that it was covered in a thick gause. Both paws were, like two large white mittens. She felt around her body the best she could. He arms and leggs were bandaged in various parts and there was a lerge bandage wrapped around her forehead.
"I'm in a hospital." Tanya thought to herself. "I hate hospitals. I'm getting out of here."
With all her strength she lifted herself out of bed, ignoring the pain racing over her body. She pulled herself to the window and looked at the ground two floors below.
"I know I'll never get out through the door. I guess this is my only other option. But there's no way I'm getting down with these home made mittens on."
With that, she bagan to unwrap her paws.
Commander Feral, fallowed by Felina, walked through the hospital door and up to the front desk.
"I'm Commander Feral." he told the secretary behind the desk. "I'm here to see Tanya Tiger. She came in earlier covered with burns."
"Room 23." the secretary replied and pointed down the hall.
Feral started down the hall with Felina at his heels.
Rita had recieved a call from the hospital about her burned friend. She had raced to the hospital as fast as she could go. As she worriedly headed for the front door, she heard a voice call to her from above.
"Hey Rita."
Rita looked up. She saw Tanya's head poking out fo a second story window.
"Tanya, you're alive!"
"You got it girlfriend." Tanya replied. "And now I'm getting out of here."
Rita gasped as she slipped out the window.
"Tanya, get down from there."
"You got it." Tanya answered as she carefully climbed down the wall to the ground.
"What happened to you?" Rita asked as she led Tanya to her car.
"I'll tell you later, when we're away from here."
About that time, Commander Feral opened the door to Tanya's hospital room. He gasped when he found it was empty.
"She's not here. The Swat Kats must have kidnapped her."
"I don't think so, Uncle." felina said as she looked out the window.
Feral looked out the window just in time to see Rita's blue car drive off. He slammed his fist on the window sill. The slippery she kat had gotten away again. He stalked out of the room grumbling to himself.
Razor sat on the couch above the hanger, staring blankly into space. He still wore his mask and flight suit, but her didn't care. Right now the Commander himself could have walked into the room and Razor would have cared less.
"Razor, get down here before someone sees you." T-bone called from the hanger.
Razor didn't move. Seeing he wasn't getting any response, T-bone went up to the couch, wrapped a tiger-striped arm around his partner, and carried the lighter Swat Kat down to the hanger. Razor didn't even object as he was set down on the floor near their lockers.
"Come on buddy, you can't keep beating yourself up over this." T-bone told him. "It wasn't your fault."
"But it was my fault." Razor suddenly came to life. "I was in her way. She crashed because she didn't want to hit me. If I wasn't there this never would have happened." He sighed and layed his chin on his paws. "She must hate me now."
"Awe, she doesn't hate you." T-bone coaxed. "Why don't you go see her? I bet she's forgiven you already."
Razor jumped to his feet. It wouldn't hurt to ask for forgiveness.
"Okay T-bone, let's go to the hospital."
"I don't think you'll fond her there." T-bone said.
"Why?" Razor asked, confused.
"I know her too well." T-bone said as he headed for the jet. "There's no way you'll find Tanya Tiger at a hospital. I know exactly where she is."
Tanya sat in a chair in her room while Rita stood over her, rewrapping her burned paws.
"I can't believe they did this to you." Rita said. "You could have been killed."
"Oh lay off Rita." Tanya responded. "It wasn't their fault."
"I don't want you to have anything more to do with those Swat Kats." Rita ordered.
"Yes sir." Tanya saluted with a bandaged paw.
Rita sighed. She knew that promise was no good. She worried about her careless, forgiving friend as she walked out the door, leaving Tanya alone in her room.
Tanya soon began to hear scratching sounds at her large open window. Then two masked faces appeared over the edge of the balcony.
"I was wondering when you two would show up." Tanya said from her chair.
Razor pulled himself up onto the balcony and walked over to her.
"Tanya, I am so sorry. This is all my fault."
"Forgiven, forgotten." Tanya replied. "Don't give it anlther thought."
By now T-bone was standing next to his partner and was suprized by Razor's response.
"How can you forgive me so easily?" Razor asked increduously. "I was the reason you crashed. You hit that building because I was in your way."
"True." Tanya said thoughtfully. "Bur what if I had not swerved? You would have been killed."
Razor was caught off guard. He had never thought of it that way.
"But it's still no excuse." Razor persisted.
Tanya stood up and placed her bandaged paws on his shoulders.
"Razor," she said in a soft voice. "let it go. You can't change what happened. I have forgiven you. Now all you have to do is forgive yourself."
Razor sighed and crammed his paws into his pockets. He turned hi head so he wouldn't have to look Tanya in the face.
"Okay Tanya." he wispered. "I'll try."
"Tanya." they heard Rita yell from the other room. "Who are you talking to?"
"Myself." Tanya yelled back.
"We better go." T-bone anounced, not totally thrilled at the thought of Rita catching them there.
He and Razor headed for the balcony.
"Thanks for stopping by you guys." Tanya said as she sat back into her chair.
T-bone turned and smiled before jumping off the balcony. Razor's conscience still bothered him and he didn't turn around.
"Hey Razor." Tanya called.
"Yeah?"
"Lighten up, will ya?"
Razor turned and smiled before jumping off the balcony after his partner. Seconds later Tanya spotted the the Turbokat as it roared into the sky. Tanya smiled to herself as the jet disappeared into the briliant sunset.
Back to Megakat City