"Sure." Jake said as he walked with her into the croud.
vAround the middle of the party, Tanya and Chance were standing by the refreshments table wondering what to do next. Tanya could see the entrance from where she was standing. She gasped when she saw a large, serious kat step through the doors.
"Chance." Tanya tugged at his sleeve to get his attention. "That's the guy who tried to run us off the road today."
Chance looked up to see the large kat whom he instantly recignized.
"Don't look now," he told Tanya. "but that's Commander Feral himself."
"C-c-commander F-feral?" Tanya asked weakly.
Her mouth suddenly felt dry and she reached for a cup of punch and began to drink it. She looked up at Chance who was staring at her oddly. She didn't realize he was actually looking past her until she felt a heavy paw on her shoulder.
"Nice driving Ms. Tiger."
Tanya spit out her punch all over the floor, bearly missing Chance and nailing a few other guests. Tanya didn't notice as she spun around to face the large kat.
"Commander Feral." Tanya sputtered, choking on her punch. "I, I. . . didn't realize..."
"It's a pleasure to finally meet you Ms. Tiger." Feral interrupted her stuttering and held out his paw.
"Call me Tanya." sha managed to say as she shook his hand weakly.
"And what about you Furlong?" Feral asked with more firmness. Chance, who had tried to look inconspicuous by hiding behind a potted plant, turned to face the Commander. "How did you get to this party?" Feral's voice was full of accusations.
"Hey, I'm with her." Chance pointed to Tanya. "I have as much right to be here as you."
Commander Feral frowned at the ex- Enforcer pilot.
"Uh, Commander," Tanya spoke up. "about what happened today, are you going to give me a ticket or something?"
Feral thought about it as some farely slow pop music began to play.
"I think I could let it go if you'll let me have this dance." he offered as he extended his arm.
"Deal." Tanya placed her paw on the crook of his arm.
The two kats headed to the dance floor, leaving a bewildered Chance Furlong behind.
"What is someone like you doing with that wash up?" Feral asked when they started dancing.
"Chance and I have been good friends for years, Commander. And I didn't come to this party so you can tell me how bad you think he is."
"I suppose Clawson's here, too." was his only response.
"Now don't go knockin Jake, too." Tanya told him.
Feral thought for a moment.
"Just what do you see in those two?" he finally asked.
"Perhaps Commander," Tanya tactfully replied. "the question is what don't you see in them?"
Jake was still wandering around with callet when the music started.
"Hey Jake, want to dance?" Calley asked.
"Okay." jake said shyly.
They both headed to the dance floor and were soon dancing to the slow music. Jake smiled to himself. He knew chance would have killed to be hin his place right now, dancing with the beautiful calley briggs. And yet, it had alwaysbeen one of Jake's dreams, too- to be dancing with the pretty blonde she kat he to had a crush on.
As all the couples danced on the floor, no one seemed to notice a tall, grey tomkat appear in a doorway. A sharp looking tuxedo fit perfectly around his muscled form. His thick, dark brown hair was slicked back. He smiled his handsom, heart-melting smile as he surveyed the party scene.
An older she kat walked up to his side. Her greying blonde hair fell in ringlets in front of her ears. She had very light brown fur and wore an elegent red dress.
"Tyson,"she said to the grey tom. "you need to get out there and mingle. This is your party you know."
"I know Mother, "Tyson replied, not taking his eyes off the crowd. "but I'm looking for someone right now."
"I know who you're looking for." Tyson's mother informed him. "It's that girl you knew from high school. I know what you're up to. You just can't set your sights on just one girl, especially when there's so many others to choose from."
Tyson only smiled. He kissed his mother on the cheek before disappearing into the crowd as the song ended.
Tanya walked back over to Chance after she finished her dance with the Commander.
"So how was your dance with Feral?" chance asked with a scoff in his tone.
"Very, uh...informative." Tanya aswered.
Chance turned his attention to the crowd when he realized he hadn't seen Jake all night.He scoped the room with his eyes for his partner.
"Tanya, is that you?" Tanya heard a voice say behind her.
She spun around to see a tall and handsom grey tomkatsmiling at her.
"Who are you?" she asked.
"It's me, Tyson Catwll."
"Tyson." Tanya declared. "Long time no see."
She looked over the kat she knew years ago. He had changed so much. She couldn't believe that the handsom kat that stood before her used to be that chubby little nerd that used to fallow her and Chance around in high school.
"You've changed a lot." Tanya told him. "You look real good."
"And you look as beautiful as always." Tyson said smoothly as he kissed her paw.
Tanya wasn't sure how to handle that statement. She looked around and spotted Chance still looking through the crowd.
"Tyson, come meet someone." Tanya pulled him in Chance's direction. "Tyson, you remember Chance Furlong?"
"Chance." Tyson greeted. "How have you been? Haven't seen you for a long time."
"Tyson?" Chance asked. "Don't tell me you're that same little nerd that used to hang out with us."
Tyson laughed as they shook paws.
"Yeah, it's me. I've been getting into shape these last couple of years."
Tyson wasn't kidding. He and Chance were now about the same size, both height and muscle wize. Rita then appeared from the crowd and walked up to her friends.
"There you guys are." she said.
"Rita," Tanya introdiced. "This is Tyson Catwell."
"It's a pleasure to meet you." Tyson said as he kissed her paw.
Rita was completely flattered by the handsom kat's manners. When Tyson's back was turned Rita mouthed ‘He is way fine' and gave Tanya an ‘O.K.' sign, showing her approval. Tanya hoped Tyson didn't see any of that.
Tyson turned to talk to Tanya. But before he could say a word Tanya noticed a familar copper colored kat out of the corner of her eye.
"Will you excuse me for a minute Tyson, there's something I've got to take care of real quick. I'll be right back."
And with that, tanya walked off into the crowd. Jake was still walking around with calley. Tanya didn' seem to notice the Deputy Mayor and grabbed Jake's arm and pulled him aside.
"Tanya?" Jake was suprized to see her. "What's the matter?"
"I need your help for something."
"What?"
"I'm going to go up to the band and get them to play a really slow song. While I do that, I want you to make sure Chance and Rita dance."
"Together? You can't be serious."
"Come on Jake," Tany pleaded. "help me out here. I know they like each other. We just need to help them out. Please."
"Okay." Jake sighed.
"Great. Chance and Rita are over there." Tanya said before heading off to find the band.
Jake hoped Chance wouldn't beat him up if he found out he was setting them up.
"So, when did you and Tanya get back together?" Tyson asked chance.
"We just sort of found each other a couple of months ago." Chance replied.
"What's she doing now? Does she have a boyfriend or anything?"
"No." Chance automatically answered. Then he understood what Tyson was hinting at and he looked at him with a mistivous smile. "You still have a crush on her, don't you? I can'y believe it. All these years and you're still carring a torch. How cute."
Chance snickered while Tyson just looked at him with an amused expresion. A slow song began to play. Tyson looked around for Tanya so he could dance with her. He bearly noticed a smaller brown kat walk passed him and up to Chance.
"Hey buddy," Chance said to Jake. "where have you been?"
"Oh, here and there." He paused before adding: "Why don't you ask Rita to dance?"
"What?" Chance asked, making sure he heard right.
"Ask Rita to dance with you."
"Are you crazy Jake? She wouldn'y want to dance with me."
"It wouldn't hurt to ask." Jake insisted, steering Chance in Rita's direction.
Chance walked nerviously up to Rita who was leaning agenst the refreshments table.
"Um Rita, do you uh, want to dance with me?"
Chance was suprized by Rita's response.
"I thought you'd never ask." she said with a smile as she took his paw and led him to the dance floor.
Tanya appeared next to Jake with a sly smile on her face as she watched Chance and Rita dance to the slow love music. She was proud of her plan and she had to admit that they did make a cute couple.
Rita noticed the sneaky smiles Tanya and Jake were exchanging.
"I think we'ev been set up." she told Chance.
Chance looked in the direction Rita was looking. He saw Tanya and Jake who both gave him an energetic thums up.
"How do you like that?" Chance asked. "Those two think they're so sneaky."
"But you know what Chance," Rita said softly. "I don't think I mind."
Chance looked at her and she smiled back sweetly. The dance music was soft and low and the lights were dim. A warm, peacful feeling came over Chance as he looked into Rita's deep green eyes. He smiled as their faces got closer. Rita closed her eyes.
Suddenly, the wonderful mood was interrupted by the sound of shattering glass. Large thorny vines snaked in from the windows. Some broke through the floor and engulfed the room, grabbing any kat in their way.
Rita screamed. Chance grabbed her and steered her to the door where many of the uncaught kats were making their escape from the fast growing vines.
"Go. Get out of here." Chance ordered her.
"Chance, I . . ." Rita tried to tell him.
"Go!"
Rita ran out the door. Chance then heard another female scream.
"Calley!" he cried as he spotted the Deputy Mayor wrapped tightly in a large vine. "Hold on Ms. Briggs. I'll get you out."
vChance climbed up the vine and attempted to pry it open. Another vine hit the side of his head and he fell to the floor. Vines where every where now. As Chance saw the chaos unraveling before him he realized he couldn't save anybody without some help. He raced through the vine covered room, dodging the killer plants and looking fer his partner.
"Let go of me you over grown huse plant!" Jake's voice sounded from above him.
Chance looked up to see his friend being held several feet in the air by one of the giant vines.
"Hold on buddy, I'm coming."Chance called as he climed up the plant to his partner.
"Don't worry about me Chance, go get Tanya, she's still in the building some where."
"Negative." Chance argued. "We need to go get the jet to take care of this mass and I need a partner."
Chance dug his claws into the plant. He thought he almost heard it scream as the plant loosened its hold and Jake slid out.
The tomkats raced outside to the parking lot. They spotted Tanya's convertable and dove inside it. Chance sat in the driver's seat. He felt under the seat and found the extra key he knew Tanya always left there. He hoped Rita didn't see them ad they peeled off toward the salvage yard.
Meanwhile, below the vine covered buiding, a few certain kats were singled out by the vines and were locked in a large steel cage. Mayor Manx, Deputy mayor calley Briggs, Commander Feral, Lieutenant Felina Feral, and Tyson Catwell spotted two glowing yellow eyes in the shadows.
"Ssso glad you could join me for thisss little get together." A serpant like voice hissed. The creature stepped out of the shadows, revealing his green reptilian skin and snake-like form.
"Dr. Viper." Commander Feral growled. "What are you doing?"
"Perhapsss the question iss what have I aready done?" Viper grinned maniaclly at his captives. "I've captured the city'ss commanding katss. With you as my captivesss the city will be mine."
"Not so fast ugly." said a forceful voice behind him.
Viper sung around as an orange fist collided with his face. The mutated kat fell to the ground. He looked up and saw an orange furred she kat in a black evening gown standing above him.
"I'll teach you to medle with Dr. Viper." the snake/kat screamed at Tanya.
He swung his tail towards Tanya's feet. She jumped to miss it and tripped on her dress and high heels. Dr. Viper wrapped his long, slimy tail around her waist, opened the cage door and threw her inside.
"You will be the firsst to go." Viper rubbed his aching jaw angrily.
"What do you mean?" Tyson asked as he helped Tanya up. "What are you going to do?"
"Mutate you into wonderful slithering creatures like myself." Dr. Viper pulled out a syringe and a jar of orangish liquid from his coat. "This sspecial fom of mutagen alsso containsss a mind control sssyrim that will force you to do what ever I ssay once you are mutated."
He began filling the syringe with the vile liquid.
"You're going to give me a shot?!" Tanya protested. "Can't I just drink it or something?"
"What'sss the matter," Viper taunted. "Don't like needles?" He laughed at Tanya's silly phobia.
"Don'y worry." Tyson promised Tanya. "I won't let anything happen to you."
"Yeah okay, calm down Tanya." she told herself as she breathed deeply. "You can handle this. Be brave. It's only a needle."
With her confidence partly renewed, Tanya looked up at Dr. Viper who was readying the syrim. Her eyes widened as he pulled out the syringe filled with mutagen. He pressed on it to illiminate air bubles. Tanya's jaw dropped as she saw the liquid squirt up from the hallow needle. Then he eyes rolled to the back of her head and she fainted to the floor. Felina and Tyson knelt by her.
"She's out cold." Felina stated.
Dr. Viper broke into riotous laughter.
"Sso much for bravery." he cackled. "Now she will only be easier to mutate."
The reptilian kat advanced toward the cage. Tyson stepped in front of Tanya's unconscious form protectively. Dr. Viper raised the needle, ready to plunge it into the first kat he could get a hold of. Suddenly, a boomerang came out of no where and knocked the syringe out of his claw. It shattered to the floor, spilling the mutagen.
"Don't try anything snake puss." Razor ordered from behind the crazed doctor.
"Sswat Katsss." Viper snarled angrily. "Sstay out of thisss."
"Not a chance." T-bone anounced.
"Get them!" Viper screamed to his monster vines.
The plants quickly swarmed into the sewers. The vines snaked towards the Swat Kats who fired turboblades, severing many of the mutated plants. But despite their efforts, the vines kept coming. Razor fired a special dart from his gloveatrix, hitting a large vine and pumping the contents into it. The Swat Kats could almost hear the plants scream in pain as they withered up and fell lifeless to the ground.
"No!" Dr. Viper shrieked in outrage. "What did you do to my beautiful creationsss!?"
"Plant killer." Razor frankly replied.
Dr. Viper saw that he now had no chance of winning with his forces destroyed. So he beat a hasty retreat down the nearest dark sewer tunnel.
"I'll go after Viper, you help the others." T-bone told Razor before racing after the villian.
Razor walked over to the cage and blew the lock off the door. Calley was the first to step out.
"Razor, I didn't even have a chance to call you." she told him. "How did you know we were in trouble?"
"We uh. . .happened to be in the neighbor hood and saw the vines from the jet." Razor lied.
"and it's a good thing, too." Felina remarked as she exited the cage.
After all the kats had evacuated the cage, Razor stepped inside and found Tanya out cold. He was too worried about her to notice the handsom grey tomkat cradling her head. Razor knelt by her andtook her paw in his.
"Tanya, wake up." he shook her shoulder gently. "Come on, snap out of it."
Tanya slowly opened her eyes.
"Razor? What are you doing here?"
Tyson was suprized that Tanya knew the Swat Kat.
"Saving you." Razor answered. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah." Tanya confirmed as she sat up.
T-bone came slowly up the tunnel towards them.
"Sorry buddy, I lost him. Is everyone here okay?"
"Yes." Razor said.
"Good." T-bone pulled Razor aside and whispered to him. "We better get out of here and get back into our tuxes before Tanya and Rita realize we're gone."
"Roger that." Razor responded.
"Now that the situation is under control," T-bone anouced. "we'll be going now."
With that, the masked pilots made a hasty retreat back to their jet. Their sudden urgency to leave suprized Calley. Even Commander Feral found it odd. But he shrugged it off as he and the other kats headed up to ground level.
Tyson helped Tanya up to the street. He led her over to the front lawn of the building the party was in and gently set her down on the grass.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Tyson asked.
"I'm fine." Tanya asured him. Then she added: "it's too bad we didn't get a chance to catch up on old times."
"Then how about we get together for lunch tomarrow and do our catching up then?"
"Sounds good."
Rita ran up to them.
"Tanya." she cried. "I thought those plant monsters had taken you for good."
She hugged her friend.
"Shall we find our friends and get out of here?"
"Yeah." Tanya agreed as she stood up. "I should be going now Tyson. I'll see ya tomarrow."
Rita and Tanya wandered around the building for a few minutes before they found Chance and Jake. Rita ran up and hugged Chance.
"I thought you were a goner for sure when you stayed inside to help the others." she told him.
"Come on." was all Chance said. "Let's go home."
The ride home was not a quiet one. Chance, Jake, and Rita talked about the night's event the whole way back. But Tanya didn't say a word the whole ride home. She sat with her eyes glued to the road, paws on the steering wheel. She had a sweet smile on her face and a far off look in her eyes.
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