JUST ANOTHER WEIRD DAY IN MEGAKAT CITY II

“Something tells me I shouldn’t have bothered to come to work today.” He sighed aloud to himself. He could feel heartburn rising in his stomach from his lunch just an hours ago.

In front of him was the remains of the Metallikats' special car that had been crashed into the brick wall of a business office. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the Metallikats that had been driving it.

He watched as his officers hauled away the little pipsqueak of a geek who had somehow managed to get the car from the salvage yard, fix the damn thing, and actually drive it into town all so he could get revenge on his boss for firing him or so he said. Feral wasn’t certain if the youngster was telling the truth.

‘Geeze, this town just gets crazier all the time,” Feral muttered as he made for his sedan. As he reached where he had stopped it in a hurry with the engine still running, it was no longer there.

He gaped at the empty spot for several seconds before he could wrap his mind around the fact that someone had taken his car. Snarling angrily, he called dispatch.

“This is Feral! Did someone take my car?” he demanded.

There was a long silence, undoubtedly they were checking for him. “No sir! No one claims to have taken it to return it here,” came the answer finally.

“Great... just great! Put out an APB for my car. Looks like it’s been stolen,” Feral ordered then he looked around and saw he was the only one left on the scene. Groaning in rising irritation, he spoke into his radio again. “Dispatch! Send me chopper pickup on the double,” he barked.

“Yes, sir!” came the immediate response.

Feral growled irritably to himself as he looked around. Seeing some locals still standing around, he went up to them and asked if anyone had seen who had taken his car. One of the bystanders spoke up.

“Well, there was someone near your car, but with all the excitement, I hadn’t paid much attention until I looked back and the car was gone. Just thought one of your officers had taken it,” the older male Kat said, shrugging his shoulders.

“Can you describe who you saw near my car?” Feral asked, pulling his notebook out of his pocket.

“Ahh, well... it was a young male dressed in shredded blue jeans and a white t-shirt with a dark blue jacket,” he said after a moment's thought.

“Have you seen him around before?” Feral asked.

“Can’t say I had, sir, sorry,” the Kat said apologetically.

“That’s alright, at least it’s something to go on. Thank you for your assistance,” Feral said politely as he put his notebook away and pulled his radio out again. He walked away from the group before he relayed to dispatch the description of the possible thief.

When he had finished, a chopper was arriving. It landed on the street not far from him. Shoving his radio back into his coat, he stalked to the chopper and climbed in.

‘What an unprintable day this is turning out to be,’ he grumbled in his mind.

As he tried to complete his pile of work that had been interrupted by the chase downtown, he received a call that his car had been found but there was a problem. He grimaced and slammed down the phone after he heard the report.

“Damn it! What the heck is going on around here today,” he snarled aloud.

His niece, Felina, had just entered the office when he made that comment.

“What’s the matter, Uncle?” she asked.

“My car was stolen during that ridiculous chase earlier today. I’ve just been informed that my sedan has been found wrapped around a telephone pole near the salvage yard,” he snapped.

“Ohh... sorry, Uncle. Any sign of the driver?” she asked hopefully.

“None. Vanished without a trace. I swear this city has gone crazy. It’s bad enough contending with the omegas, but when we get fairly ordinary katizens doing totally screwy things it’s enough to make one pull their fur out,” Feral growled in disgust.

“Does sound like a bit of craziness going around. I came to tell you that someone has stolen a city salvage truck. The drivers were taking a quick lunch break, and, when they came back, the truck had vanished,” she told him.

“What the heck?” Feral looked at her in stunned disbelief.

“Yeah, you know this is really sounding more and more like something is going on. It just too coincidental that these things could be happening in a string like this,” Felina said thoughtfully.

“If you can make a case out of it, be my guest. I’ve already had my share of weirdness today,” Feral said, throwing up his paws in defeat.

“I’ll be glad to, Uncle. See you later,” she said then turned and left his office.

He shook his head. ‘If she could connect this into some kind of crime spree, she had a commendation coming to her,’ he thought, returning to his backed up work.

It took Felina the rest of the day and part of the next before she finally found the clue she was looking for. With a squad of enforcers she burst into a small home on the outskirts of town. There she arrested four young tom Kats in their twenty’s.

Hauling them down to Enforcer Headquarters, she invited her uncle down to listen to the interrogations. When they were through and the males were booked, she and her uncle returned to his office.

He sat down at his desk and stared at his niece in utter amazement.

“Okay, tell me how you figured out what was going on and found these thrill seekers,” he demanded.

“Well, Uncle. It’s just what you said, thrill seekers. It sounded to me like a bunch of bored youngsters. I just poked around, asking questions at hot spots where the young liked to hang out. I finally hit paydirt around ten o’clock last night. Some of the local thrill seekers said they had heard a group of known geeks brag about how they could take anything from the authority figures in this town without getting caught. They were told to prove it. One thing led to another, and, finally, I located the one who had stolen your sedan. Seems they can’t keep a secret and blabbed to others about their success. At least we finally stopped them since the next things they were going after was Ms. Briggs' car and Mayor Manx’s favorite golf cart,” she said with a smirk.

“That was a fine bit of detective work, Felina. I’m proud of you. So much so, I’m willing to award you a commendation. I wish we could direct those bright minds to something more useful than breaking the law.” Feral sighed in regret.

“Yeah, I know, Uncle, but everyone makes their own choices. Some just make the wrong ones,” she said, shrugging her shoulders.

“Humph! You can say that again. Anyway, great job,” Feral agreed and was glad the ‘weird’ spree was over until an omega came around and gave new meaning to the word.

“You’re welcome, Uncle. Gotta go, I’m due on patrol in twenty minutes,” Felina said with a smile.

“Safe flying!” Feral told her.

She nodded, turned and left his office.